And here I am, with the sequel "Oblivion"! It's been long overdue; I will admit that. I've been slacking while trying to gather enough motivation to finally begin writing.
One thing that I need clarify is our main heroes' ages. Hiccup is 22, so is Anna, and Elsa is 25. I noticed that timeline has been a confusing part of the story.
Without further ado, here is the sequel to "Oblivion"!
Five years ago from present time
Elsa's POV
I wanted it, Anna.
I wanted our parents to feel our presences together. There could not be a better thing to do.
But I couldn't risk exposing my power.
That bitter fact could not get any bitterer as I pulled my cloak together. I kept my gaze down to the seat of the horse David Fitzgerald and I were riding on. I had to keep a low profile while slowly making our way through the village.
On the corner of my sight, a man caught my eyes and set a curious face. "Huh, who is that girl?" He spoke. Within an instant, I pulled my cloak to cover myself even more. While doing so, I sensed something on the tip of my right index.
I pulled it out. It was a petal, from either of the flowers that I put on my parents' gravestone.
It reminded me; Anna did bring a set of flowers by herself while having Hiccup as her company. Though we could not be anywhere close to each other, I supposed our flowers could, and I hoped they were.
On the petal itself landed a snowflake, coincidentally. I looked up to the sky. It was starting to snow again! But this time, I was outdoor!
When I looked up even more, my hood nearly exposed my head, so I pulled it down and kept myself hidden.
"Hey, Princess Elsa?"
David called, half turning to me. He too had a cloak, so his face was not so visible in my eyes. "Yes?"
"May I just tell you something?" He requested.
He drew me curious. "Sure."
"I don't think it's fair," he said.
I raised a brow. "What isn't?"
"You, in this state," he continued.
I scoffed a little. "Well, I do not get to choose whether or not I'd like to have my parents alive, do I?"
"No, no. Not that. It's their command to keep your power in secret. Even from Princess Anna. She needs her sister," he explained.
I sighed in response. "It isn't. But it's for the greater good. I don't know how to control my power. I may cause harm unintentionally."
"I believe you can learn how to control it, Princess Elsa," he said, sounding optimistic.
"I've done more than my share of practice in my room, Fitzgerald." I shook my head. "I just can't."
"…"
We continued making our way back to the castle. I saw the bridge that connected the village and the castle nearing. However, Fitzgerald suddenly directed the horse away from the bridge.
"David, where are we going?" I asked hesitantly.
"Princess Elsa, I have a daughter, too. She is a year under than you. So I know when a girl needs her share of fun," he explained. I wasn't following him, so I pulled his sleeve underneath his cloak.
"What do you mean?" I asked, getting more worried.
"I know a spot, some teenagers of your age play there including my own daughter. Don't think they know how their future queen looks like physically. I hope you like snowball fight."
I frowned, obviously disagreeing with the proposal. However, before I could respond, David gave the horse a kick, making it gallop through the village at a high speed. I held on for my dear life, not wanting to fall off the horse and injure myself.
"Daviddd!" I half-yelled through my gritted teeth. He did not listen.
After what seemed to be a brief eternity, we entered a series of trees. My hood uncovered my head but I didn't care as there was nobody to spot me. Up ahead, I saw an opening.
It was a pond, a frozen one. There were teenagers playing snowball fight on it. Three of them.
"Boys! Catherine!"
The announcement turned their attention to us. David removed his hood and stopped the horse by the pond. "Do you mind having an extra player?"
"Who is she, daddy?" The girl with brown hair approached us while forming her snowball. I assumed that she was Catherine, David's daughter.
"She's a lonesome from the other side of the village, Cath. She asked me where the guys of her age usually play when I stumbled upon her during my patrol." David turned to me, slightly smirking. I wanted to glare at him but I had to pretend as a normal villager by playing along.
"Ah, what's your name?" Catherine asked, lending her hand to help me off the horse. I kept my hands hidden and hopped off the horse by myself.
"My name is…" I thought of a name. The only name that I came up with was, "Anna."
"You're Princess Anna?" A boy with brown hair approached me.
"Anna is not blonde, if I recall," A boy with scrawny black hair followed, shorter than the boy in brown hair. Shortest among the gang, actually.
"W-We just happened to have the same name," I said sheepishly.
"I'm Jack," the boy with brown hair introduced.
"I'm Ethan," the short boy introduced.
"Catherine!" The only girl in the gang introduced.
All of them gave their hands to me for a handshake. I could only look at them in worry. As I was going to reach for Catherine's, David abruptly placed snowballs on their hands.
"Introduction is over! Play time!" David exclaimed.
"Haha!" Ethan laughed, and proceeded to plant the snowball on Jack's face. He ran away thereafter. A snort inevitably escaped my lips.
"I'm your ally, idiot!" Jack complained, about to throw his snowball but only to have his face planted by Catherine's snowball. After that and a share of laugh, Catherine pulled me by the arm and hid us behind a rock.
"It's boys versus girls, Anna! Man, I've always wanted a girl as a friend," Catherine explained. Her grin was screaming excitement and I found myself growing in the same mood as well.
"You know how to form a good snowball, right?" Catherine asked.
My instinct immediately told me to form one with my power, but of course I didn't. I scooped some snow from the ground and formed one with my hands. It was nowhere near perfect, but it would do the job.
"Alright, you hit each of them five times, then they're out. Got it?" Catherine explained before peeking out. She threw her snowball and ran away while laughing on top of her lungs.
Of course, I could not just join the fun as if I'd been friends with these guys for years. I looked at David nervously. He gestured me to join in with a smile.
"Just for today…" I spoke to myself.
I stepped out of my hiding and saw Catherine on a throwing spree on Ethan, while he was running away hopelessly. With Ethan being dealt by her, my instinct told me to find the other boy. Jack, I believed.
But where was he?
"Got ya!"
Before I could turn, a snowball hit me by the shoulder. Jack ran past me while giggling childishly.
"Oh no you don't!" I threw my snowball at him. It missed.
"Newbie, aren't ya?" Jack taunted while on his knee, forming more ammo from a pile of snow. I looked around for a nearby pile of snow I could use, but my eyes stopped on David who was waving at me.
"Anna, catch!" He exclaimed, throwing a snowball at me. I caught it midair and threw it at Jack. It's a hit!
The boy cleared his face from snow. "Hey, that's cheating!"
I burst in laughter. The game kept on for as long as I could remember. It was the most fun time I'd ever had in years! The faces of the guys with snow on them never failed to impress, and I was sure that mine never did, too. My twenty year-old brain was turned into the one when I was seven, and it was wonderful.
The game was concluded with the girls as the winner. I gave Catherine a high-five as celebration.
"You really had to be distracted, Ethan," Jack complained, crossing his arms. Ethan could only scratch his hair while looking away. "How could you not notice Cath approaching you from behind?"
"Oh quit whining Jack," Catherine cut in. "You'll get another chance. Oh, wanna build a snowman now?"
"I'm afraid Anna will have to go now," a voice of an adult male sounded from behind.
I turned around. David was walking towards us with his horse, nodding at me to give an obvious signal that it was time for me to return.
"Anna's parents must be looking for their daughter right now. We snuck out of her house while they think that she's having her afternoon nap," David explained.
I turned around to the sad faces of the gang. Catherine's looked the worst. I wanted to play longer, but I couldn't risk spending more time outside of the castle. The longer I stayed outside, the bigger the chances of my power being exposed by accident.
"Will we see you again?" Jack asked.
I took my time to process that question. I turned to David, and he merely gave a blank stare. He too was unsure.
"I can't promise anything," I replied. "But guys, thank you. I had so much fun."
"I hope that we will, Anna!" Ethan extended his fist, waiting for a fist bump from me. I hesitated at first, but it was safer than a handshake. So I returned his fist with mine. I did the same to the others.
"Catherine, Jack, Ethan, goodbye!" I waved a hand, walking to David.
"You mentioned my name last," Ethan complained. We shared a laugh for the final time before David helped me hop on the horse. He really was a child.
I put on my hood once again and looked down. But this time, I couldn't stop smiling. I played back the entire memory of the snowball game. It really was a fun time that I found myself snickering randomly.
"What is it?" David asked.
"Heheh… nothing. Just…" I paused. "Cath's face when Ethan ambushed her from behind. It was pure drama."
"Well she does have a dramatic flair." David snickered. "You had fun?"
We came out of the woods and entered the village. "Obviously. I've never—"
"ROAAARR!"
I cut myself as I heard a roar echo through the air. David's horse even stopped in shock. When I looked up, that's when I found the previous black dragon with two figures on its back. I presumed they were Anna and Hiccup.
"Wow, must be quite something to fly on the back of a dragon," David said, blowing raspberry. He signaled his horse to continue walking.
I kept my eyes on the black dragon as it landed on one of the ships by the dock. The ship itself was not Arendellian, meaning it must be Berkian.
"Yeah… must be thrilling. Today might've been the best day of her life so far… to be able to fly on a dragon… and I ruined it by stumbling upon her." I crossed my arms.
"Hey, it was outside of your control. We never knew that your sister was going to your parents' grave," David explained.
"I guess…"
We spent the rest of the journey in silence. On our way, I spotted Berkians engaging with the residents, and they seemed natural at it. For people who dressed like ruffians, their manners seemed to be the complete opposite. I supposed the papers did not lie; our parents and Hiccup's did have a good relationship. It's good to see the relationship being reattached once again.
However, out of nowhere, the engagement between the Berkians and the Arendellians reminded me of something that I could probably never achieve in this life; a social life. Yes, I had a brief taste of it. But that was it.
"Princess Elsa?" David called.
"Yes?" I looked up.
"Do you want to meet them again? I can help you," he offered. My eyes widened at the offer.
"Don't be ridiculous, David. I can't—"
"Princess Elsa. You know you want to. I know a route that will lead us out of the castle safely. Besides, you spend most of your time in your room, no one will suspect a thing even if you don't reply from the other side of the door," he explained. His explanation did make sense, but I had to think rationally.
"One way or another, I can get caught, David. And I can't risk you, too. You'll get fired, or worse… punished," I replied.
"By making a girl have a taste of real-world life?" He scoffed. "I'd do it happily. Okay, maybe we won't go out every day. But… perhaps once every three days? Besides, it's winter. The perfect time for you to blend in."
I was starting to be on his side. I was really tempted.
"… I will think about it."
David Fitzgerald, an Arendellian guard tasked to escort me to places where I would be needed, and I set a deal to take me to the gang once every three days. It'd been two weeks since we set the deal, and since my friendship with Catherine, Jack, and Ethan started.
And here I was, having the most fun time of my life by just throwing snowballs at my friends. There was something magical about it that just made us laugh about our friends' expressions after receiving a snowball on the face.
This time, it was a close match. I never knew snowball fight could get ever so competitive, and here I was, on a hunt for a Catherine Fitzgerald. When I was making more ammo from the snow near the trees, I lost track of my opponent, Catherine.
With the utmost caution, I looked and looked. The boys could only hold their snickering while sitting down and watching me look for the girl; an obvious sign that they knew her whereabouts.
"Where is she, Jack?" I asked, keeping my eyes on my surroundings.
"You expect me to tell?" He challengingly asked.
Of course, why did I even bother?
Snap!
It was the sound of a twig from my rear. I immediately turned around and threw blindly in hope that I could catch Catherine off guard.
"HAHAHA!"
The boys laughed. When I opened my eyes, I discovered that my instinct fooled me. It was David's horse! The horse looked at me in a grumpy manner while chewing a knot of grass.
"Sorryyy…" I sheepishly said. I was about to reach for more snowball, but then I realized I was out of ammo. Before I could even move an inch, a hand seamlessly planted a snowball on my head from behind.
"Ugh, seriously?" I dusted off the snow off of my hair.
"Seriously," Catherine showed up and sarcastically replied. "I gotta say, that was a close match. I enjoyed every second of it."
"The ending was the best part." Ethan came forward, still emitting small laughs from previously.
"So, what do we do now? Does Anna have to go home anytime soon?" Jack asked to David, who was approaching us with his horse. He reached for his pocket watch.
"Uhh… I think you have about an hour," he replied. "You can still play another round."
"Oh! How about we visit The Drop?" Catherine suggested.
"Oh yeah! Let's visit The Drop!" Ethan nodded his head vigorously. The name was not familiar in my head, so I didn't say anything about the proposal.
"Erhm, guys, Anna is not familiar of that place," Jack cut in. "Why don't we give her a brief introduction?"
"Oh right," Ethan said, rounding his mouth. "It's a cliff that has a waterfall running from above. I think it's frozen right now, so it should be cool."
The brief description caught my interest. "Ahh I see."
"I think I know that spot," David replied. We all began to walk in unison to the direction Ethan is leading.
"Do you, now, Mr. Fitzgerald?" Jack scoffed. He climbed on the horse but David immediately patted his foot to get off.
"Of course I do, kid. Been living in Arendelle before you were even planned to be born into the world," he said. "Get off. The spot is exclusive for the girls."
"Ayeee," a cheer escaped David's daughter as she climbed on the horse. She lent me her hand and helped me climb to the spot behind her.
"Is it a long walk to get there from here?" I asked.
"Not really. Enough for a chat," Jack replied. "If I may ask, Anna. Why don't your parents let you out of the house?"
David and I shared a glance. From that brief glance, I could tell that he was hoping that I could come up with a believable answer. My mind cooked an answer for a brief moment filled with my long 'umm'.
"They're really protective. They think that the outer world is really… dangerous, let's say," I explained. It was such an irony of me to say that the world was dangerous while I was the one who was. Jack seemed to be not buying it entirely.
"Huh? 'Let's say?' Is that an honest answer?" Jack raised his brow. He read me like a book.
"It is, Jack," I nodded casually, in hope that my casualness convinced him.
"But, sooner or later, you will have to get out, right?" Catherine asked, turning to me. "It doesn't seem like the right thing to keep a girl in her house throughout her entire life."
"Well, my parents know that…" I sighed. "But um… you know what?" I raised my hands in defeat. "I don't actually know the answer to your question, Cath. I've never asked my parents about it."
"Well, you should," Ethan replied.
"I will, Ethan. Someday." I nodded to the boy.
"So, whatever happened to your parents that made them think that keeping their daughter locked indoor would be best?" Jack asked once again. He really did seem full of questions regarding me. Again, this required me to think for another believable answer.
"Um… I had a sister. Had," I replied and cut short.
While coming up with an answer, I was inevitably inspired by my own life events. A part of wished I'd come up with something else, but a part of me was thankful because the gang seemed to buy the answer. They were silenced for an awkward moment.
Catherine turned to me and laid a hand on my knee. "I'm sorry, Anna."
Oh, her expression. It killed me!
"Me too," Jack and Ethan said in unison.
I waved it off. "It's alright guys."
"We're here," David announced.
My hearing expected to hear the washing noise of waterfall, but then my sight reminded me that it was winter. The waterfall was frozen! The frozen waterfall left a space in the very middle that almost resembled an entrance.
Spirited by curiosity, I hopped off the horse and ran past the others to the drop. Immediately, my eyes were greeted by the view of snowy Arendelle.
"Wow…" I breathed.
Viewing Arendelle from this perspective gave me an entirely new understanding of just how big the kingdom was, and how lovely it looked. The fjord took away my breath even more, seeing how vast it was. It weirded me out that I could not see the other end of the sea past the fjord, but then earth might really be round after all. I wanted to see the other end of it so bad.
"Beautiful view, ain't it?"
I turned around to see Jack and the others. I chuckled in response. "Yeah."
"You… really haven't been outside that much, huh?" Jack asked.
I gave him a shrug. "Better late than never, right?"
Once again, it's the day that I looked forward to the most; the third day.
It'd been at least five weeks since we set the deal. It was always at three in the afternoon, right after my daily class. The servants would think that I was asleep, which was good.
I took out my usual cloak and put it on. I waited for the knock on the door and for the clock to hit 3.
Knock knock
There it was.
I opened the door to reveal David himself.
"You ready, Princess?" He asked. I nodded in response.
"Let's go."
He led me through the corridors. We used the shadows and carefulness to pass through the servants, which there were only few because most of them were on their break. It's an advantage that we utilized. However, not all areas of the castle were deserted, and one of them was the castle gate itself.
Luckily, this was David Fitzgerald. One of his friends was John Jørgensen, the very guard in charge to guard the castle gate's door at this very time.
By the time we followed the passage of the castle's wall, we saw the face of the man himself.
"Jørgensen," I greeted.
"Princess Elsa. Out for another outing?" John replied, unlocking the door behind him.
"Mhm," I replied with a smile.
"Man, I can't believe I'm helping the princess break out of the castle and disobeying a direct order from your parents," he blatantly complained. I sighed at his sudden build of guilt.
"Let's rephrase that." David patted his buddy's shoulder. "We are helping the princess get a taste of the social life we take for granted. No change of heart now, bud."
He shrugged, acknowledging it but not fully, it seemed. "I guess if you put it that way…"
"You promised me, John," I cut him. "Please, I need this."
The guard looked at me and sighed. "Alright… just be careful out there, okay?"
I nodded. "I will."
John pushed the door open for us, and David's horse was already by the door, waiting for us.
"Have fun!" John bid.
With that, we left the castle unalarmed. We galloped through the snowy streets. The cold air on my face was something I could never get bored of, let alone be bothered by. It was the literal sensation of freedom!
We reached the woods within minutes. While entering the woods, David slowed his horse down to prevent it from ramming against a random tree.
"You know, I think you're ready," David said.
I raised a brow. "Ready for what?"
"Anna. I think she will be able to accept you," he continued. "Look at you, you're socializing pretty well with the gang for a girl who has been isolated throughout her life."
I never thought about it. He might actually have a point. But I was quickly reminded by a stronger one.
"I… still could hurt her, accidentally," I replied.
"Princess, have you ever hurt either of your friends?" He asked. "Never, right?"
"I mean… I did throw a snowball at Cath so hard, it left a bruise on her arm," I excused.
David shook his head. "No, not that. With your power. You never did, right? Heck, it never even showed itself! You were having so much fun that you forgot your power existed in the first place." He half turned to me, enough to see in the eyes. I shrugged and nodded, still feeling uncertain.
"You know what?" David hopped off the horse and opened his hand in front of me. "Give me your gloves."
I frowned right away. "What? No. Are you kidding me?"
"No, I am not. Try to play with your friends today without them. I bet you will do no harm to them." He smiled reassuringly. "Trust me, Princess."
I looked at his eyes for a while. If there was anyone in my life that could come close to a father figure after the death of my own, it was David. His intention was pure, and I had actually benefited from it. I could taste a good measure of a proper social life that everyone else would have. It was such a simple thing in life, but yet, I used to lack at it. But no longer, thanks to him.
Slowly, I removed my gloves and handed them to the guard.
"Thank you," David said.
"What if I expose it accidentally?" I asked.
"Then you will ask them to keep it as a secret. Friends keep secrets of each other, in case you never knew." He winked and gave me a thumbs up for that. Afterwards, he pulled his horse with me on top along and into the usual opening in the woods. There, on the frozen pond, stood Jack Overland.
"Ah, just Jack?" I hopped off the horse.
"I think the other two are still on their way. Why don't you wait here with him? I'll go back and see if I can bring them on the horse," he offered. I nodded at him and walked to the pond.
My presence was soon detected by the boy in brown hair. "Oh, Anna, hey!"
"Hey. You're early," I commented.
"Yeah, the two are probably still on their way here." Jack scratched his hair. He somehow looked nervous.
"You okay?" I asked.
He widened his eyes. "Um, yeah. Why do you ask?"
"You seem a bit… odd."
"Uh, probably because it's really cold in here, haha. Oh!" His eyes stopped on my hand. "You're not wearing gloves. That's new."
Him pointing at my bare hands seemed a bit more like a diversion from the topic. But indeed, it was a new thing of me to not wear my gloves. "Yeah, I just kinda forgot. I don't mind the cold, anyway."
"How do you… not mind the cold?" He asked, shoving his arms altogether to create heat.
I shrugged. "Perhaps because… I'm just kinda used to it. I can just, ignore it." I added a smile in the end.
"Okay… can I ask you something?" Jack asked. He drew my curiosity.
"What is it?"
"Um… where do you live, Anna?" He asked. My mind instantly went on a search to find a great excuse to tell Jack of why I should not reveal the place I live at.
"Um… it's confidential. I don't want you guys to come up to the front of my house and yell at the second floor for me to come out," I said. An awkward laugh followed afterwards.
"What?—no. We're not kids anymore. Only kids do that," Jack replied.
"Oh, you don't?" I asked, slightly concerned that my image of teenagers hanging out with the others in mind had been wrong in the entire time.
He shook his head as a definitive 'no'.
"Oh." I looked down in embarrassment.
"We come down here because we promise to meet up at this time, anyway. Not because each of us goes to the others' houses. It's easier this way," he explained.
"Right, yeah. You're right." I chuckled, brushing away my embarrassment. "Why do you ask, anyway?"
He scratched his hair once again. "I uh… was going to ask you… if you would like…"
He paused for a relatively long pause. My curiosity only grew bigger by then.
"Go… on a date with me?"
He grinned. And I gasped.
I blushed furiously. Jack Overland was asking me out for a date? During the long pause, I let myself distracted by the mesmerizing looks of the frozen pond beneath us (totally not because I was too embarrassed to look at Jack) while trying to find a word or two to speak out.
"Um…" I stole a look up to Jack. Obviously, our eyes met, because he was waiting for a response. I never had a problem making eye contact with him, but right now was a totally different experience.
"I..." Jack started. "I've had feelings ever since we met. I really like you, Anna," Jack explained. "… Forget the date. Do you… um… share my feelings?"
I looked up to him again. Honestly, I never did—wait.
Were my eyes just opened, or Jack had always been this… handsome?
But being handsome alone would not be enough, would it? Well, he's a very kind guy, sweet, too. Wait, now that I mentioned it… maybe he's a very good guy, after all. Jeez, talk about being socially terrible, my eyes had been blind for these kinds of traits.
"Did we just initiate a staring contest, Anna?" Jack asked, breaking the ice that I never knew was there at all.
"Huh?" I responded.
He chuckled. "You've been staring at me… for a good minute. Never even blinked."
Blood began to pump excessively through the veins in my cheeks. "I have? Oh goodness, I'm sorry!"
Jack slapped his knee and proceeded to laugh. "Hahaha! I-It's okay."
"Well… Jack… that's really sweet of you." I shoved my hands together. "I… uh… how about we… just wait?" I suggested.
"You… think this is too quick?" Jack asked innocently.
"No, not at all. I need to settle my mind first. Figure out how I truly feel and… yeah. Perhaps, you'll have your answer the next time we hang out?" I smiled warmly at the boy. He returned it with the same thing.
"Sure thing—"
Snap!
I turned around to the source of the sound, expecting a horse with the rest of the gang on it. However, the reality didn't meet my expectations. Coming out of the woods was a big round black figure that could none other than…
"Is… t-that a bear?" I asked, my voice trembling.
"Uh…" Jack couldn't even answer because the very animal revealed itself soon. Its eyes immediately found us, and it didn't take an expert to tell whether or not they seemed hungry.
"Jack, run," I told him.
"What—what are you going to do?"
"I'll hold him off, just run!" My priority was our safety, so I abandoned my privacy and charged my power on my hands to summon a tall wall of ice between us and the bear.
"WHOA, what was that, Anna?!" He asked, chuckling slightly in awe.
I turned around. "Let's go!"
Obviously, because of the slippery surfaces, we took our time to make an escape without slipping. I found Jack was lacking behind, mostly because he didn't have any footwear at all. "Come on, Jack!"
By the time I was already on the other end of the frozen pool, Jack was still somewhere in the middle and not progressing greatly. I kept gesturing to him to come quicker. My eyes looked up to the wall of ice and saw the shadow of the bear from the other side.
Only this time, its size grew bigger within a split second.
CRASH!
The bear rammed through the ice, collapsing it, and landed hard on the frozen pond. With its colossal weight, the bear made the ice beneath crack. The crack spread through the weak parts of the pond, which happened to be around the edges.
CRACK!
The cracking sounded terribly worse than ever. Two cracks met each other right in front of me. Jack noticed the same thing. What happened next made me skip a beat.
The entirety of the layer of ice flipped upwards right before me due to the bear's heavy weight on the other end of the pond, with Jack still on it!
"WOAHHH!"
"JACKK!"
By the time the giant ice leveled itself once again, a massive splash of water welcomed me. My whole attire was wet due to the splash.
I cleared my vision and saw nobody on the ice. No Jack, no bear. My heart began to race with the absence of those two. And it began to race even faster when I looked farther and noticed a hole on the ice by the other end of the pond.
"J-Jack!"
I circled around the pond from the ground to reach the hole. By the time I reached it, I looked for any sign of a human in the water. But it was pitch black, and it didn't help me with my panic!
I helplessly tried to 'clear' the dark water by splashing my hands in it. Seeing it contributing nothing in the situation, I undid my cloak and prepared myself to jump in.
While doing so, my eyes caught an odd sight.
There was ice on the hole, growing, eventually patching itself.
"NO NO!" I knelt down and fisted the ice. However, it only made things worse as more ice grew faster.
"NO! GODDAMIT, JACK!" I kept fisting the ice hopelessly.
I was too late. The hole was patched before my eyes.
"Princess Elsa?!"
I turned around to David along with the others on his horse. He hopped off the animal and drew his sword. "What happened?!"
"J-Jack! He's in the water!" I pointed to the patch of ice that I made by myself, which looked different compared to the rest of the ice itself.
"I'm s-so sorry…" Tears began to build on my eyes.
"Move, Princess," he commanded. I simply crawled to a different spot, terrified of Jack's current fate. Having given him enough space, the Arendellian guard attempted to pierce through the ice with his sword. It managed to do so, but not by a long length. The man kept repeating and the same thing repeated itself; the ice was too thick. The view only worsened my emotion.
"Anna… what's happening with you?" A feminine voice asked.
I turned around to a slightly terrified Catherine, and Ethan hiding behind her. That's when I realized there was a pattern of snowflake materializing underneath me, emitting a gloomy light that depicted my emotion.
"I…" My voice cracked.
"Molly, give me a hand!" David commanded his horse, pointing at the patch of ice. "Shatter this piece of ice!"
The horse neighed and pranced on its hind legs. With enough height, the horse smashed its legs on the ice. It seemed like a very big hit, but it was not enough!
"Again!"
CRASH!
We all turned our attention to the other end of the pond, where the bear had apparently crashed through the ice and made it out. The beast simply walked away while drying itself.
David stood up. "We can search Jack from there, let's go!"
Present time
There was just me, the rock I was sitting on, the dam that Anna brought down behind me, and my listener.
Of course, the view of a broken architecture had to remind me of the past, particularly the very first time I had killed somebody with my power.
"Yes, it was by accident. Yes, I did not mean to seal the hole, I meant to somehow attract Jack's attention if he was still conscious underwater... But the guilt was still there, and it made a return after I returned here to Northuldra."
I pulled my breath. "It's been two weeks since I returned here, two weeks as well since Therondia paid us a visit to kidnap me. And… two weeks since I put a lot of blood on my hands."
"I thought I could actually handle the guilt for killing clearly guilty people of Therondia, considering I actually managed to help Anna with her own guilt after doing the same. I genuinely thought it was going to be that easy, but I was wrong."
I turned around, gesturing to the dam. "When I strolled by the dam, I was initially reminded by the bloodbath that took place when father and grandfather visited this land and made a dam. Yes, I took no part in it. However, reminding myself of that story made a... chain reaction; it made me remember of how I killed him, Jack Overland. It was mostly because both victims in these two events were innocent. Grandfather began slaughtering the people of Northuldra simply because they lived alongside magical beings. I killed Jack Overland because I was trying to help him."
"Well… if you put it that way. But that's the only similarity the two events share."
I looked up to Honeymaren. I thought she was joking because she sounded sarcastic, but her expression said the opposite. She was serious. My brain processed it for a moment and came up with the fact that she did have a point.
"I guess… you're right," I said, crossing my hands.
"Was… his body ever recovered?" Honeymaren asked.
I shook my head. "No. David had a dive into the pond but it was too dark to see anything. And deep, according to his report when he investigated the pond during spring."
"Damn…"
Honeymaren stood up from the rock she was sat on and moved to mine. Her arms circled around me, shoving her hands my shoulders. Her face was hidden in the crook of my neck. "I'm here…"
I returned her hug. "Mm… Not to mention several months after the incident, my coronation was coming up. Neither Catherine nor Ethan showed up. In fact, I haven't seen them ever since that very day. I wanted to ask about them to Fitzgerald, but knowing that I took their friend's life..."
I rested my head on her shoulder, wondering what kind of life that those two were living in at the moment. Are they even in Arendelle, to begin with? So much questions, so few answers.
We pulled away after long enough. "Honeymaren… have you ever killed somebody?"
She processed the question briefly. "Thought we had to go to Arendelle now, did the plan change?"
My eyes bulged. "Oh yes! I forgot!"
"I didn't want to remind you mid story because you seemed to be… so lost in your mind there when I found you here," Honeymaren confessed, a tint of redness appeared on her cheeks. "Why don't we just hear the tale on our way?"
"Sound perfect," I replied, hopping off the rock.
We began to walk side by side to the direction of the nearby river to find Nokk. The mythical water horse was our transportation from Northuldra to Arendelle. Along the way, we found ourselves looking for each other's hands.
"So, what sort of stuff will you be dealing with in the kingdom?" My lover asked.
"My cousin and her husband are visiting. They're from the kingdom of Corona."
