Ex: So, personal life stuff was the most major reason for the lack of sooner update this time, rather than my own laziness. I won't go into details further than that. I know it's not much of an excuse, but it's all I've got. Of course if I finish this chapter the same day I started writing it, it will have only been four months between updates, which isn't that bad considering some of the past wait times. Anyway I feel like I'm stalling at this point, on with the show!
The length of time Mathias had been gone and the fact that she didn't see him as she looked around the now emptying ballroom had Elsa thinking two things. One, Mathias hadn't found his father before he'd left the party. And two, if he'd found him, their conversation had been important. She'd voiced as much to Anna, who suggested a third option Elsa hadn't considered when she voiced these concerns to her and Kristoff . "Maybe he and his dad are just having a nice father son conversation?" Anna offered. Elsa still didn't look convinced.
"Not to encourage you to be paranoid, but I don't think anyone would care at this point if we disappeared to look for him." Kristoff said. "The party has all but ended at this point."
"I suppose we could go looking, but we don't know this castle like the one back home." Elsa answered.
"Before you go exploring the castle in the dark, I may have a suggestion." They turned to find Lenora approaching them. "I couldn't help but overhear, Mathias has come back yet?"
Elsa nodded. "Do you know where he and Simon might be?"
"I can't say with certainty, but one of the guards mentioned to Oliver and me that the king stepped out to the central garden for some fresh air and Mathias went there to look for him. Maybe they're still there."
"Would you mind showing us the way?"
"Not at all, follow me." Lenora turned and led them toward the back entrance to the ballroom. Going through the door, Lenora led them down the dimly lit hallway the opposite direction Elsa and Mathias had come from earlier.
"Thank you for your help Lenora." Elsa said. "I'd hate to get lost in this palace searching in the dark."
"I'm glad to be of assistance, and I won't miss an excuse to see the garden. It has a beautiful fountain in the center. Unfortunately the tree next to it is mostly dead at this point"
They made their way through the halls as Lenora continued to describe the features of the garden. As they went around another corner and saw what appeared to be a door to somewhere outside near the end of the hall, Elsa heard what sounded like swift quiet footsteps behind them, like what she'd heard before the party, and a strange whooshing sound. As she stopped to listen and look behind them, Anna too stopped and looked.
"You heard that too?" Anna asked. Elsa nodded.
"Heard what?" Lenora asked.
"It sounded like footsteps, but small and fast." Elsa said.
"Oliver says these halls make weird sounds sometimes. He's described that one from his childhood."
"Mathias said the same earlier about the strange sounds."
"Still," Anna said with a shiver. "It's creepy."
"Let's keep going, maybe we could all use a little fresh air." Lenora said. Kristoff put his arm around Anna's shoulder, reassuring her. Elsa took one last look back down the hall before nodding and continuing on. As they reach the door further down the hall, Elsa thinks she may have faintly heard the noise again, but she doesn't mention it. As the door opens, they feel a rush of wind and all but Elsa shiver a bit at the cold. She doesn't see Mathias or Simon, but the various hedges and plants prevent her from seeing what she assumes is the deeper parts of the garden. "The garden is a bit of a maze itself.b They might be somewhere inside here." Lenora said.
They walk a bit around the perimeter before turning to one of the entries into the deeper garden. There's no sign of Mathias and Simon, or anyone else for that matter. They finally reach the center, the light trickle of the fountain occasionally cut off by the wind rustling through the branches of the nearby tree. They all spread out a bit as they near the fountain, looking around.
"If they were here, it looks like they've already gone." Kristoff said.
"I'm sorry to have led you to a dead end." Lenora said.
"It's alright." Elsa replies. "Any other idea where they might have gone?"
"If it was something of great importance, perhaps Simon took Mathias to his study to talk. I can show you the way if you-" Anna suddenly lets out a yelp and jumps back from the bush she was standing near.
"What's wrong?!" Kristoff asks, running to her side.
"Something just moved in that bush!" Anna said. Kristoff goes closer to the bush and reaches his hand out to push aside some of the leaves. As he does, he too lets out a yell and Elsa and Lenora see something quickly run from out of the bush to the hedges. They can't see it, but the rustling of the leaves gives away its position as it makes its way through the leaves of the hedge on the opposite side of the center garden. Elsa notices there is a small brick wall behind the hedge and thinking quickly throws up a thin wall of ice, blocking the path through the hedge. The rustling stops and turns back the other way, only to be blocked by a second ice wall.
"What is it?" Anna asked.
"Let's find out." Elsa replied, slowly approaching the hedge where the rustling stopped. When she gets just a few feet away and the hedge begins to rustle again, Elsa raises her hands to defend herself. However, she's more confused than scared when the face of a small animal slowly pokes out from the hedge. Its sleek black muzzle begins to turn up towards her as it pokes from the bush, followed by a pair of large pointed ears. The most striking feature however are its eyes, a deep Amber shifting to a stormy gray color near the iris. Elsa and the fox stare at each other for a moment before the fox seems to relax, flashing an almost smile with its teeth before shooting back into the hedge and over the brick wall behind it.
Elsa is still stunned at seeing this odd creature of legend she'd recently learned about when Lenora asks, "Was that… a fox?"
Elsa nods. "Yes… a black fox."
Despite being away from home for so long, Mathias took a small amount of comfort in how easily he still navigated the somewhat confusing inner walls of the castle on his way to his father's study. As a child he'd remembered getting lost a few times in the deeper older areas of the castle. Of course as he grew older, those same hallways became some of his favorite places to spend his free time when he wanted to be alone and not locked away in his room.
His thoughts also remained on the odd encounter in the garden. 'Who exactly was that woman?' She'd been helpful and friendly, but something about the way she spoke and her presence in general left him feeling a little uneasy. Maybe he'd ask his father about her after he'd told him what he'd called him for.
As he rounded the corner of the hall where his father's study was, he heard what sounded like his father speaking to someone. He couldn't quite make out the words, but his father sounded urgent and agitated in whatever he was saying. By the time Mathias reached the door, his fathers voice had gone silent. Mathias waited a moment to see if he could hear anything else before knocking on the study door. A few heavy sounding footsteps approached from the other side before it opened. Standing there was a guard, wearing the same black armor Mathias had seen on the one his father had been speaking to when they'd arrived, possibly even the same guard.
"Mathias has arrived sir." The guard said.
"Ah, good timing," Simon replied. "Let him in."
Mathias entered the study, finding his father standing facing away from him toward the fireplace behind his desk. As Mathias and the guard moved to stand on the opposite side of the desk, Simon turned to face them.
"I believe that will be all for tonight, you have your orders." Simon said to the guard.
"Yes sir." he replied with a head bow to the king. He turned to Mathias, "Your majesty." He bowed to Mathias the same before exiting the room. After the door shut behind him, Simon took a seat behind his desk and sighed.
"Take a seat Mathias. We have matters to discuss." Mathias sat in the chair opposite his father. As Simon sat across from him silent for a moment, Mathias noticed just how tired and aged his father looked. Shaking some of that tiredness from himself, Simon said, "Firstly, I do apologize for today. When I first received confirmation you were coming, I was a little surprised but no less thrilled. I had hoped to make more of a celebration of your return home. However, things have obviously not gone according to plan. In fact, I fear bringing you here may have put you as well as Elsa in even more danger."
"You mean after what happened in the square a few days ago?" Mathias inferred. Simon nodded. Mathias continued, "For what it's worth, things weren't exactly safe in Arendelle either. I didn't mention it earlier but we had an incident of our own before we came here as well. More of those monsters came to the city. We chased them off but, after so long without seeing or hearing from them…"
Simon finished his thought. "And so near to our own issues here. I assume you agree with my thought that it's hardly a coincidence." Mathias nodded. Simon reached for one of the drawers of his desk and pulled a stack of papers. Flipping through the pages he asked. "I've never brought it up before, and now I feel foolish for it, but what exactly do these creatures coming after Elsa and you look like?"
"Human in shape, but without legs or faces. Although one did have eyes." Mathias shuddered a bit, remembering Zalran. "And cloaked, but, like a cloak made from shadows you could touch."
"I see." Simon replied, stopping on one of the pages. "Before you arrived here tonight, that guard I was speaking with delivered a report to me. This afternoon, a pair of guards who were sent into the forest on patrol came back in a state of fright." He handed Mathias one of the pages. Mathias looked at the page, and though it was clearly a quick rendition, there was no doubting it. The creature on the page was definitely the same as the ones after him and Elsa. "They described this, coming out of the forest for them."
"So they're here, and I doubt they're unrelated to the ones working with Hans and Alan. They have to be here because of Elsa." Mathias said.
Simon nodded. "I agree. More importantly, that it's a creature like this is even more disturbing. Spirits, shades like this can only be summoned by powerful wielders of dark magic." Simon stood and faced the fireplace again. "The witch I made a deal with, the one who cursed you, had a pair of them when I found her in the mountains."
Mathias is a bit taken aback by this information. "Do you think she's related to all this?"
"I'm not sure. From what we know, the ones who first arrived in Arendelle were there for Elsa only. That you were there to stop them was a happy accident. Then again, that they're working with Alan means they could have met him here, except…" Simon trailed off. "No, no. Measures were taken to keep her from coming back here. I was assured of it." He turns once more to face Mathias. "Regardless, I couldn't keep this from you. Witch or not, those who are after you and Elsa no are no doubt here."
Mathias doesn't respond, unsure of what to do with this information, before a question comes to mind. "Why didn't you mention this before tonight's celebration?"
"I didn't know. After I asked Oliver to find you, the guard came to me with this report."
"So what did you want to talk to me about?"
"I had planned to invite you, as well as Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff to join Oliver and myself for tomorrow's opening hunt." Simon once more returned to the seat at his desk. "I don't know if you're much for hunting, and I know we've never really talked about the incident before the last hunt."
"I don't suppose any of those duke's sons are in attendance this time?"
Simon laughed and replied, "I'll be honest, I don't even remember who that duke was or where he was from."
Mathias laughed too, before saying, "So, are you still inviting me?"
"I don't want to put you at even more risk going out there."
"If they already know we're here, I'm not sure what difference it will make. Besides, I'm not going to hide here and put you at risk either. They're after Elsa, but I see no reason for them to not make a target of you and Oliver."
"I still want to believe that Alan can be reasoned with, but you're probably right."
"Alans made his choices, and Hans or whoever else they're working with aren't going to stop hunting Elsa. If they're willing to go through whatever means it takes to summon these spirits to do it, they'll go after anyone or anything that gets in the way."
"So what are you going to do?"
"If we're lucky, maybe we can find some way to stop them for good. And if not, I'm not putting my family in more danger, I'm going to make sure everyone is protected."
Simon smiles at his son's words, "You've grown in your confidence, Mathias."
Mathias returned the smile and said, "I've had some help along the way. I'll tell Elsa what we talked about and ask her what she thinks, but for now the answer is yes. We've both done more than enough hiding. Maybe it's time we take the offensive."
"Well, if that's your decision, I'll help any way I can." Simon moves the page he'd handed Mathias back to the stack in front of him and says, "Well, I've taken enough of what should be an evening of celebration from you. You should be getting back."
"You're not going to rejoin us as well?"
"No, I'm going to finish reading these reports from my patrols in the forest, and then I'm getting some rest. I can't be looking as tired as I feel on the first day of the hunt."
"Alright, if you find anything else-"
"I'll let you know right away." Simon says with a smile.
"Alright, goodnight father."
"Goodnight son." Mathias leaves the study and Simons sighs, again looking down at the stack of pages in front of him and begins to read over the written portion of the report. A rush of wind against the window pushes it open slightly and a small black shape swiftly jumps through, kicking it shut again with one of its back feet.
Simon looks at the shadow below the window and says, "You're not supposed to come here, anywhere near the city let alone the castle." The fox steps from the shadows and appears to mostly ignore him, jumping onto his desk and swishing its tail happily. "And showing up in this report isn't going to help matters, no matter how much I know you think you're helping." The fox sits now, looking at Simon and tilting its head. Simon sighs and says, "You must have a reason then, to break the unspoken rules you set in place." The fox looks down at the stack of pages on the desk and begins to push them aside. It finally stops on a page and stamps its foot "I already know they mentioned you in the report. I didn't say a word about you to him."
The fox huffs and stamps its foot again. Simon pulls the page from under the fox's foot and as he reads, he realizes it's part of a different report he hasn't read yet. His eyes grow wide as he realizes what he's meant to understand when he reads about the strange sigil marked stone his soldiers found in the forest. He looks back at the fox and it nods, confirming his unspoken question.
"She's back."
Ex: Okay so finishing this chapter took 8 months instead of 4 but where fair is fair, I was going to update this a few days sooner but Fanfiction was having some server issues. Anyway I'm actually pretty happy with how this chapter turned out, I just wish I could have gotten it out sooner. Oh well. Anyhow, review, follow, possibly favorite. Pardon Elsa's absence from the opening as well as this closing. She'll be back in the next chapter, probably. See you guys next time!