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

Fire and Ice: the Second

My cheeks felt instantly warmer in spite of all of the snow around us. So, of course I turned away and cleared my throat. "Well, you haven't really had enough experience out here in the mountains to know how to prepare yourself for such traveling conditions, so it's understandable. And, you also couldn't have known that your sister would_" 

As my voice trailed off helplessly, her hand pressed onto her chest and more white appeared in her hair. "She didn't mean to," she said softly. "I upset her again." 

I did not know what to say to that, so I just offered her the last bit of the jerky we were sharing. She shook her lowered head. Luckily, she kept on talking so I did not have to think of anything to say. 

"Just like me, she was locked away for most of her life, and I never knew why she shut me out for all those years. I wasn't being very sympathetic towards her fears. Now that I actually knew what she had to have been going through all that time, she was probably terrified of what she could do to any of us if she spent any time around us, at all." 

"I can bet that she probably knew exactly what would happen if she had even tried," I cut in. I then pointed to the single strand of white that was already in Anna's hair the first time we met. 

Her hand flew to her head and bumped into mine in mid-air. I pulled my own hand back hastily. Luckily, she did not seem to notice, but her brow was furrowed. "I was always told that I was born with it, but_" her gaze drifted down the canyon towards Arendelle. "I wonder_" 

At that same moment, I was searching my own memory of that very night in addition to Anna. The trolls never told me much about the night they took me in as their own. They were all more concerned with finding me some food, water, and a warm place to stay than telling me about the king and his family's visit that night. I had mostly forgotten about it until just recently. I could not decide whether or not to tell Anna, herself, about it, though. I knew at that moment that it was definitely her who was brought to the trolls to be healed that night. I could still remember the dismayed, broken look on Elsa's face that night when it was revealed that Anna would forever forget that she had those ice and snow powers to begin with. She probably felt rejection in addition to her obvious fear. It was almost enough to get me to forgive the snow queen for what was happening to Anna at the time. Almost. 

"It would've certainly explained what Elsa was probably thinking about just before she told me that we couldn't ever go back to the way things were before, followed by her statement about trying as hard as she did to protect me." Anna said seemingly out-of-the-blue all of a sudden. "She was probably remembering something related to it, herself. I just wasn't being very understanding about it, though." 

With that knowledge in mind, I began to think Elsa might have tried just a little too hard to protect everyone from herself and her powers, especially Anna. Then, I began to think that she could have probably been able to better achieve any actual resemblance of control over her ice powers if she could have been more relaxed while wielding them. But then again, maybe before all of this, she might have just been forcing herself to remain calm her entire life. This eternal winter, itself, was probably the result of some of that accumulated stress of hers. 

"Well, it doesn't even matter, now," Anna said, dismayed about the whole thing. She then waved her hand in a motion which was synchronized with her dismay. "It's already done. I did everything I could do and now..." 

"My friends can help you," I assured her quickly, trying to sound confident. "They might even know what to do about all of this snow," I joked a little. 

She perked up a bit. "Really, now. How would they_?" 

"There's... a lot of wisdom among the mountain folk," I said, a little hesitantly though. 

"I don't doubt it," Anna said with a weakened smile on her face. "Are they your... parents?" 

"Uh, no. My parents died in an incident involving thin ice over a lake when I was a kid. I learnt how to be an ice hauler and just kinda make do on my own until_" 

Her eyes searched my own. I could not decide if I would have given more away by meeting her gaze or turning away from it. So, I looked back at her. "You're an orphan just like me," she said gently. 

I blustered and babbled like an awkward idiot for a moment. "Oh, well, no... I was young when it happened. I hardly even remember it at all_" was all I could manage to say before she silenced me with her hand being placed on my knee. 

"And you avoid people on purpose, don't you?" she asked, inflicting me with yet another one of her whiplash changes of subject. 

"Well, I don't really know about that much," I began. "Not many people trail up to the lake. Isolation from other humans is more of an occupational hazard for me and my walk of life." She laughed a bit at it and took a couple more small sips of water from the canteen. 

"I'd be surrounded by people every day if I could," she sighed dreamily and hugged her arms around herself, gazing up at the stars which were just starting to appear in the darkening sky. "I've been alone most of my life. I always believed that once the gates opened, I'd spend every moment gossiping, traveling and dancing... do you dance, Kristoff?" she asked me suddenly. 

I blinked at her. I was surprised to hear her change the subject yet again. She seemed to do that a lot, apparently. "I do," I said. 

"You do?" she asked me, but it was just a bit more of an exclamation than a question, and her face was full of life again. 

I raised my eyebrows at her in a mysterious manner. "I do," I said. 

"Well? Tell me more!" she exclaimed again. Her expression was rapt and expectant. 

"You'll be disappointed," I admit. "There's not really much to tell you about the dancing we do up in the mountains." 

But, this did nothing at all to discourage her curious attention, and I found my cheeks warming up once again at the thought of being the center of attention for once in my life. Well, the center of her attention, anyway. Her lips tightened into a cheeky smirk. No doubt such a move was a demonstration of her refusal to let me off the hook. 

"Well, it's probably not anything like what fancy, aristocratic people like you would do at, you know, a coronation ball or something, but yeah, we do some dancing up here in mountains. It's fun, anyway. Whenever we'd get a few musicians handy, like a fiddler, maybe a fife or something_" That was as far as I got before she gave her own input about it. It was not what I expected her to say about it, though. 

"And a lute?" she interjected, giving her input on the subject. 

"Yes, and a lute," I clarified her guess. "Well... that is to say that we used to have a lute," I said, unexpectantly reminding her of when it went up in flames at the bottom of the chasm after we were chased by wolves. 

"Sorry about your sled, again," she cringed at the mention of it. "I'll replace your lute, too. I promise." 

"I'm sure you will," I told her. Though, I believed more that she intended to keep that promise. "Anyway, dancing up here in the mountains is fun. Really fast, and lots of spinning, too. Kinda rowdy, really." 

"I like rowdy!" she exclaimed. 

I grinned slyly at her. "I bet you do," I said. 

"It sounds so wonderful," she sighed, most likely completely missing the innuendo. Then, she perked up a little bit. "Will you teach me sometime?" she asked.