Chapter 7: …. and the moon….
Night of the first full moon
Elsa watched as Drake and Cynthia disappeared into the darkening forest. The moon wasn't too high just yet, but they still had to set up an ambush for the creature. Elsa's only task was to keep the ice wall surrounding the forest up for the rest of the night, in the off chance the beast escaped them. Cynthia assured her that it wasn't possible, but Elsa decided to err on the side of caution.
With the wall back in place and the Knights on the Hunt, Elsa had little else to do, but return to her castle and wait. Coming to the doors to her castle she tilted her head when she noticed a note being being held by a wooden hand attached to the door. She fought the giggles in her throat and took the hand and note.
Unrolling it, she read, "Elsa. In the kitchen lies a plate of our favorite chocolate truffles, made in celebration of the end of this werewolf hunt by Gerda. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to meet your beautiful, amazing, talented, adorable-freckled-faced sister to sneak into the kitchen to procure the truffles. Olaf's stick hand will guide you to my location." Elsa glanced at his hand that began waving at her. She shook her head with a laugh, but really, chocolate truffles did sound delicious.
She opened the doors to the castle and set Olaf's arm down. The twig began hopping through the halls of her castle with Elsa following close behind.
Another of her and Anna's "secret chocolate raids"wasn't something she should be doing. Surely she had other things to attend to, like sitting around worrying about what Cynthia said about her powers, or worrying about the Knights and whether or not they'd be okay. Or if the werewolf would kill them and then come for her and her family.
….okay maybe one truffle wouldn't hurt.
Olaf's twig arm led her to another arm dangling from a suit of armor, this one also holding a note.
"Okay so this isn't my EXACT location, but I had to see if you were serious."
Elsa raised a brow before a hand clamped over her mouth. "Shh! It's just me." Anna whispered. "We have to be quiet. Gerda might be on to us. Olaf is on the lookout, but we've got to be quick, and Kristoff is ready to intercept us." Elsa let out an aggravated "mmph" from behind her hand. "Oh sorry."
Elsa massaged her cheeks. "I hate it when you do that."
"Sorry Elsa, but you know how seriously I take my truffle missions." She took her sister by the hand and led her along the walls. Peeking around the corner Anna caught a glimpse of the kitchen doors. It opened a crack giving the sisters a shot of Olaf motioning with his head for the two to join him. At the end of the hall, Kristoff and Sven gave a thumbs up, signaling that they were ready.
"Okay, go." The sisters and the arms, crouching low, scuttled to the kitchen. Sven and Kristoff crawled comically on the floor meeting them halfway. Olaf held open the door so all four could slip inside.
"It's about time you showed up."
The group stood frozen in place, and not because of Elsa's powers. Their elderly servant, Gerda, stood over the tray of truffles with her arms folded, and eyes narrowed with an amused smirk.
"Olaf you were supposed to look out for Gerda!" Anna glared at the snowman.
Putting his arms back in place, he stated. "I am! She's right there." And with a wooden finger, pointed at Gerda.
The sisters face palmed, "This is what we get for having a snowman as a lookout." Kristoff groaned. But none of them could find it in them to be angry with the adorable snowman.
They stood straight. "Well, Gerda," Elsa started, "we, uh, heard…" Elsa trailed off when Gerda began shaking her head with a laugh.
She took the tray of chocolate and presented it to the royal them. "I've been the victim of your sneaky, 'truffle theft' for years now. After all this time, trust me, I don't need a talking snowman to let me know what you two are up to. Now there's just more of you."
Once they all had a couple of truffles in hand, Gerda went to a picture of milk on the table and poured each of them a mug. "Besides," she continued, "it's been stressful around here, and none so much as right now. So truffles seems more than fair to me." She handed the mugs of milk to the royals. "Do you think they'll succeed?"
Anna, Gerda, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven watched Elsa closely before she answered. She took a small sip of her milk after a nibble of truffle. "I do."
She hoped she sounded convincing enough.
—:0:—
Once he had finished gathering a new batch of firewood, Drake let the logs slip lazily from his arms, hitting the ground with an obnoxiously loud clatter.
"Would you settle down?" His ear twitched. Cynthia had taken a position ten feet away atop a nearby hill, giving her a perfect vantage point into the opening Drake was occupying beneath the trees. "You're supposed to be a 'helpless camper', not a bored one."
His extra sensitive ears helped to hear his sisters criticism perfectly. Thankfully her hearing was just as good allowing the two to speak to each other as if they were standing side by side. "Technically I am a helpless camper. I've never been camping before." He sat down on a log and began poking at my the fire he had made.
"Well give yourself some credit. You made that fire without using Dragon fire."
He glared in her direction, knowing she could see him through the scope in her hunting rifle. "Is that another jab at the fact I haven't gone Dragon yet?"
"Well to be fair you haven't needed too. I just hope when the time comes you'll be ready too." Drake huffed and continued poking anxiously at the fire. "Will you relax. This may be your first mission unsupervised, but you've assisted before."
"It's not that," he snapped, "I'm just… ready to get this over with."
"Well I dunno it's not that bad here. The royals are better than most others we've met. At least they're not all judgey about us. Remember that one guy who turned us away because a 'woman can't be a knight'." Drake shrugged, she did have a point. "Ya know," Cynthia continued, "The queens also kinda hot."
Drake whipped his head in her direction again, pointing his poking stick into the air as if he was hoping to jam it into her eye. "Don't. Do not go there."
She laughed. "What? I just said she was kinda hot. In an elegant, sophisticated kinda way."
Drake sputtered over his words. "That's beside the point—"
"So you admit she's attractive?"
"Of course she's attractive." He quickly lowered his voice seeing as it had raised slightly. "I just don't want you doing your whole, 'matchmaker' thing."
"Oh come on, I only did that once." Drake could practically hear her rolling her eyes. "Besides you liked Arabella didn't you?"
Drake sighed heavily. "The date was atrocious! I didn't have the heart to tell you. Didn't you notice we never went out again?"
It was Cynthia's turn to sputter. "I thought you were playing hard to get!"
"For two months?!" Once again he had to lower his voice. "I love you, but don't ever set me up again. Besides, she's a queen and I'm a Knight, kinda taboo don't ya think?"
Cynthia was about to ask why his date went so wrong when something caught her attention. "Drake? Beside me do you hear anything else?"
Drake strained his ears towards his surroundings. "Besides the wind through the trees, no, nothing." They both went silent as the realization of what that meant set in.
"Stay sharp Drake, I think—" With his ears were suddenly on full alert he heard something roar and begin attacking his sister.
"CYNTHIA!" He leapt into action, but he didn't get a few feet towards her rescue when something leapt from the trees and on top of him.
He felt razor like claws rip through the shoulders of his tunic and dig into his flesh. A tremendous weight on top of him pushed him deeper into the earth, making it difficult to breathe. He suddenly cringed when hot rancid breath brushed against his face making him gag.
"Ugh, so gross." Now knowing that it was pressed against the back of his head, he threw his head back, slamming into its snout. It howled in pain and stumbled back, allowing Drake to flip over onto his back and plant a kick into its ribs. Thankfully Drake was strong enough he heard a few of them crack.
Drake got to his feet. The creature that had attacked him stood at least a foot taller than his six foot frame and was up on its hind legs. It's body appeared humanoid, it's hands and legs fitted with massive claws already dripping with Drake's blood. It's face extended into a snout, beady silver eyes and large pointed tipped ears. For all intensive purposes, it was a wolf walking around on its hind legs.
Drake managed a "What the hell", as the wolf roared in both pain and rage before lunging at Drake. Fangs bared and pointed directly at his throat.
Thinking quickly, Drake rolled to the side into a lunging position, before drawing a twelve inch blade from his boot. A blade made of pure silver.
"Silver to the heart," he told himself, "nothing fancy." The wolf corrected itself and lunged again, this time slashing at Drake with his claws and ripping into his arm as he moved out of the way. Luckily Drake was able to get a shot in as well, the silver blade making its skin sizzle and burn from the touch.
The two shuffled around each other, the wolf attempting to rip out Drakes throat while Drake tried to pierce its heart. Suddenly a shot rang out from the hilltop, the hilltop Cynthia had been.
"CYNTHIA!" Luckily Drakes shouting distracted the wolf enough to give him a chance to put the blade through its heart.
He hurried up the hill as soon as it was dead, frantically calling for his sister. Once he got to the top, Cynthia was getting to her feet, pushing the bloody corpse of another wolf off of her.
He rushed over and threw his arms around her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did it bite you?!" He looked her over, noticing some bloody claw marks, but no bites.
She pushed him off. "I'm fine. It just took me by surprise is all." She picked up her lever action hunting rifle off the ground. "At least I got it." They looked back at the withering corpse of the werewolf, slowly shifting back into its human form. "What about you?"
The looked down the hill seeing the werewolf Drake had stabbed also reverting back to its human shape.
"Werewolves don't hunt in packs." He said worriedly. "What kinds of werewolves are these?"
—:0:—
Sven's head suddenly jerked upwards, his ears frantically moving in all directions. Noticing his odd behavior Kristoff asked, "You okay buddy? What's wrong?"
Everyone else in the kitchen looked at Sven when he became more erratic, Elsa in particular could feel a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Slowly the royals in the kitchen could hear blood curdling screams coming from outside the castle.
"Queen Elsa!" She recognized the voice of one of her guards calling out to her. He burst through the kitchen doors, panting and terrified. "The city is under attack!"
Her heart dropped into her stomach, but she had to ignore the shaking in her legs and the pounding in her ears. She hurried from the kitchen, leaving her sister and friends in her frigid wake. She shed her icy dress, replacing it with a full piece unitard, boots and a coat meant for more active wear. She burst through the castle doors, seeing Bjorn and his men were helping Arendelle's citizens into the castle courtyard.
"Move! Move! Move!" Bjorn raised a crossbow and fired. Elsa followed the arrow with her eyes, seeing it pierce the skin of an enormous wolf like creature that had leapt towards a family.
Leaping into action, Elsa shot a blast of ice at the wolf, pinning the bloody creature to the ground.
"Captain!" She called, "have your men get as many people into the castle as possible!"
Surprised he responded, "My queen! Stay back! There are at least four of those beasts out there! Surely you can't—" The wolf that had frozen to the ground, broke through the ice like it was mere tissue paper, and continued its attack. More of Elsa's guards shot at the incoming beast, but none of their arrows had any effect.
Elsa once again blasted the wolf, this time adding more and more ice to keep it down.
"Bjorn!" Bjorn and Elsa followed the voice to one of the windows of the castle, and two wolves leaping through it.
Elsa felt her heart stop. Two of the wolves were now in her castle. Her home. Where Anna was.
"Anna…" she managed a small whisper before Bjorn yelled at the top of his lungs.
"QUEEN ELSA!"
She looked forward as the wolf she had frozen broke free and was now inches from her face.
She braced herself, wondering what it would feel like to have claws slash her skin, draining her of blood and flesh. That was what she expected. What She hadn't expected was the resulting shockwave when Drake threw himself into the attacking wolf with a sickening slam. She blinked when the "slam" knocked her out of her momentary stuper, just as Drake was putting a glistening twelve inch blade into the wolves chest.
"MY QUEEN!" More shouting to get her attention, but a ringing in her ears and shock surging through her body made it impossible to hear anything. "MY QUEEN!" Elsa didn't come out of her petrification until Bjorn made the mistake of grabbing her arm.
With a surprised gasp, she pushed her hand against his chest, sending a firm, yet tame, mist of ice to push him back.
"Apologies," he shivered, "but we need you present with us."
She nodded before scanning the courtyard, then she remembered. "Anna!" She turned heel and ran full speed back into the castle with Bjorn and Drake calling after her.
Please be okay, she pleaded, please be unhurt. Please be okay. She repeated this mantra as if by some stroke of miracle the gods above would hear her prayers and make it be. With ice trailing behind her, she didn't have the time to look behind her at the chaos in her castle. She had to find Anna. She had to make sure she was safe.
Her stomach clenched when she heard the screams of her sister.
No…
But her fears were extinguished when she saw Anna, unharmed, running towards her with Olaf in hand, Sven and Kristoff on her heels.
"NOT THIS WAY! NOT THIS WAY!" Anna cried when she saw her sister, "THAT WAY, THAT WAY!" Elsa was so relieved to see her sister she hadn't noticed the Werewolf giving chase behind them.
Seeing the beast closing in on her family filled Elsa with a rage she didn't know she was capable of, and without a second thought, blasted it with as much ice as she could muster. This time, the wolf was knocked back with thick icicles sticking out of its body. She shot again, and again, and again, grunting and snarling like a rabid animal.
It attacked my sister! It tried to kill her!
"Elsa!" Firm gentle hands wrapped around her arm and pulled her gently. "That's enough. I think you go him."
She looked into her sisters worried eyes before looking back at the wolf who was now covered in icy spikes, dripping with a mixture of water and blood into the floor. Still it's lips curled with hunger and rage before weakly advancing on them.
The small Arendelle family jolted when a loud pop sounded from behind them, followed by the wolf staggering backwards. They turned around just as Cynthia pulled on the lever of her hunting rifle, release the spent bullet, load another one, and fire again. Blood spurted from its chest when Cynthia's silver bullet went right through.
"You should go check on your people, your highnesses." Cynthia cocked her weapon again. "They may need you."
"Don't need to tell us twice." Anna took her sister by the hand and the group made their way to the main hall where their people were waiting for them.
—:0:—
"How did this happen? Why did this happen? What the hell happened?"
Elsa looked around the main hall, seeing groups of her people bloody, exhausted and scared. They seemed to be just as confused about the night's events as she was. Occasionally she would be bombarded with questions, questions she didn't have the answer too.
Anna, Kristoff and Sven helped with some of the wounded while Olaf walked closely to Elsa's ankles.
"Don't bother her right now." He told another, this time the sound of his voice snapping her out of her trance. "Are you alright?"
She looked down at him with his large eyes sad with worry. She smiled when she realized he was the first one to ask her that question. "I… I'm…" Her eyes floated to the doors noticing Cynthia and Drake walking into the hall, both of which were speaking quietly with one another.
Like a switch in her mind, confusion and anxiety shifted to anger. Her brows furrowed with trembling anger She stomped towards them, each step creating sheets of ice on the ground.
"Elsa? What are you doing?" She ignored her snowy friend as the closer she got to the Knights, the angrier she became.
Drake and Cynthia argued in hushed tones until Drake saw the angered queen headed right for them. He pushed passed his sister to intercept the Queen.
"Your highness." Were the only words he was able to get out before she brought the palm of her hand across his face.
The slap rang through the large hall louder than any weapon Cynthia may have carried, and worked in silencing everyone gathered.
Drake looked back at her, no anger in his face. "I deserve that—" another slap. This time, leaving a streak of ice across his face.
Cynthia made to tell Elsa off, but Drake held out his hand to stop her.
Elsa began to speak.
"We trusted you. I trusted you. I brought you into my kingdom to help us, and instead things have gotten worse. You promised me that everything was under control, but now look at us." She three out her arm, motioning to the chaos.
The ice across his face began to melt. "Your right, and I'm sorry, but we weren't prepared for this."
"Drake—" Cynthia put her hand on his shoulder, probably to stop him from speaking further, but he shrugged her hand off.
"Werewolves don't travel in packs and they were hiding among you this whole time." This time he turned around to face his sister. "If we had gone through with my plan we may have found them before this happened."
She glared. "Don't you dare blame me for this."
"I'm not blaming you! I'm stating a fact. Had we looked for them—"
"We would have stopped after the first one, but there would have been five more after that—"
"It would have been a start!"
"Elsa!" The arguing stopped when Anna called out. In her arms was the servant Gerda, whose arm was dripping with blood. "I think we have a problem." Elsa looked closer at the wound and the large bite marks.