Once upon a time, there was a man who had a heart made of ice and snow with nothing but contempt for humankind. He lived in a large castle made of ice far, far outside the walls of a great city and looked more like a beast than a man. Nothing pleased him more than watching the misery the humans inflicted upon each other in his magic mirror. Each day, he would sit for hours and gaze upon their pain with a satisfied smirk. When a human caught his eye, he would take them to his palace and give them the power to turn into giants made of frost whose humanity became nothing more than a distant, warm memory.
Of course, he was the king of his frozen land and of course he sent his giants after the humans to try and eradicate them from the earth. It was perhaps because of his cold heart and his cold kingdom that he was called the Snow King.
One fine, stormy day, the Snow King was wandering the grounds of his palace, listening to all the evils his giants had caused in their last attack against the small, warm humans. Two of his giants, who were currently considerably smaller and more human like, decided to look into his mirror. So great was their amusement at the suffering of the humans, that they shattered the mirror by accident in their gleeful exclamations. They were quit certain that they would be killed, that they fled the palace never to return.
When the Snow King found his shattered mirror, he did not fly into a rage. Instead, he smiled and took the shards to the highest tower and sent them adrift in the wind to scatter across the human realm. Each human they pierced could only do bad and each heart they touched turned to ice. The king had another secret, you see. He had an entire closet full of magic mirrors.
But now let us leave the King and his cold realm of ice and snow and head south, to the realm of the humans.
There was a large city filled with hundreds of people, but our story concerns only two, a boy and a girl. The boy, Armin, was extremely intelligent and had the heart of an explorer. The girl, Annie, was clever and stronger than any other children either of them knew. The two of them lived next to each other, so close indeed that the roses they planted on their windowsills grew together to create a canopy for the two children to play under. They were best of friends and not often seen out of each other's company.
When they returned home from school, Armin's grandfather greeted them and gave them hot chocolate to drink and good bread to eat. Then he told them stories. Their favorite by far were the stories of the Snow King. Annie listened with a quiet interest and Armin listened with wonder at the world beyond the walls.
"You must never go there, my children. Or the Snow King will turn you into a giant and you will lose your heart," Armin's grandfather would say and the children would nod solemnly.
One snowy day, the two of them had been sent into the park to play. Annie sat by Armin as he read his books and listened as he told her stories of the outside world. Suddenly, she held her hand to her eye with a cry.
"What is it?" Armin asked.
"Nothing," Annie said.
"You're hurt."
"I am not!"
"Yes you are. Let me see," Armin said, prying her hand from her eye.
"Stop it! You're always pulling at me!" Annie said and stormed off, leaving Armin alone and confused.
From that day on, Annie became quiet. When she did speak, it was only to make fun of Armin or point out his, to his own eyes at least, considerable weaknesses. She started hanging out with the two new boys in their part of the city, Reiner and Bertoldt, and soon Armin hardly recognized his dear friend.
One day, a blizzard ripped through the town, the likes of which hadn't been seen in decades. Annie's father had to go out to work, so she was sent to Armin and his grandfather. As night fell, the children were tucked into bed and told one final story. Outside the window, the wind howled and Armin felt as if the whole house would collapse.
"I'm scared," he said.
"Of course you are," Annie replied.
"Let's go wake up my grandfather."
"Why can't you take care of things yourself?"
Armin didn't answer. He just clutched the blankets tighter around him. He must have fallen asleep, for suddenly he heard the door opening. Annie, clothed only in her nightdress and a pair of sturdy boots, was standing in the doorway.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"It's too hot in here," Annie replied and left.
Armin barely had time to pull on his coat and boots before Annie was out the door. He followed her through the snow and storm until she reached the canals. His small, thin body was tossed about by wind and violent shivers shot through him.
A great sled with a man who looked like a beast appeared. He offered his hand to her, but she refused. Armin struggled to reach her, but found it near impossible to fight through the storm. When Reiner and Bertoldt jumped off the sled to grab her, Armin called after her, but his thin voice was lost in the wind. He could only watch the sled rose into the air, as if flying on the wind, and vanished.
A police man found him the next morning and carried him, shivering and coughing to the hospital. He stayed for a week, sick and weak and hardly himself. When his fever finally broke, he found his grandfather, pale and worried, sitting by his bed.
"Where is Annie?" he asked.
"We don't know. We can't find her," his grandfather replied sadly.
"A great big slay with a terrifying man took her! It was the Snow King! I tried to stop her, but she couldn't hear me. We have to save her."
A great sadness passed over his grandfather's face. A moment later, the police man who found him appeared. When Armin told him what had happened, he wrote it down in his little notebook with the utmost concern, but Armin had a feeling that nothing would happen.
As winter turned to spring and the snow melted, there was no sign of Annie. Armin knew that there was only one thing he could do. He would find her himself.
So he took his favorite book down to the river and went to see the Ferryman. He had heard a rumor that the Ferryman would trade books for ferry rides, if he had never read them before. The Ferryman lived in a house by the river. He was tall and had only one arm. It was said that he was once a soldier, but had been dismissed long ago for speaking ill of the men who governed the city. With his heart in his throat, Armin knocked three times on the large, wooden door. The man who answered it was indeed tall and had only one arm, but Armin found that he was not afraid. The Ferryman seemed intelligent and there was no malice about him.
"Can I help you?" the Ferryman asked.
"I want to go outside the walls. I have a book that I don't think you've read and I've heard that you will take it as payment. I need to save her. She's been taken by the Snow King and I do not want her heart to turn to ice," Armin said, his voice only quivering a little.
The Ferryman took the book from him gently and studied it with a serious expression.
"Where did you find this?"
"My father and mother gave it to me before they disappeared," Armin replied.
"I have never seen it before," the Ferryman said softly, opening it to look through its illustrations of far of worlds.
"So you'll take it?"
The Ferryman closed the book and handed it to Armin. His eyes welled with tears and he looked away. He had promised himself not to cry.
"No. But I will give you passage. Keep your book. Bring me back a story from the outside world and that will be payment enough. I have always dreamed of going, but I find myself unable to these days," the Ferryman said sadly.
Armin's tears dried immediately and hope filled his heart. The Ferryman was quiet as he led him to a boat just big enough for a boy of his size and cast him out into the river.
"Be brave. I have a few friends out there. If you need help, tell them I sent you and you may receive it. Good luck," the Ferryman said.
Armin waved until his arm was sore and watched in awe as he drifted through the gates of the city and into the unknown world just beyond its walls.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Part of my fairy tale retelling series that I'll do between larger works. Probably shorter works, since fairy tales are short. Eventually will be multifandom to spread the fairy tale joy. If anyone has any fairy tales/pairings/fandoms they'd like to see, let me know!