Yelena
Sitting on a rock, I watched the leaking water from the stream that ran around the village. For an hour I had been gazing at the rays of the moon shining on its surface. It was our last and most precious resource. Once gone, the survival of the Northuldra would no longer be a matter of weeks but of days. I plunged the end of my stick into the water and moved it slowly, which disturbed its monotonous rhythm. Flashes of golden light, which contrasted with the whiteness of the lunar light, formed at each of its round trips in the stream. I then stopped my gesture, preferring to observe these sparks floating a few seconds in the air before coming to stick to the cold and fluid surface of the water to extinguish and disappear slowly.
Leaning on my stick, I got up with difficulty and walked a few tens of meters on the banks of the stream. Suddenly, a noise in front of me drew my attention: stones rolled on each other in the water. As I approached, I also noticed a few whispers that were as discreet as possible. Despite the dark night, I ended up distinguishing a young couple accompanied by two children, a little girl and a baby that the mother carried over her belly. The parents, loaded with canvas bags, crouched in the stream and filled several water bottles. They jumped when they saw me and stood up immediately.
"Yelena! I didn't think I'd see you... We... Uh... » tried to explain the young man.
"What are you doing?"
« Water reserves. »
"What about that?" I said, pointing to the canvas bags they were wearing with my chin.
The couple looked at each other, hesitant to answer. The girl suddenly advanced towards me with small cries of joy. Her father shut her up and grabbed her abruptly by the hand and drew her against him. He sighed before answering:
"We are leaving. The village is no longer safe enough. Our children are no longer safe, nor are we. We all need to feed ourselves and live well, which is no longer the case here."
I stiffened while listening to it but say nothing.
"We no longer have a choice, Yelena," he added, looking down with a sad look.
"Where do you intend to go?"
We don't know yet. In a village further south, no doubt. They are less affected by these events.
"Sooner or later they will be like all of us," I replied.
« This is our only chance."
I looked at him at length, without a word more. They both seemed determined to leave everything for the sake of their family. I couldn't stop them.
'All right,' I blew.
The couple seemed surprised at my reaction.
«Thank you», the young man whispered, gratifying me with a smile.
They picked up the gourds that they had carelessly left on the banks of the stream and went away, taking with them all the things they had taken. The little girl whose hand was still stuck in her father's turned to look at me while moving away. Her big eyes were shining in the night. She could only have a better life leaving the Northuldra. I knew that more and more families would do the same. If we didn't want to see our civilization disappear, that was our only option.
I continued my progress downstream, walking slowly on the dry grass that cracked under each of my steps. I had no idea, I was just passing the time taking care of my mind and avoiding letting it wander between my dark thoughts. The stream became thinner and thinner until it became just a trickle of water slipping between the polished pebbles. I watched it shrink until something in front of me caught my attention. There was a figure there that I could not distinguish correctly in the dark. She sat cross-legged in the yellow grass and curled up on herself at the edge of the water which continued to meander between the stones. I walked silently towards her and noticed on her trembling shoulders that the person was crying. I could not help caressing her hair gently. I could not say whether it was to reassure her or to confirm to me that her presence was very real. Anyway, she jumped on my fingers and straightened up abruptly.
"Honeymaren!" I exclaimed as I discovered the young woman's face bathed in tears.
"Please do not say that you have seen me!" she worried immediately.
She seemed panicked and had trouble talking between two sobs she tried to choke.
"Calm down," I said to her, "there's no need to put yourself in such a state. What is it?"
Honeymaren seemed to try to catch her breath. She stared at me for a few seconds and seemed to doubt my kindness.
"I'd rather be alone. Leave me alone."
I supported his gaze at length to give me time to find my impassive air.
"Please...," she insisted.
"You continued, didn't you?"
The young woman was surprised at my question.
"What are you...
« Don't pretend you don't understand. I asked you to forget about Elsa. You didn't, worse, you keep twisting your mind for her. And what is the result? Endless bouts of tears. I thought for a while that you had stopped with all this nonsense, but no, you come back tirelessly to the starting point. You don't learn from your mistakes, you just act like a capricious child!" I cried.
Honeymaren was speechless.
"But after all," I said in a calm voice, "if you cry today, you are beginning to realize your mistake, are you not?"
« I... »
"Be careful what you do. You are not in a position of strength. Neither in relation to me, nor in relation to her. Never forget."
"What then?"
« Your people are in need. And you prefer to sacrifice your time and energy for a person who no one can trust! Her mother and grandfather before her had... »
— Her mother left her family because they didn't trust her and because they couldn't give her the life she wanted! She cried. She found love, but you didn't agree. All you cared about was keeping the Northuldra civilization standing, no matter what conditions their members would live in. So yes, Iduna preferred to leave, and I'm starting to understand more and more why! You have maintained your version of history for decades and you keep repeating it to the youngest who do not know it to secure their support and point the finger at those who dare to emancipate themselves. But now that your authority is called into question by current events, like your father before you, you prefer to denounce the Northuldra who do not fit into your vision of things, like me. What scares you is losing control of the situation. And the fact that more and more internal rebellions are emerging only accentuates your fear. So you put everything in place to keep us silent and docile, even if it means threatening us by reminding us that you are more powerful than us. But where is this power hidden? I am still waiting to know.
"You don't know what you're getting yourself into, Honeymaren," I whispered as I watched.
During her entire speech, the beating of my heart had continued to accelerate, until their impulse filled my whole being. I felt my hands shake. I tightened them around my stick to hide my loss of patience from the young woman.
"I'm not afraid of your threats. You can exile me, lock me up, remind me all day long that I am worthless to you, it no longer affects me," she replied.
I opened my mouth, ready to be chained, when a noise suddenly stopped me. To tell the truth, it was rather the abrupt silence that challenged me. I turned my head slightly to my right. The thin trickle of water had just disappeared completely. Honeymaren noticed my gaze and seemed just as worried as I when she discovered the origin of this sudden silence. She then began to run up the stream but stopped just a few tens of meters away and screamed:
"The water is gone!"
I thought the ground was collapsing under my feet at his announcement. This time it was the end.
YOU ARE READING
Frozen 3
Fanfiction" Open your eyes Agnarr, you can't stand the difference... "Don't say that..." "Then why did you beg me to keep my past secret? To make me look more normal to you and to get into your codes, right?" "It was to protect you... If you had told the trut...
