Prologue: Chill
Tendrils of frost wrapped around her as she crashed through the undergrowth of the forest, desperately searching for some small nook they could crash for the night. Arms heavy with the shivering mess that was her sister, the girl pressed forwards.
"I-i-it's cold." She heard from far, far away, mind tunneled in only on the thought of getting the two to safety.
"We're going to be okay." She hoped she sounded confident. She didn't feel confident, but it was her turn to step up. She wasn't going to let the villagers finish their twisted ritual, she was going to get them to safety.
"J-j-just leave me behind." Teal eyes met sea-green eyes. "You can get away, live your life, free from that place."
"I told you didn't I?" A forced smile, tears threatening to burst through. "We're in this together, until the very end."
She leaned down for a quick reassuring kiss, struggling not to recoil at the chill of her sister's lips.
"We're going to get you warmed up, and we'll figure out how to undo what they were trying to do you." Adrenaline guided her every move, adrenaline gave her the strength to continue carrying her sister for the better part of the last few miles, adrenaline was quickly wearing away and they were still far too close to be safe.
Ragged, unsteady breaths puffed out of her, dissipating as she struggled to move forwards, the weight of her sister making itself more and more apparent. Her hands burned from the chill seeping into the blankets. They needed a fire soon. They needed to get warm as soon as possible.
She clutched at her sister, desperately attempting to ignore the icy patterns slowly strangling the girl's form. A short gasp as a foot caught on a root. Struggling back onto her feet, she stared in horror as frost began to wilt the grass and shrubbery beneath her sister. Scoping her back up frantically, gritting her teeth as her hands burned from the chill, she pressed onwards. Eyes darted to and fro as she hugged the tree line, searching for some sort of shelter to huddle under for the night.
Collapsing into a small cave, she gingerly set her sister against the wall, hands trembling, raw and red from the chill of her sister's body. She could see short puffs of icy breath escaping her sister's lips, proof that she was still alive. Swallowing the mass in her throat that threatened to choke her, she reached out to stroke the strands of fiery red hair slowly turning silvery-white.
"You're going to be okay. I'm going to get some wood and start a fire for us. I can fix this. We can get you better again." She wasn't sure if her beloved sister could even hear her. She certainly wasn't sure if she even believed her own words. Staggering to her feet, she meticulously gathered small leaves and brambles, recalling words her father had slowly dripped out to her, survival skills she never thought she would need.
Crumpling to the floor of their dilapidated shelter in fatigue, she wearily arranged the tinder and branches and piled up stray rocks and dirt around it to attempt to contain the flames. Pulling the small unassuming necklace off her head, she stared at the flint that had been gifted to her by her father a few years back.
"A good piece of flint and steel will serve you for a long time." She could see the hesitation in his eyes, as if there was more he wanted to say. Enveloping her hand in his, he curled her hand around the rock, looking her in the eyes. She could have sworn she felt that rock pulse with a soft warmth. "Take care of this one. Maybe it'll be your own guiding flame."
"Don't let me down you stupid rock." She muttered at it, half-believing herself to be delirious. She grasped for the small steel ring also threaded on the necklace. "Sorry, mom..."
She struck the flint against the rock, a small spark flying off and fizzling in the dirt. She gritted her teeth, attempting to aim at the tinder she had meticulously gathered. Striking again, she was greeted by a shower of sparks that burnt out before reaching the tinder. Internally screaming in frustration and desperation, she tried once more, striking the ring at an angle, sparks flying in all directions. Yelping as she felt them land on her hands and arms, she let go of her fire starters, watching them land with a harmless plop in the middle of the leaves.
"I can't do this, dad. I can't even start a fire, how am I suppose to save my sister?" The dams burst as a stream of tears erupted from her. She fought to breath in the icy air, feeling her lungs chill, her tears turning to crystals as they dripped off her face. "I can't do any of this."
Burying her face in her legs, she curled up against the walls, awaiting the inevitable. She shook from the chill, feeling her tears warm her face as she protected her face from the elements. A sudden crackling noise shook her out of her pity party as her head shot up in astonishment.
"I did it?!" She exclaimed, the fire almost seeming to glow in an affirmative response to her words. Forcing herself to her feet, she pulled her sister closer to the fire, rubbing her arms and torso, desperate to ignore the frost that now seemed to cover a majority of her sister's form. "Let's get some of this frost off of you, sis."
Settling her as close to the fire as she thought would be safe, she leaned back against the wall, revelling in the sudden warmth of the cave, feeling the fatigue set into her bones. They weren't out of this yet, but at least they wouldn't freeze to death tonight.
As those blissful thought slowly permeated every fiber of her being, she found herself blissfully unaware of the frost encroaching upon the flame. A tendril of ice slipped over and through the cracks of the rocks, rebuffed by a tongue of flame. A silent struggle was waged as ice melted into water, causing the fire to quietly hiss. Slowly winning pyrrhic victory after pyrrhic victory, the fire found itself laid low by its own strength, reduced to a small flickering flame as a pool of steam slowly encircled it.
Feeling some of the chill return to the small shelter, she glanced back down at the fire, horror filling her eyes as she saw how far the frost had encroached upon the fire. "No!"
Gritting her teeth, she thrust her hand into the flame and snatched the flint and blackened steel from the dying flames and shoving it in a pouch tied around her waist, failing to notice how the flame seemed to part for her.
Struggling for breath, tears filled her eyes once more as she shot a glance at her sister, seeing the frost had nearly enveloped her entire body. She reached out to touch one of the few remaining bits of flesh untouched by ice, flinching as it immediately burned her hand with the chill.
"We found them!" She could not find the strength to run, what point was there without her sister. Her sister that she had tried and failed to save.
"I suppose I'll be seeing you soon enough." She whispered to her sister, unsheathing the dagger she had stolen. "Hopefully I can take at least one or two of them with me for you."
"What have you done girl?!" The village elder, flanked by the town guards held a torch into the cave. "You've doomed us all!"
She snarled, rushing at him, dodging the first guard, whirling the dagger through the air straight at the elder's heart. She suddenly found herself disarmed and dazed as the other guards shoved the elder out of the way and slammed the hilt of their sword into her chest. Gasping for breath, she crumpled into the ground as the elder dusted himself off.
"We will need to move the ritual here." She could hear him barking out orders to the contingent that had tracked the pair through the woods. "Make sure you throw the hunters off our tracks."
She struggled to get back on her feet, feeling her knees collapse as a boot came swiftly down upon her back and knocked her into the ground once more.
"What should we do about the other girl?"
The elder glanced down with disgust at the girl under the guard's heel. "Kill her and bring the body back with us. Burn it so that the others know not to interfere."
She swallowed the lump in her throat, taking one last glance at the now completely frozen body of her sister. Whispered a final apology at her failure, she closed her eyes, bracing herself for the cold steel that would put an end to this nightmare.
A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the forest. The girl snapped around to see the guard above her gasping and grasping helplessly at the icicle lodged in his chest. Whipping her head around she saw the elder and two of the guards staring in complete terror behind her, mouths agape in a silent scream before being impaled on razor sharp tendrils of ice.
Turning, the girl gasped at what had become of her sister. "E-Elsa?"
Frost fell off in chunks from the girl, skin now shimmering in what seemed to almost be an icy blue gown, still marked by icy patterns. Chilling breaths forced themselves out of Elsa's lungs, as the older girl struggled to her feet. Anna could hardly swallow as she met Elsa's now icy-blue, flecked with fire, eyes. Elsa weakly lifted a hand towards her. "A-anna."
"I'm right here, Elsa. I'm right here." Anna reached out with her own hand, stretching and pulling herself off the ground. "I'm coming."
As if sensing the danger that Anna was unaware of, the dying embers of the fire blazed back to life, blasting the two backwards away from each other. Elsa hissed from the scorching heat, recoiling as the flame died down to a wisp.
"Are you alright?!" Anna turned to see a masked woman drop down from the trees. "Shit, we're too late."
Anna's eyes widened as the woman notched an arrow and drew her bow, taking aim at her sister, still incapacitated from the blast earlier. "Stop! Don't hurt her! She was protecting me."
"If we don't put it down right now, it'll kill us all." The woman shouted back at Anna, pulling the bowstring taut. "We have to stop her now while it hasn't gained it's full strength!"
Elsa struggled to her feet, frost gathering at her extremities, eyes widening at the imminent threat to her existence. The woman muttered a short incantation and let loose the bowstring, arrow igniting and whistling towards its target. Anna did the only thing she could think of doing, launching herself into the path of the arrow. Elsa's pupil's dilated in terror as she lashed out, desperate to knock her sister out of the way.
Time slowed down for Anna as she catapulted into the path of the arrow. She wondered if she would be able to laugh about this later if she survived, drink to all those narrow escapes from the black abyss of death that seemed to hound her at every turn.
"Don't give up." She was clearly delirious at this point, hearing voices in her own little slow-motion montage that was her life flashing before her eyes. She could feel a warmth emanating from her side building into an inferno, reaching out through her fingertips, snapping the arrow in mid-flight.
Time resumed just in time for her to feel Elsa's ice tendrils slam her away towards the side of the mysterious new assailant. Elsa collapsed to her feet, drained from the sudden overuse of her newfound powers. Raising a hand weakly, she sent out a spray of icicles towards the assailant.
The hunter leapt upwards towards the treetops, scooping Anna up out of harm's way as she did so. "Holy shit, these kids are just like their parents..."
"Give. Me. Back. My. Sister." Elsa hissed, wincing at the sharp pain that sliced through every cell of her new body.
"While I would love to deal with you tonight, it looks like I'm going to need to keep this little angel safe for now." The hunter spat back at Elsa. "You won't be getting your filthy hands on her today, monster."
Elsa let loose a panicked shriek at the thought of being separated from her Anna, mustering up her strength and throwing out another tendril to yank the hunter out of the sky. Tossing a dagger behind her, the hunter dove towards another tree as the tendril exploded in a rain of hail.
Elsa could only rasp out her sister's name as she collapsed to the floor, the hunter disappearing into the treetops as the hail continued to fall around her.
"Anna..."