The story of Elsa and her Icemaster continues! This chapter will be updated regularly.

Kristoff put his feet under him and dusted himself off. He hadn't expected to be thrown from his sled like that, and when it happened he hadn't held on to Sven's reigns, as he usually would.

Because Elsa was still holding them.

"He's just the muscle, you know, Elsa, you're supposed to be the brains when you've got those straps in your hands." Kristoff said.

"Sorry. Um, I'll buy you a new coat?" Elsa replied

He turned his new woollen coat off of his shoulders and held it in front of him. There was a gash torn up the back from a sharp rock he'd fallen past on his way to the ground.

"I'm lucky I'm alive" Kristoff said.

He looked at the rock sticking up from the side of the path - not even a road - or they wouldn't have had their accident. Flecks of white glared back at him from its surface.

"At least I know we're close now" He continued

The trolls had taught him to recognize every kind of rock and mineral in his youth - signs they left to mark their passing through an area. This one was an unusually unweathered quartz-bearing rock which he knew meant they were very close to a natural font of ice; a strange place where it flowed from the ground like liquid water would bubble at lower altitudes. Useless to anyone who couldn't tunnel through rock, the fonts were invaluable to thirsty trolls lost in the mountains.

Kristoff returned to the sled and set its rail on the opposite side of the gnarled roots bursting from the ground which had stopped the sled and flung him into the air.

"Now, keep your eyes on the path, not on Sven. He already knows how to avoid roots" Kristoff warned her.

Elsa blushed and smiled nervously as Kristoff threw his coat into the back of the sled.

"Or I'm going to take us the rest of the way" he added.

"Nope. All ready to go. Eyes peeled for trees" Elsa said.

She was still excited Kristoff had agreed when she asked him to teach her how to drive the sled. He'd suggested a grassy course, but Elsa insisted on jumping right in. Kristoff sat down in the back seat and put his arms on either side of Elsa's.

"All right take the reins" he said.

"Kristoff what are you-" Elsa said.

"Take 'em. I should've showed you like this when we were still in town" Kristoff commanded

Elsa took up the reins loosely. Kristoff put his hands around Elsa's and carefully laced the leather straps around her fingers.

"You're still doing it wrong - you don't want to break a knuckle if Sven takes a bad turn" he said.

Elsa blushed as bright as a beet and thanked St. Lucia Kristoff was behind her where he couldn't see it. She wasn't used to being touched, even by her sister, and especially not by her sister's boyfriend - and if she could turn the sled and hurry back to Castle Aren she would - to lock herself back in her room - but Elsa had resolved to learn new things in her new life - and the most fascinating thing she wanted to know had been how to drive a sled.

"Now when I yank the reins you tell Sven to go" Kristoff said

He raised the thick straps into the air and whipped them down on the front of the sled

"Go, Sven!" Elsa shouted.

They took off once again - their ascent leveled off soon after they reached the crest of the current rise in the path and Sven picked up speed.

"Okay watch out now the path curves up ahead. Sven knows how to get around it but he can't tell us where to go; we have to lead him around it before he gets there - so you have to tell him early" Kristoff said

He used Elsa's fingers to pull Sven off to the side of the curved path well before they reached the turn. Elsa looked down past the side of the sled and saw how close they were to the edge.

Isn't this dangerous!?" she asked with panic.

"Only if you keep taking your eyes off the path" Kristoff reassured her

Elsa looked straight ahead again. Sven was still well off to the side, and Kristoff drew Elsa's left hand back toward him. Sven slowly turned and pulled the sled around

"You did it!" Kristoff said He squeezed Elsa's hands in excitement. Laughter rung in her ears.

"See, all you have to do is put Sven where we need to be before we get there. It's easy!" Kristoff explained to her.

"Well, you make it look easy." Elsa said.

"You make building ice castles look easy. You think I don't know how hard that is? I built an ice castle when I was a kid and it almost crushed me. Nothing is hard when you have help, and that's why I'm here. You can do this" Kristoff said.

Kristoff's hands were hot and sweaty around hers, even though it was late fall with light snowfall on the ground, and by no means warm out, Elsa's royal Icemaster was losing his cool. Elsa looked down into her lap with embarrassment and then pulled the reins taught again to bring Sven back to the middle of the path.

Sven galloped forward and soon they were at the top of the hill. The tang of ice was in the air and he sniffed to finds it source. No ice was visible on the surface. Sven kicked at the ground in frustration and dislodged a clod of dirt. The smell strengthened.

"Whoa, Sven." Kristoff said.

He guided Elsa's hands to let up on the reins and Sven came to a stop. Kristoff leapt off the sled and looked around him. The hilltop was slightly concave and bowed in towards the middle. He walked towards the center and felt the slope falling until he reached the middle.

"Come on down, Elsa." Kristoff called back to her.

Elsa alit from the sled and patted Sven on the head on her way down to join Kristoff. Odd for a hilltop in the area it was curiously absent trees. The knotty, ancient, pines stopped in a ring and formed a dell around them.

"This is it." Kristoff said.

"The ice spring you told me about?" Elsa asked.

"It's right under our feet. This is how I got ice into town so much faster than the other ice men, before I met you. Kristoff explained.

He took his pick and tore into the ground with the broad side. Soft white ice glowed back in the sunlight. "That's amazing. We must be on top of a glacier that got buried in earth." Elsa said.

"Oh yeah, when I was little they told me stories about caves made of ice buried under the mountains. The trolls don't go into them, though. They never said why." Kristoff replied.

He threw the pick into the ground again and it rang back as it struck something solid. Kristoff turned it over in his hands and scraped against the surface until the soft ice was gone. Pure; clear; ice glittered in the light. She reached down and touched it, and felt inside it with her powers. The ice was as flawless as hers. Elsa stood up and looked nervously at the trees around them.

"Wait, this is impossible. If there were ever a glacier here it would've flattened this hill completely. Something else made this." Elsa said.

"Something else?" Kristoff said.

He cleaved off a block of ice with the broad side of his pick and wrested it from the surface. He took it in his hand and cleaned the dirt off the edges with his mitts and presented it to Elsa.

"Have you been coming out here to be alone?" he asked.

"I'm serious, Kristoff. This isn't normal. Ice under a hill? Caves of it?" Elsa said.

"What's the big deal? It's just ice." Kristoff replied.

"Ice that doesn't have any reason to be here." Elsa insisted.

"These things are all over the place. I only brought you to this one because I've never cut into it before. I don't get it." Kristoff said with confusion.

Suddenly the ground shifted beneath their feet and a creaking sound came from the hole Kristoff had excavated.

"You've never cut into this ice before?" Elsa asked.

"Maybe we should go..." Kristoff said.

The ice creaked beneath his feet as he walked, heel-to-toe, back to the sled.

Elsa shifted her feet and felt the ground giving way under her.

"Elsa, let's go!" Kristoff shouted and broke into a full run.

Kristoff looked back to see her losing her balance and turned back. As soon as he caught her the ground collapsed. The ice beneath them gave way and Elsa and Kristoff fell into the darkness below.

Elsa looked up into the sun shining in. They weren't as far down as she feared they might fall and she could still hear the trees above whistling in the wind. She felt Kristoff stir beneath her and rolled off of him.

"Oh. My back. What happened?" Kristoff complained.

"We fell into this..." Elsa began to say as she looked around.

The walls of the space they were in gleamed back brightly in the scattered light coming through the roof. They were all ice, as far as she could see. Elsa rose to her feet and walked over to the nearest wall. Smooth as glass, and just as hard, the walls of the icy cavern were nearly identical to those she'd made at the peak of the North Mountain when she'd run away from her coronation.

"Sven! Sveeeeeen!" Kristoff called out.

Elsa turned and saw Kristoff had risen and bellowed into the gaping roof above.

No faithful reindeer's antlers showed at the edge. Kristoff spun around and strained his eyes to see in the dark if any tunnel entrances led away from the cavern.

"Wow it is really getting cold in here" Kristoff said.

Elsa walked back toward him, hoping to comfort him from the harshness of the frosty room and noticed to her horror that a dark red stain had appeared on the ground where Kristoff lay seconds before.

"Kristoff! Take off your coat!" Elsa shouted.

"What? I jut said how cold it is in here." Kristoff replied

"You're bleeding!" Elsa shouted again.

"Wait, what?" Kristoff asked.

Kristoff lifted the back of his coat and shirt up from his back. A wound at the bottom of his back seeped blood. On the ground next to him his pick showed a dull red sheen on the corner of its broader edge.

"Oh no! What should I... what should I do?" Elsa cried.

"Well how bad is it?" Kristoff asked more urgently.

Elsa grabbed the pick from the ground and inspected it. The edge had only just broken under his skin. It wasn't a mortal wound. "I... I don't think it's that bad... what should I do?" Elsa asked.

Do you have anything to put on it? I wish I'd brought a scarf or something? Even that torn up coat..." Kristoff said.

Elsa looked around where they'd fallen for anything she could use to compress the wound.

"Well what if I closed it up with ice? I cut my finger in the kitchen while I was learning to cook with Anna and I just sealed it up with some ice until it stopped hurting!" Elsa said

"I don't think that's a good idea, Elsa. You can't get frostbite, you know? I can," Kristoff replied.

"I have to do something!" Elsa cried out as tears welled up in her eyes.

Kristoff turned and took her hands.

"Elsa. Don't. Panic. Just think of something. Quickly." Kristoff comforted her.

Elsa hyperventilated and looked down at her own clothes. Anna had given her a women's outfit much like that Kristoff wore on expeditions for his birthday - she'd said she liked it when they matched. "Icemasters should have uniforms" Anna had told her.

She took off her fur-lined jerkin and tore at the seam attaching the left arm to the body. The heavy stitching resisted her efforts easily.

"Here, use my knife," Kristoff said.

Elsa took it from his hand and cut down the seam on the back until she'd freed a large enough patch. She stuck it against the wound on Kristoff's back and helped him seal his clothes back over it.

"That was good work, Elsa. Now let's calm down and find a way out of here" Kristoff said.

Elsa still drew breath faster and faster now that Kristoff was temporarily out of danger. Her trembling caught his eye and he reached out for her again once he'd turned around - but she fell to the ground, unconscious. Kristoff sighed and looked up at the hole in the snowy roof.

"Great. I guess I'm not riding a staircase made of ice out of this one." he said and took a fire crystal out of his pocket to shake it to life.

Kristoff picked Elsa up from the ground and carried her away.

Kristoff carried Elsa into a tunnel. The crystal's red-orange glow cast shadows around them. Being underground didn't suit Kristoff. The rare times he'd taken shelter in troll hollows as a child he'd remembered being terrified the walls would close in on him. The walls being ice comforted him somewhat, but still he wished Elsa would wake up and get them out.

The tunnel ahead curved to the right and Kristoff kept losing sight of what lie ahead of them and thought back to the stories Pabbie had told to warn him and the younger trolls away from ice caves. Strange beings dwelled in them still, hostile to any visitors, even the fair folk, he'd said. Kristoff hadn't believed him completely. In his years on the ice he'd never seen giants, and if they dwelt underground, how could they not come out at least to gather food?

The oddly smooth walls of the cave - that there were icy walls under a rocky hill at all - gave him pause enough to believe Pabbie'd been right. After what seemed forever the curve of the tunnel stopped and broke off at a right angle. The wall opposite glowed with a cold light and Kristoff peaked his head around the corner. He saw shapes of men moving against the light and sighed in relief. Kristoff stepped down the short hall and out into the light.

"Hey there! Can you give me some help? I've got someone hurt here." Kristoff called out.

The men turned around and cast their blank white eyes at him, fearsome eyes set in blue faces with white beards. Kristoff started back and nearly dropped Elsa at the sight. They shifted toward them and Kristoff turned and tried to run back into the tunnel. The entrance closed over with ice and Kristoff turned to see the strange things coming toward him slowly.

"Stay back!" Kristoff called out. He let Elsa's legs fall to the ground and held the fire crystal in the air. He didn't know whether or not it would actually do anything if he threw it at them, but it was his only recourse without dropping Elsa.

The creatures stopped moving and looked down at Elsa, then muttered something Kristoff couldn't understand. Their voices came low and grumbling, but with a clear tone of concern. Their blank eyes surveyed him next, and fixed themselves on the glowing ember in Kristoff's hand. They shifted their eyes back to his face and frowned at him as if confused.

"Do you want me to put this away?" Kristoff asked. One of the creatures turned to the other and grumbled softly. The second creature reached into the hide-coat it wore and retrieved a small stone that glowed against the orange of the fire crystal. He extended the hand holding it to Kristoff with an open palm.

Kristoff lowered his hand and held the crystal against his palm with his thumb as he tried to take Elsa's legs in his arms again. The pale blue men approached again and Kristoff started up, not knowing what to do, until a pain in his back stabbed out at him. He fell to his knees and Elsa tumbled out of his arms onto the floor. The two creatures crept over to her and inspected her. When the first laid his hand on Elsa's face he muttered again in a high, reedy, tone of excitement.

"Stay away from her!" Kristoff shouted. The second creature, who had offered the stone, approached him. A wave of cold fall over him from the strange thing's approach, and Kristoff tried to come to his feet again to resist, but finally he collapsed.

When he awoke he was lying face-down in a pile of furs. Pain from his back screamed out at him as he tried to right himself. He turned his head up from the furs to look around. Across the room, Elsa was lying on a table made of ice. Her superfluous winter clothes had been stripped away and she wore only her spare icy undergarments.

The creatures had disappeared and Kristoff tried to turn his body up and off of the furs, but it was useless, his legs were restrained, and he realized the creatures had stripped him of his own clothes as well.

"Elsa! Elsa!" Kristoff called out to the Queen to try to awaken her. She did not stir. Kristoff sighed angrily and summoned a full breath into his lungs. "ELSA!" he bellowed.

Elsa's head fell limply onto its side and she breathed deeply through her nose. Kristoff gasped as the pain shot through his back again and Elsa started awake. Her eyes rolled open softly and Elsa smiled dreamily at her icemaster before closing them again.

"Elsa?" Kristoff asked plaintively. Suddenly Elsa's eyes shot open.

"Kristoff!" she gasped, and clambered off the icy altar. She rushed to his side and grimaced at the sight of him. "Kristoff, you're hurt." she said. The position showed the gash he'd suffered as he flew from his sled had torn open from the strain of carrying her unconscious body.

"Kristoff, this is bad. Why didn't you tell me you were wounded so badly?" Elsa asked nervously as she cast her eyes over the long, ugly, gash running up his back. To her relief the wound from his ice pick oozed no longer.

He turned his head back and accosted her. "Elsa you can worry about me later. You have to get out of there. There are these things, I think they took our clothes. Run! Take Sven back to Arendelle and get help!"

"Let me free you first" Elsa said and looked down to see ice clear as glass bound around his boots. She tried to evaporate it but the ice refused to budge. She put her fingers against it and the cold of it burned. "Ow!" she cried and drew her hands back in confusion. She heard a hoarse grumbling behind her and turned to see the light blue creatures for the first time. In panic, Elsa cast a blast of ice across the room and the creature smiled as it collapsed harmlessly against his chest. He rose his own hand from his side and a burst of frost leapt from it to Elsa. She turned away and held her hands out in front of her defensively. Icy pinpricks tickled her palms.

Elsa looked up to see the creature drawing nearer and backed against Kristoff.