Chapter Twenty-One: Preparation and Promises
After returning to Arendelle Castle (after, in turn, explaining to the people of the town about the fearsome noises that had come from the forest), Elsa and Alphonse had explained Kvasir's Peace and their shared dream to Anna, Kristoff, Rapunzel, and Eugene. After a few moments to digest the information, it was eugene who had asked the obvious question. "So, what do we do now?"
Elsa and Alphonse had glanced at each other, as if each were expecting the other to take the lead. A few seconds of silent debate led to Elsa sighing and addressing the group. "There's no way we can settle this peacefully," she began. "So we need to prepare for what is coming."
"Where do we start?" Anna asked. In answer, Alphonse cleared his throat, grabbing everyone's attention, and glanced pointedly at the clearly-damaged Mjolnir. Kristoff, usually the one to keep his cool in the group, blushed and hid the hammer behind his back like a child in trouble.
"How did that even happen?" Anna asked, leaning against Kristoff for moral support. "I mean, isn't Mjolnir, like, magic or whatever?" As usual, it was Alphonse who answered.
"Mjolnir was crafted by the dwarves Brokkr and Sindri. They and the sons of Ivaldi were responsible for forging the six greatest treasures of the Aesir and their allies, of which Mjolnir was arguably the best." Alphonse paused in thought. "The only ones who could possibly know how to fix it are modern dwarves."
"Do we know any modern dwarves?" Eugene asked sardonically. The ex-thief had always approached the supernatural with sarcasm; it was how he coped.
"I do," Alphonse answered, quirking a grin at Eugene's pointed look. Both men knew the question had been rhetorical, but it needed to be answered. "I helped a group of them a few years back and they owe me one. I can probably arrange for them to fix Mjolnir, among other things." The last part was spoken almost wistfully.
"So while you're doing that," Rapunzel replied, "what will the rest of us be doing to help?" In the ensuing silence, Elsa fixed Anna with a piercing look, that "aloof big sister" look that demanded honesty.
"Anna," her tone was just as uncompromising as her eyes, "is there something you want to tell everyone?" Said princess turned pink as everyone's attention turned to her and she tried to order her thoughts before answering.
"Before I Dreamt of Alphonse's … situation, I had another part of a Dream. Freya appeared as a cat and led me through the woods to a cave. Inside the cave, there was a twisted tree with a sword sticking out of it. I think-" she hesitated but powered on, "I think I'm supposed to find it and pull it out." Her story done, Anna looked up to find Elsa and Alphonse trading another look, almost as if they were debating on something. Anna quirked a grin at how close they had become.
"If you Dreamt it, Anna, then it must be important," Alphonse said. "Dreams like this were often a way to learn one's destiny, big or small. And if it's the sword I think it is, we could definitely use it."
"But you can't go alone," Elsa added, her tone firm. Knowing Anna, she would leave this very night to go find this sword, just as she had chased after Elsa after her coronation. A solution came from Rapunzel.
"Can anybody say 'girl's day out'?" she asked, smile wide and eyes hopeful. "We can go get the sword, Alphonse can visit his dwarf friends, and Eugene and Kristoff can stay and keep an eye on Arendelle." It had been too long since all three women had had alone time to bond; this was as good a chance as any.
After a few moments, Eugene spoke up, well aware that he wouldn't be able to change his wife's mind. "Any other ideas?" Pause. "Going once, going twice - sold." He knocked on the table as if pounding a gavel and stood, taking Rapunzel's hand. "Now, when's dinner? I, personally, am starving." The group chuckled in agreement.
As the sun rose over the mountains of Arendelle the next morning, Rapunzel saddled Maximus for the quite-possibly-long journey ahead of them. Elsa, dressed in a navy wool riding dress, had created a horse of ice to ride. Anna was sitting on a bale of hay, lightly snoring. She had been excited to get moving, but even excitement only went so far against Anna's not-a-morning-person nature.
As Rapunzel finished saddling Maximus, Elsa nudged Anna awake and the three left. Throughout the short trip through the town, Rapunzel held back the question burning at the tip of her tongue, but was unsure if she should ask. Instead, she decided to break the silence with a more (or less) mundane question.
"So, Anna? Where's your horse?" Rapunzel had no doubt Anna was driven, but even she had used a horse when searching for Elsa after the coronation (she would know, she had seen Anna bolt into the mountains after the Winter started). Anna glanced at Rapunzel with a devious grin and, making sure they were out of the town, ran ahead. The princess climbed a rock and jumped off …
And in a flash of light there was a red-feathered hawk in her place, flapping to hover before them. "Come on, slowpokes! The sword's this way!" Anna got moving, flying far ahead of her sister and cousin. Rapunzel, after a moment of stunned silence, looked to Elsa for a handle on what she had just seen.
Elsa simply shrugged with a small smile and nudged her snow-horse into a gallop. Rapunzel grinned and looked down to meet Maximus's eye. "Wanna show them what a real horse can do?" Maximus neighed in approval and bolted forward, intent on catching Elsa's faux-horse.
The same morning, far from Arendelle and some distance from Corona, a massive tree stood alone in a meadow, shading the grass around it for a good half-mile. The tree, a Scion of Yggdrasil, creaked as its innate power was harnessed from far to the north. Roots far from the trunk rose up in an arch and the air underneath began to fill with ethereal mist.
From that mist emerged Alphonse, his cloak on and his bag thrown over his shoulder. The mage's fingers twitched at lacking the familiar weight of his staff, but he shrugged it off and kept moving. In a flash, he Shifted into an eagle and flew west, to the castle of the local monarchs of Zuerst. He didn't need to see them, nor did he care to; he just knew his goal was most-easily found from the castle
After some time, Alphonse finally saw the spires of the castle, and more importantly the forests around it. Orienting himself to pass by, Alphonse flew on until his enhanced eagle-eyes noticed the glimmer of a small river between the trees, turning to follow the river to his destination.
Alphonse tucked his wings in and fell, fell, fell. At the last possible moment, he flared his wings and caught the wind, slowing just enough to Shift back to his human form and land lightly on the ground. The mage looked up to find a small cottage sitting peacefully in the forest. He glanced backward at the faint sound of music growing even fainter and grinned.
The best way to find those he sought: follow the music. Alphonse Shifted again, this time into a wolf, and loped along after the music.
As the sun began its descent back to the horizon, Elsa had to consciously keep her breathing even. While she was an excellent horsewoman, Elsa had to admit to herself that her stamina was rather lacking due to the amounts of time she spent in her office going over paperwork (yet another reason to hate it). On the other hand, both Rapunzel and Anna (who was on foot!) seemed perfectly fine; not surprising, given they were both energetic and quite active. The queen decided to add more physical conditioning to her daily schedule.
Even as the trio had moved further into the forested lower-mountains, Anna had barely hesitated in her chosen path. When asked about it by Rapunzel, she had commented that it was "just a feeling". From anyone else, Elsa would have been nervous. But this was Anna! If anyone could find this so-called sword with pure intuition, it was her!
Anna held up her hand, signalling for them to stop. The strawberry-blonde hummed in thought and nodded to herself. "Wait here, guys. I'm gonna fly up and get a look around." Not a heartbeat later, she had Shifted and was soaring into the sky.
As Anna left, Rapunzel glanced at her just-barely-older cousin. With Anna gone for the moment, she smirked and asked the question she had been burning to ask all morning, and even since the day before. "So, Elsa. What's between you and Alphonse?" Elsa's head turned so fast she might have gotten whiplash.
"Between?" she asked, cheeks pinking. "W-what makes you think there's anything between us?" Was it getting hot in here, or was that just her? Why was Rapunzel even asking this? Elsa already had enough curiosity to deal with with Anna.
"Well …" Rapunzel trailed off with a grin. Elsa's nervousness was already a part-answer. "You seemed pretty close when we asked you to distract him. I mean, I had no idea what Anna meant when she you'd be 'the best one for the job', but the way you two looked at each other-" she giggled, "it was like you two were in your own, adorable little world!"
Every word out of Rapunzel's mouth made Elsa's blush grow deeper, until it seemed she should pass out. Was she really that transparent? Of course, given her childhood, she had no experience at all with this kind of relationship. Was that "look", as Rapunzel called it, normal? Something must have shown in her expression, because Rapunzel was giving her that look, the wide-eyed look of pure, deep understanding. The one that had pushed Elsa to share life stories with her when they first got to know one another.
Before Elsa could ask for advice, Anna crashed back through the branches, swinging down from the last few, to land with a wide grin and twigs in her pigtails. "It's just a little further! Come on!" Like lightning, the princess was off. Rapunzel offered a reassuring smile before urging Maximus on, Elsa following.
In all, Anna had been half-right. It was only about a half-hour until they stopped in front of a low cave, it depths utterly masked by darkness. Anna seemed ready to explode with excitement as her sister and cousin climbed down from their mouths, her fingers twitching as if fighting the urge to grab them and drag them along at her own breakneck pace (which she was probably considering).
Finally, the trio entered the cave, Anna in the lead. There were several tense moments of darkness before they emerged into a cavern just as Anna had described on the journey. Light streamed down from cracks in the ceiling, softly illuminating the cavern and the twisted tree composed mostly of a huge knot in the trunk. And sunk in the wood, almost to the hilt, was a dull sword.
Anna took a step back ,suddenly doubting herself. Maybe the Dream had meant for her to lead the others here? "Rapunzel, why don't you try? You're easily the strongest of us." Which wasn't a lie; Rapunzel's brute strength was all-but-legendary in the Arendelle Castle.
Rapunzel fixed Anna with a quizzical look before giving the slightest shrug and stepping forward. She gently took hold of the handle and tugged, grunting as the sword refused to budge. She tugged harder with the same result. Rapunzel braced herself against the small tree and heaved with all of her strength, for as long as she could. She grit her teeth, sweat beginning to bead her brow. "Snuggly Duckling, that's in there!" she grunted, panting lightly.
Anna looked to Elsa, who chuckled. "If Rapunzel couldn't budge it, what makes you think I can?" she asked. Rats. Elsa had to use her precious logic to pass up her turn. Anna gulped and strode forward, masking her sudden and rather bizarre insecurity. And yet, as she placed her hand on the handle, she couldn't help but feel a sense of rightness. Anna took a deep breath and firmly tugged - and in a trail of sparks, the sword slid free from its wooden sheath, faintly ringing in Anna's hands.
Anna's eyes widened as tarnish seemed to crumble away from the weapon, leaving in its wake a shining, bronze-colored longsword. She looked closely at the image emblazoned along the blade, like a dragon crawling toward the hilt, and there were faint markings along the blade that looked like it had actually been reforged.
On impulse, Anna whirled around and slashed the wall of the cavern, leaving a deep gash in the stone. She actually yelped out in surprise as the sword kept going, barely slowed by the rock. With a quick shift of her weight, she brought the sword back under control, but her heart still pounded from the shock. And, after that had passed, a grin spread across her face. This sword was awesome!
"Seems Hans's magic sword isn't so unique," Rapunzel quipped. Elsa hummed in agreement, mind already working on plans for the upcoming battle.
In the forested cliffs of deep Zuerst, Alphonse Shifted back to his human shape and entered a large opening in one of the cliffs, its perfectly square shape hinting at it very artificial nature. Even to his slightly-enhanced human ears, the sounds of ringing and singing could be heard from the entrance.
Alphonse flexed his fingers in anticipation, the magically-reduced weight of Mjolnir resting in his pocket. Time to call in that favor.
As the sun began to set, the royal ladies were finally nearing the town of Arendelle. A small part of Elsa took pleasure in the fact that it was not just she who was tired, even if she had it the worst. Anna and Rapunzel were uncharacteristically quiet, though Anna more due to examining her new weapon than any real exhaustion.
As they walked, Rapunzel was both tired and swept up in her thoughts. She glanced at Anna, who swung her new blade at a thick tree, slicing it cleanly through the trunk to fall away from their path with a loud crash. She looked to Elsa, who kept her expression neutral despite her obvious fatigue. Rapunzel smiled at the thought of being related to such strong women, especially after having been all-but-alone throughout her life. Even now she had no siblings, but she had long since thought of these two sisters as her own.
Rapunzel's musings were severed by a sharp sense of dread that pooled in her stomach, and a chill of primal fear that surged up her spine. On instinct, she reined in maximus, who looked at his princess with a critical eye. He sensed her discomfort and braced himself for any-and-all attacks.
Elsa and Anna looked back at their cousin, having moved for a few more moments, with concern. As stillness swept over them, Anna felt that she sensed something … off. Something malevolent, full of hate. And it was drawing nearer! A rustling in the bushes drew all three gazes and anna readied her new sword in a two-handed grip.
Out of the brush emerged an auburn-furred wolf. Mid-step, the creature melted into the shape of a woman in the prime of her life, dressed in a form-fitting grey robe. Her auburn hair was savagely cut at the jawline and her yellow-green eyes glimmered with barely-restrained hate. The age-paled symbol carved in her face caught the light of the setting sun, only making her seem more intimidating.
Anna prepared to lunge at her, but her body seemed unable to act. Right, she thought, the Peace thingy. She drove the sword into the ground and crossed her arms, ready for whatever sort of trick this she-wolf could come up with.
"Skadi," the woman greeted with faint respect. Wolves had been sacred to Skadi, just as they had been to Odin. "Freya," she sneered. The Vanir had been, to her kind, a mass of undisciplined wretches inbred with the warring Aesir. Finally, she looked to rapunzel, and her lips curled in a fearsome snarl. "Sunna," she growled, hatred seeming to drip from that very word.
Rapunzel took a step back, that primal fear rising up. But an image of Gothel, her kidnapper and abuser, flashed across her mind's eye and she took two steps forward, stance hard and uncompromising as the glare she leveled at the wolf-woman.
"Who are you?" she asked. "And what do you want?"
"My name is Hati," the Maras answered, her fingers flexing as if ready to strangle the woman before her. "I am the Leader of my pack, one decimated in the attack on Skadi's domain." Elsa narrowed her eyes as she remembered this woman, remembered her presence at the Ice Palace next to Hans.
"What do you want?" Rapunzel repeated.
"To know what I want, you must know of my namesake, Little Ember," she spat. At the sound of that name, that taunting, terrifying moniker, Rapunzel gasped and clutched her head, images flashing behind her eyes as sounds echoed in her ears.
Rapunzel felt the air surge around her as the horses of her chariot raced across the waters of the sky. She felt her power, her heat, radiating from her like a thousand thousand raging fires, granting blessed warmth to the worlds beneath her. Beneath her lay the great shield Svalinn, the icy barrier that protected the Worlds from her power, from the burning strength of all of her heat. And she felt the unceasing pull of the reins of her horses as they galloped at full strength, ever fleeing.
At the thought, a fearsome howl echoed across the heavens, drawing her gaze backward. Behind , always behind, rode a horrifying monster. A son of Fenrir, a colossal wolf born to be her doom. His name was Hati, hatred, and his namesake burned in his gaze as he pursued her with unspeakable tenacity, his maw dripping with foam.
Rapunzel, Sunna, lashed the reins bound to her hands. They had to keep going. It would never stop; and neither would they!
As the images faded, Rapunzel felt Elsa's cool touch at her back, Anna's warm hand on her shoulder. She looked up to find the wolf-woman glaring at her. So that was it. That was why this woman seemed to hate her, even if she had never met her.
"You want to finish what your … brother … started," she said simply.
Hati snarled. "He was born to kill you, and even as he succeeded, you escaped. You birthed your daughter," she pointed at the sun setting beyond the fjord, "as you ravaged him from the inside. He was only doing what the cosmos had made him to do and you took it away!"
"What was she supposed to do?!" Rapunzel demanded. "Was she supposed to just give up and die? Was she supposed to slow down so that he could catch up? Hati was a monster, the son of an abomination, and the grandson of a lying murderer. And that same murderer threatens me and my family even to this day! So take your misplaced grudge and get out of here!"
As Rapunzel panted from her tirade, from the righteous fury burning within her, Elsa and Anna stared at her with wide eyes. They had never seen their cousin, their bright, cheerful, all-loving, sunny cousin, this riled up.
Hati, unfazed by Rapunzel's words, fixed the princess with a deathly glare. "Know this, Sunna: When Ragnarok comes again and our Forloper's forces clash against you and your kind, I will be far stronger than I am now. And I will finish what my great brother started."
"And I'll be waiting to send you to meet him in death," Rapunzel replied coldly. "I promise." The weight of those words seemed to startle the she-wolf, but she shook it off and Shifted, loping away into the brush.
As silence stretched over the trio, Rapunzel collapsed to her knees, cold sweat lacing her skin as she panted with the fear of prey. Her cousins knelt with her, holding her in a comforting embrace. After a few minutes, they resumed their return to Arendelle, still silent.
It was only as they came within view of the lights of the town that someone broke the silence. "Damn, Rapunzel," Anna chuckled, "you're awesome!" Rapunzel giggled at Anna's joke. Before she could reply, a muted boom echoed from the town, a great light flaring in the distance.
Without hesitation, all three women raced for the city.
As the day drew to a close, Eugene and Kristoff finished yet another round of the city of Arendelle. At Elsa's command (even other royals tended to listen to the Snow Queen), both men had spent the day walking the streets, assuring citizens, explaining what was going on to the best of their ability, and overall making sure nothing underhanded was afoot.
As the sun made the last of its way beneath the horizon of the fjord, Eugene sighed good-naturedly. "You know," he said, "I think everything's gonna be alright."
As soon as the words left his mouth, a great explosion of water rocked the docks, accompanied by a bloodcurdling roar and a gout of burning fire.
"You were saying?" Kristoff deadpanned.
The surprise characters I mentioned? Arriving next chapter!
For mythology buffs, I know it was Skoll (treachery) that hunted Sunna (the sun) and Hati (hatred) that chased Mani (the moon), I just like the "hatred" thing better. And the idea of the two wolves kind of "tagging in" (lke wrestlers) makes me chuckle.
What'd ya'll think? Leave a review and let me know! Special shout-out to Miaka and TeamArendelle, my two most loyal reviewers - you guys/gals are awesome!
Until next time!