Chapter XVIII: Wolves
Anna and Rapunzel ran to the path on their right as fast as they could. It was instincts that kicked in. Even though wolves are known to be faster than humans were, the girls' first instinct was still to run. Not to fight off the wolves. Not to play dead. Run. But, who could blame them. Most people unexperienced with dealing with wolves would've done the same thing. Also, it seemed that running was the best option. They had no weapons to defend themselves with except for a frying pan, and they didn't have the skills to fight off the wolves. Also, they wolves knew well that they were alive, so playing dead wouldn't have necessarily helped. Still, running away was a mistake. It triggered the wolves' predatory instinct, automatically making them chase the girls.
Luckily for the girls, they had quite a head start from the wolves. They were about three hundred meters away from the wolves that were coming in from the left path, and about that same distance from the path back. But, their distance wouldn't have made much of a difference. Wolves were fast, and they would close in on the girls in no time.
Anna and Rapunzel ran as fast as they could. Their top speed seemed to be the same. The two sprinted together through the snow. Sprinting was already exhausting, but sprinting through the snow was breath consuming. Anna was forced to outrun a giant snowman before but wolves were different. They were much, much faster than Marshmallow. Also, the wolves were smarter than Marshmallow. They knew how to catch their prey.
As they ran, Anna looked behind her shoulder. She saw the wolves all running at different speeds, meaning they were spaced out from each other. She counted twelve wolves in all. She didn't know if they were two separate packs since she saw two different groups a minute earlier or if they were just one group who meant to ambush the girls from two sides. It really didn't matter since surviving was all that mattered right now.
Anna turned her head to look in front of her. The path was nothing but straight. There were no turns or obstacles ahead of them. Under different circumstances, that would've been great for them. Unfortunately for them, it only made their situation harder.
Now, some of the wolves were closing in on the girls. They were being chased for only a few seconds and some of the wolves have already caught up. Most of the wolves were further back, and running slowly. The reason for that was because they wanted the wolves in the front to do the work and kill the girls while they stayed back and take the prize when it was killed.
Ahead, Rapunzel saw something that would be their life saver. In the middle of the path about two to three hundred meters ahead of the girls was a large tree. It stood about three times higher than the rest of the trees, and there were large branches that stuck out from it. Rapunzel figured that if they got to and climbed the tree, they would be safe from the wolves.
Rapunzel poked Anna, who was to her left, running right next to the trees, and pointed at the large tree. Anna smiled and nodded, knowing exactly what Rapunzel planned to do. They were getting closer to the tree, but the wolves had gotten closer to them. Rapunzel took her frying pan out of her satchel, knowing that she would be needing it. She looked behind and found a wolf jumping towards Anna.
Rapunzel swung her frying pan and hit the wolf right before it made contact with Anna. The wolf' body rolled back and hit the wolf that was running behind it. Now, two wolves were down, leaving ten to go.
Rapunzel felt confident. She thought that she would be able to take all of the wolves. She wanted to stop and just fight them off but she knew that was suicide. The wolves would have easily overwhelmed her and killed her. Rapunzel asserted that the tree was still their best bet on surviving.
Anna knew that there was another wolf closing in on them. She felt that it was her turn to take a wolf down. Anna looked above her and found that they were running under the shade of the trees, meaning that the leaves covered in snow were above them. Anna looked to her left and found the trunks of all of the trees. She then looked back to see a wolf almost at their heels.
Anna kicked one of the tree trunks with her left leg as they ran. The tree shook, and the snow on top of it fell to the ground and over the wolf that was close to them. It's entire upper body was covered in snow, but the back part was still sticking out. It wailed it's back legs and tail but it still couldn't get out. The snow was too thick. The wolves behind it just rushed past it, ignoring their fallen comrade.
Three wolves down. Nine remained. Anna was getting just as confident as Rapunzel was, but that confidence faded when she saw some more wolves running faster. She looked ahead and saw that they still had a ways to go to get to the tree.
"We won't make it before we're eaten!" Anna said.
"Think positive." Rapunzel said.
A stupid idea came up in Rapunzel's head. She greatly doubted that it would work, but the frying pan has never failed her before. It was ridiculous and childish, but it might be able to save her life. She grabbed the handle of the frying pan with her left hand and held it. She then took her right hand and grabbed the side of the frying pan. She then took her left hand off of the handle and prepared to throw it like a frisbee with her right hand.
She threw the frying pan like the frisbee at the wolf nearing them, but unfortunately, the wolf moved to the side with the frying pan missing it. The frying pan flew behind the wolf and hit the wolf behind it in the face, knocking it out. The frying pan then bounced off the face of that wolf and flew towards the back legs of the wolf closing in on the girls. When the frying pan hit it's legs, it stopped running, and fell forward on the snow. It then rolled forward in the snow quickly, and as it rowed, layers of snow covered it's body and it was soon covered in a giant ball of snow.
Five down, seven to go. They were only about 50 meters away from the tree, and more of the wolves began to catch up.
The girls were able to get under the branches of the trees before they were eaten, but one wolf was too fast. Rapunzel and Anna turned back to see the wolves' distance, but right when Rapunzel turned, a wolf tackled her to the ground. Rapunzel was trying to push the wolf off of her body with all of her might, but the wolf's will to eat her was too strong. Rapunzel moved her head away from the wolf's snapping teeth. Before the wolf could do any harm to Rapunzel, Anna kicked the wolf away as hard as she could, and it whimpered as Anna's foot met it's stomach.
Anna offered Rapunzel her hand. Rapunzel took Anna's hand and she helped pull her friend up. Before Anna could ask if Rapunzel was alright, Anna noticed how close the wolves were.
"Climb!" Anna yelled.
Anna and Rapunzel ran to the tree and started to climb it with Anna in the lead. They were unexperienced with climbing trees, but they had a general idea of how to do it. If Anna could barely climb a mountain, she could climb a tree. Rapunzel was about seven feet of the ground when the wolves arrived at the tree. One of the wolves jumped and almost bit her leg, but Rapunzel took it away from the wolf's reach just in time before she had to say good bye to her leg.
Anna sat on the lowest hanging branch, which was still pretty large and sturdy. It hung about fifteen feet over the ground and was about ten feet long. Rapunzel got on another branch on the opposite side of the tree about four feet higher than the one Anna was on. They expected for the wolves to give up, but the wolves were still looking up at the girls with snarling teeth. They weren't ready to give up their prey just yet. The wolves continued, aimlessly, jumping at the girls and trying to bite them. Both girl's were too high for the wolves to be able to touch them.
Anna made her way from hugging the trunk to the middle of the large branch. She slowly slid her body down the branch. Her feet were dangling down the side. Snow from the branch started to fall down because of Anna's movement. Anna then stuck her tongue out at the wolves and making weird faces at them.
"Haha, you can't kill me!" Anna taunted. She started doing weird taunting motions with her arms at the wolves.
Then, she heard a snapping noise. She looked over at where the branch met the trunk and saw the it was breaking. Uh oh, Anna thought. She slowly and carefully slid to her right, trying to get closer to the branch. But, she wasn't quick enough. The branch snapped and it swung down onto the truck with Anna hugging the branch for dear life. While she hugged it, she slid down to the very end of the branch.
Before the branch slapped the side of the tree, Anna opened her arms so that they arms wouldn't get injured upon impact. When the branch smacked the tree, Anna's chest was smacked, hurting her. Her upper body fell back, but she had no intention for her to die to the wolves. She hugged the trunk with her legs while her upper body fell back. Now, she was upside down with the only thing keeping her on the tree was her legs.
Unfortunately for her, she was only about five feet off the ground, making it possible for the wolves to attack her. The wolves slowly made their way to Anna who gave them a nervous smile. Then, before a wolf could bite Anna's head, a snowball flew from the tree onto it's head. The angered wolf looked up to see what was happening, but another snowball met it's head.
Anna was able to see, upside down, where the balls were coming from. Rapunzel was on her branch, making snowballs from the snow on it, and throwing them down at the wolves.
"Climb!" Rapunzel told Anna.
Anna tried to swung her body up and grab the trunk with her arms, but was unsuccessful. Luckily for her, Rapunzel was buying her enough time by distracting the wolves with snowballs. On her second attempt, Anna successfully swung her upper body up and grab the trunk with her arms. She then proceeded to climb it while Rapunzel threw snowballs. Rapunzel was able to block a wolf with a larger snowball from biting Anna's leg as she climbed.
Soon enough, Anna was far from the wolves' reach. She got onto a branch that was higher than Rapunzel's branch. This time, Anna didn't slide to the middle. She was perfectly fine where she was.
"They still look pretty hungry." Rapunzel said.
"As evident from the fact that they're still trying to kill us." Anna joked. "Thanks for saving my life."
"Consider us even." Rapunzel replied.
One wolf jumped at the trunk, in hopes of trying to climb it but it slid down immediately. The six wolves circled the tree, looking for something that would help them get the girls down, but they couldn't find anything.
"What's the plan?" Anna asked Rapunzel who was on another branch.
"We should just wait them out. They'll leave eventually." Rapunzel suggested.
"We haven't got all day!" Anna said.
"Well, what do you think we should do?" Rapunzel asked.
"We should throw stuff." Anna said.
"But-"
Before Rapunzel could continue to speak, Anna grabbed a pine cone that was hanging under the branch she was sitting on and threw it down at the nearest wolf. Anna threw it down with all of her might, and it met the wolf's head. A huge bump grew where the pine cone hit it and it's eyes became spirals. The wolf then fell to it's side, unconscious.
Anna looked at Rapunzel was surprised. "Okay..." Rapunzel said. "That might just work."
Rapunzel and Anna both grabbed a pine cone, and Anna pointed at a wolf, telling Rapunzel that the wolf should be their target. The wolf saw what happened to the other one, and was expecting it. It was looking up at both Anna and Rapunzel. Anna threw her pine cone down at the wolf first, but it caught it with it's mouth and broke the pine cone with one bite.
The wolf wasn't expecting something to come at it so quickly. Immediately, a snowball made by Anna met it's eyes, virtually blinding it temporarily. That was Rapunzel then threw her pine cone at the wolf, but it wasn't knocked out even though she hit it's head. The girls grabbed another pine cone and threw it down at the wolf, and continued that process. Pine cones were raining down on the wolf until it whimpered and ran away.
Now, only four wolves remained. The one that ran away was not enough to intimidate them from leaving the girls. They still expected their lunch, but the girls were still unwilling to give it to them. The girls looked at each other and smiled. As they looked at each other, the both grabbed another pine cone. They both tossed their pine cone in the air and caught it. This was going to be fun.
Pine cones and snow balls were raining down on the remaining four wolves. They ran around the tree, trying to protect themselves from the coming projectiles. Anna and Rapunzel's aim was extraordinary. They barely missed any wolf. Their supply of projectiles seemed unlimited. Seemed.
Soon, Anna was out of snow from her branch and pine cones. She then looked up to see the endless supply of ammo on the branches. She quickly climbed up the tree and sat on another branch. She continued raining down armageddon on the wolves.
One of the wolves became tired of running. It stopped and sat on it's butt. It took the paws from his front legs and put them over his head, trying to protect it. It might as well have been waving a white flag. Anna and Rapunzel knew that that wolf would no longer be a threat to them. Only three threatening wolves remained.
Anna made the biggest snowball she could. It was about the size of her head if not bigger. She was going to bring the hurt with this snowball. She grabbed pine cones and stuck them into the snowball. It fit about four pine cones in all. Anna held her creation above her head and searched for a wolf. She saw a certain wolf running around. Anna tossed her snowball at it, hoping that it would make it to it's target. The snowball hit it in the head, and it fell to the ground. The snow and pine cones were covering it's head, so it looked like it's head was buried in the snow.
The two running wolves stopped running and walked to their friend. They unburied the wolf and found him alive, but dazed. The two wolves growled at the girls and stepped away from the tree. They had no intent to eat the girls anymore. They didn't want to put themselves in further trouble.
Anna noticed their fear, and that gave her confidence. She quickly climbed down from her branch and climbed down. When she was close enough to the ground, she dropped down onto the snow. Rapunzel was unsure if that was a smart idea for Anna, and she needed to help protect her. Rapunzel then also climbed down from her branch and landed next to Anna. She took out her frying pan, preparing to strike if the wolves came any closer.
The wolves just growled and backed away from the girls.
"Yeah, that's right!" Anna said. "You don't know who you're messing with!" Anna took a quick step forward to taunt them, and they stepped back. "See your friends? That's you if you don't stop messing with us!"
"I think they get it." Rapunzel said.
"You want a piece of me?!" Anna asked. Anna grabbed Rapunzel's frying pan, held it in the air, and started to run at the wolves. The wolves growled and ran away down the path they were chasing the girls from. "Tell your friends what you saw!" Anna screamed.
An irritated Rapunzel yanked her frying pan away from Anna. Anna turned back to look at Rapunzel, and she found her left shoulder scratched. The fabric from her dress was gone, and five bloody cuts were all lined in it.
"Rapunzel, you're bleeding." Anna said.
Rapunzel looked at her shoulder, and put her hand over it. When she took her hand out blood was on her hands. She figured the wolf must've scratched her when it tackled her to the ground. She didn't know why she didn't notice it before, probably because there were more important things to worry about, but now it stung like crazy.
"I'll be fine." Rapunzel said.
"You'll get it infected if we don't get medicine." Anna said. "Come on, we need to find help."
Anna and Rapunzel walked to the opposite side of the tree they were at and found that the path continued. They walked down the new path, knowing it was new since there were no footprints. The entire time they were walking, Rapunzel was putting her hand over her shoulder in an attempt to stop the bleeding. They didn't have to walk for long to see a glimmer of hope. In the distance, they were able to see smoke in the sky.
"Fire!" Rapunzel exclaimed.
The girls didn't realize how cold they were, especially Rapunzel who was wearing the same dress she usually wore. Also, they heard two growling sounds. They looked around to see what it was only to realize that it came from their stomach. They were hungry, cold, and to top it off, Rapunzel was hurt. They prayed that wherever the fire was coming from be their salvation.
The girls jogged through the snow to get to the smoke. As the smoke got bigger, so did their hopes. They had to run through the trees to get to the smoke as it was off the path. When the trees cleared up, the found themselves in an area with no trees. There was a frozen river surrounding the area, and one small building in the center of it all. Smoke was coming out of the chimney.
The girls looked at each other, smiled, and started to laugh. They made it to safety. At least they hoped it was safety. They ran to the front of the building where the door was. Two statues of trolls were next to the door, one on each opposite side. A huge sign covered in snow hung above their heads. Anna hit the sign, and the snow fell down to the wooden floor beneath them. Now, the sign had words on it.
"Wandering Oaken's Trading Post!" Anna exclaimed. She remembered this place quite well. It would be the first place she met her husband, Kristoff. It was also the place where she got her winter dress.
The snow from another smaller sign hanging from the below the sign fell. Words also appeared.
"Ooo, and Sauna!" Rapunzel exclaimed.
Elsa sat at her desk in her study, reading some papers. She really wasn't paying attention to anything they said since she had too much on her mind. Usually, she always had someone to comfort her, but now everyone was gone. Anna was gone. Kristoff was gone. Olaf was gone. Kai was gone. She was alone now and had to deal with the stress by herself.
Elsa didn't noticed the tears coming from her cheek. She wiped them off, and tried her best to stop crying. She couldn't look vulnerable in her current predicament.
She couldn't believe Ander would not listen to her. Even more so, she couldn't believe that he would believe Hans after all he had done. She felt like she knew Hans better than Ander did. She felt sorry for the deceased King, and she felt sorry that this was his legacy.
The door to her study was knocked on. She stood up made sure her face had no signs of tears, and walked to it. She opened it up to find one of her guards.
"Prince Hans would like to speak with you, your majesty." The guard said.
Elsa'a eyes showed slight anger. "Bring him in." Elsa ordered.
The guard nodded and walked off to get that weasel.
Author's Note: Hope you guys enjoyed this "action" focusing chapter. I know some of the things that happened are kind of ridiculous, but I wanted to add some humor in the action such as a frying pan as a frisbee/boomerang. Also, I know that, in real life, the wolves would've easily caught up to the girls, but I tried to make this action part like something Disney would do with combinations of other things. Ciao.