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In the Light of Day: A Frozen Epic	By : GeorgeGlass Category: +1 through F > Frozen Views: 21531 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of Frozen or its characters. I made no money from writing this story. I am completely divided about whether Elsa or Anna is hotter.

Chapter List
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Chapter 7: The Trader

Oaken strode toward Kristoff, the huge man’s every heavy footfall thudding against the wooden floor. One hand raised, the trader stopped in front of the ice-man, looming over him like the trunk of a massive tree.

“Please do not leave me hanging, bro,” Oaken said in his singsong accent.

Kristoff raised a hand and exchanged a high-five with Oaken. The ice-man tried not to wince at the sting of the impact from the burly trader's hand.

“Hey, big guy,” Kristoff said. “How are the husband and kids?”

“Very well, very well, thank you,” Oaken replied, nodding. “And how is your redheaded princess?”

“Oh, she's great. In fact, she's coming by later on.”

“Wonderful! Now, what can I do for you and your friends?”

“Is the party room upstairs available?”

“Oh yes, yes. With all the rain, there's scarcely been anyone here all day.”

Kristoff looked back at his new companions. All of them looked chilly, particularly Ajay and Mofa, who came from the warmest climes.

“Hey guys,” Kristoff said, “you want to hit the sauna before the ladies get here?”

“Oh, that sounds magnificent,” Mofa replied. There were nods of agreement from the others.

Oaken supplied them all with big, white towels, and soon the seven men were seated on the smooth teakwood benches of Oaken's sauna, breathing in the steam.

“Oh, this is most relaxing,” said Mofa.

“The sauna is one of Nordland's great contributions to Scandinavian life,” Halfdan said proudly. Kristoff was fairly sure the sauna had been invented in Arendelle, but in the interest of international relations—and not starting a fistfight in a small, steam-heated space while more or less naked—the ice-man said nothing.

“Aye,” replied Hamish, Prince Gormal’s attendant. “’Tis far better than your pickled fish.” Halfdan scowled.

Dr. Montalvo was the only attendant who didn't seem to be enjoying the sauna. Taking a gasping breath, he said, “In Hermosa, I believe this would be considered a form of torture.”

Ajay laughed. “In Sundara, this would be considered an average Tuesday.”

The bearded captain raised a hand to wipe some sweat from his eyes, and Kristoff noticed a big patch of white on the otherwise deep-brown skin of Ajay's forearm.

“That's quite a scar you've got there, Captain,” the ice-man said.

Ajay frowned momentarily, then chuckled. “A sailor should never get so drunk,” he said, “that he looks at the forge of the ship's blacksmith and says, 'How hard can it be?'“ As the others laughed, he added, “And please, call me Ajay.”

They sat in the steam for several more minutes—even Dr. Montalvo, who seemed determined to stick it out. Kristoff, who had never thought of himself as the social type, found himself somehow facilitating a lively conversation among these six men who previously had seemed to have nothing to say to one another. Then came a tap on the sauna door.

“Yoo-hoo,” Oaken called. “I see a carriage coming up the hill. I think it must be your lady friends.”

“All right, fellows,” Kristoff said, “time to make ourselves presentable.”

***

Back at the ball, Elsa was attempting to make conversation with Prince Varek, but without his attendant there to interpret, it was proving to be an impossible task. Elsa felt a spike of annoyance at Anna and Kristoff for taking Popov away, but she couldn’t blame them too much, knowing that Popov’s assistance would make Prince Varek’s attempts at communication only marginally less opaque.

Out of the corner of her eye, Elsa saw Lord Otos, the only remaining attendant, lean over and whisper something to Prince Hypatios. The boy got up and hesitantly approached the Queen just as the musicians were beginning a new song.

“Um,” the young prince began, “may I...have this dance?”

Elsa smiled. “Of course.”

Elsa wasn't a great dancer to begin with, and she'd never danced with someone substantially shorter than she. So while she was focusing on putting her left hand in the boy's right, her right hand landed on the boy's back instead of his shoulder. Hypatios gasped.

“Are you all right?” Elsa asked.

“I- I'm fine,” the boy said with a weak smile. “When I was on the ship, I tried to climb the, the rigging, and I fell. Lord Otos said it was lucky I landed on my back instead of my head.”

“I suppose 'lucky' depends on your point of view,” Elsa said. “But I'm glad you weren't seriously hurt.”

“Thanks,” Hypatios said. Then, as they began to dance, he asked, “Do you really live here?”

Elsa tried to cover up her quizzical expression with a smile as she replied, “Of course I do. I am the Queen, after all.”

“This place is just so…big,” the boy said.

“Isn’t your father’s palace in Dianisia even larger than this castle? I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard others talk about it.”

“Well, yeah, sure, but it’s…it’s really different.”

Elsa was about to ask the prince more about the palace when he suddenly said, “I’m sorry I’m not a very good dancer.”

“Oh, that’s all right,” the Queen replied. “I’m not a very good dancer, either.” Then, in a mock-conspiratory tone, she whispered, “Honestly, if your feet were any bigger, I’m sure I would have stepped on them by now.”

The boy smiled.

***

Kristoff and the six attendants exited the sauna—Montalvo taking in the cool air in deep breaths—and went to an area behind it where their clothes, as well as several buckets of clean water, hung on pegs. Each man poured a bucket of water over himself, rinsing off as thoroughly as possible before drying off and getting dressed.

When the men emerged from the back, Oaken informed them that the women had arrived and that he had directed them to the party room upstairs.

“Thanks, Oak,” Kristoff said. “You want to come up and hang out with us?”

“Yes, yes, thank you,” Oaken replied. “I will help Erik put the children to bed, then I will return directly.”

Oaken went out the front door, and Kristoff and the attendants went upstairs to the large room above the shop, where Anna, Hildy, and a few other women awaited them.

“Gentlemen,” Anna said with deliberately excessive formality, “how lovely to see you again.”

“Although it would have been more lovely to see you twenty minutes ago,” Hildy added, earning a subtle elbow-jab from the princess.

Unfazed, the buxom viscountess indicated a tall woman behind her who was perhaps thirty years old. She was wearing a yellow ball gown and, incongruously, a belt from which a longsword hung in a scabbard.

“Kristoff, you remember my stepsister Tilde?”

“Sure,” the ice-man said. “Good to see you.” Tilde, whose thick braid of white-blonde hair looked like it could be used to strangle an ox, nodded in reply.

“And my friends May and Marit,” Hildy continued, indicating two short-haired blonde women in their early twenties who were clearly sisters.

“Hey,” they said almost simultaneously.

Hildy approached Montalvo, saying, “So, I hear you’re a doctor.”

Hearing the hint of seduction in Hildy’s voice and watching her take Montalvo aside to chat, Anna mumbled, “Oh, boy.”

Ajay appeared at the top of the stairs, holding under his arm the small barrel he had brought along.

“I have here a little something from my homeland,” he said, “for those who would care to try it.”

May and Marit quickly found some tankards in a cupboard and brought them over to where Ajay had set the barrel. The Sundaran captain filled one and held it out to Kristoff.

“For our host,” Ajay said.

Accepting the mug with an expression of mild skepticism, Kristoff said, “I’m sure it’s nice, but everyone knows you can’t brew a truly great beer without ice-cold water from the first snowmelt of the year.”

He took a sip, and his eyes widened.

“Holy…This is good. What IS this stuff?”

Ajay smiled. “It is called a Sundara pale ale,” he explained. “It was not actually invented in Sundara, but it WAS perfected there.”

Ajay began filling mugs for the others in attendance. Halfdan, not to be outdone, pulled out a large flask of Nordlandic firewater and passed it around. Encouraged by Halfdan’s example, Hamish was soon sharing his somewhat smaller flask of whiskey, and Popov produced a bottle of Rekyan vodka. Soon, conversation was flowing as easily as the booze.

“You know,” Hildy said to Anna, holding her mug of SPA with one hand and Dr. Montalvo’s hand with the other, “you told me that the first time Kristoff and Oaken met, Oaken literally threw Kristoff out on his face. How come they seem to be pals now?”

“Oh, Kristoff came back and helped Oaken build a little ice house out behind the trading post,” Anna explained. “Now Oaken can sell cold drinks all summer long.”

“Did I hear my name?” the huge trader said as he ascended the stairs to the party room. Then he held up a tubular wooden object. “I have brought a flute for the playing of festive music.”

Oaken began to play an Arendellan folk song, and it didn’t take much to get Anna, Hildy, May, and Marit singing along.

“This reminds me,” Kristoff said in a whisper to Ajay. “Last summer, when the whole surprise-winter thing happened, there were a bunch of times when people just started breaking into song for no reason. Even I did it. Does that ever happen where you’re from?”

“My boy, you have no idea,” Ajay replied, patting Kristoff on the shoulder.

A moment later, Kristoff said, “Well, if you can’t beat ‘em…I’ll be right back.”

Kristoff went downstairs and quickly returned with his lute. Oaken had finished his song, so Kristoff started in on a lively jig to which some of the ladies and attendants danced with varying degrees of skill. Then he moved on to a classic Arendellan ballad, to which everyone who knew the words sang along.

Soon there was a nearly nonstop flow of singing and dancing. May and Marit led the group in a song in the round, after which Mofa managed to teach the group a sort of harmonious choral song from his homeland. Ajay introduced everyone to a couple of Sundaran sea chanties and allowed the ladies (led by Hildy) to convince him that it was perfectly all right to include the more ribald verses.

After a while, Kristoff and Anna found themselves dancing together—rather more closely than castle ballroom decorum would have allowed. The feel of Anna’s body against his, along with the off-color songs and the alcohol, were making Kristoff feel a bit stirred up.

“Hey,” he said in a low voice, “you want to go downstairs?”

“Downstairs?” Anna said. “But everyone’s up here.”

“Exactly,” Kristoff replied with a little grin.

“Ohhh,” Anna said, nodding. “Yes, downstairs might be nice.”

Hand in hand, they went down the wooden stairs to the first floor, only to hear the gasps, urgent murmurs, and lips-smacking sounds of two people furiously making out behind a tall shelf in the back.

“Hildy,” Anna muttered, rolling her eyes.

“How about we go outside?” Kristoff whispered.

They went to the front of the shop, and Kristoff opened the door. As princess and ice-man stepped outside, they heard two simultaneous gasps from the back of the shop, followed by Hildy moaning, “Ooooooh, the doctor is in.”

Outside, Kristoff brought Anna to a spot just outside the circle of light made by the lantern hanging near the door. The only sounds were the tiny splashes made by raindrops that dripped here and there from the trees.

They moved in close, Anna raising her head and Kristoff lowering his for a light kiss. They kissed again, and again, the kisses growing longer and stronger, and soon it was just one long, continuous kiss as they embraced and brought their bodies fully together. Their hands moved over each other’s backs, slowly at first, then with increasing ardor as their passions flared.

Their kisses grew deeper, stronger. Kristoff’s hands moved around to Anna’s front and then upward, and even through the fabric of Anna’s gown, he could feel the sweet softness of her small breasts as his palms passed over them. The sensation so inflamed him that, as soon as his hands had travelled up and over her bare shoulders, he found himself beginning to unbutton Anna’s gown, his hands and mouth and whole body craving more of her.

“Wait!” Anna gasped, her whole body tensing and pulling away from him. “I’m not- We- We shouldn’t-”

His frustration unbearable, Kristoff shouted, “Damn it, Anna, I’m not Prince Hans!”

The instant the words came out of his mouth, he knew they were the wrong ones.

“I KNOW!” Anna shouted back.

They stood there, panting and staring at each other. Kristoff knew there was nothing he could say now that would help. He would just have to wait, enduring her angry glare, to see what she would say or do.

After almost a full minute, Anna spoke.

“I know,” she said, “I know you’re not Prince Hans. But…you do keep secrets from me.”

It didn’t take long for Kristoff to figure out what Anna was talking about. There were only two secrets that he kept from Anna, and he didn’t think she would be this upset about the book of artistic prints—titled “Babes and Sleighs”—that he kept under his bed.

“You’re talking about my debts,” he said.

“Yes. Why do you owe so much money? And why would you hide that from me?”

Kristoff took a deep breath and began, “Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to be an ice-man. I would see those guys—those big, strong, fearless guys—go out there on the frozen lake with their saws and picks and pull up these blocks of something magical. And I wanted to be like them, to handle and tame that magic the way they did. So as soon as Mama Bulda said I was old enough, I went out and got started. But…starting an ice business by yourself isn’t very smart.”

“Then why did you do it?” Anna asked.

“It- It wasn’t my original plan,” Kristoff explained. “I tried to get my start the way most ice-men do, by joining a crew. And I was pretty excited about it, working side by side with eight other guys, mostly experienced fellows who I hoped could teach me a few things.

“But after starting life with no parents and then being adopted by trolls—who, as you know, don’t have a real good grasp of what humans consider appropriate—I didn’t have a lot of social skills. One day, I just said the wrong thing to somebody, and the next thing I knew I was in a fistfight. And then I was fired.

“So I decided to go solo. I didn’t have any money for a sleigh, or tools, or a place to live, but I had Sven, and I was willing to work as hard as I needed to. And I foolishly thought that would be enough, because I’d been raised by people who, if they found a bag of gold coins, would probably use them to play tiddlywinks. I never considered that it might be a bad idea to take on a mound of debt to go into a business where a cooler-than-average summer can mean no profits for the whole year.”

There was no anger in Anna’s voice when she asked, “Why did you feel like you couldn’t tell me about all this?”

“I don’t tell anyone about it,” Kristoff replied. “It looks bad enough that you’re dating a commoner; what would people think if they knew you were dating a commoner with money problems?”

Before Anna could answer, Kristoff went on, “And…I was embarrassed. It’s like my whole career has been one bad decision after another. And I wasn’t sure that…that you’d want to be with someone who had such lousy judgement.”

Anna’s eyes looked watery as she replied, “How could you think that? Especially when you know that MY lousy judgment almost destroyed the kingdom?”

“Anna, you’ve got to quit punishing yourself for that!” Kristoff said, louder than he’d meant to. “You made ONE mistake, and it was to believe a man who said he loved you. And that’s an easy thing to believe, because…it- it just is,” he finished, his eyes downcast.

Suddenly, Kristoff and Anna’s heads whipped around toward the sound of the trading-post door bursting open. The ice-man was astonished to see Ajay and Tilde storming out the door, then turning to glare at each other—and then, to Kristoff’s horror, drawing their swords.

“Oh, crap,” he whispered to no one in particular. “It’s turned into that kind of party.”

END CHAPTER 7
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In the Light of Day: A Frozen Epic