Here's the next chapter guys! Hope you like it, this stuff may seem kind of boring now but once we get through the exposition then I have great things planned! If you have any suggestions/additions you'd like to see in the story or the characters, just leave a review and I'll take it into account. Remember to favorite and follow!
The crunch of snow underfoot was the only sound that we heard for about two hours as we stumbled along the untrodden path. The sun's rays had subsided for now, so I started feeling the cold more and more. I take in a deep breath and when I breathe out, where there should be white fog from my breath, tongues of flames lick the air in front of me. Elsa looked over.
"You don't talk very much, do you?" she said. I was at a loss for words, but I guess she was right. I was never really good at communicating. Basically my whole life I had been shut away, and when I was finally eighteen and ready to make my own decisions, I started being hunted by my brother. I had never had a real relationship with anyone, except for maybe my mother. But she's gone now.
"I guess I'm just out of practice." I replied. "Being locked away for ten years then hunted for another three, communication wasn't exactly my main focus."
"I'm sorry." the girl uttered. "Can I ask why?"
My will to continue this conversation had passed. Quickly, I said, "You can't." She seemed hurt again that I wouldn't tell her about my past, but then again she hasn't exactly poured out her heart to me about her life back in Arendelle. I decided to ask her, as to not repulse her from me for being too secretive. "How's life at the castle?" I inquired. "It must be nice to have friends and family who care for you. To be accepted seems great."
I looked over to Elsa, still struggling against the deep snow, looking down at the ground solemnly, maybe in thought.
"I wouldn't exactly say that I'm accepted." she told me. "A few years ago, I kind of didn't know how to control my powers, and I went berserk. My kingdom, my people, my family, all hated me, thought I was a monster…" her voice trailed off into silence, and I thought I could hear choked-back sobs.
"Elsa, look at me. Come on, look." I said. I held up my hand, and set it aflame. "Your powers are beautiful, powerful, and controlled. When you went lost control a few years ago, you set an eternal winter, yes?" she nodded, most likely wondering if that winter had even reached Restauga, which it had. "Well a few years ago, the same day I turned eighteen, something worse happened." I told her, painfully trying to finish my sentence. I tried pushing away the bad memories, but the came flooding in. I swallowed back my sins and said, "I went more berserk. I don't even remember what happened. All I know is that one day I'm getting ready to be named captain of the Royal Army, and the next I wake up in the ruins of my palace."
She looked stunned. More than stunned. She was astounded at my power of destruction. I looked at her and thought she was going to run away, and not lead me back to the castle. But she did the exact opposite. After the disbelief had passed, she looked at me with a sense of belonging, a kindred spirit that had came running into her life. "Well we both have had our problems, I guess." she said amiably. "And it seems we're both alone in our struggles."
I peered into her beautiful, light blue eyes. She looked back at me. "We were alone." I told her.
Night was falling on our first day of trekking across the frozen mountain ranges of Arendelle. Throughout the day, I had learned much about Elsa, mainly about her family and her adventures in the past. She told me about her parents who had passed, which I could relate to. I also heard of her little sister Anna, not unlike my brother Jeral when we were children. I heard of her persistence and vigor, which could only make me think of him. Of course, nowadays he uses that same persistence in hunting me like an animal, but you know, he's family so what can you do. Once she had gotten to the part to where Anna had gotten married, a sadness had rang in her voice, but had vanished once I had spoken again.
Once the sun had vanished completely over the mountaintops, I decided it was time to look for a place to stay for the night. "We should probably think about settling down for tonight." I said to Elsa.
Looking around, she replied. "Yeah, I don't want to be out in the open when the wolves start coming out, although I bet we could take 'em." She said it in a sarcastic tone, but I was pretty sure she was right. We were two pretty strong people fighting alongside each other, I think we could take a lot more than a pack of wolves.
The darkness was consuming the land around us, a definite signal that the evening was upon us. My hand burst into flame to make a torch so that we could see. I put that flame on the end of my flame-retardant staff so I wouldn't have to spend all my energy focusing on my hand. I looked over to the side of the trail and picked out a spot by an old fallen tree that looked safe enough. Elsa followed behind me, both of us gathering logs and dry stick as we went, for firewood. Once we had sufficient supplies, we put the wood in one pile in front us. As I sat down, I melted the snow below below me. Once we were both comfortable, leaning against the log behind our backs, I lobbed a tendril of flame into the fuel. It quickly burst into a blaze.
"How much farther do you think we have?" I asked, eyes transfixed on the fire before me.
"I don't know, but the mountains are becoming less and less steep. The palace is in the flattest region of all, if we keep going at the pace we are now, we should get there within a couple days." she replied, also peering into the flames.
I was disappointed. I was tired and ready to get out of all this damned snow, but I knew complaining to myself was only going to make it worse. As I leaned back to relax, my stomach growled furiously. I hadn't realized how hungry I was. I looked over at Elsa, hoping that she hadn't heard my need for food. If she had any I wanted for her to have it.
"Hungry?" she said with a laugh.
"No, I'm fine, but thanks." I said back.
"Come on,"' she said. "When was the last time you ate?"
"You don't really need to know tha-"
"When?" she interjected sternly.
I thought back to my last meal, it had been a while. A day ago, I was running from my brother, and the day before that I was breaking out of prison. The last food I ate was the day I was being transported to the prison, and that was only a stale piece of bread and some melted snow put into a cup. Or at least I hoped that it was snow. "A couple of days ago," I mumbled softly.
"A couple of days?!" she said in disbelief. "That's not healthy!"
"Well I didn't really have much of a choice, steaks aren't just sitting in the forest, ready to be eaten."
"Here," she said, reaching into her saddlebag. She pulled out an apple and some carrots. "Eat some of this. I ate when you were out earlier this morning."
My mouth watered. Staring at the food hungrily, I wanted nothing more than to devour it all. But then I looked at my fatigued traveling partner. I took out my knife and cut the apple in half, and also set aside three of the five carrots for her. I handed them over to her. "I'm not the only one who needs food."
She reluctantly took the food and took a bite out of her apple half. I did the same. After we had finished our food, Elsa's eyes were starting to droop, but she was fighting to stay awake. After a few minutes of being entertained by this battle of consciousness, I said, "I'll take first watch, you get some sleep." I could tell that she wanted to argue, but she was half asleep already and didn't have much fight left in her, the day of hiking must've taken a lot out of her. She fell asleep on her saddlebag, sitting propped up against the log.
I started staring into the fire, as I often do in these moments of solitude. Through thick and thin, no matter what happened, that was the one constant thing in my life. The never subsiding glow, and warmth of a flame was ever present whenever I was around. I saw the sparks fly up into the night sky, all going out after they had left the fire. That was me, a spark trying to get away from the fire, but it always following me. When I was back in Restauga, training as a knight, my fellow warriors had called it a gift from God, to make me an unstoppable force in battle. But I knew better than that. This was a curse, brought upon me for reasons that are beyond my knowledge. Sure, it can be useful at times, but the risks are too great for it to be worth it.
Elsa began stirring in her sleep, possibly getting cold. She curled up next to me and unintentionally laid her head on my shoulder. I decided to let it be for now, whatever helped her sleep better is fine with me. I looked up at her face as she slumbered. She was breathing strangely, every breath was the pattern of a long inhale through the nose, and a light puff through the mouth. It was cute, in a way. I looked back at the fire, still pondering my situation.
Lost in thought, I had no idea that I had stayed up all night until I saw the sun rising above the snow-capped peaks. "Crap." I said aloud. I had been so comfortable that I hadn't thought to wake Elsa up. I nudged her awake, head still resting on my shoulder. At first, she just groaned unconsciously, the sentence "Five more minutes" may have escaped her lips as well. But then, her eyes snapped open, and she realized where she had rested for the past few hours.
Springing to her feet, she said "Oh my God. I am so sorry. I didn't mean-"
"It's fine," I interrupted. "I didn't want to wake you, we had a hell of a day yesterday."
"Did you sleep at all?" she questioned.
"Yeah, I dozed off a time or two," I lied, not wanting to worry her.
"You should've woken me, you need rest too."
I shrugged it off and stood up. "I bet that I'm a lot more used to it than you, Elsa."
"How so?" she replied.
I sighed. "When you're being trailed by murderers, you don't get too much sleep."
"Oh." she said quietly. "Well, no time like the present! Let's go!" She started off on the trail again. Ignoring my desire to lay flat on the ground and sleep for the next twelve hours, I followed her. She was so full of enthusiasm and ready to tackle this hike, we trudged along at an even faster pace than yesterday.
Once we could see the sun setting yet again on our journey, Elsa was breaking down. She had pushed herself really hard earlier in the day to cover more ground that she was running out of steam here at the end. When starting down a huge hill, I saw a glimmer in the distance.
"Hey Elsa, what's that?" I pointed to the flash of light I saw far away. She followed the direction where my finger was pointing, squinting against the light of the setting sun.
Panting, she said, "Home." But with that, her legs gave out from fatigue. Alarmed, I caught her before she could roll down the hill. I picked her up as I had the first day that we had met, knowing that she needed to get to real living accommodations, and soon. Her forehead, usually cold, along with the rest of her skin, was burning against my tan palm. She must have gotten sick from staying too much in the wilderness.
I needed to think of a way to get us down to the palace, and quickly. Suddenly, I had an idea. It wasn't as extreme as my flying one yesterday, but it derived from that. I secured my grip on the light woman, and placed the ball of my foot on the frozen-over snow. Keeping my heel up, I sent sparks flying from the bottom of it, forcing us forward. Placing one foot in front of the other, I soon got the hang of my new skill, and we were speeding through the trees, making great time. I guess that the slipperiness of the ice and the heat generated from my heels made this possible. Kicking it up a notch, I started sprinting towards the castle by the sea, leaving a trail of fire in my wake.
I got there just in time. Just as the guards were closing the gates for the night, I came bursting through them. "I need help! I found the Queen in the woods, and she collapsed when we were heading back here!"
Immediately, a huge staff of servants came flocking to me with lanterns that illuminated the whole courtyard. I then saw a burly, blond man and a little red-headed woman parting the crowd, crying Elsa's name. The man took her out of my grasp. He looked at me gratefully as the woman said, "Thank you for bringing her home. It must have been awful trying to get her back here in all that snow."
"It's fine, I was headed this way anyways. Besides, she could've died out there if someone hadn't come to help her out."
She snickered. "I think that my sister can take care of herself."
The big blonde guy interrupted her. "You must be exhausted," he said. "We've got a whole wing of guest bedrooms that you can stay in for a while if you have nowhere else to go, my wife and I are indebted to you after all."
"Thank you, I'd appreciate that." I replied. I followed them as they entered the castle doors. The woman who must have been Anna led me to where I'd stay for at least the night while her husband and an army of servants brought Elsa to her room. As I was about to close the door, I heard Anna say, "Thank you again, you can tell us all about what happened in the morning."