Chapter 5 - The Autumn Robber
The summer had turned to autumn, as a brisk breeze blew through and leaves turned color and began to fall. Anna was riding in her golden carriage through the Enchanted Forest, dressed in her pink cape and hat, when suddenly she was attacked. The carriage was taken by a dozen armed men. Her horse Kjekk ran freely off into the wood. Anna was taken by both arms and hauled out of the carriage.
"Hey, let go of me!" she said, trying to shrug them off.
Her capturers released her. She was standing before the entire tribe of the Northuldra people, who were said to live in the Enchanted Forest.
"Unhand her!" said a girl, around Anna's age, dressed in a white camping dress and fur-trimmed hat. She pushed her way up to the front of the crowd to talk to Anna. "I'm Honeymaren," she introduced herself. "Welcome to the Enchanted Forest. You're Northuldra now, like us. Hey, what's this?" She grabbed a violet scarf off Anna that Queen Iduna had given her for her journey.
"Hey, give that back-" Anna said in frustration.
The other girl held it away out of her reach. "Such a pretty scarf! I'm going to keep it!" She wrapped it around herself. "The Northuldra are robbing from Arendelle now. We're keeping your carriage too. I'm a robber now. You must be a princess, to have your own carriage."
"Please, I have to keep going," Anna said. "I'm trying to find my friend Jack," she explained.
"Jack? Jack who?" Honeymaren asked.
"Jack Frost."
"Oh, I've heard of him before!" Honeymaren laughed.
"But has he passed this way?"
"Sure, he left a trail of frosted leaves behind him!"
"Please," Anna begged over the other girl's laughter. "I actually have to find him!"
"Sit down with us for a while and rest first, before you continue on your journey."
Anna and Honeymaren sat before a roaring bonfire in a small clearing in the woods. They toasted their food on sticks over the fire.
"So," Honeymaren said, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands. "Tell me more about this Jack."
"Jack and I were best friends," Anna said. "Like brother and sister. But I had a dream that said, Elsa the Snow Queen froze his heart, and took him away with her."
"Dreams are real," Honeymaren said firmly. "You should follow your dream. But tell me something else⦠Do you love him?"
Anna blushed at the question from the other girl. "Yes, I do," she said. "But it's a secret, between you and me."
"Will the two of you get married?" Honeymaren asked.
"I hope so, if he asks me," Anna answered.
"What's he like?" Honeymaren asked again, her chin resting on her hands.
"Oh, he's clever and brave, and handsome," Anna answered dreamily. "He's so mischievous too. He's always fun to be around, and always makes me laugh."
Anna stayed with the Northuldra people through the autumn, wearing a new black dress and purple cape that Honeymaren gave to her, and her hair loose with two braids tied in the back. Her other clothes she folded and put away in her tent. She shared the tent with Honeymaren where they slept in two sleeping bags. She had again nearly forgotten about Jack and her quest to find him.
One night Anna went to bed early before Honeymaren and found herself laying alone in the tent.
Her eyes flickered open to see a nearly invisible figure looking down at her, watching her.
"Jack?" she mouthed.
He smiled at her, and put a finger to his lips to hush her.
The next day, she remembered seeing Jack in the night and now remembered her ongoing adventure to find him, break the spell on him, and bring him back home to Burgess.
She came out of the tent now dressed in her old traveling clothes, her pink cape and hat, and her hair in two braids. "Honeymaren," she said to her now closest friend, "I'm sorry but I can't stay here any longer. I have to go and find my friend Jack."
"I understand," the other girl said. "I'll miss you though." She embraced her in a hug. "There is one thing I can do to help," Honeymaren went on. She returned a while later holding the reins of a reindeer.
"This is Sven, my pet reindeer. I'm giving him to you. Sven," Honeymaren spoke directly to the reindeer. "I want you to take Anna up the North Mountain to the Snow Queen's ice palace."
"Thank you, my friend," Anna said, taking Sven's reins in her hand. "I'll always remember you."
"You and Jack can come back and visit us," Honeymaren replied. "And tell that boy Jack I said how very naughty he is, with how much he's put you through. Here, you'll need this." She finally returned Anna's scarf to her.
Anna thanked her, then mounted the reindeer, held out a hand to hold Honeymaren's, and let a chilly tear fall from her eye. "Farewell, my friend," she said to Honeymaren. "Hi-ya!" she said to Sven. The reindeer reared up on his hind legs with Anna on his back, then broke into a gallop across the forest floor of fall leaves, heading up the North Mountain.
