Chapter 13-Day Eight, Part 2

When they arrived at the fjord, the first thing Elsa noticed was that there was an actual line of people waiting to go down her ice slide. (She hadn't melted it from when she'd made it, so there it stayed.) "Anna, look! There are people waiting in line for the slide!" Elsa was surprised; she had assumed that no one would be interested in it.

"Yeah, I know. No fair! I wanted to go on it again-I don't want to wait. Hey, I'm the princess, does that mean I can cut in line?" Anna said.

"Absolutely not! You want to go on the slide, you wait in line with everyone else. Besides, you're wearing nice clothes today. Don't go swimming in the fjord in that," Elsa replied.

"It's just water!"

"Right-dirty water. You'll get stains on your dress. If you really want to go in the fjord, why don't you change and come back?" Elsa suggested. "Just make sure you're ready for the interview at two o'clock, please."

"Good idea. Be right back!" Anna ran off.

Elsa walked down to the end of the dock and slipped off her shoes. She sat down so she could dip her toes in the water. Elsa swished her feet back and forth in the water absentmindedly. Maybe I didn't need to come down here so early.

Anna came back from changing her clothes a few minutes later and ran back to the fjord barefoot and in her bathing suit. She saw Elsa sitting at the end of the dock and thought it would be funny to sneak up on her. Anna loved a good joke! She tiptoed up behind Elsa and tapped her on the shoulder. "I'M BACK!"

Elsa jumped out of her skin and nearly fell into the fjord, accidentally making a thin sheen of ice on the dock around where she was sitting. "What?! Oh, Anna, it's you. Don't sneak up on me like that!"

Anna hopped from one bare foot to the other. "Elsa, the ice! The ice! It's cold! Get rid of it!" she squealed.

Everyone by the ice slide looked to see what was making all the squealing. Was that Princess Anna and Queen Elsa over there?

Elsa noticed the people staring. "Anna, hush up! Everyone's looking at us!" She dissolved the ice on the dock and stood up, shoes in hand. "Next time don't startle me like that and you won't be standing on thin ice," Elsa added with a straight face.

Anna stopped jumping about and started laughing. Had her sister just made a pun? She must have, Anna decided, because Elsa was biting her lip to keep from laughing. "That was hysterical! Elsa, do you want to go on the slide with me?"

"What do you think I'm going to say, Anna? No, I do not want to go on the slide right now. You go ahead." Elsa realized that some of the people had come over, and were eavesdropping on their conversation. She raised her voice slightly to say, "Nothing of interest here! Carry on!"

The small crowd that had gathered immediately dispersed back over to the slide at Elsa's comment. "Boy, I wish I had that much influence to get everyone to listen to me just like that!" Anna said.

"Well, if you're going to go on the slide, you had better do it soon. It's probably going on near noon, judging from the sun," Elsa shaded her eyes with her hand as she looked up at the sky.

"I want to go on the slide with you!" Anna said as she pulled a very reluctant Elsa behind her towards the slide. The people in line moved over to let the two of them cut to the front of the line.

"No, no, I'm not going on the slide," Elsa said, pulling her hand away from Anna's grasp. "And Anna, you be nice and wait in line like everyone else!" she added as Anna ran to take advantage of the front-of-the-line privilege.

"Aw, no fair." Anna unwillingly went to the back of the line.

Everyone stared at Elsa. Had the queen really not taken advantage of the right for her and her sister to automatically be first in line?

Elsa suddenly felt all those people's eyes staring at her. Did I say something wrong? Or do I look funny for some reason? Elsa's hand flitted to the platinum braid hanging over her shoulder. Nah, that wasn't it. Maybe it was because she was still barefoot, shoes in hand. That can't be it; everyone else here isn't wearing shoes either. Elsa put her shoes back on anyway, just in case. "Feel free to proceed with the fun anytime," she finally said. (Anna loudly sounded her agreement from her spot in line.) Elsa turned and headed far out onto the ice runway in the fjord. Soon she was just a tiny blue glimmer to everyone at the slide. She wanted her "alone time", as Anna liked to call it. Anna didn't understand why Elsa liked to be by herself sometimes-she thought Elsa had had far too much of that before in her room; but as Elsa had put it, 'There's a major difference between being isolated in your room completely terrified and just relaxing by yourself once in a while.' Once Elsa was satisfied she was far enough away that no one could see exactly what she was doing, she took her shoes off and went a bit farther out, oblivious to the coldness of the ice under her feet. She strained her eyes to see the opposite shore of Lake Erie. That's where Cedar Point is, she remembered. All Elsa could see was water, water, water, as far as she could see, though. Suddenly there was a loud whirring and rumbling sound overhead, and a large shadow fell across the fjord. Elsa gave a start before looking up and realizing that their guests had arrived. She stood mesmerized beneath the huge Thing as it descended straight down out of the sky. Although Elsa had known her guests were arriving via flying machine, she hadn't expected it to be so big. Elsa snapped out of her reverie as the pilot yelled, "Miss! You need to move, now! The helicopter is coming in for a landing!" Helicopter? I thought it was called an airplane! Elsa thought. She quickly moved out of the way just in time to avoid being squashed by the helicopter's landing skids as it landed. Elsa heard a somewhat familiar-sounding voice say, "That girl isn't just a miss, she's Queen Elsa!" as the loud whirring and rumbling ceased. Elsa was puzzled at this comment; how would anyone on the airplane-no, wait, helicopter-immediately know who she was? And why did that voice sound familiar?

Elsa watched as three people climbed down out of the helicopter. The pilot stayed onboard the helicopter. The dark-haired female had to be Lois Lane, and the other two males had to be Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen. The three visitors walked over to where Elsa stood watching. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Queen Elsa," the taller male said. "My name is Clark Kent."

Elsa did a double take. That voice again! The only person she knew that sounded even remotely similar was Superman. Well, he probably does have a secret identity, she thought. This gentleman could be him if he weren't wearing glasses and a suit… "Likewise. Welcome to Arendelle," she said. She decided to test her hunch. Elsa put out her hand for Mr. Kent to shake and let a film of ice form on her hand as she did so. If Mr. Kent was Superman, he wouldn't react to touching the cold ice. If Mr. Kent was not Superman, he would probably jerk his hand away in surprise.

There was no reaction whatsoever when Mr. Kent shook her hand. Elsa wished she could have more solid proof, but she didn't want to blow his cover by asking. Obviously, he did not wish Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen to know, so Elsa said nothing. Elsa was quite experienced with trying to keep major secrets that no one was supposed to know, so she didn't want to reveal secrets that its owner didn't wish to expose. She just hoped Anna wouldn't make the connection between Superman and Mr. Kent, because Anna would be sure to blab it all over the place.

"Shall we head to shore?" Elsa asked her visitors politely. "My sister, Princess Anna, would love to meet you before we have the interview." I hope Anna went back to the castle to change out of her bathing suit by now…

"We'd love to," Lois Lane said.

Elsa began to lead the way back to the dock. "May I ask why you landed so far from the dock?"

"The helicopter's engine ran out of fuel," Ms. Lane replied. "We hoped that perhaps you might have some we could borrow?"

"I'm not sure we have any substance that qualifies to run a heli-copter," Elsa said, carefully pronouncing the unfamiliar word. "Would kerosene work?"

"Yes," Mr. Kent said.

Elsa realized that it would be a hassle to attempt to carry a large amount of kerosene to the stalled helicopter, so she offered to move it closer to the dock.

All three of her visitors looked incredulous at the idea. "How's she going to move that by herself?" Jimmy Olsen whispered to Lois. Even Mr. Kent (aka Superman) was surprised at Elsa's offer. He had seen her make impenetrable ice bubbles and freeze doorframes and locks, but he had not seen her launch ice sleds or pick up Anna sitting on an ice sled without touching anything.

Elsa hoped her idea would work. Now she regretted the offer; she wasn't a hundred percent sure she could do this. She went behind the tail of the helicopter and sent a strong blast of cold air at it. Was her air current intense enough to move the big helicopter? Yes, it was! The big machine moved slowly but steadily toward the dock as Elsa followed close behind, not letting up on the current of air. Elsa's guests walked right behind her, completely dumbfounded. On board the helicopter, the pilot was bewildered at the unexpected movement until he realized that that girl he'd yelled at to move (oops, it was Queen Elsa, he remembered) was moving the whole machine. By herself. With some sort of cold air current she was making from nothing at all. It was rather unsettling to the pilot.

Elsa pushed the helicopter until it was about twenty feet or so from the dock. The pilot quickly climbed out of the helicopter the moment he felt its movement stop. "Would you care to join us on the way to the castle?" she asked the pilot.

She's walking barefoot on ice! "Uh, yeah, sure, of course," he said, staring at Elsa's bare feet. "Aren't your feet cold?"

Elsa looked down at her feet and immediately started blushing. She'd forgotten her shoes hundreds of feet back out on the icy fjord. Major oops on her part! And I fussed at Anna for not being dressed properly… "No, I'm not cold," she said. And stop staring at me like I'm some oddity for you to gawk at! Elsa added in her thoughts. She knew it was strange to 'normal people' to walk barefoot on ice completely unaffected, but this man didn't even know her. He had no reason to act like that.

The three visitors' eyes all swiveled over to Elsa. Elsa pretended not to notice, as if she went about barefoot all the time. "Well, shall we proceed to the castle?"

The little group headed past the ice slide towards the castle. (Elsa was pleased to note that the crowd around the slide had dispersed and Anna was nowhere in sight. Hopefully Anna had returned to the castle on her own.)

A/N: Um, I don't know if a helicopter can run on kerosene, but...whatever.:P Author's privilege, right?:) (Although, if someone can confirm that one way or the other, that would be great;))