Elliott glanced around the highest peak of the mountain, the only sound was the howl of the wind which was almost as loud as the raging storm inside his head; luckily the latter was subsiding as his adrenaline left him and his thoughts cleared. The snow seemed to glow white, pure and untouched by anyone other than him, there were no other footprints to be seen. He was, essentially, alone. At last.

A kingdom of isolation, how fitting, he thought darkly, and it looks like I'm the King. Elliott felt the pent up resentment rise from his gut and to his hands, icing them over. This was not his fault. And it wasn't Andy's. So who was he going to blame?

His parents.

Conceal, don't feel, don't let it show.

But what if he could not conceal that part of himself? What if he felt? Nobody told him what to do if he felt, and he felt a lot.

What if it showed? What was he to do then? He couldn't hold it back anymore, and heaven knows he tried.

Thinking about it was too painful, he hadn't looked back, not even once. And why would he? It was time to let go. The North Mountain was the perfect place. No one would be crazy enough to follow him there. Here he could be Elliott, the real Elliott, and not have to worry about hurting others by being himself.

He stared down at his remaining gloved hand.

Be the good boy you always have to be, he thought back to all his lessons, all the aspects of his life which he could not control, all the decisions he'd had no say in. He had obeyed it all without questions, even at the expense of others.

Andy…

Well, now his brother knew. Now Andy knew after all these years the reason. All those years he'd been asking the question and, finally, he'd got an answer- in the form of an icy blast, but still an answer nonetheless. Actually, the whole kingdom got the answer to a question they never asked. Andy had beenangry for the first time, angry at Elliot. He'd demanded an explanation, and after Elliott gave it, he turned away and slammed the door- shutting Andy out yet again. It was becoming a vicious cycle.

What are they going to think?,a tiny part of Elliott's mind wondered.

An amazing realization dawned on him. He didn't care.

With a hard yank, he took off his last lone glove and let it fly away to ride along the howling wind. A giggle escaped his mouth, and he was surprised by the sound.

Another feeling replaced the fear and anger in his gut— a sort of release. Who cared what the people back at the party were going to say? People like the Duchess of SandLAME, he certainly did not care about her opinion.

In fact, he didn't care about anyone's.

A slow smile spread over his lips. He was free.

And he should not be mad at his parents. They could have had him shunned, banished, locked up- instead, they did all they could to protect him, taught him to conceal his powers. But Elliott didn't want them concealed. Not anymore.

Barely thinking about it, he flicked his wrist, and from the ground a snowman started to assemble itself. Short legs and a broad chest decorated with medals, thick arms holding a sharp ice sword, the head with a handlebar moustache and ice shards for eyes.

"It's good to see you again, General," Elliott saluted. He'd built tiny versions of the snowman to keep him company over the years, but usually no bigger than his head. He laughed; now the snowman was bigger, but still short enough so it was funny, it barely reached Elliott's waist.

He should have been freezing in his coronation outfit, but the bitter air didn't faze him. The cold never bothered me anyway,Elliott thought, and to make a point, he pulled off the pin from his cape and let it fly out on the wind to go and join his discarded glove wherever it might have landed.

The new distance between himself and the castle made all his previous worries seem small, all the fears that had once controlled him could not get to him up in the mountain. Would he be late for tutoring, should he write to the King of the North? Should he attend that meeting, would he accidentally freeze the soup he was eating?

All the little things that had haunted him before seemed to insignificant now. Would Andy come knocking today?That had caused him the most stress every day. How to tell his brother he could not play with him, or ride outside the castle walls, or practice sparring with swords. But Andy was safe from him now, down in Arendelle. Where he couldn't hurt him.

He'll be happy,Elliott tried convincing himself, with that Helena from who-knows-where.

Here he was free. He could do whatever he wanted. He looked down at his exposed hands, which had been covered for so many years he'd almost forgot all the lines and marks in them, the thin hairs and the light freckles. He clenched them. It was time to see what he could do.

•••

He ended up building a bunch of snowmen.

At first he modeled them after people he knew, his tutor Erik, Gerda who worked at the castle, and so on. For a while all of them were well-made, like General Winter, but Elliott started to get lazy and impetuous and decided to just mess around with his power. He made little lumps of snow with eyes and awkwardly shaped arms, with ice spikes for teeth. All those misshapen ones now decorated the mountain.

He made a specially ugly Duchess of Sandlane with sharp teeth and exaggerated her hook nose up to a point where it looked ridiculous.

Who's the monster now, he thought, giving her troll-like feet, for stepping on my brother while you danced. Ha!

Let's give you a buddy,Elliott smiled wickedly and with a blast of snow another snowman assembled itself next to the Snow Duchess. The snowy face of Helena stared back at him, her ice eyes lifeless. Good. Just like the original.Elliott added two little horns at the top of the Ice Princess' head and masculine sideburns, Elliott snorted with laughter.

When he was satisfied with his small army of snowmen, he decided to challenge himself. Build something he never had before, test the limits andbreak through.

He shot an ice beam in front of him, creating a surprisingly fine staircase with a snowy rail on both sides. He started to run up the stairs, laughing and shooting ice in front of him.

Elliott reached the flat surface across the void he'd just made crossable with his stairs; he slammed down his foot and a thick layer of ice spread from there, creating what in his mind would be the great hall. Then he built ice columns and high, mighty walls, archways and more stairs.

His new Ice Palace was going to be fantastic- no, his Ice Fortress.

He raised his hands high above his head and created the ceiling but he made sure it was really thin so he could see the sky, and he noticed with slight amusement, dawn was beginning to rise. But he could still see a few stars, the only witnesses to his creations, those distant little lights in the sky that had kept him company over the years as he'd gazed up at the velvety darkness though the window growing up. It seemed fitting that they saw him now, how far he'd come. How much fun he was having with his powers instead of being terrified of them.

His power flurried through the air, and he felt like he was the conductor of an orchestra, directing his magic to create all sorts of decorations and structures- entirely made of ice and snow. Elliott had never in his life imagined himself capable of creating something like that. Years of reading architecture books when he was bored out of his mind seemed to be paying off.

This creative release was so different, so exciting he wanted to cry. Letting go of all that fear that had held him back was absolutely wonderful. He ran up the stairs to the second floor which was just as amazing as the great hall below, but here he focused his magic on creating a balcony to overlook everything.

He was delighted at the result, the snowflake he'd created for the door that would lead to the balcony was so beautiful he felt his chest swell with pride- at the door and everything else, of course, but he was just really damn proud of that snowflake.

But there was still something weighing him down. He placed a hand gingerly on his head; the crown of Arendelle was still there. He took it off and stared at the handmade detail, the crown looked like it was woven with gold branches, with a beautiful jewel in the middle.

Elliott carelessly tossed it over his shoulder. That was from the past. He didn't need it. He ran a hand through his hair, letting the locks of blonde hair loose and fall over his eyes for the first time in forever. He'd usually made sure to keep it slicked back, with not a hair out of place, but now his hair looked windblown.

He looked down at his coronation outfit. Dark trousers and boots, his teal jacket and shirt with a bronze colored tie; his gloves and cape were gone, who knows where the wind had carried them.

Could he...

He raised his hands, and with a huge grin he watched a new material he'd never seen before start to crawl from his boots up. They became a steel blue color, with a fine layer of frosting on them. Next his trousers also became ice, and his upper half transformed into a sort of crystallized 'vest' with a belt; the sleeves of it the color of his boots and also with frost on the elbows and shoulders. He missed his cape a little, so he created a long, transparent one made of a sheer material decorated with snowflakes. He looked down at his reflection and smiled softly. He looked- and felt- like a completely different person.

Elliott walked over to the balcony as the transformation happened, he felt happy thinking his powers protected him from the cold those icy clothes would have caused otherwise. Maybe his curse wasn't all that bad.

As he suspected, a new pinkish dawn was rising over the horizon. He leaned over the rail, but he could not see Arendelle. Not that he wantedto, it was just an observation. Nothing but snowcapped peaks and a lone forest to keep him company; that and the coldest mountain air ever.

He stood there, in the light of day. The cold had never bothered him anyway.Smirking, he turned and slammed the snowflake door he was so damn proud of.

•••

If Elliott had known better, he would have looked down at his previous play area, where a bunch of snowmen used to be.

Now there were footprints to be seen, and his kingdom of isolation had subjects.

And maybe not necessarily the good kind.

+++ Well some of u were asking about general winter- there he is! or, well, was...

++ guess this is where this takes a turn away from disney's frozen, kinda.. still leaning a little on the script tho. KRISTA coming next, omfg she's a cutiee

+i also focused a lot on the other versions of let it go, like the spanish libre soy and the french libérée délivrée theyre rlly nicee & helped write this chap.

if u have any questions drop by my tumblr askbox ive been getting a few over theree

thanks for reading!:)