This Icy Force Both Foul and Fair Has a Frozen Heart Worth Mining

Suddenly Attacked by Wolves

I snapped on the reins and Sven immediately took off at a fast pace. I was almost excited about this expedition. It had been a while since Sven and I just took a trip on the sled. I was usually too concerned about the blocks of ice in tow to think about the ride in and of itself. "Hang on," I told Anna. "We like to go fast." 

Anna smiled and rested her feet up on the front of the sled. "I like fast," she replied. 

Appalled by her action, I immediately pushed her feet back to the floor of my sled. Not even a week ago, I had taken my sled into town for some mending after an extremely nasty incident with a particularly large toppling iceberg. That meant fresh paint and a fresh coat of polish, too. I was not about to let her messy boots dirty it up when I had just now paid it off and got it in perfect working condition. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, get your feet down," I scolded her, inspecting the area in case of dirt spots. "This is fresh lacquer. Seriously, were you raised in a barn?" 

I found no signs of any mark whatsoever, but just for the sake of being safe instead of being sorry, I spat on the area and gave it a little shine with my sleeve. Oh, how I really do love my sled like the other ice harvesters love their families, except maybe Claudio. 

"No, I was raised in a castle," Anna replied. That's right, she's the princess, and she had yet to fully explain how her sister had set off this winter in the middle of summer. 

"So, uh, tell me. What made the queen go all ice crazy?" I asked. 

"Oh, well, it was all my fault," she replied in her regret. "I got engaged, but then she freaked out because I'd only just met him, you know, that day, and she said she wouldn't bless the marriage." 

What? She what? That day? She was hoping to marry a guy after only knowing him for day?! OK, So, my initial assessment of her being crazy was correct, after all. "Wait... you got engaged to someone you just met that day?" I asked her, just so that I could be sure I heard her right. 

"Yeah," she told me, obviously not seeing anything wrong with the scenario of it all and quickly moving on. "Anyway, I got mad and so she got mad, and then she tried to walk away, and I grabbed her glove..." 

I, however, was still stuck on her engagement to a guy she had just met and did not pay that much attention to the rest of her narrative. A day. One day. Seriously? Was this girl completely insane? As a matter of fact, I was so put off by it, that I simply had to turn away from the front of the sled and towards her. "Hang on!" I said, stopping her from narrating her story any further. "You mean to tell me you got engaged to someone you just met that day?!" 

"Yes, pay attention," she said, still clearly not understanding why this should phase me at all and continued telling her story. "But, the thing is, she wore the gloves all the time. So I just thought, maybe she has a thing about dirt." 

I stared at her incredulously. "Didn't your parents ever warn you about strangers?!" I asked. 

Then, she looked at me and edged a little ways from me in the sled uncomfortably. "Yes, they did," she told me. 

I just rolled my eyes at her edging away from me. Not exactly what I meant, but maybe she did have a lick of sense to her, after all. 

"But, Hans is not a stranger," she replied back to me. Or maybe not. 

"Oh yeah? What's his last name?" I asked her, smirking. 

She just scoffed at my smirk. "Of-The-Southern-Isles," she said, matter-of-factly. You call that a last name? 

"What's his favorite food?" I asked her, still confident she did not know her fiancé that well. 

"Sandwiches," she told me.