Chapter 10: Notus' Lament
Sven wasn't happy that he had been left out behind the picket gate when Kristoff and Elsa were strolling through the summer gardens. He would have liked to be able to munch on some of that green grass, maybe try a few of the flowers too.
That did, however, give him to opportunity to try to find Elsa's snowdeer. Sven had never seen a reindeer of such beauty before. Granted, he hadn't seen many other reindeer at all. The ice harvesters that Kristoff occasionally worked with preferred horses, and the woods around Arendelle were further south than most of the wild herds migrated.
Sven remembered a summer from maybe seven or eight years earlier, when he and Kristoff were on an adventure to find the purest ice in all of the Nordic Kingdoms. Looking back, it was just a silly quest that some crazy teenaged boy and his reindeer went on, but it had taken them farther north than he had ever been before. There was a rumor of a mountain range pocketed with caves, and in these caves were lakes that had never seen wind. If you found them by the first freeze of the autumn, you could harvest the smoothest, largest sheets of flawless ice that Mother Earth could muster.
The pair never did find the fabled caves, but they did find a heard of reindeer. Off in the distance, dozens of them were running through a moraine valley.
Sven looked at Kristoff, and hopped in place with excitement.
Kristoff answered with "Alright, buddy. I see them too. But me and the trolls are your family. You don't need to join a silly heard."
Sven gave him a disappointed frown, with big sad eyes.
"Hey, don't use that look on me! I invented that look! Alright, we'll find our big score in the ice caves, and then let's find you a reindeer heard to pal around with." He nudged Sven's ribs. "And I'll wager it's not the whole heard you're interested in, eh? Maybe just a couple of the does?"
Sven gave an embarrassed herumph, but of course Kristoff was right. But since they never found the caves, they never found the heard, and he had never seen another reindeer since. An opportunity for love, vanished.
Sven wouldn't let this opportunity with Elsa's snowdeer vanish as well. He struck out into the woods.
The ice and stone fortress on the island of Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago, was still being repaired, but her men had managed to clear enough of the debris that the Bandit Queen could climb a hidden staircase to the large open balcony above the entry way. The balcony offered an uninterrupted view south, down the valley and out to the sea. Somewhere, far south of them, Kjerstin was bringing her princess.
Through the magic of the blue crystals they had stolen from the trolls, she could talk with her captain, even though they were separated by hundreds of miles. It was a link of the minds, and allowed Kjerstin to hear her Queen's thoughts. But the Bandit Queen would also see from Kjerstin's eyes whenever she used any of the magic rocks around her neck, including the fire crystal, and during her ballooning flight, Kjerstin had been using the fire crystal regularly. And the Bandit Queen wasn't happy with what she saw. Their progress was too slow. They needed a boost. Fortunately, she had just the trick. Another of the crystals they had stolen from those abominable trolls, light amber in color, could command the wind.
The Bandit Queen reached into the hidden pocket in her vest and pulled out this crystal. She held her hands forward, and summoned a south wind, in a stream hundreds of miles long, to pull in Kjerstin and her guests. She could feel the resistance. The South Wind did not want to form such a channel. But the Bandit Queen didn't care. She squeezed the crystal tighter, pulling stronger gusts. Soon she could feel the temperature rise as the gusts carried warm air from a distant clime.
The walls lining the balcony were half ice brick, and she could see small drips forming along them, rivulets of meltwater running like tears along the surface. And even harder the crystal resisted. Well, if this would be the South Wind's Lament, then so be it. The South Wind came from such repulsive lands as the Southern Isles. Let it weep. It would bring her the princess.
"Oh, come on. You've gotta cheer up. Honestly, you're kind of being a downer on this whole balloon," Anna was telling Decker.
The Texan was curled up in a ball in one of the corners of the balloon's basket. He had been like that since early in the morning.
"Seriously, I know lack of sleep can make people cranky, but this is ridiculous."
"It ain't lack of sleep, Highness. It's … I can't describe it, but it's like … what's the point anymore."
"The point? The point you and I are the emissaries of major countries. We have patriotic duties to represent those lands, and oh, by the way, we're actively being kidnapped right now."
"I ain't no emissary. I'm just a guy who would do anythin' to chase my dream. And now I've found out that that dream was always a terrible idea."
"That's what this is about!? You're all mopey because you just realized that being in a balloon sucks? Let me tell you about-"
She was interrupted by another deafening fire blast set her ears ringing.
"You gotta' admit, it hardly leaves you jealous of birds."
Anna sat down next to Decker. "No, I'm serious let me tell you about … well, anything else. It's something my mother always used to do when I was a girl and realized that the dream I was chasing after was actually terrible. She'd tell me stories. And I chased a lot of terrible dreams, so I learned a lot of good stories."
Decker looked at her. He didn't look sad, but he wore a look of defeat on his face. The way this look sat in well-worn wrinkles—he must have worn this look of defeat many times in the past.
"Sure. Do whatcha want."
"Okay, well here's a story my mother used to tell me that always cheered me up: Okay, there was a swan, but it thought it was a duck, and it wasn't as cute as the other ducklings, because it was a swan!" She smiled and held her hands out in a ta-da! gesture, but the smile drooped when she saw no response from Decker.
"Okay, maybe I didn't tell it right, so let me try again. Once there was a duck that thought it wasn't a swan, but …"
"Appreciate the gesture highness. I'm guessin' story-tellin' ain't been your strong suit."
"No, that was always my mother's talent. When we were little, she would make up stories for me and Elsa. About red dragons from China, or talking lions from Africa, or toys that came to life. And then after Elsa … well, mother kept telling me a new story every night when I was a little kid."
"She sounds like she was a great mother."
"She was. And Papa was a great father too, but he was always busy ruling, or teaching Elsa how to someday rule. But Mama—that is Queen Idun—well, she always made it easier when I felt like I'd lost my sister."
Anna's face was twisted into the sort of frown that Decker had never seen on her before. "Now who's bein' the downer on this balloon? Know what we both need, highness?"
"What's that?" she asked, wiping a tear from her eye.
"Hey Olaf," Decker called out to the other end of the basket. "Tell us what you're gonnna do when we get to Spitsbergen."
"Oh wow!" Olaf waddled up and answered. "I'm so excited to go almost all the way to the North Pole! I'm going to find a polar bear, and I won't have to worry because polar bears are carnivores so it won't try to eat my carrot, but then I can try to ride it, and the water will be so cold that snow won't melt, so me and my polar bear friend can go swimming, and maybe we can swim so far north that we actually find the pole! I wonder if it's striped like a barber pole, or maybe like a candy cane? And then when I have a bear friend, the two of us can …"
He kept rambling on, but neither Anna nor Decker could hear, because the balloon was buffered by a sudden gust hurtling them forward.
Pebble sat in the woods and thought. She needed something of Anna's to jog the memories that Kristoff and Elsa held close to their hearts and break this sorceress' spell. But where would she find something of Anna's in these woods? Well, probably she couldn't. That meant it was time to march back to Arendelle.
Pebble stood up and let out a long, annoyed sigh. It had been such a long march just to get up to this stretch of woods next to the enchanted summer garden. Now she would have to make that whole trip, but backward, to find something of Anna's, then do it all over again.
She looked at the river, now just a small stream cascading over fallen logs, between stones. It was too bad rocks didn't float—if she could ride the river down, that would make this whole return trip quicker. Well, she wasn't completely rock, maybe it was time to see if trolls could float.
She stuck a toe in the water, preparing to test this theory, when she heard a rustling in the woods above. She ducked behind a log and looked upward. It was just Elsa's snowdeer. Bright orange rays of light danced through her antlers. She certainly was a beautiful ice sculpture, and a fast animal to boot! Hey, maybe that could carry her back to Arendell!
She approached the reindeer slowly, trying not to scare the snow-animal. But both froze and looked back when they heard another rustling sound. This time it was just Sven, with a silly look on his face.
Wait, that look, Pebble recognized it! That was the first lesson her mother Bulda had taught her when she was trying to teach the young troll the subtle craft of being a Love Expert. First lesson: recognize the face love-sickness. Sven was smitten by Elsa's ice reindeer!
"Hey Sven, I think I can help you with your problem," Pebble said as she approached the smelly animal. "Sven?" He wasn't paying any attention to her, just staring at Elsa's deer. This must be a serious case. She could just smile and pat him on the side.
"Wait, Sven. What's that around your neck? Wasn't this Anna's scarf? Sven! We can use this to break the spell over Kristoff and Elsa!"
Again, Sven completely ignored her. Well, if the reindeer didn't want to cooperate, she would just have to use brute force to bring him to the enchanted garden. She walked behind him and started shoving at his back legs. Of course, weighing a tenth that of a bull reindeer, she couldn't move him at all.
So much for brute force. Perhaps she could sail a more subtle tack. She left Sven to stand in his oblivious, smitten state, then walked up to the snowdeer. "Okay, Miss Icy-pants, here's the deal. I need the scarf around Sven's neck to undo Hyacinth's magic, but Sven won't budge, so I'm going to need you to lead him to Hyacinth's magic garden."
The deer gave her a look that Pebble translated as Why would Sven follow me?
"Trust me, he will. I'm an expert. Well, expert in training, at least. But trust me, he will."
The deer gave her a shrug-like gesture, and then started walking alongside Pebble.