"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." - H.P Lovecraft
Thank you to JT2300 on for this prompt.
I believe I finally have some direction into turning this into a story, I have ideas, I am still absolutely welcoming plot suggestions as nothing is concrete yet!
I am afraid of what I'm risking if I follow you into the unknown.
She couldn't foresee this. If she had known she wouldn't have gone. Nothing was worse than the cost of losing her, not again.
They were about to go home, having just saved the forest and all was seemingly well. Both sisters were content, they had survived yet another mortal danger situation. The forest was free, Arendelle was still standing, and both Anna and Elsa had each other. They were just approaching where they had entered, the fog non-existent. Another sign of their success, yet each step was leading them to something incredibly wrong.
Perhaps, being thrown around had messed up her hearing, maybe the long term effects of the physical challenges they endured was coming back to hunt her. Slowly, her sisters voice was growing distant. And then everything came to abrupt halt.
"Anna?" She called, a sickening feeling was rising in her.
Anna swivelled round. Relief.
Elsa wanted to step forward, but she just.. couldn't. It didn't make sense.
How?
Had they not done enough? She drowned.. Anna, she broke the dam. They had done damn near everything possible, risking their lives for this.
"What is it?" Her baby sister came back towards her, that familiar look of worry etching across her face. Not again, don't break her. There was no way around it - literally. She had to tell her.
"I.. erm..." Elsa's eyes flickered across the forest, back behind her and past Anna, scanning the treeline for any signs of maybe making a mistake. Unnecessary panic would only hurt Anna. That sound, it echoed of Olaf's past attempts at trying to get through into the Enchanted Forest before Elsa unlocked it. Only now, she was locked out. One step forward, that was all that was needed. She was powerful, she crossed the dark fucking death sea, this, whatever this was.. how?
"I can't get through." Her heart shattered a million times over with every word.
They just couldn't catch a break.
"What?" Anna instinctively reached her hand out for Elsa's to take, her eyes flickering across the scene just as Elsa had moments before. A way out, they always found one. This would be no different. It was just yet another cruel mishap that threatened to separate them, if love could thaw a frozen heart - and a whole kingdom - then it could thaw this. Their love, nothing beat that. That same sound echoed across the dirt terrain. It was awful, how one syllable of sound could be filled with rejection. What Olaf had thoroughly enjoyed the sound of, bouncing off of the barrier had taken a dark twist. It wasn't so fun anymore. "I can't.. I don't..." Anna began muttering to herself, her eyes cast frantically between Kristoff and Elsa, begging for someone to just fix this. Croaking, Anna appealed for help "Someone please."
"Kristoff" Anna called, inhaling deeply struggling to get her voice loud enough for the ice collector to hear. Thankfully, he turned. With one glance at his fiancée he ran to her side, concern flushed across his face. Anna helplessly motioned to the barrier, and Elsa on the other side.
"I don't understand, Anna." Kristoff said, searching Anna's eyes for clarification. He found his answer. That look as reserved for Elsa, he recognised it from the fjord. "Where is she?" He looked around the forest, the magnitude of Elsa's absence dawning on him. The group didn't feel complete. He had just seen her.
"Kristoff she's right there!" Anna bellowed, pointing to her older sister who still stood at a loss of what to do.
"I don't- I don't see her, Anna." Kristoff said sympathetically. Sven made a noise of agreement, equally confused.
"Elsa, tell me you see him. Tell me right now." Anna commanded. She heard her say it, she could see him. Yet he heard nothing.
"Anna it's-" Kristoff stammered, hearing nothing but the sound of leaves travelling across the woodland.
"Say it again." Anna's eyes stayed fixed on Kristoff. Once again, Elsa spoke. Kristoff didn't even flinch.
"I'm sorry." Guilt flushed Kristoff's face.
"What?" Anna whispered, she looked between the two. This didn't make sense, not at all. This forest, she already despised it after what it had put her through, but now? This was just cruelty, and nothing could possibly serve as a reason as to why. "I just need you to help me, the barrier... Elsa. She's stuck." Anna muttered ignoring the sinking feeling that was quickly taking a hold of her head, consuming her ability to think. Do the next right thing, Anna focused on leading Kristoff to where the barrier was and continued in her efforts to free Elsa, just as they had freed the forest. Mimicking Anna, both Sven and Kristoff were unsuccessful in their bids. Elsa raised her hands, ready to use her powers to get the barrier working again, if she was a supposed key the forest had needed, then her powers should let her through.
"I'm gonna do a run up!" Olaf announced, opting for a forceful approach, Elsa quickly lowered her hands, she couldn't risk hurting him. As fast as his tiny feet could carry him, Olaf leapt as high and far as he could, squeezing his eyes shut, half expecting to fall apart upon impact with the barrier. So it was working, her heart sank. it was intentionally not letting Elsa through.
"Olaf..." Anna murmured. The snowman had made it. Elsa's brows furrowed deeply upon seeing him, it was a small relief. She wasn't alone. But he wasn't enough.
"I don't know how I did that" Blinking, Olaf looked hesitantly between Elsa and her heartbroken sister. Now he had full view of the pain etched on her face.
"Wait" Anna scurried to the part of the barrier Olaf had leaped through, her hand flailed around, frequently she was coming up in vain.
It was two painful minutes. Elsa, had joined Anna in scouring the barrier, hoping to find a crack that she might be able to pass through. This couldn't be. Not after everything they had been through.
The bitter aftertaste that came with your heart landing full force into your stomach was bringing tears up to the surface. The feeling of defeat. "It's not working." Elsa finally said, stepping backward from the barrier that Anna was still fighting with. Hours earlier she had walked through, mesmerised by the forest's beauty. She had been the first to say it aloud, and she was coming close to being the first to recognise the ugliness that was quickly unearthing around them.
"No, Elsa this is just some sort of sick joke, we can figure this out, we always figure it out." Anna emphasised, the frustration in her voice didn't go amiss. Her tentative searching, what was once running her fingers along the barrier had now turned into fists pounding, the echoes of every attempt ringing in their ears. As if she needed to be told she hadn't made it through, the sound was near redundant. Elsa wasn't by her side. That said enough.
"Olaf can you get back through?" Elsa probed. The sudden thought of Olaf not ever seeing Anna again panicked her, they were two peas in a pod. Olaf hadn't ever been left alone before. For such a tender soul, this would break him. He didn't deserve to be trapped here.
Let him make it.
He leaped again, through the barrier rolling next to Sven. Relief.
"Wha..- why?" Anna breathlessly asked. Every journey Olaf made through the barrier acting as a harsh reproof that she couldn't get through, not because the barrier was malfunctioning, but because she was being shut out. Vigorously kept apart.
"Maybe its my magic?" Olaf questioned, his quiet voice breaking through the thick silence that encompassed all of them in thought.
"But, Elsa can't get through, she's the source of it..." Anna reminded, thinking intently. "Can you really not see her?" Anna said restlessly, spinning round to Kristoff and Sven ready to stamp out any and all bullshit to get to the bottom of what was going on.
"I can't, Anna. I'm sure she's there but I- we don't see her." Kristoff threw his hands up in the air metaphorically blocking Anna's venom, emptyhanded- both in ideas and bad intentions. He shrugged, exchanging a glance with the reindeer.
"So how does that work?" Anna mused, the fact there they had more questions than answers was anger inducing. With each passing second, the likelihood of getting Elsa back to their side felt more and more out of reach.
"It could still be magic." Elsa commented calmly, burying the panic storm that was raging inside her. Logic, that was their way out. Emotions only got in the way. "I mean, we're all connected by it, me you and Olaf." She thought. "Kristoff, you've not really interacted with magic have you? I mean, the trolls. But, that's just being around them.."
Both sisters glanced to him, waiting for a reply. Another beat passed before Anna hastily repeated what Elsa had said. Not only was this frustrating, heart-wrenching and fucking cruel, it was now also growing to be an inconvenience.
"No.. No I haven't." Kristoff shook his head adamantly. It was difficult not to take Anna's impatience harshly, the delivery of every word she said was accompanied with angry undertones.
"You nearly froze to death, Anna." Elsa said, thinking out loud. "And as a child, you- I..." She trailed off, flinching at the memory. The lasting effects of those events seemed relevant to now. "There might still be traces, I'm not sure." Elsa sighed. "We're sisters, in no universe would I not see you."
"But I can't get to your side." Anna groaned, "and you can't pass through either.. what makes Olaf special?" She asked. A hurt look from Olaf had her backtracking, softening her demeanour quickly, Anna reiterated. "You are special, Olaf. I just don't understand why only you can get through."
"Maybe the forest transformed us for the worst." Olaf said glumly.
The cogs turning in Elsa's head went into overdrive, the haunting feeling that she had done something wrong was crawling at the back of her neck. "The bridge." She whispered.
"Elsa?" Anna asked, not catching what her older said.
"It has to be the bridge, Anna." Elsa repeated.
"The fifth spirit.." Anna was slowly coming to the same wavelength, wishing more than anything they could reverse it.
"The bridge between Arendelle and here.." Elsa sighed heavily, the crushing weight of her new role killing her heart. "Both of you have been at the receiving end of my magic, that's why you can see me. Kristoff and Sven.. they.. " Her voice faded, regret for not speaking to them more weighing gently on her heart. A small thought that lingered in her brain, grief. She had so much of it. Now she was facing it again.
"Ahothallan changed me." Elsa said sadly. "I have to stay. Just as you now have to protect Arendelle."
"No, no you don't" Anna assured. "What use is a bridge if you can't cross over!?" Anna wanted to call bullshit, she wanted to believe it was all wrong, because it felt so. Once again, her fist was meeting the barrier, colliding with as much might as she could muster.
"Anna..." She felt limp, as though she may fall to the ground. She wanted the ground to swallow her up, if she had to stay she didn't want to endure all the days ahead without her sister. This felt like being held hostage. If her powers were a gift, why would they take away the greatest accomplishment she had? Being reunited with Anna, being her sister, that was the role she was most proud of.
"No, because our mother and father, they both lived in Arendelle, she came from the forest." Anna reminded, trying to shoot down Elsa's defeatist attitude.
"She wasn't the fifth spirit." Elsa's eyes met the floor, an assortment of leaves and twigs. This was going to be her view for the next forever, literally going round in circles as she would watch the seasons change. Her bedroom? God she may of been locked in it for ages, but it was home. Once again, her powers had predetermined her life, limiting her in where she could go. Only now it was meant out duty, at least before she had been prewarned, at least before it was out of love.
"Well you didn't ask to be!" The younger sister asserted. "I didn't nearly die for this, Elsa." Throwing a rock at the barrier, Anna had now taken use of the barrier as a punching bag. A vessel for her rage. "You drowned, I stayed on a bridge that was fucking falling apart! They can't!" Anna grit her teeth, continuing to throw rocks at the barrier, harder with each throw. "I ca - I won't, Elsa I wan- just come back to this side. Please." Anna begged. Knowing full well it was not at all possible. Tears streamed heavily down her face, she sobbed as she fell to the floor, gripping at the red and orange leaves scattered around her. A season for change. Change that had gone too far.
"I can't lose you, Elsa." Choking, Anna inhaled the autumn air around them. Feeling weight on her shoulder, she glanced to Kristoff - who had very little information - and sobbed into his shoulder.
"I can't lose you either, Anna." Her composure fractured, Anna's pain always brought up her own. She loved her. When she hurt, so did she. No distance could change that.
Thrusting her arms forward, Elsa attempted to strike the barrier with her powers. Taking Anna's approach, anger had now taken lead.
The group watched in awe as the barrier glowed blue, Just as the twister in the forest had after throwing out Anna, Olaf, Kristoff and Sven. Only this time Elsa's efforts led to no avail. The lightshow was nothing more than that, she was still exiled from her family by the forest.
Elsa joined Anna on the floor. Her hand reaching for the barrier tiredly. She saw a brief flicker from Anna's eyes, a hesitancy that meant acceptance. Before Anna slowly joined, resting her palm on the mirror side of the barrier, they couldn't feel each other. They couldn't hug.
"This is just like before." Anna said quietly. She didn't mean to say it aloud, but her heart always led before her head. "Except I can see you this time." She wasn't certain if she felt better or worse for it, it broke her heart further seeing Elsa's sadness and not being able to give her a hug.
"You would draw me pictures of snowmen and slide them under my door every year." Elsa reminisced. Anna was right, it felt horribly parallel to that experience.
"Why would they repay us like this?" Anna asked, in no universe was this a gift. This wasn't 'meant to be'. It was heartless. How had they ended up right where they started?
Circumstantially, they had. But they had grown since then, Elsa had made miles in progress, Anna too. The question severed the final straw for Elsa, despair devoured her, a grief stricken cry escaping her, clawing at her throat. She had lost Anna, again. Her heartache echoed across the forest, louder than any Earth Giant.
Quivering, Anna bit her lip as she battled with not being able to comfort Elsa. "Go and give her a hug, Olaf" She whispered. Pleading to the snowman with tears in her eyes. Olaf solemnly nodded, before crossing over and enveloping as much of Elsa as he could.
Just as they exchanged drawings of snowmen under bedroom doors, Olaf's comfort had become real. He united both sisters in their differences through their shared love and memories of him. He spoke for the sisters when they were unable to. A drawing could convey comfort when words or physical hugs couldn't. With no role in either Arendelle or The Forest, serving as a reminder of Anna's childhood which she had once forgot, and an example of the good Elsa's magic could bring, he was the middle of the bridge. His service was to the sisters, in all circumstances.
"I love you, Anna." Elsa whimpered, clinging to Olaf tightly.
"I love you too, Elsa."
The universe had exponentially grown in size with this new situation. Her anger turned towards the sky, her spirit was busy digging its way 6 six feet down. So, she settled for middle ground, her cheek nestled in the dirt, her gaze fixed on Elsa.
Olaf had stayed quietly on Elsa's side on the barrier, his twig hand gently laid in Elsa's palm. Her stare was reaching a thousand miles into the distance.
"I hate this." Anna muttered, she picked at the grass that was itching her nose by the root, she was well on her way to creating a bald patch in the grass, her finger nails were no longer the rosy pink they were hours before. "What good is being a fifth spirit if the forest doesn't listen to you?"
"Maybe it means nothing at all." Elsa sighed. Anna's eyes flickered to her sister, she slowly lifted herself from the floor so she was sitting up.
"Hm?"
"I don't even understand it, I thought I did after Ahtohallan - it's the most anything ever made sense in a long time.." She trailed off, those blue diamonds met the stars that were just beginning to peak through. "But now we're here."
The moment was so still, they were sitting in the aftermath of tragedy. "What do we do, Elsa?" Anna asked hopelessly. Doing something meant most likely leaving, she didn't want to walk in the other direction away from her sister. They were in the eye of the storm, moving from this place would tear them apart, shredding the path back to each other to pieces. She didn't want to see what was out there, what possible carnage might also be waiting for her. She couldn't bury the feeling that this was the beginning of an end, the feeling was like a knife cutting up her words leaving her unable to speak. Who was to say that if she left, she would make it back? There were outside forces seemingly deciding their fate, how could she compete with that?
"We don't settle." Elsa spoke, there was a fire brewing in her, burning ice was coursing through her veins at a million miles an hour, she was feeling everything and more. "This is not it for us, it can't be. I won't allow that."
It was as though her big sister was lifting her frail body off the cave floor, injecting drive back into her. They were both standing now, the invisible string that had longed been tied between them was tugging fervently so. A united front, their hearts as one.
"I don't want to walk away." Anna admitted, she glanced back to Kristoff, who was now waiting by the sled with Sven.
"We can't just stay here either, Anna. Nothing changes if we don't move." Elsa said sympathetically, she habitually went out to reach her baby sisters hand, the barrier bellowed again, the blade severing her heart.
"Okay, so we figure this out. We will, because we always do. It always works out in the end, right?" She began pacing up and down the barrier, her heart needed a little reassurance before she ventured away from her big sister.
"Right. This is some kind of mistake that we can fix." Elsa nodded.
"I'll see if mother left anything that might explain, and you.. erm.."
"I'll talk to the Northuldra, see if I can't find out why I've stayed."
Their eyes fell to Olaf. "He should go with you." Elsa explained, as her sisters brows furrowed in confusion, she continued. "He'll be safer." Olaf made his way to Anna, both sisters looked to the ground as he passed back through the barrier. It hurt.
Fear flashed in Anna's eyes, her breath caught and she shifted hesitantly on her feet. That glare, one of dread. "You're right, we have the sled." Quietly Anna spoke, her delicate heart was not coping with the reminder of how fragile life truly was, how their mortality was once again possibly being thrown into jeopardy. But this was a reality she had had to become accustomed to. Every breath felt heavy. "Elsa, be safe." She pleaded, stifling the tears that were threatening to spill.
"You too." Elsa spoke pensively, they dwelled in the unknown for a moment. The sound of leaves travelling along the dirt as the breeze brushed past them.
"I can smell your perfume." Anna smiled, wiping away her tears. Perhaps the universe wasn't entirely against her, if this was a sign that everything was going to be okay, then she was going to take it.
"We'll meet back here tomorrow. Hopefully, with some answers."