Forever By Your Side ch. 3
I don't know why I thought coming back to Arendelle would be a good idea. It's a nice city sure but there's no real reason why I should be here than what… The Queen requests my presence and for what. I have nothing to offer this woman who has everything that she could possibly want at her fingertips. I owe her after the fact that she gave Kristoff medical attention but I shouldn't be here and now I'm standing in the same throne room in front of the Queen and her son… again. She's sitting on her throne looking like the embodiment of poise and elegance with a kind smile on her face while Olaf is staring at me like someone told him that Santa Claus was coming to town. He hops off of his seat and makes a beeline towards me before launching himself onto my leg causing me to stumble back.
"You're back! You're back" Olaf said excitedly.
"No kidding, spurt" I said rolling my eyes.
"Kristoff!" Olaf said jumping into the shape-shifter's arms.
"What's up, Olaf?" Kristoff asked hoisting Olaf onto his shoulders.
"I missed you guys" Olaf said smiling.
"We missed you too, little buddy" Kristoff said giving the boy a half smile. "Really? You did?" Olaf asked directing his questions to me.
I look at him with a raised eyebrow before shrugging my shoulders since I haven't been gone long enough to miss him and I highly doubt that I would've remember his name after a week or two but why crush his hope. Once whatever the Queen wants to see us about, we're out of here and never to be seen again with some luck.
"Anna was concerned about you but doesn't want to say that because she wants to look cool" Kristoff whispered.
"Shut up" I said glaring at him.
"See" Kristoff said chuckling.
"Don't worry Anna, I think that you're cool" Olaf said grinning.
Dopes. I'm surrounded by dopes. Can I get this over with so I can leave. I'm pulled out of my thoughts by light giggling and I turned my attention to Elsa who has her mouth covered by her hand. She looks me in the eyes and smiling at me causing my cheeks to burn lightly. The Queen stands up before walking over towards us before looking at Marshall who's still standing not far away from us. Elsa dismisses him with the wave of her hand but he's hesitant to do so before leaving the room as he glares at me. I don't know what his problem is against me since I haven't done anything to him.
"You seemed to have healed rather quickly, Kristoff. Are you well?" Elsa asked concerned.
"Yeah, I'm well. Thanks to your doctors and my own regenerative powers, thank you for asking" Kristoff said rubbing his neck sheepishly.
"That is great to hear" Elsa said smiling.
"Um not to be rude or anything but is there a reason to why we're here" I said raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, there is. I wanted to thank the both of you for what you did for me because if it was not for you then Olaf would not be safe and sound" Elsa said turning her gaze to me.
"You're welcome, Your Majesty besides Olaf is cool little kid" Kristoff said ruffling Olaf's hair.
"And that is why I would like to thank you by having you stay at the castle for awhile. I know that my son has become rather fond of the both of you" Elsa said smiling.
SAY WHAT?! Stay here… in the castle with the both of them. Abort! Abort! I repeat abort! That's a terrible idea and I've heard a lot of terrible ideas from the guy standing next to me. Well for one, one of them I don't like all that much and the other I want bring up to my chambers which isn't going to happen. Think Anna, think. I have to talk my way out of staying here.
"That's not really necessary. Just knowing that Olaf is back home safe and sound is all the thanks that we need" I said forcing a smile.
"No, I insist. I would love if you stayed for a few days and I'll have the chambermaids prepare your rooms" Elsa said turning on her heels.
"Yay" Olaf said pumping his arm into the air.
Ugh, this is gonna be a long couple of days. We're introduced to the head chambermaid who's name is Gerda and she leads to our rooms and they're 5 times bigger than the rooms we stayed in at the inns that we've traveled to. The rooms are beautiful decorated with furniture that are worth more than we'll ever made with the odd jobs that we take. The view from the window is amazing because it looks over the courtyard as well as the rest of the kingdom. Damn, I could get used to this but I'm not going to because I'll be gone in a few days and I'll be back to sleeping in much smaller rooms. I set my knapsack on the floor by the foot of the bed when I hear a small knock on the door before it's pushed open slightly. A small head of white hair pokes its way in through the crack and it's Olaf with a sheepish grin on his face.
"Can I come in?"
"No" I deadpanned.
The grin on the small boy's face drops and I almost feel bad about hurting his feelings. I sigh before laying my sword against the bedpost and walking towards the door to open it further. Olaf looks up at me questioningly and I motion for him to enter the room with my head causing him to smile widely. The young prince walks into the room before climbing onto the bed and looks at me with his hands on his knees. Damn this kid smiles a lot. Does he ever stop smiling?
"What?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
"I'm excited that you're here. I was hoping that you'll teach me how to spit like a man you know like you promised" Olaf said with a hopeful expression.
"I said that I would teach when you were older" I said crossing my arms.
"But I'm a whole two days older" Olaf said holding up two fingers.
"It's only been a day and half and I meant when you're a lot older" I said pushing his hand down.
"You're mean" Olaf huffed.
"You'll get used it" I said ruffling his hair.
The door opens then closes again and I turned to see Kristoff and Sven with goofy looks on their face causing me to roll my eyes at them. No privacy at all. At least the kid knocked before coming in. Olaf hops off the bed and makes his way onto the wolf familiar's back as he walks around the room.
"Our rooms are huge. It's like the inside of a house in here" Kristoff said awestruck.
"No sh-… kidding" I said shaking my head.
I know that the Queen wouldn't appreciate me cussing around her son and he might pick up the habit. This kid is gonna be a hassle to be around. I walk to the window to see Marshall fighting against three of his men shirtless with a small crowd of women fawning over his rippling muscles. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at how conceited this guys is when an idea pops into my head and I smirk deviously.
"Uh oh Anna, why are you smirking like that?" Kristoff asked fearfully.
"Like what? I'm just going out onto the courtyard for some fresh air is all" I said innocently.
"Yeah right, that's a load of bull and you know it" Kristoff said frowning.
Yeah, it may be a load of bullshit but no one's gonna stop me from doing what I'm about to. I turned around and walk over to the bed to pick up my sword before walking out of the door. I know that the shape-shifter is following me through the corridor along with the prince and Sven on his heel and it isn't long before we're in the courtyard when the Captain of the Guard defeated his men. The harem of women was squealing and falling over themselves at Marshall's 'body' and I couldn't help but be disgusted at how they're acting. These woman are obviously repressed sexually an apparently blinded if they'd be impressed by this guy's skills. The Captain turns to see me looking at him before smirking smugly before walking over towards me as he puts his sword in his sheath.
"Impressed by the show?" Marshall asked smugly.
"Hardly" I said rolling my eyes.
"Is it real? Or is it simply for show?" Marshall asked gesturing to my sword.
"Fight me and see for yourself" I replied.
"Fight you? Please like you can actually fight. You surrender as soon as you saw me and my man surrounded you at that inn" Marshall scoffed.
"You caught me off guard and seeing that you knew the kid, fighting you then wouldn't have been in my best interest. Things are different now unless you're too chicken shit" I said smirking smugly.
I know that I struck a nerve by the sudden change in his facial features as Marshall glares at me. He pulls his sword out of his sheath before pointing it at me with the tip at my throat but I look at him with a look of impassive because I know that he wouldn't kill me in front of all these witnesses.
"Fine, it's a fight you want then it's a fight you'll get. First one to get their opponent on their back wins. Anything goes" Marshall said frowning.
"Fine with me" I said removing my cloak.
"Anna, are you sure about this?" Kristoff whispers.
"I got this plus he's had this coming and I want to wipe that smirk off his face" I said pulling my sword out.
"Okay, just be careful" Kristoff said sighing.
"I will" I nodded.
Marshall and I get into a fighting stance before circling around each other sizing each other up for a moment then he lunges at me. Our sword clash against each other and we go blow for blow as we try to get an upper-hand over the other. I blocked a diagonal slash before we tried to push each other back but neither one of us was willing to give an inch. I kick him in the stomach following up with downward swing only for it to miss the captain as he parries it. Marshall sweeps my feet from under me before driving his blade down at my stomach but I quickly rolled onto my feet. I runs the captain before sliding under his legs as I stand up behind him and strike him on the back of his neck with the back of my sword causing him to fall forward. Marshall stumbles forward but he manages to catch himself before turning to face me with an angry glare on his face. He runs towards me with his sword in hand when a voice forces him to stop mid-stride.
"Marshall stop"
I turned to see the Queen standing at the edge of the courtyard with a frown on her face and walking gracefully towards us. Marshall sheaths his sword before bowing to Elsa.
"Is that any way to treat a guest?" Elsa asked frowning.
"No, your Majesty it isn't" Marshall said as his grip tightens.
"You should apologize to Anna for being so rough with her"
"That isn't necessary. Kristoff has hit me harder than Marshmallow did" I said off-handedly.
"It's true. Anna's tougher than you think" Kristoff said nodding.
"That is not the point. Marshall knows better than that and I will not tolerate it because you could have been seriously hurt" Elsa said concerned.
"Getting hurt comes with the job of being a mercenary and I wouldn't be one if I couldn't take a few blows every once in awhile" I said shrugging.
"Even so, you are a guest here and will be treated as such. Am I clear, Marshall?" Elsa asked looking at Marshall.
"Yes Queen Elsa" Marshall said walking away.
I can tell that the Captain of the Guard is pretty pissed off as he walks away from us as the anger radiates off of him. I think that I just made an enemy. Oh boy. I knew that it was in my best interest to stay away from the Captain of the Guard for awhile so I decide to walk around town to get a feel of it with Sven at my side and from what I can tell is that it's warm and inviting place to live. Kristoff is playing with Olaf in the courtyard and I wanted to get away from everything for awhile. From what I can tell, everyone in the kingdom seems generally happy and content about their lives and how everything is going for them. The sun is out an shining and there's a cooling breeze coming in every once in awhile as the kids chase after each other, laughing. I turned to my right to see a young couple sitting on the fountain, looking at each other lovingly and holding each other's hand. The girl is leaning to the guy's shoulder as she rests her head on his shoulder as the guy wraps his arm around her shoulders. I smiled sadly at them because I know what it's like to love someone so much that the pain of losing them can hurt so badly. I feel something wet against my hand and I looked down to see the wolf familiar licking my hand. I bend down and ruffle his muzzle affectionately.
"I'm okay, Sven. I just… miss her so much" I sigh quietly.
I wish that she was still around but she's not because I wasn't strong enough to protect her like I should have. If I wasn't so weak then Evangeline would be alive right now and we would married with a hoard of rugrats. What could I have done to have the love of my life taken away from me so suddenly? She never done anything to deserve how she died and it was all my fault. Dammit, the gods just love torturing me and making a complete fool out of me. I hate how everything has turned out in my life.
The sun was shining down on my face as I slept on my back with my hands behind my head when I felt something tickling my nose. I scrunched up my nose but whatever was tickling my nose wouldn't stop and I struck out to catch it. I opened my eyes to see a beautiful smile directed my way and I couldn't help but smile back as I looked into a pair of lilac eyes. I pushed back a lock of long starlight hair behind her olive skin ears before I pulled her into a long kiss. I never been this happy before when I'm with Evangeline but I am and I never want to go back to a life without her. The silver haired girl is the daughter of the blacksmith in town and he doesn't like me very much but I don't give a damn as long as she does. We had been together for a year now and I knew that she was the one for me since the day that we met under that willow tree when I moved to this town with my parents.
The thing was that the last town that I lived in forced us to move because someone found out that I wasn't normal and about my secret appendage in-between my legs. I didn't want to be this way but it's not like I had a choice in the decision of being a freak. My mother tried to comfort me while my father, he… well he blamed me for forcing him to move away from his mistress that he was sleeping with at the time. My father never loved me when he found out that I was a girl when I started grow breasts when I was 12 years old. He always wanted a boy and he treated like a boy for awhile until puberty hit then he wanted nothing to do with me. From then on, he interacted with me only when it was absolutely necessary and went out drinking at the local pub before coming back home drunk as a skunk. I knew that he loved me at one point but it grew into hate but the feeling was mutual because of the times he stuck my mother in a drunk rage when she asked him to stop drinking so much.
I wanted to protect her and the times that I got in-between the two of them, it hurt so much to move afterwards but I didn't regret doing it. Finding friends in town was hard because I wasn't like most girls because I liked rough-housing with the boys instead of playing dolls with the girls. I didn't see the fun in playing with rag dolls that you had make move and talk through plus having romantic feeling for girls didn't help me make friends either. It wasn't long before the town found out about me having these feelings when one of the girls told their parents about me kissing one of them behind one of the buildings. They ordered their kids to stay away from me because they would catch what I had like I was some kind of disease carrying vermin. When I came home that night, my father gave me the beating of a lifetime and threaten me to never telling anyone about my appendage or disgrace him like that never again.
He went on a rant about being a curse on him or how much of a abomination I was or how he wished that he could get rid of me. My father said that he took pity on me and let me live because my mother wanted to keep me. Like it wasn't something that I didn't already know because if it wasn't for my mother's love that he would have abandon me on the nearest dirt covered road that he found. Sometimes I wondered why I was cursed with a father that hates me so much. What did I ever do to deserve this? Maybe I will never know or understand why things like this happen. The next day I found a willow tree and I climbed upwards on the branches with how high I was, I could see the whole town from there and it had just enough shady to it. I'm snapped out of my thoughts when I noticed a girl around my age when long hair the color of starlight and lilac eyes.
She was very beautiful and she was making me feel something that I never felt before but I knew that I shouldn't be feeling these things. The girl sits down against the truck of the tree before she pulled out a sketchbook and drawing utensils as she drew something on a blank piece of paper. I couldn't tell what she was drawing from how high I was but the look of deep concentration on her face told me that she was working very hard on it. Moments passed and the girl put her drawing utensils down as a small smirk forms on her face.
"I know that you're up there so you might as well come down"
H-How did she know that I was up here? I hesitantly climbed down from my spot before standing in front of the girl and she looked up at me before smiling at me. No one has never smiled at me like that except for my mother.
"So you must be Anna?"
"Yeah, that's me. I'm sure that your parents told you stay away from me and you should probably go" I said stuffing my hands into the pockets of my pants.
"I don't see why I should stay away from you. You seem quite normal to me for an abomination to me" She said titling her head to the side.
"Well I am because I kiss girls and you catch whatever I got" I said bitterly.
I'm pretty sure that you can't catch whatever I have. People are such idiots when they don't understand something. The girl stands up before she started to walk around me like a vulture waiting for their prey to stumble to their injuries.
"So if I kiss you then I will start liking girls then?" She asked raising an eyebrow.
"That's what the townsfolk think but that's hardly true" I said rolling my eyes. "How do you know that?"
"Trust me, it doesn't work that" I said shaking my head.
Then the unexpected happened and I was caught off guard by the suddenness of a pair of soft lips pressed my chapped ones. The girl pulled back to look at me as I stared at her with my mouth agape causing her to giggle as she closes her sketchbook.
"I'm not sure if I will start liking girls from one kiss so I will have to further research and experiments so we meet me back here tomorrow afternoon and we will continue this later" She said walking away.
I turned around as I watch her walk down the hill before snapping out of my trance.
"What's your name?" I called out to her. She turned around and looks at me with a smile on her face.
"Evangeline. My name is Evangeline"
Evangeline huh?
I snap out of my thoughts when someone calls my name and I turned to see Kristoff running in my direction. I stand up to my full height as the shape-shifter walks over to me.
"What's up?"
"The Queen has a problem and I offered our services" Kristoff said smiling sheepishly.
"Seriously Kristoff? Seriously? What's with you and offering us to people in trouble?" I asked annoyed.
"I couldn't help it. You know that I can't stand by idly and not help people in trouble" Kristoff said frowning slightly.
"I do but let's see what the problem is so we can get this over with" I said walking towards the castle.
"We're going a good deed" Kristoff replied.
"Yeah, yeah" I said rolling my eyes.
We walked through the front gates and the courtyard before walking through the doors when one of the servants offers to show us where Queen Elsa and her Captain of the Guard aka Captain Asshole was talking with someone that looks like he's from the countryside of the kingdom.
"What's going on here?" I asked interrupting whatever this is.
"Who are you?" The farmer asked turning to face me.
"What are you doing here, mercenary? You have no business here" Marshall said glaring at me.
"Marshall, calm yourself. Kristoff offered their service and I think that it is best we take their help since they have extensive knowledge of the supernatural" Elsa said placing a hand on Marshall's shoulder.
Captain Asshole glares at me for a moment but his body relaxed somewhat once Elsa touched him. I raised an eyebrow at him but I chose to ignore it for the time being. The farmer explains that a demon has being plaguing him for the last 3 months now, eating his livestock and destroying his crop and when he describes the creature. From what I can tell is that it sounds like a giant but normally giants eat people not livestock. This is strange but it's definitely something that I should check out for myself.
"Don't worry Sir, my friend and I have this under control. Just keep your livestock and your family inside for a few days until we come back"
"Thank you, thank you so much, mercenary" The farmer said taking my hands in his own.
"You're welcome" I said smiling slightly.
"I should go on this mission since I have the man power and there's no way that I'm leaving this to you two to handle" Marshall said down his nose at me.
"You don't even know what you're dealing with so no, you're not. This calls for finesse, not brute force and you can't go in there with your swords swinging" I said frowning.
Marshall and I glare at each other in a battle of will when Elsa decided to intervene as she pushes us away from each other.
"You both will go and handle this threat but since Anna knows how to deal this, she will be in charge. She will decided how many solider to take and Marshall, make sure that they listen to every order that she gives them" Elsa says.
"But Your Majesty-"
"That is an order, Marshall. Do this for me" Elsa interjects.
"Yes Your Majesty" Marshall said with a nod.
"Thank you and I wish the both of you luck" Elsa said smiling in my direction.
"Thank you, Queen Elsa" I said with a bow.
Elsa nods before walking out of the room and Marshall turns to face me.
"This isn't over, mercenary. Not by a long shot" Marshall said glaring at me. "This isn't over, not by a long shot" I said mockingly. "What crawled up his ass?"
"Who knows but least we know what's going on with the farmer right?" Kristoff said shrugging his shoulders.
"Yeah, let's go" I said walking out of the room.
~Nicole The Dragon Rider signing off
End of ch. 3
