Kayley was already gone, but Ruber was too busy with his new army to pay attention to his hostages. They were magnificent in their strength and terrifying in appearance, but still stupid enough to follow his orders without question. Ruber smirked as he finished his speech/song, letting out a rough, deep cackle. "This will all be MINE!" he roared with glee as his minions lifted him up on their shoulders...
And then they all toppled to the ground. An unseen force had plowed straight into them, and Ruber whirled around in a rage to find the source. "Who DARES assault Lord Ruber?!"
"Your worst nightmare," a female voice answered somewhat smugly. He guessed she was barely in her twenties, but she certainly wasn't English. However, he still couldn't see her in the dark. He could feel the air getting colder by the second. Soon, snow was pouring out of the sky, reducing visibility even more.
Suddenly, there was a flash of white, and one of his mechanized thugs fell to the ground, frozen solid. But that was impossible! It was the middle of summer, and even Camelot's coldest winter had no hope of felling one of his warriors! Still, Ruber grew more doubtful of this as one, no two, no three more fell, frozen. It wasn't long before the rest of the robotic army shared their comrades' fate, leaving Ruber feeling genuinely afraid for the first time in his life.
"I'll ask again," he growled trying to sound tough, "who ARE you?!" As he spoke, he backed up, moving in the general direction of Julianna and the now absent Kayley. He couldn't afford to have them frozen, too.
"I told you," the female voice replied, growing closer to the two humans. "I'm your worst nightmare. Some call me the Snow Queen, others call me 'Your Magesty'. My sister and brother-in-law call me Elsa or Els. The last person to call me Frostbite is probably still frozen to a wall somewhere. YOU can call me Queen Elsa, of Arendelle. We have very close ties with Camelot, and there is no way that I'm letting you bring her to ruin, so if you have any last words, I'd suggest you spit them out before I freeze your heart." By the time she was done speaking, the young woman had stepped into Ruber's line of sight, and Ruber held a terrified and freezing Lady Julianna shivering his arms. Their attacker was indeed in her early twenties, with hair almost as white as the snow hanging in a braid over her shoulder. Her gown was a sparkling icy blue, and hugged her slim frame. Her skin was pale, but it didn't make her look unhealthy. Her blue eyes were bright and intense, and her thin lips were drawn into a confident smirk as she approached them. "Well? Are you going to say anything, or keep hiding behind your girlfriend?"
"I-I'm n-not his g-g-girlfriend!" Julianna quipped, teeth chattering from the cold. Elsa just chuckled.
"Ah, that's right, you must be his hostage. Sorry if it's too chilly for you, dear." As soon as she said this, the snow dissipated, and the air warmed with the sunlight. "Now, let her go."
"If I do, you'll just freeze me, like you did them!"
"One, they're machines, so they really didn't feel anything. Two, I never said I was going to freeze you completely, just your heart. You'll still have a chance to live, provided you have any loved ones."
"Loved ones?"
"Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart, both literally and figuratively."
Ruber stared at the young woman in disbelief. Surely she wasn't serious! This distraction gave Julianna the opportunity to break away from Ruber, which she took without hesitation, leaving him wide open to take the icy arrow that Elsa shot directly into his heart. Ruber's eyes widened in shock from the cold that began to spread throughout his body. Julianna gasped as a lock of his hair turned from auburn to pure white.
Elsa's eyes softened as she watched the change; it still reminded her too much of Anna. The memories flooded into her mind, and her confident demeanor was gone. "Oh no...what have I done?" she murmured.
The next moment, a gigantic winged creature landed between Elsa and Ruber: a gryphon. It began to speak frantically in a slightly nasally voice. "King Arthur knows you're behind the theft of Excalibur, and someone warned him that you were here! He's already sent troops down the main road; it's only a matter of time...!"
"Anna," Elsa said, smiling as she realized her sister had come through for her once again. The gryphon quickly turned to face her.
"What? Who is Anna? Who are you?! What did you do?!"
"Anna is my sister, and I am Queen Elsa, of Arendelle. We both did what we had to do to protect our allies in Camelot. Now, if you don't mind, I have a question for you. What is such a majestic creature like you doing working for a monster like him?"
The inquiry obviously caught the gryphon off-guard, and he struggled to answer it without sounding ridiculous. Finally, he spoke again. "I...I know...I know he's abusive, and crazy, and vengeful..." this earned him a glare from the rapidly weakening Ruber, but the gryphon continued. "Sure, he's a bit rough around the edges, but he's the closest thing to a best friend that I have. We've stood by each other's sides since he was a child and I was a fledgling. He wasn't always this bitter, you know. He was a good kid...and I know he can still be a good man. So, I'm going to stick with him, no matter what."
Elsa could feel tears welling up in her eyes by the time the gryphon was finished speaking, but she refused to let them fall. He reminded her more of Anna than Ruber did. These two were more than friends; they seemed like brothers, even if they weren't the same species.
Ruber, meanwhile, had a weak smile on his face as he looked up at the gryphon. "You're as loyal as ever, Arathorn." The gryphon looked down at the mention of his name, and finally noticed how cold Ruber looked. His hair was half streaked with white, and there was a spiraling pattern of frost forming on his skin. He was freezing to death in the middle of summer!
"What did you do to him?" Arathorn growled, turning back to Elsa with fire in his eyes. "Why is he so cold?!"
"I...his heart is frozen."
"Thaw it out!"
"I can't."
"What do you mean you can't?! You're the witch who froze him in the first place!"
"I mean, I physically can't unfreeze him. Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart! It doesn't matter what KIND of love, really; it could be brotherly, platonic, paternal, or romantic, just as long as it's true."
"Alright...don't worry, Ruber. I'll find a way, I promise!"
"You...don't have...time," Ruber replied. "The knights...will be here soon. You have to get out of here, now, go!" But it was too late. A journey that would normally take a couple of days only lasted about half an hour with the help of Merlin, and the knights began storming the place without hesitation. Arrows were flying, swords were clashing with defensive ice and a fearsome beak, and razor sharp talons were snatching warriors up effortlessly. Elsa was mainly protecting herself, but every once in a while, she would take down a knight that was trying to blindside Arathorn. The battle that seemed to go on for ages only lasted minutes, and was ended by a single arrow aimed straight at the near-frozen Ruber, who had somehow managed to stand on his own feet. Elsa tried to shoot it out of the air with her ice, but she was to slow. Ruber watched as the projectile hurtled toward him, already in the process of accepting his own death...
But it never came. The next thing he knew, Ruber was surrounded by a feathery barrier. He began to warm up rapidly, feeling the oddest sensation as the ice melted from his skin and his heart. "A...Arathorn...?" he murmured, looking up into the gryphon's green eyes, which were beginning to glaze over. "You...you didn't...not for me..!" But the arrow sticking out of the gryphon's feathered back told a different story. "Why?! Why would you do that?"
"Didn't you hear what I told Elsa?"
"Well, of course I did, but–"
"I'm sticking with you til the end, and that's that," Arathorn said firmly, though his voice had grown a bit ragged.
"No...no, you can't die. Not now...!"
"Well, you always knew I wouldn't live forever. Besides, you don't need me, now."
"Yes, I do!" Ruber blurted. He sounded like a child, and Elsa was once again reminded of her sister. "I know I had a completely rotten way of showing it, Arathorn, but I have always needed you in my life. You were the one person whom I could always depend on...and I treated you like you didn't matter. I betrayed you, just like I betrayed Camelot. Yet, you still stayed with me. Why leave me now, when I need you most?!" the red-haired man cried out, surprising both the knights and Elsa with how genuinely anguished he sounded.
Arathorn let out a faint chuckle; he was fading fast. "Like I said before, you don't need me anymore. You know what you have to do, now, to get your life back on track. Be more open and honest with people. You're not alone, so don't act like you are. Don't be afraid to ask for help, but most importantly, ask for forgiveness. Humble yourself before God, then go to Arthur and do the same. You'll be alright, Ruber..." the gryphon trailed off, finding it hard to breathe. He was faint from bloodloss, and he could barely even see anymore. He was dying. He couldn't die, though. Not yet. "I will always be...in your...heart." With that and whatever smile his beak would allow him, Arathorn passed on, finally at peace. He knew that Ruber would cry for him, and shed tears that had been kept at bay for decades, but he also knew that those tears wouldn't last long. Ruber was never one to waste time.
As his best friend expected, Ruber did weep, but only briefly. He was quick to fulfill the gryphon's wishes, and said a long and heartfelt prayer that no one besides him and God could hear. He knew he was being watched, but that hardly mattered to him. He couldn't care less whether or not he had an audience until after he was finished, breathing a quiet "Amen," before standing up. "I must go to Camelot," he declared soberly, looking at Elsa more than the knights. "I have to speak with King Arthur, and at least try to make right all of the wrongs I committed against him and the kingdom." Of course, everyone looked at him like he was even more insane than before. He didn't expect them to help him. He couldn't. Elsa, on the other hand, moved toward him, not to attack, but to follow...or to lead, depending on the circumstances. Together, they silently began to walk away from Kayley's house, toward Camelot. No one followed them, surprisingly.
Moments later, Elsa finally spoke up. "You know this journey will take far too long on foot, right? We don't have the food or supplies to survive for two or three days."
"I am aware of that," Ruber replied gruffly, continuing to look ahead as he walked.
"Well...don't you think that's a kind of important detail?"
"I didn't ask you to tag along and starve with me, your Majesty."
"I know you didn't, but...shouldn't you have at least some semblance of a plan?"
"God has a plan for me. Whatever happens to me, to us now, is His will."
Elsa sighed. She was also a Christian, but she had never heard a man be so convicted and stubborn as Ruber was in that moment. She knew what she had to do. Rolling her eyes slightly, the blonde stopped short and stretched out her hands before her, preparing to use her powers. "Watch your feet, and try not to fall off," she grumbled, beginning to freeze the ground beneath them and create an icy ramp. Moments later, she was propelling both of them through the air on a frozen platform, with Ruber staring in amazement at the ground which zoomed by beneath their feet. They would make it to Camelot in no time!