Elsa woke with a strange weight on her body. She looked down and saw a brown short haired cat laying on her stomach taking a nap. There was something odd about the cat then she realized,
"Fauna?" The cat perked up and leapt to the floor. It turned around to face Elsa and shifted into Fauna. Fauna was taking deep breaths and concentrating,
"Sister Winter," Fauna said slowly and deliberately, she sounded different as she enunciated her words, "I wish to… a-pol-o-gize for turning… you… into a horse. I am sorry for… not ex-plain-ing myself better. I hope we can be friends."
Elsa was touched at how much effort Fauna put into apologizing to her. Finding that she had the strength to sit up Elsa put herself upright, not noticing the blanket of moss that had grown under her to make the stone bed more comfortable. She smiled at the shape-shifting Child of Nature,
"I forgive you sister Fauna." She responded using the wording that Luminous used when addressing one of the Children of Nature. At the admission of forgiveness Fauna squealed with happiness that sounded like a bit of a howl. Fauna turned into the dog that she was earlier and jumped onto Elsa. True Fauna wasn't a big dog but she was large enough to push Elsa's back against the cave wall. Next thing Elsa knew was a wet tongue licking her face. At first, Elsa didn't know what to do; but then she did something she didn't expect, she laughed,
"No! Fauna… HAHAHA! Stop it! That tickles!"
Fauna suddenly stopped and jumped from the bed. She shifted back into human shape and spoke to someone that Elsa didn't notice before,
"Brother Pyros, wat you do here?" Fauna's speech pattern was back to how it was normally. Elsa turned her head and let out a small gasp of amazement. Standing at the room door was a man that must have stood at least seven feet, built like he had been lifting heavy stones all his life. Every muscle bulged from his body much like a body builder in the circus that came to Arendelle when she and Anna were still children. He wore a red coat that hung open revealing his well-built chest and abs with a red wrap around his waist that extended down to his knees that had a v-shape slit in the front that reached his mid-thigh to allow for better mobility. What stood out most to Elsa was the color of Pyros' skin, his skin was completely black. She had heard about dark skinned people but had never seen anyone that wasn't white before.
Pyros didn't seem to notice or care about the expression of shock that crossed Elsa's face. In fact, for having such a herculean build his face was really kind. He bowed to both Fauna and Elsa,
"Hello sisters. Luminous has called us together. He seems worried about something." He offered a helping hand to Elsa. The Child of Winter took it and a painful sensation shot through her hand. His skin burned, like it was on fire.
"Brother Pyros, you burn sister Winter." Fauna commented, almost protectively.
"My apologies sister Winter. I am Pyros, son of fire. I guess heat and cold do not do well together." The way he said it was so calm, almost loving.
"Come, if brother Lumi call than don't wanna be late." Fauna stated as she rose from her crouched position on the floor. Elsa's two seniors of the Children of Nature lead the way back into the main chamber. Their path took them down to the bottom floor of the cave where Elsa noticed a decorative archway directly under the entrance to the garden where she had come in. It was through this arch that Pyros, Fauna, and Elsa proceeded.
The chamber through the archway, Elsa realized, must have served as the new dining area for the Children of Nature. In the middle of the room was a big round table, made from stone and lined with metal, with strange letters engraved around the edge. Ten high back chairs were set up around this table, all evenly spaced and clean. Around the edges of the room were cooking ovens and doors which Elsa concluded must lead to pantries and larders.
Seven of the chairs at the table were occupied with faces that Elsa knew and ones she didn't recognize. She saw Luminous, Umbra, Terra, and Ferris. Also seated at the table was an Oriental woman who wore a cloudy grey dress that had a slit that ended just past her right knee who was call Aeros, sister Flora (although Elsa didn't know who it was at the time), and a fair skinned young woman in a blue-green dress whom she would learn was called Aqua.
Pyros and Fauna led Elsa to one of the seats and then took their own places around the table, once they were seated Luminous began,
"Now, normally this would be a chance for us to meet our newest addition Winter; however, there is a big problem up top." Umbra interjected with a question directed at Elsa,
"Sister Winter, how often did you use your powers growing up?"
Elsa wasn't sure what to say, finally she responded,
"I use to use them more as a child, but there was an accident and I hit my sister." The memories of that night came back to Elsa in flashes. The regret of letting Anna convince her to use her powers that night, the fun that they had, and the fear after hitting Anna in the head with a shot of ice.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Umbra,
"Sister Winter?"
"My parents separated me from my sister and locked me away. They put gloves on my hands to keep my powers in."
"That explains a lot."
"Hm?"
"There are a couple of things you should know about our abilities Winter. First: You should never try to hold them back. It is like trying to stop a river with a single piece of wood, it cannot be done."
"There is a difference between learning to control our powers and trying to snuff out their existence." Luminous added, "I think that you were trying to smother them. Perhaps not purposefully but your powers might have felt threatened."
Umbra nodded in agreement,
"Secondly, we each have a negative emotion attached to us that we refer to as our enemy. If we have too much of that feeling our powers grow out of control."
"As you saw earlier, mine is anger." Luminous mentioned referring to the incident in the garden when his powers had flared up. Then something in Elsa's memory came up,
"Fear is my enemy." She admitted, thinking back to the old troll that had cured Anna after the incident.
"Anyways, back on point please Luminous." Umbra said trying to draw the conversation back to the point why they had gathered.
"Yes, anyways. Sister Winter seems to have accidentally tapped into a great reserve of her unused power and has frozen this entire region. Trapping the land in an eternal winter."
Elsa's chest suddenly seized and made to stand up to run but her feet sank into the floor. It was like the stone had turned to water for a brief moment and then returned back to normal.
"No lass, ya can't run from this." Terra said. He had been sitting closest to Elsa and had noticed her attempt to leave, at least he was the first to act on what he saw.
"Alright, we need to help Arendelle survive until sister Winter can learn how to undo the curse she accidentally released. Terra, Ferris, Aqua, Pyros," The four stood from their seats, "Go down into the city and create steam tunnels to warm up the city. That goes without saying that you should avoid being seen. Aeros, Flora," The two stood, "Go out and see what work needs to be done to help the plants, blow the snow off the leafy trees otherwise their branches will break. Fauna, go spread the word about what is going on to the animals. Obviously they are not prepared for an early winter. If any of them need food direct them to our garden. Also tell the predators to drive off anyone who comes looking for sister Winter. She has a lot to learn." The shape shifter stood up to acknowledge her understanding, "Umbra, you I would like to go and keep an eye on things in the city above ground." Umbra stood and nodded his head.
"And you Luminous had better teach sister Winter fast."
Elsa felt her feet be freed from their stone encasing and stood up at the same time Luminous did. She didn't know why she followed suit but it just felt like the right thing to do.
"Alright everyone," Luminous said raising his voice a little, "We all know what we need to do. Now go!"
A/N Sorry this took a little while to get up. Life happens.