Queen of Winter

Chapter 15 - Stone magic

We placed Anna in the sled and went to the trolls. Soon we were there, and me, Anna, Kristoff and Sven walked into the valley. "I've always felt at home here, but now I'm scared," Kristoff said quietly. Sven nodded excessively. Suddenly the rocks around us started moving and soon there was over 20 rock trolls staring at us. They started cheering and I looked around astonished. A rock troll which I remember was called Pabbie walked up to us. "What's the matter, Kristoff?" he asked.
Kristoff forced a grave smile. "We went to the North Mountain to find Elsa's crown, and Anna got injured, so we went here to visit and ask if you could heal her," he half-lied. "Of course. Come here, Anna." Pabbie said.
Anna slid down from Sven's back and went up to Pabbie.
"That's easy to fix." Pabbie waved his hands and in a second Anna's leg was repaired. "Thank you," Anna said with a varm smile.
"But is here anything else that bothers you?"
I bit my lip. I knew nothing about where to begin.
"I'm just wondering..." Anna said, "But how did you find Kristoff?"
"Well," another troll began, "He came to us alone with Sven one night and looked lonely so we took care of him.."
"And of course we knew he was an orphan!" Hulda added.
"How did you find out?" I asked.
"We asked him, and you know, for a little child losing his parents, he must've been sad." Hulda answered.
"I wasn't sad," Kristoff said, "I don't remember anything about being sad. I followed some horses and saw you help them with magic..."
"Horses?" I said. "When?"
"When they took care of me when I was eight...or seven...or six."
"That could have been us," I said.
"What?" Anna exclaimed.
"It's a long story, but we went there when I was eight to heal Anna," I said.
"So I was probably eight," Kristoff said and turned to the trolls. "Why didn't you tell me this?"
"You must've forgotten," Hulda said.
"But if I remember you healing someone, how come I don't remember Anna?"
"Ah please." A troll said. "You were little, tired, lost, sad.."
"I wasn't sad!" Kristoff exclaimed. "I was curious and not lost, or that's at least what I thought. I was following a group of ice harvesters when I saw....a trail of ice..!"
"Then it was us!" I said. "But...How came you were with the ice harvesters in the first place?"
Kristoff hesitated. "I...I don't remember. I just remember being down at the lake with them and then walking into the forest with Sven."
"You took away his memory, then?" Anna said hotly.
The trolls did an attempt to talk but Anna interrupted them.
"Tell me the truth! You took away his memory, what else did you do?"
I placed a calming hand on her shoulder and she took a deep breath, taking a step back.
"Alright, you got us," a little troll started and Hulda hushed it.
Anna glared angrily at it. The valley was tense, like something soon were to explode.
"We kidnapped Kristoff and cursed the prince," a little voice from behind said quickly. Anna gasped and I looked at her. Her hands were brought up to her face and she shuddered slightly. "You cursed....the p..prince?" Anna choked, tears in her eyes. I looked at Kristoff who looked like he was falling apart.
I felt exactly the same.
The trolls finally spoke the truth.
"Well, we didn't really curse the prince, we just brought his hidden evilness to the surface. Made him choose the evil part he doubted.
And we kidnapped Kristoff, that's right."
"So Hans was evil, but kidnapping Kristoff was true?" Anna whispered.
"Why'd you do that?!" She now yelled.
"You never know," Hulda sang.
"Why are you so calm about it?!"
Kristoff had slightly bent over in a strained position and I took his hand. He opened his eyes and I mouthed, "We've got to leave."
He stroke away his tears and I started pulling Anna away against the sled around the corner. She continued shouting, "You lied to him!! You lied to me!! But you helped us!! What do you want?!!"
"Anna, it's no use," I said, trying to keep my voice straight. She turned around, letting out a sob and quickening her pace. I laid an arm around her shoulder when she stumbled, and stroke away some loose hair from her face. Suddenly I heard rumbling of stone, and several trolls jumped in front of us. I automatically fired ice at the nearest troll, but it held out it's arm so it came back to me. Hard ice hit me and I stopped. Anna and Kristoff stared at the trolls in horror as they started towards us. I fired again, and the troll held out it's arm, but the ice shot up in the air instead. It hit the top stone of the low cliffs that surrounded the valley. Large stones were falling right at us and we ran past the confused trolls and ran against the sled and the guards. We made it just in time for the stones to fall over the entrance, and when we turned around we saw big stones blocking the passage between two cliffs. The entrance to The Valley of Living Rock was closed, to maybe never be opened again.

Now the three of us collapsed of fatigue, shock, anger, and sorrow. Guards hurried to our sides and helped us on the sled, a guard taking Kristoff's place to steer. As we were on our way home Anna and I fell into a long embrace, and Anna then sat next to Kristoff. After a while the two fell asleep, with Anna's head resting on Kristoff's shoulder. I leaned back to the blankets and pillows.
I closed my eyes to try and get some sleep. The sled rocked from side to side as it hit bumps in the road. The summer breeze had turned into a chilly wind that grabbed the sides of my blanket and tried to drag it away with it. I shuttered, not from the cold but from the melancholy feeling of the summer eve. After lying still with closed eyes for a long time, not being able to fall asleep, I gave up and opened them again. Anna and Kristoff slept peacefully beside me and I frowned at my own lonely restlessness. I looked at Anna's calm face and wished I too had a shoulder to lean on.