How could they have been so stupid? So clueless? How could they let themselves be split up? How could they not have seen that the little girl never had any magical powers? That the Chancellor had used this Equinox Wand to stage everything -every turning leaf, every lick of wind- to fabricate the story that there was another magically gifted child who needed help learning to control her powers?
He spurred Sven on, down the hill, over the slippery leaves, through the eerily silent forest. The herd of reindeer accompanying them kept pace, sensing the importance of their mission, wild beasts though they were. He did not know how much time they had left, before all hope was lost.
The Chancellor had masterfully fomented discord and distrust amongst them, preying on their self-doubts and deepest fears. Divide and conquer, one of the oldest tricks in the book.
First the Chancellor had turned him and Anna against Elsa. Elsa hadn't wanted all three of them to leave Arendelle at the same time. Elsa was the only one of them who had been skeptical that the girl was the source of the magical happenings. Elsa was the only one of them (other than Sven) who had not been won over by the Chancellor's charisma and admiration. Elsa had been seemingly shutting out the world again since she arrived here. It had all played right into the Chancellor's hands; he had made her out to be disdainful, jealous, petulant, stingy, unstable, untrustworthy. Then the Chancellor turned the couple against themselves with distressing ease.
Amidst all the paranoia, they totally missed that Elsa hadn't been shutting out the world; she had been shutting down. She hadn't been reining in her magic like a replay of the old "conceal, don't feel" days; she had been instinctively trying to hang on to it for dear life as it was deliberately and insidiously siphoned. The Snow Queen had been lured here so that the Chancellor could drain her powers and usurp the throne of winter -and have the world at his nonexistent mercy for all the foreseeable future- while an armed force headed by a particular disgraced and disinherited prince and a certain economically-struggling duke closed in on Arendelle to exact an especial retribution.
At that thought, he pressed Sven on even more, and his mount responded, understanding their need. Grand Pabbie had hinted that Elsa wasn't merely a human who could somehow make use of the external magic that pulsed throughout existence, but that her magic was an intrinsic part of her. A part that she could not live without it, any more than an ordinary human could live without a heart. And their experiences here were proving the old troll right. They had to find Elsa before the Chancellor could bleed out the last of her magic and claim it for himself. As much as he yearned to find Anna and take on this smiling villain as a team, he had to hope Anna's bushcraft skills would help her escape whatever trap the Chancellor had set for her and guide herself to the final battle.
Fortunately, the Chancellor had completely underestimated Sven, who had rallied these new friends to his aid. It would be very satisfying if the Chancellor could be thwarted by "the stinking reindeer" and "the unwashed Lapp." But first they had to find the megalomaniac.
There! He could see a huge storm of leaves down below. He pointed it out to Sven, and the cavalry of reindeer coursed towards it. They approached the leaf tempest, and the visibility dropped off to almost zero. He had no idea how they would be able to find anyone in this blizzard of red-brown foliage.
Suddenly, there was a sound he could not properly describe. It was like the noise made by a flock of birds taking flight en masse, except louder and sustained. He looked up and saw them. Seemingly every creature of the air that was robust enough to fly in the gusting wind, from wrens and finches to stately herons, cranes, and storks, mighty eagles, owls, and vultures, and stout geese and swans, and even bats, was attacking the blowing leaves, striking at them with their feet or beating them down with powerful wings.
The natural world itself understood what was at stake. Grand Pabbie had obviously raised the alarm.
The flying animals cleared enough of the raging leaves for a few of them to scout. He felt his stomach churn when a vulture started to circle tightly and descend, even though he knew the keen-eyed bird was helping and not preparing to feast.
The host homed in on the vulture's position. The Chancellor must have noticed something was amiss for a company of Stick Figures awaited them.
All the reindeer charged, their lowered antlers projecting out like multiple-tined lances. The Stick Figures were not as dangerous as they looked, for now he knew they were only automatons following simple programmed patterns. The Chancellor had no true magic of his own and had to rely on the Equinox Wand, and so he could not create magical beings that were genuinely, independently alive. Like the way Olaf had-
He yelled in rage and craved vengeance for his heartache, as his cavalry troop stampeded through the Chancellor's mindless minions, scattering them like the shambling piles of branches, leaves, and gourds that they were.
They galloped on, and in the distance, through the trees and dwindling swirl of leaves, he could see two figures in blue, one nearly as dark as the midnight sky closing in on the other that was as light as the morning. He knew which side he was on.
"Come on, buddy! Faster!" he exhorted Sven. Elsa was in no condition to fight off a determined attacker, and the Chancellor was nothing if not determined.
The birds and bats now swooped at the Chancellor, the larger ones slashing with claws or thumping with wings, the smaller ones pecking at him and even defecating on him, buying the on-rushing cavalry time, heedless of the danger to themselves as the Chancellor thrashed at them with the Equinox Wand. With the distraction, the branches of the trees stilled, the loose leaves fell to the ground.
He could see Elsa, clearly near the end of her strength, staggering and stumbling - toward the edge of a cliff! His throat tightened as he deduced what she meant to do, what sacrifice she intended to make to keep the Chancellor gaining her power.
Sven needed no command and found a tempo neither one of them knew he possessed as they zigzagged through the thinning forest.
The Chancellor roared in frustration at the swarming birds and bats, flailing at them with the Equinox Wand, turning all of those that it happened to touch to wood. The winged ones adjusted to hit-and-run tactics. Elsa looked back at her pursuer, saw an opening, and unleashed a bolt of magic at the Chancellor's heart.
He was amazed that she had anything left in reserve, but in her weakened state her aim was off, and it struck the Chancellor only on the upper left shoulder. He cried out and clenched at the freezing spot - but kept a firm grip on the Equinox Wand.
The effort left Elsa near depletion. The Queen was now crawling on her hands and knees towards the precipice. The Chancellor was now murderously focused on her, batting at the air force with an accuracy born of fury. An eagle fell, then a thrush, followed by a crow, next a stork.
He grasped the handle of his hatchet. He had no trouble hitting bull's-eyes when he and the other ice harvesters challenged themselves for their own amusement at camp. Sven tilted his head down, giving him a clear shot of the Chancellor's back. They were almost in range.
"Elsa!" he called out. She was only a few meters away from the brink, in either direction. Before her was the chasm, behind her was the psychopath.
"Elsa!" rang out a familiar voice. Anna suddenly climbed up from the rim of the ravine - and without hesitation once again placed herself between Elsa and the powers of darkness. She drew her knife.
The Chancellor was entirely unimpressed, a sadistic smile twisting his lips, and closed in, smiting Anna with the Equinox Wand.
And once again he was forced to watch the woman he loved undergo an agonizing transformation.
He awoke with a start, jerking upright on his bedroll. It had been just a dream, a product of his mind. Anna was still healthy, happy flesh-and-blood. Elsa was still the strong and lively Queen of Ice and Snow and Arendelle. Olaf was still giving warm hugs. They were all still inseparable friends.
He glanced around the camp, and saw that some small woodland creature had helped itself to Sven's carrots during the night. Through the trees, he could see the very top of the sun just rising above the horizon. He didn't know the precise time the clocks would read back in civilization.
He might as well get up. He had a busy day ahead of him as the official Ice Master and Deliverer.
Author's Notes - I had "A Watchful Guardian" by Hans Zimmer from "The Dark Knight" OST and "Blood and Stone" by Audiomachine playing on a loop while plunking this one out, so they may help set the tone as you read it.
This is one is based on some of the ideas that I considered and rejected for the long story that turned into "Force of Nature." Mainly: A seemingly magical person isn't really magical; rifts develop in our heroes' relationships; a "magic vampire" is draining Elsa; they all converge for final dramatic showdown. It had a lot of problems (especially finding a way for Elsa to seem to be the closest thing to an antagonist that the story had when she truly wasn't), so I didn't go very far with it, but the climax was not Anna getting zapped again; I only did that here because this is an adaptation for Kristoff's nightmare. It was Elsa using the very last of her magic/life force to zap the villain before Anna could get zapped. It would play much better in a visual medium, because I wanted Elsa's position and motion for the final shot to be exactly the same as her position and motion when she accidentally struck Anna in the head.
A feature of this one that you will see in "Force of Nature" is enchanted automatons (like the mops in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice") because not every magical being is as powerful as Elsa. I will also hint that there is a big difference between being born magical and being cursed. If you liked the vibe of this one, "Force of Nature" will have more and (IMO) better fight sequences.
Anna placing herself between Elsa and "the powers of darkness" is a shout-out to "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" by Madeleine L'Engle (part of another franchise Disney inexplicably just can't get right).