When Fire And Ice Meet

A New Servant Of The Kingdom

Anna ducked behind the wall of snow she had built just in time to miss a snowball that whizzed overhead. It was a warm March day, but the snow thickly blanketing the ground still showed no signs of melting.

"Olaf!" she panted, turning to her right. "Hurry up! I need more snowballs."

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" Olaf exclaimed, scrambling his stick arms through the snow and hastily forming lopsided balls of ice. Anna grabbed one and tossed it towards the cluster of trees behind which Kristoff and Sven were hiding. It broke against a tree trunk, sending snow flying.

"You're going to have to try harder than that!" Kristoff teased. He threw a huge snowball straight towards Olaf and Anna's fort. It sailed through the air and plunked onto Olaf's head, knocking off his carrot nose.

"Hey!" Olaf retrieved the carrot and began making snowballs even more fiercely.

A few seconds later another snowball flew by, smashing into a limb growing from a tree just behind the fort.

"Alright, Olaf. We need a new plan," Anna whispered, bending down next to him. "What if you and I both grab a handful of snowballs and charge them! I'll go around to the left, you go around to the right."

She peeked over the top of the the wall and noticed that it had become suspiciously quiet. She heard no scraping of snow being packed into snowballs, or Sven's restless stomping. Her eyes scanned to the right just in time to see Kristoff charging straight at her fort, his arms filled with snowballs.

"Attack!" she shouted, blue eyes glinting excitedly. Together she and Olaf pelted Kristoff with snowballs. One of them even landed on his nose, but he brushed the snow away and doggedly continued. Suddenly he slid to a stop and laughed.

"What?" Olaf asked in his high-pitched voice. "What's so funny?"

Kristoff just pointed behind them.

Anna and Olaf turned to see Sven standing underneath the tree just behind them.

"So?" Olaf declared. "He doesn't even have any snowballs."

Sven smirked, if a reindeer could possibly smirk, and kicked the trunk of the tree.

"Oh, gumdrops," Anna said, glancing at the snow-laden tree branches above her. The branches trembled violently and dropped a waterfall of snow onto Olaf and Anna. When they finally raised their heads and shook the snow from their bodies, they turned to glare at Kristoff, who was laughing wildly.

"You never saw it coming!" he chuckled. "Sven and I really did it this time, didn't we boy?" he added affectionately, patting Sven, who had pranced up beside him.

Anna tried to maintain her indignant glare, but after a moment, she dissolved into fits of laughter. "You sure did," she admitted, picking her snow-coated woolen hat off the ground from where it had fallen. "But Olaf and I will get you next time."

"If only we had Elsa with us," Olaf noted. "Then, we'd totally win!"

"That would be fun," Anna agreed, "but running the kingdom keeps her busy most days. Especially today, since she is housing an open reception to any requests or offers anyone has concerning the affairs of Arendelle."

"It's almost five. Do you think she's done by now?"

"Why don't we check?" Anna asked. "I'm getting pretty cold, anyway."

For the first time Kristoff realized that Anna was shivering. Some of the snow Sven had knocked onto her had melted, seeping into her coat and hair.

"That's a good idea," he said, pulling her close to him to keep her warm. Anna smiled gratefully and together they walked towards town, their eyes fixed on the castle in the distance. Olaf and Sven quickly followed.