Adventures of John: The Adventurer and the Snow Queen

by John The Adventurer

I am John the Adventurer. I have traveled the magical realms for years now. But never did I expect what happened a few days after Christmas. Never would I have expected to fall into the world of a Disney movie and fall in love. This is my story, but it is also hers. This is the story of The Adventurer and the Snow Queen.

3. Chapter 2

Adventures of John: The Adventurer and the Snow Queen
Chapter 2

"Shadow Trickster!"
His featureless face turned towards me, despite the fact that he was facing the opposite direction, and another spine-tingling laugh emerged from a shark-toothed grin that split his face. An when I say split, I mean literally. His previously blank face tore open to reveal the horrific maw from which the laughter erupted.
"Johnny Boy!" he laughed. "How nice to see you here! It's so wonderful to see you again!"
"Leave this place, Trickster!" I shouted, using my most powerful, commanding voice. "You have no place here!"
"Oh, but I do!" He exclaimed, his upper body stretching into that of a hideous centipede. "This place has so much energy, don't you think?" He asked, circling around me. "So much untapped power! So much like you!"
"I think you should stop talking, Trickster," I said, readying my attack. "It makes you an easy target!" With this I spun around, releasing orbs of light in every direction around me. The Shadow Trickster shrieked in pain and fury as each and every orb found its mark, exploding upon impact and scattering the shadows that made up his form.
"Always fighting, aren't you?" the Trickster hissed as he recoiled back into the form of a faceless Victorian gentleman. "Always with the light and the fire! You need to learn to branch out more!"
He lunged at me, his body shifting and stretching, his hands lengthening into massive, lethal talons, which where immediately frozen and shattered by a blast of icy power.
I looked over to see Elsa, icy wind swirling around her, standing determined before my enemy. "You want variety?" she asked. "How about this!" She sent out another powerful blast of cold, but this time the Trickster created a thin wall of shadow, absorbing her frosty magic.
"Nice try, little one!" he hissed. "But you are out of your league!" His body shifted again, taking the shape of a massive black dragon. "Lets see how you handle a real challenge!" Shadowy flame engulfed the area where Elsa stood, blocking her from sight. When the shadows cleared, Elsa was revealed, surrounded by a cocoon of ice, trapped.
"Amateurs," the Trickster said disdainfully, walking away. But as he did, the ice let out a resounding crack, and the ice shattered, sending thousands of icy shards directly towards the shadowy dragon, knocking him to to ground and scattering him. "Impressive," he admitted, reforming to his faceless Victorian self. "But ice is a dangerous element." He shifted again, shadows condensing around him, separating to reveal Elsa. But this was not the same Elsa that stood at the other end of the courtyard. This Elsa was in perpetual shadow, her beauty marred by unnatural, deathly pale skin, a skeletal frame, and cold, dead eyes. The ice that comprised her dress was dark and jagged, with a collar of frozen spikes. The doppelganger smiled coldly, her dead eyes focused on the real Elsa.
"The Snow Queen they call you," the dark reflection said mockingly. "The one who froze the summer."
"Don't listen!" I shouted, preparing another attack. "It-" but my warning was cut off by a blast of icy darkness from the Shadow Elsa, freezing me from the mouth down, barely leaving room for me to breathe through my nose.
"You keep trying to be good," the shadow said, circling Elsa. "You try to help them, try to give them happiness. But you keep hurting them. First Anna, back when you were children, then your entire kingdom, and then you hurt Anna again! No matter what you do, you keep on hurting them. You tell yourself that you are good, that you just want to use for powers for good, but we both know that is a lie. THIS is the real you!" She gestured to herself. "You froze your sister's heart, but it is your heart that is truly frozen!"
But we did not get to see the true Elsa's reaction to this, as this was the time I broke free of the ice. With a burst of energy I shattered the ice and leaped between the two Elsa's, adorned with shining armor of brightest gold(I can be a bit of a show-off sometimes), a spear of pure fire brandished in my hands, wings of light stretching from my shoulders.
"Your shadows have no place here, Trickster!" I proclaimed, plunging my flaming spear into the Shadow Elsa's chest. I poured as much power as I could into the spear, sending flames throughout the creature's body, but it wasn't enough. The shadows kept multiplying, consuming the flames. I poured more and more power into the spear, until I hit a horrifyingly familiar wall within myself, the same wall that every day blocked me from my powers. 'No!' I screamed in my mind. 'Not this time!' I pushed against the wall, using all of my will. 'Not this time!' I pushed, and pushed, and the wall SHATTERED. The duplicate Elsa screamed as flames spread across her body, consuming him even as he shifted back to his faceless form. I leaned in, smiling into his featureless face. "Nice try, little one," I whispered to him. "But you are out of your league!" I stepped back and watched as the flames consumed the rest of the Trickster's form, allowing my more luminous additions fade away.
"Is it, dead?" Elsa asked, staring at the spot where her duplicate stood.
"No," I answered, shaking my head. "He'll reform eventually. Hopefully it'll be-" the world suddenly began to swim before my eyes, everything losing focus.
"Are you okay?" someone asked, probably one of the several Elsa's spinning around my head.
"I think I used a bit too much..." And then I did the most embarrassing a man can do. I feinted in front of a woman.

I woke up slowly, surfacing from the depths of the world of dreams. I awoke to find myself sunken deep into a feather mattress, covered with layers of fur blankets. I was incredibly comfortable, until I looked down and saw the lizard on my chest, staring at me.
"What the-" I shouted, trying to free myself from the constricting blankets. The lizard, who I realised was Pascal, leaped off my chest and dashed out of the room. I spent the next few minutes attempting to untangle myself from the blankets. When I had almost succeeded enough to sit up, the room I was in was suddenly filled with Disney characters. Anna, Rapunzel, Eugene, and Kristoff stood around my bed, Anna and Rapunzel looking worried, while Kristoff and Eugene looked somewhat confused.
"How are you feeling?" Anna asked. "Are you okay?"
"Right as rain," I answered. "In fact-" I tried to sit up, only to have the world begin to spin madly around me and toss me back into the bed. "Okay," I said weakly. "A little more rest couldn't hurt."
"Don't worry," said Rapunzel assuringly. "We'll stay and help until you get back up your feet."
"Um, Rapunzel?" Eugene asked. "Can we go speak outside, please?"
Rapunzel followed him outside, and I tried to resist the urge to eavesdrop, I really did, but they were talking about me! I had to know what they were saying. So, with a little help from magically-enhanced hearing, I listened in on their little chat.

"We need to go, Rapunzel," Eugene said adamantly.
"But he needs our help!" she protested.
"We came here for our honeymoon!" he exclaimed. "Then we nearly freeze to death, when the whole reason we came here was because of the 'beautiful Arendelle summer', and then we get attacked by a giant shadow creature. We've been here long enough. It's time to go home."
"We can't just leave him!" she exclaimed.
"I know what this is about," Eugene sighed. "When you had your hair, there was nothing you couldn't fix. Every injury, every illness, even aging you could cure. Now that you no longer have it, you want to help even more. Don't deny it. I saw how you where during the winter. It's good that you want to help people, but you can't help everyone."
"Eugene," Rapunzel said sternly. "This is not about my hair! Yes, I tried to help when I could during the magical winter. But not because of some kind of desperation brought on by the lost of my hair! I did it because I believe that we need to help people, and that is what I am doing here. We are going to stay and help him, because he needs it."
"Alright," Eugene sighed. "But we are going home straight away after this."
"Straight away," Rapunzel agreed with a gentle smile."

"So..." Kristoff began awkwardly. "You have magical powers. That's cool, I guess."
"Not as cool as you might think," I answered, wincing. "Sure, it's pretty amazing about half of the time, but the other half is usually a lot like this."
"Ouch," he responded empathetically. "Not fun."
"Nope. Not fun at all."
"So," Anna began, "what is it like? You know, having magic?"
"Why don't you ask your sister?" I asked her. "She handled herself fairly well out there."
"Well..." Anna began. I could see how uncomfortable she was with the subject, so I stopped her.
"It's alright," I told her. "Magic... It's a sort of energy. When you are not using it, you can feel it inside of you, building up like water behind a dam. But when you use it, it is as if the dam breaks, and the energy rushes over you, wonderful and overpowering." I stopped for a second, remembering that feeling. "But some people have difficulty controlling their power, like the water is filling up too quickly. It spills over the dam, and the power is released uncontrolled."
"Did you ever have that problem?" she asked.
"No," I answered. "For the longest time my problem was that my dam was too high, too strong. I couldn't break free."
"Wow," Kristoff said, stunned. "That was pretty deep."
"That's me," I laughed. "I'm so deep I'm an ocean."
Rapunzel and Eugene came in then, looking recovered from their little spat, though Eugene still looked a bit exasperated. "Do you need anything?" Rapunzel asked.
"No, I'm good," I answered. "Just waiting to get my sea legs back."
They left me so I could rest, and my days at Casa de Arendelle began. Every day they checked up on me, never asking who I was(though I could tell they were more than a little curious), never trying to pry. They simply did what they could to help. Through all that time, Queen Elsa never came down. She always seemed to be busy. After the third day at the palace I began to wonder if she was avoiding me on purpose. I didn't see her until the next week, when I was finally back on my feet. And she didn't even come after me. I had to go looking for her.

I found her in her chambers, scribbling something down with a quill. Probably putting down her queenly signature on some very important documents. Of course, to reach her chambers I had do go through a few locked doors, but when you've got my powers, "locked" usually translates to "please enter". I opened the door quietly, sneaking in as quiet as a mouse, until I tripped over a chair.
"How'd you get in here?" she shouted, rising abruptly from her seat, frosty energy swirling around her fingertips.
"The last time we saw each other I had just defeated a shadowy demon using a spear of living flame," I told her. "I think I can find my way through a few locked doors." Then the world spun, and I found myself once again lying on the ground.
"Looks like it wasn't as easy as you thought," Elsa said as she walked over, a sly smile on her lips.
"My body is still a little weak," I answered, forcing myself up. "It doesn't like me using magic so soon after what happened."
"Do you have to go through this after every fight?" she asked with a chuckle.
"Well, usually I just return to my body and by the time I go back I'm right as rain," I answered, not quite thinking my answer through.
"What?"
"Nothing," I answered hastily. "Forget I said anything."
"Alright then," she said, going back to her desk, that sly smile once again curling her lips and lighting up her eyes. "Why exactly did you come here?"
"I was looking for you, Princess," I responded with a sly smile(or what I hope was a sly smile) of my own. "I would like to know why you have been avoiding me."
For a second, just a split second, her cool façade vanished, replaced by fear, before vanishing behind her mask once again. "I do not know what you mean. As QUEEN(I'm fairly certain she only emphasised that word because I called her princess), I have much that I have to do. I'm sorry that I have not visited you on your sickbed, but both Anna and the Coronian, Rapunzel(fun fact, Corona is the name of the kingdom Rapunzel comes from) have assured me that you are well cared for. There was no need for you to leave your sickbed on my behalf."
"This is about the Trickster, isn't it?" the look in her eyes was the only answer I needed. "The Trickster is a creature of emotion, primarily fear. That's why he takes the shape he does, why he is made of shadows. Everything about him, from his voice to his vocal patterns, is designed to insight fear in those around him. He take take any shape he can think of, but his worst are the ones that YOU think of. He gets into your head and turns your thoughts and fears against you, finding the most frightening shape and choosing the words that have the most impact. But he is never telling the truth. He will lie, he will twist the truth, he will make you believe him in any way he can, but when it comes to what is inside of you, what sort of person you truly are, he is physically unable to tell you honestly. Not that he'd want to, of course. People tend to be much better than they think they are."
"So you know this creature?"
"Well," I answered, "do you ever truly KNOW anybody? But yes, I have fought him many times, and I have come to know how he works. You could almost say that he is my nemesis."
"If you know how he works, then tell me, why is he here? What does he want?"
"Why is he here? That's a good question, but ons I don't have an answer to. He seemed genuinely surprised to see me, so I don't believe he came here looking for me. I've never known why he choses the worlds that he does. But that does he want? Well, that one is easy. Entertainment. The Shadow Trickster is the worst kind of monster, in that he doesn't do what he does for sustenance, or because he knows no other way to do things. No, he goes from realm to realm, finding the individuals with the strongest of wills and he breaks them. Why? Because it's fun."
I shook myself from that train of thought, walking up to Elsa. "But never mind that. It was a pleasure meeting you Princess. Now I think it would be wise if I returned to my bed before I topple over."
"One last thing before you go," she began. "What is your name?"
I hesitated for a moment, then told her.(Hah! Thought you'd learn my real name, didn't you? Well, I told her my real name, but I'm not going to tell you!) "But I usually go by John Smith."
"Well then, John Smith," she said, that sly smile returning. "I'll be seeing you again."
"No doubt about it." I agreed.

The next few weeks I saw more and more of Elsa and less and less of everyone else. My condition continued to improve, until the point that Rapunzel and Eugene announced that they would be returning home to Corona. I was well enough that day to wave them off as they sailed away, though I was shaking and trembling by the time I reached my bed. Elsa and I spoke a lot, mostly just small things, riddles and the like. We also spent time practicing with our magic, seeing who could create the most intricate and complex designs. But some times, we spoke about deeper things.
"Can I ask you something?" I asked Elsa asked as we sat in the common room, adding the finishing touches to our latest creations. Hers was a model of an incredibly detailed sailing ship(made of ice, obviously). Mine was a model of the Millenium Falcon(made of metal, not ice).
"Of course," She answered, adding a frosty crew to her vessel.
"What was it like, all those years alone, locked in your room?" I asked. (And yes, I did watch the movie, and I know what all those years of isolation did to her. But seeing what happened on a screen isn't the same as hearing it from the one who actually experienced it.)
She paused before answering. "It was hard. I was just a little girl. I knew that I had to learn to control my powers, but all I really wanted to do was go outside and play. Anna wasn't very helpful on that front." She chuckled to herself sadly at this. "Every day she would come to my door and ask me that same question. It didn't matter what day it was, or what time of the year, every day she'd knock on my door and ask me, 'Do you want to build a snowman?' She didn't even remember I had powers, but she remembered that the times when we had the most fun together were when we were playing in the snow, building snowmen."
A single tear rolled down her eye. "As I got older and my powers grew stronger, it settled in that this wasn't a problem that could be fixed easily. I stopped looking out my window and dreaming of when I could go outside again, and started focusing on keeping my powers inside. Anna told me about the metaphor you gave her about the dam. That's what it was like. It was like I was trying to build a dam, but my fear was causing my power to overflow, which only scared me the more. And through it all was Anna, still asking that same question."
"Eventually she stopped coming, I don't know exactly when, but as we both grew older she gave up, and I stayed in my room, trying to contain my powers, never truly succeeding. Then came the day our parents died, and one last time she came and knocked at my door, asking that same question. I couldn't contain my grief, and my power spilled out all over the room. I wanted so much to open that door, to let her in and hug her, tell her that we would make it through this together, but I couldn't make myself. I was too afraid."
She cleared her eyes, which had gotten a bit misty, and asked me a question in turn. "What about you?" she asked. "What was life like for you as a child?"
"Well," I answered, trying to tread carefully as to not reveal too much of the truth. "My problems were much different then yours. For me, magic was mostly in books and stories, up till one day when I was nine, and I found a faerie out in a field. It was her who introduced me to magic. She had this beautiful name, one that sounded like wind traveling through a bed of flowers, but I just called her Pixie. At the time, I was little, so my adventures with magic were ignored by others for the most part. My parents, friends, and siblings all though it was some sort of elaborate game. And even if it wasn't, my parents knew that when I grew up I would grow out of my imaginary friends. But grow up I did, and still Pixie remained. There were others that I met on my childhood adventures, Flamebeak the Clumsy Griffon, who looking back I see that we were incredibly harsh to, and Draco, the baby dragon whom I hatched from a dragon egg that I discovered.
But no one else could see any of it, and I had to learn to become adept at lying about these things as my parents told me, 'You know that magic isn't real, don't you?' and I had to answer with the obligatory 'Yes mom, I know.' There were times that I thought it was all some massive delusion, and that I was going insane. I told myself that all the creatures I fought, all the lives I saved, it was all in my head. But I didnt need to tell myself that. I had everyone else who discovered my secret telling me that. And then, after so many years, I end up here." I gestured around us. "And I not only find that I am able to use my powers, but that I am not the only one."
"Well," Elsa said. "I'm not sure whether to feel sorry for myself right now or to feel sorry for you."
I smiled at that. "I don't think either of us needs the pity." I answered her. "Bit enough of this Princess, up on your feet!"
"What are you doing?" she inquired, shocked by my sudden change in pace.
"I think we've both had enough of sad stories for today Princess(I noticed that she didn't seem to mind the nickname anymore). I'm taking you out."
"Out where?"
"We are going to blow stuff up."