Wow, I've gotten so much positive feedback already. Thank you so much! You're lucky I already had the next chapter written just in case. So a fast first update! :D
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This story officially begins back when I was eight. So I'll just briefly cover what happened then.
It was at the end of a long day of ice harvesting. Sven and I were way behind the other harvesters with our one block of ice, on the road into town. It was late at night and still dark outside, but the Northern Lights lit up the sky, so it seemed earlier than it was.
I was exhausted and just sat on the ice block as Sven pulled the sled along. But suddenly two horses came racing past us, going in the opposite direction. The riders did not even notice us as they sped by. I would not have really paid them any notice either except for one thing caught my attention: a thick blanket of ice trailed behind one of them.
My eyes lit up at the sight of it. "Ice?" I wondered, intrigued.
I quickly unhitched Sven from the sled and hopped on his back. We followed the ice trail at top speed until we came to the Black Mountains. I could hear a man speaking. I hopped off of Sven's back and ducked behind a rock, pulling Sven behind it as well.
I could not hear very well from my position, but I had a clear view. There was a man and a woman, and a young girl with light blonde hair, probably about my age at their side. The woman was holding a bundle of blankets. Peering closer, I saw that there was another young girl wrapped up amongst the blankets. Was she asleep?
"Please, help!" the man cried out, "My daughter!"
Who was he talking to? There was no one as far as I could see. Just a bunch of rocks.
However, the rocks suddenly began to move! I gasped, watching them roll towards the people. The rocks all stopped short of crushing them and then unfolded into strange little creatures, who stared up at the man.
I had ducked down behind my own rock and did not hear what they had to say at this point. However after a moment, I peered back over, wide-eyed. "Trolls?" I wondered, staring at the strange creatures.
Suddenly, the rock I was hiding behind unfolded into a troll. "Shh! I'm trying to listen!" it said, grabbing mine and Sven's faces and pulling us down.
It was a female, that much I could tell. Sven licked her cheek and I gave a small smile of intrigue. She seemed to suddenly become fully aware of us and grinned, patting our cheeks affectionately. "Cuties," she cooed, "I'm gonna keep you."
We all turned our attention back to what was happening in the center. An extremely old troll was now talking to the family of humans. "Your majesties, born with the powers, or cursed?" it asked, taking the blonde girl's hand.
"Born," the man replied, "And they're getting stronger."
The old troll inspected the girl in the blanket. I could now see she had a white streak of hair on one side of her head. The old troll gave a sigh of relief. "You are lucky it wasn't her heart," he said, "The heart is not so easily changed. But the head can be persuaded."
"Do what you must," the man said.
"I recommend we remove all magic, even memories of magic," the old troll said, "Just to be safe." I watched as he pulled a glowing blue light from the girl's head. I could not see clearly, but he seemed to be changing or rewriting whatever was in the light.
"But don't worry. I'll leave the fun," the troll said. He replaced the light back into the girl's head. "She will be okay."
"But she won't remember I have powers?" the blonde girl asked.
"It's for the best," I guess he was her father, said.
"Listen to me. Your power will only grow," the old troll said to her. He waved his hand to manipulate the Northern Lights to demonstrate what he was saying. "There is beauty in your magic. But also great danger. You must learn to control it. Fear will be your enemy."
The young girl hugged her father, frightened. "No," her father said, "We'll protect her."
That was really the last I heard of the conversation, because I was suddenly whisked away by the female troll who had a hold of me and Sven. She had been serious about wanting to keep us.
She introduced herself as Bulda and then to her husband, Cliff. Soon we were introduced to the entire group. All of them absolutely adored us and were completely on board with us staying. Since I did not have a home or a family, I decided what did I have to lose with staying?
I actually grew to really love it. After all, I had no one to look after me since me parents... And the trolls were all just so lively and they all cared about everyone and everything. They were absolutely crazy about me. The little ones always fought for my attention: "Kristoff, look at this!" or "Kristoff, come play with us!" or "Kristoff, pick me up!".
Once that last one started, all of them wanted in. I could never really pick any of them up until I was in my teens since they actually weighed as much as the rock they were.
You might be surprised that trolls actually do things like cook food, do laundry, sew clothes, play games, have school, and so on. Just... a little differently than humans do. But that's how I grew up. With trolls.
Anyways, back to the story...
Thirteen years after I had followed those people to the trolls and got adopted, things really started to get crazy. I had not even thought about that event ever again after it happened and had completely forgotten about it. However, it was just about to come back and smack me in the face.
I had to go into Arendelle on this particular day because today was the day I made my last payment on my sled! After today it would officially be mine! No more debts, no more payments.
The streets were unusually crowded and the docks were full of ships because today also happened to be the coronation of the new queen, and dignitaries were swarming in from practically every country imaginable. Everyone was so excited because for the first time in years, the castle gates were finally opening.
I did not care much for the coronation. Too many people. Parties? Not really my thing. I was just there to give the last payment on my sled, then I was going to head off to work.
However, with everyone so happy and lively, I couldn't help but be so myself. And especially since I was about to officially own my sled, I was almost downright giddy. I stood near the docks, waiting for Wilhelm (the man who I bought the sled from) to show up. I watched the May Pole being raised nearby. Sven nudged me in the shoulder and I turned to look at him, smiling.
"What do you want, Sven?" I asked.
I could tell what he wanted. I could see it in his eyes. I changed my voice to answer for him. "Give me a snack."
I took out a carrot and held it above his head. "What's the magic word?" I asked.
I changed my voice again. "Please!"
Sven immediately jumped up and grabbed the entire thing. Now, he knew better. We always shared our carrots ever since we were little. It was how we had bonded in the first place. "Ah, ah, ah," I reprimanded him in good-nature, "Share."
He quickly spit it back out and took a smaller bite. I took the rest and took a bite myself.
"Kristoff!"
I turned and saw Wilhelm approaching. He stopped beside me and pulled a scroll from a satchel hanging at his side. He began to study it closely. "Hmm, let's see..." he mumbled, "Here you are. Ah! Your last payment, I see."
I nodded. "Yes. I have it here."
I pulled a bag of money from my pocket and held it out to him. He took it, then opened it and peered in at the money. After a moment, he looked back at me. "All seems to be in order," he said, "The sled is yours."
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It was a good day. The sled was officially mine, there was a shortage of harvesters since practically everyone was at the coronation (so more ice for those of us who stuck around), and it was a fairly warm day even for the mountains.
"Mornin', Kristoff!" a harvester with a dark bushy beard called out to me from on top of one of the sleds.
"Morning, Jude," I replied, "How's Judith?" I know. Jude and Judith. What are the odds of that? He was one of the friendlier harvesters I had met, so I had no problem with keeping up a conversation with him.
"Oh she's doin' grand!" Jude replied, "She actually took the kids down to the coronation this mornin'. I would've gone too, but we're a little short on money this month so I had to come work extra."
I nodded, grabbing an ice pick from nearby and setting it in my sled. "Why aren't you at the coronation?" Jude asked.
I shrugged. "Someone has to come here and load all the extra ice onto the sleds. You're not going to do it, are you?"
Jude chuckled. "That's for sure. I'm not as spry as I used to be. But shouldn't a young fella like yourself be out there meetin' people? Havin' some fun. You never know, you could even meet a nice girl."
I rolled my eyes. That was the last thing on my mind. All I wanted was to harvest ice, sell it, and make money to pay my bills. Besides, while men usually were the ones who cheated and cursed at you, women were... just there. Don't get me wrong, I did not think they were useless, it's just that well, while the men annoyed me, the women did not interest me at all. They all did the same thing every day, talked about the same things, had the same dreams. At least have some ambition or liveliness already! There was so much more to life than just what you were going to buy at the market that day.
"Thanks," I said to Jude, "But right now I'm sticking to what I'm good at."
With that, I hopped on my sled, and Sven and I rode off to our usual spot to start work.
Work was good, even if we did have to work extra hard with the shortage of workers. I did manage to load up my sled by the end of the day though. The sun had just set when I hooked up Sven and firmly secured the ice in place to begin our trek down the mountain.
It was earlier than I would normally leave the site, but my sled was full. I had even helped the others hitch up the other sleds and I was still ready to leave well before the normal time.
Sven and I headed down the mountain. We weren't in any hurry, so we just moved along at a careless pace. Normally we sped down the mountain. We loved going at top speed. But after such a hard day's work, neither of us were really in the mood for fast.
A slight, rather brisk breeze blew through the trees around us. I shrugged it off. That was normal for this time of day up this high. As we continued on, I realized that I had run out of carrots for Sven. We would have to stop somewhere and buy some more.
I suddenly noticed that it had begun to snow. Not usual for this time of year, but not entirely unheard of at this altitude. We still moved on and I ignored the falling white flakes around us. Where was a place nearby to buy carrots?
I felt very cold all of a sudden. That was strange. I was in cold temperatures all the time. I worked around ice for crying out loud! Why should I be cold now when I was halfway down the mountain? It should be getting warmer, not colder. Nevertheless, I shivered and pulled my scarf up over my face.
It was a lucky thing I did because at that moment, a violent wind came literally out of nowhere and nearly blew the sled over. I felt snow and ice pelt against me as I was flung backwards into the back of the sled by the force of the wind. I struggled to sit up, using my arms to shield my face from the blizzard. "What the...?" I muttered to myself.
I could barely see Sven just in front of me, ducking away from the flying ice and snow. It was strange. The blizzard seemed to be coming from the north. The wind had just been blowing from the east a moment ago like it always did in the summer. Why should everything suddenly change directions?
As strange as it was, I knew that I had to get out of this blizzard as soon as possible. I remembered that there was a little trading post not too far off. I had passed it several times in the past, but had never been inside. Well, there was a first time for everything. If I could just make it there without freezing to death.
I climbed back to the front of the sled and grabbed the reins. "Come on, buddy!" I shouted over the wind.
Sven began to move forward, pushing against the wind. If we were moving at a slow pace before, it was even worse now. It seemed like hours before we even made it down the first half of the mountain. That was when the crazy blizzard finally began to calm down. But we still had a little ways to go before we reached our destination.
As we continued on, I saw that snow covered everything around us, even though we were not so high up in the mountains any longer. I still felt a brisk wind blowing in from the north. It was so odd. It should be much warmer now that I was no longer at the top of the mountain. It seemed that winter had decided to come early.
I spotted the hut just ahead. Sven snorted at me. I was sure he was hungry after that wild trek through the snow storm. "Yes, Sven. I'll get you some carrots," I told him through my ice-covered scarf.
Looking around at the snow-covered terrain, I guessed I would need a few winter supplies too. In summer. What was happening?
