Queen of the Ice

Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen or any of the characters there within, they are property of Disney.

Anna rounded the mountain she had just attempted to climb and she stopped short, one hand over her heart.

The sweeping rush of a crystal staircase spanned the heights of a great chasm. Behind it rose the vaulted towers, towering columns, and stately buttresses of sparkling cut glass like a diamond partly mined from the snow. A palace made of ice standing in the shadow of the sheer North Mountain. Its walls and face glistened in the late afternoon sun.

Had Elsa created this masterpiece?

Anna breathed a sigh of wonderment and made her way to the bottom of the stairs.

The wide steps and balustrade held firm beneath her weight and she peered down through the clear ice into the yawning depths of the great divide. She looked again toward the palace knowing Elsa was somewhere inside. No wicked sorceress or monster could possibly compose something of such breathtaking splendor. It was with to this thought Anna held fast, what her sister had done to Arendelle had been an accident borne of fear. If Elsa could create this opus of ice, she could surely right the tumult of the seasons.

Anna hurried upward with Olaf at her heels. Dear Olaf. She remembered him. He was the snowman she and Elsa had made together as children, the same snowman Anna asked to build year after year when her sister inexplicably shut herself away from the world. Though Anna's requests had gone unanswered, they had not gone unheard. Olaf was proof of that and how she welcomed his unflagging warmth as a banner of peace in this harsh winter chill. She smiled as he squeaked up the stairs after her.

The smile slipped away and her pace slowed to a halt when she came to the palace doors. She stared at the snowflake handle, hand upraised and eyes glazed.

Day after day she had stood before that door, the same door that separated them be it wood or ice. Elsa had never answered. Elsa had never come out to play no matter how Anna tempted and begged and pleaded.

Let me in! She remembered slumping against Elsa's eternally closed door that day their parents were lost at sea. The tears coursed down her cheeks as she entreated her sister to come out. She could feel an unnatural cold seeping out from beneath the door. She desperately needed her sister to acknowledge her in this dark hour, to tear down the barrier that divided them, to embrace each other and weather their grief together. Those lonely years waiting to be answered paraded through her mind's eye. Elsa had never answered.

"Let me in," Anna whispered and steeled herself.

She reached out and knocked.

The doors swung open and a wild fluttering seized Anna's stomach.

"It opened! That's a first." She hadn't realized she had been holding her breath.

She stepped inside but she paused as Kristoff began to follow, his eyes taking in every detail of the magnificent architecture.

"You should probably wait out here," Anna barred his entry. Kristoff swung round, brow knit and distinct reindeer odor washing over her.

"What?"

"Well, it's just that last time I introduced her to a guy, she froze everything."

"But it's a palace made of ice," Kristoff argued, his eyes looking over her shoulder at the crystal fountain in the center of the foyer, his voice faraway. "Ice is my life!"

"Bye, Sven!" Olaf waddled past the mountain man, but Anna stepped in his path as well.

"You too, Olaf," she said.

"Me?"

"Just…give us a minute."

Olaf sighed, forlorn, but obediently went out to sit at the top stair. Anna could hear him take her at her word and he began counting. She smiled and entered the palace, once again taking in the frozen eaves. Sunlight filtered through the walls and fractured into hard, bright beams, making the place seem even more magical than its exterior. Up close, Anna found the columns supporting the structure were actually the great main branches of enormous snowflakes. The hard angles of the ice splintered the light even further and cast an almost eerie glow about the silent palace.

Anna moved toward the fountain that had captured Kristoff's interest.

She slipped on the ice floor and caught herself with a laugh at her clumsiness. The moment triggered a memory of her and Elsa playing in a winter wonderland staged inside the castle ballroom. But the memory flashed away in the blink of an eye and try as Anna might, she couldn't seem to fetch it back. Had that really happened in the ballroom, or had it been outside?

So this truly was her sister's secret?

"Elsa?" Anna called, startled by the abrupt recollection. "Elsa! It's me, Anna!"

Her voice seemed small as it echoed about the vaulted chamber . Her eyes followed the sound as she waited in silence. As beautiful as this ice palace was, it felt empty, cold. Lonely.

"Anna?"

Anna spun and craned back to put the spiral staircase balcony into view.

Her jaw dropped.

Standing there in a dazzling blue gown built of a thousand woven ice beads and a sheer, sweeping cape emblazoned with exquisite snowflakes was Elsa. Her tightly wound platinum hair and been undone and cascaded over one shoulder, bringing out the brilliant blue of her eyes. She stood tall and proud over the icy ramparts; surprised to see her little sister in these frigid halls. This was not the queen of Arendelle, but a queen of the ice. A snow queen cast in the backdrop of her element. It was a stunning sight to behold.

"Elsa, you look different—it's good different!" The butterflies came to her stomach again as her older sister smiled down on her. There was something changed in her sister's demeanor. There was something unbound, almost liberated in the set of her hips, the sparkle in her eyes as if the world's burdens had been released from her shoulders. Elsa still stood poised and reserved, a royal even on this forgotten mountain, but there was a contentment there Anna had not seen even during the coronation. "And this place is amazing!"

"Thank you," Elsa said, examining one hand, "I never knew what I was capable of."

Emboldened by the soft, unsureness of her sister's statement, Anna started up the stairs.

"…I'm so sorry about what happened. If I'd known I—"

Elsa's small smile crashed as she backed away. She held one hand out to stop Anna, thought better of it and clasped one hand over the other as if her little sister might slap them.

"No, it's okay. You don't have to apologize. But you should probably go, please."

Anna stopped on the stair, her own expression stuck somewhere between incredulity and doubt at being dismissed so easily.

"But I just got here."

"…You belong in Arendelle."

"So do you." Anna returned at once.

"No, I belong here. Alone. Where I can be who I am without hurting anyone."

"Actually, about that…" Anna began just as Olaf burst through the palace doors and wasted no time squeaking up the stairs. Elsa's eyes flickered past her sister and down the steps.

"Wait, what's that?"

The living snowman bounded up beside Anna and threw his stick arms open wide.

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

"Olaf?" Elsa repeated in disbelief. Olaf ducked behind Anna, suddenly shy in the presence of his beautiful creator.

"You built me. You remember that?"

"And you're alive?" Elsa breathed.

"I…I think so."

Anna knelt beside him and smiled at the snowman's genuine uncertainty. She wrapped her mittens around him, caught up again in the old joy he had brought them both.

"He's just like the one we built as kids…" Olaf returned Anna's hug, one stick arm patting her back. She glanced up the steps at her older sister. "We were so close. We can be like that again." Anna proposed with just the slightest hitch of hesitation. Her doubt melted when Elsa looked between Olaf and her sister and a softness overcame her features. A yearning for the days long past settled in the corners of her mouth. There, there was the Elsa she had played with as a child. There was the Elsa who would push her off the bed, but wake up for a midnight cookie run. There was the Elsa she knew and loved in that smile, that shimmer of her eyes.

Anna's heart beat at the seed of hope climbing through her chest.

But as quickly as the smile had come, it slipped away as Elsa's eyes widened and her pale skin turned ashen.

"No, we can't." Elsa turned so that her sheer cape lifted and she strode up the stairs to the upper wings. "Good-bye, Anna."

The abrupt change left Anna reeling. She slipped in her rush to follow and Olaf steadied her so she didn't crash down the stairs. Anna found her footing and bounded after her fleeing sister.

"Elsa, wait!"

"I'm just trying to protect you!" Elsa called back over her shoulder as she disappeared into the recesses of the palace's second floor. Anna followed into a spangle of orange light. The sun had begun to set.

"You don't have to protect me. I'm not afraid." Anna entered the great archway and walked into an open living space. The floor comprised a single massive snowflake some twenty paces across. A carved block of ice occupied one corner and the same sheer material of Elsa's cape covered the slab. Beside it rested a similarly designed armoire inlaid with frosted edges and ornamented with hanging snowflakes. Elsa looked across the room at her sister's back. "Please don't shut me out again."

For every step Anna advanced, Elsa retreated. But here in her chambers, Elsa drew herself up and surrendered a serenity Anna had not known her capable of. It seemed Anna's heartfelt declaration had moved Elsa. There was no malice in her tone as she spoke, only an urge to make Anna see.

"Go back home, Anna, live your life in the sun and open the gates." The sisters walked toward the balcony. Elsa raised one arm and the doors opened to admit her outside in the crisp mountain air. "I may be alone here, but I'm free. I don't have to conceal what I am anymore. It will be better for everyone if I stay here, where no one can be hurt."

Anna grimaced as she inched out after Elsa.

"I get the feeling you don't know?"

"What? What don't I know?"

"Arendelle's under snow." Anna stepped beside her sister and pointed down the southern slopes. Nestled on the banks of the fjord, surrounded by the white blanketed pine, lay Arendelle. The castle and commons quarter shouldered the brunt of the drifts, but the snow still fell thick and heavy. They would soon be sealed by the snow mass. "You kind of set off an eternal winter? Everywhere." Anna bit her lower lip at her sister's shock. Elsa clung to the balcony rail as if she might tumble over its edge. "It's okay, you can just unfreeze it."

"No I can't," a shudder seized in Elsa's throat as she moved back into the chamber, hugging her arms to herself. "I don't know how."

"Sure you can. I know you can." Anna followed Elsa as the floor beneath her feet trembled and a dusting of snow lifted around them. The breeze from the outside seemed to swirl about the whole of the living space.

"No. No, how could I be such a fool?" Elsa gripped a clawed hand at her heart. The dusting became a flurry and the breeze a solid wind that sent stinging snowflakes into Anna's face.

"You don't have to be afraid," Anna said loudly, the wind and snow seemed to force her words back into her throat. Elsa knotted her fingers in her platinum hair.

"I can't control the curse. I can never be free!"

The whipping winds tore at Anna's clothes and hair. She was having difficulty keeping her eyes open as a barrage of flying snow needled her eyes. Gray clouds seemed to encircle her panicked sister in a dark embrace.

"Don't panic," Anna shouted, fighting to keep her footing as the wind pushed her over the ice. "We can figure this out together!"

"Anna, you're not safe here." Elsa cried, but the sound seemed muted and far away. Anna could barely make out the shape of her anymore in the fury of the snowstorm, but she forced her way to the center of the gale. The wind howled as it whistled through the high ice windows. The racing blizzard choked Anna as it stuffed her nose and mouth and stung her eyes blind. "No one is safe."

"We can reverse the storm! Everything will be all ri—"

"I CAN'T!" Elsa shrieked. Anna almost fell forward when the tempest wound in on itself to constrict around its architect. For an instant, a throbbing silence filled the void where there had been only the shrill keen of the wind and her sister's agonized cries. Elsa shuddered and a ring of magic shards hurtled from her in a violent halo of ice.

Frigid knives cut deep into Anna's chest, knocking her clean off her feet. A cold fist closed around her heart and squeezed. Anna coughed and seized at the pain, but the bitter hand only clutched tighter within her. She fell to her knees, struggling to breathe.

Elsa spun back, her hands over her mouth.

"Anna?"

"Anna, are you all right?" Kristoff burst into the room, startling both sisters.

"I'm fine," Anna said, stubbornly getting to her feet though her heart still throbbed in the vicelike hold. It hurt.

"Who's this?" Elsa began, frightened, but she shook her head. "No, it doesn't matter. You have to go."

"No, I know we can figure this out together." Anna said.

"How? What power do you have to stop this winter? To stop me?" Elsa shouted, the fear had closed on her again like a cage. It set in the weight of her shoulders, the inward curl of her spine. Anna could feel the desperation bristle inside the growing ice lump in her chest. The walls of the ice palace cracked like thick ice over a restless lake.

"Anna, I think we should go." Kristoff's eyes followed the creeping crevice forming in one wall.

"No!" Anna jerked out of his grasp. Her eyes pricked with unspent tears as she reached out for her sister. "I'm not leaving without you, Elsa."

"Yes." Queen Elsa's eyes glistened as she swept her arms out; the spark of magic glinted off her fingertips in dancing curls. "You are."

Author's Note: I initially didn't give much thought to Frozen. I don't watch TV much these days, I had avoided the trailers, I just wasn't all that interested. Then I found a review for Frozen in the paper touting it as a masterpiece. Our local critics NEVER endorse movies so fastidiously. Curious, I finally watched the trailer. It was a story about sisters. Sold. I saw the movie the day it came out and I would gladly pay to view it again. The characterization was spot on, superb voice acting, I laughed, I got teary-eyed. It's been a long time since a movie has put me through my paces so completely.

I liked Elsa from the start, but she really sealed it with 'Let It Go.' You can just SEE her transformation from hesitant to totally liberated and the entire animated sequence was breathtaking. The ice palace? The ice dress?! THAT is how CGI is supposed to be used, ladies and gentlemen. The movie struck home because I have a little sister I just cherish and I felt Frozen did a wonderful job of capturing this sacred relationship. Does it show?

It took me forever to get started because I was, well, frozen myself. I didn't know whose point of view to write from. I loved Elsa and I can relate to her mental processing on so many levels, but I eventually settled on bold, brazen, sometimes clumsy Anna. Sort of an outside view looking in on Elsa's world and the beauty, and danger, there. Hopefully you enjoyed the rendition!

I may yet write a story from Elsa's point of view, if folks are interested. So drop me a review and tell me what you think!

Blackfire 18