Gerda sat at the feet of Kay's grandmother. "But who is she?" she asked once more.
"No one knows, except for the snow queen herself," the old woman answered. "All I know is that she brings the snows and draws the ice pictures on the windows."
"Did she bring the blizzard that killed old Mr. Henderson?" Kay asked.
"That she did."
"Why? She must be awful mean, then."
"Is she good or bad?" Gerda asked, sounding rather confused.
"I don't know. Nobody really knows anything about her, but she's not to be judged by the storms she brings. She simply is who she is and her position demands respect. I would imagine that her life is not always pleasant, always being in the cold, winter snows," the white-haired lady tried as best as she could to explain the snow queen.
"Well, I'm going to meet her someday," Kay said determinedly.
"Me too," Gerda said, in her sweet little girl's voice. "And when I do, I'll ask her if she likes being the snow queen or if she would rather be in warm weather."
Kay's grandmother, Mrs. Thatcher was her name, laughed. "Silly children, you can't meet the snow queen."
"Why not?" they asked in unison.
"It's simply not done."
"Why not?"
"It's—it's just the way things are. And don't ask why not again, or I won't tell you another story."
The children were then immediately quiet, listening for the next tale. It was a very cold winter day and they had nothing to do but listen to stories from the old grandmother. They could not wait for summer so they could once again go and play in the rose garden that was in between Kay and Gerda's two houses. In full summer there would be roses cascading over the wall of both houses, so thick that sometimes it was impossible not to get a few thorns stuck in you. Both children adored playing in the roses and would usually spend all day there together. They loved each other as only children could, in the simple, completely trusting way that adults seem unable to find.
The next day was a bit warmer so the children decided to bundle up and have a race outside. As they were running Kay got something in his eye. Gerda won the race, then looked back to find Kay winking and squinting.
"Kay are you alright?" she asked, putting her hand on his arm.
"Yes, I'm fine now. It's gone." But he wasn't fine. He was different, for he had pieces of the looking glass, one in his eye and one frozen round his heart. Looking aroun, nothing looked quite the same. The street looked cold, dark, and deserted. The houses looked poor and rundown. Gerda looked like an annoying, sniveling child. Her freckles and the knots in her hair were extremely pronounced and she looked very ugly. He violently flung her hand off of him. "Don't touch me," he hollered.
"Oh—alright," Gerda stuttered, wondering why he was suddenly so moody.
"And I don't want to race anymore, it such a childish thing to do!"
"Oh, well, I suppose we could listen to your grandmother tell more stories—"
"No, she tells such boring, simple stories, made for babies."
From that day he was never the same. He never wanted to do anything with Gerda, who he despised with no apparent reason, and he was always yelling and hollering about everything. Once, he got very, very angry and flung Gerda across the room, making her fall down and hit her head.
"Kay, what's wrong with you? You're never nice anymore!" she cried.
"I'm just the same as I always, you're just so babyish and mean and ugly nowadays. Stop crying, you look so horridly ugly. Now I'm going into town where the other, older boys are. That's where I should have been all along, instead of playing with a boring little girl like you."
"Kay...wait!" But he was already far down the street.
In town there were many boys who were daring each other to do wild things, like seeing how far out on the ice in the fountains they could go without it cracking, taking gum from the general store and other similar things. Kay didn't really enjoy it, he just enjoyed it more than playing with Gerda. The other boys thought he was funny, the way he seemed to hate everything. They would point to things and ask him what was wrong with it, and of course he would find something.
They were standing, trying to think of a hard enough dare for Kay to do when a pure white sledge with a black-haired woman drove by. The boys' eyes widened. "Kay, I dare you to jump on that sledge and ride for a while with the lady," one of them said.
"Fine, I will," said Kay, for he didn't want to be thought of as a chicken. He started to run and jumped onto the back of the sledge.
For a few minutes he sat still on the back. The sledge started to go faster and faster and Kay got very, very cold. Eventually he decided he'd just go and talk to the lady driving it. He flipped himself over onto the seat in the sledge, right next to her. She was very beautiful with jet black hair, skin as white as snow, and bright blue eyes. She raised one dark brow at him when she saw him.
"Hello," she said, almost making it sound like a question.
"Erm—hello ma'am. My name's Kay." Kay thought she was the lovliest thing he had ever seen. Though he thought that the white horses pulling the sledge were actually rather off-white and the sledge really wasn't designed quite right for getting very much speed and the bells on the horse's harness's clanged in a very unmusical way, he found no fault with the black-haired lady. Her skin was entirely pure of blemishes, her eyes shone in an ethereal way, and her hair was perfectly straight with not one fly-away hair.
"Hello, Kay." There was a rather awkward silence. "You look cold. Do you wish to be covered by my blankets." Her voice was soft like the wind and as musical as a flute tuned to perfection.
The blankets were of snowy white fur and Kay accepted immediately. (Even though they weren't quite as soft as they should have been.)
"How long are you planning on riding with me, Kay?" the lady asked him.
"Well, where are we going?" asked Kay.
"To my palace of ice, far, far from here."
"Then you're the snow queen!"
She nodded, "Yes, yes I am."
Kay thought that there was something he ought to ask her, something someone else had wanted to ask her, but he could not recall just what it was.
"Do you wish to come to my palace with me? You could stay there as long as you like," she asked Kay.
"Well, I suppose I could for a little while," Kay said. He knew, of course that he shouldn't, but the glass in his heart made him uncaring to how his family and Gerda would react to him being gone so long.
"Good," she said smiling slightly.
They rode in silence for a time, until Kay, though covered in the fur blankets, became very cold. He was shivering, almost violently and his lips had turned slightly blue. The snow queen then, suddenly gave him a kiss on the forehead. Her lips were like ice and for a moment Kay thought he would surely freeze to death, but then it seemed to immunize him to the cold. He stopped shivering and sat up straight in the sledge, without feeling cold in the slightest. He was perfectly fine for the rest of the trip to the ice palace.
Well, I revised it a little, trying to show how things looked to Kay, but I wasn't entirely sure where to put things. More reviews are always welcome.