Frozen | Huke Stemmings

-12-

Together, Luke, Sven and Harry walked through the night. As dawn crept over the horizon, the three travelers found themselves on the rim of a mountain. Looking down, they could see Arendelle in the distance.

But it wasn't the summertime view they were expecting. The kingdom was completely frozen, covered with white ice.

Harry gasped in shock. Then he pulled himself together. "It'll be fine," he said. "Ashton will thaw it."

"Will he?" Luke asked skeptically. "Just like that?"

"Sure," Harry replied. He pointed straight ahead. "Come on. This way to the North Mountain, right?"

"More like this way," Luke said, pushing his pointing finger upward. A huge, steep mountain towered above them.

With no other choice, the group continued, moving forward and up. As the sun finally rose completely, they rounded a corner and came upon a clearing surrounded by tall trees.

They gasped as the morning light danced on the snowy area before them. The terrain was different from what they had seen in the rest of the woods. They had found a gorgeous winter wonderland.

The view took Harry's breath away. "I never knew winter could be so . . . beautiful," he said, looking up at a willow tree covered in ice. The branches looked as if they were glistening with a crystal coating. Then he noticed Sven. The reindeer had gotten his antlers tangled up in icy vines, and he looked like a twinkling Christmas tree!

"Yeah, but it's so white!" said a voice that came out of nowhere. "Does it hurt your eyes? My eyes are killing me. You know, how about a little color?"

Harry and Luke looked around. They stared at Sven for a moment. Could he be the one speaking?

"Most we bleach the joy out of it all?" the voice went on. "I'm thinking like maybe some crimson or chartreuse. How about yellow? No, not yellow. Yellow and snow? Brrrr . . . No-go."

A goofy little snowman with twigs for arms, but no nose, appeared. He laughed at his own yellow snow joke. "Am I right?" he asked Harry.

"AAAAHHH!" Harry screamed. He'd never seen a talking snowman before, and he reacted quickly. He kicked him in the snowball head, which went flying right into Luke.

"Hi!" the snowman head said.

"You're creepy," Luke told the head. He tossed it to Harry.

"I don't want it!" Harry shrieked, throwing it back to Luke.

"Back at you!" Luke called, chucking the head to him again.

"Please don't drop me!" the snowman head pleaded.

Harry frowned at Luke. "Don't!"

Luke grimed. "Come on, it's just a head," he said.

"All right " the snowman told them. "We got off to a bad start."

"The body," Harry cried. He quickly dropped the head onto the body, but somehow a landed upside down—and stuck that way.

"Wait!" the snowman said, gazing at the upside down world around him. "What am I looking at right now? Why are you hanging off the earth like a bat?"

Harry walked over to the snowman. "All right," he said. "Wait one second." He turned his head around so he was right side up.

"Oh, thank you!" he said.

"You're welcome," Harry said, smiling at the little snowman. He wasn't so scary now that he'd gotten a chance to look at him properly.

"Now I am perfect," the snowman said.

"Well, almost," Harry replied. He grabbed a carrot from Sven's pack and pushed it into Calum's face to give him a nose. He pushed a little too forcefully, though, and the carrot went right through this head! "Oh, too hard!" Harry said. "I'm sorry! I—"

The snowman spun around. "Woo!" he exclaimed. "Head rush!"

Harry bent down to him. "Are you okay?"

He beamed. Even though only a tiny point of the carrot was sticking out in front, he was happy. "Are you kidding me?" he asked. "I am wonderful! I've always wanted a nose." He looked down, cross-eyed, at his new feature. "So cute. It's like a little baby unicorn."

With another shove, Harry pushed the carrot from the back of his head so the carrot nose was in the proper place.

"What? Hey! Whoa!" the snowman cried out. "I love it even more! All right, let's start this thing over." A smile spread across his face. "Hi, everyone! I'm Calum, and I like warm hugs." He opened his twig arms wide for a hug.

The name struck Harry. "Calum?" he asked. Harry thought for a moment. He remembered building a little snowman with Ashton when they were young. Ashton had given the snowman the same name!

Calum gazed at Harry. "And you are?"

"I'm Harry," he answered.

"And who is the funky-looking donkey over there?" Calum inquired.

"That's Sven," Harry told him.

"Uh-huh," Calum said. "And who's the reindeer?"

"Sven!" Harry said, laughing at Calum's mistake.

Confused, Calum stared at Sven and Luke thinking they had the same name. "Oh, okay. Makes things easier for me," he said.

Sven moved closer to the talking snowman and tried to take a bite of Calum's carrot nose.

"Aww," Calum said, laughing. "Look at him, trying to kiss my nose." He smiled at the reindeer. "I like you, too!"

"Calum, did Ashton build you?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, why?" the snowman replied.

"Do you know where he is?" Harry said, moving closer.

"Yeah, why?" Calum said, innocently oblivious to the line of questioning.

"Do you think you could show us the way?" Harry asked, full of hope.

"Yeah, why?" the snowman asked again.

Luke was busy examining one of Calum's twig arms, which had fallen off. "How does this work?"

The hand on the arm smacked Luke across the face!

"Stop it, Sven!" Calum said, calling Luke by the wrong name. "We need to focus here!" He turned to Harry. "Why?"

"I'll tell you why," Luke said. "We need Ashton to bring back summer."

"Summer?" Calum said. "Oh, I don't know why, but I've always loved the idea of summer and sun, and all things hot!"

Luke raised his eyebrows. "Really? I'm guessing you don't have much experience with heat."

Calum shook his head. "Nope, but sometimes I like to close my eyes and imagine what it'd be like when summer does come."

As Calum went on and on about the wonderful things he would do in summer, Luke looked over at Harry. "I'm going to tell him," he whispered. It was killing him to hear Calum's talk about summer heat—which is a snowman's worst nightmare!

"Don't you dare," Harry scolded Luke. He couldn't bear to ruin Calum's dream with the harsh truth.

Calum took Harry's hand. "So come on! Let's go bring back summer!"

"I'm coming!" Harry said. He looked over his shoulder at Luke.

"Somebody's got to tell him," Luke murmured, shaking his head. He and Sven followed Harry and the little snowman.