Anna started to have trouble breathing the thin air as she trudged up the North Mountain. She could see her breath coming out in puffs. Kristoff, however, was used to it. He slowed down frequently to let her catch up. After a few hours, they stopped and ate some biscuits together. Anna wondered how Kristoff could enjoy something so bland, but she ate it anyway and washed it down with a handful of snow.
"It's awfully lonely up here," she said to break the silence.
"I agree," said a distant voice. Someone - or something - came around the corner, and Anna, Kristoff and Sven saw, to their great confusion, that it was a snowman.
"Um," said Kristoff, pointing nervously. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Hi," the snowman said, approaching them. "I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs! And you are?"
"I'm Anna," Anna said, with a faint smile of recognition. "And this is Kristoff and Sven."
"Hi, Kristoff and Sven," Olaf said, mixing up their names. Kristoff opened his mouth to correct him, then decided it wasn't worth it. Then Olaf turned to Anna.
"Do you remember me?" he asked. "'Cause I feel like I remember you."
"I do," Anna said. One of her few good memories of Elsa was building a snowman named Olaf together when they were kids. It now occurred to Anna that Elsa must have made Olaf with her magic. But she didn't remember him being a talking snowman. "Did - did Elsa make you?" she asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Wait," Anna said, narrowing her eyes. "I asked Elsa to build a snowman with me for years, and then she builds one on her own?!"
"I guess so," Olaf said.
"Oh, I am going to KILL her!" Anna shouted, kicking the snow.
"Olaf," Kristoff said gently, "would you take us to Queen Elsa?"
"Sure," said Olaf. "Why?"
"So we can get her to bring back summer," Anna said.
Olaf grinned. "Ooh, I don't know why, but I've always loved the idea of summer, and sun, and all things hot…"
"Really?" said Kristoff. "I'm guessing you don't have much experience with heat."
"Nope!" Olaf said cheerfully. "But soon we'll find Elsa and she'll bring back summer, and everything will be wonderful!"
Anna and Kristoff looked at each other. Neither of them had the heart to tell Olaf the truth. Besides, they needed him to take them to Elsa. They got up and followed him up the mountain.
"So what's your plan for bringing back summer?" Kristoff asked as they walked through a field of icicles sticking out from the side of a cliff.
"I am going to talk to my sister," Anna said with grim determination. And give her a piece of my mind, she added mentally.
"That's it?" Kristoff asked skeptically. "My ice business is riding on you talking to your sister."
"Well, when you put it that way, it doesn't sound like much of a plan," Olaf said.
"Do you have a better one?" Anna snapped.
"Nope," Kristoff said.
Anna, Kristoff and Sven followed Olaf until they came to a grand ice staircase that stretched across a chasm. Across the staircase, on the side of the North Mountain, was a magnificent palace of ice that could only have been made by Elsa. Anna gulped. Here goes nothing.