02. Element of Danger
Sven the reindeer eagerly trotted toward the Valley of the Living Rock and his troll family. The fact that his human family was bringing along a picnic basket only added to his excitement.
"We should arrive just a little after sunset, in less than half an hour," said Kristoff. "That should give you time to do your thing and get you presentable enough to return by mid-morning tomorrow."
"Do I really need to stay the night?" Elsa asked, sounding less than thrilled at the prospect.
Kristoff glanced over his shoulder at the Queen of Arendelle. She had just about immediately dropped everything to take on the volcano that created the valley's fumaroles, but was balking at spending an extended length of time with his adopted family. It stung him a little bit, if he was to be honest.
"Grand Pabbie said that the last time someone with magic like yours did this, it left him physically weak and magically exhausted. They had to nurse him for a couple of weeks. So they have a bed prepared for you, and they'll be ready with some healing magic if necessary. Grand Pabbie thinks you're stronger than the other ice-wielder was, so you'll probably recover more quickly. But if we travel back to town at night, we risk meeting wolves, which is not something I want to do if you're unconscious or woozy in the back of the sled," Kristoff explained.
"Besides, hanging out with the trolls is fun," said Anna. "Once you learn how to just roll with it."
"Yeah, there's singing and dancing and story-telling and games," Olaf chimed in.
"If doing this takes as much out of me as you're saying, I won't be able to participate in much of the fun," Elsa pointed out.
"But since you wouldn't want to anyway, it's no great loss for you," Anna riposted triumphantly. She was also a little hurt and irritated that her sister always had some excuse for not joining them on their trips to the trolls' home.
"Such is my lot in life: I do all the work while you get all the playtime," Elsa said with no trace of resentment.
"One of the perks of being the spare, O great Queen," Anna bantered.
"I hate to remind you of this, but you are now the heir. And considering that I'm about to traipse into a dangerously awake volcano in order to try to prevent an eruption that would devastate much of the country, greatness might be thrust upon you in short order," Elsa said light-heartedly.
Despite the Snow Queen's chipper tone, the mood of the converted sled's other occupants darkened. "You had to put it that way, didn't you!" said Olaf.
"We're here," said Kristoff somberly. "We have to go on foot a little way to meet some of the trolls, and then they'll lead you up to the fissure."
Kristoff unhitched Sven from the converted sled and helped Olaf up on to the reindeer's back. Anna grabbed and lit two lanterns and observed Elsa. For all that she was uneasy about meeting the trolls, she seemed remarkably calm about trying to cool off a volcano. It had been more than a year since her powers were revealed to the world, and she had been openly using them, most often with excellent control and usually in regard to public works, but perhaps it was just the old "conceal, don't feel, don't let it show" routine that she had perfected over the course of her childhood.
"Are you sure about this?" Anna asked.
"Well, not totally. I am a little worried about freezing the Earth's core and whatever repercussions that would bring," Elsa said. Anna couldn't tell if she was being serious or facetious.
"Oh, look, there's Grand Pabbie!" Olaf said, and Sven trotted faster.
Elsa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Anna knew that was definitely the old "conceal, don't feel, don't let it show" routine. "Hey, they're looking forward to meeting you," Anna encouraged. "They won't bite you."
"But they might sing about me," Elsa said wryly.
"You'll get over the mortification. It's like a rite of passage," Kristoff said.
Just ahead on the barely discernable path, Grand Pabbie and four other trolls were waiting for the humans. The little snowman and the reindeer had already reached them. Olaf was chatting happily with the younger trolls, and Sven was receiving a nice scratch behind an ear, while Grand Pabbie took his impressions of the young woman who had answered his call.
Her pale skin and large sky-blue eyes and perpetually windswept platinum-blonde bangs suggested an unearthly origin. Her youth was made even more obvious since she wore no make-up on this particular outing. Her dress and cape flowed and shimmered as though made of the finest silk. Her bearing and motion attested to a royal upbringing.
And the invisible pulse of her magic was overwhelming. He understood how she could set off an eternal winter without even noticing. The power she had possessed as just a young girl was something special - and alarming. What he sensed from her now gave him much to mull over.
"Good evening, Kristoff and Anna," Grand Pabbie greeted, and the human couple smiled and bobbed their heads. "Welcome, Your Majesty."
In response, Queen Elsa curtsied deeply to the troll elder and spoke in a language that Anna did not recognize. Grand Pabbie gave her an appraising look before replying in the same tongue, while the other trolls grinned in surprise.
Kristoff stared at Elsa with his mouth hanging open. "You know Trollish?" he asked in amazement.
"Seemingly quite well," said Grand Pabbie, still studying the Snow Queen. "Her vocabulary is somewhat old-fashioned and formal, but her grammar is superb."
"My father wanted me to learn Stonespeak," Elsa said with a modest smile. "Whatever else anyone thinks about him, he spared no effort or expense on my academics."
"Why didn't I get to learn it, too?" Anna blurted.
"First, you weren't supposed to know about the trolls' existence. Second, you weren't exactly partial to lessons," Elsa said drolly.
"Hey, I like the fun subjects. I just don't do well with too much structure and stuffy lectures," Anna huffed. "I would have loved to learn Trollish."
"I'm sure the trolls would teach you," Elsa suggested, looking Grand Pabbie's way. He nodded.
"Oooh, I'm so excited!" Anna squealed.
"It's not what I'd call an easy language to learn," Kristoff warned.
"Hah! I take that as a challenge!" Anna said.
"OK, Feisty Pants," Kristoff laughed.
Grand Pabbie cleared his throat to signal a change of the subject, but made a mental note to ask Elsa what resources she had used to learn the language. "My friends here are Gneiss, Feldspar, Gabbro, and Mica," he introduced them, each one waving in turn. Elsa correlated the names to the colors of the crystal necklaces they wore. She had no idea how to tell them apart otherwise.
"Your Majesty, do you feel up to this?" Grand Pabbie asked solemnly. "What we are asking you to do involves a serious element of danger. If you need to enter the volcano and your powers should tire before you can lull it back to sleep, we probably won't be able to help you. Even if you succeed, it is likely to take a great toll on you."
"Sir, as I told you in your language, I am forever at your service for healing my sister. I will aid you in any way I can, no matter the risks," Elsa said firmly.
"We do not have any advice to give you about how to do this," Grand Pabbie admitted.
"Sir, my problem never was using my magic. My problems were containing it, not doing more than I intend to, and undoing the messes I made," Elsa said thoughtfully. "I like big projects."
Grand Pabbie blinked. "I would very much like to speak with you later."
"If all goes well, sir," Elsa said. "When this is done."
"The easiest approach to the fissure is this way," Grand Pabbie pointed to a trail that was even less discernable. Walking up a twisting, steep, non-maintained path with only lanterns for light seemed an unnecessary waste of time to Elsa.
"Where exactly is best place to enter the fissure, sir?" Elsa asked.
Grand Pabbie pointed to a spot on a ridge above them. "You do not need to call me 'sir,' Elsa."
"As you wish," she said. "Let's take the stairs." And with a slight toss of her head, two sets of ice stairs instantly materialized leading up to the place Grand Pabbie had indicated. One had tread risers optimal for a troll's step, the other for a human's.
"Sweet!" Kristoff exclaimed.
The trolls exchanged glances. Grand Pabbie's eyes were wide.
"For safety's sake, I think Olaf and Sven should stay down here," Elsa said. At the snowman's forlorn look, she added: "I'll bring you some rocks from inside the volcano."
"I'll keep them company," Mica said as the rest of the group started to climb the stairs.
"It's still so high up. Can't you make these move?" Anna joked.
"As you wish," Elsa said with a sly smile. And the stairs began to move.
"Whoa! This so neat!" Anna shouted. Kristoff gaped in wonder. Gneiss, Feldspar, and Gabbro were also enthusiastic, but Grand Pabbie looked uneasy.
"Impressive, but you might want to conserve your energy, Elsa," he advised.
"This is trivial, sir - I'm sorry, decorum is a force of habit," Elsa said.
"It is best to err on the side of caution," he countered.
"As you wish." And the stairs gently stopped moving.
"Aww. But at least we're more than halfway there," Anna said.
"It is here that you and Kristoff must wait," Grand Pabbie told her.
"But why? I want to watch," Anna said, confused.
"The heat and the fumes ahead will be too much for you," Gneiss explained.
"Elsa will be cooling things off - and won't the fumes get to her, too?" Anna really did not want to miss the action.
"I will create a downdraft. But if anything goes wrong, you need to be out of harm's way. You're the heir now," Elsa reminded.
"But you just said-" Anna started to argue.
"If my powers give out, or if I can't figure out how to do this, or if I panic and lose control of my magic, you need to be well away from me," Elsa said in her Queen Voice.
"Listen to your sister, Anna," Kristoff urged. He knew that Elsa really wanted to say: "If anything goes wrong, I don't want you to watch me die."
"OK, OK, I'll just wait here and twiddle my thumbs while Elsa wrestles a volcano to mat. Probably nothing to see anyway," Anna pouted.
"Gabbro, please wait here with them," Grand Pabbie said, suspecting that Kristoff by himself might have a hard time making sure that Anna complied.
Gabbro nodded. "I can start teaching you a little bit of our language," he suggested.
"Meh," said Anna as she watched her sister ascend the stairs with the remainder of the trolls.
When they drew closer to the top of the ridge, she could see Elsa's downdraft, or rather the effects of the downdraft on the water vapor and other visible gases. And then their distant figures stopped when they reached what must have been the edge of the fissure. She sighed and sat down on the steps; Kristoff and Gabbro joined her. Just to drive home her disappointment, Anna began to twiddle her thumbs.
Author's Note - More like a question: In the movie, when the King is looking for the map to the trolls' valley, a page from a book is shown. It's written in a runic alphabet. Does anyone know what it says if it's in Old Norse or is canonically supposed to say if it's just gibberish?
