"If anything happens, you have to choose the child."
Elsa had told him that, had made him promise that to her, during her pregnancy with Wilhelm. She knew of the risks that came with childbirth, of the complications that may arise, and the lurking possibilities that they may had to choose to save just one. She had been more than willing to sacrifice her own life for the sake of their son's, had come to the acceptance that her death meant that their son would live.
It had frightened him so much then, though he had never once showed it to her. Georg, his fifth brother, had lost his wife during the birth of their child, and even then the boy had never took a taste of life as it had been born lifeless as well. It had broken the fifth Prince of the Southern Isles, grief weighted him down so much that he had never been the same ever again, had turned to drinking his pain away. None of the brothers had bothered to come and talk to him -who had decided on locking himself up in his own bedchamber, except for him, despite Lars' advise. He had tried to understand, to listen to one of the few men he had once looked up to, of his pain and his lament, of his blame to God for taking his wife and son even before he could live a life he always dreamt of.
Hans had become his only company, until he had to leave for Arendelle to marry Elsa.
He had thought that he had understood of his brother's pain then, had prepared himself into not turning the way he was should similar fate was to befallen him.
He was wrong.
Because now all he wanted was to rid of the burning pain within him, of the suffocation that he had to endure as he dragged his feet forward, his surrounding had turned back into tall trees and crunching dried leaves under his boots.
Now he truly understood what Georg had gone through, of his reasons of wanting nothing from life, of how difficult it was to even wake up each morning to a reality that had taken it's darkest turn on him.
Gentle hand pressed against his face had made him stop, and for one moment it had felt as if it was Elsa who had cupped his face, to coax him into turning his head to find her with a comforting smile on her face, telling him that it was all nothing but his own thoughts twisting his view due to exhaustion. But it was far too small to be her hand, and a tad too warm, but when he did turn and looked down, it was still her eyes that he saw, just on a face that he had seen from the portraits of his younger years.
Wilhelm.
Elsa was willing to sacrifice for the sake of their son, she was willing to fight and discover the truth herself just so she could keep the boy out of harm's way. If he was to give up now, if he was to succumb into the darkness, then everything she had worked hard for would go in vain because then he would abandon their son all by himself.
Wilhelm had lost his mother today, he couldn't have him losing his father as well.
Pressing a gentle kiss on top of his head, against the auburn locks that had grown much thicker than any child's hair thanks to his mother's genes, he had let the boy wrap his arms around his neck, feeling him burying his face against the crook of his neck.
"Papa will protect you, Wilhelm," he promised as he held the child closer, letting out a small sigh as he pushed himself forward once again. "Papa will do anything in his power," no matter how lacking it was compared to the one that his wife possessed, "to give you the life that you deserve."
There was another problem too.
The mist still stood, the curse unbroken, and none of them could leave the forest. What they were supposed to do now? The people of Arendelle were waiting for their return, for them to restore their kingdom into what it once was, yet they were just as trapped as the Northuldra and the Arendellian guards now.
The kingdom had no ruler, for the royal family were all absent, that even if they attempted on rebuilding the kingdom, they had no leader to officiate the land, not even the Council could do much without a monarch.
He had to find Anna, discuss a way out of this mess, but he had no idea where she could possibly be, the forest was large and it would perhaps take him days to explore each part of it, not to mention if the Princess was on the move as well, reducing his chance of finding her and increasing their distance.
It would taken him forever to ever find her—
"Wake. Up!"
That was her voice.
Loud and clear, ringing through the forest, prompting even Wilhelm to lift his head up in attention, startled by the sound of his aunt just as the Prince picked up his pace in following to where her voice had come from, dodging through branches and yellowing leaves.
"WAKE UP!"
What exactly was she trying to wake?
The ground beneath his feet started to shake, driving him into stopping abruptly in his track as he tried to balance himself. The earth continued to shake as heavy rumbling had now joined while he moved forward -slower and more careful, until he could see his sister in-law's figure through the trees.
But even before he could call out for her, to question on what exactly was she trying to do, shadow rose high from the direction of the river, and he almost regretted in turning around. Giants had rose, almost reaching Arendelle's tallest tower in term of height, towering past the trees as his eyes widened, made of heavy rocks.
Earth. The fourth spirit was earth.
One had fallen onto the other in it's daze of being woken up by the Princess, causing the second to shove the first away, sending it falling back onto the river, water spraying everywhere from the collision, and it's eyes had caught the sight of the strawberry-blonde haired royal.
"That's it." Anna nodded, seemingly rather satisfied for the foolish action she had taken. "Come and get me! Come on!"
She has lost her mind.
This will work, it had to.
Elsa had literally given everything that she was for this, to break the curse, and had trusted her to finish what she could not.
After watching the snowman disintegrating right before her eyes, his magic in him fading as the realization that her older sister had not been okay, that what she had feared the most the moment she had decided to separate herself from the others had actually happened, she had succumb into a lonely and painful grief, all by herself in a dark cave with nothing but her bag to clutch against her chest.
It had triggered a memory she had wished to never happen again, to grief for the death of her family member the way she way she had grieved for her parents… alone and feeling completely and utterly lost.
She only had been reunited with her sister for four mere years, it was nothing compared to the years of their separation, of the lonely childhood where she wandered the castle's halls all by herself, and now her sister had been taken away from her once more, and this time there was no possible way for her to get her back.
Her grief had not only been for her sister and the snowman they had grown to love, but for her nephew as well.
She was fifteen when she had lost her parents, a teenager that had spent her share of time with both her Father and Mother, she had the chance to grow up with them even when she still missed her older sister terribly. Wilhelm was not even two years old yet and he had to lose his Mother, the one person that he was most attached to, he would grow up without her and barely even a memory of her for him to remember.
And somehow the thought had pushed her to rise back up, to take a step -one by one, to encourage her to continue on no matter how much things had changed in her life in a matter of a day, to follow the light that would lead her out. If not for her, if not for Arendelle, then for her beloved nephew.
She had to break the dam to break the curse.
But she couldn't do it herself.
A strong blow of the wind from behind her -most probably would have come from the Earth Giants' growl, had enough force to send her falling onto the ground, arms trying their best in breaking her fall against the hard ground, though her body still ached nonetheless. But it was no time for her to cry or complain, she had told herself that she had to keep going forward as she pushed herself back up.
"That's right!" she encouraged the elemental spirits as she continued on picking her pace. "Keep coming!"
They had to follow her, they had to help her, and she hoped she didn't get crushed before that.
A boulder flied past her, right above her head, landing with a hard thump as it dug the ground in front of her as she made the abrupt stop while she ducked. That was dangerous, extremely so, and Elsa would no doubt scold her about it, but that will definitely work in her favor.
Turning around, she had lifted both arms up, waving them in the air as she tried to attract the giants' attention back at her. "This way, guys!"
She didn't really think about how she could keep her distance from the giants though.
Because no matter how fast she could run -and gosh she could outrun men in a race, the giants were, well, gigantic and they had larger steps than she, even when they seemed to move much slower than the other spirits. For she could feel their stomping feet right behind her back now, merely inches away, and with every step they took the force was strong enough to send her stumbling until she could no longer maintain her balance and had fallen back onto the ground.
But unlike the first time, she was much closer now, just in reach for one of them to stomp it's foot flat on her, and in her panic she had desperately tried to scramble away, to perhaps get back on her feet, but it was to no use.
So, this must be her doom, her fate, to ended up as one with the ground… in one quite literal way.
Something, or rather someone, had swept her up just before the giant's foot could stomp her, and when she had opened her tightly shut eyes, her heart was filled with sudden gratefulness as her cheeks warmed up. "Kristoff!"
"I'm here." He confirmed as Sven carried them away from the giants at a much faster rate, increasing their distance. "What do you need?"
"To get to the dam."
"You got it."
There was no time for her to explain her exact plan, no time to argue with her reasonings of doing such crazy act, and she was eternally glad that he didn't question her one bit.
The mountain man simply brought her to where she wanted to go as her fingers curled around the fabric of his clothes as a mean to hold on, though she knew -and trusted, that Kristoff would never once ever let her fall as they dodged flying trees and boulders thrown by the earth spirit.
It was not exactly a cliff that they faced, but it was still high enough and steep enough to prevent Sven from climbing or jumping over it. But she could, she definitely could, with the right boost. "Help me up!"
"We'll meet you around!" Kristoff understood her like no one else could as his hands held against the sole of her boot, giving her enough force to push her up into a position where she could climb over.
The five Arendellian guards were not what she expected to meet, standing between her and the dam with their defenses up. "Lieutenant Mattias."
"Your Highness," the man acknowledged her as he lowered his blade, but not his shield, as he bared the look of pure confusion at her. "What are you doing?"
"The dam must fall." This time, it was necessary for her to explain her plan, as she knew these people would need convincing more than Kristoff. "It's the only way to break the mist and free the forest."
"But we're sworn to protect Arendelle at all cost."
So he knew, of what would happen should the dam be broken, of the flood that would surely destroyed everything down it's path across the fjord, including the kingdom. Thus why she had explained what she knew, of what they had to do, of the fact that Arendelle would not have any future unless they set things right, of the betrayal at the hand of her grandfather, the lies that had been told of the Northuldra and the war that had broken between them.
"How do you know that?"
It must have been hard for him to trust her words, he had been serving under the late King's reign before he was trapped in the forest, and she would have had a hard time believing that her own kin would have done such terrible thing as well should the circumstances was to be different. "My sister gave her life for the truth." And she believed Elsa more than she believed in anyone else. "Please. Before we lose anyone else."
Lieutenant Mattias' face had changed the moment she had revealed what her sister had done, the sacrifice she had made, for everyone. He had taken a few deep breaths, processing the whole situation, of the loss of the Queen and the possibility that it all may be in vain if they did not act quickly, before he had raised his shield up and hit his blade against it, the sound of metal meeting metal was loud enough to deafen her ears, especially when the rest of the guards had followed their leader's gesture, drawing the attention of the earth giants back to them after they had lose the Princess in the midst of the thick forest.
And she had run, passed the guards and right toward the dam, hearing the muffled sound of boulders flung and landing hard against the ground, but she did not stop, not until she had reached approximately the middle of it.
"Destroy the dam!" She called out for the giants, with everything that she had to be as loud as she possibly can or else they would not be able to hear her. "Come on! Throw your boulders!"
She must admit though, that she didn't exactly think everything through.
The first boulder that had actually hit the dam had landed right before her, planted deep through the structure and sending debris flying everywhere as she took a stumbling step back. That had been her signal to continue with her run, to cross over to the other side of the dam and let nature did it's job.
She was so close into reaching the other side when another boulder had landed between her and her destination, completely cutting her way as there was no way she could jump over the gaping hole, especially when another boulder was headed right to where she was standing.
So she ran back to where she had come from, as fast as her feet could take her, hands clutching the strap of her bag across her chest, not daring to look behind and over her shoulder as she knew that right behind her, the dam was falling down.
But the other end was also falling apart, crumbling down as it's structure was completely ruined by the boulders thrown by the giants, and while she should be glad that her plan was working, her heart raced as she pushed herself through her limits and run faster than she ever done before, until her path was met with an end and she had jumped over as far as she could possibly go.
But she knew she was not going to make it.
"Anna!" A hand grabbed hers, suspending her fall until she was hanging over the destroyed dam and the gaping darkness that would surely swallow her whole, holding tight and not letting go. "I've got her!" She had looked up then, to see the auburn-haired Prince was the one who had saved her life as he called back to whoever it was behind him, and even when his green eyes were glaring down at her when he had turned back around, she had smiled. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"
Another hand, this time Kristoff's, was offered down for her to take, and she did, letting the two men hoisted her up and back to safety, gasping as soon as the mountain man had pulled her into his embrace, both breathing heavily from the amount of adrenaline pulsing through their veins.
She could hear the sound of the dam falling, destroyed by the boulders, water pushing through the fragile structure.
It's done.
Arendelle will fall now.
Water will destroy her kingdom and everything she had ever known, it would reduce the houses into nothing but ruins, her people would lose everything they ever owned. But the forest will be freed, the people trapped inside would be able to leave, she and her family would be able to return and salvage what was left after the flood.
Her home was no more.
I'm so glad you guys feel that way about the last chapter, it warms my heart :')