A/N: Now, I'm ready to get back to the real story. Sorry about getting off-track with the side story in the previous chapter. I'm not used to getting distracted. That's usually something I'm on the receiving end of, then I'd call someone else out for it. Oh, lord, I'm such a hypocrite.
But, I wanted to give the teenage Kristoff's side of the story of Frozen a little bit more depth or any depth at all, I should say. When I did so, though, one thing led to another and I let my right brained typing go wherever it took me. Anyway, back to the story.
disclamation: I do not own Disney's Frozen in any way, shape, or form other than on Bluray and DVD. I also confess to not owning one bit of my own fanfiction's storyline. this fanfiction idea is originally from the mind of another blogger on here by the penname of classicdisneyFTW. their fanfiction was simply called 'Worth Mining'. I decided to rewrite it as my own fanfiction. hey, at least I admit to it.
Thirteen long years after Sven and I followed those people and were adopted by the trolls, things started getting really super crazy, even for me. I had not even thought about that event for the last thirteen years and completely forgot about it. What I did not realize about today, however, was that today was the day that night would come back to my mind and slap me right across the face.
I had to go into Arendelle City on this particular day because today was the day I was completely going to pay off my new sled. After that, it would be completely and totally mine. No more debts, no more payments, just me, Sven and my new sled.
The streets were unusually crowded today, and the docks were filling up fast with foreign ships belonging to different dignitaries from practically every country one could imagine. This was all because today was also the coronation of the new queen of Arendelle. Everybody in town was so excited because today, they were opening up the gates for the first time in thirteen years. Why did they close the gates ever since Sven and I were taken in by the trolls? I did not know why they closed the gates to the palace that same day, but it was not like it had anything to do with that event in my life, or so I ignorantly believed.
I did not actually care much for the coronation, though. There would be too many people for my taste. Parties? Not exactly my kind of thing. I just came into Arendelle City to finally pay off my sled for the last time. Nothing else mattered at the moment. After that, Sven and I would be on our way to work.
Still though, with everyone in town so happy about the coronation, I could not help but smile a bit about it, myself. Especially considering I was finally going to own my sled completely, I was as giddy as a drunk. Sven and I stopped at the docks waiting for Erick, the man from whom I had purchased the sled, to show up. As I watched the May Pole rise, Sven nudged my elbow with his muzzle, and I turned to look at him. "What do you want, Sven?" I asked him, even when I already knew what my best friend since I was seven wanted. I could already see it by the look in his eyes.
I changed my voice to speak for him. "Give me a snack."
A/N: I admit I kinda find that voice a bit ridiculous and mute it whenever Kristoff speaks in it, but I don't think Sven really ever seemed to mind.
I took out a carrot and held out for him. "What's the magic word?" I reminded him.
I changed my voice for him, once again. "Please." Then, Sven immediately jumped up and grabbed the whole thing. "Uh, uh, uh, uh. Share," I reprimanded him, but in a kind, gentle manner. We always shared carrots with one another. It was even how we befriended one another from the start of our friendship. He quickly spat the carrot back out and took a much smaller bite. I took the rest of it and then took a bite of it, myself.
"Kristoff," I heard from behind me. I turned around to see that it was Erick. I saw him approaching the two of us. He stopped beside me and pulled out a scroll from his satchel. He began to study his scroll closely. "Hmm, yes," he said after thirty seconds to a minute. I handed him a bag of money I pulled from out of my pocket. "Ah, your last payment. Thank you, my boy, I nearly forgot about that," he said. Even if he was getting on in years, I did not know if it was supposed to be a joke or not. "Everything seems to be in order. Congratulations, Kristoff. The sled is finally yours," he told me.
I was very happy that the sled was finally mine. "Thank you very much, Erick. I'll take extra good care of it, I promise," I told him, expressing my gratitude. After that, Erick headed back to his home. "You don't need any help walking home, do you, Erick?" I asked him.
However, Erick was determined to get home on his own, even if he was an old man. "Nonsense. I can walk twice the distance it is from here to my house," he told me. "I might not be as spry as I was when I was your age, Kristoff, but I've still got some fight left in me," he said.
"Tell Arielle, Melodia and the grandkids I said hi," I told him just before he was out of both earshot and sight.
A/N: And that, my fanfiction-loving friends, was my own personal and brilliant, yet indirect homage to the first ever Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale to be made into an instant Disney classic, 'The Little Mermaid'. I used to love that movie as a little girl. Now, look at how far Disney has come since then. They have now made another Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale come to life in 'Frozen', and it's in CGI animation. Long live Walt Disney. Sorry, got a little carried away, there. Back to the story.
It was a good day for Sven and me so far. The sled I had worked so hard to pay off was officially mine, it was a fairly warm day even in the mountains, and the workload was short on ice harvesters since practically almost every one of them had gone to the coronation to which I was not opposed in any way, shape or form. It just meant more ice for those of us who stuck around, no skin off my back.
"Morning, Kristoff," said an ice harvester a particularly bushy, red beard.
"Hey, Johán," I greeted him back. "How's Lená?"
"Oh, she's doing pretty grand," Johán said. "She actually took the kids down to the coronation just a little bit ago. Would've gone with 'em, myself. Unfortunately, though, we're little short on money so I stayed behind to work and get a little extra money." I just nodded at his sentiment. Johán was one of the friendlier ice harvesters I managed to interact with. He still is as of today.
I grabbed an ice pick from the tool depot nearby and set it in my sled. "Why ain't you at the coronation, though, Kristoff? Shouldn't a young fella like yourself be down there, joinin' in the festivities?" Johán asked me.
"Someone has to load up all the extra ice onto the sleds to make up for what those slackers are doing. Besides, you and all the rest of the guys already know that parties aren't my thing," I reminded him. "Also, I'm pretty sure you're not even gonna be able to do it on your own. I just thought I might give a hand, should that be the case," I finished explaining my reasons.
A/N: I know what you're thinking. Why am I making Kristoff such a nice guy before the time is right to show it? But, trust me, I'm only letting him be that nice to those he's actually friendly with until the journey to you all know where, I promise that much. OK, back to the story.
"That's fer sure. I ain't as spry as I used to be," Johán responded. "Still, don't you wanna at least live a little and meet people? You know, have some fun? You never know, you could even meet a nice girl," he winked.
Ah man, not this again. I got enough of this sort of thing from the trolls, and now the ice harvesters, too? What was going on? Was there something I had not been seeing in their joint views towards me these past five years. Yes, I said five years. While it was that the trolls had always been like this towards me, my fellow ice harvesters started doing this to me when I was around sixteen. I do not know what the ice harvesters were thinking about me for the past five years, but it was the very last thing on my mind. It has been the last thing on my mind for the past fourteen years, it was the last thing on my mind today, and it'll even be the last thing on my mind for the rest of my life. All I will ever want to do is harvest ice, sell ice, make money and pay my bills.
Even if men were normally the ones who lied to and cheated me, women were… just there. Although I only let the women from my youth pinch my cheeks to encourage my ice sales, it stopped as soon as I hit that growth spurt at thirteen. From that point on, the women started to only be present when I was at the ice stand. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying their totally useless. I am just saying that while men generally annoy and irritate me, I have no interest in women whatsoever. They were all just the same as other women were. There was little to no difference in their mindsets. Have some ambition or uniqueness already, why don't you?
"Thanks for the input, Johán," I said, tuning back into reality. "But, I think I'll just stick with what I'm good at."
"Alright, but if ya go through life only doing what you're good at, yer missin' out on half of it, kid," Johán told me.
"Yeah, I'll take that into consideration when I'm done with work for today," I told him.
With that, I hitched Sven up to the sled, hopped on the seat, and we rode up to our usual spot on the lake to get to work. Work was good, even if we did have to start early and work extra hard for the shortage of ice harvesters. Still, I managed to load up my sled with at least thrice as many blocks of ice as the other harvesters since all of them stayed in town to view the queen's crowning. The sun had just set when I was finally done with the work and had firmly secured the ice in place. I even helped hitch up the other sleds.
Well, all of them, that is, except for Claudio, an ice harvester who was not all that hardworking like the rest of us. If you do not even like the job, do not take it in the first place. Then again, he only took on the job because his dad was an ice harvester and apparently he came from a never-ending chain of ice harvesters that dated back to when the kingdom of Arendelle was first built. He probably never even had a say in his own job to begin with. Still, this job was one to be taken very seriously. There was no room for slackers, and he certainly was a slacker, through and through. I wonder if he ever even tried to object to his father's wishes or his family's tradition. Probably not since he was also kind of out of it when it came to being an adult.
After I was done helping the others hitch up their sleds, Sven and I began our trek down the mountain. We were not exactly in a hurry of any kind, so we just moved along slowly at a lazy, careless pace. We normally liked going fast, but with a hard day's work in the back, neither one of us were really in the mood to go fast.
Suddenly, a slightly brisk breeze blew through the trees in the surrounding forest. I just shrugged it off, though, since it was actually normal at this altitude, latitude, and even longitude. We just continued on, and I realized I ran out of carrots for Sven. We would just have to stop somewhere along the way to buy some more carrots. I guess even rationing by sharing can only last so long.
I suddenly became aware that it had started to lightly snow. Not all that normal at this time of year, but not entirely unheard of at this altitude. Arendelle was one of the few kingdoms in the world whose winters saw snow earlier than most others. Still, the earliest the snow fronts come into even Arendelle is only late November, and it was only the middle of July right now. We kept moving, however, and I just ignored the snow. Where was a good, close by place to get some carrots?
I felt the cold front get even more intense all of a sudden. This was a lot less normal, even for this altitude. This was ridiculous. I was in cold temperatures all the time. I worked on an ice lake for crying out loud. I should not feel this cold now when I was halfway down the mountain. It should have been getting warmer, not colder. Still, I pulled my scarf over my face, shivering from the suddenly intensifying cold front.
It was lucky for me that I did it, too, because as soon as I had, a violently cold wind came completely and literally out of nowhere and nearly blew me over into the next kingdom, along with Sven and my sled. I felt the unexpected blizzard pelt its ice and snow against me as I fell backwards into the back of my sled, flung there by the force of the howling wind. I struggled to sit back up and used my hands to shield my face from the blizzard. "What the…" I muttered to myself.
I could barely even see my sled, much less Sven in front of me running and ducking away from the storm of ice and snow in front of us. It was so bizarre. The wind was flowing from the east just a few minutes ago like it always did in the summer, now it felt like it was coming in from the north. What was with this weird, random change in weather and in wind directions?
As strange as I found it, I knew we really had to escape this sudden, bizarre blizzard as soon as we possibly could. I recalled a trading post of some kind being not too far off our path. Sven and I passed by it several times in the past, but I never actually went inside. First time for everything, I guess. If I could just escape this blizzard without freezing to death. I climbed back into the front of the sled and grabbed onto the reins. "Come on, boy!" I shouted over the howling wind, urging Sven.
Sven began to push forward against the wind. If we were going at a slow pace before, I tell you, we were going even slower now. It felt like it had been hours since we made it down the first half of the mountain. Then, this crazy random blizzard finally began to calm down a little. And yet, we still had a ways to go before we actually reached our intended destination.
We continued on to the trading post. I now saw that snow covered everything around us on the way there, and we were not even all that high up in the mountains anymore. I even still felt a brisk breeze blowing in from the north. This was way too weird. I should have felt a lot warmer now that I was no longer at the top of the mountain. It looked like winter had decided to come earlier than normal this year.
I spotted the trading post just a little up ahead. Sven just snorted at me, and I was pretty sure knew why. "I know. I bet you're probably really, super hungry after the long trek through that random blizzard," I told him through my ice-covered scarf. "Don't worry, Sven. I can get enough carrots for the both of us from this trading post. Huh, and sauna. There's a twist I wish I saw coming." Then, I looked around at the snow-covered terrain. "Just to be more prepared, I should probably get a few winter supplies, too considering the circumstances." In the middle of summer, of all times of year. What the hey was going on?
A/N: Yes, I actually do say 'what the hey' all the time. It's kind of a thing I say.