Anna

The snow was blinding, the wind howled too loud for me to hear anything else, and I couldn't stop slipping on the ice. I felt all alone, even though I knew there had to be people still around me, hidden by the whiteness. "Elsa!" I cried out, not knowing what else to do. "Elsa!" I slipped and fell for the millionth time, and since I was getting nowhere like this, I simply sat and stayed, hugging myself to try and keep warm. My guessing game was finally over, but I was more confused now than I was before. Where did she get her powers? How long had she had them? Why did she need to keep it a secret from me? I was drawing a blank on those and many other questions that swirled around in my brain like the billions of flurries around me.

Suddenly, I started moving, sliding on the ice. My rational brain told me that it had to be the strong wind picking up, but for a moment, I could have sworn that I had felt a hand on my back. Soon, a light appeared close by, and I heard a voice, Mother's voice. She was singing as loud as she could over the storm. I started scrambling forward on my hands and knees to reach her and the warm halls of the palace, but I hadn't gone far before I hit the front stairs, and realized that the light was much closer than I had anticipated. In fact, it almost seemed to be coming from Mother.

And it was! I realized this as I crawled up to her. As she sang - I don't think I've ever really heard her sing before - each strand of hair in her long braid pulsed with a surreal golden light, and it was warm. A part of me was in awe and wonder and wanted to touch the light, but the other part was too freaked out to move. That couldn't be Mother. This was just too unreal. Then again, I had just watched my own sister shoot ice from her fingertips.

What the heck was going on?!

Mother, seeing me standing out in the snow with my mouth hanging open, gestured for me to come inside the castle, bringing me out of my stupor enough for me to move. As I came through the massive double doors, I stuck close to the wall, careful not to come near her or touch her, afraid of what the strange light coming from her was and what it would do. Briefly, she stopped singing and turned around to face me, and her hair slowly returned to normal. I half-hoped for an explanation, but I was also terrified of what it might be. She told me nothing but, "Honey, I know everything's crazy right now, but I need you to help. Guide everyone you see to the ballroom and instruct the servants to light every lantern and fire in the palace. I'm going to stay here and help guide people to the castle. No one can be left out in this storm."

I was still very dazed and found that I could only stand there, gaping, and point at her hair. She placed her hands on my shoulders and looked me straight in the eye. "I know this is all very confusing, but I'll explain later."

Finally, I found voice. "Later? How about now? You...Elsa...just what is going on?"

Sternly, she replied, "Anna, I know you're scared, but so are a lot of other people. Lives are on the line here. Everything will be explained. I promise." I nodded, knowing that Mother never, ever broke her promises. Mother smiled and kissed my forehead. I noticed how warm her lips felt, even though she was standing in open door while a storm raged on. She let me go, turned around, and began to sing again. "Flower, gleam and glow..."

I began to walk away to do what she had told me, but I glanced over my shoulder every so often at her. The song she was singing was eerily familiar, as if I had heard if in a dream before...

I guided scared, confused people to the brightly lit ballroom, where every fireplace blazed with warmth. Many of them turned to me, asking what was going on, and I sadly had to admit to them that I had no earthly idea. One guest turned to me - I believe his title was the Duke of Weselton - and asked in the most accusing tone possible, "There's no magic in you, too, is there?" His face wrinkled in disgust and the same men who had chased my sister turned to glare, waiting for my answer.

"No!" I denied quickly. "Of course not! I didn't even know!" The Duke narrowed his eyes skeptically and left me alone for the rest of the night. His comment did get under my skin, though. Mother had powers, Elsa had powers, could I possibly have them? I did have that one light streak in my hair that was even lighter than Elsa's. Could my power just not have manifested itself before? (Also, why did power have anything to do with what color hair my family had? I mean, that was just really weird. I wasn't going to burst into flames, was I?)

Then, as I helped guide more people, I somehow began thinking about my Father. I eyed his throne and wondered if he'd had powers, too. I was often told that Elsa took after him. Did he have ice magic? Was that why he also never saw anyone? Was that what killed him?

When I was fairly sure that everyone had been herded into the ballroom, I paused to rest on my throne, pressing my fingers into my temple. My head hurt. This was all too much! All of my thinking wasn't getting me anywhere, it felt like Mother was taking forever, and time after time, I had to turn people away with questions that I didn't have the answer to.

Finally, Mother came striding into the ballroom, with a few freezing stragglers waddling in behind her and rushing to gather around the fire with everyone else. People rose as she walked by, many of them throwing questions and accusations her way. She kept her face forward and her expression calm, something that I figured must come with years of practice as Queen. She took her place beside me at her throne, and before I could even stand or open my mouth, she had anticipated what I would say and told me, "Not now." Then, her gaze fell over the crowd, which immediately became silent.

"I know that this is all very confusing." The Duke stepped up to say something rudely, but one glare from Mother, and he humbly stepped back with his guards. "I can't explain everything, but I am working on a plan now to bring her back."

"Why do we want her back?" a voice said from somewhere in the room. "She caused all of this."

"I'll bring her back, and we will stop this Winter. I promise." The crowd hushed, knowing the weight that a promise from their queen carried. "For now, I ask that you stay here, where it will be safe and warm for as long as possible. The servants will provide you with rooms to stay in and hot meals, though things will be tightly packed. Until you are escorted elsewhere, please stay in the ballroom. Thank you. One more thing, are any of you hurt or injured?" A few hands rose, and I could see people with bruises and cuts from slipping on the ice. Mother turned to me. "Anna, pull here." She gestured to a spot on her braid.

I followed a few instructions that she gave me on her hair, and after undoing a few well-placed knots, her thick braid fell and started to unwind into a huge pile of wavy hair. She shook her head to get every twist out, and a small smile spread across her face. "I haven't worn it down in years," she murmured. Then, she began to walk down the center of the room until she reached the end, her unbelievably long hair trailing behind her the entire way, and when she stopped, there was still a good sized pile at my feet. Who could have imagined that this much was contained in that braid she always wore. There had to be somewhere around one hundred feet of hair! "Now, if you are hurt, please come forward and lay your hands down."

Hesitantly, the crowd shifted to allow people through, and they did. "Anna, you too," Mother insisted, noticing my own bruises. Slowly, I knelt down and wrapped my banged up arms in locks of her golden hair. Then, Mother began to sing again with the same haunting song as before. The light started from her scalp and made its way down her long waves of hair. The injured lined along it stared in awe and smiled happily as the light touched them. Lastly, it reached me, and a pleasing warmth spread through my entire body. It reminded me of warm Summer days spent dancing in the flowers and the sunshine. All too soon, the feeling ended as Mother finished her song, and the last pulse of light reached me. Carefully, along with many others in the room, I pulled my hands back to see that every bruise was completely gone. In fact, I felt better than ever.

"Nobody freak out!" Mother said quickly, as many cries of shock echoed in the room. She looked straight at me and mouthed, "Now." I gathered up her hair and trailed behind her as she exited the room. Neither of us said anything until we reached the cozy den and shut the door. I dropped all of the hair at once.

"What the heck is going on?" I yelled. Mother calmly walked over to the couch and patted beside her.

"Sit for a minute and calm down," she ordered, and I did, ranting the entire way.

"Calm down? Calm down! Elsa just went insane and caused a blizzard in the middle of summer, and you have magic glowing hair that did something to my hand! You expect me to be calm about that?"

Mother wasn't listening at all. She had turned her head to the side and appeared to be talking to herself. "Yes, I know that she's freaking out...Yes, she probably will...I can't...It doesn't really matter anymore, though...Just stay put for now..."

Dumbstruck, I mumbled, "That's it. You're crazy, too. My entire family has gone crazy. I'm certainly not sane anymore. Yup, I have to be hallucinating."

Mother finally looked at me, somehow looking saner and more serious than ever. "Anna, there's quite a lot to explain, and not a lot of it is going to be easy to understand, but Honey, I need you to keep an open mind. Promise me?" I nodded. "I guess I should start with myself. Do you have any questions to ask about me first?"

"Uh, what is up with your magic hair, how long has it done that, and why have you never told me?" I said instantly, thinking that these questions should have been obvious.

"Okay, well, to start: I have magic, healing hair that glows when I sing. Good. We're getting that out of the way. It's done that for pretty much forever, and I'll get to why I haven't told you in a second. That actually comes at the end of this story. You see, when I was younger, you know that I was kidnapped once, but you didn't know that it was because of my powers; you thought before it was just because of my status. I was locked in a tower for 18 years to keep me "safe," but your father came and found me and saved me from the witch that had tricked me into thinking she was my mother. This brings me to my next point: your father is alive."

"Wait, WHAT?" I stood straight up. The magic hair was hard enough to believe, even though I had just seen it with my own eyes. I definitely would need to hear more on that story later, but this sudden realization consumed my every thought. The father that I had never had...was alive? "How? You said-"

"I know what I said, but I said everything for a reason, but you have to give me a chance to explain!" She stood up with me and took my hands in hers. I immediately ripped mine away and started pacing around the small room.

"How on earth can you explain this? I mean, he's my dad for goodness sake! You can't just say he's dead, and now he's not, and...and-"

"Your father is Jack Frost," she said bluntly. I shut up, stunned. Yup, totally lost her mind.

"This is crazy. You're crazy." I turned to walk out of the room, but she ran up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me.

"No, I'm being serious. You just can't see him anymore, but he's here in this room, and it breaks his heart that you don't even know he's there. He's been with you the entire time, and he's where Elsa's powers come from."

"Mother, he's a character from a fairy tale."

"And you love fairy tales! Anna, this is the worst time in your life for you to start thinking rationally. Logic just doesn't work with these things. My hair glows because of some magic sunshine flower thing, your father is Jack Frost, and your sister just caused an ice storm in summer because of the bogeyman."

"Oh, and now the bogeyman is in this, too? Mother..."

"Please, just try to see him, and you'll understand."

"How come I've never been able to see him before?"

"Because you haven't believed. All you have to do is believe in him, and you'll see him standing there as clear as day." She gestured to an empty space by the fireplace. "He's right there."

I stared and stared and stared, thinking only of how crazy this whole thing was and wondering why I was staring at a wall. There was nothing there. "Mom..." I groaned.

"You're not believing. Just think about your sister's powers. You saw them with your own eyes. Imagine that. Remember every cold wind you've felt on your back and the frost patterns that appear on your windows in the morning. Remember those nightmares you told me about. Have those images in your mind, think about what I've told you, and then look again," she instructed.

I did what she said. I closed my eyes and thought. Elsa's powers were real. Real enough to cause the storm outside that screamed against the castle walls. If our father was who she said he was, it would actually make a little bit of sense. Finally, I opened my eyes, looked at the wall, and screamed so loudly that I could hear it echoing down the hallways outside. "You see him!" Mother cheered, sounding too happy about this. A man with white hair, deathly pale skin, and bright blue eyes suddenly stood where before there had been nothing. I backed away into a table, knocking off a probably very expensive vase. Mother ran over beside the young man.

"Don't freak out!" they both exclaimed in unison.

It was a little too late for that. Tripping over my mom's hair, I scrambled over to the door and burst out, running through the hallways for someplace private, which was very hard to do when an entire kingdom was huddled under one roof. I needed some space to think, to be alone and process the information. Some people were starting to settle into the room across from my own, and I didn't want to be heard at all, so I kept running to the very end of the hallway to Elsa's room. People were making a conscious effort to stay far away from there, so I ran in, slammed the door behind me, and stood shivering and crying in the only room without a fire to warm it.