Authors note: Welcome to the next chapter of the Draugr. The battle is over, but what will happen next? What does fate hold for Elsa, her family and Hans?
Not that I am cynical, but I think that the whole love thing used is overrated and overused. Hence why I chose to use hope as the most powerful power in the world as hope has made many things possible and hope is the reasons why we are all still here. Its pretty amazing and powerful. The moment we loose hope... we are done for...
Anyway, enough of me blabbering, please continue to read on to your hearts content and please leave a review when done as your opinions matter.
~Maybe the journey isn't so much about becoming anything. Maybe its about unbecoming everything that isn't really you so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place~
And Anna... she would never forgive him if he chose to save himself... and Elsa...
Hans though and pondered, this was a big choice... almost impossible... but in the end... he made his choice...
He opened the bottle... and soon placed it back on the ground empty... before getting up and walking away. Unnoticed by Anna and Agnaar.
"Was this death?" Though Elsa as she looked around the place she had appeared. Then again she did not know how she got there. One moment she had finished fighting the devil troll, the next she was in this place of mist and nothingness.
Running her hand through her hair Elsa placed a stray strand of hair behind an ear as she tried to figure out where she was when she noticed a figure, a small one, slowly waddling it's way through the mist.
Narrowing her eyes Elsa tried to get a closer look when her eyes widen as she realized who it was.
"Olaf?" she said as sure enough, the little snowman made its way through the fog, happy as can be.
"Elsa!" Said Olaf as he went over for a hug, Elsa moved to meet him half way but stopped mid way. Sending this Olaf asked "What's wrong?".
Moving her arms, raising and lowering, eventually lowering them and her eyes as she said "This is wrong",
"Wrong? Hugs are wrong?" asked Olaf confused,
"You are an extension of me" explained Elsa as she looked down at her hands "My childhood innocence, my and Anna's naivety".
Olaf looked even more confused, he could not comprehend what Elsa was talking about. With a sad smile Elsa said "I think it's time I let you go",
"Why?" asked Olaf, his happy face turning to sadness,
"I love you Olaf, I will forever hold the memories we share in my heart" said Elsa, eyes tearing up, but kept herself firm as she spoke "But so much has happened, me and Anna learned so much, changed so much through this journey... after what I learned... I am not the same, we are not the same... and I doubt we will ever go back",
"Your both growing up?" asked Olaf in awe, Elsa nodded her head and forced a wider smile as the little snowman smiled back and said "I understand... part of growing up is letting go of the past",
Elsa nodded, this time tears falling from her eyes.
"One last hug?" asked Olaf as he extended his twig arms, walking over Elsa extended her arms and wrapped them around Olaf. As she did the snowman slowly faded away, but by bit as if an ghost wind was blowing away his existence till nothing was left.
"We will see each other someday" Olaf voice was heard before there was no more.
Elsa fell to her knees, more tears streamed out of her eyes and down her face. Sniffling Elsa nodded as she composed herself, this was for the best she told herself. She was not a little girl anymore, the past, the perfect fairytale she though she and her sister had was fake, she was too old to continued chasing after such things, she did not have time to built snowman anymore, there are people who need and rely on her and it was high time she put them as her priority as she should have from the very beginning.
When suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder, turning she looked in surprise when she saw the draugrs, the three before her.
At first she jumped started when she noticed they had begun to change, their skin slowly healed and gained color, hair and clothes the same. It was as if the clock of their time, their life had began to spin backwards.
Soon the three stood before her, standing proudly, King Runeard, King Hans the third and the Tribe leader. When fully restored Elsa noticed their waists. Around their waist they wore belts, said belts designs, they were extremely similar to what her mother would use as a shawl, the only difference was the colors of course, except king Runeards, his was the exact same as her mothers.
Deciding to look into that later Elsa focuses back up at the three, as she did she began to tear up, but not in sadness, in gladness.
"Is the devil troll beat?" asked Elsa, almost hesitating when she asked.
They nodded, their looks solemn as they stared at her. It made Elsa feel as if she was a child again... and her father was staring at her with that disapproving look that would make her feel small. But this time she supposed she deserved it after everything that happened.
"I am sorry, you all sacrificed so much and I..." Elsa breathed and continued "I really brought shame did I not? I was so busy running away and looking for myself, never realizing that I already knew who I was and in the process I put everybody in danger"
There was silence as they did not spoke, continued to stare.
"I learned my lesson, I really did and I promise to make things right" continued Elsa then ended with conviction "I will be the queen I was meant to be, I will be Queen Elsa Solberg, no more no less"
To this they smiled a little, there was doubt but they smiled as a sign that they were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Then she looked and saw the tribe leader, as he smiled his form changed to that of that strange humanoid tree plant figure. For the first time she got a good look at him.
He was strong build, as if somebody had taken dark oak and carved into it to make his body, vines sprouted from his head making hair, on his back a pair of wings he had, made out of leaves of green. Despite his odd look he was impressive to look at.
Soon they began to fade away as well.
"Wait! Don't go! Please! Tell me some advice! What can I do!?" Elsa called out to them, but there was no answer...
Gasping Elsas eyes snapped open as she sat up, coughing and gagging she breathed as she wildly looked around. Sunlight hit her eyes causing her to cover her eyes as the light irritated them when she heard "Elsa!" followed by arms around her.
Blinking she looked and was happy to see her sister and her father, they were hugging her close, crying in happiness.
"What happened?" said Elsa confused as she placed a hand on her chest, where she had stabbed herself through, only to find no wound, not even a scar or any indication that she had stabbed herself.
"I don't know, you were dead and-" Anna could not keep in it and began to cry again.
Elsa for a moment stood there in shock, thinking, remember then her eyes widen as she whispered in a terrified voice "Please no... let it not be" as she looked around her then the moment her eyes landed on the empty bottle that once contained the elixir of the holy grail she screamed "No! You bastard! How could you do something so foolish?!"
This made Anna and Agnaar jump back in shock and surprise as she screamed that.
"Elsa?" asked Anna not sure of what to say or why her sister reacted in such a way.
"What is wrong?" asked Agnaar with dread in filling his stomach,
With terror filled eyes Elsa took hold of both her sister and her fathers hand and said "We have to go! We have to find him!" With that she stood up, her legs wobbled and she almost fell as she tried to walk but Agnaar and Anna caught her.
"Elsa" began Anna,
"No! We have to find Hans now!" Demanded Elsa,
"Elsa please, just tell me what's wrong" pleaded Anna, after a bit Elsa calm down and looked at them seriously. But spoke regardless, as she did prayed that Hans would not do anything till they found him.
The pain was unbearable, each step was heavier than the last. It was as if he was wearing lead shoes... no not lead shoes, more like an entire armor covering him entirely made out of the heaviest metals known to man.
Dragging his feet and legs Hans forced himself to continue as the dark curse he had inflicted on the Devil troll was reaching its zenith. He did not have much time left before he left the world of the living.
But Hans continued on as there was one last thing he wanted to do before he left forever.
With that in mind he persisted on. Not stopping, not slowing down, not even a bit. He was determined to continue on and get to where he wanted to go.
"Hans!" called Elsa as she, Anna and Agnaar looked around. Going back to the castle which was now in ruins Elsa, Anna and Agnaar looks around the ruins.
"Hans!" called Anna,
"Hans! Where are you?!" called Agnaar as they looked around and even moved some debri just in case when they heard a noise. Looking at one another with hopeful glances they made their way to the broken down building, the door was barricaded with debri. Working together they moved it and opened the doors.
As high their hopes went they crashed down when they saw no Hans, but a horse.
"Horse?" though Elsa as she walked in, the horse jumped back, rather skittish and afraid. Lifting a hand Elsa spoke softly "It's okay, I am not going to hurt you".
The horse looked unconvinced as Elsa approached it. Holding out her hand she waited for the horse to come to her as she got a closer look.
It was a fjord horse that looked like it had seen better days. It was practically skin and bones, and it's tangled, matted mane looked like it could really use a comb. But what drew Elsa to it was its dull, lemon-colored pelt that she recognized from Hans's stories.
"Sitron?" she gasped, surprised. Upon hearing its name, the horse gingerly approached her. "I can't believe it..." she murmured, stroking the animal's bony snout, "You're alive?"
Anna and Agnaar ran up to Elsa, catching up to her. Both were quite surprised when they had heard her call Sitron by name.
"How? I though Hans said he was dead" said Agnaar as he went to touch the horse only for it to back away.
"I though so too... Stephen told me that Sitron was killed" said Anna even more puzzled,
"I don't know..." said Elsa as this was confusing, how was it that he was alive when everybody said he was dead. Shaking her head Elsa decided to forget about that as she got an idea.
"Sitron... do you know where Hans is?" asked Elsa, the horse looked on, stayed still.
"Elsa... Sitron is a horse, not a blood hound" Agnaar pointed out as he doubted the horse would be of help.
"But he is all we have" said Elsa as Sitron moved out of the building and made its way out of the building, pass the ruins, towards the woods with Elsa, Anna and Agnaar followed the horse in silence.
The sound of waves crashing filled Hans ears as he arrived to a cliff at the side of the forest. At the very edge it showed a grand view of the ocean and beach. Truly stunning to look at as the sun slowly rose from the sea and made the water of the calm ocean sparkle like diamonds.
Arriving Hans with great difficulty lowered himself and sat at the edge of the cliff, his legs dangling off of the edge. Sighting Hans took in the sight and though "So beautiful".
This was his favorite place to go, never failed to move him with its beauty.
Sighting yet again Hans contemplated on his journey. So much happened, did he regret what he did? No, he did not. He did his best, sure he was no Phillip or Florian or like any of the heroes that he used to idolize as a child. But he tried his best, he saved those he could, helped those who needed help.
The ending was not how he wanted, imagined, he was not going to go to his happy ending with his princess and live happily ever after. But in a strange way he was content with that, he was at peace with his choice.
As the sun got rose higher and higher, Hans looked down at the calm ocean.
The ocean, the only place that seemed to embrace him. Maybe it can welcome him once more, take him in when nobody else has.
With that he leaned over and with that he allowed himself to fall.
They say when one falls things slow down. In Hans case it was the opposite, time went fast, barely a second, maybe even less than that somehow as his body fell and hit the water with a loud splash in a blink of an eye.
The water surrounded him as he sunk under the calm waters, he was not worried as he did not need to breath. Looking up at the surface he admires the shine produced by the sunlight hitting the water and the sea foam...
Sea Foam?
Looking down he was surprised, his body, it was slowly fading away, the edges evaporated? Came apart? It was hard to describe but he did know that somehow, someway he was being turned to sea foam.
There was no panic, no fear, no sadness, he just let it happened. In a way he would be one with the ocean, the one place that always welcomed him, embraced him.
Looking up again Hans admired the sun as his sight became blurry then turned to dark. Just before he did he heard somebody call out his name.
But that was foolish of him to think, who would be calling him?
The thick forest was less dark, the mist had lifted, the colors seemed to be restored to the very environment. They should be happy, the bad guy was defeated, the light was back, but they were not.
"Hans!" called Elsa as she, Agnaar and Anna followed Sitron down the forest.
As they made their way they worried about whether Sitron did know where Hans was or not. But regardless they decided to trust in the horse.
Sure enough it became clear that their choice in trusting the horse was right as up ahead they saw a cliff and on said cliff Hans sat, close to the edge, looking out into the sea.
Fear, dread, remorse and guilt filled the group of three as they stared at the sight before them. Though they were far away they could clearly see the damage that had been done to Hans.
His body had decayed even further as the ice that he had to preserved it was gone and the curse was slowly eating him away, he hardly had any trace that showed that he was once human, once alive like them. The decay enhanced the damage, every cut, burn, injure he had suffered was more noticeable than before.
Anna collapsed to the ground, shaking, she looked like she wanted to cry, but could not as her body seem to betray her and go against her wisher. Nearby Agnaar leaned against a tree, his knees giving out as he whispered and mouth something Elsa did not understand.
Meanwhile Elsa herself was frozen, she tried to force herself to move, to call out. Her feet rebelled against her, her voice despite the fact that she wanted to scream, came out as whispers as she said "Please, stop... don't do this... just come here... we can figure something out... take you to Arendelle... where you won't be hurt... please just don't"
Her whispers were carried off by the wind, they never reached Hans... and neither did she.
The next thing she knew Hans allowed himself to fall off of the cliff and into the water. Elsa screamed as she ran over, praying she was able to reach him. She reached but it was no use.
There was a loud splash as Hans body hit the water. Looking from above Elsa cried out and in truth she was ready to jump after him had Anna and Agnaar not stopped and held her.
She cried and screamed, her voice being regained.
"Elsa, Anna, my girls, it's okay" said Agnaar trying to comfort them even when he himself was crying.
Elsa cried then she stopped before looking at Anna and said "Yes... your right...".
Agnaar stared not sure what to say before Elsa said "I think it's time we pay a visit to that mountain again..."
Yes! That was it! It gave them that elixir! Surely it had more or maybe a way to bring Hans back.
Seems that Agnaar though the same as his eyes lit up and nodded. This was their best bet.
So with that they took and dragged Sitron away towards the mountain. Determined and hopeful. This was not over yet...
To be continued...
Authors note: No! Its not over yet! There is more to come as this story draws to a close.
Any way hope you all enjoy this chapter, like all the other chapters this one is full of symbolism and meaning, can you all guess what they are? Those who do I will make a one shot for them. Any way please review to let me know what you all think, but for now I bid you adue and will update the story as soon as possible. Take care.