Chapter 34

Elsa

When she heard the scuffle going on across the forest, she, Hans, and Olaf sprinted towards it. What Elsa found was just what she wanted to, albeit not they way she wanted.

Kristoff and Stian were both unconscious, bruised and cut all over their bodies. Whatever it had been that had attacked them, it was gone now. Elsa could see where it had fled, leaving some trees bend and leaning either direction, making a large tunnel in the pine trees that something could fit through. Something big. Hilda said that this place played off their fears. Elsa remembered her time by the lake. The dancing...Thing.

When she was little, she read a book about an ancient monster, that Tribes used to tell their children about. It was called many things. The Naldooshi, the Medicine Man, the Wendigo, but Elsa preferred a more contemporary name for such a vile beast. The Skin Walker was something that could take the shape of its victims, and usually stocked the night, looking for more to add to its collection. It came out at night, and most accounts said it almost seemed to worship the moon, doing all sorts of graceful dances. Maybe it had been to preoccupied to with the moon to notice Elsa. But then the sun rose, and the moon set a tiny bit. Elsa hadn't seen it since then.

"Where do you think it went?" Hans asked, examining the tracks left behind in the dirt. Elsa snapped out of her mental stasis.

"I don't know. It obviously went that way, but where do you think it was going?" Olaf asked back. Elsa approached her unconscious husband, and prodded his shoulder with her finger.

"Stian..? Wake up..." she said softly.

Stian's eyes shot open.

Something was different about them. Elsa couldn't see any pupils or irises. Instead, his eyes gleamed with a blue fire. It waved in the breeze, not going out. The fire coming from Stian's eyes was the opposite of what fire should have been. It made Elsa extremely cold.

The air around Elsa dropped well below zero in under a second, and frost formed all around them, and snow that had started to fall only seconds ago stopped, suspended in midair.

"Stian!" Elsa pleaded. Not something like this again. The fire went out. Stian's normal, deep blue eyes returned. The air gradually came to a warmer temperature. Elsa noticed everybody was staring at him.

"What..? El- Elsa!?" he asked excitedly. The couple hugged fiercely, thinking they had lost each other. Elsa kissed her husband.

"What was that?" she asked. Stian looked around.

"I don't know. I woke up. I thought that thing had come back for us. I wanted to defend myself and Kristoff..."

"Your powers went out of control." Hans shivered.

"Sorry."

"No need." Elsa soothed.

"What happened?" Kristoff spoke, slowly coming to. He stood up slowly, and stood above Elsa and Stian, next to Olaf.

"What did you mean by 'that thing'?" Elsa asked.

"Kristoff's fear. Pig-Man." Stian said. Elsa almost smiled.

"It's not funny," Kristoff said, noticing Elsa's grin, "You can see what it did to us." he held out his arms.

"It went this way because something scared it off." Hans decided. "Lucky it did, too. I don't know what would have happened if you guys were alone and unconscious with that Pig for a few more seconds. Elsa heard a sound. She jumped, knowing that something like that ,in this forest, meant nothing good. It was a clicking coming from just behind a wall of trees. Stian tensed up.

"No..." he pleaded.

"Stian?" Elsa asked. Through the wall of trees came the most terrifying thing Elsa had ever seen. A spider, massive black and shiny, came clamoring through the trees. Its four beady eyes locked directly onto Stian, venom dripping from it's pincers. Elsa felt her skin crawl. She hated bugs, though, apparently not more that Stian. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he nearly fainted. "Stian, get up!" Elsa demanded. He did. This spider was easily fifteen feet all, its eight legs spreading over a large area.

"What do we do?" Olaf asked. Hans drew a sword.

"We fight." he grinned. Where had he gotten that? Had Cassius given it to him? No time...

Elsa extended her palm, but remembered something. Her powers didn't work here. But how did that explain Stian's...

"Stian! I need you to do that thing again!" Elsa yelled.

"What? What thing?" he asked.

"The thing! The thing with the fiery eyes?" she tried. Stian tried using his powers normally, to no avail.

"You think I can just do it on demand?" he shivered, eyeing the spider. The arachnid clicked towards Stian, who rolled out of the way, barely dodging one of the legs. Hans swiped one of the legs at the joint. A sickening crunch was heard, and the limb fell to the ground, useless. The spider toppled, but did not fall. Hans smiled at his success, but his face turned to one of horror when the nub of a limb slowly grew outwards. Within a few seconds, the spider had a completely new leg.

"You have to try!" Kristoff joined in. Stian closed his eyes, then opened them. He looked upset. Again. Nothing.

"Try harder!" Elsa pleaded, rolling out of the way of a giant leg. The creature continued to Stian, who had been backed up against a tree.

"I am!" he cried.

"Stian!"

The spider took Stian in its pincers, and spun him around. Stian was incredibly pale, and on the verge of either passing out or vomiting, whichever came first. Soon enough, a silk cocoon took the place of the King between the spider's jaws. Elsa felt a new feeling come over her. Anger. Not to violent, but she was mad at this thing... Mad at it... For who knew why. Stian was probably in that cocoon, slowly fading away. She had to bring him back.

"Stian! Stian!" she called. The silk prison remained still.

"Stian!" she called one more time. Silence.

This time, the cocoon shook softly. And again. And again. Had it worked?

A blinding blue light pierced the night air, which forced Elsa to close her eyes. When she was brave enough to open them again, the forest was completely flash frozen. Elsa looked at her own body, which was coated with a thick layer of frost. The cold never bothered her, but this was a new level of freezing. Elsa shivered violently as she looked around for Stian.

There he was, standing right in front of the spider, fearless. His face was determined and angry. The spider lashed at him with its maw, but Stian flew, literally, to his left side, moving out of the way easily. Frosty wind followed Stian as he soared through the air, finally placing himself on the spider's back. He said something in a different language, and touched his palm to the spider's hairy black back. Instantly, it was frozen where it stood, now a white spider. Stian stood for a second, making sure it was frozen solid. He the stomped his foot. Elsa was almost thrown back by a massive force. When the frost and dust cleared, Stian stood alone in the middle of a clearing that hadn't been there before. Elsa noticed most of the pines now stood at an eighty degree angle, being blown over by the explosion. Stian raised his arms over his head, something Elsa was all too familiar with. The snow, frost, and cold lifted into the air. He brought his hands together, making it collide to form a giant snowflake. He moved his hands away from each other, and the snowflake dispersed.

Elsa noticed warmth against her neck. She turned and, to her delight, had found the sun had risen even more. Instead of a faint trace of pink, there was orange over the horizon now. Stian had conquered his fear.

He fell to his knees, panting. Elsa rushed to comfort him.

"Stian, what was that?" she asked. He looked into her eyes, a little scared, but happy that everybody was safe.

"I don't know."