I'm Afraid of What I'm Risking if I Follow You

Part 11

An earth giant skirted close to their boundaries. Bruni started to set trees ablaze, and that prompted Elsa right into action.

"Stop, stop!" she cried, quickly putting out Bruni's fires with bursts of ice. Something was very wrong; she could feel it in her bones, just as she was sure the spirits were feeling in their core.

Forgetting about the burning feeling, Elsa scooped up a clearly worried Bruni. "What's wrong?" she pressed gently, frosting her hands over so he could cool down. "Have you seen Hans? Do you know where he is?"

Bruni just scurried around her hands in small circles, almost disoriented. Clearly he was more concerned that Hans wasn't around, and something wasn't right.

But why were all the spirits reacting, then?

Then she heard a distant neigh. Elsa stood, but... that wasn't coming from the water.

The Nokk dashed right toward her, still frosted over.

Oh... Elsa had forgotten to take his frost coat off, too tired to even think about it! How should she have been so daft? Hans must have waited for Yelena to retire, checked to see that Elsa had, indeed, passed out completely, and disappeared. But why was the Nokk still here... and not with Hans?

Elsa frosted her shoulder so Bruni could settle there for now. As the Fifth Spirit with a cursed man on her hands (or out of her hands?), she had to get to the bottom of this; she'd come this far figuring this convoluted mystery out.

She pet the Nokk, trying to calm him down, too. Their anxieties were easily feeding into her, with their connection. "Whoa, whoa..." Her forehead pressed to his. "I know you've seen Hans last. You have to help me find him, okay?"

The Nokk nudged his nose, but Elsa knew that meant he'd help. That connection had always been there, between him and Hans, between Bruni and Hans, even if they couldn't interact in very natural ways.

"Okay," she decided. "I'll be right back. But we have to get going soon."

Elsa dashed back into the hut and grabbed her journal, scribbling out a quick note.

Dear Anna,

Spirits in complete disarray and causing chaos. Hans is missing. If you don't hear from me in three days, that's cause to assume something happened to me.

The Nokk and I are going to try to get to the bottom of this first.

All my love,

Elsa

She folded the paper in half haphazardly, whistling for Gale. Gale whipped through Honeymaren again, tripping her aside, as if the wind had no control of her path.

"Send this to Anna, quick," Elsa ordered as her letter was swept up. "She needs to know something might happen to me."

The letter started to fly all over the place, though in Gale's gusts. Oh, Elsa hoped it got to Anna just fine, just in case... But there was no time to keep track of Gale's path. Bruni clung tight to her shoulder as she mounted the Nokk.

"I'm going to find Hans!" Elsa announced to the whole village. "I think, right now, I'm the only one who can."

Yelena tossed her a canteen, which Elsa strapped to her waist. "Good luck!" she called. "You'll get to the bottom of this."

Nodding, Elsa ran toward the water, defrosting the Nokk. They would make better time this way, now that she didn't have Hans.

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