Elsa of Corona - Chapter 36, Part 2

[butterflydreaming]

ooo

As she walked down the corridor, Elsa silently fought with herself. She
could easily turn and go up the stairs, and if she escaped into her room
and sleep, no one would disturb her. She could explain it away as simple
exhaustion. But Elsa couldn’t allow herself to give in. She would slide
like an avalanche if she ever gave in to the storms that howled inside her.

And so she fought with herself and won, and went out to the stables instead
to see to Maximus. He needed grooming and exercise. Besides, the apple in
her dress pocket was for him, his share in the feast celebrating the return
of a lost princess.

If she were unable to attend to him, he would still be well cared for, just
like all the other horses in the stables. She gave that thought
consideration, her steps slowing as she strode through the orchards, a
shortcut to the stables. He was a horse in the castle guard, after all, and
though she might consider Maximus her dear friend, he did not exist only
for her attention. He would not languish if she were gone.

Gone from Corona, or gone from the world, Elsa would not leave anyone
bereft, she thought to herself. For a moment, she let herself float in that
thought as a snowflake might float when the wind stopped blowing. She
closed her eyes. The breath she inhaled, although filled with the scent of
the orchard, settled in her chest like the crisp, clean air of a mountain
cloud.

Eyes closed, Elsa leaned against a tree trunk and simply breathed.

When she opened her eyes after the long moment of quiet, Olaf was standing
in front of her, staring at her open-mouthed. “I thought you fell asleep,
there,” he said, becoming lively. “I thought you were an Elsa statue!”

“Which one, Olaf? Asleep or a statue?” Elsa asked in an airy voice.

“I dunno,” Olaf answered, his bucktoothed mouth turning into a lopsided
grin. “I could stare at you all day long.”

Elsa grimaced. She straightened her posture. “I don’t want anyone looking
at me all day.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m nothing to look at,” Elsa said, knowing even as she said it
that it wasn’t the reason. “It doesn’t matter,” she said.

“Why not?”

She raised an eyebrow at Olaf. "Where do all these questions come from,
Olaf?"

"I dunno," he said.

"Nevermind," Elsa said, unable to keep back a small smile. She reached out
and fluttered her fingers over the snowman. "This summer weather has never
been very good for you," she commented. "You should go."

"Go where?"

"I don't know," she said as she waved him away into snowflakes.

She went on and found Maximus. The stallion dozed in his stall, but not
deeply, because when Elsa took the apple from her pocket and sent a
not-too-cold current of air spinning out from it, his nostrils quivered. He
awoke with the smell of his favorite fruit.

She walked the rest of the way in to the stable and handed the apple over.
Maximus took it between his broad teeth and chomped down. Elsa simply
watched him, happy for his happiness. “I wish I could focus more on the
little things,” she said to him.

He snorted and gave her a look.

“No, it’s nothing,” she answered his wordless question. “ ‘The beauty of
the world! The paragon of animals!’” she quoted at him. She sighed. Maximus
snorted again. “That’s Shakespeare,” Elsa answered back with false distain.
“Is that my thanks for calling you a paragon?” She leaned on the stall
door. “Why can I never stay happy, my friend? What a lovely delusion it is,
to be happy.”

Finished with his apple, Maximus put his nose close to Elsa’s head and
whuffled at her hair.

“Rapunzel is with Aunt and Uncle,” she said. “Flynn is… roaming freely
wherever he wants. He will probably find them. I suppose I could go join
them all, too.” She lifted her head. “Or we could go for a ride. Flynn told
me where he found the hidden tower, more or less. He got turned around, but
I think we can pick up the trail. What do you think?”

She unlatched stall door without waiting for an answer. She buckled on his
saddle when he stepped out, then put herself in the saddle and gave him the
cue to trot out. Before leaving the castle grounds entirely, she left a
message for Nils, in case anyone looked for her while she was gone.

They passed through the town and over the bridge at a canter. Once they
reached the woods, Elsa gave Maximus rein to run. Soon the world washed by
in a blur. They left the King’s Road after about two miles, though well
before then Elsa had slowed Maximus to a more practical pace. In the shade
of the forest trees, on a twisting path lumpy with tree roots, Maximus was
content to amble along. Because they kept a steady pace and direction, they
still covered the distance quickly. Elsa soon spotted the stream that she
believed flowed near Rapunzel’s tower.

They followed the trickling waterway upstream. It grew wider and deeper,
becoming a stream supporting fish and frogs. Soon, however, Elsa and
Maximus came to a place where the stream flowed out through a pile of large
boulders. A wall of rock blocked progress further upstream.

Elsa looked for the growth of ivy vines that Flynn had described as hiding
the passage through the rock. The ivy grew densely in spite of the obscured
sunlight, no doubt aided by Mother Gothel’s witchery. Maximus sniffed along
the ground. He caught Flynn and Rapunzel’s scent, but he walked past the
secret entrance twice. Elsa found it by walking the length of the wall near
where Maximus indicated that the trail disappeared. She pulled at the ivy
vines until she at last found the loose ones that formed the obscuring
curtain.
“If I cut these, it might release dark magic. I wonder if they will just
grow back thicker,” she thought aloud. “I think I will be smarter about it
than that.”

ooo