Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen. The OCs in here however are mine, so leave them alone.
~Standing frozen in the life I've chosen
you won't find me, the past is so behind me
buried in the snow...~
-Let it Go (Single Version)
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December 14, 2014
Ethan Dieter never really minded the cold. Living back and forth in-between Pennsylvania and Massachusetts since he was born back in the States had toughened him up for cold weather due to the winter storms the East Coast often had. He also visited his relatives overseas in Germany during the December holidays almost every year when he got a break from Walden's University*1, and this also seemed to create a sort of immunity to the cold.
He liked to joke around with his friends back home claiming that he was "seriously warm blooded" even though his skin was cold to touch. His friends always poked fun at him for running around in shorts and a t-shirt in the snow*2 whenever they went skiing or snowboarding, letting his white blond hair out from under his helmet. He could get away with wearing a light sports jacket in the middle of December in heavy snowfall and barely feel any chill.
However, this did not mean the cold didn't affect him. Just he was resistant to it. He was currently glad of that fact, plus the nice blue fur jacket and snow pants he was wearing at this moment. Everybody has his or her limits as to what they can take, and Ethan was thinking that this expedition had made him meet his. It was terrible weather, even by his and the native's standards, especially this far north. And especially during this winter.
It was really cold, one of those days that water frosted almost instantly when exposed to the air, and you could loose a limb to frostbite from just being outside for a few minutes if you didn't cover up. The wind, which had, up until last night, been for the past week amiably gentle and cool, had started howling and sending icy shards into the side of the tents the dig workers had set up. Every once in a while, a particularly fierce gust came and threatened to rip the tent off of the stakes. The outside canvas was coated in frost, freezing it in place.
All around the excavation sight, people were enduring the cold and the wind, if only for the purpose of getting inside sooner after they're done. Machinery was roaring, sending up giant columns of snow clearing it away in the loosing battle against nature's winter. Other people were enduring the worst on foot being out in the snow and ice, clearing it away with hand tools as to not damage anything that might be underneath it. Teams of archeologists and historians puzzled over every little thing they found inside special tents to protect the artifacts from further weather damage. The items were laid out on several long tables, ranging from coins to broken flowerpots.
Ethan sighed and looked up from the book he had brought with him. He was sitting on a chair in one of those special tents set aside for the teams, this one for the four college students, so they could get experience as well as be there on sight. Inside with him were two of the three other people besides himself that were assigned to this project from back home.
The one closest to him was Kent Mono, an Asian student who had short black hair and a somewhat youthful facial structure, showing signs of deepening laugh lines. Kent was currently cross checking old maps of the area to try and find the boundaries of the mystery city they were digging out. He was a history major back at Walden's but also had a talent for music, which he used the "I have to practice" excuse to lug his trombone with him across the ocean to entertain some of the workers before nightfall when it wasn't too cold and before his lips instantly froze to the mouthpiece. Kimberley always said his only true passion was for music, and if it weren't for his parents, he would be playing in Carnegie Hall if given the chance.
And speaking of Kimberley, Miss Henna was over in the corner of the tent, scouring over old maps and country lines from hundreds of years ago. She was about a good six feet tall, not overly skinny, and had blond hair that had held traces of brown in it. Her face was pointed, but her nose was small and round, highlighting her light brown eyes. She was also a history major like Kent, since that is where they first met and started dating about two years ago. They had been going strong since then and both enjoyed each other's company.
And of course Ethan had to ignore them when they started flirting with each other, which was damn near every day. To say nothing of the sounds they made later on at night. Ethan learned to always put in earplugs before going to sleep.
Another particularly strong gust rolled through the valley, shaking the entire tent. The three people inside looked up for a moment to see if they still had a tent over their heads before relaxing.
"You guys feel bad for Anthony right now?" Ethan asked as an opening for a conversation.
Kim shook her head, "Nah, he's the one who chose to go out in that crazy weather in the first place. I told him that we have plenty of things here but he said, and I quote, 'The real treasure is-a out there,' and so he went."
"And he's paying for it now." Kent added.
The storm had started off slowly enough last night, with decent gusts and some snowfall, but it was nothing the workers couldn't handle. But it kept getting worse and worse until now it was like this. And it wasn't even midday yet.
Kim snorted and said, "He's probably going to come in here in a few minutes complaining to whoever will listen anyway." Then she cleared her throat and intentionally did a bad impersonation of Anthony, "Oh, it's-a muy frío out there-a! I wish that I-a could stay in 'ere-a and-a be like you guys, but somebody needs to be-a the real Chico out there-a!" She said, waving her hands around, drawing heavily on an over exaggerated bad Spanish and Italian accent.
Kent laughed at this, never one to resist a chance to laugh at something that was supposed to be funny. Even Ethan had to chuckle at this, grateful for the brief distraction from his book problems.
Another gust blew over and everybody looked up again, thankful to see the thick canvas still covering them. "Although it wouldn't look as good with him turning into a human popsicle from this weather," Kim said, then asked, "Where did this storm come from anyway? We could have been preparing for this ages ago, and here we are caught with our pants down." Kent snickered at the image and Kim sent him a playful glare.
"What? You want to see me with my pants down?" She asked coyly.
"It's nothing I haven't seen before, but still a sight to behold." Kent replied.
Ethan fought the urge to vomit in his mouth and instead rolled his eyes. "Oh God, go outside and cool yourselves off."
"Hey, we're plenty cool here," Kent said, "We need to warm up!"
"If you know what I mean." Kimberley said softly to herself, but loud enough for Kent to hear and give another bark of laughter.
"Do you see me wearing three layers of coats and pants? No you don't." Ethan shot off.
Kimberley shrugged and said, "Well that's because you have an unnatural freaky tolerance for the cold. Seriously, you're making me feel cold just by looking at you."
It was true, Ethan just had some snow pants and a thick jacket, while Kent and Kim both had around three different jackets apiece, and two layers of pants. And they were all inside.
"Oh boo hoo, get over it. Anyway, getting back to the weather, it is rather strange," Ethan admitted, "but, it is the middle of December and we are pretty close to the artic line. It shouldn't be that unexpected."
"Humph." Kim said, not pleased that their verbal fun was over, "I'm just saying. What happened to global warming melting the ice caps? Guess it forgot this place." She shrugged.
"Technically the politically correct term is 'Climate Change'." Ethan said as he rolled his eyes and went back to the book, ignoring the next jab Kim said. But his eyes were not really reading the words on the page anyway. I have to admit, the weather is pretty strange. The storm did come on suddenly, but we should have had some warning before it hit. Bjørn should have heard something on the weather forecast and let us know. But there was nothing.
Ethan attempted to turn his attention back to the book he was reading. It was a really old book, one that his grandmother had put a special cover on it to keep it together and somewhat presentable, or at least that's what she told him. It had no title and it was also written in about three different languages, German, Norwegian, Swedish, and a smattering of old English. He didn't have much trouble with the German, and only a little more trouble with Norwegian, but he couldn't understand the Swedish parts at all as it wasn't one of the languages he studied, so he had a Swedish to English dictionary next to him.
He brushed some of his white blond hair out of his face. No, what really frustrated him the most was how the book was written, or rather wasn't. It was a tome, and Ethan noticed that pages had been added and taken out throughout its creation and use. There were no page numbers, nothing indicating what came next, and he was absolutely certain that pages were missing and also out of order. Stories written by different authors were added in the middle of others, and there were even several large completely blank sections at the beginning and end, with a few blank spots interspaced in the middle. Certain spaces where words looked like they were supposed to be, like the names of kingdoms and people, were blank, making it difficult if not outright impossible to find out where these places were or who those people were.
Ethan would have been sure it was one of the many very poor jokes that his grandmother usually tried to play on him if it weren't for this gut feeling he had. Of course, it could just be the weather messing around with him. Seriously, when he was around snow he felt restless for some reason. And if he wasn't out in it then he would be thinking about it.
He just managed to finish a passage before getting frustrated once more, and was now attempting to read the next page, translating as he went. This part was in Norwegian so he was able to understand the gist of it; however there was another case of censored names here, frustrating him even more.
He read: The crown of (there was a blank here) was kept by the first king of the revived line, Arvid Linjal, son of (blank) Bjornman and (blank) Linjal, the princess of (blank), for thirty-three years until he abdicated his crown to his own son, Sigurd, in the year 1731 of our Lord. Sigurd, upon claiming the crown, was a fair and just king, wanting to learn everything his father knew before he accepted the crown, well after he was given the chance to claim it. He continued the royal line of Linjal through his daughters Els-
Ethan was jolted upright from his seat, startled, and dropped the book as the tent door busted opened and a cold breeze gusted through the tent. The wind was soon followed by a person covered head to toe in fresh snow powder. Ethan noticed Kent and Kimberley shiver slightly from the temperature change, but Ethan didn't mind it that much, even though now it was much cooler in here than before.
The new person stepped further inside and started to remove bits of clothing, first came the black gloves, then the now exposed hands reached up and removed the snow goggles and the bandana wrapped around his mouth, revealing his growing black mustache.
"Man, it's really cold out there, and not-a just the normal cold, but muy frío."
Kent lost it and doubled over laughing. Ethan also started laughing as well, while Kim just smirked and said, "Told ya!"
The fourth student from Walden's, Anthony DeLa Cruz, just arrived. He was half Italian and half Hispanic, and he took both parts of his heritage to heart, bordering on fanaticism, but all good-natured. His tanned face had a nice black mustache with just a hint of stubble surrounding it. Anthony had a major in archeology, which brought him to the attention of the original planners of this expedition/excavation as a good candidate to help with the project.
And he was confused as hell why everybody was laughing. Even after all these years he still didn't get it.
"¿Qué? Why are you laughing amigos?"
"Oh it's nothing." Kim said, still smiling. Ethan snorted, and Kent was covering his mouth to keep himself from bursting out with laughter again.
"So, got tired of the cold?" Ethan asked, a hint of teasing in his voice.
Anthony puffed up his chest in exaggeration, "Oh no, I may not enjoy it as-a much as you Towhead," he said, poking fun at Ethan's hair color, "but my fiery blood keeps me warm enough." Ethan snorted again. Anthony then said, "Although, a cup of that hot steaming whatever it is-a over there wouldn't 'urt too."
"Please, go right ahead; help yourself."
Anthony stomped and shuffled his way across the tent, leaving a trail of snow behind him, going to the pot of hot espresso on a table away from the artifacts. He moved past Kent who had recovered himself and poured himself the drink. He blew on it a few times, then took a swig.
"Ooh, tha's the stuff." He said, and then situated himself closer to the portable heater to help thaw himself out a bit.
Kimberley said, "So how's it out there? Pretty bad?"
Anthony shook his head, "No, it's pessimo." He said, switching to Italian momentarily, meaning that it was serious, "We've been trying to fight the snow, but it's lookin' to be a losing battle in the long run. Bjørn is the only reason we're still workin' in those condiciones. He says were close, but it's only a matter-a of time before we 'ave to call it quits due to this god damn weather."
"Let's just hope you get to the sight before you lose somebody." Kim said, half-jokingly.
"That's not a good joke, Kim." Ethan said, serious.
Kimberley frowned at him but didn't respond, retrospectively agreeing. Kent stepped into the conversation, asking, "So how long do you think before you find what you're looking for? And what are you looking for anyway?"
Anthony shrugged, still drinking out of the cup. "¿Quién sabe? Bjørn didn't say anything to me-a, just told us workers to start a-diggin' in this place," he mimed pointing to a section of the excavation sight, "and didn't tell us what it-a is we're digging out. Could be in an hour before we find anything, or-a could be in a few days. Depends on how the storm treats us." He paused then said, "But if you ask me, I feel that we're really close to something, like we're on top of it close. Its all just by-a the numbers now."
He glanced down at a special weather watch he was wearing and said, "Speaking of numbers, my twenty minute break is almost up."
"Twenty?" Kent asked, "You've been here for less than two."
Anthony wrapped his empty arm around Kent and said, "Ah, Chico, it took me almost ten minutos to walk here, so it'll take me another ten to walk back." He gave Kent a slap on the back, which caused him to stumble a bit, and then finished his coca.
"Well, it's been-a nice, but the real man needs to go back out there. I'll see-a you guys, and lady, later." He placed his now empty cup back on the table.
"See you Anthony, make sure you tell us when they've found whatever it is!" Ethan said.
Anthony put on his mask and gloves and nodded, "Alright, don't get your panties in a knot, Towhead." Kent laughed again while Ethan gave another glare at Anthony. Anthony then opened up the door again, letting another freezing gust in, sending everyone except Ethan closer to the heater. Then he passed through and the door shut, rattling the tent again in addition to another wind gust.
"Well," Kim said, breaking the momentary silence, "at least they're making a breakthrough. I can't make heads or tails out of this map. It says that we're in the middle of nowhere; no major towns were here, and nothing except the name of the fjord is marked. But there was clearly a town, or rather a city, here; we've seen evidence of it."
It was true. Two days ago, before the storm hit, the four students toured a sight that had recently been unburied, containing the town square and evidence of a big port. More of the town had been uncovered since they began, and Bjørn was more than happy to show them the pride and joy they rediscovered: the castle of this town. It clearly had seen better days and showed evidence of deliberate destruction and battle damage under the snow, but it was still impressive, even if it was still half buried under rubble and snow. It's probably getting reburied right now, Ethan thought as yet another gust blew through.
Kim continued, "Some of the older maps I have showed that this was at one point a kingdom, but there's no name, and sometime between 1700 and 1800 it just vanished. This place is in fact unclaimed by Norway, strangely enough, making it a free zone. We are- we were," she corrected, "literally going off rumors that something was here." That much was true.
Ethan shrugged and said, "I haven't had much luck either. The book I have is the most amount of evidence I've seen that a thriving kingdom was here, but everything's jumbled up and parts are missing, putting it extremely mildly."
Kent, nodded, having also read several other books and records. "We've been over this before: it's like somebody wanted this place to never exist. But why?"
"Probably enemies of this kingdom." Ethan explained, "If this were a larger kingdom we'd probably have some idea of the name of it; but since this was a smaller realm, it was probably destroyed in some war with another kingdom, or got caught in the crossfire, and all traces of it were erased."
Kent frowned in thought. "But this kingdom, from the evidence, is only about 300 years old. That's not enough time for it to be forgotten, let alone demolished like this."
"Hey, remember that Germany was only officially founded in 1871, so I don't think it's unlikely that this place could have been forgotten in such a relatively short time."
Kent shrugged, "Well, if you put it that way, I guess not. Still, I would think that we'd at least have a name for this place."
"I agree. That's why we're looking for it." Ethan said, gesturing around the tent. He leaned over his chair and picked up the book he dropped, checking it for damage before realizing something. "Goddamn it!"
"What?"
"Oh it's nothing, I just lost my spot. I'm probably not going to find it again anytime soon."
Kent gave a noncommittal grunt then went back to his map.
Of course, Ethan thought, it didn't really matter anyway if I did find my spot, as the next part would have just been out of order anyway. And I think I was on to something there too. Oh well, just another short-term loss. He picked a random page and started reading again.
Outside, the winter storm raged on.
In another time, there was a different type of storm about to wake up.
This one was called Anna.
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August 4, 1670
Elsa slept lightly in her bed. The warm fluffy comforter had been pushed off sometime when she was sleeping and only the sheet was covering her. As usual tough, she didn't mind the cold, not that it was that cold to begin with anyway, it being the beginning of August and it was still pretty warm, the warmest Arendelle's been this year. It was early in the morning, but the sun had just risen over the mountains and had lit up Elsa's room.
The woman rolled over, trying to avoid getting the painful sunlight in her eyes. Elsa tried to ignore the fact that she needed to get up for a moment, enjoying the last sensations of sleep, then admitted defeat to the loosing battle and opened her eyes. She blinked for a moment adjusting to the light, and then she lay there for a minute or two enjoying the bed, composing herself for the day. She sat up and groaned a bit, her head still a little sore from last night. Anna definitely knows how to throw a party, she thought, but maybe next time I should put a limit on how many wine bottles are brought out.
Elsa slowly got up from her bed and went over to the washbasin to freshen up. After splashing some water onto her face, she looked up into the mirror and caught a glimpse of herself. She blinked. Oh, god, my hair, she thought letting lose a soft chuckle, and I thought Anna had terrible bed hair. Elsa's platinum blond hair was currently defying gravity, pointing in several different directions, and there were several curled snarls throughout it.
She sighed, knowing it was probably for the best that she got up when she did. Going to work she watered her hair down and brushed it thoroughly, getting every knot out of it. Once done, she used her ice powers and froze the leftover water, and then evaporated the ice, leaving her hair perfectly dry and in place. She shook her head with the irony of it. After all these years of repressing my powers, it still amazes me how I can use them so casually and easily. She then set her hair straight and into a braid wound around her head. I need to look every bit the Queen I am today. She paused, No, I need to look every bit the caring sister I should have been… that I am. It's not my special day, but I am part of it, and need to look my best.
She went over to her wardrobe and picked out the dress she had planned for today. It was a special mix of a fancy cloth that included her signature ice powers added to it, and it was a deep blue color. Not as fancy as my first ice dress, but elegant in it's own special way.
After a few minutes of getting it on, she looked in the mirror and nodded in satisfaction. She gathered her recovered tiara and placed in on her head, then turned and headed out the door.
Today is a special day.
Today my little sister is getting married!
I wonder if she's up right now…
To be continued...
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*1: Walden's is a school on the East Coast of the US that I made up.
*2: I actually know people who do that. Drives me crazy when I tell them to put on a jacket or something.
Note: This chapter uses limited google translate and my own take of Spanish and Italian accents. No insult to either is intended. Insert other disclaimers here
Hey readers! OrangeGalen here with a brand new story! I know many of my fans were waiting for me to update some of my other stories; don't worry, I'll get back to them in time. But for now, I wanted to get a start of one of my Frozen stories that's been floating in my head for half a year out here.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this first chapter: many more will follow. However I can't vouch for speed... Next update will be by the end of this week though, so stay tuned!
Don't forget: Read, Review, Favorite, Follow (R.R.F.F)
-OrangeGalen
Rejected story title: Frozen Past