DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN RIGHTS TO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS, OR ANYTHING DISNEY.
It should be duly noted that I don't normally make Disney fanfictions, and therefore, the characters will probably be a little off. Sorry for the shortcomings, but I thought this would make an… interesting story, at the least.
Also, This story will only be a slow work-in-progress. I'll be mainly focusing on my other two stories for the time being. Hope you enjoy it anyway! :)
(P.S., if you want to use this as a sort of prompt for a story of your own, feel free. ;))
Chapter One: Wait, who are you?
"Come on, Nokk!" I said, urging him to go faster. "Is this the fastest you can go?"
The horse under me took the challenge and whinnied, as he began pumping his legs even faster. In actuality, I was already quite impressed, but I felt that there was surely even higher speeds that the spirit of Water could go.
My name's Elsa. I have some rather… unusual friends, if it can be put that simply.
Recently, I, along with my sister Anna, found out that I was, well, a spirit myself. I am the only person in the world who can seemingly wield magic.
Ice magic. From birth, I'd always had trouble. So much so that I began hiding myself away, when I realized one morning that with the power to please also came the power to hurt the ones I loved. I thought I was protecting Anna.
I wasn't.
She told me, when she finally calmed me and my powers down enough to listen, that she had grown up lonely. I definitely shared in her pain, but I came to realize that her pain was more focused than mine. I worried about too many things, but Anna only worried about me.
She's the greatest.
Anyways, we went on an adventure to free an enchanted forest from its curse. After all that, it was brought to light that I was, in fact, a spirit. I made many friends along the way, those being the four other spirits of the elements.
Wind, Fire, Earth…
Water.
Nokk and I went on regular rides like this, but this was the furthest from the forest we've ever been. Originally, I had been planning on going to Ahtohallan, but then I asked Nokk if he knew how fast he could go and well… things went on from there.
It was getting quite warm now. Almost enough to cause me some trouble, if I had been wearing my ice-crystal dress.
I finally took the time to realize that the world I was seeing was completely different to the one I was used to. Where was I? This land, whatever it was, was much more…pristine, I suppose. Not that I was used to living in a dump, I was a queen. But here, the water was crystal-clear, and a very definite, deep blue. It was gorgeous.
"Nokk, where are we?" I asked looking around for all the good it would do me.
Nokk began prancing around, as though trying to figure it out for himself. Suddenly, he perked up his ears and turned in a specific direction.
From across the waves, I began hearing a sort of mystifying chanting sound. It sounded kind of like an "oobreh gehbay", but that was just gibberish… wasn't it?
I peered over the waves. I may have been a magical spirit on the inside, but on the outside I'm still very much a human. My eyes were not as sharp as Nokk's. I could just barely make out the image of a sail. It was a strange, small vessel. Couldn't have carried more than one passenger. It looked… rather primitive, to be honest.
"What do you think, Nokk? Should we go see if they need any help?" I asked, leaning down a little. Nokk got that look in his eyes again. The one that told me he had a secret over there. He pranced around a bit more, as if he couldn't make up his mind whether or not to take me to the ship.
Suddenly, the ship was gone. To where, I had no idea. Could it have been a sea mirage? It had been there a moment ago, and now it was gone. Nokk whinnied impatiently, and began to turn around, but I held him still.
"Wait, where did the ship go?" I asked, scanning the waves. Nokk was looking, more and more, like he wanted to leave.
But suddenly, I saw something small, darting towards me through the water. I had ridden over the waves on Nokk enough times to realize that there were some fish who were eager to get a bite, even if they had to jump for it. This thing was moving fast, whatever it was.
"Nokk, get ready to run." I said, as frost began to exude from my hands. "I'll slow them down."
As I shot my magic towards the thing, however, Nokk reared up, messing up my aim. The bolt of magic flew past the odd shape, freezing the surface of the water nearby. In response, the thing swerved around me in a wide loop, as if coming to realize what I could do. This fish was smart!
As I waited for the thing to make its next move, I felt a cold, slightly wet thing tap me on the back. With the reflexes of a very much so surprised person, I swung my hand around, which had still had frost coming off them. I nearly screamed, as the thought darted into my head that I might cause another frozen heart (not easily cured!). But as my hand smacked against whatever had touched me, I felt something I hadn't been expecting.
Water.
I whipped around and saw a frozen shape, as though a wave had decided to rise up out of the water, and tap me on the back. While my back was turned, a stream of water hit my hair.
"Hey!" I said, just in time to get a wave to wash me off Nokk. The thing in the water was off in the distance to my left, but I somehow knew that whatever it was had washed me off. 'We can play that way…'
I burst to the surface of the water, and took a deep breath, before I saw another wave coming after me, this time, Nokk was in front. However, it seemed like he was trying to… stop the waves? Why didn't he just calm the water like he did for me before? It was like the wave was a renegade, and wouldn't listen to him.
The wave crashed into me, and I went under again. I had had enough. For a second time, I burst out of the water, and reached up. Nokk grabbed my hand and helped me back onto his back. The thing in the water was coming up towards us now, and Nokk was whinnying impatiently.
"Now I've got y—" I began, but am majorly surprised when I see a young girl surface. What the—? What's a girl doing out here?
The girl stared at me, as though annoyed, and oblivious to the fact that I was sitting atop a horse made of water. She had a deep tan, which made me look like… well, snow-white in comparison. Her clothes were made out of simple fabrics that would suit her well for this sort of heat around us. The two of us just sort of stared at each other.
Finally, she spoke. "Who are you, and why is the ocean responding to you?"
Now I'm confused. What? Responding to me? This girl seemed to already know about the spirits?
"Well, Nokk is a good friend of mine…" I begin, ignoring the tone of which she said you so spitefully. Who on earth is this girl?!
The moment I say "Nokk", the girl's eyes widen. "You know the ocean's name?"
I look around me. Surely, this is just some weird dream right? How did she even get out this far into the ocean?
"Yeah?" I say, scanning for any nearby land.
"And what is that creature?" the girl asks, eyeing Nokk, who gives a sort of indignant huff.
"This… is Nokk." I say, feeling more and more confused by the second. "Excuse me, who are you?"
The girl rolled her eyes in a self-ridiculing manner. "I am Moana of Motu-nui."
I definitely didn't know of any land anywhere even on the map named Motu-nui. I doubt I could even pronounce the name right. The girl looked up at me, atop my steed.
"What's your name?"
She wanted to play with titles, I could do that. I smiled and said, "I am Queen—" before I stopped. Queen was no longer my title. It was my sister's. Right. Gotta get used to that. "I am Elsa, of Arendelle."
"Arendelle?" the girl said, as though it was foreign to her. "Where's that?"
Where was Arendelle? That was a new one. "Um, it's just that way, about… Nokk how far did we travel?"
Nokk shook his head. He had no idea either. We'd been running a while.
"Anyways, how did you get so far out in the middle of the ocean?" I ask, turning my attention back to the girl.
"I sailed. But then, for some reason or other, my ship decided to spring a leak and turn over. Here I am."
The girl said this in such a nonchalant way it struck me as odd.
"Here," I say, offering my hand, "climb on, I'll try to get you to wherever you're trying to get to."
"Nah, I'm good." the girl says, shrugging.
"How are you going to get out of the middle of the ocean?" I ask, an eyebrow raised. "There's nothing for miles and miles."
"Oh, the ocean will surely carry me." the girl says, enjoying the look on my face.
'She's gone crazy, hasn't she?' I think. "At least let me help you get a boat."
The girl's face lights up. She has a thing for boats, evidently. I wave my hand, and enjoy the look on her face when a boat made of ice appears. More of a canoe, really, but it's all I could think of for only one person to manage with it. The girl swims over.
"What is this?" she asks, bringing her hand close. "Ah! It's so cold!"
Ah, right. I'm the only one I know who isn't bothered by the cold. But her question puts me off-guard.
"It's ice. Haven't you ever at least seen ice before?" I ask. This is the strangest individual I've ever come across.
"Are you kidding? And how did you do that?!" the girl says. Suddenly, her jaw goes slack. "Are you… are you a monster?"
I nearly bust out laughing, though her comment has brought up a bad memory of a certain duke of a certain Weaseltown. "No, I'm no monster. I'm a…hmmm… how to put this. Let's just say that I'm a very special individual."
The girl looks unconvinced. However, something grabs her attention, and suddenly I am once again the surprised one as a ship just bobs up next to her. Its make is completely foreign to me, and looks as though it might be the same ship as the one she had before.
"Thanks, ocean!" she says, before climbing on.
A splash brings both of our attention back to the water. Another girl seems to have surfaced, and neither of us knows this one's face. The first thing that draws both of our attention is her bright, bright red hair.
The next one is her tail.
"Can you two please quiet it down up here? You're causing quite the commotion down there, and I can barely swim straight!" she says, rhythmically flicking her fish's tail to stay above the waterline.
When I finally regain my power of speech, the first words to come out, despite all my queenly training of being polite, are, "Mermaid!"
The newcomer rolls her eyes. "That's kinda… obvious. Was it the fish's tail that gave it away?" she realizes that I'm sitting atop Nokk. "What the—!?"
Nokk makes another huffing sound, and I introduce them. "Mermaid, Nokk. Nokk, strange mermaid."
"Ariel." The mermaid says, studying the spirit of water closely. "How—?"
The three of us, each atop our own modes of transportation, eye the others.
"I'll go first, I guess." The girl who said her name was Moana begins. "I am… well, my friend likes to joke that I'm eight years old, but I'm nearly fifteen. I am Moana of Motu-nui, the ocean's Chosen One."
Ariel seems to doubt this, but a quick tug on her tail, from something she can't seem to see confirms this. Did the water just pull her down? She rises a little further out of the water. "My name is Ariel. I am both queen of a kingdom on shore, and the princess of the underwater realm. I collect many different articles from all over the world, and store them in my vault underwater."
It's my turn, I guess. I sit up a little straighter in my seat. "I am Elsa, of Arendelle, fifth Spirit of the Enchanted Forest of Northuldra. This is Nokk, spirit of Water."
If the others are impressed yet, they don't really show it. These are not the normal reactions I'm quite accustomed to, but I can't tell yet if I'm irked or relieved.
Probably relieved.
"She's got some weird thing she does too." Moana says to Ariel. Then she turns to me. "Show her the i-thingy."
"Ice." I say, freezing the surface of the water around me. Ariel begins laughing a little, much to my own amusement, though she does not seem shocked that I have magic.
"You really didn't know what ice was?" she giggles.
"Well, no. I never had the opportunity to encounter it, in any of my travels." Moana says, though she has no hint of sheepishness on her face. I don't think she ever let herself look that way.
"Well…" I began, not quite sure how to wrap up this weird and semi-interesting conversation, "If you guys ever come near Arendelle or Northuldra, come and find me. Queen Anna will get a message to me."
The other two nodded, and resumed talking to each other, as Nokk and I turned away, heading back the way we had come. Once the others were out of sight, I leaned down.
"Did you know about them?" I ask, and Nokk nods his head. I can almost see the amused sparkle in his eye as he gallops off, over the waves, back towards the Enchanted Forest once more.