Trusting the Girl
Maybe I am the monster everyone thought I was.
Only a day had passed since their escape, and the horrible tragedy. But to Elsa, it felt like a lifetime. Her mind was moving at a different rate than time itself. The worst part about it was Elsa had done it on purpose. She had not wanted to hurt, let alone kill anybody. Yet that was exactly what happened.
This exact thing was what Elsa most feared her entire life. Growing up, she never wanted to go outside or be there for her sister. She was too afraid of hurting her sister again or someone else that got too close. As a child she unintentionally hit Anna in the head with a blast of ice, while they were playing in the ballroom. It was a complete accident her sister got hurt. But what everyone had said to her from then on, was to conceal and hide her magic within. And this time, it was not an accident. She was fully responsible.
Elsa’s mind since the shipwreck had gone into shock, processing life’s moments in bits and fragments. Everything happening in front of her seemed choppy. Only certain thoughts played out in her mind, like fragments from a movie.
Murderer.
Pirates.
Killer.
Anna.
Fear.
My fault.
Tanya…
She did not know exactly why she was thinking of the princess so much, or why she crossed her mind at all. She did not even want Elsa near her, when all the queen had wanted to do was be her friend. Now she was still unconscious, while Elsa carried Tanya on her back. The heartbeat of the younger girl beat against Elsa’s back, and reverberated into her own heart.
Their ice ship she created had landed on a coastline foreign to her, not too long after their getaway. At least that’s how it felt to Elsa. However, nothing around her looked or felt familiar. The sky was completely overcast, so she did not know which direction to travel. The queen decided to walk along the coast. That was their best bet for finding their way to a town, or any place to get help.
Her muscles felt weak, and noticed a few bruises around her wrists and ankles. It was probably due to being tied up. Her clothes were dirty, and had some rips in her dress. But besides being sore, she Elsa was not severely injured or hurt. At least physically. Her heart was another matter.
Suddenly, Tanya moved on her back. She was waking up.
Elsa stopped and slowly moved the girl from her back onto the tall green grass. Instantly after she did, there was pain in her back.
“Where…?”
Tanya looked around at her surroundings. Once she noticed the queen in front of her, her eyes grew wide.
“Elsa?”
“How are you feeling?” She knelt beside the princess.
The girl took a second to process the question, as she massaged her own back. “I’m okay, but where are we?”
“We escaped.”
“Escaped? How in the world did we manage to do that?”
Well, it involved me rescuing us both, and carrying you the whole time, the queen thought.
“I used my powers to get us out.”
She looked surprised at the mention of magic, but then Tanya remembered.
“Oh...”
“Oh?” That’s all Tanya could say?
“I shouldn’t be anywhere near you.”
Not this again. Elsa could feel a small storm brewing inside her.
“Nowhere near me? I saved our lives!”
“I have to go…” Tanya blushed, and said embarrassed. Her weak legs stumbled a bit while getting up off of the ground, but Elsa stopped her.
“You aren’t going anywhere, until you explain why you desperately need to get away from me. What’s so wrong about me?”
“Your...," she stopped to think of a word, "...powers,” the princess said decidedly.
“Excuse me? My powers were what saved us both back there, and for a cost!”
“Your magic is made of ice and snow and mine is the essence of fire and heat. Did it ever occur to you for a second, those two were not meant to be near each other?”
“What do our abilities have to do with getting along? I’m not talking about powers anyway, I’m talking about you and me. My powers don’t define who I am, and neither do yours!”
“But we’re both technically dangerous to each other. Imagine what they could do,” she said in a lower voice, “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Well, I promise I’m not going to hurt you,” the queen said softly. But after what happened back at sea, Elsa did not know if it was entirely true. It's not like she exactly trusted herself at the moment.
“Don’t promise anything you can’t keep,” it was if Tanya could read her mind.
“Fine.” That got Tanya’s full attention. She did not expect Elsa to agree with her. “But I do promise you can trust me.”
“If I can really trust you. Tell me the truth then about why I even came to Arendelle. I don’t believe that my parents just left me here because war broke out in Aldyn.” She made quotes in the air with her fingers. “Trust me, my brother knows how to take care of himself.”
“They didn’t give any other reason other than that. I’m just as confused right now as you,” Elsa said sadly.
“I don’t believe you.”
“I’m not asking you to. But from what I could tell about your parents, they do care about you, even if they do a crummy job of expressing it. And though they didn’t say it themselves, I think they wanted you to be around someone you could truly relate with.”
Tanya thought about what the queen said. “Well… I guess on some level that’s accurate. I’ve never felt very accepted around anyone.”
“Trust me, I know what that’s like. Maybe not in the same way you do, but to some level.”
“People have always been wary or cautious around me. As if I’m bad luck or fortune. Even my family, especially my brother Anton. He never acknowledges me. He’s always absorbed in his own world. And with good reason they should be suspicious around me. After all it’s pretty obvious the Aldyn prophecy’s about me.”
Elsa became more alert. “Wait, prophecy? What prophecy? Your parents didn’t mention anything about a prophecy.”
“Wow they really didn’t tell you much, did they?” She said with amazement. “Well as the legend has it, a long time ago the royal prince of Aldyn was hunting in the woods. As he came to a creek, he noticed up in the tree, a beautiful red bird made from flame. It was the great firebird. Greedy as he was, he wanted to capture and stuff the bird for his freaky taxidermy collection. Like as a sort of trophy. The firebird was completely unaware that the prince was there, and noticed him after the arrow was shot. Before it could fly away, the arrow struck its heart. When the prince came over to collect his prize, the firebird spoke the curse through its last breaths. Though its physical body was dying, its spirit would live on, and one day be reincarnated into the royal line. Those would be Aldyn’s last days, and the kingdom will be under fire and flame. That's how it goes anyway.”
Tanya paused, “It’s obvious that the prophecy’s me. I hold the firebird’s spirit, and that’s why my parents are so afraid. Because I’m going to bring destruction to my own home.”
“I don’t believe you’re the prophecy.”
“You promised to tell the truth.”
“I really don't believe it’s you,” the queen said in all honesty.
“I wish I could believe that as well,” there was openness in the girl’s voice. Elsa heart went out for the girl. She wanted to run over and hug Tanya tightly, like she did on the ice ship. But she restrained herself.
“So what are we going to do now?” Tanya said calmly.
“You aren’t going to run away from me again?” There was a bit of teasing in Elsa’s voice.
“I think you’re alright, for the most part," Tanya smiled. "And I’ll make sure you won’t get hurt, by me or anyone else.”
The princess looked down at Elsa’s face, and her eyes traced up her body, and into her own. Elsa felt her heart beat faster and started to feel nervous. But it was a good nervous.
A good nervous? Good grief. That makes absolutely no sense.
Tanya woke up from her gaze, and said, “I still need to find my answer, I believe there was another reason they left me in Arendelle.”
“If there’s no way of stopping you, then I’m going with you,” Elsa was surprised that even came out of her mouth.
“I guess you can come too, I don’t really like being alone anyway.”
“Plus it’s safer if we stick together. I don’t want to risk the possibility of running into those men again.”
“There’s no way I’ll let that happen again. It happened that once because I wasn’t paying attention for a split second. It’s funny though, they looked sort of familiar.”
“What do you mean?”
“There was one man I swear I’ve seen before.”
“We should probably keep that in mind. If you have really seen them before, they could be following us.”
“I doubt it. But if they are, they won’t be so lucky next time,” small sparks flew from the princess’ hand.
“Whoops, I didn’t mean to do that.”
“No please, don’t hold back,” Elsa scooted closer to the girl. “Just let it all out. You can be who you truly are.”
She smiled at the queen, it was one Elsa had not seen before until now.
“Do you want to see a trick?” The queen attempted to move conversation on a lighter subject.
“Sure.”
Elsa formed a snowy orb while cupping her hands together. Tanya watched intently. The ball formed into a new shape, with a head, beak, wings, feet, and a tail. The queen brought the snow shaped bird close to her mouth, and gently blew on it.
It turned to life.
The bird’s wings spread in the palms of Elsa’s hands, and took flight. It had soft eyes and sang a sweet song. When she whistled and held out her hand, the bird landed and perched on her index finger. The snow was the purest white, and its beak and feet made from ice. It was in a shape of a blue jay.
“It’s beautiful,” Tanya said and then whispered under her breath, “just like you.”
It is beautiful.
Wait.
What?
Elsa could feel her cheeks get hot. There was no doubt she was blushing, her skin was so fair it was obvious. It was really no fair. She turned her head so the princess would not see, but it was too late. Tanya already noticed and was smiling at her.
Did she just try to flirt with me?
The queen changed the subject.
“I bet you can make one like mine.”
“From my fire? No I don’t think it works like that.”
“Just try,” she encouraged Tanya.
“Well… I’ll try...”
Hesitantly, Tanya started forming a ball of fire in her own cupped hands. With her fingers, she molded it into a bird shape, and then breathed life onto her creation. The bird flew out of her hands in a burst of light, and flew high into the sky. It expanded its wings full of fire and might, and flew back down. It perched itself on Tanya’s hand. Despite being made from fire, it did not burn her finger. In fact, it did not burn anything. The bird was in a shape of a cardinal.
Tanya laughed for the first time and exclaimed, “You were right, just look! But I don’t understand, why it's not burning anything down?”
“I think,” Elsa started, “it’s because it’s alive. The bird has its own mind and power, though you control it. You’re intent wasn’t to destroy, rather the opposite. While molding it, you kept that in mind, wanting to bring life and not death. Similarly to mine. Maybe our powers are not so different.”
Both of the birds suddenly took to the sky, and flew around each other in circles. They flew over to the tree a few feet away from them, and landed on a branch. They sat against one another and started touching beaks.
Elsa’s heart skipped a beat. This was getting increasingly uncomfortable for her.
“It's like they're... kissing,” Tanya said softly.
“No, they’re just grooming each other,” She said a bit abashed.
The princess laughed. “It’s cute.”
So she thinks it’s cute.
“I guess so. I guess they are, I mean,” that was the only thing that could come out of the queen’s mouth.
“I meant you silly, the way you blush like that.”
For the first time, Elsa felt like she was on fire. She was caught, and couldn’t hide her red cheeks or sweaty palms.
“Thank you.”
Thank you? That’s all you could say to her? Thank you?
Elsa could not come up with the right words to say back, so instead she said, “Maybe they can send a message to Arendelle.”
Tanya went with it, “It’s worth a shot.”
The queen whistled the two birds over and asked, “Could you fly to Arendelle, to let everyone know we’re safe? And can you stay with Anna to make sure she’s alright?”
The birds chirped back, and took off into the sky. They headed back towards the sea in the opposite direction. From their view, the birds looked like two bright stars once they were far enough away.
“We should probably keep walking and looking for a town, before it gets dark. Are you alright to walk?”
“I think so,” the girl got up from the grass. But Tanya could only move her legs so much, before they started shaking.
Elsa came beside her and wrapped her arm around the waist, to help keep her from falling. Her skin felt warm.
They made their way down the coast, until far off in the distance they saw lights near the bluff. Fortune was on their side, that it was in fact a town with a port. There they could find a place to sleep, get some new clothes, and even get directions to Aldyn. There was no going back to Arendelle at this point.