by Jen Calonita
“Where is he?” Elsa’s cuffs started to glow again.
“No one knows, and we can’t send anyone out to look for him. This cold isn’t even safe for our livestock,” Lord Peterssen told her. “The men who brought you here are the only ones who have made it back. Unfortunately, the Duke met them before I did, and he convinced them to lock you in this dungeon.” She saw his eyes flash angrily. “The men were scared after what happened at your ice palace. I only just learned you were down here. The Duke will pay for claiming authority in a land where he has none.”
“Then you will set me free?” Elsa asked, yanking harder to pull off her cuffs. They glowed brighter. “I can help.”
“I’ve searched everywhere for the key to this room but cannot find it,” Lord Peterssen told her.
Elsa tried not to be disappointed. “I know you will find it. You have always been there for me.”
“I’ve always thought you’d make a fine leader. We need you to lead us now,” Lord Peterssen said. “Will you bring back summer? We can’t hold on much longer.”
Elsa’s arms drooped to her sides. “I truly don’t know how.”
“You are your father’s daughter,” Lord Peterssen said with resolve. His eyes searched hers. “I know you can dig deep inside yourself and figure out a way to stop this storm. We’ve been patient, but we need you now more than ever.”
Be patient. She heard Grand Pabbie in her head.
A storm was raging outside and growing fiercer. The time for patience had passed. She needed Anna’s memories to return and the curse to end. That might be the only way they could save Arendelle and the kingdom: they needed to do it together. “I know,” Elsa told him. “I want to stop this winter badly, but I can’t do it alone. I need to find someone who can help me.”
“Princess, we can’t—”
“Stop right there!”
There was a commotion in the hallway and then shouting. Lord Peterssen was ripped away from the bars. Elsa couldn’t see anything from her vantage point. Suddenly, she glimpsed the top of someone’s head. A white toupee flapped in the wind.
“Lift me up!” she heard someone cry.
His face appeared in the bars on her window. “Princess Elsa,” the Duke of Weselton announced, “you are a threat to Arendelle. You are going nowhere.”
Hans collected fresh supplies and borrowed a second horse for Anna from the people in the cabin they found. The couple insisted they stay overnight before continuing on their journey. After all they had seen with the summer snowstorm, the appearance of Olaf didn’t frighten them at all. By morning, they were begging them not to press on.
“These mountain trails are treacherous even in the most optimal conditions,” the man told them. “And this weather will make it impossible.”
“It’s hailing now, too,” the wife added. “Please, Prince Hans, if you are who you say you are, go back to Arendelle.”
“Maybe they’re right,” Hans said, looking out their cabin windows. All they could see was white. “The storm is getting worse. Soon we won’t be able to get back to Arendelle at all.”
“We have to keep going,” Anna insisted. “You know as well as I do the only way to stop this winter is to find Princess Elsa.”
I want to bake my own cookie for Papa! she heard a child’s voice say in her head. Wait for Miss Olina, another person said.
Who was “Miss Olina”?
“And what if she doesn’t want to be found?” Hans asked as the couple added the last of their wood to the fireplace. “You don’t want to hear this, but Elsa is only thinking of herself. She probably wants to hold the kingdom prisoner.”
Prisoner. Anna’s head seared with pain and she saw a blond woman chained to a wall, snow falling all around. She was hurting. Elsa?
“What’s the matter?” Hans asked.
“Nothing.” She held back from telling Hans what she was seeing. “I’ve just got a slight headache.”
“Maybe that friend of yours was right—this weather is too much on you.” Hans sounded slightly annoyed. “We should turn back to Arendelle before it’s impossible to travel. You can shelter at the castle with me till the storm passes.”
“It’s not going to pass,” Anna reminded him. Not until I help her stop the storm.
She held her breath. What had made her think that? There was another flash, and she saw herself as a little girl sledding across a room full of ice. Why was she seeing memories of moments she couldn’t recall?
Hans frowned. “You’re probably right. I think Elsa wants Arendelle to suffer.”
“No! The princess wouldn’t do that, would she?” the wife asked.
For a man who was supposedly in love with Elsa, Hans had a funny way of showing it. And as charming as he could be, he really did like to rehash the same point over and over. “No,” Anna said, getting aggravated. “I think the princess is frightened. If we could just talk to her, I’m sure we could work this out before the situation worsens. That’s why we need to find her quickly and keep going,” Anna stressed.
Hans sighed. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“Elsa would never hurt Anna,” Olaf interrupted. “She loves her more than anything.”
Anna and Hans looked at the snowman. A gust of wind blew the door open, knocking Olaf’s head off. The husband and wife rushed to bolt it shut again.
“Hey, do me a favor and grab my butt,” Olaf’s head said to Hans.
Anna was lost in her own thoughts.
Olaf.
Her new memories.
The voices.
All those things felt like a tiny itch between her shoulders that she couldn’t reach.
Why had she always dreamed of snow?
Why did she make snowman cookies?
Why did she feel such a pull to Arendelle?
Maybe because she was always supposed to be there at that exact moment to help Elsa. She and Elsa seemed to have a connection Anna didn’t understand. She needed to find the princess and find out why.
There was a sudden pounding on the door. Everyone looked at one another. Hans reached for his sheath.
“Open it,” he instructed the man.
A guard in a green uniform fell through the door.
“My goodness!” the wife cried as she and Anna rushed forward to help him up. The husband struggled to close the door again against the wind.
The guard saw Hans and his eyes widened. “Prince Hans! We’ve been looking for you everywhere.” His voice was hoarse and his face was red with windburn. “When we didn’t see you after the battle, we thought we’d lost you. I planned to keep looking, but my horse is struggling in this cold. I saw the cabin and—”
The husband started putting on layers of clothing. “I’ll get your horse in the barn,” he said, and pulled on his boots before going to the door.
“What battle?” Anna asked.
Hans ignored her and helped the man to the fire. “What’s happened? Is everything all right in Arendelle?”
The wife wrapped the guard in a blanket. He took it gratefully as he shivered. He looked at the people around him, then back at Hans. “May we speak in private?”
“Of course,” the wife said, and put her arm around Anna. “Come, dear. We should see if we can find you some warmer clothes.”
But Anna didn’t want to go. Now wasn’t the time for secrets.
“Is everything all right?” Anna asked the men. “What aren’t you telling us?”
Hans hesitated. “The North Mountain has suffered an avalanche. I don’t want to upset you when you’ve given up so much to be here, but I don’t know if we can continue toward the valley with the situation outside so precarious.” The guard looked at him.
Hans was charming, but there was something about him she wasn’t sure she trusted.
Anna was about to argue, but she suddenly felt it in her aching bones—the castle was calling to her. Elsa wasn’t in the valley anymore, and she’d long ago left the North Mountain. She wasn’t sure h
ow she knew this, but she wasn’t about to share her feeling.
“Let’s go back to Arendelle,” she agreed. “We can wait out the storm in the castle. Maybe when we’re there, we’ll find a clue we’re missing.”
“Yay! Elsa will be so excited to see you!” Olaf said, and Hans looked at him. “She’s been looking for you forever.” Anna didn’t flinch.
Hans smiled. “I meant what I said before—you’d be a great leader.”
“I don’t know about that,” Anna said.
Hans didn’t break his stare. “I do. Let’s get you to Arendelle so you can see that for yourself.”
“It’s official! I’ve decided something, Sven,” Kristoff told his friend as they trudged down the ravine to find what was left of his sleigh. “Who needs people when I have a reindeer?”
Sven grunted. The reindeer was too busy watching the darkening tree line for signs of another wolf attack. Fortunately, between the light of the rising moon and the bright snow, Kristoff and Sven could see pretty far into the distance.
There was no reason to look back.
So he’d let Anna go off with some smooth-talking prince and a snowman to find a princess who didn’t want finding. He wasn’t about to get himself and Sven killed over it.
Yes, he wanted to bring back summer—all this available ice made selling it for a living kind of hard—but he was used to the weather. He spent most days up in the mountains, being covered in snow, wool clothing, and heavy boots that smelled of sweat. And it didn’t matter what he smelled like, because who was around to smell him? Only Sven. Well, reindeer didn’t smell that great, either. So bring on an eternal winter. He could handle it.
But Anna…the cold was clearly getting to her. He’d chalked it up to hypothermia or possibly frostbite, but deep down he knew that wasn’t it. It was almost as if the closer she got to finding Princess Elsa, the more connected she was to her. Like magic.
Let people make fun of magic all they wanted. He knew it was real.
He’d been raised around magic his whole life.
Not that he’d tell Anna that. Why would he when she was so infuriating? She talked on and on and on, not just to him and Sven—to everyone she met!
She was also impulsive and strong-minded, which was how he’d allowed himself to be talked into taking her to Arendelle in the first place. Feisty-pants thought she could stop an eternal winter even though she had no idea how to find Elsa or what she’d say to make her end the madness.
Kristoff could see the wreck of his sleigh as they approached the bottom of the ravine. He was almost afraid to see how bad the damage was. Instead, he concentrated on Sven. “I’ve decided all people want to do is use you and cheat you.” He used his reindeer voice again: “You’re right. They’re all bad! Except you.”
He rubbed Sven’s snout. “Aww, thanks, buddy. Let’s see what we can salvage here.”
He looked at the sled and sighed. His beloved ride was in a million pieces. His lute was destroyed. His ice ax must have gone flying, because it wasn’t among the wreckage. The little food they’d had had already been scavenged by critters. There wasn’t much to salvage, but Kristoff examined every item to make sure. Finally, he climbed onto Sven.
“Now what do we do, Sven? I didn’t think I could find the valley, but we don’t really have a choice. We have to get you out of this weather too, buddy.” He looked around at the landscape. “We’ve got to be close. We’ll find it.”
Sven wouldn’t budge. He snorted loudly.
“Yes, I’m sure she’s fine. They probably made their way to a cabin. I saw smoke in the distance,” Kristoff told him. “We are not joining them there. Let’s go. Stop worrying.”
Sven gave him a withering look.
“You don’t want to help her anymore?” Kristoff said in his Sven voice.
“Of course I don’t want to help her anymore!” Kristoff pulled on Sven’s reins and they started their ascent up the ravine. “In fact, this whole thing has ruined me for helping anyone ever again.”
As they climbed, an angry snow squall descended, causing almost whiteout conditions. Going home was the wise choice. But that meant he was going to the same place Anna was headed.
Sven snorted again.
“Yes, I know that’s where she’s headed.” Sven gave him a look. “Okay, so maybe I do look like a jerk showing up there now when we could have all gone together.”
Sven snorted louder.
“He wasn’t a total stranger—he’s Elsa’s prince.” Kristoff rolled his eyes. “So of course he did the right thing and agreed to go with her.” He thought for a moment. “Okay, yeah. I was a jerk.”
Sven pranced around while Kristoff stood there feeling guilty.
“So now what? We go find her? Or we get to the valley and apologize?”
Sven looked at him.
“Yeah, we won’t find her again in this. We’ll go to the valley and then I’ll apologize when she arrives, okay? I get it. I screwed up.”
Kristoff spent the entire journey to the valley consumed with self-hatred. Anna was out there in this weather with a total stranger. He’d abandoned her when she’d needed him. No wonder Bulda thought he’d never find a girl.
The snow was falling heavier and wetter than it had earlier, but at least the journey was quiet. Without Anna, there was no one to tell him what to do, or talk incessantly about her favorite food (hers was sandwiches), or almost set him on fire.
Maybe he did miss having company. Even Olaf.
Not that he’d tell Sven that.
It took several hours to get to the Valley of the Living Rock, but Kristoff knew the route like the back of his callused hands. Even under all that snow, he was able to spot the peculiar rock formations that marked the location of his home. When they got closer, Kristoff jumped off Sven and they walked up the path of boulders until they arrived at the valley.
The second they were inside the valley, the snow stopped. The air warmed. The ground smelled like fresh dew and was covered with grassy moss. Kristoff descended the path into the fog and watched the rocks start to roll at the sight of him. Sven pranced eagerly, his tongue sticking out of his mouth. Kristoff tapped his knees, beckoning the rocks closer. A large number of them started to roll in his direction. They came to a stop and began to unfurl.
“Kristoff’s home!” shouted Bulda, a female troll who was front and center. His adoptive mother held her arms out for a hug. Kristoff stepped closer and she wrapped herself around his legs. The red gems around her neck seemed to have grown since the last time he visited. Several of them glowed, making her mossy-green dress look almost orange.
Dozens of other trolls unfurled from their rocky slumber and cheered. They clambered over one another to see him. “Yay! Kristoff’s home!” they shouted.
The trolls had been his family ever since he was a small child. Life in an orphanage was no place for a free spirit like him. Whenever he could, he’d snuck out and followed the Arendelle ice harvesters up the mountain to see how they worked. On one such trip, he found Sven, and they became inseparable. After that, he didn’t want to go back to the orphanage. Sven and ice were his new life. He was even earning a living! But one summer night, he was working with Sven when they saw a different kind of ice. It was crackling and glowing on the grassy mountainside. He and Sven were curious, so they followed the strange path up the mountain. It led them straight to the Valley of the Living Rock. Bulda spotted him and adopted him and Sven on the spot. Come to think of it, he never had asked her why that ice had appeared in the middle of the summer like that.
“Let me look at you!” Bulda said, beckoning him to stoop down to her level. Kristoff took a knee. “Are you hungry?” she asked. “I just made a stone soup. I’ll fetch you a cup.”
“No,” Kristoff said quickly. He hated stone soup. Impossible to swallow. “I just ate. It’s great to see you all. Have you had any visitors?” He looked around for Anna.
“No one but you!” Bulda said. “Why, are you expecting so
meone?”
If he told her he was expecting a girl to be there, he’d never hear the end of it. “No, but…where is Grand Pabbie?”
“He’s napping,” said one of Kristoff’s little cousins. “But look! I grew a mushroom!” He showed off the mushroom growing on his mossy back.
“I earned my fire crystal,” said another, holding up a glowing red stone.
“I passed a kidney stone,” said one of his uncles, holding up the rock as proof.
“If you aren’t hungry for my cooking, what brings you home?” Bulda asked.
Nothing got past her.
“I just wanted to see you, that’s all,” Kristoff lied.
Bulda studied him carefully, then looked at the others. “This is about a girl!”
The others cheered in agreement.
“No, no, no! You’ve got this all wrong!” Kristoff said even as his face grew red.
Sven snorted loudly, and several trolls gathered round as he pawed at the dirt and made noises.
“It is about a girl!” Bulda exclaimed, and the others chimed in again.
Kristoff rolled his eyes. “Guys, please! I’ve got bigger problems than finding a girl. The whole kingdom is covered in—”
“Snow?” Bulda said. “We know. But we want to hear about you!”
Kristoff gaped. “How do you know about the snow?”
Bulda ignored his question. “If you like this girl, why didn’t she come home with you? Did your grumpiness scare her off?”
“No,” he argued. “This isn’t about me. I—”
“You tell this girl that she’ll never met a fellow as sensitive and as sweet as my Kristoff!”
Now he felt even worse. “This is not about me and this girl! It’s about Arendelle! I know you can’t see it from inside your cocoon here, but it’s not just the land outside the valley covered in snow. It’s the whole kingdom! And it’s the middle of the summer!” His family stood there, blinking. “If you know how to stop it, tell me!”
One of his little cousins pulled on Bulda’s dress. “I thought Grand Pabbie said we couldn’t tell anyone that she was here.” Bulda made a face. “What? Didn’t he say it was a secret?”
