Chapter Two

Escape across Arendelle

ELSA

"That's it. Turn around slowly and get up. Nice and slow, Your Royal Highness." The squad commander of the five Wolves said, his voice carrying a distinct Molcorran accent. The four Wolves with him had brought their muskets to bear, all ready to fire if the order was given. "We don't want to interrupt your sister's big day now do we?"

"No," Elsa said slowly, stalling to evaluate her options. "No, we don't. There's no need for violence."

"Good. Then you'll come quietly without making a scene."

"How did you find me?" The gears at the back of her mind were already turning furiously to weigh the potential consequence of her next actions.

"We thought that was you back at the entrance. The famous Snow Queen, Pilgrim of the League of Sorcerers, outlaw. Hard not to recognise you, but you had your dear Minister of War to vouch for you for the time being. We had to wait for an opening to capture you."

From the corner of Elsa's eye, she could see the large window pane by her side. She had known that it would be there. After all, she had gone through a scenario such as this one in her mind at least a hundred times on the way over. However, now that she was here, the rehearsals in her mind seemed to fade like dust in the wind, and all that was left were doubts and fears that her plan would fail spectacularly.

"So," the commander said again. "Are you going to come quietly? Or do we have to take you by force? Might I remind you that we have been authorised, and you're the criminal here. No heroics this time."

"Of course not." Elsa said plainly. "After all, I'm not the hero of this story."

Without warning, Elsa thrust herself sideways, throwing her whole bodyweight against the glass pane. The window shattered spectacularly, showering the exterior of the church building with shards of glass glittering with brilliant summer afternoon light as they scattered in a hundred different directions.

Having thrown herself out from the second storey window, Elsa plummeted through free fall as the five operatives who were too stunned to react stood gaping through the broken church window. Before she hit the ground, Elsa rotated her body so that she was facing the ground, and summoned her magic to do its work.

Snow materialised out of the air, piling up on the ground like raked leaves on an autumn day, and soon there was enough snow on the ground to form a queen-sized mattress. And just in time too. Elsa hit the snow shoulder first, the fall being cushioned entirely. As she made contact with the snow, it felt like she had fallen onto a gigantic soft pillow which absorbed all of the impact from the fall. Just like she had rehearsed in her mind a hundred times.

Springing up from her "snow bed", she got to her feet quickly as another detail of Blue Wolves at the entrance formed a perimeter around her, pistols trained on her as if they had been prepared for her escape too. Her eyes darted round at the six CAST Force operatives surrounding her.

"Get down on the ground and lace your fingers behind your head!" One of them shouted aggressively, pistol quivering slightly.

They're afraid of me, Elsa observed. The Confederation's been busy spreading their propaganda. She was being surrounded, and if she moved or made an attempt to run, they would be all too happy to shoot her and save themselves the trouble of hauling her off to prison. Nonetheless, through meticulous - and possibly overly paranoid - planning, she had prepared for a scenario like this too.

"I said get down on the ground! I won't ask another time!" The Wolf shouted again.

A small projectile whizzed through the air and fell in an arc towards the circle of operatives around Elsa. Smashing against the stony pavement, a small glass capsule shattered quietly. Before the operatives could react, thick, black smoke rose rapidly and engulfed the immediate vicinity.

That's my cue. Elsa seized advantage of the planned distraction and slipped in between two of the coughing, disoriented Wolves.Emerging out of the smoke, she cast a quick glance at the rooftop opposite the church.

Janus stood on the rooftop, silhouetted by the blinding afternoon sun and looking like one of those greek gods in elaborately dramatic paintings. The ex-mercenary was dressed in his full Prometheus gear, complete with mask, hood and usual tight blacks with a holster for knives and a quiver full of black arrows. In his hand was a shiny new black Martin Jaguar takedown recurve bow, similar to the Martin Panther he wielded before it had been confiscated by the First Imperial Guard.

Being the former enemy of the Warriors, Janus had worked hard to turn over a new leaf. Partly, Elsa liked to think she had something to do with it. The man formerly known as the fearsome Prometheus had been smitten with her since their first encounter in Swynvort. Back then, he had been working for the villainous Ingrid Grendstav as her second in command over the League of Sorcerers, but he had slowly come to grow fond of her.

That had extended to two months ago, when he had sacrificed his high standing with the Empire to protect her from being killed. Elsa had then returned the favour by rescuing him from being executed as a traitor, and the two of them had worked together with the rest of the Warriors and the Insurgency to end the Empire's occupation in Denmark and stopped them from invading Arendelle. Needless to say, their relationship had progressed steadily since then.

It was a good thing that he had decided to tag along and shadow her. Elsa had been adamant about not putting any of the other Warriors at risk unnecessarily, since there was always the possibility of getting caught by the Blue Wolves who knew exactly how each of them looked. Nonetheless, Janus had ignored her protests and worked with her and the others to devise an "extraction plan" in case things went south…and they had.

From where Elsa was, she could see him pointing in the direction of west, where they had planned their escape route for a situation such as this one. Cruxnoir Street. Gratefully, Elsa gave a distinct nod in acknowledgement, and he slipped out of sight.

The smoke was beginning to clear, and Elsa knew her window of opportunity was closing fast. She took off sprinting across the street, just as one of the Blue Wolves shouted, and a pistol ball whizzed past her head and struck the stone wall of a building in front of her.

Damn. Elsa gritted her teeth and raced into the dimly lit building as the Wolves began to give chase. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the dark, having already been in the blinding summer afternoon light. When they did adjust, she saw that the building was a shophouse belonging to a merchant selling tourist trinkets.

The merchant looked surprised to see the "princess turned criminal" suddenly dash into his humble shop. Evidently, he was acutely aware of the CAST, as did everyone else on the continent. However, that didn't stop the Arendellian from addressing her as per her title.

"Your Royal Highness." He blurted out. "What-"

"Is there a way up to the roof?" She cut him off. The people of Arendelle knew very well that she wasn't a criminal but they couldn't do anything to lift the treaty. However, they could help in other ways.

"Yes." He nodded and pointed to a staircase behind him, now aware that she was being chased.

"Thank you." Elsa weaved around him and made for the stairs, just as the Wolves burst into the shop.

"Over there!" One of them shouted as she sprinted up the stairs two at a time.

She went as fast as she could, her feet carrying her almost as if they were doing all the thinking, moving purely on instinct and a measured sense of timing. Her mind was racing, pumping, just with one single thought, one single word that encapsulated her entire world right now. Escape.

Her legs pumped the stairs, and finally she came to the end of them, where an ancient wooden door was half rotting in her way. Applying her frame to the door which was half stuck, she debouched from the stairwell and into the hot afternoon sun again. Elsa found herself on the roof of the three storey building, in the midst of many other similarly built shophouses in the middle class part of town.

"Flank her!"

Elsa whirled like a cat, and gave an exasperated groan. These men were annoyingly relentless. Another few operatives were cautiously jogging in her direction from one of the adjacent rooftops, pistols in their hands.

There was no time to think any further. Only one goal. Head west. Orientating herself, Elsa took off running again as fast as her legs could carry her. As she ran, she stripped off her double breasted coat and tossed it aside. It was heavy and weighing her down and would make her a little slower, restricting her range of motion. She tugged at her bun and let her hair fly loosely in the summer wind as she pelted across the rooftops.

Right now, she was thankful that she had taken into account the possibility of being chased, and had chosen to wear practical flats instead of those aesthetic but painful high heeled shoes. She shuddered to think what would have happened if she had worn heels instead. Probably wouldn't have gotten very far.

But that was besides the point. Right now, she had to focus. Head west towards Cruxnoir Street. As Elsa bolted across the rooftop of the shophouse she was on, she could see that she was fast approaching the edge, where there was a two foot gap between her and the next rooftop. Nothing too major, but then of course, in the heat of the moment, things could go awfully wrong at any time.

Nonetheless, she didn't slow her momentum, pacing herself carefully as she neared the edge. When she was a half step from tripping and plummeting, she leapt and held her breath.

Elsa flew over the gap, and time seemed to stretch into an eternity. Eventually, she descended, feet touching the ground and she pushed herself to keep running in spite of her screaming legs which protested for rest. No, she had to keep going. She could still hear the shouts and the pounding of boots not far behind her.

This entire scenario reminded her of something very similar about two years ago. A time when things had been much less complicated. It was her first mission, her very first adventure with the Warriors to stop Kane. They were in Agrabah's marketplace, and she had been the lookout. However she had been spotted by Santos, one of Kane's mercenaries, who had chased her across the rooftops.

Of course, he had been the criminal then and she had been on the right side of the law. This time however, things were very different. She was the "criminal" now, hunted by Confederation authorised task force operatives whose sole purpose was to apprehend her for being born with magic.

The edge was closing fast. Again. The next building was slightly farther off, meaning she would have to jump further. From the side of her eye, she could see more operatives emerging from the rooftop staircase of an adjacent building with the intention of flanking and cutting her off. She was running out of time. I have to go faster.

Elsa pushed herself into an even faster sprint, faster than she knew she could go, and closed the gap. Launching herself off the ground, Elsa flew through the air again, praying hard that she would not get shot through by a pistol ball in midair. Thankfully, she touched down on the opposite rooftop intact, and kept going.

However, the detail on the adjacent building had switched tactics. Instead of cutting her off, the Wolves had dropped to the ground on the building that she was now directly beside, and pistols were aimed in her direction, panning as she crossed the rooftop. At the range that they were at, the chances of them hitting her were fifty-fifty, and she didn't like those odds in the slightest.

But she couldn't possibly stop. The Wolves directly behind were gaining on her and would catch her if she hesitated now. No, there was no time for doubt or second guessing now. Too late for that.

As she ran, she waited for the sounds of pistols going off, but the resounding cracks that would echo throughout the air never came. She chanced a quick glance to her right, and watched as the last Wolf took an arrow in the chest and slumped bonelessly on the roof, dropping his pistol.

Janus was running past the fallen men on the rooftop of the building opposite her, bow in hand, having just dispatched of the entire detail mere seconds ago. He had saved her yet again. She could see that he too had inclined his head towards her from across the building, and as he ran he gestured forward with his free hand.

Thank God for Janus. Elsa returned the gesture in acknowledgement - she wasn't certain if he would be able to see her nod - and turned her attention back to what lay ahead. What she saw made her heart lurch harder in her chest even as her tired feet continued to pound the ground, lifting and slamming down like gears turning furiously to make mechanism work.

A yawning gap she wasn't entirely sure she could cross. As she closed the distance, her faith in her ability to do so shrunk. But yet she knew she couldn't stop. The men behind her were closing fast, and if she stopped now the game would be up.

But Elsa knew she couldn't make it to the other side. So she did the next best thing that popped into her mind.

Taking a deep breath, she leapt, though not with all her might. As she began to fall, she stretched out her hands towards a window of the third storey. The glass frosted over with ice as she fell towards it, knees raised to act as a barrier in front of her, and thankfully she had timed it just right.

Gravity sent her crashing through the frozen glass window knees first, causing it to shatter into smithereens of beautiful shining crystals reflecting sunlight from outside. Elsa tumbled onto the floor of the house's kitchen and crashed into a table, sending a pot full of soup flying and splattering across the wall. She groaned. So that worked. She hadn't been entirely confident that it would, but took the chance anyway. There was no time for caution in any case.

The sound had obviously attracted the attention of the house's inhabitants, who flocked quickly to the kitchen to see what the commotion was. Birds flying and crashing through windows weren't exactly a rare occurrence in this part of the city, but they were shocked to find the former Queen of Arendelle sprawled on their kitchen floor in a most unceremonious fashion, glass and ice strewn everywhere.

"Sorry." Elsa grunted, pulling herself to her feet with the help of one of the house's inhabitants.

"Your Royal Highness! Are you alright?" One of them asked, bewildered. "What's going on?"

"Sorry, I'm sorry, I don't have time to explain." She stretched and felt her back pop. "File a claim. The Crown will cover this."

The Arendellians stood dumbfounded as Elsa stumbled forward, pawing the walls as she got feeling back into her body. Then she darted out of the house and down the corridor that would lead to the stairwell.

Unfortunately, the Blue Wolves were relentless. There was the sound of clambering coming from the floors below, the heavy clomping of boots that signified the arrival of more hostiles. Elsa groaned in exasperation. Can't even catch a break.

Elsa skidded to a halt and orientated herself again. West. West. West. Cruxnoir Street…She glanced to the opposite corridor and saw a window at the end of it. Sighing, she knew exactly what she had to do.

Bolting towards the corridor window at breakneck speed with hands outstretched, the window frosted over, and Elsa lunged, throwing her entire weight against it. The window shattered, and Elsa found herself free falling yet again. This time though, she narrowly made it, grabbing onto a pipe running vertically on the outside of the opposite building.

Sliding down the pipe towards the ground level, Elsa felt her hands begin to burn with the friction and she winced, enduring the pain. When she had descended to a safe dropping distance, she let go of the pipe and dropped to the ground in a nimble crouch.

Without giving herself any time to rest, she continued running as she heard rapid footsteps pouring out of the building. Elsa's heart hammered in her chest like cannons going off, and her legs screamed their displeasure, but she ignored them. Almost at Cruxnoir Street. Just a little further…

"Halt!" A pistol went off in the street, cracking and reverberating throughout the air.

The shot went wide, but it was enough to warn Elsa that her pursuers were still filled with dogged determination to apprehend their target. She ducked into a gap between two buildings. A claustrophobia inducing narrow alleyway that would only allow one person at a time. That would slow them down a little. However, that could work to her disadvantage too. If one of them decided to shoot, it would almost certainly mean that she would end up with a lead ball in her back.

Still, it was far too late to change her mind now. Elsa was halfway through the alley when she heard another shout from somewhere behind her. Almost there…She debouched from the narrow space and sprung left just as another pistol went off, the shot echoing in the narrow confines of the dim and stinky alley.

Cruxnoir. Just one more right turn. Elsa could hear the blood pounding in her head as she continued to push on. She didn't even spare a glance over her shoulder to see if the Wolves were still giving chase. She knew that they would be there.

And then up ahead, three cursed Wolves emerged from behind a corner, pistols raised and aimed at her. Elsa's eyes grew wide as she voluntarily closed the distance. There was no time to fade out of the way, not at the momentum she was going.

Raising her hands in a swift upward motion, ice formed on the ground beneath the Wolves' feet, sending them sliding off balance and shouting in alarm. Vaulting over one of the fallen operatives, she slid across the ice and continued sprinting once her feet touched solid concrete again. Behind her, she could still hear the shouts from Blue Wolves who were still in pursuit.

She turned the corner, and finally, arrived at Cruxnoir Street. Janus was running towards her from her left, and arrived in completely good shape.

"You're alright." He enveloped her in a tight hug. He's not even out of breath, Elsa noted as she wrapped her arms around him and felt his heart beating calmly.

"Are you?" She asked as she pulled away.

He nodded through the black mask.

An air of urgency still lingering strong in the air, she took his hand firmly. "Come on."

Author's Commentary:

This chapter's action sequence may be some of the best material I've ever written. Pretty proud of the tone and pacing of how this story is going thus far. Hope you guys are enjoying it too! This story is going to be more action packed than any of the others I've written thus far. Leave me a review and let me know what y'all think :)