The Snow Queen

Kairi awoke in her bed the next morning, dressed in a new nightgown and underwear. Her muscles still ached and the experience still had her feeling depressed. She sat up in her quiet room and sighed. It made her angry at herself to know that she couldn't defend herself when need be; she was too weak to fight for anything, even the Keyblade wouldn't obey her now. She figured that that was the reason why she was the one who always got left behind and had to wait. But waiting wasn't good enough, not anymore. When Sora finally made his decision about Mickey's first note, she secretly promised herself that she would go with them – Sora and Riku – and not get left behind again. However, at this rate there would be no point in her doing so. She would only get in the way.

The door swung open quietly and Tabitha walked in with a trolley of food and tea. Kairi gawked at her in surprise. The cat maid parked the trolley next to Kairi's bed and trotted around to the windows to open the curtains.

"Good morning, dear. Are you well?" she asked in a voice that was lacking in the enthusiasm of the previous day. Kairi nodded. "I brought you breakfast in bed this morning. You should relax today; don't exert yourself too much."

"Oh, no, you don't have to do that for me," Kairi insisted, already trying to get out of bed. "I can still get up and stuff."

"I insist, dear. Last night must have been so stressful for you," Tabitha said, going back to Kairi's bedside and ushering her back into bed. "I have no doubt that you can still move, dear, but I think you need some rest for now. Have some breakfast and I'll find you something nice to wear."

"Please don't make me wear the corset again," Kairi pleaded.

"Of course, dear. You must still be sore."

Tabitha disappeared behind the bed to get to the wardrobe and begin to sort out Kairi's outfit for the day. Kairi glanced at the breakfast Tabitha had brought her. She would have rather dressed and been down at the breakfast table with everyone else but since the maid had been so generous as to bring it up she might as well eat it, despite how uncomfortable doing so made her feel.


Kairi had nothing to do now except mill around the castle since she didn't feel up to drawing. Tabitha had dressed her in a high-collared light blue dress with wide sleeves and puffed shoulders, which Kairi would have put to the side if given the choice, and flat-soled half-laced boots. As she was gazing down at the snow-covered courtyard through a window she heard someone clear their throat behind her. It startled her since she hadn't heard any footsteps approach. She turned around and found a little black mouse wearing a red dress of a similar design to Kairi's and a bow clipped to each ear. She stood tall and straight, poised like a true princess should be.

"Oh, Monnie," Kairi said. "I'm sorry I didn't see you there. Do you feel okay?"

"Actually, that's what I wanted to ask you," Monnie admitted, deflating a little bit. "I heard that you tried to help me last night and I wanted to thank you for it."

"Don't thank me, I didn't do anything," Kairi replied depressively. "Donald and Goofy and your parents were the ones who really saved you."

"But it's nice knowing that you cared," Monica argued. Silence fell between them for a few moments while they awkwardly looked anywhere except at each other. "My mom said you were hurt really badly."

Kairi laughed nervously, making a loud awkward sound that didn't sound like it was right for any situation let alone this one. "Don't worry about it! I'm completely fine. Your mom's healing magic fixed me up in a jiffy."

"I still feel bad, though," Monica said, looking at the floor. "It was my fault."

They both stared at the floor in silence. Monica shuffled her feet a bit. Then she finally looked up.

"Do you want to do something fun?" she asked.

"Okay," Kairi replied.


"This seems more dangerous than fun," Kairi said while she followed Monnie down the snowy streets of Disney Town. Monica dragged a sled behind her on a rope with a hook crudely tied onto the end, looking for a parked vehicle to hitch it to.

"Trust me, it's lots of fun," Monnie assured her. The mouse pointed to a black carriage drawn by two ordinary-looking bay mares. "Look! It's a taxi! Hurry up before it leaves!"

Monica jogged the rest of the way to the carriage, forcing Kairi to follow. She hitched her sled onto the back and sat at the front, instructing Kairi on how she was supposed to sit on the sled behind her. Kairi blew out a puff of air, looking around the street. She was expecting someone to scold them for something – that it was dangerous or maybe it was illegal – but before anyone had approached them, the carriage and the sled jerked forwards. Kairi gasped and grabbed Monnie's shoulders.

"Relax, this is really fun," Monnie said, lifting the steering ropes of her sled. "Here, hold the ropes with me."

Kairi did as she was bidden as the horses pulled the carriage away from the curb and trotted down the street, the shoes on their feet clacking against the sealed road. She had thought at first that this would be the same experience as riding a raft or rowing a boat but it felt quite different. First of all, she didn't have any control over where she was going. The houses, parks and people passed them by at a pace Kairi had never experienced before and all she could see in front was the bottom of the taxi carriage and the horses' hooves. Monica giggled most of the way, enjoying the fast-paced ride and the wide turns the sled took every time the taxi went around a corner. Those parts of the ride made Kairi's heart jump into her throat, fearing that they would slide into oncoming traffic. There was one such close call with a motorcycle that had a sidecar attached. When the taxi finally stopped it was in front of a tall building with grand double doors. The taxi driver got out of his seat to open the door for his passenger: a man in a pristine grey suit. Monnia laughed and turned to Kairi, whose face was quite pale but her heart was thumping with excitement.

"That was great, wasn't it?" the princess mouse said.

"Y-yeah, I guess," Kairi stammered, feeling a little weak at the knees. She needed a little bit of time to just sit and digest what she'd just tried. However, that didn't seem to be possible.

"Oi!" the taxi driver snapped, spotting the two girls on their hitched sled. "What're you little twats doing there? Get off my taxi!"

Monnie squeaked and jumped to her feet, quickly unhitching the sled. Kairi stumbled to her feet, wobbling at the knees. They ran across the road to escape the angry taxi driver, narrowly dodging an automobile going the other way. They kept going down the street until they'd turned the corner and were out of sight and earshot of the taxi driver. Monnie was already out of breath and had to stop for a breather. Kairi wondered for a moment why such a strong dancer like Monnie would be out of breath already when she herself was fine but then she noticed the pinch in Monica's waist.

"I… told you this… was fun," Monica gasped.

Kairi huffed. "That was really dangerous! We were going really fast and we almost got hit. Twice!" She crossed her arms and glared at an indiscriminate spot on the pavement. "But… yeah, it was fun."

"We should do it again."

"Maybe not."

"C'mon! This time we'll do a car or a bus or something."

Kairi glanced into the street just as another automobile came up the road, easily overtaking a carriage in front of it and speeding away at about three times the pace. "No, let's not," she decided.

Monica sighed and rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. You're such a killjoy. How do you make friends?"

"Hey! I have friends!"

"Really? How many?"

"Two," Kairi answered quickly, changing her answer when Monnie gave her a disappointed look. "Maybe five?"

"Two? You only have two friends?"

"Probably five," Kairi reiterated.

"So, you can count all of the friends you 'probably' have on two hands. That's really sad."

Kairi was about to correct her but decided against it, partly because mentioning that it only took one hand made it seem sadder and partly because she realised that unlike her Monnie only had four fingers on each hand. "I guess so," she finally responded.

"Then why don't you try living it up a little? I suppose since this is your first time we can take it easy and just do another carriage."

Despite it being dangerous, Kairi had to admit that she did want to do it again. Perhaps that was just her adrenalin kick doing the thinking, though. Either way, she agreed and Monica led her down to another street looking for a carriage. There was one parked close by – a beautiful white carriage drawn by four tall, strong, white reindeer with long antlers and silver bridals. It was an open carriage and the seats inside were upholstered with white leather and adorned with several plush cushions made of fine silk and cotton.

"That's really weird," Monica commented. "Who would be driving in an open-air carriage in winter?"

To Kairi, that wasn't quite the strangest thing about it. What she found most strange were the carriage driver and footman. They were both very round in the middle with round, white heads that Kairi thought looked almost exactly like the snowball she made yesterday, except they had long carrot noses and black buttons for eyes. They both wore formal white tailcoats and their arms appeared to be merely made from branches. The footman had a mouth made of raisins and the driver had no mouth, just a pipe stuck into his face, and they both wore a woollen scarf and a tall, black top hat.

"Is it just me, or are the staff just snowmen?" Monnie asked. Kairi wasn't didn't know what a snowman was, although she had the feeling that she actually did know and now that Monica mentioned it, she had the feeling that they did look a lot like snowmen.

The doors of the building behind them – a bank – burst open and out stepped a tall, thin woman whose hair and skin were both as white as the snow. She was dressed richly in a fine fur coat with white leather gloves, followed by a handmaiden who was also pale but with a bluish hue to her skin and blank blue-grey eyes (literally blank – there was neither an iris or a pupil). She wore a plain white dress with no sleeves and on her back were glassy, triangular wings. The rich woman turned to look at Kairi and Monnie on her way past and Kairi was suddenly struck with the feeling of an icicle piercing her chest. This woman was devoid of any warmth whatsoever.

"You two weren't thinking of hitching my carriage, were you?" the woman inquired.

"No," Monnie lied while Kairi stammered.

"Goodness, I hope not. I find the innocent joy of small children to be quite an intolerable nuisance." She focussed her stare on Kairi. "I daresay you seem a bit old for such silly things as hitching."

"I-I…" Kairi stuttered, unable to find an excuse for herself.

"Leave my friend alone," Monica snapped. "We're allowed to have fun whenever and however we want to. Just who do you think you are? It's not proper to talk down to a princess, y'know."

The white woman looked down her nose at Monnie with a frown on her face. "Such insolence from a spoiled brat. And you don't know who I am?"

Monnie seethed and was about to bite back with a retort but the woman waved her hand and all of a sudden all of the nearby snow sprang to life. It clumped into perfect balls that piled on top of each other and sprouted branch-like arms and button eyes. They shuffled forward (on account of them having no feet) with their sharp fingers bared. Kairi shied as the snowmen slowly advanced. She was certainly not up to this, especially not after last night. She was certain that the Keyblade wasn't obeying her anymore and that left her defenceless. Monica didn't take a step back. Instead, she brandished the ring she wore on her right hand similar to her mother's.

"Fire!" she cast, shooting a little ball of flame at each snowman. One had its head melted off while the other had its middle collapse, causing the head to drop to the ground.

In the meantime, the white woman and her handmaid walked past the two girls. The footman opened the carriage door for them to board the vehicle and closed it before taking up his proper post at the back of the carriage. With a wave of the white woman's hand, the snowmen reformed and this time with more snow added, making them bigger and tougher looking. Dark, menacing grins etched themselves onto their faces, making their heads look like white jack-o-lanterns.

"These mice may be your kings and queens," she scoffed, "but to the snow, the only queen is me. Away!"

On that command the driver flicked the reins, spurring the reindeers into a trot. The carriage pulled away, leaving the menacing snowmen with Kairi and Monnie. Monica set her jaw and steeled her resolve, keeping the gem of her ring pointed at the snowmen. She cast Fire again, melting small chunks off the snowmen's bodies but not deterring them in the slightest. They were now faster than they were before and were already upon the two girls before they knew it. The snowmen pounced, seemingly ready to squash them.

"Get down!" Monnie ordered. Kairi whimpered and ducked behind Monnie. "Fire!"

This time her magic took a different form: a moving ring of fire around them that tossed the snowmen back. They didn't crumble when they hit the ground; they got back up and kept coming.

"Maybe we should run," Kairi suggested. Monnie was about to agree but one of the snowmen put on a sudden burst of speed and grabbed her by the shoulders. It pulled her towards itself and opened its wicked mouth wide as if to bite her head off. Kairi screamed. "Monnie!"

Kairi lunged forward, hoping with all her might to be able to summon some strength from somewhere to at least wrench the mouse princess from the snowman's grasp. With a burst of shining light, the Keyblade appeared in her hand. Without thinking, she stabbed the snowman through the mouth. The end of the Keyblade poked out on the other side of its head. She tore the snowball head off and smashed it on the ground behind her.

Without the white woman to put it back together, it remained as snow. The snowman, however, still had its hold on Monnie and the other one was fast approaching. It reached for Kairi with its tree branch arms. Kairi slashed at them, snapping them. She sliced it straight down the middle and then smashed the midsection away. The head fell to the ground and shattered into an ordinary pile of snow. Monnie cast another Fire spell at the still moving lower part and it was blown to pieces. Kairi then hacked at the midsection of Monica's captor and kicked the lower section until it had all crumbled away.

Both girls' hearts beat quickly and their breath had hastened but they began to slow now that the danger was gone. The few people who had been in the street at the time were shocked at what had just occurred. Kairi looked at the Keyblade in her hand, unable to smile since she was so surprised to see it in the first place.

"It came back…"

"You can wield that thing too?" Monnie asked.

"Yeah… well, I guess I can now. Last night when I was trying to fight that weird creature it disappeared all of a sudden, right when I needed it. But this time it came back right when I needed it." Kairi gave the Keyblade a few more experimental swings before dismissing it.

"That's a good thing then," Monnie said. She looked down the road where the carriage had disappeared. "That woman is such a bitch. At least now you have something to hit her with if you get to see her ugly face again."

Kairi just blinked. Even though she'd been thinking quite the same thing, hearing it said so crassly by someone much younger just sounded so… weird.

"Oh, well. She failed at trying to spoil our fun anyway. Let's see if we can hitch a carriage going out of town and go sledding down some slopes. Or better yet, let's see if we can find an automobile!"

Monnie grabbed her sled and jogged up the street in search of another taxi. Kairi groaned.


Just in case I wasn't exactly clear on when this is set, it's basically after KH2. So, Sora's got his letter but hasn't made his decision.

Glossary:

Hitching - I can't find much information about this so I think it's fictional. Basically, it's an old winter pastime for children. They'd hitch their sleds or toboggans to the back of carriages and let themselves be pulled along. I've only ever read about it in fiction stories, though, so I have doubts about it really happening.