Chapter Twelve

The Battle of the Forest

ELSA

As she drew nearer to the camp, Nokk suddenly jerked back abruptly, almost throwing Elsa forward. She squeezed her thighs against Nokk tightly to stop herself from being launched off. A crack echoed through the woods and something whizzed a few feet in front of her and Nokk.

That sounded like…rifle fire. Nokk had saved her from having a lead ball bore through her. Wait, rifle fire? No, that can't be right.

Elsa frowned and spun round, squinting to see where the shot had come from. To her horror, she saw a rifle barrel sticking out from amongst the trees. Another crack of the rifle, and another lead ball spun straight at her.

A strong breeze of wind blew the lead ball off course, and it found its mark in the tree beside Elsa. This time, it was Gale who had saved her, but Elsa wasn't going to wait again for the hidden mystery assailant to fire another shot.

She leapt off Nokk and rushed towards the trees where the gunman was hiding. She heard the sound of the man cursing as he tried to reload his weapon in a haste. Aiming her hand towards the barrel of the weapon, Elsa allowed a solid shard of ice to explode outwards, and knocked the rifle out of the hand of the shocked assailant.

The gunman backed away and pulled out a knife. She froze it in a block of ice and a gale of wind lifted the man off the ground. Gale let go off him mid air, and he fell clumsily through the branches, landing hard on the ground. As he groaned, Elsa aimed her hands at him, and shackles made of ice formed around his wrists.

Elsa took a closer look at the man. He was dressed in a dark red uniform with combat boots and wore a helmet. He was a soldier, but from what army?

"Who are you?" She demanded.

The man leered at her. "You're too late." He said this in a thick, heavy accent she could barely make out.

"Are there more of you here?"

"Yes, and your tribe will soon be extinguished."

Elsa's heart sank as she realised that the lone gunman's sole purpose was to stall her. She ran back to Nokk and mounted quickly. She travelled back at top speed towards the encampment, where an ambush was just beginning.

The Northuldra folk were fleeing west with their reindeer, away from where the laavus were set up, and a platoon of soldiers armed with guns were advancing into their encampment from a single direction. A short line of twelve defenders made up of men and women from the Northuldra stood with lances at the ready, while others were armed with longbows and arrows. Yelena stood behind the line with a few of the other senior tribesmen, looking anxious and indignant.

As the soldiers raised their weapons to their shoulders, Elsa emerged from the trees, Nokk launching high into the air and letting out a piercing whinny. The soldiers turned to see a woman clad in white on a horse made out of ice hurtling down towards them, but it was too late to react. Elsa and Nokk crashed into their flank, barreling three soldiers out of the way.

The soldiers turned their attention to Elsa, who leapt off Nokk and threw shards of ice at their muskets. Some were knocked out of their hands, while others were smart enough to quickly dodge the attack, keeping their muskets trained on Elsa.

She faded behind the trees as an inconsistent volley of shots rang out throughout the forest, missing her as she hid behind a large tree trunk. Elsa grimaced as she waited for the firing to stop. Who were these people and where did they come from?

With the soldiers backs turned, the Northuldra defenders took the opportunity to draw their bows and rained arrows down on the soldiers. A few of the militia force took heavy hits, and went down, while the others narrowly evaded the attacks. A few spun round, delivering a round of shots at the Northuldra. The thin line of defenders broke, and they went into crouched positions behind the laavus, with the tribe leaders joining them to take cover.

Majority of the squad began advancing into the camp, while three soldiers kept their muskets trained on the tree which Elsa was hiding behind. Elsa narrowed her eyes as she heard footsteps crunching, growing louder as they approached her. She was being pinned down, and it looked like she was going to have to fight her way out.

Just then, a trail of pink and blue fire abruptly lit up in front of the soldiers' path as they approached the tree, giving them a nasty shock. Startled, the soldiers turned to see where the fire had come from. The Fire Spirit was here to help her. That was her cue. Elsa emerged from behind the tree, and shot a blast of ice at one of the soldier's weapon. The force of ice knocked the musket out of the soldier's grip, and it fell a distance away. Elsa used a stream of ice to blast the man off balance, sending him crashing into the thick woods.

The other two soldiers turned back to her. One of them took aim and fired. She leapt out of the way and glanced at the majority of the soldiers. They were advancing rapidly on the defenders, and would soon smoke them out before long. She had to help them.

As the first soldier knelt and reloaded his weapon, the second lifted his musket. She let out a strong stream of ice from her hand, freezing the entire weapon solid. With the flick of her wrist, the entire weapon encased in ice crumbled into pieces to the utmost alarm of the man.

Elsa ran at the first man who had given up loading his cumbersome weapon upon seeing her heading towards him. She formed a baton of ice in her hand and parried a blunt swing of the musket. She smashed the baton into the side of the soldier's head and froze his legs to the ground as he toppled.

Her last remaining assailant drew a knife and brandished it. The trail of pink and blue flames returned from out of nowhere, and landed on the assailant's head before trailing off on the ground. He thrashed about as he tried to get the fire on his head put out. Elsa sent out a stream of ice which knocked the man off his feet, putting out the flames and rendering him unconscious at the same time.

"Thanks, Bruni." Elsa said as the trail of pink and blue flames subsided, and the small blue salamander stood in its place.

She let fly a piercing whistle, and Nokk appeared, still encased in ice. Mounting the Water Spirit, Elsa rode towards the majority of the soldiers, aiming for their flank again. However, the soldiers noticed her moving rapidly towards them.

One of them yelled something in their native language, and they all pivoted with their muskets to face her.

She couldn't reach them in time. Just when things looked like they were about to get messy, a loud bellow echoed throughout the clearing and a shadow loomed above the soldiers.

Rocks crashed down on their positions, and the soldiers scurried away to escape getting crushed. With the soldiers divided, Elsa and Nokk barrelled into them like cavalry boring through infantry, eliminating their threat systematically. Elsa discharged streams of ice at the remaining soldiers who were still standing, promptly knocking them out of the fight.

When all of them were finally neutralized, Elsa dismounted and stood in the clearing. It was a complete mess.

"It's safe now!" She called out to the Northuldra.

The Northuldra emerged from behind their cover, and began hastily making their way towards the fallen soldiers.

"Secure all of them. They will answer for what they have done here." Yelena said, surveying the aftermath of the attack.

"Are you alright?" Elsa asked her.

"Yes, thanks to you." Yelena gave her a nod of gratitude. "Thank you for saving us. Again."

Elsa flushed red and looked around. "Where did they come from?"

"I don't know." Yelena grimaced. "They just appeared from the deeper woods."

Elsa walked over to one of the soldiers who was still conscious, and crouched beside him. Two of the Northuldra came to her side, ready to attack if the soldier tried anything.

"Who are you?" Elsa demanded. "Where did all of you come from?"

"It doesn't matter who we are." The soldier replied her in English, weakly but resolute. "What matters is our plan."

"I hate to break it to you, but your plan failed." Elsa said dryly.

"You may have stopped us, but you're just prolonging the inevitable."

"What are you talking about?"

The soldier chuckled. "You cannot stop what's coming."

"What's coming?"

"The Empire of Exon." The soldier grinned. "Stop us now, but more will come again. You cannot stop the Imperial Horde."

Elsa stepped away.

"The Empire of Exon?" she mused aloud. "That doesn't…make any sense."

Out of the blue, purple mist began to swirl behind Elsa and she spun round like a cat. She'd only just stopped an invasion. What now? The purple mist formed into a Crossing Point which opened up in front of her and two familiar figures stepped out.

Author's Commentary:

This was an absolute joy to write. Seeing Elsa in action post-Frozen 2 has been one of the things I've been eager to write, to see how she works in tandem with the Elemental Spirits to thwart threats to the Northuldra. I hope you enjoyed it too.

Do review and let me know your thoughts :)