Chapter 1
Months after the melodramatic Storybrooke debacle, Elsa, Queen of Arendelle, was once again back in her beautiful homeland, sitting in a peaceful clearing on the edge of the North Woods, on a rather chilly afternoon in late spring. She sat on a large boulder and listened to the gentle breeze blow through the trees. She was all alone. Ironically, the royal guard would probably kill her if they knew she had wondered into the woods all by herself, but she had insisted on giving her advisers the day off, and Anna had insisted that Elsa was not feeling well and was resting in her chambers. Elsa loved how readily Anna was willing to conspire with her. It reminded her of just how mischievous they had been as young princesses.
She and Anna had been enjoying their reborn relationship as best friends and loving sisters. Even after the tumultuous events surrounding Anna's marriage to Kristoff, Anna was one of her closest allies, and considering the number of times Elsa had almost inadvertently brought about eternal winter, in two different worlds nonetheless, Anna was as understanding and forgiving as a saint. That understanding even stretched as far as helping her sister the Queen escape into the woods for some much needed alone time.
Elsa had spent most of her life alone. Much of that time had been due to her fear that everyone would learn the secret of her ice powers, her magical ability to freeze everything around her. On the day of her coronation, her worst nightmare came true, and she escaped into the mountains, afraid of being the monster all her subjects screamed she was, and afraid of hurting Anna. Those few days were the most bittersweet days of her life, as she mourned running away from her domain, and yet reveled in no longer needing to control and hide and shut away her powers. She believed, at least for a while, that she could finally, once and for all, just...let it go. But then she saw that she had frozen summer, frozen her sister's heart, and eventually became a pawn in Hans' hideous plan to take over the country. It was only with Anna's loving sacrifice and recovery that Elsa finally learned how to control her powers. It was through love. "Only an act of true love will thaw a frozen heart," the old rock trolls said. She learned to love and love openly. The gates could finally be open for love, and peace, and for her sister.
But she was still learning about one kind of love. She and Anna enjoyed spending time together so much, and now that she didn't need to lock herself away, she could go out among her subjects and learn their hopes and needs. But every now and then, after spending all day working on treaties and negotiating disputes, and hearing about the funny things Kristoff and Sven would do from Anna, she needed to escape out here, alone, among the trees and earth and animals of her beautiful kingdom, and take the time to work on...loving herself.
She sometimes feared Anna might think she was once again losing control, but there did seem to be an unspoken understanding. There was also another reason she loved this spot so much. From here, off in the distance, but not too far away, she could quite clearly see two large monolithic boulders, marking reverently two simple graves. Elsa would look at them and close her eyes and try to remember. "Mother," she would think to herself, "Father..."