All Frozen in the Arendelle Front

Stay with Me

The clearing at Snowhall Forest was a safe position very far from the Line, the wintry air was clean and all afternoon had passed since the chemical attack, and yet that awful and corrosive smell remained strong coming from their clothing, the horses and also impregnating every gasp and cough of the Princess...

"Anna!" Kristoff cried out, kneeling on the snow beside the love of his life and looking right into her eyes- "Anna! Come back! Stay with me, Anna!"

"Kristoff, I am so scared..."

The seventy three survivors of the chemical attack had recovered well enough to set up a small campsite in the forest, already building refuges with fallen branches of the trees and also igniting some warm and comforting campfires.

About half of them had managed to take their muskets and ammunition as they escaped, they were not disarmed after all but safety was the very least of their concerns at those moments...

"You have to take command now" Anna whispered, holding one of Kristoff's cold and shaky hands- "Kristoff, I am not going to make it..."

Anna remained just resting on the snow, crying and gasping as she fought to draw some air into her ravaged lungs. The pain was strong, like she had fire inside of her, and she continued to cough up droplets of blood knowing that she could suffocate to death any moment...

"You cannot order that to me!" Kristoff screamed, shocked to realize that her death was a real possibility at this point- "Anna, stay with me! You cannot leave us!"

Kristoff, the sickly Matthew and everyone else were heartbroken as they witnessed Anna's slow and painful suffering, she was the sickest of them all and even worse was the fact that they could not do anything to help her at all...

Anna's condition was deteriorating with every hour that passed, there were no doctors among them and even the fastest travel to Arendelle Town would take several days. The horses that they still had were affected by the poison as well, all of them were sick and on top of everything the ice mirror was lost.

They were stranded at Snowhall, all of the worst possible things had happened together and it seemed that there would be no way to save the life of their courageous Princess...

"They have the Crackers now" Anna continued, her voice just as burned as her lungs- "You must abandon me here, Kristoff! Command this group, and make your best effort to reach Arendelle Castle as soon as you can... Alert my sister, please!"

Kristoff had no idea what to reply to those words, frozen on the spot at the mere idea of abandoning Anna to die alone in that forest... Anna looked into those brown eyes waiting for an answer, but Kristoff would not reply and then Matthew came and knelt on the snow beside the shaken young man.

"Your Highness, it's true that they are going to take our Crackers" the old General said, now holding her left hand- "However, that does not mean that they can use them against us! The green fog, whatever it was, must have corroded the guns from inside... They are ruined!"

"What do you mean?" Anna asked, crying in pain as she turned her head to look at him.

"The war is not lost! We have reserve divisions and even more Crackers at the North, and we are not going to abandon you here no matter how many times you order us to do that!"

The gasping, coughing Anna managed to produce a soft smile as she imagined how frustrated Hans would be to discover that the Crackers were ruined, Kristoff started to caress her hair softly, Matthew sighed and then a large creature suddenly came into the clearing...

"A reindeer!" a soldier nearby screamed, standing beside one of the campfires- "Quick, shoot it before it escapes!"

The other soldiers scrambled to form a circle around the reindeer, which seemed very surprised to find itself surrounded by men all of a sudden... Matthew grabbed his musket ready to kill an excellent dinner for that night, and then Kristoff realized that he was very familiar with this reindeer in particular.

"Wait! Wait, everyone!" Kristoff cried out, dashing towards them- "That's my reindeer, I know him! That's my Sven!"

"S-sven...?" Anna gasped, unable to believe it.

The reindeer in question really was Sven, which was confirmed when he greeted Kristoff with great affection just like a dog would do. It seemed that Sven had been unable to keep waiting for Kristoff and Anna to return, and decided that it would be a good idea to go looking for them all by himself.

"What are you doing here?" Kristoff said, patting Sven with a curious combination of love and angst- "I told you that war was very dangerous, I told you to stay!"

Sven was intelligent enough to realize that something really bad had happened to his friends, that awful chemical smell was very intense for him and then he advanced slowly towards Anna, clearly worried about her in particular...

"Hello, Sven..." Anna said, smiling at her favorite beast- "It's great to see you!"

It was very surprising for everyone to see this reindeer caring for Anna, Sven looked sad and after that Kristoff, all of a sudden, had one of the brightest ideas of his life:

"Matthew, give me a hand!"

Kristoff and Matthew then joined forces to lift Anna with great care, Sven was surprised and the next thing that Anna knew was that she was mounting on the reindeer. Anna felt too weak to ride or even steady herself, and she was just about to ask Kristoff what on Earth he was trying to do when she finally grasped the idea.

"I cannot do it, I am going to fall!"

"Wait, I have a rope in my backpack!" Matthew said.

Anna steadied herself as best as she could, she grasped Sven's neck from behind with both of her arms and very soon Kristoff, alarmed at his own desperate plan, used the rope to tie his girlfriend to the reindeer's strong and furry body.

It looked like Anna would not fall, the scene would have made everyone laugh if they had not been at war and then Kristoff talked to Sven:

"My friend, I know you can understand me... Anna is very sick, and I need you to take her to Elsa! Sven, you know the fastest path, you can do it! Take Anna to Elsa... Take Anna to Elsa, Sven!"

Sven looked confused at first, but the smart reindeer was quick to understand what his friend was asking him to do...

"Take Anna to Elsa! Go, Sven! Go!"

"Kristoff, I love you..." Anna cried, they looked into each other's eyes and then Sven charged and left that clearing behind taking Anna on his back.

It would be a very long travel to Arendelle Town, but Anna knew that if anyone or anything was capable of taking her to Elsa on time, that would be the loyal Sven... she closed her eyes, and very soon both of them disappeared into the frozen shadows of the forest.