It was all over.
The blizzard was still tormenting the atmosphere with air frigid enough to make the pebbles crack under the temperature. Tempestuous winds were shifting, swirling ferociously, howling like the storm itself was alive and in pain.
As menacing as it seemed from the outside, everything paled in comparison to what was then occurring in the center of the calamity.
And there she stood, the broken soul, in the eye of the storm struggling to fight with it, to escape it. It felt as though the beast was loose from its shackles, driven mad after all this time of being held captive, and it was unleashing its wrath. The beast was charging towards the owner that fed it and took care of it for all this time.
She was battling it, trapped inside a cage of ice with no escape.
"I can't-" was uttered by a single weakened voice, completely shrouded by the acoustic chaos from the all encompassing frozen downfall.
It was a pale figure, her braided hair blending in with the heavy snow that flew around at dazzling speeds in the blizzard. She laid on the ice on her knees and elbows, submitting to the elements.
"I just- cant-" was all that the voice had left to say.
The girl collapsed on the crystallized field, her will bent by the rampaging winds. A thousand snow particles settled their new home on the girl's lashes and they felt heavy, they felt like lead. Her eyes were starting to close, each blink being harder to perform than the last.
As she caught the sight of the frozen scenery around under her eyelids, she only wanted to lay down her head and drift away to sleep. The static noise surrounding her was whispering her to do so. The numbness in her being was making her fall in a trance, and it was all she wanted to do in those moments.
Sleep.
Sleep.
Sleep.
"Gah!" her body was shocked violently back to life by her senses. The wind still howling. She knew she couldn't sleep. Not now, not today, not after everything she'd been through.
Cold never bothered her. It always gently caressed her skin. As far as she could remember, it was always by her side, her trusted companion. She grew accustomed to the gentle touch of puffy snow and crystalline ice that was sprawled across everything she touched. Cold was her one and only friend for the better part of her life, or her worst.
But this type of cold was unrecognizable, she never felt it bite like she did now. She sensed its presence in the core of her bones, her joints were like frozen clockwork gears, grinding her from the inside every time one of her muscles received orders to move.
"Agh!"
It hurt moving, but still she did. She refused to give in to the winds.
She stood up one leg, resting the rest of her body on her knee. All she could see around was of a white static buzz. She couldn't look at the hands in front of her face without the millions of snow particles blocking the light in between.
And it hurt to breathe, but she needed to.
The air in her lungs became packed with infinitesimally small frozen fractals, tearing her insides every time she inhaled. The atmosphere was just too thick to leave much room for the air she desperately needed so much.
She couldn't bear it much longer, but she remembered. She remembered how difficult the journey was, and that it would be in vain if she stopped now. She remembered the people that meant the most to her, who were always there for her, the people that relied on them, who were also the people she relied on so many times before. She wanted to keep going because of them.
It was hell.
But she'd been through it before.
She stood up slowly in the frigid currents. Both her legs sent jolts of pain down her spine while she grimaced on the receiving end. Still, she stood while the howling winds leaned her in random directions.
She rose her arms to either side of her, palms opened wide creating as much contact space between her and the cold as she could manage. She couldn't feel her hands, but she hoped the movements she ordered her body to do were fulfilled in the end.
She opened her eyes, and gazed upwards. She couldn't see the sky that was veiled by the heavy clouds floating high above. With endurance, she stared the beast in the eye.
"Y-You won't best me!" she cried at the top of her lungs while expelling the remaining air left inside them. Her breathing became hectic as she gasped for air once more. "I am in control and you will listen to me!" The storm gained pace once again as though it was on a frenzy. Elsa was taken aback by a gust of bone-chilling wind that almost managed to knock her off her feet.
But she stood strong.
"I am Queen Elsa, the bearer of frost. And you. You will bow to me!" She said with her arms reaching out to the sky, as if confronting the elements.
Then the ice cracked violently as the entire pacing of the storm turned to a whirlwind. The blue mist funneled down her wide open hands vanishing as if it was being transfused into her veins. She growled as the cold intensified to unimaginable levels and gathered all around her being, while the ground below her was trembling, the rocks cracked under the freezing temperature sending shards of ice in all directions.
Her screams were eclipsed by the lashing wind, ripping through the set painted in white and blue.
She has never felt anything like this. She never knew how powerful it was, but she knew how far she has threaded this path. Something in her made her believe she could achieve the impossible.
The tempest started to twirl mercilessly, more so than before. The lone girl stood at the center of the violent winds, doing her utmost to resist the ferocity taking place in front of her.
Steadily, but surely, the storm began to decrease in size, as if it was going down the drain taking everything with it. The sheer size of the heavy mass of ice and snow was other-worldly.
The air became as dense as stone as it was collapsing into a single point in the center, through Elsa's arms. With a whip of her arms towards the ground, the air snapped as it imploded then violently expanded outwards in the blink of an eye resounding with a deafening crack that everyone around for miles would've heard it. Her ears began to ring, unable to recover from the boom.
The storm was no more, all that was left was snow, falling softly as though the pace of time itself slowed down.
And snow fell.
She stood there, unable to move an inch from the solid casing of ice around her skin. Her surroundings were frozen solid, huge spikes that looked more like monoliths of precious sapphire were protruding from the ground outwards, radially away from her direction.
She took a deep breath, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, the air was pleasant. It didn't feel like it wanted to attack her from the inside of her lungs anymore. She was relieved, but more than that she was exhausted after all of that.
Elsa fell on her knees, the ice crystals cracking on the ground beneath her. Her vitality was sapped from the battle with the chilling ordeal she just fought.
She looked at her palms as she was shaking uncontrollably. They looked as though they were made of glass, of a shade of azure. Her hands resembled more the sapphires from her crown she left at home than the hands she used to hide in her gloves. Her skin was encased in ice. She peered over her shoulder to see the crystallized structures that were now covering her body. Finally, she looked at her surroundings and everything was calm. Gentle snowflakes were gravitating towards the frozen earth, and now she could close her eyes.
She did it. She won.
How much she would've wanted if it would've been over right there and then.
A thought struck her as she opened her eyes. "The others? Where are they?" echoed in her mind, while a grim expression formed on her face.
Elsa turned her sight up, towards the horizons and she could see through the still sedimenting snow particles. As the white mist cleared up, there she began witnessing everything with her own eyes, her figure turning pale at what was being unleashed in the far distance.
The earth began to tremble relentlessly, and it showed no signs of stopping. The vibrations in the ground were intensifying, they were becoming rougher and rougher. This feeling was familiar to her, and it shook her to the core.
Further along the horizon Elsa could see a thunder storm, the biggest she'd ever seen, covering her entire field of view. The cracks of thunder were faint but audible. In the other direction she could see the river overflowing and inundating the nearby village, sweeping the inhabitants' homes from the ground and taking them with it.
The earth continued to quake, and the sky burned akin to embers in a molten furnace.
She stared at the clouds in the distance and they were of a deep orange, the atmosphere itself was glowing ablaze. She'd seen it before but not like this. Huge fiery masses were swirling in a gigantic inferno engulfing everything it came in contact with, enlarging the flaming behemoth.
A prismatic display of frightful colors painted the horizon. A great chain of calamities was unleashing in front of her eyes, something unparalleled by all recorded history.
Elsa grit her teeth seeing what has been set into motion. She slammed her fists into the ground, shattering the ice casing her hands were in and the thick ice sheet at the summit of her knees.
She managed to overcome her curse, but she feared that the others might not make it.
She stood up, mustering every ounce of energy left in her being, as she began pacing herself towards the formidable sight, holding her arms to her crystalline frostbitten skin.
"I must find the others. They won't make it without me." She said while inspiriting herself.
One step after another, the ice cracked under Elsa's steps, as tiny snow crystals were falling still.