The trail was still fresh, the elk having passed this way only moments before. The Hunter crouched, eyes closed, feeling the direction of the breeze and listening for the sound of movement through the undergrowth.

There.

She smiled, picking up her bow and carefully creeping east, staying downwind of the elk and trying to move as silently as possible so as not to spook him. He'd been a beautiful buck, with an impressive rack of antlers. His hide and meat would keep her family fed and she could even sell some down in the city to purchase supplies that she couldn't easily produce herself.

She didn't much like going down there, though she'd attended both the coronation of Queen Elsa and Queen Anna. The latter went off without any problems, much to her relief, but she still got nervous when winter came.

Slowly, slowly she got into position, drawing an arrow and knocking her bow. The elk's head snapped up and they stared at each other for a long moment. Then the elk bolted and the hunter punched her fist into the tree.

Slowly, as slowly as she'd tried to hunt her prey, she slid down against a log, leaned back and closed her eyes.

?

Anna hated lutefisk. She hated the taste and the smell and most of all she hated the texture. It wasn't so bad depending on the fish, but Arendelle overwhelmingly used cod which was naturally the worst smelling option.

There were eight booths set up in the town square, each vying for the best prepared dish. And, as Queen, it was Anna's job to determine the winner when the contest was held in three days time. If she was lucky, one of the booths would prepare it with haddock and that person would be the automatic winner.

She managed to avoid wrinkling her nose in front of anyone, even as she snuck off and darted into the chocolate shop, which was currently upwind of the square.

She sagged against the wall, rubbing her nose, certain that the scent of lutefisk would linger for at least the next six months.

"If I didn't know better," Olaf said, almost materializing at her side. "I'd say you don't like lutefisk."

"Shh!" She put her hand over his mouth, "Shh! Look, it's a thing, okay, people love it, I have to be impartial and stuff."

"I understand," he said. He placed one of his hands over Anna's, staring in seriousness, and speaking like a grizzled war veteran, "I have the same problem with fruitcake."

Anna wasn't too fond of fruitcake, but at least it wasn't lutefisk. She smiled at him, "Thank you, Olaf. I'm glad you understand. But I'm still going to have to taste each entry so I can pick a winner. I don't know how Elsa did it and I swear to God she abdicated just to get out of this."

"I thought she needed to be free and live in the Enchanted Forest so she could be more herself and run naked in the breeze."

"That too." Anna pushed off from the wall and squeezed her nose once more, "Wait, what was that last thing again?"

"Run -"

The door burst open and Kristoff ran into the shop. He closed the door behind him. "Anna! There you are. Don't you just love this festival?"

He held up a little cod-shaped paper hat, and then daintily put it on his head. "How do I look?"

Anna ran her hand down her face. "You look handsome, dear."

Olaf leaned over and in a stage whisper he said, "I think Kristoff loves lutefisk."

He did, and he'd once cooked her some as an act of devotion for her. Considering it took over a week to prepare while one suffered through the smell of it, she supposed that was an act of devotion. And he'd at least had the decency to use haddock.

Did nothing to help the texture, but the smell and taste was better.

"Looking for a treat in particular?"

"Uh…" Anna looked at the chocolates thoughtfully. "I was thinking of sending a couple pieces to Elsa via Galemail as a bribe to get her to come join us for the festival."

"That's a great idea!" Kristoff came over and wrapped an arm around her. Anna almost gagged at the smell of lutefisk on his breath and quickly turned away as though to inspect the chocolate more closely.

"Yeah! I thought so too."

He still had his arm around her, and his breath still smelled like lutefisk."You should check out the gaming area this year. They really outdid themselves with games and contests. That's where I won my hat!"

"It suits you." She carefully extricated herself from her fiance, wanting to avoid hurting his feelings but there was absolutely no way she was going to let him kiss her like this. "Okay."

Anna picked out two pieces of chocolate. "Lets see, I know Elsa will go gaga for these."

"Hey, we should invite Ryder and Honeymaren, too!" Kristoff picked out a couple more pieces of chocolate and held them out. "Only fair to give them their own invitations too, right?"

Lutefisk aside, Anna really did love that man. But he still wasn't going to get a kiss no matter how much he earned it. "That's a great idea! We haven't seen either of them in awhile, have we, and I know you like having someone around to talk reindeer with and Elsa and Honeymaren seem like really good friends now."

"Yeah," Kristoff said, a fond smile on his face. "Ryder is amazing."

Anna squinted, then turned to the shopkeep. "Anyway. I'll take these please? Can you put these two in a little baggie separate from the other two? Elsa will steal them if I send them to her first."

Once she secured the two bags of chocolate and overpaid the man, Anna led Kristoff and Olaf out of the chocolate shop. Most importantly, she stayed upwind of the cooking booths. Now she just had to figure out how to get word to Gale that they wanted to send a letter to Elsa. Usually Gale just kind of showed up.

Anna felt a little bad using the spirit like that, but it was friendly and liked Olaf, and Elsa had assured her six different times that it didn't mind and actually enjoyed passing notes back and forth.

Despite that reassurance, Anna had been thinking of ways to have reliable delivery and postal service between the Enchanted Forest and Arendelle, and for that matter the entire kingdom could benefit from the idea. She was thinking of a relay of horse and reindeer mounted mailpeople…

Alternately, she'd read about work in other countries to set up a system across wires to deliver messages and there was already a standard in development. The trick was running the lines in a way that wouldn't damage Arendelle's natural beauty and resources or tick off the spirits.

"Anna?"

"She's got her thinky face on again," Olaf said.

"Oh, sorry." Anna smiled sheepishly. "Just thinking about how we can keep in contact with Elsa without exploiting a spirit's generosity. A system that benefits the whole kingdom would be best. Obviously. I think we could stand to improve the postal system at least."

Kristoff got a goofy grin on his face. "It's not work time, remember? Write it down and worry about it later."

"Right." She loved Elsa but the last thing she wanted was to pick up her work habits; Elsa had let herself be consumed by work a lot of the time. It was why game night was so important to Anna. She pulled out a little notepad and scribbled down her ideas. While she was at it, she tore out two blank pages to write the invites to the festival. When she was done, she flipped it closed and stuck it back in her pocket. "Done!"

Ducking Kristoff's attempt to put his arm around her and his lutefisk contaminated mouth too close to her own, she looked around for a wind spirit. "Hey Olaf do you have a way to summon Gale?"

"Yeah!" Olaf bounced over, put his sticks in front of his mouth and bellowed, "HEY GALE WHERE ARE YOU!"

"That's not gonna work!" Kristoff shook his head.

A breeze kicked up around Olaf suddenly, leaves whirling around him excitedly. They spun around Kristoff, nearly taking his little hat with them, before fluttering in front of Anna. Anna was glad to see the spirit, despite the unmistakable odor of lutefisk that it had picked up.

"I really appreciate this, Gale." Anna smiled, patting one of the leaves. "I have a couple of letters here with a little present for Elsa and the others. Think you can bring them to her?"

She barely had a chance to get her letters into the chocolate baggies before the spirit whisked them away.

?

There were days that Elsa felt as though she were skipping out on responsibility. It wasn't true, of course; she had a lot of responsibility when it came to the elemental spirits and the wilds, and if she was honest with herself she was still figuring it all out. Ahtohallan, for all the answers it might have, wasn't really a home. The memory of one, perhaps, but not a home. Not like the Forest, or Arendelle. Or Anna.

But there were days where she didn't have much to do but wander around the Forest, and on most days like that, she preferred to learn from the Northuldra. They did allow her to live with them and fifth spirit or no, Elsa would leave if they asked her to. It was hard to believe they were, in fact, her people too. Hers and Anna's.

So she put in her best effort, even if that best effort meant skinning a squirrel. Elsa pursed her lips, looking down at the blood on her hands and the skinning knife. Anna could never know. Olaf could never know.

She looked up at her tutor, a woman named Haladreth about fifteen years her senior with rich brown skin, long dark hair and pretty, olive-colored eyes. "I never stopped to think about how much work went into feeding people before. I mean, I helped bake on occasion, and I'd visit farms and the herders. I once even helped birth a cow! But this is … different."

As Queen, Elsa had needed to know all the basics as to how Arendelle was run. From where food came from to optimal farming techniques to using song to call in the herds, her people had looked to her for guidance and advice. In that respect, being the fifth spirit wasn't much different from being the Queen. And Elsa was putting as much effort into her new role as she had her old one. She wanted to know everything and it wasn't even just a spirity thing; Elsa had always loved learning and she was loving what she was learning.

Applying it first hand was just … quite a bit different from second hand reading and watching others do it.

"I heard you helped with the reindeer this past spring." Haladreth said, reaching over and matter-of-factly correcting Elsa's technique.

"Well, I guess I did, but Ryder and Honeymaren did most of the work." Elsa finished with her squirrel, and Haladreth took it to inspect her work.

"Not bad, but you don't have to be so gentle with it." The woman hung the squirrel up with several more, "I think that's enough of this for today. My wife and I can handle the rest." She fingered a hole in her sleeve. "Next time, I think we need to work on your bow skills a little more."

"Thanks. And, uhm. Sorry." Wincing, Elsa got up, making her way down to the stream to clean up. She really liked Haladreth. Straightforward and a little blunt, but Elsa appreciated that. She was also the first person outside of Maren and Ryder to view her as just another person. The rest of the Northuldra had gotten over the whole spirit thing pretty quickly after that.

At least she hoped they did. Elsa just wanted to be one of her mother's people, as much as she wanted to explore the elemental spirits and the base of her power. She sat back on her haunches, watching the blood wash away from her hands.

The first time she'd tried to skin anything she'd vomited in a spectacularly embarrassing fashion. But Elsa's stomach had gotten stronger as she learned things a Queen never had to worry about and what's more, Elsa had found a growing confidence in her ability to take care of herself.

It was a feeling she liked. Drying her hands, she stood up and smiled at herself, then lifted up the now clean knife. It wasn't a fancy knife, but it was her knife; a gift from Honeymaren. Elsa still hadn't quite figured out a way to thank her, but she supposed helping with the baby reindeer had been a good start.

Sensing a presence behind her, Elsa turned slowly to see Ryder standing there. That was something new that she'd started noticing in recent weeks. An ability to sense when something alive was nearby. Usually people, but sometimes animals. It was almost like she could see the souls within them, like a ghostly white cloud; if she squinted and looked sideways and to the left. Even people had spirits, right?

Ryder grinned at her, one of his hands rubbing the back of his head. "Hey, uh, Elsa. All done with Haladreth?"

"She's a good teacher. I think we'll do some more bow shooting stuff next time."

"Oh. She's a lot stricter when it comes to bow and spear work. Honeymaren still complains about bruises she got when she was ten."

"I'm not afraid of bruises." Elsa flicked the knife dry and then sheated it in her boot in a way that she was sure would have made Kristoff proud.

"Speaking of, I was wondering you might want to…" Ryder stumbled over his words, gave up, then gestured vaguely to the south. "Reindeer. Things."

She raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "I'm free. Is something wrong, or?"

"Nothings wrong! I just…" He shrugged back as Elsa fell into step next to him. "Wanted some help. And to…" He waved his hands, searching for words. "Ask you some questions?"

Oh.

Elsa's spine went rigid and she looked at Ryder out of the corner of her eyes. He looked nervous, his face a little flushed and his gaze was down and pointed at the ground.

Oh no.

How many awkward suitors had she'd had to reject over the past few years? Elsa had lost count but it almost always went the same and she always felt awful about it. But she hadn't at all thought she was ready for it and none of them had really been her type.

At all. "Ryder, I'm really flattered, and you're a nice man who's probably very handsome but-"

"What?" His head snapped up and he stared at her. Realization and horror dawned in his eyes. "No, no no I don't mean, I mean you're nice and everything but I don't like you like that! I just… I just wanted to know what you thought about my sister." He blinked. "You think I'm handsome?"

"Oh thank god. I mean, I'm sure you're handsome, but I don't really look at you like that." Elsa put her hand over her chest. She was just so relieved. It was probably inevitable that someone here might express … interest … but Ryder wasn't on the list. Not that she had a list. Or anything.

"I'm handsome." Ryder puffed out his chest.

Elsa laughed softly and covered her face. "Is there someone you're interested in? I'm probably not the best at that kind of advice but I'll bet Kristoff might have some suggestions."

"Yeah, but that can wait."

Next time she wrote or saw her family, Elsa would bring it up with Kristoff. At the very least, she should learn how to approach relationships herself; someone might actually come to her for advice and she didn't want to lead them astray. "If you're sure."

"So…?"

"So what?"

"What do you think of my sister?"

Honeymaren was kind of a wonderful person, inquisitive, open and accepting, and really brave. Elsa wet her lips, her shoulders lifting in a little shrug. "I like her fine."

"Like who fine?" Honeymaren stepped out from behind a copse of trees, leaning on her spear. Both of her eyebrows were raised and a teasing smile played across her lips.

A snow flurry developed in Elsa's stomach, like always. Which she ignored.

Like always.

"Oh nothing!" Ryder grinned, bounding over to her, "We were on our way to inspect the herd, want to join us?"

"I was headed that way already," She assured him, her eyes darting over to Elsa. "How'd lessons go with Haladreth?"

"Not bad, she said." Elsa started walking again, the siblings on either side of her.

Maren nodded seriously. "High praise indeed."

Ryder leaned his head back, until it was out of view of Elsa's eyes and she couldn't tell what he was doing besides making faces at his sister. Maren did the same. Elsa rolled her eyes, fighting a grin, and failing. It was exactly something she and Anna would do.

Then Maren smacked her brother's arm from behind Elsa and this time Elsa couldn't stop herself from giggling. "Very mature, both of you."

"I am the older one," Maren commented.

"By ten minutes."

"Still counts!"

"Clearly," Elsa said, hesitating for just a moment before putting her arms around both of them. It was so nice to feel comfortable enough around people besides Anna and Kristoff. "My true role is to maintain harmony between you."

Honeymaren immediately calmed down, though Ryder had a knowing smile on his face. "Seems kind of silly. Bridge between worlds reduced to mediating sibling squabbles."

"Then I won't make a habit of it."

A sudden breeze blew in overhead and Elsa's attention was drawn to a pair of paper baggies spinning over head. "What's this? Gale?"

The baggies bobbed and weaved, and then one dropped into Elsa's hands, and the other into Maren's.

Gale blew around them playfully and Elsa flicked her wrist, adding snow and ice to the leaves. Turning her attention to the delivery, she could see her name in Anna's handwriting, and didn't even need to open it to smell the chocolate. She tore it open, salivating, and popped the first one into her mouth with a low, sultry moan.

Maren stared at her, then seemed to shake herself out of it, opening her own package with a little more dignity. She tossed Ryder a piece of chocolate as she read the message from Anna. "Hey! She's inviting us to the Lutefisk Festival."

Slowly, Elsa put the second chocolate back and unfolded her own message. "Oh no…"

"I love Lutefisk!" Ryder spoke around his chocolate, all the while pumping his fist in the air.

Elsa exchanged a look with Maren, as she realized she'd been bribed with chocolate. And the worst part was, it was going to work. "You know, the real reason I stepped down as Queen was so that I could get out of this festival."

"You already ate one piece," Maren pointed out, helpfully.

"I know." Elsa sighed dramatically, "Anna knows just how to rope me in."

"So, are you going to eat that second piece?" Honeymaren asked.

"You've got your own, this is mine." Picking it back out of the baggy, Elsa maintained eye contact while she took a slow, savory bite.

Ryder reached out and smugly closed his sister's jaw with his finger.