Elsa staggered out of the opening in the glacier, her eyes fearful and desperate. She was covered in a mix of blood. Her white spirit dress was no longer white but was covered in red and black liquid. Enormous gashes and burns on every part of her body gave her a frighteningly painful appearance. Anna had never seen her in such a state nor could she ever even imagine her like that.
Elsa collapsed to her knees as a dark monster loomed over her with a blade in its hand. The monster's form was indiscernible. It was like her brain was incapable of perceiving the most horrendous nature of the demon who stood over her sister.
Elsa's ocean blue eyes met Anna's turquoise ones. Anna saw many things at that moment. Desperation, fear, regret, sadness, and weariness, but the worst of all of them was the love and acceptance in her eyes. She knew her time was coming to a close fast, but she still smiled at her little sister. A sad parting smile full of the knowledge of her fate. It broke Anna's heart to see her like that. She wanted to run to her. To help her up, to hug her one last time before she lost Elsa to only being a memory inside Ahtohallan, to tell her that she had forgiven her, to tell her that she loves her and that she always will, but she could not move. She was frozen in her place. The last thing Anna saw was Elsa closing her eyes peacefully, hiding the last image of Anna behind her eyelids as the demon plunged its blade straight into Elsa's heart.
Anna sat up with a jolt, a scream almost ripping through her throat. Beads of sweat and tears rolled down her cheeks as she frantically took in her surroundings.
She was still in her room on her bed. The moon outside shone with a soft soothing glow. Kristoff stirred beside her, waking up to the sudden movement from his wife.
"Anna?" Kristoff asked concernedly, sitting up beside her.
As soon as he saw Anna crying, he pulled her straight into a comforting bear hug
"Shush now, it was just a silly nightmare," Kristoff said as Anna sobbed into his arms.
He knew by that point how to soothe Anna after she had a nightmare, but something was different this time.
"Anna?" Alex's voice rang out in her ears, snapping her out of her reverie.
"Hmm? Oh, I'm sorry, I...I may have had a little less sleep yesterday. Could I please know what the issue was?" Anna asked the council members in front of her.
The councilmen looked at her incredulously. She hadn't paid any attention to what they were bantering about just now!
One of the councilmen spoke, "The council wants to know of your decision of whether or not to continue trading with the…"
"I think the decisions can wait for a while," Alex cut him off with a tone of finality, watching Anna closely.
The other councilmen were on the brink of outrage when Alex held up a dismissive hand to silence them without breaking eye contact with Anna.
The councilmen grumbled and filed out of the room. Alex didn't legally have any powers to make them do so, but over the years he had gained enormous respect from the council to be able to enact commands on behalf of the queen.
Anna silently thanked him.
"Do you want to talk about something?" Alex asked her concernedly after making sure there was no one within earshot.
"No no, I…" Anna trailed off, gazing longingly out of the window.
Alex followed her gaze northward and smiled to himself. He too missed Elsa.
Anna sighed and got up from her chair to walk out onto the balcony.
"I had this dream yesterday…" Anna started.
She told him all she had seen in her nightmare. Alex listened carefully, maintaining a neutral face all through. Anna suspected that he knew something, but couldn't exactly say for sure. At the end of her story, he smiled knowingly.
"Anna, what Kristoff said is true. This was just a nightmare. There is no way such a thing could possibly happen," Alex stated.
"I know! I just..." Anna sighed. "Her eyes... I've never seen her like that. They were filled with pain. Lots of it. I just can't...forget about it," Anna said quietly. "Every time I try to concentrate on something, I just see her...in pain."
She leaned heavily on the balcony railing and massaged her forehead.
Alex stood there for a few seconds pondering over what he could do. A bright idea popped in his head.
"Anna, did you know that there is an actual law stating that royalty can go on a vacation at any time they want for up to a month?"
Anna lifted her forehead from her fingers. "Wait, there is such a law?"
"Mmhm," Alex nodded, smiling.
"But Elsa never told me of this when she taught me how to be a queen!" Anna said incredulously. All this time, she could've just taken Elsa on some vacation instead of watching her work as a queen every day for three years.
"Well, she'd have told you if she had actually remembered about its existence," Alex said laughing.
Anna gasped. "Why didn't you tell me that three years ago!"
Alex was laughing in earnest this time. Anna's sober mood was now replaced with a light and merry one.
"Well, that was something we discussed in our first council meeting with Elsa," Alex revealed. "She forbade us from telling you that there was this excuse for letting you drag her into a summer vacation when she was supposed to be busy at her desk."
Anna just stared at him open-mouthed. "She used to overwork herself!" She said adamantly.
"Uhh that's quite true, but I did usually convince her to take a break once in a while," Alex responded.
Anna narrowed her eyes. "Are you trying to do the same to me?"
"Not trying. I don't even need to try to get you to take a break. Elsa on the other hand always put up a good fight," he said, smirking impishly.
Anna playfully hit him in the belly with the back of her hand and then gave him a quick thankful hug and ran out of the room, making Alex chuckle lightly.
A light northern breeze gently ruffled his hair. He turned to breathe the morning air and soothe his tingling nerves. The kingdom was eerily silent. The creaking sounds of old boards of docks and sails traveled over the winds. The flags fluttered wildly and a large wave crashed into the castle wall and the adjoining shores. He reflected back upon Pabbie's words. No one knew about what he had learnt last night. Elsa wanted to gather as much information as she could about Narsilla. It was a last second arrangement when she asked him to visit Pabbie to ask about her until she scoured the memories of Ahtohallan to find how Narsilla escaped the lost realm into which Aren had banished her.
The powers of the dark stone lay inside Ahtohallan according to Pabbie and the dark monster cropping up in Anna's dreams might not have been coincidental. Alex could not take this lightly. He knew that the only reason Anna wasn't freaking out was because she had no idea of Elsa's visit to Ahtohallan. Elsa had promised to write to him to inform him of her findings, but no letters had arrived yet.
Alex could see a storm brewing up in the distant future, but the waves were already getting quite wild. He could hear the winds getting stronger and the massive rumbles of the dark clouds as they formed to strike. This was just the beginning. This was just the silence before the storm.
"Kristoff, please?" Anna pleaded.
"Anna, we can't just leave the kingdom to an empty throne!" Kristoff whispered, horrified at the thought. "The Forsaken Legion can attack at any time, and we need to be there if it happens."
"And we will be there! Gale is simply ecstatic to keep an eye on the kingdom. If something happens, we'll know about it at the speed of the wind. Literally!" She whispered back so as to not let anyone else in the corridor overhear her plans.
"I don't trust Gale," Kristoff said, crossing his arms. He did not like the way he was swept up in that cyclone months ago.
Anna gave a pout. "Mother and father also wanted to visit the Enchanted forest. You agreed to take them, but not me?"
Kristoff was getting caught up, so Anna pushed further.
"You don't want us to go on...like a honeymoon near that very romantic place you talked about when we first entered the forest? You know that we could be all alone there all night in the forest you love so much."
Kristoff cracked a crooked smile. "Seriously? You're trying to seduce me into listening to you?"
Anna rolled her eyes and laughed. "No dummy! I'm trying to make you fall for my puppy face!"
Kristoff raised an eyebrow but couldn't hold a laugh back.
Anna paused for a second for the mood to return to seriousness.
"Kristoff, I really need to see if she's okay," Anna said quietly. This time her face wasn't a pout, but a plea.
This made Kristoff's smile falter a little. She knew she had hit a nerve inside that thick skull. He hated to see her distressed or hurt. Gale or the other spirits could easily tell her that Elsa was alright, but Kristoff knew Anna for years. She wouldn't trust anything else apart from her own eyes when it came to Elsa's safety. He took a deep dramatic breath and sighed.
"Fine, we'll go."
Anna jumped happily and kissed him, only for Agnarr to accidentally walk in on them, backtrack hurriedly and try his best to not even exist.
The party set out northwards just a few hours behind the Northuldra. After receiving Elsa's letter the previous day, Yelena had immediately consulted with Anna. The Northuldra needed their leader, and Anna was more than supportive of her going back to the forest.
Mattias had insisted on a large escort to accompany the royals to the forest, but Kristoff and Alex both turned him down. Mattias only gave in when he found out that Alex was going with them. He was smart, resourceful and deadly dangerous to any enemy who had the stupidity to attack him.
As one of the higher-ranking personnel in Arendelle, Alex had to undergo a series of tests to prove his capabilities as a royal and military advisor where people were tested to their absolute limits. That didn't happen in Alex's case because instead of the tests stretching him to his limits, he stretched the tests to their limits and broke every single record ever accomplished in the past. One of the hardest records he broke was of fighting fifty highly trained professionals in the army in one single day without any breaks. The only person who had ever come close to achieving such a feat was Mattias himself who knocked out a staggeringly high number of forty-seven such warriors before he was too tired to even stand. Alex on the other hand only broke a small sweat and got one scratch on his foot which was done by a dishonorable low blow from a petty spearman. Mattias had to wonder if Alex was a superhuman in disguise but again, he reminded himself that Alex used special techniques to massively increase his endurance, speed and precision.
Kristoff and Agnarr sat in the front of the sled, driven by Sven. Anna, Iduna and Olaf sat in the back. Alex borrowed a horse from the stables for the long journey. It only gave him an advantage over being a professional escort for the royals since he could travel much speedier than a sled transformed into a cart if need be.
The journey didn't take as long as the last time it did since the Earth giants had built a strong bridge across the large river. Earlier, they had to go around the shores and scale tall mountains, but now they could go over it which reduced the travel time by almost a third.
Before they even knew it, they were already at the edge of the cliffs overlooking the forest. They descended from the cart.
"Wow that was quick," Olaf remarked, checking the tiny clock he'd brought with him that marked four in the afternoon.
"I know, right!" Anna said incredulously. It was her first time visiting the forest in six months.
Agnarr and Iduna only looked over to the large trees and ground that had been obscured behind the mist for the greater part of their lives. Iduna hid tears of joy behind her eyes and Agnarr's smile lit up his face like a kid who had just seen chocolate.
The very moment they yearned for to happen for thirty-five years was now right in front of them. Each year they had visited the mist, tried to figure out how to dissolve it without any success. Even some of the greatest sorcerers and spell books couldn't solve the mystery of the white wall that had separated them from their families.
Iduna, not being able to hold herself back, ran down the steep side of the cliff shouting, "race you to the edge!" behind her at Agnarr seemingly like an old habit of hers.
Agnarr laughed and turned to Anna, wiping off the tear of happiness that fell from her eyes. He silently thanked her and tore down the cliff to chase after his wife.
Iduna reached the same spot where she usually stood for twenty-nine years, her hand outstretched and groping around for the phantom of the mist. She half expected to be thrown backward like every single year and Agnarr diving to catch her. She could argue that there was something romantic the way Agnarr always caught her before she fell, but she knew him all too well.
A hand rested on her shoulder. Iduna looked to her left to see Agnarr's left arm outstretched the same as hers and his right hand on her shoulder. His soft eyes burned deep into hers.
"Together," he said softly.
"Together," Iduna breathed.
They both moved ahead to find no obstruction in their path. The trees swayed as if they were happily waving at the couple. Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, Sven, and Alex along with Harheim, his borrowed black mare, followed them into the forest.
"It's just as beautiful as I remember it," Agnarr whispered in awe.
They subconsciously followed Kristoff as he led them to the camp.
Anna's dark green dress tickled Olaf in his sides as she walked hand in hand with him behind her parents. Her short black jacket and loose hair gave her a rather beautifully kind appearance.
Iduna's autumn-colored dress and a beautiful hairdo from Gerda gave her quite a significant edge over beauty itself.
Agnarr was dressed in a black royal suit and Kristoff wore a leather outfit. Alex on the other hand wore a simple black outfit consisting of a shirt, jacket and pants that gave a subtle hint of his muscular build. His expandable staff rested dormant inside its sheath on his back for easy access. It gave him the appearance of a bandit rather than a royal guard.
Elsa had already told Kristoff the location of the camp. As it had been six months since their last visit and the Northuldra were always on the move, they would've never found the camp on their own. For now, Elsa had created walls around so the intruders could not attack the camp in her absence. This also meant the people in there couldn't be on the move. It was a temporary arrangement.
Kristoff expertly guided them through thinner woods mainly so that no unpleasant surprises could crop up, but also because the sunlight-bathed trees looked as if they were borrowed straight from the paradise of heaven. Yet he kept a hand on the two war hatchets hanging from his belt; just in case.
The frozen wall of water grew massive as the group neared the Northuldra settlement. Agnarr and Iduna could only gasp in awe at the majestic gates and wall standing in front of them.
"Kristoff?" A surprised voice called out from the left.
The group turned curiously toward the source to be greeted by Ryder as he rode a reindeer toward them. He gaped at seeing them all, especially Agnarr and Iduna.
"I thought you guys had a kingdom to keep safe?" Ryder said, dismounting his reindeer.
"Oh well, I guess we all needed a small break," Kristoff said, laughing and shaking hands with him.
"Ryder, what are you doing out here? Isn't it unsafe?" Anna asked out of concern.
"Oh yes! But I did miss my friends for quite a while," Ryder gestured behind him at around ten reindeer.
"And Yelena allowed you to exit camp?" Alex asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Yes," Ryder said, forcefully moving his eyes to meet Alex's.
No one there believed a word of what he claimed.
"No," Ryder admitted, "I didn't ask."
Alex smiled at his small victory.
"Ryder," Anna gently said.
"Okay Okay! I'll go back with you, but only because I don't wanna give Honey a heart attack if she notices I'm missing," Ryder laughed as they started their journey to camp.
Agnarr and Iduna were in quite a jolly mood, recounting the small adventures they had as kids to Kristoff, Alex and Olaf.
"So where is Honeymaren?" Anna asked Ryder to start a conversation.
"Oh she's doing some stuff with Elsa. Apparently, the Earth giants don't always get along too well and need a dose of calmness at times to keep them from wrestling with each other. So Elsa just went there straight after coming back from Ahtohallan and Honeymaren also wanted to go so…" Ryder was saying before he was interrupted by Anna.
"Wait, Elsa was in Ahtohallan!" She asked surprised.
"Yeah. I mean, I heard so from Yelena but I don't know why she was there," Ryder shrugged.
Anna zoned out a little. Elsa had always told her when she would visit Ahtohallan beforehand and had never missed out on something as important as this. After all, Anna still was involuntarily afraid she'd lose her to the depths again and this time, the spirits won't be as merciful as the last time. The nightmare she had only reinforced her fears.
Anna had wanted to go and see Ahtohallan for herself, but Elsa had denied taking her. The abnormal cold of Ahtohallan was unbearable for human bodies as the old Northuldran legends described. Elsa herself could confirm the fact, thus prohibiting any human from entering the magical glacier. Instead, Elsa had taken it upon herself to find the most treasured moments they had as family and visiting the castle and showing them to her to brighten her day. Sometimes, they had laughed at how they stole chocolate from under Olina's nose as kids and sometimes, Anna had cried at how much of each other's childhood they had missed out on. Her memories could never be recovered according to Grand Pabbie, but they could be shown to her through Elsa's magical sculptures and scenes.
She snapped out of her thoughts as they neared the gates. The people inside were in the process of dropping everything in shock and whispering to each other. Anna caught some phrases like 'Is that Iduna?' and 'Woah! They look so beautiful!'
Iduna walked nervously past the gates with the others just behind her.
Anna didn't have to search around for long to see her elder sister come out from behind the Northuldra in complete surprise. She saw her mouth each of their names and then beam happily and walk towards them.
"I didn't know you were coming this soon!" Elsa exclaimed happily and dragged the trio into a small hug. It was quite uncommon for Elsa to show affection at this scale, but no one was ever going to complain.
"Well, we were all eager to see home," Agnarr said. This had a massive impact on all the Northuldra who heard him. The entire camp burst in intense and excited whispers at hearing Agnarr call the forest their home. Most of them were awed at how easily they had accepted the forest after decades of enmity and sad memories between them.
They're not wrong, Alex thought to himself, but he got the hidden meaning behind Agnarr's words. Afterall, Aren was Northuldra and the village Pabbie had talked about that was ruled by Narsilla was the Northuldra village that had resided in this very forest. The deep ancient lore of Arendellian history was all recorded in the secret library in the castle. One just had to search to understand.
It had been a few hours since they had arrived at the forest. The sun had just begun to set.
Anna, Elsa and Honeymaren were hanging out together at the upstream point of the river. The three seemed to get along rather well.
Agnarr and Iduna stayed with Yelena and the other Northuldra, explaining the stories and adventures they had in the past six years of their absence.
Alex hadn't yet had the chance to talk to Elsa about their respective findings. Elsa, being the previous queen already knew about the existence of the two long missing pieces of ancient history namely the Shadowjade and the Flarestone. These were the two missing pieces that went along with the Sundrop and the Moonstone. Demanitus never found them, that was why they were never mentioned in the scrolls Rapunzel found. Though Elsa didn't know exactly where the pieces were, Alex had a rough idea. According to the rulebook, Anna and Kristoff needed to complete a full year of being benevolent rulers before they were entrusted with the information of these trinkets. Although Alex believed this wait was completely unnecessary, he had to stick to the laws and traditions of old.
Alex walked between Ryder and Kristoff as they trudged through the forest. Apparently, from the Northuldra stories, the white witch appeared only at night times, and was always mainly seen by the night scouts patrolling outside the walls. Though no one had been harmed, dealing with a possibly hostile magical entity wasn't exactly a very safe job. He was listening intently to Ryder's rambles. Ryder had pulled a prank on his sister and had blamed it on someone else. It had worked and he had successfully set off a fight between that other person and Honeymaren. It was cowardice, but the teen only wanted to have some fun.
Kristoff laughed loudly, "No way she said that to him!"
"Kristoff, you have no idea how brutal my sister is with words," Ryder said, shaking his head.
"You shouldn't have blamed it on him in the first place," Alex pointed out.
"I know, but I had no idea this could actually escalate into something this horrible!" Ryder argued.
"You know you should own up, right?" Kristoff asked.
"What! And get myself killed?" Ryder asked, horrified.
"Well, you'd be a coward for not doing so," Kristoff stated.
"I wouldn't have falsely blamed him if he didn't hate you guys," Ryder defended.
Alex and Kristoff's eyes met. Ryder had taken a liking to Arendelle and it's cultures, but they had never expected him to turn on his own friends to defend a kingdom who his own tribe had believed to be an enemy for so long.
"Ryder, I…" Alex started thankfully, but stopped dead silent, the gentle smile on his face being replaced by a grimace. Kristoff and Ryder on either side of him stopped walking and frowned at him.
"Alex…?" Ryder started but Alex immediately silenced him with a small hand gesture.
Something was nearby, and Alex was pretty sure it wasn't a reindeer or another animal. He strained his ears to locate the source of the small unnatural rustle he'd caught earlier. There was a fog accumulated around them, but it didn't have the particular smell of a natural fog. They hadn't strayed too far away from the camp, so the danger of Nightscalers was quite low, yet it did nothing to soothe him.
Kristoff and Ryder stared at each other for a second and put their guards up as well.
Alex's enhanced senses caught something and he followed the object through the mist with his eyes. Kristoff and Ryder both followed his lead. Alex stared dead ahead at the mist with an unwavering gaze as someone stepped out of the covers wearing silver high heels.
The woman in white was as beautiful as anyone could ever get. With wavy golden blonde hair of a shade lighter than that of Rapunzel's and a slender frame, she looked as if she was an angel from heaven. She wore a long silken white shoulderless robe that was weighless to a point that it was almost transparent and embraced every single one of her elegant curves as if it was specifically made for her. Her light cape billowed gracefully behind her giving her an ethereal aesthetic. It looked strikingly similar to Elsa's white spirit dress except without leggings and a very revealing side cut extending from the top of her hip to the hem that trailed on the leaves below. Her upper dress also did very little to cover up her breasts. The sunlight that fell on her gave her a subtle golden glow. Her rose pink lips, bright beautiful green eyes, tiny nose, loose hair and perfect skin, all were completely unmatched.
Kristoff stared at her with an open mouth, simply dazed. Ryder just stared at her blankly, as if he were too shocked to even think of anything. Alex looked into her eyes, not letting her beauty get the better of him. Her eyes beamed at seeing them, but he could see a small spark of malice behind them.
"Oh gentlemen! Could you please help me? I want to get to the lands northwest of here, but I can't find a way through these woods," she pleaded with tears in her eyes and her hands clasped over her heart. Her voice was dreamy and soft like a lullaby that would make Iduna jealous.
Alex narrowed his eyes in suspicion. She displayed quite a few distinct signs of lying, but Alex couldn't place her interests.
Kristoff pulled himself out of his shock with an immense force and tried to shuffle forward to help her, only to find Alex's arm blocking his way. He tore his gaze from the woman to look at Alex questioningly, but he wasn't looking back.
"Who are you?" Alex asked. He already knew who she was, but he wanted to make sure of it.
"My name is Ingrid," she introduced. "I'm looking for my family, and I think they might be in the kingdom to the west of here. I will...I will reward you if you show me the way there, but please! I need your help," she coaxed.
Kristoff seemed to be battling an inner battle. He wanted to help her out, but wasn't sure if she really was who she said she was. The descriptions of the white witch matched quite closely with her. Ryder snapped out with an audible gasp.
"Sure!" He quickly said and tried to move toward her but found Alex blocking his path with his hand, similar to Kristoff's. He looked confused, hurt and disappointed.
"Who are you, really?" Alex asked her more forcefully, giving her a murderous look. He knew exactly what was happening and did not like the way she was trying to seduce them in her trap. He held a strong distaste towards such methods.
The woman looked alarmed and backed away, giving Ryder a hurt look. This was fake.
"You can't talk to her like that!" He yelled at Alex, surprising him. He hadn't expected such a strong reaction from Ryder. He pushed Alex's arm away quite aggressively and started to stomp forward.
"Ryder…" Kristoff started, but Alex immediately grabbed Ryder's back collar and threw him backwards.
"What the…" Ryder started angrily, before he saw Alex draw out his sword from its sheath and point it at the woman threateningly.
"STOP THAT!" Ryder shouted at the top of his voice. He lunged toward Alex, but Kristoff immediately grabbed him by his arms and held him down.
The witch stared at Alex and his sword for a few seconds and then something snapped within her. She waved her arms and the fog that had crept up on them suddenly seemed to envelope them in full.
Ryder screamed as if he had just cut a finger off, even though there was no visible wound to be seen. Alex quickly extended his weapon into a staff and tapped the bottom on the ground, making the fog fly outwards and away from them by generating a shock wave.
After making sure that the threat was gone, he turned around to see if they were both okay. Kristoff looked strongly shaken and Ryder looked furious.
"Ryder…" Alex began, but he was already sprinting toward the camp like an angry kid whose father had just yelled at him.
"Wha...what was that?" Kristoff asked after a moment to gather himself, sitting down on a rock.
"I think we just met the white witch," Alex replied.