Kristoff woke up the next morning to find a massive sheet of snow and ice had grown up in a circle around Elsa, leaving the place where they lay together as the only green spot left in the meadow. The ice dome, meanwhile, had a collection of stalactites scattered across it that looked a little too precarious for Kristoff's liking. A glance down at Elsa as she curled up against him and he realized what was wrong.
"Elsa, you should wake up. Nothing's happened, you're alright," he said as he gave her shoulder a gentle shake.
She murmured something under her breath and tore away from his hand, sending out another wave of cold and ice.
Kristoff changed tactics and instead gave her a deep kiss. Kristoff felt Elsa move beneath him and soon she was responding with passion and eagerness to his kiss.
"I want you to wake me up like that every morning," she said with a smile once they broke away from each other.
"I'll keep that in mind," he said with a laugh. "In the meantime, care to lift your ice sheet?" He said with another look around.
"What are you talking … Oh," Elsa said as she got up and took in the ice for the first time. "I had a nightmare about Anna," she said as she made a gesture with her hand that banished the excess ice that had overlaid the dome.
"So I gathered," said Kristoff as he got up and stretched. "I just hope that the ice didn't go past the dome. Do you know where my pants went?"
"I think you should just go on like that. I wouldn't mind a bit, and Sven wouldn't know any better," Elsa said with a giggle.
"You wouldn't mind, but Lord Derek might," said Kristoff as he looked around.
"Oh, Lord Derek. Pah," Elsa said with a pout, crossing her arms over her exposed breasts.
"You say that, but he did help stop the monster that Anna sent against us yesterday," said Kristoff as he began to circle out from where they'd been laying the night before in an attempt to find his pants that way.
"He says it was a monster," replied Elsa, hiding his pants under where she sat.
"You saw it as well as I did, and I think that no matter what she meant it to be, it was a monster once it got to us," said Kristoff, raising a hand to his eyes to try and block out the sun to get a better view of the land around them to spy his pants.
Elsa sighed and threw his pants at his head. "So you say. I still think that Anna is just figuring her powers out. After all, I froze the whole kingdom before I was able to discover how my own powers worked."
"True. Still, I can't help but worry about it," said Kristoff as he pulled his pants on and quested about for his boots.
"Over here," said Elsa as she pointed out his boots. "Let's just not worry about it until we meet up with her, shall we?"
"Yeah, what harm can putting off the inevitable even more be, right?" Said Kristoff with a smirk.
Elsa rolled her eyes and conjured up a snowball above his head and laughed as it soaked him to the bone. "We'll be fine. Anna will understand, I'm sure," she said, biting her lip afterwards. Taking a deep breath, Elsa closed her eyes and conjured up a conservative dress to appeal to Lord Derek's sensibilities and show her regal side. When she was sure that Kristoff was fully dressed as well, she banished the dome.
They walked back to where they'd made camp the night before to find Lord Derek making breakfast. "Good morning!" He said with a smile and a wave. "I see that you decided to stay somewhere a little more secure than your sled. I hope you had a relaxing evening."
"It was certainly an eventful evening," mused Kristoff with a glance at Elsa, who blushed.
"Splendid, splendid" said Lord Derek. Kristoff realized that Lord Derek wasn't really listening to what he was saying as he focused his attention on preparing their meal. "I've got some hash, eggs and sausage cooking, should be ready in a little bit. I hope you're hungry."
"Looks lovely," Kristoff said as he looked into the skillet and saw only a mass of brown.
"It's supposed to look like that. Don't knock it till you try it," said Lord Derek as he turned around and started pulling out very old, very beat up tin plates.
"Where on earth did you get these from?" asked Elsa as he passed her a plate filled with what he'd cooked.
Lord Derek didn't respond until he'd handed Kristoff a plate of food as well. "From the witch hunter legions during the war against the Witch Queen of the North. During the last few months supplies started to run out so we shared when we didn't have enough. I got these from a friend of mine who passed and I've kept them with me ever since. Besides, there's nothing handier to have in the middle of the woods than a few tin plates."
Kristoff took a few tentative bites, but once he determined that it wasn't in fact burned, he dove into it with gusto.
Elsa took her time eating it, but still enjoyed it nevertheless.
"So it seems that we should make it to Princess Anna by midday today. What's our plan of attack? How are we going to strike at her?" asked Lord Derek after he'd finished his second portion.
Kristoff began to choke on his food and Elsa sent out a wave of ice that all but extinguished the cooking fire.
"What do you mean, strike at her? What do you think we were planning on doing to her?" Asked Kristoff once he could speak again.
Lord Derek shrugged. "I didn't know, that's why I asked. The last shadow magic user I went up against required an army to put down, but seeing as we aren't exactly an army I was wondering what you were planning on doing."
"Talk to her," said Elsa, giving Lord Derek a steely glare. "We were going to find her, take the mirror away and have a much overdue talk. The last magic thing we used ceased its influence once it was removed and I'm certain that this one will be no different. Then we were going to go home."
"Never mind about what the mirror may have done to influence her, hmm? I like your confidence, Elsa. It's a refreshing breath of air in a world filled with scared little men."
"Is that something we should really be worried about? She's only had it for a few days, what harm could it do? Yes, you say that the last Witch Queen was corrupted by it, but maybe she was already bad. Maybe it just pushed her to what she already wanted to do," mused Kristoff.
Lord Derek took a deep breath before he responded. "Perhaps you're right, but as someone who knew the Witch Queen rather well before she became the Witch Queen, I'd just like to take a few precautions."
Elsa, meanwhile, had had enough. "Lord Derek, ever since Anna left you and your people have been insinuating that Anna's been turned to wickedness and that it's only a matter of time before she puts on a black hat and starts riding broomsticks before an army of monsters, but never once have you taken responsibility for your own actions. Yes, she used your mirror, but if it's so evil then why on Earth do you have it with you? If it hadn't been for you, this would never have happened."
Lord Derek sighed. "I possess the thing because I lifted it from the Witch Queen's chambers after she died. No telling what it could have done if left to its own devices. I brought it with me because I have a daughter with a flair for magic and that thing has a vendetta against me. I am sorry that this has unfolded the way it has, but I do not want the past to repeat itself."
"Then why not just destroy it? Break it in half or shatter the pieces and scatter them to the four corners of the Earth?" asked Kristoff.
"Because that's been done before. Ever wonder why the Thirty Years' War was as gruesome as it was, or why the French Revolution was such a spectacular mess? Breaking the mirror doesn't break its power, it just spreads it out. The trick is to hide it where it can't do any harm and hope it doesn't escape because of some stupid human mistake," said Lord Derek.
"A mistake like yours?" asked Elsa as she finished up her meal.
"Yes, a mistake like mine," said Lord Derek.
"Well, let's try our way first and we'll send you a signal or something if it all goes to crap. How does that sound Elsa?" asked Kristoff as he handed his plate back to Lord Derek, who put it in his bag.
"That seems fair," said Elsa with a reluctant nod, not wanting to risk Anna getting hurt at all.
"Perfectly reasonable," said Lord Derek just as reluctantly. It was obvious that he'd been amping up for a fight and this wasn't what he'd been expecting.
"Good! Let's get cleaned up and set off to meet Anna, then, shall we? We're almost there, after all," said Kristoff with a cheerful clap of his hands.
"Do you know where she is, then?" asked Elsa, who was still more or less in the dark about where they'd been going to.
Kristoff laughed. "Isn't it obvious? She went as far away from people as she could get, where she could work her magic in peace and quiet."
"Oh, of course. Why didn't I realize that? Of course she'd go up there," said Elsa as she looked north.
Lord Derek blinked. "I'm missing something here. Where did she go?"
"The North Mountain. She went to the North Mountain," said Elsa.