Ice-covered Crisis
Setting: 7 weeks after the events of Frozen. Knowing it occurred in Summer (assuming July) then this will take place in late August to early September.
The sun was starting to lay low in the sky western sky over the mountains that surrounded the city. Kristoff stood tall from his former hunched position along the frozen lake to wipe the sweat off his brow. He had been successfully harvesting his craft on the lake for the past four hours and was getting ready to call it quits soon. He allowed himself a minute to look past the ice laden Sven's sled to see his rather unusual guests for the day.
Their Royal Hinesses Queen Elsa and Princess Anna were along the banks of the frozen lake by the mouth that two week prior ran down the countryside into the river delta that the city was build around. He has been slightly taken aback when Queen Elsa has approached him two days ago stating that she and Anna wanted to accompany him on his 'royal task' as she put it to see how such an important assignment was preformed. It was a joke and he knew it. Both his title and that the High Queen and a near goddess figure able to produce ice and snow as easily as breath would truly want to know how to collect frozen water. It was an escape from the palace and everyone knew it. Elsa pretended to pay attention for the first half an hour then Olaf threw himself at her and the result was a snowball fight that would go down in the annuals of history as the day that the Snow Queen lost the war of snow against the dreaded Snowman/Anna/Reindeer alliance.
Kristoff has figured out the real reasoning why the two nobles were out and about a long while ago. Or more precisely, he had and Sven merely acted as the mouth piece. They wanted out of the palace to have some time for sisterly interaction.
He turned back to his work after the momentary rest. He could get about two more full sized blocks on the sled then call it a day. He turned back to look at his feet when he saw the worst possible thing he could think of. Cracks, lots and lots of cracks. The logical part of his brain that was honed over years in his profession realized that he should have stuck closer to the edge rather than going to the center this early in the season. That the fall was still a little too warm to allow for a perfectly frozen pond. But he didn't want to get caught in the crossfire from the shore and loss a day of work so he kept moving out. Now the rest of his brain was remembering all the survival options he had.
"Sven!" He called to his perpetual partner.
Usually the reindeer would look annoyed but years of work meant he knew when Kristoff was truly serious.
"Waterfall!" The codeword meaning that he was literally on thin ice and needed to be pulled off.
"Water Fall?" Anne asked as she moved from the banks where she and Elsa were relaxing in onto the frozen water.
"NO!" Kristoff yelled and moved towards her instinctively. That was bad on two counts. One, the ice beneath him fractured even further. Two, because Sven moved to block the brave but clumsy princess adding both of their weight on ice that was much more fragile than anyone suspected. What nobody thought about was that Sven was a fine specimen of male Finnish Forest Reindeer. They could weight up to 550 pounds. Sven was not quite that large but he was well past 400, add that to Anna's 99 and you have far too much weight on the frozen water.
Anna and the animal went into the near freezing water at the same time that Kristoff sunk up to his thigh in the exact same liquid.
"ELSA!" Anna cried as she grab onto Sven. On some abstract level, Kristoff was disappointed that his girlfriend called for her sister rather than him but that was quickly forgotten in light of the deadly water on his leg and the fact that by shifting his weight subcontiously to get it out, he was weakening the ice even further increasing his chances that his entire body would drop into the drink.
Sven started to pull himself and his passenger the two body lengths back to shore where Elsa was panicking and subconsciously refreezing the area, making the ice that Sven was powering through thicker and thus slowing the dog like animal down.
"Calm down Elsa or you are going to make it worse!" Kristoff called but in his panic he switched to the voice he used when he pretended to be Sven. Despite the slip of his voice the message got through. Elsa realized what she was doing and not only de-thawed what she has just frozen seconds ago but also thinned the ice that was in Swen's way allowing the reindeer to pull himself and his passenger out. Luckily Anna had only fallen into the water up to her waist and due to the heavy clothing that she was wearing the cold hadn't touched her skin quite yet. For that Elsa was thankful. She could withdraw cold from inanimate objects but was always too scared to try something like that on people out of fear of making it worse. Luckily her first attempt would not be to save her sisters life.
Anna was spluttering and shivering form her unexpected dip but other than that seemed to be in good condition. She started to try and rub her hands together to create heat through friction. The fiery haired princess was so relieved that she was out of the water that it took her a few minutes to remember why she stepped out onto the ice in the first place.
Sven did not have that momentary lapse. As soon as he made sure that Anna was back on solid ground he thrust his muzzle into the pack that Kristoff always left on the side of the bank that help a length of rope. Taking one end in his mouth, the reindeer turned around only to see a hole in the ice where his master and partner was earlier. He nicked to get one of the two women's attention and that was what eventually brought them back to the initial reason of distress.
Both of them turned back to the lake and saw what, or rather who, was missing. Sadly, neither of them were calm enough at the moment to quite think clearly. "What do we do?" Elsa asked nobody in particular. "We um… we…" Anna shuddered. She was better at getting into trouble rather than getting out. Then Sven literally head butt Anna to get her attention. "WHAT?" Anna exclaimed. The animal started pawing at the ice still on the shore as if trying to say something.
"Kristoff would know what he was saying." Anna muttered to herself.
"Oh! Oh! I know!" Olaf exclaimed, momentarily forgotten in all the excitement. This brought three sets of surprised eyes onto the snowman. "Sven wants Elsa to freeze the lake out to where the hole is so that he can walk out without fear of falling in and try and get Kristoff out." The snowman explained rapidly.
If it was not a potentially fatal situation, someone would have passed comment on the fact that Olaf was the by far the youngest of them but was remarkably observant.
They did just that, with Elsa in the lead freezing the lake as the other three followed behind as fast as the Snow Queen could work. They were just outside the fracture in a minute. During this brief interlude the two humans calmed down and had devised a plan to look for the submerged Kristoff. Elsa created what could best be described as a periscope to look under water and gave one to Anne. When they reached the hole both of them put the periscopes under water. Lady Luck was with them as it took only second to locate and identify his hulking form. The water had carried him towards the mouth of the lake, not rapidly but at a decent rate. The three of the people went towards the mountain man's still form under the ice while Anna stayed back at the hole directing them. Elsa created another opening in the ice and the reindeer stuck his head into the water to grab the man and pull him out.
"Back to shore!" Olaf cried. Despite his jovial nature he realized how dire the situation was. "There might be something on the sled."
Anna ran back to shore and was already rooting through its contents as Elsa, Olaf, Sven and the unconscious Kristoff got off the shaky ice and back onto solid ground. Anna had already created a mess of the contents before pulling an animal skin blanket from the clutter.
"No." Elsa exclaimed as Kristoff was pulled onto the earth by Sven. "We need to make sure he is breathing first." She got down onto her hands and knees and put her ear next to the man's mouth while looking for his chest to rise and fall at the same time feeling in his neck for the ever essential pulsing of blood. She only got one out of three. He had a pulse but Kristoff was not breathing and his chest was not moving. The Queen wracked her brain to remember a book she had read years about emergency medicine. She started to push down on his stomach but that didn't feel right so she move up a bit and did it again on his chest. Yes, that was more like what she remembered. But she was forgetting something.
Sven realize what was going on and put his hoof on the man's chest, pushing down far harder then Elsa could. Kristoff started coughing up water and Elsa rolled him over onto his side to more easily drain the liquid out from his mouth. Anna was on him in an instant with the leather and fur blanket.
With the most immanent problem solved, the question of long term survival came into question. Apparently oxygen deprivation didn't prevent Kristoff from thinking as he sputtered out, "Cave… East… 15 minutes…"
With more than a little bit of effort, the royal pair was able to pull Kristoff onto the back of his reindeer and they took off in the opposite direction of the sun, leaving Olaf behind at the sled where he was looking between the two. Letting out a sigh he shuffle ran over to the sled and started gathering up supplies that Anna hadn't thought about like some wood and flint to start a fire as well as a second blanket and some salted mean in a tin cup. Feeling a little better equipped he followed the trail left by the humans and Sven.
With the sun disappearing behind the mountains, the path through the woods was getting more treacherous. Fortunately, Sven seemed to know where he was going and in no time they were at the cave.
The entrance was not easy to find in the dark and the cave itself had a low ceiling that forced Sven to remain outside while Elsa and Anna dragged their male friend deeper into the rock formation and out of the wind.
"What now?" Anna asked. Despite living in a nation that had snow and ice as much of the time as it didn't, she had never fallen into the water before… well, except for when she went to fetch Elsa from North Peak but the solution to that problem had presented itself instantly. As far as she knew, there was not another inhabitable dwelling for miles and trying to transport a frozen Kristoff through that was asking for trouble.
"We need to keep him warm and to get help." Elsa responded as she used her powers to draw the icy water out of the leather clothing. It was not as easy as it had been with her sister since Anna was able to afford Egyptian cotton rather than the more easily obtainable but water resistant leather. "Ideally, one of us should ride that reindeer," the queen nodded with her chin to Sven in place of remembering the animals name, "while the other one of us stays here with Kristoff and Olaf… What is Olaf?"
Elsa and Anna looked around but couldn't find the snowman. "Sven, find Olaf!" Anna commanded but the reindeer in question shook its massive head and then pointed with its antlers towards the path they had cut through the snow and underbrush of the forest. Squinting through the gloom, they could see the distant Olaf making his way through the woods. He looks oddly deformed before Anna realized that he was carrying something and rushed out to help him.
"I thought we could use these." Olaf explained. One of the advantages of being made of snow was that he didn't have mussels that could tire out or the need for oxygen. So even though he couldn't move as fast as a human, or reindeer, he couldn't feel tired.
"Good thinking." Elsa responded as she and Anna first used the new blanket to wrap the mountain man up. Elsa looked uncertain for a second before stopping her. "No Anna, not yet we need to get this wet clothing off of him first or the it will draw his body heat away from Kristoff and make the situation worse."
"Right. Take his clothing off before wrapping him in the blankets… Wait WHAT?" The younger sister exclaimed. Her face suddenly red as a cherry and looking at her sister for conformation on what Elsa just said. "You want him to be naked?"
Elsa was determinedly not looking at her sister to hid her own blushing face and said "Not completely naked but we need most of his clothing off. And we need a fire. Olaf, could you..." Looking at the snowman she reconsidered, "On second though, Anna, could you make the fire, Olaf, help me."
They obeying the queen's order, they both set to work on their appointed tasks. Anna, while not a great outdoor's woman like her boyfriend, had learned from him how to make a fire quickly and efficiently. Elsa and Olaf on the other hand were not as successful. Kristoff had multiple layers of clothing on himself to fight off the cold that was a natural part of his life. Several of the layers mixed together in complex patterns. From the mouth of the cave, Sven looked in and shook his head in disgust, even without word his opinion was self evident 'foolish finger fools, don't even know how to undo a constrictor knot.'
With the fire now crackling Anna looked between the other occupants of the cave and it's entrance. They had a few pieces of wood for the fire but that would be used quickly and with night fallen the temperature would also plummet. They needed to keep the fire going but also to get Kristoff out of the mountain.
That review of the facts was interrupted by a cry of triumph from Elsa as she had finally managed to get their male companion down to his long johns. Unable to help herself, Anne looked over only to recoil in horror. Kristoff's body was a covered in scars of multiple ages and sized; the largest one starting underneath his armpit and crossing the body down to disappear into his pants on the opposite side of the body.
Although Elsa was able to contain it she too was sickened by the sight. "What happened to him?" Olaf asked, by a combination of his bluntness and naivety he said what was on all of their minds.
"Which one of us is going to get help?" Anna asked with deadly seriousness.
"You go." Elsa responded. "You are lighter then I am and Sven knows you better. Get help and come back. I will stay here and use my power to try and prevent him from getting frostbite. Olaf can stay here to help but he can't remain inside the cave or else he will continue to make it cold. He can gather firewood and keep an eye out for your return."
"Right." Anna responded with a nod. Elsa was always better at making the plans and this one was far more though out then what the Princess had. With a meaningful look down to her boyfriend, the Redhead re-secured all of her cold weather clothing and hurried out of the cave where Sven was waiting. He must have heard what Elsa said because the massive reindeer bend down to allow her to mount him.
"Ok Anna. You can do this. It's just like riding a horse. A very big horse. A very big horse with antlers and no saddle. Charging down a mountain side with a life hanging in the balance…" She shook her head, "How did Kristoff do this?" Anna asked herself remembering how in the middle of the Eternal Winter just weeks prior the mountain man did the exact same thing in far less favorable conditions to save her.
Sven stamped the ground twice and moved a little closer to Anna as a form of encouragement. "Alright." She jumped onto the animals back rather awkwardly and tried to situate herself. "GO!" The beast took off like wolves were on his heels.
Inside the cavern, Elsa and Olaf could hear the distant hoof beats fade into silence. "Well, I'll be back before you can say 'Avalanche'." Olaf commented as he shuffled out of the entrance and the cave temperature rose several degrees with the disappearance of his perpetual snow cloud.
Suddenly, Elsa found herself alone for the first time in weeks. This shook her but only for a moment before Kristoff's groans drew her back to reality. She looked over at the fire that Anna had made and was more than a little surprised to see how strong it is going. She could already feel the temperature of the stone enclosure rising.
She set her shoulders and moved the large mountain man as close to the fire as possible without either one of them being set ablaze. "I should have hand Anna help me with this." The queen muttered. Once he was in place, she rewrapped his nearly naked form in the blankets they had and sat back to wait. The heard a muttering behind her. Putting her ear right next to his mouth. "Beautiful… Dangerous… El…sa." She couldn't help but suppress a blush that spread across her features like the
Hours passed without much incident. Olaf had traipsed back in several times with loads of wood and the fire was remaining strong, more due to Anna's impressive construction then Elsa's knowledge of combustion.
Suddenly her head jerked up. Elsa realized she has fallen into a slumber but she was not sure for how long. Looking over at the fire she saw that only a few embers remained. She crawled on her hands and knees over to her still unconscious charge. She couldn't feel a pulse and he was as cold as the stones around him.
"What do I do? What do I do! What do I DO!" Elsa muttered to herself. Kristoff felt dead. Anna's first boyfriend was dead because she, Elsa, had fallen asleep. And where was Olaf? Wasn't he suppose to keep her from falling asleep!
"uh…" came the faintest out sounds, more on the edge of thought then hearing. It took the Queen a second to realize that she didn't make the sound. Checking Kristoff she still didn't feel a pulse or any form of heat but on the off chance she checked his breathing as well. She could feel it. A breath, just one but it was there.
"Thank goodness." The snow queen said to herself.
She looked at the remains of the fire for a second but rejected the idea of trying to relight it. She didn't have the skills to do such a thing even if she had the time. The fur blankets that had been wrapped around the man were loose and no longer serving the intended purpose. Elsa re-secured them but it felt like a fool's errand. As she did so, the scars were once again revealed to her. She couldn't help but again wonder how he came by such wounds. What kind of like could a person lead that would result in such trauma. Yes she had suffered in her own way because of her power, but now Elsa knew that most of that suffering had been self-inflicted and avoidable it someone had but looked at the facts form a different perspective. Kristoff on the other hand, his past was as much a mystery as how the Queen gained her powers. By extension, so were these wounds.
Such things were better left to another time. One where his life and hers were not in threat of being extinguished.
"What to do about the cold?" The Queen asked herself. However she already knew the only answer she could provide. She had to use her power to control and draw the arctic chill out of her sister's boyfriend. Remembering her thoughts back when Anna had fallen into the water, she shuttered. "So instead of my sister my first attempt will be on the love of her life. How cruel fate can be."
Taking a deep breath, Elsa focused on the man before her. After a moment, she realized that nothing was happening. Despite her best efforts Elsa just couldn't connect to her element. She put her hands onto the fur covering him but that made no difference. It was like a wall was around him. She moved her hands from the covered body to his naked face. There, that was it. She could feel it now but distant, disconnected. She could feel the cold inside of the man but she couldn't manipulate it like normal.
Another gasp escaped the man, if possible it was even weaker then the last. As if anything needed to reinforce the severity of the situation further.
The white haired queen shifted a little and as she involuntarily moved closer, she could feel it better. That connection. Trying it again with the same result Elsa realized she had to have close, almost invasive proximity in order to control the icy chill inside Kristoff's body.
She leaned over his body until her lips were practically touching his skin. She could feel it now. Just a little more. She started to draw the frigid element out of his body but it was slow, tedious and on an instinctive level Elsa knew that one mistake would kill him and perhaps herself as well.
It was going too slowly. At this rate the mountain man would expire before help would arrive. She needed to work faster. She focused on him, or more precisely his lips. This degree of closeness, both physically and now spiritually was intoxicating. Not even a finger's length separated their faces.
Skin brushed skin as her lips touched his. It wasn't even a second but in that instant she could feel it all. Every Jule of heat in his body. It was infectious. Elsa could control it all, how warm each muscle was, how cold. She could control it, dominate it to a level she couldn't dream of. But that was too much. Elsa jumped away as if shocked by electricity.
For a moment the direness of the situation was forgotten in face of the fact that Queen Elsa of *&^% had just given her first kiss to Kristoff. Elsa pushed the emotion down just like she had for years. Now was not the time to address these issues either.
The white haired queen crawled back over to him and got close again and again she felt that same intimacy and isolation. The only way this would work in time to save his life was through contact.
It was nearing noon before Anna was able organize enough people and supplies to get back up the mountain.
"Anna! Anna!" Someone called through the woods. The princess slowed her horse down to listen before recognizing the voice as that of Olaf.
"Olaf!" Anna responded.
"Over here!" He called. Anna left the caravan and followed the voice. She soon found the snowman shattered into pieces beneath a tree.
Falling off the horse in her haste she rushed over to her frozen friend. "Olaf, what happened?"
"I was out gathering wood like I was suppose not long after midnight when this herd of squirrels started chucking their acorns at me. I tried to ask them to stop but they wouldn't and I… I… I got angry at them," the snowman started to cry.
"What about Elsa? What about Kristoff!" Anne knew that she shouldn't be yelling at Olaf but she couldn't help it. The idea of her beloved boyfriend dying of frostbite or hypothermia kept running though her mind.
"I don't know." Olaf responded, inexperienced though he might be he could read the situation and seemed to under the seriousness of it. "After the squirrels left I tried to make my way back but a herd of deer ran out of nowhere and slammed into me." By this point Anna was starting to gather up the scatter pieces of Olaf. Usually he would have been able to do this himself but as chance would have it neither of his wooden arms were attached to any part of his body. One of them had somehow ended up in the low branches of a tree a good several lengths away from where his head was. The reassembly didn't take much time as Anna had more then enough experience with it.
"Ok Olaf, where it the cave Kristoff and Elsa spent the night it?" Anna asked. The small caravan complete with sled, doctor and enough blackest to cover a tree had caught up and were merely waiting for insturcitons. Olaf responded by dragging himself up onto the back of one of the lead horses and started giving directions. They quickly found themselves outside of the rock formation the cave dug into and Sven quickly found the opening.
Anna crawled inside but hit her head in the darkness. "Ow. Elsa! ELSA!" She called.
There was no reply. The Princess feared that either they had the wrong cave or that Kristoff had expired during the night and Elsa left the body. The red head couldn't think which was worse.
"Here!" Came a weak voice further back in the cave.
Anna jumped and hit her head on the ceiling again. "ELSA!" The princess crawled forward with the physician right behind her.
Before the spunky red head could say anything else, the doctor pushed her and his lord aside to tend to the patient. Normally the sisters would take offense to the rough treatment but they deferred to his expertise.
"What happened?" Anna asked as she looked over her older sister. The queen's usually immaculate appearance was smuggled with dirt and rock. Her magically made outfit, usually pristine, now had rips and holes all over it. Her face was sickly pale and bags under her eyes were large enough to be used to carry flower in. Her breathing seemed a little ragged and the white blond hair was no longer in its braid.
Taking a deep breath and leaning against the uneven wall of the cave Elsa began, "It has been a rough few hours. Olaf disappeared early into the night and the fire didn't last long without fuel…" She paused to take a laborious breath, "I had to… improvise what could be done."
Anne move in front of her sister and tried to look at her directly in the eye. A difficult task as it looked like the Queen was about to fall asleep.
"What do you mean 'improvise'?" Anna knew she was pushing the issue but Elsa was not being descriptive and the redhead NEEDED to know what was happening to her boyfriend.
Before her older sister could answer, they were both jostled aside by the crew that was moving the still cold but living Kristoff out of the cave and onto the waiting sled. The doctor then moved Anna out of the way and started to examine Queen Elsa. Every time that Anna tried to get a word in edge wise she was shushed like a child.
"All right ma'am you look good. Now legs get down off this cursed hillside before you all bring the demon dogs down upon us." The medical man muttered as he sprouted old superstitions.
Elsa and Anna had a sled to themselves for the journey back to the city. "We need to pick up Kristoff's sled." Olaf reminded them. Sven snorted his approval.
"So… which way?" Anna asked.
The snowman started jumping up and down, "I know! I know!"
The other three looked as him expectedly. After a moment Elsa asked, "Where?"
Olaf looked at Sven who appeared to be in some kind of conversation with the horses that pulled the sled. "Sven."
The dog like reindeer ignored them for a second to finish whatever interaction he was having with the stallions before turning back to the two ladies and snowman. Stomping his feet twice and snorting Sven use his hornes to point in a direction.
The trio got in the sled. "So, who what's to drive?" Anna asked. The stallion Sitron, once the horse of Prince Hans of the Southern Iles, Elsa had commandeered the animal after his former master was disgraced. Sitron looked back at the two women before shaking his head.
"Oh, Oh. I'll drive." Olaf declared as he grabbed for the reins.
"NO!" Both the of humans cried but the snow sled was already moving. Elsa grabbed the reins from her creation but the unique creature merely jumped over the railing and onto the back of the horse.
"Charge intrepid steed. Follow the odorous reindeer!" Olaf called.
The two hoofed mammals exchanged glances before the horse ducked his head and the reindeer's hind leg shot backwards, hitting Olaf square in the center mass. The middle section of his body went flying to the side. "There goes my body." His head and legs following afterward. "I'll be back!" He cried.
"Should we go after him?" Elsa asked, the brief comedy suddenly making the weight of the previous evening feel lighter.
Anna grabbed the now empty reins. "He'll be fine. I can't even begin to tell you how many times Olaf fell apart when we were looking for you."
Elsa kept looking backwards but no sign could be seen of the snowman. She sighed and settled back into the seat. On a logical level she knew that Olaf could put himself back together but her freyed nerves didn't like the idea of leaving him behind.
"So…" Anna began, "about what you said back at the cave… about 'improvising'." She fell short and silent. Not wanting to press the issue to hard and has her sister clam up.
Elsa knew what the red head was meaning however she the blond remained silent.
"Not now Anna. Lets just get Kristoff's sled and head home."
"Ok. Anna responded. The princess knew that Elsa would talk to her eventually. But there was no need to push. They had all the time in the world.
Notes: I know what people are going to say, "Elsa and Kristoff! I didn't want that it is either Anna and Kristoff like in canon or Elsa and Anna." In my defense I was never intending to make a romantic relationship between Elsa and Kristoff. It is intended to be right on the border between plutonic and romantic or rather platonic love, a love without the sexuality sort of like the love one has for their favorite cousin. This idea just came to me. I have a semi-sequel planed, it will make reference to this story but you don't need to read that if you don't like this or vice versa.
Hope you all have a good day. If this inspires you, don't even bother contacting me about using the setting. Just do it. We are free writers who merely want to express our enjoyment of a series.