She Had Winter In Her Heart
A princess was born in Arendelle, and the kingdom rejoiced. At last, their royal family had an heir. A chill wind filled the room when Elsa was born, though no window was open, but the king and queen paid it no mind. Why should they? Their baby girl was beautiful, with a small tuft of blonde hair and bright blue eyes.
Winter came early that year, and it was slow to leave.
X X X
When the next winter came, Elsa's nursemaid was reprimanded and banished from the castle. The woman had left the princess's window open, and the queen had arrived early one morning to find her daughter's room open to the bitter winter wind.
But even after the queen shut the window, the cold remained. Yet Elsa never shivered. Instead, she reached toward the window with her small, chubby hands. The window rattled, and frost crept across the panes.
X X X
Three more nursemaids were banished from the castle that winter, all for the same offence. At last, the queen herself took charge of Elsa's care. For three nights, she slept in the princess's room. And on the third night, she awakened to an open window and the roaring of the wind.
Ice glittered on Elsa's fingertips, and a thin trail of snow stretched from her crib to the window. The queen rushed to her daughter's side and picked her up. Elsa was cold to the touch, but she was smiling, and her blue eyes were brighter than they had ever been. The queen shivered and pretended it had everything to do with the chill of winter coming through the window and nothing to do with the ice spreading over her dress.
In the fireplace, the fire ebbed and died.
The queen hired another nursemaid, but they were never able to start a fire in Elsa's room again, and they could never keep the window shut.
X X X
Summers in Arendelle changed. Blue skies gave way to grey. Elsa walked through the castle, and all the windows and mirrors frosted over as she passed.
And late at night, when her nursemaid was asleep, Elsa heard whispers on the wind. They spoke of ice, and snow, and a winter without end. Elsa fell asleep with a smile on her face and woke up with snow on her pillow.
X X X
Anna was born, and the kingdom rejoiced again. The queen held her new daughter close, and she was warm and soft and perfect. Then Elsa came to see her little sister, and the room grew cool. In the fireplace, the fire went out, and cold winds rattled the windows.
The midwife turned to shoo Elsa away, but the queen beckoned her closer.
"Come see your little sister, Elsa. Her name is Anna."
Elsa looked around the room. Her mother was shaking, her father would not meet her eyes, and the midwife seemed ready to throw her out. But Anna… her little sister looked back at her with blue eyes filled with trust.
"Hello, Anna." Elsa touched Anna's fingers, and the baby flinched away from the sudden cold. Elsa's heart broke, but then a slow smile spread across her face when Anna cooed and reached for her fingers again.
But then the king was there, and he pulled Elsa away.
"That's enough," he said. "You can see your sister again later."
Elsa was ushered from the room, and the fire roared back to life. A single snowflake melted on Anna's fingers.
X X X
The king and queen did not forbid Elsa from seeing her little sister, but they did not encourage it either. It didn't matter. Elsa spent as much time with Anna as she could, an icy wind stirring the mobile that hung over the baby's crib.
The servants whispered of magic and monsters, and of the presence of another heir. Elsa pretended not to hear them.
"We'll be friends," she whispered to Anna, fingers leaving a trail of snow along the edges of the crib. "Best friends."
Anna sneezed. And outside, the wind murmured of winters soon to come. But Elsa shook her head and willed the winds away. Not yet. Not here. Her little sister was not made for winter the way she was.
X X X
From the moment Anna could walk, she followed Elsa. The older girl slowed her pace so that her sister could keep up, and whenever Anna fell, Elsa was there to pick her up. When Elsa passed a mirror and frosted it over, Anna only giggled and rubbed the frost away with her sleeve.
When they were alone, Elsa wove her magic: jagged spikes of ice and great walls of frost. It was crude and ugly, but Anna laughed, and smiled, and hugged Elsa like she was the most special person in the whole world.
And the ice gave way to snow, and the voice of winter in Elsa's ears grew soft and gentle. Not yet, she thought. Not with Anna around.
X X X
Anna begged and pleaded, but the king and queen would not be moved. Anna was not allowed to share a room with her sister, nor was Elsa allowed to stay with her at night. When her parents weren't looking, Anna snuck into Elsa's room.
It was beautiful.
It was summer and the wind elsewhere was still, but a thin layer of ice covered everything in Elsa's room and the wind roared through the window.
Be careful, the wind whispered to Anna, you are a child of summer, and the winter is not for you.
Anna slipped on the ice and cut her leg. It was a small thing, but the king and queen were furious. Anna was never to go into Elsa's room again.
Elsa stared at the small patch of blood on her floor. Not even her magic could make it go away, and every time she walked past it, she heard her sister crying.
Her dreams that night were of a palace of ice stained red with her sister's blood, rising tall over endless plains of snow. It was beautiful.
X X X
One spring, Anna and Elsa played in the garden around the palace. Anna giggled and smelled all the flowers. But spring passed and gave way to summer and then autumn and then winter. All the flowers died, and Anna looked at the withered garden and cried. Elsa cried too, but the tears turned to ice upon her cheeks and broke upon the ground.
The next spring, Elsa thought of the bloodstain on her floor that no wind or ice could wipe away. She dreamed of the winter without end, and then she froze the garden solid. Spring turned to summer and then to autumn and then to winter again. The garden remained as it was, frozen forever beneath Elsa's ice.
Anna loved it, but no one else, save Elsa, would go near it, and the scent of flowers was lost forever, locked away behind the ice.
The wind laughed, and the palace in Elsa's dreams rose up into a cloud-strewn sky.
X X X
One night, Anna snuck into Elsa's room, careful not to slip on the ice that covered the floor.
"Do you want to build a snowman?"
They went to the throne room and played. Around everyone else, Elsa's magic was rough and ugly, but around Anna, it was always gentle. Instead of jagged ice, there was soft snow. Anna laughed and sang, leaping from place to place as Elsa hastened to keep up, weaving columns of snow out of thin air.
Until Anna went just that little bit too fast, just that little bit too high. Elsa's magic hit her, and all the windows and doors in the palace burst open. The wind rushed into the throne room, and it's mocking laughter filled Elsa's ears.
Winter was coming, and there was no place in it for a child of summer.
But Elsa loved her sister, and so she used her magic again.
"Look!" Elsa shouted when her parents ran in. "It's okay! It's okay!" And then she lifted Anna up and smiled. "I fixed her!"
She never even noticed the frozen tears tumbling down her cheeks to break upon the floor, or the looks of horror on her parent's faces. It was going to be fine. Couldn't they see that she'd fixed Anna with her magic?
X X X
Elsa never saw Anna again. Her parents took her away, and Elsa was locked in her room.
The king and queen went to the trolls for help, but the Valley of the Living Rock was still and quiet. All they found was ice and rock, and the wind that haunted the valley followed them all the way back to the castle, whispering words of ruin into their ears.
X X X
"Do you want to build a snowman?"
Elsa heard the words in her dreams and woke to the feel of fingers ghosting along her cheek. Her eyes opened, but there was no one there, and when she ran to her door and opened it, the corridor was empty.
"Do you want to build a snowman?"
The words came from the other end of the corridor, and Elsa ran. But there was no one there.
"Do you want to build a snowman?"
She followed the voice through the castle and down into the dark places below it. Then she stopped. The darkness stretched out forever in front of her, and the cold here was the cold of old earth and dry bones. She turned away.
She must have heard things wrong. There was no reason for Anna to be there.
But still she heard the words, hissing out from the shadows. "Do you want to build a snowman?"
X X X
Elsa looked and looked for her sister, but she could never find her. None of the servants dared to approach her, so it was left to the king and queen to handle her.
One day, the king gave her a pair of gloves.
"Conceal," he said. "Don't feel."
Then the king and queen went away. They died at sea, and the sky over Arendelle turned a bitter grey. Winter came early that year and every year thereafter, and each time it was a little slower to leave.
The people spoke of curses, and Elsa wandered the castle alone, leaving ice in her wake.
X X X
When Elsa was twenty-one, she became the queen. The doors of the castle were thrown open, and guests from all the neighbouring lands were invited. But Elsa didn't care for any of that. Now that she was queen, no door was barred to her, no part of the castle was forbidden. Now, at last, she could find her sister.
So Elsa went from one end of the castle to the other, waiting for her sister to speak to her.
And Anna did, her voice as cheerful and loving as Elsa remembered. "Do you want to build a snowman?"
Anna's voice led her back to the shadows and the darkness, and this time, Elsa was not afraid. She smiled, and the gleam of ice lit her path, until, at long last, she found her sister again.
"Hello, Anna," Elsa whispered, holding her sister close. "I missed you."
But Anna was cold and silent. Elsa smiled. It was okay. Anna just needed to go somewhere warm, somewhere with light and laughter. Yes, she needed to take Anna to the coronation party.
X X X
There was screaming when Elsa walked into the party with her sister held in her arms.
"Monster!" the prince of the Southern Isles roared. "She's a monster!"
But Elsa laughed in his face. The wind around the castle howled, and all the windows and doors broke. It rushed into the room, and when it spoke, it was no longer in a whisper, but a scream.
Winter is here, the wind screamed. Winter is here.
Elsa laughed again, and ice rollicked outward, sharp and jagged and beautiful. It crawled over the floor and along the walls and ceiling. There was more screaming, and Elsa pressed a kiss to Anna's forehead, marvelling at how light her sister was in her arms.
"What do you want to do?" Elsa asked.
The prince of the Southern Isles screamed again as the thing in Elsa's arms moved. Red hair shimmered under a thin layer of ice, and small arms came up to wrap around Elsa's neck, ice crawling under the skin.
The voice that came from the thing that had been Anna was the voice of winter. "Do you want to build a snowman?"
X X X
Winter came to Arendelle and never left. The harbour froze, and the castle fell silent. In the ballroom, in the streets, in the fields, everywhere, there were snowmen. Their faces were frozen into masks of fear, hands outstretched to ward off an attack they had no hope of stopping.
And atop the Northern Mountain, a palace of ice rose up toward the clouds. On a balcony, Elsa looked out over endless drifts of snow and then reached down to lift Anna up so that she could see over railing.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Elsa smiled. "It's perfect."
Anna said nothing. The ice that had covered her since that day in the throne room shone in the winter sun.
X X X
Author's Notes
As always, I neither own Frozen, nor am I making any money off of this.
So, I've been meaning to write something related to Frozen for a while now, and this is what I finally came up with. It's a lot darker than I'd originally planned, but there are times when you just have to let the story take the shape it wants. In case it isn't clear, Elsa killed Anna with her magic by accident when they were children. The voice she hears isn't Anna's, and when she "fixed" Anna, all she did was use her magic to freeze her as she was, much like she froze the garden to keep it the way Anna wanted. She found Anna's frozen body in a tomb below the castle.
Yep, this is definitely dark. As for the voice Elsa hears on the wind… well, I'll leave it to you guys to decide whose voice that was (although the title should give you a clue). I also have to give credit to Gleam, whose wonderful story "He Had No Fingers" was a major inspiration for this story.
I also write original fiction, mostly fantasy. You can find links to it in my profile.
As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.