Anna opened her eyes and found herself counting pale freckles.
Three… four… five…. Wait what am I doing?
The pale skin became wrinkled at the crinkling of a slender nose.
"Anna… your eyelashes are tickling my nose."
Anna bolted up to her feet, and immediately smacked her head against the top of the ice ball that housed them.
"OW!" she yelped as she furiously rubbed the top of her ruby head.
"Are you ok?!" Elsa said from down below, still lying on her back but trying to prop herself up on her elbows.
"Stop asking if I'm ok when you're the one that's half-dead!"
"Don't worry, I'm already healing."
"I noticed. That doesn't change the fact that you were half dead."
As the shaking had come to a halt, Elsa receded their magical sanctuary. She stood up and looked at the ruins they found themselves standing in the middle of.
"Whoa. Nothing's left. The whole lodge collapsed."
"Good riddance."
As they climbed their way out of the rubble, Elsa stumbled over the debris causing Anna to catch her arm.
"Whoa there, see! Take it easy Ms. I-Have-Magical-Healing."
"Anna. I tripped. I'm not dying."
"And I'm not letting go."
Elsa looked down at their hands entwined and just responded with a comforted smile.
As they stepped out of the debris the forest suddenly became alive.
It glowed with a soft blue light, made more brilliant by the bathing of the moon, and descended from the canopy. A magical rainfall that began to swirl between the branches into an aerial river of light. It danced around Elsa, her braid blowing in the wind. It swirled around Anna, her skirt ruffled against the wind.
Finally, all points converged into black fur and fluffy tail with ears perked up and thankful blue eyes.
Both women stopped and met the gaze of the black-haired wolf now standing before them. He slowly walked toward them, and Elsa felt a tightening grip in her hand. Without saying anything, she just squeezed back and watched as the wolf walked right up to Anna.
Anna flinched and could not help but have a tinge of fear at the massive creature standing in front of her. Then there was an unexpected sensation against her cheek. A cold, wet nose pressed up against her skin followed by a nuzzle of soft fur under her chin.
"He says thank you."
Anna hesitantly reached up with her free hand and pet the giant wolf, stroking the fur along his neck. He backed away and gave a respectful nod to the other magical being and a look akin to as much of an apology as those eyes could convey without words.
"No hard feelings," Elsa said. "You're safe now." Elsa also reached out with her free hand and magical energy swirled around each other once again as glowing blue orbs danced with the snowflakes across her skin.
They stood there with their arms wrapped around the wolf spirit, embraced in relief and gratitude. The fur glistened in the moonlight as more magical energy illuminated within their arms. They watched as the tall and imposing spirit dissolved into a starry constellation of magical light that danced around their bodies.
Then they watched as the blue orbs swirled up into the air and retreated back into the forest, thankful for the long-needed rest.
They heard a *SNAP* from behind them. They spun around to find a man in the middle of the wreckage.
What? Who is that? And how did he get there without me sensing his presence at all?
"Who are you? Are you another hunter?" Elsa reflexively had her arm up and pointed straight ahead, an icy spear already forming in her palm.
She watched as the man slowly bent down and rifled through the debris.
"A hunter? Nay… I have not been called a huntsman in…. quite a long time."
He picked up something from under the fallen tables and splintered walls and then began to walk toward them. He had a longbow slung over one shoulder and a quiver of arrows behind his lower back.
Anna whispered into Elsa's ear, "Els, I think those are the same arrows like the one that shot the spirit in the arm when he was trying to kill me."
As he got closer they could see, through the moonlight, that he was an older man. His hair reached his neck and was a deep grey that matched his short, grey beard and thin mustache. He had a simple brown vest with green sleeves underneath, a wide leather belt, and a long cape trailing behind him.
As he left the ruined lodge, he stopped in front of them and gave a small bow, lifting off his cap, adorned with an old red feather, and revealing a shiny bald head on top of the ring of grey hair.
"Forgive me, I did not mean to startle you."
"Are you the one that saved me from before? That shot the spirit in the arm?"
He nodded his head causing a ripple in his pronounced jowls.
"Aye, fräulein. I am relieved to see that you both are not terribly hurt."
"Well, that's debatable," Anna said as she shot a worrying look toward Elsa who was still standing as rigid as ever, ready to defend… or attack at a moment's notice.
"Yes… you are alive at least. That is most impressive considering the ordeal you both have been through. I… I just wanted to thank you."
Elsa raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Thank us? For what?"
"For saving the wolfgeist. And the other waldgeist, yesterday. You have my utmost gratitude."
He lowered his bow even more. His eyes dropped to the ground, seemingly lowering his guard as well in the face of a woman still pointing a magical hand in his direction.
Elsa questioned him with a distrusting frost on her breath.
"You know of the spirits? And you do not think them monsters? If you are not a hunter then…. what are you?"
He straightened his back and returned his cap to cover the baldness at the top of his head.
"I am a förster. A… ranger if you will."
"A ranger?" Anna asked. "What is that?"
"You could say that we are an offshoot of the hunters guild. Hunting has ever been the most popular way of dealing with… problems. But some of us felt that there was another way. A better way to manage life with the magic that is all around us."
He lifted his arms and turned from side to side, encompassing their surroundings in his embrace.
"And so I formed the rangergilde. We are small in number, but we travel the world and aid people, particularly in matters of a natural or magical sort. We do not blindly kill the first thing that comes into our view. Our main goal…. is to help. A case in point. Eh… may I..?"
Elsa slowly lowered her arm and allowed him to take a few steps closer. He lifted his hands in front of them to show what he had salvaged from the ruins.
"If Herr Leitch had his way, he would have killed the spirit and not thought another second of the matter. You, however, saved the spirit, returned the forest to order, and revealed the cause of the chaos."
Elsa looked down at the white arrow with blue fletching in his hand. She scanned down to the arrowhead and her eyes grew wide with realization.
"This black iron. I've seen it before!"
He nodded his head. "Yes. The waldgeist you saved yesterday. I watched you remove that nail from his horn. Well done, indeed."
Scrutiny returned to her face. "You were watching us?"
He was watching us and I couldn't tell this entire time?
"I came to this forest because I heard reports of unnatural happenings. People being attacked by all manner of waldgeist. Hunters struggling to contain the attacks. You were the first person to stop an attack and discover a clue as to what is going on."
Elsa examined the jagged edges and rough surface of the iron arrowhead. Its magic had dissipated but it still exuded a dark aura.
"But what does it mean? It seems someone is trying to corrupt the forest, but why?"
"I cannot say." The old man looked concerningly at the arrow. "I've never seen an arrow like this before. I am the only ranger in this region and I feel I must stay and help the people here recover from these attacks. It may be some time before I can follow this trail."
"Then let us follow it!"
He turned and looked at the girl who was decidedly less than hostile toward him in her demeanor than the taller one.
"This ranger business seems like it's much more suited to us than monster hunting, right Els?"
"You two wish to become rangers?" The man looked decidedly perplexed between the two of them. Anna practically jumping up and down with excitement and Elsa just looking at her and shrugging her shoulders confusingly.
"Sure, why not? We thought that becoming monster hunters would make it easier to travel around. But Leitch was gross. And it wasn't really our thing. This seems much more appealing to us."
"That is true… We did just want to help these people and the forest…" Elsa said, still unsure as to whether to trust the stranger or not.
The mysterious man reached out to give Elsa the arrow in his hands.
"I know you do not trust this stranger before you. I do not blame you. Herr Leitch was always a cunning and ruthless man. Frankly speaking, I am not sad to see him depart this life. It seems to me like you two have already done a rangers work. Who am I to stop you from continuing?"
"Yes! So what's our mark? Do we get like a cool horn or something?"
"Haha!" The man chuckled sending his jowls and girthy midsection rippling with amusement.
"No… we do not partake in such frivolous objectifications."
"Then how do people know if you're a ranger or not?"
He brought his hand up to his chin to scratch at his beard.
"Why not simply announce that you are rangers?"
"Cause that seems dumb. And boring."
"I do not deny this. There are so few of us, it has not yet occurred that we needed marks to designate ourselves rangers. We can go into a hunting lodge and request the same bounties, use the same job boards. We simply say we are working for the rangergilde instead of the jagdgilde."
Anna crossed her arms in her usual mode of defiance.
"Well, no offense, but the last time we walked into a hunting lodge I had an arrow headed straight toward my face without me even getting a chance to say what I was."
"Fair point, fräulein. Then, what do you suggest?"
Elsa unexpectedly chimed in. "How about a lock of fiery red hair?"
Anna looked over with horror in her face and her eyes bugging out of her head toward Elsa who had a mischievous look in her eye. She had her hand up and was making scissor motions with her fingers while taunting with a raised eyebrow. Then her fingers became encased in icicle blades that added a *SNIP* to the threat.
"Don't you dare! You keep those magical fingers away from my babies!" Anna was clutching tightly to each braid as if to shield them with her life.
Elsa just chuckled, causing a slight spasm in her still-healing body, and she reached up to hold her injured shoulder as she dissolved the blades from her fingers.
Anna was still hard at thought, and still caressing her imperiled braid when she spied Bruni over at the wreckage.
"What ya doin over there?" She asked as she walked over.
She heard a slight sizzle as she got close and could see little wisps of smoke rising from under his pudgy toes. He looked in her direction and made his way off of the plank of wood he was standing on, and up her dress to sit on her shoulders. She bent down and found herself looking at tracks of scorched footprints in the wood.
"This is perfect Bruni! Good job!"
Bruni tilted his head and licked his eyeball, and her cheek in the process. She picked up the wood and skipped over back toward Elsa.
"Hey Els, punch a hole in this will ya?"
"Excuse me?" Elsa looked at the wood and raised another eyebrow and slightly backed away from the piece of garbage in Anna's hands.
"Bruni made us a symbol! You can punch little holes in this wood making little tokens with these footprints on them!"
"That…. is not a bad idea, I suppose."
"I think it is a splendid idea!" The mystery man bellowed out.
Elsa proceeded to carve out small discs, each one with a random arrangement of engraved salamander footprints across their surface. She handed one to Anna and placed one in her hidden pouch. Then she turned toward the man.
"I still do not trust you. I don't know anything about you. But you did save Anna when I wasn't there. And for that, I thank you."
Anna's freckles were drowned in a sea of blush.
"I will continue my journey, doing what I can to help. If I find that you are not what you say, that you are deceiving us, or have malicious intentions, I will not hesitate to stop you."
He bowed once again.
"I would not have a ranger act any other way. Let us do this proper. You may call me Humbert. Would you like to join me and my small band of wardens?"
He removed his thick leather glove and extended an outstretched hand. She looked from his hand to his pale green eyes.
I… I don't sense any malice in those eyes. I also don't feel…. any fear. He's seen my powers and yet that fear and blood lust I am so used to is not there. There is a vast breadth of experiences behind them but they only show… warmth. Like Lady Snow… Like Anna…
Elsa reached out and grasped his weathered and calloused hand.
"Elsa. Elsa Isskjoldr."
His face beamed with a joyous smile.
"A pleasure to meet you, frau Isskjoldr!"
He released his firm grip to turn to the still blushing Anna standing nearby.
"And you are frau Anna, yes?"
"Yes… Thanks for saving me earlier, Mr. Humbert."
"Please, Humbert is just fine."
He turned back to Elsa who began to hand him the remaining ranger marks she had made from the burned wood.
"I will distribute these to any of the other rangers I encounter. I have a few I can send them out to. You do know that no one will know what these mean?"
"We are starting a new tradition! And seriously, what's a guild without a symbol?"
"Quite right, frau Anna!"
"Next we can come up with a secret handshake!"
"Ok, Let's not get carried away Anna."
"What a wonderful idea!"
Elsa looked in dismay as Anna and Humbert began exchanging all manner of eccentric and ridiculous hand gestures toward each other.
"Herr Humbert please, don't encourage her."
Elsa came over and wrapped an arm around Anna's shoulders in an attempt to drag her away.
"Come on, Anna. I think it's your bedtime."
"Who died and made you my mother? Wait, we haven't figured out the finger locking and fist bump sequence yet!"
Elsa ignored her plea as she forcefully dragged her away.
"Well, uh… See ya later Bert!" Anna exclaimed as she excitedly waved her hand back and forth in the air.
"Until next time!" Humbert simply raised his hand in response. Then turned and began to walk back into the forest, looking down at his hands and attempting to replicate the complicated finger movements and shaking his head with amusement.
Elsa stopped and released Anna from her hold.
"Before we set up camp, there's one more thing we should do."
Elsa turned toward the ruins of the lodge.
"Bruni. If you please."
From the top of Anna's shoulder, Bruni nodded his acknowledgment. He leaped onto the ground and ran toward the wreckage.
And the forest became illuminated with a blazing inferno.
Elsa looked out at the controlled flames engulfing the remains of the curse. Then she looked down at the white arrow in her hands. She placed a hand over the iron arrowhead, concentrated her magic, and shattered the metal into a fine, frozen powder that scattered into the wind.
As the night was coming to a close, the two newly minted rangers found themselves sitting by a salamander fueled campfire.
Anna was sitting, her legs outstretched in front of her, and twirling the wooden ranger token in her fingers.
"Man, I'm beat. We've been up all night. How are you feeling Els?"
No response.
"Elsa?"
Anna suddenly yelped as a snowy white head came crashing down onto her lap.
"Uh… Elsa….?"
Anna looked down and couldn't help but be washed with a flutter through her heart.
She's totally passed out. She's totally passed out on my lap. She looks so peaceful… Nothing like the ball of nerves she's been all day. Well, I guess I'll take first watch.
She could not restrain herself from caressing the snowy locks and brushing a stray bang away from the pale face with hints of purple waves across her skin from the magical firelight.
Sweet dreams, Elsa. Maybe I'll pass the time by counting your freckles again.
One… two….three…..four…...five….*YAWN*...siiiixx…..
Anna's vision blurred. She barely felt herself falling backward as the back of her head landed in a soft pillow of thick, black fur.
Mmmmm…. This bed feels great…
The forest was filled with the sound of light dreaming and heavy snoring as the two girls fell into a deep slumber, nestled in the warmth of the fire and under the watchful gaze of a thankful wolf curled around their wary bodies.
Glossary:
German
Wolfgeist - Wolf Spirit
Waldgeist - Forest Spirit
Förster - Translates to Forest Ranger or Warden
Rangergilde - I kind of made this up. It's Rangers Guild in German. A rangers guild doesn't seem to exist so I took liberties.
A/N:
Humbert
This is the Huntsman from Snow White. I aged him, similarly like how I aged Snow White herself. Specifically, the original Huntsman from the 1937 Snow White. I know there are various versions of the Huntsman out there, but I liked the idea of this old and wisened ranger in the forest.
Behind the Scenes:
This episode is inspired by the trope of the wolf stigma in fairy tales and thus throughout history. I wanted to do a werewolf story but flip the concept of the transformation. I also wanted to use this as a way to establish the girls as adventurers and not just 'girls on the run'. I was actually worried that this chapter would run short. The 'haunted house' sequence was actually a late development, but it's probably my favorite part of the episode.
Next Time on ELSA: SNOW QUEEN
"Mmmm… these hills are so nice. So peaceful. So alive. It's almost like… these hills… are alive with the sound of… *SNORE*..."
"SISTER ANNA!"
"AHH! I'm awake! I'm sorry Sister Berthe, it won't happen again, I swear."
"This is no way for a sister of the church to behave! Really….. Sleeping during Mass, playing games with the other sisters. Laughing at the Reverend Mother even. I know you are new here, but I can't imagine the church in the Norslands condones this… are you eating?!"
"Um…..no…."
"Where do you even hide all of this chocolate!? Why can't you be like Sister Elsa? The very model of piety and poise."
"Ya well, I bet you Sister Elsa has some chocolate up her…..OW! She kicked me!"
"Oh dear God in Heaven. Help me. Help me figure out how to solve this problem. This problem like….Anna."
We are taking a break from the horror and taking a step into the world of…. PARODY! What's an episodic TV show without some parody? I am really excited about this episode. I've been planning this parody since the pilot. While it will help if you are familiar with the movie, I am hoping to write a story that can stand on its own enough so that it doesn't need the movie to carry it. Trust me when I say that it's NOT going to be just scenes from the movie with Elsa and Anna thrown into it.
In the next episode, the girls are thrown into the world of 'The Sound of Music'. But this is not the story you may remember. Why are they nuns in a church? Who is going to the Von Trapp castle? How will they sing their way off of the mountain? (There will not be singing except in your head) Where does Anna hide all that chocolate? All this and more on the next exciting episode of…
ELSA: SNOW QUEEN