A Journey of Two

Chapter 6

Anna narrowed her eyes, looking at the head suspiciously.

"Wow, I can't believe Pabbie forgot to mention that he was just a head."

Elsa said nothing, but boldly went closer to get a better look. She guessed that he was asleep, judging by the fact that both his eyes were closed, and that she could hear a slight snore coming from him. Protruding out from the top of his head were two horns, which had strange, intricate patterns etched onto them. He also had an untidy grey beard, which would reach his chest if he had one, thought Elsa.

Elsa narrowed her eyes as something on the crown of Mimir's head caught her eye. At first, she thought that they were just normal tattoos, but as she looked closer, the tattoos that went around his head gave her a weird sense of familiarity.

"Hey..." said Elsa, "do these look familiar to you?"

"They look like the strange symbols we saw on the papers we found on Mother and Father's ship!" exclaimed Anna, who had also bent down next to Elsa to get a better look at the head. In fact, the two were so intrigued by Mimir that they didn't realise exactly how close they had been standing to him, until he opened his eyes.

"ARGH!" screamed Anna and Elsa as they stumbled a few steps backwards.

"Who goes there?" asked the head, blinking his eyes to wake himself up.

At first, nobody said anything, because they were too preoccupied with the fact that Mimir only had one eye, a glowing one, to be precise. Finally, Elsa found the courage to speak up.

"My name is Elsa, and this is my sister Anna. We've come to see you because we need your help."

"Help, you say? Well, I'd definitely be more than happy to help out in any way that I can of course, but first, I think a little more introduction is in order, don't you think?" said Mimir with a crooked smile.

"We're from the royal family of the kingdom of Arendelle," began Elsa, but before she could continue any further, she was cut off.

"Royal family of Arendelle? You must be Runeard's granddaughters then, given how long it has been!"

Anna blinked. "That's – yeah, he was our grandfather. How do you know about him?"

"Runeard came to me to ask for my help, something about wanting to know how he could weaken the lands of people, and so I told him that the best way to do that would be to block up the land's waters. Although I must say, I had my suspicions about him at the time, but I didn't really ask too many questions. Little did I know, his intentions were sour, but by the time I found out, it was already too late."

"So you were the one who caused the people of Arendelle and the Northuldra to not be able to live together in harmony!" exclaimed Anna.

"That seems a little harsh now, doesn't it? Putting all the blame on me like that. Like I just said, I helped Runeard based on what I knew at that time. Although I do regret not searching him for his true intentions the moment that I sensed that something was off before helping him. And so I made a vow to myself to never let such a thing happen again." As Mimir said this, he looked towards ground, avoiding eye contact with them.

Anna's expression softened. "Alright, I'm sorry if I was being too hard on you. Besides, that problem has been solved anyway."

"So I've heard."

"How?"

"I may be stuck in this tree, but that doesn't mean I don't have friends that bring me news from all over," said Mimir as he looked all around them. They followed his gaze, but all they saw were little silhouettes creeping back into the shadows. "Anyway, what seems to be the problem?"