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The Girl and the Ice Queen

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Epilogue

It was about a week or two later when rumours started spreading about the Ice Queen's absence. They ranged from mildly amusing to outright implausible. Walk into a tavern and you'd undoubtedly hear five different drunks each claiming to have ascended the mountain alone and driven her away in single combat. Walk into the Academy's library and there'd be some neophyte in the corner claiming to have found her living as a hermit deep into the Arendelle wilderness, and to be her secret apprentice.

Anna for her part kept to herself, staying indoors more often than not. She occupied her time with more writing. More and more writing. She adapted her experiences with Elsa into a tale about a woman whom the world had unjustly thrust the role of villainess onto. Anna took a few creative liberties with her story, imagining up a new ending where the woman ultimately redeemed herself by sacrificing her life to save that of an innocent girl who had befriended her. This ending was met with raised eyebrows all around by Anna's close friend and cousin, but was praised highly by the professors. She'd eventually go on to graduate with distinction as a full-fledged bard, something that profoundly surprised those that knew her previously.

Over a decade later.

1:28 PM. Bard's Guild.

A young man was standing outside his guildmaster's office. He was fidgeting nervously. He'd submitted his draft thesis couple days ago for review and was just coming in now to hear the response.

"Come in, have a seat," came a voice.

The apprentice shuffled his way into the office. On the desk was the booklet he'd originally submitted. "Okay, let's start from the beginning," the guildmaster began. "So, you're wanting to go investigate that fishing village on the east coast rumoured to be housing a cult, yeah?"

The young man nodded.

"Are you sure that's safe?"

"I've heard that it takes a questionable amount of sanity to make it as a bard." The young man grinned.

"If you say so," the guildmaster chuckled. "Anyhow, there's a couple other things in here that we should go over first. Well, a lot of things, actually…"

The young man mentally groaned. The guildmaster had made so many comments and suggested so many possible revisions over the span of 30 minutes to the point where his original booklet was now covered almost entirely with red ink. From a distance the thing looked as though a young infant had taken a marker to it, and the worse part was that each little suggestion was one he'd ultimately have to consider and address.

"…I'm not so sure about infiltration to be honest," the guildmaster continued, jotting down another annotation. "Or if you really want to do that, then you'd definitely have to scope the place out really well beforehand. The last thing we want is a brainwashing…"

The young man, in a bit of a daze, began to stare out the window. He noticed an odd-looking snow owl perched on the windowsill and absentmindedly pointed it out to the guildmaster, whose entire demeanor changed upon seeing it. As in, she frantically ended the session on the spot, rescheduled for a later date, and then leapt out the window as if her life depended on it. The young man watched dumbfounded as she chased the owl into the nearby forest.

Hmm.

Next he saw her, she was a completely changed woman. Much happier than ever before. The poorly hidden hickies on her neck probably had something to do with that.

Thanks everyone. See you later.