Beautiful Lily

Torch and Pitchforks

Robin could see the fog of breaths ahead of him breathing ahead of him. Getting to their campsite was taking a bit longer than usual because the typical paths were covered in snow and difficult to read. When the party finally reached their site it all had collapsed and fallen apart. Some trees had fallen on tents and makeshift canopies due to the snowstorm. The same green foliage that used to camouflage and insulate their homes now laid buried deep below the snow's surface. The people of Sherwood Forest were devastated. They were not prepared for inclement weather such as this. What were they to do? All of their tools and supplies were hidden in the snow.

"What now?!" shouted a man. "Are we just supposed to wait for the snow and ice to melt?"

"We've never had weather like this in Storybrooke," said another man in their group. "There was no way of knowing to prepare for something like this."

"The snow witch, Elsa, is to blame for all of this," said Marian softly. The rest of the men turned to look at her; her words were just audible enough for them to hear what she had said.

"What?" said Robin, holding Roland up on his shoulders to avoid his little body from getting lost and wet in the deep snow. He moved in closer to Marian to hear her better.

"In the convent we learned from her sister, Anna, that Elsa was the one who conjured this storm," Marian looked up into the sea of faces and addressed them publicly, "Again, we have royals and people of power trying to rule over us. We did nothing wrong to this Elsa. There was no reason for her to attack us. That's what this is. This is an attack on us and our livelihoods."

"But we've nothing to fight against this beastly cold mistress," called out another man in their group.

"That's not true!" argued Marian, her voice taking on a more authoritative tone. "We have fire! We have our bows and our wits! Let us show this Ice Queen that she does not rule us. We rule us!"

A few men cheered after Marian's comment. With her inspirational words, she was quickly turning the mood of the people from despair to motivation. She continued, "These are our homes, our kingdoms! Our kingdoms have been attacked. And as queens and kings of our kingdoms we must defend what is rightfully ours! Come with me!"

"Yeah!" roared out the crowd in enthusiasm. Men were making torches from the spare wood they could find from their shattered homes. People were ripping pieces of dry clothing and wrapping it around the ends of these pieces of wood and lighting them on fire with lighters they had in their pockets. People were walking around the broken camp for whatever weapons they could find.

"Marian!" shouted Robin. "We are not handling this situation wisely. There are things about this foe we still don't know about. We need to go back to the convent and find out more about this Elsa."

"You can go back to the convent with Roland if you so desire," she said with a scornful look, "but the rest of us are not going to wait idly by for the royal family to do something and continue making poor decisions on our behalf. That is not us. That is not who we are."

There was a look of fire in her eyes that Robin never noticed before. It was fierce and frightening and it left him speechless. She turned away from him and cried out into the crowd, "Anna spoke last of Elsa's whereabouts toward the highest point in Storybrooke. That's where we are heading." Men from the camp finished collecting their torches and artillery and followed Marian, leading the mob to storm Elsa's home.

... ...

"...and that's the tale of The Lost Kingdom of Arendelle," finished Mary-Margaret to her daughter. Hook, Regina, Henry and Emma sat nearby as she told the tale.

"The way it was explained to me, the moral of the story was obedience and the consequence of not listening to your parents." Her snide remark made everyone's heads turn disdainfully. "What? The two sisters lost their parents and were left to figure things out for themselves, ignoring the advice of their parents in the process... and of course not thinking of the consequences to their actions." Regina looked scathingly back over at Emma. Emma looked away, trying not to look hurt by her last statement.