Frozen Heart (Dark Side of Fairytales Collaboration)

Chapter Twenty-One

ELSA INSTANTLY TOOK over and reverted into her normal self, the preserved, kind, and compose Elsa. Queen retreated after hearing Anna's words. Why did I let her taker over?

She fell to her knees and Anna immediately consoles her. Elsa releases her tears on Anna's shoulders for the first time while the two parties watch them in bafflement.

"What is the meaning of this? Is it true? Are you really the Princess of Arendelle?" the captain asked and bravely approaches the sisters. The shock hasn't left his system yet but dwelling on that now wouldn't change anything.

"Answer me!" he bellowed, startling Anna.

Kristoff intervenes and ushers him away. "That's no way to talk to your princess, captain."

"Are you blind, young man? She killed my soldiers! Now, I demand an explanation for this or you're all going to be sorry when I have your heads!"

The anger arises within him every second each time he sees the lifeless bodies of his comrades. For 34 years they've endured the misery bestowed on them by the Dark Forest and the evil Elemental Spirits that guards it. They fought well enough and survived, but now, in the blink of an eye, with just one swoop of another perilous magic--- his comrades met their ends.

Elsa finally recovered. She confronts the captain. "I reckon you are Captain Mattias?"

He gently nodded his head, a sheer spite swirling in his eyes. "I see now. The resemblance you have with your father, Prince Agnarr. You must be his children?"

"We are," Elsa confirmed. "I am the firstborn child of former King Agnarr. And I am the current queen of Arendelle."

"You call yourself queen when you murdered your own people?" he hissed.

"I have no excuse for that. I would want to tell you the truth but I think you might find it hard to believe. Will you lend me your ears, Captain Mattias?"

Captain Mattias scoffed in utmost violence to express his anger. "With all due respect, Your Majesty, my men and I have lived in this hell forest for 34 years. I've seen far more crazy things than that. But what I want to know is why you could dare and murder your own men!"

Elsa averted her gaze. She suddenly felt too weak to face the shame of her murderous personality.

She swallowed hard. "As I said, captain, I have no excuse. It is my doing. I wish I could deliver you a proper explanation but I don't have one."

"That's enough!" Yelena finally intervenes.

When Elsa glances in her party's direction, they all retreated. Their faces bore the same countenance her parents had when they witnessed her first kill; fear.

"It is not the queen's fault. I can vouch for her for that."

"I didn't know you could be friendly to your enemies, Yelena," Captain Mattias replied in utmost sarcasm.

"Earlier, you weren't so surprised to see Elsa's transformation. Do you know something?" Anna inquired.

"I believe your sister is cursed by the queen of the Dark Forest, the Snow Queen," Yelena directly revealed.

"I-I don't understand."

"She was a powerful queen who dedicated her life to witness the destruction of your kingdom, Arendelle. Perhaps, cursing you with the same hunger she has for human souls is what she thought fun, killing your own people until no one is left, leading it to complete desolation and destruction."

"But why would she curse me?" Elsa's thoughts are suddenly swirling in her mind and she could feel that her fingertips are growing hot, which is unusual for someone like her.

On the other hand, Anna actually read something about a Snow Queen in the secret room they found. She didn't think it would matter until now.

She voiced out, "I thought she was only a mere legend, a myth."

"Wait, you knew about her?" said Elsa, confused.

"I read a document about her in the secret room. I didn't believe at first that she was real. I thought she was just a myth."

"But why didn't you tell me? Didn't you ever think that she might be the one that's calling me? I could have been leading us towards death, Anna!"

"And it's my fault? You're the one that's been so adamant about looking for the voice!" Anna reproached.

"Still, you should have told me about it!"

The rising tension between the sisters was quite evident. Anger is displayed well in their blue eyes and clenched fists. While Elsa takes her anger to the next level, the soles of her feet spread the ground's ice, causing it to become slippery and red ice spikes also began to appear around her face, eyes turning blood-red.

"Intimidate me all you want, I'm not afraid of you," Anna firmly declared.

"You think you're so confident because I won't try and harm you again?"

Anna scoffs in disbelief. "Oh, I see. So, everything you said back then was all a lie."

"I'm not the one lying and keeping secrets around here, Anna. Why didn't you tell me about the Snow Queen?"

Anna perceived the persistence in Elsa's eyes. They demand the truth. She sighed.

"You want to know the truth? Fine! I deliberately hid it to avoid igniting your excitement. Imagine if you've heard about another person having the same hunger as yours, it'll escalate your desire to crave more souls knowing that you're not alone. And what's worse is that you might actually try and leave me for this woman. I can't let that happen."

The queen was taken aback by the princess' answer. But before the situation could escalate further, another aggravating occurrence happened when suddenly one tree was set ablaze.

"It's the Evil Flame!"

Panic spread so rapidly, as quickly as the fire spread everywhere. They all tried to run and find a way to evade the flame. They spread in various groups, desperate to escape the danger. But some were unfortunate enough to be caught in the net when the flames came after them, caught them, and burned them to ashes. Their cries for help compelled Elsa to extinguish the fire with her ice.

Elsa's ice is formidable that it instantly extinguished the fire. While everyone was occupied with saving themselves, Elsa was busy pursuing the very thing that started the fire. Anna perceived her in the middle of peril, but her attempt to go after her failed when Kristoff grabbed her from the horse he took from Yelena's party.

"Get her out of here!" Elsa commanded and Kristoff was obedient enough and drove away.

"Kristoff, wait, she needs me!"

"Let Elsa handle it!"

Elsa dealt with the Evil Flame, the very source of it was personified through a small animal, a salamander to be exact, but its innocuous appearance is not deceiving anybody. The red ice crystals protruding from its back looked very similar to the ones on Elsa's face.

It runs briskly. Elsa chased after it with a series of ice blasts until she finally caught it.

Surprisingly, the salamander looked elated when he met Elsa's blood-red eyes.

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