It had snowed all through the night into the next day, the snow stacked up to at least the average man's knees. Anna had fallen asleep in the night. Darius had not slept since the morning he left, so he was a bit tired when he noticed her waking up.

She let out a yawn, "Where are we?"

"The mountains"

"Where in the mountains?"

"I don't know, there are no signs, but we are still going north"

"Well okay, have you been awake all night?"

"Yup"

"How did you do that? we could've stopped if you needed it"

"You ever had hot sauce in the eyes?"

"What? No! why would you do that to yourself?!"

"I didn't, I found some pep pills, good for this kind of thing"

"Oh, well that sounds better"

A couple minutes passed, she had noticed one of his mannerisms.

"You're not much of a conversationalist are you?" she had taken notice of his silence

"Not really"

"Why not?"

"Just don't know what to talk about"

"You can talk about anything, ask me a question"

"What's your favorite color?"

"Green"

"See? I can totally converse"

"Small talk is not a conversation Darius"

"Well, what do you want to talk about?"

"I don't know, how many siblings do you have?"
"Three, one sister, 2 brothers, I'm the oldest, what was that about small talk?"

"Oh shut up"

They both learned a couple fun facts about each other throughout the rest of the day, well into the night. A thought crossed their minds about how Elsa could have possibly gone this far ahead of them, but they brushed it off. That night,

"So, we should probably get you something more, appropriate for winter"

"What do you mean? I'm wearing a cloak"

"Not nearly enough for this weather"

"Of course it is"

"It's 15 degrees outside!"

"And how warm is it in here?"

"The thermostat is set for 70, but eventually we'll have to get out"

She paused, thinking some things over in her head "You make a good point"

He drove through a grouping of trees to find a cottage, hoping that they would find suitable apparel for the princess, they hobbled in the deep snow to get to to it. The sign was covered in snow, so Darius banged the sign with his fist to knock the snow off.

"Wandering Oaken's Trading Post" He read aloud,

"Ooo and Sauna!" She read, thinking about the warmness that came with a sauna

"They have those here?"

"Yeah, they've been around for a while"

He shrugged, and they entered, upon crossing the threshold they saw, shelves full of merchandise as they were greeted by the store owner.

"Yoo-hoo, Big summer blowout, half-off swimming suits, clogs, and a sun balm of my own invention, yah"

"Howdy, do you have a winter department?"

"Over yonder" pointing to a barren wall with few winter items, the couple walking over to inspect the products, "Real holler in July Yah?" he spoke with a heavy scandinavian accent.

"Absolutely, just snuck up on us" Examining some of the climbing gear by the wall, he remembered his experience in the retail sector, he tried to be as courteous as possible to the man behind the counter.

Picking up some winter articles she had found, walking to the owner "So, has anyone else come in, the Queen perhaps?"

"Only people mad enough to be out in this storm is you two dear" The door opened and a man caked in snow walked and turned his attention toward the owner. "You two and this fellow, Yoo-hoo, big summer blowout"

The newest customer proceeded to walk to the counter, Anna having been between him and it, "Carrots"

Anna was baffled, "um excuse me?"

"You're standing in front of the carrots"

"Oh, I'm sorry" she said, scooching out of the way

He then picked up a bag of carrots and placed it on the counter, Darius was semi-suspicious of the character, so he pretended to browse some products on the shelves while observing him make his way to the winter items. The Whitened man picked up an axe and a pile of rope and proceeded to pay. The two then had a scuffle over pricing and as it intensified, Darius suggested that Anna go try on the clothes, in case it escalates into a fight. She withdrew to a changing room as he listened in on the dispute.

"This is worth 10" The other man said

"Well, it's from our winter department, where supply and demand have a conflict"

"I get that, I sell ice for a living, but Demand is pretty up right now"

"And supply is way down"

"You're a crook!" He threw an insult, that struck a nerve within the salesman as he stood up as if to defend his honor.

"What did you call me?" The calm before the storm

Darius intervened before anything got too rough,

"Now hold on! Just chill" starting to grin to make more evident the pun he had made

The other two men paused, then after reviewing what was just said, The owner started to chortle and the other just stared at him with frustration

"That's terrible"

"But that's what makes it so good, I'm Darius" he held out his hand to shake

"Kristoff" he shook, but with a questionable look to him

"Let me ask you Kristoff, you seem like you know your way around, you haven't seen the Queen around, have you?"

"No, Why?"

"Me and the girl are looking for her, she kinda started the storm"

"The storm seems to be coming from the North Mountain, maybe she's there"

"Alright….. how do you get there?"

"Hang on, why should I help you?"

He stopped, pondered for a minute, then looking toward the Shopkeeper who was still giggling from the "chill" comment, revealed one of those blue hundred dollar bills and asked,

"Is this legal tender?"

He took it from his hand and examined it for a second,

"Do you know the exchange rate?"

"As far as I know it's one to one"

"Ookay"

"So then how much for all of this?"

"Well with the carrots, the axe, the rope, the boots, the cloak, that'll be 90"

"Keep the change" He returned his attention to Kristoff, consider this your reason why"

Anna walked in after it was all settled, wearing appropriate attire.

"Hey, this guy said he was going to guide us to Elsa"

"Really? you know where she is?" she was excited to be hearing about where her sister could be

"The North Mountain, I was hoping I could stop it"

"Well we're trying to fix it, when do we leave?"

"In the morning"

"NO!" Anna Interjected with some urgency, "We leave now"

Kristoff looked like a combination between confused and shocked, she insisted on travelling through the night, he shot a look towards Darius, but when he received it, all he did was shrug.