Chapter 14: Training.
Seventeen years – Fourteen years.
Darkness. Silence. Cold wind caressing her left cheek. Nothing.
She concentrated; there had to be more.
An owl hooted in the branches above her, and then she heard rustling sounds to her left. Finally! She took a moment to plan before opening her eyes and quickly shot an icicle to her left; hoping to hit whatever had caused that sound. A few seconds later, the rustling stopped and there was silence once more.
She slowly walked towards the source of the noise, confused by the lack of movement, to see what she had hit with her powers. A few moments later, she discovered a bloody animal with thick black fur. Her icicle had impaled it through the middle, so it was already dead. However, she did not even have time to sigh in disappointment before she heard the familiar sound of a sword being drawn from it's sheathe, and it came from right behind her.
Quickly, she turned around and raised her arms, creating a thin barricade of ice that protected her from the first impact. However, it quickly started to break at the second strike, and finally shattered with the third. Cursing, when the sword descended again she caught it with her hands, now encased in thick gloves of ice, which protected them from the blade's sharp edge. Unfortunately, her protection that did little to lessen the impact, leaving her with trembling arms and legs that threatened to give out from the force of the blow. But she held on. She held on because she knew she was better than he was. She was a goddess, and he was her servant.
With that thought in mind, she let her ice encase the sword, freezing the steel until it became brittle, and twisted her hands. The blade broke in half before dropping to the ground in front of her.
Satisfied, she shot an ice blast at him, but he stepped aside before it could hit him and pulled out a dagger. Elsa almost rolled her eyes; there was no way he could take her down with a dagger now that she was alerted of his presence. Instead of directly attacking him, however, she decided to coat the floor in ice when he tried to charge at her, making him slip and fall to the ground.
Smirking, the princess stepped towards him and raised her right hand, intending to release her magic and imprison him in ice. But before she could do that, he threw his dagger at her, effectively distracting her for a second, which gave him time to grasp a branch above his head and shakily rise to his feet. He was unarmed now though, or at least Elsa thought so as she approached him, hands raised and ready to take him down. He desperately tried to run away, presumably to try to grab his dagger laying in the ground behind Elsa. But she quickly released her powers and froze him to the trunk, trapping him to make sure he wouldn't try anything.
"Well? Do you give up?" Elsa asked with a smug smile, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Yes." He sighed, slouching his shoulders in defeat.
Instantly, Elsa shattered the ice and laughed when she watched him fall to the ground. However, her joy was short-lived as he pressed his palms against the floor and she felt a powerful force launching her across the clearing. She landed on her back and for a moment could think of nothing but the pain. It hurt to breathe, but with all the air knocked out of her lungs, she took in several pained breaths. Her back stung due to rocks and twigs digging into her, but otherwise she was unharmed.
She tried to understand what had just happened, her head disoriented and fogged by pain. She tried to stand up but instantly felt a sharp, stabbing pain against her chest. She looked down to see the tip of a dagger piercing her clothing and drawing blood. The wound was not deep enough to be life-threatening, but the placing was very precise. A few more inches and that blade would pierce her heart.
Looking up, she met Percival's angry eyes and saw he was the one holding the dagger. She scowled back at him and yelled angrily.
"What the fuck was that?!" Instead of answering though, he shrugged and got up, putting the dagger back in his belt.
"You never know what powers your enemy may have. Better finish them off before they have a chance to kill you." He said, but that did nothing to lessen Elsa's scowl.
"We're just training!" She complained, getting up while pressing her hand against her wound and releasing her powers to alleviate the pain. "And you never told me you could use magic. I thought you only read about it."
"I've learned a few tricks." He answered with a nonchalant attitude. "Nothing special though; almost anyone can learn them, really."
"You could have told me sooner." Elsa mumbled angrily, upset that he was keeping secrets from her. After all, even if he was technically her teacher, training her to have better control of her powers, he should still treat her like the goddess he claimed she was. Part of being her servant meant not lying to her. Ever.
"I didn't deem it necessary." Was his infuriating answer. "And besides, if you had finished me off, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to use magic."
"I'm not killing you." Elsa rolled her eyes, but once she focused again on the boy, she remembered she actually despised him quite a lot, even if he'd been kinda helpful as of lately. "Yet." She added. "You're still of some use to me."
"You didn't have to kill me. You could have knocked me out." He retorted, apparently unconcerned by the fact the princess had not discarded the possibility of killing him in the future. Moreover, despite her anger, Elsa had to admit he was right; she could have knocked him unconscious. However, she had not done that because she felt bad attacking someone who, at that moment, she assumed to be defenseless.
"I know." She sighed, and looked down in shame. She didn't like failing.
However, she soon noticed something strange about the ground. It was covered in snow, and now that she thought about it, snowflakes had been slowly falling down from the sky for a while now. An unfortunate by-product of her unstable emotions and, therefore, powers.
"You should also have more control on your magic." Percival chastised her. "In a real battle wasting your power unnecessarily like this could be fatal."
"I didn't even notice." Elsa answered, watching the snow with a mix of disappointment and anger. She should already be better at this! It had been almost a week since something like this had happened. "I can't control them well enough. They're getting stronger by the day." She told him, but only because she knew he was the only one who could maybe help her with this.
"Every day you grow, they grow too." He told her something she had heard from his mouth at least ten times already. "One day, you'll be powerful enough to freeze the entire kingdom, and therefore it's crucial you can make them do precisely what you want; nothing else."
"You really think I'll be that powerful?" She asked, her gaze lost as she started wondering if having such unstoppable power would be a good or a bad thing. After all, many would surely respect her for that. Right? However, she did not want to freeze anyone… except Anna's suitors. They could all rot in hell for all she cared.
"I know it." He answered without hesitating, and the certainty in his words sent chills down her spine. She did not like thinking about her future, or the possibly divine origin of her powers. It scared her, made her feel small, compared to what she could be in the future.
"I think we've trained enough for today." Elsa said, not wanting to dwell on the subject any further. "Let's go back to the castle."
With that she started walking away from the small clearing that had been their training place for months now. Percival followed her close behind, for the moment blessedly silent. She wanted nothing but to sneak into her room and have a good night of dreamless sleep. She just hoped she did not have nightmares again.
Running. She was running. She did not even care her feet hurt or that her lungs felt like they were about to explode. She needed to escape. They had been following her for a while now, and they were not stopping anytime soon. They carried various weapons, from bows and arrows to swords and even simple kitchen utensils.
They wanted to kill the Ice Queen, the witch prophesized by the trolls… and they thought it was her.
No. They knew it was her. Heck, even she knew it! She was a monster, someone with demon-like powers that could not be contained. They acted responding to her emotions, and in that moment, they were driven wild by her fear.
"But what are you afraid of?" A voice asked her, and she looked up to find Percival sitting just ahead of her, a calm expression in place, as if he had not noticed the angry mob going after her. "You don't have to be afraid." He said once more. "You're a goddess. You can crush them like insects with a single flick of your hand." He smiled wickedly. "They're the ones who should be afraid."
And just like that, suddenly Elsa didn't have control of her body. She stopped and turned around, obeying an unspoken command of an unknown source. Then, she rose her hands and, with a powerful cry, released every bit of her magic.
After that, everything was confusing. She could only make out some details; giant icicles falling from the sky, monster-like creatures made of snow destroying everything in their way, ice crawling up buildings and shattering the structure into pieces, and… Blood. Screams. People dying, calling out for their loved ones and crying in pain.
However, try as she did, Elsa could not bring herself to care. Could not bring herself to stop. The gruesome scene before her gave her some kind of twisted satisfaction.
Suddenly, it wasn't an unknown force taking control of her body. No, she was in control now. And she didn't want to stop.
Elsa woke up covered in sweat, her heart racing in her chest and threatening to burst out of her ribs.
That nightmare had felt so real, and it was far longer and more detailed than the previous ones. More disturbingly though, was the fact that this time she had not been horrified by the carnage; she had enjoyed it. If that did not make her a sick monster, she no longer had any idea what could.
Calm down. It was a stupid dream. She told herself.
However, she could not calm down. She knew dreams are often a reflection of your most secret thoughts and desires. She knew that, deep down, she might wish to inflict such horrors in her people at some point. And that scared her more than anything else. More even than the fact her whole room was now covered in ice, and she would probably be punished in the morning if she did not managed to thaw it in time.
In her current shaken state, that task seemed more than impossible.
The next day, just after eating breakfast, the servants informed her father about her little slip up of magic and, of course, she was reprimanded before attending to her first lesson of the day. Little details like that sometimes made her wonder why she even bothered to remain in the castle and do everything she was told. However, such thoughts were quickly quashed when she'd remind herself that she was the heir to the throne. And once she became queen she would have the power to make some very necessary changes.
Like kicking Anna's suitors out of the palace, for example. Though thankfully they were no longer there all the time and the selection had been narrowed down recently. Only two of them remained; the stupid prince of the Southern Isles with his ugly sideburns, and Kristoff, a blonde boy from a nearby town, son of a lord of some sort. Honestly, he was not as bad as the others were, but she did not think he would make it this far. Not only because of his rather mediocre title, but also his awful smell… and weird habit of spending most of the time with his reindeer.
However, the worst thing in that damn palace lately was… Anna. Yes, that stupid little girl had apparently forgotten about her sister's confession about her true feelings for her (or at least decided to ignore it completely). So, instead of avoiding her like the plague, she had lately resorted to a far more painful sort of torture; she had been trying to convince her to spend some time with her and the princes, arguing they'd all be one big happy family soon enough (as soon as Anna came of age, so in about three years).
Of course, Elsa had immediately refused each and every time, but… that only made Anna angrier and more determined to achieve her goals. The older girl was afraid she would soon resort to complaining to their parents about it, at which point they would force Elsa to socialize with their guests.
She hoped something like that would take some time to happen, though.
"Elsa!" A voice was heard just outside her room.
Speak of the devil.
"What?" She spat, not bothering on telling her little sister to come in. But then again, she did so without waiting for Elsa to answer.
"Uh… I'm going out with Kristoff, don't you want to come? You could bring Percival along." She answered, getting directly to the point so Elsa wouldn't have a chance to tell her to fuck off before she could even invite her.
"No. I don't want to go out with you and your smelly boyfriend." She said, not bothering to turn from her position at the desk to look at her, and pretending to be engrossed on what she was reading. Truthfully, she didn't have any idea of what she was looking at, but anything was better than looking at Anna.
"Oh, come on! His smell is just… different." Anna tried to defend him. "And he is very nice, even if a little awkward." She giggled. "I think you would like him, if you ever tried to get to know him."
Elsa could not help noticing the fond way she talked about him. It was obvious she liked him a lot; she had been spending more and more time with him ever since the selection had narrowed down. And it hurt. A lot. So much in fact, that Elsa knew she could never like that boy, no matter how good he was. No matter if he could make Anna happy.
"Not interested." Was her curt reply.
"But…" Anna was about to protest, but was cut off by a hard glare from Elsa, who suddenly turned around and stared daggers at her.
"Not. Interested." She repeated through gritted teeth, trying to appear mad and annoyed at the younger girl, but… it was quite easy to get distracted. Anna had always been beautiful, at least in Elsa's opinion there was no doubt about it. But lately… gosh, lately she was just gorgeous.
She was not oblivious to the fact that her hips had widened, and her previously flat chest, now had a pair of very soft-looking mounds that were no doubt a sight to behold without clothes. More so, she was now almost as tall as Elsa, and her legs were long and shapely, instead of short and chubby.
No, Anna was a woman now. And so was she. And she had urges.
Gosh, how she wished she could run her hands through that copper hair! Kiss those pink lips that were once hers, but now seemed so much more tantalizing. Take off those clothes and marvel at the wonder of her sister's new body, explore it; discover the color of her nipples, the feeling of her pubic hair on her hand, the taste of…
"Elsa?" Anna's voice pulled her out of her contemplation, and she realized she had just been caught staring. Blushing, she averted her gaze and tried to think of innocent things.
"D-did you say something?" She asked, trying not to appear too nervous, which prompted Anna to sigh in disappointment, obviously upset that she was not listening.
"I said you should at least let me get to know Percival, you know? To see if he's good enough for my sister." Anna answered with a teasing smile, obviously implying he and Elsa were in a romantic relationship. "You've been spending a lot of time with him lately, and I think a double date would be a good opportunity to get to know each other's special someone."
"Percival is not my 'special someone'." Elsa retorted clearly upset at the mere suggestion, quoting with her fingers. "He's just the moron our parents chose to be my husband, but I don't even like him."
"Why don't you tell them?" Anna asked, genuinely curious.
"Because they won't care?" Elsa answered, rolling her eyes, thinking she was stating the obvious.
"Of course they'll care! They're our parents, and they surely know a marriage has to be based on love." The younger girl answered naively.
"Love is a luxury not all of us have." Elsa retorted, looking almost accusingly at her, trying not to remember the time she had broken her heart, and failing miserably. Even if many years had passed since that day, it still hurt like a newly made wound.
"That's not true!" Anna protested, exasperated at the negative attitude of her sister. "True love is something every person must feel."
"Oh, I know that." Elsa agreed. "But not everyone can marry the person they love. The sooner you understand this, the better. Or else you'll learn it in a very painful way." She said it like a warning, but she wondered if it was even valid for Anna. After all, she would probably marry Kristoff, and she seemed to be very fond of him. Maybe not to the point of love yet, but…
Elsa forcibly stopped that train of thought. There was no use on dwelling on that; it would only hurt her even more.
"Ugh! I hate it when you are all grumpy and pessimistic." She complained, running her hand through her bangs in an exasperated gesture. "You sound like a bitter old lady."
"So?" She shrugged, wanting to be left alone.
"Unbelievable!" Anna exclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest disapprovingly. "I just wanted to spend some time with you, because we've been distant as of late, and I thought we could also get to know our respective princes. But you don't care one bit about it."
"No, I don't." Elsa said, not bothering to correct her sister's statement, even if she was not sure it was true; she would like to spend some time with Anna without fighting or arguing over something. But she absolutely hated Kristoff, and didn't want to see him, so… "Now, if you're done, I'd like to go back to my studies."
"If you keep up this attitude, you will die alone." Anna said angrily before turning around and storming out of the room. Elsa could only sigh and try to focus again on the text in front of her. But she couldn't.
The distance between her and Anna was getting larger everyday, and she did not like it. She loved her with all her heart. She loved her more than anything in the world. She'd give up everything and anything to have her, and yet… she kept driving her away. Why? She wasn't sure. There were too many reasons; the suitors, her powers, her incestuous feelings, the fact everyone thought she was a monster… it was too difficult.
She knew there would come a time in the not too distant future where they would practically be strangers. It was the last thing in the world she wanted, but she couldn't think of anything she could do to stop her worst fears from coming true.
A/N: I'm back! An I know it's been ages, but I have three good excuses; one, I wanted to finish my other fic, Just one week, before classes started again (which I did!), two, I then went back to school, and it's my last semester on the university, so I've been very busy with homework, and three…The legend of Zelda: Breath of the wild was released. Yeah.
But anyways, I hope to have the next one much sooner. Until them please leave a review if you like this fic; they really encourage me to keep writing, and favorite or follow if you haven't.
Oh, and please check my new fic, The Northern lands, if you want and if you like mystery. It's pretty good, if I do say so myself.
Anyways, that'd be all for now. Hope to see you soon, thanks for reading :D
And thanks to my beta reader moonwatcher13.