The sky was clear and blue, unmarred with heavy clouds. Still, snowflakes appeared seemingly out of nowhere and continued to coat the land in soft white. Even as she inwardly grimaced at the endless, colorless scape, Elsa had to admire the beauty of the winter.
Her winter.
She stretched out an alabaster hand and caught a falling clump of snowflakes. She marveled at the feeling. It was soft and wet, but she didn't feel the cold, dressed even as she was in nothing but a shimmering, sleeveless gown.
Let the storm rage on.
She suddenly whirled on her heel and retreated into her palace, sculpted ever so carefully by swirls of magic.
The cold never bothered me anyway.
She supposed it might be lonely, living in a lonely castle with no company but her ice and snow, but she had vowed to leave it all behind, and she would. No regrets, and no thoughts of the past.
She wouldn't think of how her power always seemed to fail her at the last moment, how it ended up as more of a danger to everyone she came in contact with. She wouldn't think of the undisguised shock on Anna's face as the girl discovered what her sister was capable of; she wouldn't even think of Anna at all, if she could help it.
Instead, she would focus on the exhilarating sensation of freedom granted so suddenly to her, as she had never experienced before. She would revel of the raw magic pouring out of her fingertips, able to control it, as she never had been before.
Finally, I'm free.
She soared above the tree line, momentarily grateful that there wasn't a cloud in sight to mar her vision. The wind whipped at her cloak and dress, and again she was thankful, this time that she had thought to keep her hair in a tight bun instead of left loose.
However, once she steadied the broom, Elphaba realized something.
She had nowhere to go.
The escape from the Emerald Palace's attic had been thrilling, but where was she to go? Not back to Shiz, that was certain. And Frexspar would never welcome her in Munchkinland. That left the Vinkus, to the west, Gillikin, to the north, or perhaps Quadling country, all the way to the south. None of them sounded all that desirable.
But she had to stay somewhere. Somewhere far from any vengeful Gale Force officers, or anyone who may recognize her.
And if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free…
It had sounded to glorious at the time, but she was beginning to realize that she had signed herself up for a fairly lonely life…and one without a purpose.
For who would help her, the Wicked Witch, to fight the Wonderful Wizard and his laws? And it was certain that, alone, she would be of no use to her cause. After all, she was only one woman, and one person, even with a knack for spells such as hers, could hardly lead a revolution. She had no friends anymore, and certainly no allies, except for the few Animals who hadn't already been taken captive or killed.
It was hardly an army.
But she couldn't turn back. To turn back was to give up, to accept that her goals were impossible. If she turned back, the Wizard would win, and never again would someone challenge his authority. And no matter how hopeless it all seemed, Elphaba could not let that happen. So she would persevere.
And nobody in all of Oz, no Wizard that there is, or was, is ever gonna bring me down!
'Perhaps,' she thought, as a new idea, a crazy sort of solution, entered her head, 'Perhaps, I could leave Oz. Just for a little while. I could find myself allies who have never heard of the Great and Wonderful Wizard of Oz, or the infamous Wicked Witch.'
'Perhaps I could actually win this.'
With that, she urged her broomstick forward and sped west towards the horizon, far west, past the Vinkus.
Elphaba drew her dark cloak closer around her as the wind picked up. The farther she got, the more of a chill the air seemed to carry. But she continued, unhampered by such a trivial obstacle as the forces of nature. She had to get out of Oz tonight. If she stopped before then, the Gale Force would be able to scout her out easily in the flat grasslands.
Not for the first time, she doubted her decisions. Had she been too hasty in deciding to leave Oz? Should she have gone in a different direction, where trees or mountains could shield her?
But she had made her decision, and let it be said that Elphaba Melena Thropp would never go back on her choices without a fight. So again she continued, and the wind seemed to be on her side, giving her a sharp nudge from behind every time she dared to slow.
When a stinging layer of cold settled on her skin, Elphaba finally slowed. Frosty swirls of silver and white formed lacy patterns on the worn wood of her broomstick. And that wasn't all.
'Snow?'
Even up hundreds of feet in the air, on the brink of nightfall, it was much too early in the season for snow. 'For Lurline's sake, it's still summer!' she puzzled. How could there be snow?
Her eyes were drawn to the steeply sloped ground at the base of suddenly-formed mountains. The ground, which was covered with at least a foot of freshly-fallen, powdery snow.
'What in Oz-?'
Elsa had grown so accustomed to the unbroken sound of the snow and wind that when she heard footsteps, they startled her badly, and several gleaming icicles formed a sort of defensive ring. She steadied her breathing and closed her eyes, willing the ice to retreat, but she only succeeded in causing a layer of frost to form on them.
'I suppose I'll need to practice a bit before I expect to be able to control what I do…'
She raised a hand and willed a small flurry to form.
The moment a concentrated cloud of snowflakes formed, she tried to make it disappear, but it did nothing. Frustrated, she balled her hand into a fist. "Disappear," she hissed. To her surprise, the flurry disintegrated, leaving no evidence of its existence.
So satisfied was she that she forgot the original reason of her shock until something - or someone -knocked sharply on the great blue gates of her palace. She waved her hand and the doors swung open.
It seemed to be…a woman? But…
'That's not possible,' Elsa thought quite certainly. 'I must be imagining things.'
The woman was…green?
Elphaba prayed to Oz that there was no one inhabiting the castle. When she had seen it on the horizon, sharply outlined in arctic blue against a darkening sky, she had gratefully hastened towards it. The snow was now stinging pinpricks of melting water against her skin. She now had another reason to get out of Oz as soon as possible. If she were to fall asleep among all this snow, the warmth of her body heat would melt all the snow surrounding her…and once that snow turned to liquid water, it wouldn't be the only melted thing around. It would be like sleeping in a pool of acid.
She grimaced harshly at the mere thought.
When no one answered her knock immediately, Elphaba grinned. Maybe it was abandoned, after all. It would be just lovely to be able to stay in this strange palace without anyone screaming or calling the guards. Broomstick held in one hand, she raised the other to push the doors open. However, before she could, they shifted and then opened of their own accord. Now, that confused her. Was the castle enchanted?
She found her answer in the sight of a woman, perhaps a few years younger than she herself, wearing a dress made entirely of shimmering turquoise snowflakes. It trailed delicately behind her, fluttering in a nonexistent wind.
Such a dress defied the laws of physics. If her first observation was correct, the thin layer of ice should have melted the moment it touched her bare shoulders.
Besides, there was then the question of how the dress had been formed. No sculpture could have possibly made such a finely carved, delicate fabric out of ice, let alone one that moved as freely at silk and didn't seem to melt.
Defeated by the possibility of this extraordinary feat of nature, Elphaba shifted her gaze to examine the girl herself- for yes; she was still young enough to perhaps be called a mere girl.
She, the girl, had a delicate bone structure, and soft, mild features. Her skin was pale, to the point that it nearly matched the snow still drifting outside. Her platinum hair hung in a loose braid, studded with glittery snowflakes. Her eyes were wide and clear and blue as she observed Elphaba, unabashedly staring.
The older woman averted her gaze to the floor, feeling self-conscious. Of course she would be stared at. She was green, not to mention her nearly instant notoriety throughout Oz.
She would like to pretend it didn't bother her, but of course, it did.
A/N: Hello, lovely readers! This is my first story on this profile. My other one is mostly for Warriors fanfiction, and this one for Wicked and stuff.
I just love Wicked/Frozen crossovers… But there are so many incomplete ones! So I took it upon myself to remedy that. And if, at first, this seems very similar to other Wicked/Frozen crossovers, that's because it is. They all seem to start the same way, but I promise you that the similarity won't last. This'll go in its own direction, don't worry!
And I adore reviews! *Hint hint*