Frost in a Slowglobe

Chapter One

Hans was hunting for a book.

It wasn't just any book. It was the Tome of History, a gargantuan collection of writings which told of everything that happened to everyone who ever lived.

Fifty years before, he had been a young man with a dream…envisioning himself as King of someplace, anyplace. Where his older brother Christian told him how Arendelle was having a coronation for the queen that was coming of age after three years of the nation having no King or Queen to rule them. He had also heard that the Queen had rarely seen anyone for many years (from long before her parents died). He had then hatched a scheme to rule over the country, either by deluding Elsa into falling in love with him, or through some other means.

And then he met Anna. Sweet, sweet Anna. He could smell her perfume as if it was yesterday…and as soon as he found that book, it would be yesterday.

All he had to do was marry Anna and murder Elsa. Then he would be King. Unfortunately, the next day he had gotten too cocky. Left Anna in a locked room thinking she'd die from starvation, or from the cold that was consuming her. He told her his plan, sure that if he informed the others of Anna's "death" and that she said her marriage vows, he'd be all clear once Elsa had been taken care of.

However, Anna came to the rescue. She sacrificed herself…and lived. Hans didn't have a backup plan for failure. Not back then, anyway.

He did, now. All he'd have to do is rewrite history…start over from the beginning.

He had just passed a cave, waving his lantern about. It was 1943 now. A war was going on in Europe. And here he was in Australia. He had to keel over against some rocks to steady himself. He wasn't exactly sure how the magic would work, once he found the scrolls and the writing utensil needed.

He thinks he's going to rewrite history, he heard a voice say. He spun his lantern around, searching for the source, but could not locate it.

Fool! No one who hasn't kissed a girl who is fairykind can write in the Tome of History! Does he think Kendra Sorenson is going to come back in time to lock lips with an old man?

"Who is speaking?" Hans called.

He can hear you. Shhh.

We are sorry to have permitted our musings to reach your frail ears. We just thought you ought to know that you are on a futile escapade.

"I don't know where your voices are coming from," Hans said.

Don't worry about that. You need to make yourself young again before you attempt to travel the Clytemnestra Trail.

Minerva! Don't give him details of what he must do!

"I don't see you guys anywhere. Who is talking?"

We're not talking. You must hear us because you've already kissed Kendra.

He hasn't kissed Kendra. He drank from the Draught of Living Death, offered to him by Sylvia Vane, a witch. Don't you see his tottering legs? He's fallen down in our presence once already. He'd be dead were it not for Sylvia's interference.

"I'll leave you to your conversation," said Hans. "Right now I've got to find a tome of magic."

He started to enter a cave.

Oh, I wouldn't go in there if I were you, came one of the voices. Not unless you want to get eaten.

He'd love it if Anna swallowed him whole. Can't you see he's starving for redemption?

He doesn't want redemption. He wants Anna to pay for harming him. And for that I think he should be stopped.

The only one who can stop him is Kendra, and as she won't be born for another fifty years, I think that's out of the question.

Except that she has the Chronometer. She'll come. Trust me.

The Chronometer is timed. It won't let her be here long enough to…

Kiss Hans?

"I'm getting really creeped out now," said Hans.

He turned around and saw a snowman statue. He started running as if afraid the snowman would attack him, but being seventy years old, he found himself sinking not too far along.

And then he saw a pretty face peering up at him in the lantern.

Turning around, he saw a girl with raven-dark hair. "Are you Prince Hans of the Southern Isles?"

"I am he."

"Oh," the girl said, shivering. "Is your, um…grandson around?"

"I never married."

"You didn't? That's a shame. Though I thought most people in the…well, I thought most people married."

"I'm not most people. I'm me," Hans said. His voice had a wheeze to it, which he wasn't proud of.

"Well, the Hans I was looking for is much younger. Perhaps he's a nephew of yours?"

"My brothers wouldn't name their sons after me," Hans said, shaking his head. "They have pretty much disowned me."

"Ark," the girl said. "No one deserves that."

Hans agreed with her.

"I'm about to go home, though, and—" Suddenly the girl's eyes grew wide.

"What?" Hans asked. He had just swatted at a mosquito that had stung him.

"You're growing younger…" the girl said.

Hans looked at his hand. The wrinkles were smoothing out. His legs were becoming revitalized. He felt agile again. Limber. Full of vigour.

And the girl was looking at him as if she thought him very cute.

He pulled a spoon from his pocket. There was his flamboyant red hair, and his sideburns. He looked just as he had when he wooed Anna to fall in love with him.

And the girl near him slipped into his lap, and they began kissing. But his hands were lightened from her in a moment…she disappeared in the middle of kissing him, without getting up.

He shook himself and picked up his fallen lantern. He didn't know how this magic had taken place, but it was preventing him from doing what he needed to.

Entering a cave, he heard a distant roar from within. He picked up a ruby-hilted sword lying against the cave wall and brandished it threateningly. The creature that continued to roar at him had its shadow on the wall, threatening and menacing in the lamplight. But when it stepped around a corner, Hans saw that it was nothing more than a harmless iguana. He breathed a sigh of relief.

He decided to explore the cave further, ignoring the LION WITHIN sign near the cave exit. He went into antechambers and antechambers, feeling as if he were going in circles at some points. And then he heard another roar, much nearer and more frightening than before. But it'd just be a salamander, right? Maybe a gecko. Certainly not a lion.

He proceeded into the next carvern and came into an odd room with a raised dais, and a table with…could it be? There was a heavy book on it…he could tell it ought to be heavy anyway, by looking at it from a distance…

And there was a quill too. Perfect for what he needed to do. So long as…

The next roar just about busted his eardrums. He turned to see a lion standing there. It licked its chops. Hans waved his sword around and the lion strode forth, bent down and ripped the steel portion of the sword, from blade to tip, off with its teeth. Then it grinned at Hans, as if saying, So much for that. And now it began circling around Hans, certain it'd have fresh meat that night. And juicy meat at that.

Hans took one look at the tome, and was filled with sadness that he had come this close….and might not ever reach the means of getting free of the nightmare he had lived for half a certury…