"Oh my gosh! Sky, are you okay?" she asked concerned.
"You got more snow in my shirt…" I complained getting up and Black beauty tried to break free from the ice, as I dusted the snow off of me. Elsa let out a small smile, realizing I was okay.
"I'm so sorry. I should have thought about it before stopping your horse like that"
"You didn't think before acting? Now I'm really thinking over the advantage of our alliance" I said jokingly.
"Oh-ha-ha…" Elsa said "Seriously, are you alright?"
"I'm fine, really" I answered
"I'm feeling really bad about it, is there any way I can make it up to you?" she asked. A great idea came into my mind "- Except for training my soldiers as a hobby" Elsa preceded. My grin faded.
"Oh, come on!"
"Sorry, you need to work for that"
"How much trust do I need to earn on your 'Trust-Scale' before I can do that?"
"On a scale from 1 to 10, it's a 10"
"Good, and I am on which point?"
"Probably on a 5" I smirked
"Okay, I can work on that" I said "Now, we had a race going on, do you mind thawing Black's legs?" I asked Elsa, she chuckled and with a flick of her wrist, she thawed three of Black Beauty's legs. "You missed one"
"Sorry, no one said I had to be 100% fair in this race. See you at the Ice Harvesting grounds!" and with a smirk Elsa galloped away on Sitron.
"You cheater…" I mumbled "Come on, Black! You can break free from that" I said as Black Beauty struggled to get his hoof out of the ice. I took out my dagger and hit the ice a few times before cracking it, then I put it back and with a final pull, Black got the hoof out of the ice. "Oh, yeah! Now we're in business!" I cheered and got back on my horse as he knelt down a bit, so that I could quickly get on his back "Let's get her!" and we broke into a full run. Elsa was ahead of us, running at full speed. Black and I were further behind, but we were slowly gaining ground. As we ran up ahead, I noticed a small forest covered in snow. That meant the ice harvesting grounds weren't too far off.
"There's the forest! Come on, Black! Show Her Majesty how fast you can run" I encouraged. Black whinnied and sped up. Elsa wasn't too far away now, just a few feet away.
"You don't give up, do you?" she said looking back at me with a smirk on her lips.
"And you came to that conclusion now?" Then I noticed where she was heading, directly into the woods. Mental alarms immediately started to ring in my head like crazy. When Landon died, we took the shortcut to Shergan which was in the woods. When we were at war, we usually would hide in the woods for surprise assaults. If there was one thing the war and Landon's death taught me, was to never EVER get into the woods, unless if necessary. Especially when we were just in two. Yeah, Elsa has her powers, but she wouldn't hurt a fly and I may be a warrior, but I'm not invincible. War is 75% skill and motivation, 10% strategy, 10% pain and 5% luck, and usually luck is the only percentage missing, and, if Drakora's old saying my mom used to tell me is true: 'Luck is blind but Misfortune sees you clearly', a forest is the last place you should go on your own, even if the ice harvesting grounds were not even a mile away.
"Elsa, stop!" I called.
"What? Does the Great Heroine surrender to the Queen of Arendelle?" she said jokingly.
"Elsa, you have to stop!" I answered seriously.
"I'm not falling for it!" she said with a laugh as we got closer to the woods.
"I'm not tricking you! Don't go into the woods! Let's go around it"
"To buy you time to win? Not a chance"
"Elsa, I'm serious! Listen to me! Stop!" But she didn't listen, she went straight into the woods. I couldn't leave her alone, but Black Beauty stopped right in front of the woods. Stomping his hoof.
I'm not going in there. he seemed to say. Usually I would never ignore my horse's signals, however, the Idiot a.k.a. Elsa, forced me to do so.
"We can't leave her alone in there. Go, Black. Everything's going to be fine" I reassured. Black seemed a bit reluctant, but he cantered inside as well as we followed Elsa, but I could sense his nervousness. Something wasn't right. Elsa was cantering in front of us, when Sitron slowed down to a halt and soon after Black Beauty did the same as we reached the queen.
"Come on, Sitron. Go!" Elsa encouraged, but Sitron seemed nervous, he had his head shot up and then he started stomping his hoof and lightly stood on his posterior legs as if he was taking small jumps. "Hey! Down, boy" Elsa tried to soothe him. But Black Beauty was doing about the same thing, only that he started whinnying.
I sense danger. Let's get out of here! He seemed to say.
"Sitron, calm down. Skylynn, what's going on?" Elsa said getting worried as well.
"We need to get out of here" I said, but the moment I finished the sentence an arrow flew a few inches away from Sitron's head, sticking into the ground. That was when Sitron snapped. He whinnied in fear and before Elsa could hold onto her saddle, Sitron stood on his back legs abruptly throwing her onto the ground, making her hit her head hard. Unfortunately, the woods were thick, which meant that there wasn't enough snow to grant a soft landing.
"Elsa!" I called as I saw her lying unconscious on the ground, but before I could dismount, someone jumped on me pushing me off Black Beauty and onto the ground. As I rolled to the ground, my attacker grabbed my wrists blocking me, but Black Beauty quickly turned around and kicked him off of me, knocking him out.
"Thanks, pal" I said getting back up and rushed to Elsa. But before I could check if she was fine, I saw other men appear. Some were big and buff, others thinner and shorter, all dressed in a winter attire, armed. They started circling me, their swords and daggers drawn and their eyes darting from Elsa to me. Then it hit me, it wasn't me they wanted. It was Elsa. That's why the arrow didn't hit her, it wasn't supposed to hit her. Because of her powers, they had to knock her out first.
"You want the queen? You have to go through me, first" I said glaring at them, drawing my sword out.
"With pleasure" the biggest thug said and nodded to the others. Quickly, one at a time, they lashed at me. I tried to keep them away from Elsa. Parrying and counterattacking, I tried to keep them away, but they outnumbered me and they were giving me little time to gain my breath back. But my message was perfectly clear and so was their response: they were going to kill me first to get their paws on Elsa, but I wasn't going to let them. I fought back with all my strength and I was actually winning. I was not backing down. I had many reasons not to. Hans's life indirectly depended on Elsa's, my kingdom's safety depended on our alliance and if I fail all finger would point to the Westerguard siblings, even if they knew better. These were an example. I had managed to wound some of the men, but they just wouldn't quit. One stroke me, but I dodged going around him and swiping him off his feet, only to parry another blow from another. As much as I hate to admit it, Storm's company would have been nice right now. Luckily for me, Black Beauty was trying to keep the soldiers away from me, he kicked and bit whenever one of them got either close to me or close to him to stop him, somehow.
"Come on, boys! She's just a girl!" one said.
"Yeah! A girl who's kicking our asses!" another answered angrily. The fight went on, but things went downhill when one of them took out a rope and caught Black Beauty, holding him back with another guy and I was growing tired. I had just knocked one to the ground, but before I could move away, one of the men quickly grabbed me from behind and immediately another thug grabbed my left arm knocking my sword out of my hand and while the first one moved and blocked my other arm. I struggled with all my strength to break free, but they were too strong.
"We got her!" Thug 1 said.
"Finally!" Thug 2 exclaimed
"What do we do with her, boss?" Thug 3 asked, while the others held Sitron and Black Beauty as they struggled to break free, whinnying and stomping their hooves .
"We frame her" said the guy who looked like their leader. The others sneakered with malice glancing at one another. The leader wal
ked closer to me and picked up my sword from the ground. He looked at it examining it. He was going to kill Elsa with my sword, my weapon was unmistakable. It was the one Storm gave me before our last battle together. Its golden hilt had Drakora's symbol craved on it: a dragon who's long body formed an elegant D that stood for Drakuyiir, which means 'Drakora' in Drakorian. On its handle, the hilt was carefully wrapped in light bronze colored leather, to give more comfort while holding it, but when it got dirty, especially if blood stained, it took forever to clean it. They were going to kill Elsa with my sword and stain the leather handle with her blood to frame me.
The thug took one step towards Elsa.
"You lay one finger on Queen Elsa and I swear that-"
"-What?" their leader said "You're in no position to do any threatening, Queen Skylynn" he said, mocking me on the word 'queen'. He sneakered "Thank you for granting us our 50.000 crowns"
"May I remind you that I was kicking your asses not too long ago?" I snapped with a smirk. He glared at me.
"You won't be so sassy once we're done with the job and Princess Anna will want your head on a silver plate, along with that of that brother of yours" he snapped "Especially since-well… you killed her beloved sister"
"Boss, she's stirring" one of the men noticed.
"Well, it was nice talking to you, but there's a job I need to finish" he mocked.
"Wait until I get my hands on you-"
"-That will be too late, then" and he walked closer to Elsa. She had moved her head a little, but was probably still more unconscious than awake. I tried to yell and call for help, but before I could let my voice out, Thug 1 roughly covered my mouth with his gloved hand. I struggled to break free, but the two men were strong.
Think, Sky! Quick! Think! Think! Think! Their leader stood upon Elsa, as if studying her.
"Sorry, your Majesty. Nothing personal, it's just business" he said and raised my sword, but before he could strike, out of nowhere a stone flew in air, hitting the thug in the head. He lowered his sword and staggered away from Elsa "OW! What the-"
"HEY!" someone shouted, but I immediately recognized the voice. In that moment, Hans revealed himself from his hiding spot "Maybe you should pick on someone your own size!" he provoked walking towards the angry thug. The guy tried to hit Hans with the sword, but Hans was more than capable of taking care of himself. I used the distraction my brother provided immediately. I kicked Thug 1 in the shin and as soon as he let go of me I punched Thug 2 in the face. Meanwhile, Hans had taken my sword back and thrown Thugs' Leader to the ground.
"Sky" he called and tossed me the sword, taking out a knife, probably used for cutting stuff while ice harvesting.
"Kill them! Kill them all!" the leader shouted and the fight was on once again, but this time, they wanted us dead more than ever. For a moment, I was back in battle. I remembered the ambushes, Storm and Landon by my side, the gun and cannon shots, the clanking of swords as people fought for their lives, the blood, the cries, the rebellion… all in a fight with mere rouges. Hans and I fought side by side, holding them back.
"Hans, they want to kill Elsa!" I informed him as we fought. Those men weren't going to stop until we were dead, there was no other option but kill them too, just like during the revolution. As we fought, Hans had managed to throw the two men he was fighting on the ground, but the moment I turned around, I stared in horror at what happened in a split of a second. The thug Black Beauty had knocked out had regained consciousness and had made his way towards Elsa, while Hans and I were fighting. His sword was up and was about to strike on the queen, when Hans had thrown himself on the scene and jumped between Elsa and the sword, shielding her with his body and tackling the man on the ground with so much force that, as he fell the thug hit his head on a rock, dying on impact. But as Hans did that, the sword had managed to hit him on the arm as he intercepted the weapon that was about to kill off Elsa. I was about to rush to his aid, but the thugs wouldn't let me. Their leader fell immediately as my sword pierced through him. The 3 men out of 5, who were still alive, watched as their leader fell as soon as they were back on their feet or ready to strike again. Luckily for them, as soon as they saw their leader dead, they all ran away and vanished into the woods.
I put my sword back in its sheath and immediately rushed to my brother's aid as he was still laying on the ground.
"Hans" I called kneeling next to him "Hans, you're bleeding! Where did he wound you?" I asked him. Then I immediately turned around towards Elsa "Elsa" I called softly shaking her lightly "Elsa, are you okay? Wake up" In a moment, our funny race had almost turned into tragedy.
"My head…" Elsa mumbled lifting a hand to the back of her head as I helped her to sit up.
"How are you feeling?" I asked her.
"Like an iron anvil fell on my head" she said rubbing her temples.
"Not surprised about that, it was a hard fall" I said, managing to get her to give me a small smile.
"Last thing I remember was falling off Sitron and glimpses of things like… a guy raising a sword upon me and… you fighting alongside… Hans?" she said as if realizing he was there for the first time. The moment, she saw my brother on the ground bleeding she started looking around disoriented, but noticed the battle scene in front of her and the two dead bodies.
"What happened?!" she asked in confusion "There are two dead men- Hans is bleeding and-" she looked at me confused and shocked at the same time "Sky, your jacket is blood stained" she said
"It's not mine" and by the look in her eyes, I didn't need to add anything more.
"But I remember a man who was about to kill me… what happened?" she asked
"Skylynn saved you, Queen Elsa" Hans said sitting back up, before I could open my mouth and tell Elsa what happened.
"Are you okay?" I asked him, putting a hand on his shoulder, but surprised at his answer.
"I'll probably need a few stitches, but I'm fine" he said, then he turned back to Elsa "Kristoff sent me to get some wood to repair one of the lifting machines, I heard the horses and swords clanking and saw what was going on so I rushed here to help Skylynn. It was another attempted regicide, your Majesty" Hans said
"Someone wants you dead, Elsa and offered those guys 50,000 crowns. That's what they said running away" I added giving Hans the 'we'll-talk-later' look. Elsa shook her head and rubbed her eyes for a moment, then looked back at me.
"You were right, Sky" Elsa said still looking disoriented and placing her hand on the back of her head where she hit the ground. "I should have listened to you"
"It's alright, the important thing is that they didn't succeed in their task" I said reassuringly "But from now on, remember: you're never ever to go in the woods alone or escorted, unless it's the only way to go somewhere. Okay?" I said.
"Okay" Elsa said with a small understanding nod.
"Come, we must go" Hans said seriously, standing up "Her Majesty will be safer back at the palace and it'd be wise to call a doctor for a checkup"
"But-" Elsa tried to complain, but I cut her off.
"- Hans is right. He is to be patched up too and since we're not doctors you could have a concussion, for all we know" I said. Elsa rolled her eyes, but nodded, standing up as well.
I turned around for a moment, and saw Sitron sniffling and nuzzling his muzzle on Hans' face as he recognized his master. Hans cuddled him for a moment and then came back to over leading Sitron to us as Black Beauty trailed behind. Hans then mounted on the horse, leaving some space in front of him and held his hand out for Elsa to take it, but the moment he did she hesitated.
"I may not be a doctor, but someone who has just passed out is in no condition of riding a horse on her own" he said, and he had a point. Elsa looked at Hans' hand then to him, and then back at me.
"I'll be right behind you" I said reassuringly. With still some hesitation, she took his hand and mounted Sitron, sitting in front of Hans. I got back to Black Beauty, cutting the rope the thugs had thrown around his neck, and got back
on soon making our way back to the palace. No one dared to speak. No one knew what to say. The tension in the air was thick, but for once it wasn't Elsa's discomfort around Hans, or rather being close to Hans, it was knowing that someone had paid some criminals to kill the queen. Hans and I exchanged looks only once as we were both thinking the same thing, but he abruptly glance away when he realized that my look also referred to something else: Hans had saved Elsa's life and had given me the credit. He better have a good explanation for it.
CHAPTER TWELVE
As soon as we got back to the palace, the only reason why soldiers and servants did not assault Hans was because although still a bit dazed Elsa was awake and vigilant and told them it was fine, but the fact that the queen was being carried back to the castle by the Westerguard siblings was not going by unnoticed especially since Hans's arm was wounded and I had a bloody jacket. More than once some servants and guards offered to take Elsa to her quarters to wait for the physician, but she politely refused. When some asked what happened all I answered was 'a riding incident'. We all knew that for now it was best to remain quiet about what happened, as it was best not to take Elsa to her quarters for now. Had it been just me, it wouldn't have been a problem, but being Hans with us, that was not going to look good. Therefore, we decided to take her to her study. When the royal physician came to check on Elsa he got the same responses: Elsa had fallen off the horse, Hans hurt himself trying to help and my jacket was bloody because it got stained when I helped Hans up. The physician seemed skeptical, but he let that slide and got to work as Elsa nodded that it was the truth. As he was done checking on Elsa and patch up Hans he left the room leaving me with my brother and the queen, who was holding a self-made pack of ice on the back of her head, luckily no concussion.
Many Beauty and the Many Beast Page 27