Chapter 14:
Making Up is the Best Part
Elsa raced across the fields on horseback; the wind blowing heavily in her face. Anna couldn't have gotten too far. She had to get to her before any of those men did. Who were these guys? She thought. Why were they attacking them? And what was that crazy contraption they had that could shoot fire? Elsa could only assume that all of the answers to these questions weren't good. If things weren't already bad enough, she lost her temper, and drove Anna off. Elsa promised that she would protect her younger sister no matter what on this journey. Now that she was gone, who knows what could happen to her? Elsa whipped the reins on her horse harder, signaling him to go faster. Time was essential. If any of those men harmed Anna, she would never forgive herself. She didn't have a second to lose.
Anna crouched behind a large rock, which shielded her from the gunfire. On the other side, over a dozen of the same men that chased them were shooting at her. Anna picked up her rifle, and fired repeatedly at them, hitting several of the men directly. The firefight continued for ten minutes, each side shooting back at each other. Even as the number of men dwindled, there were still quite a few more left to take care of. Anna reloaded the last of her black powder into her rifle, before firing more rounds at the men. "Come get me, you bastards!" she yelled. Anna didn't want the men to know that even though she looked confident, Anna was terrified on the inside. She was out of black powder for her rifle, and all she had left was her pistol to defend herself.
Once she fired the last shot on her rifle, Anna removed the pistol from her holster, and fired several more shots, striking more of the Duke's men. When it came time to reload, Anna checked her bandolier only to discover that she only had three bullets left. There was no way she could take the rest of the men out with only three bullets.
"Oh, God, this is it!" she muttered to herself. "I'm done for! Oh, I wish Elsa was here."
As if on cue, a sheet of ice tore through the area, knocking the rest of the men unconscious. Anna looked up from behind the large rock to see Elsa racing towards her on horseback.
"Anna! Oh, my God, are you hurt!" Elsa cried, jumping off the horse. She ran over to her sister, and checked her all over, looking for any bullet wounds.
"I'm fine. Way to show up in the nick of time," Anna said, breathing heavily. Even though the fight was over, her heart was still rushing.
"Anna, I'm so sorry for what I said back there. I didn't mean it," Elsa said. "I only meant the best for you. I just don't want to see you get hurt."
Anna nodded. As soon as the men ambushed her, she knew that what Elsa said was the truth. She was behaving recklessly. She was letting her desire to find the treasure blind her to the dangers all around her. Elsa gave her a wakeup call; one that she regretted having not listened to.
"It's fine, Elsa. I managed to hold them off for a while, but if you hadn't shown up when you did, I'd certainly be dead," Anna said, opening the pistol to show that she only had three rounds left.
Elsa pulled Anna into a tight embrace; cherishing the gift she had just to be able to hold her sister again. "If anything would have happened to you…" she said, tears beginning to stream down her face.
"I know," Anna said. "I know."
A moaning sound came from behind them. Anna and Elsa turned around to see one of the men slowly moving his head. He had regained consciousness. "I'll take care of it," Anna said, walking over to the man with her pistol ready to fire.
"No, Anna, wait!" Elsa cried, stopping her.
Elsa crouched down beside the man, grabbed him by his collar, and pulled him to face her. "Who are you? Why are you and your men attacking us?"
"Go to hell, witch!" the man spat.
"I'm going to ask you again. Who are you? And why are you attacking my sister and I?"
"You don't scare me," the man sneered.
With one hand, Elsa summoned an icicle, and held it to the man's throat. "If you don't tell me what I want to know, this is going to go straight through you. Answer my question!"
The man started to shake. Truthfully, he was terrified of Elsa. He knew of the Snow Queen's powers, and he believed her when she said she'd kill him if he didn't tell her what she wanted to know.
"Ok….Ok…Hans and the Duke of Westleton are after the long lost treasure of King Nicholas. They sent us to kill you two so you wouldn't get to the treasure before us. They're on their way to France right now!"
Elsa looked at Anna; the two sisters both shocked at the revelation. "How does Hans and the Duke know about the treasure?" Anna cried.
"Because he heard about when I announced that we found the map and journal," Elsa answered. "Now they're hell-bent on getting to the treasure before us."
"Well, we can't let them!" Anna cried. "We got to get there before they do!"
"Hold on, Anna," Elsa said. "Let's talk about this."
"Don't start this again, Elsa. That's our treasure they're going to steal! It belongs to us!"
"I know, but if you'll just listen…
"I don't care what you say, we're going, and that's final!"
"Anna! I know, alright!" Elsa cried, getting her sister's attention.
"We're not going to let them get it," Elsa said.
Anna's eyes widened. "You mean, we're going to stop them?"
"No. We're going to get the halves of the amulet before they do, and we're going to get the treasure. There's no way in hell I'm letting those two claim what's rightfully ours, especially after all they've done to us."
"But what about this being too dangerous?" Anna asked. "Back there you were ready to turn and walk away."
"I know, but now I see that we have a lot riding on this one. This is personal," Elsa explained. "There's no way I'm letting Hans and the Duke steal our inheritance. Come on, let's go before more of them show up."
Before leaving, Elsa turned back and addressed the last remaining man of the group.
"Tell Hans and the Duke, that if they know what's good for them, they'll stay far away from my sister and I," Elsa hissed.
The man, now completely petrified, nodded vigorously, and ran off into the plains. Anna and Elsa watched him until he was out of sight.
"You think they'll really listen?" Anna asked, incredulously.
"No. But it couldn't hurt to try," Elsa replied, smiling at her.
"So now what do we do. I don't have a horse anymore as you can clearly see," Anna said, gesturing to the dead horse several feet away.
"We still have one horse. We'll ride until we find a village. There we'll see if we can purchase another carriage as well as some supplies."
"Alright. Sounds like a plan," Anna said.
The sisters boarded their horse, and began to set out for the first village. As they raced across the plains, Anna remembered something.
"Hey, Elsa, how will we know how to get to France? Didn't we lose the map and the journal when we jumped over the cliff?" she asked.
Elsa smiled. "Anna, you know me better than that." She pulled out both the map and the journal from the pocket of her dress, and handed them to Anna.
"Smart," Anna said, smiling. "Way to go, sis!"
A/N: Another action-packed chapter! I hope you enjoyed this one! Next one will focus on Hans and the Duke, but the one after will be full of sisterly fluff.