Anna shivered in her cloak as she rode on her horse, Kjekk, through the thick, unseasonable snow. She had no idea where Elsa was, but she couldn't have gotten far. She had ice powers, not super-speed. Or maybe she did. There was so much Anna didn't know about her.

"Elsa," she called out. "It's me, Anna. I need you to come back and end this winter. Right now!"

No response.

"Of course, none of this would have happened if she'd just told me her secret," Anna said to herself. "She's a stinker.'' There were several other names she wanted to call Elsa too, but they wouldn't have been appropriate.

She bumped up against a tree, and a mound of snow fell on top of her and Kjekk. Kjekk was spooked and ran away, causing her to fall and leaving her behind.

"No no no no no!" Anna called after the runaway horse. But it was no use. The horse was gone. She was on her own. She got up, brushed the snow off her dress, and began trudging up the hill on foot, leaving a footprint with every step.

"Snow," she said. "It had to be snow. She couldn't have had tropical powers that covered the fjords in white sand and warm - "

She looked up and saw smoke coming out of a chimney through the trees. She sighed with relief. "Fire!"

Anna waddled as fast as she could towards the building, a small log cabin. She knocked the snow off the sign, which read: "Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna." She could use a sauna right about now - that is, if she wasn't in such a hurry.

Anna went inside and saw the shopkeeper, the large but friendly-looking Oaken. She bought some warm clothes and supplies from his woefully understocked Winter Department. She asked Oaken if he had seen Elsa, but he hadn't. She was just about to pay when someone else came through the door.

The man was at least a head taller than her, and was dressed in snow-covered leather. A cloth concealed the bottom half of his face.

"Carrots," he said, his voice muffled through the cloth.

"What?" Anna said.

"Carrots," he said louder. "Behind you."

"Oh," said Anna, moving aside. "Sorry."

"Quite a howler in July, ja?" Oaken asked cheerfully. "Where's it coming from?"

"The North Mountain," the stranger said.

"The North Mountain," Anna repeated to herself. She turned to the man. "Did it seem… magical?"

The man lowered the cloth over his face. "Yes," he said.

After Anna had paid for the man's supplies (he was short on cash), she approached him in Oaken's shed. He had curled up next to a pile of hay and was playing a lullaby on his lute for his reindeer companion.

"Nice song," she said.

"Thanks," he said.

"Take me up the North Mountain," she said suddenly.

The man's eyes widened. "What?"

"I'm Princess Anna. I'm looking for my sister, Queen Elsa. She's the one who started this winter. I need to find her and end it."

"We leave at dawn," the man said, leaning back and lowering his hat over his eyes.

"We leave now," Anna said firmly. "Right now."

"Fine," the man said. "But I want to go on record as saying this is a bad idea."

The man hitched up his reindeer to his sleigh, and he and Anna got inside. Anna learned that his name was Kristoff and his reindeer's name was Sven. He was an ice harvester, and the sudden winter had completely ruined his business. He wanted it over as much as she did.

"So," Kristoff said. "What made the queen go all ice-crazy?"

"It was at the coronation ball," Anna said. "I got engaged, but she wouldn't bless the marriage because I'd only just met him that day, and - "

"Wait," Kristoff interrupted. "You got engaged to someone you just met that day?!"

"Yes," said Anna irritably. "Pay attention. So anyway, we got into a fight, and I took one of her gloves. But the thing is, she wore the gloves all the time. So I just figured, maybe she had a thing about dirt."

"Didn't your parents ever warn you about strangers?" Kristoff asked.

"...yes they did," Anna said, scooting away from Kristoff. "But Hans is not a stranger. He is a prince. And what we have is true love."

"True love doesn't happen in a day," Kristoff scoffed.

"How do you know?" Anna asked. "What are you, some kind of love expert?"

"No," Kristoff admitted. "But I have friends who are."

"You have friends who are love experts?" Anna repeated incredulously. "I'm not buying it. I'd like to meet these friends."

But their conversation was interrupted when a pack of wolves showed up and attacked the sleigh. Anna and Kristoff fended them off, and they were forced to make a risky jump across the ravine. Anna, Kristoff and Sven made it, but the sleigh fell and was destroyed.

"Oh," Kristoff whimpered as he heard the crash. "I just paid it off!"

"I'll replace your sled and everything in it," Anna said. "And I understand if you don't want to help me anymore."

"Of course I don't want to help her," Kristoff said to Sven. "In fact, this whole experience has ruined me for helping anyone ever again." But eventually his conscience and his need for a new sled got the better of him, and he reluctantly agreed to keep guiding Anna up the North Mountain.