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Permafrost

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Chapter One

I soar high above the skies, taking advantage of the storm cloud canopy to hide me away from potential prying eyes down below. Once again, for practically the tenth time this night, I circle around this small rural town tucked away in the middle of nowhere.

She's definitely down there somewhere; I can feel it! Just gotta find her in time...

Angling myself downward, I begin freefall. Streaking through the night sky like a meteor crashing to Earth, I land rather violently on top of a snowy hill, and after spending a few precious seconds to wipe myself clean of slush I get up with a sigh to set off toward human civilization.

God, walking is boring.

4 hours earlier, at approximately 5:00 PM.

A lone blonde girl stood by the mouth of a frozen river, quietly surveying the land around her. All she could see was a world blanketed by snow, despite it already nearly being the end of the summer season.

"Find anything, Elsa?"

The blonde glanced over her shoulder, watching as a girl of her age approached from behind. The newcomer was bundled up tightly in a warm white parka, unlike Elsa, and had a skin tone so ethereally white that it was hard to tell the boundaries between the protective coat and her naked exposed skin. The girl's name was Snow, both fittingly and ironically, and Elsa was her adopted sister.

"No." Elsa replied simply, for the girls were currently on a search for the telltale signs of spring.

The two had just finished scouring the entirety of their little town, only to find that the redbirds and crocuses were content to remain hidden, just like all the previous times the girls had gone on the hunt in the past.

"Maybe next time then." Snow said with a sigh, glancing upward at the all-too-familiar snow clouds forming in the sky. "We'd better start heading home, anyway. Looks like a storm's coming."

Snow shivered as an icy wind cut through the air, and Elsa moved to do the same despite having personally not felt anything, going a step further even to pretend that her hands were cold by breathing on and rubbing them. She otherwise wordlessly turned to join her sister, and together the two marched back through the forest from whence they originally came.

Elsa noticed throughout the trip that Snow was sneaking glances into the thickets and bushes as they passed them by, guessing that her sister was similarly clinging on to the hope that summer would come this year.

Starting not too long after they had been born, the winters of the world had slowly started arriving sooner and lasting longer. No one had any idea why, even now after 18 odd years of this consistent pattern of climate change. It had gotten to the point in fact, where it was predicted this year that the summer season would be one entirely surmised of ice and snow.

It wasn't long until the girls returned to town and started walking on salted roads instead of snowy dirt trails. It was even shorter still by the time the girls passed by a gang of boys loitering around their usual hangout behind the old auto shop.

"I hate Snow," their redheaded ringleader called out audibly as the girls walked by. "The world would be so much better off without her—without it, I mean." Here he glanced over at the girls' direction with a sneer, and the others joined in on laughing at Snow's expense.

Elsa felt her temper flare, and she was all but ready to stomp over and forcibly wipe the smug grins off their faces when Snow clasped a hand on her shoulder, holding her back. Elsa shot a look of annoyance back at her adopted sister, who met her intense gaze with a soft smile and a shake of the head. No words were exchanged as the girls stared each other down, because by now none were needed. They had already talked this talk before, multiple times in fact, and it always went the same way...

Elsa would begin by urging Snow to stand up for herself, to defend herself, or to at least do something that would shut the boys up. Ideally permanently, as well. She would put forth the argument that it was better to be feared than to be mocked.

Snow, on the other hand, would then stress to her a more peaceful approach. She saw no reason to trade insults, and after having tried once before politely asking that they stop teasing her, would afterwards always instead choose to simply deny the boys the attention they so obviously craved. Their continued insults barely fazed her in the end, as she had loyal friends who'd stand up for her. To her that was all that really mattered, and she had always won their arguments after pointing this out.

With a huff, Elsa shook herself free of Snow's hand, ignoring the boys' catcalls as she and her sister trudged off. The rest of the walk home was silent and uneventful.

A delicious scent greeted the girls when they returned to the White's household, rousing their appetites almost immediately. It was a rather unfamiliar smell that neither could immediately identify.

"What is that?" Snow asked aloud, whilst hanging up her soaked heavy jacket and boots. Elsa, herself wondering much the same, haphazardly dumped her own much lighter clothing onto the floor in order to beeline directly into the kitchen and investigate, whereupon she found her adoptive mother Ms. White stirring the contents of a large stockpot. The old lady turned as Elsa entered.

"Welcome back," she said with a smile. "Be a dear and set the table?"

Elsa nodded, noting her mother's graying hairs with a frown as she left to do as was asked. She'd learn what was cooking soon enough anyway. Retrieving the dishes she'd personally handcrafted as a child from the cupboards, Elsa thought back to the times of her infancy under Ms. White's care.

The overall global climate had been warmer back then, and Ms. White without a doubt far stronger. She had to have been. After all, the old lady had been the one to manage above all others to raise the infamously difficult Elsa.

The blonde had first been found as a baby one autumn day, left abandoned on a forest trail cocooned in leaves without a caretaker in sight. She was brought to the orphanage when it became evident that no one would come for her, a feat which Elsa herself had not made easy because she hated being held, and would squirm and cry if someone so much as touched her. It was for this reason that none of the workers proved capable of handling her. That is, none except for Ms. White. The lady had the patience of a saint, feeding the girl her baby formula day after day despite loud, and at times violent, objections.

Ms. White kept this up for several months, after which her diligence was finally rewarded just as she herself was about to give up when she managed one fateful winter day to peacefully lift the baby from her crib. The child would later go on that night to allow Ms. White the briefest glimpse of a smile, whilst being rocked to sleep, forever cementing that day one of the happiest in Ms. White's long life. Indeed, by then the infant had softened her defenses for Ms. White—but only Ms. White, as others quickly found out when the angry, people-hating Elsa returned the instant they tried the same. Being the only adult in Arendelle to have gained Elsa's trust, it wasn't long before Ms. White formally adopted the girl into her family, taking the blonde in to join her own daughter.

"Elsa? Are you okay?"

Reality came rushing back as Elsa was jolted out of her daydream by Snow's voice, who had just now arrived in the dining room after having cleaned up the soggy mess Elsa left behind on the welcome mat. Taking her time to get her bearings, the blonde realized that she'd been gazing offhandedly into a bowl for the past few minutes, after which she shrugged.

"I'm fine," she replied, breaking eye contact to resume her task.

Snow didn't seem convinced, and looked all but ready to say as much when Ms. White's voice sounded off in the kitchen, calling for her help in carrying the stockpot. Elsa let loose a small chuckle as her sister sighed in exasperation before disappearing around the corner.

It was highly unusual, the circumstances behind their friendship. It was widely believed at first that it wouldn't happen at all in fact, to the point where a few of Ms. White's friends had even expressed concern about Snow's safety around the blonde. These fears were not wholly unjustified admittedly, as Elsa wasn't altogether too willing to "share" Ms. White to the complete surprise of absolutely no one in Arendelle. Thankfully however, due in no small part to the old lady's powerful influence, the young Elsa was successfully persuaded into at least behaving civilly around her adoptive sister, which would later prove to be all that was needed as Snow herself would handle the rest.

The dynamic between the girls was strange at first, to say the least, in that the two were forever locked in a quasi-competition of sorts during their childhood together. This was because Elsa was, in fact, a rather wild child while growing up. She loved to be out amongst nature, and beginning as soon as she could walk would spend much of her day quietly wandering around the woods. Ms. White never really stood a chance of reigning in the blonde on this aspect, and thus the responsibility of bringing Elsa home each and every night fell to Snow, as she was the only one in Arendelle capable of matching both Elsa's love for the woods and her near limitless stamina when in them.

Ms. White would later joke that it was in both her daughters' nature, to love nature.

Snow would always manage to bring Elsa home in time for dinner, no matter where the blonde would run off and hide for the day, whether it be up in a tree, behind a cliff face, or submerged under a pond. This unorthodox game of hide and seek would be how Snow slowly and steadily broke through Elsa's social defenses, as the blonde would come to enjoy her sister's company, and as well as develop a strong respect for her tenacity. The girls' activities became only slightly more dangerous as they matured, in the sense that they began to incorporate wildlife into the game at the ripe age of 11. Namely, the first to locate and touch a certain predetermined animal without spooking it would win the lion's share of that night's dessert. This was a game that Snow would win far more often than Elsa, though Ms. White would note to herself that, for some reason, neither girl ever seemed to be at risk when they played it—even when the selected animal for the day was a bear for example. The girls, for all she knew, well and truly had Mother Nature's blessings, and it was the only reason why she'd ever allowed said game in the first place.

"Dinner's here!" called Ms. White's voice, once again abruptly returning Elsa to the world of the living in time for her to watch Snow carrying in the metal stockpot earlier seen on the stove with, Ms. White following closely behind.

"Turns out that Mom brought home some vegetables from the greenhouse earlier. We're having this amazing tomato soup today!"

It'd been a several months since Elsa last saw a tomato, or a tropical fruit for that matter. Crops that could tolerate the harsh winter conditions, such as leeks and potatoes, were the world's primary food source now. Elsa's mouth watered as Snow set down the pot in the middle of the table, helping to ladle hot red soup afterwards into the three bowls she had set out earlier. The family then shared a hearty meal, over which the girls discussed to their mother the trek they had undergone earlier this morning.

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful for the most part, consisting mainly of standard chores. Snow cleaned and washed up the dishes, whereas the aging Ms. White retired to bed early at the behest of her two daughters. The extended winters had evidently been taking their toll on her health, and neither of the girls were willing to have their mother exert herself needlessly if they could help it.

Elsa evening task for the night was to chop and gather firewood for the wood stove, a task she didn't really mind at all. However, as the hours dragged on whilst outside, Elsa couldn't help but begin to feel uneasy, though she struggled to understand why. It was as though she felt... exposed. Not to the elements, for she never felt the cold, but exposed nonetheless. She decided to call it quits for the night, far earlier than usual. She'd already gathered enough wood, and it was pretty dark out anyway—any longer and Snow would probably come out looking for her.

Just as she was about to make her way back home however, Elsa first saw, and then felt the impact of a large meteor striking the earth far off in the distance. For reasons unknown even to her, the blonde promptly then felt both giddy anticipation and raw terror in her heart, marking the first time in her life that she'd ever experienced either feeling.

Hi.

I'm not really sure how I plan to pace this story. I feel like I should properly introduce and build the setting, but I don't want to lose your guys' attention by going too slowly.

I hope that Snow White being written as Elsa's sister isn't too jarring, but her character seemed to fit very well with what I needed so I went with it.

I've also got a more concrete idea of how I want this story to unfold this time, but who knows whether or not the me in the future will decide to change things. Regardless, let's see where this road leads.