For My Kingdom

A Frozen Fan Fiction

Chapter Four:

A Not-Fun Awakening

Elsa was standing high above the kingdom of Arendelle in a flawless castle of ice. A blizzard raged all around her and the kingdom below was covered in white. Her hands held lightly to the wall of the veranda, and though the wind whipped her hair and gown about, she did not feel the cold. She turned her back to the shivering town and walked back through the double doors into the castle. Closing the door gently behind her, she noticed at the center of the room an ice sculpture of expert workmanship. As she approached the sculpture, she began to notice little details. The sculpture was that of a woman, the train of her dress trailing behind her and a circlet of flowers laid over her carefully carved hair.

A biting chill suddenly began to nip at her exposed face, neck and hands. As she circled the sculpture to view the face of the woman, recognition began to flood her veins with an icy burn. "Anna, no!" she gasped, placing a hand on either side of the sculpture's face. Tears began to streak down her face, but they froze into trails of ice before they fell.

"Elsa!"

She spun around to see the source of the voice and saw Kristoff standing in the doorway, dressed in the regalia of a prince with a drawn sword in his hand. "You froze her heart, Elsa. How could you? Your own sister."

Elsa began to shiver violently in the cold. "No, Kristoff, I didn't do this..." She wrapped her arms around herself, in an attempt to protect herself from the cold, but saw that her hands were slowly turning to ice. Looking back up to continue to plead with Kristoff, she discovered that it was no longer Kristoff that stood before her, but Prince Hans of the Southern Isles.

"I saw it happen, Queen Elsa. You killed her." Hans' voice was cruel as he stepped forward, raising his sword.

"P-Please..." Elsa collapsed to her knees, watching as ice slowly began to climb up her arms. "No..."

Elsa's eyes flashed open and she felt as if she had been thrown into a sauna. Her skin was slick with sweat and her white-blonde hair clung to her forehead. She attempted to throw off the covers and sit up, but a gentle hand was placed against her chest, lowering her back down to the mattress.

"Shh, it's okay, Elsa. You're safe." The soothing sound of her sister's voice calmed Elsa's soul to it's very core. Anna pulled the covers back over Elsa and began dabbing her forehead with a cool, damp cloth.

"Anna..." Elsa muttered, unable to speak much louder than a whisper. "Anna, what happened?"

Anna continued to dab with the cloth. "Elsa..." She sniffed and laid the cloth over Elsa's brow so she could lean over her and hold her as tightly as she could. She began to sweat from the heat that emanated from her older sister. "You almost died."

Elsa could feel it as her sister's chest was wracked with sobs. Removing one hand from beneath the blankets, she combed through Anna's hair reassuringly. "It's okay, Anna. I'm alive."

The woman's sobs intensified. "Someone... Someone poisoned your cup... Grand Pabbie... He saved you."

"What?" Though Elsa had known her cup must have been poisoned, it wasn't until then that she fully realized that someone, a person, had attempted to take her life. "I must... I must speak to Grand Pabbie... Thank him." She began to get up again, but Anna's hand pushed her back down.

"No," Anna ordered, wiping away tears and still breathing shakily. "Pabbie says you must rest. You've been unconscious for two days and you're burning up. We must wait for the fever to break before you are to leave this room."

The door to the bedroom swung open and a guard entered the bedroom. Anna turned to look at him quickly, startled. "Princess Anna, I'm sorry to interrupt, but we have found the servant who served the poison to the queen. He was discovered on the docks late last night attempting to flee."

Anna stood, her face very grave. "Where is he now? Has he said anything?"

"No, ma'am. He's in the castle dungeons."

"I will see him."

"Your highness, I don't..."

The rest of the conversation blurred together into a fog as Elsa slipped back into an uneasy and very sticky sleep.