Chapter One: First Sight

The waters of the fjord were churning roughly in the dark night. The people living on the coast of the small inlet were perplexed; no storm clouds appeared in the distance yet the water was choppy and dangerous. The rulers of the small, underwater kingdom of Arendelle knew better. The choppy waves signaled the distress of their heiress apparent. Elsa, the crown princess of Arendelle, was perhaps unique. She was born with the power of hydrokinesis. As Arendelle was located underwater, the weather in the kingdom was always subject to change with her emotions. The kingdom's inhabitants were none the wiser; they simply believed that a storm was brewing in the upper-world. The water was swirling in a maelstrom around the castle, just as the princess's emotions were swirling within her.

"I feel absolutely suffocated in here. I am stuck in this forsaken castle day in and day out. Why can I not leave for just one day?!" The princess shouted at her parents in frustration. She was swimming back and forth across the room, her platinum blonde hair flying behind her in its usual braid. "I think some company is overdue. There is simply no one to talk to besides the servants and the pictures on the walls." She gestured sharply at one of the many portraits hanging on the walls of the throne room. "I am going insane."

"Elsa, you know that it's too dangerous. You could get hurt, or hurt someone with your power," explained the King of Arendelle.

Elsa paused, hurt by his accusation. "It would be nice if you had faith in my control for once, Papa. I learned it from you after all. 'Conceal, don't feel, put on a show. Make one wrong move and everyone will know.'" She took a deep breath, trying desperately to calm the storm inside of her while inadvertently calming the whirlpool outside the castle.

"And sweetheart, what would we do if something happened to you?" asked the Queen in a gentle voice.

"Well, I suppose that you would have to find a new heir," the blonde quipped angrily. This was followed by gasps from both monarchs.

"How could you even think like that? We love you, Elsa," the Queen said, sounding a bit choked up by her only daughter's remark.

"If you loved me, you would not imprison me in my own home!" Elsa's anger overwhelmed her and she lost control of her temper and her powers. The castle was encased in a vortex of the princess's creation. The King and Queen looked to each other in horror, fearful of the daughter they supposedly loved. When she realized that she had lost control, Elsa took a deep breath and once again reined in the storm. She spared her parents only a glare before swimming off to her room and slamming the door behind her.

Of course, the princess could not herself be reined in so easily as her storm. That night she made a plan of escape. When day broke, she locked the door of her room, not that anyone would come looking for her when she was in this bad of a mood, and went to her window. Elsa had looked out the same window for so many years without ever seeing the outside. She quietly sang to herself, a habit developed in her years of isolation.

"Look at the world, so close, and I am halfway to it. Look at it all, so big; do I even dare? Look at me, there at last! I just have to do it. Should I? No." She paused, glancing back into her room before strengthening her resolve. "Here I go." She swam quickly out of the window, not looking back. After ten minutes of speedily swimming away, Elsa could see herself nearing both the shore and the surface of the water. She paused before surfacing to ascertain what environment she was about to put herself in.

The princess heard a voice humming from just above the water. She surfaced behind a tall rock to listen in. As Elsa peered out from behind the rock, she saw a beautiful redheaded girl walking down the dock. She simply sat on the edge of the dock, swinging her legs slightly as her toes skimmed the water, humming quietly to herself. This mysterious girl had her hair in two plaits, one of which contained a small platinum streak. Her face was more freckled than anyone Elsa had ever seen. (Granted, she had not seen very many people in her years of isolation.) In her intense focus, Elsa hadn't noticed that the girl had stopped humming. The redhead heard a small splash; Elsa's fixation caused her to forget the rule about not being seen or heard by surface dwellers and her tail had curled up behind her reflexively. As the girl turned toward the source of the noise, she nearly caught sight of Elsa who quickly dove beneath the water. Her tail splashed above the water just long enough for the stranger to see it.

"What the?" the girl muttered to herself. "Was that what I thought it was? Am I hallucinating?"

Elsa hovered just below the surface, holding her breath with anticipation. She had snuck out of the castle and almost exposed her secret world to a surface dweller. Thankfully, the redhead seemed to think that she was in fact hallucinating from dehydration. She slid her shoes back on and walked away with a second glance at a rock formation just off the dock.

Elsa quickly swam back home and thanked her lucky stars that neither her parents nor the beautiful stranger had caught her transgression to the surface.

As Elsa sat in her room that evening, she could not get the human girl out of her mind. The girl was beautiful, unnervingly so. She had to go back. She had to see the stranger again.

Back on dry land, the redheaded girl's thoughts followed the same line. She had to return to the dock and see what exactly it was she saw earlier that day. It had looked almost like a really big fish tail, but fish do not surface. Whales come to the surface. Maybe it was a fishy-looking whale? She shook her head. It could not be; the tail was too small to be a whale. She resolved to figure it out tomorrow by going back to investigate.