The Frozen Monarchs

Chapter 1 – A Cold New Dawn

All was quiet and cold in the peaceful kingdom of Arendelle, the people of the city were all asleep, kept warm and secure in their houses, dreaming dreams of happiness and hope, for their new queen Elsa was benevolent and kind, if a little odd (What with the fact that she is capable of creating and controlling snow and ice) but the people only had more respect for her because of this, as they had seen what she could do with it to bring joy to the nation, and although they had seen the darker side to her powers, they knew that she would never use them to harm another being.

The very same queen, as it so happens, that was staring up at the mountains, looking to see if she could catch a glimpse of her ice palace. It was the palace she had created in the previous summer, when she had fled her kingdom after fearing that she was dangerous, and the rejection she was sure would soon follow after everybody discovered what she was capable of.

It was her favourite place to be, not because it was away from the kingdom, but because it was cool and quiet and she had built it with her own hands, it was her place where she could go and just be herself, without having to worry about her queenly duties, which she passed onto her sister Anna, and her fiancé Kristoff during summer.

As she was staring up at the mountain, she was suddenly startled to see a bright blue-grey light suddenly appear in what appeared to be her ice palace! Startled and curious as to what the light could have possibly been she quickly raced out of her room and walked swiftly to the stables, calling to a few guards that were nearby on night watch.

Jumping up quickly they swiftly followed the queen, all curious as to what was happening but none of them said a word, respecting the queens privacy until she suddenly stopped in the castles entryway and stared up at the mountain, hoping to catch another glimpse of the light she had seen, however from here her view was obstructed by the castles walls.

"My queen what is it?" called one guard, hoping to sate his curiosity as to what could the queen could possibly be doing striding out of the castle at this hour. Elsa turned to the guards she had called and pointed to three she knew were best at tracking, and two more that were her personal bodyguards, they swiftly stood to attention.

"You three shall be accompanying me to my summer retreat. I witnessed a brilliant flash of light come from there not moments ago and I wish to go and investigate the source of it" she said, looking to each guard to ensure that they understood.

"Yes my queen" they all responded quickly with a nod. She then looked to the rest of the guards and quickly asked that they alert the servants to the fact that they needed supplies for a two day trip to her summer home. They swiftly moved to alert the servants of her demands, while the queen quietly addressed guards she had selected previously.

"I want you to be careful, if we do find something up there it could be dangerous and I may need your help if that is the case".

"We understand my lady, we will protect you with our lives if need be".

"Thank you guards, I just hope that won't be necessary, and I pray we do not encounter any wolves on our journey, I can scare them away hopefully but I would rather avoid them altogether" The men all nodded silently, knowing how dangerous the wolves could be, especially at night.

Suddenly four servants appeared with the supplies for the trip, the horses had been prepared by the stable boys and they were ready to go. The queen and her guards all quickly mounted up and rode out, forming a convoy around the queen as they went, all silently wondering exactly what it was they were going to find up in that castle.

Meanwhile at the ice palace

The source of the blinding light flared bright once more. Upon closer inspection it appeared to be some kind of transportation device, almost like a cocoon. Suddenly with an almost imperceptible popping sound it disappeared, spilling its contents onto the cold floor in the process.

Said contents were in fact a young man, who by looking at him, could be no older than twenty five. He had pure white hair and looked to be around 6 foot tall. Suddenly he opened his ice blue eyes and sat up.

"Uhhh" breathed the young man which had just appeared in such a spectacular fashion. That HURT he thought, standing slowly to ensure nothing was broken. He sighed happily upon finding nothing wrong, he raised a hand to his head to run it through his hair when he realised something was wrong, something he couldn't quite figure out, until suddenly.

"WHERE AM I?! WHO AM I!?" he shouted, or at least he tried to, until he came upon perhaps the most tragic realisation of the day.

He had no voice.

All that happened when he tried to talk was that he breathed slightly louder, it wasn't like he had forgotten how to talk, it felt like something was preventing him from talking. He quickly moved a hand up to his throat to see what was wrong with him and cried out in shock, or at least he tried to, once again his breathing sounding out. What had shocked him was that he was freezing cold, ice cold in fact. Strangely though, he didn't feel cold at all, he felt comfortably warm to himself.

The young man felt like he was losing his mind, first of all he has no recollection of who he is or where he comes from, then he finds out that he can't talk and now to top it all off he is apparently a human ice cube. All this was too much for the poor man and he began to sob quietly, just wanting to go home, wherever that was, because he was scared, and alone and-

A loud growl rang out all of a sudden, the man tensed and spun around, trying to locate the source of the growl. Not finding anything amiss, he was about to go back to feeling sorry for himself when the growl sounded out again, this time though the man realised something. He was hungry. Sighing quietly to himself the man decided to explore his surroundings in the hopes that he would find something to eat, and in doing so might also learn something about the place he was in.

He looked around for the first time, realising that he was in some kind of castle, he saw stairs leading upwards and there was a fountain nearby. He noticed that there was something at the base of the fountain, upon moving closer he found a small bag and what appeared to be a pole, although he had no idea what it was made of. He opened the bag and discovered that the contents appeared to be a letter and what appeared to be some berries, looking at them more closely he had no idea what type they were but he was hungry, and decided to try one. The mystery berry had a crisp, clear flavour and he could only taste it while it remained on his tongue, finding he rather enjoyed the taste he ate about half of them. Feeling somewhat less hungry he decided to investigate his surroundings.

He was currently next to what appeared to be a fountain made out of ice, looking down he once again noticed the mystery pole at his feet, he reached down to pick it up and as soon as he did he suddenly felt a lot less scared and a lot more secure, he didn't know what it was, but he decided that this pole was important to him. He ran his hands along the surface of the mystery staff, finding a small button on one side, he decided to press it, and nearly dropped the staff when, at the top, two segments popped out at an angle, silently and swiftly. He had no idea what the staff was used for but he decided to keep hold of it for the moment. Suddenly he felt compelled to move the pole so that it lined up with his spine, following his instincts he did so, and was startled at the results. What appeared to be a kite made out of ice formed as soon as it touched his back! That is so cool! He thought to himself, marvelling at his new toy.

Suddenly he heard voices and looked around for a place to hide, seeing stairs at the back of the room he decided to run up them and see if he could find a place to look out from the second floor, to check who was approaching.

Realising that he still had the kite on, he took hold of the pole and pulled it round to the front of himself, pressing the button once more to slide the indents back into the pole. As he ran up the stairs, he realised that they were made of ice, but weren't slippery at all! Remind me to praise whoever made this ingenious place later, right now I've gotta see if I can get out of here! He thought, reaching the second floor and looking around for an exit. Spotting a balcony he snuck over to it and popped his head over the side. Below he saw four horses and one seemingly cold guard, huddling into his cloak for warmth. He also saw that the only way for him to escape was the large snow drift next to said guard, cursing his luck he looked around for something to throw. He realised that he could break off a piece of ice from the castle and throw that, but then thought that the sound of the ice breaking would make the people below aware of his presence. He began to panic as the voices grew nearer, he was now able to discern that they belonged to two men and one woman. As the panic mounted he decided to run back to the stairs to see if he could hide behind the railings and slip past the approaching group. Running back however proved to be the wrong choice, as he was spotted by the group, who had just mounted the top of the stairs and had noticed him right away.

"HALT IN THE NAME OF QUEEN ELSA OF ARENDELLE" one guard boomed at him in a voice like thunder, only adding to the panic the young man was feeling. He ran back to the balcony, hoping to jump into the snow when he saw that the guard outside was looking up at the balcony with his spear in front of him. Realising he was trapped, the young man did the only thing he could think of. He cowered. Shaking in fear he waited as the soldier approached him with his spear in front of him, aimed at the young man, in case he was tricking him. At the sight of the spear the young man brought his hands up in front of himself, and that's when all hell broke loose.

A solid sheet of ice came up with the mans hands, creating a sort of half sphere, shielding him from the advancing man and making his eyes spring open in surprise. The advancing guard stopped, shocked, and then called out "MY QUEEN, YOU MIGHT WANT TO COME AND SEE THIS"

The young man then heard someone running up the stairs, making him even more nervous and causing the ice around him to expand another foot. A young woman appeared at the top of the stairs and looked for the source of the commotion, she was beautiful, with platinum blonde hair and exquisite blue eyes.

"Who is this and why is he surrounded in ice?" She asked the soldier, who in response simply pointed at the young man and said "He did it!"

The queen then approached the ice slowly, making a note of the young mans panicked expression, before quietly asking what his name was. She quickly withdrew when the young man simply retreated even further, thickening the ice and backing right into the railing. Shocked and stunned at what he had done, she gestured towards the ice and it slowly began to dissipate from around the man. She hoped that her gesture would show that she was also capable of the same things he was and that this would provide him with some measure of comfort, however this only served to worsen the mans state and he began to cry silently.

The young man backed right up to the wall, with tears streaming down his face. Who was this mystery lady who in one move had completely disarmed him of any form of protection and left him at the mercy of the soldier. Why is everybody threatening me? The young man thought as he moved backwards. Suddenly he remembered the pole on his back, moving his hand to it he pressed the button, the kite reappearing and then did what came naturally. He jumped.

The lady ran to the balcony in an attempt to catch him, but he was already going, tears trailing behind him as he accelerated. He had to get out of there, those people were dangerous, the woman especially. She had stripped him of his protection, leaving him open to an attack from that soldier and he didn't intend to stay around and let his spear put holes in him.

Fleeing into the night, he headed down the mountain, aiming towards the forest below and the safety it would award him.