Eugene and Rapunzel met back with the captain, and he said that they would be unable to purchase a boat until the weekend. Groaning, Eugene turned to his wife.
"Great, so we're stuck with the crazy fire-queen for five days. That's just spectacular. You know-"
"Eugene!" Rapunzel hissed. "Stop. Anna's coming."
She nodded towards the redhead, and Eugene quickly snapped his mouth shut.
"You guys...I know you're from Corona and you're not necessarily...we're not necessarily on the best of terms with you guys right now, but...could you help me with Elsa? I don't know what to do with her and she..I don't know what she's up to. She's scaring me...she set her entire room ablaze," Anna whispered the last part.
Rapunzel's eyes widened. Eugene started to disagree vehemently, but she overlapped his refusal. "We're here for five more days, anyway - of course we will assist you in any ways necessary."
"Yeah, the reason we're still here is because that woman set our freaking ship on fire. On fire, Rapunzel!"
Anna bit her lip and grimaced. "Sorry..."
"Eugene. We're here anyways, why not?" Rapunzel rolled her eyes at Eugene's resistance. "He's just a little, uh...disturbed. It's not that I don't feel the same way...that was my parents' ship...but I'm fine with helping you."
Seeing that he was outnumbered, Eugene groaned and agreed reluctantly.
The trio headed to the castle - the captain, upon hearing what was going on, elected to find an inn to sleep at, instead of staying in the very same castle as the fire-powered queen was. When they got back to the castle, they all headed for Elsa's room.
When they got there, she was gone. The room was blackened, but Anna still ran to put out a small flame that was still working on the remnant's of the Queen's bed.
"Where do you think she went?" Rapunzel asked.
"I don't know, but she sometimes spends entire nights reading in her den. We'd better leave her alone, after seeing this. We'll talk to her tomorrow - I'm sure you guys are tired. I'll show you to your room," Anna rambled. It was quite clear that she was nervous and worried for her sister, what with her quick talking and twitching hands.
The next morning, Eugene and Rapunzel emerged from their room early in the morning and wandered to find the dining hall. Anna and Elsa were already there.
The Queen had clearly not slept the night prior; her pale blue eyes glared over the dark circles on the skin around them. Her dark hair hadn't been brushed and hung raggedly down her back.
"Why are you still here?" she snapped.
"You kinda burned our ship down," Eugene pointed out. "We can't get out of here until the weekend."
She glowered.
"Elsa, what is the matter? You run one of the biggest countries in the world to begin with, you should be pretty pleased!" Rapunzel said. She didn't mention that the reason she was was because of her less-than-fair trade policies.
"My people are turning against me. My own sister will not support what I am doing. They will not listen or accept me. They don't see the good I've done, they only miss the merchandise we no longer get from other countries. " she said, staring blankly at the tablecloth. The dead gaze in her eyes frightened Anna.
"Elsa, I love you as my sister, and you know that! But you know what you're doing is wrong-"
That was it. Elsa jumped up, shoving her chair hard enough to make it clatter to the ground. "I've heard enough of that same sentence, Anna! Leave. Now!"
"You can't banish me from my own castle," Anna said. "I may be a 'spare', but I'm a princess."
Elsa's eyes widened in anger, but she stormed from the room. Her shoes left charred impressions on the wooden floor of the dining hall. They stared a moment at the trail her shoes made before turning back to one another.
"This is worse than I thought," Anna mumbled. "Maybe I shouldn't have blurted that out-"
"Ya think?" Eugene asked.
"Eugene...be nice. Anna, do you want me to go talk to her?"
"Absolutely not!" Eugene yelped. Anna shook her head in agreement.
"I don't want you getting hurt over this, neither of you. You're not even from this country! No, we'll let her go. Maybe today we'll keep tabs on her, see what she's planning, if we can?"
They talked quietly for almost a half an hour, discussing plans, but then they heard screams outside of the castle. The three of them ran to a window and saw a thick trickle of lava heading slowly away from the castle courtyard. Townsfolk stared in horror before realizing what it was, screaming and rushing in the opposite direction.
"Anna, do you think..."
"She's planning on burning the entire country to the ground, or at least enough of it to make everyone fear and respect her?" Anna finished, and Rapunzel nodded.
"Well, if that's what she'd going to do, we need to take action right now, right this second," Eugene said, leaning on the windowsill to stare at the thick ribbon that was staining the stone courtyard.
Anna raced to evacuate the entire castle and get all of the servants, maids, and cooks to a safe location while Rapunzel and Eugene got the horses out of the royal stable, which was directly beside the castle. One of the Fjords smelled the sulfur of the lava and squealed, refusing to leave the safety of its stall. Eugene removed his vest and covered the horse's eyes and nose with it, leading it out to safety with the others just before a corner of the stable caught fire. Grabbing Rapunzel's arm, they rushed out of the barn, meeting back up with Anna.
"Where did Elsa go? Is she in the castle?"
"No," Anna shook her head breathlessly. She stared as the flames worked their way slowly up the side of the barn and the trail of lava grew, heading quicker towards the nearby shop. "She...she probably ran away."
"Irresponsible fool," Eugene growled under his breath. Rapunzel didn't disagree.
"So what's our plan of action?"
Anna and Rapunzel started to discuss what to do, but Eugene broke them off.
"Uh, ladies...was that there yesterday?" he gestured, and they both looked up.
Nestled near the mountains, not so obvious that it was a glaring change, stood a huge, ugly, brown volcano.
Anna gasped. "How-urrrgh! Of course! If she can create and control lava, she can melt stone and turn it into a volcano. Well, that's just great. I bet that's where she plans to hide out."
"Then let's go! It's probably just a days' journey, if we go at a quick pace," Rapunzel reasoned.
Eugene shook his head. "You're staying here."
"Who says? I'm perfectly capable of holding my own!" she glared at him.
He pulled her aside and whispered in her ear. "I don't want to put you in danger."
"Eugene, I already am! If you let me back here, you won't know what's going on, and neither will I. I'd actually be in more danger staying back than I would be going with you!"
"But you wouldn't be confronting a psychotic fire-queen," he threw back.
"Eugene, come on. Plus, don't you think I'm a little worried about you getting hurt?" He'd died in her arms, only to be brought back from her healing tear. Her parents had just died a year and a half ago. If he died - again - , she'd be all alone.
His face contorted, and she knew the battle was already half over. Finally, he huffed. "Fine. Come on...but if I tell you to stay back or something, you do so. Hear me?"
"Crystal clear," she nodded.
Going back to Anna, they immediately left. Luckily, they soon came across the spot where the lava stopped flowing; it had only caused one minor burn to the shop across from the castle. The owner had quickly put the fire out and in doing so, and no one was hurt.
But that was the least of their worries. They had no less than made it out of the town square when a low, resonating growl filled the air. A new, thick stream of lava flowed from the smoking volcano, but the small eruption wasn't what had created that sound.
