MJC: Well, would you look at that. A conclusion, more then two years in the making.

Elsword: I hate you.

MJC: Wha-? I'm wounded, but no matter. I hope all those reading enjoy this long past due ending.

Disclaimer: I do not own Elsword, blahblah-

Refrigerator Prophecies: Act I

The Wolf Who Fell in Love With Little Red Riding Hood

Part Five

When Little Red Riding Hood Arrived...

At the clearing, she did not expect to find nobody. For once, she had been first to reach the unofficial rendezvous point. Unsure of whether she should feel victorious or anxious, she sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree.

Interestingly enough, she was nervous. She never realized how embarrassing her actions were. This hadn't been the first time she'd shown affection out of sympathy. That hug, and her waving, and just the overall feeling of wanting to see something that at least resembled a pleasant expression on his face.

Whatever it was, Elesis felt a bit unsettled by her own feelings. It was in that instant that she realized that it wasn't out of sympathy anymore. Only a few days had passed, but she didn't just feel pity for the wolf. It was closer to friendship now. She wondered if the wolf reciprocated these feelings, or if he just felt like he was using her.

The sound of throat clearing (though it resembled more of a growl than anything else) broke the red haired girl from her thoughts. He eyes flicked up to look the wolf in his own.

"Oh! You're here now!" She stated, straightening her posture. The wolf merely nodded. "I, uh, I found something!" After digging through satchel, she found the record from the night before. "It's some folktale, and your name's scribbled on the bottom of the page." She held the page up so he could see.

His eyes did zigzags across the parchment. He could clearly read.

"Haan?" He finally spoke before his eyes suddenly glossed over. Elesis cocked her head.

"Aren?" He didn't respond. Not even when she waved her hand in his face. "Aren?!"

Aren was a bit preoccupied, however. Once again, images flashed across his conscious. This time, they were more formed, some even lengthened into a short retelling.

There was that little girl again, but this time she was being held tightly by a woman with a blurry face.

"Oppa, stop! Don't come any closer!" The image changed again. This time, a beautiful ninetailed fox appeared before him. The fox spoke in silvery whispers, "I will help you, if you free me."

Lastly, the elder appeared. Aren stood in the decay of his home. Hot embers still glowed, but those painful tongues of fire were gone. "For attempting to free Eun, you have been punished."

"Aren!" And then he snapped out of it. Looking straight at him were Elesis' piercing red eyes. "Are you okay?" He suddenly felt rather self conscious, but he nodded. "What happened?"

"More memories, I think." He quickly replied, hoping his voice had not shaken. Elesis gave him a questioning look. "I think I had that hairpin from the tale. I was trying to free Eun," his eyes dropped to look at the dirt, "for my sister." He finished in a tiny voice. Elesis' mouth opened, but she remained quiet. She did not want to seem insensitive, but surely his sister was dead by now. It was rare for anyone to live more than century, except the elvenfolk of course.

"This is good, we finally have some semblance of why you were practicing the dark arts." She nodded to herself, her mind ablaze with possibilities.

"I know who enchanted me." Aren suddenly stated matter-of-factly. With firey eyes, he looked back up at Elesis (it was her turn to feel overly self-conscious), "It was definitely the elder." Elesis jaw suddenly felt a little tight.

"You're absolutely sure?" Aren jerked his head in a nod. "I suppose I should have to speak with the elder, then." She felt nervous again, though not for the same reasons as before.

"Shall I... Accompany you?" Elesis looked at Aren again. There was something soft in his eyes that she couldn't quite place. It might have, just maybe, made her heart flutter, but only a little.

"N-No, if all goes well, I'll be able to coax out the cure to your enchantment peacefully." Elesis' words made Aren feel a bit guilty, perhaps useless. She had done so much for him, but he had hardly put in any assistance. Still, he nodded solemnly. Wih no more hesitation, Elesis rose from the fallen log, and resolutely strode back towards the village.

Aren noticed that today, while looking at her back, that she seemed entirely different from when she left yesterday.

The elder expected for the Red Knight and that wolf to barge down his door and attack with full force. He was fully ready for such an encounter. He did not expect Miss Elesis to remain calm and to confront him so peacefully. She was renowned to be fierce and unrelenting on the battlefield, and even in everyday conversation, but before him now, she was extremely diplomatic and polite.

It was almost as if she didn't suspect him to be the one who had enchanted that Haan. His elimination of the Haan line was nearly complete, and he was sure with almost every fiber of his being that this Elesis woman wanted to get in the way.

"Sir, I have a simple request." Elesis spoke unwavering, yet somehow it was obvious that she was uneasy.

"What would that be, miss? I will remind you that you have not finished the job I have assigned to you. I have already granted you full access to the library. The week is nearly up, and you have not eliminated that wolf." The elder wanted to make her squirm.

"Well, I, er, it's been difficult. He is more cunning than I imagined." And squirm she did.

"Enough to best the finest swordsman in the land? Please Miss Elesis, you must have something better than that." The elder smiled at her, surely it set her even more on edge.

"I just, um, I..." She trailed off while staring hard at the floor. She dropped to one knee. "I apologize sincerely, sir, I underestimated him."

"Please do not continue to underestimate it, Miss Elesis. Time is ticking, and if it is not dead by the end of this week, then I will not pay you."

"Sir, please just hear me out." She was practically begging. The elder nodded. "I simple wish to know of your magical abilities. If they are what they seem to be, than I'm sure your assistance would be quite advantageous." The elder scrutinized her. What was she trying to do?

"My own abilities do not concern you, Miss Elesis. I hired you to kill the beast, so you will kill it." The Elder stood from his sitting position on the floor, pointing towards the door. "Now, if you will, leave!" Elesis, a bit startled, regained composure, setting a stony expression upon her face, and left with dignity.

The Elder returned to sitting with a quick descent.

"That girl. She's plotting something. She wants to get in the way of my plans. Of my life's work!" The stout man gnawed at his own finger nails, his true nature showing. His teeth seemed to sharpen to fangs, his eyes glowed an unnatural hue.

"And how will you stop her?" The voice echoed about the Elder's abode, although it's volume recognizable, it still seemed no louder than a whisper. "Will you defeat her? Will you destroy her? Will you kill her?" The voice began it's manifestation, a dark cloud swirling above the Elder's head, fueled by his bitterness.

"Of course I will." He hissed, "Of course I will!"

"Good," The darkness solidified, creating the form of a childish looking girl. Her eyes, an unpleasant violet, filled with malevolence. "You must, after all." Beside her, a small, fat bat grinned violently.

"Massacre! Make it bloody!"

"I will!" The Elder stood, the girl and her bat dissipating into smoke. He breathed them in, his own irises turning that unsettling violet, "I must!"

Elesis wasn't really sure what to do. She had once again failed in her investigation, and not only that, but she feared the Elder knew of her plotting. If he discovered she was helping Aren, what would he do? Would he use whatever power he had used to transform Aren on her?

However, for whatever strange reason, what Elesis feared the worst was not her own destruction, but rather, the destruction of Aren. That wolf, rather, that man had not been given a chance to live with happiness, he had not been given a chance to live a life to begin with. He was damned from what very well may have been the beginning.

And with that thought, Elesis, determination replenished, felt she needed to do more. She turned on her heal, deciding to march straight back to the Elder and force the cure out of him if it came to it.

The sad truth of it, however, was that she did not get the chance to confront the Elder again, for he already he had confronted her.

So, once fully turned about, she stared directly into the menacing glow of violet irises. He was there, but there was something off about the Elder.

His shadow, longer, more threatening, seemed to flutter and shake, manipulated easily by his anger. His skin was stained all over, dark purple and yellow splotches marred his once, albeit wrinkled and mottled, unmarked skin. In his hand he held a frightening ax tipped staff, and somewhere behind him, the hot golden eyes of a bat gleamed evilly.

She was scared.

Something was wrong. Maybe it was something in the air. Maybe it was something in the earth. Either way, Aren could tell that there was something not right somewhere. What was it?

His nose twitched, he couldn't stop sweating, and he had paced circled about that log. That log where she had sat.

Was it her? Was there something wrong? Perhaps he should have insisted upon accompanying her. But he had, hadn't he? Perhaps he should have followed, despite her declination.

He smelled the air, desperate, he practically tasted it. The thought of the Elder doing some to her made him see red. Misty red, everywhere he looked. It was like seeing the world through a veil.

It reminded him of her even more, and, as he had been angered by the thought of danger befalling her, he had also grown calm with the thought of her.

How strange. What was that feeling. He could have sworn he'd heard of it somewhere, somewhere in the distance of his memory.

"I love Aren!" She said, a smile glowing on her small face.

"And I love Ara!" He smiled in return, happiness filling him, filling him fuller then a meal.

Love?

He had loved his sister, Ara. He remembered. And he had loved his parents too. Did he love Elesis?

He decided that he did. He loved her unlike anything else he loved, however little that may be, despite having only known her for less than a week.

With that thought in mind, he raced away to find her, because, even if it was nothing more than a feeling, he still wished to protect that which he loved.

Elesis raised her sword, the darkness clashing against it again and again. It didn't seem to care that it wasn't breaching her defenses very effectively, it only wished to beat away at her. Despite it's inefficiency, she knew she couldn't hold out forever.

She ducked under the next attempt from the darkness, rolled, and came up with a slash at the Elder.

He grinned, his teeth coated in a deep, dripping, violet liquid. Elesis recoiled, her attack significantly less powerful. The Elder snapped his hand forward, his movements strange, choppy, badly manipulated, but still powerful enough to knock Elesis away when she blocked the staff.

Despite Elesis' pride in her swordsmanship, this foe was different from her previous encounters. They all had been easily read, thus easily defeated. But the Elder's new, strange movements were unprecedented, completely indescribable and likewise untraceable.

With a hoarse cry, she brushed her unsteadiness away, and dashed towards the Elder once again, sword posed to strike.

At her charge, the darkness retaliated, wrapping about her ankles, using her momentum to knock herself over. It held on tightly, even when her face met intimately with the ground, and began to climb.

Up past her ankles, knees, soon it was wrapped tightly about her waist, and still rising. She tried not to cry out, but with the darkness came a deep depression, and and abundance of pain too painful to describe. It leeched past her skin, into her blood, running spikes of pain with every beat of her heart.

Black spots marred her vision, darkness becoming stronger, deeper, dominant.

But, just before her conscious slipped away, possibly forever, there was a roaring noise. The great hoarse howl of something not quite human.

She hadn't realized she had closed her eyes until she had opened them, but when she did, Elesis saw him. Aren. He was there, bigger then ever, ripping into the darkness with yellowed fangs and claws longer then her own fingers.

Despite his terrifying appearance Elesis suddenly felt better, safer, like dying had never even been an issue to begin with. She gasped, or tried to, out his name when the darkness was torn from her figure. He was beside her, tears running little lines into his fur.

"I'm sorry." Before she could say it was okay, that it wasn't his fault, the Elder was standing over both of them, swinging the staff in a mechanical arc and hitting Aren in his wolf chest. He fell back, whimpering, darkness running across the ground, poisoning the wound immediately, turning even his blood that dirty violet.

Now, at this point, it was Elesis' turn to see red. She stood, despite her weakened composure, and raised her sword once again.

Ignoring the darkness licking at her feet, grabbing at her hair, whispering dark things in to her ears, she stepped forward and roared out.

In a moment, a flaming aura erupted around her figure. It cloaked her in red, drenched her in anger.

All of a sudden, her movements were faster, sharper, her attacks even more so. Her sword felt lighter then it ever had before, it felt like fire, weightless, but hot, scorching holes in the darkness.

It recoiled, and once it had almost completely dimished, Elesis turned to the Elder. With motions lasting only moments, she unleashed a final flurry of attacks, and when that didn't seem enough, she continued, despite the toll.

The Elder fought back, of course, blocking, retaliating, all in vein. When it became obvious he could not stop her, he grew fearful. She was overwhelming.

"Don't stop!" The darkness hissed. "You cannot be defeated! You have darkness on your side!" But by then, even the darkness had become afraid.

And despite their combined fear, their desperation, Elesis finally saw the chance to strike both down.

It all happened in a split second. How ironic, Elesis thought, that all of the pain and suffering that this man had inflicted, all of it that had lasted for decades, centuries, all of it about to end in less then a moment.

And then it happened, and it was almost easy. With a nearly lightning quick stab, she downed the Elder, the darkness immediately draining from him.

"Forgive me, Lord Angkor-" Within the next moment, the darkness all drained from him, as did the life it was providing him with, and soon, he was nothing more then dust.

The darkness, only a small cloud, quickly dissipated, replaced by the cool air of night.

Elesis turned swiftly to Aren, the darkness draining away from him. Quickly enough, the fur that had covered him fell out and disintegrated, his face reformed to that of a young man's, his claws that had seemed so large before retracted, leaving normal fingers.

Elesis rushed to his side, collapsing to her knees and lifting his figure from the dirt as best as she could.

"Aren! Aren! Aren are you," tears erupted from her eyes, "alive?" She continued to cry, her small sniffles escalating into sobs. Through out this, the town itself began to fade, becoming the memory it should have been for centuries.

And there Elesis was, left in the center of emptiness where the town had previously been. The moon shone brightly, but it was cold. Aren was cold. Elesis' tears were cold. Everything was cold, she realized, as her firey aura diminished and disappeared.

And then he blinked. Elesis did likewise. It couldn't be... He blinked again.

"Elesis?" Her heart fluttered, and her crying grew more fierce. She embraced him, crying into his shoulder heavily, and he, hesitantly, embraced her himself. "Elesis, don't cry."

"I can't stop, you're-you're human again! But I thought you were dead!" She tightened her grasp. "I'm so happy, but I c-can't stop crying!"

Aren gently pushed her away from him, holding her just a little closer then arms length, and smiled.

"Thank you." And then he cried too.

Elesis: Man, that ending was corny af.

MJC: I know~ ^~^

Aren: I liked it.

MJC: Now then, ABUNDANT APOLOGIES ON THIS CHAPTER TAKING LITERALLY A YEAR, BUT I HOPE ALL THOSE WHO READ THIS APPRECIATE IT, AND DON'T KILL ME PLES.

And now for some things I just want to mention. Now that Lu and Ciel are out, I feel like Lu at the least could've played the darkness/demon role better then VP, but I decided to follow with my original plan for this story, as it is related to another Refrigerator Prophecy thing that I had planned on writing. Hopefully, I'll be diligent enough to actually write it, but for now I'm just glad I finally finished this.

To be honest, I was originally planning on Aren dying because I figured that he would be way to old, but I wanted a happy ending too so I just left it unexplained, and... I'm such a sap...

Anywho, I thank Silver Phantom, Rosa, AvidMind, and Silent Searcher for reviewing the last chapter, and additionally all those who reviewed all previous chapters. Also, to those 8 favoriters and 9 followers, I thank thee!

Lastly, thank you to all who read this, whether you be veterans or only just discovered this story, because I really love you all and now I'm going sappy again and I'm sorry!

Goodbye for now,

~MJC