The Guardian

by Concolor44

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Author's Note: Okay, then, how would YOU react to being hunted by a supernatural being? Think about it.

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Chapter 15: A Little Explanation ...

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The Eastern Reaches of Arendelle, 25 June 1841, 5:10am

"Kris … Kristoff … hold up."

He turned to look back at Anna. "Sorry, Sweetheart. Is it your turn now?"

She stumbled up and stopped in front of him, bent over with her hands on her knees, puffing hard. "Can't we … just stop … for a minute?"

He set Elsa down and steadied her until she found her legs, then reached for Anna.

She backed away and held up a hand. "Kristoff … seriously. You've been running … for like … must be twenty minutes … carrying one of us … the whole time." Taking a few deep breaths, she asked, "I knew you were strong, but aren't you tired yet? You gotta be tired! Nobody can run forever!"

Glancing between the two women, he considered her statement. "You're right. Nobody can run forever. But I don't have to run forever. I only have to run until we get to the Bronze Pass River."

"… Huh? Where's that?"

"Maybe a bit more than a league south."

"What's so special … whoosh … haven't run that much in, like, ever … What's so special about that River?"

"There's an island in the middle of it. Once we get to it, the Elemental can't follow. It can't cross running water. There's an ancient pact."

"How," inquired Elsa in exasperation, "do you know that?"

"Grandpabbie."

The Queen's perplexed expression would have made Kristoff laugh under better circumstances. Here, though, he knew he didn't have time for explanations. "Look, I'll be happy to tell you everything you need to know once we get to the island. Until then, we're not safe, and since we couldn't get to the horses in time I have to conserve my wind. Neither one of you is bigger than a minute, so it's not really that hard, but I can't run and chat at the same time." He grabbed Anna and swept her up into his arms. "Elsa, can you run now?"

"Kristoff, wait." She had adjusted her ice-dress so that it ended just below her knees, to keep it out of her way. Scandalous it might be, but there was no one around to be scandalized, and Kristoff had insisted that speed was their primary (verily, their only) requirement. "You're going to kill yourself. I had no idea you were planning to run so far. Let me help."

"Running will help. We have to-"

"Yes, I know." She took a few steps back and began weaving her hands together around a blue-white ball of magic. It grew until she threw it away, spreading her arms wide and concentrating.

The ice-creature resembled a horse, except that it had eight legs and was about two and a half times the size of a Percheron. Kristoff's jaw dropped. "Sleipnir!"

"Yes. Or a reasonable facsimile." She gestured, and the giant horse knelt. "Up you go."

Anna gave a tiny "EEEEEEE" and scrambled up on its back. As soon as she was in place, the ice changed under her, becoming somewhat saddle-shaped and extruding a couple of curved protrusions that could only be handles. Elsa raised herself up on a column of ice and gracefully ("I'm pretty sure," thought Anna, "that she can't avoid being graceful.") took her place in front of her sister. Kristoff got on behind Anna, his arms encircling her protectively.

"So," said Elsa, "we keep heading south?"

"As fast as possib-WHOA!"

Sleipnir took off at what must have been fifteen leagues per hour, its gait smooth and powerful.

He caught his breath. "Yeah. Like that."

Anna pouted, "I wish you'd thought to do this before we ran our legs off."

There was no response for a handful of heartbeats. Then Elsa said, "It took me a while … to get things … um … sorted."

"Oh. Okay." Anna gave her sister's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Whenever you're ready to talk about it."

"I know." She stared a hole in the horse's mane. "It … might be a while."

"I understand."

"I sincerely hope you never do."

Anna turned back to Kristoff, snuggling into his embrace. "So. You said you'd explain when we had time. Looks like we have time to me. Wanna spill? What do you know about Fire Elementals? Or any others, for that matter?"

He raised himself in his seat and looked behind them, scanning the landscape for any sign of their pursuer. Finally nodding, he turned back and said, "Okay. For starters, you'd made mention before of 'two sentient races'. There are more than that. A lot more, if you count the various sub-divisions, but I'll stick to the basics."

"How come we never see 'em?"

"You've seen the trolls."

"Yeah, but the others-"

"The trolls are approachable. Friendly, even, as long as they aren't threatened. But they don't have to be, and they haven't always been so. If it weren't for a special connection they share with Arendelle's ruling family line, you likely never would have met them. Elementals tend to keep to themselves."

"… Okay. So … what's this guy's deal? Why is he trying to kill us? And does he have a name? I mean, besides just 'Fire Elemental'. Trolls are Earth Elementals, right?"

"Right. Fire Elementals are called Ifritts. That's a catch-all term. Among themselves, they divide up along the lines of where they live or what they can do, like the Calidans or the Aalishi or the Djinn. Some of them have to stay in their domain. Those are the weaker ones. This guy? Maybe not so much. Still, he can't cross running water."

"Why not?"

"Um … used to be, the Elementals fought each other. Kind of a lot. From what I understand, they messed up the planet a few times."

"Messed it up? What's that mean?"

"Tore it up to the point that most of the mortal creatures died."

"… Oh. Um, yeah, that's messed up."

"Anyway, a long time ago – and before you ask, no, I don't know how long – the leaders of the Elemental Clans called a truce and met together. They got tired of having to help rebuild the planet, so they hammered out a treaty, and each Clan was limited to one Domain, and took on some restrictions. One of those was that the Ifritts and the Naiads would stay totally-"

"Naiads?" said Anna.

"Water Elementals. Again, there are a lot of different kinds, but 'Naiad' is another catch-all name."

"Right. Got it."

"The Ifritts and the Naiads would stay separate. No trespassing. So the Naiads stay in the water, and the Ifritts stay where there isn't water, and where it's hot."

Anna gave him a confused stare. "But … doesn't water pretty much get in everywhere, eventually?"

"Not in volcanoes."

She brightened. "Oh! Right, yeah, of course. Heh. No, I guess it doesn't."

"There are deserts that hardly ever get water, too. The Djinn like to live there."

She had a thought. "What about places where water does come in contact with something hot? Like the steam vents in the Valley of Living Rock?"

"No-Man's Land. That's considered too wet for Ifritts and too hot for Naiads."

"Oh. So, who gets it?"

"The trolls, if they're interested, which they usually aren't. So, nobody. There aren't really that many Elementals, not compared with humans, and certainly not compared with the total area of the Earth. So there are a lot of unclaimed areas."

Elsa asked, "What about Air Spirits?"

"Zephyrs."

She frowned. "I thought a zephyr was just a name for a breeze."

"It's that, too."

"And one of the Greek wind gods was Zephyrus."

"… If you say so," he answered with a small grin. (He was feeling a lot better now that they were clocking along at such a good pace.) "but he was probably just a particularly powerful Elemental. The Zephyrs are invisible unless they don't want to be, and spend their time making cloudscapes and whatnot. They're the least scary of the lot. Though sometimes they'll lose their tempers over something, and then maybe create a storm. But really, they aren't supposed to." He sat up straight in his icy saddle. "Would you look at that! We reached the river already!"

Sleipnir stopped by the swift water, and Elsa gave Kristoff a look that very clearly said, What now?

"Okay, first, let's get to the other side."

"But you said-"

"I know. We need to find that island. It can't hurt to have two rivers between us and that Ifritt, though."

Elsa obligingly created an ice-bridge, over which Sleipnir quickly trotted. Then she let it disintegrate. "Which way?"

Kristoff thought that over for a moment before slipping off to the ground. He strode over to a large boulder sticking out of the riverbank and laid his hands on it.

Leaning back toward her sister, Elsa whispered, "What's he doing?"

"Like I know? Asking the rocks where the island is, maybe?"

Elsa kept her own counsel about that. In any case, Kristoff soon came back, a confident grin in place. "West."

"Okay, so … that way?" She pointed downstream.

"Right. Let's go."

They found the big scrub-covered outcropping a few minutes later and were soon huddled together on the island.

Elsa tapped Kristoff's shoulder. "There's something bothering me."

"About what?"

"This arrangement. You say we're safe. But how long can we stay stuck here? I do have a kingdom to run, you know. What can we do about this Ifritt? And by that, I mean, more or less permanently? We don't even know yet why he's chasing us."

"You, Elsa. He's chasing you."

She cocked up an eyebrow. "And you know this, how?"

He was silent for three heartbeats. "I saw the way he looked at you. Couldn't you feel the … the raw hatred? The … oh, what was that word? You used a word the other day; it was perfect. Mal-something."

"Malevolence?"

"That's it!" he said, snapping his fingers.

"But why would that thing hate Elsa?" Anna wanted to know. "What'd she ever do to it?"

"That, I can't say. No idea. But I'd bet real money that Ifritt wants her dead."

His statement exasperated the Queen. "Well, that's comforting. And it doesn't answer my question. What can we do about it, to get it to leave us alone? I don't feel like spending the rest of my life – which might be shorter than otherwise – looking over my shoulder because some crazed Elemental hates me."

Mulling over that question, Kristoff finally said, "I wish I had a good answer for you. It's a shame I don't. But I will try talking to it when it shows up."

Anna blinked at him, her mouth dropping open a little. "Whadda you mean, when it shows up?"

"It'll track us. Elementals are really good at that."

"Then why are we just sitting here?!"

"Because it can't reach us here. This is a safe position, okay?"

Pointing at Elsa, she asked, "Did you miss the part where she has to be able to run a kingdom? And what are we supposed to eat? We can't just stay here!"

"And we won't. But we need to talk to it first."

"Why?"

"It might be running on bad information."

"… Huh?"

"Okay … you know how Bulda gets sometimes? Or all the trolls, really. They got so excited the first time I took you to them because they didn't know … well, anything about you. About your situation."

"Yeah, they do kinda tend to jump to conclusions."

"That's a common Elemental trait."

"… Wonderful."

"I don't know. We'll have to see. But if we can defuse this whole deal by talking to it and finding out what it wants and maybe correcting a few of the things it's thinking, wouldn't you say that was worth the effort?"

Anna pursed her lips. "Okay. Maybe. But what if you can't?"

"Can't talk to it? I don't think that's a-"

"No. I mean, what if you can't reason with it? What if it just hates her?"

"Why would it?"

"I don't know! You're the Elemental expert!"

"I'm glad you finally admit that. We'll talk to it."

Anna threw her hands up. "Sometimes it really isn't worth the trouble talking to you!"

"Heh. Now you know how I feel."

She gave him a severe glare.

Elsa asked, "How long?"

"Until it gets here? Hard to say. Probably not too long. And," he added, tossing Anna a look, "if I can't reason with it, we'll just retreat to the opposite side and outrun it."

"All the way back to the castle?" asked the Queen. "I don't think so. I'll not have that thing wreaking havoc in my city."

His mouth opened and closed a couple of times. "Okay, you've got a point there. We'll have to do something about it, one way or another."

"Besides," said Anna, "it obviously doesn't have any regard for human life."

"That's for sure. He was leading the attacking force and-"

"What?"

"Oh, yeah. I nearly blew him apart with rocks and-"

"What?!"

That brought him up short. "Um, right, see, he was riding down to attack, waving a-"

"What do you mean, he was riding? Riding what?"

"A horse. But he didn't look like an Ifritt. He looked human."

"…"

"Yeah. He was waving a sword and screeching like a banshee, and I spotted him and saw that he had on a fancy uniform, so I threw a couple rocks at him. Blew out his chest and knocked off part of his head. But that didn't kill him."

"… Wow."

"Yeah, so I hit him again. Tore off an arm. But he kept coming. Then I broke both his legs. That's when he started glowing. Then he broke free of the body."

Incredulously, Anna asked, "Can Ifritts … make a body that looks human?"

"I don't believe they can. I was pretty sure they couldn't."

"So … it was possessing that man?"

"That's what it looked like. But they aren't supposed to do that. The Compact-"

"Bother the Compact! This thing isn't playing by the rules, I hope you noticed." Narrowing her eyes, she asked, "Are you dead sure it can't cross running water?"

"If it does, it'll lose its magic."

"And it's a creature largely made of magic?"

"Uh-huh. That's true."

"So losing its magic … would kill it?"

"Maybe. Certainly it would be really weak."

"And you're sure there's no way it can get around that?"

"I don't think so. You saw how the river scotched it after we crossed. I think that if it could have crossed, it would have, being that close."

"Okay." She gave a short nod. "Okay. That's one advantage."

Elsa said, "We need some more."

"Like what?"

"I wonder how it would respond to ice magic being applied directly?"

"Huh." Anna gave her a sympathetic look. "You didn't have time to do that before."

"It … wasn't so much the time as the state of mind."

"Ah. Yeah. Right."

Kristoff asked, "Are you feeling better enough to concentrate on fighting it, if it comes to that?"

After chewing her lip for a moment, Elsa nodded. "I think so." Then she hesitated. "It doesn't have any blood, does it?"

"No, not as such. It's made of fire, so it doesn't really have a physical form. But then it isn't supposed to be able to possess humans, either. And it was running that guy."

Both royals fought down goosebumps over that.

Elsa frowned and said, "Hey. Wait a minute." Meeting Kristoff's gaze, she asked, "How much magic can an Ifritt use?"

He shrugged. "Depends on the Ifritt. Djinns tend to be really magical. They can grant wishes, sometimes, or heal sickness. Lay curses."

"Could they cast a geas?"

His eyes widening, he just stared at her for a moment. Then he whistled. "Oh, man. You know … wow. Yeah, he could be the one behind all that. Wow. Okay, it's officially time now to not underestimate him."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning we'll have to be wary of tricks. If he can cast a geas, he's way smarter than average."

"Do you think he was making Weselton … um …"

"I wouldn't be a bit surprised."

Anna said, "Crap."

Elsa sat on a convenient rock and called up a large ball of blue magic. It stretched, elongated, thinned … then she was holding a long, blue spear. She tossed it to Kristoff. "Can you throw that?"

"Sure."

"Can you throw it like one of your rocks?"

"… Ahhhh … huh." He hefted it, then eyed a small tree near the other end of the island. Adjusting his grip, he took a couple of skipping steps forward and gave it a sharp heave. It rocketed the six dozen paces and skewered the tree, smashing it to matchwood.

"Whoa." Anna gave him three slow claps. "That's impressive."

He turned to Elsa. "You think these might … oh. Okay."

She was already busy making more of the spears.

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End Note: I'd be interested to hear a little conjecture on what's going to happen here. Will the Ifritt get there before Elsa can make enough spears? Will it try tricks, or a frontal assault? Is Kristoff's position that it can't cross running water reasonable? All comments welcome!