Chapter 4: The Strawberry Farm
"Oof!" I gasp as I stumble forward, unbalanced by whatever hit me in the back. I turn around and scowl as I see Aidan casually shaping a second snowball in his gloved hands. He smirks and I give him one of my iciest glares, while gently padding the snow of my mother's deep-blue cloak.
"Must you really be such a nuisance?" I snap coldly.
"Of course. Someone has to keep everyone on their toes." Aidan throws the snowball in his hands towards Sven, who happily catches it with his mouth. Aidan then makes his way back to my side, while I stubbornly continue to walk.
"You'd make this journey a whole lot easier if you cut the crap, Aidan. It's really very annoying."
Aidan relinquishes the smirk and turns his gaze relatively serious. "It's better than walking in constant silence. You are too caught up in your guilt to say much. Kristoff is feeling as if he came short concerning Anna and is constantly thinking of new ways he could have saved her. Sven is a reindeer and even Olaf does not contain enough happiness in that tiny body of his to keep our spirits high."
I know he is right. I make a terrible travel companion. I am grumpy and withdrawn, and lead the group astray as many times as I lead them the right way.
"Don't you want to throw some snow back, my Queen? Or have you forgotten what fun is?" Aidan taunts. I have no desire to pause our journey to play like pups, but if it will get that smirk of Aidan's face, maybe it is worth it. Without thinking, I form a snowball about two feet in width above my head and launch it at Aidan. His smirk disappears as the sphere hits him in the chest and takes him down to the ground.
I stride over to him and crouch near the pile of snow that's got a few limbs sticking out from underneath. I smile sweetly as Aidan's head appears from underneath the snow. "Was that enough for you, Master Aidan of the Ashen Mountains?"
Aidan shakes his head free from the snow and gives me a slightly embarrassed smirk. He works his way from the heap of snow and brushes the residues of the white snow off his clothes. I gulp slightly when I see him straighten his red cloak, which once belonged to my father.
Kristoff has walked further ahead and is waving to us. Hidden in the snowy landscape lies a farm, covered in snow. My breath halts for a moment in my throat and Aidan hears it. He gently lays his hand on my shoulder.
"You know this place?"
"I came here a long time ago." I mutter softly, then start to thread my way through the snow.
As I come closer to the farm, the state of the building becomes clear. The roof has collapsed and the windows and doors are completely gone or are hanging by a single hinge. Snow covers both the cracked wooden floor and the residues of what was once a large farm. Fences mark where once were large meadows and the remains of a well are situated right next to what once was the main house.
Kristoff has made his way inside the building and is rummaging through the rubble. When I join him inside, he looks at me with a sad glint in his eyes. "I knew the owners.." he mutters softly. "I didn't know.. I didn't know that something jad happened here."
I sadly glance around the inside of the farm. The fireplace is now simply a pile of stones. There is wood everywhere, but most of it is charred and falling to pieces. "I knew them too." I reply softly.
"Mother and father would take me and Anna here sometimes. They used to grow strawberries here." I fall silent.
Mother always had to have fresh strawberries for dessert. She would take me and Anna there, and let us pick the biggest and reddest strawberries we could find. Those strawberries with whipped cream and icecream, it was the best taste beside chocolate of my childhood.
"Looks like there was a fire.. Let's hope the owners got out in time," Kristoff says softly, his hand running down the stone, black wall.
I do another round of the inside of the farm when I walk into Aidan. His jaw is tense and his eyes are flitting along the charred walls and ashes. His fists are clenched tightly and his whole body is tense and rigid. When he finally spots me, he does the best he can to relax his stance, but his muscles remain tense.
"Aidan? Are you alright?" I ask him, eyeing him up and down for injury or any other cause of his tension.
"I'm fine. I.. I just need some air." With a whirl of his red cloak, he is gone from the building, leaving me and Kristoff to wander the ruins of the farm alone.
Somewhere in the distance I can hear Olaf singing happily as he holds onto Sven's antlers. Sven is running happily through the heaps of snow, dodging and whirling, trying to throw the snowman off in a fun little game.
"It seems so long ago.." I mutter more to myself than to anyone in particular. "I remember one time my mother and father brought us here, and it was Anna's first time here. She used to be skittish, even shy when it came to strange places and strangers. But when we came here, Hilda and Oswald just wrapped her around their fingers.. They were her new favourite people from the start. They were so kind.."
A soft, gentle clapping of hands comes to my ears and I turn around, expecting to find Aidan ready to snicker at my story, but my breath once again has trouble escaping my throat.
"Such a moving, cute little story. Unfortunately for you, I have changed a lot since that moment," Anna snickers and appears from behind the old chimney. She is wearing her hair loose and a slim crown made of ice graces her now white hair. A long black cloak is wrapped around her shoulders and underneath she's wearing a midnight blue dress. A sneer is plastered to her face and her eyes stand so, so cold.
I want to run to her, cup her face in between my hands and hug her close. But that cold glare has me rooted to the ground, locked into place as I watch her slowly come closer and closer. I gaze sideways and see that Kristoff is locked in a similar trans, but he shakes his head and seems to snap out of it.
"Anna! Anna, please! You have to listen to me!" he pleads, his arms half-outstretched to her.
A growl appears on Anna's face and she points her hand to the ground below Kristoff's feet, turning it to sleek ice. With the next step, Kristoff slips and falls backwards onto the ground. When he is lying on the ground, she sweeps with her arm and his limbs are locked in an icy embrace.
She turns her gaze back to me and shakes her head ever so slightly. "You should have stayed in Arendelle, sister. I was lenient in Arendelle, because of our shared blood. But not anymore. I told you not to follow me, and yet.." She snickers loudly. "So, so stubborn. You were just as stubborn whenever I knocked on your door."
She motions to herself and her grimace grows. "I thought that I could be more stubborn than you. I thought I could bear the isolation until you would come back to me. So I kept on knocking. Every day, Elsa! Every day!" Her voice grows higher and higher, more hysterical with every word she utters.
"I KEPT ON KNOCKING, KNOCKING AND KNOCKING. But there was no answer. There NEVER was an answer!" She's screaming at me now, and her hair is flailing around her face as she shakes in pure anger.
"Anna, you don't understand.. I'm.. I'm sorry.." I mutter so softly, but my voice creaks and breaks.
She ignores me and icy winds begin to whip through the broken farm. Snow starts to blow through the gaping hole in the roof and blows my cloak around us.
Anna is now close enough to touch, but my arms feel so, so heavy. Anna snickers again and lets her hand gently touch my blue cloak. "This was mom's.." she mutters softly. "You don't deserve it."
I stumble backwards and hit a charred wall with my back. Anna follows me with a stealth and elegance that her frozen heart seems to have provided her with, as well as that cold, icy glare.
"You should have never followed me, sister. You finally could have been rid of me. You could have Arendelle to yourself. You could have rid yourself of annoying, clingy, little Anna. You could have been rid of ME," she yells in my face and whips herself around. Her fists are clenched at her sides and are shaking with anger.
I just hold my head with my hands and try not to shake, try to stop the shivering. But this violent, screaming creature cannot be my sister. She cannot have changed so much. And yet she did. And it's all my fault.
Anna has gone to hover close to Kristoff again. She is trailing her fingers across his cheek and a small smile plays across her lips. "Oh Kristoff. Sweet, strong Kristoff. Loving me enough to race back to Arendelle to save me.. I think I might bring you with me to the Southern Isles. You can reach high places for me, rub my back now and then. What a good pet you will make."
"No Anna, please! You can't take him with you!" I manage to cry out in my worry. Kristoff has grown on me for the duration of our short journey together, and he is dear to.. old Anna. If anything happens to him.. I'll have to add it to my list of things that are my fault.
"Don't worry, sister. Worry about yourself. You won't be so lucky." Anna's voice is even colder than it was back on the fjord.
Hans appears from behind the old chimney with that stupid grin on his face. "You should return to your little kingdom, Elsa, while you still have something."
I grit my teeth and anger blazes through me. My hand curls up into a fist and a sharp icicle form in it. With a sharp intake of air I throw it at him, but he steps out of the way quickly. The icicle grazes his perfect little cheek, though, and to my satisfaction I see a small trickle of blood appear from the thin wound.
"You bitch.." he snaps and throws himself at me, but Anna barks an order at him and he stops immediately, breathing heavily.
"Stop, Hans. She's mine to destroy, not yours." Anna presses her hand to Kristoff's forehead and tilts her head as she watches him. He begins to shiver violently, and after only seconds his face turns pale and his lips turn blue. His eyelids flutter and close and his head hangs limply against his chest.
"Anna.. Anna what did you do?!" I yell out at her.
"Don't worry, he just lost consciousness for a little bit. If you lower someone's temperature far enough, it's remarkable how the body reacts. It just shuts down, except for the vital organs. Fascinating, and very useful in moving someone that might be unwilling." Anna looks absent-mindedly at Kristoff's face. She raises her hand and drags a nail down his cheek, leaving a thin wound that lets a single drop of blood roll down his cheek.
"Don't hurt him.. Anna.. please.." I manage to utter and I stumble to my feet, wobbling my way to her. "You're not this person, Anna.. you would never hurt him.."
Anna straightens from her crouch and nods to Hans, who grabs Kristoff's arm, wraps him around his shoulder and lifts him up with a loud grunt. He begins to wobble out of the broken farm, stumbling under Kristoff's weight. I watch him go and try to force my limbs to do anything, but my mind is blank, except for the guilt that keeps chipping away at my soul.
"I think I'll leave you here, sister." Anna is face to face with me again. "I gave you a chance to keep your life, but you decided to give up that chance by following me."
She starts to walk up and down in front of me, glaring at me now and then. "I begged you for so long to open that door, Elsa, but you never did. You never did. You might have frozen my heart, but yours has been frozen from the day you shut that door."
"That's not true.. Anna.. we used to be so close.."
"We used to, yes. But you shut me out. Well, now I will shut you out, forever." A wicked grin appears on Anna's face. "I should leave you here, encased in ice, forever. An eternity of loneliness should suffice to bring you some idea of the loneliness I suffered. Perhaps, I will free you some day. Perhaps."
She reaches out her hand to my forehead and I flinch back, but I can't back up much further as my back hits the old chimney. She smiles at me and takes a step back. "You're right. I do not have to be gentle with you. You don't deserve gentleness." She now stands about 10 feet away from me, her hand outstretched, and an icy globe forming in front of her hand.
"Farewell, sister. May you stay frozen forever," Anna mutters solemnly and releases the globe of snow and it grows, enveloping me and the chimney. I throw my hands up in front of my face and flinch back, my back hitting the chimney behind me. Immediately I can feel my arms grow heavier and colder. My limbs are getting harder to move and my vision blurs and fades to black and back again. Icy swirls crawl across my skin as my fingers turn an icy blue.
I close my eyes and ready myself to be frozen in this desolated strawberry farm. Forever.
A.N. Oh snappedoodles! Ain't that a lovely cliffhanger? Please let me know what you think!