Riding on her chariot of ice, Queen Elsa led her forces through the wilderness toward Lillehaven, with Olaf at her side aboard the sleigh. Alongside, Lars rode atop Sven's back. Lars hadn't ever ridden a reindeer before, and as Sven didn't have a saddle, Lars had a little trouble maintaining his stability on the reindeer's back. He was constantly shifting awkwardly as he tried to keep his balance. Sven was also uneasy. He wasn't used to being ridden by anyone but Kristoff, and he wasn't sure he trusted the stranger.
Elsa kept finding herself glancing over at Lars and trying to hide her amusement at his struggle to ride the reindeer. She was watching as Sven accidently stepped in a hole hidden under the snow and lurched to one side, nearly causing Lars to fall off. As Lars clutched the reindeer's fur and pulled himself back into position, Elsa tried unsuccessfully to stifle a snicker.
"Are you all right?" Elsa asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Lars replied. "I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of this."
"Lars..." Elsa said wistfully, her thoughts wandering, "have you ever done anything like this before?"
"Well, I've ridden horses..." Lars began.
"That's not what I meant," Elsa interrupted.
"Oh," Lars said, understanding. "You're asking if I've ever gone to war."
Elsa nodded silently.
"I've already told you about the closest I've come to battle," Lars said. "I have trained for it, of course."
"That's more than I've done," Elsa said.
"Maybe so," Lars said, "but you have a power nobody else does. Believe in it, and believe in yourself."
"I'm scared," Elsa admitted.
"You should be," Lars replied. "It's a scary thing to do, but it's also the right thing to do."
"You said yourself that what's right isn't always clear," Elsa pointed out. "How do I know I'm doing the right thing?"
"I don't really have an answer," Lars admitted. "Maybe there's no way to know for sure. I do know that making the wrong decision is easy. Doing the right thing is hard, and that can be frightening."
"I'm not afraid for myself," Elsa said. "I know how to defend myself against swords and arrows. And I'm not afraid to die. I would give my life to save Anna. I'm not afraid of what I'm about to do; I'm afraid that I'll fail. I'm afraid that the Southern Isles will have something that my powers can't stop, and that I won't be able to save Anna." Elsa looked Lars straight in the eye. "Promise me something. If this doesn't go well, I want you to make sure Anna makes it back to the palace safely."
"I promise it will go well," Lars said.
"That's not something you can promise," Elsa said. "If anything happens to me, I need to know Anna will be safe. Promise me. Please."
"If it does come to that, I promise I'll make sure your sister is safe," Lars said reluctantly. "But, I also promise you that I will do everything I can to make sure that it doesn't come to that. Because I may not know your sister, but if she's anything like you, she won't allow you to be left behind."
"Thank you," Elsa said softly, offering Lars a slight smile.
"Listen," Lars said, "as long as we're preparing for the worst, I want you to know that I'm sorry for not telling you who I was sooner."
"It's okay," Elsa said. "I understand why you wanted to hide it. You were right. If I had known who you were, I never would have agreed to meet with you. I would have assumed the worst. When you told me, I did assume the worst. It wasn't fair to you. I'm sorry for that. After what happened with the duke, I guess you just weren't what I expected from someone from Weselton."
"And you're not the icy queen I assumed you were when I came to Arendelle," Lars said. He smiled shyly. "I suppose we both had our preconceptions. I'm glad mine turned out to be wrong."
"Yeah, me too," Elsa said, smiling back at him. "I'd never imagined it could be so satisfying to find out I was mistaken."
For an indeterminate moment, they simply stared at each other, lost in each other's eyes, as their respective conveyances carried them onward. They weren't sure how much time actually passed before they suddenly found themselves at the top of a hill. Coming to a stop, they looked ahead and were presented with a stunning view of a village spread out at the base of the fjord below. From the high vantage point, the gray-clad foreigners who had taken over the village seemed almost like a swarm of tiny ants.
"Lillehaven..." Elsa whispered.
"There's not as many of them as I thought there'd be," Lars offered. "I think we have a good chance, even without your powers."
"That's good," Elsa said, "because my powers aren't going to be able to help you."
"What do you mean?" Lars asked. "I thought you were going to lead your forces into battle."
"No, I'm going to save my sister," Elsa said, "and I'm not going to wait to see how the battle turns out." She climbed down off of her sleigh and Olaf followed her. "If we can win, that's great, but I'm getting my sister back, no matter what."
Elsa looked off to the side of the road where the ground sloped steeply down through the woods towards a shore that was invisible through the trees. She waved her hands at her feet and a pair of skis made of ice materialized on the bottom of her boots.
"They're going to be expecting you," Lars warned.
"I know," Elsa replied. "In fact, I'm counting on it."
With a broad flourish, Elsa produced a life-sized ice sculpture of herself on board her sleigh. Despite being made of ice, the replica was highly detailed with a frosted surface representing Elsa's hair and exposed skin contrasting with the nearly transparent ice that represented her clothing and would be quite convincing from a distance. Lars couldn't help but smile.
"A ruse!" Lars said excitedly. "You're using the battle as a distraction, but they'll think you're watching from here and come up here after you, luring them away from the village. It's brilliant!"
"Well, I might have been inspired by a story I heard last night." Elsa replied, giving Lars a quick smile. "I just hope I can rescue Anna and Kristoff before they figure it out."
A general approached on horseback from the ranks.
"Your orders, Your Majesty?" the general asked.
"Give me enough time to get down to the shore before you begin, unless they notice you sooner," Elsa said. "Try to keep them from getting up here too quickly. I can use all the time I can get. Hopefully, once I've rescued Princess Anna, I will be able to bring this to a quick end. If I... can't, and the battle doesn't go well, fall back and take up a defensive position to give Anna time to get back to the palace."
"Yes, Your Majesty," the general replied before returning to the ranks to relay the orders.
Elsa looked nervously down the slope, then glanced back toward the village before looking back to Lars. She wanted to say something, but she wasn't quite sure what. She searched her mind for the right words, but couldn't find them. She ultimately settled for the only thing she could think to say.
"This is it," Elsa said. It hardly seemed adequate, but it was all that came to her.
"Good luck," Lars said.
"To both of us," Elsa replied.
Elsa was about to turn away from Lars to start down the slope, but she hesitated. There was something about the look in his eyes, as if he didn't want her to go yet he knew she had to, and Elsa found herself unable to turn away. She was suddenly worried that once she did she might never see him again. After a moment that seemed like an eternity, Elsa finally willed herself to focus back on the slope. She took a deep breath and after one last look back, Elsa launched herself down toward the trees with a gust of icy wind at her back.
"Hey, Elsa, wait for me!" Olaf shouted as he dived down the slope after her.
As Lars watched Elsa disappear down the slope with the little snowman trailing her, he realized he still had one more secret to tell her. It wasn't a secret he had when he came to Arendelle. In fact, he had only just become aware of it, as it was something he never anticipated. And while he desperately wanted to tell her, he wasn't quite sure how. He was a palace guard from Weselton and she was the Queen of Arendelle. But when she disappeared into the trees and he felt a pang of fear that they might never see each other again, there was no doubt in his mind.
He had fallen in love with her.