Show Yourself (An Elsa Fanfiction)

Chapter Seven: The New World

Elsa blinked as she came to, the stars twinkling in the night sky above her. As the feeling slowly returned to her body, she pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked around.

She was in a dark, wintry wood that she did not recognise. As unnerving as that was, it also meant that she was no longer in The Valley of Living Rock, which meant that she was no longer in Arendelle. Good.

The scream sounded again, but this time it was louder than it ever had been before. Elsa decided to view this as a sign that she was in the right place. Now she just had to find the girl.

Elsa listened to her surroundings as she tried to orientate herself. Far away, she could hear the rush of water. That was a good start. If she could get to the river, she might be able to find someone who could help her - a friendly passing fisherman, perhaps.

Not wanting to waste time, Elsa set off through the trees in the direction of the water's whooshing sound. She tried her best to see, but it wasn't easy in the pitch black of a winter's night.

Before long though, the river grew louder, as did the scream. It had heightened in intensity and frequency since Elsa had awoken. She tried to reach out with her magic once more, but her gentle probing went unanswered. Not that it mattered. The river would show itself right after these few tre- .

Elsa gaped in astonishment. The river wasn't a river at all.

Instead, it was a black road. But that wasn't what scared Elsa, for on the road were metal horses. They were odd colours, had glowing eyes, and snorted and whinnied ferociously, and their feet made a sound that was very easy to mistake for rushing water. They never seemed to end their procession either; one passed on the black road, and then there came another and another, until Elsa felt sick just watching them, galloping down the road at unnatural speeds.

Elsa was terrified; she couldn't help it. She ran forward, right into the path of the steel horses. She had to get to the other side of the road and put all this madness behind her.

Suddenly, one of the horses came close to hitting Elsa.

"Woah!" she yelled, and put her hands on its head to stop it.

The horse let out a mighty bray. The rider of the steed - who was wearing some very strange attire - leant over the flank to get a better view of her.

"Get out of the way!" he shouted. "Damn cosplayers."

Elsa changed tack and fled back into the relative safety of the dark woods. Once she was firmly away from the steel horses, she crouched down against a tree and gasped for breath.

As she gathered her thoughts, Elsa realised lots of other things had been different on the road too. The houses by the side of it were larger, and it was lit by strange flames on sticks that didn't flicker. Elsa had never seen things like that before, not even in books about other places.

Because she's not just from a different country. She's from a different time altogether.

The thought chilled Elsa to the bone. Pabbie had been right; there was no hope of seeing her sister and loved ones ever again. She was destined to be stuck here, amidst this realm filled with the kind of advanced technology Olaf had always spoken about but she'd never bothered to actually listen to.

She was trying her very best not to cry, when the scream sounded again, and this time, it was ear-splitting. It did, however, have a strange note of finality to it, as if it was saying goodbye.

Almost as if on instinct, Elsa turned and walked in the opposite direction to the black road. The trees petered out after a few minutes' walking, and as she hid behind one, she saw that the woods were backed onto a lawn, and at the other end of the lawn... there was a house.

Set into the house, overlooking the garden, was a window.

And through that window, her form silhouetted by warm light...

Was the girl.