The Guardian
by Concolor44
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Author's Note: I wrote much of this chapter while listening to songs from Disturbed's eponymous album, so some of the weirdness isn't my problem. You've been warned.
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Chapter 16: Just What I Didn't Want
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The Eastern Reaches of Arendelle, 25 June 1841, 7:40am
"I hope that's enough."
Kristoff and Anna stood up from their small cooking fire and looked over at the Queen where she slumped beside a sizable pile of light blue spears. He asked, "How many'd you make?"
"Around a hundred. I might have lost count a couple of times."
He chuckled. "If we need that many, I'd say we have bigger problems."
"Hey!" objected Anna, "it's not like you're the only one who can chunk a spear, you know. With all of us throwing, we'd use 'em up in, like, a minute!"
Walking over to the pile, he picked one up and hefted it, then turned it sideways and under-handed it to Anna. Its weight surprised her, and she almost dropped it. "Well, shoot."
Elsa took one, staring at it intently, and nodded. "I can throw it. Not as hard or as fast as Kristoff, to be sure, but …" She took aim at a tree and let fly. It struck in the center of the trunk. The entire tree, and a bit of the surrounding ground, froze solid.
Anna's mouth dropped open. "How in the world could you-"
"It's ice." She gave a one-shouldered shrug. "I can make it do what I want it to do."
"Totally not fair!"
"You could simply hold it and use it to fend off the Ifritt."
Shaking his head, Kristoff said, "That would be a last resort. You really don't want to get that close to it. It would burn you to a cinder."
"Speaking of burning," said Elsa, "I think the fish is probably done."
Kristoff trotted back to the fire and lifted the three fish off the rickety supports, giving them a light squeeze and then nodding. "Good call." He held two of them out. "Breakfast is served."
They spent a few minutes devouring the catch, glad for Kristoff's skill with a fishing spear, and Elsa's ability to make one. Then they washed up in the swift water and moved back to the center of the small island, seating themselves on the chairs Elsa had created. Kristoff looked over their armaments. In addition to the spears, Anna had collected a large pile of smooth rocks for her fiancé while he was fishing.
Elsa's glance flicked between the other two. "You'd said it wouldn't take the Elemental long to track us."
"True. Getting impatient?"
"A bit. Waiting is never fun. But when you're waiting on the arrival of a supernatural being that hates you and wants you dead, it's a bit less fun than usual."
"Keep in mind that he had a river to cross. I don't know how he's been doing it, but I know he can't do it in his natural form."
Anna shuddered. "So … it's gonna have to … possess somebody?"
"Most likely."
"Wouldn't that kill the victim being possessed?"
"I really don't see how it couldn't. Putting that much energy into a human body?" He shook his head. "Poor bastards."
Elsa wondered, "Could that be what has been driving Weselton these last few months? The Duke was silent through the last half of last year. He even sent a couple of delegations to try to reestablish relations."
"Ha," responded Anna with a snort.
"Well, yes, that was more or less my answer, too. Still, he was being, if not cordial, at least conciliatory. Then, suddenly, half-way through January, we begin to get wind of his trying to undermine our relations with our other trading partners. Those outrageous lies. I thought it suspicious at the time, but never really had an opportunity to study the base causes." Tapping two fingers against her lips, Elsa slowly nodded. "This would explain much."
"But if he was controlling the Duke, wouldn't he have to be in Weselton?"
"I would think so."
"Then how'd he get here?"
They turned to Kristoff, who held up his hands. "Hey, all I know is he can't cross water in his Ifritt form. If he's inside a human? I dunno. Maybe? I can't come up with anything better right now."
Anna asked, "Do you think he'd keep chasing us, even after that battle? I mean, his forces did kinda get squished. And now he knows that we know what he is."
His lips thinned as he shook his head. "No. Whatever has him so worked up isn't gonna go away on its own. Elementals are stubborn like that."
"Great," muttered Elsa. "Stubborn, hot-headed, and super-powered. Just lovely."
No one said anything for a minute. Then Anna perked up and whispered, "Someone's coming."
They all looked upstream. Presently they could see a pair of figures moving toward them through the trees. In another quarter-minute Elsa made out the uniform of her Guard and heaved a big sigh of relief. She stood and walked to the near bank, bringing up her magic in blue-white swirls around her hands.
A tap on her shoulder stopped her. She turned and gave Kristoff a frown. "What?"
"Wait."
His tone made her stomach clench. Dropping her gaze to his other hand, she found herself sadly un-surprised that he was holding some of the rocks. She turned her attention back to the two Guard trotting their way. The one in the lead waved and called, "Your Majesty! Thank God! We were afraid … well, never mind. You're safe, and that's what counts."
She waved back. "Thank you. Sven, is it?"
"Yes, Your Majesty! I'm flattered you would remember."
"I know all of you." Looking at the other one, she said, "Karl, right?"
He bowed stiffly.
Sven said, "We need to get you back to the castle, Your Majesty. I don't know where that … that thing went, but you're not safe here."
Opening her mouth to speak, she stilled again when Kristoff touched her arm. He gave his head a tiny shake, then turned to the two Guards. "We have a bit of a problem. Maybe you can help us with it."
"Of course! That's what we do."
"Her Majesty strained her magic getting us here. If you could get over here to help, we need to get to the opposite bank." He pointed downstream. "There's a shallow spot there where you can cross, but the other side's deeper. It's going to take some teamwork to get the Queen and Princess to the other bank safely. If you would."
"Yes, Sir!" Sven ran to the short ford and waded over. Kristoff gave him an arm to help him up onto the island. They all turned to look at Karl …
His eyes glowed yellow, his skin already cracking, the interior light leaking through. In a voice like crushed pumice, he said, "I will get you. You can't run from me forever. You won't-"
That's when Kristoff's first two rocks removed his head. Anna and Elsa ran to the pile of spears. Sven stood gaping at what he'd thought was a fellow soldier. Kristoff readied two more rocks …
The first time he had witnessed the Ifritt's transformation, it had been a relatively slow process. This time it was more in the way of an explosion. The remains of the Guard whiffed to ash as the Elemental burst upward to tower over the humans. Its screech left all their ears ringing. But then Elsa's first spear hit one of its 'legs' and it really did let loose. The two women were physically knocked off their feet by the force of the sonic storm. But the Ifritt collapsed to one 'knee' as well, its keening cry putting their teeth on edge.
Kristoff flung two more rocks through what he perceived as its center-mass, then had to hold his ears and clench his teeth against the starkly unbelievable levels of sound. He scooted over next to Anna, picked up a spear, and heaved it.
This time the creature dodged. Swiftly it backed away, shrinking to an ember and disappearing.
Sven was the first to recover. He stepped up next to Kristoff and stuttered, "Wh-what was … was that … was that thing the same one we fought off at the camp?"
"It was. And that 'thing' is a Fire Elemental.
"Where's Karl?"
"I'm afraid Karl's dead."
Sven blinked a few times, trying to absorb the information. "Dead."
Kristoff grimaced. "Yeah. The Elemental possessed him. And it, um, used him up. You saw."
"I don't even know what I saw! That was Karl! He … he came and found me, said he knew which way you'd … oh." He worked his mouth a few times. "Wait."
"Uh-huh. I'm sure he did know which way we'd gone. They're talented that way."
"But why did it possess Karl? Why did it want me to go … to …"
"It can't cross open water. It was probably hoping you'd get the Queen to cross over to the bank so he could get to her. It wants to kill her."
"But … but he looked so … normal. Hell, we shared a pouch of dried cod!"
"He's fooled a lot of people before you. At least we think so."
"Damn."
Elsa spoke up. "Did we kill it?"
Considering her question briefly, Kristoff shook his head. "Doubtful. It made a tactical retreat, more like."
"So it'll be back?"
"Count on it."
Anna said, "Well, crap."
"So what do we do now?" asked the Queen. "I don't relish the thought of staying here. And it's on the other side from where we want to go, and it doesn't have a human body now." She gave him a stricken look. "Poor Karl. That thing killed him. Oh, Lord! I hope it doesn't find any of the other Guard!"
"… So do I. For a lot of reasons. But if it's gonna continue following you, it will either have to go far enough up the mountain to get around the source spring, or possess someone else." He huffed a sigh. "I'd like to get back to Grandpabbie and tell him about this thing. It's breaking the Compact, and I know there are penalties for that. Otherwise, he's risking war. And nobody wants that."
"Are you sure?"
"Huh?"
"Are you positive it doesn't want a war?"
He turned to Elsa, considering her question. A sour expression came to rest on his face. "Actually, no. I'm not. Already this Ifritt isn't acting quite sane. Maybe he IS aiming to start a war. In which case, his King needs to know about it."
"Great," complained Elsa. "So how do we go about contacting the King of Fire Elementals?"
"I don't have the first clue. Something else to ask Grandpabbie."
She didn't say anything for a bit. Her next words came very softly. "Can it be killed? Is that even possible? You say it's made of flame, and it obviously doesn't like ice magic very much, but-"
"Yes. No creature is truly immortal, though some of them give it a good try. If we can hit it with enough of your magic, it ought to-"
"Someone's coming," said Sven.
They all looked north. Several figures could be seen through the trees.
Anna asked, "Is that the rest of the Guard?"
"I can't tell yet." He frowned, squinting in the early light. "Um … no. I don't think so. We don't carry pikes in the field, and I see two of 'em."
"Maybe that's what's left of the force that came with the Ifritt."
"That," muttered Kristoff, "would be bad."
The small troop stopped about a hundred and fifty paces away. Elsa counted twenty-six of them. They stood in a line, not moving, for close to a minute (long enough that Anna wanted to scream at them) before they unlimbered longbows and nocked arrows.
"Get close to me!" shouted Elsa. As soon as they were all within arm's reach, she threw up a wall of ice.
The first wave of arrows came in. About half of them hit the ice, exploding on contact. Suddenly her wall was a sorry mess, and Anna's arm was bleeding from getting pelted with ice shards.
"Damn!" yelled Sven. "Your Majesty, if you can't make your wall a lot thicker, we'll have to run for it!"
Kristoff ducked out from behind the remains of the wall and chucked a couple of rocks. He saw one of the archers go down … then slowly get to his feet again. No! Has that stupid Ifritt turned them into homunculi? We can't fight those! Two more rocks made contact, with similar results.
"Kristoff? What … what are they? Are they human?"
"Maybe once upon a time. But if I can't take 'em out …" He glanced at the spears, then at the women. Elsa had re-made and reinforced the wall, placing two more layers slightly in front of it. He nodded in approval. "That should keep us safe from shrapnel, anyway. For a while.
The next volley of arrows rained down, and more of them hit this time. The noise was of a different timbre than the Ifritt's screams, but no less deafening for that.
Hefting a spear, Kristoff took aim and chucked it. As with the rocks, it picked up speed (a lot) before skewering one of the archers. He froze solid, and didn't move again. "Okay. That worked." Quickly he took out another of them.
The rest of their attackers dropped their bows and knelt, then lay out flat.
"What are they doing?"
"Beats me. Not being a target, maybe?"
The Ifritt sprang into being behind them, waved its arms, and pounded its 'fists' into the earth. A hazy field of red sprang into being in front of the archers, who then got up and readied their bows.
Kristoff threw another spear. This one, though, burst into a huge cloud of steam when it struck the red barrier. That translucent wall began moving slowly toward the island. He swore, and turned to Elsa. "We have to get out of here! If that wall gets here …"
"Can it cross water?"
"I have no idea. Probably, or the Ifritt wouldn't have bothered with it."
Turning to stare at the moving wall, she concentrated, then threw both hands up. A line of huge blue spikes of ice grew out of the ground in front of it. But when it touched them, they immediately melted. Elsa muttered an oath of her own. "Okay. Let's go." She trotted to the other side of the island and called up a short bridge. They all ran across, after which she dispelled it. "Kristoff, do you think Grandpabbie could fight this thing?"
"Better than we can."
"Okay, which way?" She re-created Sleipnir, to Sven's slack-jawed amazement. They all climbed aboard and waited on Kristoff's direction.
He took a couple of deep breaths. "We could do it one of two ways. The quickest way, probably, since we've got good transportation, would be to head east a little way, then turn south. We'll get to the Valley of Living Rock in about two days, give or take. But that's making some assumptions about the existence of reasonable trails. Or we could go west until we get around the main mountain range, head south, and then peel back east a bit. That would take maybe three days, but we'd be certain of having reasonable roads most of the way."
Elsa nibbled her lip only a moment before deciding. "Let's take the shorter route. The quicker we get to Grandpabbie, the better. We need answers. Besides, going the other way would take us too close to Arendelle city, wouldn't it?"
"We'd be within sight of it at one point."
"Right. I'm not letting that thing threaten my city. It's following me, so going through the mountains will keep it away from my people. Mostly."
"Let's get going, then."
Sleipnir kicked it into gear and was soon tearing up the ground, heading east.
Twelve minutes later, the zombified archers made a human bridge to the island, then another to the other bank. One of their own walked across their backs, his eyes glowing yellow.
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End Note: So now it's a race. Twelve minutes isn't much of a lead, but they're already moving a lot faster than the Ifritt. For now.
