With a moan, Elsa came to her senses. The first thing she noticed was a sharp pain in her wrist. Next, she smelt a rather damp room with a moldy musk. When she opened her eyes, she realized that she wasn’t in her ice castle anymore, but in one of Arendelle’s dungeons.
After taking a moment to fully wake up, she noticed a white, whistling window. Then she remembered Snowdrop, jumped out of bed, and raced towards the window.
Before she could reach the window, severe pain shot up from her hands to her arms. She quickly realized that she was cuffed to the floor. Limited in movement, she was just able to gaze out the window. It was enough to see what had become of Arendelle.
Anna wasn’t kidding. The entire land was frozen, and it felt like it was getting colder.
Elsa looked through the window in disquiet.
“What have I done?”
If it was this bad here, she couldn’t imagine how bad it was in the mountains. She hoped that she hadn’t been out for long. If Snowdrop had rationed her firewood, she might have enough to last her a day or two, nothing more.
With a loud creak, the dungeon door open behind her. She turned around to see Hans walking in, keeping as much distance as he could from her.
She had a lot to say, but only found six words. “Why did you bring me here?”
Hans swallowed and moved towards her. “I couldn’t let them kill you.”
“But I’m a danger to Arendelle.” She admitted, keeping her true intentions a secret. “Get Anna.” She knew her sister would get her out of this.
“Anna has not returned.” His words took Elsa back. Why hadn’t Anna just gone straight home? She knew the likely reason, and it made her feel worse. She couldn’t even see a polar bear lasting long in this weather, let alone her sister.
“If you would just stop the winter,” Hans started. “Bring back the summer, please.”
Elsa thought back to when she couldn’t blow a yard of snow off the mountain.
She turned her head from Hans. “Don’t you see? I can’t.” All she cared about was getting away, saving Snowdrop and Anna, and then taking this winter as far away from her kingdom as possible. “You have to tell them to let me go or I’ll freeze everything.”
Hans’s eyes looked around and back away. “I’ll do what I can.” With those words, he grabbed his lantern and left.
With not a moment to loss, Elsa focused her powers onto the arm cuffs. With luck on her side for once, the metal wasn’t ice-resistant. Within seconds, the ice crystals began to crack the handcuffs. It wouldn’t happen right away, but if she kept at it, she would be free.
Free to escape, find Anna, save Snowdrop, and then… Then what? Where was she supposed to go? How far would she have to run to take the winter where it wouldn’t hurt anyone? Was there even such a place? How would she know for sure that this curse didn't linger on even after she was gone?
She shook her head and focused on the cuffs. If the only people left in the world she cared about died—she didn’t want to think about it.
Taking a deep breath, she concentrated on nothing except freezing the metal chains. She pushed everything else out of her mind: Arendelle, Anna, Snowdrop. All that mattered was breaking the metal. Every moment she wasted was another moment one of them could freeze to death.
*****
An hour later, she had just about got it with her cuffs when she heard a group of men approach her cell.
“Hurry up,” a guard said from the other side of the cell door.
She put more power into her magic. The walls around her began to crack.
“She dangerous.”
Elsa shrugged.
“Quickly, carefully.” She heard one of them dangle a pair of keys.
She directed the frost towards the door.
“It won’t open!”
With a sigh, she forced every ounce of energy into the metal cuffs.
“It’s frozen shut!”
Then, with one final push, the cuffs shattered, along with everything else that was holding the cell together. With no concern for her own safety, Elsa barely dodged the falling debris and raced out into the storm. She made it out of her prison and into raging blizzard.
*****
It was impossible to see anything around her. Elsa tried to clear a path through the storm, but only made things worse as her anxiety caused the world around her to grow whiter. Every time she thought she had seen the edge of the fjord, another boat would spring up to remind her that she was still in the fjord.
Yet, despite everything, she pressed on in the hope that she could still save Anna and Snowdrop. Nothing else mattered to her but their lives. If she was sure that her death would save their lives, she would die right then and there, if not more for them. Living in a world without either of them was unacceptable. She wouldn’t give up; she couldn’t give up.
After more aimless walking, she saw a figure emerge from the white. At first, she thought that it was Anna. Spirits brightened, she advanced forward. Then, she stopped dead in her track as she saw that it was Hans, a look of murder in his eyes.
She tried to run.
“Elsa,” he shouted, “you can’t run from this!”
That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try. Still, she had one last thing to say, even if she was destined to be hunted by him forever. “Just help me find Anna,” she begged. “Take care of my sister—”
“Your sister, she returned from the mountain weak and cold! She said that you froze her heart.”
It couldn’t be true. Hans had to be lying to her. Anna said she was fine in the castle despite looking in pain. She was sure Hans was deceiving her to make her easier to kill. Yet, her knees buckled up as the possibility sank in.
Hans went on. “I tried to save her, but it was too late. Her skin was ice. Her hair turned white.”
If someone stabbed her in the heart right then, she wouldn’t have noticed.
“Your sister is dead!” Hans paused to take a breath. “Because of you.”
Elsa had nothing to say, except for one word. “No…”
She fell to the ground, defeated. If Anna was dead, so was Snowdrop. At the very least, there would have been no way she would have made it back to the ice castle in time to save her.
It was over.
The snowflakes stalled in their fall, suspended in mid-air. She had nothing left to live for. Everything she had ever loved was dead. Right now, she just wanted the pain to end.
It seemed like her wish would be granted. She heard Hans draw his sword and raise it above her. She did nothing to protect herself. If she died right now, maybe others could avoid the fate Anna and Snowdrop had.
She closed her eyes and took one last breath.
“NO!” someone cried from behind her.
She heard something clash and something cold bounce off her back. Elsa looked around. It was her sister, frozen solid, her hand held in place where she had stopped the sword. Anna was alive.
Was alive.
Elsa sprung to her feet. “Anna!” She stared at Anna’s face, her expression frozen forever. “Anna…”
It couldn’t be happening. Everything she had done, shutting her sister out to running away, was to protect her, to keep this very thing from happening.
“No…” She placed a hand on Anna’s frozen cheek. “Please…” Elsa threw herself around her. “Anna,” she cried, oblivious to the world.
Elsa held onto her sister for what felt like hours. Then, suddenly, she felt something warm.
To her side, Olaf gasped as Anna’s fell into Elsa’s arms, completed defrosted.
Elsa looked up in shock, hardly able to believe her eyes. She ran her hand across Anna’s cheek to make sure the figure in front of her was flesh and blood. Once she was sure, Elsa cried out Anna’s name and threw herself around her. She held her sister tightly, afraid that Anna would disappear the moment she let go.
Anna wasted no time in returning the hug. “Oh, Elsa.”
She pulled back to look at her sister, making sure that this wasn’t a dream. “You sacrificed yourself for me?”
“I love you.” Anna said simply.
“An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart!” Olaf bounced around in realization.
“Love will thaw…” Elsa thought on it. Could it really be that easy? “Love…” Love had unfrozen Anna, perhaps by feeling with love rather than fear she could fix everything, even if it sounded incredibly cheesy (though not as cheesy as log powers).
“Love! Of course.”
“Elsa?” Anna looked blankly at her.
Elsa eyes widened. “Love!”
With a wave of her hand and a fire in her heart, the snow rose from the ground. In a magical display, the snow around them began to rise as they all held onto the boat that they had been conveniently under them.
It was one of the most beautiful things any of them had ever seen. From the looks of the people on the shore, Elsa felt an even greater desire to put her magic to good use. The snow rose off from the lake, from the land, from the gardens and the rooftops. It swirled around the air as it collected miles above the kingdom. Elsa could have simply dispersed the snow, but she didn’t want it to end just yet. Putting everything she had into it, she used the snow to form the world’s largest snowflake in the sky, before she detonated it in a flurry of light.
Everyone on board the ship smiled. Anna placed her hand on Elsa’s shoulder. “I knew you could do it.”
“Hands down,” Olaf said as he began to melt, “this is the best day of my life, and quite possibly the last.”
Elsa laughed. “Olaf, hang on, little guy.” A quick flick of her wrist, and the snowman reassembled with a new addition.
“My own personal flurry!” he shouted as he looked up at the snow cloud that was keeping him from melting.
They all laughed, then heard a loud groan from the side of the boat as Hans pulled himself on board.
Elsa might not have known all the details, but she knew one thing; he had lied about Anna’s death.
Elsa advanced towards him with Kristoff right beside her.
“Ah, ah, ah!” Anna held them back. “Allow me.” She advanced towards Hans.
“Anna?” He looked up to her, acting as if he’d seen a ghost. “B- but, she froze your heart.”
Anna remained posed and gracious. “The only frozen heart around here is yours.” Elsa felt the burn. If that wasn’t enough, Anna grabbed him by the collar and punched him overboard.
With a nod and erect back, Anna made her way over to Elsa.
“Care to tell me what happened between you two?” Elsa questioned.
Anna placed her hand in Elsa’s. “Later.” She drew Elsa into a hug. “Let’s just say, love at first sight is overrated and it takes more than one day to fall in love."
“Told her so,” Kristoff whispered to Sven.
Elsa chuckled and held onto Anna tighter as her view shifted towards the north mountain where her ice castle still stood. Although, not for long, as one of the pillars fell to the earth.
“Snowdrop,” Elsa whispered.
Anna pulled away. “What?”
“Snowdrop!” In a mixture of fear and hope, Elsa raced towards the ship’s wheel. If Anna had survived, Snowdrop might have made it as well.
"Anna, how long has it been since I was knocked out?”
Anna titled her head. “I... wait, what?”
Elsa rubbed her head. “How long was your heart frozen?”
“About a day, maybe less— hey! Anna cried as the sudden jerk of the ship tossed all the passengers to the left side. “What’s going on, Elsa? Who’s Snowdrop?”
Elsa’s eyes raced all over the ship. “It’s a long story. The short version is that she is a kid who wandered into my castle while the eternal winter thing was going on. I accidentally froze her head when I froze your heart.”
“What?” Anna cried once she got her footing.
“I left her in the castle before Hans brought me back here.” They looked up at the castle as another piece of it fell off. “Can’t this thing go any faster?”
“Alright,” Anna said, making her way to Elsa’s side, “we can go and get her—”
“Anna,” Elsa said with a deep breaths, “I need you to stay here.” Before Anna could protest she gave her a good reason. “Aside from me wanting you not to get hurt, I need you to tell everyone in Arendelle that everything is okay. Say that I’m just going off to clear up some remaining patches of snow and will be right back. I imagine they have a lot of questions, and I need you to comfort them until I get back.” She placed her hands in Anna’s and looked her in the eye. “Please, I’ll be right back. I promise, I’ll never leave you again.”
Elsa held her breath as Anna processed the news. Even though Anna had no reason to trust her, she nodded and said, “Okay. Just hurry back.”
The boat lodged into the shore. “Thank you.” They heard someone splash onto the shore, Hans.
“Oh, and you can make sure that he doesn’t get away while you’re here.” Elsa blasted him with magic that froze his body in a block of ice.
“Help!” Hans cried out as he landed on the shore, falling face-first into the mud.
Anna grinned ear-to-ear. “Sounds good to me.” She rubbed Elsa's shoulders. “Just hurry back, I want to meet this… Snowdrop? Odd name.”
Elsa could help but grin when she thought back to Anna playing with pony dolls. “Don’t worry, you’ll love her.”
Anna chuckled. "Okay, I'm sure I will. Is she adorable?"
Elsa scratched her neck. “Um… yeah, that's one way to put it. I’ll explain later.” She took off Anna’s cloak. “Can I borrow this?”
“Sure,” Anna said after Elsa took her cloak.
Next, Elsa walked up to Kristoff. “Christian, right?”
“Kristoff.” He lowered his eyes.
“Right, do you think I can borrow your ride?” she asked as she placed a hand on Sven.
“Of course.” He led Sven and Elsa down to the shore. “I can even lead you to the trolls to save your friend.” He looked towards Anna. “Don’t worry, this girl is in safe hands.”
Anna blushed. Elsa rolled her eyes.
“Fine.” Elsa looked up at the ice castle as another part of it fell off. “Hurry!” They jumped onto Sven and raced off.
“Hey, wait for me!” Olaf chased after them. “I want to help too!”
“Please come back.” Anna sighed as she heard a loud splash. Hans had managed to flip onto his back and was fruitlessly trying to escape by dragging himself across the shore with his freed arms.
With a smug grin, she walked towards him.
He tried to flash her an apologetic smile. “Anna, you look lovely.”
“Save it for your twelve brothers.” She flipped him back onto his face into the brown mud. It wasn’t until after he landed in it did she realize that the brown stuff wasn’t all mud.