Part 2 - Walking Through Walls

The next morning Anna dragged Kristoff along as she began the project.

Kristoff just scratched his head after she explained what she was doing.

"She put you in charge of what?" He had only known Anna for a few weeks, but he was already familiar with the feeling of trying to keep up with a whirlwind.

This time, they were standing outside a broken down castle wall while Anna kept looking at it, going inside the room, and coming back out.

"Fixing this castle wall." Anna explained patiently.

"Okay, Feisty Pants. I got that the first time. But why? I didn't realize you had ambitions to become an engineer." They had left Sven in his stable, and Olaf had disappeared somewhere as he did occasionally. He could be in town or off glacier hunting for all they knew.

"I don't. But I don't want Elsa to ever look at this wall and remember what happened again." Anna had told the tale to Kristoff, leaving out some personal details. He was as horrified as Anna had been.

In the immediate aftermath of the Great Thaw, Kristoff had been wary of Elsa, even a little afraid of her. Since then, Anna shared stories of their growing up, and he had been with them on a visit to the Trolls when Anna discovered there was information she didn't know about Elsa. He became rather more understanding of everything that the two sisters had been through over the course of their young lives, and his feelings about Elsa had mellowed.

That was probably a good thing, since being scared iceless of your friend's big sister was not conducive to any ... different feelings that might grow between ... friends. Kristoff wasn't sure if it was true love yet, but he was convinced that his feelings for Anna would become more than just friendship.

Anna keep skipping around, looking at the wall from different angles, clearly frustrated. "Any ideas?" she turned to Kristoff.

"Ideas about what?" He shook himself out of his daydream about having the scary Ice Queen as his sister-in-law and focused his attention back on Anna.

"What to do with this abomination!" Anna snapped back. "Help me out here!"

Anna had already decided to seal up the room from the inside and had the workman start on that. From inside the castle, no one would ever realize that there had been a room there. Good riddance was her attitude. The only thing that would have made her happier would have been if she could have sealed Hans inside, but he was long gone back to the Southern Isles. More good riddance.

Kristoff looked around for somewhere to sit, but there weren't any convenient rocks or boulders nearby. He finally sat on the broken wall of the castle. "Hmm...you know, she'll never be able to forget what happened. Maybe the thing to do is put something here that will remind her of happier memories."

Anna stopped and looked at Kristoff. "That's actually a great idea!" She got the look on her face that Kristoff identified as 'Princess thinking hard - BEWARE!' Every time he had seen that look, it had led to ... interesting experiences.

"Let's go!" Anna started running back toward the castle gate. Kristoff got up to follow, thinking that it would have been shorter to cut through the dungeon, if Anna hadn't had the masons brick up the door.

"Your Highness, the Crown of Arendelle already has a coat of arms!"

The Royal Herald was one of the most pretentious and condescending members of Elsa's staff. Anna hadn't dealt with him before and if she never had to deal with him again it would be too soon.

"I know that. I am not suggesting that I want to replace the official coat of arms. I just want something ... more personal. Something symbolic that has special meaning for just me and my sister. I think you know her, she's the Queen?" Anna was trying to control her sarcasm, but not succeeding notably well.

If she thought an appeal to higher authority would influence the Royal Herald, she was disappointed. All this declaration got her was a sniff and a harrumph from the man. She tried again.

"Look, here's a sketch I made up." and she unrolled a drawing on the Herald's drafting board.

It wasn't much to look at; Anna wasn't an artist, and she didn't even play one on the stage. The Herald gave it a cursory glance, and sniffed again. "Those colors clash horribly, you are using two different metals, Your Highness, and really, a snowman? A snowman isn't even real, and you expect to put it on a royal coat of arms?" His disdain was clear.

Anna spoke through clenched teeth. "A unicorn isn't real, either, and I've seen THOSE on a coat of arms!" Damn the man's snobbishness.

The Royal Herald simply said to her, a note of dismissal in his voice, "My office is not here to take the scribbles of an ... amateur and make them over into a coat of arms. I'm sorry, Your Highness, but I must respectfully decline to take part in this endeavor."

Anna was furious. She rolled up the scroll and stomped out of his office. Kristoff was waiting in the hallway. She didn't even slow down, but kept stalking toward the door to the castle courtyard. He knew that look on Anna's face and it meant she wouldn't slow down until she had walked off her mad. Probably about the time she got to Sweden, from the looks of it. Sighing, he strode briskly to catch up to her.

"I'm guessing he wasn't interested in helping you out, huh?" Kristoff asked her.

"That conceited, specious, vainglorious, pompous, puffed up, overblown, supercilious, narcissistic ..." she went on in that vein for longer than Kristoff would have believed possible. Her vocabulary impressed him. He hadn't realized there were that many words that meant 'stuck up and in love with yourself'.

"... overbearing, egotistical, pompous ASS!" she finally finished. Kristoff noted only one repetition in the string of descriptions of the Royal Herald. Impressive. Very impressive.

They were walking at a brisk pace through the courtyard, heading for the gate into town. Anna showed no signs of slowing down yet. It was a good thing Kristoff had longer legs, or he's be running to keep up with her.

"Where are we going?" Kristoff was wondering out loud, hoping Anna wasn't too mad to block him out.

"There's a shop in town where I can get help from someone who's not too proud to work with an 'amateur'!" Anna fumed, and kept going toward the marketplace.

"Ta-DA!" Anna unveiled the shield propped up on an easel. Kristoff looked it over carefully.

"Okay, what am I looking at here?" he asked. He was an ice harvester, not an expert in heraldry. He did recognize Olaf. Scratching his head, he said "It looks like a picture of Olaf on a blue shield, surrounded by those little flowers and snowflakes."

"Azure, a snowman rampant between four crocuses or and as many mullets of six points argent, in annulo," Anna said proudly.

"Mullets? Like fish?" Kristoff

"Mullets like stars," Anna clarified. "But you can draw them any way you like, so they're actually snowflakes. Elsa's snowflakes!"

Kristoff knew about the special snowflakes. Everything Elsa created with her magic included a unique snowflake design. Her Ice Palace had them embedded in the walls, ceilings, and floors. When she thawed the kingdom, all the snow and ice had formed a giant one in the sky before she magically dissipated it. He had one on his Royal Ice Master and Deliverer amulet.

He had another question. "What's written on that green ribbon underneath? I don't recognize the language."

"It's Latin, Kristoff. It says 'tabuerit dilectio', which means 'Love will thaw'!" Anna explained. She clapped her hands and skipped a little. "Do you think Elsa will like it?" She turned to him anxiously.

Kristoff looked at Anna affectionately. She had gotten help and advice from the artisan who owned the shop, but had done most of the work painting the shield herself. This was going to be a very personal gift from her to Elsa.

He thought he understood why she had included everything that was on the shield, but to be sure, he said, "Could you explain it all to me? Ice harvesters don't usually have coats of arms."

It was the right thing to say. Anna grabbed his hand to drag him closer to the easel. She was grinning and bouncing with enthusiasm.

"Okay, well, the background is blue, a color that stands for truth and loyalty. Loyalty that Elsa showed to her kingdom and her responsibilities as Queen. Also, blue, Snow Queen, you know! The crocuses represent Arendelle, and they're yellow; yellow means generosity, or giving. Elsa is nothing if not the most giving person I know."

"I'm guessing the snowflakes stand for Elsa and her magic?" Kristoff asked.

"Yes! And they're white, like Olaf. White represents peace and innocence. She could use a little peace after all the excitement we've had. The image of Olaf is to remind her of the innocence of the love we'd shared since we were little kids, which I'm pretty sure was on her mind when she created him. So, when she looks at this, she won't think of that awful dungeon. She'll remember all the good things we've shared, instead!"

"Lastly, the green on the banner represents hope, joy and loyalty in love. The hope and joy are obvious, right? And the loyalty in love would be, well ... " Anna was a little embarrassed, Kristoff could tell, so he finished her sentence for her.

"That would be the act of true love that saved you both. And all the rest of us, too." Kristoff squeezed her hand. "I think she's going to be really happy with this, Feisty Pants."

Elsa walked gingerly down the path to the fjord. Gingerly because she was blindfolded. She had Kristoff holding her arm on one side and Anna on the other, so she was in no immediate danger of falling or tripping. Anna had learned her lesson when she ran Kristoff into a pole the day she showed him his new sled, so they were walking rather more carefully this time.

"Are we almost there, Anna?" Elsa wasn't really worried, well, maybe just a little. She trusted her sister not to intentionally dump her into a mud puddle or the fjord, but Anna's good intentions could be undermined by her exuberant clumsiness. Elsa gripped Kristoff's arm a bit tighter.

"Just a little farther. Don't worry, Elsa! I'm not going to drop you in a mud puddle!" Sometimes Anna could be positively telepathic with her sister.

They finally reached the spot where Elsa's surprise waited. Positioning her carefully to face the now-repaired castle wall, Anna reached up and took off the blindfold so her sister could see what now hung there.

It took Elsa only a moment to understand what she was looking at. Unlike Kristoff, she HAD been tutored in the language of heraldry, and immediately interpreted what the colors and symbols on the shield were saying to her. It touched her, deeply, and she turned to embrace Anna in one of the warmest hugs she was capable of.

"Oh, Anna! It's perfect!" Elsa's voice was a little ragged, she was fighting back happy tears.

"And that's not all! Look around!" Anna replied, a little teary herself.

Elsa looked around the immediate area and saw that the ground had been cleared and smoothed out to create a space large enough for people to walk and perhaps picnic. There were several benches set near the castle wall, so someone might sit and enjoy the view over the fjord. The path down from the gate now extended all the way around the tower.

"Anna, you did a wonderful job!" Elsa was so proud of her sister. "We'll definitely be taking walks and having picnics here from now on!"

"Did I hear someone say picnic!" Olaf came bounding up, a red and white checked tablecloth flapping behind him like a cape, carrying a picnic basket. Sven followed close behind the little snowman. They had been firmly instructed to wait until Anna had shown the newly decorated wall to Elsa before joining the group. For once, they had actually paid attention.

The inaugural picnic had been an overwhelming success. It had been a long time since Kristoff had enjoyed an outing so much. Must be the company. He glanced over to where the two sisters were giggling over some story involving nannies and frozen tea.

"And then the look on her face when you started complaining about your underwear..." Elsa could hardly get the words out through her snickering. Anna was literally rolling on the ground, laughing. The two women finally caught their breath and settled down to an occasional chuckle, Anna laying with her head in Elsa's lap.

Elsa took her sister's hand and looked up at the coat of arms hanging on the castle wall.

"Anna, that's the best gift anyone has ever given me. But I can't leave it there."

"Why not?" Anna was worried Elsa thought it wasn't appropriate or something.

"Because I'm moving it to my room. It's too precious to leave out here in the weather. I want it where it's the last thing I see before I fall asleep and the first thing I see when I wake up." Elsa looked at her sister. "So I'll always remember the love of my baby sister, the love that saved us all." Tears glistened in her eyes. Anna sniffled a little, too.

"But don't worry! I'm sure the Royal Herald will be more than happy to make a duplicate for me that we can hang out here on the wall!" Elsa assured her sister.

Kristoff looked at Anna; Anna looked at Kristoff. Elsa just looked puzzled when they both burst into guffaws.

Author Notes for "Walking Through Walls"

I owe a big "Thank You!" to stillslightlynerdy for three reasons:

1) I had written myself (literally) into a blank wall. The same one Anna was staring at, wondering what to do. ssnerdy made a brilliant suggestion, which I had Kristoff offer to Anna, on how to get out of the muddle.

So, while mulling the exact way to do that, the phrase "azure, a rampant snowman, argent" popped into my brain. Probably because I was reading a novel that involved SCA people taking over the world. Which led to the idea of:

2) Anna designing a coat of arms as a gift to Elsa. Based on that phrase above, plus an incredibly craptastic ASCII art representation of what I thought it should look like, ssnerdy whipped out the actual picture of the coat of arms, which I have used as the book cover picture for the story. There's also a link to a better copy of the shield in my profile.

3) Finally, since we want to be sure to do this right, ssnerdy also translated that wonderful picture into the correct phrasing in the language of heraldry, blazon, which I included in the story.

So, thank you, thank you, thank you!

And if you haven't read any of the stories written by stillslightlynerdy, you should do so. They are great.