Here is chapter 8.
I re-read the book 'Frozen 2 Forest of Shadows' and I forgot that SPOILER WARNING there is a magic wolf called the 'Nattmara' that causes nightmares, just to let you know that whenever I have an idea for a fanfic I bullet point the important parts of it. Like how my OC or OCs act, talk, look like, their past, their fears, who I ship them with etc.
So when I got to the part of Nattmara taking the form of a wolf and its causes nightmares, it was initially coincidence, I looked up about what the meaning of dreams with animals, because believe it or not a couple of times I've had dreams about wolves, and that is what I'm basing it on.
Anyway enough talk I'll let you read.
I do not own Disney's Frozen only my OC's.
Enjoy!
The Call of the Wolf
Chapter 8 - A Family Reunion
July 27th, 1840.
The rain still pouring down, forcing, Anna, Kristoff, and the Pagans to find shelter, the group found a small cave halfway down the hill, Kristoff turned on the oil lantern and put it in between them and Valda and Grim who turned back in his human form some time ago. A young brunette man in his early twenties, green eyes, wearing no cloak, normal black pants tucked in his brown fur boots similar to Valda's, hunter green tunic with the sleeves rolled up, showing a parallel tattoo on his left arm stopping just at his wrist and tied around his waist a brown wolf pelt.
"So who is this?" Kristoff stated.
"My name is Grim Hawken," he answered. "I'm one of Valda's Delta of the clan."
"Delta?" Anna questioned.
"Second in command to the Alpha," Valda explained. "Basically the Delta is in charge when the Alpha is doing some other task. When did you get to Arendelle?" she asked Grim as Aliana lands on her left shoulder.
"About two days ago once we left the mountains Rieka told me to go look for you."
"Is everyone alright?"
"Yeah they are all fine, tired, and worried about you but fine."
Valda let out a sigh of relief, she looks out of the cave, the rain is starting to slow down, but it is too dark for Anna and Kristoff to travel through, and now that the ground is now wet one slip will cause an injury, one that she did not won't to risk after what happen. She looks back at the Princess, holding on to her sister's cloak, tightly close to her chest, Kristoff holding Anna close to him giving her comfort.
Elsewhere in the forest.
The sound of gentle drops of the rain hitting fabric causes Elsa to stir awake, someone places a warm cloth on her forehead, the young queen slowly opens her eyes. She realizes she is in a tent, laying down on her back on furs, she sees a woman in her early 50's her brown hair with small traces of silver grey, her hands hover over Elsa's torso, teal green light appear in the woman's palms. Elsa nearly raised up quickly from shock, but hold back her cry of pain as she lies back down.
"Steady child, I'm not going to hurt you," a kind voice from the woman reassured her. "You're safe here."
"Ic de durhhæle dinu licsar, mid dam sundorcræft dære ealdan æ. Drycræft durhhæle dina, wunda ond de geedstadolie."
"What happened? Where am I?" Elsa asked, feeling the magic working.
"You fell from a great hight, two of my clan members found you passed out, and brought you back to camp, Queen Elsa," the elder woman says slowly moving her hands closer.
"How do you know my name and title?"
"A talking snowman was with you when you were found," She replies as her spell finished, her hands stop glowing and removes the cloth from Elsa's forehead. "He told me of your status of this land."
"Olaf?!" Elsa asked, sitting up slightly. "He's here too?"
"Yes, he is with the children."
Elsa pain is slowly disappearing, a comfortable wave of heat washes over her. The young Queen watches the woman as she places herbs and plants in small bowl then grained it up then putting it in glass vial with some red liquid, it bubbles while changing colour, Elsa sees a tattoo on the back of the woman's left hand, the symbol on the back of another Pagan she knows.
"Your Valda's mother," Elsa says sitting up more.
"My name is Rieka," she replies with a small smile. "You must rest, we'll talk more in the morning," she says as she pours the still changing liquid in a small wooden cup. "Drink, it'll help you sleep."
Elsa did as she was told, takes the cup that now holds a lilac coloured liquid, as she drank, it smelled and tasted like lavender with a hit of something sweet possibly honey. When she passes the empty cup back to the elder Pagan, her eye lids start to droop naturally feeling very drowsy, Rieka gently guided her to lay down, once Elsa's head is placed on the pillow, her eyes close, fast asleep within seconds. Rieka covers Elsa with a blanket stopping at her chest.
She waited awhile to make sure Elsa was in a deep sleep before leaving the tent, where a young raven haired Pagan woman in her 20's sat near an open fire, her long brown cloak covering her, shielding her from the cold night, the rain came to a complete stop not long ago.
"How is she?" she asked Rieka.
"She's asleep," Rieka replied as she sits down, opposite side of the fire. "She will be fine in the morning."
"Is the blonde really the queen of this land?" The raven haired asked again. "She must be no more than my age to rule a kingdom."
"Yes, a few years ago I heard of the death of the previous King and Queen when we took a trip at a nearby village."
"Goddess wounds, guess we aren't the only ones going through a hard time."
"Life is not a game young one, remember that," Rieka gave her words of wisdom.
"Any idea where Val could be right now?"
"Her spear was found near the Queen when Joar and Tobias found her and the snowman. Along with the body of Catina."
"She killed her?!"
"I'm not sure, it would seem that they both fell, but the falling earth claimed Catina's life, not the queen."
"Still, her brother will be coming for her blood."
"Then she'll stay in our protection, Valda's scent is on her, which means the two of them where traveling together, along with two others."
"I'm surprised a blue blood would help a Pagan."
"Not all are like that."
"I hope Grim has found her."
"As do I."
Morning.
Anna, Kristoff, Sven, Valda and Grim had made it to the bottom of the mountain within the hour when the sun was high enough, they see a pile of rocks, Anna is the first to see the blood in the snow.
"Elsa!" Anna yells, running over to it, the others hurry after her.
"Don't worry it's not her blood," Valda says. "It's Catina."
Grim change form and starts sniffing the ground.
"Catina died in the fall, crushed to death," Valda says to the others, she gets on one knee, spotting small traces of snow in the grass. "Elsa used her magic to soften her fall, this is where she landed," Pointing out the flatten grass, then spots two round footprints. "Something must have found Elsa first."
"That's Olaf's footprints," Anna says. "He's alright."
Valda then spots big wolf prints, along with man size footprints next to it.
"Grim over here," she calls pointing down at the prints.
Grim sniffs it for a moment, looks at Valda as his tail wags.
"Are you sure?"
He huffed.
"What? What did he say?" Anna asked.
"Elsa is fine, two members on our side found her and took her and the snowman to safety."
"Oh thank goodness, but where are they?"
"Grim lead on."
He walks forward, Valda follows, Aliana flies off her shoulder.
"He is following their scent, hopefully they are not too far."
They follow Grim with quick pace.
Meanwhile at the camp.
Elsa is still asleep, laying on her left side, snuggled in the blankets as she dreams.
/
Elsa is back in the same forest again, where she first met the white wolf, the moment she entered the opening again, it appeared, as if it waited for her to return to the land of dreams.
The wolf begins to turn and walk away like before.
"Wait!" Elsa called out.
The wolf stops and turns around facing her.
"Don't go… please."
The wolf walks towards her, when it was getting close its ears folded back, its head lowered, as if it was afraid of what Elsa would do.
Elsa kneels down in the grass, showing no fear, raises her hand up towards the wolf's head, it backs away, lowering its body more to the ground with the tail tugged underneath, she hears it whimper.
"It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you."
It slowly brings its head back, ears still folded back, Elsa gently places her hand on the wolf's head near in between the ears, the fur was soft, softer then fresh powdered snow, she notices the wolf has closed its eyes, and the tail is wagging.
"Valda?" she questioned.
The wolf backs away, looks at her, it ear twitched turns back looking at the forest in front of them.
( Look up 'THE WOLF SONG - Nordic Lullaby - Vargsången' on YouTube.)
HHHHHOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Then Elsa heard it, a voice, it sung on the wind like the wolf howl, the white wolf trots forward, stops and turns its head back to Elsa.
"You what me to follow you?"
HHHHHOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Elsa soon follows the wolf after it finished howling back to the voice, they enter the forest, she made sure to be as close to the wolf as she could, but the forest was getting thicker, if it wasn't for the pure white fur she would have lost sight of it ages ago. As they walk through she can hear more wolves howling deep in the forest, but she did not pay much attention to them, she was focused on the wolf in front of her.
With no sense of time, she has no idea how long they have been walking in the forest, the voice continued singing to them, the wolf would stop to howl back to the voice every now and then.
The voice stopped singing, by the time they reached the end of the forest to another open field, the wolf runs out of the tree line, Elsa quickly followed, she stops in her tracks, in the middle of the field, a hooded figure stands, the cloak gently blowing in the breeze. The wolf runs up to the figure, its tail wagging, greeting the person like a dog would do to its owner, getting on its back legs, the front paws on the persons chest, the figure petting the white wolf, stroking the mane with both hands.
The wolf gets down on all fours, tail still wagging, the person kneels down, cups the wolfs face with both hands, their foreheads touch for a moment then goes back to petting the beautiful canine. Elsa slowly makes her way to them; the hooded figure remains unaware of her presents, its only till the wolf moved away to go back to Elsa, the wolf circled around the young queen then stop, sits down in between the two.
The two look at one another, Elsa could not see the stranger's face, but she did not feel scared at all, she felt safe…. But why?
The figure turned and walked away, the wolf stands up, growl-barks at the person, in a way telling the person to not leave, but the figure carried on walking ignoring the call of the wolf.
Meanwhile back with the others.
They have been following Grim for the last hour, Grim's head shot up, and looks back at Valda, she stops walking.
HHHHOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLLLLL
Anna, Kristoff, and Sven stopped as they saw Grim howl.
"What's going on?" Anna asked Valda.
HHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLL
The second howl came from in front of them and it was close.
"We found them," Valda says happily, tears form in her eyes, but wipes them away. "Come on."
Three minutes earlier.
Elsa stirs awake, she sits up, for the first time in days she woke up without fear from her dreams. Rieka enters the tent, smiling to see the Queen awake and looking at lot better.
"I trust you slept well?" Rieka asked.
"Better than I've had in days." Elsa replied.
"I'm glad, are you in pain anywhere?"
"No I feel fine, whatever you did helped, thank you."
"Your welcome, hope you're well enough for a morning guest," She asks as she opens the tent.
"Elsa! You're okay!" Olaf says hurrying over to hug her.
"Olaf," She hugs the snowman back. "Thank goodness you are alright."
HHHHOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLLLLL
HHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLL
"Rieka!" A woman around the Rieka's age opens the tent flap. "Rieka! She's found us!"
Rieka helps Elsa to stand up and the two leave the tent, Olaf following behind them, they see everyone in the camp hurrying to their lost pack-mate.
"Valda!" A raven haired girl shouts in joy, running to the brunette.
"Freya!" Valda says as they hugged. "Thank the goddess you're alright."
"Don't scare us like that again," Freya scolded her friend, lightly punched her left arm once they broke the hug.
"I make no promises to that," She says as Grim walks over to Freya and hugs her.
Everyone came to welcome Valda, many hugged her, mostly from the kids, teens and women, serval patted her left shoulder, the odd one or two men shake her hand.
A young boy with bright brown haired was the last to hug her.
"Valda I'm so, so sorry, back at the mountains-"
"Hey, no worries Tobias," she says stopping him from talking. "I'm still alive," she scuffs up his hair.
The woman that informed Rieka walks up to her.
"Thank you for saving him Valda," she says hugging her.
"Your welcome Iris."
The group make way, for Rieka and Elsa
"Mother!" Valda calls out, she hurries to her.
Rieka opened her arms once Valda was close, welcoming her child back, Valda is clearly taller, she buried her head in her mother's shoulder, holding her tight.
"Thank the goddess," Valda mumbled.
"My baby girl," she whispered, stroking Valda hair.
Everyone watched the reunion of mother and child, Anna spots Elsa and Olaf near the Pagan women.
"Elsa!" Anna called out too, nearly knocked Elsa over from the force of her run towards her sister.
"Sven!" Olaf called out as well, hurrying to the reindeer.
"Are you okay?" Anna says, after breaking from the hug. "Are you hurt?"
"No Anna I'm fine," Elsa replied, the sister's holding on the another hands.
"Then what were you thinking!? Please do not do anything like that again."
"I'm sorry Anna," Elsa replied bringing her sister into another hug. "It's was all I could think at the time."
"Will next time please think of better plan."
"Hopefully, I don't have to do that again."
The two look back at Valda, still hugging her mother, when the two final move, Rieka looks at her daughter, seeing the small cuts and the shiner.
"You look terrible," Rieka says with concern as she cups Valda's cheeks with her hands. "It's gotten worse."
"I'm fine," Valda replied. "Now that were reunited, we need to leave."
"So soon?" Freya says, walking to Valda, along with Grim.
"Yes, tell everyone to gather what they can, we leave as soon as possible."
The two walk away to spread the word, Rieka lingers before walking away too, Valda signs deeply before turning to Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, and Sven.
"Thank you for your help," Valda says. "And I apologise for the trouble that I have caused you and to your kingdom."
"Do you have to leave so soon?" Anna asked.
"Yes, the moment we move, Módolfr and the rest will follow."
"Well," Elsa begins. "Hope things get better for you and your family, safe travel Valda."
"Thank you again Queen Elsa," Valda says, "All of you, Thank you."
The Arendellians are the first the turn away, Valda doing the same, as Kristoff starts explaining about getting back to the town by nightfall; Elsa looks back at Valda with concern, she watches as the pagan helps family by packing supplies too. She turns her gaze from her one last time.
Before they could leave the campsite, suddenly Valda screams at the top of her lungs as she fall to the ground on her knees clinging on her right shoulder. Everyone stops what they are doing; Elsa, Anna, Freya and Grim are the first to get to Valda, her eyes closed tightly, grinding her teeth as she grunts in pain.
"Not yet," Valda hissed as she tries to stand up but failing. "Please not yet."
Her voice sounded broken, blood is drip down her arm from her shoulder, that caused Elsa more concern. Why is it happening so suddenly? And what does she mean by 'not yet'?
"Get her in the tent quickly!" Rieka ordered.
Grim helps Valda on to her feet, guiding her to the same tent Elsa was in, the group entered Sven and Olaf stay outside.
Once inside Grim sits Valda down, Rieka gathers clean bandages, an wooden bowl filled with water and a cloth, Freya removed Valda's cloak, the bandage is completely cover in blood, Rieka removes the bandages as careful as she could, once it was off everyone saw it, the massive canine bite on the back of her shoulder and on the other side on her collar bone. Elsa gasped cover her mouth with her hands, Anna looks away as she too gasped, Kristoff cringed. The punctured teeth marks are black, red, and around it is scarlet, Rieka starts to clean the wound with the cloth.
"It has gotten worse since the last time I treated it." Rieka says, as she puts the cloth in the bowl and now applying green cream on to the wound.
"Just do what you can," Valda says. "The sooner its patched up the sooner we leave."
Rieka stays quiet, Freya and grim look at one another with worried expression, when the head healer was silent it is not a good sign, Valda turns her head looking over her uninjured shoulder, noticing her mother's silence.
"Mother what's wrong?"
"I'm afraid leaving is not an option now," she says on putting new bandages on. "What just happened is telling us that you most fight with Módolfr, the Fenrir Mark has spoken.
"The Fenrir what?" Anna asked.
"The Fenrir Mark is what Módolfr has done to Valda," Freya says. "When a Pagan challenges the Alpha, he or she is to bite on the Alpha's shoulder, or in this case the first born, for the mark to work and can only be performed on the day of the full moon."
"There are three stages," Rieka explains. "The stage 1 is when the challenger bites, the second stage is what you witnessed, now Valda has to face Módolfr in single combat on the evening of the next full moon."
"But why must the fight take place in Arendelle," Kristoff asked.
"It has been the law ever since the first pagan wrote them," Rieka says. "A new leader must have new lands, that is why we left our old home behind, however when the conflict is sorted it will be the Alpha's choice to leave or stay."
Rieka finishes tying the bandages, and pass her daughter a clean top, Valda takes it and leaves the tent, Aliana following her, Elsa manged to get a look on Valda's face, she saw anger and sadness in her eyes. Freya and Grim are about to follow, but Rieka stops them.
"Leave her be, she needs time to think, in the meantime," she then looks at the Arendellians. "You three could do with a decent breakfast, Grim tell everyone to stop packing for now and let them get something to eat, it's been a long journey for all of us."
"Right," he says and leaves the tent.
With Rieka's order, the pagans stopped and made breakfast for everyone…. Well except Valda, who has not be seen since she stormed off. Even if Rieka and her Beta's reassured the Arendellians mostly the queen and the princess, they could not help but worry. The information about the mark on Valda's shoulder and knowing that there is more to it then a simple injury is one thing to just forget about.
As everyone is chatting among themselves, the trio were treated like they have been friends with the Pagan Clan for years, Anna and Freya got together like a house on fire, even Kristoff was enjoying Grim's company. Olaf and Sven are playing with the youngsters, watching them made the older Pagans happy, seeing the children still full of innocence.
Elsa was getting more concerned about Valda, she walks away from the camp, and starts to look for her. She had no idea where Valda was, but Aliana seemed to find her easily.
"Aliana," Elsa says, lifting her hand for the spirit to land. "Can you show where Valda is?"
Not understand what the little green light is saying, she flies off the Queen's hand and slowly moves away, Elsa followed her.
Only about ten minutes or so, Aliana stops and flies up, confusing Elsa, until she looks up, seeing Valda sitting high in a tree, a good 20 feet of the ground, Elsa moves in front of the tree, noticing Valda has changed her new shirt into the one Rieka gave her a short black sleeve. The Pagan look off in the distances, her old shirt in her hands, Aliana flies near Valda's ear, Elsa could only hear a slight chime sound and judging by Valda not reacting to the spirit says that Valda is miles away.
Then Aliana chimes a lot louder, making Valda jump with a little yelp, she losses her balance and falls out of the tree, Elsa acted quickly and uses her magic to created a big pile of snow to soften Valda's landing.
Valda jumps out of the snow.
"COLD, COLD," Valda yelps, while bushing the snow of her. "Goddess that's cold. Thanks Ali nearly broke my neck."
Aliana chimes, only Valda just rolls her eyes, then turns to Elsa.
"Are you alright?" Elsa asked.
"It's not the first time I'd fallen out of a tree," Valda muttered.
"No I mean," Elsa started, feeling a little hurt by Valda's tone. "You been away from everyone for a long time."
"I just need to think," Valda replied, then turns and starts walking away. "This is not what I planned."
Elsa follows her.
"All this… and now we cannot leave, and Módolfr has he's eyes on you and your home into this mess."
"What? Why?"
"When I first got into Arendelle I felt the magic of your land," Valda explained, as she sits on a small rock. "Not yours but magic in the earth, the forest, there is something else here."
"You can scene magic around?" Elsa questioned as she sits on the another small rock.
"Every Pagan can, but it depends on the kind of magic, like yours is that will hidden it only lets it self be know if you was shocked or.."
"Scared."
She looks at Elsa, seeing the sadness in the blonde's eyes.
"But what does your uncle plan to do?"
"I'm not sure, but whatever it is he will do what is takes to get it, he has always been jealous of my father, when grandfather passed the title to his youngest son, that just angered Módolfr more, and then when I was born that just pissed him off more."
"But can he be reasoned with?"
Valda laughed a little as she stands up, and walks away.
"Reasoned with?" Valda huffed as she turns to face Elsa. "There is no reasoning with him, he kill my father, he gave me the Fenrir Mark, he has splintered my family, and I don't know if you've noticed that the two that were with Catina they are where nothing but skin and bones…. He is forcing them to do all the dirty work while just wait for the final blow."
Valda looks away by turning around, putting her left hand to her eyes to cover, Elsa just sat, not knowing what to say, Valda cared deeply for her family, watching them help one another, even the children wanting to help it touch her heart, they are just looking a way to get back to normal, she had to help them.
"You and your family can come back to the castle."
Valda turned back to her shocked.
"What?! No we cannot."
"Módolfr is after you and your family saved me after the fall from the mountains it the least I can do."
Valda could not believe what she is hearing, the selfless act of this young queen is unreal,
"I'm sorry this happened, I never wanted this to happen, are you sure you want to bring us back to your home."
Elsa smiles.
"It is properly the only safe place for you and your family, and now I know that your uncle wants Arendelle it is now my problem too, as Queen I have to protect my home and the people in it, including you and your family."
"You are something else your majesty," Valda commented with a smile.
"We may come from ways of live but we have the same role to protect the ones we love."
"We best get back to camp and tell everyone," Valda says as Aliana lands on her left shoulder.
There you have it, not going to lie I got a bit teary eye writing Valda's reunion with her mother, I can I just say this has to be the most longest chapters so far, plus when I was writing this I looked back on how many OCs I've done. I'll properly have to put a list of all the full names and their roles in the clan etc. But I'll properly do that next chapter or something?
Also I was going to post this chapter on Boxing Day but I had work on that day, then I came down with Stomach Virus, don't worry it was not COVID but I'm all better now, and I as we speak or as you read this I'm writing more chapters for this and other FanFics.
I don't think I have time to post any new chapters by the end of this month, again I'm aiming for Sunday Night English time.
Anyway I'll be posting a new year note on all my Fic soon… ish but until.
Please leave a comment or a review down below.
Stay safe and take care of yourselves.
So, till next time. X