Rocky Road (Part 2)
"Come on Love" said Hook while the coast was clear. Elsa hesitated.
"I'm not coming with you. There is someone out there with the same powers as me… I'm not going to sit in some…sherrif station" said the queen while having difficulty to say the last word.
"ah, that's alright then, because that's not where we're going."
"Its not?"
"The sherrif station is that way" and Hook pointed in the opposite direction.
"then… what's that way?" asked Elsa.
"With any luck… danger" smiled the handsome pirate. Elsa followed, intrigued to where the pirate was taking them.
Emma and Charming had gone to the ice cream shop and after Will helping them out with opening the lock the two went in, only to find everything abandoned.
"Everything looks normal to me" said Emma.
"Check the back" said Knave. "And you'll see I'm right." Both people went to the backside of the shop and were greeted by a whole room, covered in blue-white frost.
"He was right" said Charming. "guess we owe him an apology." A doorbell rinkled and the two went back only to see nobody in the shop. "Damn it, he's gone again."
"Don't get stressed out. You will find him again."
"Regina is right" said Emma, not listening to her father. "I'm terrible. I can't even help myself when I'm in a snow cave or protect everyone from a snowmonster… I let Will go…"
"Emma!" Charming took hold of Emma's arms to calm his daughter.
"Right now he's not important. Let's just look step by step and look for the woman who did this, alright?"
"I have hunted you a long time, my old crocodile, and I know you better then anyone. I know you would never give anyone the control over you… Not even Belle" manipulated Hook.
"That's a big insinuation…. You have proof?" Said Gold while looking up to the pirate.
"I can just go to Belle and ask her to summon you… and let her realize the dagger is a fake. Proof enough" Hook saw Gold's face slightly twitch. Bingo.
"He agrees to help you" said Hook to Elsa, who stood a few meters further away as for not invade the conversation.
"This… is a hair of Marion" The queen gave it to Gold. "We want to know who casted the curse on her."
"Funny thing about magic… it can never be destroyed" explained Gold while waving his hand above the strand of hair, who disintegrated into small snowflakes. "everyone has their own pattern, like everyone has different, unique fingerprints."
"Poetic" said Hook impatiently to the dark one. "How does that help?"
"Magic seeks out magic… so if I set it free…" Gold breathed on the snowflakes who began to fly out of the shop. "It will lead you to the person who casted it."
Hans looked shocked to his older brother. "That was not the plan! We were going to imprison her in that urn, not kill her. If the people hear of this, they will never trust us!" Kristoff felt the blade's pressure diminish on his throat.
"ah, there is still that stupid ginger sister. I'm not going to sleep with an Ice freak like her" spoke Jurgen nonchalantly while putting the urn on the ground. Kristoff tried to break free when he heard Jurgen insult his fiancé and suddenly he felt Hans' arm grab him less hard then he did before.
"Where's Anna?" whispered the prince into Kristoff's ear.
"Gone" said the Ice harvester angrily, thinking the prince wanted to finish her off when Elsa was gone.
"Good" breathed the prince. Kristoff's eyes widened at the answer. Wait.. was he happy that Anna was gone? Too many questions for the short time Elsa had. Frederick held up the sword, trying to calculate the swing it needed to slice Elsa's head off.
"Hit me." Kristoff felt the prince' grip disappear completely and he pushed his elbow into the prince's face. It wasn't that hard, but the prince fell back as if it was much harder. He was playing theater, realized kristoff. The brothers looked up and saw the large bulky ice harvester storming towards the executioner, punching him so hard that he fell unconscious a few meters away. The other brothers came out of their trance, while Franz still held the queen by her neck, making it difficult to breathe and to resist. Hans looked up to see Franz hold something. It was slowly blinking in the small light of the cave and Hans realized it was his dagger. He would be too late to stop Franz if he ran to them. The urn was in the however visible in the corner of the prince' eye and so he took off the lid, hoping to absorb the queen in it and saving her from his brother. Suddenly everyone felt themself stiffen as a white liquid came out of the urn, feeling the magic radiating from it. As all of the liquid had fallen out, it rose up in the air, forming into a human-like figure before it revealed a silver-haired woman.
"what's going on, who are you?" spoke Jurgen. It wasn't supposed to release another sorceress!
"From what I've just heard, I believe you called me a freak" spoke the woman calmly. It was that casualness, that chilled all the brother's to the bone. The woman raised her hand and suddenly all the brothers, except for Hans, were turned into Ice.
Elsa crawled from under Franz' arms to face the woman who saved her and Kristoff. "Thank you. You… you saved me."
"I know from experience that no-one should be trapped into that urn. Especially someone as special as you." The woman looked behind her to the auburn-haired man. "Who's this?"
Before Elsa could answer, Kristoff interrupted her. "He let me loose to save Elsa. If he hadn't done that, she would have died."
The silver-haired woman smiled to the prince, but there was no inkling of warmth in it. The prince looked to her with equal distrust before standing up. He had a nack for reading people. He could see right through her perfect little mask.
Elsa and Hook were following the snowflakes through the forest for a while now. "We're close" said Hook when he saw the snowflakes fall down. "She must be somewhere"
"look!" pointed Elsa out when she saw the silver-haired woman appear, only to get dragged down by the pirate.
"Be quiet. We don't want to get noticed" said the pirate.
"I'm sorry… I've just never seen someone like me before…" said the Ice queen in awe as the woman waved her hand to cause a mini-castle to light up. "She looks friendly."
"Looks can be deceiving, love" spoke the pirate while trying to reach Emma with his phone. "What?" The pirate looked unbelievingly to his phone. "how comes she never answers whenever I use it?"
As they all began to walk towards the exit of the cave, he noticed the queen walking next to him.
"Is this some kind of trick?" asked the queen coldly. She clearly didn't believe that Hans actually let Kristoff save her from being executed.
"What he said is true." Spoke Hans while keeping his gaze on the queen.
"Why?" Here it was.
"do you think I wanted to be here, your majesty? I was living in a farm in exile, where I had to shovel poop, but at least I was out of the castle, away from my prison cell. Suddenly my brothers dragged me back here. I wanted to be left alone, but did I have a choice? No."
"Stop your sobby backstory before I freeze your mouth, prince Hans. You didn't answer my question. Why?"
"In return for saving your life twice-"
"Once. That one time with the chandelier didn't count because it was with false intentions" interrupted Elsa. Hans chuckled.
"You honestly think I'm capable to run to a guy, point a moving crossbow and shatter a tiny icicle so that chandelier falls exactly on your head?"
Hans saw frost appear around the queen's feet and he knew he was testing her patience.
"Fine, fine… In return for saving your life, Once,… I want a ship."
The queen's eyebrow went up. "Excuse me?"
"Let me sail away from Arendelle. I give my word I won't cross your borders. I just want to get away."
It was quiet for a long time. by the time the queen answered, they had climbed out of the cave.
"I'll give you the benefit of the doubt." The prince was stopped however when the queen's ice cold hand was planted on his chest, making him wince from the pain. "But one foot out of line and you will get the same treatment as your brothers."
"We've waited long enough" said the pirate while standing up. If they stayed too long, they would get noticed one way or another… and Emma would so kill him if it brought him and Elsa into trouble. "We need to find Emma so she can-" The pirate suddenly felt his foot getting stuck and he looked down to see his feet inceased with Ice.
"I'm sorry" said the woman. "But I can't let you leave" She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. The Ice queen trembled when the woman's eyes bored into her's but she held stand.
"Let him go, now!" commanded the queen without letting her fear show to the woman.
"Not when we have so much cathing up to do. My sweet Elsa."
"cathing up? You know her?" demanded Hook while trying to get free.
"I've never seen her before." Said Elsa quietly.
"You've simply forgotten. The magic of the rock trolls, I'm afraid. They did quite a number on you."
"The rock trolls?" What did that woman know more? She knew her name, she had magic like her's, she knew the trolls… who was she? Elsa's mind was reeling with questions.
"Some memories are better left forgotten, my dear. Some are… too painful. Like the fact that it was your sister that put you in that urn."
"You are lying!" yelled Elsa angrily.
"am I? Look at those people, they were ready to burn you at the stake."
"Because you hurt one of them!"
"You have proof? Do you want to trade like a couple of fishwives?" mocked the woman, leaving the queen of Arendelle silent. "Of course you don't have any… and now…"
The woman raised her hand and icicles appeared above the pirates head, ready to impale him.
"NO!" Elsa raised her hands to stop the icicles from dropping down and for a few seconds, it did.
"You can't keep this up forever, my dear" said the woman casually. More and more Icicles began to go slowly down to the pirate's head. "When your friend is found, you will look responsible" Elsa's forehead became sweaty as she tried to keep the iciles up, feeling like Atlas who had to hold the heavens up. As the queen began to tire more and more, so did the icicles drop as well.
"Why…" Elsa had more and more difficulty breathing from the effort. "Why are you…. doing this?"
The woman tilted Elsa's head up to look her into the eyes. "For you my dear. All for you. You ruined my life, so I will ruin your's. Your family… OH," she chuckled at the memory. "Your parents' death was a delight to watch. How well I remember their last breath…" Elsa might have lashed out to the woman if she didn't have to keep those damn icicles up.
"Your family, your country, your friends… Everyone and everything you love will be taken from you, before I take your life away" whispered the woman in Elsa's ear. "But not before I let you suffer an agonizing death. There are many ways to let a body feel pain."
"Hey dairy queen!" yelled Emma.
The silver-haired woman looked up to the savior. "Ah. The valiant savior is here to save the day. Do you really think your magic is a match for me?"
Emma didn't waste any time to talk and blasted her away while David began to help Hook. The woman stood up again and the icicles dropped down with a simple wave of the hand, breaking through Elsa's magic like a knife went through butter. The queen of Arendelle fell down from exhaustion while Emma quickly blasted Hook and David out of the way of the icicles.
"You're okay?" asked Emma to the two men who nodded. The savior quickly turned her attention to Elsa and helped the young woman up.
"I'm fine" said the young dizzy queen. "Where is she?" Everyone looked around in the forest to see no trace of the mysterious woman. She had disappeared again in tin air.
It was nightfall when they arrived back at the castle. Elsa ordered Kristoff to guard Hans, knowing the ice harvester was fully capable of handling him. Besides that, she didn't wanted any guards to watch him. The prince had a silver tongue and again, Kristoff wasn't easily swayed by the prince' honey-words. As she began to walk with Ingrid, as the woman called herself, her enthousiasm came out. Finally someone who understands me…
"Have you build a snowman yet?" asked she while they came inside her study room.
"Have you tried to build a castle?"
"Yes, you have to see it sometime" laughed Elsa, proud of herself to show Ingrid what she could do.
Ingrid however looked to the painting of the late queen and king of Arendelle and Elsa walked back up to her.
"It's my favorite painting of my parents. It feels like.. it gets my mothers smile just right" Normally the queen never talked about her parents. Not even to her sister. But she felt like she had a bond with this nice woman, a bond that even surpassed that of her sister. There were no secrets or walls between them…
"I agree." Said Ingrid while looking to the painting. The way Ingrid said it made Elsa aware that that she might have known her mother.
"You knew her?"
"Yes. She was my sister."
Elsa looked shocked to Ingrid as she tried to take in the news.
"I didn't wanted to overwhelm you.. I was waiting for the right moment" apologized Ingrid.
"Mother.. never told me she had a sister." Said Elsa confused to her lost aunt.
"I'm sure she was trying to spare you a painful history. But now… I cannot wait to see my beloved sister again… where is she?"
"Lost at sea" said the young queen. "I'm sorry."
"My poor darling girl… you must have been so lonely when she died."
"Its just me and my sister Anna….but now she's missing and I fear something happened to her."
"We'll find her. together. That's what family is for." Said Ingrid determined and she nodded firmly to the young girl who returned the gesture.
The stench of the dead was in his mouth and nose as he stood on a wide battle field. It was winter, but somehow the snow didn't mask the smell of rotting flesh. Hans knelt by one of the soldiers to look at their sigil: a Crocus on a green-purple background…. Arendelle. And he recognized many more of them. Dunebroch. Camelot. Corona. The southern Isles. What had happened here? As he walked further he saw several wolves coming out, doing well on the fresh meat on the corpses. He let them do it. Better then let the corpses rot when spring comes again… If it ever came…
"Born of cold and winter air, and mountain rain combing… this icy force, both foul and fair…" Hans suddenly felt something wasn't right and his instincts led him up the hill.
"watch your step, let it go!" His breath stocked when he saw the scenery before him.
"beautiful, powerful, dangerous, cold…" In a blizzard of glass shards, the prince could make out thousands and thousands of citizens in a pool of blood. Children. Baby's. Old grandfathers. Women and men.
"Beware the frozen heart." The prince threw up and cried tears which froze directly on his cheeks. Suddenly he felt that he wasn't alone. The prince swirled around to see himself, swinging his sword into him.
Just when the sword was about to meet flesh, the prince jerked awake in bed. Good god… The prince fell back on his cushion while trying to keep his breath under control. Hans swallowed. What he had seen in the dream… he had many dreams the last few years. And very often, he saw the same thing happen the exact day he had dreamt it. Was this an Omen? A warning of some sort? The prince rubbed his eyes and stood up to get to the bathroom to splash some water in his heated face. When the tired prince looked up in the mirror he stared to his chest. What the… His hand went to touch the snowflake-shaped mark by his heart, feeling the cold radiating from it. Beware the frozen heart… Hans wasn't quickly afraid, but now he felt himself tremble like a little child.