Chapter 9

The journey home for the captain was not the joyous occasion that he had hoped for. In fact, he was dreading it. He had the unpleasant duty of giving the queen the bad news about her sister. He had the entire journey to come up with the easiest way to pass on the news, but no matter what he came up with, nothing would dull the news that he had to present. There was just no easy way to tell anyone that their sister was killed in an avalanche.

They were now back in Arendelle and nearing the gates of the castle. The shroud of gloom was thick amongst him and his men. Many of the villagers had no idea what they had been up to, and it was probably for the best. The atmosphere of this town was going to go from festive to mournful in a matter of hours. These people were excited about the wedding of Princess Anna, but now... there was not going to be a wedding. Now, they would have to endure another heart breaking funeral, probably more sorrowful than the one they had for the former King and Queen.

He sent the rest of his men away to go mourn in the best way they saw fit; he was going to deliver the news himself. His preparing himself to address the queen personally, but the Queen's handmaiden, Versa, had encountered him first when he entered the castle. She, too, was not going to like this what he had to say. She was more than just a plain handmaiden to the queen and princess; she was like part of the family. He wasn't surprised in the least that she would want to know before the queen, and perhaps that was for the best. Perhaps it was better for the Queen to know the truth from someone she was close to.

"Captain, where's..." She was looking all around him, wondering why she wasn't following him into the castle. Her eyes were then drawn to the wooden plank, the green Shawl, and the map in his hands. He presented them to here with a mournful shake of his head. She covered her mouth with her hands, trying to hide the gasp. "No!"

Her eyes instantly watered, which quickly began to stream down her rosy cheeks. She gently took the shawl and held it in reverence. Her jaw began to quiver, as it took every ounce of strength she had not to break down and weep before the captain. "Oh Anna," She held the shawl up to her face and rubbed her gently across the face, as if trying feel her presence one last time. Instead, it only made her want to break out crying even more.

Realizing that the captain was watching, she regained her composure and accepted the rest of the items in his arms. "I will inform the queen."

The captain nodded, daring not to open his mouth out of fear that his voice might crack and openly display his broken heart. He turned around and excused himself to go somewhere he could be free to show his emotions without anyone seeing.

Versa could not get herself to report the news immediately to the Queen. She needed some time to herself to mourn and get her emotions in control before she could even think about telling her the news. When she was able to accomplish that, she set forth to the main Throne Room where the queen waited anxiously for her sister's return. As she approached the twin doors, she held the wooden plank, Anna's shawl, and the map in her arms. Her nerves were on end, as she realized that she was about to break Elsa's heart. That meant, she was going to lose control of her powers. She had to be very careful and be ready to run out of the room upon first sign of icing. For the sake of the people of Arendelle, Versa prayed that the Queen could control the powers enough so not to cover the town with another blizzard.

She slowly and cautiously opened the left side door and peered into the room. Elsa was sitting on her throne, looking to the right. Her mind was busy elsewhere. Versa ventured inside the throne room and slowly stepped towards the throne. The Queen was so distracted by her thoughts, that she didn't notice her in the room until she was half way to the throne.

When she finally saw her, she jumped to her feet, hoping to hear that her sister had been found and was safely back in Arendelle. With no more time to prepare for what was to come, she commenced telling her the WHOLE story. The Queen's look of hope quickly turned to shock. The walls and floor started freezing and ice spears started sticking out of the walls and all around the queen as she crossed her arms across her chest and gasped for air.

Versa squealed, and ran as fast as she could out of the room as the ice was quickly overtaking the room. Elsa fell to her knees; her tears already dropping to the icy layers on the floor. Finally, her emotions exploded, which only caused the icicles and ice spears to grow in speed and to unnatural sizes and thicknesses. She collapsed to her knees, cupped her face in her two hand, and leaned forward until the back of her hands were nearly touching the ground. From behind her hands, the sounds of her weeping could not be masked.

The people of Arendelle were confused when the sun was suddenly hidden behind gloomy, grey clouds that covered all of the town and the castle. What was once a pleasant September afternoon quickly became a howling blizzard. Everyone caught outside in the town, quickly ran as fast as they could to their homes to take shelter. The winds came suddenly blowing through the streets, bringing with it a blanket of heavy snow.

Just as the storm came upon them, there had been rumors that Princess Anna was killed in the Eastern Mountains by an avalanche. If there was any doubt to those rumors, they were immediately laid to rest as this storm was clearly no natural phenomenon. There could be no doubt that this storm was a result of the Queen in a severe state of emotional agony. Those who have heard these rumors took time to embrace their families and shed tears together. At the same time, though, the mourning could not last long when the threat of being buried in snow was currently and literately over their heads. If the Queen did not recover from this lost sooner than any normal human being usually did under these circumstances, then everyone in town would either freeze or starve to death.

When Anna opened her eyes, she was looking up at a large stone boulder hanging over her. At first, her mind was trying to catch up on what had just happened. It took her a few seconds of staring up at the boulder and watching her breath rise upward, before she remembered that they had been overtaken by an avalanche. The last thing her mind could not grasp was... how did they survive?

"Anna, you alright?" Kristoff said, sitting up beside her.

"Oh yeah, I'm just dandy!" She grunted as she forced herself to sit up and see what was going on.

The two of them were sitting under a large rock, that apparently was sticking out from the base of the mountain. They now found themselves in a small snow cave with very little moving room, and very little light, other than a small lantern that Kristoff had somehow manage to have on him. She wasn't even sure how he had managed to get the miniature lantern from the sled before abandoning it, but she was sure glad that he had.

"We are extremely lucky to be alive right now," he said. "I pulled you under this rock, hoping that it was deeply entrenched enough into the mountain not to collapse on top of us, and to redirect the snow around us. It was."

"Yay, us," She said half sarcastically. She was still trying to break out of her state of shock after watching her life flash before her eyes. "How do we get out of here, now?"

He looked away. He had no good answer to give her. The chances of surviving were not the best in the world; actually, their chances were slim to none. One wrong move and the snow could bury them alive. With no one knowing they were down here, things could not look grimmer. He wasn't about to tell her that, though.

When he gave her no answer, she suspected that he was afraid to tell her the truth. She was not ready to admit defeat so easily. In the limited space she had, she spun herself around until she was able to get onto her hands and knees, and then crawled to the far snow wall, which formed immediately at the edge of the large boulder. She started to dig diagonally upward through the snow.

"Whoa there, Princess! Don't do that!" he said, pulling her back as gently as he could.

"What? We need to get out of here, don't we?"

"We don't know how much snow is on top of us," Kristoff explained. "If there's a lot of it, then you may cause it to come crashing in on us."

"Then how do we get out here? We can't stay here forever! We got to get out of here and help Elsa!" Anna started with her rapid babbling; the clearest sign that fear and hopelessness was trying to take hold of her.

"Calm down!" he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "I really need you to stay calm. We've got very little air down here, and panicking will only use it up all the more quickly."

He forced her to stare into his eyes, in an attempt to pass on some of his calm demeanor through his eyes. Looking into his eyes did have a calming effect, and her nerves started to slowly subside. Unfortunately, they subsided a little too much, and she started to sink into depression. "This is my fault. I should have listened to you from the start."

"Hey, none of that now, either," he replied. "We're going to find a way out of here, and we're going to find a cure for your sister."

Anna managed a smile. She knew how often her recklessness had gotten them in tight situations, but never once did he blame her or hold it over her head. He had always tried to bend over backwards to make her happy, no matter how uncomfortable it made him. He never once complained about it, either. He may not be prince, but she was very lucky to be marrying a man like him.