Chapter 1. Revelation

"We're back!"

Elsa found herself inside a small cavern, overgrown with plants. Just a few yards away was the exit. A moment later Kristoff arrived. He was surprised with where the door led them.

"I thought we'd end up somewhere else, like you know, the castle," he commented.
"Oh, come on, Kristoff," Elsa said with a playful voice. "I thought you were an adventure type."
"You have the wrong person. That's Anna's thing." Kristoff looked around but his fiancée wasn't present. "Where is she by the way?"

Elsa noticed that the door to Storybrooke was still present and open. Anna was having last minute chat with Emma and others. She always was the talkative one and enjoyed making friends. Despite the short time spent in the otherworldly town, she managed to make a good connection with the woman who helped Elsa when she wasn't there for her.

"She's saying goodbyes to Emma and her family," she informed him, gently waving her hand into the direction of the door.
"Think we'll see them again?" Kristoff wondered.
"Maybe," she replied. "After all they come from the Enchanted Forest and there's a chance they'll return there."

Then Anna stepped out of the door, a weak smile on her face. When the door was closed it simply vanished.

"Why's the long face?" Kristoff asked.
"Apparently the person who was kind enough to provide us with a way to return to home is the same dreadful man I came across during my journey for answers," Anna replied.
"Is it a good thing or a bad thing?" the man questioned. From what Anna told him the evil sorcerer from the Enchanted Forest was a terrible and powerful man who turned the good into bad.
"We'll need to step outside of this cavern and see for ourselves," Elsa boldly remarked and took a step towards the exit.
"Be careful. Hans's men might be lurking outside," the ice harvester said.
"I am not going to let myself to be terrorized by this horrible excuse for a man," she stated.

Few moments later they found themselves on a glade surrounded by mountains and forests. There were no signs of people, town, or the castle. They looked at each other hoping that one of them would have an idea of where to go. However no one knew what to do.

"Maybe we should split up? We'd cover more ground that way," Anna suggested with a glimmer in her eye.
"That's not a good idea. We don't know where exactly are we and how is Arendelle doing at the moment," Elsa cooled down her sister; Anna was always reckless and she witnessed it several times during her life. "Besides, we have an element of surprise: Hans doesn't expect to see us."
"True, he did throw me and Anna in a giant chest into the sea where we nearly drowned," Kristoff noted.
"Then what do we do? We can't just sit and do nothing!" the younger sister protested.

Silence fell upon a them. None of them had a good idea and walking wherever legs would take them wouldn't do much good to them. Besides they had to eat and rest from time to time and there wasn't anything that would help them with it.

"Kristoff," Anna broke the silence, "you travel a lot, aren't you?"
"Yeah, a bit," he nodded with a confused look.
"Then you should know Arendelle's geography better than me and Elsa," she noticed.
"I'm afraid I didn't travel to this area."
"Still, you're an adventurer," Kristoff looked at Anna questioningly, "kind of," she corrected. "You should have some routine where you're going somewhere, don't you?"
"Usually, it's me, Sven, some provision, and a blanket."
"We have neither of that," the red-headed woman noted.
"And we don't have any map," Elsa chipped in. "With pretty much nothing there's no good choice. Whatever we'll do now won't bring us closer to home."

Another thoughtful silence fell. They hadn't a slightest idea on where to go. They were lost somewhere in Arendelle, or so they hoped. Certainly, they couldn't just stand there and do nothing while Hans was ruling their country and undoubtedly draining it from everything it had.

Then something in the bushes moved and its sound alarmed the three. Elsa prepared herself to fend off the possible attacker, while Kristoff and Anna picked some sturdy-looking branches to help the white-haired woman if need would arise.

"Show yourself," Elsa called. "Or I'll be forced to prolong your stay in those bushes in a way I assure you won't be pleasant."
"Ha!" a youthful male voice shouted at them. "I'm not afraid of anything!"
"Then show yourself," the woman continued.
"I'm far too important to be playing around with some peasants," the voice sounded from a different direction the previously.
"'Peasants'?" Kristoff asked. "Look, shadow man, you are in presence—" but he was swiftly interrupted by the older sister.
"That is enough."

Elsa tapped her right foot to the ground and ice slowly started to cover the glade. It spread several yards deep into the woods where a tall ice wall rose. Ice skates appeared on Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff's feet.

"What the—!?" the voice called. "Let me out! Or I'm gonna let my guards turn you into crocodile food!"
"Elsa, this guy sounds dangerous," Anna said. "Maybe we should let him go?"
The woman in question frowned, "Then this is exactly the reason we shouldn't release him."
"Come on!" Kristoff was getting angry. "Show yourself. Just don't do anything stupid."
"How can I trust you?" the voiced said. It was quite close to them.
"Don't be a scaredy cat now," Anna called with a playful tone.
"You win..." the voice replied.

Then from the bushes a tall man, definitely younger then Anna, with sleek black hair emerged, wearing a red tunic and a pair of sandals. He was shaking from cold. On his way to the three he slipped and landed harshly on his seat. Anna slightly relaxed and chuckled, but Elsa and Kristoff were still on high alert.

"Who are you?" Elsa demanded and conjured a single snowflake. The mysterious man's eyes went wide.
"You're a witch!" he exclaimed instead.
"I am not a 'witch', a 'sorceress', or whatever you want to call me," she frowned. "I'm a person, like them" and she pointed at Anna and Kristoff "and you."
"You have magic in you, that's not human," the man growled.
"State you name," Elsa demanded once more. "I don't want to it to turn drastic, so please, cooperate with us."
"Fine," the man sighed. "I'm Emperor Kuzco of the Kuzco Empire," he stated proudly.

Kristoff looked at the man with confusion and anger: Is this man joking? He doesn't act like a ruler or anything.

Anna then made a few circles around Kuzco. He's definitely more childish than I was at his age.

"I am Elsa," the white-haired woman introduced herself.
"Hi, I'm Anna," the red-haired girl said.
"Kristoff," the man grumbled.
"Since we are all acquainted now we'd like to ask you a few questions," Elsa said.
"Suuure," Kuzco mumbled. "And then you'll turn me into a block of ice."
"I promise that it won't happen," the woman said. "Just please answer our questions."
"Is this Arendelle?" Kristoff asked first.
"Kind of," the man replied. "This is actually a border between Arendelle and the Kuzco Empire."
"We have a land border with other countries?" Anna asked surprised.
"Arendelle is pretty isolated, even for a seaside country," Kuzco noted.
"I presume that these tall mountains must isolate us from this empire of yours," Elsa said. "No one ever crossed them before from what I know."
"What about Hans? Is he ruling Arendelle?" Anna asked quickly.
"Yeah, and he's collaborating with my ex-advisor."
"How long has it been since the ice thawed?" this time Kristoff shoot a question.
"Ice? I don't remember there being any ice."
"Is it possible that Ingrid's magic didn't affect his country?" Elsa wondered.
"Maybe," Kristoff pondered. "But right now we should concentrate on taking back the kingdom."
"Who are you people?"

Kuzco was confused. The three people were acting like they owned Arendelle. They were asking quite a lot of questions about the state of the land.

"I am the queen of Arendelle," Elsa stated proudly.
"You!? You look like a peasant!"

Kuzco exclaimed. She didn't act like one, at least not in a way Kuzco was. And her blue dress wasn't even a royal color. She must be a poser. What a loser.

"You don't believe me?"
"It's said that you betrayed the kingdom along with another witch and froze Arendelle."
"That wasn't my winter," Elsa calmly said.
"It was our aunt," Anna chipped in.
"You three are siblings?" another shock for Kuzco.
"Just me and Elsa," Anna nodded enthusiastically. "And he" she approached Kristoff "is to marry me once we retake the kingdom."
"Count me out," Kuzco said.
"Do not forget you won't easily leave this place," Elsa warned him. "We must get to the castle and dethrone Hans."
"And don't forget about Helga and Ingrid," Anna reminded her with a big smile on her face. "We need to bring the memories of their existence back."
"You won't be getting anywhere near the city anyway," Kuzco said with an interested voice.
"Why is that?" Kristoff asked.
"Pretty much every guard from Arendelle was replaced with a man from the Southern Isles and no one is allowed in or out."

The three wondered: why has Hans changed the guards and shut off the city? It's not like he is afraid of the threat of Elsa. Or is it? Certainly, he doesn't expect Anna and Kristoff to just appear. There is also Kuzco's ex-advisor to consider. Maybe that person would know something.

"Is there anything else we should know?" Elsa asked.
"What is Hans afraid so?" Kristoff interjected.
"I heard he and Yzma plan something big in a place called 'Misthaven'," Kuzco explained. "Something to do with magic like the one that Elsa has."
"Who's Yzma?" Anna asked. Elsa and Kristoff where also wondering about who that person was.
"My ex-advisor, pain for an eye if you ask me."
"So what do we do?" Anna wondered. "I thought we could just charge in, ice blazing, and punch Hans outta the throne."
"We certainly should discover what is this business they have in the Enchanted Forest," Elsa said.

Kuzco once again looked at them with confusion. What they were talking about? He said it was "Misthaven," not some Enchanted Forest.

"It's just that the Enchanted Forest is known here as the 'Misthaven'," Kristoff informed him.
"Whatever you do, you should rest," Kuzco said. "It's getting pretty dark anyway. And colder than usual."
"I suppose I can unfreeze the area now," Elsa giggled.

The white-haired woman raised both her hands in the air and shoot several snowflakes in different directions. Just a moment later the area returned to its green appearance.

Not wasting a moment, Kuzco started to walk away just to be stopped by Kristoff.

"And where are you going, Your Highness?" he asked the black-haired man.
"To my palace!" he said boldly. "Yzma won't be there for a few days giving me a perfect opportunity to take back what was stolen from me. All will be done on my own!"

Kuzco was quite a person. But how he lost his throne was something that interested Elsa. Anna also wondered about that. There must be something sinister about that Yzma. To be able to remove Kuzco out of the picture and take the throne for herself was not an easy feat.

"Kuzco, how is it that you were dethroned?" Elsa asked him.
"I don't know!" he exclaimed. "I just remember being the Emperor and having that old crone for an advisor, and then the next thing I know is that I end up in a jungle full of wild animals."
"Yzma is an old woman?" Kristoff questions.
"Yeah, older than the oldest tree in the world."
"That sounds... sad," Anna said.
"It's worse, trust me. But now if you'll excuse me, I have duties to attend to."
"Don't be reckless," Elsa said. "If she is really that powerful, she will dethrone you again. And who know if she won't confine you or worse."
"Elsa's right!" Anna exclaimed. "If you want to rule this 'empire' of yours peacefully join us! After all, Hans is working with that Yzma woman, they certainly will rid of all four of us if they knew we're alive!"
"Does this Yzma knows you're alive?" Elsa asked.
"I'm not sure, but she certainly acts like that."

I'm surprised that he didn't just appeared in front of her and went "Surprise, my evil advisor! I'm alive!" That would get things done, Kristoff thought. Kuzco was really getting on his nerves. Aside of recklessness, he also acted like a spoiled brat.

"Then we have an element of surprise on our side," Elsa noted.
"Let's get some rest," Kristoff suddenly said.
"Why? We can't really afford having Hans and Yzma getting away with whatever they're planning to do," Anna protested.
"Anna, as much as I'd like to, we need to call it a day," Elsa cooled her sister's enthusiasm down, agreeing with Kristoff. "We also need to come with some strategy on getting to the Enchanted Forest."
"Let's retreat to the cave for now," Kristoff sugested. "Me and Kuzco will go fetch some food and water."
"I don't do chores, peasant," Kuzco said with an irritated voice.
"Fine, then you won't eat," the blond man replied. "Those who don't work, don't get to eat."
"Then what about them?" the black-haired man pointed at the sisters.
"We'll go fetch some wood for fire," Anna answered with a smile.

She took her sister by hand, clearly startling her, and went outside with her. Elsa preferred to stay inside for some reason, but she couldn't bring herself from ruining their reunion. Not after such long time has passed. They had to make every moment count. Of course, Kristoff would be there too, but now they left him dealing with Kuzco and his attitude.

"You see? Even the queen of Arendelle does chores," Kristoff said.
"Fiiine," Kuzco grumbled. "What do you want me to do?"
"Since you're certainly not experienced with outdoors I'll have to help you."
"I'm a perfectly capable leader!" Kuzco exclaimed.
"Yeah, perfectly capable of being dethroned," Kristoff shot back and he left the cavern.

Kuzco was mad. A mere peasant just turned him into pretty much nothing. The nerve of that blondie!

They spent some time gathering berries, Kristoff couldn't let slide the fact that Kuzco was mostly gathering health-threatening ones. It wasn't the Emperor's fault that he didn't differentiate between currants and bloodberries. They both were red, damnit! Although Kristoff pointed that bloodberries have curly branches and are much darker red than currants Kuzco still couldn't understand it. He was an Emperor! He was supposed to say what should be done!

Elsa and Anna fared far better during their quest for branches. They collected quite an amount and were already on their way back to the cavern. They both had dirtied their outfits, but that didn't matter. As much as they were royalty, they had far important matters on their minds. They threw the wood in a corner and took few branches and arranged them into a campfire.

"How are we going to lighten it up?" Elsa wondered.
"I've got few tricks up my sleeve," Anna smiled and reached for her pocket and drew a pair of stones from it.
"Stones?" the white-haired woman said.
"It's called a 'flint'," the red-haired woman corrected her. "I just need to rub them and the sparks that it will produce with ignite the wood. Pretty neat, huh?"
"That's quite an interesting object. Where did you learn about it?" But then it stroke her, "Kristoff?" and Anna smiled.
"Yeah. There are other cool things I'd like to show you!" she said with upbeat voice.
"For now let's get this fire started, shall we?" Elsa proposed.

Anna started to rub the two flints, but aside of few sparks there weren't desirable results. She then just scratched back of her head with a sheepish smile and returned to the flints. Few more tries later, and the warm fire hit their faces.

Few moments later, Kristoff and Kuzco arrived; neither of them were happy.

"We got some food and water," the tall blond man gloomily said.
"Why's the long face?" Anna asked him.
"He insistently picked up the bloodberries, yet I offered him a detailed description why they're not a good choice."
"They're all the same anyway," Kuzco waved it off.
"Ungh," Kristoff grunted. "Luckily I had my pocket bottle so we managed to secure some water from the stream."

Elsa then used her magic to create four icy glasses and gave each of them one.

"Let's use this to drink the water," she suggested.
"What are those?" Kuzco asked.
"Just something I saw in a faraway land," Elsa smiled. She wasn't really ready to share a tale about another world with Kuzco; she and her family barely knew him.
"Let's just eat already!" Kristoff said. "We're going to take turns too. I'll be the first one to watch guard."
"Pleeease," the black-haired man said. "I was running through this land of yours and no one attacked me at night."
"Maybe your head won't fetch high enough," the blond shot. "With that attitude no wonder no one would miss your rule."
"Kristoff, you're getting grumpy," Anna said. "Just cool down."
"I can take the second shift," Elsa suddenly spoke.
"Elsa?"

Anna looked at her sister. Something was troubling her. She was certain that it was connected with Hans and Yzma's business in the Enchanted Forest. What they were hoping to accomplish there? Conquer those lands or something else? Anna felt that it was somehow connected with magic. It had to be, magic was always the reason Arendelle was suffering.

After the supper, Elsa, Anna, and Kuzco formed temporary beds from the greenery in the cave. The two women were lying next to each, looking at the face of the other sister. Kuzco simply turned on side, facing the wall.

He was utterly dissatisfied with his current situation: how he, the Emperor, could be sleeping outdoors on ground? The moment he'd return to his palace, he planned to got on a looong sleep in his king size bed with the softest mattress he had. Kuzco looked briefly away and noticed that the two women were talking about something silently, occasionally let out a giggle. He rolled his eyes and attempted to fall asleep. The sleep came mere moments later.

Anna and Elsa continued to chat for a bit longer.

"Your Highnesses," Kristoff abruptly interrupted their conversation. "If you would kindly rest so we can have a fresh start in the morning I would be grateful."
"Yes, Mother," the women mockingly replied and giggled. Kristoff only sighed.
"Good night," he finally said after a moment of uncomfortable silence.