A/N: AND IT CONTINUES! It's just a good week for me apparently. Sorry I had to post this twice cause I screwed up the first time. Thanks to my beta The-blackfirewolf and maybe one day I'll be able to thank her without looking up her pen name to see how it's spelled. Jack is still useless I'm sorry to say but I shall rectify that soon! I hope you can pick up on all the things referenced by the chapter title (not going to lie I felt more clever about it than I ought to have felt). Thanks so much for the reviews so far and keep them coming! Enjoy!
Elsa and her friend Pitch start to creep me out after a while, and seeing as I'm not getting any answers here anyways, I promptly decide to leave. I fly back down to the pond to see if there are any answers there that I missed before. I pace around the pond for a long time but find nothing.
I feel a strange tug and I turn; lying on the ground behind me is a stick. I pick it up off the ground and immediately feel another tug. When I look up I notice a path in front of me. Walking down the path I find an abandoned house and upon entering it there is another tug.
This tug is both stronger and farther away. I don't know where it'll take me, but maybe I'll get answers there.
I follow it.
I grab a book to forget my brother but the moment I set it down I remember. I fight and fight to get him out of my head; why is he still here after all these years? Today I've had enough and have no choice but to simply accept it.
I still believe in Jack and I always will.
I don't know how long I've been lying in the darkness before I hear the crunch of boots in the snow outside my carriage.
"Hello? Is someone out there?" I call and begin banging against the walls again, "hello? I– I need help please! I can't get out!"
"Hello? Is someone in there?" I hear a man reply.
"Yes, Yes, I'm in here! Get me out!"
"Uh, ok, hold on." I wait several long minutes before there is a scuffling, then a creaking, then a snap and the sunlight pours into the hole he made in the roof.
"Oh, thank you!" I say enthusiastically as I poke my head out. I flinch as the cold air hits me in the face. "Ah! It's cold!" I cry as I plop back down into the carriage.
"Um, are you alright?" he asks, leaning over the hole.
"Who me? I'm fine! Why would I not be fine?"
"Because you're trapped inside a carriage on the scene of wreckage? What happened here?"
"I don't know."
"How do you not know?"
"Well, it's kinda hard to see what's going on when you're trapped inside a carriage! I'd like to see you try it sometime." I jab a finger in his face causing him to retreat from the hole a little. Pulling my hat firmly down over my head I peer out again carefully. Our camp is littered with broken sleighs and torn up tents and...
Bodies, so many bodies, their blood splattering the snow in a gruesome painting of death.
"Oh no. No, no, no, no, no," I whimper as I duck down into the carriage again. "What am I going to do? What am I going to do?"
"Are– are you sure you're ok?" asks the boy and I glance up at him again.
"You!" I cry jumping up again so that he staggers back a bit. "You have to take me up the North Mountain!"
"What? No!" he cries in alarm. "Look, I'm sorry for your misfortune, and I'll go get help if you want, but I'm no guide."
"No, no, no! If you get help they'll want to take me back and there's no time for that! You have to take me!"
"I'm not–"
"I'll pay you."
"What?"
"I'm Princess Anna; I can pay you whatever you wish! All you have to do is take me up the mountain and then bring me and my sister back down."
"Wait, your sister?"
"Yes, she's in the mountain. I need her to stop this winter."
"How can a person stop a winter?"
"How can a person start a winter? It's a real mystery; we're figuring it out!"
"Are you saying you're sister started this winter?"
"Yes! Pay attention! Do we have a deal or don't we?" He looks at me a long time as if considering and then shakes his head.
"This is crazy, we don't have enough food for that journey, and don't you have a thing about the cold? Why did they bring you out here?"
"I'm the only one who can reason with her, and that's why I'm in this carriage of blankets. As for the food there's a compartment in the back of the carriage. Now can we go?"
"But the carriage–"
"Prop it up, stuff a pillow in the hole, and let's go!"
"This seems–"
"Come on! How many opportunities do you have to get rich this easy?" He considers this for a long moment.
"Fine," he says finally, "but you better stay true to your word."
"Of course I will! I'm a princess! What's your name by the way?"
"Kristoff."
"Thank you, Marshmallow," I say sweetly as I reach down to accept the offering of gathered food from the snow beast. I'm about to turn to go inside when I see a mesh of bright colours from the edge of my vision. I nearly drop my food as I startle at the sight of a winged woman with feathers all over her body standing on the railing.
"Hello Elsa!" she chirps energetically, "I've been meaning to see you for a long, long time. I hear your teeth are beautiful! Can I see?" She swoops towards me and this time I do drop the food as I raise my hands to defend myself and block her with a wall of ice. She flies around the corner and begins to approach me as I back away to the other side of the ice wall and she follows me. "Never mind, it doesn't matter," she's saying. "Listen Elsa, I need to talk to you."
"Who are you?" I ask in confusion as I back towards the doors to the balcony.
"I'm Toothina, but my friends call me Tooth."
"And why are you here?"
"I'm a guardian."
"Uh, I don't know what that is."
"Guardians are the people who watch over the children of the world. I'm here to inform you of the dark path you're on."
"I'm not a child," I reply, still confused.
"No, but you could bring harm to one someday if you continue down this dangerous road."
"If you're here to tell me I'm a monster I already have an entire kingdom to do that," I snap before turning away to walk to the other side of the castle.
"But there's a difference between being called a monster and acting like one, Elsa," she says tenderly as I look up into my distorted reflection in the ice. I can see her flying closer behind me. "You never acted like one before, but now–"
"Now I'm being who I am!" I growl, spinning towards her.
"No, you're being what Pitch says you are." I stop at her words.
"You know about Pitch?" She nods.
"Elsa, please, we can help you."
"Have you been watching me my whole life?"
"We have," she says slowly, and I start to laugh and turn away again. "Are you alright?"
"You want to help me now?" I growl spinning towards her again. "After all these years you want to help me now? I thought you said you watched over children! I was a child! Why didn't you watch over me?"
"We thought you would be fine; we see now that we were wrong. I'm sorry Elsa, we made a mistake, but Pitch–"
"Pitch was there for me! Where were you?"
"But Elsa–"
"Get out of my castle!"
"Elsa, please–"
"I said get out!" I give one final shriek and send a gust of wind at her that pushes her out the balcony doors. I slam them shut and watch her distorted shape through the ice hover before the double doors for a moment and then fly off.
I take deep gulping breaths as I try to calm down and then feel Pitch's hand on my shoulder.
"You did good, Elsa."