Disclaimer: I own nothing, all rights belong to Disney!

Also: I found a picture of Marshmallow! It should be the new cover pic. Enjoy!


Hard Water and Solid Raindrops

Anna swam upward and smiled as her face broke the surface of the water. The dark sky was filled with stars, as she now knew they were called (thanks to Kristoff), and they and the moon glowed softly, making the ocean glitter, and barely revealing the cliffs that surrounded the Arendelle coastline. Anna's smile widened as a soft splash informed her of Olaf breaking the surface behind her. He chittered softly, and nuzzled Anna's arm, and she stroked his nose. There was another, bigger splash, which alerted her that Marshmallow had arrived as well, and she heard the shark rumble in appreciation of the sight before him.

"Yeah," Anna sighed happily, "it is pretty, but it's about to get better."

Sure enough, after a few moments, the northern lights seemed to explode from the sky, causing the sea to glitter in all of its wondrous colors. A feeling of contentment filled Anna, as she watched to glow, weave and ebb, reminding her of the ocean's tides. She stayed there with her two friends for a while, before realizing her mother, or one of the servants were bound to notice her disappearance. Anna sighed and turned to dive back in the ocean, when a flash of bluish white coming from the direction of the cliffs caught her attention. Curiosity piqued, Anna began to swim toward where she had spotted the mysterious light. After a while, Anna came to an old cave that seemed to be imbedded in the cliff's sheer wall. It took her a moment, but she realized that it was one of the old mating grounds the Mer had had in Arendelle; one of the few they had had in this kingdom, and had eventually needed to be abandoned due to its proximity to the humans.

Anna swam closer and eventually came to the entrance of the old semi-underwater cave, before realizing that she couldn't continue. Anna frowned looked at the strange cold, clear substance (a kind of rock perhaps?) before her, though being a mermaid the cold didn't really bother her. She tentatively touched it; it was hard, very hard and very slippery. She tilted her head and slowly broke off a piece of the strange clear-ish cold substance, and tentatively sniffed and then tasted it. Anna yanked it out of her mouth and looked at it in surprise. It wasn't a rock; it was water, somehow hardened water. Anna's confusion only mounted when a speck of something white hit her nose. She blinked and looked at it, it was strange too, and slowly she sniffed it. Just like the solid water, this held no scent as well, and curiously enough, when she tasted it, she found that it was water too. Hard water and solid rain? I'll need to ask Kristoff about this. She thought to herself, and blinked again, when another solid raindrop hit her in the face… and then another. Anna tentatively looked up and peered into the cave; the white-water-drop-things were coming from inside the cave, and… Anna let out a small gasp, and the figure she had just noticed, suddenly sprang up and stared at Anna.

The human female, Anna now realized, was extremely pale, and had hair so pale it was almost white but had a strange gold sheen to it, a color Anna had never seen before, and her eyes were a strange pale blue, the same pale blue as the hardened pointy water deeper in the cave, points that seemed to be getting longer, as if by magic. Anna blinked suddenly she saw that both the hard water and the strange white drops seemed to be originating from…

"It's you," she breathed to the female, shock and amazement filling Anna, "you're doing the magic."

The pale human's eyes widened, a look of terror ran clear across her face, and she stumbled back and held her hands in front of her.

"N-no," the female human said in strange tone that sounded both authoritative and frightened, "s-stay away, please."

Anna blinked and realized the girl was scared of something; she looked around to see Olaf and Marshmallow looking expectantly at her, but out of sight of the female. Anna swallowed and decided just to start speaking.

"Uh… hi?" Anna said waving tentatively, "I like your magic, it's really beautiful."

The human blinked, looking surprised, "you're not afraid?" she asked tentatively

Anna tilted her head in confusion, "why would I be; all your doing is making the water hard." Anna rapped her knuckles on the hard surface, and looked back at the female, "see? Oh and you seem to be making it rain white water…? Or something, but it doesn't seem to be hurting anything, and it's actually really amazing to watch and-"

"Snow," The human said shyly, "the white rain as you called it; it is actually called snow. And the 'hard water' as you put it is ice."

"Oooh," Anna breathed in realization, and then remembered something important, "oh, I'm sorry, you must think I'm rude or something! Anyways, I'm Anna." She smiled, and did a little wave to show the human she didn't mean any harm.

The human blinked and curled her arms around her chest, "Elsa," she said slowly, "my name is Elsa."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Elsa," Anna smiled and Elsa smiled back tentatively, before suddenly looking afraid.

"Anna," said Elsa, her voice sounding slightly desperate, "please do not tell anyone about this, I'm technically not supposed to show my powers to anyone and-"

"Oh," said Anna breezily, "that's okay. I'm technically not supposed to be out here either, so I wasn't going to tell anyone anyway."

"Alright," Elsa replied softly, though she sounded relieved, then her brows furrowed in confusion, "What are you doing out so late? The tide looks to be coming in, and it is rather late for a swim. Are you one of the dockworkers?"

Dockworker? Why would she… then Anna realized something, she can't see my tail, she thinks I'm a human like her. Anna smiled in slight relief, and shook her head, "no I'm actually a-"

She stopped herself. Not all humans were as understanding as Kristoff had been; her people hadn't been hiding from humans without good reason. She herself would be dead if Kristoff hadn't been nice enough to let her go, and she knew not all humans would have shown such kindness. If this human wasn't one of the few who didn't hate the Mer… I can't take that chance, Anna realized, and then looked up to see the woman still waiting for an answer, "I um, I'm an angler." She covered quickly, "I work with a fisherman named Kristoff aboard his ship, The Ice Harvester."

Elsa nodded, accepting this answer, then frowned again, "you've never seen snow or ice before."

"Not really, no." Anna shifted uncomfortably, "my mama's really protective over me, when I was younger I wasn't allowed to go outside or see the s-" Anna barely stopped herself from saying surface, and quickly covered, "see the sites outside of our dwelling."

Elsa's lips and eyebrows quirked upward, "that actually sounds pretty familiar. Papa never let me out of his sight either. I know he means well, with my curse and all…"

"Why do you call it a curse?" Anna asked curiously, "this ice and snow you make is the most beautiful stuff I've ever seen. I don't see how anything this pretty could come from a curse, a gift maybe, but not a curse."

"Thank you," Elsa said softly, "you're the first person I've met who wasn't afraid of me, because of what I can do. Everyone else is scared I would hurt them."

"Just because someone could do something doesn't mean they would," Anna pointed out, "and from what I'm seeing, you wouldn't hurt anyone. Oh, speaking of which, can you make anything else besides snow, ice, and pointy ice with your magic?"

Elsa blinked and then glanced behind her, "oh, you mean the icicles?" she frowned and uncurled her hands to look at them, "I don't really know, I've never tried; I'm not allowed to use them until I can control my magic."

"Maybe that's why you can't control them?" Anna asked looking up at Elsa, "Because you don't use them. Maybe it's like swimming or walking; yeah, you trip and fall a few times, and maybe even sink, but you won't get any better if you don't try to."

Elsa looked at Anna for a moment, "I never really thought of it that way." She admitted, and looked at her hands again.

"Mama always told me, if I was afraid of something, to learn as much as I could about it, and maybe I would find out that even though it looks scary, it isn't actually very scary at all. Sooo, maybe if you figure out what you can do with your magic, you'll be able to find out how to not do it when you don't want to?"

"Your mother sounds like a wise woman," said Elsa wistfully, then smiled at Anna, "and your logic does seem to be very good…" her voice trailed off. Then looked at Anna almost shyly, "would you help me? You're the only one who knows about my powers outside of my… well, my home."

"Of course," Anna spoke immediately, and then frowned, "but we should probably meet here, so I don't miss… fishing with Kristoff, and so no one else sees your magic."

Elsa nodded, and smiled gratefully, "that sounds like a plan to me. Thank you."

"See ya!" Anna smiled and waved, and swam off, careful to keep her tail out of sight.


Sooo, this is awkward… I swear I didn't mean to wait so long before updating (especially with a cliffhanger, I swear i'm not usually this evil). Unfortunately, my spotty internet finally decided to kick the bucket, and my computer followed shortly after, so I basically lost everything. The good news it I saved earlier versions of everything as well as my outlines somewhere else so… I'm not starting from scratch! YAY (But I still have to piece together my stories again. BOO)! Again, sorry for the wait but I promise to try to make it up to all of you.

Peace out - :P

-BatteriezNotIncluded