Chapter 2: Fractals in Time
As little Tom grew, so did his presence in Arendelle Castle. From week one, the boy proved himself to be a quiet baby, hardly ever crying unless to notify his caretakers of his hunger—or that he had soiled himself. Anna and Kristoff's children quickly formed a bond with the little prince, and one would often times find the two by the crib, talking animatedly to the ever silent baby. Olaf would accompany the trio most of the time, being the jolly little snowman that he was.
At week four, Thomas began to grow more restless, tossing and turning in the crib, sometimes crying for no apparent reason. Elsa began to spend nights with her child, drawing glowing patterns of snow and frost to lull the baby to sleep. It was on one such night that the Queen, while focussing on a particularly detailed snowflake, heard a gurgle from Thomas in the crib. It was thus that the little prince learned to laugh.
Week ten, and Thomas had begun to grow a mop of startling platinum-blonde hair. Although the King and Queen were pleased at the child's development, Anna was not. "What respectable man has platinum-blonde hair?" she exclaimed. To prove her point, the younger sister took one of Henrik's portraits and painted the King's dark brown hair what she thought was a good impression of platinum-blonde. Unfortunately, the princess was not renowned for her artistic talent. Naturally, Anna was very pleased with herself when she managed to sneak into the royal bedchamber without waking the Queen and place the doctored portrait in front of the mirror. She was notably less pleased when she discovered her mattress frozen solid the night after.
Five months after birth, little Thomas began enunciating. Although it started with unimpressive gurgling and squealing, within two weeks the baby had learned the magic word.
"Muh….ma….ma….mama!"
Elsa pronounced it the happiest moment of her life, while a sullen Henrik grumbled about how "the mother always gets the recognition."
By the seventh month, the child was no longer satisfied with the confines of his room. At the utter fascination of Annabeth, Christopher, and Olaf, Thomas began to learn to crawl. From the first tentative "steps", Thomas had the most avid teachers imaginable. Anna and Kristoff would often find their children down on their hands and knees, teaching the crown prince the fine intricacies of quadrupedal locomotion. When he finally did learn to crawl with proficiency, the little prince took to roaming the halls with Annabeth and Christopher, accompanying them as far as his limbs could hold out.
It was in his tenth month, however, that little Tom made his most monumental development of all.
It was a hot summer's day. The Queen and King were engaged in a diplomatic meeting with yet another ambassador from Weselton, leaving Thomas in the care of Anna and Kristoff. With the Snow Queen too busy to play and Olaf nowhere in sight, the children quickly grew hot and very bothered.
"Mama! Too hot!" moaned Christopher from his position on the hardwood floor.
"I'm gonna melt like… like daddy's ice!" Annabeth slumped into the rocking chair in the corner. Kristoff raised his hands in a gesture of peace.
"I'm all sold out, I got none to spare! And it's no great wonder why people would be needing it today…"
Anna was feeling very hot and sticky herself. "Oh, it almost makes Elsa's Great Freeze seem like a paradise! All that cool ice and snow… I'll bet the Queen's not even bothered by the heat!" And with that, she launched into a huge monologue, mostly detailing how unfair it was that her sister had ice powers while Anna was stuck in the sweltering heat with nothing but her sweat to cool her.
Throughout the whole exchange, little Tom was seated in the centre of the floor, seemingly unfazed by the heat, playing with several wooden blocks. Had anyone taken notice of the little prince, they would have been surprised to see not a single bead of sweat upon the boy's skin. Had they moved in closer to the child, they would have been even more surprised to discover how cold the air was around him. Alas, the aunt, uncle, and cousins paid little attention to Thomas due to their discomfort.
Finally, Anna could take no more.
"Alright! I can't stand this heat a moment longer! Kristoff, get Sven hooked to the carriage. We're going to the Wading Pool. Right now. Right this second."
A few minutes later, a reindeer pulling a small carriage cantered through the streets of Arendelle. Kristoff, guiding Sven, took the familiar mountain path into the forest. Through the forest flowed a stream, carrying meltwater from the high peaks above. The stream in question was a playful, lively thing, bubbling over its bed of rocks with fervor and apparent delight. At one point, not far from the path, the stream flowed into a shallow depression in the rocky landscape, forming a small pond. This pond Anna had dubbed the "Wading Pool", and the royal family often took their children up here to play in the water. The pool was five metres at its widest point, and had a maximum depth of one, and thus presented little threat of drowning to the young children.
Stopping the carriage, Kristoff helped his wife, children, and nephew disembark. Anna and her kids ran gleefully to the pool, jumping in and immediately commencing to splash each other with the cold, pure water. Kristoff sat on a slab of rock beside the pool, holding Thomas in his arms.
"You can't even walk yet Tom," he said apologetically. "Another year, and maybe you'll be able to join them." The mountain man smiled at his nephew. "Besides, you're Elsa's son. The heat shouldn't bother you."
But Thomas wasn't about to let Annabeth and Christopher have fun without him. Wriggling in Kristoff's grasp, the child exclaimed over and over.
"Play! Play!"
Kristoff groaned. "Thomas, you're too young! And plus, if you get hurt under my care, your mother's going to freeze me in an ice cube for a week!"
But Thomas would have none of it. Kristoff's hands were suddenly cold. Freezing cold. Dropping his nephew with a gasp, he rubbed his hands together instinctively for warmth.
"Ow!" he exclaimed. What had just happened?
Looking over, Kristoff saw Thomas speedily crawling towards the pool, where his cousins still played, oblivious.
"Thomas, no!" the mountain man yelled. "Anna, help!"
Anna turned, surprise written upon her face. "Kristoff? What's wrong?" Her husband lunged for his nephew, but it was too late. With a little squeak of fear, the little prince slipped off a rocky precipice and tumbled into the pool. Only, he never hit the surface.
There was a flash. A crackling sound. A gust of frigid wind. And suddenly Thomas was sliding across the now frozen surface of the pool, his face an almost comical mask of shock.
The silence was broken by a cacophony of screams.
"Cold! Cold!"
"Stuck!"
"Ahhhh! Help, Kristoff, help!"
Kristoff turned and, sure enough, Anna and the children were stuck fast in solid ice up to their waists.
"Hang on, I'm coming!" he hollered. Sprinting to the pool, Kristoff swiftly scooped up Thomas. The boy offered no resistance as the mountain man then ran back to the carriage, practically throwing the little prince in the back seat.
"Where is it, where is it?!"
Frantically pawing through the bundle of emergency supplies, Kristoff finally came across what he was looking for.
"AHA!" he triumphantly yelled, a flint and steel his hand. With his other, Kristoff grabbed a torch from the supplies, peeling back out towards the pool at a full sprint.
The situation was beginning to turn dire. Even in the summer heat, Anna was shivering profusely, her lips an unhealthy blue tinge. Kristoff was bitterly reminded of when Elsa had frozen the woman's heart, on a fateful day over four years ago. With renewed ferocity, he smashed the flint and steel together above the unlit torch.
"C'mon, c'mon! Light!"
Finally, the sparks caught. Kristoff quickly held the torch as close to his wife's legs as he dared, the open flames vaporizing the ice on contact. After melting a sufficient amount of the ice as to allow Anna to free herself, the mountain man turned to his children. Annabeth was unsuccessfully trying to pull her legs out of the pond with her arms, while Christopher simply stood there and shivered, his breath coming forth in ragged gasps.
"Hold on Annabeth, I've got to free your brother first!" Without waiting for a reply, Kristoff quickly went to work on his son's legs.
"That's it, Daddy's got you!"
"C-c-cold" Christopher moaned.
Kristoff pulled his son out of the frozen pool, setting him down on the shore.
"Stay here with Mama and get warm. Daddy's gotta help your sister".
With the help of the torch, it wasn't long before the final victim was freed from the pool's icy grasp. As the family lay on the slabs of stone surrounding the pool, rubbing feeling back into their limbs, they were suddenly very grateful for the blazing sun. After a breathless pause, Anna asked the inevitable question.
"What happened?"
Kristoff rubbed the back of his head, an expression of confusion and worry upon his face.
"I was just trying to save Tom from falling in, and then… this."
He gestured to the expanse of frozen water before them. When he received no response, Kristoff looked over at his wife, only to see an expression of excitement on her face, a gleam in her eyes.
"Kristoff, don't you see? This can only mean one thing!" Anna suddenly grabbed her husband's arm. "Where's Tom?"
Opening the door to the carriage, the couple felt both physical and emotional cold wash over them. For on the red leather seat sat the little prince, confusion and wonder evident on his features as tendrils of frost spread outwards from his body, covering the seat in delicate sparkling swirls.
"Oh," said the mountain man, at that point very much in shock.
Kristoff and Anna looked to each other.
"Elsa," they said in unison.
