Growing Together Chapter 10

Elsa and Anders were about halfway up the mountain, and had paused in a small clearing to rest their mounts, when they heard the sound of horses coming up behind them. "I think we ought to hide," she said nervously.

He thought for a quick moment and nodded. "Let's get off the path."

"Our footprints in the snow will give us away, won't they?" she asked. "Oh – I can hide those with a sweep of my hand!"

"Of course you can," he agreed. "In fact..."

About a minute later, a squad of dragoons in the uniforms of the Stavanger Defense Forces rode into the clearing. They looked around and stopped.

"Those two riders couldn't have gotten that far ahead of us," the corporal said.

"Something strange is going on here," the sergeant replied. "We can see the trail as it leads up the mountain from here, and that pair isn't on the trail. But there aren't any footprints leading off the trail, either."

"Could they have climbed that cliff over there, and thrown snow over their footprints as they went?" one of the troopers asked.

"Unlikely, but possible," the sergeant nodded. "Corporal, take three men and check it out." The second-in-command chose three burly troopers and they walked on foot toward the cliff the first trooper had seen.

They returned after a minute. "Not a chance, Sergeant," the corporal reported. "That cliff is coated in sheer ice. No one could climb that without special climbing gear. There's no sign of their horses, either." The men searched the area around the clearing for several minutes, but found no clues to the whereabouts of their quarry. They shrugged, remounted, and continued up the trail.

After five minutes had passed, the ice-coated cliff shimmered, and a horse-sized hole suddenly appeared. That ice was a false front; it was only half a foot thick, and it stood about eight feet in front of the actual cliff, which left plenty of room to hide two royals from Arendelle and their horses. Anders peered out, then led his horse back to the clearing, with Elsa right behind him.

"That was close," she said nervously.

"It will probably get worse," he nodded. "The horse soldiers usually go ahead of the main army, scouting for trouble. There will be plenty more soldiers where those men came from, and they probably aren't too far behind us. The good news is they'll be on foot, so they can't overtake us while we have our horses."

"The bad news is that they're below us, and those dragoons are above us," Elsa countered. "We're surrounded, and our way home is blocked."

"Can't you fix that with another little storm?" Anders wondered, surprised.

"When we've got the whole countryside to hide in, yes," she said. "But Farbar Pass is narrow, and it's getting narrower as we climb higher. If ten men sit ten feet apart at the crossing point, they can cover the entire pass, and I could never bring visibility down to less than five feet without endangering us as well. I don't mean the cold," she rushed on as he began to object. "I mean the wind that could blow us right off the mountain."

"I hadn't thought of that," he nodded. "You'd think I would have remembered the storm you just made, to get us out of that camp down there." Then his thoughtful look vanished into something like fear. "Those dragoons – they were speaking perfect Norwegian! They must be from the Stavanger army. That means we probably have two armies on our tail, Stavanger's and España's. If they combine forces..."

"They won't," Elsa reassured him. "We can be pretty sure of that. They don't even speak the same language! They could never fight together."

He visibly relaxed. "You're right. I'm sure Stavanger will go in first, to conquer Potet. Then España will arrive and stop them from going any further... and take over the rest of our kingdom while they're in the neighborhood. At least, that's probably their plan." He paused. "Can I say something? It's not like I think you're a basket case or anything, but considering everything you've been through in the past few days, you're really holding yourself together well."

She was mildly annoyed at that. "Do you think I'm that weak?"

"No," he said hastily, "but in the past, your strength has worked against you, because your fears were too powerful for you to handle. Now, it's as though all the different pieces of Elsa are finally moving in the same direction. Ever since we got out of that lifeboat, I haven't had to settle you down very much, aside from that storm in the camp. You've settled yourself." He made a wry face. "I think I might be on the verge of losing my job."

"Not a chance of that, Anders!" she exclaimed, and kissed him quickly. "I hired you for keeps. Don't you remember the 'for as long as you both shall live' part of the contract?"

"Of course I do," he smiled.

"Good," she nodded. "If I'm finally getting myself together, you're a big part of the reason why. Don't think for a minute that I don't need you around, because you're helping to hold me together, whether you're actively comforting me or not." She kissed him again. "Now, we need a plan to get out of Stavanger and defend Arendelle. Got any good ideas?"

"I've got a bunch of them," he nodded, "but most of them involve us being on the other side of Farbar Pass. I guess we ought to keep going up; that's the direction we need to move in, and the higher we go, the better the view we'll have of the armies climbing up toward us. The one thing we cannot do is let ourselves get taken by surprise."

"What about those dragoons who went ahead of us?" she asked.

"They'll get to the Pass, make sure the way is clear, and wait for the rest of their army to catch up," he decided. "One squad can't invade much, not even a defenseless kingdom like Arendelle – a handful of farmers with pitchforks and hunting bows, fighting on their own lands, could fight them to a standstill."

"Do we have any advantages at all?" she wondered.

"We have two big ones – your powers, and the fact that they don't know we're here," he said as they mounted their horses and began climbing again. "Of course, they have the advantages of numbers, weapons, and training. I was wondering – can you make an Olaf, and turn him into a soldier?"

"Olaf wouldn't make much of a soldier, no matter what I did," she said, "but I once made a big snowman who was a very powerful fighter." She stopped and stared at Anders. "What if I made a squad of giant snowmen? Or a whole platoon?"

"Can you do that?" he asked hopefully.

"It kind of hurt when I made that one," she said, recalling a desperate battle to escape the Duke of Weselton's men and get Anna to the trolls for help. "I'll have to brace myself for each one; it may take a lot out of me."

"Please don't hurt yourself," he urged her. "You're the only queen we've got, and you're the only wife I've got."

"I'll try to pace myself, but if this is the only way we can save Arendelle, then I'll do whatever I have to do," she said decisively.

"It's not the only way," Anders thought out loud, "but I'm sure we'll need it before we're done. For now, what we need is snow. Lots and lots of it, a lot more than we've got now. No wind, just a heavy buildup of snow."

"I can do that," she nodded, "and I think I know what you have in mind. I hate to do it, though. I really hate it. It might kill someone. I've never killed anyone before – not on purpose, anyway. Isn't there some other way?"

"My love, the Spanish and the Stavangers have put us in this place," he reassured her. "This situation is their fault, not ours. If we don't take them out, then they will kill us, and your sister and Kristoff, and anyone else who gets in their way. I don't like it either, but like you said, we'll do whatever we have to do. They've left us no choice."

She slowly nodded, and raised her hands. Snow began tumbling down all around them, silent and beautiful, as they urged their horses up the trail.

o

A/N
The idea that making a giant snowman causes Elsa pain came from the movie. If you watch closely, you'll notice that Elsa grimaces when she creates Marshmallow. She didn't do that with any other use of her powers. Maybe it's the size of her creation, combined with the fact that it's alive; I don't know. But it makes a useful plot point.