Finally, one night, chased to the front hall and cornered there, I did something I hadn't considered before. I was backed up against the dark wood, and my hand found the doorknob. Anna was getting closer and closer. As terrifying as she was, I'd never had the bright idea to leave the castle. I thought that if I stayed here, Anna would keep her wrath confined within these walls. But she kept advancing, and I didn't want to die. So I turned the handle. The cold air blasted in, stirring my filthy, ratty dress around my ankles.

"Elsa?" Anna asked. "Wh-where are you going? It's so cold out there!" I left her standing in the hall, surrounded by her twisted snowmen.

The town was quiet. I briefly wondered if the entire village had fled to find somewhere safer. The streets were dirty. Litter; old cloth and broken wood, piled up in doorways. It did indeed seem that these people had abandoned their useless child ruler to be devoured by this empty town. But then there was a flicker of curtains at a window. Thin faces looked out.

This town was in ruin. I couldn't save myself, let alone them. Would they even listen to me if I gave an order? I couldn't let them see me, couldn't let them see this mess that was their princess. I was useless; I'd abandoned them to face the problems of a kingdom alone. They governed themselves. I ran across the lake. Though it was springtime, my footsteps left stars of ice as I ran. I sprinted for the trees, running until I couldn't see any of the town. There, I curled up against the bole of a tree. A soft cushion of snow formed beneath me, cradling me in ice as I fell asleep.

There was something warm and wet on my face when I woke up. For a moment, I didn't dare open my eyes. I was sure I was back on the damp carpet of the ballroom, though the light was too bright. Then the wet thing licked all the way up the side of my face and I opened my eyes. I was momentarily baffled by the sight of a reindeer, tongue wagging out the side and dripping onto my face.

"What is that, Sven?" I heard a boy's voice ask from further away. I sat up, backing myself up against the truck of the tree. A blond boy stepped into view. "A girl?" he said in surprise, catching sight of me. "H-hi, I guess," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He stopped walking towards me. "I'm Kristoff." He extended a hand, seeming to forget he was still quite a ways away. Realizing this, he stepped forward and extended his hand once more, leaning down so he was closer.

His hand was warm and surprisingly rough. I stood and brushed stray snow off my dress. Kristoff continued to stand off to the side. It looked like he was speaking through the corner of his mouth to his reindeer, but he stopped immediately when I fully faced him. I turned and began walking back to the outskirts of town. The castle might be a hell, but it was my castle and there were no strange boys wandering around reminding me that outside my own world, people lived normal, terror-free lives.

"Hey, wait," he said. "What's your name?"

I stopped. "I am Princess Elsa of Arendelle," I said. The name sounded strange. It was easy to forget about being a princess when all my clothes were ripped and getting too small, but I had to look the part, so I stood up straighter and pushed my shoulders back. For the first time in forever, I felt slightly in control of the situation. "And I have to go back to my home." My strides grew in length as I felt an unfamiliar sense of purpose. At the top of a little hill I could see over the lake, still cloaked in morning mists. Tendrils of fog, not yet dissipated by the heat of the barely rising sun, crept up the spires and along the walls of my city. The veil hid all the ugly decay and damage; looking upon it from this angle it appeared that Arendelle was a perfect, storybook kingdom with nary an ill to trouble it. Perhaps it was that illusion that allowed me to think I could march right back into the castle, sort out my troubles with Anna, and be a good leader of my people.

I did not turn to see what the reindeer and his boy would do; I simply kept walking towards the lake. Sleepless nights had made me forget how much I adored the morning, the quiet sleepiness of it all, the loneliness that wasn't quite loneliness but was instead a quiet solitude. The sensation of being at peace with ones' self and the rising sun. Murmurs to the reindeer assured me that Kristoff was still following me. I wondered idly if he lived in Arendelle; I wondered what he was doing out here in the cold, alone with a reindeer. It was very strange. But if princesses can be chased from their castles to sleep in the woods, so could a possibly crazy young boy. I slowed my pace just slightly to allow them to catch up, and peeked at him. I hoped he wouldn't notice.

He wasn't that young, not really. He might have been about my age, almost fifteen. We were nearing the shore of the lake.

"You know, you could start turning left if you're planning on getting to Arendelle by tomorrow. It's going to be a long walk." I was irritated by the way he stretched out the word 'long'. I smiled.

"Oh, I'm not going around. I have a secret. I'm going to go right across the lake. But you're not allowed to watch, so go away." My patience was wearing thin. Almost a year of no other human contact had made me unsure of myself, and a princess should never be unsure of herself.

Kristoff was silent for several moments. Finally he said, "You can't make me. I'll go away if I want to and there's nothing you can do about it one way or the other. So either you hide your secret and walk all the way around, or you show me. Besides, I bet there's nothing that special about a boat."

"It's not a boat." But he did have a point, I couldn't make him leave. "Do you even live in Arendelle?"

"No."

"Where do you live?" I'd thought Arendelle was far away from other kingdoms, and that the nearest one was closest by sea. Kristoff certainly hadn't swum here.

"With my family."

"That's not a place."

"That's none of your business."

Since there was nothing I could think of to say and nothing I could do to remove him, we walked on in silence until we reached the lakeshore.

"Alright, princess, what are you going to do now?" I didn't like the way he said the word 'princess,' either. He had such an annoying way of speaking.

"I'll show you," I said. I stuck one foot out over the water, pausing for effect, but Kristoff didn't seem impressed. So I stepped down. This time, I concentrated. Instead of little stars forming directly under my feet, I froze the whole lake. The whole thing, right to the edges. Even I was a little surprised. I'd never let it go and frozen something so huge. It felt good. I stepped back and faced Kristoff, crossing my arms. I couldn't help but smile as his eyes widened in wonder. Then his face lit up.

"Sven! It's ice!" he said. Then, bafflingly, in a different voice, he said "I can see that, silly." Before I could question this he was out there, sprawling against the cold surface.

"Ice!" he yelled. Then he seemed to remember that I was standing there. "Ice?" He stood slowly. "How did you do that?!"

"My secret," I said. Curiously, I didn't know what else to tell him. I realized then that I didn't quite know how I did it. It just happened. But there wasn't time to think about that.

"What else can you do?"

"Go away, I'm not some kind of carnival freak."

"I never said you were, but this, this is amazing."

I decided that Kristoff was weird."You've got a thing for ice?"

"A thing!? Ice is my life!"

He was weird, but then again so was I. I'd frozen an entire lake with my foot and he wasn't asking many questions, so I decided to let his strangeness go.

"Alright you've seen my secret. I'm going home now."

Kristoff squinted across the ice at the castle.

"Is it made of ice? Your home, I mean. I can't see too well from here."

"No. Then the town would know what I can do."

"You think they didn't notice the frozen lake? Even though it's early, there are still people awake."

"They're not going to know I did it. Now let's go before it starts to thaw. It's warm today."

"Look, Elsa-"

"You can address me as princess."

"Look, princess," Kristoff said, rolling his eyes. "Aren't your parents going to be worried about you by now?"

I couldn't help but be startled. "Haven't you heard? The king and queen of Arendelle are dead."

"Then who's looking after you?"

"I can look after myself," I said. Kristoff was silent. I noticed that my footsteps were the only ones to be heard on the ice. I turned and saw he was standing there, alone.

"Who feeds you?" he asked.

"My parents had it arranged that a maid would bring food to the door once a month. I assume they paid her very handsomely, because she still comes even a year after their death."

"Princess, I'm really sorry…"

"It's fine." I could hear that Kristoff had resumed walking behind me. "I thought you didn't live in Arendelle. And aren't your parents worried about you?"

"My family is a little more… what's the word? They're not very strict."

"Lenient?" I said.

"No I don't think that's it. Anyway, they're used to me being gone for a bunch of days."

"But where are you going to go? Why are you still following me?"

"I'd like to see the castle," he said.

"It's really ugly up close. It's all falling apart. The inside is even rotting."

"Then why do you live there?"

"Where else am I going to live?"

His response was drowned out by a piercing shriek.

"Elsa!"

It echoed off the ice and seemed to surround us. It was a voice I knew very well. I dropped to my knees and ducked my head. I didn't know what to expect. There was a huge cracking sound as the ice began to break.

"I've found you now Elsa. It doesn't matter where you run off to. I'm always going to find you if you try and run away from me. You can't run away from me. We're sisters."

The air felt heavier. Her presence was all around us, solid and oppressing. Kristoff was looking around for the source of the voice. He'd moved closer to his reindeer and was clinging to its fur with white knuckles. Then the voice and the heaviness in the atmosphere were gone.

"What happened?" Kristoff still clung to Sven. "What was that? How did it know your name?"

I couldn't bring myself to stand again. Tears ran through the cracks between my fingers and landed in front of me.

"Didn't you hear her?" I yelled between sobs. "She's my sister. Now get away from me before she comes back!"

Then Kristoff was there. His hand was on my back.

"Why…?"

I furiously brushed his hand away and stood up. "Just leave me alone!"

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, there was a thunderous crack. The ice was splitting, breaking into huge chunks. I was thrown into the air by the earthquake-like motion, and I landed sprawled on the ground.

Kristoff grabbed my hand and dragged me in the direction of the city.

"Let me go!" It was no use. I was forced to stagger along behind him as best I could. He lost his grip on my hand as a fracture formed between us, but at that point I was thinking the same thing he was. We had to get off the ice.

The reindeer was thrown to the side by another huge shift in the ice floes. My heartbeat stuttered as it leapt for the next chunk and almost missed.

"Sven!" called Kristoff over his shoulder. The reindeer scrabbled and managed to pull itself forward enough to be safe. "Princess! Get on Sven's back!"

The ice continued to shift, but the reindeer managed to get to me. It knelt down while I hastily threw a leg over its back. As soon as I was stable, the reindeer took off in the direction of Kristoff. I very nearly fell off of the animal as another crack of breaking ice split the air.

As we ran beside Kristoff, he used Sven's antlers to pull himself up.

"Hold on," he yelled over his shoulder. I wrapped both my arms around his neck. "Not there, I can't breathe!" he said, his voice muffled. I moved my arms to his waist.

It seemed like it took forever, but eventually we collapsed at the harbor. There was a small crowd gathered there, citizens roused from their daily tasks by the noise of the ice breaking up.

"I can't stay here," I whispered to Kristoff. "I have to go. Don't follow me. Just get back to your family. Be safe." I got up to run but he grabbed my wrist again.

"You can't do that! I'm the princess! Guards!"

But no one in the crowd of onlookers moved to help me. The people began to disperse.

"Help!" I shouted again. But the very few remaining people just stepped back a bit.

"Did you lie to me?" Kristoff asked. "Are you really a princess? Princesses have subjects. These people aren't your subjects. They're not obeying you." He scratched his chin. "And your dress is all ripped and stuff too. You're just some kid."

"I am the princess!"

"Look, I don't care if you are or aren't. You froze the entire lake. You're clearly something special. You don't have to lie to me."

Suddenly I was so weary. "I didn't lie. I have to get back to the castle before Anna yells again and the whole town hears."

"You're going back to the place where that ghost is?"

"I don't have a choice. She's my sister. As long as I'm there she'll keep her horrors confined to the castle."

"Is that why you don't leave?" Kristoff asked.

"If I leave, she'll find me anywhere, as she proved earlier today. I can't go anywhere because I don't want to bring her after me, out into the world where there are other people. I have to get back to the castle."

Kristoff released my arm. "Bye," I said. "Thanks. Thanks for being nice to me." He didn't reply, so I walked off down the street.