Elsa was lying facedown in the snow, and each hot, panicked breath sucked the cold liquid into her mouth. Briefly, she wondered if she was going to drown in the snowbank. Each gasp and cough sent a shrieking pain through her back. I'm going to die, she thought helplessly. Her neck craned in an effort to lift her face from the semi-thawed puddle. Her fingers clawed at the hard-packed snow around her. She couldn't move. Hot red blood ran over her ribs and down her spine. She let out a choked, hitched scream. Anna! Help, she pleaded in her mind. She tried weakly to pull herself somewhere, anywhere - it didn't matter that she couldn't remember where she was, she just knew she had to get away. The pain was blinding and someone was screaming. As Queen Elsa felt her mind slipping away, she realized dully that she had created a grotesque crimson snow angel. Her head jolted against the cold ground and her limbs became lead.
Elsa!" Anna peered around the opened door to her sister's bedroom. She stopped short. The bed was made and had an air of emptiness, as if the room had been abandoned hours before. Anna dropped her head to the door hinge, feeling a dull disappointment. Lately, Elsa had taken to morning walks around the nearby foothills with a small patrol. She knew Elsa did this to calm her nerves; one time the queen had confessed to Anna, "I feel like I'm under a great thumb. I can't say 'yes' or 'no' without someone having something to say about it." Anna stepped back, trying to swallow her dejection. I'll ask Kristoff if I can come on an ice delivery run. I need something to do, anyway. She found herself smiling at the thought, and trotted off, her signature braids bouncing in the air.
Anna sat curled in a rough brown blanket next to Kristoff. He had a hand on Sven's reigns and the other was curled around his girlfriend's shoulders. Her head rested on his shoulder and she held a cup of hot chocolate in her mittened hands. The new sled Anna had given Kristoff sliced through the snow easily and with grace. She looked away from the path they were taking and admired the beauty that winter brought to the land. It was beautiful in its own regard - Elsa's artificial winters had a perfected, sculpted harshness, while this natural winter was beautiful in its rawness. Her eyes roamed the snowbanks. That's when she saw it among the roots of a tree. A green swatch of fabric rippling in the cold air.
"Wait! Stop!" she shrieked, throwing an arm over Kristoff's chest. He jumped at the noise and yanked on the reigns, his eyes wide as saucers.
"What? What is it?" he asked. But Anna had already wormed her way out of the brown cocoon and was running after the piece of clothing. Once she was close, she stomped on it and leaned down for examination. Blood splattered the corner of the rough-cut fabric. The color was the same as the Arendelle guards' uniforms and it was soft, too expensive to be anything but royally bought.
"Oh, no," she breathed. Her head whipped up and she dashed forward, certain something was amiss. Her boots kicked up snow and she heard Kristoff faintly running after her and calling her name. Her brain was on autopilot; it was as if some instinct was already aware what had taken place. Sparse drops of blood pointed her in the right direction. Suddenly the drops became as wide as a hand. A steaming brackish scent hit her nostrils and made her gag. Anna knew what she would find before she saw it.
A detached gloved arm poked through a half-melted snow mound. A few paces away lay a haphazard body covered in frozen blood. The guard's eyes stared into oblivion. Anna slapped her hand to her mouth. "Oh my God, oh my God," she muttered rapidly. A few yards away lay another green-clad body.
A whooshing sensation spread through Anna's head to her fingertips and the breath was wrenched from her lungs when she realized, "Elsa."
"Elsa!" she called in a quavering voice. She grabbed at her skirt and began running, the strewn bodies of the guards leading her like a macabre breadcrumb trail. She skidded to a halt upon seeing the rigid form of her sister against a backdrop of crimson. Anna felt as light as a feather, and she wondered dazedly why she wasn't floating away. She took a halting step, forcing her body into motion. Her sister was facedown in the snow, blood pooling between her shoulder blades. "Oh, God." Anna kneeled next to her, her hands hovering over the blonde's powerful frame. "Elsa, Elsa, please...Please don't be dead. Please."
"Kristoff! Help!" Anna cried as she shook Elsa's shoulders. Tears were starting to form in her eyes, and the bitter wind burned the tips of her lids as she brushed the water away. A faint moan came from below her, so small Anna couldn't determine if it was the wind or not. She rolled Elsa to her back and the motion pulled the queen's limp arm over her torso. The following seconds, as she waited for a response, were the longest of her life. Finally, a puff of steam escaped Elsa's mouth and she opened her unfocused, bleary eyes. A breath rattled through her chest like an old bell.
"Oh, Elsa!" She put a hand on her sister's arm, and pulled it away, shocked. Even through her mittens she could feel her sister's icy temperature. A common thought among the townspeople was that the queen's skin was cold, to match her personality and her powers. But Anna knew this wasn't true. Since the Great Thaw, she and her sister had patched their relationship up well. It wasn't uncommon now to see the sisters casually touching. Anna knew Elsa was supposed to be warm to the touch.
"Elsa, your skin - you're freezing!" Anna put her mittens to Elsa's cheeks. Her heart skittered and her voice cracked. "Kristoff! Hurry!" The sound of laborious panting met her ears, but she turned back toward Elsa, feeling her shuddering under her hands.
Elsa managed to weakly grasp Anna's sleeve. "Help me," she pleaded in a hoarse voice. Her eyes were filled with fear. She let out a choking sound, her face contorting in pain. Her hand dropped like a deadweight and her head lolled to the side, though her body spasmed. Before Anna could even react, the queen's hair changed. It started at the roots and spread quickly to the tail of her braid with a sound like twigs snapping. Now, her hair, which had previously been the color of snow, was a mahogany-brown color, like their mother's. Simultaneously, Elsa's ice dress dissolved to water, landing with a muted splash.
"Anna, what is it? Oh!" Kritoff tripped over his feet and placed a hand before his field of vision upon seeing the queen's naked form.
"She's alive. Kristoff, go get the blanket from the sled!"
Through a low buzz in her head, Anna heard him run away. She rigidly held onto her sister's hands and felt her mind going numb. Please... Kristoff returned with the rough fabric, which Anna snatched from his arms and wrapped around her sister's body. She struggled to lift the queen, her arms shaking from a mix of fear and adrenaline, but Kristoff took her from Anna's grip. He held her delicately under her knees and shoulders. Anna sprinted behind him to the sled, noticing with a sinking stomach that Elsa's head was bouncing up and down with his strides.
Once at the sled, Kristoff dropped Elsa into Anna's lap.
"Go, Sven!"
The cold wind cut into Anna's frame and she couldn't help but think how much worse it was for Elsa. Despite the blanket, Elsa's skin was stone-cold. Her lips were tinged a faint blue and her cheekbones had sharpened. Anna shifted Elsa so her face was in the crook of the younger sister's neck, and she applied pressure to her back. Already, she could feel a wetness seeping through the burlap blanket. As they went over roots and stones, the queen's sharp chin would jut into Anna's collarbone, but she only clutched her tighter. Give me any pain, Elsa, as long as you're still around to cause it. Just. Don't. Leave. Me.
The guards had noticed the fast-approaching sled and the panic with which it was driven. The door to the palace had been opened as soon as they'd seen Princess Anna, clutching a bundle swathed in red. Sven screeched to a halt just inches from the door and Anna outstretched a hand as the sled skidded to a stop. Kristoff was already by her side, ready to take Elsa from Anna's arms - he'd jumped from the sled before it had even come to a stop. Kristoff carried Elsa up the stairs to her chambers, skipping steps in his haste. Anna ran beside him, holding her wetted skirt in a fist. Gerda, Kai, and the court physician followed behind. Kristoff pushed through the door to Elsa's chambers and laid her softly on the bed, but before his hands had even left her, the court physician was pushing him out the door. Elsa's door slammed shut with Kristoff and the other servants on one side, Elsa, Anna, and the physician on the other.
"What happened?" the physician barked as he unwound the burlap blanket from the queen's form.
"I- I don't know- the guards were dead- she's bleeding-" Anna stammered.
The physician flipped Elsa to her side and placed her bed sheet modestly around her naked form. He reached into a pocket and retrieved a bundle of cloth, which he used to wipe the blood from her back. As he continued, it became clear from his expression that something was awry. Anna worked her hands over and over as she saw the physician furrow his brows. "What is it? What's wrong?"
He glanced from Elsa's form to Anna and back again. "Her wound has healed. I don't know how, but..."
"Healed?" Anna asked incredulously. She crossed her arms and held them close to her body. The motion sent a stream of red droplets from her sleeves. She grimaced and gave the physician a pointed look.
The old man held up hand. "Come. Look." The physician made room for Anna and pointed at Elsa's back. He was right. The wound had turned into a scar already; a sloppy circle with thick, wavy lines reaching all the way to her shoulders and down to her lower ribs.
"I don't understand..." Anna trailed off. "What could create scar like that?"
The physician shook his head. "I've seen hundreds of wounds from all sorts of instruments. I've seen injuries from maces, katanas, swords; burn marks, broken bones- you name it. But I've never seen anything like this." He looked up at Anna and proceeded hesitatingly, "I have a suspicion... It is not backed by any evidence, but.."
"Go on," Anna insisted.
The physician set his lips into a hard line before opening them again to speak. "There's a few things we need to take into account here, Princess Anna. The first thing is that I have never seen anything like this before. It's not a natural wound, if you understand what I am getting at." He raised his eyebrows. "I hate to suggest it, but I'm thinking this is an attack of the magical kind."
"Magical? You mean like Elsa's powers?"
"Perhaps," he conceded. "I'm just going off of the information I have... This is too perfectly shaped of a wound to be a multitude of scrapes from a sword, and the healing time is remarkable. Nothing on this natural earth heals as quickly as this." He gesticulated to the unconscious queen. "And one other thing... Her hair. It's brown."
Anna nodded.
"It's odd. What would cause her hair to change color? Your hair turned white when Elsa struck you all those months ago. An act of magic made your exterior change. Why would the same not apply to her?"
Anna let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding in. "What do we do?"
The physician shook his head. "I'm afraid, in this case, I'm going to be of no help. I have no information to give you."
"Well, she's going to be okay, right?" she asked in an accusing voice.
"I... I really don't know, Miss. I'm so sorry... I believe- I hope - she will wake."
Anna pressed a hand to her mouth and dragged it down her chin before letting it fall. "Thank you. You may go," she said without emotion.
"M'lady" he said. He bowed and ambled out of the room. Anna pressed a hand to her collarbone and gazed at the door before retrieving Kristoff.
"Is she-?"
Anna just stepped back and let him enter. She brought a chair next to the bed and fell into it, her strength suddenly diminishing. Kristoff took a moment to look at the queen. Her frame seemed gaunt, her eyes hollowed out and purplish from loss of blood.
Anna reached for Elsa's cold hand and rubbed it between hers. "The physician thinks she was attacked by someone with magic. I- I don't know what's going to happen- if she's going to be okay." She sighed and pulled her sister's hand to her forehead as she hunched over her knees. "Kristoff…She's so cold." She bit her lip until it turned white. "It's so strange. Her hair is different too, and the physician said her back had healed on its own. I don't understand it." She dropped Elsa's hand back onto the bed and stood up in a flash. "I hate not understanding!" She kicked a nearby dresser with her boot, rattling its contents.
"Hey, hey." Kristoff walked over and pulled Anna's shaking body into his arms. "Hey. Elsa will be fine. She's too stubborn to be anything but fine." He touched Anna on both sides of her face, just under her ears, and contoured her neck. His hands were so large. Anna's lips were quivering, so he stilled them with a kiss. "Everything will be fine." He pressed his forehead against hers, and she breathed in his musky scent. Kristoff lightly pushed his girlfriend into her original chair, then pulled one up next to her. He laced his fingers with hers, and Anna reached out her other hand to lace her fingers in Elsa's.