2. The Princess and the Giantess
"I hope the Americans arrive soon," Princess Anna grumbled, holding out her hands to one of the large fireplaces in the castle. A servant quickly added another large log, and soon the flames were blazing higher than ever.
"Commander Sorensen said they would be here within the hour," the Duke of Ramberg told her. He took her hand, and looked into her deep blue-green eyes. "We'll find your sister, and stop this disaster. Whatever it takes. I promise."
Anna let him hold her hand for a brief moment, then took it away. "I wish I could just go after her, Uncle Mustela. I feel so… so useless."
"You can't just rush into the mountains, not when there's a blizzard like this. Even the most experienced mountain men wouldn't dare, and you're just a princess."
"Just a princess?" Anna shot back, raising an eyebrow.
"In this case, yes, Highness," the duke replied with a slight smile. "You are a very capable young lady in many ways, but not at surviving the wilderness. Nor, of course, am I. And besides, we have no way of knowing just which way Elsa went. No, the only thing we can do is wait for this special task force."
"What on Earth made you request the help of monsters?" Anna asked. She eyed him suspiciously. "You wouldn't be assuming that you need to set a monster to catch a monster, would you? That my sister is a monster?"
"Not at all, no, my dear niece," Ramberg told her quickly. "I would never suggest that. Queen Elsa is simply… troubled."
"Troubled!" Anna shot, throwing her arms in the air. "Troubled! I don't believe her! My own sister—all these years, I hadn't the slightest idea! It's impossible!"
"We all saw it," Ramberg said smoothly. "I cannot explain it any more than you can." He looked at her curiously. "I don't suppose you have any secret powers?"
Anna glared at him. "Don't be an idiot. The only power I have is to be a blind, dumb, fool! And that's not a secret—not any more! All my life I've been living with a… a… a witch! God, that sounds so stupid when I say it! But what else is she?"
"Well, that's why we asked the Monster Force people to come—they have experience in this sort of thing."
"Monsters? Freaks?" Anna sighed. "You're right. I don't even know if that is my sister, or something that has taken her over. It's not as if we were that close. Not these days. And since our parents died, it's like I don't even know her any more." She paused briefly, and looked up at the man beside her. "I wish I could have the old Elsa back…."
"Perhaps you can," Ramberg said. "If it's safe—if she's safe."
"You think she's a danger?" Anna asked, her eyes wide.
Ramberg shrugged. "This power—this storm, it is dangerous. It may be too dangerous to bring her back to the castle."
"What?" Anna gasped. "Are the Americans coming here to capture her, take her back to that secret site of theirs? Because I will not permit that! She's the queen!"
"I'm sure they would not dare," Ramberg said soothingly. "They're just here to stop her. Whatever she has become—whatever she is…."
"She's my sister, that's what she is," Anna stated. "She's not a monster!"
"Of course she is," he murmured. "Of course." He glanced over as the door to the study opened and an officer stepped in and gestured to them. "Looks like they're about to land. You said you wanted to meet them at the airport?"
Anna nodded. "Yeah. The sooner we get started the sooner we can stop my sister. This freak blizzard has to end. Otherwise our small country will be destroyed. Consumed beneath the ice."
"Don't worry," Ramberg said softly. "I'll keep you safe—keep us all safe from her... I promise."
"There it is!"
"Where?" Anna looked around, following the captain's pointing finger. She blinked the driving snow out of her eyes, holding the fur-lined hood of her parka close about her face.
"Just coming into view over there, Highness," the captain said.
"My God!" Anna gasped as she watched the massive military transport sway from side to side in the howling blizzard. "Captain Hansen, can they make it in this weather?"
"They have to," Hansen said. "They just have to. Otherwise we have no hope left."
Anna's heart was in her mouth as she watched the huge dull green plane slowly approach the single runway of Moskenesoya International Airport. It was shifting wildly from the glide path as the winds buffeted it, and she was not at all surprised when, just short of the runway, its powerful turbofans spun up again with a deafening roar and the aircraft started climbing away again.
"The pilot says they can't land with this wind shear," Hansen explained to her, putting aside his walkie-talkie. "They're going to come around for another pass and do an air-drop."
"An air-drop?" Anna asked, confused. "Won't that be even more dangerous in this weather?"
The captain shrugged. "Apparently not, Highness. It seems they have some way to get the troops down safely. After that they will make another pass and drop off the emergency supplies we requested. Enough food and fuel for the emergency evacuation facilities until the Norwegian icebreaker makes it through."
Anna stood and watched nervously as the plane circled the fjord, almost invisible behind the driving snow.
"Here it comes," she said, seeing the great green-grey shape fly low and slow overhead, its warning lights flashing red and green, reflecting off the white snowflakes. Then it was hidden in a sudden flurry, and she lost it.
"Have they given—" she started to say, and then gasped in shock as a tremendous impact shook the ground, almost throwing her off balance. She spun in the direction of the sound, horrified at the thought that the plane might have crashed. To her astonishment, through the snow she saw a titanic shape crouched down on the runway, one hand on the ground and the other to its chest. After a second or two, it lowered its other hand, and she realised it had been holding other figures, looking no bigger than dolls. Then the titan slowly stood, rearing higher and higher, impossibly tall, and Anna's heart skipped a beat as she remembered the old tales of the jötnar, the giants of Norse myth and legend. Of Skaði and Gerðr, the giantess brides of the gods.
But of course this was no legend, Anna realised—all the world now knew who this was: Ginormica, the American girl who had been mutated by an alien substance, causing her to gain incredible size and strength.
The giantess came closer, looming taller and taller over everything, her pure white hair whipping in the gale. She was only wearing a skin-tight suit of dark blue, decorated with gold lines and dots, and for a moment Anna was reminded of how Elsa would wear the skimpiest of clothing even in the middle of winter. Anna had never understood why the cold had never bothered her sister.
Until now….
Her heart beating fast despite herself, she remained where she was as the giantess bent down on one knee before her, bringing her huge but gentle face closer. Anna fought to stay calm, and was reassured by a nervous smile from Ginormica.
"Ummm… er, gleder meg å møte deg, Høyhet," the giantess said in a low, powerfully resonant voice. "I mean, pleased to meet you, Highness."
Anna blinked, and laughed. "Velkommen til Arendelle, Ginormica," she said. "I am so very glad to see you, too," she added in fluent, slightly-accented English.
"Please, Highness, call me Susan."
"Susan, welcome," Anna said, giving the giantess a smile. Thinking of her as Susan was certainly helpful in humanizing the titanic figure before her. "Thanks for, er, coming so quickly."
"Indeed, we are most grateful," Ramberg said, stepping forward and extending a hand. He was dressed in thick furs, making his slight frame seem quite bulky. "I am the prime minister, the Duke of Ramberg. On behalf of a frozen nation, welcome. This, as I'm sure you are aware, is Her Royal Highness the Princess Anna Louise Astrid von Oldenburg-Àrnadalr."
"What a lot of names!" a strange blue blob exclaimed. "Why do you have so many? Is it in case you forget one?"
"Hush, Bob," Susan said, squishing him flat under her hand.
"Thank you, Ginormica. Ahem. Monster Force, at your service," another voice said. Anna tore her gaze away from the giantess to focus on the short, stocky man in full arctic winter gear who was standing at attention, saluting her. "I am General Monger, this is Dr Cockroach, the Missing Link, and that—Ginormica, you can let him out now—that is known as Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate."
"Hi! I'm Bob!" Bob called, waving with three arms. "Welcome to Funland!"
"Bob, first, that's Finland, and second, this isn't Finland," the insect-headed man said, rolling his huge amber eyes. "My apologies, min prinsesse," he added, nodding courteously at Anna.
"Uh, thank you all for coming," Anna said, looking at the strange creatures in front of her. Cockroach and Link were dressed similarly to the general, in thick quilted winter clothing, though the large blue gelatinous mass was unclothed.
"I do hate to break into this charming conversation," the duke said. "But could we continue it somewhere less blustery?"
"You're right," Monger said. "We've wasted enough time already. We need to assemble for a briefing, Your Highness. Then we can move out, try and track your sister down. And end this winter."
"The hanger is at your disposal. It should, er, fit Susan," Anna said, gesturing. "Captain Hansen, bring the truck for our guests."
"I think I'll walk," Susan said with a smile, standing to her full height. Anna looked up, way up, and swallowed hard. Ginormica was immense. It was barely possible to believe she was even human. Still less that she was so gentle, and… well, 'normal' was the only word for it, Anna decided. The thought gave her some hope, at least—being a freak, a monster, didn't mean you had to be dangerous or insane. Perhaps her sister could be reasoned with.
Perhaps….
"Oh I am glad to get out of that!" Link cried, shutting the small hanger door and stamping his feet to shake the snow off.
"I quite agree," Cockroach said, removing layer after layer of thick clothing. "Cockroaches do not like the cold. At. All," he added with feeling, moving as close to the heater as he could and sighing in contentment.
Susan ducked under the main hangar door, which was quickly shut behind her, and sat down cross-legged behind the others. A large number of Arendellian soldiers and officials joined them, with the princess at their head. She nodded to Monger, and took one of the prepared seats.
"Right, we all here?" Monger asked. "Good. Princess Anna, Prime Minister, with your permission, I would like to get the briefing started. We've been able to get some information since the initial, uh, incident, but can you please run down the events of the past seventy-two hours?"
"With your permission, Highness, I should return to the castle," the duke said. "Much needs to be done in this disaster. I cannot remain away for too long."
"Of course," Anna said, nodding. "And thanks, Uncle Mustela."
"I shall join you after the briefing," Monger added. "In the meantime, if you would be so good, Your Highness? Could explain just what happened?"
"Ah, yes, yes of course," Anna said, joining Monger at the podium. She looked out over the small group of the strangest creatures she had ever seen in her life, and took a deep breath.
"First of all, thank you all for coming to help our small kingdom. We are all very grateful, and the supplies you have also dropped off will be of great help." She sighed, and bit her lip, glancing up at Susan, who gave the princess a reassuring smile. "It happened at the ball. I suppose it was my fault, in a way. We were arguing, about… well, something silly really. It's not important. But I grabbed her hand, and pulled her glove off by accident. I never knew why she always wore gloves—I figured she was maybe afraid of germs, or it was a fashion thing. Turns out that, er, that wasn't the case at all. Anyway, she was furious, and she… what is the English word? Unleashed. She unleashed her… magic, I think, is the only word. Her power. Her ice power. We say ismakt in Norwegian. Huge… spikes of ice."
Anna shuddered at the memory, at the utter numbing shock she had felt at the sight, the revelation that her own sister was… so different. Then she took a breath and carried on. "The Duc d'Beletteville was badly injured by a spike, and then Elsa just… she just ran. She fled. We—I—followed her down to the water, but… she just ran straight across the fjord, freezing it as she went. She vanished into the hills on the other side, and ever since she left, we've had this horrible blizzard. It just won't stop, and the wind is too strong for us to send out helicopters to look for her, or even for any planes to leave. The fjord is icing over, getting thicker by the hour, and if something isn't done soon… I think we will all be doomed."
"Thank you very much, Highness," Monger said as Anna returned to her seat. "We have managed to establish limited high-definition satellite imagery of Arendelle, but we have no hope of tracking the queen in this weather. Cockroach has been working on theories about how this is possible, how she can cause this, but we don't have time to worry about that now."
"Only at the hypothesis stage at the moment, I'm afraid," Cockroach interjected. "But for once the general's right—our first priority must be to save Arendelle from… well, from a rather severe case of anthropogenic climate change."
"Anthropo-what?" Monger asked, glaring at the insect-headed scientist. "Are you on about your liberal global warming again? Because have you looked around you? Are we warm?"
"This isn't climate, it's weather!" Cockroach shot back. "I was trying to make a joke!"
"Well, I'm not laughing! Climate is just lots of weather! And what do you mean, 'for once'?"
"Gentlemen, please…" Anna said, her voice raised just loud enough to carry the full force of all her training and education in public speaking and leadership.
Monger and Cockroach broke off immediately. Red-faced, the general returned to the podium. "My, er, apologies, Highness. Ahem. Where was I? Yes. The immediate issue is how to save this country from…uh, this blizzard the queen appears to have caused. The satellite images show that the storm is centred on this peak, Nordfjell, to the south-west of Reine. We are going to work on the assumption that the, er, Snow Queen, if indeed she is causing this weather, is there."
"So how do we get there?" Link asked. "I mean, we ditched the plane, and we couldn't bring Insecto as it's too cold for her, so…?"
"That's where Ginormica comes in," Monger said. "Her legs are twenty-five feet long, and, with those and her titanic strength, she can walk through deep snow with ease."
Anna raised her eyebrows, and cast a glance at the giantess's crossed legs. "Just how strong are you, Susan?" she asked.
"Uh, pretty strong, I guess," Susan said. "I mean, giants are always stronger, right?"
"Highness, do you see that plane over there, the Boeing 777?" Cockroach asked.
Anna glanced over at one of the few large planes Air Arendelle owned, and nodded. "Yes, of course, but we can't fly in this weather, if that's what you're asking."
"It is not. I would just like to point out that Susan could pick the entire thing straight off the ground, easily."
Anna's eyes grew round. "Lift that? What? The whole plane?"
"Easily," Cockroach repeated, his chest puffed out. "Fully loaded," he added.
Anna stared at the gigantic woman seated on the ground inside the hanger, and shook her head. She looked so gentle, so modest—in fact she was actually blushing. But then she remembered how polite and calm her own sister had always been, and how successfully she had managed to hide what she really was. And from her own flesh and blood, no less. So she knew how impossible it was to tell what was really going on in someone's heart. How impossible it was to truly know anyone. Ginormica might seem sweet, she might even want to be sweet—but, like her sister, this foreign giantess possessed incredible power, and that made her dangerous. Like her sister.
"We need to sort out teams and provisions, Highness," Hansen said. "General, would you?"
"Right, listen up you sorry lot," Monger said. "We've got supplies to distribute and snow queens to catch. Cockroach and Link will remain here with me and help ensure that the good citizens of Arendelle do not freeze to death, and Bob will accompany Susan to track down Queen Elsa."
"And I will join you," Anna said, her face set.
"Highness! You mustn't!" Hansen gasped. "It's far too dangerous!"
"She's my sister, Captain!" Anna said. "I have to go. I'm probably the only one she trusts right now. Not that she ever really trusted me; that's clear enough, now I know how she lied to me all her life, I mean. I mean, she couldn't bloody tell her own sister? She couldn't trust me?" Anna took a deep breath, then started again. "I have to go, Captain. I have to."
"But Highness, if you were to be… God forbid, killed, then we would have no monarch!"
"Then become a republic!" Anna snapped. "The only thing at the moment that I care about is my sister, and keeping the people of our kingdom safe from her. And I can't do that sitting here! General Monger, I hereby officially request to accompany your team members on their mission to find my sister!"
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Highness," Monger said, scratching his chin. "I can't take the responsibility of keeping you safe, ma'am. We've got Ginormica if your… if the Snow Queen is a threat."
"Listen, General," Anna said. "You need me there! Unless you're intending to use force to subdue my sister, with this great big giant you've brought—and if you do, there will be the most severe consequences our government can devise. On behalf of the government, as acting head of state of Arendelle, I forbid any violent action designed to harm my sister, and officially demand you take me!"
Monger made a face, but nodded. "On the understanding that Uncle Sam can in no way assume responsibility for your safety."
"Great!" Anna said, reverting immediately to being a cheerful teenager. Susan was amazed how fast she could switch moods, and presumed it was something you learned if you were a princess. It was all about concealing your real feelings, being diplomatic, or whatever. She was glad that growing up as an average girl in an average town meant she never had to worry about anything like that.
"Right, move out!" Monger called. "Cockroach, Link, you're with me! Bob, Ginormica—make sure the princess returns safe and sound! And the queen!"
"Yes, sir!" Susan said, giving him a salute as he headed out. She stood up, thankful that she didn't need to worry about ducking her head in the spacious hangar, then looked down at the others.
"Ready, Bob?" she asked, and was rewarded with ten thumbs up, all protruding from different parts of the blob's body.
"Sorry about that… great big giant bit," Anna said, walking over to Susan.
Susan shook her head. "You're worried about your sister, of course. But honestly, I could never hurt her. I swear. Even if Monger ordered me to, I wouldn't."
"Thanks, Susan," the princess said with a smile as Monger raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure you couldn't. Me, however, I'm gonna kill her!" she added with a grin.
"Princess, with your permission, I'll prepare your snowmobile," Hansen said.
Anna nodded, then looked back up at the giantess. "I'm heading out. Wait for me outside the town along Route E10 in one hour."
"Route E10?" Susan asked. "Uh, sure, I'll find it. Or you'll find me…."
"I'm sure that won't be hard," Anna said, barely suppressing a laugh. Then her face became solemn again. "I know that compared to saving the world from alien invasion, saving one small, remote country from… uh, unseasonable weather… must seem like a child's game—I mean child's play, sorry; excuse my mistake—but we are, of course, very grateful."
"I must say, I'm impressed with how well you speak American," Monger said, nodding approvingly.
"English, General!" Cockroach hissed. "Please!"
"Doesn't everybody now?" Anna replied. "It is only you Americans who are so monolingual."
"I'm sorry, he shouldn't have said that," Susan said. "Of course you are right. We are."
"Oh, and my mother was also English," Anna said, giving the giantess a warm smile. "She was born Princess Mary, daughter of Princess Alexandra, the grand-daughter of Britain's King George V."
"Fascinating. So the Queen's your cousin twice removed?" Cockroach asked, his left antenna twitching in interest.
"My sister is not my cousin, removed or otherwise," the princess said, raising an eyebrow.
"My most humble apologies, Your Majesty," Cockroach said with a low bow. "I did not mean to offend."
Then the princess smiled. "I know—to you, the Queen is and always will be the Queen of England. But yes, we are related. As of course are most of the royal houses of Europe. We're all quite terribly inbred, really. England and Scandinavia have a long history together: in addition to my own mother, Queen Mary, Queen Maud of Norway was British by birth. In fact," she added with a slight smile, "our relationship goes back a thousand years, starting with when our people conquered part of England."
"Ah, yes, the Vikings, and the Danelaw," Cockroach said. "King Canute's empire."
"Canute?" Susan asked. "The guy who thought he was could even rule the tides?"
Cockroach shook his head. "That is quite wrong. Canute the Great was no fool. That story was his demonstration to the fawning courtiers that no matter how much power he had, there were some things even a king could not control."
"But it seems that there are some unexpected things a queen can control," Anna said soberly, glancing up at the driving snow against the slate-grey sky. "And we don't have much time."
"Don't worry, Highness. We'll make it before it gets too much worse," Susan said.
Anna looked up at her. "Are you sure you're going to be warm enough in that? It looks a bit, well, thin."
"Oh, I'm fine," Susan said. "The suit's an alien one, and helps regulate my temperature. Plus Doc said something about my surface area to volume ratio means I lose less heat. He also explained that the quantonium inside me gives me all the energy I need, even when it's this cold: it's like having warm blood. Well, I mean, I do have warm blood of course, but you know what I mean. Uh, sorry for babbling, your Highness," she added.
"Yes, I think follow you," Anna said, giving Susan a slight smile. "And don't worry about babbling. Elsa's told me I do it often enough." At the mention of her sister, the redheaded princess's expression changed, and she bit her lip. "I hope she's all right. I'm worried for her."
"We'll stop this winter, Highness," Susan said. "And save your sister. I promise."
"I'm just afraid she's become a monster," Anna said softly.
The giantess knelt down, and smiled. "Becoming a monster isn't the end of the world, you know…."
"Right, the supplies have been brought in. That lot's for distribution. This case is for us. Ginormica, take this backpack with you," Monger told her, gesturing to a massive canvas bag, to which two huge padded straps had been added. "It contains a tent for you, as well as food and other supplies."
"I hope it's not too heavy," Hansen said, looking at the size of the pack, which was nearly twice his height.
Susan shook her head. "No, it's nothing," she said, hoisting it on the tip of her little finger and smiling at his stunned reaction. She slipped it over her shoulders, and settled it in place. "Come on Bob. We've got some hiking to do. Right, where's the meeting point?"
"Follow me," the Captain said, re-wrapping himself up warmly.
Susan followed him out of the door, and carefully made her way along the narrow streets of the town. There were almost no people about: an emergency situation had been declared, and the roads were free of all non-essential traffic. She was grateful for that, but still managed to knock over a streetlamp and two trees. She quickly apologized, but Captain Hansen just told her not to worry, and that they were facing a much graver threat than a few damaged street fixtures.
They soon arrived at an area on the outskirts where there were a number of large commercial warehouses. She spotted a man standing next to a black snowmobile, behind which was a covered trailer.
"Right, Ginormica," Captain Hansen said. "This is Kristoff Reinsdyr, a Sami mountain guide. He runs Sven's Trekking, the main mountain tour company in Reine. What he doesn't know about the mountains isn't worth knowing."
"Pleased to meet you, Mr Reinsdyr. I'm Susan."
The blond man shook the giantess's two-foot long finger nervously, never taking his eyes off her. "I am… I am Kristoff. Welcome to Arendelle. Sorry about our, uh, big summer blow-out storm."
Susan smiled. "Thanks. This is Bob. He doesn't have a brain, but doesn't let that stop him."
"Hi Mister Kristoff! I'm Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate! But my friends call me Susie Q!"
"No, they don't, Bob," Susan said. "Sorry about that, Kristoff. Bob's mildly telepathic. It's how he compensates for not having a brain—he borrows other people's. It also means he can separate himself into different pieces. Doc once sent him through a sieve to see what would happen."
"I made spaghetti!" Bob said happily. "Yum!"
"If I might crave your attention," Hansen said after giving a mild cough. "Thank you. The princess will be here soon. It is vitally important that she return alive, do you understand? She must survive. If we were to lose her as well as her sister, the country would collapse."
"Her sister's not lost, not yet, Captain," Susan said. "Just because someone's become a monster, it doesn't mean they're not still human."
"My apologies, madam," Hansen said, glancing briefly up at the massive giantess, then averting his eyes. "I did not mean to suggest anything."
"No, it's okay, I know you didn't," Susan said. "Oh, wait, is that her?" She peered through the blizzard, seeing a red-clad figure heading towards them astride a bright pink snowmobile.
"Highness!" Hansen saluted as Anna drew up to them, and Kristoff stood to attention.
"At ease, men," Anna said. "Mr Reinsdyr, which direction do you suggest?"
Kristoff glanced briefly up at Susan. "The American general believes Nordfjell—North Peak, so we have a long trek. Two, maybe three days. It depends how much snow there will be on the mountain."
"A lot, I think," Anna said, glancing around. "And the longer we wait, the more there will be."
"Yes, perhaps we should get moving," Kristoff suggested. "I shall take the front position, the Princess behind me, and the foreigners can bring up the rear. If we go too fast for you, please tell us."
Susan nodded. "Do you want me to carry any extra supplies? I have some room in my backpack."
Kristoff shook his head. "No, thank you. Now, we need to start off. I want to be at Å in time to make camp."
"Uh, sorry, where? Uh?" Susan asked.
Anna laughed. "Not Uh, Å. It's a town to the south of Reine."
Kristoff nodded. "It is only ten kilometres away, but in this weather, it may take hours. Keep close to me, please."
He switched on his snowmobile, which was equipped with blue and red flashing lights, and drove off at a moderate pace, followed by Anna.
"Hey, Susie Q, what's going on? Are we going to visit Anna's sister?" Bob asked.
The giantess smiled. "That we are. Come on, Bob, let's go rescue a queen!"
.
KNOWTES:
I think I should note that while there will definitely be similarities to Frozen, plot-wise, this won't be a simple retelling. This Elsa and Anna are not the Elsa and Anna of Frozen—though they are very similar in many ways: I need to balance having them be recognizable yet not identical. Same as the story….
The jötnar, or "giantesses," Skaði and Gerðr, are as described. "Gerðr" can be written as "Gerda," incidentally.
Ginormica's "gleder meg å møte deg, Høyhet" means "Pleased to meet you, Highness" (thanks to Cyries for improving my non-existent Norwegian skills) I figured Susan might take a bit of time on the long flight to practice a little bit of Norwegian. "Min prinsesse" should be self-evident. "Reinsdyr" is Norwegian for "reindeer." No actual reindeer will feature in this story—people use snowmobiles instead.
Princess Mary does not actually exist, but Queen Maud of Norway, wife of King Haakon (d. 1938) was a similar case: she was a member of the British royal family, and a grand-daughter of Victoria. So I have had Elsa and Anna's mother be a member of the same family, as a way for them to be able to speak English fluently—having learnt it from their mother as a child. So their mother is the made-up daughter of the very real Princess Alexandra, daughter of the equally real Princess Alice and the Queen's cousin (Alice being the third daughter of George V and Mary of Teck). This is just a way to get around the language issue and allow Els/a/nna and Susan to have some deep and meaningful talks later on.
Anna's full name is the same one I used for There Sleeps a Living Flower, although, on advice from an actual Norwegian, Cyries, who was good enough to send me some detailed notes, I have changed "Sonja," using "Astrid" instead as it is the name of an actual blood princess (and a very minor shout-out to How To Train Your Dragon). The reason for using the same name is really just because I rather like it. No other significance. Other names have more significance: for example, Beletteville is made up of the French words belette and ville. Weasel and town….
E10 is the main road (pretty much the only road) through the real Reine. It starts at the village of Å, which is one of the shortest placenames in the world.
I have decided to have Susan almost as immune to the cold as Elsa, though for different reasons. Mainly because I want to have her in her iconic alien suit rather than wrapped up in furs. The canon Blob was stopped by cold, but I can't give him that weakness here, or else he won't be of much use, and since Olaf won't be featuring, I need someone else who can be impaled….