Hostage
"Morning, m'lady."
She awoke in the same place she fell asleep, sprawled across the tree's gigantic roots. Her eyes struggled to focus in the bright morning light. Her arms were partially wrapped around Lettvind's armored feet, hugging them as if she cared for the elf. Thankfully, the only light that was present was the sunshine. The birds chirped their beautiful song, and the elk ran about. Sadly, the snow was painted in ash from the fire.
She glanced up at the castle windows, her eyes wide open and afraid that the fire was still raging inside. "It's ok, Ari, the fire has subsided," Lettvind assured her calmly. "In fact, I am pretty sure it died off hours ago."
"What? How long have you been up? What time is it?" Ari questioned speedily. "If only I had a watch so I could answer those questions," he said. He laughed a little, "And I have to say, if I did have a watch, it would be mighty hard to see it when I can't even lift my hand." Ari snorted in humorous agreement. She sat up sharply, realizing that everything in the castle and her room had a good chance of being destroyed. Then she gasped and remembered that her family could be gone. Ari forced herself up, harshly grabbing onto Lettvind.
"Ari, calm down. I bet everything's going to be okay. Will you unfreeze me so we can go see if everything is good?" Lettvind asked. She looked up at him, sorrow in her ruby eyes. Tears rushed down her cheeks and painted her chin in its glossy presence. Her violet face turned dark purple as she cried softly onto his feet, arms still tightly grasping them. Her tears melted away the ice that twisted around his boots. Ari reached her hands towards Lettvind's chest, liquifying the frozen cocoon. Once he was finally free of the ice, Ari grabbed his arm and told him to follow her no matter what happened.
* * *
They reached the entrance to the castle; it was as cooked as the salmon at the Blodisen Festival. She still had her hand tightly wrapped around Lettvind's armored arm. His mask had been placed back into the headgear, and he was still soaking wet from the melted ice. Ari placed her hand on the door, half expecting to burn herself. Then, with a push, the door opened and scraped across the floor, ruining the frozen tiles.
The inside to the castle was burnt, just as Ari's heart was broken. The ground was patched in black spots, and the decorative snowberries that were placed upon the pots on the walls were gone, and so were the pots. The small tables and benches put randomly around the castle were either melted or deformed, depending on their material.
Lettvind put his hand on her shoulder to comfort the princess, but she wiped it off in disgust. The tears were still warm on her face and Lettvind did not seem to like their presence. She inched through the door, each foot leaving a print on the ashy floors. The hallways were silent, not a poller bear roar to be heard. The only sign of noise was her faint crying. My childhood is gone, Ari knew. She walked to the throne room, dragging her feet. Lettvind's arm was still painfully clutched in her left hand. And it's all his fault, she finished her thought as anger flooded back into her system.
She let go of his arm, and he immediately started rubbing it to get the circulation back in it. Ari strutted up to the spiked throne and dusted the debris from the seat. She knew well that her father would be sitting on the throne if he was okay by now. What would she do if he was killed?
She stepped down from the throne area and grabbed Lettvind on the arm again, pulling him out of the room. The corridors were not completely ruined; they were still livable, and so were most of the rooms. When they got to the destroyed stairs, Ari stuck out her hands and reached down for the first step. Ice formed up and around the block. Once again, she proved her Frost Giant abilities amazingly useful. Soon enough, the stairs were whole again, leading towards the second story of the castle. Ari looked back at Lettvind, noticing that he and the other elves were the ones that collapsed the stairs. "Destructive, you elves are, bashing down the stairs and all," she commented spitefully. Lettvind opened his mouth to speak, but he closed it, afraid that his words might result in a horrible punishment. His mask still covered his face, but Ari knew his every move. She carefully stepped up the stairs, helping up the Dark Elf every time he slipped on the ice.
Yes, she did despise him deeply, but it was obvious; he always tried to keep her safe. Soon, they reached the crushed entrance to the same hallway he found her in.
"Are you sure this is the one?" Ari asked. "Yes, of course it is. I remember me falling and scraping myself over there"- he pointed to a large needlelike stalagmite- "and you were laying somewhere near that fallen pillar." She leaped over the piled rubble. Across from a broken door was another entrance to another hallway. Lettvind was utterly surprised he never saw it while racing through the fire. The entrance to the hallway was unlike the others. It was decorated in ice sculptors made in the shape of Jotunheim's extravagant dragons. They curled up the few pillars that remained.
Each lizard held a different expression, their humanoid faces striking fear into the core of the Dark Elf. Each pair of frozen eyes seem to gaze deep into his soul. Lettvind took his time to observe the realistic artworks, double checking that they were only ice sculptures; he could of sworn he saw one move out of the corner of his eye.
Ari grunted in exhaustion in the distance. A sudden crack filled the eerie, black hallway and Ari yelled in her tongue, "Djösh!" Lettvind gave her a look of confusion. "What?"
"Nothing. It's just a curse in Jotun. Are you too daft too see that I'm struggling? For goodness sake, help!"
He hurried over to her, wrapping his arm around an ice block which she was trying to relocate. On three, they lifted the block, tossing it violently across the hallway. Ari brushed off some ash that lay clustered upon a door that the ice block was blocking. The entryway to the room once again glittered with the terrifying ice dragons, their faces twisted and nasty. Home sweet home, she thought. She pressed her hand down on the front of the door, feeling its intricate surface. She hastily grabbed a shard off the floor and slid it deep into the crack between the doors. With her hands positioned at the tip of the solid ice, she shoved it left and right, slowly opening the doors and clearing all extra ice that melted between the doors, sealing them shut. Another crack split the air, startling Lettvind.
As distracted as Lettvind was by the mere demolition of the walls and pillars, he still tried to assist Ari. Finally, after cracking the remaining frost from the door, she shoved it open, revealing its exotic inside. Purple everywhere.
The room consisted of beautiful clay sculptures of strange serpents- mostly dragons- and flawless velvet furniture. It looked as if it was designed by Midgardians. It was amazingly funky and bright and sparkled with traces of purple. The light made her eyes turn from a deep maroon to a ruby color, lighting up with hope and thankfulness. The room was definitely livable due to the small burns here and there. The only noticeable thing was that the curtains and parts of the sheets were burnt down to nothing but ashes. The ice pack that she had threw on the floor in the night before was still positioned on the frozen floor, jiggling with each blow of wind that emitted from the balcony. Noticing this, Ari hurried over to the balcony door, slamming it shut and locking it.
"Come in, elf," she commanded. Lettvind walked in and stood at a wall near her bed. "Sit," she continued. He plopped himself down lazily onto the gigantic bed. Ari then sped across the room only to seal the bedroom door shut and flick a switch on the wall, enabling some sort magical aura to float around the bedroom walls. "Soundproof magic? Impressive," he admitted. Ari stared at him, releasing an animalistic growl.
She grabbed one half of double bladed sword from off the shelf, stretching her arm to full length and holding the tip to his neck. "This again? Oh come on, princess. Can you at least show some effective threats? This will win you nothing," he taunted. His thick Elven accent showed its full potential. "Who are you?" she asked sternly.
"Forget much? I told you last night, fool."
"You are a bad liar, Lettvind. Or whatever your real name is."
"My name is Lettvind. I have no last name, because I have no place in Svartalfheim and no parents. While I will tell you as much as I know about Svartalfheim, I may not tell you anything else about me or my blood."
"Why not? Are you afraid, Lettvind?"
"Afraid? For your information, Dark Elves feel no fear. We are a strong, proud race that has ne-"
Ari placed her bare hand on the flesh of his ear, watching as his skin turned a dark blue. He screamed in pain as frostbite formed around his skin, stretching slowly onto his face. Lettvind violently ripped off his mask, revealing the growing blue virus. "Oh really?" Ari teased. He was close to shedding tears, she could tell. She finally let go of his frozen ear. He was screaming unidentifiable words that echoed throughout the large room, showing that the pain was less bearable than she planned. She shushed him, placing her hand back on his ear, making the blue burns vanish from his skin. His screams turned to a soft mumbling, something that wasn't common for Dark Elves.
"Weakling," she spat harshly. He snapped his mask back on and shook his head hesitantly. "Do you know why I let you live, Lettvind? Do you know why I do this?" No answer. "It's because I utterly hate you. Everything you do makes me hate you more than possible. If you think you can just leisurely walk into my realm and burn down the castle, you're a pure, daft idiot. Nothing you do will impress me. You know why?"
"Why...?"
"You're a monster. You may think of us as monsters because of our towering build and pointy horns, but that's nothing compared to the likes of a Dark Elf. I hope you notice that your kind is called Dark for a reason."
He twitched at this, letting his hope of escaping fly out the window and into a frozen world of death. It seemed as if the roots of life had finally found its axe, every leaf and branch reduced to a useless wooden keepsake that would eventually be destroyed. He was staring death in the eyes, the future reason of his decease. Years from now, maybe even hours, his gravestone would be imprinted with the words, "DEATH BY JOTUN". It was every elves' nightmare to be slain by a giant, and a disgrace if it were to happen.
She knelt down to the bed, and leaned forwards so that the only thing keeping her from touching his mask was an inch of air. She whispered to his very face, "From now on, you will be kept here in this room for the rest of your life. You are now my prisoner, my slave, my enemy. You will serve my every need, no matter how undesirable. You will do everything I tell you to do. No one shall know about you, and no one shall speak of you. Got it, elf?"
She pulled away after he briskly nodded, panicking as her eyes glowed blood-red, emitting an unnatural glow. She raised her hand, signaling him to stay put. Then, there was a rapid knocking at the door. Her name was being called in a familiar voice, "Ari? Ari are you in there, sweetheart?!"
It was her father.
She sped over to the door, undoing the lock and switched the soundproof switch to off. She snuck out the door to be greeted by a gigantic hug by him and Kjer. Their previous tears left wet lines down their ash covered faces. However, Kjer showed no signs of crying. They engulfed her in their manly arms, squeezing her out of pure love. Love was all she needed right now, and the stress that Lettvind put on her didn't help the situation. "Where's Saraphina and Shivan?" Ari asked immediately. They hugged her tighter, signaling their worry. "Shivan is downstairs checking for more survivors. As for mother, we don't know. We've been searching for her all morning. We... Well, we're afraid she was killed in the fire," he stated. Her stomach twisted in grief, and the news stung her ears like screeching chalk on a chalkboard.
Miraak continued to inform her of all the survivors that they collected downstairs and that only about 1/10th of the castle rooms were ruined. The damage of the fire seemed as nothing but a mere accident, or so he believed. He also blamed the fire on the cooks and would have them immediately executed for their 'crimes'.
After an hour or so, they went back to their rooms and talked, but she made sure they didn't enter her room.
She decided not to tell anybody about Lettvind.