Confrontation
"What do you mean you 'don't know'?" Kristoff asked Elsa agitatedly, "How could you not know where or when we are!?"
"Take a look for yourself!" Elsa snapped at him as she gestured at the village down below, "Do you recognize where we are?"
Kristoff looked past her at the village, then replied meekly, "Uh….no," then color returned to his face and voice as he continued, "But I'm just an ice cutter, and I was raised by the trolls, okay?"
Elsa nearly reminded him that he had been named Arendelle's Ice Master and Deliverer, but she refrained from doing so as she was seriously considering taking back the title at this point. It wasn't that he didn't deserve the title: Kristoff had gotten good enough at his job that he was one of the only ice cutters she knew of that could perform his job solo (duo if you counted Sven, the reindeer.) It's just that he was really getting on her nerves expecting her to have the answers to everything!
"Please everyone, calm down," Anna pleaded with them, "it's not going to do any good to panic. Let's just take a deep breath and work together to figure everything out so we can go home."
Elsa immediately felt bad. Her sister Anna had to be freaking out just as much as any of them about the possibility that they might not make it back home, but she was keeping it together better than the both of them combined was serving as their voice of reason, a role that Elsa should be taking herself as both the leader of a country and as Anna's older sister.
"You're right," Elsa told Anna, then she turned towards Kristoff and said, "Sorry."
"I'm sorry too, your Highness," Kristoff said back to her, looking just as ashamed as she felt.
As Anna climbed out of the sleigh she smiled and said, "Okay, now that we've got that settled, let's piece together what information we have thus far. Elsa, you said that Brooklyn touching something called the Phoenix Gate had sent us here?"
"Yes," Elsa confirmed as she and Kristoff stood before her, "it was a medallion that was so big. Looked like it was heavily damaged too, and when Brooklyn tried to pick it up, it exploded and a big fiery…bird thing came out of it."
"Makes sense," Kristoff said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Owen did warn us that the portal that would send us home was somewhat delicate and unstable. I guess it could not handle a giant flaming bird crashing through it."
Anna nodded as she continued, "And what about this place? Is there anything that we do know about where we are?"
"The area we're in doesn't seem to be very heavily populated, but there is a small village down below us," Elsa told her, "It seems to be oriental in nature, but I did not recognize the flag that one of the larger buildings was flying. It was red and had a black silhouette of a flame in the center. Of course that 'flag' could possibly have actually been a sign stating that building was scheduled for demolition by fire or something. The people we could see working in the field all were wearing outfits that were various shades of green, the same as the buildings in the village, and they were overseen by men wearing some sort of red samurai-style armor, so maybe this is some sort of work camp."
"And some of those armored guys were riding some sort of giant lizard things," Kristoff added, "They have two horns that curve down from the top of their heads and one that curves up from their snouts."
Elsa felt the ground starting to rumble under her feet as Anna's eye open wide and she points behind them as she says nervously, "You mean like those?"
Elsa and Kristoff whirl around to see three of the creatures Kristoff described charging up the slope that came around the edge of the cliff behind them and turn to head in their direction, each one mounted by an armored man. Feeling Kristoff tense up next to her, Elsa placed her hand on Kristoff's shoulder and shake her head no. They didn't know where they were or what these men wanted, but the last thing any of them needed was to start trouble with the locals before they absolutely had to.
As the riders came to a stop before Elsa and the others, Elsa heard one of them say, "I told you I saw something up here."
"You said you saw a giant ball of fire up here," a second man told the first disdainfully, "Do any of these people look like fire benders to you?"
"Look more like Water Tribe rebels to me," the third rider said.
Fire benders? Water Tribe? Elsa though in confusion. She'd never heard of either of these terms before, but from the way that one of them thought they might be some sort of rebels indicated that this region was undergoing some sort of conflict, in which case these men could be part of an occupation force.
"Maybe they had some sort of bomb that had went off in their face?" the first rider suggested.
"You idiot, do you see any scorch marks around here?" the second rider chastised him, "Do any of them look as though they've been blackened by soot? How a mutton-head like you managed to get promoted to the Rough Riders baffles even me."
Elsa decided to take advantage of their confusion as their best bet to get out of this without incident. She approached the soldier who'd just berated his companion and gave him a winning smile as she said, "Excuse me, good sir, but my friends and I are travelling and seem to have gotten ourselves quite lost. Would you kindly tell us where we are and where we might find the closest town?"
The soldier appraised her up and down (Elsa wasn't sure if he was trying to determine if she was lying or if he was imagining her inappropriately, his face remained neutral) before he said, "You seem to have gotten yourselves quite off track then, miss. You're in the Hu Xin Provinces, at the heart of the Fire Nation Colonies. I'm afraid that you'll need traveling papers to be passing through here."
Elsa had never heard of these Hu Xin Provinces or the Fire Nation Colonies, but at least the flag they seemed to use makes sense now. The fact that they called themselves the "Fire Nation" didn't make Elsa too hopeful that they were too friendly, which likely meant that these "colonies" were possibly conquered territories. Still, Elsa wasn't ready to give up on a peaceful resolution yet.
"I guess we're even more lost than I originally thought," Elsa said, managing to sound sheepish, "I'm not familiar with this area at all. If you can point me the shortest way out of these 'Fire Nation Colonies' of yours then we won't trouble you any further and be on our way."
"You'd have to be really lost to have found your way here," the solder replied, sounding as if he hadn't really bought her story, "You should come with us to answer some questions. If you answer them satisfactorily, then we'll personally escort you to where you need to go."
This discussion was going downhill fast. She knew nothing of this place, so there was no way Elsa could consent to go along to be asked questions she wouldn't have any answers to. Even if she told them the truth, there was almost zero chance they would believe her. In addition, the men didn't look as though they were above using torture to get the answers they wanted, and Elsa had enough of that for several lifetimes. However, if she and the others ran now there was a good chance they would give chase, and Elsa didn't know how far they'd have to go to reach friendly territory, so Elsa gave the diplomatic approach one last try.
"I'm sorry, but that won't be possible, as we're on a tight schedule, and this little detour has made us late enough already," Elsa said, keeping her tone cordial, "And it sounds as though you and your men are busy enough as it is, so we won't take anymore of your time."
Elsa wasn't sure how they'd get Brooklyn into the sleigh, as he was very likely to weigh more than Kristoff was capable of lifting by himself, and Anna and herself wasn't going to be much help in that regard. Perhaps there was a way that she could use her powers to help him without raising the suspicions of these soldiers more than the already seem to be.
Before she could move to do so, the three riders dismounted and the one she'd been talking to took an aggressive stance before Elsa and let the menace into his voice as he said, "You seem to misunderstand, we're not asking: you kids are coming with us whether you want to or not."
Okay, diplomacy's out, Elsa thought to herself as she let her eyes get hard and she said with steel and authority in her voice, "Actually, you seem to be the ones misunderstanding. We're not going anywhere with you and we're not asking permission. We're leaving here. Now."
Elsa started to turn to the others to ask them to help her load Brooklyn onto the sleigh when she saw in the corner of her eye the soldier begin to punch at her. Dodging out of instinct, she saw a jet of flame shoot out of his fist, just missing her and her friends. Elsa barely had time to register the shock that this man did with flame what she does with ice and snow before she saw the sleigh, the soldier's true target, burst into flames.
"Sven!" Kristoff yelled in desperation as he raced over to cut free the panicked reindeer. Not concerned about the consequences of revealing herself before these strangers any longer, Elsa raced to the sleigh and yelled at Kristoff "Move!" as she began an overhead chopping motion with her hand, forming a rapidly growing ice blade on her hand as she did so. As Kristoff dodged out of the way, Elsa sliced Sven's harnesses in one blow with an ice sword as long as her own body.
"Did you see that?" one of the soldiers asked the one who seemed to be in charge, "That one's a water bender!"
Water bender? Elsa thought to herself, mulling over yet another strange terminology she'd heard since they'd gotten here as the one who'd been talking her took a fighting stance along side the other two as he said, "Okay, we're taking the three of you into custody on the authority of Lord Ozai!"
Elsa, who saw no choice but to try and take care of this quickly, assumed the ready stance that Demona had taught her as she said, "In. Your. Dreams."
Elsa had planned on trapping the three of them in blocks of ice as she constructed a new sleigh out of ice, then they'd use that to get away, but the soldiers struck so fast she barely had time to react. As the jets of flame shot simultaneously from the three soldiers fists, Elsa put everything she had into maintaining the ice wall before her, thankful that Demona's training had shortened the time she would have needed to get it in place, saving her sister and Kristoff from suffering painful burns.
"This is impossible!" Elsa heard one soldier exclaim as the blaze continued, "Just how much water does that bender have on her?"
"Who cares?" the first soldier retorted, "Just keep pouring it on! She can't keep this up forever, and once she runs out of water we'll have her!"
Elsa realized that soldier was right. She didn't know what he meant about her "running out of water," but the heat from their attacks was so much worse than what she'd suffered hanging inside the pirates' cage off the shores to Neverland. While she wasn't suffering from dehydration or heat exhaustion yet, it was only a matter of time before her strength failed her. If she'd been here by herself, Elsa was sure that she could take care of these men quickly, but it was taking everything she had to keep her sister from harm, and while the soldiers seemed to be paying Brooklyn's statue no heed, it looked as though it was still an hour from sunset, so that was no help.
As the heat from the fiery attack started to get to her, Elsa heard a male voice coming, not from in front or behind but rather from somewhere up above, as it exclaimed, "Toph, are you nuts!?"
Elsa looked up and her breath caught in her throat. Up in the air above them was a large flying...thing. Elsa didn't really know how else to describe it. It was hard to tell exactly what it was from this distance, but from the shadow it cast over them all Elsa could tell that it was big. It appear to have a large head and a broad tail that undulated up and down as if it were swimming through the air. It also had a number of appendages on either side. Elsa wasn't sure if they were legs or wings, but they were six in total.
It wasn't the sight of the beast that caused Elsa to gasp however, but rather the sight of the child rapidly falling towards them. It wasn't close enough for Elsa to tell if it was a boy or a girl but at the rate it was falling Elsa doubted that she'd be able to tell from what remains after this kid hits the ground. Elsa wanted to save this child but all of her resources we're being used to shield her friends and her self from the soldiers' blaze, and though she saw a couple more figures leap from the beast overhead (which was higher up than she thought) Elsa could tell that they had no chance of catching the child before he or she hit the ground, much last surviving the fall themselves.
When the kid hit the ground Elsa braced herself. Rather than witnessing the child's body being broken against the unforgiving ground, Elsa was shocked to see that it was the ground which broke under the child's bare feet. In fact, the hard ground ripples upon contact as if it were Lake of water and she was a large boulder that was thrown in it. As the ripples expanded outward, they grew shallower and smoothed out as they approached Elsa and her friends, while the ripples moving forward grew into large earthen waves which knocked the soldiers off their feet. As they got up again, the girl stomped her foot, causing a block of earth to fly up from the ground, which she then punched and it flew with such force that one man was knocked back down again while the other two scrambled out of the way.
Before Elsa could make heads or tails of what was happening, another shadow passing overhead caused Elsa to look up again. There she saw a boy and a girl just shy of Anna's age (likely the same two who Elsa saw leap from the strange beast earlier) gliding in using some sort of stick with wings. The girl had black hair and was somewhat dark skinned, although not as dark as Elisa was, and wore a full length dress that was dark blue with white highlights. The boy was fair skinned, wore a loose-fitting orange over-shirt over a loos-fitting one-piece suit, and his exposed arms and legs along with his clean-shaven head were adorned with tattoos of blue arrows.
"It's the Avatar! Call in reinforcements!" one of them cried out, "If we let him get away, Lord Ozai will have our heads!"
As one of the other soldiers pulled a horn from his waist and began to lift it to his lips, the young child (whom Elsa still couldn't tell whether it was a boy or a girl) stomped again and caused Brooklyn's stone form to bounce up and fly at the soldier getting ready to sound the alarm.
"No!" Elsa cried out as she unleashed a pair of simultaneous ice blasts from either hand, one which quickly and completely cocooned Brooklyn in an oblong orb of solid ice, and the other which created an ice slide which curved away from the soldier and gently sloped back down to the ground, finishing her work on both just as Brooklyn's frozen form struck the slide and slid along its length to land in a pile of slow Elsa created at the end. The soldier, wide eyed with terror at what nearly happened, scrambled back a few steps before blowing into his horn.
"What'd you do that for?" the young child, whom Elsa decided must be a girl from her voice, yelled at her in frustration.
Before Elsa could come up with a response, the young girl Elsa had seen gliding in dropped from the young boy's grasp to the ground below and ran towards the one blowing the horn as the boy glided towards the other two. As she watched, the girl in the blue outfit began making some fluid movements that seemed very familiar to her. Then to Elsa's astonishment, her ice slide, the remains of her ice wall, even the ice surrounding Brooklyn and the snow he was imbedded in; all of it turned into water and moved seemingly in accordance to her will. Elsa saw as this water blob floated in the air and elongated into a bulbous whip, which promptly smacked the horn out of the soldier's hands. Then it flowed over him and hardened back into ice again, immobilizing the soldier up to his neck. It was then that the memory stuck Elsa with the force of a lightning bolt: those were the same moves Demona had started to teach her!
As Elsa watched the boy wave his stick-thing (into which the wings had disappeared) and a gust of wind knocked the two soldiers into a tree behind them, she saw another wave of soldiers coming up the hill towards them, and though only a third of them were riding there were still more than double the original number than what they'd started out with. Looks like we stirred up a real hornet's nest, Elsa sighed to herself, then she formed her ice gauntlets as she thought, Fine then, let's do this! As she looked over at the youngest girl getting ready, however, Elsa decided some precautions were necessary. Elsa fired an ice blast at Brooklyn, encasing his stone form in ice again, and for added measure froze the ground under him as well.
"What!?" the little girl asked Elsa in irritation, though for some reason the girl didn't look Elsa in the eyes.
"Not him," Elsa told her evenly, "You may use whatever else you need to, but not him."
"Ugh! Fine, whatever," the girl grunted, then she muttered under her breath, "Stupid statue! Could have ended this already…"
Yes, let's end this already! Elsa thought to herself, If these guys want to unleash a firestorm on us, then let's see how they feel about me unleashing a blizzard on them! Elsa then reached deep down inside herself and summoned up the strongest arctic winds she ever consciously used and directed it at the incoming force. Suddenly the charge was brought screeching to a halt as the men on foot were unable to make any headway in the wind, many of them being forced to drop to their hands and knees to prevent themselves from being blown over backwards. Even the men riding the large beasts were having difficulty as the desperately clung to the saddles as their mounts slowly made their way forward.
Then the girl in blue took some water from her pouch, converted it into small hailstones, and sent them into the gale-force winds even as the youngest girl in green did the same with regular stones. The shaved boy joined in then by waving his stick, increasing the force of the wind and finally unseating most of the riders, though a couple refused to give up, choosing to cling to the stirrup of their mount while it slowly dragged them along.
Finally, when it seemed that nothing was going to stop these men's advance, the beast Elsa saw from a distance in the air swooped in close over them. Elsa thought it was the strangest thing she'd seen yet: it looked kinda like a giant white-haired buffalo with six legs and a tail as flat as a beaver or a platypus, though the tail was just as furry on top as the rest of the beast. Elsa still thought it was a welcome sight, however, as it landed and waved its tail in the direction of the soldiers, increasing the strength of the wind to the point where even the large three-horned lizards were blown backwards.
As the terrified mounts ran of into the forest and down the slope, most of the soldiers were forced to chase after them to catch them, with only the one Elsa thought of as being their leader staying behind for a moment to yell at them, "This isn't over, Avatar! We'll be back!" Then he hurried after his men.
"What were you thinking, Toph? " a young man Elsa hadn't noticed before yelled down from the large basket like saddle on the giant beast, "I like bashing Fire Nation heads as much as the next guy, but doesn't waiting to start until after we've landed seem like a good idea!?"
"Sokka calm down," the girl in blue said soothingly to the older boy, "We are all fine, and we were able to save these people from those soldiers."
" No, I will not calm down, Katara! Maybe Aang would be ok, seeing as though he's the Avatar and an airbender, so he can do that 'whoosh' thing, " Sokka said as he made a swooping gesture with his hand, "and you went off with Aang, so I knew he wouldn't let you fall." Sokka then turned towards the little girl, who by processes of elimination Elsa figured was Toph, "But you, Toph, had jumped off well ahead of everybody, and last I checked your bending talents do not include flying! What were you thinking!?"
"I was thinking that I'm the greatest earthbender in the world, and that a little fall like that couldn't possibly hurt me," Toph replied with a smug tone in her voice, and Elsa noticed that even though she looked in his general direction, Toph didn't look Sokka in the eyes as she talked.
"A 'little fall'!?" Sokka exclaimed, "Did you not see just how high up we were!?"
"Uh, hello? Of course I did not 'see' how high we were," Toph said as she waved her hand obliquely in front of her face, then with a bird-eating grin Toph asked him with a smug tone, "Why? How high were we? Tell me just how great I was."
Sokka growled in frustration as he dragged his fingers down his face, but decided not to encourage Toph any further by answering her question: a wise decision in Elsa's view. Then, as if she knew Elsa was thinking of her, Toph pointed in Elsa's direction and said to everyone, "What I'd like to know is what is Miss Tinkle Britches' malfunction? I could have ended this fight before that soldier had sounded the alarm, but she acted as if that statue was more important to her than her own skin!"
Elsa was about to explain that Brooklyn was more than a mere statue, that if Toph's hurling him at the soldier had broken him then that would mean his death, but then Toph's slight at her sunk through her jangled nerves and she asked in confusion and irritation, " 'Miss Tinkle Britches'?" Since the time she'd accidentally revealed her powers to everyone she'd endured a number of insults, mostly along the lines of "monster" or "witch", but something like "Miss Tinkle Britches" just seemed so juvenile and completely out there that it baffled Elsa that someone would place that label on her.
As she heard Anna suppress a snicker Elsa groaned quietly to herself. She knew exactly why Anna found that nickname amusing: that was exactly the same nickname Elsa gave Anna years ago, long before the accident that separated them for years. Back when Elsa first showed Anna her wintery talent, Anna had gotten so excited that she had literally wet herself, and so she gave Anna that nickname and used it for a long time until her father chided Elsa for it, claiming that it was mean-spirited and quite undignified for someone like them.
"Yeah," Toph said as she faced her and grabbed a handful of the fabric of the dress Elsa was wearing, though she still did not meet her eyes as she continued, "I don't know what material this outfit you're wearing is made from, but it sounds like about a million wind chimes to me. You might find it soothing, but it's starting to give me a headache!"
"What are you talking about?" Elsa asked Toph, even more confused and irritated than before, "I don't hear anyth…" Elsa trailed off as all the various bits of information clicked into place: the fact that Toph would not meet anyone's gaze when she talked to them, how she apparently heard things no one else there did, and her comment to Sokka about how she didn't "see" how high they were above the ground. "I'm so sorry," Elsa sincerely apologized, "I didn't realize…"
"That I'm so amazing?" Toph guessed, "That your outfit is impractical for traveling? That your making a big deal over that statue had endangered your friends?"
"That you're blind," Elsa said morosely, feeling bad that she had allowed herself to get irritated over this child's projected attitude. Elsa figured that she acted this way so as to dissuade anyone who might take advantage of her handicap, that she may also be too proud to ask for or accept charity based on pity for the same. Still, Elsa felt a need to make Toph understand that she indeed regretted treating her so brusquely. As her hand reached out towards Toph, however, Toph fiercely smacked it away and crossed her arms as she said, "Don't even think it, lady! I'm not some helpless little kid who needs to be coddled, her head patted and to be guided around be the hand! In case you hadn't noticed, I'm the one who saved your butts. Besides, I can see what I need to."
When Elsa looked at Katara in confusion, Katara explained, "She means that she can see through her earthbending. Her feet pick up on the vibrations in the earth, and that gives her a pretty good picture of what all is happening around her. That's why she goes around barefoot, as shoes make it somewhat more difficult for her to 'see'."
"That's pretty neat!" Anna said, obviously impressed.
"Absolutely," Elsa agreed, then she turned back to Toph and said, "I'm sorry if I offended you, as that was not my intention. I merely was trying to apologize properly for having misunderstood you."
Toph shrugged and said, "It's cool. I'm sorry if I overreacted as well. It's just that I had my fill of overprotective behavior from my parents. I even had to learn earthbending on my own, as they believed my blindness made me too 'helpless and fragile' to be able to control it properly."
"I think I can relate somewhat," Elsa told her sympathetically, thinking back on her own complicated relationship with her parents and her powers prior to their being lost at sea. Then she concentrated on her dress, modifying it to a tight fitting outfit similar in style to the one Sokka was wearing, though it had her own lighter color scheme as well as the snowflake design flourishes similar to the dress she wore before. As Katara and the two boys with her goggled at Elsa, she focused on Toph, whose expression merely looked puzzled as Elsa asked her, "Is that better?"
"Quite a bit, actually," Toph replied smiling, "It now sounds more like a hundred wind chimes rather than a million. Much more soothing, thanks!"
"She….she just waterbent her outfit!" Katara said in disbelief.
"Wow, impressive!" Sokka said in admiration, then he turned and smirked at Katara as he continued, "She just may be better at waterbending than you, sis." Elsa saw Katara glare at Sokka, then she had to stifle a giggle as Katara caused a bit of ice remaining by itself on the ground, turned it into a water globule, then flung it at her brother's face in the form of a snowball.
Aang, whose face was filled with confusion, said uncertainly, "I don't understand. I thought that she was an airbender."
Katara looked at Aang sympathetically as she said, "I'm sorry, Aang, but I don't think so. The wall she'd created to shield herself from the firebenders' attacks, and what she did to that creepy statue, both of those are definitely waterbender techniques. Although I didn't see the source of water she used, nor do I understand how she did what she did to her outfit, but maybe those were just advanced techniques Master Paku hadn't got around to teaching us before we had to leave the Northern Water Tribe."
"But when she helped us drive off the Fire Nation reinforcements, it was definitely wind that she'd used," Aang insisted, "How could she do that if she wasn't an airbender?"
"I did see snowflakes in that wind she'd directed at those soldiers, so maybe she was simply bending them with such force and speed that they created that wind," Katara explained in that same sympathetic tone, "I know how much you'd like to believe that you're not the last of your people, but I'm afraid it's simply not possible for her to be both an airbender and a waterbender. The only one who can control more than one element is the Avatar, and that's you, Aang."
"Excuse me for a moment, but I'm just not understanding any of this," Elsa said to them, which got their attention back on her, "So far I've heard about earthbending, which Toph here can do, and firebending, which I guess is what those soldiers used on me, then airbending and waterbending, both of which you guys and those soldiers thought I could do. Just what is this 'bending' you're referring to? What is this place?"
"You're kidding, right?" Sokka asked Elsa. When she shook her head no, Sokka asked in disbelief, "Seriously? Everybody in the world, even those who are unable to do so, knows about the ability to bend to bend either air, water, earth or fire. Just where did you people come from?"
"Not entirely sure," Elsa admitted, "but if I were to hazard a guess, it's probably the future."
This time all of Katara's friends goggled at Elsa.
Meanwhile, in a forest not all that far away, three large yet slender crested lizards make their way through before being pulled to a stop by a tug on their reins by their riders. Though the three couldn't look more different in facial expressions or clothing styles, the fact that the ladies practically rode in formation and were all dressed in shades of red marked them as a unit better than any uniform or insignia would. As one dismounted, she picked up some course white fur from the ground. Though most of her black hair was tied in a top knot adorned with a flame-shaped headpiece, a couple of bangs hung down on either side of her face, framing it perfectly as it lit up with a cruel smile while she said, "We're back on the right track."