Princess Elsa of Arendelle lay under her huge purple blanket, trying to keep warm and prevent any bursts of excitement, or joy, or anger, or… anything.

Lately, she'd grown weary of this power. Elsa was born with the ability—the curse—to control ice and snow, to create cold. And that wasn't exactly something every little girl wants. About a year ago she'd hurt her younger sister, Anna. A strand of Anna's hair turned white because of Elsa's magic.

And now she couldn't share her magic anymore. That was the only thing she had liked about it, and now she couldn't share her magic anymore.

Elsa gripped the blanket tighter so that she could suppress the sad feelings swirling inside of her head. It was late—very dark, and very cold out, though winter was ending soon. She poked her head out of the blanket, but it was just as dark in her room as it was in the blanket, concealed.

Conceal, don't feel.

Papa had taught her to say that. Conceal, don't feel. Elsa sort of… idolized her father. She loved him and her mother dearly; they locked the gates of the castle to protect her and Anna, until Elsa could control her magic. She hoped she could control it soon. Would she take lessons? That hope had been dwindling—after an entire year of concealing, would her parents ever get a teacher? A wizard? Someone experienced in the field of magic, someone who could tell her how to stop hurting people?

Outside it began to rain. Elsa jumped out of her bed and rushed to the window to watch the arrival of spring. Water poured down from the sky, making patterns in the old snow. She stared at it for a few seconds before touching the window slightly—

Then, all of a sudden, the rain turned to snow. Elsa squeaked a little bit and jumped back, then slapped her hand over her mouth. Any more noise and she would wake Anna!

Wait. She didn't share a room with Anna anymore.

Elsa let her hand drop from her face. She looked down at the floor, and then crawled back into bed. Her pillow was soaked with salty tears by the time she fell asleep, and it was frozen solid a minute later.

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"Elsa! Elsa! Elsa!"

The familiar childish voice intruded on Elsa's dreams. She awoke blinking heavily, her room appearing fuzzy at first. Her eyes turned toward the door.

"Elsa! Elsa! It snowed! Haha! Papa said it wouldn't snow again, and it did snow though! Isn't that so cool?"

Elsa groaned. She slipped out of bed and tiptoed to the door.

"Elsa? Are you in there?"

"Go away," she whispered hopefully.

"Elsa, come on! Don't you want to build a big giant snowman outside? I'm sure Papa will open the gates just this once. Come on! We can give it a big warm hug."

"Go away, Anna," Elsa said louder. There was a pause; Anna had heard.

"E-Elsa?"

"Go away!"

She heard a little gasp outside the door. Anna didn't say anything after that.

Elsa dressed herself in a small blue gown, glad that her parents had asked the servants to stop dressing her. I can do it by myself, she'd told them. I don't want them to… see me. No one knew, no one except Elsa and her parents and the trolls in the forest. And it would stay that way forever. Once Elsa could control her powers, she had no reason to hide from the world.

As Elsa brushed her long blond hair, she looked out the window at the fresh snow on the ground. What if it ruined something? Like crops? She felt her stomach twist. That couldn't be true; why would they begin to plant crops before the threat of winter died? She needn't worry about the food supply. She was ten years old, but that didn't mean she would become queen any time soon. More than double her age away until that sort of responsibility was thrust upon her!

Elsa's mind wandered to how adulthood would be. Would she marry someone and stay in Arendelle? Would she marry someone and move to another kingdom, far, far away? Would she not marry at all? Would she become the queen and then have little nieces and nephews from Anna for the next in line to the throne?

Elsa giggled. She told herself that was very far in the future. There was no reason to think about that now: boys were still gross right now. That is… if she'd seen any boys lately. If she'd seen anybody lately. With the gates closed, the only child nearby was Anna.

She didn't want to hurt Anna again.

The wind began to blow unreasonably fast and Elsa put down her hairbrush. She tentatively went to the window and looked into the sky, squinting. It looked like there was something flying. In the sky. Flying!

As she made her way across the room, she braided her hair, without even looking in the mirror. A ribbon had already found its way around her wrist, so she tied it up before opening the door and running down the hall. Anna had been sitting outside the room waiting for this.

"Elsa! You came out! Let's go—" But she was already gone. A little snowflake fluttered down next to Anna, and she looked at it with a puzzled expression.

Meanwhile, Elsa zoomed down the hall and left little tracks of snow on the floor where she went. They quickly melted and no one saw, but it was enough to send any Duke of Weasle-town squinting at the carpet with a magnifying glass.

"Papa—" Elsa began, but quickly stopped herself. Why ask permission? He was sure to say no. Elsa ran down the stairs two at a time and grabbed her little clock before squeezing outside the castle gates. She found her horse and pet it, grinning. The brisk air was nice, like drinking a cup of water after hours of thirst. She mounted the horse and reached into a small bag on its back, pulling out a carrot. It ate it happily.

Three years of horse-riding classes reflected brightly off of Elsa's pleased smile as they galloped through the kingdom, getting closer and closer to the frozen lake. She inhaled deeply as they passed a warm bakery, but there was no stopping in this journey. She couldn't afford to see people. What would they think of this ten-year-old riding through the town to see something mysterious on the top of the mountain?

"Come on, Markus, you can go faster than that," Elsa said to the horse. He whinnied and accepted her challenge—but the little girl found that his fastest was indeed too fast and quite terrifying. "Okay—slow, just a little—"

They got to the docks and had a perfect view of the mountain. Elsa looked up into the sky. She could see something… going up… and down… like a person jumping high, and then falling back down. She was briefly reminded of Anna's fall, but swallowed a lump in her throat and tried to forget. Conceal, don't feel.

Elsa dropped from Markus and brought his rein to a post. It creaked from side to side, but Markus was a good horse and wouldn't try to pull it from the ground. Since she had her cloak on, nobody would recognize her. Elsa's apprehension turned into excitement, and she pulled three golden coins from her pocket.

The ferryman was loading his boat full of goods. Elsa looked down at her coins and then looked at a little two-person canoe floating on the surface of the lake, which wasn't frozen solid but rather had a very, very thin layer of ice with a blanket of slush weighing it down.

"Excuse me," Elsa said, voice trembling. She got closer to the ferryman but didn't take down her hood.

He put down a crate full of netting and turned around to look at her—she was shorter than he'd originally thought. "Hello there, young lady," he said, smiling. "What can I do you for?"

Elsa's head dropped, eyes glued to the wooden dock. The coins were ice cold in her hands, frosting up a little. She looked back up, making sure to keep her face hidden beneath the hood. "I'd like to—borrow your canoe, please." She was trying to sound older, maybe just a little older.

The ferryman raised his eyebrows. "Borrow?" he asked suspiciously.

She pulled her sleeve over her fingers and held the coins out to him so that they only touched the cloth. "Yes." He accepted the coins and winced when they reached his palm, having not expected them to be so cold. After he slipped them into his pocket, he held up one finger and went into his boat to bring something out.

He gave her a waterproof blanket and a small blade, explaining that it was important because the mountains were dangerous. "You'll bring them back, of course," he said, "When you bring the canoe back. Got it?" Elsa nodded and took out another golden coin from her pocket. The man almost protested, but the glint of sunlight on the shiny metal made him close his mouth and take the coin from her. He helped her into the canoe and said that the horse would be okay for many hours, but he'd put a blanket on him just in case.

"Thank you," Elsa said quietly. "And please don't tell anyone where I've gone. I promise I'll come back."

He looked uneasy at this request, but agreed anyway. Elsa began to paddle away and the ferryman turned around to continue loading his boat.

As she floated across the river, the thin ice crackled and chipped away as if it wasn't even there. She watched over the side for a little while at the ripples and waves pouring over an invisible sheet; it was like watching art. Elsa dipped her hand into the cool water and grinned at the tickling sensation of the frost. She made it to the other side of the lake without even noticing, but when she did notice, she pulled the canoe onto the bank with a lot of effort. Okay, maybe she used her powers a little bit, but it was heavy.

When the wood was all up in the snow instead of the water, Elsa took the knife from the floor of the canoe and put it into her pocket. Who knew what was up here? It could be dangerous. Maybe this wasn't such a great idea. She realized with a sudden jab that this was so against the rules. Her father would be so angry when she got home, if he noticed that she'd left. Left the castle. Gone in public. Talked to people. Paddled across the entire lake.

And, now she was climbing mountains and every rock she touched that didn't already have snow was left with a snowflake-patterned coat of ice. It was fun to go through the snow as freely as she pleased, and Elsa wondered why she hadn't done this months and months ago. It was liberating, and the solitude, vastness, and privacy created a perfect spot to practice magic. The two coins that remained in her pocket clinked and clanked and jingled and jangled as she trekked through the snow. Money didn't seem very important up here, but she'd learned from a young age to always carry a little, just in case. Not that that really mattered much anymore, since she and Anna were locked inside the castle all day and night. Elsa absently wondered what Anna was doing right now. Probably running around the ballroom. She giggled.

Poor Anna. All she wanted to do was play. But Elsa had no way of keeping her safe, since she couldn't control herself. A repeat of last year's accident would be a disaster. Elsa had kept telling herself that it was okay to let Anna in the room just to talk or play with toys, but right as she had been considering it, her powers had spurted out of control and created a little flurry in her bedroom. Ever since that day she had a lot of little mishaps, frosting the windowsill and blankets and doorknobs. It was too dangerous to let Anna in. If Anna saw her powers, she wouldn't be able to shut up about them. She'd get herself hurt. It wasn't safe.

Cold wind shifted tall, tall trees and made snow fall in large clumps from the tallest branches. Elsa stared, wide-eyed, as the unnatural wind pattern caused trees to moan into each other. She tried to look closer, to see what was causing those weird winds. But nothing… nothing. Maybe it really was just her imagination. Despite this thought, Elsa persevered. There had to be something. There just had to be.

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"Come on, wind, faster! Pick up the pace, let's go, let's go, I wanna see the kingdom from the tallest tree."

Jack Frost laughed merrily as he flew incredibly fast up into the air. Even though he was probably going faster than usual, to him it wasn't quick enough. The wind groaned as it pulled him higher up in the atmosphere, but he wasn't high enough yet. Surely they had already passed the tallest tree on the mountain, but it wasn't high enough to see the kingdom properly—or rather, what Jack referred to as properly.

"Man, oh, man! This is great!" Jack shouted. He landed on a tree, making it bend down low and then pop back up. But he held on tight and didn't fling off of it. He giggled into the branch and then sat down, panting heavily. The cold air nipped at his nose deliciously. Beyond the seldom leaves and thick trees, he could see the kingdom of Arendelle glitter prettily with white snow. This was the third kingdom he'd been to this month, along with a place called Corona and DunBroch. They were all so different, but all so beautiful. Corona was surrounded by a large lake and dense forests, and was decorated with purple flags centered with a flower that looked like the sun. When Jack flew through the snowy forest, he saw a little yellow flower that had a little bit of a glow to it, and the snow around it was melted. He stared at it for a couple of seconds, and then decided that Bunnymund would be interested in it. Come to think of it, he hadn't mentioned the flower to the rabbit. Then again, he didn't really have a good relationship with the Easter bunny. In Jack's forty-three years of life, Bunnymund hadn't really been a warm and friendly person.

The second kingdom, DunBroch, was a snowy wonderland that was, from what Jack could see, mostly rocks. Distant mountains glowed magnificently during the sunrise and sunset, outlining the miles and miles of grassy rocks and interspersed forests between them and the kingdom. When he entered the forests, there were tiny little blue creatures that could see him. They weren't people, but they were company. There was magic in every corner of the world if you looked close enough. Jack usually sat atop tall cobbled towers to observe the castles. He stayed in DunBroch for a while listening to the peoples' funny dialects, and there was four times as much to see because there were four different clans to observe. Arendelle, however, wasn't very big, yet it glistened with a certain kind of magic that Jack could feel from his bare feet to his pink nose.

Jack wiggled his toes and stretched out his legs. It wasn't much farther to the top of the mountain. He raised his arms high above his head, let out a big yawn, and then jumped off of the branch to fly up higher. By the time he reached a good look-out spot, the sun was caressing the middle of the other mountains to signify that morning was just starting to get into action. He saw waves of people, black little spots on the white ground in the town. The trees seemed to go on forever. Jack laid his staff down next to him and sat with his legs crossed, taking in the view. He grinned and raised one hand, shooting out a little burst of snow above his head. It fell down slowly, and right now, everything was okay.

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a/n: This was going to be a twoshot, but this beginning ended up being ridiculously long. I don't know how to write short things. Will have three chapters.

Also: watch?v=Zvh215x67Aw