A/N: Hi everyone, welcome to my new story! Or, for the two people who'll remember, welcome to the re-write of my first fic that I never finished.
Anyway, in this one I've actually come up with a plot, but don't worry! I'm cramming in as much fluff as possible, what's the point in having an Elsanna story and not have the girls see each other until the end? Beats me.
Warnings: Includes graphic violence and swearing.
Everyone writes disclaimers, maybe I should too? What would happen if I said I owned Frozen? I might say it... I'd just want Anna anyway, sod the rest.
I'll shut up now, enjoy.
Chapter 1:
Winter's Thoughts
Trust me. The words rang through Elsa's mind, they seemed to bounce and echo off the walls of her skull. She felt ice crystallise at her finger tips, her stomach dropped and her breathing became irregular, surely not today?
"NO!" Elsa shouted as she put her hands on her head and squeezed her eyes shut. Her nose wrinkled as she tried her best to shut the world out.
Elsa Valdis was a strange child. She was born with powers, abilities that her parents couldn't wrap their heads around. They hadn't dared to tell anyone about their daughter. Not in a Kingdom like Arendelle; a Kingdom where everyone feared the very thing that Elsa was cursed with.
"Elsa darling what's wrong?" Her mother asked walking into the little girl's room. Elsa was on her bed screwed into a ball underneath masses of sheets.
"It's talking again." Mrs Valdis just about heard from under the pile of linen.
"Aww. It's alright." Mum said walking over and pulling her small daughter out of the sheets and wrapping her up into a hug. "Come on. The guests will be here soon. You can talk with them and you'll forget all about it." She smiled at her daughter.
"Okay."
It was Elsa's sixth birthday, and her parents had arranged for some of the neighbours to come over. This was no small task. Firstly, winter in Arendelle was terrible. The cold ravaged crops, destroyed houses, and killed the older generation every year. Winter was talked about in hushed tones and sly whispers. The folk of Arendelle hibernated during the cold season; they would farm all year, saving little bits and bats over the months until their crops were killed by the snap in temperature. Then they would stay in their houses and not come out until the spring.
But this wasn't the only reason why inviting guests to face the dreaded winter was going to be such a problem. See, Elsa hadn't been seen by the villagers for quite a number of years. Her parents couldn't afford to let their secret slip. If word got out that a young child could control the very thing people feared; she'd be burned at the stake, with everyone screaming 'burn devil burn.' So obviously her parents had to hide her away. Keeping that bedroom door locked when anyone visited during the spring and summer.
After six years living in fear of not only the winter, but the dread of Elsa being found out they'd had enough. Elsa's sixth birthday was going to be the start of a new era for the Valdis family. No more worrying and fears. They knew Elsa was trying her best to keep her ice at bay, and they couldn't bear to see their daughter grow up with no life. So instead they were going to trust her.
Elsa and her mother walked back into the sitting room from the upstairs bedroom. Their house was small; after all they were only farmers on the outskirts of Arendelle. They had a decent sized plot of land at the back that led to the forest. Enough space for many types of vegetables that they would grow then sell to their neighbours.
In the centre of the room was a large fireplace stocked with logs, burning away. A blonde haired man sat in front rubbing his hands together. His hair was neatly cut and combed over. He turned to look at his daughter and wife approach, his eyes glistening and shining, amplified by the fireplace.
"Father!" Elsa said as she began to skip to the man and jump in his lap.
"Oofff. Hey! Happy Birthday Elsa." He smiled at his daughter.
Mrs Valdis had darker hair, a brunette colour. She always tied it back into a bun, her eyes were blue too, a deep rich colour. She'd made the family outfits to mark the special occasion. Matching dark green dresses for herself and Elsa. While her husband wore a nice fitting suit of the same colour.
Elsa's appearance was a little different to her parents. To the unknowing she looked rather sick. A ghostly pale skin tone accompanied by bright blue piercing eyes. And her hair, a platinum blonde colour that seemed to turn grey in certain lights. But to her parents, all this seemed to make sense; she looked like winter itself.
There was a loud and desperate knock at the door, Elsa's father quickly rushed over and opened it, a barrage of almost frozen guests came stomping in. "Brrr" one of the men shook, "I think it gets colder every year!"
"Yes it seems to." Elsa's dad agreed, taking the guests through to the living area and showing them the fire. "Here get yourselves warm. Drinks anyone?" After taking a fairly large and diverse drinks order Mr Valdis retreated to the kitchen.
"So where have you kept this one locked away?" The woman from next door asked, as she ruffled Elsa's hair. "Oh dear you're freezing, come, sit near the fire. Can't have the birthday girl freezing can we?"
Elsa's mother nervously laughed. "Yes, go on Elsa, go and get warm."
The blonde girl shot her mother a strange look. She opened her mouth as if to protest at what her mother was telling her to do. But thought better of it. She did as instructed and sat near the fire.
"So where've you been hiding her?" The woman continued.
"Erm well, she's been quite ill. S-She had a terrible condition. But fought it off. The little trouper. And she's fit as a fiddle now, hey Elsa?"
"Yes mother." Elsa said as she looked to the floor.
That was their arranged cover up story. They hoped it would be enough to answer the main question, and not provide bait for any follow up ones. After all, no one had seen Elsa in years. Thankfully it seemed to work, the woman nodded her head and gave Elsa a sideways glance. "She looks fit and strong to me! Although you could do with seeing a bit of sunlight!" She laughed.
"Hopefully we'll be spending a lot of time together this summer. We have a few trips planned, don't we dear?"
Elsa's father was just entering the room with the tray of drinks that he proceeded to carefully hand out. Before taking a seat in front of the fire himself and rubbed his hands together. "What was that love?"
"Our trip we planned? We're going to see your brother."
"Ahh yes, Frank! He's the type of bloke that you'll really love to hate."
Elsa watched the flames dance in the fireplace. They seemed to wave and flicker, making the odd popping sound that sometimes made her jump. She could feel her heart beginning to beat heavier against her chest, as breaths became harder. Fire is dangerous rung through Elsa's mind., so she quickly scurried away and pulled on her Mother's dress getting her attention. "C-Can I stand outside for a while, I'm too hot?"
One of the guests almost choked on his drink. He coughed a few times trying to play it cool, as his head whirled around to eye the small girl.
"Not now Elsa." Mrs Valdis hushed.
"But I'm hot! You always let me stand out-"
"Shh dear, come on follow me." Her mother said softly as she grabbed her daughters hand and led her upstairs. She shot her husband a look as if to say 'well say something'.
Luckily he got the message. "Where were we? Ah yes Frank! Have I ever told you about the time he went fishing without a rod?!"
Elsa and her mother hurried up the stairs and into the younger girl's room. Elsa was placed on the bed, before her mother gave her a stern look. "Elsa you can't say things like that, alright?" She whispered.
"Why not?" Elsa half shouted.
"Shh."
"You always let me play outside when I get too hot." Elsa said now whispering too.
"Yes but you know people can't just stand outside Elsa, they'll find out our secret."
"They will? Why?"
"Because a little girl your age would die within a few minutes of standing out there in a dress."
"And I wouldn't. Okay sorry Mum."
"It's okay sweetie." Mum said as she tucked some of her daughter's hair behind her small ear. "You can just sit up here for a while if you're too hot. Come down when you're ready."
"Okay."
With a smile her mother left the room and joined the guests down stairs. The party was going very well. There was a few questions later on about Elsa being okay, but they were quickly dismissed by the on-form parents. They wondered why they'd left social gathering this long. It was surprisingly easy to cover up any of Elsa's antics. They were both instantly on the same page. One glancing look and the other would get the message. It was perfect. Until Elsa's dad went to check up on his daughter.
"No no no no no… stop please." She whispered to herself. Her eyes welled with water but only a single tear rolled down her cheek. She was curled up into a ball on her bed. Arms folded tightly around her legs that were tucked into her chest.
There was a faint knock at the door before her father walked in. "Elsa…" He managed, before slipping and falling hard onto his back.
Elsa heard a loud thud followed by a deep growl of pain, she instantly shot out of her protective ball and flung round to the other side of the bed; where she saw her father sprawled out on the floor. "I'm sorry." Elsa said, as her voice cracked.
"Elsa this is getting out of hand." Her father strained as he lay on the floor, both hands clutching his back. Half the room was covered in a thin sheet of ice. It layered the floor and the bottom third of the wall. Then, as if it were alive, it slowly climbed, glinting and sparkling as the moonlight hit, before it finally reached the ceiling. "Elsa stop this at once!"
"I can't." Elsa cried, curling back up into her ball.
"You'll have to stay up here for the rest of the night." He said trying to climb back onto his feet. "I-I'm sorry Elsa… See you in the morning." He continued with slight hesitation, it was the only thing he could do. "Goodnight." He said along with a final glance backwards before closing the door.
Elsa turned back around and sulked into the corner of her bed. It's wasn't fair. She was being denied her own birthday party over something she couldn't control. It wasn't Elsa's fault that her mother made her sit in front of the fire and get too hot. "Stupid powers." Elsa said as she looked at her hands. As her eyes were darting from palm to palm she caught a glimpse of snow falling out of her window, and suddenly she had an idea.
Elsa shot over to the window, it was small, but so was she. It was quickly unbolted and opened, allowing a gust of wind to rip through the room, disturbing the papers laying on her desk. Elsa looked back outside, and with a deep intake of breath, she jumped.
On a nearby hill two patrol guards sat, dwarfed in fur at their station. It overlooked the whole of South Arendelle. They'd watched the party group enter the Valdis Household earlier. Chuckling slightly at the desperation to get in. Being a patrol guard during winter was rather boring. Still the money was good, so the men didn't complain. Besides what little action they got was usually worth it. Only master criminals operated during winter, so Arendelle's best, most trained men were on the job.
The lead guard heard a shutter slamming against the side of a house. He snapped his gaze over to the direction of the noise. The Valdis Household. Squinting he watched for any movement. After giving it a few seconds he shrugged and resumed scanning the general area. As if it were typical, as soon as he turned his head, out of the corner of his eye he saw a small figure dart from the house and into the thick forest behind. Every step the shadow took left a glowing blue light on the floor.
"Gods." He stumbled backwards. "Bob? Bob? Did-Did you see that!?"
"Huh? What?" Bob groaned, suddenly waking up.
"Gods! Were you asleep again!?"
"No, were you?" Bob couldn't remember where, but he'd heard that you should never admit responsibility.
The lead patrol blinked a few times, then shook his head. "What? What are you talking about man!?"
"I'm asking if you were asleep?" Bob replied.
"How could I be asleep? I'm asking if you saw that blue flash?"
"Well why didn't you say so! What blue flash?"
The patrol sighed and brought his hand up to his face. "Gods give me strength." He mumbled before continuing. "There was a shadow over there." He pointed at the house. "Darted from the rear into the trees, with a blue flash."
The assistant patrol laughed. "I think you're the one who needs a sleep. Blue flash? What is this some fairy tale?" He continued laughing.
"Shut up! I know what I saw."
"Look." The assistant said getting up and squinting towards the forest. "Nothing to be afraid of Princess." He teased. As another blue flash hovered between the trees, darting left and right missing branches and jumping over boulders as it went further and further away. "T-There's a blue light!" He said as he grabbed the hilt of his sword. Not like it would do him much good.
"See!" The lead patrol said. He would have hounded the assistant more for being wrong and doubting him, but this wasn't the time for that. Arendelle could be under attack. "Quick we need to tell Gilbert!"
Constable Gilbert was the man in charge of the whole of Arendelle's armed forces. He worked his way through the ranks faster than anyone before him. He was basically the King's right hand man, negotiating and stratagising any attacks or defences. He had quite long hair for a man, dark, and tied back into a pony tail. Though you couldn't see it, or any of his body. He was on one of his night patrols that he liked to do, and was wrapped up so much he looked like a small dirt hill that was wandering the streets on his horse, the poor thing.
"Sir!" The patrols shouted as they ran down the street he'd just rode through.
Gilbert turned and looked over his shoulder, before realising that wasn't possible, and turning his horse fully around to get a view of who was behind him. "Ahh lads. What news have you got for me?"
"Sir. Quick! A blue flash. In the South Forest." He breathed.
"Yeah it was floating and flying through. Trees." The assistant added, leaning over with his hands on his knees.
"What?" Gilbert chuckled eyeing both men. It wouldn't be the first time they tried to play a joke on him. "Remember what happened last time you tried to pull the wool over my eyes."
"Sir. Please. You gotta' believe us. It-It came from the Valdis family."
"Jesus, catch your breath for heaven's sake! Anyone would think you've just seen a ghost!"
The two patrols looked at each other in fright, they hadn't considered that.
"Wait, you two think you saw a ghost?" Gilbert chuckled again. "Right let's get to the bottom of this, you big pansies. And we need to enrol you two back on the fitness course. I think you've had a few too many pies."
They slowly fought against the wind and sleet and made their way to Elsa's house, where Gilbert slowly knocked on the door. Elsa's father opened it. "Can I help?"
"Yes, I'm Constable Gilbert head of Arendelle Army. My patrols here say they saw a blue ghost leave your house and enter the forest. Would you mind if we took a look around? We'll only be a few minutes I'm sure." Gilbert said giving the guards a quick glance.
"Erm. Okay." Elsa's father hesitated, remembering what state Elsa's room was in. He just hoped they didn't need to see upstairs.
Gilbert entered the house and took a swift look around, the guests were staring at him, but he was used to it. He'd done inspections a thousand times. Everything seemed to be in order. "Well no signs of blue ghosts in here!"
"It jumped out of the upper floor Sir." The guard said as he eyed the wooden staircase.
Elsa's mother took in an audible gasp. She had just realised what the blue flash was. But that meant Elsa had jumped out of the window. Her mind span, as she tried to keep as calm as possible, on the outside at least.
"Mind if we take a look?" Gilbert asked gesturing to the staircase.
Elsa's Dad laughed nervously. "I-It's just my daughters room, she's probably asleep…"
"Okay, well we'll wake her up don't worry. Elsa!" Gilbert shouted. "We just need to take a quick look inside your room!" The stairs creaked as he climbed.
Elsa's Dad was all over the back of him, trying to get a glance as to what the room was like as Gilbert opened the door.
"Hmm." Gilbert hummed. "It's empty?"
"What?" Elsa's Dad replied as he pushed past the Constable. "Elsa!?" He shouted as his eyes fell to the open window rattling against the side of the house.
"The ghost has taken her!" Elsa's mother shouted. It was the best she could come up with.
Gilbert lowered his eyebrows as he scanned the room, a thin layer of ice lined the walls all the way to the top.
Elsa's father frantically tried to stutter out something, but couldn't. Gilbert had seen Elsa's ice and there was nothing he could do to change that now. So he gave up and stopped moving his useless mouth up and down.
"You don't realise how cold it is outside until it does something like this to your home." Gilbert said walking over to the window, examining it carefully before finally closing it. The room suddenly fell into dead silence with the wind noise gone. Elsa's parents couldn't believe it, Gilbert thought the weather had created the ice! They were both internally sighing of relief, until it hit them that their daughter was missing.
"You've gotta' find Elsa." Mrs Valdis burst out all of a sudden.
"We're working on it Madam. She's obviously gone through the window, that much we know. Now we need to find out whether it was forced or willing. We'll continue outside." Gilbert said gesturing to his patrols, "and keep you posted."
"Thank you." Mrs Valdis exhaled.
Gilbert led his men back outside and round to the rear of the house where they saw little footsteps on the snow. Leading all the way up to the trees. "Well, we know where she's gone." Gilbert said trying to look deeper into the forest. He knelt down and ran his hand through a print in the snow. "She's bare foot." He said as he looked to his men once again. "She'll freeze! We need to go in after her! Split up, meet me back here in half an hour."
"Yes Sir."
Meanwhile Elsa was deep inside the forest. And lost. She couldn't remember which way was back home, and was now just walking in circles, she kept recognising the same boulder over and over again. Feeling scared she sat down on an overturned log and tried not to cry. She wanted to shout for her mother but knew there was no point. She wasn't loud enough to be heard over the wind. Suddenly an idea popped into her young head. She could control the wind! She jumped off the log and span around on the spot, stretching her arms out. Coming to a standstill she concentrated hard, and stopped the wind instantly. A blue light shone around her as her powers worked.
"My my." A voice said. Scaring Elsa out of her trance.
"Hello?" Elsa said, voice weak. As she spun around trying to see where the voice had come from.
"Is-Is that ice magic? Elsa? Is that you?"
"Yes?" Elsa questioned, still unable to locate where the sounds were coming from. Then out of the corner of her eye the boulder that she'd seen what felt like thousands of times started to shake, then spin around on the spot until it unravelled itself into a small troll.
Elsa took several steps backwards until her feet hit the log. For some reason the only thing swirling around in her mind was 'remember your manners'. "What's your name?"
The troll chuckled to himself, making the bottles tied around his waist clink together. He had a beard of what looked like grass, and a slightly darker grass skirt. "Who I am doesn't matter. Especially when I am in the presence of someone like you."
"Like me?" Elsa repeated.
"Yes. You are very special Elsa. Come. Let me have a look at you." The troll said, trying to get the young girl to stop taking steps backwards. He leaned forward ducking his head left and right. "Hmmm, platinum blonde? Piercing light blue eyes? I must say, they've outdone themselves this time… My name is Grand Pabbie. I am the leader of the trolls."
"Like the King? Of the Trolls?"
"Yes, sort of I suppose."
"That's cool."
"Listen, Elsa. You're a bit too young to fully understand your purpose. But you are the most important person on this Earth."
"B-but you're the King?" Elsa blinked.
"Yes, but you are above and beyond the likes of Kings and Queens. Come see me again when you're older. I'll be able to properly explain who you are. Now go. A man named Gilbert is waiting for you. I think you're going to be seeing quite a lot of him." Within an instant Grand Pabbie had transformed back into a boulder.
"Wait!" Elsa shouted running over to the newly placed rock.
"Elsa Valdis?" Gilbert called out from the tree line. He had sat and watched the whole thing. To say his stomach was churning was an understatement, even seeing a young girl out in this weather with just a dress on and no shoes was enough to make your gut drop. Never mind adding magic into the mix.
"Y-Yes?" Elsa said turning around and seeing a man, in full metal armour and doused in fur coats walking towards her.
"I'm Constable Gilbert. I need you to come with me." The man said holding out his hand.
Elsa suddenly realised the Troll King must have more special powers than just being a Troll. Somehow he was able to predict the future. With that in mind she felt slightly better in agreeing with Gilbert. "Okay?"
She was led back through the trees, which seemed to take forever now that she wasn't running through at light speed. Finally, they arrived back at the edge of the tree line, only this time Elsa couldn't recognise her surroundings. Her house was nowhere in sight. After a short wait a horse drawn cart came slowly trotting down the narrow path they were stood by the side of.
Elsa was ushered through the carts small door and before she could react it was locked behind her. As she took in the small space that was lined with hay, the cart jolted forward. This made Elsa completely lose her balance and fall face first. Knocking her out.
The young girl slowly opened her eyes. A piece of hay tickled her nose.
"Be careful, Gilbert says she's dangerous!" A muffled voice sounded from right outside the cart's door.
"Move quickly!" Another, slightly deeper voice said.
The door was roughly unbolted and swung open. Two fully armed men grabbed Elsa by both arms and hauled her from the cart. Her feet weren't even touching the floor as she was carried into the castle grounds. There was no time to take in the scenery, as soon as they got through the gate they made a hard right and entered a small separate building that only housed a staircase that went underground.
The stairs were relentless and the hallways that followed were a close second. Large metal doors lined each side. They had started with bars, but has they got further into the tunnel the doors were getting larger, and had smaller gaps. That was until they reached the end. A door that dwarfed the others was already open, ready for Elsa to be tossed in. The sound of the door closing thundered through the room, it made Elsa's ears ring. So much so that she couldn't hear the multiple locks being bolted.
A/N: Thanks for reading chapter 1 :D
Leave a review on what you think, It'd mean a lot!