The Tears of A Queen – Chapter 6
A Big Hero 6/Frozen Crossover
*** Kingdom of Arendelle, 2045 ***
Elsa had tossed and turned for some time before she finally fell into a troubled sleep. She dreamed of Anna, frozen on the fjord, only this time she was stone and when Hans swung his sword she shattered into a million shards of rock skittering off across the ice. "NO!"
"Wha …?" Honey Lemon mumbled and put on her glasses to see Elsa was sitting up, panting and rocking back and forth on her sleeping bag. "Elsa? Are you okay?" It was hard to see in the pitch dark tent, so Honey hit the 'flashlight' app on her phone and used it to check Elsa. "Elsa? What's wrong?" Honey slid over to put an arm around Elsa, who promptly buried her face in Honey's shoulder and began to cry. Honey was startled, but patted Elsa on the back and tried to comfort her until she stopped crying.
They sat that way for a few minutes until Elsa's sobs had subsided and she sat up to wipe her cheeks and take a deep breath. She shook her head and waved off Honey's concern. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. It … it was a nightmare. A variation on an old terror of when my sister died." She closed her eyes and pulled her knees up to her chest and continued to rock back and forth.
"Do you want me to make you some tea?" Honey asked. GoGo continued to snore through the entire scene, but Honey knew where she kept her stash of tea.
"No, no thank you. I'll be fine. I'm sorry I woke you," Elsa apologized.
"Elsa," Honey said gently, "If I were in your position I'd probably be catatonic. You are an amazing person to be able to cope with being transported 200 years into your future with no idea of what happened to your family and friends." She patted Elsa's shoulder in an attempt to soothe her.
"Hey, everything okay in there?" A soft voice from just outside the tent flap asked. It was Tadashi, he must have heard Elsa cry out.
"Yeah, we're fine, everything's okay. Just one of those middle of the night kerfluffles. Go back to sleep, Tadashi!" Honey called back. She heard his hesitant footsteps as he went back to his own tent.
Turning back to Elsa, Honey asked, "Think you can try to sleep again?"
Elsa nodded, then said, "Does … that magic box have music in it? It might help if I could fall asleep to music. Anna and I would sing to each other when we had nightmares."
"Sure. Let me call up the 'sleepytime' playlist." Honey thumbed a few icons and soft music began to play. "How's that?"
In response, Elsa nodded, then lay back down and curled up in her sleeping bag. Honey put the phone down near her head and watched for a few minutes. When she was sure Elsa had fallen asleep again, she crawled back into her own bedding, tucked her glasses safely by her pillow and nodded off.
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"Elsa, wake up … it's morning." Honey Lemon shook Elsa's shoulder. Apparently the music had helped the woman fall into a deep dreamless sleep, as she showed no signs of waking up. Honey tried again and finally got a reaction as Elsa turned over, blinking at the light coming through the open tent flap, then sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She stretched and yawned, then looked around trying to orient herself.
"Morning?"
"Yep. Rise and shine. Busy day today. You promised us a visit to your Ice Palace," Honey beamed enthusiastically. "Time to get up and get dressed. Uh, what are you going to wear today?"
Elsa shook off the last of her sleepiness and stood up. "I'll take care of it. If … I could be alone again?"
Honey had already dressed, so she nodded and left the tent. GoGo was brewing coffee and the three guys were pawing through the foil envelopes of freeze-dried breakfast food. Tadashi looked up and asked, "What's your preference this morning, Honey?"
"The usual. The groats and dried fruit was pretty good, you guys can have the eggs." She caught the foil packet and tore open the top, then poured in some hot water from the pot heating over the fire. She sat and began spooning up the groats, and accepted a cup of coffee from GoGo. "Thanks," she mumbled through a mouthful of cereal.
Tadashi had been about to ask where Elsa was when she walked out of the tent. He felt himself gawking, then forcibly shut his mouth before he made a fool of himself. She was wearing another icy dress, although this one didn't have a flowing cape and it wasn't off the shoulder with a scoop collar. It was quite modest, if one ignored the slit up to one knee and the fact that it fit her trim figure like a lycra body suit.
Fred and Wasabi were equally thunderstruck. It had been dark last night, and Elsa's dress hadn't made as strong an impression. It was full daylight now, and they could see the sparkles in the fabric as she walked over and said, "Good morning. Thank you for letting me share your tent last night."
"Is that … ice?" whispered Wasabi reverently.
Elsa looked down at herself and then at Wasabi and replied, "Yes. It's one of those little conveniences that my magic affords me. I can make my own clothes with a wave of my hands." She was wearing flats today, not heels, as she thought it would be easier to walk all the way to the Ice Palace in flats.
Finally finding his voice, Tadashi coughed and offered her a foil packet of scrambled eggs and ham. "Breakfast? Ham and eggs in this one, and we have coffee."
"Thank you, that would be wonderful." She accepted the eggs and sat down, then took a cup of coffee when Fred handed it to her.
Breakfast complete, the group refilled their coffee cups and began discussing their plans for the day. Tadashi started the conversation.
"Well, Elsa, what do you want to do? Do you want to go down to Arendelle, or … what?"
She sipped her coffee to give herself a moment to think. Her thoughts were still muddled, and she had no idea how this Arendelle of 2045 functioned. "I honestly don't know. It's not like I can go back to my castle and announce myself, can I?"
"Hmmm … no, that would probably be a bad idea," Honey Lemon agreed. "Getting thrown out would be the best that could happen, getting locked up the worst."
"Hey, I just thought of something!" Fred piped up. "She doesn't have any ID, no credit, no fingerprints on file, nothing. Elsa's totally off the grid! It's like … like she's a ghost! How cool is that?"
Elsa thought about what he had said and asked, "What does that mean exactly?"
Wasabi spoke up. "It means that as far as the government is concerned, you don't exist. No passport, no birth certificate – "
She chuckled and said, "I actually do have a birth certificate. It's probably on display down in that museum they made out of my castle, since it was filed in the Royal Archives."
"But it won't help you convince anyone who you are," protested Wasabi. "So we need to think about how to do that. If you want to do that."
That was the question, wasn't it, Elsa mused. What did she want to do? "I want to go home," wailed some inner voice. That was not an option, unfortunately. "What do you all suggest? I am at your mercy in my ignorance of this society."
They all looked at each other and gulped as they realized the responsibility she was trusting them with.
Tadashi sighed and suggested, "Well, we don't have to decide right away. We can go back down to the city and kind of ease you in. Get you some modern clothes, teach you how to use the 'net so you can do some research on your own, with Fred's help. Maybe something will come to you, some name in the current government that might have a family history you could tap for help."
"How will I pay for that? I am assuming that clothing and such will cost money, not to mention lodging and food." Elsa had always been the practical one. Anna would have worried about it later if at all.
"That's a good point. We're students, with student loans and expenses, and not a lot of free cash for unexpected stuff. You can share our rooms and food won't be that big a deal, but eventually … " GoGo chimed in and shrugged.
Fred stirred uneasily and was about to speak up when Elsa said, "You know, I MIGHT have some money. It's 200 year old coins, but they are gold coins, which could probably be exchanged for modern money at a jeweler or dealer in antiquities."
"That might work. Where are they?" Wasabi asked.
"It's on the way down to Arendelle from my Ice Palace. You said you wanted to see that. Although we could skip it if you've changed your minds," she smiled, knowing they would not pass up the opportunity.
She was right. Half an hour later everything was packed on the hoversled, everyone put on their snowshoes except Elsa, who didn't even leave footprints in the snow, and the little party set off.
"Hey, I just realized something – where's Olaf?" Tadashi asked.
"He gets bored just sitting around, since he doesn't sleep. So he goes off to play. I'm sure he'll find us before we get to where we are going," Elsa replied.
"And just where are we going?" Tadashi said.
She pointed to the highest mountain in sight and said, "There. The North Mountain. The biggest, highest mountain in Arendelle. And the location of my Ice Palace."
"Whoa … " Fred summed up what everyone was thinking as they gazed at the formidable climb ahead of them.
It was around mid-afternoon when the group finally arrived at the plateau on the North Mountain just below where Elsa had built the Ice Palace so long ago. She shivered, wondering what she would find, even though Olaf had told her it was still there. He had joined them around lunch time and was skipping happily as he lead them to the opening through the cliff face.
When they had all walked through the little tunnel and stood looking at Elsa's creation, they were awe-struck, but Elsa was disappointed. Instead of the shining towering spires she remembered, the palace was dull and gray. Dismayed, Elsa said to the group, "I had promised you something spectacular, but this is rather mundane."
Tadashi tore his eyes away from the spectacle before them and said, "Are you kidding? You built this? In one night? And you're calling this mundane? Elsa, you have a true gift for understatement."
Fred said, "It's probably a little abraded from weather and storms. You haven't been here in 200 years to keep it shiny."
Elsa tapped a forefinger on her lips and replied, "You're probably right, Fred. Well, I can fix that!"
She flexed her hands and prepared to do the magic when Fred grabbed her arm and said, "Wait! Don't. Not yet?"
She looked at him with a questioning look and said, "Why not?"
Fred was in the throes of a conspiracy theory as he waved at the Ice Palace. "Because, if you make it all shiny and new, it will stick out like a laser beam to a surveillance satellite, and that will bring a horde of newsies and government types up here to check it out! You decided we wanted to stay on the down-low for now, right?"
Elsa was confused. "What's a laser beam? Or a surveillance satellite?" She figured out what 'down-low' meant from context.
Honey Lemon told her, "Those are some of the technology that you need to get caught up on. But Fred's right, as it is now, it blends in with the mountain rock. If you polish it up, you could probably see it from down in Arendelle, much less from space."
"You're … right, Honey. Even in my day, when the weather was clear and the clouds didn't shroud the mountain, you could see it from the city." Elsa was uncertain what to do next. "You can at least go inside. I suspect the inside is still polished ice, since it doesn't storm in there." Elsa watched them grin and move toward the palace and thought, "At least not since I learned to control myself … Oh, Anna!" She thought about her sister for the thousandth time and prayed they would somehow find each other yet again.
Olaf stood at the top of the staircase leading to the doors and waved them up. "Come on, let me introduce you to Marshmallow!"
"We're coming, Olaf. Tell Marshmallow to behave, these are friends. No throwing you at them!" Elsa smiled as she waved her new friends to follow her.
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The Ice Palace was far behind them and they were below the snow line. It was a good time to rest and change into regular shoes for the short hike to where they had left the hovercar.
"No bedrolls tonight. Hot showers and soft mattresses! Yay!" Fred was not the outdoorsy type. None of the Nerd Herd was, really, but the occasional communing with nature expedition made them appreciate a warm workstation even more.
Elsa was sitting on a fallen log with a pensive look on her face. There was a stone slab with what looked like the remains of a chimney a few meters downslope from where they had stopped.
Tadashi approached and sat next to her after a raised eyebrow and a small gesture asked her permission. She nodded without looking away from the ruins.
"Elsa? Something wrong? I mean, aside from the whole slow-motion time travel thing. You're handling it great, I can't imagine how you feel, I'd be a mess – " He was babbling, he hated it when he babbled.
But Elsa glanced at him and smiled. "I appreciate your concern, Tadashi. I do. It's just … I can't help worrying about my sister." She fell back into that silent contemplation of the ruins.
Tadashi thought of something to say that wasn't babbling. "I've got a little brother, his name is Hiro. We're close. We … lost our parents, too. But we were much younger. Hiro only has very vague memories of them. Aunt Cass took us in, she's been doing great as a mom even though she worries about her parenting shortcomings all the time." He looked at Elsa to see her looking back at him with a tiny smile.
"Family … is everything, Tadashi." She reached over and placed a hand on his. "I would have died without my sister. Someday maybe I can meet your Aunt Cass and Hiro. I would like that very much."
Her hand was soft and cool on his skin. He wondered what she'd do if he took her hand in his and held it … yeah, that's not happening.
Fred and the rest came over and GoGo said, "Okay, now what?" She looked at the stone pile and asked, "Is that where your gold stash is, Elsa?"
Elsa stood and started toward the ruins. "Yes. Unless someone has already found it, there should be a sealed metal box buried beneath that hearth."
"Whoohoo! Buried treasure!" Fred whooped and he and Wasabi ran to the crumbled remains of the fireplace and chimney and started removing debris to clear it. "Where exactly, Elsa?"
"The back left corner, under one of the flagstones," Elsa replied.
It only took a few minutes of digging for them to pull up the stone and find the box. "Found it!" Fred hollered and brought it back to where the rest were waiting.
"Well, open it, dude." Wasabi poked Fred in the ribs.
For a two-hundred year old box, it was surprisingly sturdy. Tadashi had to pull a small prybar out of his toolkit to finally snap the lock and open the box. Flipping the lid back revealed about fifty gold coins, each about three centimeters in diameter, still untarnished after all the time they had been buried.
Holding one up to look at it closely, Tadashi could see a stylized flower of some sort on one face of the coin, with "5 Speciedaler" and "1845" engraved around it. He looked quizzically at Elsa.
"That's a crocus, the symbolic flower of Arendelle. It's hardy and blooms when there is still snow on the ground, which is pretty often around here."
Turning it to look at the other side, he saw a woman's face in profile. She was wearing a crown, obviously the Queen … He realized he was looking at Elsa's face. The text engraved around the rim of the coin read "Verðug dróttning stór" across the top and "Elsa af Árnadarl" at the bottom. He looked to Elsa again and said, "Translation?"
She actually blushed as she said, "It means 'Worthy Queen of Greatness' and 'Elsa of Arendelle'. I made the mistake of letting Anna approve the design, and she snuck that 'worthy queen' in without telling me."
"She has a pretty high opinion of her sister, huh?" Tadashi was teasing, and Elsa blushed even more.
"So, we're rich. Well, you're rich. How much do you think this is worth today?" Honey Lemon was taking pictures of the coins.
"I wouldn't have any way of guessing. In 1845, that would have been enough money to support a large family in comfort for a year. They're 22 karat, or slightly over 90% gold. The best way to convert them is to find a jeweler or rare coin dealer, I would think," Elsa said. "I doubt that they are still legal tender after two hundred years."
Tadashi flipped the box lid closed and tucked it under his arm. "Okay, you have money now, so let's get back down to Arendelle. It's only a short walk to where we left the hovercar, so we'll be back in the city just after dark." He looked at Elsa and suggested, "You can sneak in the back door to the hostel, and then borrow something to wear from Honey Lemon. A shopping expedition for clothes can wait til tomorrow after we find a jeweler or a coin shop. Let's go."
Elsa took just long enough to send Olaf back to the Ice Palace, then followed the rest to find the hovercar, whatever that was. She hoped she would eventually be able to cope with this modern world. It was her world now, ready or not.