This fic may contain spoilers for Frozen, but not for any given Legend of Zelda game.
Din's Fire
"The party is over," the Queen Elsa said coldly. "Close the gates."
I looked over at where the newly coronated queen of Arendelle and her sister Anna were standing. Had something just happened between them? They had both been so happy just moments before, yet now she wished everyone to leave?
Apparently so. Princess Anna grabbed her sister's glove and the two got into an argument. If the guests didn't notice Queen Elsa's declaration before, they certainly noticed the quickly escalating yelling between the sisters.
Link, the guard I had brought with me to Queen Elsa's coronation ball, took my hand gently. "Princess Zelda?" he said. "Perhaps we ought to retire for the night, and give the sisters some room."
I nodded. "I agree. I believe they have reserved a room in the castle for us—"
Before I could finish my sentence, Queen Elsa's voice rang out across the room. "I said, enough!"
She flung out her now-ungloved hand, unleashing a flurry of ice magic towards the ground. Upon hitting the wooden floor, the magic generated a semicircle of sharp ice crystals that blockaded her from the rest of the room.
The room fell into a stunned silence before fading into hushed murmurs.
"I had no idea that Queen Elsa had the gift of magic…" Link next to me muttered, staring wide-eyed at her. I silently agreed. Indeed, judging by everyone's expressions, it seemed that no one, even her sister Princess Anna, was aware that the queen was able to wield such magic.
Queen Elsa let out a quiet gasp of fear—of her own magic or of the people's reactions, I couldn't tell—before reaching for the door behind her and fleeing the room. Her motions left the ballroom in chaos, with Princess Anna and Prince Hans, whom the princess had apparently befriended tonight, futilely trying to calm everyone down.
An elderly gentleman—the Duke of Weasel-town, if I remembered correctly—suddenly yelled out, "She's a monster! An evil sorceress! Somebody stop her!"
And with that, the chaos increased as people started to crowd around the ice she had left behind. Several of the party guests took silverware from the dessert table and started to chip away at the ice. Before the path was even cleared, the Duke of Weasel-town and his two guards jumped over the remaining ice and chased after the queen, quickly followed by Princess Anna and Prince Hans.
"Princess Zelda?" Link asked. "Can't you clear away the ice instantaneously with your own magic? With Din's Fire?"
I looked down at my fingers and frowned. I had thought of doing that, but hesitated at people's reaction to Elsa's magic. "…No, I can't," I told him. "If this is how people in this kingdom treat ice magic from their own queen, how would they react to fire magic from a foreign princess? No, I have to hide my magic during my stay here. Link, please speak of it to no one."
Link nodded at my order understandingly and looked back up at the other invitees who were clearing away the ice.
They were just about finishing up, and so they discarded the silverware and were filing out of the ballroom and the castle, with the guards of Arendelle keeping the mob in some semblance of order. Link took my hand and we followed the rest of them.
The courtyard was just as chaotic as the ballroom had been—partially because the Duke of Weasel-town was yelling his head off about sorcery and curses, partially because the fountain had been frozen into a menacing ice statue, and partially because it was snowing—in the middle of summer.
Queen Elsa's power surprised me. To cause such weather, in the middle of a warm day—her magic was far stronger than my own. But she didn't seem to be able to control it. At least she seemed to be limited to ice magic—just imagine if she could cast fireballs accidentally.
Princess Anna suddenly hopped on a horse. "I leave Prince Hans in charge," she announced. She and the aforementioned prince exchanged a few brief words, and then she was off into the summer blizzard.
Prince Hans spoke up. "The party is over, but the castle will be open to anyone who needs food or warmth. Please, everyone, stay safe in this unexpected storm. Hopefully, it will end soon."
The storm, unfortunately, only grew worse. By the following morning, the windows were completely frosted over and there was a good foot of snow on the ground outside. Nearly the whole population of Arendelle Castle Town was taking shelter in the castle itself, in the great hall and the ballroom and anywhere else they could fit. The castle guards were rushing around everywhere, retrieving winter coats from storage and warm food from the kitchens to hand to those who needed them.
The situation worsened when Princess Anna's horse returned without the princess herself, causing an uproar among everyone. Prince Hans decided to lead a search party into the blizzard to search for Princess Anna—leaving the castle even more understaffed. Link and I watched from the safety of the castle as the search party rode off before turning back into the castle.
After a moment, I turned to Link. "We need to help the castle staff run things here. I know that it's normally beneath a princess's station to do such duties, especially in a foreign castle, but there's just too much for the castle staff to handle on their own, especially with Prince Hans gone. Besides, if Hyrule's history is anything to go by, princesses have to go and do things to help the kingdom; they can't just sit around and look pretty. I'm going half-mad with anxiety, sitting around doing nothing!"
Link just nodded, though a trace of a smile betrayed a hint of an amusement at my outburst. "I'm not disagreeing with you, Princess. Let's see what we can do."
We entered the ballroom, which had been so festive the night before, but now was in anarchy from the number of people taking refuge there. The citizens of Arendelle just huddled around each other, crowded up against each other to fit them in the limited space. Some of them tried to make the best of the situation by playing cards or board games with each other, while others just sat and stared disbelievingly at the white snow that kept piling up outside, with no end in sight.
As I glanced around the room, I noticed with satisfaction that I was not the only foreign royalty to support to the citizens of Arendelle directly. Some were entertaining the young children, some were conversing politely with the elderly, and some were even by tending the fireplace that radiated life-preserving heat. Seeing that gave me hope—if the princes and princesses of these kingdoms showed such warmth for people, even citizens of kingdoms other than their own, perhaps that far-off dream of world peace was not all that far off after all, even if the vast majority of foreign invitees were not showing such direct kindness.
Link and I joined these foreign princes and princesses. With a smile on my face that was only slightly forced, I started conversing with and comforting the citizen refugees. It gave me at least something to take my mind off the summer snow outside. Arendelle had been so kind to us, inviting us from our often-forgotten kingdom of Hyrule. This was the least I could do to return the favor.
In the middle of a conversation with a grandmother and her granddaughter, I felt a blast of icy cold wind that blew out the fire in the fireplaces, darkening the room into a dreary grayness. The whole room turned towards the windows, where a mischievous little boy had his hand on the handle of the open window.
A man suddenly stood up and broke the silence with an angry shout. "Elias! Close that window immediately!" The man ran over towards the boy, but Elias just cackled and ran off, leaving the man to try to push his way through the crowd to reach him. Meanwhile, someone else nearby reached out and shut the still-open window, but already, the room's temperature had dropped tens of degrees, and everyone was shivering even harder.
Link came up to me. "Princess Zelda, we have to get the fireplaces relit. The temperature will only continue to drop if not."
I nodded and I stood up, excusing myself to the grandmother and granddaughter I had been talking to. Quickly, I made my way towards the closest fireplace, Link following me.
There was a member of the Arendelle Castle Guard standing at the fireplace, looking at the light smoke emitting from the firewood. When he saw us approach, he looked at us. "One of the other guards is grabbing the matches. There's not much I can do to light the fire until he comes back."
"Oh, that's fine," I said. I reached down, almost instinctively, towards the firewood, the magic of Din's Fire collecting at my fingertips, ready to be let loose.
Link tapped on my shoulder. "Princess Zelda, what are you doing?" His tone was calm, but his eyes expressed caution.
I blinked. Din blast it, I had forgotten that I had to hide my magical abilities. I withdrew my hand, keeping a mask on my emotions. "I was checking to see if it was still emitting some heat. Embers of a flame can be rekindled into a fire, but it seems as though the storm has completely extinguished this flame. This sudden winter is really quite… unusual. In any case, I suppose we will, in fact, have to wait for the matches."
I stepped back slightly sheepishly, but fortunately, the guard seemed to accept my words without further comment.
Instead, I turned around and looked at Link. Thank you, I tried to tell him silently. He seemed to understand.
I looked around at the people in the room who were huddling even closer to each other to provide warmth. This kingdom, so averse to magic… it was frustrating. I could help these people so easily, but I would give myself away, and they would—I didn't even know what they would do to me if they found out.
"Ah, there you are," the guard at the fireplace suddenly said. I turned around and saw a second guard approach him.
"We need to conserve our matches," the second guard said. "I'm using this torch to light the fireplaces." With that, he reached down and waved the flaming rod, igniting the firewood in a burst of fiery warmth.
"Thank heavens," the first guard said. "And thank you, too, sir."
The second guard simply nodded and continued, torch in hand, towards another unlit fireplace.
The rest of the day passed in the lull of vague chaos. I was careful to remember not to reach for my magic, but I did what I could to help, from preparing the food and washing the dishes in the mess hall, to handing out winter clothing, to simply comforting people. Night eventually fell, with no news back from Prince Hans or Princess Anna. Activity in the castle slowly fell into a dreary sleep, as restless as it had been during the day.
The morning brought bad news. During the night, Prince Hans had brought back Queen Elsa to the castle—as a prisoner. She was being held in the dungeons, down below Arendelle Castle, and everyone was afraid to even approach her.
On a more positive note, Princess Anna managed to return, as well. But on a much, much less positive note, she died within an hour of her return. The cause of death was hypothermia caused by a frozen heart, cast upon her by the queen.
When I heard the news, I was horrified. The Princess of Arendelle, killed by her own sister! The worst part was, I might have been able to save her had I been present when she arrived. Din's Fire would have helped her stay warm, and that was not the only healing magic I could perform.
But I was asleep when it happened. Even magic cannot bring back the dead; Princess Anna was already gone, her soul having no way to return. If only others had known that I could perform helpful magic, maybe someone would have thought to call for me when she arrived in the night. I tried to force myself to stop thinking these thoughts; the guilt would just drive me crazy.
And on top of Princess Anna's death, Prince Hans was apparently planning to charge Queen Elsa with treason, for bringing on the stormy weather and for killing the princess. Her sentence was to be execution.
I looked out the window of my bedroom dejectedly. What a pleasant trip. This was supposed to have been a joyous occasion, the coronation of the Queen of Arendelle. Instead, it became a cold, blizzarding disaster.
A lone, running figure caught my eye. The storm was much worse than even yesterday; who in their right mind would be outside now?
Looking closer, I noticed that, in fact, the storm seemed to be swirling around this person, as if the person's thoughts were controlling snow.
It was Queen Elsa.
Apparently, she escaped the dungeons. I didn't even know what to think about that; was she at fault and she was in fact an escaped criminal? Or was it an accident, and she would have been executed for something she never intended to do? I couldn't imagine hating one's sister enough to want to kill her, and Queen Elsa did not seem to be a cold-blooded killer, but people can be surprising.
The figure of the fleeing queen faded into the flurries of wind and snow brought about by her storm of emotions. The blizzard was growing visibly more intense by the minute, hiding her tracks well. Was she doing that intentionally?
I found myself not really caring. I was still distraught over Princess Anna's death, and what I could have done to save her. Was it worth keeping my magic a secret, if it meant that people might die because I didn't use it?
There was a knock at the door, and Link came in. "Princess Zelda," he said hurriedly, inclining his head slightly in an abbreviated bow. "The storm is getting worse, and there are signs that the ice magic has leaked into the castle walls—likely because Queen Elsa has escaped. Prince Hans is going to chase after her, but in the meantime, we should move closer to an exit, where we cannot be trapped by ice magic." He looked pointedly at me. "And Zelda? Stop wallowing in self-pity. It's unbecoming for a princess of your rank. Whether or not you could have saved Princess Anna—may she rest in peace—thinking about it now is not going to help her. You really oughtn't to be distracted from more pressing matters, like your own safety."
With that, Link closed his mouth and took my hand firmly, guiding me out of the guest room and into the hallway. I silently let him lead me. Link was not a particularly outspoken man, but if there was criticism to make, he was not afraid to be blunt about it. I mulled over what he said, following him through Arendelle Castle. Concentration was one of the most important aspects of casting a spell. Emotions like fear could give a spell raw power—which is what was happening with the queen right now, I'm sure—but control over this power came from focus.
We suddenly turned a corner, and Link swore harshly. In front of us, pillars of ice arched in beautiful curves across the hallways, blocking our path. "Princess Zelda? The situation seems to be much worse than anticipated."
"…Yeah, no kidding." I inspected the magically summoned ice. "Still, Queen Elsa's power is incredible, for her to be able to freeze everything in this castle like this."
"We're not here to marvel at her magic, Princess. I'd like to point out that we're now trapped. The staircase down to safety is beyond the ice." He drew his sword that he kept perpetually on his back in case of emergency. "Stand back," he commanded me.
Link sliced through the nearest icy arch, shattering an opening wide enough to pass through. Unfortunately, the ice seemed to respond to the newly formed hole, the two broken ends of ice extending towards each other to close the gap.
For a moment, the two of us just stared in shock at the strength and resilience of the ice magic. Then, I suggested, "Link, why don't I get this with Din's Fire?"
He looked at me, slightly surprised. "No, Princess Zelda. You don't want to get caught using magic here." He reached into a pouch that hung at his side and pulled out a spherical bomb. "I should be able to blast through the ice with this."
He let the fuse ignite and rolled it into the middle of the ice patch. A moment later, it exploded in a shower of smoke, water, and crystalline ice.
"Come on!" Link shouted, grabbing my hand. We ran through the steam and ice, hoping that we wouldn't trip on something. I heard him slice through something with his sword, and suddenly, we were at the top of the stairwell.
Link glanced backwards quickly, and he swore again. "The spikes of ice have already completely reformed," he told me, "and they might even be inching their way closer to us. We need to get downstairs, now." He took my hand, and we descended the spiral staircase as swiftly as we could.
As we came to the ground floor, however, we started to hear someone call out in a panicked voice.
"Someone—anyone! Help! My son, he's stuck behind ice!"
Link and I nearly ran headfirst into the man who was yelling for help. I recognized him immediately: it was the father of Elias, the mischievous boy who had opened the window to the cold yesterday.
"Sir?" I said. "Please, calm down."
"Madame Princess?" He gripped my hand imploringly. "Can you please help my son Elias? He's going to die, and I can't find anyone who can help!"
I nodded with a forced blank expression. "Calm down, sir. Lead me to where your son is. I'll see what we can do."
The man gasped. "Thank you so much, Madame Princess!" He led me, followed by Link, down the corridor.
When we turned the corner, immediately I saw the boy Elias, screaming and crying, trapped behind an intricate cage of ice. Was Queen Elsa doing this purposefully? It didn't seem in her nature to do so, but that would have meant that all these intricate—dare I say beautiful?—structures were constructed without conscious thought. …That was amazing.
I heard behind me a sword being unsheathed. I turned around and saw Link, sword in hand, in a battle stance. "Stand back from the ice," he commanded everyone. "I'm going to try to slice through it."
There was a moment's hesitation before Elias, his father and I responded to the request, Elias by huddling against the wall behind him. Link took a great swing at the ice prison, his sword striking only halfway into a column of ice that acted as a prison bar. He pulled it out roughly and struck once more, finally shattering through the ice.
Unfortunately, in the gap that Link had just created, there was the faint glow of magic, and tendrils of ice started to form rapidly between the two halves of the pillar, closing the gap. Link frantically cut through this new ice, but even then, they continued to reform.
After a few more moments of wild sword-swinging, Link took a step back. The start of a swear word slipped out of his mouth before he glanced at the young boy and quickly shut himself up. "I… I can't use a bomb, as I did upstairs to clear the ice. Elias is too close; he would be injured in the blast."
I glanced over Elias's father, who was just about to break down, just waiting for Link to conclude that it would be hopeless. Looking back at Link, I saw him grunt in frustration before returning to hacking futilely at the ice. I made a split-second decision.
"Stand back, Link," I ordered. "I could have saved the princess, had I known about her situation, but I'm not going make the same mistake twice." Link looked back at me, slightly confused, so I raised my hand and summoned an orb of fire in my hand. He understood immediately and stepped away from the ice, albeit with concern in his eyes.
I suddenly heard a gasp. Turning to face Elias's father, I saw him stumbling back from me. He stuttered out something before finally managing to say, "Fire! You have magic like the queen! Are you one of her witch allies? What are you going to do to my son?"
Almost instantly, Link turned around and pointed his sword at the man. "Don't insult Her Highness like that. She's doing what she can to help your son."
I registered this exchange between Link and the man, but I had already started to focus on melting the ice prison. Elias was looking at me fearfully, screaming, but I ignored him, giving my spell my attention instead. It needed to be warm enough to melt the ice, but not so hot as to burn Elias; I needed to control it precisely. The fire in my hand flickered from red to orange and back again as I tried to find a happy medium temperature.
The ice started to melt into clear water, flowing downwards along the outside of the pillars, like wax flowing along a candle. The drip strengthened and weakened as the fire grew and waned in strength.
Finally, I broke through the first pillar of ice. I turned towards an adjacent pillar, but a firm hand gripped my arm and jerked me backwards. I immediately extinguished the fire so as not to lose control over it.
It was Elias's father. "Princess! Do not harm my son!"
Link was upon him immediately, prying him off of me. The two of them restarted their loud argument, and I noticed that Link had been careful to sheathe his sword so that the argument would not become physical.
"Sir? You truly would not like me to melt the ice with magically created fire?" I asked Elias's father. He looked torn, but I just continued. "I am only trying to help you, but if you really refuse this solution… I don't know if we can save this boy."
Link opened his mouth, as if to protest, but he finally conceded and stepped back. "Good luck, sir," he said to Elias's father, with barely-hidden animosity.
Elias's father finally found his voice. Turning to me, he demanded, "What do you mean, 'save him'? What good can magic do? It's just the source of our problems, destroyer of the natural balance of things! Look outside—look at that ice prison that the Queen has put up around my son! How can you say that magic might save him? Magic is nothing but underworldly sorcery; to be able to control it is a curse of pure evil! To save my son through evil means…"
"Evil?" I scoffed. "Unlike morality, magic is simple. Use up a little bit of my supply of magical energy to create a fireball—that's it. There's no morality involved in the actual magic; it's what you do with the magic that is good or evil. I could burn this castle to the ground, and that would be evil. Or I could help cook your food, and that would not be evil. And I could help melt away this cage around your son. If you think that's evil, I'll go ahead and walk away, as if nothing is happening right now—or I'll even go ahead and try more non-magical ways of freeing your son, though I assure you, simply melting the ice away is by far the quickest way we can do anything, and I don't know how much longer he can last. It's your decision."
The hallway fell silent except for the quiet sound of the magic reforming ice cage.
At last, Elias's father spoke. "Heavens forgive me, but I can't let you leave him. If you have to use magic to save Elias, go ahead. If this is some sort of elaborate way to sell my soul to the devil, then so be it. But…" He wheeled on me. "If you hurt him at all—if I find so much as a singed hair on his neck…"
"I won't let any harm come to him," I said. "Please, let me concentrate."
Turning back towards the now-unbroken ice, I waved the orb of fire in the air around me, letting the ice turn into its liquid state. Slowly—painfully slowly, as I could see Elias shivering harder and harder with each passing moment—the pillars of ice melted into a mess of water. Though they tried to reform, as they had done when Link was slicing through them, the fire warded away the ice's growth.
"I think the hole's big enough," Elias's father suddenly told me. "He can climb out from there."
I looked back—indeed, it was big enough, if the ice stayed far enough away from the boy. "I'll keep the fire going to keep the ice back. Go ahead, Elias." I stepped back from the hole, but kept my arms just above it, the ball of fire exuding warmth from my palms.
Elias's father looked at me a little warily for a moment but he relented and urged his son to crawl through the puddle and escape. He did so eagerly, teeth chattering. The heat from my hands did its job; any growth of ice towards the boy was curtailed immediately.
At last, the boy was free, though he was drenched from melted ice. I dropped my hands, letting the orb of fire dissipate into thin air. I was panting heavily from concentrating so hard, but I smiled when I saw Elias and his father hugging firmly.
After a moment, Link said, "We'll need to get Elias to somewhere warm soon, or he'll catch hypothermia. Let's get to the ballroom with everyone, as quickly as possible."
"Oh, that's true," Elias's father said, picking his son up.
We three turned and proceeded quickly down the hallway. But as we rounded the corner, Link suddenly warned in a surprisingly calm voice, "Don't look now, but behind us, the spikes of ice from upstairs seem to have made their way down and are chasing us."
Elias's father let out a little yelp and started to run a little faster. I, conversely, slowed down just slightly so that he and Link could surpass me. Once they did, I let magical energy flare up inside of me. Instead of concentrating Din's Fire in the palm of my hands, however, I let it simply emerge from my skin in an expanding sphere of fire. The orange flames hit the wall of icy spikes, melting the front of it instantly and slowing down the remaining ice. As the blaze sizzled out, exhaustion suddenly struck me. I stumbled forwards, unable to keep standing.
"Princess Zelda!" Link yelled. Turning back, he added, "Sir, keep running to shelter; your son's life may depend on it. I'll keep the princess safe." I heard Elias's father's footsteps pause for a moment before receding further into the hallway. Meanwhile, Link ran towards me and hoisted me up to my feet, steadying me by my shoulders. "Princess, can you walk?"
"Sort of," I responded. "Just give me a moment to catch my breath…"
He glanced behind me. "Bad news: we don't have that time. The wall of ice is advancing again." Digging a bomb from his pouch, he quickly lit it and threw it back towards the ice, melting some in the explosion and buying us a little more time, but releasing his hold on me in the process. I fell to the ground.
"Princess Zelda! I'm so sorry!" He grabbed my shoulders and helped me to my feet once more. "We have to keep moving." He waited for me to steady myself this time before he let go of my shoulders, leading me by the hand instead.
We only took a few steps before we reached a new spike of ice that jutted across the hallway from a shattered window, blocking our passage.
"Roll under it," Link commanded. He let go of my hand and dove under it himself before turning around and helped me crawl past the obstacle. As soon as I was out, we set off running again.
I spared a glance back towards the wall of ice, which was still approaching us. "It's gaining on us," I yelled out.
"Save your breath, Princess," Link said. I noticed that he didn't reply to the observation itself.
We turned a corner, and to my relief, Link shouted out, "That's the ballroom door!"
At that news, we started to speed up, but in classic damsel-in-distress fashion, I tripped halfway there, letting out a very undignified scream.
Link turned around in surprise and managed to break my fall, only for him to become unbalanced as well and topple to the ground.
"By Farore!" he swore. "We're so close!" He tried to scramble to his feet, but apparently, what I had tripped on was a patch of ice; he immediately slipped on it back into a sitting position.
All at once, the ballroom door opened and a stream of Arendelle Castle Guards holding lit torches filed out. They ran past Link and me, holding their torches as a ward against the oncoming spikes of ice. Amazingly, the ice did, in fact slow its advance to a crawl as it approached the warmth emanating from the row of torches.
Following closely behind the Castle Guards, Elias's father came bursting out of the ballroom. He took one glance at the guards before running over to Link and me. "Madame Princess, Sir Prince! Get into the ballroom, now!"
He extended his hand out to Link and me. Link blinked a moment at being addressed "Sir Prince," but he immediately snapped out of it, accepting the hand before helping me up, as well. The three of us turned and ran carefully into the ballroom.
As soon as we crossed the boundary, I heard shuffling behind us—the guards with torches were retreating, as well, swiftly and in formation.
A few moments later, the last guard came into the ballroom and slammed the door shut, guarding the door carefully to make sure none of the ice could enter.
I let out a sigh of relief and crumpled into a sitting position against a wall. Link looked at me slightly worriedly, but said nothing.
I suddenly became very aware that most of the room was staring at me. As a princess, I was trained to be accustomed to attention, but this time, it greatly unsettled me. I remembered the view of the people of Arendelle on magic—I wasn't sure how much Elias's father had told the guards about me or what had happened to his son, but I bet most of the crowd knew that I could use magic. Nervousness swelled up inside me, but I suppressed it.
Someone suddenly approached me, and it was all I could do to avoid gasping in fear. Fear gave way to dread as I recognized the man as Elias's father. Was he still frightened of my magic?
An offered blanket, however, dispelled my anxiety. After handing one to me and one to Link, the man knelt down in front of me, looking down at the ground. "Madame Princess? Thank you for saving my son. He's now safely in the warmest part of the castle, the part that has been converted into makeshift hospital ward. The doctors looking after him say that he shouldn't sustain any lasting damage."
He fell silent, as if debating whether or not to say something. After an awkward moment, I said, "That's good to hear, sir."
Finally, he looked at me. "Madame Princess, I must apologize to you for my reaction when I saw that you were a… practitioner of magic. You were just trying your honest best to help me and my son. It's just that I had never seen sorcery used in such a constructive way before. I must sincerely apologize for my outburst."
"To be fair, Arendelle holds anti-magical views, so I doubt you have seen much magic at all before these last few days, good or bad. Sure, magic and sorcery can do horribly evil things, but as you saw, they can also help."
Suddenly, I heard a voice out from the crowd yell, "Even Queen Elsa's curse? How can eternal winter be helpful?"
I frowned—this conversation was not supposed to be a public announcement, but a whole crowd of people were eavesdropping. Still, magic was an important issue for Arendelle in general. "You're worried about ice, of all the elements? At least Queen Elsa does not have control over fire." Carefully, I summoned a small Din's Fire in my palm. I felt the crowd of people back away from me nervously. "A thick shield of ice can block off enemies. An ice pack can help lessen a fever. Cold can preserve food for extended periods of time. I'm not arguing that this snowstorm is good; don't get me wrong. But ice magic is not in itself evil." I let my hand drop, extinguishing the flame in my hand. "Hopefully, we will all remember that magic is simply a tool at our disposal."
Suddenly, a child's voice rang out, "Hey, look outside!"
Everyone turned towards the window. At first glance, everything seemed as it was before: there was a blizzard outside, with raging winds blowing snow everywhere. However, upon closer inspection, it seemed to be… unsnowing; the snow was flying upwards, off the grounds and rooftops and leaving behind clean, open fields of green and warm brick roofs. As we watched, the snow all collected in a point over the fjord before exploding into nothingness.
"That must be the queen!" Elias's father said.
"She has learned how to control her magic," I said. "The worst is over."
Author's notes: I'm mildly surprised that Frozen/Legend of Zelda is not a more popular crossover. I mean, they're both about reigning magical princesses; watching the movie, I immediately made a connection between Queen Elsa and Princess Zelda.
This story, I guess, could almost be a purely Frozen fanfic, with OC's acting in place of Zelda and Link. After all, the movie doesn't show much of what is happening within the castle while the main action is happening elsewhere; I wanted to show this in this fic, and Zelda was a good (but not strictly necessary) viewpoint to show it from. But if I used OC's instead, I'd lose the whole appeal of the crossover genre.
I should note that the Zelda and Link in this fic are not from any game in particular. Zelda, I suppose, is somewhat based on her Super Smash Bros. appearances, given her ability to use Din's Fire, which is not canonical in any of her Legend of Zelda appearances (if I recall correctly). Conversely, I don't believe Link has ever been a guard to Princess Zelda (in fact, I think that the upcoming spinoff Hyrule Warriors is the first time he's even part of the Hyrulean Army). In any case, I'd imagine both of them in this fic as one of the myriad Zeldas and Links between games.
Finally, you might see shades of Zelda/Link shipping in here, but you might equally wave it away as loyalty instead of attraction (and besides, Link's job in this fic is explicitly to protect the princess). You can interpret Link's protectiveness of Zelda as you will.
Published June 15, 2014