Note:

Chapter four is up waaaaay faster than I intended. Please keep in mind that I am not going to be this quick all the time – I have a solid 6ish chapters already written which are just going through the feedback circles, which is why some of these are done. But things can still get missed, so reviews and stuff would also be very welcome!

Disclaimer:

I do not own Frozen (really wouldn't be too bad if I did)

Enjoy!

- JQ

Chapter Four: An Accident

Two days after their arrival in Arendelle, it was time for the visitors from Botarskal to complete their voyage to Vennesvurg, Sweden. Anna and Kristoff were seeing the group off while the children attended their lessons for the day. The royal couple watched as their visitors loaded up their carriages with their belongings. While they were only here for a short time, Anna and Kristoff enjoyed their company (especially because the kids were so obsessed with Tina that they had some time to breathe).

"We'll write you as soon as we get to Sweden, Your Majesty!" Arnold promised, handing the last of the bags into the last carriage.

"When he says 'we'," Ingrid added, "he means everyone except me."

"If you do not hear from us within a week's time," Gunn-Britt advised, "assume we have been compromised by yaks and do not waste your men on our misfortunes." the tall warrior walked off to pack more things onto the carriage, leaving Kristoff, Anna and Tina in her wake.

Kristoff looked at Tina with an incredulous expression. "What is her deal with yaks?" for the last few days, every comment that Gunn-Britt ever had would contain something about yaks. No one really cared about it, but it drove Kristoff insane. Tina just offered the prince consort an apologetic smile.

"Um...It's best to not say," Tina said with a distant expression, "but she's getting braver and braver every day. And that's what really matters, isn't it?"

"What does that even mean?!" the poor ice harvester was begging for an explanation.

"Ignore him," Anna said, taking Tina's hands in hers. After learning about the true reason for Tina's trip to Vennesvurg, the Queen couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She couldn't even imagine the amount of stress and pressure that the young woman must have been carrying. Although they had a few days together, Anna was aware of a few things: Tina didn't like her father much, Tina was fourth out of five sisters, and Tina's mother died during the birth of her baby sister. The younger royal kept saying that her life, back in Botarskal, wasn't the best which is what she used to keep rationalizing her decision.

"Are you sure about this?" the Queen asked Princess Tina.

The brunette just shrugged. "I mean...what choice do I really have? My father had been hiding my sisters and I from Vennesvurg because he knew about the backup deal for years." Tina's face then turned into a grimace. "He waited until Vennesvurg's councilmen showed up to retrieve one of us and threatened our kingdom's safety. I have to do what's right for my family and I have to do this."

If there was one thing that Anna could think about Tina, it was that she was incredibly noble despite all of her pain. Once upon a time, Anna would have championed her heroic attitude and sense of good. However, since becoming Queen and a mother, Anna has learned that some things didn't have to be as black and white as they appeared to be.

"I understand that," Anna told the princess, "but I could help you try to work something out with Vennesvurg. I'm not the best at treaties, but I could help you use Arendelle as a third-party security." the brunette just shook her head at the offer.

"I appreciate it – truly, I do. But what's done is done. I have to do this."

"I disagree with the 'have to' part," the Queen admitted, "but I understand."

Tina just smiled and slightly squeezed Anna's hands in hers. "Thank you. I promise that if anything happens, I'll send for your help as soon as possible."

The Queen could live with that. She smiled and pulled Tina in for one last hug. "Please be careful."

"We will." Tina promised, holding the Queen tighter. The younger royal had four sisters of her own, but Anna was already way more loving than two of them.

"Can you guys hurry up?" Ingrid called out from her and Tina's carriage, "I was promised my own house in Vennesvurg, and I'd like to get to it!"

Everyone laughed at the handmaiden's insistence. After a few more goodbyes and well wishes, the large group split off into two.

...

After about four hours of travel, the carriages came to a stop in front of a forest. The forest was not labelled on the map that the soldiers had so they were confused and believed they had taken a wrong turn somewhere.

"I don't understand," said one soldier, "I don't see this on the map at all. Perhaps we should turn back around."

"Nonsense," said another soldier, "this is the map given to us by the council of King Karl of Vennesvurg, themselves. We follow it as we have been."

Suddenly, a third soldier came into view and looked at the map. "From the looks of this map, and my compass, we may be able to cut through the forest to get to the second checkpoint three hours earlier than we planned."

The first soldier winced, thinking that this was going to be a mistake. "I-I don't know if we should. Maybe we should run our options by the Princess."

"Good thinking," teased the third soldier with fresh sarcasm, "let's listen to a girl who's never had to read a map or travel out of her own kingdom. Bang on idea, private." he emphasized his comment with a rougher than acceptable shove to the first soldier's shoulder.

"Now's not the time for slander." warned the second soldier. He then took the map for himself and drew a line from the entrance of the forest to the valley pass, northeast of their location. "Anyway, I agree with cutting through this forest. We can just follow the compass, this way. I wouldn't hate shaving off three hours."

The first soldier huffed and went back to the princess' carriage. He shook his head as he rubbed the soreness on his shoulder. He didn't agree with the others, but he wasn't high enough in rank to disobey. He then looked at the entrance of the forest – four large stones stood tall among the tree line. They each had one individual marking on them, but he had no idea what they meant. He only hoped that the others' were right about their decision to move through the forest and that they would get to Sweden before tomorrow.

...

Elsa was helping Ryder fix the door on a reindeer pen. They didn't usually have pens for the reindeer, but they needed a place to have their injured animals recover without any territorial or 'play fighting' issues. Ryder hammered in the last piece of wood using a wooden mallet while Elsa finished off the door with a sort of 'permafrost' material. It was the same frost that she used for Olaf, so it should hold until they decide to disassemble their pen. The blonde began to shake the door at its' hinges in an attempt to dislodge it.

When it didn't move, she whistled for Gale – the wind spirit. Suddenly, a nearby pile of leaves was swept up in a wind current, characteristic of their friendly wind spirit. Gale then circled around Ryder, messing with him by trying to knock off his hat.

"H-Hey! My hat!" Ryder laughed, tugging his hat to keep it from flying away. "Nice to see you too, Gale!" he continued laughing as the current went over to Elsa and began messing with her hair. As calm as ever, Elsa just smiled and ran her hand through her hair to settle it again.

"Hey Gale," the former Queen greeted. "Can you try blowing at this door?" the wind current then began repeatedly going against the pen's door. Although it shook violently, due to the new force, the door did not fall off of its' hinges. Satisfied, Elsa placed her hands on her hips and nodded in pride. "Thanks so much, Gale. You're the best!" the wind spirit circled around Elsa a few times before moving on to shoving Ryder onto the ground, playfully.

"Hey!" Ryder exclaimed. Although he was miffed at being knocked over, he knew Gale just loved to mess with people. "I'll get you for that one day!"

"Well," Elsa said, helping her friend to his feet, "at least we know the door is strong. Should be a whole season before we have to repair anything."

Before the pair of builders could celebrate any further, there was a commotion coming from the main settlement area. Ryder and Elsa just looked at one another before jogging lightly to the scene. There, they saw some fisherman, looking panicked and scared.

"I-I-I don't know if anyone has made it – the wreckage looks awful!" said one fisherman.

"There's gotta be some people down there – four carriages down with no bodies sounds very unlikely."

Another fisherman just nodded. "We have to send out a party to look for survivors."

"Wreckage?" asked Ryder, joining the commotion.

"Carriages?" Elsa added, standing at his side.

The fishermen all nodded at the former ice Queen and one fisher-woman stepped forward. "We went down to the earth giant river to hunt for some fatty trout." she explained, "On our way over, two large giants were headed in the opposite direction, which means they had been disturbed. So we continued over to the river when we saw two carriages in the river, and two more just off of an embankment." Elsa and Ryder gasped at what they had heard.

"It must have been a caravan that has never been here before." Yelena concluded, entering the group, "Travellers, who come to this forest, usually find our settlement first to seek the best path through. I hadn't been visited by any outsiders this week."

Elsa's expression became grave. "Inexperienced travellers coming through – the giants might have mistook them for a threat of some sort." although the earth giants were also spirit guardians, they did not like being disturbed or having their territories trespassed on. The blonde was worried that they would not find any people alive.

"Well, we have to go help them." Honeymaren said, "Elsa, will you come with us? Your ice powers will be good for aiding the injured." the blonde nodded in agreement and affirmation. Elsa was afraid of finding no one to help, but they had to try.

"Of course." the fifth spirit said, standing tall. She then looked over to Ryder. "Can you bring six reindeer with us? We need at least two wagons."

Ryder mimicked her posture and saluted her with a smile. "Say no more, captain! I'll ready Bucky, Sue, Frankfurt, Beeflet, Jorgen, and Emerald!" he then scurried off to fetch the reindeer and hook them up to some wagons. Yelena, Elsa, and Honeymaren just stared at one another after watching him run off. Their expressions: unreadable.

"I'll never understand that boy." Honeymaren told them, causing Yelena to laugh.

"You can try to understand him another day," the elder said, "for now – let's focus on helping that caravan."

...

The search party, led by Honeymaren and a fisherman, arrived at the river. The wreckage was just as they previously described – two carriages in the shallow water, and two more wrecked at the top of an embankment. One horse was visibly dead and there were no others around. They probably escaped as soon as they were able and left this poor fellow behind. Other than the horse, no people could be seen immediately. Elsa became visibly distraught.

"...oh no..." she whispered. She knew that the giants had a lot of power and was still fearful that they would be collecting bodies instead of helping the wounded. Ryder placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Come on," he said in a gentle and encouraging tone, "we won't find anyone just staring at it." she then watched as Ryder joined the rest of the search party, down by the river. Taking a deep breath, Elsa followed them and tried to mentally prepare herself as best as she could.

...

The debris alone was intense to get through. Four carriages was a lot of wood and metal – not to mention the large amount of baggage that each carriage was holding. Elsa wondered why each carriage was so packed and where they were headed. Trunks had been cracked open and their contents splayed all over the area. But, to everyone's horror – and Elsa's mild relief – there were survivors. Six soldiers and three other passengers. One soldier was knocked out cold and the others sustained physical injuries to their arms, legs and heads. All injuries were temporarily soothed by Elsa's ice magic – the least they could do was numb the pain until they got back to the permanent camp.

One passenger called himself Arnold and he was only mildly injured. He was limping, but he helped direct the Northuldra to certain objects or people which made finding them pretty easy. Another passenger was called Ingrid and she had a large wound on her arm. Ingrid didn't have any broken bones, that they could observe right away. She preferred to stay in the carriage next to the third passenger – a large woman by the name of Gunn-Britt. Poor thing was stuck underneath a carriage. Miraculously, the only injuries she had were two broken pinkies and a bruised lip. When asked how she was feeling, she simply stated:

"Yak horn helmet. Repels injury. And yaks."

That seemed totally regular, so everyone continued to salvage what they could. They managed to recover some clothing, some food, and other supplies but most ended up in the river.

Honeymaren was about to order Ryder to lead the wagons, full of injured people, to the Northuldra's settlement camp when Arnold, Gunn-Britt and Ingrid began to voice their concerns about that plan.

"WAIT!" Arnold wailed, "We can't leave the princess!"

"Princess?" Elsa asked.

"Yeah – was he not speaking clearly?" Ingrid rudely said. Elsa narrowed her eyes at the raven-haired woman but was unable to retort as Arnold jumped back in.

"Please – j-just look again." his eyes pleaded with the platinum blonde, "Please."

Gunn-Britt nodded. "If you do not find her, just leave us to perish."

"Oookay, okay – no one is going to perish." the ice wielder said, holding her hands up in defence. "Ryder, come with me. We'll check the carriages in the water again."

Elsa and Ryder headed back down to the portion of the wreckage that was in the river. The other two carriages, on the embankment, were already taken apart and had been searched through. Portions of the water wreckage – on the other hand – were only partially searched as no one could really get some of the debris out of the water properly.

The blonde decided that if any time was good to use her magic powers, then that time was most definitely now. She closed her eyes and used her ice magic to surround the first carriage. The ice frosted over the wreckage and once a large portion of it was completely encased in her ice, she used her powers to lift it up. She could see more debris and items of clothing, but nothing to suggest someone was there. She dropped the debris back down and called on Ryder to double check her results. He saluted her and went to scavenge for anything she may have missed.

Now approaching the second carriage, Elsa had to wade in the water up to her waist. She silently thanked the Gods for having her dress be made of her ice magic – she knew that drying out her regular clothes would take forever without a proper basin, like she had back in Arendelle. Nonetheless, the ice wielder was determined in her search so she fought against the river's current, towards the second carriage. This one had a gaping hole in its' side which offered her a way into it without the need for her powers.

Ryder popped his head out from the debris of the previous carriage just in time to see Elsa venture into the other wreckage. "Be careful, Elsa!" he shouted. The blonde just looked over to him and gave him a shrug with a hearty 'thumbs-up'.

Returning her attention to her task, Elsa made her way through the carriage's remains. From what she could see, there was way more debris stacked against the shallow portion of the river. It didn't look tampered with much, so she decided it was a good place to look for a missing princess. Once she reached the debris pile, she began peeling each piece away individually – she didn't want to risk further injuring the princess, if she was still alive.

One by one, she went through the pile. She was beginning to lose hope when she found a hand. Gasping, Elsa grabbed at it and checked it for a pulse. It was probably not the best time to check, considering she was nervous and cold. She couldn't feel anything, but the hand was not pale or blue, so she had a sliver of hope left. She carefully removed debris that followed up the arm, towards a shoulder. She then began removing pieces of debris away from where she thought the head would be. After taking away more pieces, she discovered that this person's only saving grace was the fact that her head and shoulders were above water. The rest of her body appeared to be submerged partially. Elsa frantically used her magic to remove more of the wreckage to the point where her whole body was visible.

It was a young woman, dressed in a dark green dress. Her hair was long and dark brown, strewn about in a havoc. She had an obvious head wound, as there was blood coating the left side of her head, just above the ear. Because her chest was now visible, Elsa could make out the subtle movements of her breathing. The fifth spirit released a sigh of incredible relief – the princess was alive. Elsa slowly began to lift the woman but was met with some resistance. She turned and looked down into the water, quickly realizing that the princess' foot was wedged between the carriage's wheel and a stone. Rolling her eyes, Elsa took a deep breath and dove down to remove the rock.

Once she resurfaced, she chucked the rock somewhere up stream and returned her attention to the injured woman. Just as Elsa positioned her arms to cradle the woman from below – in a sort of bridal hold – she paused and noticed her necklace. The woman wore a heavy silver pendant, bearing a symbol that Elsa recognized from her days as Queen: the Royal Crest of Botarskal.

"Botarskal?" Elsa questioned out loud. Nobody has seen a member of the Botarskalic royal family in decades. Even the people she met from there were just delegates and ministers. She observed the brunette carefully and just could not believe the odds – she was rescuing a member of the Botarskalic royal family. Before she was able to get her thoughts together, she was crudely interrupted by her rescue partner.

"Hey Elsa!" Ryder called out from behind her on a piece of the wreckage. "Quit checking out the unconscious girl! That's wrong on so many levels – three levels at minimum!"

The fifth spirit scoffed at him. "W-What?! I-I w-w-wasn't checking – don't b-b-be ridic – UGH – Ryder!" it was too late – her attempt at refuting him was lost on deaf ears as he had already left her in his dust. Sighing, Elsa carefully lifted the unconscious princess and began to make her way out of the river.