Disclaimer: I don't own any Frozen characters.

Note: Trying to get back into the writing habit. Bear with me.


Chapter 1

Elsa was woken by the sound of alarm bells. Disoriented, she stumbled from her bed and darted her eyes around her room. A gentle breeze blew in through the open balcony doors, stirring the curtains. She checked the clock on the wall. It was three in the morning. The sun should not have been rising so soon, and yet a warm orange glow filtered in through the windows.

Elsa grabbed her robe from the foot of her bed and donned it over her nightgown, tying the belt at her waist. She jogged to the balcony doors to have a look outside. What she saw made her gasp.

Arendelle was burning. Beyond the castle walls, rows upon rows of city buildings were completely engulfed in flames. The flames licked high and clouds of embers floated up into the night sky. Alarm bells continued to ring furiously. Down in the courtyard she could hear people shouting.

For a moment Elsa couldn't breathe, couldn't move. Was this a nightmare? She pressed her thumb into her palm, something she had done since she was little to test if she was dreaming. In her dreams, her thumb always passed through her palm. This time her thumb did not pass through.

Someone banged on her bedroom door.

"Queen Elsa!"

It was a guard. He pounded twice more and then threw the door open. Elsa turned and looked at him.

"Eldric," she said, because she could think of nothing else to say. Eldric was her guard captain. He was tall and barrel chested, perhaps sixty years of age with a head full of thick silver hair. He had been managing castle security longer than Elsa had been alive.

Eldric rushed across the room to stand at Elsa's side. He extended his arm behind her as though to usher her to the door.

"We must leave now," he said. "The castle is already being evacuated and fire squads have been deployed where we could get them."

Elsa nodded. "Where is Princess Anna?"

"The Princess and her husband are being evacuated with the others." Eldric moved his arm closer to Elsa's back, now hovering mere centimeters away from touching her.

Elsa stepped away from him.

"Continue the evacuations," she said. "I will deal with the fires." She turned to walk out onto the balcony but was stopped by Eldric's grip on her arm.

"No," Eldric snapped. "It's too dangerous."

Elsa cast a cool look at Eldric's hand on her arm, then met his eyes. She understood his predicament. The whole of his duties revolved around keeping her safe. But the whole of Elsa's duties revolved around keeping Arendelle safe. She was not going to run to safety while her people struggled for their lives.

Eldric's resolve waivered under Elsa's gaze. He released her arm and stepped back.

"Continue the evacuations," Elsa repeated. She stepped out onto the balcony and surveyed the area. The city was lit up from end to end. The flames reflected on the waters of the fjord. There wasn't much time, only minutes if even that.

Elsa raised her arms and summoned a swirling gust of wind that carried her up and out over the courtyard, over the castle walls, and out over the city. Below her she could see people running through the streets. Several buildings had already collapsed and trapped people beneath piles of burning debris. Screams echoed from everywhere.

Elsa took a deep breath. She was the Snow Queen. She had once created an eternal winter everywhere without even trying. If she could do that she could snuff these fires.

"Come on, Elsa," she whispered. She raised her arms over her head and swept them in a slow circling motion. The wind began to pick up, causing flames to flicker and whip. The temperature began to drop.

Elsa receded the wind keeping her aloft so that she could focus all of her powers on growing her storm. She landed in the middle of the main road. To her left and right rose walls of fire. She closed her eyes and kept her arms held out. A voice somewhere behind her called her name. She ignored it.

It was snowing now and the wind had gained considerable strength. Did she need more wind or more snow or more of both? Too much wind might cause the fire to spread to the surrounding forests. She focused her magic on snow. She needed thick snow. Heavy snow. Blinding snow.

People began to gather in a circle around her. Some tried to creep close to her but the frosty aura produced by her powers kept them away. They huddled together. Some knelt on the ground and prayed with their hands clasped tight. They were all dressed in their bed clothes. A few bore horrible burns.

"Help us, Queen Elsa," said one man, his breath fogging. Elsa glanced and saw he was holding a girl in his arms. The child was unconscious and had been badly burned.

"She is, idiot," snapped an old woman. "She's putting out these fires and then she's gonna spear the ones responsible. Woe to the bastards what brought fire to the land of the Snow Queen!"

The temperature had dropped to arctic degrees. Frost crept out from under Elsa's bare feet. It crept into the tiny cracks of the road and split the stones. Snow fell in heavy white sheets and began to accumulate layers on the ground. A few minutes on and Elsa did not see any change in the size or strength of the fires.

"Th-the storm isn't w-working," a young woman stuttered. She was wrapped in a blanket that had been partially burned away. Her lips were blue and a small icicle had formed at the tip of her nose.

Impossible.

The fire would melt the snow at first, but the magnitude of the blizzard should have eventually subdued the flames. Elsa closed her eyes and dug to the depths of her strength. The roof of the building to her right caved in with a great cracking and crunching. People cried out and moved to avoid falling debris.

Elsa stood her ground. Beyond the ringing of the alarm bells she heard someone call her name again. She continued to ignore the voice. She could feel her energy beginning to wane and could not risk breaking her concentration. If she stopped the blizzard now, she would not be able to create another one. She clenched her teeth. Her shoulders began to shake. Her arms felt as though they were weighted with sandbags. The blizzard whipped her hair wildly about her face.

"Queen Elsa," a man shouted right behind her now.

"Just run," Elsa shouted back. She kept her eyes shut tight to keep her focus on the storm. "Get out of the city!"

Her legs started to buckle. She re planted her feet and straightened her back. She could maintain. Just a few more minutes and she was sure the fires would die out.

A hand on her shoulder brought everything to an end. Her concentration broke and with it the winds died and the falling snow evaporated. Elsa collapsed with a guttural scream.

"No! What are you doing?" she cried. She struggled to get back on her feet but her entire body felt as though it were made of jelly. Her vision was blurred and there was a loud ringing in her ears.

Hands gripped under her arms and hoisted her up. Elsa whirled to face the one who had broken her focus, her blue eyes icey with rage.

The man was tall and thin and had grey skin like a storm cloud. His face was long and somber. He looked to be in his forties. He wore fine clothes and a black velvet cloak lined with white fur.

"You cannot douse these flames, Snow Queen," he said.

"What do you mean?" Elsa said, panting. "Who are you?" She ran a hand back through her hair to get it out of her face. She was still in a weakened state and struggled to hold herself upright.

"My name is Ingo and I mean exactly what I say," he replied. "These fires were set by demons and you will not be able to put them out. If you want to save your city, you must run."

Ingo whistled and a large horse, blacker than the night sky, came trotting up behind him. The horse nickered and shook its head.

Elsa looked at the horse and then back at the man. The people around them were watching the exchange carefully.

"I'm not going anywhere," she said. "I don't believe in demons and I don't believe in wasting time with useless conversations while my city gets destroyed!"

The man narrowed his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something but just then a bright green light flashed up in the sky.

Elsa looked up. High above them, a glowing green vortex had yawned open. The vortex warped and warbled and then suddenly a large figure emerged from it- a rider on a dark horse. Another rider emerged, and then another and another. An entire squad charged from the portal and arranged themselves in a V formation, circling above the city like vultures. The riders were heavily clad in dark suits of armor. They were all equipped with swords and battle axes, and each one carried a glowing green coil of rope at his waist.

Ingo grabbed Elsa and guided her to the horse.

"The reapers are here," he said. "If you care anything for Arendelle and your family, you will leave now. You must!"

Elsa grabbed the horse's mane with the reins, still hesitant to pull herself up. Seeing her hesitation, Ingo placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It's not Arendelle they want," he said. "It's you. Arendelle will burn and then it will be rebuilt, but not if you are here. You must run fast and run far. There is no time to explain everything but you must trust me. Take this." He produced a small leather pouch from his cloak and pushed it into her hand. "You will find it useful."

Elsa pulled herself up into the horse's saddle. This all felt very wrong. She had no idea what was going on or who this Ingo man was. She looked around at the people surrounding them. She was their queen. They looked to her for answers.

The man with the burned girl in his arms stepped forward.

"Queen Elsa," he said. "What are we to do? Where are you going?"

"Please help us!" another woman cried.

A war horn sounded out long and low. A reaper landed down the street before them. He was enormous, at least twelve feet tall not including the height of his horse. He looked as though he had crawled from the tomb of an ancient viking warrior. His black helmet was decorated with a crown of spires. Behind the helmet's nose guard where his face should have been was nothing but a dark void. The reaper's horse was skeletal with ragged flaps of skin clinging to its bones. The horse reared and the reaper sounded his war horn again.

Ingo took position in the road between the reaper and Elsa.

"I will hold this one off," he said. "Don't worry about your people, young queen. The reapers don't care for them. Now go!"

Elsa turned her horse around and looked at the townsfolk.

"I will return," she said. "I promise I will return!"

She dug her heels into the horse's sides. The crowd parted and she galloped off through them.