High up on the north mountain, a girl barely old enough to be called a woman took off her glove. And she continued to walk up to the top, but as she climbed, she began letting little bursts of ice and snow from her palms. She raised her arms and made art in the sky, and smiled.
Following a few steps behind her was a boy about the same age, with tousled white hair and roughly woven clothes. He held a wooden staff with a curved end at the top, and he left no footprints. He watched the snow queen as if he had never seen anything like her.
Suddenly, she stopped, and so did the boy. The girl lifted her skirt, and stomped her foot on the powder fresh snow, and instead of her foot sinking, the snow beneath it solidified into ice, and expanded out in a grand image of snowflakes and-
"Frost…" the boy whispered. He looked at the ice as it rose to form walls, windows, a chandelier, and then it stopped. The snow queen looked down and slowly her gown seemed to morph into ice, shaping itself to her body. Then, with a contented sigh, she ran a hand through her hair and walked to the balcony. The boy followed her and was just close enough to her her whisper, "The cold never bothered me anyway." And she went inside, closing the door behind her.
The boy stayed outside and thought for a few moments. He had seen this girl grow up, but even he hadn't expected her to let go in this way. Clutching his staff with one hand, he flew back inside through one of the large windows to find the queen collapsed on the floor, her body racked with heaving sobs. Quickly, the boy rushed to her side and put a hand on her shoulder.
The queen gasped, then looked up at the boy, tears streaming down her face. For a moment the boy appeared confused and flew backwards until he was up against the wall.
"Who are you?" she asked, shakily getting to her feet as the boy lowered to the floor. She looked down at her hands, and clenched them into fists, turning away from him. "Whoever you are, you need to leave. It's not safe for anyone to be around me right now."
"But… you can see me?" the boy asked, taking a tentative step towards her. The absurdity of the question made the queen stop, and turn back to him. "Of course I can… Who are you?"
"Jack Frost, your majesty." The boy waved his staff to the side and gave the queen a slight bow. She flinched.
"I'm sorry Jack, but you need to go. I don't know how you got here, but I suggest you leave. I don't want to hurt you." She said, her voice breaking.
"But you can't hurt me, I'm like you." He replied, and with a wave of his staff, the queen was spun by an icy wind and nearly knocked over, but before she could hit the frozen floor, she felt the same wind put her upright again. "Now I have a question, who are you? Besides the queen?" he smiled, and floated forward to stand in front of her.
"How…?"
"Of course, I know who you are Elsa, but it would have been weird if I didn't ask." He grinned, then let it fall when he remembered that just moments ago, this woman had been crying her heart out on the floor. "What happened at the palace? Why are you out here of all places? Alone?"
Elsa looked at her hands, and opened her mouth to answer but for a moment no sound came. Then after taking a long breath, she whispered slowly, "I'm a monster… I almost hurt… so many people" and she closed her eyes.
Jack took her hands in his, and quickly said, "Hey, look at me. Look at me, okay? You're not a monster. I've seen you grow up. Every winter, I would come to your window, and you know what I saw? Look at me. I saw a girl who just wanted to be accepted, and loved. Not a monster. If you did anything, it wasn't your fault, okay? It wasn't."
With a shuddering breath, the snow queen collapsed in on herself, and Jack wrapped his arms around her as she sunk to the floor, shaking as the tears wracked her body. He ran his hand through her hair, whispering, "It's alright… it's okay."
