They spent the night with the trolls, deciding to head back to civilization in the morning. Anna was provided with a simple spare wooden hut. It was small, but the fur blankets and pillows inside were surprisingly comfortable. In another situation, she would have been able to fall asleep easily.
But her thoughts kept her up for over an hour.
The trolls knew nothing that was of assistance to the Queen's safety. Anna had always known that it would be a long shot- in truth she was fortunate that they had even turned out to exist in the first place. But still, the redhead couldn't help but be incredibly disappointed.
Elsa meant the world to her. Anna had gladly taken an arrow for her once, and she wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Even though the trolls had turned out to be a dead-end, Anna would continue to do everything in her power to protect the monarch.
A sudden stab of fear shot through the redhead. She'd already been gone for days. What if there had already been another attack? Anna herself had been the target of an assassination attempt, who was to say that the Queen hadn't been as well? And if she had, Elsa would not have had the benefit of Anna's protection.
Anna knew that, without her presence at Elsa's side during the Solstice, the Queen would likely have been killed. The personal attendant had rescued her twice; both hauling her out of a burning carriage and knocking her out of the arrow's path. True, Elsa would be more careful now...and she remained the most dangerous being on the planet, but every day Anna was not by her side was a day she was more vulnerable.
In the end, only sheer exhaustion forced the redhead into unconsciousness.
\
In the morning, Anna was introduced to dozens of other trolls. At first, it was overwhelming. Most of them weren't calm and composed, like Grand Pabbie. They were loud, friendly, and enthusiastic. Before their journey back, Anna and Kristoff were treated to a lovely early meal...that unfortunately was accompanied by a lot of questions and suggestions about their relationship.
"Are you guys together? You should be!"
"Look how cute he is, Anna! Kiss him already!"
"Tell her how you feel Kristoff!"
It was only after repeating to them over a dozen times that not only was she already in a relationship, but that Kristoff was also (by virtue of his gender) not her type that most of them finally got the message.
Still, although they could be annoying, Anna found herself growing accustomed to their personalities. Each of them was kind and helpful, and they never meant any harm with their prodding. It would doubtless have been taxing at times, but part of Anna wouldn't have minded being in Kristoff's shoes and growing up with them.
After thanking them for breakfast, Kristoff went to prepare Sven and the sleigh. Anna was about to join him, but Pabbie approached her and asked for a few words alone, and the two of them stepped off to the side.
"I am very sorry that I cannot help you," he admitted. "But based upon what you have told me, it is almost certain that magic plays some part in the assassin's motives. Tell the Queen that if she discovers anything more, or if she requires the use of our magic, we would be happy to assist."
Anna nodded. "Thank you," she said gratefully. While her mission could not be considered anything less than a failure, the redhead did not blame the trolls in the slightest. Sometimes, people just didn't have the answers.
"Kristoff mentioned you could see hints of the past and the future," she remembered. "Does that tell you anything about what's going to happen to us?"
Pabbie shook his head. "It is a very unreliable gift, and only rarely is it of any use. Usually, all I can see are the faintest images of what is to come. I have tried to look into Queen Elsa's future, but everything I could see was almost completely shrouded."
Anna sighed. "What about me?" she questioned.
The troll frowned. "I could see your past relatively clearly… I wish I could provide you solace about your future, but..." he appeared to hesitate.
"What is it?" she asked anxiously. Pabbie stared at her, appearing to come to a decision.
"...Your future appeared the same as the Queen's. I could not perceive anything. I apologize."
"But..."
"Anna!" Kristoff called. "Sven's ready! Let's go!"
Frowning, the redhead nonetheless nodded back at him. "One second!" She turned to Pabbie. "I'll convey your words to the Queen. If nothing else, she'll be glad to know that she can call on you...it's not something she would abuse, but...you know what I mean," she said.
The troll nodded.
\
They rode through the rest of the day. Riding down the mountain was easier than riding up in, and in no time at all they were riding through the Clashing Hills and back into the forest.
The redhead hadn't wasted much time before crossing her arms triumphantly and glancing at Kristoff. "Looks like I was right about Elsa," she boasted. "Pabbie said that true love's kiss would destroy any curse...and since she's kissed both me and presumably her parents...that means..."
"Alright, alright," Kristoff grumbled. "I didn't mean to offend your girlfriend."
Anna grinned.
"So...you and the Queen," Kristoff said finally, a small smirk on his face. "How did that come about?"
Anna blushed furiously. "Oh...you know. I saved her life...she gave me a home. We ended up spending a lot of time together, and before you knew it I fell for her. After I was about to leave the Castle once my sword training was complete, she confessed that she had feelings for me. The rest is history."
"You were going to leave the Castle? Why?" he asked, surprised.
The next several hours consisted of the pair of them trading stories. Anna told Kristoff all that had happened to her since the fateful day that she'd met Elsa. To his credit, the ice-harvester took her at her word, despite the often-surprising details of her tale. It appeared that Pabbie's confidence in her story had convinced Kristoff of her honesty, which Anna was grateful for. If there was anything she hated being accused of, it was being a liar.
Though I did lie to Elsa; I told her I wasn't going to do this. And now I have practically nothing to show for it. Gods...she's going to kill me!
The redhead sighed. She would face that battle when it came. There was no point in worrying about it now.
Kristoff, in return, told her several stories of his time as an ice-harvester. On the surface, it didn't seem like a terribly exciting job, but it only took a handful of stories to realize that it had the potential to be a very exciting profession.
"So we had finally made it to Albion," Kristoff was saying a few hours after they'd left the Clashing Hills behind. Anna nodded. Despite her somewhat lackluster knowledge of foreign kingdoms, she knew that Albion was a large country that bordered Corona...and as Kristoff had discovered, it wasn't very welcoming to foreigners.
"The border guard drew his sword, saying he was going to detain me. I got out of the sleigh...and Sven ran into him at full speed, knocking him right on his ass. He started running back the way we'd came, I hopped on, and he got out of there as fast as humanely possible."
Anna laughed. "Why'd you go there in the first place? she asked. "Hadn't you heard they were hostile to imports?"
Kristoff shrugged. "Oh, I knew. But Albion was desperate for ice that time of year. Its government isn't exactly known for its sound policies...the King is so desperate to protect domestic industries that they barely allow any trade into the country. Ice wasn't allowed in at all...because it's not viewed as a necessity. Anyway, we were trying to sneak in and make a killing...but it didn't work out."
"Have you ever...wow!" Anna breathed. A few hundred feet to their left was a wide river running parallel with their route. It was nothing out of the ordinary...except for the fact that it was frozen solid.
"Is that...?"
Kristoff nodded. "The Volta," he confirmed.
Anna stared at the once moving water. The Volta was the largest river in the country, running through the middle of Arendelle and down into the Southern Isles. In warmer months, it was a vital lifeline for trade. No one really used it in the winter, but Anna had never seen it completely frozen before.
"Uh...does it usually..."
The ice-harvester shook his head. "Freeze? No. It's been a really cold month, and the Queen's storm probably helped a bit. The water's usually too cold to use in the winter anyway, though, so it doesn't really matter."
\
As the sun set, the three travelers continued their journey alongside the Volta. As they rode along, the ground began to steadily slope upward, slowing their progress. It wasn't long before the river to their left had been replaced by a gorge nearly half a mile wide and hundreds of feet deep. The river, still running parallel to them, remained frozen solid. It was a stark contrast to when Anna had last seen it...the water had been rushing through the canyon, a canyon that the river itself had carved gradually over the course of untold millennia.
Darkness began to fall. They continued along the road, which was now finally angling them away from the gorge.
"I'm going to find us a place to camp," he said as Sven rode through the snow. "It'll be too dark to see soon."
Anna nodded. "Do you think we'll make it back by tomorrow...?"
She was interrupted by the loudest growl either of them had ever heard. It cut through the trees, deep and menacing, almost seeming to seek them out. Anna and Kristoff glanced at each other in mutual shock.
"What was..."
A loud howl echoed through the forest.
"Pick up the pace Sven!" Kristoff called. The reindeer immediately heeded the request, accelerating along the road. Then another growl. And another of both.
"Kristoff...what the hell is that!"
"I...I don't know," he admitted nervously. "It sounds like wolves, but I've never heard anything that loud before..."
Another chorus of vicious sounds appeared behind them, much closer than before.
"They're gaining on us!" Anna shouted.
"Shit!" Kristoff muttered. "That's impossible! There's no way a wolf could keep with Sven...even if he's tired."
A growl to their right disproved his theory. It was completely dark now, but Anna's eyes could still perceive a small shape swiftly moving through the trees, racing towards their sleigh as if its life depended on it.
"Go Sven!" the ice-harvester shouted. He moved the reins to the left, commanding the reindeer to veer off the road. Sven did as asked, racing through the pines, but a pack of shapes was now on their tail...and gaining ground rapidly.
Anna reflexively drew her sword, sliding it from its scabbard with a satisfying hiss. Still, she wished she had her knives at the moment. It had seemed like a wise decision not to go back for them at the time, but now...
She could see their pursuers clearly now. They were wolves all right, but something seemed...off about them. The pack was moving along the ground too easily, as if the route had been programmed into their minds. And was it just Anna's imagination, or were their eyes emitting a faint red glow?
There were at least a dozen of them, and they were all getting closer. The lead pursuer was now only a few seconds behind them, close enough for Anna to perceive its pitch black fur.
I thought wolves were usually white or brown?
Anna turned around in the sleigh, placing her knees on the bench and facing the wolves directly. She could worry about the strangeness of the situation later. Right now, the priority was survival. There was no doubt in the redhead's mind that the beasts wanted to eat them alive.
"Keep us from crashing!" the redhead shouted. "I'll fend them off!"
\
Kristoff had seen many bizarre sights in his twenty-one years of existence. But Anna standing up in their sleigh, hopping up over the bench into the back, and bracing her feet between their supplies in preparation to fend off a group of determined wolves might have topped them all.
She's got guts, I'll give her that.
Anna wobbled a bit but seemed to find a good perch, anchoring her lead foot beneath a heavy sleeping bag. She'd told him that she had experience with climbing...hopefully that would help her keep her balance.
He turned back to the front of the sleigh. At the speed they were going and with this little light, it would take all of Kristoff's skill to avoid crashing into a tree trunk. More than that, he had to avoid any serious bumps...or Anna would go flying.
A loud growl not three meters behind him caused him to jump in his seat. He glanced over his shoulder just in time to see a wolf leap at Anna, a set of jagged teeth aimed for the redhead's neck.
Kristoff's fear turned to shock as Anna swung her sword with inhuman speed. The blade cut clean through the beast's midsection a second before its hangs could tear into her flesh. Its blood had barely hit the ground before another wolf tried to pounce on her. With a yell, Anna raised her foot off the ground and kicked it between the eyes, hitting the animal with so much force that it flew into the darkness and fell out of sight with a strangled cry.
For a terrifying moment, the redhead stumbled, but again Anna found her footing.
The ice-harvester turned back to the front of the sleigh...just in time to guide Sven to the left of a particularly wide trunk. He narrowed his eyes in focus. Anna would handle the wolves for the moment...she had to. His job was to make sure they didn't crash.
Ignoring the yells and growls behind them as best he could, Kristoff steered his best friend through the forest.
\
Anna leaned forward, switching her blade to her left hand and stabbing one daring wolf through the chest. A flash of movement to her right alerted her to the fact that another was trying to take advantage of the opening. His teeth were inches from her right leg before her free hand swung to the side. Anna's clenched right fist smashed into the animal's forehead, swatting it off to the side and likely crushing its skull.
A flare of pain erupted in her wrist. Anna did not dare to distract herself and inspect the wound, but already she could feel thin lines of blood flowing down her right arm. That damn wolf's teeth had found her skin after all.
Reaching down, the redhead grabbed an empty metal lamp from the jumble of their supplies and tossed it into the pack of wolves. It hit one of their pursuers directly on the forehead; the animal crumbled to the ground with a final pained whine.
She barely had time to recover her stance before another wolf was already leaping at her. Anna brought her sword into a wide arc, decapitating her target instantly. Breathing heavily, Anna took a brief moment to survey her remaining opponents.
Six wolves were down, but several remained. She was doing well so far, but the redhead knew that a single mistake on her part could mean death. These animals were incredibly fast; Anna knew that a normal human would have been long dead by this point. Elsa could have taken care of them in an instant with a massive blast of ice, but she wasn't Elsa. Anna's speed and reflexes had kept her ahead of them so far, but only just.
\
From the shouts of both woman and beast behind him, Kristoff could tell that Anna was holding her own for the moment. Trusting her to continue handling the situation, the ice-harvester put all of his focus on guiding Sven through the trees. Only over a decade of experience and sheer luck kept them from crashing head along into a trunk.
Finally, the number of trees around them seemed to start thinning. Kristoff allowed himself a glimmer of hope. If he could just keep them going a bit longer, and Anna continued to...
Holy. Fuck.
Five feet ahead of them, the number of trees rapidly died off, giving way to a flat snow-covered plain about twenty feet across. On the other side of the small expanse was the gorge...hundreds of feet deep and far too wide to jump.
Shit! The darkness had kept him from seeing the danger until it was too late, and in Kristoff's panic to stay alive he hadn't realized where they were headed. With all of his strength, Kristoff jerked the reins hard and to the left.
By the time he'd reacted, the sleigh had already cleared the trees.
\
Anna stabbed yet another wolf between the eyes, breathing heavily. Only three of the beasts remained. They continued to pursue the sleigh, staring at her with murder in their eyes. Despite how many of their fellows had been killed, none showed the slightest hint of hesitation.
She steadied herself, preparing for the next attack...
The sleigh suddenly jolted hard to the left! The wood beneath her feet wrenched so harshly that Anna lost her balance, stumbling over a sleeping bag and losing her perch on the sleigh. The world spun around her as she fell...for a moment, Anna was weightless.
The redhead hit the snow with enough force to cripple an ordinary human, her momentum sending her rolling several feet through the white powder. Her blade remained clenched in her hands; it was as if her fingers knew that the weapon was all that stood between her and the jaw of a wolf.
Anna's body moved automatically. The wind had been knocked out of her chest, but the fear of death gave her the energy to leap to her feet. Already, the three wolves were charging at her, seeming almost eager to finish the redhead off.
She raised her sword.
\
Sven slowed up as quickly as he could, but Kristoff knew it was too late. The reindeer continued to try and veer off from the gorge, but the distance between the sleigh and the edge was eroding far too quickly. Anna had already gone flying, but for the moment she was on her own.
In the mere seconds available to him, Kristoff's hands moved of their own accord. Without thinking, he reached into his belt and pulled forth his dagger. Keeping his free hand clenched in a death grip on a higher section of Sven's ropes, the ice-harvester sliced through the bottom of the reins, severing the reindeer's connection to the sleigh. Dropping the blade, Kristoff lunged forward and grasped the ropes with both hands.
Sven angled to the left so quickly that the sleigh was soon virtually sideways. But as the reindeer now ran almost parallel to the gorge, barely keeping himself from going over the edge, Kristoff felt the sled itself begin to topple over into the void.
Kristoff leaped out of the doomed sleigh a second before it fell into the gorge. Sven's reins still clutched between his fingers, the ice-harvester landed in the snow less than a meter away from the edge.
Then a heavy weight began to pull at his hands, dragging him towards the gorge! Kristoff looked up...and a flare of panic raced through him. Sven was beginning to teeter over the edge, the reindeer's previous momentum still pulling him forward just enough to start sending him over the cliff. Sven desperately buckled his legs, but he was already past the point of no return.
Kristoff gripped the reins and yanked them back as hard as he could, but even his strength couldn't match gravity's ever-growing pull on Sven. Refusing to release his grip, the ice-harvester was steadily pulled forward as his friend teetered farther and farther over the cliff.
NO! Adrenaline fueling him, Kristoff pulled back even harder. The world around him faded away, his focus entirely channeled on one single task. No matter how impossible, Kristoff was not going to let his friend go.
If Sven fell, then he would go too.
Inch by inch, the ice-harvester was dragged towards the edge hands first. His arms were stretched out in front of him; they felt like they were going to rip in two. But he would not let go.
Then the weight on his arms suddenly increased ten-fold as Sven's feet completely lost their grip on the edge, sending the reindeer falling into the abyss below. Kristoff was rapidly dragged forward...his arms went over the edge. Then his head. Then his chest...
A massive force suddenly seized his legs, preventing the lower half of his body from falling into the cliff.
"Hang on!" Anna shouted, panting heavily.
Kristoff looked down below, seeing his best friend suspended in mid-air. The sliver of sunlight that remained was just enough for the ice-harvester to see the sheer panic alight in Sven's eyes.
A heavy grunt sounded from Anna. Inch by inch, Kristoff was slowly being eased onto solid ground, the reindeer below rising with him.
Somehow, Anna had the strength to lift them both. If he had any breath remaining, Kristoff would have sighed in relief, but at the moment all his energy was directed at his grip on the reins.
His arms felt like they were going to rip out of their sockets, but the ice-harvester didn't care. He pulled even harder, new hope fueling his muscles…
Then the world ended.
\
Crack.
A sudden snap sliced through the air. For the moment, Anna barely noticed it, too intent on rescuing her friends.
But then the weight she was supporting suddenly lightened, and in a moment of utter horror, Anna understood.
The reins had snapped in two.
Kristoff's agonized, tortured scream was almost enough to block out the sound. But Anna still heard it, the noise reaching her from hundreds of feet below.
Thump.
It was the sound of Sven's body hitting the ground.
Responses:
NoblePaltypus: You're welcome!
3G's: Yeah, there's still a lone way to go!
WinterWolfDragon: Hopefully they'll reunite soon…
Claire Cooper: Yeah, I doubt anyone expected what just happened.
No. 18: The poison isn't really an issue at this point, but I'm sorry there was no reunion in this chapter.
Yuiiub: I'm sorry you were disappointed, but they'll continue looking for answers!
Beloved-Raven: Thank you!
Shtoops: Unfortunately, I do not have a tumblr at the moment, but thanks for spreading the word!
Your points about magic are valid, but there is an explanation. It's going to be a while, but it will all be explained eventually. There is a reason why Anna has these powers and Elsa doesn't…and why her powers can heal in the first place. But it won't be revealed until towards the end.
JPElles: Interesting theories. Can't confirm or deny anything.
SleepingZombie: Wow, thanks! I'll do my best to keep it up.
Mycabbages176: Keep hoping! (Awesome name, by the way.)
Knziewrwlf: What happens is…meaningful, to say the least.
ObsesseiveImaginings: Thanks for pointing those errors out. I try, but I don't always catch everything. I'd appreciate it if you tell me about any typos you catch.
MeluvmyMusic15869: I apologize! Yeah, that's definitely happened to me in the past.
Superjoshe: No. No she will not be.
JordanChaos: You never know.
Snowboardgurl: Maybe, but I'm not sure it would work.
Noxtion: Thanks! Don't think you'll be disappointed.
Malekoydaerb: Well, you were right. And yeah, Anna's heart isn't freezing. Although it might be when she gets back…
Larom: That's if she's lucky.
Guest: Not stopping any time soon!