For some, an argument would be a trivial thing, a mere fracture in the relations between friends or family. In such situations, there was the hope that all things would eventually work themselves out in the end, that people would kiss – or shake hands – and make up and things would carry on as before, albeit with a possible level of tension between those involved. This, too, however, would fade over time and become nothing more than a tale among many in the story of a family.
For Anna, Princess of Arendelle, the matter was entirely different. This was no simple day long feud that would be resolved after some time apart or some apologies or exchange of gift to solidify the apology. This was not a repeat of the earlier examples of frustration and annoyance so far seen, dear readers. This was much more, like a deep wound into her chest, a knife into her gut, a ripping out of her heart.
Yet, she did not care. Elsa made her decision. She's done so many times, I … I-I didn't want to hurt her, but … but she hurt me!"
Her slapping of Elsa, for her it was necessary. She had run off many times before, abandoned her little sister, her friends and the entire kingdom. She had risked her life unnecessarily many times before, and almost died several times. She had snapped, ignored, almost shut out Anna completely. And even now, when she had wanted to fight Cthulhu, she did not care about Anna, her own sister, her own flesh and blood.
And Anna had snapped. All those times, all those years of fear, frustration, pent up anger, all that had been boiling below the surface, it was unleashed in a torrent of fury. Anna had been biting her tongue for so long, not wanting to hurt her sister, but the same had not been reciprocated. As much as it had pained her, she knew, and was glad Elsa had gotten what she deserved.
How long had it been since then? Ten minutes? Maybe less, or more? She did not know. After Elsa had left, she had walked over to a nearby cliff and sat down, arms folded, feet dangling over the edge, her face marked with dry tears, though she held a resigned, dour expression. The others had not wanted to disturb her, knowing that she would need time to cool off. They had engaged in some discussion about what to do, but the Mu twins had no idea about what to do then. Going after Elsa would be pointless, and she would be too far ahead to try and stop by now. Staying here too was obviously a useless endeavour.
What other options were there? Leave? Go and fight Cthulhu with Elsa?
They had no idea. Before there had been a plan, in at least some sense. Always there had been some other angle, some little fragment of hope that they could cling onto, use against the night and come out victorious. But with Godzilla gone, and Elsa having gone after his murderer, there was nothing they could do.
Anna shifted a little picking up a small pebble by her side and tossing it out, watching as it fell, disappearing from sight towards the ocean below. If only her current problems, her anger, her … daresay, hatred for her sister could vanish like said pebble.
She shook her head a little, as if mentally dismissing such a notion. It's too late.
"Anna?"
Kristoff's voice startled her a bit, but she did not turn around to meet him, just kept staring straight ahead across the ocean, thinking of only one thing, one place that was really all that mattered to me.
"Anna?" Kristoff knelt down next to her, but she just gave a partial side glance, exhaling through her nose. "Are you alright?"
She shook her head a bit. "Not really, but what else can we do?" she replied, her tone irritable. "What did you and the girls talk about?"
Kristoff paused for a moment, a little taken aback by her reply to him, but he did not show it. He looked over at the girls, who were standing about twenty feet away, eyeing them nervously; Sven standing a little in front of them.
"Uh … w-we just talked about what to do now," he answered. "About how we can fix this problem before-"
"We can't fix it, Kristoff!" Anna snapped, pouting, still keeping her head turned away from her boyfriend. "Did Moll and Lora say if Mothra was on her way back?"
Another pause. The redhead's answer surprised him. "Uh, y-yeah, but Anna-"
"Good," she rose to her feet, glancing once more at the ocean, then turned to face him. "We're going home,"
Kristoff blinked. 'W-what?!" he answered. "A-Anna, no we can't!" he protested.
"We are, Kristoff," Anna told him, her tone now more monotonous, resigned, a trace of sadness somewhat noticeable within. "Arendelle needs us now," she said.
Kristoff wanted to protest, but the words got lost in his mouth, though his mind screamed at him to stop her. Leaving now? No, it-it was not possible! She was not thinking straight.
Anna called over to Moll and Lora about Mothra; both girls answering meekly about said moth's return, commenting as well it seemed to be urgent, though Anna spoke over them before they could add more.
"Good," she looked back at Kristoff. "We'll get Olaf, then we'll go back to Arendelle. We've made a mistake a coming here." She added, eyes trailing back to the ocean as if trying to visualise their destination before her, that beacon of hope and safety she adored, and right now needed.
Her voice, the look on her face, the glimmer in her eyes, that spark, that little bubbly sense and approach to life Anna had always held. It was gone. Now was just a resigned, joyless shell, a woman who had given up on her family.
All it had done was disappoint. No more! As if accentuating her thoughts, she shook her head again a little. Forget her.
Anna went to turn away, but a hand seized her arm, gently, but also not allowing her to move. She gasped a bit and looked to see Kristoff holding her, his face stern, eyes filled with a firmness that she had never seen before in him. It honestly terrified her for a moment, thinking he was going to do something horrible to her.
"W-what are you doing?" she asked, trying to be tough, but the nervousness was palpable. The others looked on with worried expressions, thinking a fight was going to break out.
"We're not going home, Anna," he told her, his voice gentle, but direct.
Anna stared at him. Did he just disobey her? Did he just try to stop them from leaving, from ending their part in this stupid, accursed waste-of-time journey they had been on for the last few days? What was he doing?
"Kristoff, let me go!" Anna told him, turning her body to face him, curling her other hand into a fist, something he noticed but did not back down from.
"No, Anna. I'm trying to stop you from making a mistake!"
She glared at him. "What mistake?!"
"For leaving Elsa and yourself behind!"
Anna's glare deepened. No, as much as she loved him, he was wrong. He was not going to talk to her like this, and he was certainly not going to tell her that she was making a mistake given what had just happened.
"Kristoff, let me go so we can collect Olaf," she commanded him, trying to maintain a calm aura. "There's nothing for us here now," she added strongly. "We may as well just leave!"
Kristoff huffed, not loosening, nor tightening his grip on her arm. "So, you're just gonna make the same mistake as Elsa and give up?" he said, noticing her fisted hand begin to shake slightly in anger. "That we should just leave and let her die at his hands?! No, Anna, that's not you!"
"Well it's what she wants," Anna's voice rose in volume, not wanting, not daring to let him control her decision making. She was the one in charge here, and she knew what she was doing!
"You're being unreasonable, Anna," he told her bluntly.
She cried out and went to hit him, but Kristoff caught her arm and pushed it down by her side, trying not to handle her roughly. She struggled and tried to wrench her other arms free, but he held her firm.
"Kristoff, let me go!" she shouted at him.
'No, stop, Anna!" he said in reply, holding onto her. "It's not the next right thing."
"Yes … it … is!" she seethed, growling at him, ceasing her struggling a bit, but he held her firm. "It's the only right thing!"
"No, listen to me!" he growled, grabbing her arms and giving her a little shake, seeing a flash of shock, even fear in her eyes as he did this. He calmed himself, not wanting to overreact, glancing once more at the others nearby; the twins nervously gripping each other, Sven turned towards them, his hoof half on the ground as he looked on anxiously at the couple. "Anna, we can't go home and just leave her here." Kristoff focused his attention on her once again.
Anna bit her lower lip, looking down at the ground, her face still holding a pout. "There's no point, Kristoff. We can't convince her. We should just leave now," she said, her voice returning to normal, but the pained tone was barely, if at all disguised.
"Well, we can't just give up, Anna!" the ice harvester said to his princess girlfriend, gently releasing her, though tensing that she was going to try and swing at him again. Thankfully, she did not. "I'm sorry, Anna, I really am! I-I won't try and pretend to understand how you feel, Anna, but I do know how you will feel if we go back to Arendelle, because if we do, you'll never forgive yourself."
She went to speak, but he spoke over her. "No, listen to me. If we leave, we know that she will die, and you'll be regretting it for the rest of your life, Anna. You'll never forget it, and you'll never forgive yourself. You'll end up like her. You'll be alone and hating yourself."
She sighed, taking in his words, knowing that as much as she was furious now, he was right. If they left, history would only repeat itself; she would be in no better a situation than she was before, only this time there would be no silver lining, no comfort, no way out.
She sniffed, then surprisingly embraced Kristoff, burying her face into his chest, letting out little sobs, hot tears streaming down her face and wetting his top. He, still a little tentative, wrapped his arms around her and she hugged him tighter, not wanting to lose this bastion of safety, this beacon of comfort, the only one she had.
"I'm sorry, Kristoff!" she cried, though her voice was muffled by his chest. "I-I just don't want to do this anymore! I-I can't go on!"
"It's okay, Anna," he soothed her, brushing a hand through her hair and rubbing her back with his other hand, the motion calming her somewhat.
They remained like this for a moment or two, though it felt like forever, not that they were complaining. The rest of the world was a blur, a void outside the bubble they were in, something that did not matter to them at the moment. What mattered to them now was that they were there for each other.
Anna pulled back; her face marked with new tears. Kristoff gently wiped them away with his thumb, giving her a comforting expression. I'm here for you. You know that right?
She gave a light nod. I know.
"I-I was just so angry … I've been … Oh, I don't know! I've been wanting to stop her, to tell her about how I've felt for so long! B-but I couldn't! And I thought she would understand now that she would stop trying to risk herself so … so selfishly!"
Kristoff nodded. "I know, Anna," he replied. "She hasn't been fair to us, to you,"
She nodded, sniffing, wiping away tears and snot from her face. "How do you deal with us, Kristoff?"
He shrugged. "I just do," he answered, then moved his hands up to her face, cupping it, staring into her eyes with a gentle, passionate, serious gleam. "Anna, I promised Elsa I would take care of you, and I have and I will. I'm not going to let the woman I want to be with forever give up."
Her eyes grew wet again, but she held back her tears, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "So, you mentioned it to her then?"
He nodded. "Yeah, with a lot of apprehension I might add."
"And?"
"She said she was happy for us, her blessing no doubt." A pause. "Though I didn't think trying to seek counselling whilst dealing with giant monsters was going to be part of the deal."
She tittered, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand and embraced him again, leaning into him, wanting this moment to last forever. For all the troubles, trials and tribulations to disappear, for the past to be in the past. For things to go back to normal (begrudgingly, she knew this was and would never be so) and for them to be happy again.
"Thank you, Kristoff," she said, looking up at her boyfriend. "I don't know what I would do without you."
He rubbed her head. "Hey, I'm not going to lose both you and Elsa," he told her. "Who else is going to drive me crazy, but senselessly in love at the same time?" he added.
She tittered again. "And who else is going to stand up to the queen with her sister?" she asked rhetorically.
Kristoff faked-grimaced. "You're not gonna throw me in the dungeons, are you?" he asked, his voice joking, but there was a light undertone of fear to it.
Anna pinched his cheek playfully. "We'll see," she said, but worry quickly returned. "Though, Kristoff, in all seriousness, how are we going to stop her? Will we even get to her in time?"
Her ice harvester boyfriend did not reply, the realisation of their situation dawning on him once again. She had a point. Elsa was likely far ahead of them now, much too far to get to even with Sven running at full speed. By the time they would reach her, she would probably be at Cthulhu's lair, or … or worse. The only way they could get there in time, or even intercept her, was …
"Moll, Lora," he looked up at the girls, who had been watching the scene from nearby, at first worried, but then somewhat relieved that the couple had appeared to make up, for now. "Where's Mothra?"
Moll stepped forward, a little apprehensive still. "She-she's on her way," she replied a little anxiously. "A-are you two okay now?"
"Yeah, we're fine," Anna spoke up. She went to speak more, but the wind picked up, a huge shadow encompassing the area they were in.
"Take cover!" Lora cried out, grabbing her sister and Sven and rushing to the trees; Kristoff and Anna following close behind.
They dove behind a fallen tree, the wind strong enough to almost blow them into the air, its cry just masking a flapping sound that sounded like giant bed covers being whipped clean of dust. The trees around them bent backwards, leaves, branches, dirt and the like rushing past them, grazing their skin and hair. The fallen log they were behind shook and they feared for a brief moment that it would be tossed into the air with the other debris and they would be following close behind. Kristoff gripped Anna's hand tightly and pulled her into him, shielding her with his body. Moll and Lora shielded themselves against Sven, who leaned over them, hoping to protect them as much as possible from this sudden storm.
A loud THUD rocked the ground, knocking them over, and the wind ceased as if ordered so by the hand of God (not too far off given the circumstances). Gingerly, they poked their heads out from behind the log to see Mothra standing in the clearing, her head looking around quickly, almost frantically. When she eyed the group below, she stepped forward, emitting a series of low-pitched squeals and noises.
"Mosura, wait!" Moll interrupted the gigantic moth, Lora coming up next to her. "What are you saying?"
The moth squealed and bobbed her head again. Anna, Kristoff and Sven emerged from behind the log, eyeing each other with cautious, even a layer of worry as their Mu friends conversed with the gigantic female flying titan before them. They watched as Moll and Lora paused, then exchanged shocked expressions, then turn to face their human (and reindeer) companions behind them.
"What is it?" Kristoff and Anna asked in unison.
Another pause hung between them. The two Mu girls exchanged their shocked expressions once again, then looked back at the pair.
"Mosura has just informed us," Lora spoke. "Godzilla's still alive."