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Sherlock and Joanna Frozen AU part 4

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  “Sherlock! Sherrrlock!” Joanna called as she rode her horse slowly through the thick snow. Now that she was out in the forest, traveling for an hours with no luck, and the sun down, she wished she had worn something warmer. “It’s me, Joanna! Your friend who didn’t mean to make you freeze the summer! I’m sorry! It’s all my F-Fault!” she apologized but half meant it now that she thought about it. “…Of course none of it would have happened if he had just told me his secret…” she could have helped him, by either keeping it a secret of merely being there for support. She could understand why he wanted to hide it from the kingdom, but she, for one, thought his powers were amazing. (Save for the now terribly cold climate) “He’s a stinker alright.” Joanna laughed, trying not to get angry. However the sudden scare of a large pile of snow falling from a tree and her horse bucking her off might make that difficult. She landed roughly on the ground, feeling the cold slip into her skin. The horse, frightened by the falling snow, ran off back towards Arendelle. “Wait, wait- no, no, no, no!” Joanna called, but the animal was already long gone. She groaned and tried to get up by pulling on a low branch. But that only resulted in more snow piling on top of her.
“Snow… it had to be snow…” Joanna mumbled to herself, taking extra high steps to somehow avoid the freezing snow.  “H-He couldn’t have had tropical magic that covered the fjord in white sand and warm…” she reached the top of the hill she was climbing when she saw smoke rising from the trees. “…fire!” she laughed. Normally she would be concerned, since it could be a forest fire, but right now, it meant warmth. And warmth was good. Slipping off the top of a hill, losing her cloak, and landing in a small and paralyzing cold stream was bad. But that’s what she did. Joanna shivered with shock as the freezing water sank to her very core and quickly tried to get out. She took baby steps and made her way to where the smoke was coming from, hoping to thaw her now stiff and frozen skirt.
It took some effort, but she eventually made it into “Wandering Frankland’s trading post and sauna”. Joanna opened the door, sounding off a small bell, and shivered as she took a few steps in. It was a quaint little shop with wooden trinkets and items from different lands.
“Yoo hoo!” a happy voice chimed. Joanna looked to the source and saw an older, yet rather large, man sitting behind the check-out desk. “Big Summer Blowout! Half off swimming suits, clogs, and a sun balm of my own invention! Yes?” Frankland said to her. Joanna stood for a moment, feeling slightly bad that he would not be selling summer items for a bit.
“Oh… great! How about boots? Winter boots? And clothes?” she asked with an overly large smile.
“That would be in our winter department.” He directed her happily. However the “winter department” was merely one shelf in a corner that looked neglected.
“Oh…” Joanna said awkwardly and waddled over to the corner. “I was just wondering… has a young man…” she picked up a pair of winter boots and trousers (thankful she could get out of her dress), a thick undershirt, and a new cloak. “…the King perhaps, I don’t know, pass through here?”
“Only one crazy enough to be out in this storm is you, dear.” Frankland said with politeness as she brought up her purchases. However, as if on cue, the door opened once again. The man that entered couldn’t be identified by his face, but his frost covered clothes, mask, and hat that covered everything but his eyes stood out like a sore thumb. “…You and this fellow.” Frankland added. “Yoo hoo! Big Summer Blowout!” he held up the sun balm. The man didn’t pay any attention and approached the desk, breathing heavily from the cold. Joanna shifted awkwardly when he got rather close. When he was only a foot away, he spoke.
“Carrots.” He told her through the snow covered mask.
“Huh?” Joanna said quietly and raised an eyebrow. He leaned forward, getting unreasonably close to her face.
“Behind you.”
“Oh! Right! Excuse me…” Joanna smiled briefly before moving over so the man could get the produce. He reached down and grabbed the vegetable off a shelf in the front of the desk and tossed it on the counter.  
“Ooh, a real howler in July, yes?” Frankland commented as the new customer collected a pick-ax and rope from the winter department. “Where ever could it be coming from?”
“The north mountain.” The stranger replied, bringing the supplies to the counter as well.
“The north mountain…” Joanna echoed and wondered if Sherlock could be there.
“That’ll be forty.” Frankland told the man with a smile.
“Forty?! No, ten.” The customer argued. Clearly the prices had risen due to his response.
“Oh dear, that’s no good. You see this is from our winter stock, where there is a big supply and demand problem…”
“You wanna talk about a supply and demand problem? I sell ice for a living.” The stranger tilted his head to window, where his sled loaded with blocks of ice sat outside.
“Oooh that’s a rough business to be in right now.” Joanna chuckled. “I mean that is really-” she caught the glare from the man and cleared her throat. “That’s unfortunate.” She stepped a little farther away, making note to work on her social skills.
“Still forty.” Said Frankland. “But I will throw in a visit to Frankland’s sauna.” He gestured to a door to their right. “Yoo hoo! Hi family!”
“Yoo hoo!” a group of people replied form inside the sauna, waving. Joanna waved back, forcing a smile despite her discomfort.
“Ten is all I got… help me out.” The man continued to argue, a bit quieter this time.
“Okay, that will get you this-” Frankland pushed the carrots forward. “-and no more.”
“Okay, just tell me one thing…” Joanna interrupted and spoke to the stranger, who only grew more annoyed with every word. “What was happening on the north mountain? Did it seem… magical?” he groaned and pulled down his mask with a crumble of ice.
“Yes!” he said with spite and flushed red cheeks and pale blue eyes. “Now back up, while I deal with this crook, here.” He breathed. Joanna only blinked a few times as Frankland slowly rose up, getting taller by the second.
“What did you… call me?” he asked.
It only took a few seconds for the stranger to literally be thrown out of the shop and into the snow. Dimmock sat up abruptly, coughing and brushing himself off. His reindeer, a cream colored animal with dark brown tufts of fur, pranced over to him and sniffed around his body, but became disappointed.
“No, Anders… I didn’t get your carrots.” He told his companion, earning a frustrated stomp. “But I did find us a place to sleep! And it’s free!” Dimmock smiled and pointed to a snow covered stable.
“I’m sorry about this violence.” Frankland apologized to Joanna, who stood ridged. “I will add a quart of lutefisk, so we have good feelings.” He shook a jar of slightly unidentifiable substance and placed it on the counter. “Just the outfit and the boots, yeah?”
“Uh…” Joanna thought for a moment. She did have enough money with her, perhaps enough to buy transportation in a way. The captain ended up buying everything on the counter (except the lutefisk) and changed in the shop’s restroom. Clothed now with her dark blue trousers, brown cloak, and light blue top, she went outside. Thankfully not much snow had fallen and she could see clearly the footprints of the stranger. It was crazy, she thought, to ask someone she didn’t know to take her to the north mountain. But she needed to find the King as soon as possible, even if she was uncomfortable for a while. With mittens on tight and a hat on her shoulder-length hair, Joanna listened to the stranger inside the stable, smiling when she heard his song.
“Reindeers are better than people…” Dimmock played his lute and sang, reclining on a soft pile of hay. “Ands, don’t you think that’s truuue?” he asked his companion and answered for him in a gruff voice as the reindeer nodded along. “’Yeah, people will beat you and curse you and cheat you! Every one of them’s bad, except youuu.’ Aww thanks buddy.” He pet Anders with a smile and continued. “But people smell better than reindeers. Ands, don’t you think I’m riiiight?” Anders nodded with a mouthful of hay. “’that’s once again true, for all except you…’” the reindeer smiled even though it was Dimmock that sang for him. “You got me, let’s call it a niiiight. ‘good niiight’” Anders settled down into the hay and Dimmock did the same, finishing the song. “Don’t let the frost bite. Biiiiite…”
“Nice duet.” Joanna commented as she entered, causing both Dimmock and Anders to jump.
“Oh… it’s just you…” Dimmock sighed, thankful it wasn’t that crook, Frankland. “What do you want?”
“I want you to take me up the north mountain.” Joanna answered, trying to be as polite as possible. He looked her up and down, but grabbed his hat and placed it over his eyes.
“I don’t take people places.” He told her and sighed as he laid back down. Well, looks like she would have to use force.
“Let me rephrase that…” Joanna took out on of the bags she had behind her back and threw it into his stomach. Dimmock grunted in slight pain and sat up in shock. “Take me up the north mountain.” She ordered. He raised an eyebrow to her and opened the bag she tossed, finding the rope and hook he had needed earlier. He looked at her, waiting for an explanation. “Look, I know how to stop this winter.” She told him. Dimmock sighed and laid back down.
“We leave at dawn.” He agreed. “And you forgot the carrots for Anders.” However a bag that hit his face this time told him she didn’t.
“Oh, I’m sorry-” Joanna began to apologize for the abrupt hit, but cleared her throat and remained firm. “We leave now. Right now.” She demanded and walked outside the stable, hoping that was all she needed to do. Dimmock eyed the door, letting Anders take a bite of a carrot and then taking a bite himself, despite the germs.
Moments later, they were on their way, riding on Dimmock’s sled through the forest. Anders galloped with gusto as the reigns cracked and Joanna laughed with excitement.
“Hang on! We like to go fast.” Dimmock instructed, loving the rush of the wind.
“I like fast!” Joanna said and propped her feet up on the sled.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Get your feet down. This is fresh lacquer, seriously, were you raised in a barn?” He shooed her feet away and spit on the wood, wiping away and marks she may have left. Joanna rolled her eyes.
“No, I was raised in a castle.” She answered, wiping away a small drop of the man’s saliva off her cheek in disgust.
“So what, are you the King’s mistress or something?” Dimmock asked.
“N-No!” she blushed at the notion and cleared her name. “I’m Joanna, Captain of the Royal Guard! I was a maid’s daughter so I was raised in the castle.”
“So tell me then, Captain, what made the King go all ice crazy?” he asked, not really caring about her title.  
“Oh… well…” she shifted awkwardly. “It was all my fault.” She admitted. “I got engaged to a prince, but then the king freaked out, because I had only just met him, you know, that day. And he said he wouldn’t bless the marriage and-”
“Wait. You got engaged to someone you just met that day?” Dimmock interrupted.
“Yeah, anyway, I got mad, and so he got mad, and then he tried to walk away, and I grabbed his glove…” Joanna explained, recapping the entire night.
“Hang on!” Dimmock shouted, never getting past the engagement. “You mean to tell me you got engaged to someone you just met that day?!”
“Yes, pay attention.” She rolled her eyes. “But the thing is, he wore the gloves all the time so I just thought, ‘maybe he has a thing about dirt’!”
“How stupid are you?! Didn’t your parents ever warn you about strangers?!” Dimmock asked, causing Joanna to notice how close he really was. She looked him up and down and scooted away a bit.
“Yesss she did.” She answered, not having “parents” but only a mother. “But Richard is not a stranger.” She crossed her arms and Dimmock sighed and grabbed the reigns again.
“Oh yeah? What’s his last name?” he asked with a smirk.
“Brooke-of-the-southern-isles.” She scoffed.
“What’s his favorite food?”
“Sandwiches.”
“Best friend’s name?”
“Probably John.”
“Eye color?”
“Dreamy~”
“Shoe size?”
“Shoe size doesn’t matter.” Joanna laughed.
“Have you had a meal with him yet?” Dimmock persisted. “What if you hate the way he eats? What if you hate the way he picks his nose?”
“Picks his nose?”
“And eats it.” He smirked.
“Excuse me sir, he is a prince.” She argued. Princes never behaved so disgustingly, did they? Not that she cared if a man picked his nose, but princes were supposed to be refined.
“All men do it.” Dimmock said, knowing it was a fact.
“Look, it doesn’t matter. It’s love!” Joanna said with anger.
“It doesn’t sound like love.”
“Are you some sort of love expert?” Joanna scoffed. He paused for a moment and looked away.
“Well no… but I have friends who are.” Dimmock explained, but noticed the sleigh was slowing down.
“You have friends who are love experts? I’m not buying it.” Joanna crossed her arms.
“Stop talking.”
“No, no, no, no. I’d like to meet these-”
“No, I mean it!” Dimmock whispered and covered her mouth before she could say anything more. Joanna pushed his hand away but stayed quiet after that, knowing something was up. The sleigh was stopped and Anders looked around cautiously as Dimmock did the same. He picked up the singular lantern they had and looked in every direction. Joanna wasn’t used to the forest or its inhabitants, so when she heard a low growl coming from behind, a chill went up her neck. Dimmock knew exactly what was happening as soon as he saw the furry and low crawling silhouettes.
“Anders, go! Go!” he ordered and the sleigh took off.
“What are they?!” Joanna asked, looking back to see the creatures chasing them.
“Wolves!”
“Wolves?!” she had never seen a wolf but she had read about them. Dimmock reached over the back of their seat and into the supplies. “What do we do?”
“I got this.” He dismissed her. “You just… don’t fall off and don’t get eaten.” He grabbed a torch and lit it with the fire of his lantern.
“But I wanna help!” Joanna argued and tried to reach into the supplies as well.
“No!” Dimmock refused and pulled her back.
“Why not?!”
“Because I don’t trust your judgment!”
“Excuse me?! I am a captain!”
“Who marries a man she just met?!” He asked and kicked away a wolf that decided to pounce.
“It’s TRUE LOVE!” Joanna shouted, grabbing his lute from the supplies and winding it up like a blunt murder weapon. She was getting really tired of people telling her her feelings weren’t true.
“Whoa!” Dimmock leaned back as she swung, actually smacking away another wolf. “Whoa…” he stared at her for a moment before feeling a hard tug on his sleeve. “WHOA!” he yelled as a wolf pulled him off the sled and into the snow.
“Damek!” Joanna caught the torch and watched him grab a rope to stay connected the sleigh. He kept his head up from the freezing snow and hung on for dear life.
“It’s ‘Dimmock’!” he found time to correct her. A wolf bit into his pant leg. “Ow!” then another. “OW!” Anders glanced back, seeing the situation, and ran faster. Joanna looked through the supplies for something to help. She set fire to his sleeping mat and lifted the burning object above her head.
“Duck!” she ordered.
“WHAT THE-” Dimmock screamed and ducked his head in the snow just in time. The mat hit the two wolves straight in their noses and bought him enough time to get back in the sled. “You almost set me on fire!” he yelled, climbing up the rope.
“But I didn’t!” Joanna reasoned and helped him into the seat. Anders grunted to get their attention, seeing what lied in their path. They both gasped, spotting the large cliff they were about to fly off. “Why is it always a cliff?!” Joanna thought. “Get ready to jump, Anders!”
“You don’t tell him what to do!” Dimmock yelled and handed her a bag of supplies in addition to the satchel she already carried. “I do!” Without warning, he scooped her up and threw her onto Anders’ back. Joanna was lucky she didn’t fall off and held on desperately as she heard, “Jump, Anders!” Dimmock cut the ropes that connected the reindeer from the sled. Anders did what he was told and leapt, soaring across the crevasse with the detached sled losing momentum behind him. They landed safely, but Dimmock and the sleigh were not going to make it. The ice harvester jumped from the falling sled and just barely landed on the other side. The wolves were left howling on the other side, growling at their escaped prey.
Dimmock glanced over his shoulder and down the cliff. His sleigh was in pieces on the very, very far ground, catching fire just in case any part of it was still intact.
“But I just paid it off…” he whined. But he didn’t have time to grieve when the snow he was gripping into began to slide. “Uh oh…” it started sliding completely, causing him to go with it. “No, no, no!” he yelped, trying to grab something to keep him from falling. “Ah! No, no, no, no, no, no, no-” he was silenced by a pickaxe landing directly in front of his face with rope attached to it.
“Grab on!” Joanna called to him, holding the other end. Dimmock didn’t hesitate and grasped the axe with both hands. “Pull, Anders! Pull!” she instructed and helped as well. He was brought up to where it was safe and laid on his back, brushing some snow off his face. “Whoa…” Joanna glanced down the cliff and could see a bit of smoke coming from where she saw it fall. “I-I can replace your sled!” she offered, earning a pained groan in response. “And everything in it?” she tried again, but knew that he was 300% done at this point. “And… I understand if you don’t want to help me anymore…” Joanna decided to walk away. She couldn’t ask him to assist her further, it was too much after losing his entire sled. She could find the north mountain on her own, right? After all, she had seen maps… in books… it would help if she had one now, but she was a captain! She could find a landmark… remember the maps she had seen… and…
Yeah, she was screwed.
Sorry it took so long XD so I decided to make Dimmock the Kristoff character because I not only think
Paul Chequer is such an adorable dork, but because I think Dimmock needs more recognition. Also, now Scottland Yard can be the Troll tribe :D (Don't worry, I'll make it cool)
Oh and Anderson is Sven *sorry not sorry*
and sorry its so much like the movie... its mostly the dramatic parts that will be really different (and we will see more of Sherlock's time in his ice castle next chapter)
© 2014 - 2024 Mangaka4eva
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