Prologue: Untouched

The forest was alive with fire. The flames touched the reddish sky as they danced together, lost in the music of destruction and taking every sign of life with them. The trees screeched as the heat cruelly crushed their barks and made their leaves disappear, leaving behind nothing but a sad black dust as a reminder that they once existed. The smoke could be seen from kilometers away and it formed dark figures over the light clouds as the sun struggled to appear behind it.

"Hurry up! We need more water!" one of the guards yelled as the other ones ran around him in a crazed fashion. They carried buckets and buckets of water and threw them towards the flames in an attempt to kill them, but it was futile. The fire kept growing and growing in spite of their efforts. There was only one person with a chance to do something about that disaster.

"Has the queen been notified yet?" the chief guard asked and the other one nodded. He raised a hand to wipe the sweat out of his eyes. How hotter could it get?

"She should be here any minute," the subordinate answered as he mimicked his bosses' previous action. There was a salty taste on every word he said.

"Let's just hope there is something she can do about this," said the chief as they both turned around to the sound of running hooves. Not much time passed before they saw its source. It was the queen, riding with the kingdom's official ice deliverer on his reindeer and they were approaching them at great speed.

"Let me down here, Kristoff" the queen asked and the young man nodded in response. The reindeer stopped and the woman skillfully got down of the animal and walked towards the chief guard.

"Queen Elsa… The fire is uncontrollable," said the chief "Its almost like its alive," Elsa raised a hand to gently indicate the man to stop talking. She walked towards the edge of the forest and took a deep breath. If there ever was an appropriate moment for her to let go of all her power this was it. She felt the cold in her body, even though she knew how hot the environment actually was. She closed her eyes.

"Call back your men" she ordered "And all of you take a step back," the chief did as he was told and soon enough all the guards and Kristoff were standing behind her, eyes peeled with expectation.

"Let it go" Elsa murmured to herself, eyes still shut. The ice emanated from every pore of her body, the coldness battling against the raging flames. In the darkness of her eyelids she could feel the fight: cold against hot, ice against fire. Both trying to kill each other, like two dragons wrapped in a death grip. She focused on the cold as hard as she could, using every ounce of her strength to end the existence of the flames. And then she felt something on her chest, like a sudden emptiness in her heart. She opened her eyes and looked at the frozen forest, the ice melting due to the warmth in the air. Elsa took a hand to her chest and breathed heavily. She felt incredibly tired. The world vanished as she began falling.

"Elsa!" Kristoff shouted as she ran to the queen. He was able to hold her before she hit the ground. His eyes shot wide open at the sight of her. Slowly she regained consciousness and opened her eyes.

"Kristoff?" she asked, as she took a hand to her head. She felt extremely drowsy. It was only then that she noticed the way in which her friend and the guards were looking at her. "Is something wrong?"

"Your hair, Elsa" said the ice deliverer "Its black". The queen gasped and moved a hand to hold her braid. She was speechless. She stood up, leaving her friend's arms, and walked a couple of steps. What had happened? Had she lost her powers? And then, as suddenly as her hair had become the color of the night, it regained its usual platinum tone.

"Hey!" the chief guard exclaimed, smiling "Your majesty, your hair is back to normal!" the alluded one held her braid once more and let out a sigh, relieved at the sight of the familiar whitish color.

"Has that… Happened before?" Kristoff asked, waling towards the queen.

"No" said Elsa, still a little bit nervous "Maybe I overused my powers"

"Elsa!" a voice shouted and they all turned around to place their eyes on the young redheaded girl who appeared besides them on top of a horse "Is everything all right? I was organizing the people at the shore when the fire stopped. Good job, sister" the girl said as she dismounted her steed. Her hand was still firmly holding a bucket; upon realizing it was she blushed "Didn't really notice I had brought this with me though…"

"Everything is okay, Anna," the queen answered as she looked at Kristoff, silently asking him not to reveal what had just happened. She would tell her later, when things were calmer.

"Yeah, Elsa totally controlled that fire" the young man said as he placed an arm over Anna's shoulders to comfort her. She relaxed under his touch.

"I was worried for a second, it seemed really bad," the redhead added "Any idea what caused it?" as soon as she made that question the chief guard walked towards them and spoke with a voice of iron.

"I think you should see this, your highnesses" his face was frozen in shock.

….

"Wha… What is this?" Kristoff asked, as he walked around to take a better look.

"That doesn't look natural," added Anna as she walked besides him and clasped his hand tightly, a notably scared.

"Whatever formed that, it's probably what caused the fire," the queen said, finally. Everyone nodded "We'll investigate this later, for now we need to see if there has been any injured people or maybe animals that we can help. Let's go," she ordered and the rest followed. Before leaving the small clearing, the queen of Arendelle stopped and turned around to look at the scene. There was a feeling in her heart she couldn't identify.

In the middle of the trees, amongst the evidence of the fire, was a silhouette, clearly untouched by the flames. If one looked long enough at it, it would be discovered to have a perturbing shape. Amongst ashes and burn tree barks, a patch of grass remained alive, taking the perfect shape of a human body. Next to it footsteps, also untouched by the fire, got lost in the woods.

Elsa shivered, anticipating something big.

She had no idea.