She ran and ran and ran, never knowing what she was so afraid of, but knowing that if she stopped everything would end in flames and death. So she ran, and didn't stop, though her legs were starting to cramp and she could barely stop herself from stumbling and falling down into the abyss on all sides of her precarious ice castle. It was crumbling around her, drips of water plopping on her as she ran, each barely unable to withstand the onslaught of heat burning everything in its path.
In the endless distorted reflections the ice showed her there were a million terrifying images of all the people she cared about hurting and in pain. Screaming in terror and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Deep down she knew it was her fault they were in pain in the first place.
"Elsa!" she frowned and continued to run from the nameless fear that had haunted her her whole life, herself.
"Elsa!" the voice seemed even more panicked now, maybe she should pay attention to it? She shrugged and kept on running, knowing that all true monsters never gave you a second chance. It was do or die, all the way.
"Wake up! Please wake up..." the voice begged, seeming distraught beyond measure. Who could possibly care about her that much?
She woke with a start, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling for a moment as she tried to orient herself with her surroundings. Eventually she gave up and directed her gaze in the direction of the voice that had woken her from her nightmare.
The handsome face of Prince Eric stared down at her, concern etched onto his features until he saw that she was awake. Then suddenly his expression morphed into that classic bored royalty look that she was well familiar with, having grown up with it. Her parents had always worn it when they had public outings, as she'd grown older she'd begun to resent it, wondering why they had to act like robots when anyone who wasn't a member of their family was around. That was why Anna was so refreshing and managed to make everyone love her, she had a way of treating everybody like the human beings that they were.
She would like to treat everyone that way, but as Queen it was expected that she act a certain way. On a completely different note, at least now she knew that Prince Eric cared about her. Then again, maybe her people were right and he could be just like Prince Hans, just after her throne. Though as the eldest in his line of succession, no matter what he was going to inherit, so why would he want her kingdom? She so hated conspiracy theories. Why couldn't people just be exactly what they said they were?
"Feel better?" he asked, cleaning out his fingernails much like she had yesterday when she'd first met him. So much had happened since then it felt like this was the dream and the nightmare was reality. It was so hard to tell sometimes.
She tried to speak, but found that her voice wasn't online yet so instead she simply nodded in reply. Her eyes felt groggy, so she closed them to avoid the brightness of the light. Who ordered such bright sunlight? Somebody call the chef and complain!
"Close the curtains! Can't you see that Queen Elsa wants to sleep?" Prince Eric snapped at a servant. So they weren't alone after all. She still didn't know where she was either, and she prided herself on knowing all the hiding places in the palace. Call it a misguided childhood.
She reached out a hand, not expecting for a warm hand to grasp it gently but she wasn't complaining.
"Where am I?" she murmured, surprised to find that her voice was scratchy with disuse.
"Sssh," Eric told her quietly. "You gave us quite a scare. You've been asleep for three days."
She snapped her eyes open, blinking to adjust to the lack of light in the room. She could just make out the features of Prince Eric in amongst the shadows, concerned for a moment then quickly becoming the blank expression she was so used to. She supposed she deserved it after the way she'd treated him.
Three days, though! All the things she'd missed! She'd had meetings booked, important ones. Who would have ruled in her absence? Anna was on the other side of the world, Olaf was too naive to be trusted so that just left...
"Who..." she tried to speak again, but found it too difficult so she gave up and hoped he knew what she meant.
"I hope you don't mind but I sort of... well... ruled in your absence," he answered her incomplete question for her.
She shrugged her shoulders and smiled up at him, truthfully not quite sure what to think. Deep down she was happy someone capable had taken her burden away from her, but at the same time she remembered all too clearly what happened when Anna trusted Hans, and Eric was from the same family after all. They did say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
"You really don't mind?" Eric seemed nervous as to what she would think, which she thought was slightly strange. Why would he care what she thought of him?
"Hmmm?" she raised her eyebrows at him, wondering if she'd missed something while she'd been deep in thought. Provided he wasn't anything like Hans, she was perfectly ok with him taking her place for now so long as it wasn't permanent and she wasn't entirely cut out of the decision-making process. It was, after all, her kingdom, not his.
"I set a date for the wedding, and... well... I kind of... started to organise it," he spat out all in a rush after pausing like a naughty school boy who was terrified of getting in trouble.
She smiled to herself. "When?" she managed to croak out through her dry and chapped lips.
"A month from now, nothing to stress about. I made sure it would be just before your sisters, that's the custom in your kingdom isn't it? That the eldest sister must be married before the younger ones?" now he wasn't even looking at her, merely picking at threads of the bedspread and twisting them between his perfectly manicured fingernails.
She made a quiet sound of assent, mesmerised by the swaying of the curtains blocking the horribly bright sunlight from entering the room. She felt strange, like she wasn't fully in control of herself. She tried to summom her powers to create a tiny little snowman to keep her company while she was bedridden, but nothing happened!
She looked up at Eric, trying to convey her shock without using her cracked voice. Somewhere deep within she realised he still hadn't told her where she was, and considering her powers seemed to have run away from her she needed to know more than ever. It was imperative that she found out what had happened as soon as possible, otherwise how was she supposed to protect the people she cared about?
"What's wrong?" Eric asked, reaching for her hand with his much larger ones.
"My powers... are gone!" she exclaimed softly, grimacing at the way her croaky voice echoed from the walls and reverberated in her ears like all horrid sounds tended to do.
He frowned. "How could that happen?"
She shrugged, unable to answer the question herself. She wished there was someone she could ask who might give her an actual answer rather than avoiding the question like most people were bound to do.
Wait! There was Obita! Maybe she should summon him, he was sure to know, or would be able to find out for her. All those books in his messy and dark library, surely there would be something to do with seasonal mages like her? Anything at all, even something about fire mages would be helpful currently.
"Can you..." she coughed hoarsely into her hand. "Can you please summon Obita?"
"Who's Obita?" was the softly asked reply.
"The librarian," she managed to croak out with her eyes closed against the strain. Maybe she should just sleep... All this messy business could wait until morning when she wasn't quite so very tired. A huge yawn escaped from her cracked lips, despite her willpower not to.
"Don't fall asleep!" Eric exclaimed softly. "Please, please don't fall asleep..." and he started to sing her a lullaby, which somewhere deep in her logical mind she thought was quite ironic, considering he didn't want her to fall asleep. So why was he singing her a lullaby? That was men for you, she supposed.
Suddenly there was an incredible pounding on the door that succeeded where Eric's lullaby had not at keeping her awake. Speaking of, his singing cut off mid-melody and he got to his feet and raced to open the door so the horrid noise would cease. Her ears were hurting and his probably were too. But even then it was better than Eric's off-key singing.
Eric got up to open the door only to reveal the anxious face of Obita as he stood in the doorway bouncing up and down on his feet. His hands were clenched into fists and they drummed against his side like he was holding something in them that he didn't want anyone to see.
"What do you want?!" Eric hissed rudely, though despite his best efforts she still heard every word.
Elsa struggled to her feet and managed to stumble over to the door. It was amazing what one would do to avoid hurting one's already sore throat.
As soon as Obita saw her he pushed past Eric, who looked slightly offended but he'd get over it. He grabbed her arm between clammy fingers and dragged her over to a comfortable chair that creaked just next to the fireplace. He helped her to sit while Eric watched on, frowning to himself.
"This is Obita," she said pointedly to Eric. "The librarian." A look of comprehension fluttered across his face and like the wind it was gone just as quickly.
"What happened?" Obita asked.
"Easier to show you," she told him, holding one of her hands aloft and pointing it toward the fireplace. She tried to summon her powers, again finding it impossible to reach them deep under the surface of her soul where it normally bubbled over without any help from her. She made sure to frown openly, the stress she felt inside becoming apparent from her facial expression and found that the harder she tried the more it hurt inside.
She collapsed against the back of the chair as whatever had been holding her to the place deep within where her powers were't anymore let her go. She closed her eyes to try and regain her energy, but also because she no longer had the strength to keep them open. Her hand fell into her lap, cold as the snow and ice she'd been trying to create. It was an entirely new feeling, and she wasn't sure she liked it.
After a few minutes of blessed silence she opened her eyes again to find both Obita and Eric looking at her with concern. Obita had taken a seat and Eric was leaning against the wall, watching, but looking like he could get up and walk away any minute now.
Obita looked lost in thought, mumbling to himself while he worked his chubby fingers over whatever he still held clenched in his hands. If only she knew what he was thinking, but she figured that if she was patient he'd tell her soon enough.
"How... interesting," he remarked, seemingly to himself, eyebrows clenched into deep v's across his face as he puzzled over the fresh issue she had presented to him. Suddenly his sharp and beady little eyes focused on her where she still sat, exhausted. "How long have you been like this?"
"I only just noticed," she replied softly, but hoarsely.
"Hmmm... Good that you caught it early," he murmured, lost in thought yet again.
He got to his feet from where he sat reclined comfortably, suddenly as stiff as a post, staring at her for a few uncomfortable moments, his gaze too sharp for her liking. Then he was off, moving toward the door like he'd overstayed his welcome, when that so obviously wasn't true. As he left, he said to Eric: "Don't let her out of your sight. This is... She is..." for once Obita seemed lost for words. A rarity, something she'd never before experienced. How exciting. These were his last words before the door clicked softly shut behind him, and silence reigned over the room once again.