Chapter 2: It feels like the future is calling
Elsa fidgeted with the green grass blades as time passed. It distracted her from the distant sounds of battle, which was difficult to ignore.
"Will making flower crowns alter the future?" Asked Anna softly.
Her voice was shy, masked by the knees she was pressing her face on. Elsa had a touched smile. She knew that Anna asked that question both with humor and with a need. They were craving for a distraction.
"I could make you one."
Elsa shifted from her lotus position to a seated one, her ice sandals sparkling in the move. She stretched her hand out of the bush where they were hiding to pick some flowers, and started to craft a crown.
"You're really great at those." Smiled Anna.
"Honeymaren is a good teacher."
They both smiled. For a moment, they forgot the crazy situation they were in, the time travel, the tragic fate of the forest they were witnessing, the distant grunts of pain as Spirits, soldiers and Sami fought each other. When context was ignored, it actually was a sunny day like any other, with smelly flowers and fresh grass.
Elsa was knotting the flowers in a round under Anna's attentive eyes, when suddenly, she lifted her head in a snap.
Her eyes had gone wide, her breathing stopped, and Anna worried. There was nothing in front of them.
"Wh… What is it?"
Elsa didn't respond, and tensed, still looking in the distance as she dropped the flower crown.
Anna tried to understand, hearing nothing, then she got why and her jaw dropped.
"Oh God… It's the Spirits call, isn't it?"
Elsa had to physically shake herself to get out of what looked like a reverie or a transe. She blinked, and nodded. "Yeah, it's…"
She turned to her sister. "It's so weird. I've heard it so many times through memories, but now, I clearly hear it in Mother's voice… And it's really strong."
Anna frowned. "What do you mean?"
She had no idea how the call worked, for she couldn't hear it herself, and it sometimes felt like Elsa was a dog hearing ultrasounds when Ahtohallan called her for a Spirits meeting or something else.
"It's… Really…" Tried to say Elsa through gritted teeth, like it was physically difficult to talk now.
The redhead put a hand on her shoulder. She gasped when she felt how cold her sister was gradually becoming because of panic.
"Elsa? What is going on, are you okay?"
The Snow Queen had clenched her eyes shut as, apparently, Iduna was calling again. Each time the young girl sang to the Spirits for another try, Elsa's hands clenched on the grass, and she grunted.
Snow started to appear under her palms and between her fingers, like Winter morning dew. Elsa's breathing was long and pained.
"She's so sad… And confused… I just…"
Anna gasped at her state and looked around, checking that they were alone, then bent to her elder, now placing both her hands on her arms.
"Can you resist it?"
"M'trying!" Muttered Elsa with a clenched jaw.
She strongly shut her eyes, and now her shoulders were trembling. Anna's heart split in half when she saw that tears were falling down on her cheeks.
"Elsa…"
"She's desperate. I can hear it. She needs help! She's calling for our help, my help!"
The blonde had opened her eyes, and her deep blue irises were covered with tears. Anna stared at them firmly.
"Elsa. You can do it. Stay with me. I know well that it's nearly impossible for a Spirit to resist that call, and that you can't un-hear it. But you have to stay here. You must. In your own words: we must not intervene. Stay with me."
Anna's motivational speech helped her elder, and she nodded despite shaking and crying.
"She… She…" Blabbered the Snow Queen, feeling powerless and yet sensing all her magic twirl inside of her.
"I know. Mama's panicked and asking for the Spirits' help. But remember what happened afterwards? Gale was the closest Spirit, and they were able to get her and Papa out of here. They'll make it."
Elsa nodded, and rubbed her tears with a sniff. "We just have to wait."
"Exactly." Smiled Anna.
The next minutes were tough for both of them. Elsa was struggling with every inch of her body to not run to the call and assist the human calling for the Spirits' help, and Anna was biting her lip at her sister's state. Then, suddenly, the call ended - it was easy to tell for Anna, because Elsa suddenly gasped of relief and let her head fall. She melted the snow on the grass with a simple wave of the wrist, and calmed her breathing.
A silence passed, as the two sisters guessed that Gale was now picking up the two teenagers and putting them in the merchant cart heading to Arendelle and to safety, as happening in the memory of their parents that they now knew by heart.
"Sorry for that", exhaled Elsa, now retrieving her normal state. She sat normally with a sigh, and turned to her younger.
"It's okay." Chuckled Anna. "You just were… Very obsessed about it. But it's natural. It's like when I know that we received the new chocolate supplies on Tuesdays at 4 in the afternoon and I have to put all my commitment to not rush out of the study and burst into the kitchens to devour it all."
Elsa laughed loudly at the comparison, then slammed her hand on her mouth for how noisy she was. Both sisters then wheezed in a giggle, and fell on each other as they laughed behind their hands.
After a while, the Snow Queen looked up at the sky. "The five elements symbol - well, four elements symbol, at this time - will appear any time now. That's how the mist got created."
Anna nodded as they stood up. She knew the story too. It wasn't just story now, it was History, and they were living it.
As they stared at the sky, waiting for what would be their signal, she put her hands on her hips. "Once we'll be safe, we'll have to investigate on why and how we got transported to the past. I mean… We know how. Hum. But why? Was today, I mean, the day we're from, kind of like, the anniversary of the day the mist appeared?"
Elsa shrugged. "I don't know. I often lose track of time. We don't have much use of a precise calendar here."
The Queen smiled. "Yeah. Okay, then maybe–"
The end of her sentence vanished in a gasp, for the sky had suddenly lit up with a giant, and undeniably beautiful, Spirits unity symbol.
The four diamond shapes, representing Air, Fire, Water and Earth, shone in the blue sky, announcing that Nature had taken its decision. The Forest would be closed. No one getting in, no one getting out. Secrets would be sealed, for good and for bad.
But something was different than the memory Anna and Elsa had seen of it. And a shiver went down Elsa's spine as she very easily spotted the change.
"Wait. No."
Anna saw it too now.
In the middle of the four branches symbol, where there initially was a hollow, where there should be a hollow, was drawn a bright Fifth Spirit symbol.
"Oh no."
Elsa stepped back, feeling weak in shock, her knees buckling a bit. "It's because I'm here."
Her hands reached to her head, and she nervously ran them along her scalp. "Nooo, no no no… No, I ruined everything."
Anna expertly calmed her down right away. Elsa's mannerism announced an obvious upcoming anxiety attack. "It's not your fault. We didn't plan to time travel, okay? You just happen to be there. I'm sure this doesn't change anything."
They turned to the symbol again, and it disappeared as quick as it appeared, like a flash in the air. The flash turned to smoke, and the mist formed in the shape of a dome all above the Forest, taking it all, and surrounding the place with a magical barrier. It was done.
"See?" Smiled Anna. "Everything's fine."
She turned around. The mist wasn't the only thing that had fell.
"Elsa?"
The blonde was down on the grass, her body still, her hair surrounding her face which had eyes closed.
"ELSA!" Shrieked Anna, quickly kneeling down to hold her.
She lifted her shoulders, and Elsa's head tilted back. She had completely fainted, and looked like she was deep in a coma. Anna maintained her head with her hand behind her hair, and her eyes searched for any sign of injury. There was none.
"ELSA! Elsa, can you hear me?"
She put her back down and the blonde didn't answer.
"What happened?" Muttered Anna, and her eyes started to sting, but she chased her tears with force.
Elsa had collapsed the second the Spirits symbol had disappeared and the mist had formed, that was for sure. The redhead's breathing was shaking.
She inspected Elsa's state. Mattias had taught her how to check on an unconscious body, and she promised herself to thank him deeply once they come back. If they ever come back. Anna hastily checked Elsa's pulse, the way she breathed, and sighed of relief when she saw that the Snow Queen was safe, and simply passed out. She also wasn't naked, the ultimate proof that she still had her powers, for she was wearing an outfit entirely made of ice and snow, and Anna was glad that she didn't have to also deal with an awkward situation.
"What now? What now?" Muttered the Queen, thinking fast.
Anna looked around, her gaze alternating between her sister, South, and North. What should she do? Bring Elsa to Ahtohallan, who more than anyone or anything could tell what was going on with Elsa's magic? Or head to Arendelle? Anna bit her lip as she took the drastic decision.
Elsa's last wish was to take her and her sister safe by passing the mist together. That way, they were sure not to intervene in the past events. They still were in the Forest, after all, and even if the battle was over, soon people from both sides would go through the woods looking for survivors or answers on what just happened. They had to move.
"Okay. Come on, Sleeping Beauty, we have to go."
Anna tried to pick Elsa up, but it was harder than she thought. Elsa may not be very tall, and notably thin, she still was an adult and weighed like one.
"Oh damn." Whispered Anna.
She hesitated between laughing or whining. However, nothing would ever stop Queen Anna of Arendelle. She put her hands under Elsa's back and legs, and lifted her up. That way, it was easier, and after a few steps, Anna got used to her elder's weight.
Elsa's head tilted on Anna's arm, resting there.
"I swear that if you're pretending to be asleep just so I carry you…" Huffed Anna, "I'll ask Bruni to burn your butt."
She lighted her own mood with her joke, and her steps went faster as she headed South. After a while, and several breaks on her way, she faced the mist, and stopped.
Elsa was still unconscious, even if she was curled against her. Would they be able to go through even if the Fifth Spirit had passed out?
"Dear Gods, I hope holding your hand will work."
Anna shifted a bit to make her hand free and bent her arm to intertwine her fingers with Elsa's.
She carefully stepped forward. It was a long time ago, but she clearly remembered what happened with the fog the first time they passed it. It could get very powerful, and very repulsive. With tiny baby steps, she went on, clenching an eye shut and wincing as she walked to the sparkling smoke.
In a gust, the mist parted, and Anna gasped with a smile. It was spectacular how the magic obeyed to the passage of the pair of girls who formed the Bridge.
"Yes!" She exclaimed, and walked forward.
She admired the mist from the inside as she went through with Elsa in her arms, and prayed that it wouldn't suddenly close and push her on her way out. The Queen went on the theory that the reason why it did so on her last passage was because Elsa and her had stopped holding each other's hands.
And she was right, for she finally arrived to the plains, and smiled. The mist reformed behind her, and they were alone in the vast open wild.
She carefully put Elsa on the ground, checking for possible dangers around before exhaling and sitting heavily next to her. She looked at the blonde's unconscious face. She looked peaceful, but her coma was worrying.
"We'll find help in Arendelle, I promise."
The younger stroke Elsa's fingers with her thumb as she held her hand, a sad smile on her lips.
Ironically, in that moment, she was just like Iduna hiding next to Agnarr on the cart several kilometers further: hoping to find help as she fled.