Later that night
The castle's physician office – a large square shaped room with green walls decorated with the Arendelle crest and brown borders running along the bottom, a bookcase along the wall to the right the door that was in the centre of the right wall, a large rug in the centre of the floor, a brown leather armchair facing the wall to the left of the door, and opposite that a brown sofa, and a window on the wall opposite the door – had never been busier, especially at this time of night. With Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff, Kai, Gerda and the physician, Magnus, there, it was as if there was a huge private meeting going on.
Right now, Anna sat at the end of the sofa, her worried eyes never leaving the unconscious form of her sister next to her. Kristoff was standing on the sofa edge next to Anna, one arm around her back and on her shoulder comfortingly. Olaf was occupied with looking at the books on the bookshelf, whilst Magnus was engaged in conversation with Kai and Gerda, the former of the three sitting in the chair. Outside, only a light rainfall now fell against the window, the main part of the storm having passed long ago.
It had been a wild hour or so for the people within the castle. Anna and Kristoff had been just about to leave and go to their room when they heard Elsa scream from her room, followed by the sound of a deafening CRASH and BANG mixed together. After a moment of being stunned by the sudden shriek, they had pounced into action, rushing in and seeing the window to her balcony open and, in the midst of the rain and wind and flashes of lightning, saw the form of the queen disappear over the side. Anna had screamed and sprinted over to the balcony and looked over the side, mentally praying frantically that her elder sibling was okay.
To her relief, her sister was laying on the ground at the edge of the courtyard in a pile of snow. Several of the guards and servants who had been up were emerging from the walls or within the castle upon hearing the commotion and were quick to rush over to the queen. As Kristoff and Anna went to go downstairs, they stopped and saw that much of the balcony and part of the walls and the tower opposite the balcony had large burn marks across them, part of the section of wall even being dotted with holes and having a window facing the courtyard completely shattered.
What the hell had done this? They had thought but decided to think about it later on and rushed downstairs to get Elsa.
From there, they had carried her from the pile of snow into the castle and the castle physician, Magnus, was woken and consulted on the matter and immediately dressed in a gown and trousers and slippers and rushed to see the queen. Upon seeing the unconscious form, he ordered her into his office and rested on his sofa. He checked her body temperature and inquired about her health in the previous days. Whilst he had been concerned of her busy schedule and her tendency to fall asleep at the desk, this was something he could not explain.
And here they were now, Kai and Gerda, dressed in their own pyjamas, and Magnus continuing to talk in a hushed conversation so as not to worry the princess. Anna and Kristoff continued to observe Elsa, observing her for any movement, be it an eyelash twitch, a moan, or even for her to stir and sit up.
"She'll be alright," Kristoff reassured Anna, giving her shoulder a light squeeze.
"Hope so," Anna muttered, resting her hand on his, her eyes never leaving Elsa's form.
As she looked over her again, she reminded herself how peaceful Elsa looked, as if she were simply asleep, waiting for the next day to arrive so she could wake up, give her younger sibling a hug and resume the duties of being a monarch. Anna remembered the times in the years since the Great Winter how she had been so eager to see her older sister, how much her deep blue eyes lit up and her face became joyous as they would embrace and gossip or just talk whilst carrying on with the duties of the day. Even after everything that had happened in the past year and a half since Arendelle had almost been wiped off the face of the earth, she had still remained positive.
So long ago those days were. Anna mentally told herself.
Would those days ever return? With the current crisis over the blockade, the embargoes and tense relations with the rest of world, it seemed unlikely. Elsa had been stressed and become brusque lately, wanting to do things on her own and not waste time with Anna or Kristoff or Olaf or Sven or anyone else. But would something like that explain tonight? Did she reach a point with all her anger and sadness and frustration and let it go? It was a logical assumption, but Elsa would never have done that, or at least nowhere near where it could have caused potential harm.
"Kristoff, do you have any idea about what could have caused this?" the Arendelle princess asked him.
He shook his head. "I wish," he replied, glancing up at the three older adults nearby. "Maybe they'll have an answer for us." A pause hung in the air, filled only with the hushed voices of the aforementioned three.
Olaf waddled over, giggling to himself as he flipped through the pages of a small book he had in his fingers.
"Hey guys, look!" he exclaimed softly as he held it up to them like a child showing their parents a new gift they had received. 'The Social Contract' – Jean-Jacques Rousseau. "This'll be a great one to read for Elsa when she wakes up!" he said.
Anna and Kristoff smiled, feeling a little better at the warm gesture of their little snowman family member. Always in the darkest of times could he brighten the day.
"I'm sure she'll love it, Olaf," Kristoff said, making the snowman smile widely and giggle with a 'thanks'.
As he went to say something else, a stir and a moan came from next to them. Anna almost threw herself off the sofa as she got up and rushed over to Elsa's side, kneeling down next to her, grabbing her hand tightly.
"Elsa?!" Anna said, hoping for a reply as the others came over. "Elsa, are you okay?"
Her sister moaned again, eyes flickering a little, her grabbed hand enclosing around Anna's. She shifted a little and moved her head up as if to look at the rest of her body. Light breaths escaped her.
All of a sudden, her eyes snapped open and her head shot round to look at the other so quickly her neck clicked, a loud gasp passing her lips as she grabbed the sofa, ice racing across the surface and coating the floor underneath it. The others backed away, fearing that she was going to mistake them for a threat and attack them. When she saw it was them, she relaxed a little.
"Elsa!" Anna exclaimed, rushing over to her and hugging her tightly, her sister hesitantly returning the gesture, looking up at the others, all of whom were staring at her with concerned expressions.
"Your Majesty, are you alright?" Kai asked her.
With a small nod, she replied and released Anna and sat up on the sofa, looking around the room. It was as if she was some kind of foreigner or alien, having previously fallen unconscious, had now suddenly awakened and found themselves in an environment unfamiliar to them. Hundreds of questions raced through her head as she took in everything around her.
Everything's intact! H-how?!
"W-what happened to me?" she asked.
"We don't know, we just found you outside in the courtyard on a pile of snow, completely unconscious," Kristoff explained. "You really scared us!"
"Yeah, we thought that …. Y-you … w-well …" Anna said, but could not find it within her to say the dreaded four-letter word.
Elsa embraced her sister again, pulling her close, reassuring her that she was not … that, and was not going anywhere any time soon. Kai ushered Gerda to go and grab some tea for the queen, to which the woman servant nodded at and swiftly left the room. Magnus walked over and, after Elsa moved, sat down next to the queen.
"Your Majesty," he spoke, his green eyes staring in both concern and shock at the young queen. "Maybe you could inform us of what happened?" he suggested.
Elsa tried to speak, but the words got lost in her mouth. How could she even begin to explain what happened? Simply, it was a nightmare … but … but it had felt and looked so real, so life-like as if Arendelle really was falling under the terrifying destructive power of the well-known beast they had seen before. She really felt like it was real, it must have been.
Yet, everything was so … intact. Nothing had been destroyed, or even damaged. If Godzilla had come here with dark intentions, then surely the castle would have been heavily attacked, right? And Arendelle?
She got up and strode over to the window, expecting to see what she remembered from before. Fire, destroyed buildings, the hills and forests ablaze, the clock tower a shattered ruin, the bridge smashed, the screams of the dead and dying, the cries of panicked men, women and children filling the air.
No. Everything was just as it was before she went to bed. Though an occasional flash of lightning would illuminate the sky every so often in the distance behind the mountains further inland, she could see none of the aforementioned things. The city was quiet, everything was peaceful, nothing was damaged or destroyed. No one wad running around, no gigantic creature was laying waste to everything before her.
What the …?
"It was a dream," she spoke. "Or a nightmare, but … but it felt … so real!"
"What happened, Elsa?" Anna asked.
She turned back to them, pausing on how to explain it to them, and wondering if they would even believe her. She had a hard time believing it herself, and the dream had been hers. Yet, there was something about it she had to relay.
She explained the dream to them, including as much as she could – the fire, the devastation, the screams, the lightning, and … him. When she got round to explaining to them about Godzilla, the others in the room looked at each other, faces holding a mixture of confusion and shock/surprise.
"It just felt so … so real, like I was actually witnessing him destroy everything here!" she said to them, looking back out at the city, the nightmare replaying itself repeatedly.
Magnus cleared his throat, drawing all eyes to him. "Well, that certainly is something, Your Majesty," he said.
"You don't believe her?" Olaf asked.
"It's not that I do not believe her," the physician spoke, gently running his hand through his beard, deep in thought. "If anything, I'm not incredibly surprised such a thing like this has occurred, given the queen's powers and abilities, and, of course, the existence of these titans. I'm half expecting the reptilian folk of before Antiquity to be real, or something like that."
"So what do you mean exactly, doctor?" Kai asked as Elsa walked over and sat down next him.
"Well, this is obviously a nightmare. But what it means could be a multitude of things." He looked up at Elsa. "One: that Her Majesty is stressed given our current dilemma, and this was simply a one-off event. It's certainly possible. Two: that Her Majesty may have some kind of connection with Godzilla, established at a point in the past before he disappeared." He paused to let his words sink in. "What would you say to this, Queen Elsa?" he asked her.
She did not respond straight away, but looked to the floor, a closed fist in front of her mouth, deep in thought. The physician had a point. Godzilla must have established something like that with her in the past, but the only example she could think of was when she last saw him on the day he left (she went melancholy as she thought of this). When …
"Maybe on the day he left," she said. "I mean when I said goodbye to him, it was like I could hear his thoughts, feel how he did, and he me." She paused, pondering over it for a moment longer, then gave a small shrug. "But it might have just been me."
"But then what about the nightmare?" Anna piped up, looking at Elsa. "If you and Godzilla do have a telepathic connection, why would he send you something like that? I mean, he's not evil. Dangerous when pissed off, but not out to get us or anything."
"She's got a point," Kristoff added. "Plus, the fact he saved us twice from the Kraken and Ebirah, then Battra and Megaguirus kinda shuts down him being evil anyway."
"What about fear?" Olaf suggested.
Everyone looked at him, curious and surprised at his words. "Fear?" Elsa repeated.
The little snowman nodded. "Yeah, I mean maybe he's terrified of something and was fighting back against it or is trying to warn you of his power."
Now that was something to think about. The others, and neither anyone else in Arendelle and beyond who had seen him first-hand for that matter, could not deny that Godzilla was not an animal to be trifled with, and was very powerful. But why fear? What exactly did he have to be afraid of? The titans he had fought against, whilst definitely not a walkover, were not strong enough to fight him and overpower him. The only one who had been able to do that was Megaguirus, and her poison, though it had weakened him, had not killed him. As for humans …? Well, the only human that could put up any sort of fight against him was the queen sitting in the room now, and she did not have any qualms against him, nor he her. Even if Godzilla was to be as hostile as Elsa had seen in her nightmare, she doubted she could do much against him given his strength, fire breath, fighting ability and an attitude of not backing down when being challenged or wanting to remove a threat.
None of those brought them closer to a definitive answer. What is he doing?
Elsa sighed. "Well, it's something we need to figure out," she stated, standing up. "And we will figure it out."
"Your Majesty, if I may," Magnus spoke up, standing up with the queen. "I would recommend that you rest, nevertheless. The recent workload had been taking a toll on you, and tonight has not helped the matter."
"Magnus, I thank you for your care, but this is something serious." She shut him down.
"Elsa, listen to him!" Anna got to her feet, her tone uncharacteristically angry at her. It caught her off-guard for a second, before she regained her composure.
"Anna, I'll be fine, and this is important," she told her younger sibling firmly.
"I know that!" Anna replied. "But it doesn't mean you should ignore your own body and make yourself worse."
The ice queen chewed her bottom lip, not wanting to snap back at her sister, though she wanted to. "When last I checked, Princess Anna, I was the queen of Arendelle, and the one in charge of my body, not you!"
Her words stunned the others; Kristoff and Olaf mouths hanging open in shock, whilst Kai and Magnus exchanged nervous glances, fearing that the two sisters were going to have an argument. Even Anna was taken aback, her eyes going slightly moist, Elsa's words and tone cutting deep into her, making her feel so insignificant, so secondary – or worse – to her own sibling, the one she was trying to help. How could she say something like that to her, after all she had done for her!
After a second or two of stunned silence, the Arendelle princess retorted calmly: "Then maybe you should listen to someone who cares about you!" adding emphasis on the intended word.
Elsa's eyes widened a little, shocked at her little sister and how she could talk to her in such a way. She was the queen, and one with ice powers for that matter! How dare someone speak to her that way! How dare she! What cheek! She was only a princess after all, not the monarch in charge of Arendelle, and most certainly not the one having to deal with the current crisis and feelings she {Elsa} felt now.
A knock at the door brought – thankfully – an end to the tension. "Your Majesty, there's someone here to speak with you."
Elsa, regaining her composure, thankful for the interruption, turned to see Gerda at the door. "Who is it at this time of night?" she asked, confused.
"Elsa? Anna? Kristoff?" a familiar voice spoke up from out of sight in the corridor that made their hearts stop. "It's me!"
Gerda moved aside, and the door opened more to reveal a woman standing there. She was short, being only about 5ft 1 or 2 at the most, and of Asian appearance and was very beautiful with short silk-like black hair, shiny brown eyes, soft cheeks, pure red lips and an orange dress, though its style was very similar to the normal yellow/cream ones normally worn by her. It had straps that went over her shoulders, covering her torso and part of her arms and waist. She wore a cream cloak that trailed behind her, much like one of Elsa's own ice dresses. Her voice was soft and feminine and sounded so innocent and, to a newcomer, rather weak, but it filled the hearts of those before her with joy.
"Moll!" they exclaimed, rushing forward excitedly.
The young woman smiled brightly and embraced the ice queen, then Anna, then Kristoff and nuzzled her head against Olaf's, commenting on how she missed him too when he told her first. After shaking Kai's hand and receiving a 'welcome' from Magnus, everyone stepped back to allow her to speak.
"I'm glad to see you all again," she said happily. "And I apologise for barging in here at this time of night," she added apologetically.
"No, you came in just at the right time!" Kristoff reassured her, not responding to the stern expressions the sisters gave him.
"Where's Lora? Is she with you?" Anna inquired.
"Yes, but she's in the mountains, just outside Arendelle," Moll answered. "We were going to come straight here, but our … method of travel might have caused a panic here in Arendelle."
"What do you mean?" Elsa asked her.
After a pause, Moll told them: "It's best if you come with me. Is that okay?"
The group before the young Asian woman all looked at each other, silently wondering if they had any suggestions as to what their young friend meant in her statement. A 'panic'? What did she mean by that? And what was this 'method of travel' she was referring to? And why was Lora, her sister, waiting outside the city for them?
Well, we can answer this when we get there Elsa thought to herself before announcing: "Very well, let's go."