Hello once again my pretties. Another week means another chapter. And this one is after the cliffhanger I left. Let's see if anyone survived.
Muahahahahaha! …But for fair warning, this is more of a transition chapter with lots of talking, but it's needed. I promise to do better with next week's update.
And without further ado, Enjoy.
Disclaimer: Still own nothing, though I enjoy putting the pieces together.
Chapter 4: Changes
Elsa's eyes felt very heavy. She desperately wanted more sleep, but a strong light was directed into her closed lids. Wearily, she tossed her head. This did nothing as the light refused to leave. Giving up the search for sleep, she attempted to open her eyes. Elsa immediately shut them at the piercing brightness that blinded her.
It took several more moments for her eyes to adjust and for her head to throw off the haze of sleep. But when she did, she leapt out of her bed with her heart in her throat.
What? My bed?
Taking a better look around her, she concluded that she truly was in her bedroom. Her working desk was littered with her tutors' finished assignments and the already read texts. The blue hue of the walls tried to convey a serenity that the young princess did not feel because at every blink of her eyes, she remembered.
She remembered the bitter snow and clawing winds. She remembered the fire's warmth and the smell of chocolate. She remembered her father's coldness and Gerda's arms. Yet, what she remembered most was the inhumanly bright light that pierced her eyes before unconsciousness made her memory fail her.
What she did not remember was how she ended back into her room.
Her hands shook and tears pricked her eyes. That could not have been a dream. It was too real, too close. At that moment, Princess Elsa of the Kingdom of Arendelle forgot all of her hard-learned lessons of elegance and propriety. Patience and control no longer existed. She was not a princess or an heir to a throne.
Instead, she was a terrified little girl as she raced out of her bedroom in a blind panic.
Her breath quickly became ragged and bare feet struck the floor harder and harder as she pushed herself towards her parents' bedroom. Not even thinking about knocking, she pushed open the heavy door into an empty room. The bed's sheets were tossed and when she laid her hand upon the fabric, it was cold.
They did not return.
At the thought, a choked sob was wrenched out of the girl. She whirled around and raced back out of the empty room with hysteria nipping at her heels. Pure fear made her thoughts so scrambled and incoherent that she acted upon instinct to seek someone out. Anyone to hold her tight and calm her.
"Gerda," Her screams echoed down the empty corridors, calling out the names of the closest people in her life. "Gerda, Mama!"
No one was out. Not guards, maids, or servant men. The hollowness of sound and life only stroked Elsa's panic into a frenzy as no one answered her calls. Racing around a sharp corner, the sight she sees sends her skidding to a stop.
At the end of the particular corridor, there stood double oak doors that opened to an overhanging balcony. With the heavy snow of the time of year, the balcony laid unused and abandoned. What had made the young princess stop was the fact that the doors were wide open and deep golden hair stood out amidst the white.
Sitting on the snow-covered seat was the Enchantress.
As if sensing Elsa's presence, the mane of gold turned to reveal a breath-taking beauty dressed in a satin robe of green. The trembling princess and the serene woman locked eyes for a stretch of time. A second, a minute, or an hour could have passed and Elsa wouldn't have even know as she stared into storm-blue eyes. But the silence held as the Enchantress beckoned her forward.
In the spell of her intense stare, Elsa's weak legs carried her outside. The snow stung her toes as the breeze sent shivers down the young girl's spine, but she did not stop until she stood before the Enchantress. The instant she did stop, warm arms wrapped themselves around her trembling shoulders and into a warm embrace.
She couldn't do anything, but scrunch into a ball and begin sobbing.
Though Elsa's eyesight was hazy with tears, she was not completely blind. A delicate hand brush through her hair and another stroked her back soothingly, calming the disorder in her near-white locks and her mind. The gentle smell of exotic flowers drifted into her nose as a hymn trickled into her ears.
Time passed slowly for the pair, but it still passed. Elsa's sobs soon trailed into silence while her tears came slower and slower until the twin streams dried out. Her breathing became deeper and deeper until it matched the woman's own.
Again, the silence settle around the pair with the silently falling snow.
"Young Elsa," the Enchantress spoke. Elsa felt the tone more than she heard it, but she tilted her face upward. Eyes locked; stormy seas met trembling ice as the woman's voice sounded again.
"You have no need to fear me. I bring no harm to you."
"…Where… where is everyone?" She was too aware of their isolation. The sun was above the horizon and the castle was as silent as it was during midnight.
"I've put a spell upon the castle as to put everyone to sleep. They are unharmed and safely in bed." The words did not shock the princess, but she knew that the older woman was not completely truthful.
"Not everyone."
She recognized the surprise that sparked in the older woman's eyes. Princess Elsa of Arendelle would never have believed such a thing as magic existing outside the pages of her favorite stories. But the princess was long gone. In her place, an unknown girl with the same name. Elsa waited.
"No, not everyone."
"How many?"
"Only three."
Elsa's mind eye traveled back to the empty room. She still felt the chill upon the cold sheets. Feeling numb, she pull away slightly until Elsa fully faced the Enchantress.
"What did you do?"
The Enchantress did not answer. Instead, she shifted Elsa slightly in her lap. Reaching a hand into her sleeve, a faint red glow came into the rising sun's rays.
It was the rose. It seemed to be even more perfect than from the previous night. Its thorny stem was warm to the touch. Droplets of water upon the petals sparkled were diamonds sitting against satin while its faint aroma fluttered through the air. It did not fail to entrance the princess for a second time.
When the perfect flower was placed in her hands, Elsa broke her stare to look at the golden beauty.
"This is the rose I gave you last night. What is so special about this flower is not its beauty, but its use. It is enchanted to help you in any way it can, but only if your intentions are as pure as the rose itself."
The words seem to sear themselves into Elsa's mind as they flowed through the air. In fact, every detail came slowly to the young girl, yet sunk into her being.
"Ask." Elsa did not need to be told again.
"May I see my parents…please?" The words are hesitant, but clear. Her slight pride at the steadiness of her voice was quickly forgotten at the sight of a growing unearthly light. Looking down, her eyes squinted at the bright red glow in her now numb hands. Yet, as quickly as the light had emerged, it dimmed.
And when Elsa looked at her hands, she noticed that she was no longer holding a rose. Instead, an odd mirror was clasped within her fingers. It had the shape of a slender silver brush, but in the place where the bristles were supposed to be, a flat and reflective mirror was there. An elaborate stem framed the mirror as metal leaves gleamed and inflexible petals sparkled with real diamonds.
However, Elsa's eyes were locked onto the mirror that no longer reflected its surrounding but showed a vision. Two wolves were tearing into a carcass. The faint sound of snapping jaws and ripping flesh sounded from the mirror. The normally gruesome sight was inexistent to Elsa as she focused on one specific fact: The two wolves were covered in scraps of clothing.
Her eyes recognized her mother's favorite necklace on the smaller wolf's neck and her father's cuffs that hung from the larger wolf's paws. The sight sent an odd tightening to her throat and a tremble in her hands.
"They were beasts at heart, so to beasts they became." The words were spoken with no emotion.
"No, you made them into beasts." Elsa's words carried a flicker of anger that was not missed by the magic wielding woman.
"Oh, I did not. If only you knew half of what your parents did to the people of this kingdom, then you would truly understand and do something more useful than flaring that temper of yours." The quiet laugh that accompanied sent the small flicker into a flame, giving the younger girl the strength to glare at the Enchantress.
Anger was not an emotion Elsa felt often and never to the degree that she felt at that moment. It made Elsa reckless as she threw out her next words. "Then, why spare me? I'm the daughter of beasts, so I am a beast, too."
Empathetically, the golden mane shook from side to side in denial. "No. Contrary to what the world believes, blood does not mean everything. You, yourself, proved that to me."
Elsa hated the woman's calm words and as she was ready to snap out another retort, the words never came out as a familiar scent drifted in the air. With a glow coming from the corner of her gaze, Elsa turned to see that the mirror changed. Now it showed… herself, but not her reflection.
Eyes wide and anger forgotten, she saw herself helping a small cloaked figure to drink. It took her no time to see that the mirror was reflecting her actions of the previous night. She helped the woman to drink the hot chocolate before the serenity shattered with her parents' arrival.
Feeling fingers curl around her chin, her eyes locked again with the Enchantress's heavy gaze.
"You, Elsa, had done more for me than either of your parents have ever done for the entirety of their kingdom. I do not ask for your forgiveness, but for your understanding." She paused briefly. "Not now, but as you grow, I know that you will learn more."
"Learn what?"
"Seven secrets. Both good and bad secrets. Subjects that your parents specifically kept from you. And if you have not learned all of them by the time of your twenty-first birthday, I will return to teach you the remaining ones."
What? What secrets? What does she mean?
"Until that day has arrived, I must take my leave." This made Elsa shake out of her thoughts rather quickly.
"Wait! Why are you leaving? Why can't you tell me of these secrets now?"
"Well, what good will I be if I simply gave you all the answers that you seek at this moment. You are an orphaned princess with no power to call your own. The people who were with you last night will remember as you have, but the rest of the world will know something else."
The condescending tone should have insulted her, but the truth crowded over it. She had no parents. There was no King or Queen to Arendelle. She was next to rule, but she was only ten years old!
I-I can't…I.
A sick wave of fear nearly overcame Elsa; clogging her throat and springing tears from her eyes. She threw her hands, mirror and all, around the older woman; tucking her face into the Enchantress's neck. As if knowing her true thoughts, the calm voice cooed. "You are not alone, Elsa. You will face trails with good hearts standing alongside you."
She felt slender arms reaching around to comfort her in return. She scrunched her eyes tighter at the light that threatened to pierce her eyes.
"Keep the rose close."
And with a faint flash of light, the Enchantress was gone.
AN. Well, I made Elsa an orphan. It's official. I'm evil. Forgive me, Elsa!
Then again, as I'm envisioning the future chapters, I know that I won't be regretting it. But to be honest, I don't really like the ending. I tried to play around with the wording of it, but nothing hit me. Maybe future inspiration will help me.
The mirror is the same shape as in the 'Beauty and the Beast' movie, except that it's supposed to be more fragile-looking and have a border of the rose's stem around the mirror with the actual rose near the handle. I hope to describe it more as Elsa gets out of her shock.
Oh, and Kristoff's… um… 'fate' will be revealed in the next chapter. *snickers*
As always: comments, concerns, and informed critiques are forever welcomed. I treasure each and every one.
So, until next time, Au revoir.