A/N: Hey, again. God, i know i said weekly updates, as in I originally planned to save the updating until seven days after uploading one, but you guys left so many nice reviews and I feel bad making you wait a week when I just finished the chapter this afternoon. So, here you guys go, I really hope you enjoy.
GeekFun: I'm glad you enjoyed and I do plan to write more, I really like this story. Truthfully i'm still thinking up everything as I go along, I barely have a base for the main plot of the story, but i'm going to keep working at it.
Guest (1): glad you enjoyed, here's another update.
Anon: Captivated you say? Well that's honestly a writer's favorite word from a reviewer.
Laryssa1234: Yeah, and its gonna get grosser in the future i'm sure. Glad you're enjoying yourself.
Guest(2): Got you hooked? Can't wait for next chapter? Oh man, now I feel the pressure to keep the story good. I hope it holds your interest .
Once again big ty for the reviews. Honestly just having you guys read is nice enough, receiving reviews just makes me want to try harder and get out more stuff for you guys. Oh and don't be afraid to leave a bad review, my heart can handle criticism, all reviews are encouraged. Anyway, on with the story!
Dreams. Sometimes dreams are obvious, sometimes they distort themselves from reality so much that the dreamer becomes aware.
This was not one of those times.
Elsa sat at the table back at her home, waiting for her mother to bring in her delicious home cooked meals. The house was warm as always, truthfully feeling even warmer than before, a perfect temperature for her. While the cold never really bothered Elsa, people seemed to believe she preferred it over the warmth. They couldn't have been farther from the truth. Warmth reminded her of home, of family, of laughing together over simple things in the home. Cold? Cold reminded her of working the farm, not a bad memory really, however cold also reminded her of her childhood, of a terrible incident that she tried everyday to convince herself was nothing more than a dream.
At the table sat her entire family, all except her mother. Her father Agnarr sat at the head of the table, impatiently tapping his foot, Elsa was not the only hungry one apparently. Olaf, who was only six years old, sat there, staring at his older brother Marshall in a one sided staring contest. Marshall, ten years old, had long since given up, but refused to officially dictate that Olaf had won. Marshall looked to Elsa then, deciding she was more entertaining than his little brother.
"How is work in the castle, Elsa?" He asked, voice a bit deep for a ten year old. Everyone in the family and neighborhood was sure that he was going to grow into a very tall and burly man. He as already bigger than everyone his own age and most times bigger than others that were older. With such size it wouldn't be long before he was doing the heavier farm work beside his father. A father who was, might Elsa add, quite proud of having such a huge son.
Elsa almost asked what he meant, until she remembered that she told her family she was working within the castle as a maid, not a soldier. "Everything's fine, Marshmallow." She told him, already smiling before his face could contort into a frown.
She had nicknamed him Marshmallow long ago. He was her first little brother after all and his name had been so easy to change in her head. It certainly got funnier when Marshmallow learned from other boys that boys were supposed to protect girls. Since then he had become Elsa little, well maybe not so little, protector. He had chased off many suitors who came for Elsa's hand during her time on the farm. Of course, it was mostly due to Elsa not being interested in such things. She had her farm and her family, what more could a young girl want?
"Dinner is ready!" Announced her mother, Iduna, as she entered the room, carrying a cooked chicken.
"Ah there is my lovely." Agnarr stood, walking over to Iduna.
She leaned forward to give him a kiss, only to have the feast stolen by his greedy hands as he walked back to the table, licking his chops. The face her mother made as she put her hands on her hips was enough to make Elsa laugh.
"I find nothing funny young lady. I demand punishment upon this fiend who has made off with our dinner." Her mother commanded like a queen, a peasant queen.
"As king, my rule is higher than yours, milady. I revoke your commands." Her father said as he placed the chicken on the table, already aiming to steal a leg.
A quick swat from her mother was enough to get him to retreat back into his seat.
"Not until everyone is here." She told him.
Elsa's eyebrows furrowed at this. She took a look around, and then a second look just to be sure. "Everyone is here." She told her mother, wanting to eat just as much as her father.
Her mother just gave off a tsk of her tongue. "Have you forgotten the guest already?"
"Guest?" Elsa questioned.
Suddenly there were two loud bangs on the front door that nearly took it off the hinges. No one seemed phased by it except Elsa who nearly jumped out of her seat.
"Ah that must be them!" Her mother said excitedly.
Her mother went to open the door. Elsa stared on, wondering who the guest could be. It was then that Elsa noticed there was an extra chair at the table beside her that was not normally there. She frowned at it, wondering when it got there, and when someone set out a plate and silverware beside it. That was when her mother opened the door, revealing their guest.
Elsa's jaw tensed at the arrival.
"Mmm." Anna greeted the mother as she walked in, barely paying her any attention, eyes on the chicken on the table.
The incredibly out of place guest was greeted with small cheer by everyone except Elsa. Anna walked over, taking the seat next to Elsa, all the while eyeing the chicken as though she were going to transform then and there and gobble it up in one bite. Elsa's mother walked over, taking her seat next to her husband.
"Would you like a leg, Anna?" Her father asked, all of a sudden being willing to part with the piece he wanted most.
Anna ignored him. She growled threateningly as she reached across the table and slid the the entire plate of chicken to herself. She ripped off a leg and bit into it, growl turning into an almost purr at the flavor. Elsa just stared on at this out of place picture. Everyone seemed to accept Anna's place at the table, even willing to let her take the whole chicken, laughing about it. Elsa was the only sane one at the moment.
"You can't hog it all. Share with everyone else." Elsa suddenly said, a spark of bravery flaring up in her at the abuse of her family.
Anna took another bite of chicken as her eyes slowly moved over to Elsa. They widened at the sight of her, almost as if she didn't even realize Elsa was there. Anna reached forward and ripped off another leg, setting it on Elsa's plate. Elsa felt some small triumph at this.
"Now give some to everyone else." She told her, feeling some confidence.
Everyone smiled, waiting expectantly with hungry eyes.
Anna growled.
Suddenly there was a monster in Anna's place, a large wolf-like beast that was much too long to fit in the house and too tall to fit inside, yet somehow she managed, the house seeming to morph into a larger shape with her. Elsa gasped as Anna swiped a paw at the nearest person to her who was Olaf. His tiny head was taken off his shoulders in one swoop, blood gushing out and spilling all over the table as his body slumped forward and smacked into the table. She screamed as Anna's back tendril whipped out and split Marshall in half, his organs falling out of his body with a wet squelch. Her parents stood there, still smiling, still waiting for dinner. Elsa tried to get up, but found herself glued into her seat. Anna took the opportunity to attack, biting poor Agnarr at the waist and severing his torso from his legs. Her mother found herself placed under a paw and crushed to death, bones heard cracking even on the other side of the table where Elsa was frozen in her chair. Elsa realized she was crying as hot tears slid down her face. Her body still refused to move, but the emotions were free to run rampant within her.
Anna morphed back into her humanoid form, back tendrils whipping around in excitement at her fresh kills. She took a seat beside Elsa again, picking up her piece of chicken again and biting into it.
"Mmm." Anna grumbled after noticing Elsa was not eating.
She picked up Elsa's piece and offered it to her. Elsa, with tears in her eyes, opened her mouth to be fed the chicken that was covered in the blood of her family.
That was where it ended, and where Elsa suddenly found herself staring at the dark ceiling of Anna's tree hut. She recognized her surroundings immediately by the hanging fangs that were suspended by some sort of rope or vine. Elsa found herself breathing a little heavier than normal, mind still going over the nightmare she'd just had. It was some time later that she tried to get up, feeling for the first time since being captured that she had to use the restroom. Odd now that she thought about it.
Only she had trouble getting up due to an arm thrown over her chest.
She panicked for the briefest of moments before recognizing the tanned skin thrown over her body. She turned her head to the left to the left to see the dozing Beast-Girl who was so keen on keeping her safe. Anna's arm and leg were thrown over Elsa, holding her close as Anna's head came to rest with her forehead on Elsa's shoulder. Elsa almost pushed her away as images from her dream came back. She knew to ignore it, to write it off as just a wild dream, yet she still felt cautious of Anna because of it. Because of this, she tried to sneakily pry herself away from Anna so she could leave to answer nature's call. She tried moving her arm first, picking it up as softly as she could without waking the girl. Surprisingly though, not even a second of being detached, Anna's arm came back down more forcefully and hugged Elsa even harder, hard enough to be uncomfortable. Elsa let out a breath as Anna tried to squeeze her as close as possible. Looking down she could see the girl was still asleep.
She gave up. She realized she would need Anna to come with her anyway if she wanted to leave Anna's nest.
"Anna." She called.
No response.
"Anna." A bit louder.
A heavy snore as a response.
"Anna!" She tried again, just a little over her normal speaking voice, even giving Anna a shake this time.
A grumble as Anna moved her head to get more comfortable, now laying her head on Elsa's chest.
Elsa blinked at the behavior. So Anna wasn't 'dozing' at all. In fact it seemed the girl had been knocked out if anything. Elsa almost smiled at the thought of Anna being a heavy sleeper. Instead she frowned as Anna's grip became tighter, her leg now wrapping around Elsa's own. For some reason, Elsa almost found it sweet that Anna was so comfortable with her to do this, that is until Anna's hand found its way to somewhere that no one had ever touched.
"A-Anna!" She jumped up, freeing herself from Anna's grip and covering her chest with a glare. She knew the girl didn't do it on purpose, she was just a very touchy sleeper apparently.
Anna shot up, eyes wild as she looked around. A smaller, more human growl sounded from her throat as she went to get up, but realized that Elsa was still next to her. She calmed down near instantly after seeing Elsa was safe and they were the only two here. The two stared at one another for a moment.
"Sorry." Elsa said with a small blush, realizing that she overreacted and awoke the girl rather forcefully.
Anna smacked her lips a few times before scratching her head, eyes already beginning to shut again.
Elsa looked up, a hand quickly coming to cover her mouth as a snicker broke out. Upon Anna's head sat a whirlwind of hair. Never had Elsa seen something so ridiculous in the morning. She broke out into a laugh, the first genuine one she'd had for quite some time. Anna's eyes opened at the sound, a piece of hair caught in her mouth. It was melodious to her, almost like a siren's song. That was until she noticed where Elsa was looking as she laughed. Anna reached up and touched the absolute bird's nest of a hairstyle she was now rocking. She felt embarrassed for a moment before feeling grumpy that Elsa had awoken her and then laughed at her. She didn't care that it was the most beautiful sound she'd ever heard.
Well… maybe a little.
Anna grumbled as she laid back down, eyes closing again as she pulled the pelt over her body.
"Wait. Wait, I'm sorry." Elsa told her, face still smiling as a few more giggles broke through.
Anna's eye peeked open at her.
Elsa giggled.
The eye closed with a snort as Anna turned her back to Elsa, hair looking pissed off with a vengeance.
Elsa laughed again, hand coming to cover her mouth like she always did. It wasn't until nearly ten seconds of giggles that she realized her arm was covered with a leaf. From her the back of her forearm and up to nearly her shoulder, there was a large, green leaf wrapped tightly around her. It was strange, she thought. At first she figured it was just something from the bedding she slept on, but a quick check showed that it was stuck to her with some sort of yellow resin. Elsa saw that there were more leaves on her, another on her other shoulder and even one stuck to cheek. There was another on her back leg that felt sort of itchy.
"Anna?" She called as she scratched at it.
Anna turned to see her scratching.
"Ooo!" She called.
Elsa immediately stopped at the loud noise.
Anna got up and took her leg into her hands, making sure the leaf stayed on, which it did. Anna made another sound before patting her leg, rubbing the leaf as well to make sure it stuck. While she did that, Elsa then noticed that Anna also had one on her thigh. It took her a few moments before realizing that these leaves were placed on wounds, as she clearly remembered Anna being struck in the leg and all of the leaves were on parts of her body that were previously injured from the villagers. The yellow looking resin must have been some sort of salve, or maybe it was the leaf itself that was used to heal wounds. Either way her wounds didn't hurt and Elsa was sure it wasn't something she should take off if Anna too was wearing one.
Anna, after making sure that Elsa's leaves were stuck to her, turned back to the bed to sleep.
"Wait, Anna." Elsa called, grabbing Anna's bare shoulder that was not covered by the animal skin on her body.
Anna almost mewled at the touch as she turned to look at Elsa.
"I uh… I have to go." Elsa said.
Anna blinked slowly at her, still half asleep.
"This could take awhile to get you to understand, huh?" Elsa sighed.
And take awhile it did.
It was ten minutes later that Elsa managed to convince Anna to come outside. The girl seemed very forlorn that she didn't get to go back to sleep. She didn't understand why Elsa wanted to go out, but she couldn't let her go out alone, so she followed when Elsa kept pulling her away from the bed. Anna grumbled all the way down the tree, low growls and rumbles as she led the way down. Elsa surprisingly didn't find it all that intimidating with Anna's head looking like that.
Once down, Elsa led Anna to the forest. She made sure they were out of sight from the village before she relieved herself. It took quite some time to get Anna to turn around as well and to stop walking around the tree to see what Elsa was doing. Eventually Anna got the message and stood watch instead. Truthfully Anna didn't know exactly what Elsa wanted, all she knew was that the girl wanted privacy for some reason. She would give her that, still though she kept her ears open, listening just in case Elsa decided to run. All she heard was the sound of tinkling liquid hitting foliage.
She blushed as she realized what was happening.
Trying to distract herself, she looked towards the village, part of it still being seen, despite what Elsa thought. Anna saw the tall beast of a man walking around, the one who had claimed Elsa's captain as his own. Of course it wasn't the same as what Anna was doing. He had instead eaten the man's heart and left the rest of him to be devoured by the villagers. It wasn't something that phased Anna, in fact, had she not met Elsa, she might have taken part in it. It would have been for status however, not for enjoyment.
Humans didn't taste all that good to her anyway.
The man noticed Anna's stares and turned to look at her. She could see that he had also applied a healing leaf to his arm that she scratched earlier in defense of Elsa. She let out a breath through her nose at the sight of him, a snort of disdain. Almost as if he could hear it, he seemed to do the same before walking off to do whatever.
Noticing that the sound of Elsa evacuating her facilities was over, she turned, looking around the tree to see if she was perhaps preparing to run.
She caught sight of two pale globes of flesh just before they were hidden by brown trousers.
Elsa turned to find a blushing redhead who looked like a bad child that had been caught.
"What?" Was all Elsa asked, eyebrows furrowed.
Anna didn't say anything, just stared back at Elsa, wondering why her face was so hot and her body feeling so funny.
Elsa raised an eyebrow at her behavior. "Is something wrong?"
"Ahh." Was Anna's reply.
Elsa took a look around before realizing where they were and what happened the last time they ventured into the forest together.
"Anna." She said to get the girl's attention, though that wasn't hard considering her attention never left the blonde. "I'm really hungry."
"Mmm." A low mumble, just a sound to add to Elsa's.
Elsa thought about a way to communicate it for a moment before she mimed eating something and began to rub her stomach with satisfied 'Mmm' sounds that were very similar to Anna's own sounds.
Anna seemed to catch onto that one quick. She was glad, she almost wondered if Elsa somehow knew what she'd seen and what it did to her. She shrugged off the feeling, much more concerned with feeding The fragile looking girl. The thought made her remember her previous attempt. It saddened her for a moment, but she tried not to let it get to her. Elsa was asking her now, it was entirely different from before where Anna tried feeding her without any hints. Maybe she just wasn't hungry at the time… still she did seem pretty angry.
Anna shook her head, she hated overthinking things. She liked to do things and get them done, to be finished with them instead of lingering on doubt. Right now, Elsa was asking for food and Anna could provide it.
With a snort of confidence, Anna set out into the woods, Elsa trailing behind. Anna had a simple mind, she wanted Elsa to like her, so she would feed Elsa when asked. She figured the easiest way to get Elsa to like her, was to impress her. It was how Anna got along with those in her village, through feats of strength. Anna didn't seem to care to remember that it was common to use feats of strength to impress a potential mate.
Elsa's mind was working in the same direction as Anna's though maybe not as pure as Anna's thought process. Elsa was thinking about how to make sure she was still on Anna's good side, Sure, the girl still seemed quick to assist Elsa, but Elsa still felt somewhat bad about rejecting her offering of food yesterday. Elsa needed Anna on her side, needed her to continue protecting her until she figured out a way out of the woods. Make no mistake, Elsa was indeed looking for that. She kept her eyes out for anything familiar, anything that looked close to something she'd seen on her way into the forest back when she was with her squadron. She wondered if she could somehow trick Anna if she did find a familiar area. Could she possibly trick the girl into following her, or maybe run while she was distracted. She imagined Anna would be changing into her beast form and hunting her down if she did run.
Elsa swallowed a lump in her throat at the thought.
Anna lead them through the forest for nearly ten minutes before she caught the scent of something close, something worthwhile. Elsa watched her sniff at the air for a moment before she turned to smile at the blonde. Elsa raised another eyebrow, wondering what had her in such good spirits.
"Ooo." Anna said, turning her back to Elsa and bending down a bit.
Now Elsa was even more confused.
"What?"
"Ooo. Mmm." More sounds that sounded increasingly like Anna wanted something.
Anna reached behind her back and waved her hands towards herself.
Elsa took managed to get the exact opposite of what Anna wanted and backed away. Anna huffed at the sight before backing up until she was closer enough to bend down and grab Elsa with her hands from behind. Elsa let out a yelp as Anna threw her onto her back, instinctively the blonde latched onto Anna's neck. Anna grabbed her legs and wrapped them around her waist. Elsa might have questioned her, but really, just what do you say in this situation? Anna made sure that her grip was tight, before crouching down and tensing her legs.
Elsa figured out what she was about to do just a second before it happened.
The blonde screamed as Anna lept at least twelve feet into the air and latched onto a tree with the claws on her hands and feet. Like some sort of cat, Anna climbed by sinking her claws into the bark, one foot and hand at a time. She climbed high, almost as high as Anna's tree house before depositing Elsa onto a thick branch that was more than capable of handling her weight. Elsa held on for dear life, scared out of her wits at this turn of events.
"Just what are you doing?" Elsa questioned, hands and legs wrapped around the branch while the wood pushed into her stomach and chest.
"Ahh." Anna said, patting Elsa on her thigh.
Elsa might have smacked her hand away if it wasn't clenching the tree.
After Anna was sure that Elsa wouldn't move, she descended back down the tree.
"Hey! What are you doing?! You can't leave me!" Elsa yelled after her.
"Ahh!" Anna called back merrily.
Elsa watched the redhead descend until she hit the forest floor. The girl looked back up at her and smiled before running off in a seemingly random direction. At first Elsa was confused and scared. After two minutes went by, she was angry and scared, made that Anna had left her in a tree to do god knows what. After the first five minutes, that's when she became worried and scared. She wondered if Anna had left her in this tree, had decided she was done dealing with Elsa and left her to die. The tree wasn't exactly easy to climb up or down, the branches being fat and thick, yet far apart. The closest branch that led down was a ten foot fall, one that Elsa was capable of surviving… if she actually landed on the branch and held on.
She didn't have too much longer to figure it out when she suddenly heard a call.
"Ehah!" A failed attempt to pronounce Elsa's name.
Elsa looked around until she spotted Anna walking out of the forest, dragging something behind her. Coming a bit closer, Elsa recognized it as a giant boar of some kind, thing thing weighing double, if not triple Anna's weight. The tusks on the thing were mighty indeed, insanely large, looking as though one puncture would be all it took to kill a full grown man, let alone a smaller girl like Anna. Elsa was somewhat amazed, realizing that Anna must have killed the thing without changing form. If she recalled correctly, The clothes on Anna's back had shredded the other day when she transformed. Of course she was clothed in the morning, likely having another pair of animal skins lying around. It honestly looked the same to Elsa, but here were small differences to tell she had changed clothes from yesterday. Still, the same clothes were present on her now, meaning she didn't transform.
Elsa almost felt like it was an odd detail to notice.
Anna on the other hand had purposefully done this, hoping Elsa would notice. She had faced the giant boar alone and in her humanoid form. Sure, it wasn't the biggest thing she could kill in her current form, but it was still impressive. She wanted Elsa to see how strong she was, to be proud of her, to praise her.
Most importantly to like her more.
Anna began to smack her chest, making noises of approval, obviously proud of what she'd done while she stood at the base of the tree.
Elsa rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, I'm impressed, now please get me down."
Anna smacked her chest a few more times, wanting to make sure the message was clear that she was strong. For once she felt Elsa actually understood her and she understood Elsa. Maybe she was wrong, but she was sure Elsa was truly impressed by her feat of strength, however the girl seemed to be more concerned about getting out of the tree. Anna imagined she was afraid of heights, especially considering how carefully and slowly she climbed down Anna's own ladder back at her nest. Anna chortled at the thought, wondering why the girl did not simply let her claws grow long enough to do this climb up and down herself. Either way, Anna set about getting her down, climbing up and extracting the girl before bringing her back down.
Elsa sighed in relief at being placed on the ground.
"Thank you." Elsa said, know Anna wouldn't understand, but needing to say it anyway.
"Ooo." Anna grunted, gesturing towards the dead boar.
Elsa walked over and examined the beast. Now she wondered if it was quite possibly four times heavier than Anna was. It was most certainly in its prime. A closer examination revealed something new.
"Well… I'm sure he was a hard one to kill." Elsa felt even more impressed now that she saw the beast up close.
Anna puffed up her chest like a bird, Elsa almost giggled as she rolled her eyes again. Elsa had never eaten boar before… she wondered if it was the same as a pig. To be fair though, she wouldn't be surprised if it tasted nothing alike. Everything in this forest was nothing like she'd become used to. Rabbits had antlers, boars were much too large and their tusks even larger. That was just the normal animals, if she included the Half-Beasts then things got even stranger. Their beast forms were nothing like any animal she'd ever seen and even their humanoid forms seemed to show strange features even if they were some half-breed of an animal.
Perhaps there was something more going on in this forest where people hadn't ventured for quite some time.
"Ooo." More of Anna's inquisitive noises.
Anna began to rub at the tusks, trying to get Elsa to pay attention to them.
Elsa sighed with a small smile. "I get it Anna, he must have been tough to take down. I greatly appreciate it." Elsa told her as genuinely as she could.
All it took was Elsa resting her hand on Anna's that was still on the tusk for the girl to finally lose her confidence. Anna felt the warmth from Elsa seeping into her. She got that strange feeling from earlier, the feeling that made her want to curl away from Elsa and at the same time tackle her down and curl into her for more warmth. She already knew the latter was a bad idea and did her best not to act on it. Anna didn't regain her cognitive thought until Elsa pulled her hand away.
"Do you really plan on dragging this all the way back?" Elsa asked, wondering if Anna really had the strength.
Had Anna understood her, she would have taken it as a challenge and hoisted the thing on her back as she ran back to the village. Luckily though she didn't. Instead she made a noise back at Elsa and began to drag away the boar back towards the village. It was along the way back, some five minutes later that Elsa smelt something strange. She smelt something burning, or burnt, it was a foul smell as well. Elsa stopped walking and Anna soon stopped as well. With Anna with her, Elsa let her curiosity drive her to move away from their original path. Anna followed her, already knowing where she was heading and just what she was smelling. Anna's sense of smell was so strong that she could smell it from the village, already knowing what it was.
Elsa pushed through foliage until she hit a clearing, and that was where she nearly vomited at the stench and sight. Before her was some sort of graveyard, some strange place where bodies were burned. Elsa knew this because she recognized human husks, burned away in a pit. Along with them were others, small and giant creatures alike. At first Elsa didn't understand. Was this where they buried their enemies? That was until she spotted a body that looked all too familiar. Towards the edge of the pit of bodies, was the large salamander like creature that used to be a young boy. That was when Elsa realized this was a place where people were burned. The human husks must have belonged to former Half-Beasts who died. This was indeed a graveyard, a graveyard for Half-beasts, whether in human or animal form.
Anna just looked on, face blank. She felt no remorse about the son she'd killed. He had met her challenge with confidence. Feeling sorry for another warrior's death seemed shameful to her. She would not mourn the loss of one who accepted a challenge, no matter his age. He was old enough to accept challenges and therefore old enough to die if need be. Elsa was right in her thinking however, this was where Anna's people burned their dead. There were no humans here, the husks of skin and bone that were left from before were fed to the animals, a disgraceful way to deal with the dead in Anna's culture. Anna briefly imagined that Elsa would have been one of those disgraced humans had she not spotted her first and ran her down.
The thought made her tighten her grip on the boar.
Eventually, once Elsa finished dry heaving, thankfully having an empty stomach, the two set off back to the village. Elsa said nothing to Anna and Anna said nothing to Elsa. The two remained in silence, all the way until they crossed into the village.
It was when Anna walked to the ladder of her tree hut and was about to drag it up that Elsa finally spoke up.
"Wait, I can't just eat it raw." Elsa said.
Anna blinked that slow blink at her, not understanding.
Elsa sighed as she knew she was going to have to play the guessing game with Anna. Elsa began her imitation of fire. She spread her hands wide with a whooshing sound from her lips. Anna didn't understand, so Elsa squatted down and pretended to be cold, rubbing at her shoulders and blowing at her hands as she mimed holding them up to a fire.
"Mmm." Anna rumbled after a moment.
Anna walked away from the tree, Elsa, as always, following close behind her. The villagers were more active now, most of them walking about or doing some sort of chore. Elsa noticed one was skinning an animal outside his hut, another woman was combing her hair with a comb made of bone, and yet another villager was laying on his back in the middle of the village, eyes glazed over as he snacked on some strange blue mushroom. Everyone was either busy or bored and looking for something to do. Some just stood around with one another, no conversations being held, yet the company seemed much appreciated. Most of them did turn to look at Elsa, none of them looking pleased to see her, but not all of them willing to waste the small amount of energy it took to grimace at her.
Anna kept an eye on all of them as she walked.
Anna walked all the way to another hut before stopping.
"Ooowaayoo" Anna called.
Elsa was confused until a man appeared from inside the hut. He was short, abnormally short for an adult human. He couldn't have been more than three feet tall. Elsa was almost sure he was part rat, based off of his squished in nose and elongated ears. The buckteeth certainly helped her with her assumption. The man looked to Elsa lazily, before looking to Anna, tired it seems. Anna likely woke him up.
"Ahhma." He greeted, yawning.
"Ooowaayoo." Anna called again, this time beginning to mime fire the same way Elsa had done before, miming an explosion with the sound of wind. He didn't seem to understand and Anna turned to Elsa with a smile.
The message was clear, Elsa's first demonstration of fire was terrible.
Elsa grimaced and turned away.
While Anna began to properly mime her need for fire, Elsa noticed something she wished she hadn't. Out of one of the huts walked a woman, a woman she recognized from last night. It was the mother of the son that was killed. The woman looked much older than she had before, hair a mess and eyes red from obvious tears that were shed all night most likely. Elsa wanted to turn away, but something kept her staring. Eventually the woman did notice Elsa's stares and looked to her. Elsa expected anger, expected pure seething rage. She expected Anna to have to step in and kill again.
All she got was a look of defeat.
Elsa, wishing she hadn't, had a sudden clarity of the woman's mood and feelings. It wasn't that she was not mad and looking for revenge. Any mother would want that after last night. No, she wanted Elsa dead and likely Anna too. The problem lied in her smaller frame that was clearly no match for Anna in her current form. She doubted her beast form stood much more of a chance. The woman had no outlet to be found here. The only thing she could do was bottle up her rage and let it turn to anguish as she'd never get the revenge she sought. Elsa would continue walking around with Anna as protection. The mother would remain childless and mournful, always wishing she could have stopped her son that fateful night. There was no soothing her and no one in the village would offer solace, as her son met the challenge on his own.
Elsa would remain a product of her son's death, Anna the killer and the mother with nothing to do besides mourn even though the cause of death stood before her.
Suddenly, even though Anna beckoned Elsa inside the hut where there was a fire pit already set up, she didn't feel very hungry.