Frozen Love: Jelsa

Chapter 17

Elsa

                Jack crept across the ground on the balls of his feet. When he had snuck up behind the Nightmares, Elsa held her breath as he froze the two of them together in an instant. Turning his back on the horsicles, he knelt in front of the cell’s opening. Jack cupped her face in his hands and asked, “Are you all right?” Elsa gave him a smile. She hadn't known he had been so worried.

                “Yes, I’m fine. He didn’t do anything to me. What about you?”

                “I’ll be fine as soon as you’re out of there and Pitch is back where he belongs. We can’t kill him, but we need to restrain him enough so that he doesn’t rise up again for a long time.” With that he started to pace the outside of the cell like a tomcat, probably trying to figure out an escape.

       “There’s no escape with ice magic,” Elsa told him, “you can’t freeze rock; I’ve already tried.” 

      “Well, you probably haven’t tried it my way. You might want to stand back,” Jack countered.  After rolling up his sleeves, he pressed his hands against the stalagmites. Intricate patterns of frost spread from his hands until ice covered the bars. Before Elsa could protest, the bars burst into bits of gravel and dirt, hitting the walls and one of them striking Elsa’s cheek. But she was too busy staring at Jack in awe to notice.

                “How did you do that? It’s much too dense!”

 Jack wiped his gritty hands on his sweatshirt and smirked mysteriously.

                “I've been practicing.  It’s like how you make ice clothes. You have to control each miniscule crystal, telling it what to do. And once all of those crystals have wormed their way one by one into the rock and are put together, it’s easy to get the result you want.” Elsa thought about that  for a moment before remembering what they had to do.

                “We have to get to Pitch,” she got up off her knees, “I think I saw him enter the tunnel across from this one before I was taken down here.” Brushing herself off, Elsa followed Jack back the way he’d come. Just before leaving, she remembered something. She reached to the back of her blue gown and unpinned the elaborately patterned ice cape and let it fall to the cold floor. Now it was time for battle.

         Just before entering what she assumed was Pitch’s chamber Elsa took a deep breath. Someone wasn’t coming out of this cave again, whether it be because of death or imprisonment. She wasn’t even sure if she would make it back alive. And her sister would probably never know what happened to her. Suddenly the dark walls seemed to be closing in on her, and the soot-filled air seemed to be suffocating her…But then she saw Jack’s nervous smile. His seemingly calm face was the only thing that kept her from going insane.

 She walked into the passageway with a newfound confidence, which melted away when she saw the inside. A vastly high ceiling towered above a sort of throne room. Although the area of the chamber was large, the only objects occupying the space were terrifyingly complicated rock formations coated in Nightmare Sand: abstract shapes that allowed the mind to see tortured souls, imprisoned monsters and deformed creatures. At the end of the aisle formed by these hideous works of art was a black and jagged throne. The king of isolation himself was lounging on top, looking perfectly content with himself.

 “Don’t try to sneak up on the Boogeyman,” Pitch smiled, “I knew I couldn’t delay you for long. And I’m ready for all you’ve got.”

Pitch got up and stood in front of the two intruders. “I will give you one last chance. If you hand over Elsa now and surrender, then I might let Jack live. After all, fighting me would be suicide.” Jack scoffed at the last comment and Elsa said, “You must be crazy if you think that we’re giving up that easily.” She believed that Pitch thought much too highly of himself. Before Pitch could retort, Elsa made a massive pillar of ice erupt out of the ground underneath him, smashing him face-first into the high ceiling.

 Jack reacted quickly by forming a layer of ice to hold Pitch against the ceiling. But that didn’t hold him down for long.  His arm shot out of the ice, grabbing onto Jack’s staff. He issued an explosion of Nightmare Sand just as Jack was doing the same with ice crystals. The impact of the blast sent Jack crashing into the opposite wall. He managed to catch himself before he fell, but then he hid in a shadowed corner. He put his finger to his lips when Elsa glanced at him.

                “Where did you go, Jack? You cannot hide from me,” Pitch called up to the ceiling.  Suddenly Elsa shot a huge blade of ice towards Pitch, but he dodged it just in time by stepping out of its path. Elsa made the blade disperse into mist before it could impale Jack. And that was how Pitch knew that Jack was in that direction. He turned around, and by making a motion with his hand, caused a wave of Sand arrows to fly into the wall Jack had been hiding in. They would’ve stabbed him, but he had darted up to the ceiling just before. However, Elsa still acted as if Jack had been killed. She crumpled to the floor in “despair” and did not react to the Sand ropes wrapping around her wrists, feet, and mouth. For a moment she was scared. What if she wouldn’t be able to escape? But then she remembered what Jack had said about freezing dense objects.

                Slowly but surely ice began to creep around her black bindings. She concentrated on the microscopic crystals creeping there way into the Sand, coming together like old friends after a long time apart. The ropes exploded into shards before Pitch knew what was happening. She let loose a blast of ice, spreading it all over Pitch’s body. At the same time Jack emitted a huge wave of snow from above. Once the mist had cleared, standing in front of Elsa was the Boogeyman, now just another frozen statue trapped inside his own lair. To make sure that he didn’t melt anytime soon, Elsa created the same sort of snow cloud above Pitch’s head that she had given Olaf a year and a half ago.

 Finally, Jack and Elsa were able to exit the cavern hand in hand without having to look over their shoulders for the Boogeyman.