Once Anna had realised how far away the mountain was, she agreed to stop, and rest until the sun rose once again. It really was too dark to travel now, and soon there would be hungry predators lurking in the shadows, waiting for an easy kill. Despite many of the castle servants' views, the reckless, clumsy girl really did value her life, even if she did slide down a ridiculously high, curved staircase banister every day - it wasn't as if she needed the practice by now, at any rate.

The following morning, Anna awoke early, and kept herself occupied by feeding Mia, and sorting out the two saddle bags so that everything was organised and easy to access in case of an emergency. Afterwards, she lay around for a little while, relaxing and playing with her daughter until it got light.

Eventually, the sun's rays peeked over the mountains, and it was just possible to make out certain shapes, especially the mountain. While it had been sparkling and bright the night before, the daylight glinted off of the ice much brighter, making it seem almost blinding. Anna stared at it, and either it was an illusion, or the light shining off the mountainside was creating a rainbow. She sighed at the beauty of it, and yet the opposite side of the mountain was still dark, and dull, and it was hard to make out what was covering it.

After awakening Kristoff, Odd and Olaf, and having a quick breakfast of some bread, the group set off, Olaf sliding along on his stomach, and the others riding upon their steeds, galloping across the frozen, snowy ground.

It took about four hours of flat-out galloping, with for the group to reach the massive mountain, and the sight of it made Anna's eyes widen. While on one side was perfect, shining ice, on the other was covered in ash and dead, charred black grass. It smoked slightly, and the whole sight made Anna feel angry that someone would ruin something so beautiful.

A large, gentle deer pranced by, and even it seemed to be disgusted at the state the mountain was in.

"Come on," Odd said, beckoning them to a small hole in the mountain side. "This looks like the entrance."

The hole was small, and Kristoff went through first, his broad shoulders nearly getting stuck in the tiny space. Anna laughed as he struggled, although when she got inside, she stopped laughing, for she couldn't see even an inch in front of her face, in the darkness. In her arms, she felt Mia squirm and the usually quiet child began to whimper. In response, Anna gently stroked her head, and muttered soothing noises quietly, which settled the child, and then, an idea came to her.

"Kris!" She whispered loudly, "Kristoff, where are you?

"Over here!" Kristoff's voice called, and Anna frowned, not that he could see her.

"Where?"

"Follow my voice!"

Slowly walking in the direction Kristoff's voice, following the wall, she bumped into Kristoff and let out a little gasp of surprise. She then giggled slightly, whispering in his ear, "Found you."

Handing Mia to the man, she then felt around for the baby's hands and then held them in her own. She wasn't sure whether her idea would work, but she could hope. Moving the hands over each other, a small flake of snow appeared, and she smiled happily. Trying again, the snowflake then grew bigger, before it soon became a ball of glowing ice, and both Kristoff and Anna grinned.

"Much better light." Kristoff said, pointing out the obvious, and Anna giggled.

"Hopefully Mia will be able to keep it until we get somewhere with more light." She said, and then Odd and Olaf trotted over.

The snowman smiled at Mia's ice. "Ooh!" He gasped, "It's so pretty and... white!" He frowned, then reconsidered. "No, not white. Definitely not white. More... Blue. It's light blue, like the summer sky!"

Anna shook her head. Olaf was a character, and she smiled at the snowman, but her face contorted into a wide-eyed look of fear as she heard a loud scream from somewhere up above. Grabbing Mia back from Kristoff quickly, she hurried along the corridor, clutching her daughter protectively to her chest as she began to run.

As Anna rushed through the corridor at a rapid walk, the slope grew progressively steeper, and even when Mia's snowball crumbled away, there was still light - clearly, she was nearing the 'main room', as she liked to think of it. Soon, she could hear the whizzing of something rushing through the air, as well as quick footsteps, as if they were jumping around, quickly.

Anna had a horrid feeling they weren't just playing hopscotch.

When she stood in the doorway, the sight that met her eyes was incredible, yet horrible at the same time.

Elsa stood at one end of the room, ice and frost twisting intricate patters on the walls, her eyes flashing in anger, exhilaration, and just the smallest amount of fear. Meanwhile, at the other end of the room, right in front of Anna, a small man stood, his hair thick and brown, his orange eyes flickering red from the flames that were erupting from his palms.

Both people were fully engaged in the battle, and they hadn't noticed the arrival of the others. Handing Mia to Kristoff, Anna tried to sneak along the walls to get behind the man, hoping to give him a nice kick to the lower region, but her target spun around. She quickly had to duck as a flame of fire shot at her, luckily just scolding her shoulder.

"Anna!" Elsa's cry was sharp and filled with terror, but the younger woman hardly heard it; while she had been rushing through the corridor, she had felt fine, but now her wounded ankle was searing in pain, and it was hard to run. She managed to dodge most of the blazing catapults that were thrown at her, but by the time she neared Elsa, her ankle was too weak to do anything.

Now, Anna was not very good at keeping still, but under the circumstances, it was hard to keep moving. Crumpling to the floor, Anna lay still, hoping that an act of playing dead would be enough to let the man leave her alone, and to her relief, it seemed to work, although it was difficult to let Kristoff know she was alive, and stop him from leaving Mia to avenge her 'death'.

Elsa, however, was fuming. Her hands slashed through the air, and ice shot in all directions, but the man before her was good, as well. He dodged each shot with acrobatic leaps and movements, and the closest the snow queen ever got to hitting him was a graze on his shoulder.

Eventually, Elsa's movements began to slow down, and her ice was duller. The man before her slashed his hand through the air, causing a massive gust of wind to smash her against the wall, and she fell in a heap at the bottom, conscious, but unable to move. Her breathing was slow and the force of the hit had clearly been terrific.

The man then turned upon Anna. He sent a fireball her way, and Anna's eyes widened, making her shoot up, startling the magician but not for long. He sent another her way, and Elsa muttered a quiet, "Anna." She weakly opened her palm to face her sister, and her own blast of ice was created, before she slumped to the ground, unconscious, aiming to protect, but her shot was misdirected as she fell down.

The two spells hit Anna at the same time as she spread out her hands instinctively to try to protect the rest of her body, and Kristoff cried out her name. Shoving Mia to Odd, he sprinted to his wife, ducking the onslaught of fire from the small man as he went, and he grabbed her as she fell.

Anna breathed heavily, when she suddenly screamed in agony. Half of her body burned, as if on fire, while the other was colder and sharper than when her body had frozen. Her eyes widened and went a bright white, and her hand slowly raised.

The next thing anyone knew, a jet of bright red and sky blue was zooming towards the man, a combination of both the fire and ice. It hit him in the chest, and he fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Meanwhile, Anna's features returned to normal, and she, too fell to the floor, her body normal again, but exhausted. A few sparks flickered between her fingers, before they went out, and they never came again.

Laying Anna down, Kristoff went to look at the man, who was gasping in ragged breaths. He grabbed the mountain man's shirt, an agonised, insane glint in his eyes.

"If I'm going down," he said, his voice raucous and scratchy. "I'm going down fighting!" His face contorted into a crazed smile, and Kristoff felt his skin burning hot, steaming, and there was nothing he could do to stop the heat. He would soon shrivel up, like fruit left in the sun, and he gasped, the air too dry for his throat. Watching this, Olaf let out a war cry and threw his body at the man, who was hit on the head and just seemed confused. It made him let go of Kristoff, at any rate, but he was already feeling the affects badly.

Mia screamed in fear at the scene before her, and she began to cry. Odd looked uncomfortable holding her, and he looked like he just wanted to lie the baby down and run away. Poor bloke.

Kristoff began choking, and his throat scolded him from the heat his body was feeling. He let out a strangled moan, and then Mia lost it, her hand pointed at her father, and a jet of ice shot at him, hitting his chest and covering the floor in snow. Her soft, fuzzy hair seemed to stand on end for a moment, and when it settled down, a new platinum blonde streak appeared, replacing a lock of the previously ginger hair, and it would seem that the child's power had just increased at the outburst.

The magician's eyes widened when he saw his victim recovering, not having seen the magic to understand what had happened, and he snarled, before he grinned evilly.

"Enjoy your surprise," he drawled, clicking his fingers once, before his body slumped to the ground, and he sunk into the earth beneath him. The soil then covered the man's body over, and it darkened, turning black, a stain in the earth.

Kristoff, meanwhile, was beginning to breathe normally again, and his body temperature had cooled. At first, he was confused, but then he realised that Mia's ice would have cooled his overheating body down, two extremes making it neutral, and he ran over to his daughter and held her in a warm hug, which only resulted in making the baby attempt to squirm free, reaching for her mother.

"Not much of a daddy's girl, eh?" Odd teased, and Kristoff chuckled. He then went over to Anna and Elsa, and picked them both up over his shoulder, having given Mia (very warily) to Olaf, who was busy commenting on how 'Isla' would have been a good name for her. Typical Olaf.

The dead man's last words were completely forgotten, but for how long?