Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Frozen. That distinction belongs to the Walt Disney Company. This story is purely for my own pleasure, and I'm making no money whatsoever in publishing and sharing it. The conversations between Elsa and her parents when they first find her and the first half of the encounter with the trolls is taken from 'Frozen.' All I did was add a bit of flare and backstory. The rest is mine. The cover art is titled, "Making Out," and is by the talented jipzuru. To see more of the artist's work please visit artist jipzuru at DeviantArt.
An aside: This is actually a prelude to a story I'm working on call 'Queen of Snow and Ice.' It's a crossover fanfic with 'Rise of the Guardians.' However, this story is pure 'Frozen.' Please take a look at the other story if you enjoy this one. Reviews are always welcome. Thanks.
His wife heard Elsa's cry for help first.
Years of gunfire from the wars of his youth had left the king deaf in his right ear. He'd been just sixteen when his father had made him a commander of his army. The fear and uncertainty had been overwhelming, but he'd concealed his doubts, hid his anxiety, and refused to feel or show anything except confidence to the soldiers under his command.
The loss of his hearing was a small price to pay to secure safety for his kingdom. After the wars Arendelle was at peace. The alliances with neighboring kingdoms were strong and he'd established reliable trade routes to ensure the prosperity of Arendelle and her people. In the years of his rule he'd made Arendelle a beacon of modernity. Trading superstitious traditions for a golden age of enlightenment and education. He opened schools for the poor, universities and hospitals.
By all rights, his older brother should have been the one to lead the armies and become the next king, to take command and rule. But he had died long ago when very young. The king could remember him in one vague memory of the two of them playing in the snow together, but that was all.
"Maurice, it's Elsa." The queen gripped his arm with white fingers and he stood up from his chair by the hearth.
They rushed from the royal apartments. As they neared the ballroom he could see the ice forming around the tall doors. Already the frost obscured the ornate patterns with an overlay of white. The king released his wife's hand and ran even faster at the door, throwing his shoulder into the thick wood with all the force he could muster. The door didn't budge.
From inside, he could hear the muffled sounds of his eldest daughter weeping. An unsettling dread gripped his heart, disturbing and familiar.
"Jennifer, step away," he said to his wife. He backed up and tried again, continuing to push and push against the frozen door until, with a sharp crack, it flew open.
The ballroom was covered with snow and ice. Moonlight filtered into the room from the windows high above. Tall mounds formed a semicircle in the center of the room, each one progressively wider and taller than the last. At the epicenter the king saw his two daughters. Elsa cradled her sister in her arms. Anna was not moving.
"You're ok, Anna. I got you." Elsa said, her high child's voice quavering.
"Elsa, what have you done?" He dashed forward with his wife, pulling his youngest daughter away from her sister. "This is getting out of hand."
"It was an accident. Sorry, Anna."
The queen touched Anna's hands and face. "She's ice cold," she said.
The king saw the white strip of hair among the brown. The dread he felt solidified. "I know where we have to go." He looked into his wife's eyes and saw the alarm there rising. "Meet me at the front gate with Anna. Hurry."
He left his family and sprinted to the library, his long legs carrying him faster and father with each step. Once there he found Kai and Gerda, the married couple who acted as his major domo and head of house, snoozing by a fire.
"Kai." The man awoke with a start and stood.
"Yes, Majesty."
"Ready my horse and the queen's. Now. There is no time to lose." The stout man glanced at his wife and she made shooing motions at him with her hands.
As her husband left Gerda asked, "Is there anything I can do, your Majesty?"
The king stopped and looked at the woman. Could she be trusted? He knew she had grown up outside the city, in one of the northern villages were some still believed in the old ways. "I need to find the Valley of the Living Rocks."
She nodded once. As she led him to the back of the library the king wondered how well he had, in fact, been keeping his daughter's secret.
"On the forth shelf from the bottom," she said. "The book with the runes."
His hands glided over the worn spines and even in the dim moonlight he located the book in seconds. A map fell out and glided to the floor, opening to reveal the path he sought. He snatched the paper up and began running once again.
His wife was mounted on her horse with Anna in her arms when he exited the castle. Elsa was crying against Kai's shoulder while he soothed her. He seemed unconcerned that the tears he wiped away had frozen into hard crystals on her cheeks.
"No, Elsa," the queen said.
"Papa, please." Noticing his presence, Elsa broke towards the king and grabbed his legs. "Please take me with you." He looked down at his daughter, then at his wife.
He turned to Kai. "Hand her up to me." He said.
They galloped out of the city and across valleys and fjords, a trail of white ice following the king's steed. Passing no one, seeing no one, the king felt an appalling familiarity settling over him. As they drew nearer the valley marked on the map, the king realized he had visited the place before.
Steam billowed up from fissures cracking the scenery. The fallen snow which had accompanied them on their journey across the landscape disappeared, leaving Elsa's path the only reminder of winter.
The couple dismounted, and the king steered his wife and children through a maze of winding stone. He recognized one looming boulder and turned, leading his family toward a crumbling ancient amphitheater. The curving seats were carved straight into the mountain.
The feeling of recollection increased, evoking a memory he'd forgotten of his brother. They had played in this very spot as children not long before his brother had died. Testing his new knowledge the king moved to a point just off from the center of the oval floor. From there he was certain his voice would project and carry to the very corners of the amphitheater.
"Please help my daughter."
The amphitheater began to shake as boulders rolled towards the royal family. Soon surrounded, the boulders stopped and opened revealing small, plump faces with big round eyes and short limbs. Trolls.
"It's the king." The words rippled through the crowd. From the back the throng began parting and a single troll approached.
"Your majesty," said the troll, reaching up and talking Elsa by the hand. He wore a long green cape of moss, and the crystals he wore around his throat shone with a deep yellow light. "Born with the powers, or cursed."
"Born," he said. "And they're getting stronger." The king didn't know why, but when the shaman troll looked into his eyes the small grey being appeared saddened.
The troll released Elsa's hand and motioned the queen to kneel. "You are lucky it wasn't her heart. The heart is not so easily changed. But the head can be persuaded."
"Do what you must." As soon as he spoke the king heard a voice echoing in his mind, his father's voice, speaking those exact words. Like a forgotten a dream the king remembered another time, years before, when he had been in the valley with his brother and father. Similar to what was taking place now, but so very different, with his brother clasped to his father's chest and his father begging the troll shaman for help.
"I recommend we remove all the magic, even memories of magic, to be safe." The troll said to the queen, and again cast a mournful glance toward the king. "But don't worry, I'll leave the fun." He touched Anna's forehead and the king felt warmth flowing towards his daughter. Elsa turned her head as the troll worked, as if she were watching…something. But the king saw nothing and when the troll touched Anna again he felt only the cool stirrings of the air. "She will be ok."
"But she won't remember I have powers," said Elsa.
The king felt his heart ache for his daughter. "It's for the best," he said, squeezing Elsa's shoulder.
The troll spoke again. "Listen to me Elsa, your power will only grow. There is beauty in it, but also great danger. You must learn to control it." Elsa stared up into the sky where the troll pointed. For a brief moment the king thought he saw figures among the stars. "Fear will be your enemy."
"No, we'll protect her." Elsa rushed back to the king's arms, whimpering and trembling. "She can learn to control it, I'm sure. Till then, we'll lock the gates, we'll reduce the staff. We will limit her contact with people. Keep her powers hidden from everyone, including Anna."
"I don't know if that will be enough," the troll said. "I would speak with you alone."
The king followed to the far side of the amphitheater. The others moved away to give them privacy. "Your Majesty, what do you remember?"
"I remember -"he hesitated. "My father told me if any desperate situation arose to find the Valley of the Living Rocks. That I would find help here." The troll nodded. "Before that, I remember coming here to play with my brother. And once we came here with my father."
"More than I expected. Your memories are true. You and your brother were very similar to your daughters. But whereas your brother and eldest conjure ice you and Anna summon flames."
"That's impossible." The king spoke, his tone flat. "I've never –"
"But you have, and did. Before I took the magic away." He shook his head. "I do not regret it. Your daughter may not have been using the magic yet but she soon would have. Those born with flame have always been rare in this land of ice and are dangerous. Heat can mean warmth and comfort, but I have watched our home consumed and made ash. I could not allow it again. Elsa's magic is strong and almost as dangerous as her sister's and yours. It would be best if I removed her magic as well and let the old ways rest for good."
"No." The word was out of his mouth before he had time to think.
"You're majesty," began the troll. "When your father came to me you were the one who had struck your brother. His heart burned from the inside, turning black. I saved his life by taking the magic and the memories but he was never the same. After he died, you came back on your own and asked me to take your magic from you and all the memories as well. I only want to spare Elsa the same pain."
"No," the king spoke again, his tone firm. "She will learn to control it."
"Very well." The troll nodded. "I wish you luck. I hope you do not live to regret your decision."
"Thank you for saving the life of my daughter." The king made a formal bow and turned to leave.
"Remember, fear will be her enemy," the troll said.
"I will remember," said the king.
As he rode home Elsa fell asleep in his arms. He wondered why he had not allowed the troll to take the power from his daughter. He thought about the nights he had woken to the light sounds of laughter outside his bedchambers and followed them in secret to the ballroom to watch his children play. Those nights of joy were over now, but he could not bring himself to destroy the cause of them.
He would make sure Elsa learned to control her powers. He would train her, teach her as he had taught himself when he first became a soldier how to conceal and not feel all his fears. She would hide in plain sight. He had years before she was grown, decades before she became queen. And he and her mother would always be there, always be by her side, protecting her. They had all the time in the world to help Elsa control her powers.
Author's note: This is a little theory of mine that I've been kicking around in my mind since first watching 'Frozen.' The idea stuck and took root after listening to Anna complaining about the type of magic Elsa had, the scene right before she reaches Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna. "Snow, it had to be snow. She couldn't have had tropical magic that covered the fjords in white sand and warm….fire." I then went back and listened to the exact wording the shaman troll (Pabbie) used when he cured Anna. Don't know if others have drawn the same conclusions as I have but if anyone has come across fanfiction with a similar theme please let me know.
I named the king and queen after the voice actors playing them. Maurice LaMarche and Jennifer Lee. Disney doesn't actually name them. Also, Kai and Gerda were the names of the original characters from Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen." Disney kept them as one of the few servants that stick around after Elsa's accident. They must have known about Elsa's powers, at least to some degree. I find it difficult to believe that, in times of panic and loss of control, Elsa was able to keep her secret from every single person in the castle. She would have needed at least one or two confidants after her parents died.