I own nothing, don't sue me.

Co-written by my sister.

The cold, glinting edge of the knife at her neck terrified her. But not as much as the crazed indecision in her attacker's eyes. He seemed to be fighting internal demons. The battle between duty and morality raged behind his troubled hazel eyes.

Between death and life. And she couldn't tell which side was winning.

The bark of the tree behind her scraped against her back. Cold snow crept into her boots. Colder, freezing despair slithered through her veins inching to her heart. The sharp blade got closer with each of her laboured breaths, and she pleaded mercy with her eyes. And still her attacker stared, undecided.

But he saw her now. She had pulled his attention away from his bickering demons. Her innocence had unclouded his judgement. He couldn't do it.

"Go!" he ordered, roughly grabbing her arm and pulling her away from the tree. She stumbled on the heavy snow, her damp clothes weighing her down.

"Go! Run!" he urged. "Turn back Anna, please. I won't carry out the Snow Queen's orders, but others might. Turn back! Go!"

With that he sheathed his knife and hurriedly disappeared into the dark forest.

Anna stood shaking, abandoned. Kristoff had attacked her. Her loyal friend Kristoff. Anna was a fearless optimist no longer. Doubt hadn't crept into her mind, it had come crashing in on top of her as fast as his attack.

I won't carry out the Snow Queen's orders...

Kristoff had been trying, desperately, to discourage her journey to find Elsa. She should have known something was amiss. When it was clear that Anna wasn't going to be deterred, Kristoff had struck.

Kristoff was working for a Snow Queen. And there was only one person Anna knew who could be called the 'Snow Queen'. Elsa.

I won't carry out the Snow Queen's orders...

Elsa had ordered the attack on Anna. Elsa, her sister. The realization hit Anna hard. Her feet wished to stay rooted, paralysed, now unsure of what she was doing. Uncertain of the mission she had given herself.

Elsa had caused all this damage. (At Anna's provocation. Anna had messed up at the Coronation –Anna accepted that but she maintained that "none of it would have happened if she had just told me about her powers").

Elsa had unleashed her icy powers, cursing the kingdom and putting it in everlasting snow.

But Anna stubbornly held steadfast to her love for her sister. She would find Elsa, and end this eternal winter.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Anna restarted her trek, her eyes set on Mt. Frost in the distance.

Snow swirled around Anna's petite frame, wind whipping her cape into a frenzy behind her. She didn't run, but wasn't moving slowly or surely enough for it to be a walk. She stumbled time and time again over gnarled roots that clawed their way out from under the thick blanket of snow, struggling in the much same way as Arendale was to escape it's cold, suffocating restraint.

Anna shivered. Summer had abandoned them, resigning immediately at the sight of winter's marching army.

All of a sudden, Anna encountered snow that was tinted here and there with a reddish hue, leading her in an almost straight, determined line, further and further into the dark, twisted maze that was the forest.

The trees were moving closer and closer to each other. They grouped together, ganging up against Anna, their long, spindly branches linking to block her path. They tore at her face, her bare arms.

Eventually she broke into a small clearing. The drops of pigment got bigger and bigger. Anna followed them, speeding. They stopped abruptly at the base of a large tree. Anna walked around the tree, desperately searching for the footprints. They had to continue. She couldn't lose the path.

Anna knelt in the snow by two faint footprints at the base of the tree. The two feet had been placed perfectly next to each other. They didn't go anywhere.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Something warm fell on her shoulder. She thought it might just be melting snow, falling from the sagging branches above her head. But brushing it away with her hand, she discovered it to be a sticky red substance. Blood.

She craned her neck to look up at the daark silutete suspended high above her, its weight causing the tree to lean slightly to the side. The grimy clothes on the body had been slashed in various places, the fur coat open and draped over slumped shoulders. The body swayed slowly, and Anna realized with horror that it was attached to the tree by a rope around its neck. The blood was flowing from the deep welt the rope had carved.

The face of the victim rotated into view, his troubled hazel eyes still open. Though now unseeing, they still conveyed the horror they had seen in their last seconds. The blood curdling scream Kristoff hadn't been able to create escaped instead from Anna's chest. It echoed through the dark woods, the commation awakening the forest and sending birds off in an angry flutter.

"Hi there! I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!"

A strange snow creature had appeared from the darkness of the edge of the clearing. Anna thought it was perhaps a snowman. Its crazed grin seemed permanent. Its eyes shone with glee at the sight of Anna. Its spindly wooden arms waved in greeting. It glanced up without concern at Kristoff's grutesque figure.

"Don't worry about him. He didn't do his job, so I had to put him to sleep. He's funny. He sleeps with his eyes open. Hee hee hee. I don't sleep. I don't get tired. I'm Olaf. What's your name?"

The snowman looked up at her expectantly, its eyes eager.

"Olaf..." Anna repeated, confused. She was sure she knew that name from somewhere.

"And you are..." Olaf probed.

"Anna. Princess Anna. Of Arendale"

"Ooohhh!" Olaf hopped side to side excitedly. "I found you!"

Olaf spindly arms shot towards her and her world went black.