Authors note: I want to thank you all for reviewing and reading the last chapter. Hearing your opinions means a lot and they also help if I need to edit or make something better.
Any way, The underground Kingdom awaits! So please read on and remember to leave a review when done, opinions are most welcomed.
It was baffling, that was the only way to describe it as Elsa stood back and watched Hans work on a closet in one of the less used parts of the castle. Unto the door he burned some strange symbols followed by the strangest paint Elsa had ever seen. They were brilliant colors whose hues she could not identify and produced smells which were reminiscent to a very fragrant forest.
"There, done" said Hans as he stood back and admired his work,
"Its nice but, I though you said you were going to take me to the Underground Kingdom" said Elsa confused,
"Of course, this is our way in" said Hans gesturing to the door,
"I do not understand" said Elsa confused, how could that closet door take them there?
"You see there are several entries to the Underground Kingdom, most of them are in old wells or buildings, but since there are no openings here in Arendelle and you do not like sailing I made an opening here in Arendelle to take us there" said Hans as he walked over and opened the door to reveal a dark hole.
Elsa hesitated, deep inside she hoped this was some kind of trick he was playing, but sadly he very serious as he turned and said "Follow me" with that he walked into the closet and never came back out. For a moment Elsa looked unsure before following in after him never noticing a dark shadow duck behind her and enter the door as it closed behind her and locked itself.
Storms raged outside of Arendelle as the town closed and braced itself for the rain, while it did non of them noticed a large bird with black and gray plumage fly through the storm clouds, making its way to Arendelle.
Landing outside of the town near an outpost the birds form was engulfed in shadows before a person stepped out, pulling down his hood he made his way to the charming cottage only to pause for a moment to read the sign which said "Wondering Oaken's trading post and sauna" pushing his glasses closer he re read again slightly confused about the last part but regardless entered the establishment.
Looking around he was going to further in but soon heard "Wo hoo" it was the store owner,
"Big summer blow out, half off of our winter department ya?" said Oakens if the name had to be guessed,
"No thank you, but I would like some info" said the stranger,
"Sure mister?",
"Lars" said the stranger "I am here to inquire information about the Firebird",
"Oh the Queens fiancé, you know I was skeptical about the marriage...you know...bird human..., but seeing the changes and our queen happy made me change my mind about him" said Oakens,
"Yes" hissed Lars, he had hopped it was not true, but hopefully he arrived in time to stop his brother from marrying.
"Well I have not seen him, but if you want to maybe you should travel to the Arendelle castle where he lives with the Queen about a couple of miles from here" said Oakens gesturing outside towards a road,
"Thank you" with that Lars left the store, once outside he waved his hands and shadow materialized in form of people,
"Go to the Arendelle castle, find my brother, once you do I do not care what you have to do...bring him back to me even if you have to drag him over" commanded Lars and with a movement from his hand the command was said so the shadow left to fulfilled their order.
Light, it was blinding, beautiful, slowly opening her eyes Elsa found face to face with green grass and flowers of all manner of shapes and colors that she would have never even imagined in her wildest dreams.
Slowly looking around she took in the breathtaking sights of beauty which surrounded her.
"I know" said Hans as he guessed what she was thinking,
"Are we?" Elsa asked almost breathless, saying nothing Hans turned and followed a path up a hill,
"Firebird?" asked Elsa as she followed Hans.
Silently the two followed the path leading up the hill and when they finally got to the top of the hill Elsa gasped as she stared at the kingdom before them.
It was large, a mish mash of different cultures and time periods that somehow managed to meet and exists harmoniously in one place.
Turning to face her Hans gestured, pointing to the kingdom before them "Elsa, welcome to the Underground kingdom, the realm of magic, but most importantly my home".
Boring, boring, it was what Anna though as she sat down on a meeting with the mayor of Arendelle who was speaking about the reforms of Arendelle and some other rules which he felt that needed to be changed.
Nodding Anna took down notes just in case, she did not know how Elsa did it, but she was determined to do her best as she wanted her sister to be proud of her, to help her, to show that she can be left in charge to allow Elsa time to relax.
Watching close by the council was even less pleased to know that Anna was just as impossible to manipulate as Elsa and they can guess who to blame for that.
"Stupid Firebird" though the Duke in anger as it seems his plans were blowing up in his face. His back up plan was to use Anna but seeing Anna handle things so effectively meant that that plan was out the window. Regardless if the Duke was anything he was determined, there had to be a way to turn the tides to their favor.
"There has to be a way to get the Firebird out of the way" growled the Duke not knowing a shadow had been listening, with this info it left to tell its master of its finding.
The Underground kingdom, since hearing of it from Hans Elsa tried to images how such a place would look like.
Based on what he told her she had imagined a place full of magic, gothic, kinda medieval, but what she saw was not even close to what she had imagined even in her wildest dreams.
It was beautiful, truly a little slice of heaven, the buildings were all of different eras and cultures yet they blend in so seamlessly as if they belonged together, there were forest and valleys all around, sparkling rivers and waterfalls, there was a sky and the sun was shining, the sky and sun was an illusion, but regardless it did not take away from the beautiful place as the "sun" set behind a castle which was built on top of a small mountain.
"Its been almost a year" said Hans then added rubbing the back of his neck "I know Sylvia will kill me for not keeping in contact till just recently",
"Sylvia? Your fateweaver friend?" asked Elsa to see if she remembered well,
"Yes, though she acts as if she was like my bossy older sister" said Hans as they began to make their way to the kingdom as they still had a long way to go to get there, plus the sun was setting rapidly and he wanted to get there before dark.
"She sounds fun" said Elsa with a light chuckle,
"Ya... as fun as a barrel of monkeys" said Hans a bit sarcastic as they walked. Soon they arrived to the to the entrance of the kingdom, the entrance itself was a large stone gate with two stone like guards holding weapons standing on either side.
Tired, feet hurting and hungry both Hans and Elsa were glad they arrived.
"When I take you home we will get dinner" said Hans tired "I am so hungry I could eat a horse",
"My feet hurt so much... I think that I am going to lay off wearing heels for a while" though Elsa as she cursed herself for wearing high heel shoes, if she had known all the walking she would have to do she would have worn other foot wear.
"Halt!" a booming voice called, all of a sudden a great stone wall was erected before their very own eyes, preventing them to continue into the kingdom, turning Elsas mouth opened wide when she saw the two statues move, both holding their weapons, ready to strike if they did anything.
"Who goes there? Who are you two?" asked one, its voice hurting Elsas ears, it was like listening to a thunder storm up close, though it did not seem to bother Hans at all as he spoke "Lapis, Scopulus, it is I Phoenix prince Hans, returning from the land of no magic".
Both stone statues looked before, bending their heads and falling to their knees till they were kneeling as low as possible before saying "You have been gone a long time your majesty",
"I am aware, but rest assure I will always come back" said Hans, they nodded then asked when they noticed Elsa,
"Who is she?",
"Her name is Queen Elsa, she is my guest for duration of my visit here" said Hans, they all looked at Elsa as if trying to decide something about her before nodding and one, maybe Lapis turned to expose his stone leg and saying "Alright, but before she goes into the kingdom I need her to carve her name, date and time to my stone, so I can remember who she are and when you arrived".
Nodding Elsa made ice tools carved the name, date and time which magically vanished as soon as she carved it into the stone.
Satisfied the stone guardians waved their hand making the wall disappear and them going back to their original positions.
"Sorry Elsa, its the Golems job to keep undesirables out" said Hans,
"Undesirables?" asked Elsa as they resumed their walk,
"Criminals, people with bad intentions and so forth" explained Hans "That's the term we used for them, of course if you heard the word unspeakable used to describe somebody be very afraid",
"Why?" asked Elsa,
"Those who are called unspeakable have committed horrible acts, like murder of the innocent and other such acts" said Hans, at that moment Elsa knew why they unspeakable were called that way,
Night had gotten darker by the time they arrived to the castle, it was so dark Elsa could not see it clearly, leading her through the back Hans snuck her through the gardens till they arrived at a row of houses hidden in the gardens.
Passing some of them she and Hans arrived at a modest traditional Danish home. It was owned by Hans and unknown to Elsa it was enchanted as it may look modest on the outside but on the inside it was very large, had a huge number of rooms, 2 libraries, a training room where he could practice magic or combat and of course a huge indoor garden...
Originally Hans had the garden outside but had to move it on the inside as he just could not get privacy he wanted outside.
Opening the iron gate, Hans let Elsa through before following and making their way to the door, taking out the keys Hans unlocked the front door and let Elsa in before he entered and closed the door behind her.
Starring at the foyer Elsa was stunt as it looked like it belong to a grand palace not a modest home, with its creole marble grand staircase, polished floors, rich vermillion red walls and tall ceilings, it was a grand spectacle, a show of power and wealth yet, something was missing, but what?
"Too much?" asked Hans,
"No, I just did not expect it" said Elsa as she looked around,
"Ya... a lot of the things I picked up from my travels, but this is nothing, you should see Marius home, his is more grander than mine" said Hans as he lead her up the staircase and through the corridors, so many that Elsa was left shocked as she never expected the place to be so big on the inside.
"Are you hungry?" he asked,
"A bit " said Elsa as she continued to follow him up and down a hallway with many doors before Hans paused in front of one and said "Your room, there is a bathroom there also, I don't have any female clothes so your going to have to borrow some of mine for tonight if you want",
"Thank you" said Elsa as he let her into the room, it was quite nice really, reminded her a bit of her own room with the canopy bed, an arm rest chair with nice white covers with flowers on it, yet different colors, it was smaller and had a lot of books.
Turning he gave her a vial of something, "For your water, to help relax" he said then added "Dinner will be delivered to your room later and your free to go wherever you want in my home",
"Thank you" said Elsa,
"Your welcome, have good dreams, I will see you tomorrow" said Hans before turning around and leaving the room quietly.
When alone Elsa entered the bathroom she jumped back when the candles in the bathroom lit up by themselves and tub suddenly filled with warm water, lemon slices and jasmine flowers also appeared along with a strange white milky color which Elsa was quick to realize it was milk.
Walking over she took off her clothes and shoes before wincing at how swollen her feet were .
"Hopefully this will work" though Elsa as she opened the bottle and poured the contents into the bath water before easing herself into the water.
It was very pleasant, the water was warm, the smell was soothing and relaxed her as she undid her braid and ran her hand through her hair.
As she breathed she began to wonder about Anna.
Was she okay? We're things going alright? Surely things were going great, but Elsa could not help but worry.
Moving her hand she took moment to look at the ring which Hans had given her...
Gently she took it off of her finger and held it in her hand just looking at it, the blue diamond shimmering prettily against candlelight as her mind went back to their relationship, yes they had been getting closer again, he has been truthful and honest since her condition of courtship was placed, but the question remained on whether she would want to marry him in the end or not. She had felt something for him before, maybe it had been a crush at the time not love, but the more she actually gets to know him, the more he has open up to her, the more those feelings have been growing into love and despite what happened the efforts he was making in their relationship was helping to win her back, but still it was too early for her to decide just yet.
Finishing she got up from the tub, got a towel and dried herself before leaving the bathroom to her bedroom where she found a simple long white shirt, it was probably a linen or a muslim shirt, it was one a man would use but it showed no signs of ever being used, it even had the price tag still attached to it.
Putting it on Elsa found it to be very long and very light weight, it was as if she was wearing nothing at all before turning her attention to the night stand where there was a small meal waiting for her, it was a leg of roast chicken, potatoes and boiled asparagus, on a smaller dish there was a chocolate cake.
Hungry Elsa ate it all before turning in for the night as she was quite tired and the bed looked to be quite comfortable. So pulling back the covers Elsa curled up in bed and pulled the blankets over her before falling asleep not noticing when the candles all blew out by themselves.
To be continued...
Authors note: Finally in the Underground Kingdom, what will Elsa see? Who else she will meet? What will she experience? Lol you will have to read the next chapter which will come up soon. Any way I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Well you will have to wait and see...so please leave a review to tell me what you think.