Chapter 1

VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. The following tale is an accurate depiction of the messed up shenanigans of my life. I warn you, reader, if you feel anything while reading, like something awakening inside you, stop reading immediately. You do not want to end up like me. If you're a regular guy, reading this as you think it's fantasy, all made up, go on. I envy your ability to believe none of this. Believe me, when you read this, you'll realize stuff like this isn't always good. It's full of loss, of grief, of death.

You have been warned.

My name is Artemis Jenkins. I'm 21 years old, and ever since my parents, Edward and Jaina Jenkins gave birth to me on May 6th, 1822, I've lived in the Kingdom of Corona. Now, you may know the story of Rapunzel, the princess of Corona. In 1816, Mother Gothel stole her from the castle for 18 years. So she was missing until 1834, when I was 12, turning that age a week before. But do you know the complete, full story? This is where all that comes into importance.

My parents were expecting a baby girl, so they decided they'd name me Artemis. When they found out I was a boy, they shrugged and said it wasn't a bad name for a boy. From when I was 5, my parents taught me to fend for myself, in case I was ever in danger. Strangely, I chose to be a hunter, an archer. My name itself is an old Greek name of the goddess of the hunt, and also the moon, eventually. I've always been good with a bow, and so when I was 7, I snuck out of the house every night to look for the missing princess. Luckily for me, Gothel wasn't an experienced thief. She left footprints and trampled grass that for some reason didn't grow back or get filled in. So I followed these tracks, until they disappeared. I was incredulous. How did she get away? Then I saw that the number of pairs of hoofprints in the mud were more than that had been coming from the stable. She'd run, then found her horse and fled by steed.

From there, it had taken me longer to find out what had happened. I tracked the hoofprints to an old cottage, but there was nothing there except for a broken music box. Other than that, no signs of a struggle. The bridge than had crossed the moat had fallen, but that could have been from time rather than deliberate vandalism. From there, the trail ran cold as the tracks were no longer distinguishable, and the next thing I found was when I was less than a week over 12, and I had gotten my new bow. The only thing I ever saw then was an old tower, with no doors. I'd climbed inside, but no one was there, and so I left it. I checked back in later and the tower was no different, but still, I had a feeling the tower was important. Though I shrugged it off and didn't come back the next day, when it was around noon and I hadn't found my way home yet.

If only I'd listened to my gut.

The day after that, I checked the tower, and everything had changed. There was a broken mirror on the ground, and blood stains by the window. The floor was covered in a seventy-foot long brown bundle of thread, or at least I thought, until I noticed it was hair. I saw art drawings of the lanterns we lit every night, oh, I had missed the lantern lighting the day before because I was too far away to get there. Quickly, I realized that all the signs pointed to the princess. I raced back home with my knowledge and told my family. They smiled at me and told me they already knew. The princess came home only that morning, and the kingdom rejoiced. We were at peace.

Then, the black rocks came. They destroyed most of Old Corona and had us fearing for our lives. Then a boy named Varian I used to know, he was only two years older than me after all, kidnapped the queen and tried to destroy Corona itself. Of course, both the Varian fiasco and later problems with the princess' former Lady-In-Waiting, Cassandra, were all solved. We rejoiced again, and Corona was once again at peace, and we lived happy and free forever. All was well. At least, until July 1843, when I was 21 years old.

That is where our story begins.

I was racing through the woods, trying to escape the Coronian guards. They'd finally noticed I'd been sneaking out every night and today they sent a small patrol to subdue me. But I couldn't get off this lead, I was following an important trail that might not be able to be followed after tonight. There was no chance I was giving up. I drew my bow and nocked an arrow. I was about to fire at the guards, but I noticed a weakened and decaying tree branch above the guards. Waiting until the exact right moment, I fired the arrow into the unstable connection between the tree and the branch. The branch fell right in front of them before their steeds could even jump. I had bought myself some time.

By a nearby tree I found the next trail. A shard of the same metal-like substance was sitting right by a trampled bush. I studied it, and it seemed to point me due east, telling me where to go. I took off on Draugr, my horse that I'd travelled on since the first night I snuck out. I'd named him Draugr after the Norse zombies, who were said to be completely silent, devoid of noise. No matter how fast my horse was, he barely made any sound, handy for sneaking out without being noticed.

I didn't waste a moment, as any second the guards would find a way around. Sure enough, I had barely taken off before they came barreling through behind me. I didn't know how far I'd travelled from Corona following the trail, but it was already past sunrise, and I'd left the night before.

In front of me, I saw the first light since I'd entered the forest. Draugr charged headfirst at it, but the Coronian guards shouted, "Halt!" Briefly turning back, careful not to let my hood fall off and reveal my identity, I saw they were pointing crossbows at me. There was no way I'd make it out in time. I scanned my surroundings. I quickly tied some twine to an arrow, and tied it to my waist. I patted Draugr's saddle, and he whinnied in understanding. I shot the arrow behind me, not at the guards, but in a sturdy tree branch behind them. I let myself be pulled off of Draugr's body, but I managed to catch him with my feet. The twine curled around the branch, and at the right time, I cut the rope, giving me maximum lift and speed. I flew past the guards and sailed into the light, avoiding the bolts sailing through the air. I landed clean on the ground and Draugr sped off into the distance, far beyond the reach of the guards.

We were in a mountainous valley nearby a river, which must've flowed into a nearby body of water. This river, or wherever it fed, was where I was most likely to find civilization. I followed the roads, before noticing some tracks in the muddy riverbanks. I pulled back on Draugr's reins and dismounted. I studied the tracks and gasped.

"Holy Hephaestus," I breathed heavily.

The tracks were the ones of human feet, but they were five times as large. Strips of metal seemed to vibrate, dusted around every print. I was about to follow them when I heard the screaming of a woman.

Turning around, a woman seemed to have been walking along the edge of a cliff and slipped, falling towards the ground. Another woman was barely distinguishable from the top of the cliff, reaching down and catching her companion. I raced to the face of the cliff and saw the woman who had fallen trying desperately to hold on, but her hand was slipping. Without hesitation, I noticed a goat path up the cliff that I just might be able to cross with Draugr. We practically flew up the face of the cliff as the woman's grip finally slipped free and she fell straight down the edge.

Luckily, I was able to intercept her halfway up the cliff and caught her before she could plummet to her death. She had a kind face, light skin and long reddish-brown hair. I hoisted her up onto the back of my steed and took off for the top of the cliff, where the other woman was waiting.

As we reached the top, I got my first good look at her, and I tried to remember how to breathe.

She was tall and slim, with pale white skin, but she didn't look unhealthy. She had the same face as the woman I'd just rescued except slightly more defined. Her eyes were warm, gentle, and a brilliant blue. She had perfectly chiseled features and cherry red lips. Her hair was a long and straight platinum blonde, so light it looked white. Her hair mainly fell down her back, but some tumbled over her left shoulder. She was wearing a long white dress punctuated with Nordic runes. She had a face that told me she smiled a lot, but it seemed more of a recent change, and that she used to be a lot less upbeat. She was so breathtakingly beautiful I'd forgotten how to breathe, but I blinked and slapped myself mentally.

You don't even know this person, I told myself. You don't know anything about her. She could be a criminal, or a murderer.

Yet my heart ignored reason.

The other woman dismounted from Draugr and ran over to the blonde. She was looking pale, but it was more from fear of dying than being unhealthy. In fact, both women looked extremely well-built and healthy.

The blonde woman looked at me, smiled, and nodded her head.

"Thank you," She told me, "for saving my sister."

She had a melodic and beautiful voice.

"Well, where are my manners?" She cried incredulously. "Stranger, I am Elsa. This is my sister, Anna. We were just walking around here, searching for an anomaly we'd seen, when my sister slipped. I can't thank you enough for saving her. May I ask who I have the pleasure of meeting?"

I found my voice. "I am Artemis Jenkins, my lady." (Don't ask me where the 'my lady' part came from. It was an instinct of some sort. Turns out in the end that this was the appropriate thing to say.)

"It is nice to meet you, Artemis, and I am forever grateful. You saved my sister's life. What brings you to my family's kingdom?"

I did a double take. "Your family's kingdom?" I repeated.

She smirked. Her sister Anna hadn't said much, but she seemed to have found her ability to speak.

"Yes," she said. "You were heading towards Arendelle," she pointed where the road led, "my sister and my kingdom. I am the Queen of Arendelle. My sister used to be, but she gave up being queen and gave the title to me."

I admit, I was a little jumpy. I scrambled into a bow, but Elsa just laughed, and dismissed me: "You don't have to do that, Artemis. I appreciate your propriety, but you don't need to bow. You saved the queen's life, and besides, we don't do that here."

I picked myself back up. "Of course, Your Majesty."

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "You don't have to do that either. Please, call me Elsa."

"Yes, Your Majesty," I replied.

She rolled her eyes, but she smirked afterwards. "Very clever, Jenkins."

Anna cleared her throat loudly. "Um, Elsa? Shouldn't we maybe… I don't know, keep searching?"

Elsa inclined her head. "Peace, sister. If you don't remember, we lost the trail a little while ago. We'll have to backtrack in order to find it. Plus, we need to properly thank our guest here."

I shook my head. "Oh, no, you don't have to do anything, I don't need anything, really, I have my own trail I'm following, and I don't want to lose it, there's some sort of creature wandering around, I don't know much about it but it's tracks are human feet, but five times larger, and these weird vibrating shards of metal go with them, I'm honored to talk with you, but I really must be going." I turned around and headed over to Draugr to mount him again, but I was stopped by Elsa grabbing my arm before I was able to saddle up. Her touch was warm and gentle, and it seemed that a thousand volts of electricity arced through my body at her touch.

I turned around and saw her standing there, looking grim.

"Did you say, vibrating shards of metal?" She asked, with a tone of seriousness.

I nodded.

She took a deep breath and let go of my arm. "Then we are following the same trail," she told me, "Tell me, Artemis, where was the last place you saw it's footsteps?"

I pointed down back to the road, where the footsteps led next to the river.

Anna saw it, and exchanged a worried look with her sister.

Elsa was the first to speak. "Well," she said. "I guess we're heading to Arendelle after all." She pointed farther downstream, where a fraction of a castle on a fjord was just barely visible.

The tracks were leading right toward it.