Chapter 9
It had only been a couple of hours since Arendelle's protectors started they're journey but they had already made some good progress and believed that they were right on the trail of Koll himself. Anna, Kristoff and Sven had a little trouble getting through all the thick snow, but Elsa wasn't bothered by it due it being her element and Bard used his fire based powers to melt the snow in his way. Meanwhile as they walked Olaf continued to look for more possible snow friends but kept finding nothing.
"Are you here?" Olaf asked he looked under a rock and found nothing. "No…"
He then tried again. "Here? No…"
As he continued to keep on trying Kristoff and Anna watched him from close by while trailing behind Bard and Elsa. Anna looked especially worried about Olaf's deteriorating mental state.
"I'm worried about Olaf…" Anna whispered to Kristoff.
"We're all worried about Olaf." Kristoff stated.
"No, I mean really worried… he's been acting odd lately." Anna said.
"Odder than usual you mean?" Kristoff asked, deadpan.
"Yeah… he really wants another snowman friend like him." Anna said.
"Can't you ask Elsa to make him one?" Kristoff questioned.
"Well I would but…" Anna began before her voice trailed off. "She's got bigger problems right now…"
Anna looked towards her older sister worriedly, she and Bard were already far ahead of them, no doubt to Elsa's deep desire to catch Koll and Bard being the energetic fellow that he was. When they realized that the others were too far behind them they stopped and turned around.
"Hustle guys!" Bard called out.
"We're going as fast as we can." Anna told him.
"Yeah, ever heard of resting?" Kristoff added.
"There's no time, if we don't hurry we could lose him." Elsa stated.
"Speaking of which, are we sure that we're even closing in on him?" Bard inquired.
"Well I really doubt he went back to where he came from." Kristoff stated. "He wants us to find him."
"Then we're walking into a trap." Anna realized. "Maybe we should…"
"No. We're not turning back now." Elsa stated, firmly. "We're gonna find him and bring him to justice. No matter what it takes."
"Careful Elsa, you're starting to sound too vindictive… and bossy." Kristoff told her. Sven grunted. "Exactly Sven, more so then usual."
"Of course I'm bossy, I'm the Queen… at least for now." Elsa said, slowly. Bard glanced away, feeling guilty. Anna quickly noticed this.
"Well… don't worry, we'll get all of that sorted out as soon as we get back." Anna assured her and Bard. Just then an odd noise was heard, making them all jump. "If we get back…"
They begin to hear movement all around them, as if someone or something was circling them. Then they heard an animal like growl which made them all jump with fear.
"What was that?" Elsa asked, worried. The others all gazed around nervously, looking for the source of the sound.
"Every stick close together, don't spread out." Kristoff instructed as they all backed up until they were all back to back with each other.
"Ok, now what Captain Ice Master?" Bard questioned.
"Just don't move…" Kristoff said, quietly.
"Yeah, because that's what you always do when you're in danger." Bard remarked, sarcastically.
"Would you be quiet!?" Kristoff said, annoyed.
"Uh… guys?" Anna spoke up.
They all turned around when they heard a rustling in the bushes behind them and jumped when three gray, coated wolves with sharp teeth leapt out and faced them. They bared their fanged and growled hungrily at the six heroes.
"Wolves! Not again…" Anna griped.
"Again?" Elsa questioned, surprised and with raised eyebrows.
"It's a long story…" Her younger sister said.
"Don't worry, we can take 'em!" Bard declared.
"We can?" Kristoff asked, surprised.
"Yes! We can!" Bard insisted. They then began to hear a another sound coming from the bushes.
"Oh, what now!?" Kristoff complained.
They then heard the sound of people making a crunching noise as they stepped through the snow and came toward them. When they finally stepped out of the shadows and the bushes, the heroes saw that they were very well covered up, wearing parkas, carrying spears and had very angry and deranged looks on their faces. Bubbles formed at the corner of their mouths as they growled at the six heroes, who seemed to be great outnumbered six to many
"Ok I don't think we can take all of them." Bard stated, sounding nervous as they approached them.
"I think your right…" Kristoff agreed, looking very nervous.
"Who are they?" Anna wondered, fearfully.
"I've heard rumors… about certain people living out in the mountains… they are said to be people driven mad by hunger." Elsa said, also scared. "They might as well be a pack of wild dogs…"
"Kind of like the wolves trying to eat us, right?" Olaf asked, while Sven cowered behind him.
Kristoff then turned to the Queen. "Elsa, can't you freeze them?"
"Not without hurting them and I…" Elsa began.
"Right, right, you're not comfortable hurting people with your powers, I get it." Kristoff nodded.
"Not to mention my powers aren't exactly harmless either." Bard pointed out.
"So what do we do?" Olaf asked.
"Maybe I can slow them somehow…" Elsa said. "Like… freeze their feet or something"
"Give it a try!" Anna encouraged. Elsa nodded and quickly let her powers loose and created a tall ice wall in front of the mountain savages.
"Yes!" Kristoff cheered. Sven whinnied.
The others began to celebrate also, until suddenly one of the savage on the other side managed to punch his whole arm through the ice like it was nothing.
"Oh, come on!" Kristoff complained, dismayed.
It wasn't long before the other psycho's began to punch and kick down the ice wall, causing the heroes to back up fearfully as it crumbled.
"RUN!" Bard yelled.
The group then screamed, turned toward a different direction and fled. Elsa had a bit of trouble due to her dress but using her ice powers she creates a better way of running even with on. The psycho's nearly catch up to them, but Bard manages to knock one over by firing a fire ball at his feet which caused a scroll to fly out.
"Ooh! Cool!" Bard said as he took the old scroll. He then noticed the psycho's getting louder now. "Uh-oh…"
Bard then turned and ran off, it took him a while but he finally managed to catch up to the others.
"What is that?" Kristoff asked, panting as they ran. "What the heck did you take?"
"I have no idea." The fire manipulator replied. Young Bard was fighting for breath now, each lungful demanding an increasingly painful effort. He motioned in the direction of the bellowing and anger filled yells of the hooded psychos chasing them. "But they were carrying it. It seemed very important."
"Oh terrific…" Kristoff remarked, sarcastically.
"Just keep running!" Elsa yelled. As she tried to create an ice wall to slow them down but after pounding it a couple of times they broke through.
The six of them then sprinted through the snow as best as they could, with the psycho's running right behind them, looking to do who knows what to all of them. Olaf screamed like a girl while Anna and Kristoff tried throwing several snowballs at them to slow them down but it barely did anything so they kept on running.
"It's not use! They just keep on coming!" Kristoff cried. Bard then got an idea.
"Hey! Maybe I can distract them! Maybe even talk to them!" Bard realized. as he stopped in his tracks and turned around to face them.
"Bard! Wait!" Elsa called out.
"Hey! Hold up! Stop!" Bard tried to tell the psychos that continued to come toward him. The others stopped as well.
"Bard! What are you doing!?" Anna asked him, incredulously.
"Something really stupid!" Bard confessed as he continued to try and reason with the savages. "Ok… let's try this then."
Bard then released some flames and began to several tricks with them, similar to the ones he did for the crowd back in Arendelle. He used the fireballs for juggling, a hula hoop and created a fire snake as well. His friends and family stared at him blankly.
"What… is he… doing?" Kristoff asked, incredulously.
"I think… he's putting on a show." Anna observed.
"Really? Been of an impromptu time for it but ok!" Olaf said, cheerfully. "Go, Bard go!"
Bard continued to try and entertain the mountain people, acting as hammy and clownish as he could be, but as he continued the psycho's slowly became more and more angry.
"Uh… something tells me they aren't a fan of his show…" Kristoff observed, looking nervous.
"Well they are insane…" Anna pointed out.
"Bard! Get out of there!" Elsa yelled, nearly out of breath. Bard looked confused at first but as soon as he sees the psycho's closing in on him he gasped, ceased his efforts before running off along with the others. Bard eventually catches up to Elsa and the rest of his group. "This is neither the time nor the place to make a dramatic presentation!"
A glance showed that the savages had gotten around the wall of flame and were nearly on top of them.
"Besides which, I don't think your intended audience is in any mood to listen to anything you have to say!" she continued.
"Yeah, I'm getting that." Bard admitted as he continued to run.
"So what do you supposed we do!?" Anna asked. Bard looked ahead and saw the path they were previously on before the wolves ambushed them and another area nearby. He get an idea.
"Follow me, guys!" Bard told them as he ran ahead of them and away from the path.
They all began to follow him, but Kristoff soon realized that they weren't going the way they were supposed to.
"Bard! The path is that way!" Kristoff shouted to Bard.
Something sharp and potentially lethal whizzed past the Prince's head. A glance back showed the mob of angry hooded men was closing the gap. At the group's present rate of retreat, it was only a matter of moments before the next flung a knife, spear or some rounded stone brought them to the ground.
"I know, but we're not going down that path!" Bard yelled without looking back at them, as he proceeded to drape the parchment over a nearby tree branch, As he released it, the scroll unfurled all the way to the ground, revealing a host of markings and symbols that must have been written by these crazed tribal people taken untold hours of labor to render so precisely and clearly.
"No." Realizing the import of Bard's cryptic words, Kristoff's eyes widened with fear. "No, no, no!"
Whatever was written on the scroll, it caused the tribe of psychos to break off their furious pursuit of the team. Spying the cherished piece of paper dangling from the branch, they immediately came to a halt and dropped to their knees before bowing to it.
A number of them however, plus the wolves that had just caught up to them, had more than passive veneration on their minds. For those ones, there reminded the small matter of getting revenge.
Struggling to keep up with the others, Elsa still put one foot in front of the other. She was simply not used to running this fast, especially in a dress. Having to do so now did nothing to improve her mood. She was not so fatigued that she failed to recognize their surroundings, however, just like Kristoff. She pointed to her left.
"Bard! This is all wrong! The pathway is that way! Not this way!"
Bard looked over him, each word now interrupted by a short, hasty breath. "We won't make it to the path!" he told her.
"So our only other option is jump off a cliff!?" Anna exclaimed.
"Yep!" Bard confirmed
"Makes sense to me!" Olaf smiled. Kristoff just groaned, annoyed.
"I hate this!" Kristoff screamed.
"I know you do!" Bard cried as they all continued running and began to get closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. "Ok! Everyone get ready to jump! Elsa, get ready to freeze!"
"A-Alright…" Elsa said, nervously.
"Ready… now!" Bard called out. Without breaking stride, the group of six all hurled themselves over the edge. As they plunged off the cliff, arms failing and legs kicking, Elsa almost couldn't hear what Bard yelled. "Elsa!"
Elsa quickly blasted the water before them with her ice powers and generated a rather large block of ice for them all to land on, then she used an icy wind to slowly guide them down the cliff. When they are inches away from the ground they each crash land on the ice block and slid across it before getting up and groaning painfully.
"Oh… ok… that could have been worse…" Bard muttered, groaning.
Kristoff groaned, also. "Are we still alive?"
"I think so…" Bard confirmed.
Anna then popped right up. "Whoo! That was kind of fun!" she said.
Kristoff groaned loudly as he got up. "Are you serious?" he asked, incredulously. "Whoo… never want to do that again…"
Bard then got up along with Elsa. "Are you kidding me? I feel great!" The eighteen-year old exclaimed.
"Me too!" Olaf added. "How about we do that again?"
Feeling woozy after such an exhausting task Elsa nearly fell over but was kept up by Kristoff who caught her at the last second and helped her up along with Anna.
"Nice job, your highness" Kristoff complimented Elsa.
"Yeah, I knew you had it in you." Anna added.
"I gotta admit I'm pretty impressed, sis." Bard smiled.
"Thanks… I'm not usually around this much water…" Elsa breathed with a smile as well.
"Well at least we're all alive…" Bard stated. "That's good…"
Kristoff stepped forward. "Enough! Don't forget, your little 'take whatever looks cool' game, nearly got us all killed!" he exclaimed.
"When did this become my fault?" Bard questioned, sounding insulted.
"When you took their scroll without even knowing what it even was!" Kristoff exclaimed, annoyed.
"I didn't know how important it was to them!" Bard defended. "Hello! They were nuts!"
"Still, if something looks like it's important to someone you shouldn't take it!" Kristoff scolded.
"It was an accident!" Bard exclaimed.
"It was a really stupid accident!" Kristoff yelled back.
"He's right, you should have thought it through first." Elsa agreed.
"You're taking his side!?" Bard exclaimed.
Anna quickly got between them. "Hey! Hey! Let's not fight, let's not fight! Remember we're on a block of ice here and if you two fight… we're in for a long swim back to land."
Bard and Kristoff looked down and saw that the ice was indeed crackable, as well as meltable and saw her point. They gave each other once last glare before turning away from each other, childishly. Elsa just sighed, disappointed.
"Whatever, let's just keep going." Bard grumbled as he stomped off away them, looking frustrated. They were all quiet till Olaf spoke up.
"Works for me!" he cheered. "Come on you guys, let's go!"
"Kind of hard to do when you're not moving." Kristoff pointed out, gesturing to ice block they were standing on, which was not drifting whatsoever. "Plus… you can stop walking there's nowhere to go."
Bard ceased his walking, looking wide-eyed before his hair actually became fire as he growled angrily.
Anna turned to her sister. "Elsa, can you use your powers to propel us back to land?" she asked.
"Yeah… hang on." Elsa said as she rubbed her hands together slowly. She then extended them and quickly released a strong and cold wind that began to push the block of ice away from the cliff side. Anna smiled.
"Alright!" she said. "Now we're moving! Right guys?"
Bard and Kristoff continued to stay away from each other. Elsa doesn't look like she wanted to say anything either and continued to propel them forward..
"Yeah!" Olaf finally cheered. Sven whined in agreement also.
"Ok then…" Anna said, slowly. "Uncomfortable silence it is then…"
And so they continued to sail towards the nearest source of land, standing around with the 'uncomfortable silence' that Anna mentioned earlier filling the air quickly. Well, until Olaf decided to say something that is.
"Hey, you think we'll find some more snowmen over there? Maybe a snowwoman? Huh? Huh? Come what do you think?" Olaf asked. Everyone just groaned as they kept on sailing on, they're morale now broken.
