03. Elsa Versus the Volcano

Elsa stared at the magma roiling below and considered her options. "I take it that you want me to alleviate the build-up of hot gases that is creating the eruptive pressure yet leave the rock molten so that your steam vents still work," Elsa said.

"If you can do such a thing, that would be best," Grand Pabbie said. "But please do not be over-confident or push yourself past your limits."

Elsa smiled placidly at him. "Full contact it is, then. That way I can gauge the temperature better and pinpoint my targets more precisely. If I try to blast it from up here, I might cool everything too much, and you'll end up with a plug of solid rock. Well, here goes."

And the first few coils of an unfinished ice spiral staircase appeared. It was attached to nothing, supported by nothing, unmelted by the ambient heat. Elsa took a short step over the abyss from the edge of the fissure to the top of the staircase, and began her descent into the fires of the earth. As she completed each turn, a new section of the spiral would come into existence below while the upper portions vanished. The trolls were flabbergasted.

"Most impressive," said Grand Pabbie. He knew now that her powers would not be drained by this, that calling the mountainside ice escalator "trivial" was no novice's boast, and that her concern about completely solidifying the lava was not mere bravado. He began to think back over his vast personal experience and knowledge of lore.

Elsa neared the magma, and she simply held her hand out, palm down. All churning ceased, the surface no more disturbed than the sea on a calm day. The Snow Queen stepped off the staircase and onto the magma, a hexagonal crust of rock cooling under her feet. She floated on it casually as the spiral staircase completely disappeared.

She couldn't resist dipping a finger in the lava, as though testing bath water. Another dark crust formed where she swirled her whole hand in a lazy figure eight. She cupped her hand and scooped up some molten rock, watching in wonder as the magma nearest her skin turned to solid rock, while the topmost bubbled off. This was fascinating and almost hypnotic.

On the rim, Grand Pabbie exaggeratedly gestured at her, trying to get her attention. As powerful as she clearly was, the sooner this was taken care of, the better. She ducked her head sheepishly once she noticed him and set to work.

Elsa began by tapping her heel against the hexagon, as though keeping time with music. She followed that by short leaps from her central raft, a new hexagon of crust forming each time her feet made contact with the magma. Once the first hexagon was surrounded by six others, creating a honeycomb pattern, she skipped and gamboled around on top of them to a rhythm only she could feel, adding little snaps of her wrists here, backwards thrusts of her elbows there, punctuated by sweeping motions with an outstretched arm.

"It looks like she's dancing," said Feldspar, watching with the other trolls on the edge of the fissure.

"But who is she dancing with?" asked Gneiss.

"There are dances for one," observed Grand Pabbie, with a small amused smile. "Though I do not think that Elsa would say that she is 'dancing' right now."

"We should invite her to the next Blue Moon party," Gneiss said.

"We shall see, we shall see," said Grand Pabbie circumspectly.

The performance below seemed to be coming to its end. Elsa bent down on one knee and delivered three gentle taps with her knuckles on the central hexagon. She looked satisfied, shrugged her shoulders, and the spiral staircase reappeared.

With an arpeggio of her fingers, a bag of ice-fabric materialized. She scooped up another handful of magma, waited for it to cool, and put some of the solidified chunks in the bag. On her way up the staircase, she willed it to hover closer to the inner wall of the volcano in order to break off small pieces of interesting-looking rocks; she put those in the bag as well.

Elsa looked back down as she neared the top. Without her physical contact to maintain it, the floating crust of her work platform was already returning to a molten state. She was pleased that she hadn't overdone it, and that the fumaroles in the trolls' valley would remain active.

"How do you feel, Elsa?" Grand Pabbie asked once she stepped off the stairs. Not a strand was out of place in her deliberately disheveled hair, and there was no sign of damage to her ice-dress and cape.

"I could do this all night. Are there any more volcanoes that need a treatment?" she replied with a pert smile.

Grand Pabbie blinked again. "No. This should suffice for a few thousand years."

"Then let's go tell everybody the good news!" said Feldspar with a laugh.

Elsa opted to move the stairs back to where Anna, Kristoff, and Gabbro were waiting. Grand Pabbie had to admit to himself that it was easier on his creaky joints than trudging down steps.

"So how did it go?" Anna asked, springing to her feet. "You don't look fatigued."

"I'm fine. The volcano is back to napping. We'll all live happily ever after," Elsa said nonchalantly.

"Yippee!" shouted Anna.

"She was dancing the whole time," added Gneiss admiringly.

Elsa gave the troll a sour look. "I was not."

"Could have fooled me," pitched in Feldspar.

"I knew it!" fumed Anna, waving a finger at her sister. "I knew you can dance, and I knew I'd miss seeing you do it!"

"I did not dance!" declared Elsa. Anna was patently unconvinced. "Grand Pabbie, would you please tell them I was not dancing?"

The troll elder had to swallow a laugh. "It was just the form your magic-working took. But it is very easy to mistake those movements for dancing, so please pardon their misinterpretation."

Anna would not drop the subject. "If you can flow like that when you're doing magic, you can do it at a party. I know you can. You're just being hardheaded and negative."

"Anna, it's not that easy," Elsa said between clenched teeth. The temperature dropped slightly.

Kristoff pretended to be very interested in Sven's harness. Grand Pabbie's brows lifted in concern. The younger trolls were completely oblivious to the discord.

"Now we can go have fun with the rest of the clan!" Gabbro said enthusiastically.

Fortunately, it seemed to defuse the strain between the royal siblings.

"Right!" Anna agreed. The thought of the contents of the picnic basket also helped to lift her out of the argumentative moment. "Get these stairs moving back down to where we left Olaf, Sven, and Mica!"

"I think there's a way to get down that you'll like better," Elsa said with a conciliatory smile. And a slide made of ice suddenly appeared, winding its way down to the base of the volcano.

Author's Note - Think Elsa's "dance" when she was creating the ice palace in the movie. Also, geology, particularly vulcanism, was not well understood back in our 1840s. In this story's universe, we have a blend of science being farther along and Elsa "just knowing" certain things that involve thermodynamics, meteorology, hydrology, and math.