"I suppose I should take away whatever it was I gave to Lord Derek now, shouldn't I?" Asked Anna after they got up from their group hug.
"If you can it might be for the best, diplomatically speaking," said Elsa with a hesitant smile. She wasn't sure that Anna would know how to left what she'd done, but perhaps she's learned something of this from the mirror as well. She dispersed the ice that made up the doors to make it easier for her.
"An apology might be in order as well," said Kristoff as she walked over to him.
Anna rolled her eyes but smiled as she knew he was right. "Ok, let's see here. I hit him here," she said as she reached out for his forehead.
The instant she touched him Anna was hit with an almost blinding wave of fear, hatred and loathing. "What did I do?" Asked Anna as she recoiled in horror.
"What's wrong?" Kristoff asked as he raced to Anna's side.
"I can't do it, Kristoff. I don't think that I can even touch him now," Anna said as she stared at the quivering wreck that had once been Lord Derek.
"Well, I'll carry him for you then. No sense in pushing yourself any more than you already have," said Kristoff as he lifted Lord Derek up and went to deposit him in the back of the sled.
Elsa went to her frightened sister and put an arm around her for comfort. "Don't worry, Anna. Just because you can't lift it doesn't mean no one can."
Right on cue, Kristoff came up behind them and joined the conversation. "She's right, Anna. I think that it's time we paid a visit to my family. I wish that this wasn't how you met them again, but it seems we live in strange times." He brushed a hand against her hair and smiled. "And this is the second color they've seen on you. I don't think that they've ever seen your natural hair, as a matter of fact."
Anna reached for a braid and found that it had gained an inky black color. She stared at it for a moment and then looked up at Kristoff. "Is it bad?"
Kristoff looked at it for a moment and smiled. "No, it's great."
"You hesitated," said Elsa with a grin.
Kristoff rolled his eyes and gave her a soft punch on the shoulder. "Stop it, you."
Kristoff then looked up at the sky and frowned. "We'd better get moving. If this is anything like it was with you, Anna, we need to help him as soon as we can."
Anna nodded her head and began to go over to the sled before she changed her mind and went back inside the Winter Palace. "I need to get my servitor!" She cried over her shoulder, and a few moments later she was leading out the shadowy creature that Kristoff had spied insider earlier.
It was smaller than the thing they'd encountered in the woods, and less violent. Rather than seeking them out as a target and potential food, it instead hovered near Anna as a sheepdog might guard a flock of sheep or a governess might fret about her charge. Kristoff got the distinct impression that so long as he didn't hurt Anna it wouldn't do anything to him.
"Should we worry about leaving the mirror alone?" He asked as Elsa, Anna and the shadow creature settled into various parts of the sled. Elsa just called up one of the snow sentinels she'd made the night before and a few moments later it came out bearing the ice encased mirror.
"Better?" She asked as the thing lumbered beside them.
"Good enough for me. Hyah Sven!" Said Kristoff and Sven was off like a shot, going over the bridge that Elsa had made for them leading up to her palace and soaring through the mountains that he and Elsa had taken to get there as fast as Elsa could conjure up her snow. The snow sentinels tracked beside, thundering with each passing step.
Kristoff guided Sven and the sled deeper into the mountains, past ravines and the through crevices on a path that could only be followed if you know the way. Anna tried to track follow where he was going, since she'd been this way before but each time she tried to take it in and remember it, the details would slip away again, unwilling or unable to stay fixed in her mind.
Soon Kristoff slowed them down and Elsa and Anna found themselves in a familiar meadow filled with boulders of varying sizes.
"Hey everybody, I'm back!" Cried Kristoff as he leapt from the sled.
The boulders did nothing but continue to lie where they were. Elsa looked at Anna and raised an eyebrow. "Does he know they're just rocks?" She asked. Her memory of her first encounter with the trolls was a little fuzzy, but she knew that they'd been moving, talking and were, in general, very animated.
"Give it a bit, they'll come around," said Anna as she watched Kristoff try to rouse his family, greeting them and paying them complements as he walked to each boulder.
Elsa rolled her eyes and walked down to join him and Anna followed close after, not wanting to be left out of things. "Excuse me, but we need your help," Elsa said in a loud voice.
Right away the rocks began to roll and shift towards the three of them, and soon the whole clan was looking at them and murmuring amongst themselves. "It's the Queen, Kristoff came with the Queen," they said to one another.
Elsa took a step towards Kristoff and he put an arm around her, pulling her close. Anna had already situated herself likewise but it seemed that her presence wasn't as shocking to the trolls.
When the trolls saw what she'd done, they stopped talking and stared at the three of them, blinking in unison.
"Kristoff brought the Queen and his Anna! Kristoff's here to marry the Queen and his Anna!" said a loud troll adorned with bright red crystals and in an instant all of the trolls were cheering.
Elsa and Anna found themselves being shuffled away by a consortium of other trolls adorned with red and pink crystals while Kristoff was pulled away by deep voiced trolls with blue and green crystals.
"Wait, wait, no, not again!" Said Kristoff as the trolls began to pull together outfits made of moss, grass and trees to adorn them all. "We don't have time for this" he said but the trolls around him just laughed.
"A little eager, aren't we?" Said one with a chuckle. "Well, first things first. Time enough for that later!"
A third group of trolls split off and began to dig a pit and adorn it with the same kind of green finery they were covering Elsa, Anna and Kristoff with.
It was only when the three of them had been plopped down into the pit and the ceremony had begun that a much older troll appeared. The troll had a veritable mane of greenery and wore the same sort of things that they all wore in the pit, and he did not look happy. "I sense something, a presence I have not felt sense ages past. What have you done, child?" he said, turning to give Anna his full attention and she withered under his gaze.