✔𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐳𝐞𝐧 𝐈𝐈𝐈: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈

Chapter 87: When Fire Is Needed (EP. 02)

Blanket, Elsa thought in need, I need the blanket.

It was strange to see an unnerving sight. Usually the strong morning breeze from the open windows would not even bother her, but her thoughts has been cut short once her steps became shaky towards her winter coat on the nearby table. She once thought it was ridiculous to buy the clothing last week, but Anna had insisted that she would not want her sister to catch a chill.

But everyone in Arendelle knows fully well that their queen barely feels a shiver.

Today is very, very peculiar indeed.

Her knees buckled finally, her trembling hands failing to snatch the winter coat. What is wrong with you, Elsa? She huffed, You've just been sitting behind your desk all day and this happens.

She stood up from where she fell, sighing in embarrassment. Maybe a nice walk would do me well. Hours of sitting might be the cause.

She dragged the wintercoat with her, but the cold refused to leave her skin.  Grunting, she turned her heels and walked to the garden entrance, the wintercoat draping around her shoulders.

The aroma of freshly watered bushes and flower beds roamed the garden, bringing a small smile upon her face. The grass beneath her heels were obviously just recently trimmed. She made a mental note to thank sir Johannes later.

Her eyes widened once a sudden pain hits her chest, her neck feeling like it's being strangled since her breaths became more shallow and rushed; an ice cold stiffness growing from her fingertips.

It was a very familiar sensation.

Her numb legs gave up— while her consciousness began to disappear. She fell steadily on the grass, her hands going up to her chest since it was the spot that hurts the most.

Like something is suffocating it.

A-aiden.. Anna..
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"Please, tell me, where is my wife!" Aiden interrogated the tense head butler, his shaking hands tightening around Kai's sides. His hair is tousled messily, the evidence of panic and disorder.

Kai heavily breathed once he witnessed the fire king catch a glimpse of Kristoff holding an unconscious Elsa, but the prince consort's movements were too quick for Aiden's liking. Anna was not too far in tow after her husband, worry evident in her eyes.

But Aiden never failed to see the mittens worn on the ice master's hands.

"Anna! What's going on?!"

"It's Elsa!" Anna panted, "She was found unconscious in the gardens!"

Aiden dumped the mitten related question aside and followed where his sister in law went, and his mind kept giving him the most craziest conclusions of what could have happened to his wife.

"Elsa!" He called breathily, taking her motionless figure in his arms once what seemed like the entire castle staff made path for him.

The sharp feeling of ice biting into his skin made him release her unexpectedly.

The small pattern of frost slowly melted from his palms.

"Mama, papa," Anna breathed, her arms taking both of her parents in the room. Iduna ran up to her daughter's side and winced once the icy texture rubbed her elbow. She quickly retreated her arm from the unconscious queen and returned to Agnarr's side.

"Baby, baby wake up!" Aiden pleaded, trying to get her to regain her consciousness.

But his gestures helped none. Patterns of snowflakes now etched her cheeks; frost beginning to cover her hands. A visible, cold breath escaped the ice queen's lips— that only reminded the fire king what it's like to speak in winter.

"Something's wrong with her." Anna whispered with pain stricken tears, "Horribly."

"Please, Kristoff, prepare your sled." Agnarr firmly ordered.

"Agnarr, why? Your daughter isn't in the state to travel. Nevertheless outside. The citizens might panick."

"We must, Iduna. We're heading up north."
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"King Aiden."

The elder troll locked eyes with the king himself, but it broke contact once he noticed the secured figure of the ice queen in his arms, her eyes now half open as she fought the darkness trying to tame her.

But it was too obvious she was struggling.

"Pabbie... Please.."

He was too desperate.

But the elder troll knew that it was all care.

The elder troll had sensed the love blooming from each speck of the fire king's body; in fact, it was the kind of love that he had never sensed before.  It was too passion personified. It was just like fire; too inflamed, too wild, very much untamed.

Then the ice on Elsa's fingertips could've thawed already.

But the cold still bit onto her skin. The cold soon turned to pain, and Pabbie knew he must face the difficulty of the truth.

The truth used to be the one that needs to be found.

It used to just sting, make you feel so pressured.

But now, the truth simply hurts.

"Aiden.." Pabbie started, "She's in the same state Anna was once in. She... someone froze her heart. Not intentionally, no. Fear will always return like a monster; and this time— it shape shifted to the form of ice itself."

"F-fear?"

"Believe my words, Aiden. A creature.."

The elder troll lifted his pudgy hands and waved it around to summon a black magical figure recognizable made out of sand. Kristoff, Anna, Iduna and Agnarr watched the created figure form into a terrifying shape of a human.

"Born in the dark depths of the Enchanted Forest, once a man who loved. But something terrible happened that changed his life forever. He lost someone who he loved so dearly. He lost his beloved slowly that every passing minute with her were spent with fear."

"And then... after losing her, it swallowed him that made him lose himself, too. And today, he shape shifted into the form of ice. Not the beautiful kind."

"Did something trigger Elsa's fear, Aiden?"

"... Yes. Her nightmare the night before."

"Fear himself must have sensed it. He must have summoned ice so fast to surround her heart— just like a curse. If he knows how to cause it, I am sure he knows the answer on how to lift it.

"Find him, Aiden. You alone. Fear has a weak point, just like what it sounds like. Trigger his own fear; and there, you'll have your answer."

"And beware, Aiden. Time is unkind."
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"Now what?" Anna blankly questioned.

"Simple. I will venture to the dark side of the Enchanted Forest—"

"Nobody else goes there, Aiden. When you see doom it's there and it's not going to avoid you!" Agnarr warned.

"My wife's life depends on this. If tomorrow is the last day I'll live just to uplift the curse addressed upon her, then what a worthy day it is for my death. Please, all of you. Keep her safe. Keep her warm."

Aiden finally got the courage to shift closer to his wife with intense sorrow in his eyes, a tear escaping from his right one.

He gazed at her deeply; counting the snowflakes forming on her cheeks. But he was taken aback once Elsa managed to move her stiff arm, her now cold blue lips pursing in sadness.

Aiden sobbed and cupped her cheek in his warm hand.

"Please. Tell me something— anything. That can serve as firm proof that once I leave, I won't lose you."

He received a struggled smile.

And Hercules himself cannot beat the strength charged upon him.

Her smile's enough.

She's enough.

He'll just have to cope for a little while.