Summary: Kristoff and Anna are engaged! Which would be terrific, if Kristoff weren't hearing voices, Elsa weren't losing herself into the recesses of history, and Anna weren't trying to help her fiancé keep a secret that could end the marriage before it seven starts. The answers to their problems lie on the other side of the Mist, but truth comes at a heavy price. (Rewrite of Frozen II)

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I neither own the rights to Disney, Frozen, the Disney universe nor any of its associated media, derivatives or products. I do not profit from this work.

Late in the evening, on a warm autumn night, a king and queen sat down with their children to tell them a story.

"Far away, as north as our borders reach, there was once an enchanted forest."

The girls crowded together, watching their father with interest. "But its magic wasn't that of goblin spells and lost fairies. It was protected by the most powerful spirits of all…" In the flame of his candlelight the specters of ancient spirits seemed to dance before the girl's eyes: "Those of air, fire, water, and earth…"

And with that Agdar was off on his story, lost almost in another world. "But it was also a home to our northern neighbors, the Northuldra people," he added.

"Were the Northuldra magical, like me?" The eldest of the two girls peered up at her father, unnaturally pale hair falling in a plait down her back.

"Yes, Elsa, some of them were—special people to whom the spirits had granted a unique friendship and bond." His eyes shone in the candlelight as memories crossed his mind: a woman lighting a cooking fire with a wave of her hand; a man who could walk across the water; a girl with whom the very stones of the earth cooperated in harmony. "We here in Arendelle had never seen magic before; their ways were so different from ours. But still, they promised us friendship. In honor of that, your grandfather, King Runeard, built them a mighty dam to strengthen their waters. It was a gift of peace."

"That's a big gift of peace," Anna commented.

"And your mother and I were honored to be invited to celebrate it." Idunna came to the bed and clasped his hands in hers. In his mind's eye the king could see them clasping hands as they had that day, exchanging doe-eyed looks, speaking to the chieftainess of the village. "We were newlyweds then, and your mother was pregnant with you, Elsa. The chief and chieftainess of the Northuldra welcomed us into their home… or so we thought.

"We weren't at all prepared for what the day would bring. We let down our guard. We were charmed. And it felt so... magical."

In his memory, the crown prince and his princess walked through the tangle of blooming purple flowers, in the golden light of the poplar trees.

"But something went wrong."

The young royals embraced each other, the princess with her head tilted upwards, smiling—and then a military horn blew loudly through the clearing, and both turned at the cry and tangle and clash of arms.

"They were attacking us!"

The crown prince drew his sword and fought off a Northuldran man. "Idunna! Run! Get back to the transport!"

"It was a brutal battle. Your grandfather, the king…"

"Get away from him! Father!"

"Was lost."

The king fell silent for a moment, and his queen squeezed his hand solemnly. Elsa leaned forward. "What happened, papa?"

The king drew a breath. "The fighting enraged the spirits. Forest fires erupted; floods overfilled the banks, and a strong wind blew dust into our eyes. Your mother and I ran for our lives."

The prince and the princess scrambled over brambles and fallen trees. "The transport is just ahead!"

"But just when we thought we could escape…"

A thunderous roar pummeled through the tree branches, and both stopped, mouths agape in terror.

"The very earth turned against us."

A monstrous giant of stone arose from the earth, it's fists raised to strike. It crushed the transport carts beneath its feet, and the prince threw himself over the princess, wrapping her in his arms.

"Did you die?" Anna whispered. Elsa nudged her impatiently, and the younger sister rubbed her arm, looking sheepish. Agdar chuckled.

"No, we didn't die. Just when we thought it was the end for us—and for you, Elsa—a Northuldran woman saved our lives."

"But I thought you said the Northuldra attacked you?"

"They did. But not all of them."

The woman stood with her hand raised, the gesture commanding rather than pleading, and the earth stood still at the gleam in her dark eyes.

"The Northuldra who had magic were changed by it; it filled their whole being and marked them as its own. The woman who saved us had golden hair, as golden as the leaves on the autumn poplars. She was blessed by the earth, and when she spoke, the earth listened."

The young royals cowered beneath the frozen giant, still clutching each other tightly. The Northuldran man who was with the woman hurried them away to a low-sitting sled. The woman leapt in behind, and he snapped the reigns, setting the reindeer off through the trees.

"With her and her husband's help, we escaped from the forest. But the flight was hard on your mother, and that night we welcomed our beautiful little daughter into the world." He reached out and ruffled his eldest daughter's hair, and she giggled. "Our little snowflake, with hair as white as snow. The only Arendellian, so they told me, to ever be born with magic."

"What happened to them?" Elsa asked eagerly. "Did she really have magic like me, Papa? Could I meet them someday?"

At this, the king and the queen shared a look. "We don't know, darling," Idunna said gently. "When we reached a town, they left us. Maybe they went north to the forest again."

"Could we go to the forest?"

But Agnar shook his head. "That is the most mysterious part of the whole story. You see Elsa, as we fled, a great mist rolled through the forest. No Arendellian has ever been able to pass through it, but here in Arendelle some Northuldra lived and worked in our towns. Many of them went north and vanished into the mist…but none have ever come out again to tell us what had happened on the other side."

"Why did they leave? Didn't they like it here?"

"When your mother and I returned without your grandfather, we had to tell the people what had happened in the forest. They were so angry at the Northuldra that they began to treat them very badly. Some lost their jobs; others found they were no longer welcome in their towns…." The king could picture whole families packing up their sleds and heading north, and he sighed. "Your mother and I tried to stop it—to tell people about the Northuldran family who had saved us—but our people wouldn't listen. They thought all Northuldra were the same, and drove them from our lands in revenge. Today, there are almost no Northuldra left in all of Arendelle."

"That's so sad," Anna whispered.

"Yes, it is. But your mother and I were lucky. We got to come home, with our precious daughter… and after that, we became king and queen of Arendelle, and had you, Anna, and have lived happily ever after." He blew out the candle. "And that is the end of the story for tonight."

"Whoa, papa," Anna whispered, sitting back. "That was epic. Whoever saved you, I love them." She flopped back onto the bed, and her mother, the queen, chuckled and added:

"Every day, I am grateful for what they did for us, but we never got to thank them. We never even learned their names."

"Don't you know anything about them?" Elsa pleaded. Idunna smiled and sat down at the edge of the bed.

"When I was recovering, the woman used to hold you, Elsa, and she would sing us a song she said her people knew well. A song about a special river, called Ahtohallan, that was said to hold all the answers about the past, about what we are a part of."

"Whoa," Anna whispered.

"Will you sing it for us?" Elsa begged. "Please?"

"I don't know it in their language," the queen admitted, "but…she did teach me it in our tongue, once, long ago." The girls were peering up at her eagerly, and she chuckled. "Alright, cuddle close. Scooch in…."

(Music begins, the melodic plucking of some stringed instrument.)

IDUNNA: (Cradling the girls.) "Where the northwind meets the sea

There is a river full of memory

Sleep, my darling, safe and sound

For in this river all is found.

All is found…"

(Picking up Anna and carrying her to her bed. )

"In her waters, deep and true

Lie the answers and path for you

Dive down deep into her sound–" (Picks up Elsa, who giggles.)

"But not too far or you'll be drowned."

(Carries Elsa to the window. Zoom out to the fjord and to the northern lights in green and rose.)

IDUNNA: "Yes, she will sing to those who hear

And in her song, all magic flows

But can you be brave what you most fear?

Can you face what the river knows?"

(Cutaway to modern-day, on the fjord: zoom in towards the castle in fall, surrounded by the cliffs and the cresting water. The zoom-in gets closer and closer to the castle.)

IDUNNA: (Voiceover) Where the northwind meets the sea…"

(Shot moving through a window, down a hall, past the portrait room..)

IDUNNA: (Voiceover) "There's a mother full of memory…."

(Shot moves through the hall and over the shoulder of a young, fair-haired queen as she peers through the stable doors, and a man's voice joins the fading voice of the queen:)

KRISTOFF: (Idly, to Sven) "...Come my darling homeward bound.

When all is lost…"

(He strums the lute in a melancholy way, and then pauses before continuing:)

"Then all is found…"

(Elsa steps back and silently closes the door, pressing her back to it and taking a deep breath, eyes wide.)

A/N: So I'll level with you guys, Frozen II was not my favorite movie for a number of reasons. It wasn't a bad movie, but IMHO it definitely needed one more rewrite.

...This is that rewrite lol. As you can see it's in two styles: past-tense prose and present-tense stage-notes for the music. Hopefully they should flow pretty naturally together, since I wanted it to feel both like a story and like a proper Disney movie.

I can't promise this will be finished (I have a lot of stuff on my plate) and the chapters will be short and a bit slapdash, but I hope you guys like it. :) Pax et bonum,

-FFcrazy15