Sara and Chester trekked deep into the forest, looking for any signs of life amongst the snow blanketed earth. They did see some bunnies, birds and other obvious arctic animals but nothing that proved an Ice Princess was in their midst.
Then Sara saw Chester stop dead in his tracks, prick his ears up and listened with what seemed like deep concentration.
"What is it?" The girl asked.
"It sounds like... singing." The dog whispered. "Coming deep within the forest."
Sara listened closely. She could barely hear the wind blowing through the trees, let alone singing. "I don't hear anything."
"Hell-o! I've got stronger ears!" Chester replied back with heavy sarcasm.
"Could you show me where its coming from?"
"What d'ya think I am? A pointer dog?"
"At the moment, yeah!"
"Ehhh..." Chester sighed in defeat as he jumped down from the downed log he was standing on. "I better get uber beggin' strips after this is over.
He lead the way as he tracked the sound, with Sara in tow, straining to hear whatever it was he was hearing. After a ways, she heard it: a faint, soft, gentle voice vocalizing what could have either been a lullaby or some other haunting tune of choice, and the singing itself was quite good too. The deeper they went into the forest, the louder the vocals became, gradually getting louder and louder until they knew they were practically within an earshot of its owner. If they could just get past this one last tree around the corner...
...And they were proved wrong.
"That's impossible!" Chester said, going over to smell the air, "It was coming from right here."
"You also said that today was the first time you ever hunted a rabbit."
"Hey, what happens at the North Pole, stays at the North Pole."
Sara headed over to Chester, who was sniffing around a large rooted tree, looking for any signs of foul play.
"Ah, wait... I think I got something!" Chester exclaims, his nose close to the bottom of the tree trunk.
"What do you got?"
"I don't know what it is – its definitely something, I know its something! Not sure what it is but..."
"But what?"
BOOM! A trap door opened on the side of the tree, its declining hole forcing Sara and Chester to fall through without much of a choice. And the icy texture of the trap door's walls weren't much help to them either.
They landed onto a dirt floor, not far from where they slid down. And before either of them had the chance to get up and look at their surroundings, they had someone yelling and screaming at them like a caveman, prompting them to get up immediately, with Sara shivering with fear and Chester barking at the stranger in front of his owner defensively: a young girl holding what looked to be a blue spear!
"Who are you?!" The stranger yelled, still brandishing the blue object in her hand, ready to strike, "What do you want?!"
"We - We're not here to harm you! Honest!" Sara assured her, "We – We just fell down here."
The girl lowered the blue staff slowly, still being cautious of her movements, "So... you weren't sent by my family?"
"No..." Sara shook her head. Family? What was she talking about? But as she got a good look at her, she understood: the young age, not looking much older than herself, the snowy, pale face; the blue velvet-like dress with white trimmed fur and hood, white stockings, and matching boots, as well as two pointy ears poking from beneath her medium length platinum blonde hair.
Sara slowly smiled, "You're Sori, aren't you?"
The girl looked away shyly, "How do you know that?"
"I saw your picture through a window at the Ice Palace."
Sori sighed. She should have known.
"But we weren't sent by anyone." Sara assured her.
The princess was having some inward difficulty believing them, but she really had no alternative, "You're not going to tell mummy I'm here, are you?" She asked her with worry as she put down her staff
"Tell her what?"
Sori went over to a nearby rock and sat upon it like a stool, with tiny ice stalagmites and sheets of ice magically forming wherever she sat, including her little feet.
"Thing is, I'm always at the Ice Palace. I hardly ever venture far from there. Even during the off Christmas season. I always stay within the castle walls, right where mummy can see me. And know where I'm at. But it gets so boring at the palace, there's nothing to do!... well, for the exception of making some pretty cool ice sculptures and some epic snowball... but other than that, everything else gets old. And mummy has been insisting I stay in the palace during the Christmas season, saying she wants it to be "family time" for us. But we always have family time. I just wanna get out for awhile, but she won't even allow me to do that. So I decided to take refuge here, in my hideout, just for a little while. Probably doesn't even know that I'm gone."
Sara chimed in, "But she does! Your mother has been looking all over the North Pole for you! We saw her! She was calling your name, blowing trees over and icing over all of Candyland just looking for you!"
"And iced some elves in the process too!" Chester added.
Sara nodded, "Santa's elves can hardly work because of the cold weather your mother's brought, probably because of how worried she is. Many of them are statues, so many in fact that Santa said he might not be able to get all his presents done by Christmas!"
Sori was astounded by everything they were saying. "That's preposterous! Why would my mother worry about me now? I'm home all the time, up until now!"
"We even saw her raining."
Sori's eyes slightly widened. "Jeez, she is worried... But... I don't want to leave here now!" Sori said as she stood up, "I've barely been gone that long!"
"But the entire North Pole is counting on you!" Sara implored, "At this point, it seems like you're the only one that can make your mother happy enough to thaw Candyland again!"
"Or am I?" Sori asked in a murmur.
"What?" Sara looked over at what she was looking at. Sori was gazing into one of the stalagmites that formed on the table in front of her the moment she put her hand down upon it. It was large enough to cast her reflection, as well as her own. She saw Sori's already bright eyes twinkle with genius.
"I got an idea!" Sori said as she twirled around to look at her, "Why don't you go to the castle, pretend to be me, and we both get what we want!?"
"How we can do that?" Sara asked, "I think she can pretty much tell the two of us apart."
Sori sighed, "No, c'mere!" She grasped Sara's hand and brought her over to the table with the large glacier on it. "You look just like me! Mummy won't know the difference! And with you going, I can stay here a bit longer, while the entire North Pole can still be saved from my mummy's ridiculous Ice Age. What do you think?!"
Sara shook her head, "But if she thinks I'm you... won't I have to stay at the castle? I honestly... really don't belong here to begin with."
"She'll never know you're missing once you present yourself to her. Just as long as she believes you're safe in the castle grounds, she won't have a reason to get cranky again."
Sara looked over at Chester. "Don't look at me. I'm up for whateva gets us outta here faster. I'm starving! "
Sara rolled her eyes. "Okay, I'll do it."
Sori smiled with a big grin and brought up her scepter, "Alright then, hold still... this might sting a little." She pointed the scepter at Sara and WHOOOOOSHH! put her into another copy of her own clothing: dress, stockings, boots and all! Sori noticed Sara was rubbing her forehead.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, brainfreeze." She smirked as Sori giggled. "C'mon, I'll show you the way out." She went over to the other side of the hideout while Sara collected Chester into her arms and followed her.
With her scepter, Sori tapped the wall twice and a small ladder appeared to climb up. "Going my way?" The Ice Princess asked as she started climbing the ladder first, with Sara in pursuit and Chester in her arms. It didn't take them long to get to the top and for Sori to open the hatch that lead them outside, which was located about 10 feet above where Sara and Chester slid down the other trap door earlier. She looked around before climbing out into the open.
"The coast is clear!" she whispered and climbed out first, then helping Sara and Chester out next.
"Now, there's one more thing you'll need in order to really pass off as me." Sori pointed out as she walked down the small mountain of tree roots and went over to a small cluster of trees nearby. At first it looked like she was going to be grabbing something either in the tree or hanging from it, but instead she went behind one of them and came back out holding onto the harness of a giant reindeer, almost the size of a full grown horse. They walked gingerly together with Sori giving off a gentle smile, while Sara's eyes were widened with surprise. "Is that... Santa's...?"
"Just one of them, dear." The reindeer's deep sultry voice answered sweetly before giving off a deep throated chuckle.
"Vixen!" Sara exclaimed quietly, still pleasantly surprised of the spectacle before her.
"Looks as if we have a smart one here." Vixen replied.
"I'm her official trainer during the off season." Sori explained, smoothing down a tuft of hair on Vixen's chest.
"I thought the elves did that." Sara admitted.
"If all the elves are working in Santa's workshop throughout the year, how could they take care of this horse?" Sori asked.
"I'm not that much of a handful, and you know it." Vixen's gentle voice assured her as she bobbed her head in emphasis.
"I know." Sori replied with a giggle as she petted her head. "Although, if you get that from stories they tell you, they're not completely wrong." Sori said as she wiggled her pointy ears while she went beside Vixen and fixed her harness.
"Are you an elf?" Sara asked.
"Half elf. But who's counting?" Sori shrugged. "Half elves can pretty much do whatever regular elves do. Even sing."
Sara smiled, remember the gentle singing that brought them. "That was you?"
"We all have a knick for song. Its what kind of song thats the real question." Sori smiled as she noticed Sara attempting to pet Vixen's head and antlers.
"It's alright, dear. I don't bite... much." The reindeer purring voice assured her as Sara's hand touched her velvety antlers and down to her furry coat. "So soft... kinda like you Chester, after you've been brushed." She giggled.
Just then, a large cold breeze brushed by, reminding them of what they were there for.
"We better hurry," Sori said while hurriedly going behind Vixen to the small one person sleigh. "Before mummy finds us."
Sara quickly climbed in and lifted Chester up onto her head. "You can hide under the hood, Chester."
"Finally!" He exclaimed as he pulled the hood up over Sara's face and covering himself, "Some warmth around here!"
"Alright, everything's set. Please go easy with them Vixen." The princess told her, "And once mummy sees you, come right back here." The reindeer bobbed her head in agreement and Sori moved her gaze up to Sara, "And whatever you do, hold on!"
"How fast can this reindeer goooooooo!?" And Vixen was off like a flash! They raced past trees, foliage, bushes and large rocks with amazing speed, almost unable to make their shapes out as they past by them! Sara tried desperately to hold on, as did Chester with the hood, but the wind rushing through them made it increasingly difficult.
"How are you holding up?!" Sara shouted amongst the strong wind current.
"Grrr... do ya think I am?" He shouted back, using his little paws to hold down the hood to prevent himself from being tossed back somewhere into the woods.
"Hold on! I think Vixen's coming in for a landing!" She shouted as Vixen seemed to take a complete nose dive towards the ground, leaving them screaming all the way down to the ground and until the sleigh landed softly onto the snow, just outside the Ice Palace.
Sara brought herself up from the bottom of the sleigh and looked around, with Chester peeling back the hood and doing the same. "We're alive! Woo hoo!" He pounced out of her hood and landed in the snow, prancing and dancing about proudly. "Take that, Rin Tin Tin! Haha!"
It was then Sara heard some gentle rumblings nearby that sounded familiar: thunder! The Abominable Babcock was coming!
"Chester!" She called to him, but he was celebrating too much to hear her or the low rumbling of the Abominable Babcock's thunder.
"Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!"
"Chester!" Sara continued to call and pointed towards her hood.
"Oh yeah! Oh ye - " And then he heard the rumbling thunder turn into lighting, prompting him to scurry out of the snow and straight into Sara's hood, propping it up on Sara's head to hide himself.
Then Sara saw her, the Abominable Babcock herself, further in the distance still hovering in the air, looking for her daughter. She gathered up the courage and called, "Mummy!"
Her call got her attention immediately, making her turn her large head towards Sara. Sara waved her gloved hand gently with a fake smile.
"I can't believe we're going through this right now..." Chester muttered with Sara smacking him gently by patting her hood down further onto her head, watching as the Abominable Babcock rushed over towards her.
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Her voice boomed, "I DEMAND YOU EXPLAIN YOURSELF THIS INSTANT!" Lightening crackled and a swift wind current came forth as she spoke, making Sara lose some of that gumption she managed to swallow up. When the swift air current died down she answered.
"I was... I was training Vixen one last time before the Christmas season starts. I thought she could do some more laps... before I gave her up to Santa. I'm sorry... I-I should have told you. But I forgot to... I'm really sorry."
The Abominiable Babcock kept her arms crossed and face stern while she spoke, as if listening to every word with a grain of salt. Then the lightening died down, leaving only cloudy skies hovering about her.
"I told you Christmas is going to be spent at the castle. NO need to go outside!" She told her.
"I know you did, but... it won't happen again, mummy, I promise. I'm sorry... please forgive me." Sara bowed her head in what appeared to be sincerity. She then felt something touch the top of her head. It was the Abominable Babcock herself, using her large palm to stroke the top of her head and down her hood, as if she was stroking her hair in an almost comforting manner.
"I forgive you, little one." She hovered down low and embraced Sara in a, surprisingly, gentle way, her large hands completely wrapping around her small body. And even more surprising, was Sara's ability to embrace her back. Rather odd how she did it, and where her hands were placed, but it was an embrace nonetheless. The large cloud then let her go and hovered high above Sara's head. "Now you go back to the castle and fix the ornaments!"
"Yes... mum." That sounded like a conversation she had with her own mother not too long ago, before she even got here. She started to wonder what her parents were doing now: probably still bickering at each other, like they always were. She probably could walk back downstairs at home right now and they probably wouldn't have realized she was gone. All thoughts of bickering, ornaments and calling this weather cloud her "mum" really made her miss home and really eager to make her quick escape from the Ice Palace.
She and the Abominable Babcock went inside the Ice Palace, with Sara making sure the cranky cloud was farther ahead than her before darting over towards the left hand wall, taking ahold of the windowsill, and pulling herself up and out, hopping onto the large rock glacier that stood outside and sliding down it onto the snow.
Sara immediately flipped up the hood. "You alright up there?"
"Couldn't be betta!" Chester exclaimed happily before hopping down and walking beside her. As they continued to walk further away from the Ice Palace, they heard distant cheering. It was coming from Candyland! They both rushed over to see what was going on, and low and behold, Candyland looked like it was back to normal! The ice had thawed away on all of the sweets, as well as all of the elves who were joyous celebrating in the meadows of Candyland. And in front of his workshop was Kris Kringle, leading the celebration.
"We did Chester! We saved Christmas!" Sara exclaimed happily.
"Yeah, but I saved it twice!" He responded haughtily before going over to a nearby chocolate fence and breaking a little piece off, bringing it to her in his mouth. "No hard feelings, though, rookie!"
Sara took the piece of chocolate and reached over to take a small piece of donut and hand it down to him. "None at all." Chester gladly took it in his mouth.
They both ate their sweets as they walked towards the cave from whence they came, both relieved when they saw the mirror. Home was just a literal hop, skip and a jump away.
"I bet mum's probably gotten that phone call already." Sara said to Chester.
"Probably got it hours ago!" Chester responded, "You're still gonna give me those beggin' strips, right?"
Sara smiled and laughed, "You betcha!" Then her smile diminished. "You know, I won't be able to understand you once we get home. You'll be barking and yelping like the annoying self you always were."
The dog shrugged, "Eh, at least ya know what kind of food I like."
Sara smiled, "You ready to go?"
"Ready when you are, captain!" He exclaimed and jumped into her arms, eager to get to the other side.
Meanwhile, back at the Ice Palace, the Abominable Babcock was watching Candyland celebrate from her window. She growled at all the cheering and loud noise that came her way, but was at least thankful it was a descent distance away. She then closed her eyes and concentrated, and suddenly she had transformed from a large weather cloud, into a beautiful, statuesque woman, complete with a long sparkling dress, a medium length bob and a large glacial tiara sitting atop her head.
She sat down behind her ice sculpted desk, with her deep cerulean eyes immediately settling upon a diamond encrusted photo of her and her daughter. She took it into her hands and touched it with her long delicate fingers. But then she saw something in the photo that made her realize the worst: She noticed that her daughter's pointed ears stuck out of the hood, or at least one could always see them. Whereas with this "Sori" she didn't remember seeing them, or feeling them when she embraced her, which was unusual. She knew her child, and she certainly knew what her daughter looked like! Her eyes widened, that wasn't Sori, it was an imposter! And her real daughter was still out there, somewhere, with only God knowing what had happened to her!
Her pent up anger, anxiety and fear got the best of her and transformed her back to her weather cloud form, with lightening shooting about her like sparks, the thunder booming like Angel's bowling night, and the frigid cold now the coldest it ever has been: with intentions to get her daughter back, no matter WHAT the cost, even if it meant no Christmas at ALL! She pounded through the Ice Palace door and created a blizzard upon the entire North Pole that no one, not even Fran Fine, or even Kris Kringle himself, had EVER seen! The snow pelleted down upon the land like a hailstorm, the wind gusted with such intense force it created its own "snow devils", and finally she sent a wave of freezing water through the whole North Pole, even going through Candyland and solidifying everything and everyone, including Kris Kringle himself, into a block of solid ice. It was soon headed towards the mountains, where Sara and Chester were, just getting ready to go through the mirror.
"Do you hear that?" Chester asked, just before they stepped through.
"Hear what?" Sara asked, looking at him still her arms. But his gaze was on something a little bit more important.
"That!" He pointed, just in the knick of time to yell "duck!"as the freezing water came crashing through the cave like a tidal wave, splashing and soaking everything in its wake. They both brought up their now dampened, soaked bodies up and looked over at the mirror. It was still there, but the mirror itself was completely encased in a thick shell of ice.
"No! Nooooo!" Sara cried.
Their only way home was no longer accessible.