Andrew Lan's Twelve-Color Fairy Tale Series: Pink Fairy Tale Books

Chapter 20 The Ice Queen (3)
There was also a reindeer there, and the little robber's daughter tickled and teased him with her long pointed knife.

Gerda lay there, unable to sleep for a long time.

"Coo-coo, coo-coo!" cried the wooden dove, "we saw little Kay! A white bird carried his little sleigh, and he sat in the Snow Queen's big sleigh, and they passed through the forest, Our children were still in the den at that time! As soon as the Snow Queen got angry at our children, they all died, and we were left alone! Coo coo, coo coo!"

"What are you talking about?" cried Gerda. "Where is the Snow Queen? Do you know?"

"She probably went to Lapland, which is always covered with snow and ice. Ask the reindeer!"

"Oh, it's full of ice and snow!" said the reindeer. "There is a beautiful valley there, and in that valley lies the Snow Queen's summer palace. But her best palace is in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard!"

"Oh Kay, my little Kay!" cried Gerda.

"Lie down and be quiet," said the Robber's Daughter, "or I'll kill you!"

In the morning, Gerda told the robber's daughter what the wooden pigeon had said. She nodded and asked the reindeer, "Do you know where Lapland is?"

"Who knows better than I?" said the Reindeer, his eyes lighting up. "I was born and brought up in that snow!"

"Listen!" said the robber's daughter to Gerda. "Now all the robbers are out, only my mother is left. She will go to bed in the afternoon, and then I will try to help you!"

When her mother had fallen asleep, the robber daughter went up to the reindeer and said to him, "I will let you go now to Lapland! You must take this little girl to the Snow Queen's palace at once, her goodness." The mate is there! You must have heard her story about her and this little mate, she said it so loudly!"

The reindeer jumped up and down for joy.The Robber's Daughter helped little Gerda onto the reindeer, fastened the safety ropes, and gave her a small pillow as a cushion. "You must put on your fur boots," she said, "it's going to be cold in there, but I want to keep your muff, it's so warm and beautiful! But I'm afraid your hands will freeze , These are my mother's fur gloves, they are big enough to fit your arms, put your hands in them!"

Gerda was moved and shed tears of gratitude.

"Don't make yourself so ugly!" said the Robber's Daughter. "You must look happy! Here are two loaves, and sausages, so you won't be hungry!"

When all these things had been tied to the reindeer, the Robber's Daughter opened the door, drove away all the big dogs, cut off the reins of the reindeer with a sharp knife, and said to him, "Run, and take care of the little girl!"

Gerda held out her big fur-gloved hand and waved goodbye to the robber's daughter, saying "Good-bye!"

Then the reindeer ran as fast as he could, flew off the ground, and crossed the great forest.

Wolves howled in the forest, crows flew past them, and in the evening the sky was red as if on fire.

"Oh, those are my dear Northern Lights," said the reindeer, "see how bright they are!"

Then he picked up speed again, galloping forward day and night.

The bread was gone, the sausages were gone, and they were at last in Lapland.

They stopped in front of a very run-down little house.The small house is so short that the roof almost touches the ground, and the door is so low that people can only climb in and out.

There was only one Lappish woman in the room, and she was cooking fish over an oil lamp.The reindeer told her all Gerda's story, but first of all he related this adventure of his own, because it seemed more important to him, and Gerda was too cold to speak.

"Oh, two poor little things!" said the Lappish woman, "you have to go further! You have a hundred miles to go before you reach Finland, where the Snow Queen lives. Every night she lights Signal fireworks! I have no paper, so I will write something on dried cod, and you must give it to this Finn woman, and she will give you better advice."

Gerda warmed up slowly, and ate and drank again.At this time, the Lapland woman also wrote a message on the dried cod. She asked Gerda to put the cod away, and then helped her sit on the reindeer's back and fasten the rope.So they set off again.

Throughout the night, the sky was brightly lit by the northern lights.Then they came to Finland, found the Finnish woman's house, and knocked on the chimney of her house, because there was no door in her house!

It was hot in the house, and the Finn, who was lightly dressed, took off some of Gerda's clothes, and her leather gloves and boots.Then put a piece of ice on the reindeer's head and read what was written on the dried cod.She read it so many times until she got it down by heart that she ended up putting the fish in the frying pan because she never wasted anything.

"You are very clever," said the reindeer, "I know that. Why don't you give the little girl something to drink? That will give her the strength of twelve men, and then she can defeat the Snow Queen!"

"The power of twelve!" said the Finn. "That won't do much! Little Kay is with the Snow Queen now, and he loves everything there, and thinks it's the best place in the world. But that's because He has the shards of the magic mirror in his heart and eyes! As long as the shards don't come out, he will never be free, and the Snow Queen will control him forever!"

"Then can't you give little Gerda something so that she has enough power to control the Snow Queen?"

"She already has enough power, I can't give her more power! Don't you see how powerful she is? You don't know how people and animals help her when she runs around barefoot. Hers? She is already very powerful, just because she is a very innocent and cute child! If she can't defeat the Ice Queen and help Little Kai remove the mirror glass, then none of us can help her! Go out here, two miles, and it belongs to the garden of the Snow Queen. There is a large bush with red berries, and you will put little Gerda down next to it. Then you must come back here as fast as possible. .”

Then the Finnish woman put little Gerda on the back of the reindeer, and the reindeer rushed forward quickly.

"Oh, I forgot my gloves and my boots!" cried Gerda, who missed warm gloves and boots so much in the biting cold, but the reindeer dared not stop.He ran on and on until he came to the bush with the red berries.He put Gerda down, kissed her on the lips, big tears ran down his cheeks, and ran back again.Poor Gerda stood alone in the ice and snow, in Finland, in such a severe winter, she was barefoot, without shoes, let alone gloves!
She rushed forward with all her strength.Countless huge snow flakes hit Gerda, but they melted away as soon as they touched her body, and the little girl had more courage to move on.

Oh, now we have to see what Kay is up to.Kai never thought of Gerda at all, and never even dreamed that she was standing outside the palace gate now!
The walls of the palace are made of icy snow, and all the doors and windows are made of biting cold wind.There are more than 100 large halls of ice and snow in the palace, the largest one is several miles long.So empty and cold were these great halls, gleaming coldly under the northern lights!There is a frozen lake in the middle of the largest hall, and the surface of the lake is evenly split into 1000 yuan, each piece is exactly the same, looking like a huge ice flower.The Snow Queen used to sit here when she was home!
Little Kay was blue and purple from the cold, but he didn't feel it at all, because the Snow Queen kissed away his feelings and senses, and his heart was turned into a ball of ice!

He is putting together some sharp and flat ice cubes.Every piece of ice seemed so beautiful to him, but it was all because of the glass shards of the magic mirror in his eyes!He uses these ice cubes to spell all kinds of shapes, hoping to spell the word "love"!Because the Snow Queen said, "If you can spell that word, you can be your own master again! Then I'll give you the whole world and a new pair of skates!"

But he simply can't do it.

"I must go to a warmer country now," said the Snow Queen, "and get some ashes from my great black cauldron! That's good for lemons and grapes!" (she put Mount Etna And Mount Vesuvius is called the "big black pot"!)
Then she flew away, leaving Kay sitting alone in the huge hall, continuing to combine his ice cubes.

He sat there very still, motionless, seemingly frozen.

When little Gerda entered the empty and cold hall, the cold wind stopped whistling immediately, as if she had fallen asleep.

The little girl saw Kay and recognized him immediately. She rushed over, put her arms around his neck, and cried, "Kay! Dear little Kay, I finally found you!"

But Kay still sat still, cold to her, and Gerda's hot tears dripped on his neck, melting his heart and washing away the piece of glass in his heart!He looked at the little girl, and tears welled up, and he shed so many tears that the magic mirror shards came out of his eyes!Then Kay recognized Gerda, and he cried out loudly: "Oh, Gerda! Dear little Gerda! Where have you been all this time? Where have I been?"

Kay looked around.

"It's so cold here! It's so big and so empty!" He stretched out his arms and hugged Gerda. Gerda was so excited that tears of joy flowed down her cheeks.What a happy moment this is!The ice cubes couldn't help but dance around them, they danced and danced, and finally they were so tired that they lay on the ground, forming a word "love" on the ground!The Snow Queen said he had to spell that word out of ice to be his own master, to get the whole world, to get a new pair of skates.

Gerda kissed Kay on the face, and his face immediately turned red; she kissed his eyes, and his eyes immediately became as bright as hers; she kissed his hands and feet, and his whole body immediately became warm!The Snow Queen may be going home soon, and when she comes back, she will see the word "love" spelled out by that ice cube. This word "love" that can set Kay free is shining beautifully!
Kay and Gerda held hands and walked out of the palace, talking about grandma and the roses they both planted.Everywhere they went, the cold wind stopped immediately and the sun came out.When they came to the bush with the red berries, they saw the reindeer waiting for them.

The reindeer carried Kay and Gerda to the Finnish woman first.The Finn kept them warm in her hot cabin and told them what to watch out for on the way home.

Then they came to the Lappish woman, who got them new clothes and repaired their sled.They kept running and running, and finally they saw patches of green fields, and spring made everything here full of vitality.Here the reindeer bid them farewell.

They walked on again, and soon they came to the forest through which Gerda had come. The trees in the forest were all sprouting new buds, and they were full of spring!At this moment, a very beautiful horse came out of the forest. Gerda knew it, and it was the horse of the Larkin carriage!Sitting on horseback was a girl wearing a red hat and a gun on her waist. She was the youngest daughter of a robber. She was tired of staying at home and wanted to go outside for a walk.When the two sides got closer, the two girls saw each other, and they recognized each other at a glance!
"You can do it!" said the Robber's Daughter to Kay. "I want to know if you're really worth chasing around the world!"

But Gerda slapped her on the face, and asked about the prince and princess.

"They're roaming about!" said the Robber's Daughter.

"Where's the crow?" Gerda asked again.

"Oh, the crow is dead!" she answered; "his dear love is a widow, with black veils on her legs. She seems to be sorry, but what's the use. Tell me what's going on , how did you catch him?"

So Kay and Gerda told her everything.

"Whoa, nice guy!" exclaimed the Robber's Daughter.Then she shook hands with them and said goodbye, and said that she would definitely visit them when she came to their city.Then, she mounted the horse and continued on.

Gerda and Kay go home holding hands.Grandma and everything in the house was the same, but as they walked across the porch, they realized they had grown up.

On the aisle connecting the two cottages, the roses they planted are blooming.Oh, it's summer now, hot summer, beautiful summer!
(End of this chapter)