A.N. Because only love can give us strenght to climb the scariest mountains in our lives.
First time published February 14th 2019 on Tumblr.
Love is not an easy climb. Kristoff knows all about climbing. When he was but a wee child and only just learned how to walk his father would start taking him to the mountains. His parents both grew up to be skilled climbers, but that did not keep them alive. Later, with the trolls he became accuanted with all kinds of rocks, learned to know their secrets, learned to survive in the harshness of the wild mountains. Living in a village or town was never for him. All those people, concerning themselves in gossip and what not else, living in tiny enclosed houses, not able to stand one day without the comforts of a solid bed. He, he grew up to value everything that the wildness gave him. The freedom, the silence. As one would hear old people say: In the mountains it's only me and Heaven above.
And then, his path was suddenly crossed by someone who should not have been able to survive a day in the wildness, but she did. Not only that, she stood agains the winter cold, against everything that was about to shatter her world and family.
Suddenly, he found it nice to not be climbing alone.
Love is not an easy climb. Anna knows about climbing. Since the moment she could escape her Nanny she would sneak in the gardens and try to climb the trees. At first only the small ones. Later there was no tree high enough for her. More then often did she fall down, scratch her hands and knees, tear her dresses. It was a never ending challenge. In spring she would climb to see if the nests were filled with chirping birds, in summer to enjoy the shade of the leafs, in autumn to listen to the wind rutheling the leafs away, in winter to spare a glance at a world white and different. If she could have she would had climbed the castle walls and roofs. There was no fear.
Years later there was fear, while she was making her way through the deep snow one day in June. There was fear of having been ignorant to the sorrows of the most important person in her life, fear of loosing everything.
Family holds together. They both learned that it's easier to climb the mountains together.
Love is not an easy climb. Elsa knows not so much about climbing, but she is starting to learn. In all her years of education nothing had prepared her for the possibility of surviving in the mountains. Living sheltered in a castle does not teach you things like that. She would read books of adventures in the wild, but the wish for experience it herself was never there. Being outside ment exposing oneself, ment relying only on oneself. She could not do that. But she had to.
Only when things slipped her control- as much as one might wish, life has its own rules- was she forced to take steps into the unknown. But at least these steps would lead her far away, far away to be finally alone, where everything can be under control.
It took her some years to learn that it's alright to rely on other people too.
Love is not an easy climb. Idun knows something about climbing. As a child she would often hike with her father and siblings, their mother staying behind with a picknick. They would walk over mose covered forests, look at the mighty pines, sunbath on the stone formations. Her father being only jarl in a large kingdom secured them a family life one can only wish for.
But her own mother had never had to climb the way she had to now, family of her own. Some days are better then others, and yet there is none when she does not worry. Anytime she misses her eldest daughter at the breakfast table, any time her younger one sights, any moment she catches a glance at frightened blue eyes, when ever silence grows too heavy, she can't help but feel helpless. The climb up the stairs becomes her pilgrimage. How often she had stopped on the stairs, near of tears, she could not tell.
But she kept climbing. That's what mothers do.
Love is not an easy climb. Adgar knows a bit about climbing. When ever he could he would climb the towers of the castle walls, looking from the inside on a world so different outside. He would do it as a young boy, as a young man, as a crowned king, as a blessed father. As a only child, only son, of an old king, there was not much time for adventures outside. The day he was first alowed to ride outside the sheltered grounds has been an awakening. There has been so much he learned since then. But nothing could help him when it came to his family. There would be days when he would question his decisions, because you could never know what might have been, and maybe it's wrong to ask oneself about something that was not supposed to be.
The day he had to climb upon the ship that would take him a fourthnight away from his home seemed to be filled with the unknown in the air. When he was standing on the deck, wife beside him, he couldn't help but wonder once again. Until he knew, knew that the words he had spoken moments ago in the castle hall were true and he felt a peace like he hadn't not for a long time.
Love is not an easy climb. But it's worth it.