Ice and Snow

After Anna's coronation as queen, Elsa makes one last trip to Ahtohallan for closure. But messing with ancient magic often leads to disastrous results, and Elsa is catapulted through space and time to unfamiliar lands... as a child?

Chapter 1

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A massive headache was what woke her up.

Elsa jumped up with a shout, then clutched her head from the agonizing waves of pain pounding inside. A calm, warm hand pressed itself gently against her forehead and soft whispers lulled her back into a resting position. Her entire body pulsated and trembled and the last thing she could remember...

What was it, again? She had just returned back to the northern forests to guide over to Northundra people after having celebrated Anna's coronation to queen. And, of course, Anna's ceremony with Kristoff right after. Queen Anna and Crown Prince Kristoff. Had a nice ring to it, she thought. With her younger sister's open, kind heart and utter bravery, she was best fit for rule. Elsa wasn't jealous of the queenship being passed down - in fact, preferred it - but she did worry if Anna's kind nature would lead to some foreign ambassador looking down on Arendelle. Ignoring that, however, Elsa had traveled back to the northern forests, and then had decided to travel even more north to give Ahtohallan one last goodbye. Ahtohallan was far too dangerous and alluring to constantly visit, what with its ancient magics running amok every icicle and frozen stream.

She froze Nokk's body in order to give his hooves purchase on the island, in case he was curious to say goodbye himself, but the water spirit had only whinnied and growled at the whispering magics in the icy divide. And then something about the memory room and touching a few mildly suspicious crystals of ancient wonder and that was the last of her memories before her current issue.

A strange old woman muttering a nonsensical language while applying bitter smelling herbs to her hair.

"What's going on?" Her voice cracked, as if not having spoken for ages. Elsa winced at the noise. Not from the throaty pain, but from the childishness from it. She sounded years younger. Not great for first impressions.

In Elsa's blurry sight, the foreign woman mumbled some more before clearing her throat and spelling out another ramble of mismatched vowels in a rather monosyllabic lure.

A foreign language. Great.

From her royal studies, she learned the five languages of the countries surrounding Arendelle, but never an eastern type language, which the lady seemed to be using.

"Do you speak English?" She tried, knowing the Northern Isles' language to have spread over a few Eastern lands from their constant adventuring. "How about... Snakker du dansk? Pratar du svenska? Ummm... Kan du nors - ?"

The woman shook her head throughout the exchange, and then said a few more words of her own language.

Well, then. Elsa coughed suddenly, feeling her lungs give out and a giant glub of blood choke its way out. The woman, wearing a uniquely styled robe and sticks in her bun, muttered something else and forced steaming tea into her mouth. Darkness engulfed her.

The next few months were interesting, to say the least.

The woman identified herself as "Mina," all while using gratuitous hand movements. Elsa did the same, except Mina couldn't quite pronounce her name correctly. It was either Erusa, or Erisa. She didn't mind too much, as mispronouncing her name was nothing against everything else Mina did for her. The old woman lived by herself in a small house in the mountains of a land Mina called "Land of Hot Springs." She was an apothecary who used the land to fuel her small business. After the first week, in the dawning of new spring, Elsa helped Mina pick special herbs at the top of the mountain that, if their hand movements proved right, helped with coughing. She learned different names of plants, animals, and forces of nature in the new language while Mina slowly but surely healed the rest of her body. She wasn't sure what had happened in Ahtohallan, but perhaps Nokk had rescued her injured self and drifted her body to one of the Eastern kingdoms. At least, that was the theory.

Until Mina taught her about maps.

The map of the world was far, far different than the one Elsa was used to seeing. She'd been emotional that day, furiously trying to quell her powers down as to not reveal herself in her grief. Perhaps more emotional than usual, because the ancient magic of Ahtohallan had somehow transformed her back into a younger version of herself, roughly seven or eight years old. A child could do little to hide their emotions, but Mina didn't seem to mind.

The spring passed and summer dawned on Mina's home. Elsa, after internalizing her grief and realizing there was nothing now except to move forward, returned to studying under Mina with a vigor. She mastered basic fluency of the languages, learned as much about the land and political geography as she could, and tried consuming herself under the new cultures. The people of the surrounding small villages, including Mina herself, had different facial features, but the coloring remained mostly the same. A lot of brunettes, black haired people, a few blonds, and a scant few other colors. The most surprising hair color she found had to be a shocking bright green from a passing traveler.

By the beginning of autumn, where crisp red and yellow leaves painted the mountains a variety of colors, Elsa became proficient enough in the new world that she almost felt like she belonged somewhere again. A blue kimono, her white hair done in a typical braid, and the basics of communication with her surroundings. Her twenty-first birthday passed by, and so did the end of the warm months. Winter thrashed down harshly on the mountainous upper regions of the Land of Hot Springs, so unlike the southern part of the country, abundant in hot springs and calm, rolling plains.

When the frail old apothecary didn't return back to their cozy little home hours after she said she'd return by, Elsa stopped reading her children's learning books and called back her haunting powers for the first time in what felt like decades. The magic sent a shiver down her spine, no pun intended, and she carved an icy sled out of the howling winds. The snow propelled her sled to where she knew Mina liked to pick winter berries, and within minutes, she found the frozen corpse of her only friend.

Her powers burst out like a dam, crystallizing, immortalizing her pain into treacherous spikes and spires and an elegant new tomb for beloved Mina. The permafrost set in on the corpse kept the woman's physical form in a life-like, still flushed state, but none would see Mina's forever still face, for Elsa sealed the grave shut with special glacier ice and sent the grave down, down, down, where no one would dare disturb the body. If not out of respect, then out of fear. A guard made of eternal ice and snow erupted out of being, set to forever guard the tomb from whoever trespass and disturb the silence. Even when the summer eventually came and melted away all the surrounding snow at the base of the mountains, the tomb and the guard would never melt away. Her magic and her grief made sure of it.

She took her worldly possessions, Mina's savings, and traveled South to the country's capital, Yugakure.

Perhaps after having lost her sister, her brother-in-law, her parents, and now Mina, Elsa would be well versed in maintaining healthy mindsets for grief. But no - she buried her emotions deep down inside and truly became as cold as ice.

The whole ninja part about the new world was rather concerning, but nothing to get hung up on. Having nothing better to do, she purchased an apartment at the edge of the city, as far away from the blistering hot spring attractions as she could (how come no one cared she, someone who looked like an eight year old, bought an apartment? What even was this?), and enrolled into the local school. A few kids picked on her for having an accent, but she was an adult and paid little heed to the taunts and teasing of kids. The winter passed calmly, as the blizzards and ice storms rarely traveled farther south than the mountains. When the spring blossomed again, this time, she enrolled herself into the ninja academy.

Most of her studies from before had been based around diplomacy, trade, and dealing with nations. In this world, all of that was useless, so restarting life as perhaps a guard for hire didn't seem too bad. Sure, there were a few wars here and there in the new world, dubbed the Elemental Nations, but it wasn't like Elsa sought out fame as a legendary ninja hero or whatever. She'd make due with making enough to support herself, then exploring the lands. Maybe making a nice living back in the mountains as a reindeer herder or something. The Land of Iron and the Land of Snow, farther up north, had climates she was more used to, but it didn't hurt to stay in the Land of Hot Springs.

What the civilians, like Mina, didn't know about ninja, was how terrible and gruesome their life actually was. In the classroom, a snotty little boy named Hidan tried picking fights with everyone, even going as far as bringing out a kunai knife and trying to gut someone out of spite. The classroom teacher (called a sensei) applauded the boy's bloodthirstiness, for whatever godforsaken reason! A weird motherly instinct wanted to take all the children out of the classroom and beat the teacher senseless, but she persevered and eventually learned how to mask her true intentions using the ninja emotional training.

Learning chakra the next semester was also pretty weird, almost clashing against her magic, but she quelled each power enough to begin to use the whole chakra thing effectively enough. Later on, in the privacy of her own apartment, she toyed around with the idea of mixing chakra and ice magic together. She formed an intricately designed knife out of ice, then forced a thrum of chakra through the blade. The ice glowed blue with power, but that was enough of that. She became busy working on her studies and bettering herself to become strong enough to survive out in the wild, where no one would dare bother her. Elsa could, of course, drop out of the ninja academy and do just fine on her own as a mildly powerful civilian, but that wouldn't really be enough in this new land. She heard stories of ninjas who stopped wars with their bare fists, ran at the speed of lightning, and even parted seas by barely moving a finger. Her powers over the cold were quite powerful, she knew, but compared to nothing when she couldn't create an impenetrable shield of ice if her opponent could just zoom all the way into her defenses in a fraction of a second. Elsa had secretly enjoyed the quiet isolation of her ice castle made after the events of her own coronation, and yearned for a life like that again. Not so important that leaving would have devastating effects (Arendelle would have survived without her because Anna would have become the queen, after her), but powerful enough to leave alone (again, what had Anna been thinking? Abandoning her kingdom to try to bring back a mildly psychotic magic wielding sister? Seemed terrible in hindsight, but Elsa was still eternally grateful for her baby sister's meddling).

In her free time at the academy, she sketched out the basic architecture of her kingdom in her notebook. A tower here, a tower there... Perhaps adding several more crystal chandeliers in the ball room because why not? This was her memory of Arendelle, it didn't matter if a few more extravagant decorative pieces were added for her own pleasure.

A hand grabbed at her notebook. Elsa immediately slapped the hand away and stashed everything back in her small school bag.

"That hurt, you little bitch," Seethed a voice she recognized. After putting everything away, she looked back up into the eyes of the troublesome Hidan. Citizens in her kingdom with violent tendencies were often sent out south to exile, to a correctional facility in one of Corona's provinces. Likewise, troubled citizens of the Kingdom of Corona were usually sent to work in Arendelle's brutal ice mining industry. She honestly believed that with enough help, Hidan could eventually develop into a fine young man.

Unfortunately, ninjas rarely sought out therapy or mental correction.

"Then don't try to steal my stuff," Elsa glared back. This was fine. She was nearing twenty one years of age and he was just a simple eight year old.

And eight year old with a kunai knife, at least. Which was really unfair, since weapons training started in their second year, not the first. Where'd he even get that stuff? An older brother? A cousin?

Hidan sniffed pointedly like the little brat he was and pulled out his shiny kunai knife from his belt. "Girls are supposed to apologize. I said that that hurt."

Everyone, including the classroom teacher, was playing outside during the lunch break. Elsa wanted to scream. "I'm sorry that it hurt," she grit out, carefully observing the knife.

The silver haired boy smirked. "That's a terrible apology. Do it again."

The resulting punch to the nose was never part of the plan, but it still felt good. Hidan clamored back, dropping his kunai knife in exchange for holding his hands over a broken nose gushing out a waterfall of blood.

"Don't mess with me," she warned, shaking away the vibrating sting of her bruised knuckles. This greasy little bastard reminded her of Hans, so she'd gladly punch him again.

The boy growled like a feral animal and pounced right onto her desk. Elsa leaped out of his reach and ran to the front of the classroom, where she could possibly run outside and - !

He yanked her braid back and punched her in the spine. A sharp fizzle of nerves racketed up her whole body and she whirled around to block the next underhanded punch. They brawled it out for a bit, until her tiny child arms couldn't handle the strain of the constant attack. The class had just started learning taijutsu that week, so it wasn't like Elsa had high hopes against the rapid boy, but she tried her best.

Until something hilariously stupid blurted out of Hidan's mouth. "I'm gonna kick your ass so hard that your entire family will feel it! Maybe I'll kick your siblings' asses, too! Got a brother or a sister you don't like?"

Needless to say, she ended up winning that fight out of sheer spite. It may have cost a few bad bruises and a possibly broken set of knuckles (they were probably fine), but she kept her family's honor, which was everything to her.

What she didn't expect to come out of the altercation, however, was Hidan's newfound respect for her. His first loss, he said the next day in class. He sported two ugly black eyes and a few loose teeth, but then he bullied her entire table to leave so that he could be the only one to sit next to her. The few girls she had become friendly with were scared away by the little brat, and Elsa gained a strange new rival.

If only she could just freeze his mouth off so he would never talk again.