It's Alive! Kill it With Fire!

"Whoa …" Anna said, looking over the edge of the cliff.

" 'Whoa' is right," I said, wiping some sweat from my forehead. "Chased down and nearly eaten by wolves … I'm never telling my parents about this." I felt something hard hit my shoulder. "Ow!" I looked and saw Maximus with one of his front hooves raised. He was glaring at me lightly. "Okay, okay, 'nearly eaten by wolves' isn't giving you enough credit. You did great, buddy. Thanks for saving my life." I threw him one of the apples from my bag. I looked into it and frowned. "There's only a few left. We'll have to conserve them from now on."

He didn't look particularly happy at the thought of that.

Kristoff was still lying in the snow, groaning.

"I'll replace your sled," said Anna, "and … everything in it. And … I understand if you don't wanna help us any more." She moved away, looking down at her feet.

I planned on following, but there was something I wanted to say to Kristoff first.

"Try not to blame her. Or both of us, if that's the mindset you've taken," I said. He looked up at me. His eyes were basically slits. "You were going up the North Mountain anyway, right? Yeah, okay, you might have been planning on going in the morning, but you'd still have passed through those wolves' territory. About all our presence did was make it so that more people were there." I looked up to see that Anna hadn't gotten far. "Well, I'm gonna go with her. Bye, Kristoff. Sven."

I started to walk off. Maximus walked beside me, looking rather exhausted from the ordeal.

"Hold up!" came Kristoff's voice. He sounded very much like a man who thought he'd regret his next statement. "We're coming!"

That brought a smile to my face.

"You are!?" Anna exclaimed in joy. "I mean, sure, I'll let you tag along," she said in a more confident, casual tone.

I laughed and shook my head at her. Never change, Anna. Never change.

I waited for Kristoff to catch up before I started walking again. Sven had no trouble just bounding on past. When Kristoff reached where I was, I started walking in pace with him.

"So, Kristoff, I've been wondering about something," I said to him. "Why is it that you were heading up the North Mountain? You don't have some kind of hero complex, do you? No offence or anything, but you don't seem like the type for that."

"None taken," he said. Then he sighed. "Well, basically, this whole eternal winter thing is really screwing up my work."

"Oh? What do you do?"

"I sell ice for a living."

"Ah … I can see how this might make things problematic for you …"

"Yeah, no kidding. Kinda hard to sell something when it's absolutely everywhere twenty-four seven." He looked at me, grinning slightly. "Why are you doing this? I still stand by my theory, but I'd like to hear how you put it."

"Well, I grew up with them, didn't I?" I said, huffing. "I think we've already covered this. My parents were servants at the castle – still are, as a matter of fact – and I was raised there, so I spent a lot of time with the only other people around who were my age: the two princesses. I care about both of them, and I don't want to see either one hurt. Isn't that enough of a reason?"

"Normally it would be. But see, with the way you are around Anna, I don't have any trouble believing you're just friends. That look in your eye when it comes to talking about the Queen, though … It's small, but it's there. There's no point hiding it, not from me. I grew up with people who practically make it their job to notice that kind of thing."

"You're not diving into that again, are you?" Anna asked as we fully caught up with her. "Simon is not in love with my sister … are you?" She turned to face me.

"N-No …" I said, cursing myself for stuttering. That even sounded like lying to my own ears.

Anna fixed me with a scrutinising gaze for a moment, but then simply turned to look ahead. Maybe she believed me, maybe she felt there were more important things to think about, I still don't know. But it wasn't the last time this topic of conversation came up.

I saw Maximus come up next to me from the corner of my eye, and turned to face him. He wiggled his eyebrows at me suggestively. I blushed and brought up a hand to push his face away. He gave of another laugh-like whinny and trotted ahead slightly to walk with Sven. They seemed to be getting along.

The journey from then on was made in mostly silence. It started to take a lot of effort to walk, because the journey was now taking us up, and that meant we had to walk up slopes that were covered in snow. Walking quickly was no easy feat, and it wasn't one we managed to accomplish. I also noted that the higher we got the colder it got. I severely regretted not bringing a coat or a cloak or something to wear over my blue suit, which was now looking tattered and creased, and there was even a rip in one of the sleeves, most likely from the jump over the gap.

Mum'll throw a fit when she sees me like this, I thought, shuddering at the mental image that came to mind.

On one of the very few breaks from the constant steepness we got, Anna turned to look around and released a gasp that drew all our attentions to what she was looking at. From where we were, I could see Arendelle … and it wasn't looking good. The water of the fjord and as far as I could see was ice, and the city itself was so coated with snow I could barely see anything but the pure white of it. I suddenly had images of Mum and Dad shivering, their breath coming out frozen, and I tried my best to think about something else.

Maximus was next to me. His ears had drooped, there was a look of sadness about him, and he scraped one hoof tentatively across the floor.

"Worried about Eugene, Rapunzel, and Pascal?" I asked. He nodded. I put on a smile that was half fake. "Don't worry, I'm sure they're …"

I couldn't quite finish the sentence, because a dreadful thought occurred to me. Eugene and Rapunzel may well have been all right, but Pascal … Pascal was a chameleon, a lizard, a reptile, and reptiles are cold-blooded. They need a certain amount of heat in order to survive, and I sincerely doubted Pascal would be getting that heat in those weather conditions. If we didn't end this soon, then …"

I gulped. "… fine," I finished. I smiled as reassuringly as I could at him. "They'll be fine."

He nodded at me, either in gratitude or in an attempt to reassure himself.

"It's completely frozen …" said Kristoff.

Roll credits, I thought I heard somebody say.

"But it'll be fine," said Anna. "Elsa will thaw it."

"Will she?" asked Kristoff, doubtfully.

"Yes, she damn well will," I said, glaring at him. Something about the implications of what he said really annoyed me. "She didn't do this on purpose. She's not like that."

"It's okay, Simon, just calm down," Anna soothed me. She turned to Kristoff and pointed her hand in the rough direction of north. "This way to the North Mountain?"

Kristoff chuckled. "More like this way." He grasped Anna's arm and lifted it until she was pointing upwards. I followed the direction with my eyes, and the North Mountain was truly enormous. I didn't blame Anna for gasping in her surprise; I thought I was going to do that, too. The peak of the mountain seemed to rise above even the clouds, though that may have simply been the mist created by the cold weather.

Walking in the direction of the mountain took us through yet another patch of trees, but this particular patch was rather a lot different than the others we had been through on our journey. There were icicles hanging off the trees, hanging so far that some of them actually touched the ground. They were like a series of small, translucent pillars holding up the trees all around us. Some of them didn't even end in points, but in drops that looked rather a lot like rainfall. The sight of it stole my breath away. The light shining through the icicles and hitting the snow beneath our feet was a truly beautiful spectacle.

Kristoff pushed a hand through the drop-like ones as we walked, and they clanked together, making a sound eerily reminiscent of wind chimes. Sven walked through a bunch of them, clearly having a blast. Maximus eyed one of the icicles suspiciously, then gave it a lick. He seemed satisfied enough. I simply settled with admiring the spectacle as I walked.

"I never knew winter could be so … beautiful," said Anna.

"Yeah, it really is beautiful, isn't it? But it's so white."

The slower pace at which we now walked told me that we all shared the same feelings of caution and curiosity.

"You know, how about a little colour? I'm thinking, like, maybe some crimson, chartreuse …"

We pushed our way through some of the drop-like icicles. The voice sounded like it was awfully close now.

"… or how about yellow? No, not yellow. Yellow and snow? Brrr … no go."

It occurred to me from the volume and closeness of his voice that he was now right next to us, so I looked to the side. There, between Anna and Kristoff, stood … a snowman. It was short, about waist-height on me, and he had three black buttons running up his body, two sticks for arms, and what I could only assume were sticks for hair. His eyes looked like human eyes, which unsettled the hell out of me. He also had two buck teeth at the top-centre of his mouth.

"Am I right?" he asked.

Anna, with the most undignified scream I had ever heard, then proceeded to kick his head off.

The head landed in Kristoff's hands, looked at him, and said, "Hi!"

"You're creepy," Kristoff said, then threw the head into my arms.

"Who are you guys?" the head asked.

I threw it back to Anna with a cry of: "Kill it! Kill it with fire!"

"I don't want it!" Anna exclaimed, throwing it back to Kristoff.

"Back to you!" said Kristoff, throwing it back to me.

"I don't want this freaky little decapitated snow-thing anywhere near me!" I said. I threw it back to Anna.

"Okay, we got off to a bad start," said the snowman's head. His body was making its way toward Anna aimlessly.

"Ew, ew, the body!" Anna said, then she threw the head at the body.

The head knocked the body to the ground. When it got back up, the head was in place again … but upside down. If anything, I found it even more unsettling.

"Wait, what am I looking at right now?" asked the snowman. "Why are you hanging off the earth like a bat?"

Hearing him say that actually cracked me up a little. The initial shock at discovering a living thing that was made out of snow wore off somewhat, and I relaxed myself as best as I could manage. He didn't seem like he meant any harm at the moment, and even if he did, he was too small to do any real damage.

I don't know if Anna had the same thought process or something, but she quickly moved to help. "All right, wait one second," she said. She walked over to him, grabbed his head, and flipped it around so that it was the right way up again.

"Oh," said the snowman, smiling. "Thank you." He looked over his body, spreading his arms out.

"You're welcome," said Anna.

"Now I'm perfect!"

The smile that had been on Anna's face faded, being replaced by a thoughtful look. "Well, almost …" She reached into the bag Kristoff had been keeping Sven's carrots in.

"It's like my whole life I've been turned upside down," said the snowman.

Doesn't have the best memory, does he? I thought, smiling a little. He seemed to be a funny little snowman.

That thought went away when Anna shoved a carrot where his nose should be, and ended up shoving it all the way through his head.

I winced sympathetically, gritting my teeth. That looks like it'll hurt …

"Woo! Head rush!" the snowman exclaimed.

"Oh! Too hard," Anna said frantically. "I'm sorry! I … I … I was just … Are you okay?"

The snowman crossed his eyes and looked at the tip of the carrot where it had gone through. "Are you kidding me?" he asked. "I … am wonderful! I've always wanted a nose." He put his wooden hands against it, almost like he was petting it. "It's so cute. It's like a little baby unicorn."

Anna placed her hand on the rest of the carrot, which was protruding from the back of his head, and pushed it forward so that it more resembled the classic long nose of a snowman.

"Oh, hey, whoa!" the snowman said before he got a look at the new size. "Oh, I love it even more." He looked around at us. "All right, let's start this over. Hi, everyone, I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs." He held his arms out toward Anna as if to hug her.

"Olaf …?" said Anna. Olaf nodded. "That's right …" she smiled, "… Olaf."

"And you are …?" asked Olaf.

"Oh, um, I'm Anna."

"And who's the funky-looking donkey over there?"

"That's Sven," Anna said, at the same time as I said, "Kristoff," whist sniggering to myself.

"Wait, which is it?"

"It's Sven." Anna gave me a pointed look, though she did look slightly amused.

"Uh huh. And who's the reindeer?"

I immediately lost my shit. The laughter burst from my lips like an erupting hurricane, and I had to hold my stomach in order to keep from just falling over. Maximus was laughing, too, banging one of his hooves on the floor. Kristoff looked confused and a little offended.

"… Sven," Anna answered after some hesitation.

"Oh, they're … oh, okay," said Olaf. "Makes things easier for me." Sven tried and failed to take a bite out of his nose. "Ah, look at him trying to catch my nose. I like you, too." He looked at me and Maximus. "And who are these two?"

"Hi, Olaf, I'm Simon," I said, "and I humbly apologise for suggesting that we should kill you with fire. You're a nice guy. The horse is Maximus."

"Olaf," said Anna, grabbing his attention. "Did Elsa build you?"

"Yeah, why?" asked Olaf.

Kristoff plucked off one of his arms, muttering "Fascinating" to himself.

"Do you know where she is?" asked Anna.

"Yeah, why?"

Kristoff bent the arm at the elbow. "How does this work?"

"You know where she is?" I asked quickly. "Can you take us to her?"

"Yeah, why?"

The arm in Kristoff's hand suddenly slapped him. "Ow!"

Olaf snatched his arm off and reattached it. "Stop it, Sven! I'm trying to focus here." He looked back at me. "Yeah, why?"

"I'll tell you why," said Kristoff. "We need Elsa to bring back summer."

"Summer?" asked Olaf. "Oh, I don't know why, but I've always loved the idea of summer. And sun. And all things hot."

"Really? I'm guessing you don't have much experience with heat?"

"Nope. But sometimes I like to close my eyes," he did so, "and imagine what it'd be like when summer does come."

What he did next, while singing, was probably dancing of some form, but since he appeared to be imagining his location and items around him, I don't think I can adequately describe the movements exactly.

Bees'll buzz,
Kids'll blow dandelion fuzz,
And I'll be doing whatever snow does
In summer.

A drink in my hand,
My snow up against the burning sand,
Probably getting gorgeously tanned
In summer.

I'll finally see a summer breeze
Blow away a winter storm,
And find out what happens to solid water
When it gets warm.

And I can't wait to see
What my buddies all think of me.
Imagine how much cooler I'll be
In summer.

Da da, da doo,
Ah bah bah bah bah bah boo.

The hot and the cold are both so intense,
Put 'em together, it just makes sense.

Ratdadat dad dada doo.

Winter's a good time to stay in and cuddle,
But put me in summer and I'll be a
Happy snowman.

When life gets rough I like to hold on to my dream
Of relaxing in the summer sun just letting off steam.

Oh the sky will be blue
And you guys'll be there, too.
When I finally do what frozen things do in summer.

"I'm gonna tell him," Kristoff said, smirking.

"Don't you dare," Anna warned him.

"It'd probably be kinder," I said. "Do you really wanna see this dream kill him?"

In summer!

"So come on!" Olaf said enthusiastically, gesturing with his arms. "Elsa's this way. Let's go bring back summer!"

The thought of getting closer to wherever Elsa was was enough to make me forget about my previous thoughts of telling Olaf that the summer was likely to kill him. I would tell him later, I resolved, but I wouldn't dishearten him on the way there. I'm not sure whether I was holding off on telling him for the sake of speed, or if I just didn't want to see that smile wiped off his face – it could have been a bit of both, now that I think about it. But one thing was for sure: we were heading toward Elsa.

That thought alone put a smile on my face.

Then another thought occurred to me.

"So, Olaf, do you know how Elsa created you?" I asked.

"No idea," he said, never dropping that cheerful demeanour. "All I know is that she did. How do you guys know Elsa, anyway? Are you her friends?"

"I'm her sister," said Anna. "And honestly, the whole no summer thing is kinda my fault. I want to put it all right."

"I'm her friend," I said. "I care about her, and I don't want her to be gone forever. Honestly, I wouldn't entirely mind eternal winter. Arendelle is winter for most of the year, anyway. This one's just a lot colder."

"Ah, okay. So you love her, then?"

"Yes I do." I'd said the words before thinking about it, but surprisingly I didn't get embarrassed. "Huh … you know, it's the first time I've said that out loud, and I'm not as flustered as I thought I'd be. Strange."

"It's only embarrassing so long as you try to hide it, Simon," said Kristoff.

"Whoa, whoa, wait up a minute!" Anna said suddenly. She had her eyes on me. "You are in love with Elsa?" I nodded. Anna looked like she was struggling to speak. She looked excited, surprised, and curious all at the same time. "That's … wow … just wow … So, for how long?"

"At least since we were kids," I said. "I only figured out exactly how I felt on the day of the coronation. It had to have been there for years. I guess I just didn't know before because I was a kid, and kids don't really process feelings properly. I knew I liked her in a different way to how I liked you, but that's about it."

Anna whistled. "If you've been in love with her that long, I guess all those years she kept herself locked away must have been just as hard on you as they were on me."

"… Yeah, I guess." I turned my attention to Olaf. "Say, Olaf, you're – what? – a day and half old, at most. How in the hell did you figure out that I love Elsa?"

"It was the way you talked about her," he said. He sighed. "Love is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Almost as beautiful as I imagine summer to look! No hurry up, guys! I wanna see summer!" He started moving a lot quicker.

I didn't mind. I wanted to see Elsa as soon as I could.

And that's chapter three!

I thought of Simon's initial reaction to Olaf as I was writing out the chapter. Before, I was just going to have him freak out a little, then calm down, kinda like Anna and Kristoff do. Then the phrase "Kill it with fire!" came to mind, and I just had to use it.

Simon's feelings for Elsa are out in the open to everyone but the woman herself. What did I say about fast progression, Constant Readers? I feel like I need it to allow for everything to happen within the events of the story itself, so try not to judge too harshly. If it helps, just think about how Frozen is a Disney movie, the homeland of fast-developing emotions! Am I in the clear yet?

See you next chapter!