Winter's Echo
Chapter Five – Settling In
The rest of the week passed by in a blur for Elsa as she threw herself into village life. After the hot spring fiasco, which Honeymaren had the good sense not to tease the sensitive queen about again, the tan woman had showed her around the settlement more. The encampment was centered around a large, open clearing that served as a common area. This is where meals were prepared and shared amongst the people, where elders gathered to tell tales of their ancestors, like the story of Noaide, to the young. For the first time, Elsa was able to take part in the evening communal meal, afterwards regaling the tribe with the more detailed version of Olaf's abridged synopsis.
Elsa had left out the detail of her freezing the entirety of the land, however. She later told Honeymaren, who pondered the admission quite seriously. For the next day or two, the brunette wasn't quite herself around Elsa, to the point the queen feared she may have caused a great rift. Eventually, Honeymaren appeared to have decided not to hold it against her and things went back to normal. She felt guilty omitting this truth from the rest of the Northuldra, but she had her reasons. Elsa had very recently had a pretty serious breakdown and wasn't sure who may have witnessed her in that state - or if that particular storm had ebbed, if she was honest with herself. She felt it best that no one knew a simple panic attack had led her to effortlessly freeze an entire land by accident just a few short years ago should someone have heard or seen the woman sobbing. At least, not until they had gotten a chance to get to know her, first.
The queen spent the next few days learning various chores of the village, from weaving a strong twine to the best types of firewood for what type of fire, even how to repair the lavvos. One of the older Northuldran men had offered to show her how to properly skin and clean an animal, holding up a live, struggling rabbit by its ears. Honeymaren had thankfully come just in time to save her from the lesson that she knew was necessary, but wasn't quite ready for. The spirit remembered with a small grin how the noaide had brought her a bowl filled with various nuts, berries, and wonderfully roasted vegetables to share between them that night, rather than the rabbit stew that the rest of the villagers eagerly ate.
Elsa had slowly begun to open up to Honeymaren, both women tentatively feeling the other out. It was effortless to feel at ease around the charismatic woman, but the queen's natural shroud of mystery and privacy was not so easily discarded. To her credit, the noaide was as patient as a glacier; she would happily wait forever for the blonde to divulge her secrets if she had to, content to open the gates of the reserved woman's heart one inch at a time. Elsa appreciated everything that made Honeymaren who she was; she wasn't sure she would have been able to survive in any sense of the word had the Northuldran not been so naturally attentive and protective of the queen.
"So, are you excited, Snowflake?" Honeymaren asked, pulling the queen from her thoughts. Elsa blinked and looked up at the Northuldran. The tan woman was currently crouched down near the base of a tree, carefully picking the mushrooms she found growing there. She looked up from her task to gaze at the blonde questioningly when she didn't receive an answer right away. "You're going to go visit Anna in Arendelle today, right?" Elsa smiled brightly and nodded, resuming her own hunt for mushrooms a few yards away, feeling slightly guilty about her half-empty basket. "I can't wait to see her, I've missed her so terribly," she affirmed, kneeling next to a small stockpile of her prey she spied growing next to a fallen log.
Honeymaren smiled warmly, loving the way the queen's exquisite eyes lit up with happiness as she talked about seeing her sister. "If I may ask, how long are you planning on staying?" she asked casually, rising from her crouch and searching for a new place to harvest. Elsa gave a small, non-committal shrug as she answered. "Most likely only a couple of days. I don't want to monopolize too much of her time, she's got so much more to do now." Honeymaren chuckled, picking her way through the trees and closer to the shoreline. "I haven't had the pleasure of getting to know Anna very well, but I'm fairly certain she will feel quite differently about what is "monopolizing" her time," she quipped.
Elsa laughed lightly, lifting her head to look at the brunette. "You're not wrong, noaide," she agreed with a smile. Honeymaren grinned and leaned against a tree near the water, her basket full of the fruits of her labors and lain at her feet. Her grin faded into a small, content smile as she stared down the length of the fjord in the direction of Arendelle. Elsa paused what she was doing to admire the brunette for a moment, silhouetted against the late light of the afternoon. The woman really was stunning, Elsa couldn't help but remind herself for what felt like the thousandth time.
The Northuldran was a bundle of contradictions that made her so exotic to the queen. Honeymaren had a small and feminine frame, but her size belied the clear strength of her heart and her passion. Her fingers were long and thin, her wrists small and delicate looking, yet the queen had seen them hold fast to the reigns of a panicking reindeer, unyielding in their determination and skillfully whittle pieces of rough wood into the most beautiful works of art. The thought Elsa sheepishly found herself dwelling on the most was that even the thick, pelted fabric of her clothes couldn't entirely hide the woman's ample curves from the queen's keen eyes. The memory of Honeymaren's nude form in the hot spring caused an intense heat to spread through the spirit's face and belly and the queen shook her head quickly, immediately going back to her task.
"It's going to feel strange, being alone again," Honeymaren admitted after a quiet moment, not taking her eyes from the landscape. "I'm going to miss you." Elsa smiled sweetly at the Northuldran, the confession making her heart flutter a bit. She stood from her now fully harvested spot, brushing the dirt from her legs and hands before picking up her small basket and joining Honeymaren near the water. "You could come with me, you know," she offered, handing the basket to her. Honeymaren smiled gratefully and took the offering from the queen, shaking her head. "Maybe one day I will, but you two should really spend some quality time together, not play hostess to me," she insisted. She bumped Elsa playfully with her hip as she pushed away from the tree. "You'd better get going, Snowflake. The day is ending," she pointed out.
Elsa smiled and nodded in agreement, closing her eyes for a moment and reaching within her for her connection with the water spirit. The briefest of moments later, Nokk's ethereal whinny echoed across the water, followed shortly by the mighty beast himself. Nokk trotted up onto the rocky shore and nuzzled his mistress lovingly before turning to regard the other woman. The noaide bowed her head low in reverence to the spirit, lowering her gaze respectfully. Nokk inclined his head slightly in turn, pleased by the tribal woman's perfect manners before the powerful stallion knelt low to the ground to allow his mistress easier access to his back. Honeymaren immediately reached out and offered her hand to Elsa, which the queen took with a grateful smile and gracefully mounted her watery steed. The Northuldran couldn't stop the small smile that tugged at her lips upon realizing that the nimble queen had needed no help, but eagerly accepted her hand anyway.
"Have a wonderful visit, Elsa. Be safe and know you will be missed. Give Anna and Olaf a warm hug from me," she said sweetly before stepping back, giving Nokk room as he rose to his full height, tossing his watery mane about. He was eager to run free along the fjords with his adored mistress once more. Elsa flashed Honeymaren a dazzling smile, placing her hands on Nokk's withers as he danced on the water's edge. "I will, I promise! I'll see you in a couple of days, Maren!" Elsa said happily, no longer able to contain the excitement of seeing her beloved sister. "Come, Nokk - let us race the sun herself!"
Nokk whinnied excitedly in reply, and leapt the several feet of the rocky shoreline to the water, sprinting in the direction of Arendelle as Elsa waved goodbye to Honeymaren on the shore. The Northuldran sighed, falling back against the tree as she watched the magical pair slowly fade from view with the last light of the day. It was undeniable to the noaide now that she was growing quite attached to the blonde queen. They had spent only a week together, yet there was very little the Northuldran found she wouldn't do for the woman for reasons far beyond her status as a spirit. No, it was Elsa she was falling quickly and surely in love with. The enigmatic woman triggered her deeply protective instincts in a way she hadn't felt before. There was nowhere in this realm the blonde could go that she wouldn't willingly follow. The question Honeymaren had to answer now was if Elsa would want her to. With a sigh, the Northuldran began the trek back to camp with both baskets of mushrooms to mull over her feelings for the absent queen and, hopefully, come up with a way to eventually tell the beautiful spirit how she felt.