Thanks to Cosette 24601 for betareading, as usually

Chapter 3

They were here to seek the trolls once again. This place seemed uninhabited for almost everybody. Everything you can see here are big and, maybe a bit too circle, rocks. Just enlightened people know that here, in the Valley Of The Living Rocks, live creatures who own powerful kind of magic. These creatures are the trolls. Loads of people imagine them as big and ugly monsters, but they are very kind and merry creatures indeed.

Anna and Kristoff dismounted Sven as the rocks started moving and transforming into little beings, wearing moss and colorful crystals.

"Kristoff and Anna have come!" Bulda, the troll who adopted Kristoff, said while hugging the man's leg. "Has something happened or you have come just to visit us? Shall I call Grand Pabbie?

Kristoff nodded. Bulda noticed that there was nothing joyful in his glance.

"PAAAAAAAAAAABBIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! THEY NEEEEED YOU!" the troll yelled.

"What's going on?" the troll asked solemnly. Apparently, he wasn't bothered with such kind way of calling.

"I made Elsa disappear. Accidentally." Anna, who was calm the whole the way here, started crying again. "I put this crystal on and set magic on Elsa, not knowing what would happen. Then she was gone."

"What crystal are you talking about?" Pabbie asked. Anna was too upset to wonder why he doesn't know about the gift.

"But you presented her this crystal for our wedding, didn't you?" Kristoff asked as Anna showed the crystal.

"Oh my god, where did you get it? We would never present it to anybody!", Pabbie apparently didn't care that it would sound strange. "…at least, having not told you how it works. Anna, who presented it to you?"

"A little troll. I don't know his name".

"Tahi, come here!" the troll called.

A troll-cub made his way through the crowd.

"Why have you presented this crystal to Anna? Don't you know, that it's not an ordinary one? It's a portal between worlds."

Neither Anna, nor even Kristoff remembered Grand Pabbie arguing with the members of his family. He was usually calm and poised.

"Queen Elsa is thrown somewhere instead ruling the kingdom because of you. We can just hope that she is safe. Elsa might be anywhere. None of us know how many worlds exist or what they look like," Pabbie addressed to Anna. "We can try to look for your sister, but I'm not sure that we will find her."

The bright sun lit the small living room in the Saint-Petersburg block of flats. Elsa opened her icy-blue eyes and stretched. The girl was finally convinced that all the events of the previous day were true, not just a strange dream.. Having looked at the clock hanging on a wall, she winced: It's eleven and a half! She could have done a lot by this time in Arendelle… The Queen realized that she is no more than an ordinary person in this world (except having ice powers). This unexpected journey might be a little vocation, one where she is allowed to sleep until noon and doesn't have to think about her royal routine. But how can she help thinking about such things if the kingdom is abandoned without any warning? But the Council had been ruling the kingdom for three years before Elsa was crowned.

Elsa went to bathroom to wash herself and brush her teeth. After she had done it, she made a ponytail on her nape. She didn't like how her hair was flowing. Even though loads of women here didn't care about making braids or ponytails and kept them loose instead, the Queen of Arendelle followed her habit.

Having heard his guest moving about, Andrei called her to the breakfast. Elsa saw Andrei ironing her dress on a long table as she came in.

"Good morning, Your Majesty!" Andrei greeted the guest with a smile.

"Good morning!" she answered. "Please, call me Elsa. I'm not a queen here after all." The last words were pronounced with sadness.

Andrei finished ironing the dress and carried it in the living room. As he returned, he gave Elsa a plate with a buckwheat porridge and a cup of coffee. Not exactly a royal breakfast, but as Elsa mentioned before, she was not a queen in this world.

"We are going to go to the center after breakfast, remember?" Andrei sat down next to the girl. "I borrowed some money while you were sleeping. We are going to spend a lot."

Having put her newly ironed dress on, she was ready go. Of course her blue dress was quite different from the clothes which was worn by other people in Petersburg, but going outside wearing a mail T-shirt and trousers was much more ridiculous. Andrei wore a red T-shirt and trousers made of thick blue fabric which he called jeans.

When both had come out of the house, Elsa walked up to the horseless transport.

"Which of them is yours?" the girl asked, looking at the vehicles.

Andrei gazed her weirdly, causing queen's misunderstanding. What has she done wrong?

"I'm sorry, but I have no car," Andrei said. Elsa finally understood what this kind of transport is called.

"But how will we get there?" she asked.

"By underground," the man responded. "Luckily, the station is not so far away from here."

"Underground?"

"There are trains under the ground which move inside the city."

"Trains?" This word was quite familiar to the Queen, but she couldn't understand one thing: "Wouldn't people suffocate from smoke under the ground?"

Elsa knew that trains work by a steam engine, so there must be smoke. And when a train is under the ground, the smoke should spread everywhere.

"The trains are moved by electricity," Andrei answered.

Having crossed a road, the man and the girl approached premises with canopies. There was a ladder which led downwards. There were loads of people, going downstairs. As the two came downstairs, they approached a small window. An old lady was sitting on the other side. Andrei gave her some coins, and she gave him two other coins back.

"Why did you exchange coins on coins?" Elsa asked.

"There are not coins, but tokens for the underground," Andrei giggled as he handed one of the tokens to Elsa.

They walked up to a big metal object, from which protruded two metal sticks, one of which was placed horizontally not to let anybody in.

"This is a turnstile," Andrei started explaining. "Put a token into that slot and go through, pushing this stick."

They went further. When both stood up on a moving belt, it formed in a ladder which was getting the passengers downwards.

Elsa felt uncomfortable: unknown strangers were everywhere, It always bothered the girl, especially when they are so close. She had to struggle not to use her powers. The stairs of the moving ladder started getting down and turning into a belt again. Elsa swiftly jumped down from the belt. Then they walked up to a platform with loads of people on it.

A train came to the platform along a railway, which was deeper than the platform. The train, as well as plenty of things in this world, didn't look like trains Elsa was used to seeing. This train didn't have a pipe because, as Andrei said, it moved by electricity.

The crowd came in an electricity-lit wagon. Seats were placed along the aisle. The bad news was that the wagon was crowded, so all the seats were occupied. Loads of people had to hold handrails in order to not to fall down. Elsa and Andrei did the same.

The Queen of Arendelle, who, of course, hadn't got used to such kind of transport and such crowds felt uncomfortable and her ice power struggled to release. Elsa, being proud and poised, tried not to show her feelings, but Andrei felt, that something was wrong.

"Elsa, you feel bad, don't you? Maybe you should sit down?" the man was interested.

The girl just slightly shook her head in disagreement. But Andrei was worried anyways and said something in Russian to a woman who was sitting close to them. She stood up, and Andrei offered the seat to Elsa.

"Thank you," Elsa said, sitting down on a seat. Not that she felt much better, but sitting was much more comfortable than standing.

The train stopped from time to time, letting people go and come from other stations. Each station was different, at least with the color of walls. But when the train was moving between stations, looking out of the window didn't make much sense since the tunnels were grey and gloomy. A voice always said something before reaching to each station. Apparently it was warning about which station is going to be now.

The guest of the other world found the underground very glum kind of transport. She was unable even to admire the city, and it seemed to be night because of lack of the sunlight.

When the girl and Andrei left the wagon, she thought that they will finally go out from the underground towards the light, but they had to take another train on another station because the train they just left went another direction. Therefore the girl had to put up with this excruciation once again. Luckily, there were some free seats in the other wagon, and Andrei calmed Elsa down that they had to pass just two stations.

And then, finally the sunshine! Elsa noticed that they had come from a blue-colored house. Andrei said to the young queen, that this station was called "Nevskiy prospect", the same as this street. Unfortunately, there also were many people (Where do they come from?). Almost the same number of people visited Elsa's coronation last year, those were people of many different countries. Yes, this city is definitely much more huge than her cozy, little Arendelle.

Houses were different from ones in other parts of the city. These were neater, more beautiful, fancy, and also they looked more… antique, unlike these box-like blocks of flats Elsa got used to seeing. Andrei also said that they had been built hundred or even two hundred years ago.

Elsa and Andrei crossed the street in the place where white stripes were drawn on the road and approached a magnificent building which differed from these old houses. Columns were spread from the entrance. They hold some bridges, and a green dome was on the top. Andrei said that it was called the Kazan Cathedral. It was not only an architectural monument, but also a church. There was a small garden with a fountain near the Cathedral. Andrei shot Elsa in front of the Cathedral on his phone and they continued their walking.

Nevskiy prospect was beautiful itself, making for a beautiful walk. There were some torches on the walls of several houses. Despite the torches looking like the ones used in Arendelle, there was an electrical light-bulb inside of them instead of a candle. The ground floors of these houses were either stores or cafes. Other floors were either occupied by people living in their flats or by offices of companies. Elsa couldn't entirely understand the meaning of the sentence "offices of companies", but they were situated in the center of Petersburg.

Andrei offered to do sightseeing first and then going shopping. So they went to the Palace Square. It was paved with gray stone blocks and light-colored slabs. In the middle of the square, there was a big brown column. On the top of this column, Elsa could see a statue. On a one end of the square, an arch was placed. There was a sculpture with a person in a cab pulled by six horses. The museum, which was called Hermitage and used to be an emperor's palace, stood on the other side. Unfortunately, they couldn't visit the museum since Andrei wanted to save all the money he had for shopping.

Then the pair visited the riverbank of Neva and the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Having noticed that the Queen was a bit tired, the man led her in the nearest shopping center.

The water of Neva playfully reflected the sunlight, and Andrei and Elsa were looking at the golden dome of the Saint Isaac's Cathedral (yes, there were loads of cathedrals in the city), sitting on the skirting of the riverbank. Their hands were holding countless packages from different shops.

Local clothing shops were a real dream: hangers with clothes of any size and colors were everywhere. Elsa wore a magnificent cream colored dress she had just bought. Its hemline was shorter than Elsa was used to wearing, just above the girl's knees. But there were a lot of beauties in this world who wore skirts which were much shorter. The young queen had a light pink bag hanging on her shoulder and little clock on a belt. Elsa noticed that many people wore such accessories. It's not a complicated invention, so Elsa might give this idea to Arendelle's masters.

Maybe, everything is not so bad? Maybe if Elsa is not able to return in Arendelle, Kristoff and Anna might become good rulers. Elsa might learn Russian, finish an university and get a job here. Yes, people usually enter universities in age of eighteen here, but it's not too late to study. Anyways, this world is good, very good.