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Incorrect FairyTale

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Chapter 1: It's Dangerous To Go Alone

Summary:

Rated Mature- for literally anything can happen and neither of us will be prepared

Chapter Text

For summer, it was very cold under the shade of this forest. Dark trees blot out an even darker sky, promising rain, but not quite bringing forth on it. In fact, the air was quite dry and cold. The morning forest was an unsettling amount of quiet. Not even the gentle wind disrupts the silence, until a pair of careful footsteps accidentally tread over a twig. The sound disturbs any prey in the surrounding area, making several small creatures scatter. In a flurry of large white paws, the wolf was in pursuit of a large rabbit, which looked to be the slowest of the bunch. However, it wasn’t quite large enough to struggle getting into its burrow. That didn’t stop this wolf from furiously digging into the ground after it and snarling into the divet she was making larger. Finally, as her snout touches the soft fur of the rabbit, she lunges in and viciously pulls it from the burrow. In the process, her large jaws manage to snap the small creature’s neck, ending its misery right then and there.

Hours later, Elsa trudges through the dark trees, not the least bit worried of the forest’s threatening manner. After all, monsters had no right to be afraid in their place of dwelling. Platinum blonde hair braided back and light blue plaid flannel buttoned most of the way up, she looked like an elegant, yet small, lumberjack, not at all like a beast. Though, size had nothing to do with her amount of stamina and power, as was evident when she digs her bare feet into the earth and raises an axe. Small wood chips pelt her jeans as she aggressively goes about cutting down this tree. So much anger that could only properly be ridded of in a manner such as this. Halfway through the tree, she was only starting to get tired. Her hands were already rough with calluses from doing this so often, her muscles sore, but familiar with the motion. To live out here, you had to have rough skin such as that. If you couldn’t take care of yourself, something bigger and stronger would probably kill you. While Elsa didn’t particularly like this method, not abiding by it would make you weak, and she was determined to stay alive. Just as the blade was getting to the edge of the trunk, it started to tip, though not at all the way she expected it to. Not that it really mattered to her at first, but now that she wasn’t focused on the tree, she could hear voices a short distance away. A young man and… an even younger woman. Dropping her axe, Elsa sprints towards the voices.

Following the tree’s shadow, she only finds one person about to be crippled by its fall, meaning the other must be some way behind. Sure enough, the man was calling out to his red cloaked friend, but the girl was completely oblivious. Growling in frustration, Elsa rushes forward and tackles this girl before she could get crushed. They fell maybe a foot or two away from the tree’s impact and landed heavily into the dirt with the force used. Still, Elsa was more worried about crushing this stranger under her own weight than she was about the tears in her sleeves or new cuts on her arms. With a groan, she sat herself up where she could look down at this oblivious dunce, only to find the girl pulling her hood off before Elsa could do it herself. It seemed like she was about to get yelled at, but when dark icy eyes met the lighter bright blue gaze, it seemed they were both rendered speechless. Something strange turns in Elsa’s stomach. Anxiety? Where on earth did that come from..? Elsa glares down at this girl in an attempt to hide what she was thinking. Though, now her eyes were scouring the girl’s face for details. A redhead with seemingly endless freckles. She has a very childlike face and wore innocent twin braids. There was something else, too. As Elsa leans down to curiously sniff the woman, the ginger’s face quickly goes pink. A small scar just above her eyebrow, long since healed as it was probably inflicted more than a decade ago.

“Get off of her, freak!” At the sound of another voice, Elsa’s attention turns to look at the man advancing towards them both with his lute raised as a weapon. The blonde didn’t need to be told twice. She jumps off of the cloaked girl and makes a dash away from the path she had accidentally destroyed with the tree, quickly making her way back along it so she could find her axe and start working on cutting up the blockage- starting far from where those people were.

“Wait! Come back!” The sound of the ginger’s voice was sweet in Elsa’s ears, however, not quite persuading enough to listen. Still, there was something quite magnetic about that girl she couldn’t figure out… something that made Elsa want to seek her out. Maybe it was just the charm and attraction, but now she was determined to find that girl once she was alone.

_______________

Anna watches the stranger run away with a look of disappointment on her features. At first, she had been angry to be shoved to the ground, as it had hurt a lot, but in seeing and feeling the tree crash to the earth, it became apparent that there was quite the opposite of rude intentions. She hadn’t even gotten the chance to thank her. Well, she had the chance, but it was spent feeling gay and speechless. The blonde’s eyes were gorgeous. No, everything about her seemed to have such rugged grace about it, despite being mostly covered in dirt. Maybe it was because her face was almost shoved into that woman’s boobs, but there was definitely a feeling of heavy attraction now. It was easy for a girl like her to catch feelings, and the strange woman practically just threw them into her lap. Standing to chase after her, Kristoff’s hand grabs her arm before she could even get a step away.

“Anna, are you alright?! I told you it was a bad idea to run ahead of me like that!”

“Yes, I’m fine! Why did you scare her away?” A bit furious, she turns on Kristoff with a glare. Though, that just seemed to make him more confused, to her frustration.

“What are you talking about? She jumped on you, didn’t she? Probably just another of the forest freaks, AND evidence that I’m right about how you should not be walking alone.” Even angrier now, Anna brushes Kristoff’s hand off and marches away from him, her arms crossed and partially hidden under the red cloak she wore. While this one made her stand out with the vibrant color, her mother had made it, and as she was quite ill now, Anna hoped wearing it would cheer her up when they got to her cabin. “What’s your problem?!”

“She wasn’t hurting anyone! Don’t be such a coward!”

“Didn’t hurt anyone?! There are streaks of dirt on the back of your cloak that proves otherwise!” She could hear him quickly walking up behind her, likely to try and stop her from going over the tree instead of around it. Still, the ginger was determined to try, even though his large hands inevitably pull her away and drag her the smarter route.

“Like I said, I’m fine! So what if the cloak is a little dirty? It did its job to protect me, just like she was doing. I would’ve been crushed under that tree if it weren’t for her!” Kristoff seemed exasperated by her persistence, but didn’t bother continuing to argue.

“Fine, whatever you say. Local forest dweller a hero for saving an annoying redhead who doesn’t pay attention to her surroundings.” He gives a heave as Anna’s elbow finds his gut.

An hour later of somehow almost getting lost and they finally made it to the closest outskirts of a village, where Anna’s mother resided in a cabin of her own. For the winter, she had been told to stay with her grandparents, as she did every year even though she constantly worried about her mother and her dwindling health. Mother’s explanation was that it would be much warmer than staying with her, and she would go with, but she felt far too old to be traveling. Whatever Anna tried, she could never get her mother to budge from the cabin farther than the village’s market.

As Anna steps up to the door, she instantly steps back again at the sight of a dead rabbit laid at the foot of it. Kristoff sees it too, and gives a disgusted grimace just as Anna before fetching a stick and trying to poke it away from the door. As he did that, the ginger leans forward to knock on the sturdy wooden surface.

“That isn’t creepy at all.” She muses quietly when looking back down at the animal. It couldn’t have been there for very long if mother hadn’t gotten rid of it yet, and it didn’t look to be decomposing yet. A moment later and the door finally opens to reveal the pretty brunette that was her mother, who was smiling at the sight of her two favorite visitors. “Mother!” Ignoring the dead creature, Anna moves forward to hug her mom, absolutely thrilled to be in her embrace again. Iduna gives a weak giggle, but holds her daughter back just as tightly.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Oldenburg.” Leaning against the cabin wall, Kristoff nods to the older woman with a look of polite respect. To politely address him back, Iduna finally lets Anna go, though the ginger refuses to separate from her yet.

“Afternoon, Kristoff. Thank you for once again bringing Anna back safely to me.” She returns the nod and gives him a smile, one of her hands softly stroking the back of Anna’s head.

“Was a pleasure, ma’am. I’ll see you both tomorrow.” Brushing dirt from his shoulder, Kristoff waves them both goodbye while leaving back the way he and Anna had come. Anna lets go of her mother finally, so she could wave goodbye to him.

“Bye, Kristoff! Give your little brother a hug for me!”

____________

Elsa slams her axe into the wood with a loud angry yell, beyond frustrated that this was taking so long. In the span of an hour, she had managed to cut the wood in several log segments and was just now finishing clearing the actual path. With a groan, she slowly sits down against the piece she was previously chopping and closes her eyes to take a much needed break. That peace lasted barely a minute before the delicate sound of a lute being played started getting increasingly closer. Still, the blonde didn’t bother moving. Was a good thing she didn’t, too, because when the man saw her sitting there in her tattered dirty clothing, surrounded by the tree she had accidentally cut down the wrong way, he set down his lute and reached his hand down to her. Instead of taking it, Elsa slowly opens her eyes and draws them up to his face.

“Hey, I’m sorry for running you off. I didn’t know you were trying to help.” When all the blonde does is stare up at him in a tired and disinterested way, he clears his throat and retracts his hand. “Do you need help with that?” Instead, he picks up the axe, a little surprised at how heavy it was, but eventually raises it onto one of his broad shoulders. Elsa flinches away, clearly afraid of him wielding the weapon against her, so he quickly lowers it and waves his other hand to try dismissing the thought. “No, no, I meant about the tree! I want to help.” She stares at him with a skeptic look, but slowly proceeds to stand and gives him a small nod. “You don’t talk much, do you?” Before Elsa could think of a response, the man raises the axe again and strikes it into the log, chopping it in the same divot Elsa had already made. “My name is Kristoff, by the way.”

“Elsa.” She finally spoke, watching him slam down the axe like an idiot, but not bothering to stop him, because the more exhausted he becomes, the better. He glances over at her as she speaks, but quickly turns his attention back to chopping.

“So, you do speak. Do you really live out here?”

“Yes.”

“That’s… cool.” Silence lingers between the both of them, only awkward for Kristoff, who just wanted to start a conversation.

“Who was the girl?” Surprised by the question, he once again turns his head to Elsa, only to find her eyes on the small progress he was making.

“Oh. Her name is Anna. I’m surprised you live out here and haven’t seen her. She comes and goes every summer and winter.” Shrugging it off, he continues chopping. Except, Elsa had already gotten exhausted just watching him and grabs the axe as it lands. Kristoff steps out of the way, intently watching the woman to see how she would do it. Instead of slamming the axe down, she just guides the heavy weight of the axe into the tree, saving energy and making way more progress. “Wow! You do this often?”

“Does she always walk with you?”

“Haha yeah, though I’m sure she rather wouldn’t. That crazy girl is a wild spirit, and keeping her on a leash is impossible.” Finally, the piece gives way and drops from the rest of the tree. With a grunt, she stands upright and drops the axe, her back popping in the process.

“Would you assist me in carrying the logs to my cabin? It shouldn’t take very long.” As Kristoff visibly hesitates, Elsa gives a disgruntled huff and starts pulling at the nearest log herself.

“Yeah, sure, okay.” Apparently catching the note of irritation from Elsa, he figures just to help her. Either he hoped for a favor in return, or figured it would be better not to make the ‘forest woman’ mad. With branches still attached to most of the logs, it was difficult to pull out of the pathway, but together, they were making good headway. When they get a good length of distance away from the path, Elsa suddenly stops pulling, making it extremely more difficult for Kristoff. He stops as well to look at her, who was staring off into the distance at the sun halfway through its descent in the sky. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“You were right, Kristoff.”

“Right about what..?” His voice gave away his worry, but he clearly didn’t think to step away. She didn’t bother answering yet, instead just letting him find out for himself as her body swiftly changes, growing in size and hairiness. The growing muscle rips through most of her already tattered flannel and her jeans, the fuzzy white platinum blonde fur puffing out from the holes and growing her braid into a fuzzy mess. Turning to face him with her long snout of bared sharp teeth, her icy blue eyes bore down on him with malice and murderous intent.

“Monsters.”

“Alright, be safe! And be back before dark!” Her mother calls after Anna as she excitedly bounds away with a neatly woven basket on her arm. “Don’t go too far into the forest!” That last one fell on deaf ears, but Anna waves back at Iduna anyways, a big grin on her face. Today, she was determined to find that strange woman again, whatever it takes.

“Okay! I’ll see you later!” With that goodbye, she sprints away, her cloak drifting up as she did so to reveal the pretty black dress she wore underneath. It was still very cold out even though spring was technically over, so she was hoping that the dark clothing would attract heat. Still, it was definitely a big change from her normally colorful personality.

The first few minutes of searching the quiet creepy forest was fine, but when it turned to half an hour of walking along this path with no signs of life, she started immensely regretting this decision. At least as long as she stayed on the path, she couldn’t get lost. So, with that in mind, she just kept walking with a relaxed smile, completely oblivious to the forest dangers as she was the day before.

“A girl like you shouldn’t be walking around the forest alone.” The voice caught Anna off guard, making her almost trip forward as she quickly tried to see who it was. Though, when she does manage to look at the voice’s source, she smiles again in relief and immediate adoration. It was the rugged forest woman from yesterday, dressed in the same clothes as before, but with more tears and rips in them. In fact, she was basically wearing loose rags at this point. A very concerning thing to notice...

“Oh, it’s you again!” The woman was leaning against a tree, her arms crossed over her chest to cover what was mostly exposed there. “Well, I wasn’t planning to walk alone the whole time, but it’s really hard to find you.” At Anna’s smug comment, she raises a curious eyebrow, her lips raising in a smirk.

“You were looking for me?” Her voice was so clear and pristine, like an elegant queen trapped in a dirty shell. Listening to it made Anna’s heart pound. Despite that, she was determined not to act so small.

“Yeah! I wanted to thank you for saving me yesterday. I would have been squashed without you aha…” The woman steps away from the tree and towards Anna, worrying the ginger only slightly before her bright nature convinces her that there was nothing to be afraid of. If this person wanted her dead, she would’ve just let the tree fall on her. “My name is-” Before Anna could get the word out, the woman was forcing her back into the closest tree.

“All the more reason why pretty girls like yourself shouldn’t be walking out here all alone.” Anna could feel the blonde’s breath on her lips, she had gotten so close, pinning the ginger to this tree just by her body alone. A strong and slender arm snaked up beside Anna's head to rest against the tree, surprisingly pale for how much time this woman had to be outside.

“...Anna…” Breathing out the word, Anna shudders under the intense contact pressed against her and resists the urge to look down. Instead, she kept her gaze leveled on this woman’s piercing eyes. “What’s so dangerous out here that you don’t think I can handle myself?”

“Wolves. Girls like you are bound to attract them.”

“Girls like me?” Her eyes dropped just a bit to see this woman bite her lip before speaking again, though now she was entransed in the perfect way she spoke. It felt so ridiculous to even think about the way of talking to be perfect, but here she was practically drooling over it.

“Big blue eyes… gorgeous red hair… soft skin… mysterious curves…” Anna almost yelps when a hand finds her waist, though quickly contains herself into letting out a more embarrassing groan instead. Blushing horribly, she cringes at herself and looks away. The woman chuckles, obviously amused with the reaction she was able to get. Frustrated with her lack of reserve, Anna turns a determined glare back on the blonde.

“Well, lucky for me, I have you. While this is a very… intense way of greeting, I can see you’re quite inclined to be friendly. In fact..” Clearing her throat, Anna attempts to unbutton the woman’s ruined flannel despite how strongly it was pinned between the both of them. Thankfully, the blonde took a step back, clearly confused, but not about to stop it. When it became obvious there was nothing underneath, Anna stops and looks away. “Uhhh right. Unbutton the rest of that and take it off, I have an idea.” Still, confused, the forest woman does as she asks, completely put off by whatever was happening. Anna turns to the side so she wouldn’t be compelled to look and unclips her cloak. Mother would likely be worried to see its disappearance at first, but would hopefully understand when the flannel was displayed and Anna explains herself. “Here, tie this around your… torso. I’ll have this flannel taken back home with me tonight and have it sewn for you.”

“Why?” Risking glancing over to the woman, she finds the blonde tying the cloak around herself in a kind of shoulder-less crop top. Eager to help, Anna goes around to her back so she could move the braid and tie up the cloak, though she couldn’t keep her eyes off the woman’s lithe thin build. Regardless of it, the blonde proved to be quite strong.

“It’s the least I could do for you after what you did for me.” There was more silence between them until the knot was tied and Anna went around to face this person again. “I hope that’s okay for now.” This time, the stranger seemed to be the embarrassed one, a light pink blush creeping up on her gorgeous features.

“My name is Elsa… by the way.”

_________________

Elsa felt baffled by this girl. There wasn’t an ounce of fear about her, Was she really that oblivious? No, she couldn’t be, right? No wonder she required a chaperone… Now the ginger was left completely defenseless with no one but Elsa herself, also known as, the monster that had torn apart said chaperone and devoured the corpse for a nightly snack.

“Elsa, huh?” Anna muses, giving Elsa nothing but the dreamiest of looks while tucking the scraps of her flannel into the basket. “That’s a very pretty name.” Then her gaze catches on the same hand now moving up to Elsa’s face. Her initial reaction was to move away, but the girl’s touch was so gentle. When Anna brushes loose platinum strands away, Elsa leans her head into the hand, her eyes falling closed just for a moment before realizing what she was doing. Though it was too late. As she opens her eyes again, she finds Anna’s gaze alight with stars, her face expressing obvious adoration. Out of embarrassment, the blonde slaps Anna’s hand away and leans back with a forced scowl.

“It’s fine. What have you got in that basket of yours?” Before Elsa could reach for it, Anna gasps in excitement and starts digging under the cloth that covered whatever was inside.

“I brought you cookies! Mother and I made them together last night and I thought you would really appreciate them! They’re soooo good.” Giggling, the redhead hands out a delicious looking sugar cookie to her, which Elsa albeit timidly accepted. There was something very familiar about the treat, but she couldn’t quite figure out what it was. Regardless, that was comforting enough that she dared take a bite, only realizing after that Anna was staring at her very expectantly. Slowly finishing the food, she couldn’t even think about how good it was, because she was so intent on staring back.

“It’s rude to stare, Anna.”

“Did you like it?

“...yes. Thank you.” The younger girl gives an excited little bounce.

“Great! You can have some more as you walk me back to Mother’s cabin.” Without waiting for a response, Anna turns on her heel whilst flipping the cloth to expose more of the warm treats inside. Taking a moment just to gage what she should do, Elsa lets out a long sigh and reluctantly keeps pace beside the ginger.

“Is this manipulation or do you think you’re self-entitled?” Elsa finished her first cookie quickly and reached into the girl’s basket for another.

“Far from self-entitled, ha! No, it was just a little trap, so you wouldn’t run away just as I finally found you. Besides, you said it yourself how I shouldn’t be walking alone.”

“Run away? I’m not a bunny. If anything, maybe you should be more cautious of me rather than curious. I couldn’t help but notice your… friend isn’t hovering around you today. Would be a shame if something might have happened to him... This forest is no joke.” Despite her warning, Elsa could see Anna rolling her eyes, making the blonde grin in amusement.

“Kristoff is perfectly capable of handling himself, and so am I, thank you very much. I’m sure he'll be back when late afternoon comes just as he said he would. You’ll see. And… I don’t see any reason to be cautious of you when all your actions show you want to protect me. Telling me not to walk alone, saving me from that tree, and agreeing to walk with me now. I don’t need protection, I just… want a friend.” All the words went dry when Anna admitted her intentions, giving Elsa the burning feeling of regret.

“Listen, Anna… I’m not really friend material. People aren’t friends with forest dwellers.” Anna’s smile was gone in an instant and she stops in the path to look up at Elsa, making her stop as well.

“Why not?”

“Please, don’t make me say it.”

“I won’t know what you’re talking about if you don’t.” Kicking her foot in the dirt, Elsa glares over at a tree.

“We’re… freaks. If you try to become my friend, you’ll be considered a freak, too.”

“Elsa, you aren’t a freak.” Suddenly finding tan arms wrapped around her torso, Elsa raises her arms in confusion, unsure what this girl thought she was doing. “You’re human, just like I am, regardless of where you choose to sleep at night. No matter what, we all sleep under the same stars.” Her voice wasn’t solemn, more like she was amused by Elsa's way of thinking. It was hard not to question herself and why she demanded to live out here if what Anna said was true, but that reality was quickly swept away when truth crashed back in. Anna didn’t really know what she was, that deep under the flesh and bone she was holding onto so tightly, a raging storm howled within.

“You’re such a sweet girl, Anna.” Finally lowering her arms, Elsa strokes the back of Anna’s head with a hand as softly as she could manage. “I’ll walk you to the edge of the forest, okay? No farther. Please, don’t come try to find me tomorrow. I don’t want you to get hurt.” There was a moment of silence for them both, in which all Elsa could think about was the huge mistake she had made. Curse her animalistic attractions. Curse her animalistic everything! She felt like such a dog… but not nearly the kind you would choose as a companion. What was worse is that the impulse remained. While, for now, her hand was gentle, she longed for her nails to be digging into the ginger’s bare skin. As soon as she even thought about it, her fingers twitch and she instantly moves herself away from Anna’s hold. That seemed to bring the girl back down to earth as well as herself.

“Oh! Yeah, of course! Wait- what?” Finding herself with a grin again, Elsa just rolls her eyes and starts them both walking down the path again. The conversation that followed as they walked felt brief, even if they had really been walking for a while. It was clear Anna wasn’t exactly in a hurry, and her mind was filled with strange questions Elsa never thought she would be answering. Some were just flat out ridiculous, but in the end, their journey had to stop. When Elsa pauses before they could get to the edge of the trees, Anna does a double take before stopping as well and turning to look back. “What is it?”

“This is where I leave you. I’m not taking a step further.” The disappointment that crosses Anna’s face burdened Elsa’s soul, but she stood her ground. Never would she let herself be open judgement to anyone unlucky enough to spot her, not even for a sweet gorgeous redhead girl.

“Oh. Alright.. I wouldn’t suppose you would be open to hugging again? Your arms are strangely comforting.” That shouldn’t have been as surprising as it sounded. Of course the girl thought it was comforting when she had no idea why Elsa wanted to hold her ever closer. The possessiveness she felt when holding her felt barely anything other than animalistic. A sense to protect her prey and not let anything get to it. To Anna, it must have felt safe and secure, like Elsa was only interested in keeping her out of danger. Little did she know… Maybe that could change, though. Living in the woods, Elsa never had a reason to hold back her wolfish instincts, but what if she could be more than a beast? What if she finally bothered to grow close to someone instead of treating them all like meat? Her somber icy gaze stares at Anna for probably longer than the ginger knew what to do with. “E-Elsa?”

“Don’t come back to find me tomorrow.” She repeats the statement, despite how it damaged her heart to say. Her face remained stoic and emotionless, determined to get the message through this young girl’s head.

“What? Did I do something wrong?” The level of dread that fell over Anna’s face was even more painful to watch, so the blonde reluctantly looks away.

“I just don’t want you getting hurt trying to find me! You were crazy to go alone, especially with food on your arm. Can you really not comprehend that the forest isn’t the place for young girls like yourself?! You’re just going to get yourself killed and I don’t need that being my fault.” Anna didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, her gaze intently watching Elsa’s face, even though she refuses to look over again.

“I see… Well, it was nice to meet you again, Elsa. I hope the rest of your day goes well.” Elsa doesn’t bother responding, instead just listening to the shuffle of Anna’s feet as the ginger leaves down the rest of the path. Finally, she lifts her gaze to watch the younger woman go when she was sure Anna wouldn’t look back. She stays standing there moments after the redhead disappears, taking a deep breath of Anna’s sweet lingering scent and then letting out a low groan.

“See you tomorrow, Anna.”

Chapter 2: This One Is Too Cold

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The next day, Elsa was wandering the trees aimlessly while the image of that ginger beauty refused to leave her mind. It seems the girl was stubborn in more ways than one. Out of the corner of her eye, she catches the sway of gentle movement, making her attention quickly turn to the source. Instead of finding a person, or a creature at all, it was a shirt. Elsa’s flannel hung on the low branch of a tree, swaying in the gentle breeze. Since being gifted with the red cloak yesterday, Elsa hadn’t bothered changing out of it, but seeing her flannel patched up and just left for her, she rushes over to it with a short bounce of excitement. After pulling it down from the branch and assessing the wonderful sewing job done on the tears, she brings the fabric to her face so she could take a deep breath of the lingering scents on it. There was Anna and another suspiciously familiar smell that caught her attention, but before she could put a name to the scent, a heavy weight dropped onto her shoulders. Collapsing to the ground underneath it, she gives a startled yelp.

“Haha! I got you! Now who can’t handle themselves on their own?” Panic turns to annoyed relief at the cocky sound of Anna’s voice. The girl was sitting comfortably on Elsa’s back, looking proud of her catch. With a grunt, the blonde pushes herself off the ground and shoves the younger woman off.

“Yeah, dropping yourself right onto the predator sounds like a sure way to stay safe.” Despite herself, Elsa couldn’t help a smile, especially to see the grinning girl’s face again. While it was a dumb trap, it was technically successful. She gives a huff and turns her back to Anna so she could untie the cloak covering her torso and pull on her flannel.

“Well, obviously.” The matter-of-fact tone sounds behind the blonde. “If I was making a real trap, it would probably be something really heavy that drops onto you rather than myself.”

“Hmm no, no, I think you had the right idea the first time. Land the right way on someone’s neck and they’re sure not to get up again. You’re certainly heavy enough for that.” Chuckling mischievously to herself while buttoning up the flannel, Elsa didn’t account for the anger in the small girl’s body until she was suddenly on the ground again with Anna on top of her. It was surprisingly painful to have her arm pulled so hard behind her, bending it back farther than should be done. She gives a throaty growl against it, her other arm unable to grab or even touch the young girl. “Hey, let go of me!”

“Take it back, you… mean person!” The insult, or there lack of, caught Elsa just as off-guard and she started to laugh. Until Anna pulls harder.

“Okay! Okay! I take it back! You’re lighter than a feather!”

“And?”

“And…?” Elsa desperately searches for a reasonable answer that wouldn’t get her in more trouble. “And you’re clearly capable of handling yourself!” That seemed to be the right thing to say. Her arm was released and the weight pinning her to the ground was removed.

“Thaaaat’s right.” She didn’t even know whether to be mad or not when sitting up and readjusting her arm uncomfortably. Her gaze was stuck on Anna’s smug expression, wondering to herself why she didn’t desperately want to strangle the girl. Though, in hindsight, Elsa sort of deserved what came to her for being rude. Still, that unsure feeling amplifies when Anna’s face quickly becomes worried and she kneels down beside Elsa. “Oh, did I actually hurt you? I- it was meant more like a warning, I didn’t mean to! Is there anything I can-” With her other hand, Elsa slowly covers Anna’s mouth. It was more likely the ginger was confused by that and went quiet, rather than being muffled and catching the hint.

“I’m fine, Anna. Just surprised, is all. It’s not everyday someone is brave enough to try and break my arm.” If they did, her arm probably wouldn’t be much use to her right now. “Did you just come here and try to trick me out of complete spite for me telling you not to come back? A statement I only made because I don’t want you to get yourself killed.” Looking a little guilty now, Anna just as slowly pulls Elsa’s hand down off of her mouth.

“Uh maybe.”

“Did you end up getting hurt at all in any way? If I’m not mistaken, we are incredibly far away from the path.” Sudden astonishment raises the tone in Elsa’s voice. “Did you really come out all this way and set this up without knowing any way back home? You just solely bet on me finding you?!” The ginger’s gaze was squinted and staring down at the grass instead of focusing on Elsa's face.

“Okay, when you say it like that, it sounds kinda bad…”

“Anna!!!” Elsa could not believe the… the audacity of this girl!

“But you found me, didn’t you? So, I don’t see what the problem is! You’re just overreacting-” Anna gasps and looks up at Elsa. “Oh my gosh! You care about me!!” Elsa was so stunned by the accusation she almost didn’t know how to say the words of denial.

“N-no! Don’t get the wrong idea!” She stutters out, only for the protest to be completely ignored by the young ginger. Anna had a huge grin on her face, eyes sparkling with mischief and excitement.

“I can’t believe it! Was it my charm? Or my adorable personality~?” Giggling, Anna leans into Elsa until she was pushing the blonde back into the dirt. However, Elsa refused to cooperate or accept that she may care at least a little bit. A reasonable amount, at least.

“Well, it definitely wasn’t your obnoxious oblivious behavior,” she growls, shoving Anna off of her so she could stand up and brush the dirt off her flannel. “Girls who are drawn to danger aren’t exactly attractive. You know why?” Elsa felt very vulnerable with Anna poking fun at her emotions, her only defense mechanism against it being anger, something she had plenty of already. “Because necrophilia isn’t appealing.” For a moment, her face contorts into a very wolfish snarl, scaring Anna enough for the ginger to quickly scoot away on the dirt. Normally, seeing the fear on someone’s face meant nothing to her, or even was sadistically pleasing, but seeing it on Anna gave her an awful flashback. Nothing like that ever happened to her, but this one had to be from childhood, a time she was very aware of repressing. Regardless of where it came from or what it was, it brought Elsa back to the moment where she was human and still with Anna.

“What are you?!” What was even stranger now was that the young girl was clearly adamant on staying where she was, instead of running like many others would rightly attempt. Maybe that was it then. Anna must know it’s pointless.

“I… I’m not sure, but I know I’m far from worth your time.” The anxiety had returned, burrowing itself in her heart and making it hard to breathe. “Please, I’ll only hurt you. Just leave me alone! Don’t come into this forest again. You’ll find the path if you keep walking that way…” Practically trembling, Elsa points to the east, but Anna doesn’t bother looking. No, the horror in her face quickly turns into curiosity as she stares at Elsa’s face.

“You’re…” When she couldn’t seem to find the words, it only made Elsa feel all the more worse. All she could think of was monster. I’m such a monster..

“Anna, go! Don’t make me make you!” Trying to suppress tears, Elsa tries to sound threatening, only to sound just as vulnerable as she felt. In the next moment, Anna was quickly getting to her feet, instead trying to get closer to Elsa rather than do what was ordered.

“Elsa, no, I’m not going to just leave you like this!”

“Yes.. you are.” Quickly unbuttoning her flannel, Elsa tosses the fabric back onto the tree before she lets her form shift from the young woman she was to the large furry white beast that lived within her, her jeans shredding thing, but remaining tight on her legs. The worst part about shifting was the burning pain that came with bones growing and moving at a fast rate, but that kind of pain was easy to get used to the more she did it. Dropping down on all fours, her paws make an instant imprint in the dirt, larger than a mortal man’s hand. While she desperately tried to be threatening, her eyes gave away the discomfort she felt in this situation. It’s all Anna could see, keeping her rooted until large jaws snarl and lunge forward to display a row of sharp teeth. That’s when the ginger seemed to finally tune into her survival instincts and makes a run for it. To make sure she would get all the way to the path, Elsa chases after her, keeping at least a foot of distance behind her.

At the path, Elsa is relieved to find Anna doesn’t stop running. The wolf sits at the edge of this path to watch ginger hair disappear behind branches the farther Anna gets. Her flashback… Was it Anna? All she could see in it were ocean blue eyes frozen in horror, but the more she tries to focus on bringing it back to mind, the more the image seems to drift away. She couldn’t even push it away like it was nothing either. No matter how much she desperately wanted to. There were strong emotions tied to what she saw. Emotions that were quickly ripping her apart inside even as her body shifts back into a cowering human form, sobs that leave her without reason. Her hands desperately try to rid her face of the tears, but this would last for another few minutes. So, trying to pick herself up and move through it, she trudges back through the trees. Only by the time she found her flannel again did the tears finally come to a stop, but she was no closer to an answer of why that happened in the first place. Not that it mattered anyways. After this fiasco, there was no way Anna was dumb enough to come back again.

The sun was completely hidden by the branches overhead, but Elsa still found herself much warmer than she would like to be. She had stopped trying to wander around and instead laid on the ground to cool off on the grass, and maybe find sleep. It had been a rocky night for her when she couldn’t stop thinking about Anna, wondering if the young girl was safe. Sure, there was no reason for her to be awake, but even as a wolf, she preferred to spend most of her time being active and at least sprinting around to keep herself fit and healthy. Eager to distract herself from the thought of Anna, she closes her eyes to the soft breeze whistling through the tree leaves.

“Elsaaa!”

Anna’s voice rings in Elsa’s ears, loud enough for her to open her eyes, but as silence follows, she closes them again. Hearing voices now… Isn’t that just peachy?

“Elsa!!!”

No, wait. That was real. Confusion mixes with irritation when Elsa opens her eyes again, though she contently stares up at the trees instead of answering the call. This girl really couldn’t take a hint. Maybe she really was incredibly stupid. Or… perhaps just courageous in all the wrong ways.

“Ah, Elsa!! Help!!!”

The tone of the voice quickly makes a turn from nonchalant searching to a panicked cry for help. Immediately, Elsa was on her feet and sprinting towards Anna as fast as she could, only for her feet to skid deep in the dirt when stopping at the path’s edge. Anna now stood in front of her, completely fine, with the smuggest grin Elsa had ever seen.

“Oh, there you are!” Again, Elsa wasn’t sure whether to be irritated as all hell by this girl’s antics, or ashamed of herself for falling in yet another of her dumb traps.

“What are you doing here, Anna?” She growls, deciding to be just angry enough for show, though again, still a little happy to see the ginger. It was impossible to help that, no matter how much she wished Anna would listen and stay away from her. “I told you not to come back, or to find me! And here you are, doing both!!”

“Yeah...see, about that… I have no reason to follow your orders. What are you going to do? Eat me?” Famous last words. I mean, it was very tempting. A scowl still plain on her features, Elsa steps closer until she is standing directly in front of the younger woman and could stare down into those unflinching ocean blue eyes.

“If you tempt me like this, I might.”

“Bullshit. You won’t hurt me. Honestly, you must be the nicest and strongest predator I’ve ever encountered. It’s the third day of meeting you and of all the times you even bothered to throw yourself at me, it was half-hearted at best. So, either you don’t do this often, or you’re a completely different breed.” Anna’s face was very expressive of unwavering determination. She knew she was right and Elsa hated that. Though, the blonde made the mistake of averting her gaze, even for a second while searching for an excuse, a clear signal to Anna that she had won. “Elsa, the differences about you are what make you far better than what you think you are. Just because you’re… a wolf, it doesn’t mean that is all you are, and I’m certainly not going to stop trying to find you because of it!”

“I’m dangerous, Anna.” To that, Anna grows a small amused smile, one of her hands sliding up between the both of them to softly stroke Elsa’s cheek. Desperately trying to resist the touch, she moves one of her own hands to touch Anna’s arm, which was bare of any sleeves, as was to be expected with the weather. The girl wore a bright orange sundress today, making her stand out far more than her cloak could ever accomplish.

“Yeah, you keep telling that to yourself, big bad wolf. However, I’m not afraid of you. You’re beautiful.” Elsa could feel the warm blush creep onto her cheeks, a new flustered feeling taking over her thoughts and consuming her with that anxious feeling again. With a defeated sigh, she finally melts into the touch, her forehead leaning forward against Anna’s. Part of Elsa knew that the girl’s infatuation had to be due to her loneliness, but she hoped that the more time they ended up spending together would pull them closer rather than push Anna away. It wasn’t very easy to constantly be alone, but Elsa learned to survive that way with the company she got during the winter months. Now, she would have company year-round if she didn’t mess this up like the monster she was.

“Fine. You want to play with ice? Very well, I no longer hold any bars from you, but don’t say I didn’t warn you when you slip and get hurt.” Elsa could practically hear the buzz of excitement from Anna. The ginger’s head tilts up just in the perfect angle that she could kiss Elsa if she so happened to desire, but instead, her breath just tickles the blonde’s lips. It was the right amount of intimacy to make her desperately hungry and lunge for the girl. Though, Anna seems to see this coming and dodges the attack, completely moving herself away from Elsa so she would fall forward.

“I think I’ll be okay~”

__________________

Hours later, Elsa was walking through the woods with Anna, talking about nothing more than each other. Apparently, Anna lived a quite lonely and partially isolated life just as Elsa did, though much less so. The ginger was shunned for her hair in the village, being the only redhead among them. They thought she was some sort of witch! It was a relief that witch trials had been banned from this place. The idea wouldn’t be so ridiculous if not for the monsters already lurking in the forest, but finally, they had come to their senses that eliminating the witches would do nothing, except perhaps curse them. Murdering people just seemed to lower their defenses. Who knew?

“What ever happened to that boy you were with? Did he come back like he said he would?” Elsa asks when silence settles in between them, knowing it was better not to avoid the subject if she wanted to get away with her heartless deed. However, Anna takes longer than expected to answer. It was hard to read her facial expression. Whether she could be distraught or completely devoid of emotions, Elsa couldn’t tell.

“No.” Not even her tone gave anything away.

“I’m sure he’s fine.”

“Are you really?” The question was asked with no hesitation, giving the blonde a short rush of anxiety. After learning about her wolfish nature, did Anna now suspect her for Kristoff’s disappearance?

“...No.” Slowly, the ginger nods, as if agreeing.

“I mean, of course I hope he’s okay, but… you’re right. About this forest anyways. You’re not the only scary face in the trees, and he did decide to walk alone.” Staying quiet, Elsa searches for words of comfort.

“I’ll keep an ear out for him.” Slowly, the ginger pulls Elsa’s arm into a hug, stopping Elsa in her tracks so she could look down at the ginger, who’s beautiful gaze was stuck on the ground. “What is it?”

“What if… What if something did happen to him? What would I do?” Anna’s voice had suddenly become weak, quiet enough that someone with normal hearing would strain to listen. “He’s always been the one who was there for me. My best friend. Even though we made each other mad, he would never leave me behind or let me deal with dangerous situations on my own. I… I would be so much more alone without him.” Guilt quickly creeps up to burn Elsa’s throat, immense regret at another of her animalistic mistakes making her feel sick. It made it very difficult not to tense in Anna’s hold.

“Whatever happens, or happened, I will be here for you. We may not yet know each other as well yet, but there’s something about you.. I swear not to let anything get away with hurting you, on your friend’s behalf of course. As soon as he returns, the job will be his once more.” There was a small silence where Elsa was unsure she had said the right thing, but the hold on her arm got tighter, her arm now hidden under the red cloak Elsa had draped over the young girl’s shoulders again.

“What about my mother? She’s the only grounding I have in this place, and I love her so much. If it isn’t too late, I want you to protect her more so than me.”

“Anna, I-”

“Please. I don’t want to lose her, too.” In reality, Elsa knew very little of Anna’s mother; where she lived, what she looked like, or any defining characteristics that would make it possible for her to protect the woman. Which would mean, if she were to give in to the young girl’s plea, she would have to meet the said woman. She would have to venture out of the trees and meet someone on her own accord, while leaving herself open and vulnerable to attack by the village. Would she really put herself in danger for Anna? The short answer was that she had to. It was clear they wouldn’t remain separated anymore. Anna would try to find her day after day no matter what, and it was unreasonable to assume Anna wouldn’t continue trying to get Elsa to leave the dangerous terrain.

“Anna, I told you how I feel about leaving the trees. I belong here, in isolation with the other creatures. What if your mother doesn’t like who I am? What if she decides you can’t go find me anymore? Would you really disobey that kind of order coming from her?”

“She already loves you, Elsa. The fact you even bother giving me the light of day and haven’t hurt me will make it very clear to her that you’re a good person. I told you, it doesn’t matter what you wear or look like. Just give her a chance… Trust me.”

“The worry is eating away at me,” she murmurs in dismay, knowing full well that she was out of good excuses. There was a reason she made sure to catch certain people alone, not adult people in particular. While she still wasn’t quite clear of what happened in her childhood, adult figures were terrifying to her, like thorns that made her blood boil with protective fear.

“I understand.” Anna deflates with a sigh, most of her weight hanging on Elsa’s arm. Elsa had to shift her feet to account for it, but didn't make any attempt to push her off. Instead, she quickly pulls her arm free and scoops the ginger into her arms, holding her close so she wouldn’t fall. “Elsa!!”

“Good. I’ll be walking you home then… again.” In a literal sense this time.

Things had continued going fine for a couple months, and in that time, the wolf and her little redhead had grown ever closer. Kristoff hadn’t shown up in that time, obviously, but Elsa made sure to do as she promised and kept herself glued to Anna. Anna had respected Elsa’s want to stay in the forest, and Elsa had made sure to keep the young woman out of danger. With how often Anna liked to wander away, dangerous situations came up far more often than she would like, but it was nothing Elsa couldn’t handle. Besides, it was so cute to either see Anna gawk at her strength, or get adorably mad about not being given the chance to defend herself. Right now, they sat in a wide grassy clearing, eating the picnic Anna’s mother had thoughtfully packed for them both. Elsa leans into Anna’s shoulder, so she could press a cold kiss to the ginger’s freckled cheek.

“Hey Elsa, I know this is crazy, but I think I’d like to give you a present.” Obviously confused, Elsa tips her head to the side and gives the girl an uncertain stare. She had moved past the thought that Anna would try to hurt her, but the ginger wasn’t good at making the right decisions, so she could only be worried about what was coming next.

“Why? Isn’t it your birthday?”

“Well, that’s just it. I’m finally 18 now!” The blonde’s eyes widen with surprise, unsure how to respond to what Anna might be entailing. “All of your uh.. advances.. I’ve been dodging… Yeah, that was nothing against you, trust me. Pfft! All that time you were protecting me, and here I was doing the same thing.” She opens her mouth to reply to that, but slowly closes it after deciding whatever she did say wouldn’t be anything she could dig herself out of. When it became obvious to Anna that Elsa didn’t intend on responding, the girl shifts herself a little to lean on Elsa now instead. “What I mean is… you can kiss me now. I won’t stop you.”

This opportunity felt like actual gold, heavy on her heart even as it speeds in her chest. Elsa gulps, suddenly very anxious about possibly messing this up, Though, as she leans forward to semi-confidently take the hint, a slim finger presses against her parted lips, leaving her a flustered mess.

“Only if you promise to meet my mother tomorrow.”

“Anna!” She growls, furious at this trick. However, Anna remains with a serious expression, not at all phased by the anger or clearly making a joke of this.

“Elsa, I need to know you’re serious about us. You’re so brave.. Just trust me, okay?” Curse this girl for being so sweet and kind. It was incredibly hard to stay mad at her.

“Anna..” Just looking down at her beautiful ginger’s pleading gaze, she knew there was no use in continuing to deny Anna anymore. “Fine. Only because I trust you with all of my heart. My strength, my calm view, my…”

“Yours.” Anna finishes, a dreamy smile on her features, even as she leans up to kiss Elsa. Again with the audacity of this girl fucking stealing her thunder! But… there was only so much to complain about when the only girl she ever found a true connection with was finally kissing her after a two month abstinence. After giving in to the younger woman’s dominance, she makes a small surprised noise when suddenly her shoulders were being pushed down to the blanket.

Walking down the dirt path felt like walking to her death, even with Anna safely latched to her arm and rambling on about how excited she was to finally introduce Elsa to her mother. She felt poorly dressed for this occasion in her ripped jeans and patched up flannel. Then.. it was Anna’s mother who patched the shirt.. It was probably expected that she wouldn’t be wearing the best clothes. Wasn’t like she had a choice anyways, unless she wanted to try on Kristoff’s clothes. That wouldn’t be suspicious at all.

“Anna, I’m still not sure about this.”

“You’ll be fine, Elsa! Don’t worry so much. I already told you, she loves you.” Still, Elsa couldn’t shake the nervous feeling.

“Hmph. You’re just lucky that I- er..” Struggling to make the words happen, Anna saves her embarrassment by tugging her forward in a jog down the path.

“Her house is just up here, near the very end!”

“Wait- what?!” No, that can’t be. The only house on the outskirts of the village? She couldn’t possibly be referring to… A small cottage, not unlike any other in the village, but with the walls half covered by greenery of some sort. It was like an abandoned greenhouse, except the smoke coming from the chimney made it plainly obvious there was definitely someone inside. Feeling the knot in her stomach tighten, Elsa stops herself and yanks Anna back.

“Yeek!! What? What’s the matter? I thought you would be ecstatic about not needing to go through the village.” While her voice held confusion, and maybe a small trace of irritation, her face still showed extreme excitement. Elsa made a breathless hand gesture towards the house, the words she wanted to say leaving her. With a scoff, Anna retracts her arm from Elsa to cross them both over her chest. “No, she’s not a witch. Trust me, it’s much nicer inside.”

“Y- you’re serious?”

“Yes! Now, she’s waiting. Come on!” Taking Elsa’s hand now, Anna drags the shocked woman to the front door. Even though Elsa was more than reluctant to follow, her feet gave her no choice.

“Anna, I can’t do this.” She felt like she was about to be sick.

“Too late!” Anna knocks on the door a couple times, her other hand tightly holding onto Elsa’s in case the blonde tries to make an escape. They only needed to wait a few seconds before the door slowly opened to reveal Iduna on the other side, smiling sweetly to her daughter before casting her gaze to the other beside her. “Mother!” Giving Iduna no chance to say anything yet, Anna finally lets go of Elsa to hug the brunette tightly, though Iduna seemed too distracted to hug her back properly. She was staring at Elsa with a strange look- something like panic, fear, and confusion. When, in the few seconds she had to put everything together, Elsa expected unbridled hate and disgust.

“Anna, and…” Iduna tries to speak, the words hoarse when coming out. As she clears her throat, Anna finally takes a step away to gesture fondly to the older woman at her side.

“Elsa, this is my mother. Mother, this is my-”

“Sister.” Elsa finishes.

Notes:

watch me avoid making Elsa a pedophile B)

Chapter 3: Cake

Chapter Text

“Wait- what?!” Anna is astounded and hesitant to believe this news, but who could blame her. Elsa, however, is sitting on the floor with a trembling cup of tea in her hands, staring away as Iduna tries to carefully unwrap this secret.

“It’s true. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I just… I was afraid for so long about what might happen if she was allowed near you again. I.. I had no idea that she would ever get close to anyone on the path, let alone you. Honestly, especially you.” She twitches as Iduna says that, doing her best to keep everything inside. “See? Look at that. She’s just… unstable. That isn’t her fault, but-”

“No, she isn’t! Being rightfully angry and messed up because she lives in the forest is what she is! She hasn’t even gotten close to hurting me since we met!”

“Anna, remember when I told you that scar was because of you being a clumsy toddler?” Afraid of where this was going, Elsa carefully sets down the drink and drops her head into her hands. “That wasn’t true either. Listen, my hand was forced to keep her away from you! If you remembered what she had done…”

“What did she do?” The room was quiet for a moment, only the sound of the fire crackling disturbs the silence until Iduna finds the words to start.

“I… It wasn’t Elsa that night. It was the monster that lives under her skin that took control of her. The monster claimed her body and gave you that scar when you were just five. Agnarr tried to step in between you and her, but…”

“I killed him, Anna, and I would have killed you, too.” Elsa, silently crying into her hands, tries to control herself over the memory invading her mind. She felt so angry. Agnarr was yelling at her, frightening her even though she was sure what she had done was just an accident. They were just playing… but she wasn’t playing after that. The wolf had taken her, had wanted to protect her from someone she didn’t need to be protected from. This was the first time bloodlust had ever come to her, leaving her still desperately hungry after the struggle.

“Elsa, that wasn’t you…” Anna whispers, tears also dripping down her cheeks. Father was rarely spoken about when Anna was with her mother, as the subject was very touchy. Now it was clear why. Still, she refused to believe Elsa must’ve lost control without being provoked. Something else must have happened that they weren’t telling her. Or, precisely, what Elsa couldn’t remember.

“How do you know, Anna?! I don’t even know!” Elsa finally stands from the floor, her chest heaving with shallow breaths. Neither sister nor mother tries to get close yet. Anna wants to help, but she had quickly learned that invading Elsa’s space would only make it worse. The irresistible urge to hit something is quickly getting too much to bear, so she looks around the room for anything to take her anger out on.

“Elsa, sweety, take a deep breath.” Iduna murmurs, looking very cautious to say the least, but not alarmed enough to continue triggering Elsa’s memory. The blonde does as she’s told, letting out the breath in a deep growl. “I’m so sorry I had to bring this back to haunt you, but it’s over now. We can’t change the past.” Finally, the brunette stands to very cautiously pull her eldest daughter into a hug that was strongly reciprocated. A little too strongly, but being crushed for the well-being of this person she cared so much for is worth it.

Anna stands to finally hug both of her family, somehow feeling finally complete by this new addition even if the story why was... unexpected. At least now she could understand the Winter tradition. Iduna never really abandoned Elsa to the forest dwellers, but… this still provoked a problem in Anna and Elsa’s relationship, especially as of recently.

“Mother, while I’m ecstatic to have an older sister-” That clicks for Elsa as well, but instead of letting Anna be the one to finish the thought, she breaks from the hug and covers Anna’s mouth with a hand. Adamantly, the girl tries shoving the strong hand away, all to Iduna’s increasing confusion.

“What? What’s the matter? Elsa, let her speak.” Just as Iduna gently taps Elsa’s shoulder, she regretfully lets her hand fall. Though now Anna had lost her steady voice, all but aware of what consequences might be waiting for them should she confess.

“We… We…” Even Elsa is giving her a pleading look not to say anything, to which all Anna could give back is a grimace. She hates lying to her mother, and isn’t very good at it. It’s like Iduna could always see right through her, making it not even worth trying. “Okay, so you know we’ve been meeting up for the past two months for hours. Well, it isn’t like we could have known. Our f- friendship kind of…” Watching her mother’s eyes widen in what had to be the emotion above surprise or even panic was like rowing down a river and seeing a waterfall at the very end.

“Yeah! We’re basically used to being sisters already! Best friends!” Elsa finishes, doing her best to row away from that waterfall. “In fact, her dragging me here today, she w- was going to ask you for me as a birthday present. She didn't like the fact I lived in the woods, you know?” Slowly, the excuse seems to work, however cringy it felt to say. Iduna physically lets out a breath of relief, leading the sisters to do the same, though Anna would definitely be confronting Elsa about this later. If it weren’t for the older woman panicking, she would’ve gone through with confessing.

“Oh, alright then.” Iduna still looks very confused, but apparently wasn’t about to ask any more questions. Whatever answer they aren’t telling her, it was inevitable they would eventually. As their mother, she’s confident in that fact. “Well, I’m not so sure about letting her stay here, but I do appreciate her keeping you out of the house yesterday so I could finish getting the ingredients for your cake. I finished it just before you two arrived. It should be cooling right now.” Then, with the mention of cake, Anna is suddenly bouncing to life again.

“Cake!!!”

“Cake?” Even Elsa is excited by the idea, finally noticing the sweet rich scent of chocolate in the air. With everything that had gone on, she hadn’t noticed anything besides the crushing thoughts in her own head. Now, she throws Anna over her shoulder and rushes towards the cabin’s small kitchen.

“Hey, wait for your old woman!” Iduna calls after them, slowly following at her own leisurely pace.

The kitchen is tiny, with an unnecessary wall separating it from the living room, but no door. It had a wood burning oven, a short counter, a sink in the very far corner, and the rest of the room was a couple of cupboards filled with canned foods. When it was just Iduna and Anna for most of the year, there wasn't a need for a lot of food, but when winter came around, Elsa made sure to provide the cabin with plenty of wild kills. It was better to be over prepared than underprepared. The cake unmistakably had to be waiting for them in the dormant oven, away from prying eyes or insects. Elsa could smell it, and as she finally sets Anna down, she sits down beside it and stares intently at the door.

Iduna gives a small chuckle when walking in to see her daughters huddled by the source of the chocolate smell. They look so cute together, something she as a mother thought she would only dream to see again. Anna pressing against Elsa’s side, and the both of them looking their expectant gazes over to her, she thought her heart might melt. No more memories of the awful past.. Now only new memories of what they could be again.

“Alright, alright, well, I can’t grab the cake if you two are guarding the oven.” She giggles, her eyes graced with repressed tears. Like little kids, the two scatter to the other side so Iduna could reach down and open the door. As she pulled out the small chocolatey cake and set it down on the counter, Anna practically buzzes with excitement while Elsa couldn’t help the way her mouth decided to start drooling. Both things their mother was much used to, and didn’t mind in the slightest. “Can one of you carefully grab me a knife from the drawers?” That was it all it took for Elsa and Anna to push and shove each other aside like animals to get into the drawers. “I said carefully!!” Oh, the panic of a mother…

_____________

Finally, after the cake is cut and distributed, they all sit in a tight huddled circle on the living room carpet, sharing satisfied smiles. Anna finishes her cake first and decides to take a nap on Iduna and Elsa’s laps, but of course, they don't mind. Instead of finishing her cake, Iduna finds more satisfaction in softly stroking Anna’s hair out of its braids and softly massaging her scalp. Now that it’s just the two of them, a small tensive air grows. Elsa isn’t planning to address it, but Iduna couldn’t bear it.

“I wanted to tell you both. I really did, Elsa.”

“I believe you.” For a moment, letting that statement settle in the air seemed fine, but it couldn’t last. “I just don’t think you really understand the possible consequences of your choices. Mother, I had no idea who she was, and she continued to seek me out. First of all, how could you let her do that for anyone? And secondly, the things we… we could have done while not knowing of our relationship.” Again, they let Elsa’s words settle into the air before Iduna sighs and makes an attempt to respond.

“I know. I can tell you must be furious about it, but it’s fine now, isn’t it? We somehow got through this all fine, and now we can make further progress in helping you control what’s inside of you with Anna’s help. She’s made quite an impact on you. I thought you didn’t like to get close to people.”

“I don’t, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t. That isn’t the point anyways. I could have hurt her again, or someone else could have.” Elsa strains to keep the irritation out of her voice.

“It’s kind of you to worry about Anna, but she’s a strong capable girl. Especially now. I never have any doubts that she can handle herself, and if she does get hurt, she learns from it. I’m not going to rule over her life, Elsa.” Iduna refuses to make eye contact, instead keeping her relaxed posture while looking down at Anna’s sleeping face. Though, something makes her stop and look up. “Though, you would tell me if something happened, wouldn’t you?” Her gaze, once again filled with suspicion, bores straight through Elsa’s eyes. While reading Anna’s lies were a breeze, trying to figure out what was going on in Elsa’s head wasn’t so easy. She has a whole new unrecognizable intolerance to being transparent when she didn’t want to be, another unique thing to this family.

“I-” Before Elsa could lie, Anna shifts in their laps and gives a tired yawn.

“What’s going on? What day is it?” Thankfully, the ginger’s interruption once again takes over Iduna’s focus.

“Still tonight, sleepy. I think it’s time for bed.” A small smile growing on her face, Anna sits up with a stretch, now completely sitting on Elsa’s lap- to the blonde’s nervous dismay.

“What about Elsa?” Elsa and Iduna share a brief look.

“She can stay here tonight. In your bedroom though.”

“Oh, you really don’t have to-”

Again, Elsa gets interrupted by an enthusiastic Anna. “Great! Off we go!” As the younger unsteadily stands up, she attempts to pull Elsa with her. Of course, she only did so because she isn’t sure what she should be doing. Sleeping alone in Anna’s room felt so wrong now, but she knew there would be questions should she persist in declining. So, albeit reluctantly, the wolfish blonde lets Anna drag her away, only casting a short glance over to a kind faced Iduna.

Once in the room, Anna doesn’t even bother changing out of her dress before flopping down onto her bed. Elsa, however, starts removing her flannel and scrappy jeans, leaving her nude to the cold air. Thankfully, they were both too awkward after today’s events to care too much about it.

“Anna, scoot over a bit.” The ginger does more than scoot over. She gets herself under the large quilt she sleeps under and shifts over to the other side of the bed. Elsa doesn’t bother joining her under the covers, instead finding it much more comfortable to shift into her large wolfy form and crawl up beside the young woman. Anna doesn’t protest in the slightest, and instead gets close enough to nuzzle against Elsa’s thick white fur.

Later into the night, when both sisters successfully succumb to sleep, Iduna slowly pushes the bedroom door open to check in on them both. Peaceful silence greets her. Just the dark room with Elsa and Anna fast asleep on each other. Elsa had subconsciously readjusted to Anna’s squirming and held the ginger close to her with a forepaw, her large fuzzy head taking over both of the pillows because of that. While she still isn’t under the blanket, she manages to cradle Anna’s body with her own, as if making herself a protective barrier. Iduna never thought she would feel so safe with the large furry arms of a beast around her youngest daughter. They had both grown up so quickly. If she could just give anything to make different choices, to stop Agnarr from getting involved like he had…

Well, that would be a strange predicament. On the one hand, she wants her babies to grow up with each other in a lack of torment, but then she might not even have this moment. Everything could be completely different between the two, maybe worse. No, she wouldn’t ever want to touch this kind of peace they had right now, even if there were things that still needed to be discussed and questions to be answered. Elsa still has a way to go with controlling her rage, and Anna… She told Elsa that she doesn’t worry so much about the girl, but she always hated watching her leave, unaware of what both of her daughters have been doing. It was agony to only see Elsa for a few months, and especially to have divided that little time in order to keep her from snooping around the cabin.

Everything was okay now. Nothing would remain in the closet, Iduna would make sure of that. For all the mistakes she had made, she hopes her daughters would forgive her.

Elsa wakes up with the cinnamon scent of her little sister invading her large wolf nose. Although, the first thing that came to mind definitely wasn’t remembering she was her sister. Her tongue drops from her mouth to give a long affectionate lick to the back of Anna’s head, successfully waking her. As the young woman giggles, Elsa pulls her closer with the large paw draped over her body.

“I see you two are finally awake.” Then the sudden voice of their mother alarms them both enough to make Elsa bristle and Anna scoot herself away as fast as possible and off the other side of the bed.

“Mother! Good morning!” Then, just like that, Anna shoots up to her feet as if she had just woken up in the most graceful fashion. When, in reality, her blankets had fallen mostly to the floor with her, her nightgown was disheveled, and her hair was a tangled mess despite hardly tossing and turning through the night. Iduna only holds the look of amusement and something like hope on her face.

“Did you both sleep well?” The brunette’s attention turns to the large wolf now sitting boldly upright on the bed. As Elsa felt too nervous- or maybe ashamed- to transform back, she just stares quietly back and lets her fur flatten. Anna helps by lightly stroking what she could of Elsa’s fuzzy arm.

“Oh definitely! Never imagined big sister perks would be a giant fuzzy pillow. I don’t know about her, but I was out like a fire.” Being careful about it, Elsa raises one of her paws to rest on Anna’s head, as if she had some snooze button to press. Iduna gives a quiet chuckle and walks away from the door.

“Good. Breakfast should be ready soon. Maybe you two should think about taking a bath. I don’t know if it’s one or both of you, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that big fluffy pillow caused some... perspiration.” As Iduna continues to speak to them while walking away, Elsa takes a self conscious sniff to her chest fur and wrinkles her nose. Human girl sweat. Gross. She gives a half lidded stare to Anna and the ginger gives an embarrassed shrug. With a huff, Elsa steps down from the bed and makes her large furry body through the hallway. Anna trying to pet Elsa’s tail let the wolf know her sister was very close behind as the head outside. Only when Elsa stops at the cellar doors and silently stares at Anna does the still very sleepy ginger get a realization.

“Oh! Clothes! Right!” She smacks herself in the forehead and rushes back around the house to the front door. Rolling her eyes, the platinum blonde wolf gives a snort and turns herself around to carefully paw at the door until one of her claws could hook around the latch and pull it open. Last winter, she had taken note of the bathtub sitting in the corner of the cold stone room. Cabins weren’t always so generous with their bathrooms, so things like this just were. Honestly, the privacy was an upgrade from rolling around in a stream or bathing herself in a river. Unfortunately, she was far too big like this to get into the bathtub. Damn. What was taking so long for Anna to get back with clothes and towels?

Oh, whatever. Elsa slowly lets her body transform into her own shivering self, finding this pantry basement to be much colder than she previously thought, and dark. Searching for a candle or something, she finds an oil lamp, filled halfway with oil. Letting it light, she feels much calmer without the looming dark, though the flickering shadows made her strangely uneased. Something feels like she’s being watched by what the light couldn’t capture. It’s a ridiculous thought, but she still lets caution keep her alert when setting down the oil lamp and starting to run the large pipe faucet beside the tub. Just as she does, Anna’s voice jerks her from that caution.

“I’m back! Took a minute to find a towel… Oh, hey.” The young woman stands at the base of the steps, eyeing Elsa’s bare physique, her outline glowing from the light outside.

“You couldn’t close the door on the way in?”

“I didn’t know you had found a light yet.” After setting the clothes and towel down, Anna rushes back up the stairs to close the doors. Meanwhile, Elsa gets herself comfortable in the tub while it gets filled with cold water, which was definitely not made for more than one person. Thankfully, Anna is small and has all of Elsa’s leg space to invade when she comes back, which she definitely decides to do after removing her clothes.

Neither had expected it to be so awkward. Just staring back at each other, the mixed feelings are clear. Elsa doesn’t regret what they did, but Anna… She could only imagine what the ginger might be thinking now after her decisions.

“So much for protecting me then, huh?” Despite that, Elsa gives the girl a grin, which Anna responds with a sheepish grimace and turns away to find the soap.

“Of anyone that it could have been… Of anyone that I could have bumped into paths with. First of all, a bitter she-wolf. Secondly, a predator.” Elsa, now more awkwardly ,rubs the back of her neck with a hand, finding doing that even uncomfortable with how her hair was sticking to it. Girl didn’t have to call her out like this.. “And thirdly, best of ALL, my sister.”

“Could have been worse. I could have eaten you instead.”

“Are you not at all phased by this?” Anna was finally sounding a bit irritated, when Elsa was only doing her best to remain casual about the situation. To her, it is kind of funny how they somehow ended up where they were. So, with a shrug, she takes the soap from her sister and starts to wash her exposed upper body.

“I mean, it was unexpected, yeah, but… Well, I don’t know. I just don’t think it’s a really big deal, as long as no one else finds out about it.”

“What?! You-!” Realizing her voice was rising in pitch, Anna quickly lowers it to a whisper. “What we did yesterday was not okay if we’re related. Oh, but I forgot that, because you’re a dog, you suddenly have no standards.” She snatches the bar of soap from Elsa, snapping the thin line that stopped the blonde from becoming aggravated. With a growl, Elsa readjusts herself over the bath until she’s looming over Anna, who was far from intimidated by this.

“I have… standards! They just aren’t very obvious!”

“So, you’re saying that if you did know, you wouldn’t have kissed me?” It took the tiniest bit of hesitation from Elsa to make Anna scoff.

“Oh, fucking bite me! How am I supposed to help myself when you act like you are and look the way you do? Is it so bad that I can’t think of you as a sister? All I want to do is keep you to myself and love you the way I feel, and damn it, if that love is said to be wrong, so be it! Not like murdering people is a step lower.” Suddenly the ginger’s face flushes red, hot in a blush and overcome by the adamant aggression of Elsa’s affection, and confusion for how she should feel as well.

“Wait- what?”

“Murder in the sense that other people assume I kill. Uhm… if you don’t count animals.” She quickly lies. When it came to needing to survive and finding someone lost and helpless in the woods, she thought of that more as surviving than murder, but the happenstance with Kristoff and… her father, there was no reasonable excuse. The beast was temperamental, and she let it go too far. Anna doesn’t need to know that though.

“Right…” They stay like this for a moment, Elsa hovering over Anna while they stare at each other’s flustered expressions until Anna finally pulls Elsa down with gentle hands on her face. Meeting their lips together like this, it was like a whole new level of sparks for Elsa. The only way she could tell the same might be for Anna was the way the ginger’s grasp becomes more explorative and excited. The way the girl goes to bite Elsa’s bottom lip makes her smile. Things might’ve gone much farther if not for the sudden knocking on the cellar doors. Instantly, Anna’s hands push her back towards the other end of the tub, splashing out a great deal of the water.

“Girls, breakfast is ready!! Come on out now!”

“I’m ga-” Before Elsa could make the remark, Anna presses her hand over her mouth. How rude.

“Okay, mother, we’ll be out right away! Fuck, where’d the soap go?”

“Come here and find out~” The blonde gives a mischievous giggle and lays herself deeper under the water. Anna gives a sigh and an amused shake of her head.

Chapter 4: Can't Catch This

Notes:

Elsaduna has some appealing qualities

Chapter Text

It took much longer than it should have to get out of the bath and make their way back into the house, both glowing and grinning. As they had to share a towel, they hadn’t even gotten very dry before just rushing into their clothes and making a sprint for the house. Of course, Elsa made it in first, her senses ablaze with the delicious smell of eggs and bacon, but Anna came in just behind, restraining from doing any excited little jumps.

“What took you two so long? Your eggs are like ice by now. Come get your food, before another set of wolves comes and eats them for you.” Giggling with each other, the two sisters thankfully don’t need to battle to get to their plates beside the fireplace, but still push and shove each other away regardless.

“Are you implying that Anna has wolf attributes, too?” Elsa casually questions, deciding to stand while she eats, because sitting down would take too much time when she desperately wants to scoop this food into her mouth right away. After doing so, it becomes very obvious that Iduna saying the eggs were cold was just a comment to how long they had taken. Iduna giggles quietly in watching her daughters scarf down the hot food.

“Well, I really have no idea. She seems pretty normal to me, even with the fiery attitude.” Definitely taking that as a compliment, Anna puffs out her chest from where she sits on the floor, her mouth too full of food to respond. Yet, there are still more questions that buzz in Elsa’s head from this. It was a joke, but now she kind of wanted to know why she was the one born like this. Of course, she wouldn’t wish this curse upon Anna in even their worst fight, but… this is definitely a strange circumstance she had never been allowed to casually bring up. “Though, when you two were much smaller, you would certainly wrestle like wolves. Anna liked to bite…” Eyebrows furrowing, Iduna taps her bottom lip in thought. “Elsa, you wouldn’t do more than a playful nip and bat her away. It was so cute to watch you girls play.” A small smile turns her lips while her gaze drifts into a daze of reminiscence.

Elsa finds the conversation awkward for some reason. Like the thought is a fly she wanted to squish and forget about. All she does is clear her throat, but that brings Iduna rushing back to the moment.

“Sorry, sorry. So, Elsa, how is your cabin coming along? You’ve been working on it for a few years by now, haven’t you? I mean, apart from the winters.” The blonde nods, her gaze falling onto Anna who almost chokes when she gasps.

“You have a cabin, too!?”

“I do now. I finished up the roof by the time I met you, actually.” Sensing the question bubbling obviously behind the ginger’s forehead, Elsa gives a nervous, uncomfortable sigh. “B- but it still has some minor adjustments to the interior I need to make.”

“You have to take me there!” Anna’s eyes sparkle with excitement and she leans into Elsa’s shoulder, all while the blonde tries to scoot away.

“No!!” Her harsh and loud rejection catches both Anna and Iduna’s surprise and unfortunate suspicion, so she stutters a rash explanation. “I- I- It’s just a n- nest right now…” Eyes falling on Iduna, she pleads with them for her to step in and help, but Iduna just sits back in her chair with a look of interest.

“I don’t mind nests! I’ve climbed plenty of trees already, so I’m sure what you’ve made isn’t anything worse than the twigs and garbage the birds make their homes to be.”

“No… No, Anna, you don’t understand..” She whispers, guilty gaze falling to the floor.

“Anna, sweety, leave Elsa alone about it. If she doesn’t want you invading her space, you need to respect that boundary.” As Iduna finally steps in to help Elsa, Anna scoffs. Though the redhead reluctantly listens with a cross of her arms. However, Elsa holds her breath of relief. “Actually, I need you to go on a little errand for me.” Slowly, the brunette stands to retrieve a small pouch from a nearby table drawer and then goes to hand it to Anna, who stands at attention. “Go into town and meet Oaken at the pub, tell Hans that I sent you. He has something for me in return for this.” The pouch clinks of coins when dropping into Anna’s palm. “Be sure not to linger there long.”

“Yes, mother, I won’t let you down!” After running into her room to quickly retrieve shoes, she half falls onto/ half hugs Elsa, who catches and hugs her back, empty plate still in her hand. Then she’s running out the door, determination in one hand and the bag of coins in the other, leaving Elsa very worriedly alone with their mother.. Tension drops into the room like a bomb.

“Should I…?” The words trail away from Elsa the closer Iduna gets to her, a strange curious look in the older woman’s gaze.

“Not if you don’t want to. I have nothing against you being here, Elsa.” She murmurs, her gaze dropping to Elsa’s flannel, which is several buttons off from where it should be aligned. “May I?” Instead of answering, Elsa awkwardly looks away and slowly lowers her arms. Iduna apparently takes that as a yes for she starts to unbutton the flannel. It shouldn’t have been weird. This is just her mother being motherly, but after… Anna… There’s now just something very different about it. “It’s nice to see you aren’t skin and bones for once.” Elsa can feel every muscle in her body tense at the soft hand on her stomach, gentle fingers outlining the shadow of her ribs until finally pulling the flannel over it again.

“Well, it helps that Anna has been bringing me snacks and such for the past two months.” She glances down to see Iduna grinning at her. “What?”

“Nothing. It’s just a little amusing to see how much she has already domesticated you.”

“D- Domesticated?!” What is that supposed to imply? That she’s soft and weak now? The fear and anger must have been more intense than she thought it would be, for Iduna quickly retracts her hands before finishing buttoning up the flannel. “I’m not her pet!”

“I know you aren’t. That isn’t what I meant! If you could just… stay calm for five minutes.” Repressing a sigh, Elsa uses one hand to button up the rest of her flannel before walking into the kitchen to wash her plate in the small wooden sink. Iduna stands in the doorway to watch Elsa clean the plate and then put it back into one of the cupboards. “Can’t we just talk about this?”

“About what?” She doesn’t bother to look up, her gaze pretending to be more interested in the floorboards when she could no longer do things with her hands.

“This! The uncomfortable tension between us. I can’t keep being silent with you now that I can have you back in my everyday life. We need to work this out.”

“For Anna’s sake?” Elsa scoffs.

“For our sake…” Iduna’s voice becomes a little weak, catching Elsa’s attention enough to look up and find her mother desperately holding back tears. The way her hands twitch at her sides and the way her lips strain not to quiver, it was incredibly like Anna. That makes it even harder not to feel bad for trying to distance herself when this is just as hard for Iduna to do as it would be for Elsa. The blonde ends up giving in and walking over to pull her mother into a hug, which is very quickly reciprocated.

“I’m sorry, you’re right. Things are just rushing into place right now. I have to register that I have a sister now. I… I have to live with the memory of killing my father.” Elsa’s voice chokes a bit while trying to keep it steady. Iduna’s arms hold her torso tight, clinging to the younger woman like she could squeeze away her problems. “It’s kind of a lot.. Not to mention, I’m not exactly used to spending so much time with more than one person.”

“But you’re getting better, Elsa.”

“How can you tell?”

“Until yesterday, you’ve never felt comfortable with hugging me.” That would explain why Iduna is holding on so tight- like it has been years since she had last seen Elsa, and Elsa couldn’t even say she minded. Anna had gotten her so used to the form of affection that she became unafraid of it. Her arms had learned their strength with the ginger’s guidance ,and the tight pressure around her and against her chest no longer alarmed her. “Domestication isn’t a bad thing. It just means you aren’t alone anymore. Maybe another reason to be strong.” Elsa hums in thought, one of her hands lifting to gently rest on Iduna’s head. This wasn’t weird either, right?

“Mother, I just… can’t find the will to forgive you right now. I can’t even find the will to forgive myself!”

“I understand.” Reluctantly, Iduna lets go and takes a step back so Elsa could exit the kitchen. “Still, you are welcome here whenever you need us. Anna says such wonderful things about you.”

“She does?” Finally, Elsa has to struggle against a smile.

“Oh yes. She likes talking about you. From everything to how you would glow in the sunlight to your struggle with anger issues, and her successes in-” Catching herself before she could expose Elsa’s knack for falling into Anna’s traps, Iduna taps a finger on her lips. “Nevermind.” Elsa rolls her eyes.

“No wonder you had no idea it was me.” She huffs, though Iduna laughs.

“She refused to give me a name until you wanted to be met. I never would have thought it was you. Maybe I should have asked more questions…”

“Yes, you probably should have... I need to tell you something, but you have to promise not to get mad at Anna.” The smile disappears, covered instead by worry. “Promise me.”

“Alright, I promise.”

“So, from what you’ve heard, you know Anna and I have gotten very close.” Iduna nods.

“That and the thing you said yesterday about already wanting to be sisters.” Once again feeling her muscles tense, Elsa's eyes dart away.

“Yeah, about that… Kind of a lie. If anything, that’s kind of the opposite we didn’t know we should have been hoping for. We want to be something much different than sisters.” Was that clear enough for Iduna to connect the dots? Elsa reluctantly picks her head up to scan her mother’s blank face. “Mother?”

“Don’t… Don’t say anymore, please.” Iduna’s face betrayed nothing, though her hand raises to her temple as if she has just gotten a headache. “Actually, I think you should go.” Elsa’s chest tightens, a rush of guilt making it hard to breathe. She just nods in response and makes her way out the door, and when she looks back, she can see Iduna already swiftly walking to her room at the end of the hall.

Maybe it was a rush of ignorance, or desperately wanting to make this right in some way or the other, but Elsa steps back inside and closes the door behind herself. “Wait. No, this isn’t right. You said it yourself… We can’t just continue being silent with each other.”

“There’s nothing I want to say to you right now.” That isn’t hard to believe. Elsa gives her a doubtful grimace, but Iduna is too busy analyzing the wood of her bedroom door to notice.

“Really? Nothing at all? You’re just completely peachy with the idea that your eldest daughter is having a love affair with her younger sister? Because, honestly, I could think of a few things for you!” It was a harsh way to make her talk, but Iduna deserves to finally let these emotions out of her system. She deserves to get mad and furious for once! Still, the sudden loud thud as Iduna’s fist slams into the door shakes Elsa with surprise.

“Damn it, Elsa! This isn’t-! You aren’t supposed to-!” Elsa fears for her self esteem, but for her mother, she swallows back the fear and tries to give another smaller push.

“And you know what’s absolutely adorable, by the way? Anna still likes to bite me.” That seems to tear the last straw.

“Why does it please you to corrupt such a healthy and good child?! Did you even wait until she turned 18, you.. dirty mutt?!” Heart beating nervously in her chest, Elsa crosses her arms and leans back against the front door, her expression as stoic as if she weren’t internally panicking.

“As a matter of fact, I did! Because she made me.”

“You’re disgusting!! I bet she isn’t the first you’ve stalked either, huh? No, you’re not a monster, you’re just some dangerous creep! Well right to have said I should keep her away from you!” Yeah, there goes the self esteem and worth Anna has been trying so hard to build up for Elsa. She couldn’t even find a reason to be angry back. It isn’t like Iduna is lying, right? “What happened to those witty comebacks? Do you have something to say in your defense, or can this pointless arguing finally be over?”

“You’re… not wrong. There really isn’t anything to argue with, but I… Anna is really different. She’s been so kind to me for these past two months and has made me believe I might actually have a chance to be something more than a creep in the woods, stalking after girls. Like an angelic siren, she lured me in and decided to fix me. Can you really blame me that I don’t want to let her go?” This apparently isn’t the retaliation Iduna was expecting. The brunette’s gaze lowers for a moment, then raises with a very hidden expression.

“I don’t want you around either of us anymore. Anna will no longer come to find you, and if you come to us, I will…” She hesitates to continue, but Elsa understands the message all too well, and while her heart aches for this, she’s willing to accept it without struggle. While she still has control anyways. Her hands twitch in and out of fists.

“Fine.” Elsa’s voice is ice cold. The anger was like hot bile rising in her chest, giving her clear warning to get out of this house as fast as possible. So, she did. Slamming the door behind herself, Elsa marches away with heinous thoughts in her head and a bright menacing gleam entering her eye.

“Elsa?” Anna’s voice… The wolf woman weighs her options, standing still with her back to the ginger. That was the wrong choice. A very hot blue flame covers her mind, successfully putting her out of herself- like a ghost trapped in her own body.

_______

Anna watches Elsa practically tremble in front of her, unresponsive to trying to verbally communicate with until the ginger nervously reaches forward to just barely touch Elsa’s arm. The blonde swivels around to bore fiery blue eyes down deep into Anna. What in the world is going on? What had she missed that made Elsa this upset?! The older woman’s chest is heaving, a growl leaving her scowling face.

“Anna…” Finally, a response.

“Elsa, what’s going on with you?” Again, Anna reaches out to Elsa, but this time her wrist is tightly snatched before it can make contact. Elsa’s fingernails were long and black, almost slicing through Anna’s skin. “Elsa!” She’s pulled much closer to the slowly transforming wolf, that fact becoming more obvious with the whiskers and light fur poking from Elsa’s face. The sight would have been adorable if not for the immediate concern of being harmed. Afraid trying to pull her arm away would result in that harm, she stays as still as possible, the book in her other hand in a white-knuckled grip. If worse came to worst, she could definitely use it as a weapon.

“You will meet me tonight.” Elsa’s voice is gruff and quiet, as if she weren’t exactly sure of what she’s saying. From what Anna could see this close to her, the issue with talking may also be because of her growing teeth…

“What? Go into the woods at night? Elsa, you-”

“It’s very important to me!” She snarls, startling Anna enough to try and pull away despite the tightening of Elsa’s hand on her wrist. A very slow and thin line of blood drips down her arm.

“Okay! Okay!” Actually finding herself frightened from what Elsa is becoming, Anna figures that agreeing would be the fastest way to find out what’s going on. “Where??” Instead of answering, Elsa finally lets go and takes a step away. “Elsa?!” The wolfish girl then turns and sprints into the forest, far from the path and Anna’s view. Shocked and confused, the ginger stands there staring at the forestry abyss until coming to her senses and looking down at her bleeding wrist. Shit… Iduna is going to be furious, if she isn’t already. Who knows what just happened..?

Rushing inside the house, Anna quickly sets down the book and runs into her bedroom to find something she could use to bandage her wrist with. She half expected her mother to be pacing right now in the living room, as she often did when getting stressed, but she must be sulking in her room instead. Iduna never was great when trying to deal with heavy emotions.. Anna doesn’t blame her for that.

“Anna, honey, is that you?” Speaking of the guilty woman.. Anna’s door creaks open with her presence, forcing Anna to come up with quick excuses on the spot. After what her mother had claimed yesterday about Elsa hurting Anna, there’s no way she can know about just now.

“Uh yes? Who else would it be?”

“What happened to your arm, and why are you trying to bandage it with your clothes?” With a sigh, Anna drops a sweater and turns around to face Iduna.

“I hurt it on the way here, and because I have no idea where the bandage wraps are.” Iduna looks unconvinced by this, but goes back to her own room for a second to grab a roll of the wraps.

“Give me your arm.” When Anna does so, Iduna looks over the scratches, her eyes looking exhausted and a little red. “Did you see Elsa?”

“Uh yeah. She ignored me and continued walking into the forest.” A half truth was easier than a full lie. Still, she’s sure Iduna already knows what happened and is once again keeping all of her thoughts and emotions inside. “What were you guys-? Ow!” Cut off with a wince when Iduna starts tightly wrapping a small portion of the bandages around Anna’s cut, she isn’t given much of a chance to question her.

“Stay away from her. She’s nothing but danger right now.”

“No, she isn’t! She’s just… sensitive sometimes!” Anna pulls her arm away to tie the end of the bandage herself. “Raised in a place of monsters, believing you aren’t allowed to be weak or vulnerable, what do you think that does to a person, mom?! What did you say to her?” Taken aback by Anna’s attack, Iduna nervously wrings her hands, her face full of regret. “Why do you still talk about her as if she isn’t a person?”

“Anna, stop, you don’t understand..”

“What don’t I understand? That you just can’t let something go that she did 13 years ago? She didn’t even do it on purpose!”

“That’s my point, Anna! She isn’t safe for that reason! Elsa is unstable and unpredictable.” When Iduna indignantly crosses her arms, Anna scoffs.

“If you really believed that, you wouldn’t have let her in the house. The second you saw her, you wouldn’t have allowed her near me!”

“That.. That doesn’t matter. What she’s doing with you… It isn’t right! I thought maybe she was getting better with you trying to help her, but she’s just manipulating you! Corrupting you into what she wants before she ends up killing you!” Anna stiffens. Did Elsa tell her what they had done? Why would she do that?! She specifically said it would be fine if they just don’t get caught!

“What she’s… She isn’t doing anything with me! I am my own person, and I choose what I do with myself! Elsa would never do that to me! She’s so much more than just an animal! Why am I the only one that sees that?!” Furious on her sister’s behalf, Anna pushes through her mother and towards the front door.

“Anna, stop! Don’t you dare leave this house!” Ignoring Iduna, she rushes out the door and sprints to the forest, with the brunette in surprisingly quick pursuit. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into!”

Not bothering to respond, Anna runs as fast as she can down the dirt trail, littered with rocks and roots hard to avoid tripping over. The farther she runs, the darker the forest gets despite the warm late afternoon weather. In an attempt to shake her mother off the trail, Anna makes an awful decision to veer off the path and straight into the menacing forest of inhabitants much worse than Elsa. Iduna, of course, hesitates to follow, giving Anna just enough time to disappear.

“Anna!!!” The panicked cry of her mother hits a very painful place in Anna’s heart, but isn’t enough for her to forget this and turn back. In the best world, she wanted both of her family together, but if that couldn’t be… She would rather spend the rest of her life in the terrifying woods beside someone she knows is loyal than remain lost and alone again living under the roof of her deceitful lying mother.

Figuring she’s fine to stop running now, Anna slows to a cautious walk, not at all sure how she would find Elsa. If she yells, it could attract the wrong company, and if she stayed where she is, there’s no guarantee Elsa would find her. So, she ends up walking aimlessly deeper into the cryptic forest until a horrid stench stops her in her tracks.

“Oh, gross, what is that?” Eyes squinting, she stares around at her surroundings until she spots a very large creature heaving in the shadows. “Elsa…?” Not sure this is her sister, Anna cautiously creeps forward, her fists raised defensively. A snapped twig under her foot gives her away. The creature raises its head and turns beady yellow eyes on her before giving a very piercing screech to bare disgusting yellow teeth. A rat, half the size of Anna herself charges the poor redhead, who gives a cry of her own and runs away. Definitely not Elsa.

It was a miracle to outrun the creature, but thanks to her climbing ability, Anna was able to evade it. Now in a tree, she leans back against the trunk and lets out a sigh, unaware of how this isn’t a great time to start relaxing. Daylight is going fast, putting this forest into a darker place than she ever thought it could be. As if it weren’t spooky enough! The black form of a lengthy creature catches Anna’s attention again, making her squeak and instinctively punch it away.

“Snake!!” The creature pulls away, rising to the branch above with a hissing sound. Though, as Anna’s eyes follow it up to another pair of eyes, it becomes clear this creature is much worse than a snake. They were completely red with black slits for pupils, much like a cat, since it was definitely too bulky to be the form of even a big snake. Heart falling in her chest, Anna drops from the tree. That escape is short lived as the animal drops down onto the next branch and then to the ground in front of her. Oh god! Is this the end?!

Chapter 5: This Is Fine

Chapter Text

Definitely not freaking out, Anna carefully scoots away before she even has the chance to stand up. The cat-like creature follows just as slowly, prowling its midnight snack until Anna backs into a very unfortunate end. A tree. Just her luck, huh? Maybe Elsa was right to keep her from getting into the forest at night…

However, when she cowers, truly believing that this is the end for her, the tree behind her shifts. The movement not only catches her attention, but the predator stalking towards her as well. With a bristle and hiss, the creature jumps and then sprints away. Heart now pounding fearfully in her chest, Anna slowly looks up at the fuzzy creature she had apparently backed into. Fiery blue eyes stare back down at her, practically glowing in this dark.

“Please tell me you’re Elsa and not a bear..” Anna quietly whispers, afraid to make any sudden movements. The beast’s head slowly lowers until a large nose curiously sniffs her head, the exhale puffing strands of her hair into her face that she’s too afraid to push back. Then a large wet tongue slaps her in the face, licking up from her chin up to her forehead. Grossssssss…

Then, as the large creature stands, Anna falls back in surprise. Though she doesn’t stay there for long. Teeth gently sink into her leg, barely pinching the skin just to hold onto it while the creature drags her forward.

“Hey! Let me go!” Aware this might be a death wish, she kicks at the beast’s muzzle with her other foot, only for herself to be suddenly pulled up off the ground. “Wha? Oh!” Hanging upside down by the creature’s paw now, dim light from the tree branches pierces through to spot this beast’s fur with pure white. “Y- you’re a lot bigger than I remember you being… Then again, this is kind of a weird perspective.”

The wolf gives a huff and drops Anna to the ground, where she stays until the creature lowers itself to the grass. She takes that as an invitation and crawls up onto Elsa’s back.

“Woah… You never let me do this!” Holding on tight, she leans down into the fur as the huge white wolf leaps forward into the trees. It’s a very bumpy ride, nothing like riding a horse, but it’s worth doing to say she had conquered the world's most fluffy bull out there.

When they finally stop, it’s in a moonlit clearing. Light once again soothes Anna’s eyes and refuels her courage. Too bad she couldn’t eat it... Her stomach grumbles at the thought of possibly eating something, the wolf’s ear twitching because of it. Now Anna could get a good look at the sculpted body under her weight, covered in thick white fur. So, either this is Elsa or another lycanthrope that looked just like her but bigger.

Very carefully, Anna slides down the wolf’s furry body and to the wavy long grass, high enough to reach her knees. It waves in the gentle wind just as the wolf’s long mane. The creature remains very still as Anna examines it, apparently too interested staring off into space to care. That’s fine by the ginger right now, whose hands were searching the creature’s mane for any remnants of a braid. All she can find are small wavy tangles leading up to her large fuzzy head, but there is a strangely unique tuft on her forehead, just like Elsa’s. As she’s still looking, the beast flops down into the grass, taking Anna down as well.

“Hey, why don’t you turn back into a human, huh? I’m sure in the dark of the forest, that’s a little vulnerable, but it would make it so much easier to talk to you.” Unfortunately, the wolf is unresponsive. Anna tries to look at what might be the center of its focus, but the trees look empty to her. So, instead, she stares up at the gorgeous night sky. Sunset had only recently fallen, but the moon was scaling quickly among its army of stars. “Oooookay, or we can just relax in this open clearing and stare at the sky.”

“Anna?” No, it couldn’t be... Anna leans forward to peek over the wolf’s arm to see a figure quite a ways away from them. Despite the human physique, there’s no apparent fear of being so near to this deadly beast. “Anna, step away from her very slowly.” Her mother’s voice is still unmistakable. How the hell had she managed to find her? No, how the hell had she made it through the forest?! Anna had barely done so, and wouldn’t have if not for Elsa.

“Mother, I’m not sure how you got here, but I’m not going anywhere with you.” Anna crosses her arms and wiggles herself in further to the white mane behind her. The silence that follows the declaration is very concerning. Has she left just like that? When Elsa starts to softly growl beside her, she decides not.

Anna had no idea that she would be used as some sort of hostage. One second she’s relaxing looking at stars and the next, she’s dangling in the air again by her forearm.

Iduna is still a ways away from them, but now she wields a shiny silver dagger that gleams in the moon's light. From what Anna could see of her face, she isn’t frightened at all, but instead just as angry as the growl deepening in Elsa’s throat.

“What are you doing?!” She shouts down at Iduna, once again about to yell at her for misjudging the situation.

“Don’t do it!”

“Don’t do what? I’m literally dangling here!”

“Put her down, Elsa! You don’t want to do this!”

What? Anna slowly looks over her shoulder at the large furry head eyeing her body. Oh god, is she about to get eaten? Still, the wolf’s eyes look like they’re considering the idea more than committing to it. Freaking out again, Anna squirms in the creature’s tight grip, futile as its parting jaws draw closer. When she tries to punch her way out of this, her fist is confiscated, taking away her will to fight back. Elsa wouldn’t eat her… Elsa wouldn’t eat her…

“Please… I’ll take back what I said!” Iduna only dares to take a few steps closer, probably not to risk making Elsa any more upset than she is already. “I… I’ll stop trying to get between you two, just please put her down. Please don’t bite her…” The last part is almost inaudible. If not for the quiet evening, Anna wouldn’t have heard it. Her pleas don’t seem to do anything for Elsa though, whose tongue was slowly licking over Anna’s shoulder. “Anna, say something to her!”

“Me? What am I supposed to say? Uh, please don’t eat me, big sister?!” While that was sarcasm, Anna finds herself quickly falling to the ground, completely let go from the wolf’s grasp. “Woah! Oof-!” Landing with a groan, Anna holds her head.

“Anna, are you okay?” Iduna’s voice sounds relieved.

“Yeah… fine…”

“Good, stay where you are. I’ll take care of your sister.” That has Anna sitting upright again, despite the headache.

“Wait- what? What are you going to do to her?” Elsa’s already wandering away on all fours again, her bushy tail swaying like it's part of the northern lights. Iduna, meanwhile, is flipping through a book- the same one Anna had brought back from the pub. The dagger from earlier is still within her grasp though, the blade shining from under the book.

“Just a sleep spell should work for us to get away.”

“A what?!” Stumbling to get over to her mother, Anna reaches for the book, and is unfortunately dodged by the surprisingly quick older woman. Instead of justice, she takes another faceful of grass instead.

“Anna, you are well out of the world that you understand. Just get behind me and be quiet.” Iduna sounds desperate, but Anna doesn’t know what to believe anymore. So many lies, and now this?

“No! I’m not letting you do anything to her until I find out what’s going on!”

“Anna!” After ripping the book out of her mother’s hand, Iduna is left only able to tightly grip her dagger for fear of what the returning beast might do to them. “Anna…” Then it seems Iduna’s voice all but leaves her when looking up past Anna.

“She isn’t going to hurt-” The sudden large presence over her shoulder hadn’t worried her. The feeling of long sharp teeth clamped over her shoulder though… She should probably worry about that. “-me..” Maybe it’s shock, but Anna quickly becomes overwhelmed by a dizzy feeling that drops her to the grass once again as soon as the jaws detach.

“Anna!!!” Her mother’s panic is the last thing she registers before the chilly dizziness knocks her out.

__________

When Elsa wakes up, it’s early dawn shining in through her foggy cabin window. The cabin only has one room, but it’s large enough to be comfortable in. At first thought, she thinks maybe she just angrily stomped to her cabin, but common sense told her that it’s unlikely. However, it isn’t bloody hands she finds when looking down. Slowly, her tired eyes adjust to the person laying on her chest. The red hair, the coppery smell of blood. What the hell happened last night and why is Anna here? And why did she taste-

-No… Oh no…-

Elsa carefully sits up to examine Anna’s wound, which was horrible to look down at. The girl’s shirt had torn away and several large puncture wounds dot jaggedly behind and over her right shoulder. It’s then, when adjusting Anna’s body, that she notices her own body covered in blood. None of her own though. Feeling light-headed now with how her breathing shallows, Elsa squirms her way out from under her sister’s body.

“Not again, not again! Not her! Why her?!” Once free, she quickly paces beside the small wooden bed Anna now lays upon. Her feet stick to the fresh blood coating her floorboards, just another stain among the many.

“Again? This has happened before?” Stopping rigid in her tracks, Elsa’s head snaps to the side, her eyes gluing to the source of this voice.

Iduna sits, trembling by the cabin door, and surrounded by the bones of Elsa’s unfortunate prey, whether that be human skulls or small rodent bones. Her hair is a mess with forest debris tangling into the brunette strands, and her previously decent violet dress is now just torn rags clinging to her skin via her own blood. While she still didn’t look petrified to be in this situation, Iduna clings to her silver dagger, the end pointed at Elsa. A book sits in her lap, opened to a page with several diagrams of that which Elsa has to assume is the lycanthrope species.

“I knew you were infatuated with her, but I didn’t really think-”

“What are you doing here?!” Panicking to have her awful living space invaded by her mother, Elsa backs away from the dagger, terrified of what might be done with it.

“I followed you both. I… wouldn’t be able to live with myself if both of you just disappeared.”

“From what I can see, you almost didn’t survive getting here anyway.”

“This isn’t from the walk here. This is from me trying to stop you from dragging Anna away after you bit her.” Iduna’s voice turns quiet and cold, but weak. Elsa has hurt them both now. “I told her you were unstable, out of your head, but she went after you anyways.” Heart beating hard against her chest, Elsa edges closer to the bed and leans down to press her ear against Anna’s chest. The heartbeat is slow, but there.

“I didn’t… I never…”

“I know, but you did. Now pull yourself together. We need to get Anna back to the house.” Sitting up again, Elsa stares down at Anna’s peaceful face. Then, with a huff of determination, she scoops the girl up into her arms. It then occurs to her how this is going to be a challenge with Iduna being severely wounded. She turns back around to face the woman, who currently makes no effort to get up.

“Can you stand?”

“Don’t you think I would have if I could?” The irritation isn’t surprising after what Iduna must have gone through last night, but as Elsa isn’t exactly in a great mental place either, it really doesn’t help to try to stay calm.

“Please, put the knife down..” Hesitantly, Iduna lowers the dagger to the floor and reaches forward to take Elsa’s hand carefully peeking out from under Anna’s limp body. With Elsa’s strength, she’s able to pull Iduna up to her feet, though the woman doesn’t stay like that for long. Now Iduna just heavily leans on Elsa’s shoulder while her arms tightly press the closed book against her abdomen wound.

“Maybe you should come back for me. There’s no way I can walk all the way back to the village like this.” There’s obvious truth in this, but Elsa is unwilling to leave her out here alone.

“Not a chance. Get on my back.”

“Elsa, you can’t-”

“I said, get on my back!” Preparing for the extra weight, Elsa leans forward and positions her legs further apart. As expected, it takes Iduna a couple of tries to get herself up and hold on, but when she does, Elsa wastes no time leaving the cabin.

Since she’s already nude, too, she takes advantage of shifting a fourth of the way, just to have more strength and short tufts of fur as a grip for Iduna to hold onto. It’s harder to walk like this and keep the book on Anna’s lap than anything else. Elsa had done a lot of carrying heavy objects already, hence the reason she doesn’t let Anna just casually hitch a ride on her back. She just doesn’t need back problems this early in life.

Thankfully, the trek to the path is uneventful. As most of the fatal creatures in this forest were night prowlers, they would be safe even walking covered in blood, which… they were. Iduna almost passes out either from the blood loss or staying up all night, but Elsa makes sure to keep her awake with a very wet lick to her muddy face.

“Elsa, you know I hate that.”

“Just making sure you’re alive.”

“You couldn’t kill me even if you actually meant to.” Kinda harsh, but it makes Elsa smile for a split second anyway. Good to know Iduna hasn’t lost her spirit.

When they finally manage to trudge to the house, Elsa carefully lets Iduna down off of her back. Iduna stumbles towards the door with Elsa’s assistance and holds it open to let her through with Anna, who hasn’t moved since she first collapsed last night. Instead of being led to Anna’s bedroom, Iduna slowly uses the wall to get to her own bedroom and leaves the door open for Elsa.

The room isn’t what you would expect. While it doesn’t look like a normal bedroom, it doesn’t look like a witch’s den either. There’s no cauldron, no spooky decorations, or ominous utensils on dressers. But the walls are decorated with old-looking papers of various symbols and incantations. As soon as they go in, candles on the walls light in a dull blue flame, barely bright enough to illuminate the whole room properly.

“Wow, so you are a witch. Did not see that coming…” Iduna scoffs and takes a very slow seat to her neatly made bed. The sheets are grim and black as were her pillowcase and blanket, very goth and depressing.

“Set her down here and go get a washcloth from the kitchen.”

Elsa does as she’s told, carefully laying Anna down lengthwise over the blankets and then rushing as fast as she could to the kitchen to retrieve the washrag from the sink. When she comes back, Iduna has already bandaged at least the gash on her stomach and the cuts on her arm. Later, she would have to do much more for her stomach, but right now she focuses on examining Anna’s bite wound. After handing the rag to her, Iduna lightly dabs at it to clear blood away from the pierced holes and make sure none of the spots are actively bleeding.

“Go search in the top right drawer of the dresser by the door and bring me the black bottle.”

Again, she follows the directions, finding the drawer of strangely colored bottles both curious and concerning. However, she obediently brings back the black bottle without question.

“Okay, now lean down close to me for a second and turn your head away.”

Thoroughly confused by these directions, Elsa cautiously leans over Iduna’s shoulder and turns her head to stare at one of the symbols on the wall. As something very wet slides up her cheek, she has to repress a shudder and try really hard not to grin.

“Gross, isn’t it?” She nods, though not without smirking. “Okay, I’m going to need you on the other side of the bed again. In case this wakes Anna up, I need you to hold her down.”

“Hold her down?” Once again worried about what would be done, Elsa walks over to the other side of Anna and watches Iduna apply whatever is in the black bottle to the bloody washrag.

“Just trust me. I need to clean the bite.” It's an almost instantaneous reaction the moment Iduna presses the solution-covered rag to the bite. Anna sits up off the blankets, her eyes finally popping open. “Elsa!” Elsa quickly pushes Anna back down so Iduna could continue sterilizing the wound. Unfortunately, that induces screaming on Anna’s side, absolute torture for all of them. When the front of the bite is finally cleaned and they have to turn Anna over onto her stomach to get the back, the poor ginger is sobbing from the pain. Thankfully, without her squirming, it doesn’t take long to clean that side.

“I’m so sorry, Anna…” Elsa could feel tears building up in her eyes now, too, but not from any bandageable pain. She had hurt Anna in every way she didn’t mean to. Not only by betraying her trust, but by inflicting real damage. Permanent damage to her shoulder. Anna doesn’t respond, only instead whimpering and closing her eyes again.

“Anna, sweety,” Iduna quietly murmurs, “your sister and I are just going to be in the living room while she helps stitch me up. We’ll be right back.” With a small groan, their mother leans down to press a soft kiss to the back of Anna’s head, and then she motions for Elsa to come back around the bed. Elsa helps Iduna stand, get across the room, and walk down towards the rocking chair in the living room. When the brunette seats herself back into the chair, Elsa kneels beside her and starts carefully unwrapping the bloody bandage around her abdomen.

“I should leave, shouldn’t I? She doesn’t want me here anymore.” The gash is large and very close to tearing further. Three slash marks dug deep into the flesh, still bleeding quite profusely now that there’s no pressure against it. Gritting her teeth against the pain, Iduna just hands Elsa the needle and thread she needs to delicately pull the skin back together.

“She’s just in pain right now. There’s no way you can just leave us like this, Elsa.” Despite slippery fingers, Elsa makes quick work to sew up the first cut. “This is… It isn’t all your fault, but you have to help us. It doesn’t even matter if Anna hates you now, you can’t leave her like that.” Like usual, her mother is right, and yet again, it hurt so much to know so.

“You’re right… but what about when she gets better?” There’s a short pause after the question, either from Iduna not knowing how to respond, or from the pain as Elsa pulls the second cut together. She uses her teeth to cut the thread so she could move to the last part of the gash, perhaps not the best utensil since her jaw is still covered in dried blood.

Her sister's blood... Kind of funny to think how that thought makes her sick, but sharing spit with the girl didn’t. There’s nothing tasty about Anna’s blood. It tastes fouler to her than roadkill. Maybe that was just to say how much more wrong it is to be with her like she wanted. The persistent and stubborn side of her mind decides it must just be that she’s far from worth even trying to eat.

“Gets better? I’m not talking about the literal wound you inflicted on her, Elsa, I’m talking about the curse.” Stiffening, Elsa stares up at Iduna, who gives her a very concerned and pained look.

“Curse?”

“Please finish with the stitching first. I don’t know why I thought you would know of this..” Confused and even more afraid of what she might have done to Anna than before, Elsa tries not to shake or hurry while finishing stitching up the rest of her mother’s wound. “Good. Now, go grab the bandage roll from the top of the dresser by the door.” She nods and stands to stiffly walk back to the bedroom, where she finds Anna once again quietly asleep. Or at least, she looks asleep from where Elsa stands in the doorway. After taking the bandage wrap, and a pair of scissors, she gets back to Iduna to help wrap the tight cloth around herself.

“Is there anything else you need me for now? I’ve sewn your wound, I helped you clean Anna’s wound... Do you need me to brush your hair, too?” Elsa doesn’t mean that in a rude way, but her nerves keep tightening under this stress and anxiety. Iduna leans back in her chair with a hum, one of her bloody fingers casually tapping her bottom lip.

“Actually, that would be kind of nice... Help me to the cellar, would you? I’m still covered in dirt and blood.” Despite knowing she has to help these two with whatever they need, no matter what it is, this is not something she thought she would be doing. Whatever they need… Whatever they need… So, Elsa nods and carefully pulls Iduna out of the chair by the hand she holds out.

Her arm wraps tight around Iduna’s to carry her weight while she walks forward, meaning their progress to the cellar doors is a slow one. Making it down the stairs is an even slower challenge that Elsa straight up gives up on and instead sweeps Iduna into her arms, much like she had done with Anna.

“Woah! Hey, careful!” Ignoring that and wishing this whole thing could just go a tad faster, Elsa only carefully puts her mother down into the tub and then goes to light the oil lamp before running up the stairs and pulling closed the doors. Somehow, the dim light around the room makes this much worse.

“Okay, I think now is a perfect time for you to tell me about this curse you mentioned.” Feet slapping down on concrete, Elsa quickly bounces back downstairs to rest her hand on the faucet while Iduna pulls off what’s left of her gown.

“Right, fine.” The brunette’s legs cross self consciously and one of her arms drapes over her chest as soon as loose fabric couldn’t cover them anymore. First of all, Elsa is offended by this, but also… it isn’t unreasonable for Iduna to be uncomfortable now. In fact, Elsa isn’t that comfortable with this either. Regardless of that, Elsa turns on the water and looks over to where Iduna points on the nearest shelves. “Over there is the hairbrush.” Already, Iduna is picking leaves and twigs out of her hair with just her fingers, so Elsa grabs the brush and starts gently moving it through her mother’s curly hair. With how Iduna usually has it up, Elsa never really noticed the natural look of it, especially not this close.

“Anna isn’t going to turn into a wolf like me, is she?”

“Well…”

“Seriously??”

“You weren’t born with a curse, because you can actually grow with this power and control it, but Anna... With your lycanthrope DNA in her bloodstream indefinitely, she doesn’t get the opportunity to learn it, nor could she if she tried. No one controls a curse, it controls them. Your sister will become the wolf, just… not in any way that could be helpful or good.” Elsa doesn’t know how to respond. She feels so lost and confused after hearing this. There’s a moment of tense silence where Elsa has to simply register it in her mind.

“So, what exactly happens to Anna now?”

“Every month on the full moon, she will turn into that angry beast you find yourself trying to avoid so often. With the curse cast under the moonlight, and with your blood already being similar enough as it is. There’s no way she won’t catch it. If it were any other stranger, they might have a chance against it, if they don’t die first.”

Again, Elsa has no response. All she could focus on is slowly bringing the wire brush to the top of her mother’s scalp and slowly pulling it down to rid the strands of tangles and somehow more leaf scraps. She puts the hairbrush down for a second so she could just run her finger through to rid larger chunks of the leaf. When she pulls her hand back, a couple strands of hair are stuck to her sticky fingers.

“I’m sure we can figure something out with her. There must be some sort of enchantment we can find to dull the effects of-”

“Can you bring your hair down into the water and hand me the bottled soap?” Now wringing much soapier and clean fingers through Iduna’s hair, Elsa finds she actually liked this distraction much more than if she had been told this in Anna’s presence. Not only did it feel better for understanding and not freaking out, but it helped with relaxing to the calm and comforting words from Iduna. She actually thinks maybe it isn’t a totally hopeless situation. Of course, right now she would rather just give her poor heart a break from the stress, but later… Later they will start looking for a cure for her mistakes.

The more Elsa’s fingers massage into Iduna’s scalp, the further her mother seems to relax in the cold water. There’s a moment when she has to lean forward to turn off the faucet, but the silence is far more soothing afterward.

“Elsa?”

“Mm?”

“Lean over the tub a bit.” Not thinking twice about doing so, Elsa leans over Iduna’s shoulder. A cold wet hand lightly graces her cheek before Iduna’s thumb starts to gently rub away the flakes of dried blood around Elsa’s mouth.

“Mother, I can-”

“Ssshh... Just relax for a second.” Kinda hard to do so when her eyes are trying not to look down and soft fingers are firmly brushing against her lips. “Okay, you can lean back now.” With only a dim red stain over her chin and mouth now, Elsa leans back, very aware of the embarrassment written all over her face. “Actually, you should go check on Anna. If she’s okay, bring me down clothes.”

“Right.” Elsa quickly rinses her hands off in the tub and stands up, only for a cold wet hand to grab her own before she could walk away.

“To the… To the right of my clothes is a box of some of Agnarr’s. Pick out a flannel and jeans.”

“But you said-”

“I know what I said before, but he isn’t using them and I doubt you have any idea where your clothes may have ended up. I’m not stealing for you again.” Elsa nods, finding it hard to repress a grin. Thankfully, Iduna returns the slightly awkward gesture and lets her hand fall back into the water. Now with a little less weight on her heart, Elsa skips steps up the stairs and pushes open the cellar doors.

Chapter 6: Prologue

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“Hey, look at me.”

Elsa picks her head up from her hands to look at the rope-bound ginger, the pain of holding back her tears burning her eyes.

“It’s going to be okay. Mom knows what she’s doing.”

The night draws ever closer, pulling with it the full moon, of which they all now loathed and feared. While Iduna stands in the doorway to Anna’s bedroom, Elsa finishes locking the enchanted chains together. Getting heavy chains like this was a process on its own, but trying to enchant them into forcing away the wolf demon, well, that was just an experience Elsa never wants to go through again. Still, she will do anything for her little sister… her best friend… her lover.

“Elsa, I’m scared.” She looks up to see the poor girl’s worried face, her eyes burdened with fear. Since learning of this curse, Anna has been nothing but brave about it, putting on a strong face to not stress them all out even more. In the few days they had to prepare for this, she was full of questions neither Elsa nor Iduna had answers to. Though they both shared a hunch that the ginger would go off researching her questions in the town library without them. Of course, they were right, but Anna had been thoughtful enough to share a couple of books that had something… very useful in them. A potential cure. Elsa didn’t believe, and still doesn’t, but there’s no use not to at least try. Unfortunately, the ceremony could only be done on a new moon and that took patience as well as enduring a full moon with the curse.

“Don’t be. It’s going to be okay.”

“I don’t want to hurt anybody.” Elsa’s heart breaks a little. She brushes Anna’s hair back behind her ear with a sigh, then leans forward to press her forehead against the young girl’s.

“I won’t let that happen.”

“Promise me.”

“I promise.” With a small tilt of Anna’s head, Elsa takes that as an invitation to kiss her. Immediately after taking that invite, she can hear the sound of Iduna’s heels walking away from the door, but that far from stops them. While their mother isn’t exactly… supportive of this, she lets the two be with their strange romance. She has definitely learned her lesson about meddling in such things, and now preferred to just walk away.

Finally, Elsa pulls away from Anna, taking the only candle with her as she backs up to the bedroom door. She barely gets out of the room before the rustling of Anna’s chains starts, a quiet growl following. Freezing in place, even as red wax drips down over her thumb, Elsa stares into the dark room.

“Mother…?”

“Has the transformation started already?” Almost making her drop the candle, Iduna pops up on the other side of Elsa.

“I... I don’t know. She’s being very quiet.”

“That’s not right…” Moving closer to Elsa to get to the candlelight, Iduna flips through the pages of one of the books.

“Uh… guys?” Startled by Anna’s voice, they both just stand frozen for a second before Elsa hesitantly steps forward with the light, illuminating feet. Wolfish feet, very red in color, but not nearly as big as they both were expecting. Moving the light further forward reveals Anna’s shackled body, still perfectly fitted to her even with her exposed fuzzy arms.

“Anna?” Finally, the warm light reveals Anna’s wolfish complexion. It’s clear her skull had transformed, but it looks like a half-baked transformation. Still, her long sharp canines lay exposed around her snout, giving her several adorable snaggleteeth.

“Did it work? Did it not work? I feel fuzzy, but still conscious. Er, I think I'm conscious.”

“Uhm… both.”

“Elsa, hand me that for a second.” After handing the candle over to Iduna, the brunette crouches down extremely close to Anna, who leans back from the fire. “Either, this is what a werewolf really is, or… the enchantment technically worked.”

“Well, there’s only one way to know.” Elsa reaches to the chain lock, only for her hand to get slapped away.

“Are you serious?!” Iduna stands again to glare at Elsa, who crosses her arms and glares back. Yeah, their relationship is still pretty rocky… No amount of collaborative reading helped that, despite Anna’s best efforts.

“AH!! Something touched my leg!” Anna shoots to her feet beside the both of them, almost knocking them all back when she tries to run past. Thankfully, Elsa grabs her by the chains and pulls her back. The jerk unbalances Anna with the heavy chain weight and she falls back to the floor, her dress now exposing the tail beneath. “Oh… never mind, it's just me.” Elsa facepalms while staring down at her mess of a sister.

“Interesting… Oh, what am I doing? I should be taking notes of this!” Leaving the candle on Anna’s bed, Iduna runs out of the room as fast as her shoes would let her. Civilized people problems. Elsa sits down next to Anna.

“So… imagine if our mother wasn’t a witch, huh?”

“Imagine if the rumors our town started weren’t actually true.” Anna giggles, now leaning herself into Elsa. “You know, this isn’t so bad.”

“Hm?”

“Yeah, I’ll have to wear these chains until the effects of the curse wear off, but at least I can spend more time with you.” Thinking maybe they could finally relax, Elsa smiles and wraps her arm around Anna’s shoulders while the ginger rubs her head against Elsa’s neck, her fuzzy ears tickling Elsa’s face until she finds a spot to relax. They stay like this for a few minutes in peace without even their mother intruding, and Elsa almost falls asleep, but the sound of sniffing and the feeling of air on her neck rouses her from her doze.

“Anna?” No response. Maybe she had fallen asleep? The same soft growling from earlier makes her think maybe not. It would take just the slightest movement from Elsa and she would be a goner, her neck completely exposed to Anna’s attack- and unfortunately not the kind of attack she likes.

That being mentioned, Iduna finally comes back to Anna’s doorway, a journal in her hand while her other scribbles furiously across the page. Her movements aren’t brash enough to startle the wolf, but she doesn't notice the situation. Elsa tries clearing her throat.

In a normal circumstance, that would have either made Iduna leave without a second thought, but she lifts her gaze for just a moment. One look at Anna and she does a double-take before screaming and shuriken throwing the journal. The book catches the small beast right in the side of her head, knocking her off of Elsa before she could do anything about it.

“Mom!!!”

“It was impulse!!!” Elsa makes a run for it after grabbing the candle, simultaneously spilling all of the melted wax on her hand. It’s only painful for a second, but with how she rushes, the flame goes out. That didn’t matter though, because as soon as she’s out the door, Iduna slams it closed. “Quick! The rocking chair!”

“I can’t see anything!”

“Feel your way around the dark, Ms. Creature-Of-The-Night!”

Growling to herself Elsa drops the burned-out candle and carefully makes her way into the living room. There’s only one window to draw light from, and it isn’t nearly enough to know where she puts her feet before the rocking chair finds her first. A painful thunk and the groaning, while she tries not to let rip a long string of curses, must have given her away.

“Are you okay?”

“I found it..”

“Good! Get it over here before she starts-” Persistent and aggressive pounding rattles against the guarded door, chilling Elsa’s bones. She picks up the chair and rushes back over to Iduna, only almost tripping on the way there. This would only really do anything if the wolf in Anna is smart enough to try the door handle, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Cue all of the people in dinosaur movies underestimating the velociraptor.

“Are we just going to cower outside of her door all night hoping she doesn’t get through?”

“Do you have any better ideas?” She doesn’t…

So, there they sit, makeshift weapons at the ready with a single lit candle between them after Iduna found a match in the kitchen, waiting… all night. When the pounding on the door stops, they almost don’t notice. Practically falling asleep on each other, only the blessing of early sunrise at the window alerts them. While Iduna lets out a breath of relief, Elsa couldn’t find it herself. She feels awful that this happened in the first place, and while grateful Anna hadn’t escaped, ultimately furious with herself that she caused this. Misery for her mother to endure, and suffering for her sister to be trapped in. All because she just couldn’t calm herself down.

“We did it,” Iduna sleepily murmurs before yawning, making Elsa yawn too.

She doesn’t even bother getting up to go to her room. Instead, Iduna just leans off of Elsa and back into the wall before closing her eyes. Sleep doesn’t hinder Elsa that hard yet though, so she slowly makes it to her feet and removes the chair from the door. When she opens it, Anna is laying on the floor, back to her normal self and peacefully asleep. Elsa crouches down beside her to rub Anna’s frizzy red hair with a tired smile and reaches into her pocket to pull out a small key that she uses to unlock the chains. The metal falls away and Elsa picks up her prize, her girl, her sister, nuzzling her forehead like this was just another morning where they had woken up together.

“Thank goodness for that.” She murmurs back, turning to look at Iduna, who is already fast asleep. Maybe it’s the dawn lighting or her own sleep-deprived eyes, but her mother looks so precious right now. The way her head tilts just a bit to the side and how her grasp greatly loosens on the silver dagger. Nothing but peace rests on her face, and damn if it isn’t a good look on her.

Elsa brings Anna to her bed and lays her down under the blankets. Just like her mother, she looks so devilishly gorgeous in the early sunlight. The only difference between that image and this is how Elsa’s heart beats tirelessly fast just to look down at Anna. The cute little freckles on the young girl’s face and the vibrant shine of her ginger hair… Elsa feels she might die right then and there of the sheer gay happiness that this girl is hers. There’s little fight to be had in having her, even with… minor mistakes in the past. No Kristoff, no competition, and as long as no one knew of her deeds, it would remain this way.

After kissing Anna’s forehead, Elsa leaves the room to stand in front of Iduna. Her intentions are to be gentle and reciprocate what she had done for Anna for Iduna, but as soon as the older woman is scooped into her arms, she starts muttering herself awake.

“Hmm? Agnarr?” One of Iduna’s hands reaches up to delicately hold the side of Elsa’s face while she gets her head comfortably on the blonde’s shoulder.

“No, it’s me, mom.” While she walks very carefully, Elsa can just barely see the frown on Iduna’s face as she concentrates to figure out who it is without opening her eyes. Then she curls tighter into herself, both making it easier for Elsa to carry her whilst also giving Iduna leverage to hide her face in Elsa’s neck.

“Elsa..” This suddenly treads the line of being really cute and very… strange. When Elsa lays Iduna down onto her bed, it’s she who kisses Elsa’s forehead instead, making Elsa smile in a way she hasn’t for a very long time. There’s no doubt the differences between romantic and motherly love, but Elsa could say in dismay that she’s more used to the romantic side now than the motherly.

Once closing the door after leaving her mom to sleep, she now has to completely forget about this and sleep immediately on the floor between both bedrooms.

“How are you not afraid? We have no idea if this will actually work or… or end up doing something horrible to you? What if it changes you permanently into the monster? What if this is just a spell to kill you?! What if-” Before Elsa could continue rambling on, Anna’s grimace catches herself for the ginger, who couldn’t really shush Elsa right now.

“Elsa, you’re going to start crying if you continue talking nonsense. Stop it.”

“But I don’t want to lose you.” Elsa pathetically whines, tears already threatening to fall from behind her watery eyes.

“Pff- you big softy. Nothing bad is going to happen, okay? Now, go be strong for me, 'cause if this ends up being excruciatingly painful, I will need an immediate fluffy wolf hug, so I’m counting on you.” It should have been a little shameful to be an older sister shown up by her little sister, but all Elsa feels is worry and gratitude. Just thankful that Anna knew what to say that wouldn’t make Elsa feel worse, and yet also doesn’t make her feel completely better either. Overconfidence is easy to see through, and Anna did clearly have this whole thing on her nerves. Elsa bringing up all the things that could go wrong is probably not helping.

Though, it still takes Iduna grabbing Elsa by the collar of her flannel to pull her away from Anna. A shiny black substance pours from a vial the brunette circles around Anna, who stays perfectly still not to mess it up. Then Iduna pulls out a yellow quartz from her dress pocket and sticks it to Anna’s forehead before leaning down and kissing the ginger’s nose. Anna giggles and Iduna steps away to pick up her book.

“Get ready with the dagger, Elsa. Wh-?! Put the gloves on first!!!”

“That looks surprisingly good on you.” Iduna approves, buttoning up the dark red flannel Elsa had chosen from the box of her father’s clothes. It feels much heavier than the thin shirt she used to wear, more like a jacket. Not that she would be complaining when winter came around again. It has a familiar scent to it, too. Not one she wants to take deep sniffs of for memory sake, but… The presence feels strong and comforting.

“Well, of course. What were you expecting?”

“This to be too big on you, but it seems your broad shoulders and long arms fill it out very nicely.” As she says that, Iduna trails her hand down Elsa’s right arm until she can button the cuffs. Elsa, despite herself, finds her face gently heating at that comment until Iduna’s other hand boops her nose. Just like Anna, her mother has discovered how easily distracted Elsa could be to full amusement for them. It’s hard to imagine how some people dream of being tortured by two beautiful women.

“I know, right?” Anna’s sudden appearance makes Elsa flinch into Iduna until the girl tugs her away into a tight hug. “She’s so strong and-”

“Anna, what are you doing out of bed?” Now attempting to pry her sister away, Elsa tries not to be so rough for the shoulder injury’s sake. The bite left a painful mark and bruise on her shoulder, significantly affecting her use of the arm, but not enough to stop her from trying to hug Elsa the moment she woke up. Iduna helps pull Anna off and holds her protectively in her arms.

“I got her.” Already, Anna starts losing her energy while getting dragged away. Despite that, she’s still surprisingly resilient against Iduna’s sleep spell. After the night she had, getting rest and not straining her body is important to keep her still functioning and not freaking out. Not that Elsa thought she would freak out, but better safe than very… very… sorry. While Iduna is putting Anna back to her bed, Elsa picks out a pair of jeans to fit her waist. Before she can finish, Iduna is back in the room bearing a face of careful thought, like she’s debating something.

“What is it? Want to yell at me again? You’re more than welcome to.”

“No... No, that was never the right solution to facing that problem in the first place. I know it may work for you, but it just isn’t healthy for me, especially when I don’t want to be mad at you.” It almost makes Elsa feel bad for pushing her to release so much steam with how peaceful and calm Iduna sounds about it now. To have as much patience as this lady, Elsa could only dream of it. “I need to ask you something. I spent the entire night in your cabin, which you’ve done a great job constructing all on your own, but…”

“But the floor is drenched in blood and bones, yes, I’m aware. I haven’t gotten around to cleaning that up yet. Probably won’t until Anna demands I take her there again.” Shrugging it off like the concept isn’t disturbing, Elsa moves away from the closet and takes a seat on Iduna’s bed, where the older woman hesitantly joins her.

“While that fact is going to be in my nightmares for quite some time, it isn’t what I was going to refer to. I’m not saying I can identify skulls or half-eaten corpses,” While even just saying that, Iduna visibly covers a gag, “but I can recognize the leather jacket and weird shoes of my daughter’s best friend.”

Elsa becomes as rigid as a statue, unsure what to do or say. The thought of Kristoff isn’t always too far from her mind when in the company of Anna, but she did not think her mother of all people would find out. Especially in the way she so happened to. She half expected to accidentally out herself far later into the future while not thinking before talking, but this… this is much worse.

“You’re probably mistaken.”

“I’m not.” Iduna fixes Elsa with a hard curious stare, not at all accusing, but it’s enough to make Elsa nervous. “Anna isn’t here right now. Just tell me the truth.”

“I refuse to acknowledge your accusation.”

“I’m not accusing you of anything. Why don’t you just take a slow breath and recall why his… remains are in your vicinity? Anna doesn’t have to know any of this.”

“I don’t even remember meeting this friend of Anna’s, so there’s no way to tell. Might have just found him in the woods and decided he looked like a good snack.” Iduna rolls her eyes and drums her fingers over her lap for a second, catching Elsa’s gaze so she wouldn’t have to make eye contact.

“Well, that’s a lie. Do you think you weren’t the first thing Anna started rambling about the second she got home? She told me Kristoff ran you off in a misunderstanding. Next thing we know, we haven’t seen him in a few months, which is very uncharacteristic of this boy, who has already spent most of his life hanging around Anna.” The last comment makes Elsa twitch. While Iduna doesn’t say anything about the sudden jerking motion, she does try to hide a grin. “Could it be that?”

“What? Jealousy? You think I would be possessive over Anna or jealous that a boy got to spend all the time with her that I should have? Ridiculous! How would I have known at that point?”

“Yeah, that’s why I was talking about the fact he almost attacked you with a lute and you wanted revenge.” Elsa looks up to glare at her mother, who smirks back. “But, now I’m thinking maybe there’s more to the story since then. Could it be? My own brooding daughter caught off guard and strickenly in love by a new pretty girl? Bent for bloodlust to have her in your arms and protect her instead.” While Iduna bites her lip to stop herself from laughing, Elsa growls and turns away, her face a dark red. “I always pictured Anna to be the hopeless romantic. Who knew?”

“Yeah, well, the joke’s on you that the one I ended up falling for is my sister!” Wait-

“I- Is that a joke’s on me?” Finally, Iduna lets out a snicker, now leaning against Elsa. “Or did this hopeless romantic just become even more hopeless?” Having about enough of her mother’s teasing, Elsa pushes Iduna away by her shoulder face away while she continues to snicker.

“Shut up! That’s just what you think! Just because we’re related, it won’t stop us from being together! What happened to you being upset about that?”

“Oh, believe me, I am! Not only will I not have the joy of grandbabies, but if you two ever fall out with each other, I will have two daughters who will want nothing to do with each other. Isolation will be upon us all once more!” Even though Iduna says that with a grin, Elsa could hear the utter pain behind the enthusiasm.

“Mom… That won’t happen.”

“You think so? What if she finds out about Kristoff somehow?”

“She won’t.”

Elsa shakes out her hand and puts on the glove before picking up the knife again. Once she does, Iduna starts muttering something, her eyes glued to her book. The substance she had poured out around Anna starts to shift, moving in its river circle while slowly rising. The higher it lifts, the more it leaves behind. Short black tendrils connect over and over again to make checkered patterns like a gooey chain link fence.

“Why isn’t she changing yet?” Elsa questions, worried that this is already going wrong. Only the stars can illuminate the scene before them, and Anna makes no such twitches or growls as she had the night on the full moon. Anna's face remains completely blank, her gaze miles away.

“Be patient, Elsa. Her transformation could just be a little delayed due to the substance’s poor mimicking qualities.” Elsa isn’t at all sure she knows what that means, and she’s about to continue complaining, but Anna heaves forward and retches until she vomits. “...That doesn’t look like a good sign, but I think it’s working. She must’ve just got dizzy.” Iduna mutters the thought more to herself.

With a groan, Anna tips back into the substitute fence. Elsa could hear the girl’s heartbeat, changing from slow to erratically fast. She can’t help the worrying urge that this is a bad idea.

“Elsa, take a breath. You’re going to hyperventilate.”

“This is wrong, we’re doing something wrong! She isn’t okay! We have to stop!” Elsa drops the dagger and moves to take the book from her mother, who struggles to keep it away.

“What is wrong with you?! NO! We are finishing this!”

“You don’t understand, I can hear her shifting too quickly! She’s not just dizzy! Her insides are literally at war with each other!”

“Why can’t you just trust me?!”

Amid their arguing, neither could notice Anna’s growing form. Only when the beast gives a pained howl from making accidental contact to the fence do they look up.

Anna’s beast is tall and skinny, the bones of its form almost protruding through the fur. Her eyes shine a neon green from the dark and rids any soul behind the gaze. This form is nothing like the werewolf they had previously encountered, and much much more terrifying. Standing now in the confines of her little circle. Anna glares down at them from the fence holes, the rope nowhere to be seen and neither the quartz.

“S- see? There she goes.” Iduna pushes Elsa away and refocuses her attention on the book. “Now, this is just a phantom, so when you cut into her, you won’t actually be cutting… her.”

“Are you sure?” Elsa hesitantly picks up the dagger again, not at all sure about any of this.

“Yep.” The high pitch her mother’s voice had become tells Elsa that she isn’t completely sure, but is trying her best to be brave for them both. So, Elsa tries to believe her.

She feels so small approaching Anna like this. The hairy figure looms with a threatening growl bubbling from its throat, glowing eyes watching Elsa’s every motion. A small part of the fence drips away a gap that would allow Elsa to make contact with the beast. Unfortunately, Anna gets to it first. A large lengthy arm shoots out of the gap and at Elsa, where she instinctively swipes at it rather than jumping away.

While the blade cuts deep into the beast’s forearm, it doesn’t stop it from grabbing Elsa with a furious snarl. Its claws strain to keep a hold on Elsa’s flannel, cutting through the fabric and into Elsa’s flesh. Her father’s flannel. Elsa gives a snarl of her own and uses both hands to stab the dagger directly into the beast’s hand despite the burn. Hot sizzling can be seen as much as heard with how deep the blade embeds, but as its hand twitches, it fades from view, leaving the beast with half an arm.

“Elsa, are you okay?!” While Iduna sounds genuinely panicked for Elsa’s wellbeing, she doesn’t dare move any closer. Not that Elsa wants her to risk herself like that anyway.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She moves closer as the beast’s arm retreats. Instead of reaching for Elsa, it has now started to try ripping and shredding through the hardening silver fencing it in.

“Good… Let’s get this over with quickly.”

Elsa nods, though she feels nervous to go sticking her arm exposed into this bubble where Anna is desperately trying to escape from. Sounds like a good push to become ambidextrous.

So, shaking out her shoulders and letting out the nerves through a breath, she swipes into the small fenced bubble to catch the blade across the beast’s lower back. It bows forward and then turns back around to the hole, forcing Elsa back while getting swiped at by another hand.

While attempting to lunge back with the knife, she slips forward on the grass and slams shoulder first into the fence. The mistake, still painful, was the perfect strategy to cut through the beast’s thin bicep and render the werewolf no way to get at Elsa. Well, she thought that was the case anyways. As the arm fades into grimey wisps of nightmare, the beast’s snout snaps and bites through the gap.

Terrifying, and the perfect opportunity to end this. Elsa loosely stands in front of the drooling beast, glaring undecidedly at the fuzzy face baring its jagged canines to her.

“Elsa, what are you waiting for? Do it!”

No more thinking, no more regretting. Elsa raises the dagger and stabs it into the top of the beast’s head. In an instant, the dagger has left her control and her arm is getting ripped to shreds by the gnarled jaws. She struggles to pull her arm away, aware of the burning slowly splitting this monster’s head apart.

“Elsa!!” The next thing Elsa knows, the fence completely disintegrates back into goo and the beast has collapsed over her, jaws still closed very securely over her arm. Iduna is by her side, struggling to open the beast’s mouth and free Elsa’s arm.

“Stop, stop, you’re going to hurt yourself,” Elsa groans. With her other hand, she helps Iduna pull open the jaws, though still ends up cutting up her hand pretty good, too. When her limb is free, the phantom curse finally fades away to reveal Anna sleeping peacefully now on Elsa’s stomach. The quartz on her forehead cracks in the middle.

An eerie silence falls between Elsa and Iduna as the very ominous cracking of branches catches their attention.

Iduna pulls Anna off of Elsa to let her stand and survey the scene. Several eyes peer at them from the dark trees, eager for an easy meal and further hungry by the smell of blood.

“You guys need to run.”

“You can’t hold them off by yourself. Not when you’re already hurt.”

“I’ll be fine!” Unbuttoning her flannel, she tucks it around Iduna’s shoulders. “You have no idea what I can handle. Now go.”

Iduna stays frozen in place, her demeanor astounded and both worried. It takes Elsa picking up Anna herself and dropping the girl into Iduna’s arms to get the older woman back to reality. Just in time, too, because the night creatures have figured out that they’ve been spotted and are starting to emerge from the trees.

Elsa is quick to transform as soon as a very large rat charges forward, and easily punts it back into the trees before a large cat creature rushes past her towards Iduna. That gets her running real quick, and she doesn’t dare turn back after hearing the screech behind them. She would just have to hope that was their pursuer…

Notes:

I am dubbing this where pure Elsanna leaves and Elsannaduna begins. Let the angst rage on :D

Chapter 7: Pancakes

Chapter Text

The world, a little bit fuzzy to the eye, rings eerily quiet to Elsa’s ears. All she can hear is the blood rushing with every step she takes. She hangs between the beast's furious grasp and her own sane consciousness. It’s because of that anger that she was able to fight her way through the forest’s night creatures with what now feels like minor bruising. Yeah… Not what it is, but that’s what it feels like.

One painful step after another and her feet drag her to the end of the forest by daybreak. Partially transformed into the beast, the bristled fur on her body has kept her from being cold in the chill twilight trek, but in the dawn light, the white looks grey and matted with dried blood. She almost collapses twice trying to keep going forward, but she needs to know if Anna is okay. She needs to know if her mother made it back safely.

The light reflecting off of the front window blinds Elsa for a second, and she shields her eyes with a hand before the realization hits. In the attempt to sprint the rest of the way, she drops to all fours and half trips/ half somersaults into the front door with a loud and painful thud. Thankfully, her pain does not go unnoticed. As the door opens in from behind her, she falls into soft trembling hands.

“Elsa! Oh, Elsa…” Iduna bows to her knees, her arms wrapping tight around Elsa’s shoulders while Elsa lays limp against her. Then, with Anna’s help, she carefully pulls her inside.

Here they are. Iduna gazes worriedly over Elsa’s battered body while Elsa stares at Anna’s face. They look fine. They’re safe. Well, mostly. There’s a small jagged scar on Anna’s forehead, completely healed to the soft pink line. How peculiar.

“Elsa? Elsa, no, keep your eyes open!” At Iduna’s panic to keep Elsa awake, Anna does her best to keep Elsa focused, but the lulling sense of sleep is more appealing. She can hear them yelling her name, trying to keep her awake. The calm black spiral takes her anyways.

Hot. Everything feels hot. Her palms are burning. Her skin is wet with sweat and her stomach-

Without even opening her eyes, Elsa turns to her side and vomits. The burn dries her esophagus, putting her into a coughing fit right after. She can smell its acrid sweet smell beside her, as well as the scent of rustic old metal and soap. Her body trembles involuntarily and Elsa settles back into her porcelain tomb until very cold water on her legs forces her eyes open in surprise.

Iduna sits beside the faucet, her blue gaze flickering in the lamplight as she stares expectantly at Elsa. Elsa stares back, trying to collect her thoughts. The cold water, while not exactly helping her relax, gets her heart and blood moving quickly.

“Just breathe,” her mother coaxes while leaning forward over the bathtub to use a washcloth in wiping away the vomit from both the tub and Elsa’s arm. Elsa does as she’s told and leans back to take a deep breath. She had completely transformed back, not a tail or whisker to be seen. “Anna will be ecstatic to find out that you’re awake. You’ve been out cold for a day. For the most part, you were asleep in my bed while your wounds heal, but Anna helped me bring you down here cause you started… smelling.”

Elsa opens her eyes to see Iduna wrinkling her nose when she says that. It would’ve made Elsa smile, but right now, everything feels a little too slow to process. Her stomach continues to churn- not so much from the heat anymore as just how awful everything feels. When she looks down over her body, she’s confused to see only thin cuts and gashes. Her arm's wound has since healed to small, almost invisible scars.

“When we pulled you inside, you looked like a walking mangled corpse. But… some special remedies and your beautiful gift, and here you are. It’s a miracle you lived to walk away, Elsa.” Iduna takes Elsa’s hand and gives it a gentle squeeze, her eyes glazed with repressed tears. “I’m really happy you did and that you’re here now,” she whispers.

Trying to swallow back developing emotions, Elsa heaves forward with dry coughs until Iduna pushes her back. Then the sound of the faucet running into the bath halts for a moment. When it resumes, Elsa finds cold water trickling onto her lips as well as her mother gently parting them with her fingers. The water feels as painful as it does refreshing going down, but the amount in Iduna’s hands is far from rehydrating her completely.

“I’ll be right back.” Iduna turns off the faucet as she stands, and her footsteps up the stairs are the last thing Elsa can make out before she closes her eyes again in succumbing to the darkness once more.

__________________________________

This time, Elsa wakes up to the smell of burning pine wood and baking chicken. Her eyes open to the living room, a warm glow keeping everything dimly lit with the curtains drawn over the few windows. While the smell piques her curiosity to get closer to the kitchen, Elsa’s limbs feel too sluggish and weak to move. So, instead, she continues staring at the fire from where she sits in her mother’s chair. Since whenever her bath was, she's redressed in her flannel and the jeans reduced to torn shorts. Arms dangling over the side, her fingers lightly stroke the polished redwood. Not a piece of furniture from this area, she realizes the more she thinks about it.

The only trees around here are white birch and pine… Though, after everything, Elsa wouldn’t be surprised if her mother had her own range of adventures before the thought of children came into her mind. Of course, her father could have purchased this chair from another town, but wood like this would be expensive… It just felt unlikely, knowing what she does now.

Anna catches Elsa's peripheral vision as the young woman walks towards her from the dark hallway. Oblivious to anything outside of the book in her hands, she sits down next to the chair, her back leaning against the side and her head pressed to Elsa’s hand. Elsa doesn’t try to say anything yet. Her mouth and throat still feel so painfully dry, but she does move her hand. Fingers slipping between the tightened red strands of Anna’s twin-braided hair, Elsa gives the most minimalistic effort in rubbing her sister’s scalp. However small the gesture, she can feel the sudden excitement radiating off of Anna even before the girl whirls around to look up at her.

“Elsa?! You’re awake again!”

She stands and leans over the chair to hug Elsa’s head. While not exactly the most breathable way to live, she has no complaints. Iduna peaks out from the kitchen to see what’s going on. Anxiety is written all over her face before she quickly ducks away. Strange lady…

“How are you feeling? Does it hurt?”

Finally, Anna pulls away, both hands holding Elsa’s face as she talks down to her. Elsa only frowns, not feeling any indication to bother saying anything, partly just to see if it would freak Anna out further. That assumption is very correct.

“Why aren’t you saying anything??? Elsa???” Unable to hide her mischief, Elsa smirks at the girl, who turns into a confused blushing mess. “Stop with your games! I just want to know if you’re okay…” Wincing as she does so, Elsa shrugs.

Anna, her face set in a pout, drops her hands and stalks away to the kitchen, leaving Elsa to relax again and listen in to what’s going on. She can hear very quiet whispering, but the sound of water running evades her means to understand what’s being said. Very suspicious. Thankfully, she isn’t waiting in confusion for long. Her sister emerges from the kitchen once more with a glass of water in her hand.

“Mother says you might just be thirsty, so…” Elsa watches the water in the glass move precariously from edge to edge with Anna walking towards her. Then, with very sluggish movement, she lifts her hand to try and take the glass. When Anna hands it over, she keeps her fingers tightly around it. Good thing for that however irritating it feels to be helped. She helps Elsa bring the glass to her lips.

This time, the water goes down much better than before, more soothing than painful. Elsa empties the glass in seconds and Anna sets it down on the floor on the floor before expectantly leaning over the chair with a smile.

“Feeling better?” With a rejuvenated smile of her own, Elsa quietly nods. “You’re a little shit.” Finally being able to manage a hoarse giggle, she nods again and reaches up to tug down on Anna’s dress shirt.

The girl complies and eagerly accepts the kiss invitation without her sour attitude. Elsa is in pain after all. It’s all just fun and games until she’s healed and Anna can get her back.

“Is there anything else I can do or get for you, my sweet, strong, wounded warrior?” Anna’s fingers run through the loose platinum hair behind Elsa’s neck, stroking up into her scalp until Elsa gives a very quiet purr. She would’ve responded in distaste for Anna’s teasing words, but there’s little to complain about with the gentle head massage.

“Stay,” Elsa whispers, her fingers tightening on Anna’s shirt.

“Oh~” Delighted she has finally gotten a reaction, Anna seats herself in Elsa’s lap. While Anna assumes it’s just an innocent way to keep the massage going, the older woman has something very different in mind. As soon as Elsa's heavy hands are slowly exploring her waist and chest do the real intentions click in Anna’s mind. “E- Elsa! Our mother is literally in the next room!”

Anna tries to push herself away and Elsa follows her down to the floor, causing a loud thump that catches Iduna’s attention again. The brunette once again peeks out from the kitchen to see what’s going on, only to freeze in place when catching sight of her eldest gently dining on Anna’s neck with aggressive kisses.

“Oh.” Anna looks up at her with flustered defeat once hearing her voice. “That’s- This is…” Awkward? Weird? Iduna clears her throat and tries to ignore the heat rising to her face. “Dinner is almost done, and it’s your favorite, Elsa, so maybe save your appetite.”

Elsa picks her head up to level Iduna with what could have been a disinterested stare, but then a slight gleam in them seems to make them glow when she grins. One of her hands sneaks off of Anna’s chest to instead raise the girl’s chin and expose her throat. Anna, a little afraid to do anything, tries to remain as still as possible should she be forcefully pinned rather than just left under a heavy weight. A shudder ripples waves of heat over her body at the feeling of Elsa’s tongue very slowly licking up her throat, tasting it like a threat, but one Anna already knew she doesn’t intend to act on.

“...Right.” Iduna doesn’t know that though, and can only trust the fact Anna’s face isn’t pleading for help anymore. Her reddening face turns quickly back into the kitchen and disappears just as the sound of a timer goes off.

“That was mean.” Anna finally worms her way out from under Elsa and stares down at the woman now resting smugly on her thighs. “Completely uncalled for. Go apologize.” When Elsa just scoffs, she pulls the rest of herself out from under her, weak hands no match for Anna’s desire for justice.

“She’s fine,” Elsa grumbles, prepared to go back to sleep right here on the floor if Anna is about to lecture her.

“She is not! Stop being so ungrateful! I know you two are just determined not to get along for more than five minutes, but that doesn’t excuse this. She’s still your mom as much as she is mine, and she has been slaving over your aid since you got back.”

While Anna is very clearly in the right, Elsa still feels begrudging about apologizing. Besides, what did she do? Anna is her girlfriend first, sister second, and if Iduna can’t accept that, it isn’t her fault. The discomfort isn’t surprising, obviously, but Elsa doesn’t see why she should be apologizing for it.

Regardless, she makes an attempt to stand with Anna’s help and uses the wall to get to the kitchen. Iduna stands behind the closest counter, examining the chicken to make sure it has cooked all the way. If she notices Elsa approaching, she doesn’t make it obvious. Only when Elsa leans against her back does she react by tensing immediately and abruptly stopping in cutting open a part of the chicken.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m sorry.”

“...Wha- what?” Iduna stutters in confusion, like the feeling of Elsa’s hands slowly wrapping around her waist disorients her. Then she shakes her head. “You shouldn’t be up walking around. You’ll hurt yourself. Please, go-” Her voice leaves her throat mid-sentence when Elsa finally manages to tighten her grip, holding herself tightly against Iduna’s back with her chin resting on her shoulder.

“Thank you.” Elsa reaches out a hand to the counter to pluck a small piece of the meat from the chicken. “For food and for not leaving me outside again.” A little bit of salt shouldn’t hurt old wounds as much as it does.

She gives one last squeeze with her other arm and then parts from Iduna to stumble her way out of the kitchen.

Elsa stretches out her arms over her head, relishing in the feeling of no pain when she does so. Once her joints pop, she relaxes and shakes them out to her side before scooping up the axe embedded into a wide tree stump. With her other hand, she picks up a tree piece from beside the stump and places it on a convenient spot to split it. Then, she raises the axe, carefully aiming it before guiding the heavy force down to the soon-to-be duel logs.

The satisfying thump as the axe blade slices through the wood and into the stump puts a grin on Elsa’s face. A clean cut. She pulls the axe away and kicks the two pieces of wood aside before grabbing another to chop. This time when she brings the axe down, a whistle sounds from behind her, concealed only briefly by the sound of splinters shedding from the wood.

When Elsa looks back to grin at the whistler, who she assumes to be Anna, she instead finds her mother casually walking around the side of the house towards the cellar. Confused, she looks around to see if there’s anyone else around. No one. Anna must have just popped outside for a moment before disappearing again.

She shrugs it off and turns back to the wood, once again pulling the axe from the stump and kicking away the wood pieces before replacing them with a bigger one. The chopping goes on for a while more without interruption. Elsa is sweating under the afternoon sun and has tied her flannel above her abdomen to expose a little skin and cool off. Her arms are sore and her back aches, but there are only a few pieces left. Like a champion, she has already gone through what must have been a whole tree by now nonstop.

It feels good to do this again, even if it’s tiresome. The activity is something her body is used to and something that gives her mind plenty of room to breathe and think away from the stress or masks she wears.

Finally, she drops the axe to the stump and leans back until her back pops. When she stands up straight again, familiar freckled arms wrap around her stomach and pull her back into a hug.

“Mmm! You smell awful and feel wet and sticky!” Elsa chuckles at Anna’s observation and reaches her hand back to pat the girl’s side.

“Yeah, well, you would be too, doing this kind of work.”

“Anna, since your sister cut all this up, can you bring it all down to the cellar so it won’t get rained on?” Iduna’s unexpected presence makes Elsa’s heart jump in surprise.

“Absolutely!” Anna lets go and gets to work on the task right away. Now free to move, Elsa turns around to look at her mother leaning against the front door. How long has she been out here? Were they both just watching her…? A strange new sensation of anxiety mixed with embarrassment puts a confused look on her face that her mother’s eyes quickly notice.

Though, when Iduna goes to say something, nothing comes out and she slowly closes her mouth again. Elsa, deciding it probably isn’t important to dwell on, makes her way over to her.

“Get a good show over here?” Saying that to Anna, she could only imagine all of the confident or even teasing responses, but joking with Iduna… Well, the least Elsa expects is an awkward smile, but she swears the comment turns her mother into a flustered mess. The color of her cheeks changes immediately and her eyes completely change from the hidden mystery they so often were, radiating nervousness and even mild panic.

“What?” And yet, Iduna scoffs and quickly turns her face away, like her exterior isn’t betraying her emotions. “I’m sure Agnarr would have a thing or two to say about your technique.”

“Oh yeah?” Elsa turns towards Iduna and leans against the door on her side with her arm propped over her head. “Like what?”

The brunette looks back over with clear distaste for continuing this conversation, but with the way her eyes lower from Elsa’s face, it seems like she’s thinking it over. Unfortunately, she ends up waving away the topic with her hand and turning away again to watch Anna. The young woman is currently trying to carry one too many logs and drops one with every couple of steps.

“You know, while abandoning me wasn’t the greatest parenting decision, it definitely allowed Anna to grow up without imminent danger living under the same roof. For that, I’m not really all that upset about it anymore. I turned out to be a likable enough person for you both to tolerate anyway.”

“People who aren’t upset about something don’t usually shove the thing they’re “not upset about” into the other person’s face. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be upset about it either, but you’ll never get the chance to move on from it if you continue bringing it up.” Repressing a scowl, Elsa readjusts herself to lean against the door on her back. “A bad parenting decision for the sake of safety didn’t go without several consequences outside of your isolation, too. Anna could have really used a big sister growing up. I’m sure the only reason she’s so bold and stubborn now is because of trial and error after needing to defend herself repeatedly.”

The silence is different for them both. Iduna wears a somber expression though her face still has deep tinges of red on her cheeks, and Elsa finds the situation more awkward than what she wants to be a part of.

“I’ve regretted that decision since I made it and never had the courage to fix it. Now, look at us.” She sighs, slowly sliding down the door until she sits at the bottom. Elsa doesn’t join her, afraid she might not be able to get up again. “I had to watch you grow up from beyond the sidelines... I remember the first catch you left at the door and how I was strangely so proud of you, if not a little worried. Anna tried to play with it…”

“What did you do with it?” Elsa doesn’t remember when this might have been, or even what animal she might have caught, but there’s something nice about watching memories wash over her mother’s face. She looks so distant, far from the present stresses.

“I buried it. I bury most of the things you bring me because, by the time I get to the door and find them, they’ve usually rotted enough to be inedible.”

“Anything is edible if you’re-”

“A goat.” Iduna’s shoulders shake as she laughs.

“You think I have horns? That I trot around in cloven hooves?” Despite her mild offense, Elsa can’t help but smile. Her mother’s smile just happens to be too contagious sometimes.

“Have you ever tried? Honestly, how do we know you’re not a shapeshifter?” Shaking her head, Elsa finally slides down the door.

“Alright, let’s find out then. You want me to try turning into a goat?” Iduna looks over at Elsa now that they’re at eye level again and nods vigorously.

“Think goat thoughts. I can grab a dirty metal can if it will help.” Elsa looks back with an amused grimace.

“No, I think I’m okay.” To try and look like she’s focusing, Elsa stares straight ahead. “Uhhh goat thoughts… Running around in circles. Chewing on things that don’t belong to me.”

“I think these things could be for any animal.”

“Well, fuck, mom, I don’t know what a goat thinks.” When Elsa starts to laugh, Iduna does the same, two of her fingers lightly tapping her bottom lip.

“Fair point. Another point on goats though, why sacrifice them? Why not a mangier animal? Goats are adorable and far from any real dark magic.” With her other hand, Iduna lightly taps Elsa’s knee. “If I were to suggest an animal, I think cows would be a better choice. Their body materials are much more useful. It’s just as common to see a cow around as a goat anyways. The only difference between them is their species and the kind of milk we can take advantage of.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The witchy woman shrugs and giggles to herself.

“Cows are cute, too, though…” She mumbles, her eyebrows furrowing as she goes back to deep thought. “Probably better to stick with human sacrifices instead. Helps overpopulation anyway.”

“And you think I’m the concerning one.” Elsa wraps an arm around Iduna’s shoulders and pulls her close enough that when she looks up, her face is inches from Elsa’s.

“At least I haven’t actually killed anyone.” Quickly turning her face away again, her mother relaxes in Elsa’s hold. “That you can prove.” When Elsa gasps, Iduna giggles again and puts a finger to her lips in a shushing motion.

“What the hell?! You can’t just drop that and expect me not to-” The rest of the sentence trails off into a groan when Iduna’s finger finds Elsa’s lips instead.

“Hey, get a room, you two!” Anna’s sudden intrusion into their moment jerks them back to where they are. Iduna retracts herself away from Elsa, and Elsa pretends she had never made a comforting gesture in the first place. Her arm settles around the back of her head, leaving her to sheepishly smile back at Anna, who gives them both a baffled look.

Iduna’s witchcraft studies have started to migrate out of her bedroom like an infection developing over the cabin walls. It wouldn’t be so annoying if papers didn’t often fall off the wall and make the other two people living in this cabin slip across the floor. For someone who they both assumed is organized and hidden away, this side proved to show there’s still much to their mother they don’t know and much she isn't afraid to hide anymore.

Anna has no interest in the witchy notes, as she finds it more than weird that this is really who Iduna is, and preferred solely to move as much of the stray diagrams and papers back towards Iduna’s bedroom the best that she could. It irked her how this was hidden so easily from her… like their mother could be hiding more from them. What if she knows more about Elsa’s ability than she lets on? Since she has no interest in trying to decipher her mother’s chicken scratch, she doesn’t know if that’s what she's studying, but she wouldn’t be surprised if it is.

However, Elsa finds the most curiosity in trying to understand what’s written over the walls. Of course, she really couldn’t understand much of anything, because she never got an education in reading or writing or… anything. Not even some sort of homeschool during the winters. She still likes to look at the drawn diagrams though and tries to put context together. Maybe she would have asked Anna for assistance in reading them, but there’s something about the look of disdain on the girl’s face when she looks at the notes that stop her.

“What are you doing? You can’t read that, can you?” Startled by Anna’s sudden presence beside her, Elsa accidentally rips the fragment of a page off the wall. There are several pictures of different lizards attached to the page, all in black and white. Some were recognizable and others had to be fantastical creatures, what with the horns in weird places and the strangely humanoid eyes. The stuff of nightmares maybe.

“What? Uh, hi.” Instead of answering, Elsa looks down at the blank piece in her hand before dropping it for Anna to pick up and shove into her dress pocket.

“I don’t understand why she has to cover the living room with all this. Most of it just looks like nonsense. Should we say something to her?”

“Are you really all that upset about it? I think it’s kind of cool. She never has any paintings on the wall, so being able to look at something instead of staring off into space is a nice change.”

“Would you say the same thing if you could actually read any of it?” Anna crosses her arms, directing her glare at Elsa now instead of the innocent pages.

“I don’t know. Can’t read any of it.” Elsa looks over at her with a smug grin.

“I could read them for you.” While the gesture sounds nice, Anna’s tone is bitter and before Elsa can decide whether she wants her to or not, the ginger pushes her way in front and brings her finger to the first lizard at the top of the page.

It looks small and is light in tone, one of the most normal-looking creatures on the page, but not one Elsa has encountered herself.

“Liten Salamander.” Her finger falls to a bulleted list below the name of the creature, but she fails to read what it says out loud.

“Go on.”

“Sorry, this uh… handwriting is hard to read. It just goes to describe what the different parts of the newt can be used for, ranging from its eyes to its vertebrae.” Already, Anna looks very uncomfortable. Elsa knows she shouldn’t push her, but Anna is the one trying to prove a point here.

“Ooooh, sounds interesting. Do tell, little sis.” She pats Anna’s shoulder.

“No, nope. Nah, that is… I’m not even going to- Not today.” Looking a little pale as she skims the rest of the page, Anna quickly turns away and walks towards the front door.

“Aw, it can’t be that bad.” Elsa can only imagine what descriptions might have gotten to Anna, but it’s bad news for her should she see the cabin. No wonder Iduna is only mildly haunted by it. Well, she appears to take it well anyway. Anna doesn’t turn back and closes the door behind herself.

Curious to see where she’s going, Elsa walks over to the small window beside the door and peers out from behind the curtain. She watches Anna continue walking away, stiffness in every step towards where Elsa assumes has to be their town. It must be quite a ways away…

The sound of footsteps alerts Elsa to Iduna walking down the hall from her room, the door cracked open behind her. Her face is buried in a wounded book, the pages visibly wrinkled and bent with paperclips and tape holding more pieces of paper to it. When she looks up, it’s to examine the wall to her left near the fireplace.

Stepping away from the window to see what she’s doing, Elsa quietly walks up behind the woman. Only when Iduna tries to take a step back does she notice and quickly jump forward again, dropping the book far too close to the fire.

“Oh, Elsa, I didn’t see you there!” She leans down to pick up the book again before facing Elsa, a small loose note from the pages slipping away into the fire. Elsa watches it burn to ash before dropping her curious gaze on the woman before her.

“What’re you doing?” The question seems to light a bit of excitement behind Iduna’s eyes and the tension in her shoulders disappears.

“Studying! Well… searching. Most of these notes on the wall are old from who knows how long ago, but I’m trying to make something and I can’t remember what does what or who eats who, so… I’ve kinda been using the walls to help organize.” Ah, well, that clicks everything in place. What is she trying to make that requires this much searching though?

“While all of this looks and sounds interesting, would you consider moving some of the more disturbing notes elsewhere? They’re creeping Anna out.”

“You think it’s interesting?!” Iduna blurts out most enthusiastically. “I- uh I mean- uh,” She stutters right after, trying to get a hold on herself. “Y- yes, I’ll move them.”

“...Thank you.” Elsa, a little startled from her mother’s strange behavior, takes a step away. She looks back at the door, wondering if Anna is okay by herself. When she looks back at Iduna, the woman has turned around again and is plucking away notes off the wall.

Then, in a matter of split-decision, they each ask the beginning of a possibly damning question.

“Sorry, what were you going to ask?”

“No, no, it wasn’t all that important. You ask yours.”

“Okay… Well, first of all, what’s with the jitteriness?”

“Coffee beans.” Iduna reaches into a pocket Elsa wasn’t aware of until now and pulls out a handful of roasted coffee beans that she pushes towards Elsa once turning around again, the scent of them hitting like a pungent punch in the nose. Squinting against it, she pushes Iduna’s hand away.

“Right. You can put those away.” Before doing so, the crazy lady pours half of the handful into her mouth before repocketing the rest of the beans. “I don’t think you should be eating so many of those.” Iduna shrugs, quickly munching on the beans while she turns back to the pages on the wall.

“I have to. They help me stay awake.”

“And why do you need to stay awake?” Just one concerning thing after another now, isn’t it?

“What was it you wanted to ask me?”

“Don’t dodge my question. Why are you trying to stay awake?” As Iduna tries to slip away, Elsa slams her palm into the wall directly beside her, leaving her only escape to awkwardly jump over the fireplace. Her face is already hot enough without the flame aiding it though. She stares up at Elsa with an indignant look Elsa has already gotten time after time from Anna, but there’s much more timidness in her pose. Anna would have laughed off Elsa’s attempt to pin her and promptly show her how to do it right…

“What am I looking at?” Speaking of the girl- Summoned like a fiery demon, the young woman stands at the door, pushing it open with one hand while the other holds a jar labeled “SUGAR!!!” with the scrap of paper from earlier. Realizing this must look strange considering, Elsa quickly retracts her arm and steps away, definitely planning to continue grilling Iduna later. Iduna looks relieved, to say the least, even with the exasperated look Anna gives her.

“Your sister was just telling me how you’d like some of the more morbid material on the walls to be removed. I assure you I’ll be getting on that right away.” Anna's look turns to surprise and then a soft sweetness that she directs to Elsa.

“Oh, thank you. I got you something from the market. It’s called sugar, not sure if you’ve heard of it, but from now on, I prefer not to have lizard carcasses in my breakfast.” Anna closes the door behind herself with a short laugh and starts towards the kitchen, Iduna slowly following after her.

“But you love my pancakes!”

“That was before I knew what was in them!”

“Oh, please.”

Their bickering continues into the kitchen, leaving Elsa to gaze at the remaining pages on the wall. Such a strange woman… So many secrets.

Chapter 8: I Have No Idea What To Title This Chapter

Chapter Text

“Does she have to come with us?”

Elsa gives Anna a look of bewilderment that she would ask such a thing. The look is enough to register guilt within the girl and she darts her gaze away.

“I just mean… Well, I was hoping this would be a romantic outing for us.” Her gaze lifts, a sense of hopefulness brightening her irises. “It’s not that I don’t want her to come with us on outings like this. I can’t remember the last time she left the house-”

“Which is why I invited her.” Elsa’s tone is stern. Only, sounding persistent herself, it doesn’t douse the indignant look rising on Anna’s face. “She’s going crazy in here. I don’t care what you thought this was. You’re the one who wants us all to be closer.”

“Too close!”

Elsa laughs and shakes her head. “Do you have everything you need in that satchel? Maybe double the supplies just in case…” She had already taken a look at what their mother is planning to bring on the trek, which Elsa vaguely describes to be a very long walk, and all she has is a waterskin. No ointments or defensive weapons. Not even one of her witchy spellbooks!

“How do you know she won’t be bugging us the whole way there?” Anna demands.

“Will you just relax? Why is this such an issue for you?” Exasperated, Elsa can’t stop the irritation from getting to her voice. Because of that, she can’t tell if it’s the question that makes Anna shy away from answering or the intimidation of making Elsa further upset.

“Hey girls, are you ready to go? You’ve been taking forever.” Iduna walks out in something Elsa has never seen her in before. Their mother normally prefers long-sleeve dresses that won't overexpose her skin. Today, she wears a short skirt with undershorts and fishnets that reach down to her knees, and a short-sleeved top that exposes her midriff with more fishnets covering her barely exposed cleavage while also acting as the sleeves. If she gets enough sun today, she’ll be looking like some sort of dragon-human hybrid.

Anna catches Elsa staring and promptly elbows her in the stomach before walking past her towards the front door. She heaves forward, a hand on her stomach as she shoots a glare towards her sister.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” With an awkward pat on Elsa’s shoulder, the brunette follows her youngest daughter out the door.

The beginning of their walk is very quiet besides the sound of early birds singing above them. Even the woods look more welcoming this time of the morning. The sun can just barely filter in through tight branches, spotting their path with warm segments of light.

They aren’t taking some old trail either. Elsa has taken the liberty to lead the way through her own forged path. She has walked to this spot several times and is looking forward to showing Anna, and especially her mother the tragic beauty that awaits them. For now, the silence starts to ebb away when Anna can’t handle the slight tension she created.

“So… How long did you say this walk is?”

“It will take us at least an hour or more to get there. Already wanting to turn back? We haven’t even gotten to the swamp.”

“There’s a swamp out here?!” Anna says in mild disgust and eager fascination.

“She’s lying. There’s no swamp out here. If there was, I would be outside a lot more often. It’s a hot spot for...” Iduna, while not thinking before speaking, notices Anna’s discomfort and stops mid-explanation. “Never mind.”

“No, please, do go on about how you just love collecting and dissecting swamp creatures.”

Another awkward silence falls over them, this time uncomfortable for all of them. Here she thought she had issues with their mother... All of Anna's lectures about working things out with her mother, and here she is throwing shade without actually talking about the problem.

“There’s a small river ahead here. It has a bridge we can cross, but we can also go around it if you guys don’t mind a longer walk.”

“We can cross the bridge.” The two say in messy unison. However, they are far from that confident when they actually get to the river, which doesn’t look small in the slightest.

“I thought you said it was small!”

The sound of water rushing is almost deafening as where they are right now is where the current must be its strongest. Cold freshwater splashes at them from its earthy bank and whips around jutting rocks further down. Its chasm is as long as a half-grown pine, the measurement evident by the tree bridging across.

“It is small, trust me. Also not ideal to swim in, so… to the tree.”

Said tree has been stripped of most of its bark, leaving the “bridge” slick and dangerous for those who have never crossed a tree bridge before. Elsa walks over to the wilted roots on the end of it, a dark patch of earth beside it showing where it long ago had stood tall beside this river before an unfortunate storm had knocked it down. Anna and Iduna stay beside the patch of bushes she had emerged from, looking wary about the situation.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” Iduna has to yell the question over the river noise.

“Am I sure if it’s safe?” Elsa yells back. “No. Not at all! C’mon!” She beckons them over with a hand. Even after just telling them how dangerous this is, they clearly would much rather risk their necks not to have to walk in awkward silence for longer than they already have to because they quickly rush over to Elsa. “Iduna, you go up first. Anna will go up after you, and I’ll be behind in case one of you falls.”

“What? Why am I going first?”

“Age before beauty?” Anna’s sly comment does nothing to ease Iduna's nerves, meaning Elsa has to jump in and help or they'll never get across.

“You go first in case Anna needs help over the other side. I trust you to aid us if something happens and because the leader never takes up the front. Question me about my methods again and I’ll leave you both in the woods.” That seems to spur them into action.

Iduna has a new sense of purpose about her with this responsibility, and once she’s on the tree, tightly hugging herself to the bark, she makes no hesitation to start crawling forward. Though she’s still patient and careful about where she puts her hands. Anna is not as confident, having been called out for being clumsy, but she is confident in Elsa’s ability to make sure she doesn’t slip. So, using the roots to get up onto the log, she shimmies forward very slowly. Once she makes it far enough forward, Elsa quickly joins them.

First, Elsa sits up on the trunk, her legs tightly straddling the slick wood so she can survey the two shuffling their way across the log. Only once Iduna has reached over halfway, without stopping once mind you (what a champ), does Elsa lean down and start to claw her way over the tree. It takes a lot of focus to control the beast enough even to take advantage of large furry paws with an excellent claw grip, but as long as nothing jumps out at her it should be fine.

Anna stops a couple of times due to Elsa accidentally touching her leg and freaking her out, but other than that, they make it to the other end of the tree without problems. Elsa once again sits up at the end of the tree to watch her sister slide down the rotted broken bark into their mother's arms, and then she drops down herself. When she does, she doesn’t account for how close to the edge she drops and precariously leans towards the water.

Two slippery hands desperately grasp at her wet arms and barely manage to pull her to safety. Anna, on one of her arms, still looks panicked and hugs herself to the arm while Iduna, gently holding the other, stares past Elsa at the rushing water. Something awful must have crossed her mind, for she gulps and tugs Elsa a little farther away from the water.

Since the water is loud, they don’t even verbally address what just happened until retreating into the forest again. Anna still clings to her hand, though she begins to look less shaken. Iduna stays on Anna’s other side, her arms crossed while she stares to her side, occasionally glancing forward.

“Thanks for the help back there. I promise this hike is worth it, and that there are no more rivers to cross.”

“It better be,” their mother mumbles.

“Hey, Elsa, can you walk up a little farther ahead?”

“You won’t get lost if I do?”

“Just don’t walk so far that we lose you, jerk.”

Elsa considers the idea for a moment. “This isn’t a ploy for murder, is it?”

“Not today.”

“And you are aware that I will still be able to hear you?”

“Completely aware.”

A little suspicious as to what Anna’s up to, Elsa glances down to see if she could read any tricks on Anna’s face. All she can see is her earlier panic turned into a stoic look she's unable to decipher. That isn’t concerning. With a shrug, she pulls her hand out of Anna’s grasp and speed walks farther up. It isn’t like she wants to eavesdrop, but they’re right there and with her incredible sense of hearing, she can’t help it.

However, when she goes to listen in, her ears catch on louder crinkling of… paper maybe? No, it sounds much more plastic. A candy wrapper? It's loud enough to distract from their voices. Elsa can still pick up words and pieces, but only enough to be confused about what the hell they’re talking about.

“What?!” Iduna shouts. “I would never! What would make you think-?” Anna says something to her in a much-hushed tone and the older woman lowers her voice again.

What on earth is that about? And why isn’t she allowed to hear any of it? Maybe Anna is overreacting about something. She wouldn’t put it past the fiery redhead to blow something small out of proportion, but then, she would never accuse her of such things to her face.

“Is everything okay back there?”

“Yep. All good.” Elsa flinches when Anna suddenly appears beside her again. Looking over her shoulder, she finds Iduna still a short way back, a perplexed and ultimately flustered look on her face.

“What were you guys talking about?” She turns to look back at Anna, whose face still gives nothing away.

“I thought you could hear us,” the girl grins and nudges Elsa with her shoulder.

“Very funny. What is it you were crinkling?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” As aggravating as her evasion of the questions is, Elsa can’t mind so much when Anna links her arm around her own and leans close.

While they don’t travel through any swamps, they do end up trudging through a very muddy portion of the forest that honestly none of them are too happy about. And Elsa rolls around in mud for fun!

“My foot’s stuck!!!” Iduna yelps. Both Elsa and Anna have to help pull her out of the mud, cause once she gets unstuck, it’s Anna who falls prey to the sticky thick earth next. Not wearing any shoes doesn’t make Elsa any less likely to get stuck in this mud pit either, but it helps that she’s had to get out of these situations by herself before. When she was much younger and weaker, too.

“Elsa, this sucks. How much farther until we get there? Our shoes are ruined and these gnats are driving me insane!”

“We’re very close now. I’m surprised you can’t hear the fall.”

“Fall? As in a waterfall?” Iduna keeps a hand on Elsa’s shoulder to have some leverage when pulling her feet from the mud one step after the other.

“Sorry that we don’t have as acute hearing as you. One of us is ancient and- Wait- Did you just say waterfalls? There are waterfalls in this forest?” Just as both their faces light up at the thought, Elsa keeps a quiet grin.

“Why didn’t you say that sooner?”

“Yeah, we would have stopped complaining a while ago!”

“I wanted it to be a surprise.” So much for that… Oops.

With this boosted morale, they make it to the waterfall far quicker than Elsa had anticipated. They reach the edge of its pool first, the surface glittering in open sunlight as if it’s full of magic. The waterfall itself isn’t very loud and is more like a couple of streams flowing off the side of a tall cliff face. A small cave entrance behind the waterfall used to be the place Elsa would constantly come back to after her hunts or when it started to storm. Only when she got too big to be comfortable living here did she start building a cabin.

Both Anna and Iduna look at the sight in almost child-like wonder and excitement. The pool is surrounded by healthy growing ferns, adding a tropical element to the scene. Elsa is the first to part with her clothes and to sprint past the waterfall completely. She can only imagine the confusion on their faces because when she gets to the top of the cliff, she can barely make out their faces. Where she stands is a split between rock and grass, both equally slippery. So, obviously, she backs away and takes a running start off the cliff. Miraculously, her feet stay firm on the rock grooves until they push her off the edge.

How many times had she dived off this cliff…? The first time was a complete accident. She was just enjoying the view and slipped off. The most terrifying experience of her life. Still very much in the top five.

Mid-dive, Elsa pulls herself into a ball, effectively becoming a large cannonball and creating a huge splash of water when she hits the surface. Only when she swims up to the surface can she hear the mixed responses of her mother recovering from a mini heart attack and her sister cheering her on with laughter.

“How was that?”

“I’d give it an 8 out of 10. The dive was a nice touch! Very misdirecting.”

“Couldn’t you have warned us first? I could have made a pretty persuasive argument on all the reasons that was a horrible idea.”

“And yet, here I am.” Elsa grins, using long strokes to swim to them. For a small looking pool, it’s very deep to where she, a 5 foot 7 female, could barely touch the earthly floor before pulling herself onto the grass. Farther from the edge goes much deeper, but Elsa couldn’t hold her breath long enough or find the curiosity to see just how deep. “Who’s going next? I’ll lead the way up.”

“Hell yeah!!” Anna struggles to get out of her leggings while Iduna shakes her head with typical motherly disappointment. Eager to have her join them, Elsa drapes a wet arm over the woman’s shoulder.

“It’ll be a lot of fun, trust me.”

“Yeah, it’s called an adrenaline rush of impending death, and I’d rather not.” Iduna side-steps away from Elsa and crosses her arms. “Since I can’t stop either of you from hurting yourselves, I’ll just sit here and watch.”

“You aren’t even going to get in the water?” Anna, finally free of her clothes, wraps her arm around Elsa’s bare waist. For a moment, their mother seems to choke on her words, her eyes struggling to stay on their faces.

“Nh… No. Not today. Maybe if I had been informed that was the plan-”

“Oh, and what would you have done differently?” Elsa smirks, her gaze casting down over Iduna and her perfectly dry clothes. Would be a shame if they became ruined due to some unfortunate water damage… Iduna, catching on to the evil look in her eye, takes another few steps back. “Awe, you’re just being shy~”

“Please, don’t. I’m not afraid to run for my life!” Anna catches on as well and lunges for Iduna, who jumps back and turns to run. She can’t move fast enough for the predator in the family though. Elsa brings the older woman to the ground with a strong tackle, careful not to let her hit the earth too hard, but forceful enough that Iduna gives a panicked scream.

“Let’s be honest, mom, your running days are kind of behind you. Ironic, isn’t it?” Both sisters giggle mischievously, and with Anna’s help, Elsa raises Iduna over their heads.

“Put me down! Put me down!!!”

The two share an evil grin and lower Iduna to throw her into the water. Again, the brunette yelps before the splash drowns out her voice. Elsa and Anna high five and proceed to run before their mother could emerge from the water and kill them. They’re unable to stop giggling while making their climb up the other side of the cliff, Elsa in the lead until they get to the top. When they carefully look over the edge, they find a drenched Iduna angrily swimming over to the nearest pool end.

“Alright, the coast is clear. Do you want a push?” She only suggests the idea because of how uneasy Anna looks standing this high up on this precarious slope.

“What? No, of course not! I can jump! I’m just… getting ready.”

“Oh, of course. Well, let me get out of your way.” Crossing her arms over her chest, Elsa steps away from the edge and behind Anna.

“Thank you!” Despite Anna’s enthusiasm, she hesitates far longer than Elsa’s patience can last. When the girl swings her arms and takes a step forward for the millionth time, Elsa so casually shoves her forward. A scream echoes throughout the clearing until she hits the water’s surface. Then Elsa jumps after her, this time in a followed-through pencil dive.

Unfortunately, two very angry women are waiting for her once she rises to the air. Anna sports a playful glare while Iduna looks genuinely in irritation for them both. Their mother has gotten herself back to dry land and now shivers on the grass, her clothes clinging tightly to her body.

“See? It isn’t so bad!” Elsa calls out to her.

“Elsa, the water is freezing.” Anna’s teeth chatter just as she tries to say that.

“It isn’t that cold. It feels better when you swim around for a while and let your body adjust. However, if you’re sitting outside of the water in wet clothes, yeah, you’re probably going to be cold.” The last bit is supposed to aggravate Iduna further, but by all surprise, she starts to pull off her clothes. Not all of them, as that would make her far too uncomfortable, but enough to leave her in bare basic undergarments.

“Oh shit, she’s coming after us!” Shoving Elsa to the side in hopes of throwing her to the wolves and escaping first, Anna frantically swims past her towards the other end of the pool nearest the waterfall. Iduna hops back into the water without a word, leaving Elsa to swim after her sister in worry she may be right.

When they get to the edge, Elsa beckons Anna over to the waterfall, and to the space behind it where they can find refuge from their mother’s wrath. The spot is slippery though, and Anna struggles to pull herself up into the small cave. She looks back to see if Iduna is any closer to them, but the pool is devoid of any forms.

“Where is she?! Where’d she go?” The panic gives her another boost to claw her way up and so do Elsa’s arms when they help her up. “Woo! Safety at last!” The rock surrounding her is slimy with green algae but is a small price to pay for fear of vengeance. However, it makes it hard to pull Elsa up next to her.

“Come on, pull! She could be anywhere below meEEEEEE!” Like a tragedy, Elsa’s hands slip from Anna’s hands and disappear under the water with the rest of her body faster than water pressure should have let it.

“Elsa, NOOOOOOOO!” Afraid to be the next dragged under the frigid water, Anna backs up against the slippery walls. The sound of her heartbeat pounds in her ears, barely louder than the waterfall itself. Finally, a hand raises from the water and slaps down on the rocks, fingers curling to grab hold onto anything, though there isn’t much to grab onto. Anna prays that it’s Elsa, but she knows far too well the skin of this hand is nowhere near the kind of pale Elsa is.

As if being quiet would ward her mother away, she holds her breath, gaze glued to the hand staying very still on the rock. Then, in a swift motion, Iduna pulls half of herself onto the rocks, water streaming from her hair and off of her body. Her head tips up to look at Anna, a hard serious look on her face.

“Wait! Wait, mom, let’s talk about this first!”

Anna tries to slide further back into the cave, but only presses herself more firmly against the rock wall as Iduna slowly advances. If this weren’t so terrifying, it could have been intimate with how little they’re wearing. Iduna crawls over Anna’s legs, her face betraying nothing.

“I was always your favorite daughter, right? Right? You wouldn’t drown the girl who has been assisting your every need and will one day take care of you when you’re cripplingly old, which will be faaarrrrr from now! I mean, look at you! You- You’re stunning for your age!”

With every word, she fears she’s digging herself a deeper watery grave. Iduna continues forward until she’s inches from Anna’s face. Then, with a betraying smirk, her mother tilts her head to kiss the edge of Anna’s lips. Anna practically deflates, too relieved that she isn’t about to be murdered to care about where her mother should and shouldn’t kiss her (which was probably an accident anyways).

Water sloshes at the edge of the cave and they both look over to watch Elsa struggle in trying to pull herself up. It has been a long time since she has had to do this, okay? Iduna leaves the younger girl to help Elsa up onto the slick surface with them.

“What’d I miss?” Clearly out of breath, Elsa laughs and proceeds to brush away sandy debris from the attack she had endured under the water. Anna sits upright again, a distraught look still on her face however she tries to comprehend being alive.

“I thought she killed you!” Anna’s exclamation brings a bout of cackles from Iduna.

“I wouldn’t kill either of you!!! Not over throwing me into water anyways.”

“I mean, you did kind of almost drown me…”

“But I didn’t!”

With shaking heads, the two girls giggle and glance at each other nervously. Just a mental note not to cross their mother again.

“Does this mean you’ll come to the top of the cliff and jump with us?” Elsa carefully presses the question, pretty sure she already knows the answer.

“Absolutely not. I’m-... I like the placement of my body parts the way they are.”

“Oh, come on! You’ll be fine! Anna and I did it, and we’re perfectly fine.”

“You’re both maniacs.”

“Well, we had to get those genes from someone,” Anna teases, her distraught finally turning into mischievousness once again. Iduna gives her a sly look.

“And how do you know that wasn’t your father’s doing?”

“Was he a witch who collects lizards for their insides and makes spells to-”

“I see your point.” Iduna interrupts, leaving Elsa confused about what Anna was going to say. “If it will get you both off my painfully sore back, fine, I will jump.”

They raise their arms in triumph as high as they can without smacking them into the rock, chorusing their excitement before rushing towards the water. Even though Elsa is right there, Anna makes it first. Though it doesn’t help their little race when Elsa is held back by her disheveled braid in Iduna’s grasp.

“Meet us up there, Anna. There’s something I need to tell your sister first.”

“Okay!”

Confused as to what this is about, Elsa slides back against the cave’s sidewall and turns her attention to Iduna. Just like that, whatever confidence the woman had, it all falls away to anxiety.

“What? What is it? What’s wrong? Is it Anna?”

“Nuh- No… Well… No.” While Elsa is relieved that this isn’t about her sister, it’s still concerning that Iduna can’t spit out whatever is bothering her. A little frustrating, too.

“Say it, then.”

“I’m trying!” Iduna takes a deep breath and moves closer to Elsa, but not beside her. Hovering over Elsa's body, Iduna’s hand slides against the wall, bringing her far closer than Elsa would’ve ever assumed comfortable for her mother. Even so, her gaze falters from meeting eye contact.

“...Are you okay?”

“You know I love you, don’t you, Elsa?”

What? Where did this question come from? And why does she have to be so close to say it? More importantly, how is she supposed to answer?

Her mentality over her mother has always been a bittersweet rollercoaster, and every time she pondered whether there was any real love shared for her… Well, she just didn’t need that heartache, so she stopped. Who cares if her mother loves her, right? All she needs is to stay alive, and as long as her mother has the generosity to provide that survival during the hardest time of the year, it doesn’t matter.

“I…” There’s a long pause of quiet silence where Iduna finally manages to keep eye contact, though Elsa doesn’t like watching the woman’s heart shatter like it does.

“I’m so sorry, Elsa.”

“Please, stop saying that.”

“But I-”

“I don’t care! Okay? I’m going to keep living whether you love me or not. I don’t even need Anna to care about me, but she does. If she doesn’t one day, I’ll be fine. I don’t need anyone to care about mMF!!!”

Elsa’s spiel is rudely cut off by warm wet lips on her own, smothering the rest of the words and stopping her train of thought in its tracks. She doesn’t move, doesn’t blink. Iduna’s eyes are closed. Though she doesn’t need to see for her hand to slide up the wall and hold Elsa’s face.

Unsure if her heart is even beating right now, Elsa’s mind suddenly races. Before she can push Iduna away, her mother leans back with a look of utter shame washing over her face. Her lips are free, but Elsa can’t think of one thing to say. Even if she could, she isn’t sure the sound would comply. It seems she doesn’t have to though.

Iduna retracts her hand and makes haste to slide off the rocks into the water. Then she’s gone, like an apparition or dream that never existed. While what just happened couldn’t have possibly happened, Elsa’s sure she can feel her mother’s fingers still lingering on her jaw.

Chapter 9: Name Drop

Chapter Text

Elsa has been acting strange since they returned from their hike to the waterfall. Well, actually, she started acting strangely after her and their mother’s short conversation in the cave. Of course, neither of them would tell Anna what they had spoken about. No one trusts her with those kinds of things… She can only try to imagine why though and often does her best to seem more trustworthy, but it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. The last thing she can think of to save her self-worth is that they must just be trying to “protect” her from something.

Stupid, stupid Anna. Too clumsy and too headstrong to know things without getting herself hurt. No, they must have a good reason for keeping something from her. Otherwise, Elsa definitely would tell her.

When Anna hugs her arms over her chest and stares at the ground, her girlfriend’s arm wraps around her shoulders. She looks up at Elsa’s face, a worried glow in her pretty blue eyes. That could’ve just been worry about entering town for the first time, but as she’s looking down at Anna and not the buildings that lay ahead, Elsa must’ve caught on to her drifting into her thoughts.

“I’m present, I promise,” Anna murmurs to her. Elsa gives a nod but keeps her arm wrapped tight around her. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? You don’t have to come with me, really.”

“I know, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little curious.”

“You don’t remember any of it?”

“I probably should.... but I don’t.”

“Here, take my hand instead. I don’t want us to get separated. It’s small, but can get a little crowded sometimes.” With a grin, the wolf woman lowers her arm to tightly grab onto Anna’s hand.

“You don’t need an excuse to hold my hand~” Unable to respond to that, Anna turns away her own grinning face with a light blush.

This late in the afternoon, the market street is definitely at its busiest with both kids and parents running around with things in their arms. Thankfully, they’re only there for a loaf of bread. It should be a quick trip praying nothing goes wrong.

Anna leads the way down the street, dragging Elsa through the crowds of people. It would be hard for Elsa to lose Anna with the bright red cloak, but Anna would have a really hard time trying to find Elsa, so she keeps as close as she can. They make it to a tall wooden bakery, the smell of freshly baked wheat bread and cinnamon wafting through the open door. Without warning, Anna pulls Elsa into the bakery and closes the door behind them before dropping her hood and letting go of Elsa’s hand.

“Ah, little red!” The baker, quite thin for someone who bakes a lot of bread, raises his arms in greeting to the usual customer and her new company. “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon. Who might your friend be?”

“Good Afternoon, Mr. Oien!” Anna bounds over to the counter separating her from the baker, Elsa trailing behind cautiously. “Well, our house has started feeding another mouth recently, so yeah, we might have to start getting two loaves instead of just the one.” The baker nods his head as if he perfectly understood, but when he looks at Elsa expecting an introduction, Anna’s mouth goes dry. “Uh, this is my- this…. Uhh, Elsa.”

“Ooh~! Is Iduna fostering animals now? Why am I not surprised?” Anna knows the man is joking, but Elsa clearly doesn’t when her face turns bitter. Before she can spit out whatever rude retort comes to mind, Anna quickly taps her arm.

“He’s joking. Calm down!”

“Aha yes, it’s just a joke, I promise.” The man takes a step away to grab a long paper bag. “I meant no offense by it. I’m good friends with Iduna. Though, I haven’t seen her in quite some time. Is she well?” After bagging a loaf of bread, he leans over the counter to hand it off to Anna, who in turn trades the man with a few silver coins.

“Very well, as far as I know. She’s just become a very isolated person. At this point, I’m kind of worried about bringing her into town. Who knows if she’s completely forgotten the ability to communicate with anyone else?”

“She had that ability once? I thought she might’ve just been born a clam.” Anna can’t help a laugh, leaving Elsa confused as to what the joke meant. No way she’s going to ask and risk being looked at like a fool.

“Alright, well, it was good to see you, Oien. I’ll probably see you again next week.”

“Won’t that be a treat! Goodbye, Anna!” Grabbing onto Elsa’s hand again, Anna leads the way out of the bakery. While Elsa is trying to prop the door open, Anna stands close trying to tell her not to worry about it. Now that they’ve gotten their goods, the smart thing is to get out of here as fast as possible.

When thieving hands steal the bread from her hands, that plan becomes far too late. Elsa catches the act of thievery just as she gets the door to stay open and immediately chases after the thief before Anna can stop her. Great… Now she’s lost her bread and her sister. The cherry on top of this misfortune closes in on her.

“Will you look at that! It’s a little red tomato left alone on the side of the street.” A snarky voice calls out from behind her. “It would be a shame if someone squished it.”

Already regretting her decision not to run after Elsa, Anna slowly turns to face the gang of bullies that have been harassing her for as long as she remembers. Jill, the ‘leader’ of the group since Jack’s concussion, stands in front of Rapunzel and Little Boy Blue. While Blue has always been far more rotten than any of them combined, he always preferred letting Jill do most of the rude comments. Rapunzel, however, well… it’s obvious she’s only on their side not to get picked on herself.

The blonde is practically made of raggedy clothing, what with her parents being far poorer than most. Her uncut dirty hair drags on the ground, greasy and thin, with her bangs covering the cowardly soft face behind. Jane scowls at Anna from the middle of the street, looking quite the opposite. Curly black hair is tied back in a ponytail, revealing the mean green glare she sets on the poor redhead. Since Jack is nowhere to be seen within the group, Anna can only assume he must’ve been the one to steal her bread. Poor guy is probably going to be ripped to pieces before they get to see him again.

“Don’t you three have anything better to do than bother me today?”

“So confident for someone left alone. Who was that anyway? Your new bodyguard? Makes sense. Your small blonde friend was never any match for Jack.” As Jane talks, Blue pulls a large piece of broken glass from his dark blue vest. “Doesn’t matter. You know what we want, Red.”

“Not today, Jill. I suggest you leave right now and save yourself the trouble.” Anna’s eyes watch the glass, though she confidently stands her ground. Jill cackles something wicked and taps Blue’s shoulder. Though, just as the large blue boy starts advancing, he’s knocked to the side by a flying body.

They all watch the two boys groaning on the ground before a much louder growl makes them look down the street where a furious-looking Elsa holds the battered loaf of bread. Her face gives away the slipping control over shifting, but otherwise, she seems completely unharmed. The rips on Jack’s shirt clearly show the same can’t be said for him, but at least he’s alive.

“What the hell is that?!” Jill takes a step back and Rapunzel makes a run for it. Smart girl. Jack makes the same choice as soon as he can get to his feet, though Blue stays where he is on the ground, only moving to try and grab the glass that has already split open his palm.

Rolling back her shoulders, Elsa drapes one of her arms over Anna’s shoulders while the other relaxes at her side once more. She doesn't attempt to respond to Jill, nor address the only other member left of the posse. Instead, she scours Anna’s face for distress or pain. Thankfully, it's only irritation.

“Is this bitch bothering you, Anna?”

“Elsa, don’t. Please.”

“Excuse me, what the fuck?! You can’t just toss Jack around like that! You-!” In her attempt to confront Elsa, Jill marches forward with only raised fists. Elsa only has to raise a foot and kick her square in the gut to have the poor girl sliding back. Jill trips trying to catch herself and hits the stone hard. Despite the morbid reality that she could have just gotten a concussion to match with Jack's, Anna has to cover her mouth not to laugh. But to make sure this doesn’t turn into a real fight, she tugs on Elsa’s arm to pull her back down the street.

“This isn’t over!” Little Boy Blue shouts after them.

____________________________________________________

“You did what?!” Iduna exclaims, on the verge of a panic attack.

“I don’t see what the big deal is. Our bread was stolen, I got it back. Anna was getting threatened for money, and I saved her from that, too.”

“You didn’t save me from anything, thanks. I could’ve handled it myself.” Anna crosses her arms. Elsa leans over to kiss her head.

“Of course, my mistake. I wanted to help, and I did.”

Iduna stares blankly at her for a moment, then at Anna. Her hands start to gesture wildly for something she couldn’t verbally get out.

“I stopped her before she could do any significant damage, but…”

“BUT?! THERE’S A BUT?!”

“Rapunzel ran as soon as she saw Elsa’s face start to contort. Jill saw it too, but after that fall, I don’t think she’s going to remember.”

“Did anybody else see it?” Iduna’s voice becomes extremely quiet.

“I don’t think so. I’m sure more people would have been pointing it out if they had. Actually, I’m positive there would be a mob at the front door if people had.” That seems to relax Iduna, and her shoulders slack considerably. “Just take a breath. You know, this wouldn’t have happened if you had just come with us. You can’t stay in this house forever.”

As if the topic meant nothing to discuss, her mother waves it away with a hand and turns towards Elsa. “She is no longer allowed to accompany you to the town. We can’t let this happen again. You just… You have no control over yourself.”

“Oh, I have no control over myself?” Elsa scoffs. “I wonder who I got that from.”

“What?” Anna, confused, looks between them both as Iduna’s face quickly becomes a dark shade of red.

“Elsa...”

“I don’t care what kind of authority you think you have over me, but I’m not letting Anna go back into town by herself ever again. Did you know that those ‘bullies’ harassing her threaten her with glass shards? Maybe worse on the regular! Not only that, but they steal from her?!” Elsa stands a little taller with her anger, but that doesn’t so much as intimidate Iduna as her words concern her. Slowly, Iduna's attention is dragged over to Anna.

“Is this true?”

“Well, it isn’t usually with glass shards. I mean- It- It doesn’t happen very often! Like that...”

“Anna, why didn’t you tell me it's this bad?” Trying to be a lot more understanding as to what’s going on with her youngest, Iduna holds Anna’s face in her hands and stares her down with the most genuinely worried face. Anna, however, is still very sour with her mother and pulls away from her.

“Oh, so I have to tell you everything going on with me while you keep secret after secret? You’ve even got Elsa keeping things from me!”

“I’m not saying you need to tell me everything, but when it comes to your safety-”

“I can handle myself! You said it yourself!” Confused and angry, Anna pushes past her mother and towards her bedroom. “Just leave me alone right now…” Then she gently closes the door behind herself before sliding down to the floor.

________

Elsa glares at Iduna from her peripheral. “Look what you did. You and your obsession with isolating yourself.”

Iduna only helplessly stares at Anna’s bedroom door.

“You haven’t once tried talking to her, and this is what happens.”

“Oh, like you’re the master of communication.”

“No thanks to you, mom” Iduna winces.

“Fine. What should I do?”

“I’m not going to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do. You’re responsible for your decisions and it should stay that way.” Elsa walks down the hall until she can knock on Anna’s door. “Anna, it’s Elsa, can I join you in there?”

There’s a noise behind the door and then it opens a crack. She gives one last glance to Iduna before pushing the door open wider and stepping into the room before closing it again. Anna sits on her bed with her knees pulled up to her chest. It’s no use asking if she’s okay when she obviously isn’t, but Elsa searches for something that could equally show she cares.

“So… those kids back in town. What’s their problem?” The older sisterly thing is taking concern in this kind of thing, right? Not that she’s trying to be more of a sister than just a protective girlfriend.

“Me. I’ve been a lot of people’s problem. With them in particular, I think they assume I’m just some easy prey. You thought I was when we first met, so I guess that makes me…”

“A wolf in sheep’s clothing. I’m a little proud if I can be honest.” That puts a brief smile on Anna’s face until she looks up.

“That group has been following me around for a long time. When we were kids, it was supposed to be just fun and games, but I accidentally pushed Jack down a hill he had chased me up and… There was a well at the bottom that he slammed his head into. I’m pretty sure we all expected it to kill him. It didn’t, but they all loathed me after that. Only Kristoff believed it was an accident.”

She doesn’t mean to, but Elsa tenses at the mention of Kristoff’s name. It always brings a rush of thoughts, particularly the memory of his decomposing body behind her cabin. Anna notices and reaches over to take Elsa’s hand.

“...You know more about him than you want to say, don’t you?”

“I’m sorry.”

“I kind of figured that out when you claimed to know nothing about it. I just… I wasn’t ready to press answers then. I didn’t want to know. But I think I’m ready for the truth if you can bring yourself to tell me what happened to him.”

“Are you sure you want to know, Anna? Right now anyways. Today has already been pretty rough.”

Anna nods. “I’d like to know.”

“I…” Elsa tries to hesitate, but the tired and desperate look on Anna’s face makes it too hard to search for anything but the truth. “I watched it happen. I… let it happen. Kristoff is dead, and I did nothing to stop it.”

“Why?” The young girl’s voice breaks, heavy tears building in her eyes. That’s a question Elsa can’t bring herself to answer. She opens her mouth but closes it just as her eyes dart away. “Was it you? Did you kill him?”

“Anna, it wasn’t- It was-”

“Tell me it wasn’t you! Tell me it wasn’t because of your predatory instincts! Lie to me just so I won’t direct my pain at you!” Watching the hurt fall from Anna’s eyes and coat her freckled cheeks with tears, Elsa gets a burning lump in her throat. This had turned out to be a trap, and she had fallen right into the wolf’s claws. Is this irony or karma? Maybe both. It’s long overdue anyway. “For someone who tries to appear intimidating, you’re a coward, Elsa.”

“I know.”

“I still love you,” Anna sobs, her head dropping in the crook between her knees. “Even compared to my mother, y- you actually told me when I asked you to.”

Elsa doesn’t know what to say, so she doesn’t say anything. It saves her from digging herself into any deeper holes. Anna leans onto Elsa's arm.

“Please, hold me. I don’t want to feel alone right now.” Heart threatening to rip, Elsa pulls Anna into her arms and onto her lap. The girl curls into herself and Elsa holds her tight, just as she asked.

An out-of-place knock disturbs the peaceful silence of the living room. Iduna looks up from her book but doesn’t make an attempt to get up and answer the door. That task is left to Elsa when Anna doesn’t move from her sulk by the window either. With a sigh, Elsa rises from the floor, just in time for another, more impatient, knock to pound on the door.

She opens it to an equally unexpected face. It’s the girl from yesterday, one of Anna’s bullies. Her green eyes slowly raise over Elsa’s figure, widening until stilling on Elsa’s icy blue glare. They stand in silence, the girl either too shocked or intimidated to say anything.

“Who is it?” Anna pops up beside Elsa and suddenly the black-haired girl jerks back to reality enough to give her own glare. However, Anna is far too mentally exhausted to care. “Oh. It’s you.”

“Yeah, it’s me. Your moron friend sliced up Jack’s back and it isn’t healing. My mom said that yours is the best with these kinds of salves, so here I am.”

Anna looks up at Elsa, who backs away from the door with a nervous grimace. “You did what? I thought you had just taken the bread back!”

“Well, I had to catch him, Anna! It isn’t my fault he decided to be a criminal. I could’ve done a lot worse!”

“You’re right. You could’ve done a lot worse.” She says in a bitter tone. Nose scrunching in disgust, Anna pushes the door open wider. “Come on in, Jill.”

“Uh, no. I think I’ll stay out here where it’s safe.”

“Be my guest, but it looks like it’s going to rain soon.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

“What’s this about a salve?” Finally, Iduna leaves her rocking chair to join Anna beside the door.

“Her brother needs a healing salve because sOmEoNe can’t keep her violent tendencies in check.”

Exasperated and ashamed of herself, Elsa growls and stalks away towards Iduna’s bedroom. Better than sitting alone in the kitchen, and at least here she wouldn’t have to confront Anna. No wonder Iduna spends most of her time here.

The room has changed since she had last seen it. A blue glow emanates from a cauldron in the center and the room has a very distinct smell of various herbs, most of which Elsa has smelled before but doesn’t know the name or look of. Such is her curse of not paying attention. Iduna’s bed has moved against the far wall, giving more room for recipes and notes littering the ground.

After only taking a few steps closer to the cauldron, the door clicks closed behind her. Iduna leans against the door, her form dark from Elsa shading her from the only light in the room. And yet, she has the faintest distinction that Iduna must have her nervous thoughts written all over her face. It's like she can smell it. Iduna takes a step towards Elsa and then passes her to a small table beside her bed. It’s covered in what looks like berries or rocks, and Iduna picks out several at random. Well, it looks random on account of Elsa can’t tell what she’s actually picking out, but in reality, she could very well be meticulously picking out a specific species.

Once she stands upright again, Iduna beckons Elsa over with a hand. Complying only out of curiosity, Elsa walks over with a confused look on her face. Then Iduna picks up her hand and puts one of the berries in her palm.

“Poison?”

While chewing one of the berries herself, Iduna gives Elsa a hard look. So, still hesitant, Elsa puts the berry on her tongue. By the texture alone, she can’t decide anything other than it’s softer than the ones she’s used to eating.

“Not poison?”

Slowly, her mother starts to nod, the blue glow from the cauldron illuminating the amusement in her eyes. Then she pats Elsa’s shoulder and goes over to the giant iron bowl. Once dropping in the rest of the berries, she crosses the room to a stout dresser.

“I don’t suppose you’d like me to leave, would you?” When Elsa bites into the berry, she immediately discovers that it’s just a normal blueberry. Not exactly her favorite, but at least her mother hasn’t decided to kill her yet.

“And have you make sure Anna and Jill don’t start fighting?...Maybe.”

“I’m not sure I’m the right person for that job.” Elsa crosses the room to see what Iduna is digging through. From the intense smell, it has to be those various herbs she had noticed when walking in.

“Well, you do have age and build superiority over them. Shouldn’t that count for something?”

“Since when has that ever counted for something?”

“Hand me that bowl over there.” Iduna points to the dresser near the door, where among the things on top of it, is an herb grinding bowl. Elsa retrieves it quickly and hands it over. “This won’t be very interesting to watch, so… I implore you to find better entertainment.”

“I make my own entertainment. Why haven’t you spoken to Anna about anything? I know it’s a hard subject, but pushing it away only makes things worse.”

“That isn’t any of your business, Elsa.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Stay out of it.”

“She’s in pain, mom!”

“I’m warning you.” Iduna focuses solely on grinding leaves into the bottom of the bowl with the thing- the thing that looks like a really thick stick.

“Oh yeah? And what are you going to do if I continue pestering you about this?”

“I made you. I can unmake you.”

“Why have you waited this long then? Am I not your biggest mistake?” Slamming down the grinding tool onto the dresser, Iduna turns to Elsa with an irritated glare scary enough to ward away crows.

“Quite the opposite, in fact.”

“What?” Before Elsa could get an answer, she finds her body shifting involuntarily. She drops to the ground on all fours, every one of her bones sore already from the forced transformation. Only her flannel clings tightly to her furry body. Iduna gives Elsa a brief smirk and then turns back to grinding away at the plants.

What the fuck?! She just did something to me!

Refusing to let her get away with this, Elsa starts to bark. In the enclosed room, the sound is much much louder to the point that Iduna has to cover her ears with her hands.

“Damn it, Elsa! Knock it off!!”

When she doesn’t, Iduna stomps over to another dresser (her room is just full of them for storage purposes) and pulls out a short rope. Elsa, already knowing where she’s going with this, backs against the door, her haunches raised and her lips pulled back in a threatening growl.

“You don’t scare me, puppy,” Iduna snarls back while unraveling the rope. “Now shut up or this is going around that loud snout of yours.”

“Elsa?! Is everything okay in there?” Anna’s worried voice sounds behind the door before she starts to open it. Iduna has never tossed something away faster in her life. Not that it matters, because once the door opens, Elsa backs straight into Anna and knocks her back into the hallway.

“Uh, yeah, everything is fine.” Iduna walks over to the door, her hand on it so she can pull it closed. Before she can try to explain why Elsa is in her wolf form now, a soaked Jill in the living room becomes ever-present from the scream she gives.

“That’s-! That’s a wolf!”

“Oh, great,” Anna mutters under her breath. “Jill, calm down, she’s not going to hurt you!”

“Where did it come from? Have you been hiding it in that room all this time?! Are you going to use it to kill me?!?!” The panicked girl leans against the front door, her hand tightly gripping onto the handle should Elsa make any move towards her. Fortunately, the wolf only has a glare for Iduna right now.

“Yes, and she was being annoying, so now you both get to deal with her.” With that, Iduna slams her bedroom door closed and clicks the lock in place. Elsa jumps at the door, claws extended to shred the wood when she falls back down to all fours.

“Elsa, what’s going on? Why are you being like this? Is there something in there?” Anna attempts to pull Elsa away from the door, but Elsa is much stronger and persistent.

“Elsa? Wait... Wait..” Jill looks even more baffled as she starts to put things into place from the given context clues. “That huge monster is your friend from earlier?!”

“She’s not a monster!” Both hands gripping onto Elsa’s scruff, she finally pulls her away from Iduna’s door and towards the living room, much to Jill’s panic.

“Are you kidding me? She was just a human minutes ago!!!”

“And she’s still that same person under the fur. Believe me, they’re very connected in spirit.” The last part is a bit too sour for Elsa’s taste and she jerks away from Anna’s hold. “Hey!”

Elsa barks at her, resulting in a very loud yell from Iduna’s bedroom that silences them all. They all stare at the door, but when no explanation or follow-up comes up, they turn to each other again.

“Look, since my mom doesn’t have any healing salves at the ready, this might take a while. Can you just sit down and relax? Both of you.”

Jill huffs and slides down the door to sit on the floor again, her eyes glued on Elsa as the wolf pads over to the fireplace. Not wanting to sit anywhere near the bully, Anna chooses to sit beside Elsa, who gives no complaint. They sit like this in tense silence for several minutes more before Elsa finally has control over her shifting ability and changes back into a human. Of course, now she doesn’t have any pants, but at least the flannel stayed on without tearing or popping. It’s loose enough to cover her privates while she sits, but regardless, Anna flushes in color and Jill fails to look away.

In a panicked effort, Anna seats herself in Elsa’s lap and Jill slaps a hand over her eyes. All Elsa can do is laugh. One jealous gay girlfriend and the other a closeted weirdo. Well, maybe not, but not many girls can resist Elsa.

“What’s the matter, girls? You act like you’re-”

“You’re so immature, you know that?”

“You love me anyways~”

“Wait… That voice. That hair.” Slowly, Jill lowers her hand to fix Elsa with the most perplexed studying look. In turn, Elsa glares back in distrust. “I know who you are.”

Elsa can feel Anna tense, so she wraps both arms around her. “Do you now?”

“Your Red’s sister, aren’t you? You have the same faces, the same eyes. I remember you. I watched you ever since you growled at me and my friends for teasing Red. She would follow you everywhere.”

“Her name is Anna.” Biting back a growl, Elsa’s jaw flexes.

“How do you remember that?” Anna’s voice is small, her face far from anger. “You’re barely older than I am.”

“Why wouldn’t I remember?”

“I…” Her gaze falls to the floor. Elsa can practically hear the thoughts rushing through her head. Why don’t they remember this?

“You’re mistaken.” Shaking her head, Elsa decides that it would be much better for them all if the townsfolk believe she’s not related to Anna. “I’m not that Elsa.”

“What? No, I’m not. And yes, you are!” Jill demands. “You disappeared out of nowhere more than a decade ago, and now you just suddenly show up and are living at the same residence.”

“Why does it matter to you?”

“You’re all hiding something. Freaks. Witchy mom, dog sister, and…” Her dark twisted glare finds Anna’s poker face. “What even are you supposed to be? A mutation gone right?”

“Wow, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, Jill. And the audacity to be like this when you expect our help.”

“That’s the thing, Anna. You freaks have to be useful to our town. If you weren’t, we would’ve run you out long ago. You’re going to help me because you have no choice. I paid you. It’s an exchange of service. There is no choice in it for you.”

About to throw hands, Elsa starts to push Anna off of her lap, only for Anna to make it too hard for her to do so. The girl shifts and shoves away her hands while leaning into her.

“You’d be lucky if I don’t tell everyone about your sister’s little problem, too. Especially after what she’s done to my brother.”

“No one will believe you!”

“What about our father?” In the midst of this close fight, Anna’s question is out of place. She sounds completely defeated, too, and isn’t even going to try defending herself or claim Elsa isn’t who Jill says she is.

“What?”

“You pointed out the strangeness of my mother, my sister, and I, but you failed to mention anything about my father.”

“Right, the strangest thing about your family.” Looking ready to bolt in case Elsa gets off the floor, she stands and once again latches her hand to the doorknob. Both expecting her to continue, they stare up at Jill, only for the dark-haired girl to stare back with a surprised look. She scoffs, a nasty grin growing on her face. “Oh, you’re being serious. I didn’t know you had one. We thought you were formed alone in the ethers of your mother’s cauldron.”

Again, Elsa snarls, this time successfully pushing Anna out of her lap. Thankfully, Iduna’s door opens and she rushes out with a small jar filled with a warm green gel. The woman struts between the skirmish and hands the jar to Jill, who takes it without hesitation and opens the door.

“I’m out of here.” And then she’s gone.

Chapter 10: Ha, You Thought This Would Be The End

Summary:

Suckers. >:3

Chapter Text

“Mom, what was she talking about?”

“Hm? What do you mean?” Completely unphased by the situation, Iduna returns to her rocking chair and the book she had set down beside it. Anna finally stands up to confront her while Elsa stares out the window after Jill.

“About our dad. She said she didn’t even know he existed.”

“Don’t believe everything that girl says, Anna. She’s just trying to put things in your head and make you miserable.”

“How can I believe you?! You keep lying to me and keeping secrets! As far as I know, I could have very well been the product of one of your spells!”

Iduna takes a deep breath and sets her book back down. “Okay, fair. But what do you want me to do, Anna? There are some things I just can’t tell you.”

“Why not?!”

“Well, as it is, most of them would probably make you angrier than you already are. It’s just not a good time to tell you.”

“Oh, ReAlLy?! If that’s the case!” Struggling to compose herself, Anna turns away and tries to calm down. A few deep breaths and the effort of clearing her mind, and she turns back to Iduna with a calm exterior. “There. I’m no longer mad. Spill your guts, lady.”

“Lady?” Frowning, Iduna leans back in her chair. She studies Anna’s face for a moment. “Fine. Fine, I’ll tell you everything. Firstly, your father was very much real. However, when he died and Elsa... With them both gone and the villagers already wanting to run us out of here, I had to find some way to cover it up. A little magic here and there when necessary, and the concept of them both never existed.”

“Then why did she know who I am?” Elsa mumbles, her gaze still set on the window.

“What?”

“The girl. Jill. Whatever. She knows who I am.”

“In what context?”

“The sister, the daughter, one of the many monsters in the forest. The freak who disappeared one night out of the blue and no one spoke of.”

When only silence follows, Elsa turns to find Iduna’s perplexed face staring at her. Then her mother quickly looks away as her expression considerably darkens.

“What? What’s the matter? It isn’t like anything bad could come of that, right? Who would believe her?” Anna talks fast in her anxiety, her words almost incomprehensible. “Why do you look so worried?”

“I’m not aware of the spell I used having any expiration. If Jill remembers Elsa, it’s a possibility that everyone else will, too. Not only that, but they will clearly remember the part where you haven’t been around for years. As well as your father going missing...” Iduna starts tapping her chin in thought. “Anna, I know you want to know everything, but right now I think it would be wise to start packing a bag.”

“Mom, you’re scaring me.”

She stands from the chair to hold Anna’s face in both of her hands, the concern still very clear on her features. “I’m sorry, baby. It’s probably fine, I’m sure. I just want to be safe than sorry if something does happen.” Slowly, Anna starts to nod. Iduna kisses her nose and then lets her go to her room.

“You don’t really think they’re going to ambush a house with a lycan inhabiting it, do you?”

“If not the only reason, that would be the first.” Elsa gulps and looks back towards the window until a soft hand pulls her away. “Uhm… your cabin…”

“It isn’t ready.”

“I’ve seen it, Elsa. It’s fine besides the mess.”

“There’s not even a fireplace.”

“I can supply you with the tools needed to make one. Tomorrow, we’ll all go to fix it up.”

“But there’s no water source nearby and the path is a long walk from it. This really doesn’t sound like a good idea. Can’t you just do another spell? You’ve been trying to make something for a while, haven’t you?”

Iduna gives an exasperated sigh. “We know how to walk, you know. And yes, I’ve been trying to stock up on warding potions. They sell the best in this crummy village. So much for that…”

“No, no, I think they’ll be very helpful if we’re going to my cabin tomorrow.”

“Where are we going tomorrow?” Anna emerges from her room, her hair tied up in a ponytail. Letting go of Elsa’s hand, Iduna turns to face her.

“We’re going to be helping Elsa with renovations on her cabin. Do me a favor and grab the shovels from the pantry, will you?”

“Really?! I’m finally going to get to see Elsa’s cabin??? Wait, what do we need shovels for?”

____________________________________________

“Oooooohhhhh.” Anna takes a step behind Iduna, her shovel grasped firmly in both hands.

The cabin itself doesn’t look too bad. As a structure, it can definitely be considered a shelter. It has a roof, four complete walls, and an entrance with a broken door. But Elsa is going to assume it’s the stench of rotting flesh and blood that makes her sister and mother keep their distance. Animal skeletons litter the ground before the door, mostly of deer. Stepping inside, it’s clear how she would prefer to eat the much smaller animals inside. The ground there is also covered in blood, not a single slat of wood untouched by it.

“You’re going to want this.” Iduna reaches into her violet cloak and pulls out a couple of black bandanas from a stitched pocket. She hands one to Anna and then ties the other over her mouth and nose.

“We’re not going to be touching those with our hands, are we?” The disdain is more than clear in Anna’s voice, however muffled it becomes with the cloth covering her mouth. As is reasonable.

“Nope. That’s your sister’s job. When everything is good and buried, we’ll be bleaching the inside. Between the three of us, it shouldn’t take more than a week to get started on that fireplace. Hopefully in less time.” Already, Iduna starts digging into the earth with her shovel. Anna follows suit, mildly envious that Elsa would have no problem with this kind of work.

Sure enough, her sister joins them with her own shovel and gets to work without a word.

Much later, when Anna and Iduna are taking a water break, Elsa continues working by dragging skeletons into the dug holes. She even goes about breaking pieces of them to pack as much as she can inside and reduce the work of digging. Depending on what’s going on with the spell, they may not have as much time as Iduna hopes to get this done.

The sun has already made its way to the center of the sky, though none of them can really tell with all the tree branches in the way. Maybe on the cabin roof they would be able to, but the density of this forest will ultimately be the best for them trying to hide.

“Am I crazy or are there a lot of human-looking skeletons coming out from the inside…?” Elsa can hear Anna whisper to Iduna. Of course, for her own good, she chooses not to respond.

“Best not to think about it. I’m sure if she wanted to eat us, she would have done it by now.”

“Yeah, good point. Although,

“Anna, I don’t want to hear about your frolickings with your sister.”

“You’re just jealous~” She giggles. When Iduna shoves her away, it turns into a full-out cackle, continuing even as Elsa catches her from falling. The wolfish woman pulls Anna up into a tight hug where Anna tenses uncomfortably. Elsa doesn’t care though. Her arms and back are sore from digging and she just wants to squeeze her favorite person right now. “Els, I love you too, but your arms are… they’re sticky and covered in dirt and blood. Please let go.”

“Oh yeah, extremely jealous.” Iduna giggles and takes a long drink of her waterskin. Elsa’s eyes narrow on her, and, as if she had said something completely outrageous, her mother almost chokes on the water. She turns towards them and points to Elsa with the waterskin. “Don’t you dare.”

Elsa tries not to make her implications readable, but as soon as she lets go of Anna, Iduna immediately starts backing away. Then she's running for the cabin and scaling her way up onto the roof with help from the wide window ledge. Elsa trails behind slowly, knowing very well that her mother could never easily run away from her. Iduna seems to catch on to her mistake when Elsa makes it onto the roof far easier than she had.

As the blood-covered pursuer crawls along the slats towards her, Iduna starts to actually panic. Risking splinters, she shuffles up the roof as fast as she can until there’s no way to go but down. The blank, dead look on Elsa’s face doesn’t help her fear either. Suddenly this is just like some of her common nightmares.

A disgrace, her eldest daughter has finally become the beast Agnarr feared she would be. Drenched in the blood of her kills, she comes for all of them. Not for revenge, but by pure primal instinct set on surviving.

“Elsa, stop! Stop! This isn’t funny anymore!”

Hovering over Iduna’s legs, Elsa stops short when she realizes her mother is trembling. Maybe she took this joke a little too far this time. It hasn’t exactly been a good day for any of them with all the work. Elsa sits upright, concern now clear on her face.

“Sorry. This probably looks… Nevermind.” Shaking her head, she looks around the roof and reaches over to pick up a short branch. One of many scattered over the roof. Then she pats Iduna’s shoulder with it until Iduna chokes out a nervous laugh. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be-”

A high-pitched scream cuts off her words, startling them both. They make a rush for the ground. Elsa reaches it first without trouble but is immediately knocked over by Anna crashing into her. The door has been effectively torn to the side, ripped from its already loose hinges.

“Anna! What’s going on?!”

Anna sits up off of Elsa and stares back into the cabin. “I saw-! I saw-!”

“What? What did you see?” Iduna presses, finally on the ground again.

“A huge ass fucking spider. I’m not going back in there until it’s gone.”

Elsa cackles like she hasn’t heard a joke in years while Iduna sighs in immense disappointment.

“Put your mask back on!” Iduna demands, wrestling with Elsa’s hands to keep them away from the bandana slowly falling down her face.

“I don’t like it! It’s too hot to have clothes on my face!!”

“I don’t care! It’s dangerous to be inhaling the chemical fumes!!”

With a growl, Elsa finally drops her hands and allows her mother to fix the bandana back in place. Anna snickers as she scrubs a rag over some pieces of stained wood on the wall.

“You’re such a stubborn child. We’re almost done.”

“Actually, if you want to get all the black out, we’re probably going to be here a while…”

“I’m not counting on getting all of the stains out. We’re just trying to make it habitable.”

“No wonder Elsa decided to stay in our house instead.”

Elsa scoffs. “For your information, I decided to stay there because you wanted me to.”

Instead of returning the salt, Anna giggles. “Yeah, true.”

“Elsa, crouch down so Anna can get on your shoulders and scrub the ceiling.”

“Is that necessary?”

“It wouldn’t be if you were less of a messy eater. Now, do what I- NO! That is the wrong direction and you damn know that!” Both of the girls now snickering, Anna shifts on Elsa’s shoulders so she would be sitting behind her head. “Why is this all the time with you two?”

“We’re just having fun. You could have fun, too, if you weren’t acting so uptight.” Elsa holds Anna’s legs in place and carefully walks so she can clean the ceiling.

“I’m about to lose my house and be run out of yet another village. I think I’m allowed to be stressed out.”

“Ooooooh~ Another village? Is this storytime?”

“What? Oh. Mm… I don’t know… It isn’t -that- interesting of a story.”

“Who cares? It beats listening to silence or you two bickering.” Anna almost tips backward off of Elsa’s shoulders, but quickly grabs onto her head. Unfortunately, she drops her rag of bleach in the process. Iduna bends down to pick it up and responsibly hands it to the young woman instead of tossing it like Anna was obviously prepared for.

“Well, I suppose.” She walks past the two towards the mess of blankets on a shredded mattress that Elsa calls a bed. “Your father and I had decided we wanted to move to a less crowded way of life when I started getting death threats from our neighbors in the kingdom, so we-”

“Wait- what?! You used to live in the kingdom?!”

“Yep. Anyways, we decided to leave before I got hung for crimes of existing. Though it became very clear after we got settled in the nearest village that it wouldn’t be that much better. At that point, we were barely making enough income to survive on our own, let alone after having a child.” Iduna casually starts pulling off the blankets and folding them. Meanwhile, her daughters stare at her in aghast wonder.

“You mean to tell me, you were a mere hike away from the King’s castle?!”

Yes, pay attention.” Rolling her eyes, Iduna shakes her head. “I tried to do a side business of my talents, but that only drew more suspicion towards us. Eventually, the townsfolk ran us out with pitchforks and torches.”

“We could have been living in the kingdom?! We could have been at least a little better off than the poor ass peasants we are?!”

“Anna, I don’t think you understand how much danger being in such a crowded place would be for us all. You can barely go around a small village without getting harassed and your sister is a wolf for crying out loud.”

“But there would be such a bigger library there! Maybe we could find a real cure for Elsa. And with more people, there’s always a chance that there will be more nice than mean. Just because some people bullied me doesn’t mean they were all bad. Besides, if it really bothered me that much, I would have done something about it.”

Iduna heaves a sigh and tosses the neatly folded blankets onto the garbage mattress. Then she turns to adjust her dress before sitting down. “Do you think you would be happier there then?”

“When you ask it like that, I don’t want to answer.” Already feeling guilty for making such a big deal about it, Anna turns back to rubbing off the dried blood from the ceiling. Some of it would just be stuck there forever because of how high the slats go.

“Well, I for one, am thankful to not have become an orphan. Oh, wait.” Elsa tries to bite back her grin. “I swear, that was supposed to be lighthearted, but it just hit me…”

Iduna leans over onto her lap and groans into her hands.

“Technically, it’s not like you disowned me, so I was kinda right. You abandoned me, but didn’t get rid of me well enough so I wasn't orphaned.”

“Elsa, stop talking.” Anna cringes under her bandana.

The silence that falls over them is excruciatingly awkward. Elsa blames Anna, Anna blames Elsa, and Iduna just wants to cry. They are a small broken family, but at least they are still together.

Only when Anna is done scrubbing the ceiling does the relief wash over them all. Elsa lets her down off of her shoulders and stretches out her arms and back until it pops. Anna does the same.

“So…” They stare around the now clean, empty room. It really is a large cabin. There’s definitely enough room for a majority of their things, but no privacy for any of them. Not yet anyway. Maybe with a bit of help, Elsa would start building interior walls. Priority would be a front door though. “How are we planning to get everything here? Our cabin is a forever hike away and we don’t have any form of carriage or trailer.”

Finally, Iduna sits upright and fixates her gaze on the room. “Excellent question…” Then she looks at Elsa, who sputters at the implication.

“Why me? Why always me?! What did I do to deserve all of this labor?”

“Well, you are the one with developed upper body strength.” Trying to make Elsa feel better, Anna latches herself to her sister’s strong muscley arm and stares up at her with pleading eyes. Unfortunately, Elsa isn’t swayed in the slightest and pushes Anna’s face away with a grunt.

“I’m no one’s ass, thank you very much!”

_______________________________

Sweating through her shirt, Elsa makes slow progress in dragging this load of stuff through the woods. On the unlevel ground, it’s been absolute torture. There was an offer to have her tied to the cart in her much stronger wolf form, but she’d rather keep her dignity intact after being forced to accept this.

Her arms ache and the soles of her feet are torn with irritated calluses from the twigs and thorns she’s accidentally trodden over, but that’s nothing to the pain in her core muscles and the fiery anger in her heart pushing her forward. It was fine the first few times, but once it really started to become painful, she started yelling and snapping at Anna and Iduna whenever they tried to give her encouragement and help.

Now she pulls the cart by herself in silence, which is great because if she needs to scream, only the wildlife would have any response to it. Namely being to get away as fast as possible. Thankfully, she’s almost at her cabin.

When she gets there, it’s clear progress has already been made because the stuff that was previously haphazardly dumped onto the lawn is now gone. Hopefully, it has been organized inside by now. Elsa can’t imagine doing anything else right now. Just as she pulls the cart up and lets go of the handles, she drops to her knees and lays forward into the dirt. Her ponytail falls into her face most inconveniently, but she doesn’t have the mind to care. All emotion has completely drained from her being.

The sound of footsteps approaches her almost immediately after she falls and a soft warm hand gently brushes the hair off her face. She stares up expecting to see Anna, but it’s her mother who crouches down beside her, a slightly amused look on her face.

“Hey, puppy. Are you ready to stop for the day?” Iduna whispers. Elsa doesn’t have the energy to nod, so she just groans and closes her eyes. “Alright, I’ll give you a minute.”

Iduna gives her a light pat on the shoulder and stands back up. Then she walks around the cart to start grabbing things. Anna quickly trots out of the cabin as well, her braids bouncing as she does.

“Oh damn, did Elsa die?”

“Yep. Guess we need a new donkey. How do you feel about taking her place, Anna?” Iduna puts a large box into Anna’s arms and she sways under the weight before standing upright again.

“I mean… I could try in order to give Elsa a break, but I can’t promise I’ll do very well. It could take me the whole day. -However-, I do know someone who might be able to help us.”

“This time of day? Who?”

Looking remorseful to even think about mentioning the idea, Anna bites her lip and looks away. Iduna catches on in an instant.

“No! Well… No. No, we can’t. Could we?”

“He is technically available… I’m just… mostly concerned about how Elsa would get along with him.”

“It looks like Elsa is probably going to be out cold the rest of the day, so maybe it could be okay. If he tries anything, we can always just wake her up and have her maul him. That’s morally acceptable, right?”

“You need a boyfriend anyways. I’m gonna go get him.”

“Hey! Hold on just a second!”

Giggling, Anna speedwalks away with the box. Iduna trails after her, but stops short and walks back to the cart to retrieve something else and then chases Anna into the cabin. Elsa is still awake and wants to know who they're talking about, but it looks like she’ll just have to see for herself. Clearly not a particularly good guy by the sound of him.

When they come back out, they’re already bantering back and forth about Iduna’s lack of social life and worse yet, love life. In Elsa’s opinion, Anna is completely right, but maybe she’s a bit biased after her mother started hitting on her. There’s a huge line between accidental incest and conscious incest, and she hasn’t decided if that’s a line she’s willing to cross, but it doesn’t matter because she wants to be as loyal as her brain will let her be for Anna. Even if that means constantly staring without actually touching.

By the time Elsa stops thinking about it, she realizes Anna has already gone in search of this mysterious douchebag and Iduna now mutters quietly to herself while bringing in the rest of what’s in the cart. Mostly books and boxes because Elsa couldn’t find the strength to haul anymore furniture around. She can see why Iduna would want to get this all done in a day, but it’s way past noon now, and seems a bit late to get absolutely everything. Especially at this pace.

Familiar hands gently lift Elsa’s face from the dirt, and Elsa blinks open her exhausted eyes to look at Iduna. Her mother’s face is colored in a light blush. Elsa finds her heart beating faster as she realizes that they haven’t been alone like this together since the waterfall. For a very specific reason. One she’s sure Iduna is aware of, too.

Elsa simply just has too many issues helping herself against advances. If Anna were around, it would be different. She tries really hard for Anna! But her mother makes her heart feel very complicated things.

“Your face is covered in dirt.” Iduna grimaces and rubs her thumb over the dirt dusting Elsa’s cheek. “C’mon inside and I’ll wipe it off with a rag.”

“I don’t want to.” Elsa chokes out through the heartbeat pounding in her throat.

“Don’t want to what? Come inside or get clean?”

“Get up.”

“Well, I’m not going to sit in the dirt with you.”

“Why the fuck not?”

“Fine!” Exasperated, Iduna stands up and walks back into the cabin. When she comes back out, she’s holding a wet rag in her hands and she sits down next to Elsa in the dirt. “Roll over at least.”

Elsa complies reluctantly. On her back now, she stares up at the large portions of sky visible through tree branches, trying to focus on that instead of the caring touch of her mother as Iduna rubs the dirt from her face. Slowly, it becomes comfortable enough for her to close her eyes again.

Iduna tries to keep Elsa from tensing again, but it’s hard when every light drag over scrapes and cuts on her arm and hand will make her wince. What a mess Elsa is, and so strong too for enduring all of this most of the day. She feels a guilty well of pride build in her chest that has no right to be there. Elsa is the only one allowed to be proud of her endurance of these kinds of wounds. She’s likely suffered worse… As the one who forced her to adapt to it, Iduna shouldn’t be allowed to take pride in how well Elsa brought herself up to be. Only shame in herself. Right? That’s probably what Elsa would want anyways.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“What?”

“Like seeing me like this makes you sad.”

“But it does.”

“Oh, I’m sure. You can’t seem to decide on being sensitive or cold around me. I just don’t want you giving me your vibe.”

“Fair enough, I guess…” Iduna rubs the last of the dirt off of Elsa’s hand and then sets it down over Elsa’s stomach before reaching over to grab the other.

Another short silence befalls them until Elsa can’t contain her patience any longer. She sits up with a groan to look Iduna in the eyes, startling her just a bit. “Are we ever going to talk about what you did?”

“Do you- Uh, do you want to talk about it?”

“...No. But we should, shouldn’t we?”

“Elsa, I think it’s pretty obvious I don’t like talking through things with my daughters. I have no idea why you think I would start now.” Though she says that sourly, there’s an air of comedy to it and Elsa strains not to laugh.

“I suppose I could just ask Anna what her opinion is on the subject.”

“Yeah, about that…” Iduna’s face darkens and she stares away, though she still works the rag over Elsa’s dirty calloused fingers. “Anna already knows.”

“I'm sorry, what?” Face blank, Elsa blinks a couple of times as if that would help her register the words better.

“Well, she doesn’t know I kissed you.” Even as Iduna says that she cringes before quickly forcing herself to continue. “She just… figured out my affections for you.”

“Well, you don’t pride yourself in being very subtle, do you?”

“Elsa, be serious. I only pride myself in creating riots at an alarming rate.”

“Now who’s not being serious? What on earth did Anna say to you?”

“Oh, just something along the lines of threatening to kill me and my family if I ever made a real move on you. Which, I found mostly strange since her only family is my only family and herself.”

“I’m sorry, what?!” Amazing how stress levels could rise so quickly. Iduna cackles and points at Elsa’s face.

“I’m messing with you. I denied everything and she settled on being a constant butt into my social life from then on. Hence why she’s apparently going to set me up with someone.”

“Some luck she’s going to get when we’re all stuck out here.”

“Right? If only. No, there’s no way Anna isn’t going to try. She’s well aware of the next nearest village.” Expression dropping to solemn, Iduna goes back to wiping the dirt from Elsa, doing her neck now until Elsa smacks her hand away.

“Why are you so against that thought?”

“I don’t want another man. Your father was the only one worth my time and my life. He respected me and treated me like an equal even when the rest of society refused to. He knew of my interests and passions, but loved me all the same.”

“Then why do you find yourself drawn to me?” Elsa used to respect her mother very much when she was younger. She doesn’t exactly remember how or why, but she can only imagine how much more confident Iduna must have been back then. Now that everything is falling apart for her, can she really be blamed for having worn down?

“I thought about that for a long time…” Iduna murmurs, her eyes filled with a sea of thoughts. “I’m afraid I don’t have a very satisfying answer for either of us.”

Figures. Sighing in her disappointment, Elsa picks up one of Iduna’s hands and intertwines their fingers. She has no idea what to say or what to do. Is she supposed to say she rejects the idea and just leave the concept at that?

“In the forest,” Elsa slowly starts, “I once met a man who had the head of a deer with huge antlers. He was terrifying to me because he would walk around the forest without a single scratch on him and without being preyed on by anyone. So, I asked him how he did it and he told me that he’s never felt an ounce of fear about anything or endured pain of any kind. He said, emotions are fragile, thoughts are temporary, and actions are meaningless. Whatever happens will be forgotten and time is irrelevant. Once you have rid yourself of everything and accepted the will of life, you too will feel nothing.”

Iduna, encaptured by the story, says nothing. Instead, she holds tight to Elsa’s hand and waits for her to continue. Realizing this, Elsa takes a breath and softly exhales.

“I’m pretty sure he was some sort of monk with a mindset like that, not that there’s anything wrong with it. But, all I could think when he said that was: If there’s no point to anything you do, why not do everything to the fullest for yourself? Why not feel everything at once and be in absolute chaos until one day you go out like a load of fireworks? Sure, you’ll have the chance of being afraid and dealing with pain, but life would be so much less satisfying if you do nothing and in turn get nothing. In the life we live, we take the stakes because the reward is… living. Living, not just surviving.” Elsa struggles to meet Iduna’s gaze. “For so long, I’ve been trying to survive. I completely forgot how much I wanted to live.”

“Elsa…” Iduna subconsciously leans closer. “You may have been born a lycan, but you truly have grown into an astounding siren. I’ve created a monster.”

“You have no idea.” With a sly grin, Elsa meets Iduna’s kiss with ferocious want. Her other hand holds her mother’s face just as Iduna’s hand finds Elsa’s waist. Their hearts beat wildly out of sync and yet harmonize all the same.

Notes:

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