“Excuse me, gentlemen...”
She threw up her arms and transformed her formal teal and black gown into a simple blue dress with a slit in the skirt, translucent sleeves and a matching cape attached to the back, for the hell of it, covered in ice crystals. Her shoes came to match, the pattern on them similar to that of a snowflake and finally she unwound her hair from its neat bun, cascading it down into a fishtail plait and fluffed out her fringe, having had it combed back neatly for far too long.
The effect was striking, and though it probably wasn’t the best disguise in the world, although from a distance it was hard to tell that she was the same Princess who had just run out of the palace, she felt better for the change. There would be no more keeping her powers locked inside this time, she decided, they could be free now, and so would she.
She spent most of the night walking and trying hard not to think of Farquaad any longer. It wasn’t easy, however. Each time his image drifted into her mind, it tore at her heart a little more. People always said that time was a great healer, and maybe with time she could learn to live with how he had hurt her. She had stopped crying by the time the sun rose the following morning, having finally fallen asleep between the large roots of a shady oak tree and been woken by the twittering of birdsong in the early hours of the day, but the pain still twisted inside her, like someone forcing a knife in between her ribs.
In daylight, the landscape looked easier to navigate and Elsa was certain that a great tower in the middle of nowhere shouldn’t be too difficult to find. And even if it was, well, it was an adventure, and she would go wherever it took her.
She soon came across a small stream where she could bathe her face and take a drink, but she was hungry too, and had no idea what to do about that. If she had a net, she supposed, she could catch some fish, but since she didn’t, well, that plan was out of the question.
Elsa sighed and got to her feet, noticing a field of sunflowers nearby, and then she did a double take upon realising that something was ploughing its way through it, judging by the way the flowers were waving about. She tensed, wondering if it was something dangerous, or something she could make a meal out of, and then, reminding herself that she could use her powers to attack it in either case, she made her way towards the edge and parted some of the leaves to see what was approaching her.
She was surprised to say the least. A large, green ogre and a small donkey, of all the unlikely parties in the world, were ploughing their way through the sunflowers, and conversing, or rather the ogre seemed to be trying to explain something to the donkey that the donkey wasn’t quite getting.
“Layers!” he exclaimed. “Onions have layers! Ogres have layers! Onions have layers...You get it? We both have layers!”
With an irritated sigh, he threw down the onion he was holding and stomped off.
“Oh, you both have lay-ers,” the donkey repeated, sniffing the onion. “You know, not everybody likes onions. Cakes! Everybody likes cakes! Cakes have layers!”
Elsa began to giggle to herself as the ogre growled “I don’t care what everyone likes. Ogres are not like cakes!”
He turned to go and Elsa decided that this was probably a good moment to try and collar them before the donkey suggested something that really upset the ogre. She was, she had to admit, surprised by his demeanour, since she had always been taught that ogres were scary by nature, but this one seemed almost human.
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” she said, pushing forwards to meet them.
Both ogre and donkey looked surprised by her sudden appearance.
“Are you talking to us?” the ogre asked.
“Yes,” Elsa replied, offering her politest smile, “I was just wondering if you knew where I might find something to eat around here. Somehow I seem to have missed breakfast.”
The donkey looked pointedly at the ogre, who sheepishly held out two corncobs in his hand. “Well, if you like corn...I was saving it for myself but you can have it if you want.”
“Anything as long as it’s edible,” Elsa replied, quickly taking one before he could change his mind and biting into it. It was raw but sweet and quickly sated her hunger. “Thank you.”
The ogre shrugged and made his way past her. The donkey, however, lingered.
“So, where’d you come from? You live out here?” he asked.
“Donkey,” sighed the ogre. “Let’s go.”
Elsa smiled and fell into step beside Donkey. “It’s a long story. I sort of ran away from home and now I’m trying to find my cousin, although I’m not actually sure where she lives. I’ve never been there before.”
“Aw, that is a darn shame,” Donkey replied, and then his ears pricked up as he added brightly “Hey, maybe you should tag along with us! That’d be alright, wouldn’t it, Shrek?”
“Oh, for the love of Pete!” sighed Shrek. “I’m supposed to be getting my swamp back, not picking up every lost down-and-out that crosses my path!”
“Hey! That’s no way to speak to a lady!” Donkey hissed. “Now I think she should come with us! I think you should come with us,” he added to Elsa.
Elsa smiled. “Well, that’s very kind of you, but I don’t want to put you out at all.”
“No, whatcha talking about, girl, you wouldn’t, would she?” Donkey insisted, looking at Shrek.
The ogre raised a hand to his temple and sighed “Ok, fine! You can come with us.”
Elsa stepped up to him. “Well, thank you, Shrek, was it?” She held out her hand. “I’m Elsa.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Donkey exclaimed. “The Elsa! The Princess who they say can create ice and snow!”
Elsa nodded, slowly. “Yes.”
“Wow!” Donkey exclaimed. “So, is it true you can really make all that stuff happen?”Elsa smiled and gave him a quick demonstration by conjuring some ice in her hands and making it burst into a tiny firework in front of their eyes. “Ooh!” Donkey exclaimed.
Shrek was impressed, although he didn’t let on as he added “Then you won’t like where we’re going; great tower guarded by a fire-breathing dragon.”
“Seriously?” Elsa ran to catch up with him. “Because I was looking for a dragon-guarded tower too.”
“Ain’t that a coincidence?” Donkey grinned.
Shrek glanced at her. “Really? How come?”
“It’s where my cousin lives,” Elsa explained. “Her name’s Fiona.”
“Whoa, hold up!” Donkey exclaimed, kicking his back hooves in the air. “Princess Fiona is your cousin?”
“That’s right,” Elsa replied. “Were you going to rescue her?”
“Aye, for Prince Hans,” Shrek replied. “He’s sent a whole load of fairytale things to squat in my swamp, and I have to bring back the Princess to him in order to get it back.”
“Oh, I see,” Elsa sighed. “He’s too proud to do the dirty work himself, so he sends someone else to do it for him? That’s not going to sit well with Fiona.”
“Not my problem, Princess,” Shrek replied, striding away from her.
“Well, wait!” Elsa ran after him. “How are you planning to fight the dragon? Don’t you need armour and stuff?”
“I don’t know, I’m making this up as I go,” Shrek muttered.
“In that case, I’m definitely going with you,” Elsa decided. “I can help. My magic might be able to keep the dragon at bay.”
Shrek shrugged and walked on. “Come on, then, if you’re coming.”
“Aw, don’t feel bad, Princess,” Donkey said, coming up to her. “He’s like that to everybody.”
Elsa smiled. “You two have a bizarre relationship, you know. How did you two meet?”
“Oh, I was getting sold to Prince Han’s soldiers because I can talk. You know, the whole Rewards for Fairytale Creatures thing.” Elsa nodded because she had heard about that, although it hadn’t extended as far as Duloc just yet. “And anyway, I’m no fool, so when the woman who owned me tried to sell me, well, I just kept quiet and they thought she was crazy. I slipped away with some fairy dust and the next thing you know I’m running through the forest headlong into an ogre who manages to scare off the soldiers chasing me.” Donkey nodded in Shrek’s direction. “He’s not such a bad guy, under the whole ogre thing.”
“Well, if he can get my cousin out of her tower, then he’s got my vote,” Elsa replied. “Does he know where he’s going?”
“I heard that!” Shrek called from the front.
“Yeah, Prince Hans gave us some vague directions,” Donkey replied.
“What’s he like?” Elsa asked, certain that she had heard the name mentioned somewhere before, but she couldn’t place where.
“Oh, he seems kind of nice,” Donkey replied, “although he has a thing about fairytale creatures. I think he’s got perfection issues or something.”
Elsa bit back a laugh, thinking that her cousin was probably not the kind of princess that Prince Hans was expecting to get at all.
They made their way through a grassy meadow and up a hill towards an abandoned windmill, during which she and Donkey kept the conversation going, with Shrek giving off the occasional grunt or grumble but mainly keeping to himself. The hill led downwards into further grassy pastures, filled with clover and giant boulders, with Shrek getting a bit irritated every time one of them stopped, but they bore it well. He just seemed a bit grumpy to Elsa, that was all, but otherwise decent underneath, as Donkey had said. Eventually, when night set in, they made camp, starting a fire easily and soon Donkey had fallen asleep and was muttering in his dreams, twitching sometimes and causing Elsa to giggle.
Shrek glanced over at her. “So, why is it you’re going to see your cousin, then?”
Elsa had known that it was inevitable, that one of them would ask for details of her flight from home sooner or later, and somehow it was a bit easier to open up to Shrek than to Donkey. She had a feeling he would listen, whereas Donkey would probably start talking halfway through her story.
“I had to leave Duloc,” she confessed, “because...well, I married Lord Farquaad and I thought that he loved me. But it turned out that he was just using me, for my powers. He thought he could win some political battle with them. And when I found out, well, I just couldn’t stay there.” Shrek said nothing and she sighed, covering her face with her hands. “I was such an idiot. I thought I knew what love was, but it turns out I’ve got no idea.” She moved her hands. “Well, maybe if Fiona does marry this Prince Hans, maybe she can put me up somewhere. I can’t stay in Duloc. I just can’t.”
“Won’t he be looking for you?” Shrek asked.
“He is looking for me,” Elsa replied. “But he can’t make me go back with him.”
“But you’re married,” Shrek replied.
“And that matters?” Elsa clenched her hands into fists. “Love, True Love, it’s when you’re there for someone no matter what, it’s when you’d give up your life in a second to save them, when you’d sacrifice anything it takes to make them happy. If Farquaad isn’t prepared to give me that, if he can’t love me, then I’m never going back to him.” They were quiet a while and then she added “It hurts, you know, when you find out that someone you love doesn’t feel the same. Betrayal feels worse. I’m all torn up inside and all I can do is hope that time’ll somehow heal the wounds.” Pulling herself together, she added, “So, once you rescue Fiona, what happens then? You get your swamp back?”
“Exactly the way it was,” Shrek agreed.
“Just you and Donkey?”
“Just me. I’d rather be alone.”
“But being alone’s so...lonely.”
“Not for me, it’s not.”
Elsa had a feeling that that was as much as she was going to get out of him for now, so she smiled and said “Well, I guess everyone’s different in that department.”
She lay down on the hollow log they’d been sitting on and stared into the dying flames of their fire, willing sleep to come. Then, Shrek said “You know, you’re probably the first person I’ve ever met that hasn’t run away in fear and disgust yet.”
“Well, there’s a good reason for that,” Elsa replied. “I’m not scared of you and I’m not disgusted by you. I’ll admit I was a bit surprised to see you and Donkey coming towards me through a field of sunflowers, but you seem alright, not how I thought an ogre would be at all.”
“Well, thanks,” Shrek said, with real feeling, and Elsa smiled at him.
“Don’t mention it,” she replied, closing her eyes and letting sleep finally take her.
