Frozen: Conceal, Don't Feel

by Jen Calonita

  “Anna? She was here? With the prince? When did they leave?” he said hurriedly.

  A large rock rolled forward, and Grand Pabbie unfurled from his slumber. He reached out for Kristoff and took his hands.

  “Kristoff, you came! And just in time, I fear,” he said, his voice gravelly.

  “Where is Anna now? Is she okay? Was she mad at me?” he asked sheepishly and looked at Bulda. “I know I shouldn’t have left her, okay? We’re having a blizzard in the middle of the summer. It’s not normal.”

  Sure, he’d acted like the snow was no big deal, but even an ice expert like him could see it was getting too cold to survive. When he’d last looked at the fjord, he’d seen the ships leaning and cracking. Soon buildings would do the same. There would be nowhere safe to shelter.

  What would happen to Anna?

  “So where is she now? What did you tell Anna?”

  Grand Pabbie’s brow furrowed. “Anna? You mean Princess Elsa. She’s the one that came to see me.”

  “Not Anna?” Kristoff asked, feeling weak.

  “No. Princess Elsa. I tried to help her—in what little way I can, given the curse.”

  “Curse?” Kristoff repeated. This was a lot to take in.

  “She’s in grave danger,” Grand Pabbie said. “You must find her, Kristoff.”

  “Princess Elsa?” he asked. Grand Pabbie was confusing him. “I tried! No one knows where she is—although I met this talking snowman who knows the princess. And Anna and Prince Hans—Elsa’s prince—were headed here.” He looked at the valley opening again. “I thought they’d be here when I arrived.”

  “Anna isn’t coming,” Grand Pabbie said. “She’s on her way back to Arendelle.”

  Kristoff stepped back in surprise. “You know who Anna is?”

  “Anna’s heart must be protected,” Grand Pabbie said. “This is a precarious time for her.”

  “I know,” Kristoff agreed. “I’m worried she’s getting sick, but she’s determined to keep going and find Princess Elsa.”

  “Kristoff, you must listen to me,” he said. “There is a reason Anna feels drawn to Elsa and is fighting so hard to find her. Their connection is stronger than you think.”

  “I’ve sensed that,” Kristoff admitted. “Ever since we journeyed to Arendelle, Anna’s been feeling things…having strange headaches, and this talking snowman of Princess Elsa’s knows her. None of it makes sense.”

  “Is she?” Grand Pabbie scratched his chin. “This is good. She’s starting to remember a past that has been hidden from her and Elsa for far too long.”

  “Past?” Kristoff asked, a new recollection dawning on him. It was as if he were awakening from a slumber himself, one that had kept him from knowing exactly how Anna and Elsa were connected. “Wait a minute.…”

  Grand Pabbie patted his hand. “Yes. Anna and Elsa are sisters.”

  “Anna is a princess?”

  “The curse that has prevented the sisters from being together is fading! Elsa already remembers who Anna is, but Anna’s path has not been so simple. Love can thaw any curse,” he insisted, “but until she regains her memories, Anna and Elsa cannot be near each other. This is very important! She must remember Elsa before they ever come face to face.”

  Kristoff felt his heart practically stop. Anna wouldn’t quit till she found Elsa. “Why?”

  “We don’t have much time together, so I won’t waste it trying to explain the past, but it has to do with the curse,” Grand Pabbie explained. “If Anna gets near Elsa before she remembers their connection, Elsa’s powers will turn her to ice.”

  “What?” Kristoff’s voice sounded hollow to him.

  “Their love for each other is so strong this curse is already fading. Elsa remembers her past, but Anna is not there yet. Until the spell is broken, Anna must be kept away.” Grand Pabbie frowned. “Elsa knows this. It is why she has kept her distance. But I fear someone else knows the truth, and is leading Anna into danger. Kristoff, Anna is headed to Arendelle, and Elsa is there too.”

  Kristoff paled. “Which means…I have to stop her!” Sven started to snort wildly and jump around. “Sven!” Kristoff shouted, climbing the steps double-time as he started running toward the valley’s hidden exit. Sven galloped to meet him.

  He didn’t even think to say goodbye to Grand Pabbie, Bulda, or the others. Only one thing mattered now—saving Anna at all costs.

  When Anna, Hans, and the guard arrived back in Arendelle, the kingdom was almost unrecognizable. In just two days, snow had drifted to the second story of the castle. The fire in the castle courtyard was long gone, and the fountain with the statue of the royal family was completely buried. They had to fight the wind to reach the castle doors, which were frozen over with ice. The guard had to pry them open with a pickax to get them inside.

  A group was gathered in front of the fireplace, trying to keep warm, but it was clear they were shivering. The fire was almost out. Hans and the guard rushed to a group of guards and started talking while members of the castle staff busied themselves getting them blankets and warm clothes. Anna couldn’t move. Being inside the castle made the strange memories inside her head come on at full force.

  A woman in an apron touched her arm. “Miss, are you all right?”

  Anna gasped as a memory of herself with this woman flooded her mind. They were baking cookies in a large kitchen, and someone else was with them…a girl. Anna remembered burning her finger on the stove, and the girl freezing a pot of water so she could cool it down. Elsa? Anna clutched her heart and started to hyperventilate. Was this Miss Olina?

  “Anna! Anna! Are you all right?” Hans rushed to her.

  “Yes.” Anna slowed her breathing. “I…just feel so strange. I…” The sudden memories didn’t seem like dreams. They seemed like missing pieces of her life that she had somehow forgotten. She was desperate to figure out what was happening, but she was in a room of total strangers. If only Kristoff were with them. He’d help her make sense of it all.

  “Where is Prince Hans?” someone cried. “Is he really here?” The Duke of Weselton pushed his way through the crowd. He was bundled up in a hat and several scarves. “Prince! Thank goodness you’re alright. I was worried when my men said they couldn’t find you after the battle.”

  “Where was this battle?” Anna asked. Her teeth were chattering. She felt so cold.

  Hans didn’t answer her. “I’m fine,” he told the Duke. “I got turned around in the snow.”

  The Duke noticed Anna and did a double take. “You!”

  “We meet again.” Anna rubbed her arms to keep warm. “Hello.”

  “You two know each other?” Hans asked, confused.

  “Well, not exactly,” Anna was saying when Olaf stepped forward and the Duke shrieked.

  “Hi! I’m Olaf, and I like warm hugs,” the snowman said. “I’ve brought Anna home! Wait till I tell Elsa! Is she here?”

  Home? Anna thought.

  “No one is permitted to see Princess Elsa!” the Duke declared. “She remains in the dungeons!”

  “She’s here?” Anna asked, but she felt her body fading. She was so tired.

  A woman in a green uniform pushed her way to the front. “Prince Hans! You must do something! The Duke has the princess, and now he’s taken away Lord Peterssen, too!”

  “We demand Lord Peterssen be let out of his chambers!” a man in uniform cried.

  They both started yelling at the Duke, but their voices were drowned out by the memories flooding Anna’s mind.

  A different woman in green, with a cap on her head, placed her hand on Anna’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”

  “Gerda?” Anna whispered, the name all of a sudden popping into her head.

  The woman blinked in surprise. “Why, yes. How did you…”

  A portly man with thinning hair appeared beside her.

  Anna pointed shakily in his direction. “And you’re Kai.”

  “Why, yes, miss,” he said, looking at Gerda in confusion
. “Can we get you warm clothes or glogg, perhaps? Olina doesn’t have supplies to cook much else, I’m afraid.”

  “Olina,” Anna repeated, seeing herself as a small girl in the kitchen with the palace cook again.

  It was all too much for her to bear. She started to back away from the crowd and the people shouting for Lord Peterssen’s release, looking for an escape.

  “Miss?” Kai stepped forward, but Anna rushed through an open door.

  She wandered into what appeared to be a portrait gallery. The large room had a slanted ceiling with blue panels and wooden beams. There was not much furniture—just a few benches and tables—and there were lots of paintings. Anna looked up at a portrait of a female knight in battle. For some reason, she could swear her name was Joan. As a matter of fact, all the portraits seemed familiar. Anna clutched her stomach in agony. Her hands were cold and she felt too weak to stand.

  She didn’t hear the door open behind her.

  “Anna!”

  Hans caught her as she started to collapse. He placed her on one of the benches, cradling her head as she sank into the velvet cushion. Anna couldn’t breathe.

  “What is happening to me?” she said in a panic.

  “You’re freezing! Hang on!” Hans stepped away to light a fire in the fireplace.

  Anna kept talking. “I keep seeing things, hearing voices.…I know names of people I’ve never met before! Olaf remembers me, but I don’t remember him…although I feel like I might.” She looked up at Hans, her eyes full of tears. “I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

  He smiled gently. “It’s all right. You’re not losing your mind.”

  “I’m not?” Anna asked. Her teeth were chattering.

  “No,” he said, and put his hand on top of hers. “I think you’re remembering your old life. The one you had before you were adopted.” He looked at her intently. “I know this will be hard to understand, but the castle is your home.”

  “What?” Anna heard a whooshing sound in her ears. I have to find Elsa.

  Hans continued. “You’re an heir to this kingdom. Your parents gave you up because Elsa struck you with her magic and almost killed you.”

  “No, I’m…no…Elsa wouldn’t…she didn’t…” Anna couldn’t find the words to express what she was feeling. Something inside her was starting to crack. Hans wasn’t making sense, and yet she knew he was telling the truth.

  Do the magic! Do the magic! she heard a child say again with glee. That child was her.

  “It’s true,” Hans insisted. “You don’t remember, but I have the proof right here.” He knelt down by her side and pulled a piece of parchment out of his jacket pocket. “This is a letter from the queen to Elsa telling her everything.”

  Anna’s heart drummed faster. She reached for the letter. Hans held it away from her.

  “Elsa is a threat to this kingdom and must be punished for her crimes, but your family legacy remains intact. You’re the next in line for the throne! Don’t you see?” Hans smiled eagerly. “With Elsa gone, summer will have to be restored! Then you and I can rule Arendelle together.”

  Anna tried to sit up. Her body was shaking, and such varied emotions were swirling that she thought she might implode. What was Hans saying? “I thought you loved Elsa…don’t you?”

  Hans’s face fell as he rose to his full height. “As heir, she was preferable, of course. But after what happened on her coronation day, there was no saving her. You, though…the long-lost princess of Arendelle—the people will adore you once they see their beloved queen’s letter and realize who you are. Don’t you see? My finding you before Elsa was fate.”

  “Elsa was looking for me? She’s seen this letter?” Anna pulled herself up to stand and staggered toward him. “She knows she has a”—Anna played around with the word in her head before saying it aloud—“sister?” Her heart started beating even faster.

  “Yes,” Hans said. “I didn’t tell you earlier because I was trying to protect you.”

  Anna heard the wind howling outside the large window, rattling the frame. The glass was iced over and she could see nothing but white outside.

  She and Elsa were sisters?

  If it was true, why couldn’t she remember her life as a princess of Arendelle?

  Why would her family have sent her away unless Hans was right that Elsa’s magic almost killed her?

  Anna closed her eyes tight, begging herself to remember, but nothing new came to her. Frustrated, she took it out on Hans. “So you learned Elsa tried to kill me and you were willing to lead me right toward her?”

  Hans’s eyes flickered in surprise. “I…The queen’s letter said it was an accident, but…”

  There was something he wasn’t telling her. “Let me read the letter for myself, then.”

  Hans put the letter back in his pocket. “You’re upset. Why don’t you calm down first? I’ll hold the letter for safekeeping.”

  She felt a flash of anger. “So instead of making things right with Elsa, you’ve been trying to sweet-talk me?” Hans’s face reddened. “What is this battle everyone keeps talking about?” Hans shifted slightly. “And where is Elsa? If you know, why don’t you let me talk to her so she can see for herself that the past is in the past? Maybe she’ll stop this storm.”

  Hans’s face was grim. “She’s had her chance. I’ve tried talking to her—in her ice palace on the North Mountain, in fact. She isn’t willing to negotiate, which means she’s sentencing Arendelle and the rest of her kingdom to its doom. She knows all about you, but instead of helping you, she’s cast you aside, just like she did Arendelle.”

  “She wouldn’t do that,” Anna argued.

  Hans gestured to the frozen window, which was still rattling. “But she has. Look outside! We can’t last much longer. The people are looking to me now for rescuing.”

  “How are you going to save them?” Anna scoffed. Hans didn’t say anything. “Wait. You’re going to kill her?” Hans was still silent. “You c-can’t!” she stuttered. “You have no right to decide her fate!”

  Hans didn’t flinch. “I’m the one saving this kingdom, and the people will thank me for it. I’m just sorry you won’t be at my side when I do.”

  “You’re no match for Elsa,” Anna hissed as the rattling from the window grew louder.

  “No, you’re no match for Elsa,” Hans countered. “I thought you might be preferable, but clearly I was wrong. The queen’s secrets will die with her now.” He held the letter over the fire.

  Anna staggered forward in alarm. “No!”

  “Stop!”

  Hans and Anna turned around. Lord Peterssen was standing in the open door with two guards by his sides.

  “Take the prince away!” Lord Peterssen demanded.

  “I…Lord…” Hans looked around for an escape. “Sir, you don’t understand. If you knew the truth, you’d see that this is the only way.”

  “I’ve heard everything I need to.” Lord Peterssen’s eyes flickered to Anna’s. “And Princess Elsa tried to tell me the rest.” He smiled softly. “Hello again, Anna.”

  Anna stepped toward him. He looked familiar too. She opened her mouth to speak and heard the window’s rattling increase. She turned to look, and suddenly the window shattered. The glass flew through the room, a piece slamming into Lord Peterssen and knocking him to the ground. Hans protected his head but was hit by a piece of the window frame. The guards rushed to help the lord up as wind howled through the room, knocking portraits off the wall and sending snow everywhere. That was when Anna saw it.…

  The letter had fallen out of Hans’s hand.

  Anna snatched it before it blew away and staggered out of the room, determined to find her way to the dungeons below.

  Kristoff had barely ridden Sven out of the Valley of the Living Rock when he saw what was happening in the distance: the storm appeared to be directly over the castle. A swirl of white smoke rose like a cyclone before it shot out like a blast, causing a fierce wind to roar through the countryside
and send birch trees sideways. Kristoff and Sven braced for impact, feeling the storm wash over them. His gut told him these new weather conditions weren’t natural. They involved magic.

  And curses.

  Getting to Arendelle fast became even more important.

  “Come on, boy!” Kristoff kicked his legs into Sven’s hide.

  He and Sven rode faster than they ever had before, racing into the wind down the mountainside. His hat was lost halfway down, and he could hardly see what was in front of him due to the blinding snow. The journey felt like it took forever. When Sven finally hit the bottom of the mountain, he skidded out onto what should have been the fjord. Up close, the cyclone of snow and ice looked even more menacing. It swirled toward them, and Kristoff and Sven raced right into it, bracing themselves for whatever would come.

  All that mattered was reaching Anna.

  Anna, with her bright smile, bubbly enthusiasm, big eyes, and need to fill every moment with chatter.

  Anna, with her feisty nature and strong will that had saved him from the wolves…and cost him his sleigh.

  Anna, who was willing to risk her life to save her village and help a princess she didn’t think she knew.

  Leave it to him to wait till now to realize he was falling for her.

  And he might be too late.

  “Come on, buddy! Faster!” Kristoff encouraged Sven as they sped across the fjord. He did a double take.

  They were riding past what appeared to be the bow of a large ship submerged in ice. Through the driving snow, several more ships appeared like ghosts, their masts cracking in the extreme cold.

  Kristoff heard the snap before he knew what was happening. By the time he looked up, a massive ship was starting to fall right toward them. It was too late to get out of the way. All Kristoff could do was lead Sven straight through, ducking as debris rained down on their heads. They cleared the ship right before it crashed, but the force still caused the ice around them to splinter. Kristoff saw the crack spreading beneath them till there was nothing but water in front of them. Sven pitched forward, sending Kristoff flying onto a sheet of ice. Sven plunged into the water.