AN: Surprise, I'm back! I told you the story would never be abandoned so long as interest was there, and there certainly seems to be interest. It looks like there's at least 120 of you out there waiting to read more, and while I wish more of you would drop some reviews, I felt guilty about leaving you all hanging. I still can't promise regularly scheduled updates, but I can promise that I read every one of your reviews and that each of them helps motivate me to write the next chapter. Without further ado, let's do this.

"Gramma Tala was right! You're a spirit, or a demigoddess, or a—"

"I'm not!" Elsa said pleadingly. "Please, I really am just from far away, I mean you no harm. I only wanted to help!"

Moana looked her up and down suspiciously, but as her eyes fell upon the basket full of fish she finally relaxed a little. Elsa awaited her judgment nervously. The chief's daughter took a deep breath and unfolded her arms.

"Is everyone from Arendelle like you?" Moana asked.

Elsa shook her head. "No. I was the only one. I was, am, the Queen."

"A Queen, huh?" Moana raised an eyebrow. "Well we don't have any of those on Motonui."

"I know."

"Don't expect any special treatment."

"I won't." Elsa looked down. "Are you going to tell the rest of the village?"

Moana reached out with one finger and lifted Elsa's chin until they had eye contact again.

"Why hide your powers? Why not tell us?"

"I was afraid," Elsa admitted. "I wasn't sure what would happen to me if you knew. And when I feel frightened or unloved, I lose control of my powers. If you hadn't defended me when we first met, there's no telling what might have happened."

"And what happens if you lose control? Would there be danger to the tribe?"

Elsa nodded sadly. "The whole island."

Moana's face scrunched up, but while there was concern in that expression, she didn't look frightened. If anything her eyes were sympathetic as she stared at Elsa as though unsure of what to do with her.

"It's happened before, hasn't it?"

Elsa nodded again.

"How did you solve it?"

"My sister's love. And what little courage I was able to muster."

Moana exhaled. "Well, I know what my father would say. He would want you off the island by dawn. But what he doesn't know won't hurt him. Right?"

Elsa felt like she had lost her voice. She nodded once more, vigorously.

"Then I'll keep this to myself, and we'll work together to make sure the village stays safe," Moana said with conviction. "But no more secrets, Elsa. I mean it."

"Whatever you say," Elsa said earnestly.

"Alright then. Let's bring this back to the village. They'll be glad to see the catch." Moana easily plucked the heavy basket out of Elsa's arms and began carrying it back to shore. "So, what's it like being a Queen anyway?"

Elsa hastened to follow. "Well, for one thing I'm not used to carrying a whole lot of fish."

Moana laughed.

Elsa felt a thrill of satisfaction as the coconut shell cracked against the wooden stake in the ground. With Moana's patient guidance and plenty of practice, she had improved in all her duties. With a discreet flash of magic, Elsa chilled the sweet liquid inside the coconut and then presented it to Moana, who was grinning from a shaded tree branch. Almost unconsciously Elsa found herself adopting the deferential posture she'd seen in her castle servants, bowing her head slightly as she waited on the chief's daughter.

"Mmmm." Moana smacked her lips after sipping the beverage. "You know, for the longest time I thought that coconut water couldn't get any better. I'd never had it this cold."

Elsa swelled with pride. "I'm glad it pleases you."

"Go on, have one yourself! Don't worry, I won't tell the others. They don't know what they're missing."

Elsa quickly obeyed and joined Moana on the branch. They clacked their coconuts together in a toast (something that Elsa had taught Moana for a change) as they drank and chatted. As it turned out, sharing a secret had brought the two girls closer in the few days since their confrontation at the reef. Elsa was in full and confident control of her powers, encouraged by the fact that Moana had never for a moment shown any fear of her. If this younger girl wasn't scared, Elsa had decided that she wouldn't be either.

"So explain to me this ice thing again," Moana said. "I thought it was just magic, but you're telling me that it's actually water? And this happens naturally?"

"It's actually quite common where I come from," Elsa confirmed. "When water gets cold enough, it becomes solid, like a crystal. That's what freezing is."

"Wow. Yeah, we don't get a lot of that around here." Moana glanced up at the tropical sun. "How strong are your powers anyway? Have you tested them much?"

"More than I should have."

Moana glanced around surreptitiously. Sina, her mother, was weaving palm fibers with the village women nearby. Their attention was focused on their work.

"Could you make a path across the ocean?" Moana whispered.

Elsa hesitated. "I could make a ship, but even if we set sail with it, all of my powers were weren't enough to overcome the storm. In truth, as strange as this sounds, I think that using my powers might have attracted the storm in the first place. The best I could do was take steps to save my crew."

Moana frowned. "Well if your crew is still out there maybe we should go looking for them."

"Your father is still chief," Elsa reminded her gently. "I don't think it's a good idea to defy him."

"Of course." Moana scowled. "My dad the chief. He's never wrong, is he? He knows all about everything, everything except me!"

Elsa winced. Moana hadn't seemed to notice how loud she had become. Before Elsa could try to calm the other girl, a shadow fell upon them and a new voice interjected.

"He was you."

They looked up to find Sina standing over them worriedly, a bundle of fabrics folded in her arms. The two girls listened with rapt attention as she launched into a story about how Tui, in his youth, had crossed the reef in a canoe with his best friend. Elsa felt her heart sink as Sina described the unforgiving seas and the storm that had claimed the life of that friend.

"That's exactly like what happened to me," Elsa murmured.

Sina nodded grimly and turned to Moana. "Take it from those who have seen it. Sometimes, who we wish we were, what we wish we could do, it's just not meant to be."

For the first time since Elsa had met her, Moana looked lost and confused. Seeing that her message had been received, Sina quietly left them alone with their thoughts. Elsa watched as Moana clenched her fists, wrestling visibly with herself. The chief's daughter cast one last rebellious glance out towards the ocean. Then she looked at Elsa. Her mouth open as if to say something, and then closed.

Elsa grimaced as Moana let out a strangled noise of frustration and stomped off back to the village.

Moana remained quiet for the rest of the day even as Elsa, in accordance with her duties, did her best to prepare a dinner of fish, speared on a stick and grilled over a fire. After that night at the reef they had been able to pass off Elsa's catch as a lucky haul from the traps. The extra food couldn't have come at a better time; a clan meeting would be called soon to discuss the empty nets and Elsa's arrival. It was inevitable that the two issues would become conflated, but now it worked to their advantage; some of the villagers were beginning to whisper that Elsa's arrival might signal a turn in fortunes and not the bad omen that they had feared.

Elsa retrieved the fish from the flames, a faint haze of magic shielding her delicate fingers from the heat as she worked. The food had turned out quite edible, if simple in flavor, but Moana didn't even seem to notice as she chewed mechanically. Her eyes were on the ground and her thoughts somewhere far away. She looked very alone, something that Elsa could empathize with. For some reason it gnawed at her heart to see Moana in such obvious melancholy.

After the meal Elsa watched as Moana collected the pig named Pua, which she seemed fond of, and stole away into the night. She was heading down towards the beach. Without conscious thought, Elsa followed. If Moana noticed her she gave no indication of it.

As they walked beneath the bright moonlight a plan began to form in Elsa's mind.

Moana came to a halt some thirty paces away from the water and set Pua down on the sands. The little pig nuzzled her ankles as Moana stared out at the waves in longing. Decision made, Elsa squared her shoulders and twirled her wrist. Oblivious to Pua's squeaks of confusion, Moana didn't even notice the clouds forming above her head until the first snowflake landed on her nose. Startled, she looked up, gasped, and then turned back to Elsa just in time to receive a snowball to the face.

Moana wiped her face and stared. Elsa smiled and shrugged her shoulders. The snow was falling gently but rapidly all around them now, accumulating at a rate that could only be called magical. A mischievous grin spread Moana's face, and the chief's daughter bent over to scoop up some snow to retaliate. In no time at all the two girls were chasing each other across the empty beach, laughing as they pelted each other with snowballs.

"What is this stuff?" Moana asked in wonderment.

"It's snow!" Elsa grinned. "It's like ice, but powdered. Would you believe it falls from the sky in Arendelle? Like rain."

Instead of replying Moana hurled a snowball with terrific aim, catching Elsa off guard. Elsa instinctively conjured a shield of ice, and the projectile splatted against it harmlessly.

"Cheater!" Moana laughed.

That prompted an escalating competition as Moana pursued Elsa with the strength and skill of a seasoned hunter, firing snowballs off with a speed and accuracy that was fairly intimidating. On the other hand, Elsa stuck strictly to evasion and defense, using increasingly creative flourishes of magic to defend herself and place obstacles in Moana's path. Pua also seemed to be having the time of his life as he romped through the snow after the girls, squealing in delight.

Finally Moana slid down an ice slide and leaped to her feet just in time to catch Elsa with a snowball as she was jumping from one elevated pillar to another. Elsa yelped and tumbled into a snowbank. She emerged laughing, but as she brushed snow from her face she heard Moana gasp.

Elsa opened her eyes to find herself staring at a pair of old and wrinkled feet supported by a wooden stick. Her heart skipped a beat. Slowly, her gaze traveled upwards to discover Moana's grandmother Tala looking down at her with a crooked smile and a knowing glint in her eyes.

Moana ran up to them with Pua in her arms and a worried expression on her face.

"Whatever just happened," Tala said, "blame it on the pig."

AN: And there you have it, the long awaited update! I feel like I covered a decent amount of ground here, but if I could disregard such minor things as pacing and build up I would've liked to skip straight to the part where our girls leave the island and head out into the open ocean. As things stand, that's unlikely to happen until the end of the next chapter at earliest. But we'll get there. Assuming that the interest in this story is still strong, we will get there. It is your feedback and encouragement that willed this update into existence, and it will be your feedback and encouragement that keeps me coming back. I'm really eager to get the actual adventure started, and I already have the ending planned out. I hope we get that far, because it's going to be pretty great.