A Treasure To Behold: The Frozen Story Retold [Part Two]

SIX

On the same night, all of them left for the Enchanted Forest. At daybreak, they were up in the cliffs of the fjords, racing away from Arendelle. Everyone was tired and needed some shuteye. Kristoff and Alex took turns controlling Sven. By dusk the following day, they were on a road running adjacent to the North Mountain in the distance. Elsa's majestic ice palace stood towering on its peak.

"Yup, and there's Elsa's palace of ice." declared Anna, sitting in front of the wagon with Kristoff. Elsa, Alex, and Olaf sat within the wagon in the back. Alex had never got a chance to see Elsa's palace with his own eyes.

"No way!" he exclaimed. "Did you make that, Elsa?" he looked at her, amazed. She accepted with a gentle nod. "It's wonderful," he told her.

"Thank you," she replied, smiling warmly. Looking at the others, Alex suggested,

"We should all pay it a visit sometime."

Anna responded immediately, "Trust me, Alex. You don't want to be climbing that mountain."

Optimistic, Alex wondered aloud, "How hard could it be? Besides, Elsa climbed it in one night!"

"How hard, you ask?" Kristoff began, alarmed. "I was almost eaten by a wolf!"

"That does not discourage me." Alex crossed his arms. Looking from Kristoff to Anna, Olaf told Alex, "Yeah, when Marshmallow's angry, he'll show you just how rewarding climbing that mountain can be!"

All of them held back peals of laughter, except Alex. His face flushed on hearing all the giggles. "You're not helping, Olaf!"

The next day, they traversed through lush forestland, passing over a wooden bridge. Olaf had spent quite a lot of time at the library, honing his knowledge of fun facts and titbits.

"Who's into trivia?" he asked. No one seemed to be keen and ignored him silently. Even so, he did not lose heart and answered himself, "I am! Okay, did you know that water has memory? True fact, it's disputed by many, but it's true..." As Olaf's endless list of fun facts went on, the others found them harder to ignore.

"Did you know we blink four million times a day?" he once told. "Did you know... gorillas burp when they are happy?" he said another time. "Did you know wombats poop squares?" Some facts were fascinating, while the others were, to most of them, fiascos.

"Did you know men are six times more likely to be struck by lightning?" the snowman informed his sole two audiences who were awake: both of them men. "Sorry, you both." Alex and Kristoff frowned at the comment.

By night on the same day, when most of them were awake, Kristoff became fed up and added one of his own fun facts to the list, "Did you know sleeping quietly on long journeys prevents insanity?"

"Yeah, that's not true," laughed Olaf. Kristoff insisted, "It is."

Elsa supported, "It is definitely true." "It's the truth." Anna accepted too. Olaf thought and said,

"Hmm, that was almost unanimous. Well, it's your loss. They say, 'When you stop learning, you start dying'."

"True. But, 'A meaningful silence is always better than meaningless words'." Alex quoted with a puckish smile. The snowman was taken by surprise.

"What?! My words are not meaningless!" he bawled in protest.

"No, they aren't, Olaf," started Alex. "But we all know, 'Good things in satiety are always bad'."

"Mmm..." Olaf replied. "I don't have an answer to that, but I am sure I'll give you one when we get home."

At twilight on the third and last morning of their trip, Olaf snored softly while Alex and Elsa were catching up on sleep—or so it seemed. Anna glanced back, sitting with Kristoff in the front.