SpeechBubbleMe: Yeah...
"No way!" Gerda shouted in disbelief when she saw the shard in the Robber Girl's hand. It was slightly smaller than her own gem, but there was no doubt they were of the same material.
The Robber Girl closed her fingers around the mirror shard. "To think it was right under my nose the whole time," She said, clearly in as much shock as Gerda was.
"W-What do you mean?" Gerda asked, confused.
The Robber Girl raised an eyebrow. "Do you not know what that is?" She asked, pointing to the gem in Gerda's hand. "You must know. Why else would you have been keeping it hidden from me?"
"Well, you are a robber," Gerda pointed out. "I kind of figured that if you saw something as shiny as my gem, you'd-"
"Steal it?" The Robber Girl interrupted, while simultaneously finishing Gerda's sentence. Surprisingly, she didn't seem all that offended.
"Well, you may have a point there," The Robber Girl said with a shrug. "But not because it's shiny. That gem is worth much more than you think, Gerda."
"What do you mean?" Gerda asked once more, still confused. "I don't know what you're talking about."
The Robber Girl rolled her eyes. "Give it to me," She said, holding out her other hand.
Gerda instinctively reeled her hand back, unwilling to give away her precious gem. However, the Robber Girl simply stared hardly at her, and Gerda relented and extended her hand to her. The Robber Girl quickly swiped the gem out of Gerda's hand.
For a moment, Gerda thought the Robber Girl would simply run off now that she had her gem. Instead, the Robber Girl held both gems in her hand, and slowly, carefully, she connected them with each other.
Immediately, a flash of light erupted from the connected gems, blinding both Gerda and the Robber Girl.
Ever since he had fled the village, Kai had been rushing through the forest in no clear direction. Luckily, he had managed to evade the Snow Queen's golems; however, he had no idea where he was going.
As he continued to run through the woods, he noticed a large flash of light shine above the trees in the distance. He stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening as he recognized the glow.
He had seen it before. Not of the same magnitude, but he had seen it before.
It was the same glow that had emitted when he and Gerda had connected their gems with one another.
Which could only mean one thing.
"Gerda!" Kai shouted out hopefully. As the flash died down, Kai immediately bolted in the direction of the light, his heart beating faster than it ever had before.
Ever since she had summoned the dead from the ground to locate Kai in the vast forest, the Snow Queen had spent hours exerting her powers to keep the golems intact. Her mind flowed through all of them, seeing through her own, but she had diverted most of her attention to the golems who had found Kai in the village, leaving many of the other golems wandering aimlessly.
The Snow Queen had felt a slight disturbance when she sensed several of her golems fall lifeless, but had ignored it in favor of pursuing Kai. She had no idea that Gerda's gem was the cause of their destruction.
However, the Snow Queen snapped out of her thoughts when she noticed her mirror sparkling brightly. Turning her head to face the mirror, her eyes widened when she saw Gerda and the Robber Girl begin to take shape in the center of the mirror.
In the Robber Girl's hands, she held the two final pieces of her mirror.
The Snow Queen turned to stare at the mirror, her mouth hanging open in awe. Then, her lips curled into a grin, and her eyes began to glow sharply.
"I knew you'd be of use to me," She whispered as she stared at the Robber Girl's reflection in the mirror.
Then, with a whirl of her arms, the Snow Queen vanished into mist.
Gerda lowered her arm from her eyes as the flash of light vanished as quickly as it had appeared. The Robber Girl continued to hold the two gems together, staring down at them, and breathing heavily.
"Whoa. . ." Gerda whispered, her eyes wide. "How did you-"
"This belongs to the Snow Queen," The Robber Girl said, holding out the two gems.
"What?" Gerda asked, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean? That gem belongs to me."
"You don't understand," The Robber Girl said. "This gem-"
"Gerda!"
Gerda and the Robber Girl immediately fell silent as they heard a voice call out to them in the distance. They whipped their heads in the direction of the voice, cupping their hands behind their ears, wondering if they had heard correctly.
"I think I recognize that voice. . ." Gerda said as she tried to listen for the voice again.
"Gerda!" The voice call out once more, confirming that the two girls weren't just hearing things. Now, they could hear footsteps, facing towards that quickly. Eventually, a dark silhouette began to appear in the darkness of the words, coming closer by the second.
"Who is that?" The Robber Girl asked, scratching her head in confusion.
"Is that. . ." Gerda whispered, and her eyes widened as she realized who it was.
"Oh my gosh!" She shouted out in a mixture of shock and joy, and immediately, she was bolting towards the dark shape, which finally escaped the darkness, allowing them to see who it was.
It was Kai.
"Gerda!" Kai shouted with joy, his arms extended towards his friend.
"Kai!" Gerda shouted right back at him. The two practically collided with each other, landing on the ground as they hugged each other tightly, their faces pressed closely against one another.
The two hugged each other for several minutes, letting the sensation of feeling each other's warm embrace wash over them. But finally, they slipped out of each other's grasps, still shocked to the core.
"Kai?" Gerda said, out of breath. "How can it be? How are you-"
"I escaped," Kai replied to her, struggling to catch his breath. "I've been out in the woods, trying to escape the Snow Queen's ruffians and. . . whatever those ice creatures were. But the biggest shock was finding you all the way out here!"
"It shouldn't be," Gerda replied, straightening up. "You should've known I'd come looking for you."
"But to get this far," Kai said in disbelief. "How did you manage?"
"I had help," Gerda said, tilting her head over to the Robber Girl, who was standing a small distance away. It was then that Kai actually noticed the other girl standing there.
"Who is she?" Kai asked, raising his eyebrow.
"A thief," Gerda answered. "A ruffian, a brute. . . and a friend." She smiled towards the Robber Girl, who immediately looked away, as if trying to hide her embarrassment.
"Robber Girl, get over here," Gerda called out, beckoning the dark-haired girl to come closer.
After a moments hesitation, the Robber Girl strode up to the two. She stared at Gerda, then at Kai.
"This is the boy you've been looking for?" The Robber Girl asked, raising an eyebrow. "Huh. I expected more."
Kai furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance, but Gerda gestured to him with her hands. "Don't worry, she's always like that," She said.
"She helped you get here?" Kai asked, eyeing the dark-haired girl.
Gerda nodded. "Yeah," She said happily. "If it wasn't for her, I'd have never found you!"
"Nor would I!"
Immediately, the three children froze up in terror as they heard the sinister voice call out to them from the distance. Fearfully, the three turned their heads in the direction of the voice, and saw a tall figure standing on top of a small hillside, staring down at them with cold, winter eyes.
There, standing at the top of the hill, was the Snow Queen.
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