𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚖𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚎

E L S A°

"Your highness." Someone waved a hand in front of me. "Earth to Elsa."

"Oh, sorry. I was just lost in a train of thought." I said trying to laugh it off. But I just can't shake off the uneasy feeling that I have.

"Well, Grand Pabbie said we'll be starting in a few minutes. I just thought I' inform you." Ryder said.

"Okay, thank you." I said waving him goodbye as he ran to the ritual place.

The Valley of the Living Rock is oddly quiet. Of course that was mostly due to the fact that the people who have taken refuge here are scared.

We'll be directly facing on the fearlings.

We can do this, right? We got this.

"Ready?" Jack put his hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, let's go." I nodded and headed to where the others were.

***

Difficult, is what I'll describe whatever it is that we are dealing with right now.

We're in broad daylight, cautiously moving all the things we needed. But know that fearlings can attack even in broad daylight, that doesn't make us any less scared.

"That should be the last of it." Kristoff announced. "Should we put it in place?" He asked.

"Is everyone ready?" Grand Pabbie asked, looking around the volunteers.

"Ready!" They answered in unison.

Grand Pabbie then turned to Kristoff who nodded once their eyes met. With a small push, the last piece felt into place.

A blinding light flashed for a moment, then came the horrifying scream of the fearling leader, the one that possessed Honeymaren.

"Get to position!" I quickly yelled. We formed a circle where we were back to back to make sure we don't have any weak spots. In the middle of the circle was the three things we gathered from before, our bait.

The ground started grumbling. "It's here." I heard Jack mutter.

From the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of it.

"Wait for it..." Anna said, looking at the same direction as I was.

A short silence, heavy breathing and loud heartbeats out of nervousness partially deafened my hearing.

"Go!" Anna yelled as the pitch black shadow-like creature made its way toward us.

I stomped my left feet, covering our ground in ice, and motioned my hand to quickly form an ice dome that protected the bait.

"Cover me!" I turned to Jack who quickly nodded.

We broke off the circle, which they quickly adjusted, and ran towards the fearling. Jack made sure no one would attack me from behind as I sprinted my way.

For some odd reason it looked larger that usual. Shadows should not be this big when the light is this bright.

Good thing it's at least weakened by daylight.

And if I remember correctly, the procedure should be like this...

It'll ignore me and go for the bait. That's expected. But, I have control of the bait since it's inside the ice dome I created.

We already know my ice alone would not keep it away but if we use crystals then that's a different conversation.

"Anna!" I yelled as it approached the ice dome. They quickly formed a gap in the circle, the same spot where Jack and I stood before breaking formation.

The fearling headed straight to it and went inside the ice dome with ease.

"Now!" Anna commanded.

One by one they took out a crystal from their pocket and going back to their circle formation. As for me and Jack, Gale helped us to fly over the dome to make sure it would not try to escape from the top side. Of course, both of us having crystals as well.

"Kristoff, you know what to do." Anna turned to her husband who nodded.

Kristoff muttered a few words, a chant, perhaps something taught to him directly from Grand Pabbie. Not long after the crystals started glowing brighter.

"Place the crystals on the ground behind you and cover your ears!" Kristoff instructed as he did what he was saying.

The others did as they were told but since Jack and I were floating above we just kept it on our hands, covering only one ear.

A loud shrieking noise followed, almost deafening, almost sounding like a cry. The fearling. 

I looked down momentarily and saw a small magical barrier slowly form as my temporary ice dome reflect its light.

"Alright this is gonna hurt your eyes so you might want to cover them." Kristoff said pulling Anna to his chest to cover her and using his gloved hand to cover his.

To my surprise I too was pulled, by Jack in a similar position to the two. Just through the small gap I saw through, I could tell there was a blinding light that was coming from the barrier.

The shrieking never stopped, or rather, the shrieking slowly started sounding like a single high pitched note. And slowly, at the same time the light softened, so did the sound.

Until we were back to normal. All that was left was the ice barrier I created.

"Did it work?" Ryder instantly asked.

Anna turned to me as Jack and I land on the ground. "Only one way to find out." Anna said, reaching out to my hand which I gladly took.

He looked at each other and took a deep breath at the same time, as if we practiced that.

"Here it goes." I said as waved my hand to melt the dome slowly.

First thing we noticed, the ice sculpture was gone. It was the tallest in there so it was something we expected to see first.

Perhaps the memory has returned?

Melting further in we were greeted with the box we put the crystals and the other valuables on.

No sign of shadows anywhere.

Then, as we got closer to the knee level we finally see signs of life. A body, no, a couple of bodies.

Laying on the ground was a bunch of children, all passed out, and in the middle was Honeymaren.

"There she is-" Ryder said excitedly. He was about to approach her but Jack quickly stopped him.

"Wait, I have to check something first." Jack said, approaching the alarming amount of people on the ground who lost consciousness. "Can I borrow another crystal?" He asked.

I quickly threw him the one I had, which he caught with ease. "Thanks Elsa." He said.

He knelt down, eyeing them; their faces, arms, legs, if they had anything unusual on them.

"We'll have to take Honeymaren to Grand Pabbie." Jack said, turning to me and Anna.

Anna then turned to Kristoff and Ryder who gave her a nod. Kristoff easily scooped Honeymaren off the ground while Ryder rushed to get himself a reindeer.

Once Ryder was back, Kristoff carefully placed Honeymaren on the sled with Ryder.

"Want me to take the reigns there bud?" Kristoff then asked, noticing Ryder's worried look that he was giving his sister.

"I would actually like that yes. Please, thank you your- I mean, Kristoff." Ryder said, as her shifted to the back side of the sled to make room for Anna and Kristoff.

"Alright, you guys go on ahead, we'll be asking Gale for help." I told them.

"Okay." Anna said. "Everyone else, please help us take the children to the Valley of the Living Rock." She instructed, to which our volunteers gladly agreed on.

Anna has become such a great leader. I can't help but feel proud of and for her.

We stayed for a bit longer, waiting until no one was left behind in the area. A train of thought crossed my mind.

All those children, was it all of them that we lost? It feels almost too... many.

Was that why the fearling was so enormous earlier? It was a mass of fearlings? Was it everything? Why did it not spread itself?

Is it really over?

"Here, I forgot to hand this back." Jack said interrupting my train of thought. He was giving me the crystal I threw to him earlier.

"Oh, thank you." I muttered as I took it from his hand.

"It's okay, we did it." He said with a smile, as if he read my mind that I was worrying.

"Yeah. We did it." I repeated and took a deep breath. "Is it really over?" I asked, finally speaking what was on my mind.

I was the pulled in for a hug followed by Jack's very heavy relieved sigh.

"Ah, I was so nervous." He said giving me a light squeeze.

I giggled at his action. "Me too." I said hugging him back.

He pulled away from a second and took a look at me, his hands on my shoulder. He let out another sigh.

"Don't rush off like that ever again. I almost freaked out." He said as his forehead rested on my left shoulder.

"But that I part of the plan." I said.

"I know. I still... the plan played out way faster than I thought it would." He said, a bit frustrated.

"But we made it?" I said, though it sounded more like a question since I was unsure.

Jack let out a light chuckle. "Yeah. We made it."

He finally faced me again, inhaled then spoke up. "Can I hug you again?" He asked.

I looked at him, a little dumbfounded before I ended up laughing. "You didn't really need to ask but sure." I said spreading my arms.

He had a huge, almost silly, smile on his face as he went in for a hug. "Can we stay like this a bit longer?" Jack asked, his voice very soft.

I hummed a yes in response. "Thank you." He said in barely a whisper.