

Frozen Fandom Month



Frozen AU’s Week

Historical AU Medieval

This AU-verse haunts me for some time. It is not strictly medieval but rather fantasy medieval (blame Elsa and her magic), alternate Earth before the age of great discoveries, and there are Amazons, living happily in isolation from the rest of the world on a small continent or big island far south (or north). But winter is coming, I mean a small ice age, and they start to travel in search of a new place to live. Here is a glimpse of this world.



Non-related Elsanna

Elsa is much more confident here, she has her powers and this is kept a secret (because, surprise, people with magic are considered monsters and killed on the spot), but she had total support of her family and was trained to use her magic from a very young age. She belongs to a merchant family married into nobility. But this is another story.

Anna belongs to Amazons.



There is Hans.

The moment Elsa laid her eyes on prince Hans, she detested him strongly. When he asked her to dance during an annual ball and kissed her hand she almost froze his lips. Good for them both she had her gloves on and it stopped frost from spreading. The man was good looking, intelligent and charming, but there was something in the way he carried himself that had all bells and whistles ringing in her head.



So when her father told her that Hans asked him for a permission to court her and it was granted, she was not a happy woman.



“Be nice to him, at least at the beginning, please?” Agdar looked at her pleadingly.



“Do I have to?” Elsa made her best puppy face that usually got her what she wanted.



But her father smiled this apologetic smile she knew so well.



“We make a lot of business with Southern Isles, it could be bad for us to plainly tell him no. Better if he gets uninterested by himself. You are very good at scaring suitors away.”



And she was.



So when prince Hans suggested a meeting, a stroll perhaps, she told him smiling sweetly that he could join her for her morning ride. As every day she would leave her family castle before the sunrise.



She hoped he wouldn’t come, the castle being hidden in coastal forest far from the city, but he did. Well, being a thirteen in line to a throne can make anyone desperate. And she was a daughter of the richest man in the kingdom. Actually kingdoms, she corrected herself.



So here they were, riding slowly along a seashore, four sleepy guards - two his and two hers as custom required - trailing behind.



Her mare was trying to bite Hans’ horse and Elsa didn’t stop her, this way the prince couldn’t get too close. The man did his best to maintain a conversation, but Elsa wasn’t helping, pretending that she was busy with admiring the ocean.



They cleared a sandy dune that obscured the view ahead and ran into a group of people. People that shouldn’t be there, she was sure.



There were about thirty of them, scattered on a beach, obviously on their way from a forest to a big, long boat awaiting in shallow waters, with fancy ornaments and strangely shaped sails Elsa had not seen before.



They had to arrive at night, otherwise a watch from castle’s towers would notice them and raise alarm. Or maybe not - with nothing for miles but forest and rather intimidating castle guards were sometimes too careless.



Both parties stopped suddenly, surprised at other presence. Prince Hans, the real knight he was, moved his horse a little forward, between Elsa and supposed danger and drew his sword.



“Protect lady Elsa at any costs.” He shouted to guards behind them. Guards obediently reached for their swords, but stayed behind.



With the sun rising in front of therm and shining straight in their faces it was hard to see details, but Elsa was sure there was something off about these people.



Elsa moved her horse forward so Hans would not obscure her view and squinted her eyes to see better. All newcomers were armed with bows and short swords, wore leather armor and kept their hair long. None reached for their weapons when Hans threatened them with his. Correction: none but a few people already on the boat, their bows drew and arrows aimed at Elsa’s group.



Then it hit her.



They all were women.



Elsa haven’t seen a warrior woman before. In her world only men could be knights. Of course there were legends about only-women tribes living in faraway lands, but they were just that, a fantasy stories told folks for entertainment and delight and Elsa treated them the same way she treated stories about dragons, cyclops, trolls, unicorns and griffins (but not about sorcerers) – as a fairy tales.



But it seemed that the legend came to life in front of her eyes.



Two groups observed each other warily, estimating their chances if there was a fight. After a long moment of stillness a very young woman with freckled face and red hair plaited in two simple braids, unbuckled her belt with a sword and handed it along with her bow to her comrade. Then she raised her empty hands, inside of her palms directed toward Elsa and started to slowly approach.



“Stay where you are.” Hans warned and pointed his sword at the girl.



His attitude irked Elsa. “Prince Hans,” she said with as dignified and commanding voice as she managed, “these people want to talk. Let them.”



Hans huffed, but withdrew his sword.



The girl grinned widely and Elsa impulsively smiled back.



“Hi.” The woman warrior stopped in front of Elsa’s horse. And looked straight at Elsa, ostentatiously ignoring Hans. She was still grinning, and her sunny attitude was contagious.



“Hi. Who are you?” Esa asked in gentle tone.



The girl’s face sobered. “I don’t understand.” She said with difficulty, her accent heavy.



“Oh.” Elsa frowned. It could be a problem. Or maybe not. Maybe now all the time she spent studying would pay off. To know languages of nations a merchant have business with was critical. While she didn’t travel around the world like her twin brother, she took care of all the paperwork, correspondence included. She considered herself a polyglot. So she carefully said a greeting in a language most popular among merchants.



The redhead shook her head sadly.



Elsa tried again with a different, less popular language. She got the same result. But she wasn’t done yet, still a few languages to go.



She was successful at a fifth try.



The girl’s face brightened. “I understand.” She said slowly, a wide grin back. Elsa sighed with wonder. Who knew that a language of steppe nomads who lived inland and never saw a sea would work.



“Hello again then. Who are you?” She asked, very curious to know something, anything about these strange women. But the answer was disappointing.



“Just travellers who got lost at the sea. We mean no harm. We are just leaving.” The girl absentmindedly reached out and scratched mare’s nose. Elsa expected her horse to snap at the stranger, but the animal famous for her dislike of anything that wasn’t her mistress, didn’t move. That was something new.



“If I tell you who I am, will you tell me who you are?” Elsa tried another approach.



The girl shrugged. “I know who you are. You are magic.”



Elsa froze. Her powers were a secret, carefully hidden from the rest of the world. Nobody knew about it but her family, yet this strange girl she met accidentally somehow knew. And behaved like it was not a big deal. Elsa discreetly glanced at Hans, but as much as he looked annoyed, he seemed oblivious to the revelation.



“How do you know?” She managed to ask, her voice unnaturally high from fear and excitement. Maybe it meant that she wasn’t the only one with magic in the world, that somewhere out there were more people like her.



The redhead smiled and pointed at Elsa’s head. “Your hair.”



“You can tell this just by looking at my hair?” Elsa involuntarily touched her braid. Everybody in her family was blonde, so her hair being of lighter shade was considered a normal occurrence, nothing suspicious.



The girl nodded and smiled warmly. “My sister is like you.”



Elsa sharply breathed in. So it was true! There were more people like her! The euphoria flooded through her in sudden rush. She had so many questions. She needed to know!



But the very moment she opened her mouth to speak, Hans decided that he had enough watching. He moved swiftly, his sword aimed again at the girl’s throat. “Your chat gets us nowhere my lady. Let’s end this farce.” He told Elsa, his voice forceful.



Elsa wanted to kill him. She was so close to find out about the biggest secret and most important thing in her life and he was preventing it. She wanted to freeze his heart and his head, she wanted to freeze all of him and let his frozen form shatter into million pieces. But she couldn’t act on her desires. So instead she looked at him with her cold, blue eyes and asked as politely as she managed, “End how, sir? By having us killed? Unless you can stop arrows midair.” She discreetly gestured toward the boat.



Hans frowned. She almost could feel him calculating the risk. He was a skilled swordsman, had advantage of a horse and four trained guards covering his back, but still it was six to one and they had bows and he didn’t wear his armor. And the lady whose heart he hoped to win obviously didn’t want a fight.



“Let the girl go.” Elsa continued, her voice hushed from tension. “These people are leaving. You let her go and nobody is hurt.” She couldn’t let Hans hurt this girl and she couldn’t let him know what these people knew about her. Keeping a secret was more important than her finding more about herself. This could wait. The knowledge that there were somewhere people like her had to be enough for now.



Hans hesitantly backed off.



“Go.” Elsa ordered the woman. Surprisingly, she obeyed. She ran back to her comrades, but then turned around and waved her hand at Elsa. “My name is Anna!” She shouted before the whole group went to the boat.



And then they were gone, the long boat powered by wind and two dozens of oars receding fast.



Only then Hans sheathed his sword. “We should go back.” He stated, urgency strong in his voice.



Elsa agreed wholeheartedly, she felt too shaken to stand his company anymore and she needed to be alone to think. But she couldn’t let Hans, or anybody else, get to these women. If they went back now and told what happened, the chase would be sent and the strange boat could be overtaken. These women would be brought back and investigated. Or they would die while defending themselves. Elsa would not allow for these things to happen. These women needed time to sail far enough to be out of reach. And she would give them this time, no matter costs.



“Oh my,” she sighed dramatically, “I had no idea that my company was so unpleasant for you to use irrelevant incident with barbarians as an excuse to leave my presence.”



Hans looked at her as if he wanted to argue, but suddenly changed his mind and smiled pleasantly. “The opposite, my lady, your person arouse feelings that I didn’t experience for a long time. Forgive me if my behavior seemed harsh, I only had in mind your safety.”



She felt a chill go through her body at his words, but she smiled and nodded her head. “Come on then, prince.” She tried to make her voice as cheery as her usual cold demeanor allowed to not make it obviously faked. “There is this nice bay ahead I want to show you.” She would think about the mysterious Anna girl later. Much later. Now was time for pretending. She was good at it.



