With Snowdrop safely nestled in her lap, Elsa stretched out her free arm and yawned, eager to fall asleep on the reindeer's back. She had nearly done everything that she could, and all that was left was to get Snowdrop to the trolls. It should have been easy enough to do so, yet, as they moved down the mountain through what little snow was left, Elsa couldn’t bring herself to relax. Even though she deserved it, a part of her wouldn’t submit to her fatigue until she saw the trolls remove the ice from Snowdrop’s head, and then saw to it that the foal was returned to her mother.
“Come on,” Elsa said repeatedly as they slowly made their way down the mountain. “We must go faster!”
“Sorry, your highness,” Kristoff said as he guided Sven, “I know you’re in a hurry, but I’m not in a hurry to die today if I can help it.”
“Shh,” Elsa commanded as she held Snowdrop closer to her chest, “you’ll wake her up.”
Bundled tightly in her arms, the young filly rested while her ice crystals slowly continued to grow. Still, as long as Elsa felt Snowdrop’s warm breath and rising chest, Elsa knew the foal was alive.
Kristoff rolled his eyes as Elsa cradled Snowdrop closer to her chest as they reached more level ground. “You know,” he said as he hopped back onto Sven’s back, “you sure seem to care an awful lot about it. If I did… Ow, ow, OW!” he cried as he felt his back freeze up.
“Its name,” Elsa hissed as her wrist flared in pain, “is Snowdrop.”
“Okay, Okay, sorry!” he shouted once Elsa released her grip “Although, that does back up my case of you caring about her, her! so much. It’s like you’re her mother.”
With deep breaths, Elsa wanted to protest, but two things stopped her.
The first was when she realized that she had come to care for Snowdrop, even in such a short amount of time. Not as close as she was with Anna or anything major, she reasoned, yet she did feel something strong for the child wrapped in her arms. Of course, Elsa reasoned that it was just her feeling guilty for not getting her home as well as freezing her, but it still stood that she was very determined to get Snowdrop to the trolls. If not at least so Snowdrop could be healed and safely returned home.
The second thing was a loud rumbling sound that echoed and shook the mountain. As it grew louder, a massive avalanche descended upon them.
“Sven, go, trees, now!” Kristoff uttered as the reindeer made a beeline for the trees, with each bound Sven took, the massive wall of snow gain by twice the distance.
Elsa, on the other hand, looked up at the avalanche with dismay. She didn’t have a lot of energy left, but she knew that she would have to do something. If nothing was done, they would be buried alive. With a weakened face, she turned to face the avalanche, arms raised, ready to stop it. Before she could do anything, she felt a warm hand upon her back.
“Save your energy!” Kristoff said as they approached the trees. “I think we're gona—“ he stopped as his back grew cold.
“Don’t… Even… Think about it!” Elsa warned as she spent a bit of her energy to save them from being jinxed.
“O… okay! Just, whoa!” Before they could make it, the snow was upon them.
Wasting no time, Elsa screamed in agony as she deflected most of the snow. She suffered dearly for her actions as her own body took in most of force, most of the snow got through as they were buried under the snow.
However, the snow was mushy and with a wave of her hand Elsa pushed aside most of the snow and pulled everyone out rather easily.
“So, we’re alive?” Olaf asked as he felt his legs.
“Yeah,” Kristoff nodded as he brushed some snow off of him. “And I think the worst is over.”
Suddenly, a loud roar echoed throughout the trees. A moment later, a tree flew through the air. From the trees, emerged a yeti.
“Oh come on! An abominable snowman?”
Elsa narrowed her eyes and shook her head.
The massive beast roared at them, pinning them in place with fear. As it lunged at them, Sven reared up and barely dodged his claws. However, as he jumped back on two legs, the party on his back fell off as they rolled all over the place, making easy pickings for the yeti.
On the ground, Elsa moaned, but shot back up as she saw Snowdrop roll towards the yeti.
The beast growled at the foal as Snowdrop whimpered, “Momma!”
Fist clenched, Elsa pushed herself up and threw herself between the monster and Snowdrop. Hands held back, legs shaking, Elsa fired blast after blast at the monster.
“Be gone with you!” she commanded as one of her ice-blasts froze it’s arm..
While the ice-blasts were strong, in her state, they were only able to annoy the yeti. With an ear-piercing cry, the beast broke through the ice and swatted Elsa out of the way.
With a screak, she smacked into a tree. Upon contact, she felt her back go limp and the pain escalated from bearable, to unimaginable as the bark that ripped through her dress scrapped her skin. Never breaking more than the epidermis, but causing fierce agonizing pain. Once she fell to the ground, she wanted to do nothing more than lay there forever. Yet, as she heard Snowdrop cry out for her, all Elsa cared about was getting back up. Head spinning, back torn, she was desperate to get to Snowdrop before the yeti did.
“Get away from her!” Elsa ordered as she carried herself forward with one arm supporting the other.
The yeti certainly was taken off guard by Elsa’s sudden resurrection, but it showed no fear as it advanced towards Elsa, ready to go in for the kill. Suddenly, a much larger—and more literal—snowman crashed in right behind him. Limping on one leg, the monster roared at the yeti as the small party below stared.
“Oh, hey, Marshmallow,” Olaf said with a goofy grin.
Elsa looked down at Olaf. “Marshmallow?”
Olaf shrugged. “Seemed like a good name at the time.”
Elsa looked up at Marshmallow as he limped on his one leg. If that wasn’t enough, the warmer weather had nearly melted her poor creation away. He wasn’t as intimidating as when she had created him, yet still showed a lot of spark and power in carrying out his goal of protecting Elsa.
Catching the yeti off guard, Marshmallow pulled back on the beast’s shoulders and threw him onto his back. However, not as strong as when he was created, the yeti only stayed down for a moment. Once it got back up, it grabbed Marshmallow around the waist and shoved him into a tree, where the beast went to work chiseling away at what remained of the giant snowman. Each punch wore down Marshmallow until his upper half threatened to separate from his lower self.
“Come on!” Kristoff said as he hopped back onto Sven and raced towards Elsa and Olaf.
Before he could, the yeti grabbed a nearby tree and blocked their path. With nowhere to go, he made his way towards Elsa, only to be stopped when Marshmallow slammed into him, pinning him to the ground for a short while.
Elsa, seeing a chance, waved her arm and created a snow flurry around Marshmallow, bringing him back to his former strength as his leg regrew and his body hardened. As the yeit lunged at him, Marshmallow as able to pin the yeti down, giving the party the chance they needed.
“Now we go!” Kristoff said as he and Sven made it around the tree, snatching up Elsa, Snowdrop and Olaf in one fell swoop.
Sven was about to race off, when the yeti pushed Marshmallow off and sent another roar in their direction.
“Come on, Sven!” Kristoff nudged the frightened animal. “Move, you dumb animal,” he said as he kicked Sven hard.
The reindeer moaned and raced through the two snowmen’s battle. The yeti tried to reach them, but Marshmallow let him have a right uppercut. Throwing the yeti down as Elsa and her compnay raced through the forest as the echo of the battle raged behind them.
*****
Sven ran through the trees until the roars of the snowmens’ battle were nothing more than a distant cry.
Elsa sat still, eyes locked forward as her vision blurred.
“Are you alright?” she heard Olaf ask as he placed one of his twig arms on her back.
“Fine… Fine I— I’m fine!” She fiercely shook her head. “Let’s just get to the trolls. Oh, and if one of you dare jinx us, I will lock both of you in the dungeons for the rest of your lives.”
The guys started at her. “Why do I have to be locked up just because he says something wrong?” Olaf pointed out.
Kristoff turned to face them. “Let’s just all shut up until we get there, okay?”
Elsa nodded her head approvingly. “Good, good, now we just… Ugh!” Elsa leaned forward onto Kristoff's shoulders.
Kristoff responded with a slight pull on Sven’s antlers. “Whoa—“
“Don’t you dare stop, peasant!”
Kristoff piped down as Sven picked up speed. “Yeesh,” Kristoff said as he turned to stare at her. “You're on fire.”
Elsa rolled her eyes. “Okay, so maybe peasant was uncalled for, but you didn’t—”
“No,” Kristoff said as he placed a hand on her forehead. “I mean your literally burning up. You look like you got a fever.”
After she took a breath, she noticed that he was right. She felt uncomfortably hot, as well as every other pain—and more so—someone had when they were sick.
“Just… just… get us to... the trolls,” she said between breaths. “I’ll be... fine as long as nothing else bad happens.”
Suddenly, Sven came to a stop at a wide river.
“So,” Olaf said, “do we all have to go to the dungeons, or would that just be you because you only said if us guys said it?”
In front of them was a wide river, flowing faster than usual for the time of year.
“Is there… there a way to go around?”
Kristoff looked towards the red faced queen and the icing bundle in her arms. “I don’t think we have the time.” He gave Sven’s antlers a hard turn. “Don’t worry, your majesty, I know where the river is shallow.”
Elsa wasn’t going to hear any of that. “I can… I think I… I can make a bridge, ugh.” she tried to wave her hands, and while a thin ice bridge appeared in front of them, it quickly melted and dissolved into the river.
“Don’t worry,” Kristoff assured, “the crossing isn’t far. We’ll get you there in no time.”
“Good,” Elsa nodded continually, too tired to question anything as she held onto Snowdrop in an attempt to simultaneously cool herself off and defrost the filly. “Good…”
As she did so, Kristoff made his way to the shore, watching his steps, as the ground was muddy from all the snow and ice that had just as quickly vanished. Still, he was able to carefully and quickly lead Sven to the water’s edge.
“Alright, buddy,” he said as he patted Sven’s neck, “you ready for a little swim?” The reindeer moaned but nodded his head.
“Alright, let’s do it! Our destination is just across this little stream.” With that said, Sven began to make his way across the water.
“So this is water?” Olaf said as he looked at his reflection. “I wonder what—” He stuck his legs into the water and pulled them out immediately. “Ow, ow!” he screamed. “It burns, it burns! Why does it burn?”
“Hey,” Elsa said weakly, “water… is melted snow, Olaf. You must… be careful.”
“Oh I’m sorry, Elsa,” he said as he placed one of his branches arms to her face. “I didn’t mean—”
“It’s fine,” Elsa panted. “Just be careful, okay?”
Olaf nodded. “Okay. But can I, I don’t know, crawl on top of your head since I’m running out of room to stand on the reindeer?” he said as the water began to rise above Sven’s body.
With no hesitation, Elsa lifted him up onto her back as the water went past her hips.
“Ugh,” she heard Snowdrop moan, ice chunks floating on the surrounding water. “Are we there yet?”
“Just hang on there, dear,” Elsa said as she raised Snowdrop to her chest. “We are almost there.”
As they waded halfway across the river, a loud roar could be heard as flocks of birds took to the air from upstream.
Now what? Elsa thought to herself as she looked up as the sound of water echoed through the valley. It was at that point that Elsa noticed that the river had begun to rise.
“Go, now!” she ordered as Sven moved forward. Each step causing the reindeer to sink deeper and deeper. As he got halfway across the stream, neck deep into the water, Sven stopped.
“Sven, what’s wrong?”
Sven moaned as it became clear that he was stuck.
“Hang on,” Kristoff said as he dove under. Minutes passed, Elsa held on tightly to Snowdrop as the water began to rise and pick up speed.
At last, Kristoff resurfaced with a defeated look on his face. “I’ll have him out in a minute.”
The rushing water grew louder.
Kristoff's jaw dropped. “I don’t think we have that long.” On cue, a massive wall of brown water rounded the bend, growing larger and wider as it advanced on them.
Back aching, arms sore, Elsa placed Snowdrop and Olaf on Sven’s head, jumped off his back, and waded through the water.
“What are you doing?” Kristoff said when he resurfaced again.
Elsa didn’t answer. Instead, she took in a quick deep breath, and with her body aching, she froze the water around them, fighting both the rising stream and every instinct in her body to stop. This immediately drained the water around them, allowing Sven to free his leg as he raced off with Olaf and Snowdrop.
“Come on,” Kristoff shouted, “let’s go!”
Elsa didn't pay attention. Instead, she moved the ice around into a massive wall. A moment later, she felt the impact of the runoff as it hit the ice wall. All Elsa wanted to do when she felt the impact was cry out in pain and collapse. Give in, and let her nightmare of misery end. Yet, despite the pain that threated to break her body, she told herself that choice wasn’t an option. However, even with the miraculous second wind she had acquired, she couldn’t hope to both keep the ice wall up and make it to the safety of the high ground on the other side.
“What are you waiting for?” he asked, but Elsa could tell that he knew the inevitable truth.
“Make… Make sure Snowdrop gets to the trolls.”
Kristoff's mouth dropped a gape. “No I—”
“Go!” she screamed as she used a foot to fire a blast of ice at him, which missed his chest by meters. “Do not expect me to miss next time. As your queen, I demand that you go. Please,” she said as tears began to flow down her cheek, “take care of Anna for me. Make sure… Make sure she is the queen Arendelle deserves. Then see to it that Snowdrop gets home as well.”
Kristoff started to protest, but as he felt the water on his shoes he knew that she was right. If he didn’t leave, they would both die for nothing.
He nodded furiously and raced off towards the high ground, leaving Elsa to her doom.
Even though Elsa knew she was about to die, she wasn’t going to just stand there and do nothing. Despite all the pain that raced through her body, she slowly made her way towards the shore as the rest of her remaining energy went into keeping the ice wall from collapsing.
Nearly out of harm’s way, she opened up a few more holes to let some more water flow through. As she did so, the weight of the flood proved too much for her as the whole thing collapsed and gushed towards her.
Elsa tried to run, but her worn out body made it difficult to limp. As the water was upon and towered over her, she tripped on a rock. Elsa closed her eyes. She was ready to accept her fate. That was until a rope and a pair of arms wrapped around her.
“What the… Kristoff, you idiot!” she screamed in a raspy voice.
“Just shut up and take a deep breath,” he hastily said as the wall of waer crashed upon them.
Elsa did as he said, and then they were under.
For a moment, she thought that she had died, floating, suspended in a rather nice state of bliss, until they resurfaced, held firmly in place by the rope Kristoff had tied around them and a nearby tree.
Elsa, meanwhile, was able to conjure up one of the most pathetic sheets of ice she could muster. I couldn’t support them to stand up on, but it did hold long enough to be an effective floatation device.
“Hold on,” he said as the water rushed past them, “the shore's not that far.” Even though they only had to swim a few feet, the current made the journey feel like miles. However, Kristoff proved to Elsa that he was a strong swimmer, and was able to get them safely to the river’s new shore.
“You… *gasp… were sup… pose to save… Snowdrop.” Elsa said as Kristoff pulled them out of the water.
“I did. I made sure Sven was heading the right direction, then I came back for you.”
Hand clenched to her chest, Elsa uttered the words, “Thank… you.”
“I suppose that was one way to cool off. Still, I couldn’t let the queen and my future girlfriend’s sister die. I’d never hear the end of it.”
Elsa shot him a look. “What?” she said above a whisper as she suddenly realized that she felt a sharp pain in her belly. The last thing she remembered before she passed out was hearing her name being shouted out over and over again.