I've been playing with this idea in my head for a little while, and so here it is..
Warnings: Description of injuries
The royal family of Arendelle went back to centuries. From the strong and resourceful people that had trekked their way across the large Norwegian land, guided only by the shimmering northern lights- making the land their own and surviving the harsh winters. From the very first leader who had helped their people survive, to the recent leader that Arendelle looked to today.
But establishing the small kingdom of Arendelle came with a price, as everything always does. As it is known, every seemingly noble act comes with a price for those who decide not to speak up.
Arendelle was a kingdom known for it's ice and snow, both beautiful and dangerous. While the winter stayed only on the mountains, the kingdom of Arendelle had warmer and warmer springs and summers as the the kingdom's history progressed. The people of Arendelle were fine with that.
The people of Arendelle were content with that.
But not many knew of the destruction caused to someone else's kingdom. No one knew that Arendelle had once belonged to someone else.
A kingdom built on snow and ice, people who harbored the power of conjuring the elements of winter at their own will. An ability passed on through the bloodline of this ancient race. A race that had died out due to the now thriving kingdom, but as it is known.. nothing dies out completely.
It spread through the kingdom like wildfire, when the first family had been found frozen. A woman, a man, and a small child- an infant. The men who had found the family said that seeing the child frozen, had taken a lot out of most of the men. But the oddest part was, it wasn't just freezing to death. No, the family had been encased in ice. From the father who stood in front of his family with a determined expression.. to the mother who was draping herself over her child's screaming form.
The forest was always encased in snow, it seemed.
Thus the rumors had began, the rumors of a witch- or perhaps a snow monster that lived in the forest and encased those who dared to enter, in pure ice. It was merely a legend, but one that cut the people of Arendelle to the core.
And this legend was passed down generation to generation, ruler to ruler. No one dared to take the pathway of the forest, the forest that they had deemed 'the frozen forest'.
And no one had died since then.
Until the year of 1754.
"Has anyone seen the Princess?" The Queen of Arendelle called to her hardworking servants, who were working diligently to prepare for the princess' birthday ball that was due to happen later that night.
"No, I'm sorry Queen Freja, I can't say I have." The oldest maid spoke up. "Although, at this time she is usually running a muck in the castle chasing the smashed-in-face dog of hers."
Freja laughed lightheartedly. Her daughter had been her solace ever since her beloved husband died an untimely death. Her sweet daughter who was as lively as they came, quick to laugh, and graceful when it counted. The Queen slept well at night knowing that her daughter would one day take her place, her sweet daughter who worked so hard in her studies to make her mother proud.
Today she was fourteen years old.
"Mama!" A voice rang through the ballroom as her question was answered, a pair of arms wrapped around her waist- a dog trailing behind her daughter, snorting away. "Mama I have a very important question."
"Calm your heart, Eileen." Freja said gently, putting her hands on her daughter's narrow shoulders, and pushing her away gently. "Now, sweet girl.. what is that you wanted to ask me?"
Eileen took a deep breath as she began her request. "I wanted to know if I can go outside the gates just for a little while, please? I want to see if I can find anymore of those beautiful crystals because the royal family from the Northern Isles is coming tonight, as well as you know, and the girls are always going on about how beautiful their homeland is, and I know you said jealousy is a terrible sickness but I just want to impress them, if only for tonight."
Freja sighed and rubbed her brow with her two fingers. Even though she loved her daughter dearly, it was sometimes so hard to deal with her excitement and passion. Especially since Freja, despite having a teenage daughter, wasn't very old herself.
"Please, your Majesty." Eileen was really laying it on thick, even curtsying to add how sincere she was. "It's my birthday, and I'm practically an adult- I'm already learning the layout of Arendelle.. and what better way to learn than by firsthand."
"Fine." Freja said finally.
"Oh come on, mama-" Eileen stopped, and blinked a few times. "What?"
"I said fine."
"Oh thank you mama!" Eileen giggled wrapping her arms around her mother, and Freja hugged her back even as that pig-like dog jumped up and down in excitement as well.
"I said fine, but I want you to stay out of the-"
"Forest." Eileen smiled. "I know to stay out of the frozen forest, you've told me many times before. I promise I will be back before the ball, mama. Thank you so much!"
Eileen stood on her tiptoes and kissed her mother on the cheek before, turning on her heel and practically skipping away. Now that she was further away, her mother noticed the small bag on her arm, and she realized that this had been carefully planned, and not a spur of the moment request.
"Eileen." Freja called sternly.
Eileen turned around, confused. "Yes mama?"
"Be careful, sweet girl." Freja said gently.
"I will mama!" Eileen smiled. "You just see the look on those snobby Northern Isles girls' faces when they see all the beautiful crystals that Arendelle has to offer, they'll be blown off their feet."
Freja laughed at her daughter's furious mumbling, even though it was more to herself and not for her mother to hear. The servants attention was now fully on their Queen, and the big step she had just taken to assure her daughter's independence.
"That was very kind of you, your Majesty." One of the butlers said.
"Yes, well, she is fourteen." Freja nodded. "And the royal family from the Northern Isles are a very snobbish bunch."
"Well this is certainly terrible." Eileen commented to her horse as the continued by the fjord, on outskirts of the kingdom. She listened to her mother's word by not entering the forest, but her mother never said anything about walking alongside it. "I just wanted to show them the beautiful nature of Arendelle, but I suppose I'll just have to convince them."
She looked down at her nearly empty bag, the only thing she had found was one of those rocks that have sparkle like contents when you crack them open. But who wanted to see those? They weren't going to impress anybody.
"I guess mama was right, jealousy is a terrible sickness." Eileen mumbled to herself.
Just then, her horse stopped. Turning his head towards the forest and backing up slightly, whinnying as he did so. Eileen held onto the reigns of her horse and looked behind her, hoping that he wouldn't fall into the shallow water of the fjord behind them.
When she turned her head towards the forest, she could see what had caught her horse's attention. Deep in the forest she could see something. It was shimmering, and with such intensity that Eileen felt almost hypnotized. In fact, it seemed as if she was.
Without so much as a word, she jumped off the horse, and her feet landed on the grass. She mindlessly started towards the forest, the biting cold that seemed confined only in the forest, making it's way onto her skin. As she advanced she could feel the coldness of the thin snow making it's way through her black flats and stockings.
Her horse chose then to grab the back of her dress with his mouth. She turned quickly, meeting his gaze and then turned back towards the forest. It wouldn't hurt anything, really. She wasn't going to travel through the forest, only towards the shimmering blue light. For all she knew it could be some ancient crystal, and then that would really impress the girls at her party.
"If I head in there real quick, and then hurry out.. what's the problem?" Eileen smiled to her horse. "Anyway, everyone knows that the Frozen Forest is some silly legend from our Nordic Ancestors."
Her horse let go of her, and she put her hands on his face and leaned her forehead against his warm one. She had such a sweet comrade, and he never complained.. even when she went too far for his liking.
She took in a deep breath and began walking into the forest, and as soon as she entered she found herself wishing she had brought a cloak. The temperature did get colder as soon as she entered the forest; she wrapped her arms around herself- and kept her eyes on her prize, which seemed to be further in the forest now that she was actually following it.
She gasped as her foot became engulfed in snow. She lifted her foot up, and looked down realizing that the snow was now almost past her ankles. She looked back at the the entrance, and found herself shocked. Had she really been walking that long without realizing it? She could barely see the light from the entrance now; it was dark in the forest, and the darkness of the trees made it hard to see.
She was scared, and quickly realized it wasn't worth it. It really wasn't worth it. She could feel some kind of darkness bearing down on her, and she didn't care about impressing the girls from the Northern Isles anymore.
So she turned around quickly, and she ran. She ran very fast, for even though there wasn't anything visibly behind her she felt the pressure of something very dark. Her breathing came out as gasps, and she could see her breath before her as white puffs of air. Her fingers were cold, and it was getting harder to move them. It was getting harder to move..
It was getting harder to breath.
And then she tripped. She tripped just before the entrance of the forest, she could see her horse.. just before her. But she couldn't move. She couldn't even breath, she was so cold. So cold.
She was just so cold.
Her hand was in front of her now, and though she could feel her eyes getting heavy she could see her hand.. and it made her want to pass out. Her hand was blue, almost with a blackish tint. Frostbite. She could have thrown up then. How did this happen? She wasn't even in the forest that long.
"Princess of Arendelle.." A voice gasped. "Your people pushed my people out."
Eileen cried out, as she tried to crawl away. The coldness was slipping down her legs now, engulfing her. It hurt. She cried out once more. Her face was cold, she could feel ice collect on her eyelashes, she could feel the skin of her face begin to tear.
"You don't get the same privilege as the others- to die quickly." The voice hissed. "You will freeze to death, and they will find you outside this forest.. I will make the Queen fall to her knees."
"Help." Eileen choked, trying to scream but she couldn't get her voice to get any louder than a whisper. "M-mama.. ma-ma."
She dragged herself, until finally she felt a pressure on her lower back. Someone was stepping on her, someone was forcing her down. She pressed her cheek against the snow, watching the light of outside of the forest. The light that seemed so far away, and she could barely see it now. Her eyes were heavy, and she was overcome with a sensation of warmth.
Her life seemed to dwindle out of her, and everything came in flashes. Her lessons, her papa, the friends she made from the other countries, tea with mama on Sundays, playing hide and seek with the servants, sticking her feet in the fjord on hot, summer days.. everything.. dwindling.
And she smiled.
Mama was right.
Mama was always so right.
"Have you found her?" Freja asked urgently as she caught sight of the guard walking into the ballroom, everyone was there and the party was continuing even without the princess, those who asked her location were given the same answer.
'She's getting ready.'
"No, I'm sorry Queen Freja." The guard sighed. "The men are still looking, did she tell you at all where she was going, your Majesty?"
Freja smiled fondly. "Only that she was going to search for rocks of some sort.. that silly girl, she wanted to impress the Northern Isle girls. Even though I told her that her growing beauty would be enough to do that, but she always has to take it one step further."
Although she had a mask of calamity on, she was raging inside. Raging in anger that her daughter would be late to such an important event, and worried that her daughter had hurt herself. She had no idea how she would explain the absence to the guests at the party.
Sometimes Freja wished that Eileen would take her mother's words to heart.
"The princess!" A voice screamed, the scream was loud and shrill and it cut through the loud chatter of everyone in the ballroom. The music came to a screeching halt, and there was another shrill scream through the crowd, and then a collective mumble.
And then Queen of Arendelle pushed her way through the crowd, and she was met with the sight that had made everyone scream.. And she couldn't contain her own screams . She clasped a gloved hand over her mouth, and every ounce of poise that she had collected over the years didn't matter anymore as she laid her eyes on her daughter.
Her frozen baby girl.
Eileen was in a soldier's arms, and just by looking at her one could see that she was long gone. Her beautiful blue eyes were open, but unseeing. Her dirty blonde hair was practically white with the frost. Her lips were turned in a small smile, and she had a shining crystal-like object clutched tightly in her hand. Her beautiful face, had black and blue patches- and her skin had began pealing. Her stockings were torn, and her legs were worse than her face.
The Queen grabbed her daughter, sinking to the ground with her daughter in her arms. Her beautiful daughter, who stared up at her mother like she had something to tell her. Queen Freja could feel a piece of her sanity being torn from her.
They had taken her daughter.
The forest had taken her daughter.
And unlike the quick freezing of all the other victims.. her daughter had suffered.
"No, no, no, no.." Freja whispered, unaware of the attention of the crowd. Some had fainted, some had thrown up, and the girls from the Northern Isles, the girls Eileen had wanted to impress so badly, stared on in horror, with tears streaming down her face. "Eileen.. Eileen, please.. Eileen. Talk to me Eileen."
Eileen continued to stare.
"Why didn't you listen to me!?" Freja screamed. "Why didn't you listen to me, Eileen. I told you! I tell you all of the time, silly girl!"
"Why the hell don't you listen to me!?" She screamed.
Freja's face crunched in pure agony, as she watched the light of her life lie dead in her arms. "Please.. Please come back, please.. Eileen."
And then she screamed, throwing her head back and screaming in pure agony. The agony of losing the last love of her life, and she clung onto her daughter. She clung onto the girl who had never even made it to the celebration of her birth.
It was the darkest time for Arendelle. It seemed as if the entire kingdom was under a dark cloud, and the threat of the dreaded forest loomed over them even more now. Things seemed to stop, and the gates to the once busy castle were closed.
And the Queen had died.
Not literally. She couldn't get so lucky. Any attempt she had made to take her life was stopped, but they couldn't seem to get her out of her room. They couldn't seem to get her to care about Arendelle, or anything other than the fact her daughter was brutally taken from her.
Some of the citizens understood. They talked about how sad it was, how Eileen was the only thing she had left. They spoke about how her sister would probably have to take over as ruler, now that Freja seemed unable to do anything but mourn.
'She's still young.. she married the King at the age of sixteen, and had the princess a year later. She could do it again.'
'She doesn't have any desire to.'
'Some say she's dead inside.'
And she was dead inside. Sometimes, when everyone was asleep, she walked the pathway to her daughter's room, and she sat on her large canopied bed. It smelled like her, and sometimes she could hear Eileen giggle or ask her a question, and she would always answer back.
Some people didn't feel sorry for her at all.
'She needs to get it together, the Princess is dead.'
'It's her own damn fault, Didya know she gave the princess her permission to go into the forest?"
'Great mother, eh?'
Every night her daughter's frozen face haunted her, and she was shown pictures of the forest. It was as if the forest itself was daring her to come and beg for her daughter's life back.
That's how she found herself in her current position. Her hooded cloak over her head, and her eyes set on the ominous forest in front of her. She had managed to escape the confinement of the castle, but she knew that they would notice her absence in a few hours time.
So she had to hurry.
She didn't dare enter the forest, oh no. As much as her life meant so little to her, she wouldn't give the foul beast what it so badly wanted. So she stood just outside of the forest, with fire in her eyes. She reached in her pocket and grabbed the blue crystal-like object. She threw it into the forest with all of her might, maybe if she gave it back.. maybe..
"I want my daughter back!" She screamed.
Her voice echoed off of the trees, and she didn't receive an answer- she fell onto her knees in despair. "I just want her back! Take me instead, why take her? She's just a princess, I'm the one you want!"
"I gave you back the stupid rock!" She screamed. "Isn't that what you wanted, did she take it from you? Was she so curious that she took it from you? S-She's a silly girl, she didn't mean any harm!"
"I just wanted you on your knees." A voice cackled, wickedly. "Why give the ice crystal back, hmm? I gave it to that naive girl as a present. But, your Majesty, it's your bloodline that did this to her."
"W-What?" Freja whispered, she looked up now, and she was greeted with two icy blue eyes that pierced through the darkness, she couldn't see her face- and she didn't know if she wanted to. "What do you mean?"
"The Ice-Wielders! This was our home!" The woman screeched. "And your people ran us out! So I TOOK the princess, and now you know the pain we felt. How does it feel? Does it hurt?"
"She's just a child." Freja sobbed. "S-She would've.. She wouldn't have harmed you. She was just a child!"
"I can feel your love for her." The voice said in false-sincerity. "And now I ask this, Queen Freja, what will you do for me to bring your child back. How much does she mean to you? I may be able to bargain."
"I'll do anything!" Freja gasped. "I'll do anything, please just let her live on.. even if you have to take my life."
"How noble.. How stupid.." The woman chuckled. "Now, I can't reach into the cold clutches of death, but I can let her live on. Although, in another life. She can always be reborn, and maintain her noble status."
"Oh.. Thank you!" Freja cried.
"But with a price, your majesty." The woman interrupted.
"What is it?" The Queen sobbed. "What is it, I'll do anything."
"When the princess is born, in one-hundred years time, she will be born wielding the powers of ice and snow, but she will make a powerful ruler and she will be strikingly beautiful." The woman said.
"One-hundred years?" The Queen whispered.
"Yes." The woman confirmed.
"Will she live long and happy?" The Queen asked.
"So long as she accepts the fate the world has for her." The woman, said grinning wickedly although the Queen could not see.
"Yes!" Freja sobbed. "I accept, please just let her live on."
"So be it." The woman said simply.
But, oh, how the Queen didn't know what she had gotten her daughter into. Yes, she would be reborn.. but the ice-wielder that she had spoke to, had a purpose for this child. For she knew everything.
And this child, would be the one to bring the kingdom back to it's former glory.
On a snowy winter night, in 1854 a child was born to the young King and Queen of Arendelle. The Queen had been in labor for hours, and the child was finally born in the dead of the night. She was born without so much as a cry, but instead she stared intently up at her mother.
Her eyes were blue, her hair was white, and her skin was as cold as ice.
"Elsa." The Queen whispered to her husband as she rubbed the baby's cheek affectionately. "She looks like an Elsa. Sweet, sweet, Elsa."
"Princess Elsa, the Crowned Princess of Arendelle."
Under the glow of the Northern Lights, the small baby looked up and cooed. She was unaffected by her past, and unknowing about her future. Neither her mother or her father knew she would be a very special little girl.
How will Elsa handle her fate?
I do plan to dwell on this.
Review please
