Elsa the Early Days
author's note:This is part of my Elsa of Antarctica story. BUT. It can be read as an independent story.
This begins right after the movie and continues it. (why the date? See note at end of chapter.)
While, I will include humor and Disneyesque situations, I will look at things in a serious manner.
A semi-detailed time line for the movie Frozen is at the end of chapter.
Reviews are appreciated
Prologue
Friday... July 21,1837 the independent city-state of Arendelle near the southeastern tip of Norway.
During the climax of the movie.
The howl of the Elsa's Blizzard grows in the distance...
In the Cathedral.
The Bishop is looking at the Bible at the Altar.
It is opened to the Book of Exodus. Chapter 22.
His finger is on verse 18: Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
He moves and looks out across the Snow and Ice covered city.
"Agdar... My friend. Is this what you were hiding?"
He shivers...
"My King, My friend... I promised you, when you left on that fateful journey, that if anything happened I would support her. But this?"
The Bishop of Arendelle kneels at the altar. "I must pray. When does my promise to my boyhood friend, my cousin, My King out way what I read in the Bible?"
The howl of the Blizzard vanishes...
The city freezes...waiting for death...
UNFREEZE!
Chapter 1
Friday July 21 Arendelle. Sunset.
NOTE: Given the time to get Kristoff's new sleigh, the time to talk to the foreign envoys/write documents... Anna and Elsa have not had a lot of time together to simply talk...
"Good-bye! Everyone! The doors will remain open!" Anna cries to the departing townsfolk. Olaf is in the distance playing with some children.
Elsa nods and in quieter voice says. "Yes. The doors will remain open. I promise." She gestures and the Ice Rink and the icy touches to the castle vanish into the sky as a snow-covered rainbow.
"That's beautiful!" Anna gushes as she watches the show.
As the last snowflake vanishes, "Yes. IT is!" Elsa's lips quirk into a gentle smile. "I just wonder HOW I can do it."
"You do not know?"
Elsa shakes her head. "No idea. There are stories in Father's library about ice...creating... things." A grimace, "monsters."
Anna grabs her sister and hugs her. In a whisper to her ear. "YOU are not a monster. DO not call yourself one."
Elsa hugs her sister back. "Thank you. Anna." A heartfelt whisper.
She thinks, 'With you here...maybe I am not a monster.'
"HUG!" Olaf joins in.
They break off and Elsa places her hand on his head. "Did you have fun?"
"Yeah. Those are some great kids!" His smile is contagious and both sisters smile, as well. "You'll do this tomorrow, right?"
"Ahh.." Elsa starts, then pauses. "I do not know yet, Olaf."
"What?!"
Elsa waves her hands in a calming gesture. "I will make more Ice Rinks, Olaf. If fact," A glance at Anna, "I want to do them on a weekly basis." Anna nods, yes, vigorously
Elsa's smiles fades a little, "I just do not know when I will do it. Not Friday's. It will either be Saturday or Sunday afternoon. I will have to think about it tonight, and get some opinions tomorrow. Is that fine?"
Olaf nods, "Yeah, that's OK."
Anna and Elsa share a look and Elsa shakes her head. She licks her lips and looks around. She sees Gerda waiting just inside the doors of the palace and motions her to approach.
Gerda slightly bows as she stops in front of her Queen.
"Gerda. My... Olaf, here." She pats his head. "Needs to be shown around the castle. Could you ask one of the maids to help him?" She looks at Olaf, "You think that would be fun?" Olaf nods, yes.
Gerda motions to one of the maids. She points at herself, Gerda nods, yes. She sighs and approaches, slowly.
"Olaf, is it?" Greda asks him.
"Yes. My name if Olaf. Yours is?"
"My name is Gerda and I am the Head Maid. This is Ida." She points to the maid. (She is first tall maid with the soup plates, during 'First Time in Forever') "She will show you around. Please, there is a lot of things happening, so please, follow her and obey her suggestions."
Olaf nods, turns to Ida, "HI! I'm Olaf. You are Ida?"
She gulps and nods, yes. In a shaky voice, "Please follow me...ahh." she looks at Gerda in panic.
"Olaf is fine, Ida." Anna gently says.
"Please follow me, Olaf." Ida starts into the castle. Olaf follows her.
Gerda turns to reënter the castle. "Gerda..." Elsa begins to say something, and then stops.
She asks Anna instead, "Anna, you have been with him longer, what...can Gerda and Ida expect?"
Anna sighs, "He's a pain. A good pain, mind you. Always active. But...a good... snowman." A laugh. "God... that sounds weird."
Everyone shares a laugh and a look at Elsa. Her lips twitch, but she stays emotionless.
"He is going to get into everything, Gerda. But... I think, as long as, you explain things, he'll understand."
Gerda sighs. "Thank you, Princess."
"Bring him to my room, after he has seen the castle." Elsa orders and is about to say something else. But before she can complete her instructions to Gerda.
Anna asks quickly, "You made him out of memories, right?"
Elsa sighs, "Yes. So it seems." A pause. "I was walking up the slope on North Mountain... I just had to release my powers. To...Let it go...To test my limits... "
Gerda, Anna and Kai, who is standing nearby, exchange a glance.
"I thought about the last time I was happy with my powers, the night You and I created Olaf. And... the next thing I knew he was there... recreated." She shakes her head. "I walked on, before I knew that he was alive."
Elsa sighs and then smiles. "What I'm a going to do with the Palace I created?"
"Palace, ma'am?" Kai asks, quietly.
"It's beautiful! And HUGE!" Anna spreads her arms. She points, or tries, to point at North Mountain. The castle is in the way.
"So...that's what is shining on the Mountain?" Gerda asks. "The guards that..." She stops and places her hand on mouth.
Anna nods, the paired grimaces between Gerda and Kai, totally ignored, as is Elsa's narrow eyes at them, and smiles. "Yeah. I thought Kristoff was going to break down and cry when we got to the door."
"That is for later." Elsa says in a hard tone, as she looks at Kai.
Anna's eyes widen and she mouths the word 'what?'. But she says nothing.
"Gerda." Elsa begins to speak in a hard tone. It changes into a...more of a questioning tone. "You will... no. ahhh... Gerda... I seem to..." A quick shake of her head.
A pause as Anna, Kai and Gerda share a confused shrug.
A gulp and she says in determined tone, "Gerda. I have a young son, now." A pause. "IF you had asked me a week ago, I would have said that something like that would not happen until I was 30 or maybe 35. I would have time to learn..."
Gerda takes a deep breath and slowly nods.
"I... I need advice. You helped raise Anna and I." Her mouth works, but no sounds come out.
Gerda bows deeply. "Of course, Queen Elsa. I will take care of your son, as I did you." She volunteers before Queen Elsa can work up the nerve to order her.
Elsa closes her eyes and says in a very grateful tone, "Thank you, Gerda. I will not forget."
"I will see to him, now." Gerda bows and enters the castle.
"Now what?" Anna asks.
Her stomach grumbles...
"I think I know." Elsa grins.
"Food! Supper!" Anna answers herself. She spins around to go through the door into the castle. Her knees buckle.
Elsa catches her. "agh." The force of Anna hitting her, knocks her to ground. "oww!" She let's go of Anna to rub her fanny.
She thinks, 'Ice dresses do not have padding. I must remember that.'
"My knees are all wobbly. To much skating." Anna remarks as she rubs her legs.
Kai helps them up.
Anna glances at Elsa. "How come your knees aren't wobbly?"
Elsa rubs the top of the her thighs. "They are. I'm just better at hiding things, Anna."
Anna smiles at her sister. And reaches out a hand.
Elsa looks at her sister's hand, clutches it and the two of them enter the castle.
Hand in Hand.
end of chapter 1
I am going to try to post this story in short 1000-2000 word chapters. I am not stopping Elsa of Antarctica. (As of this posting, I have 4+ chapters of material to post on it. And will post something on sunday.) This is just something I can do, when I have only a short writing time window. Writing Antarctica requires a longer time window...due to the detail in it.
A time line: (remember that Arendelle day/night ratio, would, in summer, have a short night)
Tuesday July 18: coronation day and ball. Elsa/Anna leave 10pm-midnight. Elsa, according to the description of the castle on disney's wiki, leaves the castle from the south entrance and moves east. She immediately moves around the city to north mountain. Anna leaves and moves east in the direction she saw Elsa in. They cross each other within yards and minutes, but it is night..so they do not see each other.
Wed July 19: Elsa with little snow on the ground reaches the base of north mountain by...2 to 4 am which is just about dawn.
Anna at about the same time, crashes/sleeps at a, not on camera, farm-house. She wakes up around 10am and, through the 3 to 6 ft of snow that fell as she slept, begins to wander around on her horse. She meets Kristoff at Oaken's, far to the east of North Mountain, at about 10pm.
Thur July 20: 3/4am the crash of the sleigh. And then a day long slough through many feet of snow to North Mountain. They may, not on camera... have stopped for an afternoon nap and maybe a lunch of something more than carrots. 10 pm Anna at the Ice Palace. Around 11pm Hans at the Ice Palace.
Friday July 21: 2/3am...the trolls. Hans returns with Elsa..sometime before dawn. Elsa wakes up at 4am-6am. Kristoff, with Anna arrives at Arendelle 5/6am. Climax...7am-ish. Early afternoon the scene at the ships. 6-8pm the Ice Rink. 10Pm the start of chapter 1
I had a comment on the shortness of my timeline.
IN general I agree that an additional day between Elsa unfreezing the city and the ships leaving is probably correct. BUT. When I envisioned this story I wanted the opening sequence of scenes to be: close the Ice Rink: Then bonding time for the sisters: Then the sisters collapsing and sleeping in each others arms.
I had to choose a realistic timeline, but not the opening I wanted. or the opening I wanted, but a shorter timeline. I choose the opening I wanted. I will explain the rationalization. in short though: the sailors wanted away from the blizzard, facts be damned. The envoys wanted to get home to tell their stories, fast. so they worked hard and left quickly.
Why July 1837?
An edited, shortened explanation from Elsa of Antarctica. When possible I will add this into the story, but, since there will be questions, here is the explanation.
Queen Elsa looks at the reporter, "I would expect that most people would believe that I was born on a cold winter day."
He nods. She grins. "You would be wrong. I was born on July 18 in the year 1816." Her smile grows. "on the other hand, the year 1816 is also known as the year without a summer."
The reporter pales.
"No. I did not cause it. Mount Tambora caused that volcanic summer. But... In Arendelle that day, a winter-like blizzard occurred. So during the coldest summer on scientific record, on the coldest day of the month of July, I was born." She shrugs, "did my power cause that intensity of the local weather... highly probable. My powers are part of my soul and... birth is traumatic."
Thank you for reading
jeff shelton