Part Four: The Queen's Ride
The denizens of Arendelle all agreed the Queen's ride that day was a sight to be seen. It was about all that they could agree on. Accounts of witnesses varied greatly, some, one would suspect, embellishing quite wildly to make their version of events more interesting. For starters, people couldn't decide if the Queen was astride a great stag, a white stallion, or, according to some of the wilder reports, a unicorn made of ice. With the Queen's reputation for making things come to life out of snow, the last supposition was impossible to dismiss entirely. Whatever the nature of the mount, they all stated how beautiful it was.
It glittered, some said, it glowed said others. It ran across the light dusting of snow, its hooves cracking like ice with each step. The grace with which its legs bounded and strode had given many a child the impression that it had been flying. The speed with which it made its way through the icy streets of the town certainly added to that feeling.
As for the creature's rider, well...
Even before her coronation, Elsa of Arendelle had been greatly renowned for her beauty. As the young woman had grown in wisdom, her looks had matured also. The well-mannered, controlled appearance of the princess melted away in favour of the regal and powerful splendour of a Queen, made even more magical and entrancing by how, upon the reveal of her magical powers, she had foresworn the classical constraints expected of a monarch to shine like a diamond. Her ice gowns had sparked several new fashions and given lace and sequin makers throughout the kingdom a huge boost in commerce. There was no greater compliment for a tailor than to have the queen choose one of their creations over her own elaborate dresses, as she sometimes did, and the side-plait became a more commonly accepted alternative to a bun for long hair at formal events, many adorning such braids with flower or flake shaped accessories.
It was hard for her subjects to picture their Queen without the sophistication and sparkle they associated with her. When they saw her astride the magical mount, racing through the town, many did not recognize her. Instead they believed they had seen a goddess, an angel or a Valkyrie from the legends. Her hair loose, unsculpted and plain flew behind her in waves, catching the odd falling flake of snow with a twinkle. One hand held onto the deer, horse or unicorn's mane, as the other rested at her side, clad in an icy casing, as though it were an enchanted shield. It helped keep some of her dress from flapping out too wildly, for it was light and free. Simple and white, the gown matched her hair, which, along with her youthful face and bare feet, gave her the appearance of an otherworldly maiden. Her eyes seemed fixed upon the horizon, her cheeks flushed, a secretive smile on her lips and the odd laugh of pure pleasure certainly left an impression.
It was only when they noticed the glittering trail of frost she and her mount left behind that they could begin to suspect her true identity. It was when they heard the princess and her companion riding recklessly after her on the Ice Master's trusty reindeer that they could confirm.
As the sun began to colour the sky red and lilac from behind the clouds full of snow, people were drawn out of their homes and places of work to witness what they could of the ride, friends and family members dragging them into the cold weather excitedly. Talk of the Queen and her magical mount went on well into the night, fascinated bards and artists feverishly trying to capture the magic of the moment in their own special ways as songs were sung and dancing occurred. The vision had been surreal but joyful, giving the arrival of the winter season's long dark nights and miserably cold weather a sheen of hope and beauty that left no heart unmoved.
It didn't occur to any of the townsfolk to fret or worry that their Monarch had just ridden away from the castle, alone and dazed.
Gerda, on the other hand, was a mess of frayed nerves and anxiety. Her bonnet was off, being wrung between two gloved hands as she bit her lip and fought back tears. She hiccupped between attempts at vocalizing her fright, words running into each other in an incoherent jumble. Her friend and handmaiden colleague Johanna was at her side, confusion written across her features as she tried to figure out what had the rotund woman in such a state. The trail of frost down the staircase and hall nearby did give her a foreboding feeling, but it wasn't rare for Olaf the Snowman's snow cloud to leave a longer lasting trail on colder days. Gerda might be quite demanding with regards to the castle's cleanliness, but she highly doubted her superior would be in such a state over a magical snowman's mess after the variously more challenging disasters Princess Anna had thrown their way over the years.
Finally forcing her to slow down and take deep breaths, Johanna got the shorter lady to focus long enough to have a sip from a glass of water. The beverage had been conveniently near, having survived the fall its accompanying tray of food hadn't. Gerda had clearly been taking the small collation to the Queen's chambers when whatever it was had occurred.
"Now, Gerda," the old handmaiden said in as calm a voice as she could manage, "can you tell me what happened?" Her eyes never left the genteel woman's face, hands holding onto her shoulders.
"Her ma..." A hiccup followed by a pause as she wiped her eyes and thought her words through. "The Queen, she..." Gerda's eyes seemed to notice the tray and its scattered contents, sudden muttering and embarrassment distracting her from Johanna's query. With a heavy sigh and a roll of her eyes, the greying maiden gave the dark haired housekeeper a stern look as she shook her shoulders anew, clearing her throat expectantly.
"Oh." Gerda seemed to finally regain her composure, years of being an experienced and composed member of the royal staff reasserting themselves in her demeanour. "Right... Sorry. I... I think Queen Elsa just..." The housekeeper's dark eyes seemed to glaze over a moment. "I think she's sleep-riding."
"You what?" Johanna had never heard of anything called sleep-riding... Sleep-riding what? The Queen couldn't just sleepwalk her way to a mount in the middle of the castle... Could she? "Gerda, you're not making any sense!"
"No, Johanna, I mean it!" Getting to her feet at last, Gerda stood to energetically gesture up the stairs and down the hall, her hands indicating the large trail of frost. "One minute I'm taking her majesty's dinner up the stairs to her wing, the next she's there, astride a reindeer made of snow and ice, leaping down the staircase!" Her hand leaping to her heart, Gerda curled in on herself. "She gave me the fright of my life! And then when she didn't respond I..."
"Wouah, hold on Gerda, you..." But Gerda wasn't finished yet, cutting Johanna off she continued.
"It was like she was in a fever induced daze! She never responded to my cries, her eyes never focussed on me and her majesty just laughed as her mount galloped through the open doors to the courtyard. Oh Johanna, I'm so afraid! What if something happens to her?"
Seeing her superior start to panic again, Johanna rose in turn to make calming gestures.
"Breathe, Gerda, breathe!" Confusion still clouding the handmaiden's understanding of the situation, she couldn't help but ask once more. "Now what did her majesty do?"
"Queen Elsa," came the royal butler's booming voice, as he strode in from the courtyard, "is currently riding through Arendelle on a construct of snow, wearing but her nightwear."
Turning to see Kai, Johanna could see the balding man's cheeks were reddening as quickly as his ears at his own words. He didn't let this faze him though, continuing in his stride as an animated snowman hopped happily behind him.
"Her highness Princess Anna and the Ice Master Kristoff are currently following her for her safety."
There was an uneasy silence as he let his words sink in, the two women glancing fearfully at one another, uncertain what to think.
"Should we send the guards out too?" Johanna asked her voice thin and quiet with self doubt.
"Nah!" Olaf's cheerful voice piped out, the snowman waddling up to the tray to admire its fallen contents. "Elsa looked like she was having fun. I am sure Anna, Sven and Kristoff will too!"
The three servants merely glanced at each other before gazing down at the thick trail of frost the Queen had left behind.
"I'll go get her Majesty's physician to standby..." Gerda muttered. With a nod, Kai saw her out while stating his own intent to pay the stables a visit.
"It might not be worth alerting the guards too much, but I'll certainly make sure they're ready to set out if the royal family do not return soon."
Which left Johanna to clean up the mess; at least she had a cheerful snowman to help soothe her nerves.
It wasn't until she had reached the steep slopes leading out of Arendelle town that Elsa began to suspect something was amiss. As Neva the doe gracefully leapt and clicked through the woods, each stamp of her hoofed feet leaving a burst of frost, the blonde woman began to feel a slight discomfort in her recovering arm and in her hips. She was starting to experience the telltale signs of exertion and a niggling voice in her head was telling her that she remembered what was happening much further back than one was used to in a dream.
Gerda's startled face as she and Neva had leapt down the staircase had been astounding. Riding past Anna, Kristoff, Kai, Olaf and Sven all nicely lined up in the courtyard had been surreal. The ride through town, coloured by the sun setting through clouds of gently falling snow, had seemed as otherworldly as her previous dream segment, especially when people had just stopped to look as she raced by. The wind in her hair still felt exhilarating, the steady rhythm of Neva beneath her like a drum delivering the magical beat of some unheard symphony. She could feel the adrenaline pumping through her heart yet... As they slowed to navigate the harsh inclines, she could hear something else, her sister's voice.
Anna was calling her name.
If this was truly a dream, this would be the ideal moment for her to wake up, her sister gently shaking her, wanting to make sure she ate something before sleeping the rest of the night away.
Instead, as she peered over her shoulder, blond locks flying in the way, she could see her. Her twin braids were fluttering as she leaned dangerously forward upon Sven's back, Kristoff fighting hard to keep her atop of the reindeer. Big blue eyes showed concern, even from this distance.
That was when Elsa realised that she wasn't sleeping anymore.
The startling realisation of what she was doing, of how she had reached this position filled her with anxious fright. Her ride, sensing the queen's distress, put on an impressive burst of speed. It wasn't long before Anna's cries were lost to the wind, Elsa's heartbeat thundering through her ears.
As the snowfall intensified and Neva cleared the forest to leap confidently across a chasm, the blonde was completely transfixed by the one question that kept repeating itself in her head.
What should she do? What should she do?!
"Argh... Elsaah!" A cough and a splutter, Princess Anna had successfully shouted herself hoarse. Muttering to her companion, she grabbed on tightly to Kristoff's arm as she retreated back to the sheltering warmth of his embrace. "Curses. Why won't she just stop?"
"I think she just set a new record for highest speed reached on land..." The Ice Master's voice, though full of reverence and awe wasn't helping the redhead's mood. A small thump demonstrated this forcefully. "Ow!"
"Sorry, I just... Agh!" The princess had just lost sight of her sister. A familiar irritation, one born of frustration from being related to someone as stubborn and eccentric as Elsa that she felt many a time through years both with and without a door to separate them, was wrestling painfully with her heart. "She's got to be doing this on purpose to get to me. Elsa!"
"You know, she doesn't strike me as one to deliberately ride about in her nightwear..." Kristoff quipped as Sven expertly dodged between the trees, the arboreal cover making it still somewhat possible to follow Elsa by the frost trail she was leaving behind her as the snow thickened, "even if it were in the name of getting a certain feisty pant's attentions."
Instead of the aggravated "Hey!" he'd been expecting Anna remained frighteningly quiet as they rode up past some rocks. Sven was huffing loudly now. Elsa's reindeer of snow was most certainly enduring if it could outrun Sven, even taking into account his heavier load.
"Hey, come on Anna," he nudged his girlfriend gently as he wrestled with Sven to slow down. His reindeer friend needed a chance to catch his breath and as the trees were beginning to clear, Kristoff was having trouble finding the trail. "I'm sure she'll be okay. Elsa's probably just confused as a result of fever... I should know."
At the sharp inquisitive glance her teal coloured eyes gave him, he put on a brave, if sad smile.
"I'll tell you later." He offered in place of an explanation. "For now let's concentrate on finding Elsa."
"Yes." A small squeeze on his shoulder, Anna nodded her thanks, her voice cracking as she said the same. "Thank you Kristoff."
As she helped him spot the smallest of hints as to Elsa's path, Kristoff's mind couldn't help but revisit a memory coloured by fever. He always hated being ill, and he suspected that this, one of his earliest memories, was one of the reasons why, even though... Feeling the warmth of the reindeer underneath him, and the taut muscles bobbing him up and down on the comfortable back of fur as he navigated his head between Sven's majestic antlers, he remembered the good part. As a very young boy, Kristoff, full of fever, had left what must have been his equally ill parents on the whim of a dream. Disorientated and confused, he'd wondered into the woods only to collapse next to a very young reindeer. When he had awoken, a piece of ice inexplicably melting between his lips as the small reindeer rummaged in his backpack, his warm back snug against his side, the worst of the fever seemed to have passed. Sven and he had shared their first carrot then and there, before Kristoff had guided his newfound friend back to his house, only to find...
No, he'd leave that bit out. Maybe he could turn the tale into a heart warming song of friendship for Anna to enjoy?
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Anna's loud exclamation brought the ice harvester out of his reverie. Sven was now pacing the edge of a chasm, a rising blizzard making it hard to see the other side, let alone a moving speck of white upon a white background. Yet, for a split second, he too spotted it, as Anna had. Icy blue antlers and champagne white hair disappearing in the distance. "Elsaaa!"
"Shh!" Putting his hand swiftly to Anna's mouth, he chastised her gently. "The snow up there's thick enough to risk an avalanche! No shouting..."
The princess seemed torn between terror and exasperation. Thankfully, exasperation won out.
"Where on earth do you think she's headed? Surely she should have thought to turn back by now!"
"I honestly have no... i...dea..." As the words spilled from his mouth, Kristoff's brown eyes turned in slightly fearful realisation to Anna's equally wide ones.
"It couldn't be, could it?"
"It's... It's certainly in that direction." He answered hesitantly.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"It's worth a shot, isn't it?" He hated when Anna scowled her eyebrows at him in that expectant manner. Even if she hadn't been born royalty, it was always going to be guaranteed to make him acquiesce to her every whim.
"Fine!" He replied tartly. "To the north mountain it is: that way, Sven!"
As they turned to ascend the cold wintry heights of the mountain that towered highest above Arendelle, Kristoff sorely wished he hadn't left his mittens in the sled.
The ride was most certainly taking its toll now, as Elsa fought to keep heavy lids open and struggled to keep burning cheeks cool. Neva had slowed her pace considerably now, the ups and downs of her strides no longer jarring her rider's tired muscles. An exhausted laugh made its way out of the Queen's lips as she saw where the reindeer had taken her.
It was a reassuring sight, really, even if by the looks of it her ice palace could do with some repairs. Dozily, she slipped off of Neva's back onto the snow by the footbridge. She didn't let go of the reindeer's snowy neck though, not trusting herself to stand without her icy creation's support. Part of her wished she was back at the castle, where she wouldn't be alone to deal with the fallout of her fever. The more rational part of her, the one that had been surprisingly slow in realising what she had been doing, was glad that she didn't have to explain in highly embarrassed tones why she'd left without even a cloak to cover her nightdress. She didn't feel the cold, but wearing nothing but a thin cotton gown certainly left her feeling vulnerable.
Suddenly noticing that the door to the palace was swinging open, Elsa braced herself apprehension at what kind of person might have found lodging in her palace in her absence coursing through her already tired veins.
As a big hulking silhouette became visible, the blonde woman felt her fears melt away in recognition.
"Marshmallow..." She whispered, Olaf's nickname for his sibling of snow an appropriate appellation for the brute. Despite appearances, Elsa knew that the protector she had summoned for her palace would have a heart of gold easily hurt. It stung Elsa to see that her snow monster was limping with what looked like practiced ease. Oh, why hadn't she returned to the palace since her coronation?
"Mama...?" The golem paused at the top step, before hopping down the bridge to her side, its icy spikes retracting till Marshmallow had the fluffy soft appearance it had been created with. There was a happy note in its voice as it neared her side. "Mama!"
Seeing the palace's protector step up to the Queens side, Neva the reindeer seemed to take this as her prompt to leave. Confusion twisted Elsa's brow as the snow deer once more licked her face, before trotting around her in a circle. By the time Neva had completed the circuit, she was gone, her snowy form having merged into the snow on the ground. Her head dizzy and balance uncertain as she lost her support, Elsa fell to her knees. There was only one thing certain in her mind as she felt Marshmallow's big arms encircle her. That wasn't the last she would see of Neva.
A small smile on her face as she gave in to her body's demands for rest, Elsa trusted in Marshmallow to carry her to safety. For now, she needed sleep.
To be concluded...
Author's note: The next and final part will be posted next Monday!