Rise of the Nightmares (Jelsa/The Big Five)

Chapter 16 - Chasing Ashes

Elsa POV

Elsa opened her eyes, sealed tight from a goodnight's sleep, and looked to the left of the bed. Anna was nowhere in sight. In an instant, she jumped out of bed ready to fight off the Nightmares that stole her sister, but then she sat back down when she realized her sister was with North and the other Guardians at the Rock Trolls' village.

She walked back to her room to get ready to go to her training with Periwinkle. She hoped she might run into Jack but she didn't see him at all this morning.

Her sister had told her that he probably wasn't that into her, taking her to the places that he wanted to go. That's what Neverland had been, just a place he wanted to go. She put her clothes on.

She headed out the institute doors and onto the bus. What Anna said had hurt Elsa, with a lump that she still felt in her chest, weighing down every step she took.

When she arrived at her stop, she walked to the location where she had to throw the stick that would get Fawn's attention. She shivered at the very thought, of the pain, she would experience caused by eating the yellow berry.

She looked at the beautiful trees of the small forest, sitting in the center of Burgess Central Park. It took her a few moments to take off the glamor covering the trees. It was amazing how no human could really ever see the fairies. She wondered if she ever accidentally came across this world growing up, not being able to see what actually was because of the block in her head put by the Rock Trolls.

When she concentrated hard enough, to remove the glamor that hid the real forest from humans, she dropped the stick she was holding. She had to force mouth shut so she wouldn't scream.

The beautiful forest that had once stood on the grounds in front of her, was gone. The forest now looked like the product of a forest fire. The grass that once lay around the trees was now sand. Black sand. The trees were all black, and dead.

People continued to walk around, clearly not noticing, which made Elsa want to yell at all of them. She walked up the forest ahead and started looking around for something that might explain what happened, maybe leftover Nightmares. When she was in the center of the forest, she crouched down looking for any fairies. She was relieved that she hadn't found any. Hopefully, they all escaped before this mess.

She needed to call North and Elinor and tell them what she's found. On her way out of the forest, a string of vines began growing. They circled around her like a tornado before squeezing her tight.

She screamed in pain, the vines had thrones on them, pricking some of her skin, her pale white arms showing drops of the crimson red blood that dripped down them.

A menacing woman approached her with a crow that was seated on her left shoulder. The woman took her right hand and touched a bit of the blood on Elsa's shoulder, putting it up to her mouth and licking it.

The crow instantly turned into a human, Elsa knew it was also a Nightmare, and it stepped in between them.

"Maleficent, you can't eat her. We have to take her to Pitch." The crow that was now human said.

"Do we have to?" Maleficent said as if she were trying to convince her bird friend they could do otherwise. "Really?" she said staring at the blood on Elsa's arm with lust.

"Pitch will kill us if we don't bring her alive," And at that, the crow smacked Elsa in the back of the head so hard, she blacked out.

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Jack POV

The air of the training room felt stuffy and it didn't help that Jack was covered in sweat, hitting the life out of a punching bag. He barely slept, thinking about the events of the night before. Especially Elsa almost dying on Captain Hook's ship, constantly replaying in his mind.