“Elsa, stop!” Anna pleaded. She rushed onto the fjord after her sister but slipped on the ice. She was too far behind to catch up.
Hans reached out for Anna and helped her to stand. “Anna, are you all right?” he asked.
They both watched as Elsa reached the far shore and made her way into the mountains. Anna strained to see the path Elsa had taken.
“Did you know?” Hans asked Anna.
“No,” Anna replied. Then she nodded. “But it makes so much sense.”
They walked back through the village and overheard the Duke speaking. He was addressing a growing crowd of concerned people. “The queen has cursed this land,” he said. “She must be stopped! You must go after her!”
Anna rushed over to him. “No!” she shouted. “No one is to go anywhere.”
“You!” The Duke shook a finger at Anna. “Is there sorcery in you, too?” he shouted. “Are you a monster, too?”
“No, I’m completely ordinary,” Anna replied.
Hans took her hand. “That’s right, she is,” he told the Duke.
“And my sister is not a monster,” Anna added.
The Duke scowled. “She nearly killed me,” he said dramatically.
“You slipped on ice,” Hans pointed out.
Anna stepped forward. “It was an accident. She was scared. She didn’t mean it. She didn’t mean any of this.” She paused. “All she’s ever wanted is to be perfect and good. Tonight was my fault. I pushed her. So I’m the one who needs to go after her.”
Anna turned to her royal guards. “Bring me my horse, please.”
“What? Anna, no!” Hans shouted. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I’m not afraid of Elsa,” Anna said. “I’ll bring her back and make this right.”
A royal guard brought Anna’s horse to her. She took her cloak, which was hanging over the saddle, and wrapped it around her shoulders.
“I’m coming with you,” Hans said.
“No,” Anna told him. “I need you here to take care of Arendelle.”
Hans saw the desperation in Anna’s eyes. He put his hand to his chest. “On my honor,” he said, bowing his head.
“I leave Prince Hans in charge!” Anna told the crowd.
“Are you sure you can trust her?” Hans asked as Anna mounted the horse. When Anna didn’t reply, he leaned in. “I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“She’s my sister,” Anna said. “She’d never hurt me.”
Urging her horse into a gallop, Anna took off over the frozen fjord toward the mountains as snow continued to fall.
Elsa trudged up the steep North Mountain. Ever since she was a child, she had been taught to conceal her powers. Now that was all over. She felt sad and worried as she gazed back at Arendelle far below. She knew no one in Arendelle would ever see her in the same way again.
But a tiny part of her also felt relieved. Her magic had been a hard secret to keep, and she didn’t have to hide it anymore. Being alone was easier, too. She didn’t have to worry about hurting anyone.
As she continued up the mountain, her steps actually became a little lighter. Now that everyone knew what she was capable of, she was free to be herself!
With a wave of her hand, Elsa started to experiment with her magic. Snow and ice whirled around her as she created snowmen and icy patterns in the air. The farther she got from Arendelle, the more confident she felt. As she took each step, her ability to draw forth ice and cold grew stronger and more powerful.
Elsa plucked off her crown and threw it aside. She tossed her head and her tightly bound hair came loose, cascading over one shoulder in a thick, wavy braid. Twirling around, she conjured up a flowing new outfit of ice, a crystal-blue gown with a cape of gossamer frost. Snow was her element. She was the Snow Queen!
Thrilled to let her powers loose at last, Elsa found that she could do more than she realized. As released her magic, a staircase of ice extended upward…to an exquisite ice palace that grew as she raised her arms!
This was where she would live. When the castle was finished, Elsa slammed the door. She was home at last.
The wind howled and the snow blew into Anna’s face. She struggled to guide her horse up the frozen mountain path. She was determined to find Elsa. Anna was sure her sister would thaw the fjord and bring back summer. The whole kingdom would celebrate, and the two sisters would live happily ever after. The thought encouraged Anna as she rode through the snowdrifts.
“Elsa!” Anna called into the blizzard. “It’s me, Anna. Your sister who didn’t mean to make you freeze the summer!” She paused, shivering in the cold. “Wow, that’s a sentence I never thought I’d say. Anyway, I’m sorry! This is all my f-f-f-fault.”
A wolf’s howl interrupted Anna’s cries.
Her horse stopped and looked around nervously. Anna tried to convince herself that the sounds were just puppies playing.
“Of course, none of this would have happened if she’d just told me her secret,” Anna said with a sigh.
A tree branch snapped, and the horse panicked. It whinnied and kicked up its front legs.
“Whoa, whoa!” Anna commanded, pulling back on the reins. She flew off the horse into a snowdrift! She sat up, spit snow out of her mouth, and looked around just in time to see her horse running away.
“No, no, no! Come back!” Anna called, but the horse was long gone. “Okay,” she said to herself. She had to keep focused. She struggled to stand up and dusted the snow off her dress.
“Snow, it had to be snow,” she grumbled. “She couldn’t have had a tropical magic that covered the fjords in white sand and warm…” A welcome sight interrupted Anna’s rant. She saw smoke rising in the distance. “Fire!”
Anna took one more step and stumbled down a steep hill. She began to roll like a snowball, layering on more and more snow as she went.
Anna landed with a splash in an icy stream and the snowball broke apart. She got to her feet, shivering. “Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold…,” she muttered. She was standing next to a small building. A wooden sign hung in front of her: WANDERING OAKEN’S TRADING POST. A lump of snow fell off the sign. “And sauna!” she said, reading the end of the sign.
Anna hurried inside. The little shop was stocked with summer supplies—after all, it was technically still summertime. She gazed at the goods, looking for warm clothes.
“Hoo, hoo!” called a blond man behind the counter wearing a bright sweater. His name was Oaken, and he was the owner. “Big summer blowout,” he said hopefully. “Half off on our swimming suits, clogs, and a sun balm of my own invention, ja?”
“Oh, great,” Anna said, looking around the store. “For now, how about boots? Winter boots and dresses?”
“Well, that would be in our winter department,” the man said in a thick accent.
Anna darted toward the single rack of warm clothing. “Oh, um, I was just wondering,” she said, trying to sound casual, “has another young woman, the queen, perhaps, I don’t know, passed through here?” She brought a pair of boots and some clothes to the counter and set them in front of Oaken.
“Only one crazy enough to be out in the storm is you, dear,” Oaken said in a pleasant voice.
At that moment, the front door opened and a gust of frigid air blew in. A large, broad man entered. He was dressed for the arctic cold and completely covered in snow, with only his brown eyes showing. It was Kristoff, and he was looking for supplies, too.
“You and this fellow. Hoo, hoo,” Oaken sang out. “Big summer blowout.”
Kristoff pushed past Oaken and went straight to Anna. “Carrots,” he demanded.
“Huh?” Anna asked.
“Behind you,” Kristoff said crossly, pointing.
“Oh, right,” Anna said. “Excuse me.” She moved out of the way, and Kristoff grabbed a bag of carrots from a shelf behind her. He gathered a few other supplies as he moved briskly around the shop.
“A real howler in July, ja?” Oaken said, trying to make conversation with the stran
ger. “Wherever could it be coming from?”
“The North Mountain,” Kristoff replied.
“The North Mountain,” Anna repeated to herself. Was that where Elsa had gone?
Kristoff brought his pile of supplies to the front counter.
“That’ll be forty, ja?” Oaken said.
“Forty?” Kristoff barked. “No, ten.”
“No, see, these are from our winter stock,” Oaken told him. “Where supply and demand have a big problem.”
“You want to talk about a supply-and-demand problem?” Kristoff asked. “I sell ice for a living!”
Anna walked over to the counter and smiled at Kristoff. “Ice. Really?” she said. “That’s a rough business to be in right now.”
“Forty,” Oaken repeated. “But I will throw in a visit to Oaken’s sauna. Hoo, hoo!”
Kristoff and Anna both peered over Oaken’s shoulder to see a family waving from a toasty sauna in a room behind him.
“Ten’s all I got,” Kristoff told him. “Help me out, ja?”
Oaken held up the bag of carrots. “Ten will get you this and no more.”
Kristoff glared at Oaken, seething.
“Just tell me one thing,” Anna said, moving closer to Kristoff. “What was happening on the North Mountain? Did it seem…magical?”
Kristoff pulled down his scarf, revealing his face. He looked down sharply at Anna. “Yes!” he shouted. “Now back up while I deal with this crook here.”
Oaken rose from his chair. He did not appreciate being called a crook. “What did you call me?” he said. He was much taller and wider than Kristoff had expected. Oaken loomed over the counter. Then, with a frown, Oaken swiftly threw Kristoff out of the shop.
Kristoff went flying out the door and landed face-first in a mound of snow next to Sven, who had been waiting patiently outside. Kristoff pulled his head out of the snow. “Ow!” he moaned.
“Goodbye!” Oaken said pleasantly, and slammed the door.
The reindeer snorted and moved over to Kristoff, snuffling and searching in the snow.
“No, Sven,” Kristoff told him. “I didn’t get your carrots.”
The hungry reindeer huffed in his face. Then Kristoff turned his head and spotted something that made him brighten. There was a barn behind the trading post—a warm place to spend the night.
“But I did find us a place to sleep,” he added. “And it’s free.”
Back in the shop, Oaken returned to his other customer. “I’m sorry about this violence,” he told Anna. “I will add a quart of lutefisk so we have good feelings.” He looked over at what she had selected. “Just the outfit and the boots, ja?”
Anna looked at her supplies, and then over at the bag Kristoff had left on the counter. She smiled as an idea occurred to her.
Shortly afterward, Anna left Oaken’s shop and looked around. She could hear singing coming from the barn. She pushed open the door quietly and peered inside. Kristoff was lying against a bale of hay, playing his lute. He was singing to his reindeer…and then, singing as Sven, he finished the song from the reindeer’s point of view.
“Ahem.” Anna cleared her throat. When Kristoff looked over, she smiled. “Nice duet,” she said.
“Oh, it’s just you,” he said when he saw Anna standing in front of him. “What do you want?”
“I want you to take me up the North Mountain,” she declared.
“I don’t take people places,” Kristoff replied. He closed his eyes and lay back in the hay.
“Let me rephrase that,” Anna said. She threw the sack of supplies she had just bought over to Kristoff. They were exactly the items he’d wanted.
“Umph!” he grunted as the heavy bag landed on his chest.
“Take me up the North Mountain,” she ordered.
Kristoff regarded her carefully. He was not used to taking orders. And he especially couldn’t see any reason to follow Anna’s.
“Look,” Anna said. “I know how to stop this winter.”
Kristoff hesitated. If the cold weather stopped, he might be able to sell his ice down in Arendelle again.
“We leave at dawn,” he said finally. “And you forgot the carrots for Sven.”
Anna dropped a bag of carrots on Kristoff’s face.
“Ooh!” he said.
“Oops, sorry, sorry,” Anna said. Then she caught herself. She was trying to take charge, after all. “We leave now,” she declared. “Right now!”
Kristoff looked over at Sven and offered him a carrot. Sven took a healthy bite. So did Kristoff. They looked at the stranger before them as they chewed. They both knew she had no clue what was ahead.
Kristoff held the reins tightly, steering Sven and the sled through the thick, heavy snow. The night sky was cloudy with the promise of still more snow.
“Hang on!” Kristoff yelled to his passenger. “We like to go fast!”
Sven responded happily and charged forward through the drifts.
“I like fast,” Anna answered. She leaned back and put her feet up on the front of the sled to show that she was not bothered by the high speed.
“Get your feet down,” Kristoff scoffed. “This is fresh lacquer.” He glanced at her sideways. “Seriously, were you raised in a barn?” He leaned over and wiped down his new sled.
“No, I was raised in a castle,” Anna replied.
“So tell me,” Kristoff said, “what made the queen go all ice crazy?”
“It was all my fault,” Anna blurted out. “I got engaged and she freaked out, because I’d only just met him, you know, that day. And she said she wouldn’t bless the marriage.”
“Wait,” Kristoff said. “You got engaged to someone you just met that day?”
“Yeah, anyway,” Anna replied, dismissing his comment. “I got mad and yelled at her, and she tried to walk away, but I grabbed her glove, and—”
“Wait. You got engaged to someone you just met that day?” Kristoff repeated.
“Yes, are you listening?” Anna snapped. “Thing is, she wore the gloves all the time, but I just thought the girl’s got a thing about dirt.”
“Didn’t your parents ever warn you about strangers?” Kristoff asked.
“Yes, they did,” Anna said. She looked Kristoff over carefully and slid farther away from him on the seat. After all, he was a stranger. “But Hans is not a stranger.”
Kristoff raised his eyebrows. “Oh, yeah? What’s his last name?”
Anna frowned, thinking. “Of the Southern Isles?” she offered.
“What’s his favorite food?” Kristoff fired off.
Anna hesitated. “Sandwiches.”
“Best friend’s name?” Kristoff quickly followed up.
“Probably John,” Anna replied, reflecting that lots of people were named John. So maybe Hans’s best friend would be, too.
“Eye color?” Kristoff pressed.
“Dreamy.” Anna smiled.
“Have you had a meal with him yet?” Kristoff asked. “What if you hate the way he eats? What if you hate the way he picks his nose?”
Anna wrinkled her forehead. “Picks his nose?”
“And eats it,” Kristoff added.
“Excuse me, sir,” Anna said. “He is a prince.”
Kristoff shook his head. “All men do it.”
“Ewww!” Anna made a face. “Look, it doesn’t matter. It’s true love.”
“Doesn’t sound like true love,” Kristoff said, staring straight ahead.
“Are you some sort of love expert?” Anna asked.
“No, but I have friends who are,” he responded.
“You have friends who are love experts?” Anna asked sarcastically.
Kristoff’s eyes widened and he stopped the sled. “Stop talking,” he demanded.
“No, I want to meet these friends,” she insisted with a grin.
Kristoff put his hand over Anna’s mouth. “I mean it. Shhhh!” He stood up and looked into the dark woods. He held up a lantern. Suddenly, he yelled, “Sven! Go! GO!”
The sled took off and Anna fell backward. She saw glowing eyes in the darkness all around them. “What are they?” she whispered.
“Wolves,” Kristoff said.
“What do we do?” Anna asked. She looked at Kristoff and readied herself.
“I’ve got this,” Kristoff said calmly. “You just don’t fall off—and don’t get eaten.”
“But I want to help,” Anna said.
“No,” Kristoff replied.
“Why not?” Anna pouted.
“Because I don’t trust your judgment,” Kristoff said.
Anna was offended. “Excuse me?”
A wolf jumped at the sleigh, and Kristoff kicked it back. “Who marries a man she’s just met?”
Anna was seething. “It’s true love!” She picked up Kristoff’s lute and swung it at his head. He ducked, and Anna struck a wolf that was about to lunge onto the sled!
“Whoa!” Kristoff exclaimed, just as another wolf jumped up and knocked him down. He fell out and was dragged behind the sled.
“Christopher!” Anna cried.
“It’s Kristoff!” he yelled.
Anna took the lantern and lit the sled’s blanket on fire. She threw the flaming blanket toward Kristoff, and the wolves tumbled off him. Then she reached out and pulled him back onto the sled. Kristoff looked at her in dismay.
“You almost set me on fire,” he said.
“But I didn’t,” Anna replied.
Sven suddenly whinnied. Ahead of him was a steep drop into a massive gorge.
“Get ready to jump, Sven!” Anna called.
“You don’t tell him what to do!” Kristoff shouted. “I do!”
In one swift movement, he grabbed Anna and threw her onto Sven’s back. Then he unhooked the reindeer’s harness. “Jump!”
Sven leaped and cleared the gorge with Anna on his back.
Just behind them, Kristoff boldly jumped with the sled. The sled didn’t make it all the way across, but just before it fell into the gorge, Kristoff threw himself off and caught the edge of the cliff on the other side. Down below, his new sled burst into flames as he dangled from the cliff. “I just got it.” He looked down with a sigh. Then his hands started to slip on the slick ice. “Uh-oh,” he said in alarm. “No, no, no!”
Frozen Junior Novel Page 3
