Hey guys! Here's chapter 5.
We really appreciate any feedback you have (since again, this is our first time writing fanfiction). Also, if you haven't noticed already, we've been adding a bunch of (sometimes cringe-worthy) disney puns throughout the story so far. See if you can find them! ️
Tiana and Rapunzel sat side by side, huddled next to each other for warmth.
"It's cold," Rapunzel murmured, stating the obvious. Tiana nodded silently.
"We just need to dig a little deeper," she said. "The Games weren't meant to be easy."
Rapunzel smiled. "That's true."
The two of them sat quietly for a while. The woods were eerily silent, until the sound footsteps reached their ears. They exchanged nervous glances as the noise grew louder. Tiana hesitantly fingered one of her knives as Rapunzel reached for the handle of her frying pan.
"I did it!" shrieked an excited Merida as she crashed through the woods. Tiana and Rapunzel let out synchronous sighs of relief, quickly releasing their weapons.
She held up a bow and a pile of sticks. "Now we can go find Mulan and Pocahontas." Her eyes darkened mischievously.
"We'll set out soon," Tiana agreed.
Elsa sat regally upon her ice throne. She smiled, thinking about how easy this was for her.
Just a little longer until I go home and see Anna and Olaf again, she thought happily. I need to keep an eye on Kristoff, make sure he doesn't try anything. Elsa shuddered as she imagined all things Kristoff could do now that she wasn't there to protect Anna. She didn't want them doing anything… adventurous.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.
Elsa stood quickly, prepared for an attack.
"Elsa?" a voice called out tentatively. Aurora stuck her head around the front door. She was struggling to push open the front door of the castle. It was made of ice, after all.
Elsa relaxed at the sound of Aurora's voice. "I'm here," she called.
"I got the information you requested on the other tributes."
Elsa smiled. "Well, what are you waiting for? Come in!"
Aurora was getting tired of playing the "dumb blonde". She was a little offended that Belle actually bought her act, but then again, she did have a natural gift in acting.
"Belle is alone now that Snow is dead. Mulan and Pocahontas are weak, both physically and mentally; Mulan let Belle escape when she had the chance to kill her! Merida is leading Tiana and Rapunzel to Mulan and Pocahontas, which passes Belle's camp, so almost everyone should be dead soon."
Including you, Aurora added silently in her head. Aurora was not an idiot; she knew that Elsa was planning to kill her as soon as she was finished doing her dirty work. But Aurora had hatched a plan to kill Elsa first.
"Good work," Elsa said, her mouth curving upward in a smile but her eyes remaining as cold as ever. "But now, I'm afraid, your work here is done."
Aurora, who had made her way back to the door, spun around, shocked. Now? No, not yet! she thought as her mind raced for a way to convince Elsa to delay her death for a little longer.
"What, you thought I'd let you kill me in my sleep one night?" Elsa laughed cruelly. "Well, you were sadly mistaken." She gave Aurora a long, cold look. Aurora ever so slowly moved her hand, which was concealed behind her back, to the knife she'd tucked in the back of her dress. Keep talking, Elsa, she thought. She hoped to get a clear shot before Elsa could do anything.
Fingering the knife carefully, she whimpered, "M-make it quick, okay?" She hoped Elsa would buy her act.
"Of course." Elsa stated, a crooked smile forming on her face. She aimed her hand at Aurora, and held it there for a moment as Aurora stood, paralyzed with fear. Smirking, she shifted her hand up a little bit, freezing the door shut. Then, she motioned for Aurora to follow her. That's sick, Aurora thought.
"I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream," Aurora sang quietly, hoping to attract the attention of a nearby bird that would provide the distraction she needed to get away. She began to follow Elsa up the stairs, continuing to sing quietly. "But if I know you, I know what you'll do. You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream."
Squawk! Elsa looked up sharply as three birds swooped in through the window. Yes! Aurora thought, grateful that the birds had heard her. They flew around Elsa, trying to peck her eyes and skin. As Elsa screamed in fury, Aurora dashed down the stairs. She ran up to one of the windows and swung her leg out.
"You fool! You have the nerve to challenge me?" Elsa screamed, blasting a ball of ice at Aurora's foot, sticking the one that wasn't out the window yet to the wall. Aurora grunted as she made an effort to break free. Elsa swooped down the stairs, kicking the three, now frozen birds out of the way. She unfroze Aurora's foot, then sent a gust of ice and snow at her that sent her flying into the opposite wall. Aurora hit the wall with a crunch and slid limply to the ground. In a last attempt to stop Elsa, she feebly threw the knife in her general direction. It fell short and hit the ground, skidding to a stop at Elsa's feet.
"Pathetic," Elsa huffed. She sent another ball of ice at Aurora, forming a cage around her. Storming up the stairs, she didn't notice that the cannon never went off.
"Oh no, oh no," Aurora whispered to herself, unable to stop the small gulps of air that she was desperately inhaling. Her chest ached with a mixture of terror and self-pity. Though she had evaded death a moment ago, she still could not help but feel sorry for herself. Everything had been planned out so meticulously; she would pretend to be Belle's ally, then pretend to be Elsa's ally, and then outsmart them both. And she had been so close. But in an instant, her entire plan had been completely unravelled, and now, she was frozen in place and trapped between walls of ice, completely at Elsa's mercy.
Why is my life such a disaster? she thought miserably. Hot tears streamed down her face as she let out a choked sob.
Aurora fantasized about her tears being magical, melting the ice, and essentially setting her free. Freedom which would lead to her winning the Games. Freedom which would lead to her going back home to her family. Freedom which would lead to her reuniting with Phillip, the man she had walked with once upon a dream. Just the thought of him made Aurora temporarily forget about her predicament. He was so kind and courageous and gentle and chivalrous and utterly handsome that Aurora's heart skipped a beat just thinking of his shining eyes and beautiful smile and gentle touch. She didn't know what love was before she met him, and she remembered their first meeting as if it were yesterday. They had been on a trail with soft, green grass on both sides; brightly-colored flowers scattered here and there; and the beautiful blue sky hanging above them. Despite the ice currently surrounding her, a warm feeling spread through her body. Aurora smiled quietly to herself and opened her eyes.
Instead of seeing an expanse of soft, green grass; a sea of different-colored flowers; and the beautiful blue sky; she saw Elsa's uninviting face peering down at her.
"If you hadn't sobbed so loudly, I might not have noticed that you were still alive," Elsa said with a cold, mocking smile. "How lucky that would be." She raised her right hand. "But too late." At those words, Aurora's eyes widened pleadingly.
"Please, have a heart," Aurora whimpered, cowering under Elsa's gaze. She uttered a silent prayer as Elsa stood for a few moments, unspeaking. The two stared into each other's eyes: Aurora's desperate and begging, and Elsa's inexpressive and blank.
"Please," Aurora whispered again. Time seemed to stand still as they held each other's gaze, neither of them looking away.
Finally, Elsa slowly, ever-so-slightly lowered her arm.
Perhaps she doesn't have a frozen heart after all, Aurora thought. She watched hopefully as Elsa dropped her arm to her side. Aurora stared in disbelief. It can't be. Elsa would never spare my life, she thought. She waited in dread for Elsa to lift her hand back up and shoot a lethal jet of ice at Aurora's heart, but her hand stayed by her side. A few seconds of silence ensured, in which Elsa met her gaze and gave her a small smile, which Aurora tentatively returned. Elsa angled her hand carefully, blasting a hole in the ice surrounding Aurora, leaving an opening for her to crawl out through. Aurora's heart soared with gratitude.
She immediately knelt in front of Elsa to thank her.
"Thank you, thank y-" Elsa cruelly raised her hand back up and shot out a jet of ice straight towards Aurora's heart. Aurora felt the impact and the brief moment of pain it caused. Then her entire body went limp and fell sideways to the ground, deathly cold and painfully betrayed. The world went black.
"That's a cannon," Mulan wheezed, willing herself to go further. Carrying two bags and a person up a steep incline was not an easy task. Almost there, Mulan. You've got this. With all the strength of a raging fire—
"Um," Pocahontas interrupted, her shoulder still throbbing and her head dizzy from blood loss, "I don't mean to complain. But, you look a little tired…" She glanced doubtfully at Mulan, who in turn tried to straighten up and breathe normally, instead of the labored, fish-like gulps of air she was currently taking. She failed miserably, almost tripping over her own two feet in her attempt. "How much farther do you want to go before we stop?"
"Just around the riverbend!" Despite the situation, Mulan couldn't pass up the opportunity to tease.
Pocahontas groaned. "Please. You don't understand. It was fitting in the context."
"You think I'm an ignorant savage. How can there be so much that you don't know?"
"Ugh," Pocahontas muttered, her head hurting from all this arguing but Mulan's sense of humor bringing a smile to her face. "I only sang both of those songs once to you-"
"Twice," Mulan managed to correct, trying to grip Pocahontas with her left hand and to keep the two bags on her right shoulder, avoiding her still agonizingly painful right hand.
"Okay, you're right, twice, but the second time was only because I didn't know how else to wake you up this morning, and you were falling asleep against a tree-"
"...and you thought I would accidentally cut it down with my sword!"
"It was a sycamore!"
"This is the Hunger Games, not an environmental movement!"
"Mulan!"
"Fine," she shrugged as casually as she could, hard to do when carrying two bags and a Pocahontas up a snowy mountain. "My point is, it's hard to trust your morals. It was also your idea to 'run the hidden pine trails of the forest' while looking for food and look where that got us." Mulan continued to stumble up the slope, breathing heavily with each and every step.
"Are you alright?" she panted, glancing back at her ally, who without meaning to, had become almost a close friend. Pocahontas had her head resting on Mulan's shoulder and didn't respond.
Oh no, she's losing consciousness, Mulan thought. As much as she had been trying to move smoothly up the mountain, her strength was starting to fail her and she was now staggering like a drunkard up the slope. It probably hadn't been helping her ally, judging by her unresponsive state.
Mulan looked at the two bags on her right shoulder, and then at Pocahontas. Her eyes darted, conflicted, between the two, her mind racing. One more look at her ally's pale face did it for Mulan.
Wordlessly, she dropped the two bags from her shoulder and used both her arms to piggyback Pocahontas. Mulan only just realized how heavy the packs had been; it felt like fifty tons were lifted off her shoulders. It made her slightly regret leaving them behind, even if only temporarily; Pocahontas must have collected a lot of food in there.
But, she still had her weapons. Her sword was tied to her waist with the red sash that came along with her dress. Her bow and arrows were slung over her left shoulder. Mulan had decided quite early that she would never leave herself without a weapon in these Games, and she was determined to stick to her decision no matter the circumstance.
She proceeded to climb up the remainder of the slope, and, despite wanting to collapse onto the ground, used all of her remaining energy to gently lower Pocahontas onto the floor of the cave. Then her legs gave way.
Pocahontas's heart practically melted when she saw Mulan's body crumple to the ground in exhaustion, knowing that she herself was the primary cause and that it could have been avoided. A pool of guilt sat uncomfortably in her stomach as she mentally kicked herself for acting so irrationally earlier in the morning. Now, instead of being a useful asset to the alliance, she was a liability. And it did nothing but increase the likelihood of Mulan turning on her, and her chances of getting killed by other tributes.
But, considering the fact that her ally had just painstakingly carried her up an entire mountain, Mulan cared more about her than she had realized. After all, Mulan had had the perfect opportunity to abandon her—or, as Pocahontas realized with a shudder, even kill her—but she had done neither. Mulan must care about her to some degree to go through the effort of bringing her all the way up with her. Pocahontas smiled slightly through the throbbing in her left shoulder.
After roughly half a minute, Mulan picked herself off of the ground and moved towards the opening, explaining, "I'll go get the backpacks. I'll be right back."
"But you just got here," Pocahontas protested.
"I'm fine," Mulan insisted, stubbornly picking up her sword and leaving the cave as Pocahontas let out a guilt-ridden sigh.
Despite being out of breath and cramping severely, Mulan couldn't risk someone else taking their only food supply at the moment.
When she reached the bags, Mulan took a piece of whatever plant Pocahontas had gathered, trusting that she knew her plants, and brought it to her mouth. Eating virtually nothing for a day and a half had taken its toll on her and Mulan was determined not to die of starvation.
She chewed the rest of the plant on the way up and finished off a second one while she was at it.
As Merida, Tiana, and Rapunzel trekked through the woods toward the mountain, Merida couldn't help but congratulate herself on her genius. In the case that she didn't get her hands on her weapon of choice, Merida had formulated a plan beforehand.
Her district token was a necklace with a pendant in the shape of a pine tree on it. Unbeknownst to the Gamemakers, the string was not any ordinary string, but the elastic type perfect for bow-making.
When Merida was little, father had taught her how to quickly fashion bows and arrows. Though she had never had to use the information until now, Merida still remembered her five-year-old self carefully carving out the shaft of an arrow and expertly placing the string onto the bow, with her father's strong, skillful hands guiding her own. The knowledge had stayed with her all these years, and Merida had finally put it into use. Her hastily-made bow was far from perfect, but it would serve its purpose. The arrows were not the best, but they were sharp enough to kill. Overall, everything was fairly decent, especially considering the fact that she had made them in a day and a half, with her only materials, excluding the bowstring, coming from the woods.
Merida, giddy with excitement, whistled a Scottish tune as she and her allies worked their way through the trees. They had decided to lay low for the past three days, staying under the radar, but today was the day they would prove themselves. A small smile crept its way onto her face. They would be underestimated no longer.
Music. Belle froze on the small boulder she was sitting on, her ears snapping to attention, listening hard. More music. Louder music.
She pushed herself to a kneeling position, eyes searching wildly for a better place to hide. Her heart pounded against her chest so loudly that she could swear that its sound was audible. The whistling grew louder as she frantically swept her gaze over the small clearing she was in.
Finally settling on a decent spot, Belle darted behind a nearby bush, peering through the holes to see who was coming.
She felt her lungs constrict as Merida, Tiana, and Rapunzel came into view. All were armed with weapons: Merida had her bow and arrows, Tiana had throwing knives, and Rapunzel… Rapunzel had a frying pan?
Belle questioned their choice of weapons, but considering she was unarmed, having left her axe behind in her encounter with Mulan and Pocahontas, she wasn't exactly one to judge. She shifted to the left so that she could get a better look, but her arm brushed against the bush's leaves as she did so, causing her to freeze in terror.
"Wait, I think I hear something," Tiana said to the others, stopping to look in Belle's direction. Belle's breath caught in her throat. She cowered behind the bush, silently sending a prayer to the gods. She heard the group coming closer. She shrank backwards in fear, sitting deathly still and trying to stay as silent as possible.
Please don't see me. Please don't see me.
The bush's leaves were moved aside, revealing Belle's terrified face.
"Plea-" she started to beg, before her face was bashed with a frying pan, her neck was slit open with a knife, and her heart was pierced with an arrow. Then the world went black.
"That worked, though we probably didn't have to split the kill," Rapunzel said, cheerfully wiping her frying pan clean of Belle's blood as the cannon sounded.
"Remember, we agreed to split easy kills," Merida replied, retrieving her arrow from Belle's chest.
"I know, but I'm just saying," Rapunzel giggled. It only bothered her a little that she was killing other people, but it was better than being killed herself, wasn't it? These people were all her enemies, even Tiana and Merida, whom she would eventually murder.
"How much farther until we get to Mulan and Pocahontas?" she asked. "We've been walking for forever."
"Almost there," Tiana replied. "Patience. It's just a little further."
As they talked, a silver parachute descended upon them, landing just before Merida. She picked it up in surprise, carefully turning it over to see the gift that it came with. Rapunzel bounced lightly on her feet, smiling as she looked over at the gift.
"What is it?" she asked excitedly as a slow smile spread over Merida's face.
"Gold," she answered, holding up a quiver holding twelve professional arrows.
Mulan and Pocahontas ate their first real resemblance of a meal in three days. At home, Mulan would have made an effort to eat elegantly, but here, hunger was too strong a force to resist, even if it meant using table manners that looked like the Beast's from District 9. Mulan also didn't bother packing snow in front of the cave opening, instead choosing to slump on the floor while eating with Pocahontas.
I'll do it later, she reasoned with herself, taking advantage of the fact that Pocahontas didn't have the heart to ask her to stand up and do it.
A small thumping noise gained Mulan's attention. She and Pocahontas shared an alarmed look as the noise grew louder.
"Someone's here," Pocahontas stated the obvious. The two of them stared at each other. Mulan's mind raced as she looked into her ally's eyes.
"You stay in here," Mulan ordered in a voice full of all the authority she could muster. "Okay?"
Eyes wide, Pocahontas nodded.
Mulan slowly stood up and picked up her sword. She peered around the edge of the hole to see Merida, Tiana, and Rapunzel a few meters away from the cave.
She felt herself give a sharp intake of breath. A cloud of fear constricted her lungs. There were three of them, and Mulan was on her own. She was aware that she was better trained than all three of them, but sometimes sheer number impossible to work around.
She gave a quick shake of her head to clear the panic. There had been many wars, as she had learned, where the enemy outnumbered the District 2 army five to one, and yet they had still won. There had even been times where they had claimed victory when matched ten to one. Those feats made her predicament seem like child's play. Feeling a little reassured, she forced herself to do what she had been trained to do in the army: assess the enemy and analyze the situation.
Mulan took several deep, calming breaths before thinking. She knew Merida had a bow and a quiver filled with arrows, so it would be better to wait for them to come nearer, so that the inevitable fight would be close range and hopefully hand to hand. That way, the advantage of the bow's range would be compromised. Mulan wondered how Merida had managed to get the weapons, but now, she realized, was not the time to ponder. She'd also seen that Tiana had throwing knives, so Mulan would have to be alert at all times. Mulan was good at dodging and had inhumanly quick reflexes, so that was an advantage for her, but she didn't know skilled or unskilled Tiana was. Soon, she would find out, Mulan realized with a wry smile. Finally, Mulan was slightly confused as to what weapon Rapunzel was holding, but she was the girl with the healing powers, so if Mulan wanted to take her out, she would have to deliver something that killed immediately.
The sound of feet crunching against snow grew louder. Another wave of fear swept over her body, but Mulan quickly forced it to the side. She could not afford to be afraid. No fear, she told herself. After another set of soothing exhales, she knew that the tributes had reached their cave.
Mulan took a deep breath and stepped outside.