"So it is true! You do have a magical square box that can hold songs. Magnificent." Cyril said, examining the object- that he knew very well was an iPod in his fingers- pretending to be in awe.
The man, a pitiful soul that had dropped here from the year 2008, hadn't given them any trouble until he started going around, waving this thing in people's faces, claiming he could rebuild and replicate the 'magical' device.
"Did you think I lied?" The man said, examining the walls of the castle, "So will the queen see me? Do you think she'll endorse my plan?" he prompted, his eyes greedily following everything. Cyril didn't really feel about what he had to do; this guy was a rat.
"Of course, oops, I'm clumsy." He said, letting the device slip from his fingers.
"It's fine and hey! What are you doing?" The guy rushed forward as Cyril took his boot and stomped down hard.
"I told you, I'm clumsy." He said as he brought his foot back up and down countless times, as the guy watched in horror as the tiny device was destroyed beyond recognition.
"What the hell?" He exploded, "That was mine! I was going to make millions off that!" He cried.
"Really, who would buy it. And, remind me, your name wasn't Steve Jobs, was it?"
"No it's Darren and-,"
"Then you're really not in any position to be making money off it. Too bad, if you'd just kept it to yourself and not done something so utterly time changing, you could have kept it- your iPod displaying your unfortunate music tastes."
"My music tastes are great." Darren grumbled.
"Really? Nickleback? Jonas Brothers?" He prompted, and waved his hand, "You're free to go."
"Just like that? You're going to pay me back! That thing was at least worth 700 dollar with all the songs on there!"
"Oh, you're funny." Cyril gave a short, stunted laugh, "Guards?" He called and Darren was dragged away. Cyril was in the process of sweeping the ipod into a bag as proof that he'd taken care of the jumper, when Aldrich rushed in.
"We found another portal!" He said, sounding out of breath, "Dante and Osanna are watching it now." He said, pointing outside.
"Portal?" Anna popped her head in,
"You have impeccable hearing, my queen." Aldrich said, smiling.
"I was just walking by, but this is wonderful!" Just like every time, her eyes shone with hope. After ten years, Aldrich was surprised that the little flame never burned out, not ever, not once. She, at each time they heard of a portal, never lost the thought that it would lead her to her sister.
"Should I get Kristoff and Astrid?" She asked.
"No time. Who knows how long it's been open! Come, this might be the one!" He said gleefully, and Anna sent a quick note via a maid, grabbed her fall jacket, and rushed out the door with her friends.
At the site of the portal, the pair of children sat, throwing rocks into the vortex.
"Wonder if it's raining rocks on someone's head." Dante giggled, and Osanna smiled beneath her fingers.
"It's raining rocks!" She added, and they looked at each other, and then looked away to throw more rocks.
"Depending on where it is, they might think it's the end of the world or a god intervening somehow." Dante shrugged.
"Or it opens just onto a ground, and there will be a mysterious circle of rocks one this thing is gone." Osanna pointed out, "And the people will worship it."
"Wonder if that's how Stonehenge was created."
"Who the heck would be strong enough to throw rocks like that through a portal?" Osanna questioned, giving her playmate a questioning look.
"A really strong guy. Maybe giants or something." Dante shrugged, "It's possible."
"I think my dads would have brought that up sometime in these years." Osanna pointed out, "I think that's just as much a mystery to them as it is to us."
"What are you two doing?" A sharp voice came just as the pair were about to throw another rock. Osanna spun to see Aldrich standing there, running a hand down his face, their queen and Cyril in tow.
"Dante!" Anna scolded, "Those poor people!" Osanna watched as Dante's usual neutral and unemotional face slipped back on.
"Sorry." He muttered.
"Osanna, please, what have we told you about terrorizing portals?" Cyril sighed, coming to stand beside his partner.
"Not to do it." She said, "It was just pebbles." Aldrich gave her a dark glare, and she instantly dropped her handful.
"So, no one came through?" Anna asked, her hope dying just a bit. Dante knew that she secretly hoped that every portal would bring her to her long lost first daughter, his sister, Ophelia. He'd never met the girl, but he felt like he knew her. Sometimes it annoyed him at his parent's seemingly obsessive nature, but then when he thought about it, it would suck to lose a family member. She'd been much younger than he was when her and his aunt had vanished.
On the other side, he was the eldest now, and he was groomed to be a king. He wasn't sure he wanted to give up this right everyone had told him about just because a girl that had lived most of her life stuck a thousand years in the past appeared again. He didn't think she'd be fit to run a kingdom.
Osanna seemed to read his expression instantly. She knew Dante to have grown up to be a quiet boy, much to the shock of both his loud and sometimes blunt parents. She was his best friend, and probably the only one that could derive expressions whenever his parents or her own were around, during these times which he seemed to shut down except for logic.
But she knew better than that. She knew that he was far to emotional around those adults, and especially Astrid, and it had become in his best interest to stay nonchalant.
"Do you see anyone here?" Dante replied evenly, and his mother sighed. Cyril got down on his knees and took out a couple electronics far to advanced for these years, and it was a best-kept secret.
"HQ, portal located at," He glanced at a device and read off a list of numbers, "Any communication on another end? The portal has been open exactly two hours, thirty-seven minutes, and twelve seconds." There was a muffled static voice on the other end, and Aldrich and Cyril exchanged looks, "Shall we investigate?"
"Please do." Osanna heard that loud and clear, and a hand of terror grabbed her chest. She hated when HQ told her daddy and papa such things. The portals could close around them at any second, and they'd be gone forever...just like the former queen. She didn't want to loose either of them!
"Flip a coin?" Cyril asked, getting out a rope and a heavy metal claw.
"No need. I'll go." Aldrich said, like he often did, and Cyril pouted.
"But I want to go too." He said.
"You two are children." Anna huffed, "Fighting over whose going to go on a dangerous suicide journey, as always." She said. Aldrich and Cyril looked at her in similar expressions.
"But it so fun!" Cyril cried, "And you got to go last time!" He said, poking Aldrich's chest.
"Affirmative. And it's because I am the superior gatherer, Cyril." He said, grabbing the rope, "Now if you-,"
"Nuh-uh." Cyril said, snatching it back, "My turn!"
"No, I shall go!"
"The portal will close while they bicker." Dante murmured, leaning close to Osanna's ear. She stifled a laugh. What neither man noticed was that Anna had sighed, taken off her long skirts to reveal a pair of pants underneath, and done up her hair. She'd also taken the rope and began to secure it. By the time the pair stopped fighting, they watched her with mouths agape as she tied it around her waist.
"Queen Anna!" Cyril cried.
"You two hurt my head." Anna said, rolling her eyes, "I will go so I don't have to hear one of you bitter about it all night long. Or all week." She said.
"We do not get bitter." Aldrich scowled, pouting.
"Mhh..." Anna gave a disbelieving snort. Dante had to hand it to his mother, she was fierce. He wasn't quite as worried as Osanna. It would be cruel for fate to take away another family member, and he had to admire his mother's can-do attitude. He'd heard the story of her climbing the mountain to find his aunt a million times by now, and his father often said the reason he married her was because she was so...complicated.
"Dante," She said, looking up to her son, and smiled. It was warm smiles like those that made Dante feel as though, that maybe even if Ophelia did come back, he could still be king for he was sure he was mother's favorite, "Secure it and hold onto the life-line."
"Queen Anna, I still think-," Aldrich continued, but Anna waved a hand.
"You think far to much, Aldrich." She said, and with a simple jump, astounded the men as she jumped into the portal. One moment she was there, the next...gone. The ground beneath her quivered, and it took a well-trained eye to see the edges of the portals. Since Dante had been able to walk, he'd known the signs. With Aldrich's and Cyril's now seemingly permeate stay (even after they found the correct portal to the correct time) he didn't think they'd leave.
And well, he'd never admit it, but he'd miss Uncle Aldrich and Uncle Cyril terribly if they did. Aunt Astrid...sometimes he thought he could do without.
Half the time she was a perfect Aunt; she snuck them dessert late at night, she was the one who taught Dante how to fight and make weapons, she was a great storyteller, and other times she was...difficult. He also was well aware she was the ex-fiancée of his aunt's husband, somehow, and there were times where she'd get aggressive and break things and snap at anyone who came near her. She said nasty, horrible things about their family sometimes, but Anna was so calm, and just always told Dante to be forgiving. Astrid had lost more than they had.
He was so caught up in trying not to hate her sometimes that he grew to hate a lot of other things. It was a contagious thought.
He felt the rope tugging and called over everyone, who collectively helped bring his mother back it. It may have only been a couple minuets, but time was wonky with the portals. Sometimes when Osanna's fathers would go somewhere, they'd come back up, claiming to have spent days with the indigenous people, only to find they'd been gone less than a half-hour.
When his mother arrived, she was sweating profusely and had a couple of objects tucked under her arm.
"Whew!" She said, wiping sweat away, "I've never been so happy to feel Arendelle's cold wind," She teased, and handed a slip of the same numbers that Cyril had read off before, but different.
"I think its somewhere in the Amazon..." She said, and Aldrich double-checked.
"Quite a brilliant guess, my Queen." He agreed.
"Couldn't find people or a time, so I don't know. I was pretty deep in the jungle, climbed a tree and it seemed to stretch on forever. The portal is facing up ward, so you'd have to climb through it. Unless we have an occasional monkey or exotic bird, I think we're okay assuming people won't come through." She said.
"Too bad assuming things are strictly prohibited," Cyril sighed, "We'll start surveillance via cameras, and list is as low-priority portal." He decided.
"What's that, Aunt Anna?" Osanna asked, poking.
"Coca beans!" Anna cried, "For the best hot-chocolate you've ever tasted!"
That was one perk of this whole portal business. Sometimes trade or other things were brought back to be enjoyed, by trading little baubles or other weird things with people, that Cyril was fairly certain would not cause the world to cave in on itself if someone from medieval Europe acquired a paperclip.
In fact, they brought back a lot of stuff. It was a luxury, and one that he felt Osanna would have never felt had she not have parents in this business. But now, like he, she got special double luxury treatment because she lived in a castle (although she was not a princess, although Osanna claimed not to care about such trivial things).
Anna always joked one day she'd be a princess, via Dante, which just made his cheeks flush. He didn't see the allure; girls were weird to him still.
Cyril and Aldrich finished setting up a feed and the five hopped back into the carriage and made the ride back to the castle. Kristoff was waiting anxiously.
"I can't believe you didn't tell me!" He cried.
"It wasn't our portal," Anna assured, patting his shoulder.
"I still wanted to go." He said, frowning, "Amazon?" He guessed when he saw the beans.
"Exciting. A forest. Yippie." Astrid snorted, picking underneath her fingernails.
"It was beautiful, Astrid." Anna said. The girls especially were always a little...rocky with each other. Kristoff was always able to be more neutral to any argument, because while Elsa was his sister-in-law, he always said someone had to be the mediator between the pair. Even thought Anna always told Dante to be nice to her, she had a hard time looking the part often.
"I want to know when you're going to find a useful portal." She said, looking at Cyril whose eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Useful? They're all quite...okay, not useful but they're all faci-,"
"No, you know what I mean." Astrid said. Aldrich came up behind him.
"Quite." He agreed testily.
"So you can go and steal away my sister's husband?" Dante heard his mother mutter under her breath, but luckily Astrid did not hear. She carried around weapons that made him cringe, for everything he knew in fighting, he knew from her. There had to be things she had not taught him.
It was delicate, he had realized. Astrid had often pointed out their engagement had never officially ended. Elsa was his second fiancée, but his first wife, making her the stronger claim. Astrid was adamant he was settling, even though all his letters through the years suggested otherwise (and she pointed out there was no way for him to know that she was here) and that if she returned, he would go back to her.
It was sad to Dante, watching her pine away after years and years for a man that he was frankly sure had moved on. It made her feel...weak to him. Who needed eternal love, he thought, scoffing. Astrid could still at her age get any guy she wanted. It had been years and Elsa and Hiccup (what a stupid name, he always though) had kids upon kids.
He was just as sure as Astrid on her view that his was solid- in the case that Hiccup wasn't leaving Elsa. And if he had to pick a side, he'd pick the aunt he'd never met any day.
"How about dinner?" Kristoff asked, breaking the thin ice.
"Oh, sounds great!" Cyril said, "Are we having something delicious tonight?" He asked. Kristoff raise dhis eyes.
"I would like to imagine everything we eat is delicious." He pointed out.
"That remains to be seen," Cyril said, "Like goat cheese. Who likes goat cheese? Disgusting. Or cranberries! Ew-," His voice trailed off as he listed his least favorite foods as he went with Aldrich to wash up. Osanna gave him a quick smile and squeeze of her hand and ran after them.
"Dante, you're muddy!" He heard his mother's voice, and felt a wet finger run across his face.
"Mother, get off of me." Dante growled, but his mother held him and wiped away the grime from his skin.
"How can a boy so little get so messy," She teased, kissing his head. Dante scowled.
"I'm not little. I'm eleven." He pointed out, "Nearly a man."
"Oh, how could I have forgotten!" Anna cried theatrically, "Silly me." She said. Dante didn't smile, and Anna's grin faded a bit, and she patted his cheek, "Cheer up, Dante. Hot chocolate tonight!"
A small smile appeared on his face.
An hour later the whole brigade sat around the table, in their typical fashion. Anna sat at the head of the table, which had at first caused uproar with the magistrates. A woman sit in the spot a man usually sat? She pointed out that her sister had sat there, but they had rebutted she had been unmarried. A reasonable reply, but his mother had shrugged, ignored them, and always sat there. Kristoff seemed perfectly happy to sit directly to her right. On her left was Dante, and he prided himself on being prim looking for dinner each night.
Then down the line was his three brothers. Virgil, age nine, sat next to Dante. His black hair was always messy and his glasses were always a little too big, sliding down his nose, which was always in a book. Today it was a fiction novel, and he pushed his plate up the tablecloth to make room for it to sit. After him was seven-year-old Austin, who had already tried to unbutton his nice clothes to breathe and had brought an assortment of little wooden dolls to the table. Austin, currently, was knocking over the girl figures with horses. The last spot was reserved for his youngest brother, when he was old enough to feed himself. Currently Ellis, at age 3, sat by his mother so she could make sure he actually ate good food instead of hiding it.
Ellis was their last child- and they swore it vehemently too- and was named after the first queen that the city truly loved passionately, Elsa. It was because of his white hair and blue eyes. Although Ellis hadn't shown any magical skills, Anna was sure it was there somewhere.
On the other side, Aldrich sat doing some paperwork next to Kristoff, and the two occasionally exchanged a word or two. Next to him was an empty seat where Cyril would sit, but Cyril (for as much as he loved food) was usually never on time. He was most often the last one there, being side-tracked by this or that or had to talk to his person...well, they got used to starting to eat without him.
Osanna sat after, and while they were at an awkward angle, Osanna and Dante still managed to throw each other looks during dinner. After Osanna sat Astrid, for Astrid found Osanna to be the most agreeable of all the children in the castle, and the tough warrior had a visible soft spot for the ebony-skinned girl.
And this is how dinner always was, and to Dante, should always be. They passed and blended into one another until he had hardly realized it had been four moths since making this thought, four months after finding the Amazon portal.
He supposed the Queen and King's plight of their missing daughter and sister had become common within the members of the organization of the portal organizers. Everyone felt bad for his family, but lots of people lost others to portals all the time, so he didn't know why his family was so special.
It was late at night, and he was abruptly woken by a very energetic mother.
"Get your things, and meet in the dining room! Oh, it's the most wonderful news!" Anna cried, and Dante blinked awake, wearily rubbing his eyes. He threw on some clothes and followed his mother to the room. He found himself to the youngest one there, and preened at the thought he was old enough to go to a secret-late at night family meeting, for not even the servants were around.
"Cyril, oh you tell them!" Anna cried, poking him, and Aldrich frowned. Cyril held his breath in silence, until his partner grew impatient.
"Cyril, what have you found? It's blasted four in the morning!"
"The HQ down in Australia found a portal leading to Asia." He began, and Astrid gave a snort.
"Asia? Why do I care about Asia?"
Cyril's eyes glimmered, "Because it is about seventeen years after 950. AD." Cyril said. There was a stunned silence for a moment, and then Kristoff rocked of his chair.
"We've found it!" He cried, "We found our portal!" He said.
"And the best news? According to the theorem," The theorem, Dante reminded himself, which predicted the accuracy of how long a portal would stay open for and was right about 72% of the time, "the portal will be open for four months. It's a large one, giving us enough time to go and...well, this is everything you've been waiting for." He said, smiling, "I am truly happy for you."
"We must leave now if we expect to get there in time," Aldrich said, and Dante saw him calculating the numbers in his head.
"I can't possibly ask you to come with us," Anna said, "Your work is here." She pointed out.
"Nonsense. It can wait four months." Aldrich cried, and then softened, "You are like family. We want to be there." Dante's mother seemed too touched for words.
He swung his head to see Astrid, the only one who hadn't spoken. She had a childish look of awe on her face, and it was as if she truly could not phantom. Her lips moved wordlessly, but Dante caught what she said, over and over...Oh, Hiccup...
"The whole family will go!" Anna decided, "A family vacation! With our most trusted servants and cooks." She declared, "And the magistrate will just have to deal with it." Kristoff looked like he was holding in his laughter.
"Whatever you say my queen." He teased, "You think we can be ready to leave in twenty-four hours?" He asked her.
Anna grinned, "Let's make it twelve."
And twelve-hours later it was. The whole company, plus about seven extras, packed into carriages with large and awkward baggage to last them at least four months, if not longer. It was like his mother had packed her four-poster bed, the size of the luggage!
It was going to be a long and tiresome journey, Dante could already feel it, and was pleased he was placed in a carriage with his mother to begin with. He didn't want to be with his father who had to deal with three cranky younger brothers, especially Virgil who as crying because he couldn't bring all the books he wanted to bring.
In his mother's lap was a tightly bound package of letters, letters he was sure his mother could recite by heart at this point. They were Elsa's letters, withstanding time and everything. He saw a picture of Ophelia at around his age flutter to the carriage floor, and his mother picked it up. She saw her smile fondly at it, and look over to him.
Apparently, and he was not sure if this made him feel better or worse, he was nearly the spitting image of his sister, but in male form. They had the same facial structure, and especially the same nose. They both had their deep brown eyes and slightly pale skin. They both had a splattering of freckles across their noses, but Ophelia's was more pronounced, even at the age of...oh, sixteen? Seventeen now? The only difference was their hair color, and this was ever so slight. Dante's hair was the color of his father's, a warm and soft god, while Ophelia's was curly and the perfect mix between ginger and gold.
"I remember her perfectly, she would have exhausted you sometimes, but she would protect her baby brothers to the end of the earth. She always kissed my stomach when I was pregnant with you, and had all these things she said she was going to do for you when you were born. I was sure it was another girl, but she insisted that it was a boy." Anna said, tucking the photo in it's proper place, "I suppose she was right."
Dante didn't know how to respond. To imagine her existing while he too existed made his brain hurt, because she had also vanished before he came to be. To think that he, alive, could have known her in a very instinctual and base sense sort of weirded him out, because she was almost a legend know. The lost princess of Arendelle. It had a commercial ring to it, he thought with a scoff.
The trip to the edge of the continent took long enough, almost a month and a half. Still the portal had not closed. At the farthest edge they could get that was closest to Australia, they were sworn to secrecy. It didn't matter that they were once already; they had to be again, for they would be taking the next part of their journey in a painted-black flying machine. As it was told to him, the first ever invention of one of these would not be in use for another twenty years, and much farther down the road for a one that they would be flying in now. Dante realized that his Uncles must have pulled quite a few strings to get them passage on this.
They had to fly at night, so that no one noticed them (the less people that saw, the better) and Dante wanted to be awake for the majority of it, but found himself soothed to sleep by gentle motion. Heck, he wasn't even afraid about being in a metal can hundreds of feet above the ground. Osanna, on the other hand, looked like she was going to faint any moment in terror.
The trip took all night and into the next morning, for they had to stop on a tiny little island to reload the gas, and they were off once again. For the morning part, the early morning, Dante was awake enough to watch the tiny world below him. He felt privileged to be able to fly in such a great machine that, as he vaguely understood it, would not see until he had grandchildren or great-grandchildren.
When they reached the spot where they parted ways, Anna suddenly became a wreck of nerves.
"What if she hates us? What if she doesn't remember us?" She cried.
"That's silly, she's been writing you letters for years now," Kristoff said, undeterred, "Whatever has happened, she's still our daughter."
"We should know exactly what we're going to do when we arrive, whose going in, how long, what to do...it will be more treacherous than most. We can't simply attach a harness and be okay, whoever goes in will have to travel across the country to reach the place that Elsa describes, and try to get in there as quick as possible." No one spoke of what would happen if Ophelia didn't want to leave, but Dante found it a very real possibility.
"Too bad we don't have one of those flying things," Kristoff sighed, half-joking.
"We tried. Too big." Aldrich said.
"Well, we have something even better and more natural." Astrid said, looking the most frazzled. The grin that split across her face was the most real and beautiful thing Dante had ever seen, "Dragons..." The way she breathed it, it felt real, it felt true and it felt like a part of her. It was unspoken, but everyone knew that she was not coming back, whatever the case. She, in theory, was taking a one-way ticked through there.
But perhaps that's how it was meant to be.
It was quickly decided that Anna would go in, for she was the most connected, with Astrid and the girls would have to put aside their differences and make it Berk together. Aldrich and Cyril were still deciding if one should go and try to set up a network there, as Elsa had described at least three other people she knew of that were portal jumpers, but they once again both wanted to go desperately (for different reasons- Aldrich, the historian, and Cyril, the collector of weird things). Osanna got a sad look on her face, and Dante was tempted to point out that his mother was going too, but Osanna just sighed and stared out the window before he got the chance.
Everyone was twittering; even the young children that couldn't fully understand what was happening. The servants, who actually were having the vacation of their lives, discussed how they would run the makeshift camp, where the tents would go for what, who got which one, and so on. Dante heard bits and pieces of their conversation, and soon drowned out their sounds to listen to the buzzing of the land they were in.
They found the portal easily. Well, not the portal itself. Had it it been empty, anyone could have stumbled through it accidentally (and probably had). But there was people everywhere, and a wide ring about the size of the dining hall blocking it off from someone disappearing into the past. There was already a small city of huts gathered, and Aldrich was describing to Anna and Kristoff how this was a great opportunity to study portals, since this was open for so long, and in such a place far away from people.
As they approached, they saw someone struggling with a small animal.
"What in the world-," Cyril began, but before the carriages had even stopped, Astrid had leapt off them and began to run toward the people and the thing. The rest of them followed, to see Astrid holding a scaly thing in her arms.
"Astrid...is that a-," Kristoff began.
"A stormcutter!" Astrid exclaimed, "It's about five years old, and it's one of Cloudjumper's offspring." She said, nuzzling the creature's head, as if any of what she just said was supposed to mean anything to them. At the whole group's- the people who had been trying to wrangle in included- Astrid continued, rolling her eyes, "We're at the right place and time." She said.
"Ah," Cyril said, coming forward, "How...magnificent."
"Aren't they?" Astrid all but squealed, and this threw Dante off guard...greatly. The director of the study appeared, and shook Anna and Kristoff's hands firmly.
"A great honor, great honor. Heard much about you, so glad we could be of help!" He said, "We will take great care of your family. Ah, no need-," He said, noticing the servants unloading the items, "We can take care of that. Let's talk, now." He said, gathering everyone- servants included- into the largest tent.
"Now we won't be able to help you down there," He began somewhere into the middle of the conversation, after everything else had gotten out of the way, but Astrid just rolled her eyes.
"Please. I know that area better than anyone. I could draw you a map with my eyes clothed." She said proudly.
"But we will not be able to protect you. If there are bigger dragons down there..." The man said, glancing warily at the stormcutter.
"Oh there are," Astrid said dismissively, but then shrugged, "But I can take them. I might be a little rusty on it, but it's in my blood. It's just...there."
"If you're sure..."
"Quite." Anna cut in, glancing at Astrid, "We will go as soon as you'll let us." She said.
The man nodded in agreement. "At dusk...and which of you..." He glanced at Cyril and Aldrich. Aldrich stepped forward, and Dante saw Cyril pouting and scowling. There must have been a bet or something, for Cyril would never let something like this go easily.
"I will. I will seek out the man Elsa calls Asgar and help him set up a HQ there." He said.
"Great! I hope that this will go smoothly, to have a contact in Viking age..." The man glimmered with joy, "Incredible..."
It took nearly all day to set their tents right, so by the time that it drew time for his mother to leave, it had felt like no time at all. For the first time ever, Dante's stomach clenched at the thought of her leaving, and a terror grabbed at him. How long would she be gone? Would she be okay?
"I'll be back before you know it, with your sister." Anna seemed to read his mind, and kissed his forehead tenderly, and did the same to his brothers. Ellis began to cry and reach out for her, but Dante grabbed his baby brother's hand hard, to keep him from leaping out.
His mother and Astrid glanced at each other, standing on the precipice of the portal, and together took a deep breath and tensed to jump.
But before that could happen, someone flashed past them, pushing them both forward. The next thing Dante saw, and he closed his eyes immediately, was a bright flash of light and a resounding boom that made his ears ring afterward, and he could not hear properly.
All around him, anything within the couple feet radius of the portal was blackened. His mother cried out, grasping her leg, while everyone scrambled to recover from the unexpected kink. It was Astrid's anguished cry that everyone could hear just fine, despite the ringing, and stopped what he or she were doing to look up.
The first thing he noticed was the telltale glimmer and translucency of the area was gone. Even more was that Astrid was pounding at the middle of the portal, or where it used to be, where it seemed the earth had dipped in on itself, creating a miniature crater.
The portal was gone.
"No!" Astrid cried, hitting with her axe, "No, no, no!"
"It's gone! Someone closed the portal!" Someone cried, sending the camp into bedlam.
"Who was that?" The director asked, storming out, his voice carrying across the flat land, "Who was that?"
"Lykke..." Kristoff answered, "One of ours...she just...threw herself past me and...holy shit..." He said, and for once, no one scolded him for swearing in front of the littles.
"I can attest that we had nothing to do with this sabotage." Cyril jumped in, "Put us under truth detector, but we had no idea. She was just a lowly servant!"
Anna, who seemed to have not quite taken in what had occurred, stumbled out on unsteady legs to slide down the crater ungracefully. Dante watched, his heart twisting as he saw tears slide down his mother's face, as she patted too at the ground where their chance had once lay. If anyone thought that she was faking the anguish, they were blind. Her fingers grabbed something; a paper, and immediately she dropped it as if it had been on fire.
Krisoff and Dante hurried to the side and slid down next to her. Dante reached it first and picked up the picture, which on one side had Lykke's clean handwriting stating it was hers. On the other side, Dante gulped in a breath of air. He'd only seen the pictures in the history books, but it was unmistakable.
It was a picture of the late Prince Hans.