Cold Hands [ Elsamaren ]

12 - Castle

A/N: You all need some fluff before the shit that's about come your way soon. It's short but sweet, I'm about to be teasing all of you this chapter ._.

You could almost feel the upcoming dread in the air. The sky was grey, cloudy and it seemed that rain was upon them in the far distance.

They had been travelling all day, with a few to no stops. A handful of the Arendelle soldiers could be heard groaning about their aching feet and tired shoulders. Compared to the Northuldra, it seemed they were completely fine with continuing, however, probably because most of them were on reindeer.

It was like a perfectly timed heaven when Elsa's castle then came into view, a few people immediately sighed at the sight of the halfway stop.

Elsa gripped her reindeer's reins tightly and leaned over to Honeymaren, who rode next to her on her own separate reindeer. "Riding on something other than the Water Nokk feels strange, but I'm not going to lie I was getting attached to this little buddy." The animal under her looked up at her with a small smile, almost as if they understood every word and were appreciative.

"Yeah, and riding on your water horse for me was freaking terrifying! A liquid horse for crying out  loud, you ride a liquid ice horse!"

The two girls giggled as Elsa began riding more quickly towards the front. She needed to be the first one to open the door first as Marshmallow wasn't exactly the most friendly towards strangers. But as they started getting higher and higher, strange things began to appear on the ground.

Silence overtook them when it was first noticed, the darkness.

The grass was grey, and the snow looked more like ash. It reminded the two Arendelle sisters of the Nattmara outbreak, but twice as worse.

"Anna, are you seeing this? Everything around here is just.... dead and black." Elsa whispered in her sister's direction as she approached the front, her brows furrowed in concern. Honeymaren trailed behind them, looking at the evil mountains around her with awe, her mouth slightly gaped open.

"Yeah I'm seeing this, I'm pretty sure everyone is by the looks of it. This is bad, but why hasn't it affected the castle?"

"Maybe because Elsa is the Fifth Spirit, she's balanced, pure and her ice can fight back this evil magic." Honeymaren butted in, deciding to ride beside the two siblings.

Anna nodded in agreement, slowing to a stop at the sight of all too familiar ice stairs.

The redheaded queen jumped off her reindeer and walked over to Kristoff, interlocking her arm with his. "Everyone, the reindeer are going to be tied down here for a night as they can't climb up the stairs. Trust me, we've already tried. Also, do NOT touch the infected plants. We don't know the effects that may occur." Anna refrained a giggle at the memory of Sven slipping and sliding around on the perfectly structured ice like a careless toddler.  

The crowd all hummed their own responses and headed single file up the stairs, lead by Elsa who was already at the top with Honeymaren and Olaf.

When the last of the Northuldra tied up their reindeer, sneaking in a few carrots simultaneously, Anna led them to the bottom of the entrance, that was already too full to fit more people.

Giving her powerful sister a small nod, Elsa took the hint and knocked an all too familiar tune on the door, making a misty aura overcome every one.

After a few seconds of nothingness, the door creaked open with a slight screech, the perfectly sculpted ice not even scratching from the content.

"Who goes there?" It was Marshmallow, his cautious tone boomed over the land as he spoke. Everyone seemed to gulp simultaneously out of fear, apart from Olaf, Elsa, Anna and Kristoff of course.