Disney Before the Story by Kate Egan

Author:Kate Egan [Disney Book Group]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2020-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

“Is there anything for me?” she asked, running to keep up with the carriage. “Is there a letter?”

Nikko drew his horse to a stop. He turned around and rummaged in his burlap bag. “Yes, I believe I do have something for you,” he said. “Unless I left it behind. . . .”

The twinkle in his eye told Anna he was teasing. He broke into a smile as he handed her another envelope.

Nikko patted the bag. “I kept it right here for safekeeping,” he told Anna. “I knew it was something important.”

Anna remembered to thank Nikko before she snatched the letter out of his hand. In her rush to see what was inside, she ripped the envelope open.

Like Anna, Astrid was still thinking about Soren. “Dear Anna,” the letter said. “If Soren can fly, he is a very special squirrel. What else do you think he can do?”

Anna had been wondering about that herself! Soren could have powers that most squirrels only dreamed of. . . .

“Dear Astrid,” she wrote back. “Sometimes I think he can speak in a language that we don’t know. Or that maybe we can’t hear.”

She drew a picture of Soren playing with a pair of rabbits and a robin. “What if the animals can all talk to each other?” Anna asked Astrid. “What if they want to talk to people, but they don’t know how?”

Anna had a new spring in her step after Nikko left with her latest letter. She would love to swim or skate or sing with a friend, it was true. But the best thing to do with a friend was play pretend.

Back when they were little, Anna and Elsa had pretended all the time. They imagined that they were polar bear sisters, or explorers in the snow, and those stories never ended. They just kept adding to them every time they played. Writing to Astrid reminded Anna of the best times with Elsa.

Anna did not quite understand how a person she had imagined—Astrid—had suddenly come to life. But there were plenty of things she did not understand, like why Elsa had stopped speaking to her, or why the sun rose and set, or why she did not like the taste of pickled herring. So Anna just accepted Astrid for who she was. And with Astrid to write to, it was hard for Anna to stop pretending.

In the morning, she set an extra place at the table for Astrid. “Who will be joining you for breakfast?” Olina asked.

“A friend,” Anna said.

“The squirrel?” Olina replied. “I do not think that is a good idea.”

Anna’s laugh rang through the grand dining room. “No, silly,” she corrected Olina. “Astrid!” Mealtime was lonely without her parents, but Astrid could keep Anna company. At least in her imagination.

During her lessons, Anna was distracted. “Your head is in the clouds,” Miss Larsen said, but that only made Anna think about clouds. Could Soren fly that high? She would have to ask Astrid what she thought of that.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.