Anna Arendelle clambered up to the ledge of the old well at the town square and promptly fell in. Or would have fallen in, had Christopher-Kristoff-not caught her and set her back upright. She straightened up and tried to look collected, commanding. She pictured her big sister. What would Elsa do? She thought for a moment before clearing her throat. "Good people," she yelled across the square, "we have just come from the woods with an urgent warning. We have encountered forces of dark magic, and we believe that they may attack. Here." Looking around at all of the shopkeepers and women with shopping baskets and children with hoops and other toys, she saw confusion, disbelief, and even amusement, but not even the slightest bit of concern.

Unsure of what to do, she faltered. Merida burst out, "It's true! There are horses-black horses made of magic!"

"Yes, thank you, and these horses appear to create fear in people, magically, and, uh, feed off of it . . . somehow." Anna's voice trailed off. By now the crowd of people had grown, and everyone was talking all at once. She started again. "Look, we have to figure out some way to protect ourselves! These things are really powerful, and we don't know how many there are. There could be hundreds, or thousands, or-"

"And what do you suggest we do then, eh?" came a man's voice from the crowd.

"I suggest you listen to her, for one thing." Kristoff spoke up with surprising authority. Anna smiled at him gratefully. "These things are a serious threat."

"Best to leave black magic alone!"

"We shouldn't get involved!"

"How do we know these horses of yours are even real?"

The townspeople, for various reasons, were clearly not going to listen. Anna felt her face flushing with anger. Would it take a horde of dark horses attacking to get them to see that something needed to be done? But by then of course it would be too late to do anything. And what should be done? They didn't know anything about these horses. What if nothing could be done? What if-

"Anna!"

"Hans!" Anna fell off the well, only to be caught inches from the ground by her fiancé.

"Glad I caught you," he said charmingly. His brow creased with worry as he scanned her face. "Anna, what's going on?"

Her sister Elsa suddenly appeared at her side, fear etched across her pale, pointed face. "What's happened?"

"Oh, Elsa! You'll never believe it! I was in the woods with Kristoff-well, I wasn't with Kristoff. I was in the woods, and I got lost, and Kristoff found me and was showing me the way back. But I got lost because there were these horses on the road, and they're made of magic, and they attacked, and-

"Anna! Anna, calm down." Elsa glanced about nervously. "Now let's go back home and talk over everything there."

Hans had put a hand at her waist and was guiding her toward their street. Gently pushing him away, Anna declared, "No, we have to help! We have to do something!"

Suddenly a scrawny boy with hair as white as Elsa's and a long stick in his hands bounded past her to Merida. "Mer, I found it! I found his-I don't know, his lair, I guess. Come on!"

Merida was starting to follow him, when Hans stepped in front of her. "Hold on, now. Does this have anything to do with whatever attacked my fiancee?"

"Your fi-oh, her. Well, yes, but there's really no time to explain, we've got to go!"

"I'm coming with you!" Anna could feel Elsa's fear mounting; the air around her was growing almost imperceptibly colder. Still, she wasn't surprised to feel a cold hand reach for hers. Elsa would stay with her, no matter what.

"Wait, who are these people?" The white-haired boy looked at them with open curiosity.

Merida looked ready to burst. "We can make introductions on the way, Jack, now let's go!"

"Wait." Kristoff stepped forward. "You mentioned a lair. I take it you want to get in without getting caught?"

"That would be the general idea," the boy-Jack-said sarcastically. "Looks like it'll be a bit of a challenge, but I don't think we have much choice but to try."

"I may know a couple of guys who could help."

Anna was growing impatient to leave. "Well, then, let's go get them!" Starting off down the street, she was stopped by Kristoff's heavy gloved hand at her shoulder.

"It's that way."

"Right."