Anna, Elsa and Winnie the Pooh

A fanfiction combining my two beloved universes of Winnie the Pooh and Frozen, to celebrate Disney's 100th anniversary. The cover art is something I found on Pinterest; I'm unable to give proper credit to the artist because the captions were all in Japanese, but you can find it with Google Lens.

Elsa nearly always woke up before her sister Anna. This particular morning was no different. Yet somehow, it felt very different indeed.

"I have the feeling something marvelous will happen today," she announced to Anna when they met in the castle hallway, heading for breakfast.

"Like what?" Anna rubbed her eyes and brushed back her hair, still in a mess from bed.

"A journey to somewhere we've only dreamed about... A land where cute talking stuffed animals live in the woods."

"Oh, Elsa," Anna giggled. "That's ridiculous. It sounds like a fairytale."

"No more a fairytale than our talking snowman here," Elsa smiled as Olaf came running towards them, waving a book in the air.

"I learned a big word last night: meteorology! It means the study of weather. Can we go out on the balcony and watch the clouds? I'd like to make an official weather forecast for Arendelle!"

"After we eat, Olaf dear," Elsa said.

"We can't study the weather on an empty stomach," Anna added.

The sisters laughed and swung him between them down the hall by his twig hands.

After breakfast, when they were tidied up and dressed for the day, Elsa and Anna went out on the balcony with Olaf as they had promised. It provided a grand, sweeping view of Arendelle town and the fjord twinkling in the morning sunshine, with sailing ships at anchor in the bay. The first thing they spotted on the horizon was a big, broad cloud that seemed to shimmer and glow with a silvery shining light.

"Ooh, what is that?" Olaf flipped through his book, trying to identify what he saw.

"It's beautiful, whatever it is," Anna said.

"Goodness, I don't think I've ever seen a cloud like that before!" Elsa leaned over the railing, watching as it drew closer and became larger until it looked like it was ready to swallow up the entire castle.

"Uh, do you think it might be dangerous?" Anna asked, reaching for Elsa's hand.

"No, I think it's something magical."

Elsa took Olaf's twig hand, and they stood together and watched as the shimmering silver cloud engulfed them like a fogbank on the oceanfront. They couldn't see anything except for each other. Delicate flute music played within the cloud.

"Olaf, are you afraid?" Elsa asked.

"I'm not scared at all! This is lovely!"

After some time the mysterious glowing cloud lifted away, revealing entirely new surroundings. Elsa, Anna and Olaf were standing in a small sandy clearing in a forest. Birds sang cheerily from the trees, and a little brook wound along at their feet, its shores dotted with bluebells, daisies and periwinkle.

"Where are we?" Olaf asked, his voice quiet with awe.

"Why, you're in the Hundred Acre Wood, of course," said none other than Winnie the Pooh, stepping out from behind a tree, holding a sticky pot labeled "Hunny."

Anna squealed with delight when she saw him.

"Elsa, you were right! A land of talking stuffies!"

Pooh Bear was quickly followed by his friends Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit and Tigger, who gathered around and stared awkwardly at the newcomers. No one was quite sure what to do at first. Elsa gracefully introduced herself and her family, and so did Pooh and friends.

"Why, I've heard of you!" Roo piped up. "Owl tells us stories about the queen who can make snowflakes."

"Fairy tales and nonsense," Rabbit huffed. "You can't believe everything Owl tells you, Roo."

Elsa couldn't help laughing. She sent a few elegant little snowflakes twirling along. Roo jumped up and caught them.

"Whee! Look, Rabbit, it's true! We can have snow in the summer now!"

"What's so great about that?" Eeyore asked. "Snow is cold and wet and unpleasant, and when it melts it makes a muddy mess. The only good thing about summer is that it doesn't snow!"

Elsa patted Eeyore's mane.

"Don't worry," she said, "my snow won't make you cold or unhappy. It only melts when we want it to, and then it just disappears without any mud."

She leaned over and added a tiny snowflake to the pink bow on Eeyore's tail. He craned his neck around to admire it.

"Well, well," Rabbit cleared his throat in a businesslike way. "Such highly esteemed guests must be hungry after their long journey to our woods. Pooh Bear, shall we lead them to your house? I propose a picnic in your front yard. I'm sure they would appreciate tea and honey with haycorn muffins..."

"I would appreciate that myself," Pooh happily agreed, rubbing his tummy.

They all headed towards Pooh's house on one side of the woods. When they arrived, Anna and Elsa were amused to see that the door leading into the big old oak tree was just big enough for Pooh and friends, not for people. An old, lopsided sign hung over the doorway: Mr Sanders.

Pooh and Piglet went inside to prepare the picnic. Everyone waited expectantly. After a few minutes Pooh came back out with an armload of empty honey pots.

"I need to make a visit to the honey tree," he explained.

"We'll go and help you!" Elsa said.

Everyone agreed to come along. The honey tree was buzzing with activity. They all looked up at it, wondering how to fetch the honey without upsetting the bees.

"Think, think, think," Pooh Bear tapped his hand against his head and propped his elbow with his other hand in his "thinking" pose. He was hoping an idea would be awakened in this manner.

"I can bounce up and down to the beehive and grab a little honey each time," Tigger proposed.

"But the bees will get upset the first time, and then they'll sting you next time," Eeyore pointed out.

"I can help you out with my ice power," Elsa spoke up. "Insects like bees become slow and sleepy when it's cold. So if I make it start to snow around their hive, they'll think it's winter and go to sleep."

She proceeded to create a very small snowstorm which swirled above the hive. The bees noticed it and, buzzing in surprise to each other, decided it would be a good idea to hunker down. They disappeared deep within the tree trunk, leaving their excess honey deposits open for all.

"Now, who wants to climb the tree?" Elsa asked with the bright briskness of a teacher.

The Hundred Acre Wood friends looked at each other nervously. Tigger and Roo had gotten stuck in a tree once, and there was that time Pooh had tried lifting himself up to the beehive on a balloon. Owl could fly, but he wasn't around at the moment and he wouldn't be very good at honey gathering. Piglet was too small, Rabbit was too important, Kanga was too big, and Eeyore couldn't.

"I'll do it!" Anna spoke up. "I love climbing trees—I used to do it all the time when I was little."

She took off her rose-colored cape—"wow Eeyore, this looks lovely draped across your back!"—grabbed a honey pot and scrambled up into the honey tree. It was easy to collect the honey, now that the bees were convinced it was snowing. Tigger bounced up and down swapping out the pots, and in no time at all the task was completed.

Elsa made sure to melt away her little snowstorm so the bees could resume their business.

Now the friends were ready to enjoy their picnic. Pooh Bear very bashfully offered a simple song for the occasion:

Here we are having fun
Eating sweet honey
Under the sun

New friends and old ones
All together now
Under the sun

When the meal was over, they all strolled down to the river to play Poohsticks at the bridge. Olaf amused them by using one of his twig arms as a Poohstick, and he won several games. Elsa build a snowy little fortress with a slippery slide for everyone to play in.

After a wonderful day of fun and games, they climbed a hillside to watch the sunset. Elsa saw far in the distance that shimmering silver cloud coming to take her, Anna and Olaf back home.

"I'm afraid I'll forget you, Elsa," Pooh Bear said sadly.

Elsa knelt down and wrapped him in a big hug.

"I'll leave you something so you'll always remember me, you sweet and silly bear." She made a beautiful crystal ice honey pot for him, with snowflakes and honeybees etched into it. "This will never melt away."

Meanwhile, Anna and Eeyore had struck up a friendship among the thistles.

"I suppose you'll be wanting your cape back," he sighed.

"It's all yours." Anna hugged him. "I have plenty more in the castle. Maybe someday you guys can visit us there."

The cloud wrapped around Anna, Elsa and Olaf again, and they found themselves standing on the castle balcony overlooking Arendelle.

"That was amazing," Olaf declared. "Look, Pooh Bear gave me this!" He held up a tiny pot of honey. "Let's save it for a keepsake—you know honey lasts forever, right?"

"Both honey and memories last forever," Anna said as they watched the sunset.