DISCLAIMER: All rights to "Frozen" and all its affiliate characters, settings etc. are owned by Disney. The opinions and content expressed here are personal thoughts of the author and does not intend in any way to assume ownership of the "Frozen" franchise.

Chapter 1

Anna woke up with a start. Her feet were ice cold. The air was frigid. White clouds formed from her mouth as she breathed heavily. Something was wrong, but she couldn't –

Her mind was dazed in half-sleep. Her eyes felt sticky. She should go back to sleep, under the blanket. The ice will melt in the morni –

"Elsa!"

She shot out of bed, almost tripping over her cold feet. They were beginning to feel numb and prickly. Alarm and worry snapped her wide awake as she raced out of her room, across the corridor to her sister's room. She stopped and gasped.

Her sister's room door was covered in ice; crystal stalagmites entrapping the edges and extending out onto the corridor like the roots of a tree. So cold was the air, that a light mist had formed along the hallway. Snow-white rime caked the blue and green patterns on the door, and the doorknob was –

A sound of something falling, voices shouting.

Elsa was in danger! She had to help her now!

Anna reached for the doorknob and instantly pulled back as the freezing metal burned her hands. She had to get in somehow. "Elsa!" she yelled across the door. More tumbling and thud noises. She tried to break down the door with her elbow, but the ice had frozen the lock and hinges solid. "Guards!" she cried out, as loudly as she could, but there was no one in the corridor. They would take too long. She had to get in now.

She looked around for anything she could use. Potted plants, vases, curtains… Why did they have so many useless things lying around the corridor?!

There! A suit of armour!

She dashed over to unhook the shield from the glove. The metal was lightly covered in rime as well, but more importantly, it was heavy. She tore off a piece of her night dress to wrap around her hand before touching it.

She ran back to Elsa's door, icy columns thickening around the borders by the second, her bare feet screaming in protest at having to step directly on ice. "I'm coming, Elsa!"

She braced the shield with both hands, cold sweat from anxiety making her grip slippery, smarting her wounds. With as much force as she could, she rammed the thickest edge of the shield once, twice, three times before the door finally gave in.

"Elsa!" she burst in, shield in hand, ready to face whatever it was that –

"Anna," a familiar, warm voice brought her attention to Elsa crouching in the middle of the room, hands outstretched, as if waiting to shoot her magic. She was panting, her eyes were wide with fear. A black stain smeared over one of her sleeves.

Anna looked around, and saw a picture of perfect destruction. Shards of glass and other debris littered the floor, the beautifully polished cedar canopy now shattered and collapsed over the bed, its razor-sharp splinters lacerating the mattress. Spatters of ice bursts and black streaks marked every discernible surface, the drapes were torn and singed, the window destroyed –

Singed?

"Anna, wait there," Elsa's warm voice hardened with worry, with concern, with fear as she edged closer to the window – now more like a hole in the wall – and craned over as she scanned the castle grounds.

"Elsa, what happened?" Anna walked closer, wanting to be as close to Elsa as possible if something were to happen again. Elsa's forearm gently stopped her short, while she continued glaring into the darkness of night. "Th-"

"Your Majesty!" a gruff call made them both jump and whirl around to see the Guard Captain that had just arrived with a small group of palace guards. "Your Majesty, we fe-, I mean heard the noise and…," his stoic expression faltered, "what happened…?"

"Gather your men and do a full sweep of the grounds," Elsa commanded, squaring her back straight and stiff whenever she assumed authority, "there's been an intruder."

The captain saluted and turned to carry out her commands. "Proceed with caution, Captain," Elsa warned, "this man is armed and dangerous," her expression was hard. The captain was caught by surprise, but quickly recovered, saluted again, and went off with his squad.

"Elsa, please, talk to me," Anna rested a hand on Elsa's shoulder, "what happened?" the comparably warm night air of summer wafted into the room, carrying with it hints of pine and sea and burnt brick.

Elsa sighed, and the tension in her shoulders somewhat dissipated. "Someone… tried to attack me in my sleep, Anna," the warmth in her voice had returned, but there was also fear and exhaustion. She looked at Anna with tired, sad eyes, "and… he was… like me…except…"

Anna was still trying to wrap her head around the attack-the-Queen-in-her-sleep part, but she urged her sister to continue, "Except? Except what, Elsa?" Her hands ached painfully, and she suddenly realised she had been gripping the shield very hard. Her wounded hand was chafing.

"Except it was fire," Elsa finished. "He had fire magic, Anna."

She felt her jaw drop, she heard the faint clang of the shield dropping, but none of it registered as her mind momentarily short-circuited with this new piece of information.

"Wait, what?"