Section Two, Part One

A sudden burst of energy thrust Archer and Emma through the light. It felt as if an invisible claw had grabbed them and pulled them forward. The light started to dim, and Archer found himself through a tunnel of purple and white energy, spinning around them as they were propelled forward. A shudder of electricity seemed to course through his body, and a shuddering tingle followed it. Then the voices returned, but this time they were fearful… they cried out as pain flared throughout Archer's body. Then cold shivers went throughout Archer's body. He looked over painfully and saw Emma in a similar situation, arching her back and groaning. Archer's heart ached to help her, but he could do nothing. His eyes fixed to the very center of the wormhole. A white tear in reality began to form in the sort-of horizon. As it got closer and brighter, Archer knew that he had to get there, or the tremors racing through his limbs would kill him. He reached out his hand towards the light, and his hand connected with the light.

An invisible force made Archer pitch headfirst through the light. A second later, his head connected with cold, hard stone. He felt his nose breaking, and he tried to get up. He was lying on a large gray rock, and from the look of it, up on a mountain. Archer felt almost normal again, except for a weird feeling that felt like a residual from the electric shocks that went through his body. Only it didn't feel painful now, it felt almost… strengthening, almost like power, coursing through his veins. He groaned through the pain of impact with the stone. He rolled over so he was face up. Emma had gotten up, and had walked over to him. She offered her hand to help Archer up. As he took it, he noticed that she had sustained no physical injury. It looked as if she had not fallen on the ground at all, but had merely landed on her feet. Her hand was smooth and warm, and contact with it sent another tingle down his spine, this time, one that warmed his whole body like a pilot light igniting an entire fireplace with a single touch. Trying to ignore the feeling, he allowed Emma to pull him up. After letting go of her hand, he dusted himself off, and observed his surroundings.

They were on a mountain, for sure, overlooking a body of water next to a range of cliffs and mountains. It was hard to tell anything else due to the sheets of rock on the side of the mountain. A narrow path led down the mountain towards the water, and from the look of it, there was nowhere else to go. Then Archer remembered the portal-like rip. He turned swiftly behind him, but the mysterious wormhole had disappeared. Great. They were trapped.

"Well," Emma pointed out. "There's only one way to go."

"Yeah." Archer sighed. "One way."

The path seemed to go on forever, and if it was not for the fact that both Archer and Emma were experienced outdoors, they may not have made it to the ledge. As they were walking, things started to seem even more out of place. The sharpness of the cliffs and the way the land was shaped didn't look like anything in America. The air also smelled a lot cleaner, and judging by the position of the sun, it was around 11:00 in the morning, where they had come from, it was just past 4:00 in the afternoon. When they had reached a ledge, Archer looked at his phone to check the time. When he saw it, he almost choked. It read 10:09 am, June 18, 1844.

"What?" Emma asked, looking shocked at his reaction. He showed her the image. She did a double take, and said, "Well that can't be right."

Emma always was known for saying obvious things at exactly the right places, and exactly at the wrong places. It always seemed really funny, usually. At this moment, it wasn't.

Archer checked his phone for where they were, but the app didn't show anywhere. It just said that they were somewhere in Norway.

"That's not good," he worried. "That's not good at all."

Again, Emma replied with, "What's not good?"

"It says we're in Norway - but it doesn't say where. Something about this is… familiar…" Archer trailed off, wondering what was so relatable about this. He'd never experienced anything like this before. He walked on, and looked beyond a patch of the cliff wall that was missing, giving a clear view of the terrain. Archer sucked in his breath.

"Emma?" he called. "You really need to see this."

She went over to him and looked through the hole as well. She let out a ginormous gasp.

"It's… beautiful…"

It was indeed beautiful. Cliff faces, mountains and waterfalls fell into a large fjord. In the river below them, a castle with many streets, halls, and rooftops gleamed spectacularly.

"Norway," Archer let loose a sigh of wonder. "The Land of Fjords."

Something about the castle unnerved Archer, though. He had never been to Norway, but this castle seemed like a place he'd known since he was a little boy. His eyes fell on a brass statue of a girl and a boy, standing tall and proud together. Then almost everything clicked in Archer's brain.

Almost everything.

He still could not figure out how or why they were there, or definitely how the place was real, when it showed up on no map of any sort.

"What is it?" inquired Emma. "What is that look?"

"I know that castle."

She gave him a questioning look. "Have you ever been to Norway?"

"Never," he said in a final sort of tone.

"You don't recognize it?" he asked.

"No," she replied. "How do you recognize it?"

He scowled and continued walking down. He paused for a moment before asking, "Well? Are you going to come see what this is, or not?"

She nodded and followed him down the cliff.

The path deposited them at a riverbank next to the castle. As Archer heard voices, he hissed at Emma, "Hide!" They got behind a rock jetting out from the ground.

A woman's voice, definitely a woman's, but a young woman's voice called out.

"Leave. You have no business here. Leave our people alone."

Archer had thought she had noticed them, and he was about to get out from behind the rock and apologize, and say they had nowhere to go, but before he could do anything, a rasping voice responded from the riverbank:

"No business? Well, you could not be more wrong! I was summoned here for a reason, and there's nothing you can do to stop me from achieving my goals, nothing can!"

There was a swoosh of wind and a sound like cracking ice after it connected with water. The rasping man laughed.

"Not even your power can hurt me, your majesty," the mysterious man mocked. "Didn't your parents ever tell you that ice is just frozen water? It can not hurt me. It only makes me stronger!"

There was an odd sucking noise, and a sigh of excitement from the rasping man.

"Ah, that's better. I haven't had a proper strengthening in ages.

"Now, where was I? Oh, yeah. I was devouring your souls and using your power to take the kingdom!"

At these words, the electric sensation in Archer's body seeed to jump out in protest. His hands grew hot and shocking. He looked down at his hands and gasped.

Bolts of electricity were arcing through his fingers.

Emma was also staring at his hands too. She had a disbelieving face that Archer imagined he was also wearing at the moment.

"Because like I said, your majesty, your ice can't hurt me!"

"You're right," called a voice from behind the rock.

Archer had spoken out of impulse, like an instinct. Out of the same kind of feeling, he stood up, his hoodie still over his head.

The rasping man was actually a humanoid figure, but made entirely out of water rapids. The water figure turned around in shock to look at Archer.

"Ice can't hurt you. That's entirely correct. It makes you stronger. That is also true," Archer confirmed.

He studied his hands. They were no longer arcing with electricity, yet they still had an electrified tingling, as if the energy was only dormant, ready to be called upon at a moment's notice.

"So I'm sure you're positive you have them cornered good and proper. That is where you're wrong."

He raised a hand slowly, by instinct rather than purpose, and in the same manner he spoke:

"D'you know one thing water is very well known for?"

The water man looked puzzled. He shook his head, no longer puzzled, but excited. "Yes?"

"It's an excellent conductor of electricity."

He pointed his fingers directly at the man. Suddenly, bolts of lightning were projected from his fingertips at the man, where the snaked their way through the air at the speed of light.

As the electric energy connected with the liquidity skin of the spirit, there was a bright flash of blue light followed by a piercing scream from the thing. The lightning trapped itself in the body of the man, consistently and constantly electrocuting him. Eventually the water melted off and the remains of the spirit were washed away by the river.

Then Archer studied the women standing at the riverbank. The one closest to him was definitely the one who has been speaking. She was tall and skinny, with long, straight hair that was so platinum blond it appeared white, which fell to her waist in the back and tumbled over her left shoulder in the front. She had gentle, kind blue eyes and smooth features, but she was not dressed for the occasion. She was wearing a long, runic dress that must have been very hot in the summer weather. Archer could not help but notice that she looked very beautiful and kind. He attempted to push this from his mind. There was something very familiar about her that made Archer positive she was a good person, but he would not make any conclusions, and she really didn't seem like the kind of person Archer would be interested in. Besides, he was still infatuated with Emma. The other woman was slightly younger-looking, with long reddish brown hair with a braided circle around her head. She had the same exact blue eyes and facial features, and they both seemed protected of each other. It was these, plus the fact that Archer recognizes these women, that led him to deduce that they were sisters. Archer then realized something.

"Well, where are my manners?" He cried. "I should introduce myself."

He threw back his hood from his jacket, which he had been wearing because he had forgotten that it was now hot and no longer chilly like it was in Maryland. The women's faces changed from being confused to surprised almost instantaneously. They were probably expecting a tall, handsome man with large muscles and a beard to be the one who had destroyed the watery man. Whatever they thought, they were certainly not expecting a short, scrawny 14 year old boy with no visible muscle who had just started getting acne for the first time. He signaled for Emma to come out, for she had stayed behind the rock at the intrusion of the watery spirit.

"I'm Archer Willows. This is my friend," he cut off so that she could introduce herself.

"Emma Layror." She put out her hand, and Archer followed her lead.

The first woman took Archer's hand, while her sister took Emma's. As they switched to shake the other's, the blond woman smiled and opened her mouth to speak.

"I am Elsa. This is my sister, Anna, the Queen of Arendelle."