Hey, guys, here's chapter two. The reason I'm cranking them out is so fast is that I'm going on a vacation fairly soon, and I won't be able to update. Next chapter should be out either Friday or Saturday.
"Why the sudden interest in predators?"
Elsa and Anna went to visit Kristoff shortly after arriving home to inquire about the monstrous predator that was residing in the forests of Arendelle. Experienced in the behavior of predators, and that Arendelle had no permanent biologist, he was the best chance the kingdom had to track the animal that had slaughtered a cow, and maimed a bull.
Elsa filled him in with the events that had occurred at the farm, and the subsequent investigation that followed.
"Large predator, you say?" Kristoff said, rubbing his temple. Taking a piece of paper out, and a feather pen, he began writing down the facts they knew about the animal. "Maximum length is fifty feet; rough height is about twenty feet; jaw width about four feet; minimum weight is three tons, likely larger; bipedal; large arms, with clawed digits; large, birdlike feet; scaly skin; carnivorous; at least as intelligent as a wolf."
Walking to the blackboard in the back of Elsa's study, he picked up a piece of chalk, and turned to the sisters behind him. "I'll be a while, but I'll let you know when it's ready." The girls left Kristoff, wondering what sort of monster he would be creating.
"How well do you think he can draw?" Elsa asked Anna.
"I can't say. I've never seen him draw before."
Forty-five minutes later, Kristoff invited a both girls back into the office. The moment Elsa saw the detailed portrait of the beast in white, she jumped. Kristoff wasn't only a good artist; he was also a highly scientific in his study of animals. The picture seemed perfectly proportionated, with a large head, with equally large teeth; long arms, with strong claws on each finger; strong, muscular legs, a long tail, and scaly skin. A small person was included to show the scale of the animal. The animal seemed something out of a horror story, as though Kristoff took a dragon and removed the wings. The entire animal was bent low, its mouth agape, and its arms reaching forward, towards the small person.
"Oh my gosh, Kristoff," Anna said. Her voice had a hint of fear. "What is this thing?"
"This is what I deduced from the description you two gave me. Now, there may be more details, as nobody has seen this animal, but this is a perfectly acceptable model for what we may be dealing with."
"I shall call all of the guards," Elsa announced, "and issue a meeting at once."
An hour later, all of the security personnel were gathered in the conference room, where Anna and Kristoff wheeled the blackboard to, where it was covered with a sheet and positioned it in the front of the room. Elsa stood at the front of the room, with an air of graveness and importance about her. Once the room had quieted, she began.
"Thank you all for coming to this meeting. I have called you all here to inform you all of a brutal attack on a herd of cattle. This attack resulted in a heifer being slaughtered, and a large bull being maimed by a large predator. Now, by large predator I do not mean a bear. I speak of a completely new animal, previously unknown to us prior to this attack. How long it has been in this kingdom, we do not know. I now call forth Kristoff to explain what this animal could be."
"Like Queen Elsa stated," Kristoff began, "we do not know much about this animal. However, what we do know paints a terrifying picture. I have used the information the veterinarian treating the bull gave to Queen Elsa and Princess Anna to create a plausible picture of the animal."
Anna then removed the sheet, revealing the picture. The entire audience gasped, shocked by the terrifying realism of Kristoff's creation.
"This model is not of the actual animal, but of my interpretation of the information given to me. As I told Queen Elsa, this is an example of what we could be dealing with. It is also possible that it has certain details not given to me, nothing to mention of its behavior."
"Meaning?" a guard asked.
"Well, we know that it's a fierce carnivore, which are naturally aggressive. What little information we could gather about its behavior points towards a seemingly intelligent animal."
"Intelligent?" another guard asked skeptically.
"It seems so, yes," Kristoff explained. "Though carnivores are, typically, more intelligent than the animals they hunt; this animal seems to have a higher intelligence than many other carnivores."
"How do you figure?" Elsa asked. Even she wasn't aware of this.
It's all in the behavior," Kristoff went on. "This animal seemed to be able to figure out that the cows were trapped in the pen, so it stepped over the boundary instead of stepping on it, figuring that if it broke the fence, its prey would escape."
"But if it's so big, then wouldn't it just step over it anyway?" Anna asked.
"Large animals do tend to avoid obstacles naturally. But let me explain this to you all: If I built a fence in a pond, and filled the fence with fish, would you smash through the fence to get at the fish? No, because if you did, the fish would escape. This animal has to have some form of cognitive ability to rationalize."
"Thank you, Kristoff," Elsa said. "Now, I hope you all realize how urgent it is that we at least locate this animal's territory. Once we find it, we will be able to determine what to do, whether to kill it, barricade it in, or some other form of security measures." The meeting ended shortly thereafter. Few questions were asked.
Later that night, Elsa was sleeping in her room. At about midnight, she woke for no apparent reason. Unable to determine what woke her, she attributed it to nerves. After all, arranging a hunting party to track down a carnivorous animal fifty feet long is enough to keep anyone awake. She decided to go for a short walk, to calm her racing mind. Once on her feet, Elsa felt much more awake, yet the soft carpet on her bare feet provided a soothing affect. Rising from her bed, she felt the soft flutter of her silk and linen nightgown flowing behind her. Making her way down the hall, she happened to glance outside and saw three figures outside the gate, talking. Two of them looked much bigger than the other one. The smaller one started to back away, and the other two advanced. One of the larger figures grabbed the smaller one, and the other one produced a blade that glinted in the moonlight, which was promptly embedded in the smaller figure's shoulder. Seeing this caused a high-pitched scream to come out of Elsa's mouth. The two standing figures did not hear this, but they still ran away, leaving the smaller figure to crumple to the ground.
Elsa, startled from what she saw, backed away from the window for a moment in complete shock, frost starting to materialize on her hands.
'I just saw somebody get stabbed,' she thought. 'I just saw somebody get stabbed!'
Getting control of her body, Elsa started to run down the halls towards the gate, a light dusting of snow trailing behind her. Her mind was frantic; she was unable to control it. What if she couldn't save the person that was killed while she sat by and watched?
"Open the gates!" she shouted at the guards, as she burst out the doors to the courtyard. The guards quickly complied, pulling open the doors.
Elsa dashed out the gates, and skidded to a halt near the figure lying on the ground. There was blood everywhere. The person was a boy, only about eighteen years of age, and unconscious. He was wearing some form of armor, a stiff leather chest plate, with an insignia on the front. The overall armor was primarily colored a deep blood-red, and the logo was a sky-blue pentagon, with a white symbol in the center. Elsa immediately saw where the knife went into him, just underneath his left collarbone.
"Please help me!" she cried to the guards. They quickly obliged, picking the boy up gently, placing him on a board, and carrying him to Elsa's bedroom. Though it would kill him to move him, she didn't have much of a choice. After the guards placed the boy on Elsa's bed, she quickly got to work, removing the boy's armor and the shirt underneath, nursing his wound, desperately trying to save the boy's life.
"Anything I can do to help?" Elsa's maid, Mira asked, concerned.
"Yes," Elsa said. "Please go to the kitchen, and get a pot of warm water. I need to clean this. Also get the doctor; I don't know how severe this is."
"I shall return shortly," Mira said, curtsying as she left.
Elsa, using a rag she grabbed on the way back to her room, wiped the blood from around the hole in the boy's shoulder.
A few minutes later, Mira and the palace doctor came into Elsa's room. Elsa made room for them by the bed.
"How is he?" Elsa asked, her voice cracking.
"Well, let's see," the doctor said. "The overall wound is about two inches long, and about four inches deep. When did you get to him after the initial injury?"
"No more than three minutes," Elsa said.
"Then he should be okay," the doctor said, a hint of confidence in his voice. "We just need to have him under supervision at all times until he wakes up."
"I can do that," Mira said. "So you can sleep, Your Highness."
"No, that's quite alright," Elsa said, a small smile finding its way on her face. "You sleep Mira, I'll watch him."
"Are you sure?"
"Quite."
The doctor helped Elsa bandage up the boy's shoulder, and bid them farewell.
"If anything goes awry," the doctor said, packing is things into his bag. "Just come and get me."
"Okay. Thank you, Doctor."
"Of course," he said, bowing.
Now that she wasn't fighting for his life, Elsa could get a better look at him. He was fairly attractive, with a well-proportioned face. His hair caught Elsa's eye, as he had white tips on each hair. Could it be that he had abilities like she did? His hair was also incredibly soft. Elsa rested her head on the bed next to the boy, gently stroking his soft hair, lulling herself to sleep.
Also let me know what you think of my new story cover. If you would like any changes to it, let me know.
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