Chapter 21

The day of the Harvest Festival dawned overcast but quickly cleared and promised to be bright and cool.

The Arendelle village square had been transformed from a place of commerce and trade to one for music, dancing and the celebration of a bountiful harvest. A stage had been erected for musicians, an area for dancing marked out, booths for food vendors cobbled together, and tables for judging food and craft competitions set up. As the morning continued there was a crescendo of construction and decoration as everything was rushed to completion before noon.

At noon the festivities began with Queen Elsa, dressed in a flowing robe of ice, ascending the stage.

"Welcome, everyone, to this year's Harvest Festival. We've been fortunate in the weather this year, and your hard work has brought in a fine harvest. That combined with ice, timber, and textile exports has made this one of the most prosperous years for Arendelle in recent memory."

There was a cheer from the crowd assembled before her.

Elsa continued. "So, to thank you for your efforts this past year we invite you to enjoy the music and dancing in the village square and ice skating in the castle courtyard through the afternoon. But don't exhaust yourselves during the day. Come to the castle courtyard just after dark tonight where I hope to show you all something wonderful and new. But now, let's bring up the musicians and get this celebration started."

Elsa invited the first set of musicians up to the stage and quickly left it. Once on the ground she met up with Anna and Kristoff. Anna looked ready to dance and Kristoff looked ready to tolerate it for Anna's sake.

"I'm going to look around a bit, then head to the castle to set up the ice skating. You two have fun, but Anna, remember I'm going to need you to help organize the closing. So be back at the castle courtyard before dusk."

The musicians struck up a tune and Anna looked as if her feet were itching.

Kristoff asked, "What's going to happen tonight?"

Elsa said, "It's a surprise. A good surprise." She looked at Anna and laughed. "Go, dance. But Anna, be back at the castle by dusk."

"Thanks Elsa," said Anna, grabbing Kristoff and dragging him into the dance.

Elsa moved through the festival like a swan, smoothly gliding amidst the games, food and craft competitions, and vendors on her way to the castle. She was free with her time, talking with anyone who approached her, but eventually she made it to the castle gates.

Elsa moved to the center of the castle courtyard and asked, "Are you ready?" After receiving a cheer in response she stamped her right foot and coated the courtyard with ice. Many people had brought ice skates, but Elsa was happy to provide ice blades for those who hadn't.

Kristoff soon reached his saturation point with dancing, even dancing with Anna. It wasn't that he was tired so much as terrified. During the most active paired dancing Anna had a habit of aiming them at the area most congested with dancers and he was always expecting to collide with one of the other couples.

During one of the pauses between dances, he asked, "Anna, why do you always aim at the crowd? You're going to get us killed, or at least trampled."

"Pfff." She waved away his objection. "The only way to survive is to aim at where the people are. By the time you get there, everyone's moved away."

"Even so, I think I've had enough. Do you mind if I go check on Sven?"

"Ha! I told Ruth you wouldn't last more than an hour."

"And you were right. I'm done." They shared a brief kiss and then Kristoff left in the direction of the castle.

Kristoff was walking through the castle gates when he saw Alex watching the ice skating from a courtyard bench. No, he wasn't watching the ice skating, he was watching Elsa making ice skates. Kristoff approached, and when Alex saw him he smiled and gestured to the empty space beside him. Kristoff sat down next to Alex.

"It's amazing," said Alex. "The design of each pair of blades is different. Queen Elsa's usually taking her design cues from people's attire, but I'm convinced that sometimes she's making skates that reflect the personality of the skater. Maybe for the people she knows personally. I wish I had a pair of binoculars. Some of the designs are quite intricate. And of course putting aside materializing the ice out of thin air, the blades are impossibly strong and durable. At some point I'm going to have to get to the Ice Palace, if only to see what can be done when your medium loves you."

"Well, when I saw it, the Ice Palace was spectacular. But whatever you do, don't go up there without Queen Elsa."

"Marshmallow?"

"Marshmallow."

Alex leaned back and turned to look at Kristoff. "Thank you for your assistance this past month and a half. You've been a great help."

"No problem. Ice is what I do."

"How did you get into the ice harvesting business?"

"I was pretty much born into it. I've been doing it since I was little."

"What was it like making the transition to management?"

"Hard. I was a lone and local operator until I was given a larger role. Suddenly I wasn't just cutting ice and making deliveries in Arendelle, I was helping draft trade agreements and protecting the interests of all the ice harvesters. Queen Elsa helped when I got overwhelmed. And man, did I get overwhelmed."

"You don't appear to have stayed overwhelmed."

"No, I've gotten pretty good at the bigger picture. But I still like getting out on the lakes and harvesting."

"Keeps you connected with your constituents?"

"My what?"

"The workers you're representing."

"Yeah, but sometimes it's just good to get back on the ice. And the trips out and back give me time to think."

"I can understand wanting that."

Ruth found Anna impatiently waiting out a couples dance. She was bouncing on the balls of her feet, rarin' to dance again.

"Hi Anna."

"Hey Ruth. Do you like to dance?"

"I love to dance. But I don't recognize any of the music. Or the steps those dancers are taking."

"So don't do any of the complicated dances. For the simple ones you can follow my rule."

"What's that?"

"When the circle moves left, you move left. When the circle moves right, you move right."

"But what about footwork and stuff?"

"As long as everyone's having fun, no one cares about your footwork. Just watch and follow along as best you can."

The couples dance ended and the musicians upped the tempo. Anna grabbed Ruth's hand and pulled her laughing into the dance.

In the beginning Ruth felt awkward about messing up the footwork, but she relaxed when she saw Olaf on the other side of the circle just running left and right to keep up. Occasionally the circle opened up when he couldn't keep up and one arm or the other detached, but everyone was having fun, so nobody minded.

Soon after Kristoff excused himself to visit Sven, Sarah joined Alex. She looked at his rapt attention to Elsa's magic and asked, "Am I going to have to force a sleeping draught down your throat tonight?"

"No. While it is amazing, and there are enough subtleties that I never tire of watching it, it's nothing we haven't seen and experimented with before. Besides, I've got an 8:00 AM lecture tomorrow, and if I can't sleep off the effects of your evil brew my classroom performance will be, well, erratic. My poor students are having enough trouble as it is without me adding to it."

"Ok, but if the closing ceremonies are 'fascinating' I'm drugging you. Have you seen any of the rest of the festival?"

"No, I've been sitting here watching the magic."

Sarah got up from the bench and pulled Alex to his feet. "You ought to see some of the crafts. I wouldn't mind owning some of the pieces I've seen."

"Where would we put them?"

Anna bounced around the festival like a flea, rushing from one destination to the next, sometimes helping judge a competition, sometimes playing the games, sometimes dancing or listening to the musicians. Ruth tagged along. Near the end of the afternoon, as they reached the edge of the square, Anna stopped and sniffed. A grin spread across her face as she said, "Do you smell that?"

Ruth sniffed and concentrated, smiled and said, "Chocolate! Milk chocolate. Swiss." She sniffed again. "No, Belgian milk chocolate."

"You can smell the difference?"

"You know how Dad can be a teensy bit obsessive?"

Anna rolled her eyes, "Yeah."

"He's got a sweet tooth."

"Oh no."

"Oh yes. When he got 'fascinated' with sugar he grew single crystals the size of my head, and got the palace confectioners to teach him how to make caramel, fudge, fondant, nougat, brittles, and everything else sugary. Mom gained five pounds. He even invented my sugar tube extruder. And then he got interested in chocolate. Did you know you can be exposed to so much and so many types of chocolate that you're sure you never, ever want to see it again?"

Anna stared at her, eyes wide with horror, and said, "No, and I refuse to believe it."

"Last year Dad went all Microscope Mind on chocolate. From November through May there was chocolate. Swiss chocolate, Belgian chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, cocoa powder, roasted cocoa nibs, raw cocoa beans and every other form of chocolate from every corner of the world that makes chocolate. By May I couldn't stand the smell of the stuff and Mom banished it from the house. Luckily it's too hot at home between May and November to make chocolates.

"Oh my."

"On the plus side, after half a year without chocolate I can appreciate it again. And I know way more about it than I used to."

"Care to appreciate some chocolate and share some of that knowledge? My treat."

"...and that's how you hand dip chocolates," said Ruth as she nibbled a small confection.

Anna and Ruth were leaving the chocolate shop Anna's nose had led them to.

"I had no idea making chocolates was such an involved process," said Anna around a mouthful of chocolate.

"Why do you think they cost so much? Anyway, once you've done it a couple of times you can tell when the chocolate is tempered by the way it feels on the marble slab."

Anna looked up at the darkening afternoon sky. "Uh oh. I've gotta head to the castle to set up for closing. Make sure you're in the courtyard when it gets dark. It should be fantastic."

"Ok. We'll be there."

Anna headed off to the castle while Ruth started looking around for her parents.

As afternoon darkened to dusk the festival started winding down. The musicians left the stage and the dancers dispersed. As the food vendors finished their final rush and closed down their booths, the lamplighters set to work. As twilight deepened to full dark everyone, including the Morris family, started moving toward the castle.

Elsa had cleared the courtyard of ice and Anna was directing the preparations for the end of the festival. Once the flow of people through the castle gates had slowed, Elsa moved to the center of the courtyard. She stamped a foot and a small hexagonal platform of ice, two feet on an edge built itself up and raised her three feet above the courtyard. Around the courtyard, guards covered the lamps.

Elsa gathered a small ball of ice out of the air and expanded it. As she worked, the shell of ice glimmered with magic. In the darkened courtyard all eyes were drawn to it. When it was a foot across it floated out of her hands and she wafted it aloft with a breeze. When it was high above the castle it imploded with a "BOOM!" and glittering streamers of snow shot forth from it, filling the sky with light.

While the crowd "Oohed", Sarah whispered to Alex, "Where's the light coming from?"

He whispered back, "Didn't you notice it the first night? Whenever the magic makes ice or snow there's a glow. I'd planned on investigating the light the session after our expedition."

Meanwhile, Elsa snapped her fingers and five smaller glowing ice shells grew before her. She sent them aloft one at a time in different directions and shortly thereafter came five sharp reports and a cascade of magically glowing snow flurries filled the night sky over Arendelle Castle.

Alex commented to Sarah, "Nice use of external triggers. Did you notice that each of those shells burst at the same height? And that each implosion was the trigger for a snow flurry."

Sarah shushed him with a whispered, "Hush, Alex. Right now I just want to watch and wonder."

On the dais, Elsa turned and pointed to the top of one of the towers along the castle wall. A glowing pillar of snow shot from it. The pillar branched repeatedly until after several seconds it resembled an enormous birch tree made of light, the trunk fading even as the smallest twigs and leaves glowed their brightest.

Sarah asked, "Ok, never mind what I said before. I've got to know. How did she do that?"

"I have no idea." Alex stared, and mumbled to himself, "How did she do that? Sooo many questions..."

Elsa pointed to the next tower along the wall and a huge spruce tree made of light sprang from it. Elsa created trees of light on each of the remaining castle wall towers. Each tower had a different tree: pine, alder, aspen, willow and finally oak.

As a finale, Elsa created a blanket of thousands of small floating ice shells and wafted the glowing spheres aloft. As they were rising she pointed to the peak of Arendelle Castle, which erupted in a glowing shaft of snow topped with an enormous glittering crocus flower. There was a sustained crackle, as if from strings of firecrackers, as the ice shells imploded at random in a coruscation of light. When the last of the shells sounded, all of the magical light faded, and the courtyard lamps were uncovered.

Elsa addressed the spectators, "We hope you had a wonderful time today. There's hot cocoa by the entrance to the castle. You can leave the mugs by the gate. Have a safe trip home." Then she lowered and eliminated her dais and accepted the adulation of the crowd as she worked her way toward the door.

Sarah and Ruth had to guide Alex, who was still mumbling to himself, home.

The next morning, several students stood together talking in the hall after the Intro to Natural Philosophy lecture.

"Did Professor Morris seem a little.. off this morning?" asked Edgar.

"Old Bore-us's accent was thicker than usual, if that's what you mean," said Bernard.

"No, no," said Lena. "I think Edgar's right. He was skipping way more steps than usual in the lecture. It was hard to keep up. And I think he might have made a few mistakes too."

"I can help you correct those in your notes. I thought it was pretty obvious where he was going off the rails," said Bernard.

"Thanks," said Lena.

A/N - I've done my best to avoid anachronisms in this story, but since the movie was willing to play fast and loose with the history of chocolate, so am I.

The light that comes with magical snow and ice is peppered throughout the movie. It's probably most obvious during the first manifestations of snow in the song 'Let it Go', where the little pops of snow coming off Elsa's palms illuminate her face. There's LOTS to explore there. That should start in chapter 28 or 29 (the expedition is going to take three or four chapters).

Thanks to the reviewers of chapter 20: Morgaine2005 and PascalDragon. And thanks to all who have reviewed, followed and favorited along the way. And for those who are members of this site and not following after having read 21 chapters: why not?