She was there.

Anna had been waiting, hoping, praying, every night since that first time, that she would see the lights again. Just as she had almost given up, her head beginning to drop to her chest in weariness from the long day, she saw them, dancing through the trees, the way her heart was suddenly dancing in her chest.

If she had turned away a second earlier she would have missed them. Would have missed her. And she hesitated a second to enjoy the privilege of the long awaited sight before hopping down from the little nest of blankets she'd made on the window seal and racing back to her bed and to the items she had strung across it in the hopes that tonight would be the night.

Anna was a curious five year old. None of this should be possible. A five year old should not be able to roam through their house in the dead of night. A royal should not be able to escape the palace walls so easily unseen. And a princess should not go running into the dark woods through the snow by herself in chase of a mysterious dancing light.

But Anna was a curious five year old. Unusually clumsy and adventurous, you'd think the life of a princess would give her a certain freedom denied other children, but you'd be wrong.

If anything Anna had missed out on far too many normal childhood activities because of her royal upbringing. The only child growing up in a castle all by herself. Becoming an expert at dodging tutors and avoiding guards as she struggled, with all the strength a five year old could muster, against the restricting schedule and expectations of a princess.

It was on one of these adventure, when she was supposed to be in a calligraphy lesson, that she had discovered the hole in the garden wall. Nothing spectacular or even threatening to the well being of the royal family, just a small hole that had remained inconspicuous behind the trunk of a towering Oak tree in the edge of the garden.

Anna had been excited with the prospect of an illicit adventure into the town outside the castle walls, until after pulling away a few more stones, she had managed to wriggle through the hole to find that the garden did not share a wall with the town but rather faced in the opposite direction and nothing had been awaiting Anna on the other side but the forests that surrounded all of Arendelle.

This discovery, though disappointing at first, had been Anna's source of entertainment for the next few weeks, until she had discovered an unused servants staircase leading into the kitchens, whose entrance happened to be only a few doors down from the room she normally attended her literature lesson in, and the excitement of stolen snacks and chocolate delights took over.

So it was that until that first night when Anna had seen the lights, her secret passage way to the outside world had almost been forgotten.

Now the young princess snuck through the halls of the palace as quickly and quietly as she could. Using her lesson skipping skills to make her way into the garden unseen.

She couldn't help the squeal of delight that escaped her at the sight of the snow that blanketed the flower beds and, while well trampled with the comings and goings of servants from over the last few days, still shown beautifully in the moonlight.

Giggling to herself, her mittens pressed together as she skipped towards the tree, she only paused for a second to add a halo to a snow angel that some young gardener must have made the previous day, before she was wriggling through the wall on her hands and knees towards the other side.

There it was, she was getting close to the little pond and could see the lights dancing in the air again. Hardly able to contain her glee she tried to be quiet even as she clumsily rushed forward, darting from tree to tree, shoving her hands in her pockets roughly to check that the item she had placed there had not fallen out.

She had made it to the bushes, and she congratulated herself as she inched forward, the cold biting at her poor red nose as she pulled her scarf and hat off to get a better look.

Her awe caught somewhere in her chest and for a moment she forgot how to breath.

She was there.

Even having seen her before, even knowing in her head what the lights represented didn't stop the awe and joy that filled Anna at seeing her again. It was a relief, as if she'd been worried that last time was only a dream and some how she couldn't believe it until she saw her again. Saw her do magic again.

And now with her heart in her throat and anticipation pumping through her young veins Anna leaned forward eagerly and peered through the branches and was finally able to see the blond girl standing in the middle of the frozen pond.

A couple years older then Anna with pale blond hair braided down her back Anna could swear this girl was not human. No one could look that perfect, no human could be that beautiful, or that graceful. It should be obvious to anyone Anna thought peering through the leaves, the girl had obviously thought a human form would help her blend in, but five year old Anna was too clever for that, because she knew what she was and there was no point in her unrealistic disguise because all it did was make her stand out. Anna would have known what she was even if she had not first seen her a few weeks from now in the exact same spot she was in now. Even if the lights that had drawn her here hadn't been flowing from her fingers in bursts of magical displays.

She had magic and that decided it. The girl could not be human. Humans could not be this wonderful.

Indeed at the moment the girl looked beyond human as she danced across the frozen pond. Not the hyperactive dance of jumps and spins that Anna used to express her glee at a pace that usually continued until either Anna or those watching her became dizzy, but this girl danced with a graceful twirl a smile softly playing across her face in joy as snow gently twirled upward, conjured by and from her hand. The pond itself glowed as she stepped patterns of snowflakes flashing over the ice the only footprints the girl left. Her arms came down and she bent over gesturing at the ice in front of her and a patch of it rose up in a column to greet her, raising with her arms as it shot skyward purple and blue lights shining through it to illuminate the girls pale smiling face.

Anna tore her eyes away from the awe striking scene. Reaching into her pocket her little hands fumbled with the jar in her pocket. She couldn't get distracted she had a mission, if she didn't want to miss her chance she had to focus. Her eyebrows descending on her brow in concentration she slowly made her way along behind the bushes closer towards the ones that grew on the very edge of the pond where this unearthly girl played with the ice.

Reaching them she took a breath, puffing her cheeks full of air before letting them deflate again. Watching as the girl came closer and closer to Anna's hiding place conjuring ice columns as she went.

It was snowing.

And somehow Anna knew, with a certainty that only children are capable of, that it was snowing only in the area around this little pond, around and because of this strange magical girl.

This girl who was getting closer to where Anna hid.

"Kai! Kai!" shrieked the young princess rushing down the hall on her stubby legs.

The elderly manservant turned towards the girl a smile playing at the corner of his mouth as he opened his arms to accept the princess in a hug as she hurtled into him.

"Careful young one!" his laugh expressed not only from his mouth but in his eyes as well as he swung the princess into the air. "Your tutor is looking for you ag-"

"I saw a fairy!" gushed Anna not even listening to him in her excitement, "help me catch it! Please! Please!"

"A fairy?" remarked Kai amusement still twinkling in his eyes "That's quite something snowflake"

"It's a snow fairy!" Anna practically shouted into the old mans ear. squirming so much in her excitement that Kai was forced to place her back onto the ground. "Please Kai help me catch her, I HAVE to catch her! Then I can bring her back here and she can use her magic and we can be best friends, it'll be just like having a sister!" She babbled.

The man knelt down by Anna "Don't tell me you don't know the stories about how to catch a snow fairy?" he grinned as Anna's eyes widened and she furiously shook her head looking up pleadingly for him to continue.

"Well girl what you have to know about snow fairies is..."

Three more steps.

Two.

One.

She was right in front of the bush Anna was hiding behind her arms extend towards the newly falling snow. And Anna made her move.

"AAHHHHHH" yelled Anna as she jumped forward jar in hand and tossed it's mixture at the girl now reeling backwards from the edge of the pond in shock. The white powder hit the girl square in the face and she fell backwards in an uncharacteristically graceless flop onto her backside. The white powder falling from her hair and face as she seemed to regain herself for a moment and begin to spring back up again in panic.

Anna however was so determined in her assault that she had misjudged the force with which she had launched herself and the sturdiness of the ice under her feet and found herself hurtled back on top of her mysterious snow fairy sending her sprawling back down on the ice.

Not one to let such trivial matters deter her she found herself looking directly down into the girls face as she quickly gasped out the next part of her spell.

"Snow fairy bright, be still this night!" her voice raising at the alarmed expression of the face directly in front of her

"Lonely fairy never, we'll be together forever" she continued closing her eyes to concentrate on the last line of the rhyme Kai had taught her.

"Come with me and friends we'll be!" She shouted triumphantly opening her eyes and sitting back off the girl. Before remembering the final part and digging through her pocket to pull out a slightly squashed bag of chocolate treats and holding them out with a large grin on her face to the girl who still hadn't moved from her position flat on the ice.

"Here eat these before you get in the jar, they're my favorite, cook makes them for my birthday every year" she proudly announced, not deterred at all by the other girl's silent stare.

"Kai says that the final step to capturing a fairy is to share your favorite food with them to prove you're friends" the girl remained silent and Anna looked at her curiously before bursting into giggles.

"You're still covered in sugar!" she shrieked and slammed both hands over her mouth to try to contain the laughter that was bubbling out of her stomach. The girl still said nothing blue eyes still gazing in astonishment and something rather like wonder at Anna as she rocked back and forth in her glee.

"Here" said Anna with a grin and she leaned forward quickly, despite the girl's sudden jerk backwards, and began dusting the sugar she had sprayed all over the girl off her hair and face as she lay there apparently frozen, eyes even wider then they'd been moments before.

"Kai told me the you would absorb the mixture," Anna muttered slightly disgruntled still patting down the girl's hair "it's sugar with a little bit of salt see? Sweet as a sign of friendship and white like snow for your powers" she held up some on her finger misinterpreting the way the girl's eyes suddenly widened in panic.

"Don't worry" she said hastily, "it's very little salt, I know salt is normally used to make fairies go away, but Kai said to capture one I needed just a little to keep you from escaping."

She was met with silence again and frowned. The fairy was just laying there staring at her with those wide beautiful blue eyes of hers like she'd never seen a human before. Then Anna realized maybe she hadn't. Shifting, suddenly shy in front of the beautiful creature she had just knocked to the ground, she slowly held out her hand.

"I'm Anna" she told the girl, then hesitantly "do you, uh, do you have a name?" she asked quietly, suddenly feeling suffocated by the lack of words from her newly captured friend.

The girl opened her mouth as if to respond but then just started at Anna, closed it, opened it again and Anna finally heard her voice "I'm Elsa" she said quietly propping herself up on her elbows as her curious gaze ran over Anna as if assessing her. "I'm sorry Anna" she said quietly to the younger girl "but I'm not a fairy."