This Icy Force Both Foul and Fair Has a Frozen Heart Worth Mining

The Ice Palace of the North Mountain

I quickly pulled myself together and followed after the rest of the group. There was indeed a staircase, just like Olaf had said. The staircase, however, was not what caught my attention right away. At least, not by itself. Atop the staircase was an enormous palace sculpted entirely out of ice. I gazed up at it in awe. It was breathtaking. Never before had I seen anything so glorious. 

"Whoa!" Anna and I both said in sync for the first time since we met. 

"Now that's ice," I said. I could feel my emotions stirring up inside of me. 

I told you that there were only a few things I cared about in my life, and ice was one of those things. Therefore, I only got emotional over those few things. 

"I might cry," I told Anna to which I was very serious. I could practically feel the tears coming. 

"Go ahead," she replied. "I won't judge." She began to climb. 

The tears never came to me, however. I came close, but it never happened. Olaf followed after Anna, and Sven tried to as well. Sven was stopped by his own failure to get any traction on the icy staircase, though. He just wound up slipping and sliding all over said icicle staircase. 

I snapped out of my reverie and ran up to him. "Alright, take it easy, buddy," I told him, grabbing a hold of him. "I got ya." I lowered him back down to the ground. "You stay here." 

Sven obediently sat in place. I turned and began to make my own ascent up the staircase of ice. I ran my hands along the railing, admiring every little detail of it. It was completely beautiful. 

I gave a whistle of approval. "Flawless," I muttered in awe of even the staircase. 

I arrived at the doors of the ice palace behind Anna, who stood facing it with her fist raised. I still looked around at the intricacy of the structure, admiring every inch of it. I could not wait to see the inside. I was willing to bet that it looked just as breathtaking. 

"Knock," Olaf told Anna. "Just knock." He started to wonder what was happening with her. "Why isn't she knocking?" Then, he turned to look at me. "Do you think she knows how to knock?" he asked in a whispery voice because to be honest, I did not think that it was really in the pudgy little guy's nature to be quiet. 

Anna finally pounded on the doors. They slowly creaked open, and she gave a slight chuckle of success. "It opened," she said, sounding happy yet almost surprised that the doors opened at all. "That's a first," she mumbled to herself, but we all still heard it anyway. She was acting like she expected them to stay closed. 

She went to step inside. As I began to follow her in, however, she suddenly turned to me. "Oh, you should probably wait out here," she told me. 

"What?" I asked, shocked that she had such a request. 

"Last time I introduced her to a guy, she froze everything," Anna explained her request. 

I admit that I did finally see her having even a little bit of common sense, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the inside of this beautiful ice palace. How could she possibly even life with herself to make a guy like me wait outside? "But, but... oh, come on. It's a palace made of ice," I practically begged for her to show me some mercy. "Ice is my life." 

But, I could tell that she was not going to budge. When she wanted something, she would not give up until she got it. 

Olaf waved at me and turned to head inside with Anna. "Bye, Sven," he said, still calling me by the name that really only belonged to my own reindeer. 

Anna crouched down to his level, stopping him. "You too, Olaf," she said. 

Olaf looked up at her, crestfallen. "M-me?" he asked, almost not comprehending. 

"Just... give us a minute," Anna told him, walking inside. 

"OK," Olaf said. 

The doors shut behind Anna. I sighed dejectedly and sat on the stairs. Olaf began to count, taking what Anna said about needing a minute quite literally, and sat right down on the staircase beside me. 

"One... two... three..." Olaf started to count. 

Still put out and seeing nothing else to do, I joined in on Olaf's counting for no other reason than to relieve my dejection. 

"Four... five... six..." We counted together as soon as I joined in. And, you know something? The counting really was surprisingly helpful in dealing with my dejection. 

At least, I did get to see the outside of this magnificent structure of icicles. That was something, right? At the very least, it was definitely something to behold that I would never possibly, until the day I die, forget. Not even in a million years. 

When we began to reach the end of the countdown, however, Olaf stood up and grew louder. "Fifty-seven... fifty-eight... fifty-nine... sixty!" he shouted. With that, he suddenly bounded through the palace doors and pranced inside with the doors closing right behind him as the little guy disappeared into the ice palace. 

"No, Olaf_" I called after him. But, he was already gone. I groaned and leant back down on the staircase. 

I sat there sulking for a while. A little later, I realized that Anna had been inside the ice palace for such a long time. How long could it have possibly taken to talk to her sister about the problem at hand with this sudden winter? As I had mentioned before, I did not entirely trust Elsa. Why should I trust her, anyway? I had never even met her, but as far as I am concerned, she gave me no reason to make me find her trustworthy. She set off an eternal winter, and she had also lived in seclusion and a self-imposed exile from her own sister, no less. Not exactly a solid application to be trustworthy to me. I know, I know. Feel free to give me all of the 'you're being too judgmental' lectures you can dish out to me, but I could not help it. I still did not know how Anna managed to trust Elsa. 

I eventually decided to just go in anyway instead of waiting out here for a plan that was not fully thought through and might not even come to pass. I just wanted to make sure that Anna was alright inside the ice palace. I did not care that she wanted me to wait outside anymore. I was far too worried about how it was going to care about her request to wait outside the doors any longer. I had to make sure Anna was doing OK, no matter what she wanted me to do. I stood up, opened the door, and walked inside. 

The inside was even better than I imagined it would be. It had even more intricacy in the details around it. I could feel myself come close to tears once again. Then just when I thought it could not be more beautiful and intricate, I looked up at the ceiling and saw it. It was a huge, gorgeously crafted ice chandelier. There was even a fountain in the center of the room made of ice. Two twin staircases stood in front of me, most likely leading to even more intricately crafted sights in this palace. The floor beneath my feet was so smooth, it felt like glass made to resemble marble. It was glorious. Yep, I was going to cry at these sights for sure.