Kristoff snapped the reins which made the horses gallop faster as they headed up the mountain. Edward could hear the guards behind them, two squads of four men each, trailing them. The ice harvester had agreed to take them to the site of the attack and hopefully, they could pick up a trail to scout for hopefully the bandit hideout. While they did this, Kristoff planned to take Edward up to his favorite frozen lake so that he could teach the man how to harvest ice.

It didn't take too long before they reached the site, a lot of snow hadn't fallen through the night so the tracks were still pronounced. Edward pointed out a trail that led back up the mountain, the guards took off in that direction leaving the ice harvesters. Kristoff spurred the horses until they arrived on a frozen lake that he had been ice harvesting for days now.

"Alright, before we get to the fun stuff I wanna give you a quick rundown on how this works. I remember you saying you were strong enough to harvest ice even though you never did so before, we'll see about that. For now though, just keep these little tips in mind so you don't hurt yourself."

It's just cutting blocks of ice, how hard can that be?

Very hard as it turns out.

The veteran ice harvester had quickly cut an outline of the area they were harvesting. He then gave Edward a basic instruction then a demonstration of the art of gathering ice. At first glance it looked easy, however, when the man got a large ice saw and attempted to cut into the ice, the tool stopped not even three inches deep. The young man raised an eyebrow in confusion before lifting the tool up once more and putting more force into shoving it downward. Instead of cutting through the ice as he thought it would, the blade skid instead and the young man found himself on his stomach with the saw in front of him.

He could hear laughter beside him as he turned to face the mountain man leaning on his own saw with a smug grin on his face. "I might've forgotten to mention that you can't just use all brute force to get that saw in the ice. You need to apply a steady amount of pressure to the saw at a steady pace to cut through at the right angle." He then looked at the crooked gouge the saw made as it slid and whistled.

"But you are indeed stronger than I gave you credit for, now you just need to put that strength to practical use."

He's right, strength with no direction is worthless.

Picking himself up, Edward positioned his saw again, and instead of trying to cut through in one thrust, he stabbed then brought it back before repeating the process. The blade began to go deeper as well as saw through the ice under his feet, in time, he developed a rhythm before he heard the sound of water. Taking his saw all the way out of the ice, he peered down to see that he had made it through. A slow clap from Kristoff made the man look up with an impressed smile on his face.

"There you go, now just cut to the other side of the outline and we'll move on."

The day went mostly like that, Edward would take instruction from the mountain man while he did his own harvesting. It took some time and effort but the novice managed to harvest three blocks of ice. Now having succeeded, the brown-haired man felt he could probably get faster and faster at ice harvesting but Kristoff had waved it off.

"That's enough, we gotta get back while there's still some light out. The good news is that we have enough to fill out one order so it looks like we're getting paid tonight. Besides if we don't get back to Arendelle in time for dinner then I'm beyond screwed."

Edward looked at the sleigh to see an additional nine blocks of ice neatly stacked next to his own and shook his head in disbelief. They had only been up in the mountains for a few hours, spent even less actually harvesting ice. How Kristoff managed to teach him and put in a good amount of work was quite impressive. The brown-haired man began to help the blonde to load the sleigh with all of their gear and before long, they were racing down the mountain.

For the most part, they made the trip in silence, however, Edward couldn't help his thoughts slowly drifting to a certain blonde woman now that he wasn't focusing on the task at hand. When he first met her, he couldn't imagine a more beautiful sight, she was flawless in appearance. That had captured his attention for a time but what cemented her presence in his mind was her kindness.

She hadn't known him for a full day and she had erased the massive weight that was on his shoulders. His thoughts always haunted him in every waking moment and in his heart he knew that they would be the end of him. Over time he managed to learn to live the weight on his shoulders and carry on, let no one see the monster he hid inside. It made him keep everyone at a distance to avoid tragic incidents, every waking moment he watched himself to ensure that never for a moment he would lose control. Yet here comes this woman who made him forget, even for a moment, of all the demons he kept bottled inside.

There's only one that matters

Shaking his head of his thoughts, they instantly went back to the platinum beauty. Part of him knew it would be somewhat inappropriate to ask the mountain man about Elsa, but he couldn't stop his mouth from speaking.

"So what's Elsa like?"

Out of all the things to say; the ice harvester is gonna love that.

Kristoff couldn't help the sigh that left his lips as he slightly turned to face the young man who palmed his face at his tactless outburst. It wasn't like he was oblivious to the beauty Elsa possessed, he himself admitted that she had an outworldly beauty to her. However, Anna went beyond that. Everything came second to her, words couldn't begin to describe her. Elsa's beauty would take a thousand words to describe, to him; Anna's couldn't be compared on such a small scale. He was the luckiest man to ever exist that the princess had eyes only for him, he never boasted about it but Arendelle knew that she had found her match.

That left only Elsa available. Kristoff was an avid drinker, he spent plenty of time in the taverns of Arendelle drinking people under the table regularly. He had heard all the things drunk patrons would say about their Queen and honestly if they ever reached her ears, steam would probably come out of her cool head in embarrassment. Some had even asked the ice harvester to introduce them to her so they could woe her. He would of course decline, Elsa should find someone who appreciates her the way he did Anna. Not for her looks, abilities, or her position as Queen, but for what she was like on the inside. Even though she was likely to marry just for Arendelle's sake, he still hoped that she would find love someday.

"Alright let me stop you there. I get it, Elsa is beautiful and a Queen so she would be amazing to have an arm around. But dude, don't even try man, you really don't want to make Anna upset if you're after her sister for stuff like that. She's got a mean right hook."

Edward raised an eyebrow at Kristoff's rather blunt reply. He could understand how his outburst could've been perceived that he wanted to try his hand at charming her, but that wasn't the case at all. He had no intention in finding companionship in a woman, that always ended badly for him. All he wanted was solitude, and if things went his way, he'll be out of Arendelle in a few short weeks. There would be little reason in trying to gain favor with the Queen and try to become King.

Besides Edward had no desire whatsoever to become a King, before everything, he is a soldier. As much as he hated to admit it, he belonged on the battlefield fighting with his own two hands, not using a pen and words to fight his battles. Although he wished to avoid fighting altogether,

sometimes you just can't get what you want no matter how hard you try.

"I just meant what's she like to be around. As we left Arendelle, I noticed that so many people were happy. The guards were helping throughout the village, children playing, and I've yet to see so much as a homeless person lounging on the street. In most kingdoms, there is at least some sign of discomfort to the crown, yet here everyone seems to love her wholeheartedly as if she cast a spell on them. That made me wonder, what has she done to get this much light in her kingdom?"

Kristoff was about to comment on the spell part, telling him there was no way Elsa would do so even if she could but remembered his talk with Anna before they left. Edward had called Elsa an Elemental and seemed to know a bit about them, so he could probably guess that he really didn't mean she cast a spell on them. It did make him curious though, he thought about talking to Grand Pabbie and asking if he knew anything about Elementals since he had a good idea about Elsa's powers.

"Well, if I had to sum up the reason why everyone loves her, it's probably because she's like a loving mother to them all. During her reign, she fought to eliminate crime and poverty, while building the economy, then using it to give back to the people instead of hoarding the riches. She takes time out of her day to make sure she hears everyone's say and does her best to keep everyone happy. She works herself really hard in my opinion though, there have been many times she'd fall asleep in her study and Anna would ask me to carry her to bed."

Edward considered his words for a moment, thinking about all the things he heard in his travels about the Snow Queen. When he realized he was in Arendelle earlier, it didn't dawn on him immediately that he was in her kingdom and when he met her it all came back to him. The image he had made for her was off the mark almost entirely, he expected a cold woman who oppressed her people with her abilities. Not a woman who seemed incredibly kind and loving, however under all that warmth when he met her eyes as he said he wanted to be alone he saw it. He saw the sadness that he had when he thought of everything in his life, the weight that he carried day to day. It was like she had been right where he was, maybe she was still there but got better at hiding it. Regardless when he recognized the same sadness, he couldn't tear himself away from her voice.

It calmed him down to his very core, for once, the raging fires in his own heart that craved violence yielded at her voice. The feeling was addictive to think about, he wanted to hear her voice forever but he knew that was simply impossible. She was a Queen and he was a foreigner, not even royalty. The only reason she was even giving him the time of day was that he saved her sister's boyfriend. After that business was done, he'd probably wouldn't see her again, which was probably for the best. Even though their time was coming to an end Edward couldn't help his curiosity from growing about the woman.

"She sounds like a wonderful Queen but I asked what's Elsa like, not what the Queen of Arendelle is like." That actually caused Kristoff's eyebrow to rise, he wasn't expecting that kind of question. While it was nice that someone showed interest in Elsa and not the Queen, he wondered how much he should actually say. He didn't want to overstep his bounds telling him the deeper aspects of the blonde woman, Edward had to find those out for himself. The mountain man could just give him a brief description and hopefully, he'd be satisfied.

"First and foremost, she loves Anna immensely, I'd wager more than Arendelle if I was a betting man. She's really proper, doing everything the way a Queen should but has her mischievous moments. Of course, she likes chocolate as much as Anna and she's very intelligent. She's patient, understanding, and selfless putting everything else before her own self. You want to know more you'll have to find out on your own."

While it answered his question, Edward was hoping for more than obvious traits. He guessed that the ice harvester wanted to respect the platinum beauty's right to secrecy. The young man shrugged his shoulders, looks like he would have to find out on his own. He was content to end the conversation there when Kristoff opened his mouth again.

"So what about you, I don't really know much about you. I know you can fight, and have traveled a very long way but what else is there?"

Edward considered not answering for a moment but decided against it, the mountain man answered his questions, least he could do was give him the same courtesy. "Well, I guess the first thing you should know is I'm from Blackdust, I can guarantee someone will ask later tonight. I haven't back there in years, I served in their military for almost my entire life, I've been sent around the world to see a great many wonders. Hopefully, I can earn enough money to get a ship to take me back to Blackdust, after a stay for a while I plan on leaving again. There isn't much more to tell beyond that. I guess I could say I have a brother, but I have no idea where he is because he was sent in the opposite direction. I'm sure he's alive though, the guy is basically unkillable."

Kristoff mulled that information around his head for a moment, from what he remembered hearing in the tavern, Blackdust was a very secretive kingdom. He heard that the traders were under guard and they barely said a word while trading, part of him wanted to ask the young man to clear up some rumors but the guy hasn't been back in years. Who knew if things remained the same since leaving. So he decided to ask about his brother.

"Why do you say he's unkillable, I'm sure he must be tough but unkillable is pushing it." Edward shrugged before answering.

"Because every time he's been sent into a battle that he has no chance in winning, he's the only one that comes back with word of his success."

Elsa was sifting through some trade and treaty agreements with all the kingdoms that were coming to the Winter Solstice gathering. The main reason she invited all of them was to improve trade with further kingdoms to support Arendelle. The woman planned on using her allies as support to encourage some of their allies to trade with them. It would surely be a busy night so she needed to be caught up on the affairs between faraway kingdoms.

She also had to prepare living arrangements for every noble that was likely and unlikely to attend. There was plenty of space but the main problem that was on her mind was Blackdust. She needed to vet them before the gathering, that would take time maybe a month or so. She went over every scrap of information that was about them only to come up with scarce rumors and speculations. Elsa sent letters to her allies asking for any information on the secretive kingdom, that yielded little results. Until the King Frederic of Corona had sent a letter.

Greetings Queen Elsa

In response to your request, I have searched through my kingdom's records and believe I have found something. Seven years ago, one of my allies, Rosenberg, was under attack from another kingdom called Ashfeld. The war was mostly a stalemate of limited success on both sides, until a ship flying a black sail that had a lion and snake facing one another, was sighted. The ship was heavily reinforced, yet had no cannons. King Helson of Rosenberg ordered their ships be searched and questioned on their purpose for coming to the battlefield.

The ship obliged and showed they were from Blackdust with the intention of supporting Ashfeld. Of course, they were warned to turn back or be forcibly restrained, the captain of the ship only laughed. That was all the warning he got before they attacked. There was only a force of fifty men but each fought with the ferocity of ten men. Each man was able to hold his own against three regular soldiers at once, combined with the thick forest terrain, they were able to utilize the trees to disappear from sight. There was no pause or remorse as they cut through Rosenberg's forces, only one soldier survived. The Blackdust captain wanted someone to tell the tale of their defeat, that with only fifty men they were able to take a fort that housed three hundred men.

The small Blackdust force joined Ashfeld and began cutting a path straight to Rosenberg's capital, there was no stopping their combined might. King Helson asked his allies for help in dealing with the threat, I was preparing to send troops but received a letter from Helson. It seemed that Ashfeld was confident in their ability to conquer Rosenberg so they didn't need the Blackdust forces possibly betraying them if hired by one of their enemies. Their prowess in battle was more than astonishing, Ashfeld felt they were a threat that needed to be eliminated. They felt that the chaos of the battlefield would be the perfect cover to kill the soldiers to show his troops that they could be killed as well as to demoralize Rosenberg to show not even Blackdust could stand against them.

King Helson had scouts posted outside the capitol walls to warn them of their arrival. Just beyond the capitol walls, Ashfeld turned on and attacked the Blackdust forces, managing to kill forty-nine of them without taking many casualties. That only left one soldier, he was hardly a man, he looked as though he just joined Blackdust's military. The scouts sent word back to King Helson and he decided that now might be the perfect time to counterattack with them killing their own allies. By the time his forces rushed outside the gate, it was already over. There were bodies strewn around carelessly, over a hundred men were disembodied as if a storm of blades had hit them. Amongst the carnage stood the boy with his hands steadily dripping with blood and his back to them.

The officer leading the Rosenberg forces approached the boy and asked if he was responsible for all this. The boy answered, "Pride did all of this." He then proceeded to walk away not even stopping to pay respects to his fallen comrades. After that battle Ashfeld launched no more attacks, the war had come to a complete stop. Six months later Helson received a report from one of his allies, Ashfeld had been burned to the ground. There was nothing left whatsoever, everything from villages to forests was engulfed in flames. The only thing left was a spear with Ashfeld's King's head on it. King Helson gathered reports that ships matching Blackdust's colors were seen in the area before the destruction. He then received a letter from the King of Blackdust.

It read that 'I King Rakat Veera proclaim our fight against you has ended. We have been asked to join the military campaign of Ashfeld conquering your lands, however, they had betrayed us and have been punished. We leave the riches we've recovered from their kingdom as recompense for the damage we have wrought. If you feel this is not enough then you're more than welcome to challenge me, we have no intention of attacking your kingdom a second time. Your kingdom was moments away from being conquered before we were forced to call off the attack, that must mean fate has decided that it would not be by our hands that we destroy your kingdom. Do not take this as a sign of weakness, take it as a sign that we have no obligation to fight with you but will not hesitate to do so should you provoke us.'

King Helson of course, made no attempt to attack Blackdust. He focused on rebuilding his kingdom, as he sent soldiers to build he received one last scout report. On the edge of his kingdom, there were carts lined with horses and the riches of Ashfeld waiting for them, there was however only one person guarding them. It was the boy from before. When they approached him, he asked one question. "Do you wish to go to war with us?" When the captain in charge said no the boy sighed and began to walk away saying one thing over his shoulder.

"Well that's disappointing, I haven't had my fill yet. However the king's wishes are my command, he said to attack unless provoked." One of the soldiers took offense to the boy's words and shouted at his back, challenging the boy to prove his ability right then and there. The captain described what happened next as a blur, as soon as the words left the soldier's mouth, he started to choke. The captain turned to see the boy lifting the man off the ground with one hand around his throat. Before when they talked they were a hundred feet away, the boy managed to cover the distance in an instant. The other soldiers prepared to help their comrade but the captain ordered them to stand down before speaking to the boy. He apologized for his soldier's words and asked he released him.

The boy considered this all the while he was still squeezing out the life of the soldier. He began to mumble about how much Pride wanted this. He finally let go when the captain reminded him that the King said attacked only if provoked and while the boy had been challenged he obviously had won and that should be enough. Unless he sought to use this incident as an excuse to go against his King's wishes. As the soldier hit the ground trying to get air back in his lungs, the boy gave the captain a red-eyed glare that he described belong to a demon straight of out of hell. The boy left without a word, the captain informed King Helson of the encounter and made one additional comment. While the boy was choking the soldier, his face lit up in glee and fascination as he watched the soldier squirm. If it wasn't for his loyalty to his King, the captain had the feeling they would've been slaughtered by the boy.

When asked for a description, the captain only said brown hair, tan skin, and deviled red eyes. That's all I have in regards to Blackdust, I wish I could be of more help. The only thing I could advise you is to be careful when you deal with them, they are very ruthless and their warriors are a force to not be trifled with. Especially the boy because of all the warriors from Blackdust they had far more fairer skin than he, and red eyes like his are one of a kind.

I look forward to the Winter Gathering,

Your ally always, King Frederick of Corona.

Elsa had reread the letter a few times trying to imagine the kind of scene the boy mentioned created. It actually reminded her of the report she received about Edward and the two men that attacked him and Kristoff. The timeline also matched up, the young man didn't seem that much older than her and if he was indeed the boy mentioned, two men wouldn't take that long to dispose of if he could do the same to a hundred. Edward, however, said that wasn't his doing so perhaps he lied, that only served to increase her suspicion of him.

But he doesn't have red eyes though

That was true, his eyes were a dull blue and hardly seemed like they belonged to a demon. Perhaps it was someone else from Blackdust, she could always ask King Helson to send anyone who had seen the boy and let them meet Edward to see if they recognized him. That was, of course, assuming the brown-haired man would stay that long, he said that he would only stay until he gathered enough money for a ship to Blackdust.

Then go somewhere he could be alone.

The Queen of Arendelle had no time to dwell on a foreigner's affairs especially one who wanted to leave as soon as possible. Elsa however, couldn't help but remember the somber expression he had on his face when he said he wanted to be alone. Seeing it on someone else's face pulled on her heartstrings and she couldn't help wanting to help him through whatever he was going through.

When she first laid eyes on him, he seemed to be a rough character when he was injured. However now that he was cleaned up, she could see that he was pretty handsome to look at. His body filled out the clothes she had given him in a more fit way than the bulky exterior Kristoff processed. He was well mannered and got along with Anna right away. She supposed that it could've been all a trick to get them to lower their guard down, however his desire to earn money was genuine.

Part of her wanted to probe him for as much information on Blackdust as possible but another part of her was intrigued and wanted to learn more about him. Thank goodness Anna couldn't read minds, if she could hear all the thoughts swirling around her head about Edward, then she would come up with the ridiculous idea that she was falling for him.

Completely ridiculous….right?

Meanwhile, in the mountains, the guard patrol was in a prone position, keeping out of sight of the cave that had three bandits patrolling the outside. The trail they had followed brought them up to the mountain and through some deep woods. When they could see the bandits patrolling, the guards decided to send the two of them back to Arendelle to report to the Queen while the other six remained.

The sergeant in charge of the remaining six signaled them to retreat back quietly so they could discuss their next move. They all climbed further down the mountain and into a cavern before covering their tracks and the entrance with snow. Once they were properly hidden, the sergeant began to speak to his men.

"Alright listen up, we might've found their camp, it will take a few hours for those two to reach the Queen and relay our position. Until then, we remain hidden. If they do not return by noon tomorrow we shall all return to Arendelle, if the bandit force is as big as we predicted then it will take time for them to move if they see the royal guard approaching. Even more, time to cover their tracks effectively, so for now we'll rest and take watch shifts. Private Paduk, you and I will go outside and hide under the snow, bring blankets so we can stay undetected."

Paduk's face nodded before widening in fear and pointed toward behind the sergeant. The man turned around to see someone was beginning to dig through the snow they piled up to cover the entrance. The rest of the guards began to scramble for their weapons while the sergeant put a finger to his lips to signal them to be quiet. Slowly he walked to the side of the cavern near the entrance and pulled out his pistol, he signaled his men to get into a firing line as they all waited for their sergeant to give his command to attack.

He could hear voices as they began to dig and could easily tell the bandits had followed them. Judging from the sounds, it seemed there may have been four of them, but with them so close to the bandit hideout he couldn't risk a fight. So whenever that first bandit got through the snow he would fire first and let his men fire through the snow. Then they would have to run before the bandits could catch up to them. It wasn't the greatest plan but they now knew where they were and that was all he was tasked to do by Captain Stonewell.

A few tense seconds passed as they waited, when a hand broke through the snow and the bandit's head peaked in, he didn't notice the pistol pointed at his temple.