Journey Strong
It had been hours since the sisters encounterl
Anna, Jack, Rapunzel and Eugine were just making it the castle gates of Corona, when a horrific scene approached them. As they stood, truly stunned at what their eyes saw, they slowly walked through into the village outside the kingdom.
Looks of terror were frozen onto the faces of many, and black sand seemed to cover every square inch of what was left in the town. Rapunzel gasped, slipping every few seconds on the ice below her feet.
"What happened?" She whispered. "Everything is... Is frozen..." Anna looked sadly at the towns people, striked into graceful poses of terror like Elsa once was.
"Her powers are getting stronger." Anna declared. "She now doesn't have to hit anyone with her magic. This isn't good."
Jack nodded, occasionally brushing his hand along the smooth surfaces of ice art.
"If your sister really did do this... We need to stop her." Eugine spoke up. And in all reality he was right. Anna knew that. She knew she should have never walked away.
Thinking of what could have been was going to do nothing. She needed to soully think of how to change Elsa back, and stop this winter. At the beginning of this day, Anna was a frightened girl for her sister and was so desperate for love, she fell for a trap she barley escaped her life with, to this... This girl. Different in every single way. More wise, seeing the seriousness of everything... No longer a child. This was real. And she was staring at the damage.
Anna was now in a situation she never wanted to be in. She looked into the eyes of some tiny little girl, her face distorted into a look of surprise and terror. The eyes of this girl were deep and empty, like an abyss. Anna took a deep breath and straightened herself up.
"Anna... What are we going to do?" Rapunzel whimpered. "None of them diserve this."
"I know." Anna responded evenly, although her panic was starting to grow somewhat. "If the cold doesn't bother Elsa, then it doesn't bother me either." She closed her eyes slowly and stood back from the little girl. Anna raised her dainty hand to the frozen statuet and stood there. Her fingers began tingling and power came from them, but when she opened her eyes, it was just empty wind, blowing past her target. She tried to force the magic more, but nothing worked.
"Anna..." Jack warned.
"I know I can melt it. I can... I can!" Anna snapped, but the quiver in her voice gave away the fact that she wasn't calm. No. Anna was frightened. Jack dashed over to her and ceased her around the waist, pinning her arms to her sides.
"Anna... Anna, you can't! You need to stop. It won't work." She began crying now. Her tears flowed down her face.
"Why not?! Jack I have to stop this! I don't have the power to stop this winter... To stop Elsa! I'm useless..." Anna stopped struggling and gave in to the truth: that this was too big for her to handle.
"You can't melt the ice because it isn't your magic." Jack began to explain. "You two are like snowflakes. In many ways you can be alike, but in others you are different. Your magic is the same way. It's hard to tell who's is stronger, but if you aren't the one who froze that little girl, then you can't unfreeze her." Listening to Jack only darkned Anna's spirits. So there was nothing she could do now? Nothing at all?
"H-hey you!" Anna turned around, startled at the voice. "All of you freeze!" Eugine and Rapunzel held their hands up instantly, obviously as startled as Jack and Anna, but those two were reluctant.
"Does he mean literally or figuratively? Cause your sister kind of beat him." Jack whispered.
"Hands up!" The man yelled again. This time they did as he asked. The man, who appeared in knight's armor, ushered two others, identical to him over. One stood behind Rapunzel and Eugine, poking and prodding their backs with a sharp spear.
"Move it!" He ordered before taking a quick glance at Rapunzels hair. The other men roughly grabbed Anna and Jack.
"I wouldn't do that." Jack warned, but it was to late. Anna had tensed up and fast wall of spikes nearly got to Jack and the man behind him. They both gasped a bit horror struck.
"It kind of runs in the family." Jack mumbled. The men paid no attention to what just happened and continued to usher them all toward the Castle of Corona. Jack was clutching his stick as the man kept pushing him forward. Suddenly the man grabbed his staff.
"Hey!" Jack protested, but the man just snapped his stick over his knee. "Oh not again!" Jack sighed.
The four of them were shoved into a huge looking foyer, and still they were led on inside this large castle. At long last they came to a heavy set of mahogany wooden doors. The knights pushed them open and forced them all to the ground on their knees at the foot of a short stair.
"Your majesties!" The lead knight called out. Anna allowed her eyes to glance up before her. A beautiful, older looking queen, and dashing king stood there, their arms linked.
"Are they responsible?" The king spoke up.
"I believe so your highness. I saw the red haired maiden using her powers. I think to finish the job! On a poor little girl!" The Queen gasped in agony.
"Oh our poor kingdom!" She sobbed. "What has Corona ever done to diserve this? What have we ever don't to lose... Our daughter..." The Queen must have let it slip, because she cried even harder.
"Tell us why. Why did you do this? You'll be very lucky to escape with your life even after this is all reversed!" He yelled. "Tell us why! Now!" Anna gasped in shock.
"Your majesty please! It wasn't me. My sister-"
"So she is the culprit then?"
"No! I mean yes, but-"
"Then we must find her... Kill her!" The king declared. Anna shook her head furiously.
"NO!" She screamed. Icicles sprouted from the roof and formed on the walls. Everyone went silent as they looked around at what happened. Anna looked at her surroundings, what she had done?
"So you are just as dangerous?" The king said in a quivering voice.
"No, no... Not dangerous..." Anna tried explaining, but by now the knights had backed away in terror, and so had the king and queen.
"S-sorcerer..." He breathed. That one word... The undeniable sound of fear, brought a truly horrifying memory back. She remembered it all. The Duke of Wheslton shouted it first. When Elsa was first discovered. Anna didn't know the feelings her sister had back just the day before, but now Anna knew what Elsa felt. She felt like a monster.
"I-I can't control it..." Anna said with horror. "I thought I could... But I can't..." Jack scooted over to Anna quickly. The room's temperature was dropping fast, way faster than Elsa's ever had.
"Shh... Anna... You could control it when you were fighting with love for your sister. Now your emotions are getting in the way... I tried explaining that to her for years, but she never listened." Anna looked over to Jack.
"Then what do I do?" She said, quiver toned.
"We need to get the real Elsa back. You two are the only ones who can help each other at all with your magic." Jack said. He stood up, carefully holding Anna.
"I need your warmest clothes." Jack instructed, but the king, with the last ounce of courage he had, stepped forward.
"And what makes you think we will ever go by your orders?" Jack smiled slyly and stepped away from Anna.
"Cause we're the best chance you got to save your kingdom." The king gulped, slightly embarrassed.
"Well you heard the boy... Go get our finest coats and journey ware!" All the knights began to rush from the throne room, but Jack pointed his hand at one. The knight stopped, shaking in his armor.
"Oh no. You go fetch my broken staff outside. This is the third time I've had to repair that thing." The knight nodded and scurried away. Jack came back over to Anna with a grin of accomplishment.
"We'll get Elsa back. Don't you worry." Anna nodded with determination. She knew they would. They had to.
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Elsa started trekking up a large mountain. When she got to the top she'd be able to make the eternal winter even colder, if that was possible.
Elsa continued walking, watching any animals that were huddled together in an attempt to get warm.
She came across two deer shivering together. "You look cold. Shall I help you warm up?" Elsa snickered to the animals.
The deer looked up at her with worried eyes. "I'll take that as a yes." Elsa smilied.
Without warning, Elsa shot pieces of ice at the deer. The ice impaled the deer and froze them on contact. "There. Isn't that much better?" Elsa grinned.
Satisfied with herself, Elsa continued walking. She marveled at the large snowflakes falling down.
"Hmm..." Elsa thought aloud to herself. "This is boring without anything to help get warm."
Elsa made a movement with her hand and with a flick of her wrist, she built a small snowman.
"Humph, one will not be enough." Elsa said. With another flick of her wrist, Elsa created about two dozen more. One of the snowmen was very deformed. It didn't even look like a snowman. It looked more like a dog.
The snowdog and snowmen began following Elsa as she started to walk again.
"Yes, come. I'm sure I can find something for you all to do." She snickered as she patted the snowdog's head.
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With in no time, the knights had come back with the soft fur coats, and whole new outfits, more suited to the cold. One knight tried to hand off some furs to Jack.
"No, no. I've never changed out of these clothes a day in my extended life. I'm not starting today." He said. When another knight tried handing off some to Anna, she shook her head.
"The cold doesn't bother me." The
knights stood back rather confused. Both, Jack and Anna were wearing light clothing, one was barefoot, and the other in a dress, while their two friends, Rapunzel and Eugine were bundled up head to toe. Jack thought of this as quite funny.
"Sure you two will he warm enough?" He remarked.
"If you could feel cold tempatures, you'd be dressed like an Eskimo to." Rapunzel retorted muffled.
Just then the last knight came in, holding the two ends if one stick in each hand. Jack took them eagerly, then lined the sides up perfectly, closing his eyes tight, and forcing the wood to merge. A blue glow started to shine bright. But then just as quickly disappeared.
The four of them turned around to face the king and queen.
"Your majesties. We will restore your kingdom, and we will save my sister to. Because she didn't mean any of this. Thank you for all we need to bring back the order in Corona. We must be off." Anna said. Everyone went outside to see them all off. The storm was getting worse and they needed to find Elsa as soon as possible.
"So long for now. But we will be back." Anna said. The king and queen nodded. "Let's go." She commanded, and they all set off into the white, hazardous blizzard. As they neared the village gates, Rapunzel saw something that caught her eye. A beautiful art work of the king and queen, with a baby in their arms. The baby had beautiful, long golden hair with deep green eyes. Just like her. But just then Egime urged her forward and the art was gone. And so was her close realization.
It was now night fall. Corona was uncomfortably quiet, with just the sound of a winter storm completely covering the kingdom. They all had been traveling for miles, trying to find Elsa once again. It was proving to be most difflcult. Rapunzel and Eugine were shivering in their fur coats, Jack was silently gliding on the snow, and Anna was thinking hard. How was she going to turn Elsa back? Why was she like that in the first place?
Hans.
This was Hans fault.
That's all Anna could think about. That horrible Prince. He betrayed her trust, froze her sister, changed her... And almost killed Anna as well. If it wasn't for Rapunzel, Elsa would be dead.
So they walked some more, both Eugine and Rapunzel cuddling as close as possible. Anna kept hearing them moan in pain from the frost bite they must have had, but they said nothing. Just strolled on and dealt with it. Anna knew they had to stop. They had to. Jack saved her the good grace of saying so first.
"Anna... We need to stop. Find shelter." All at once she stopped walking, then turned around slowly.
"Don't you think I know that?" She snapped, sounding harsher than intended. Anna flinched at her voice and suddenly became afraid. Was the ice changing her as well? Jack must have senses her panic.
"Anna, just calm down. It's alright. I know you didn't mean it." He cautioned wearily.
"Where will we find shelter? A place to keep Rapunzel and Eugine from freezing to death?" Anna nearly shouted through the harsh wind.
"I don't know." He yelled back. "But it has to be soon." Anna only nodded. She urged Eugine and Rapunzel forward, but suddenly Rapunzel collapsed, her hair spilled out into the snow.
"Rapunzel." Everyone breathed simotaniously. They all gathered around her, and were stunned when they saw her hair start glowing, melting the snow and creating a sheild around her. No snow drifted onto her, there was only sunlight.
"Magic is strange." Anna said emotionlessly. Everyone nodded their agreement. Standing there for a few seconds there was a sudden snap, from some twigs nerby. Anna imstantly pulled her hands up infront of her. They brought large ice cicles up as well.
"I didn't even try that time." She whimpered.
"Sh, sh..." Jack said. "Listen." There was a sudden shush about the forest. Like the wind and snow had stopped compleatly. And then...
A valiant black Clydesdale leaped from the trees, a hooded figure sat tall upon the saddle. With an arrow neatly stringed with it's bow and pointed directly at Anna.
"Hands up!" It was a girl. A young sounding one with a heavy Scottish accent.
"Wait! Hold your fire!" Jack yelled. "D-don't shoot!" The horse was neighing and spitting crazily from the excitment.
"I said hands up!" The hooded figure bellowed. "And I won't ask twice."