Cold & Dark ⇢ The Big Five Fanfiction

II

Elsa has never really felt the need to leave her room.
If it could even be called that. A few more appropriate names are her ice-cave, her inability to control the beast inside her... her prison.
The problem is, she was born with a gift. A gift to produce ice and snow, with but a single touch.
To her it's a curse. It's what has kept her locked away, her dear sister Anna pushed away, and the gates to the castle closed.
Anna had once known of her power, and looked upon it in great wonder. Then, the memories were taken from her. To protect her.
She had hit Anna's head with a streak of ice. She hadn't meant to, but either way, it was her parents' decision to keep her sister from harm.
That had been when the fear set in. She didn't want to hurt anyone, didn't want to free the beast within herself.
And so, she stayed in her room. Her parents delivered her her meals, and Anna and the rest of the kingdom were safe.
A knock came from her bedroom door. That was usual. Anna often found herself begging for her to come out and play.
It was quite a firm knock though, rather than a desperate light one.
She hurried to slip on her gloves, left on the side, before tugging open the ice-coated door. She immediately curtsied, "Good morning Father."
He gave her a stiff nod, before placing the tray of food onto the side. "We have visitors coming tonight; The Queen and Princess of the nearby land of Corona. You shall come and dine with us. Minding your manners, and of course, no magic."
He says it like she has any control whether or not the beast of her powers will come escape it's leash.
He used to understand, used to try and help her. Now, it was as if he'd given up. He was more concerned about how close she was coming to being crowned, rather than helping her to learn to control the magic.
"Of course, Father," she curtsies a little, watching as he closes the door behind him before sighing softly.

Rapunzel lays her hand down on the wood of the boat, her emerald green eyes focused on the green of the sea. They had been adrift for hours, and finally she could see the land of Arendelle. Her extremely long, golden hair was plaited, but the wind was blowing a few strands free.
Pascal is sitting on her shoulder.
It wasn't usual for someone's best friend to be a chameleon, but after a close call with someone who called herself 'Mother Gothel' when she was a baby, she was rarely allowed to interact with others. She liked to think that Pascal crawled up to her window because he knew she was lonely. In reality, he'd only came all he way up to her bedroom because of the smell of the fruit bowl she'd left on the side.
Either way, she'd let him eat all of the fruit, and had kept feeding him days afterwards, and he'd decided he liked this easy source of food.
Her heart was beating quickly inside her chest. The royals of Arendelle have two daughters, Elsa and Anna, her mother had informed her. If she were lucky, by the end of the day, she could gain two more friends.
"Have you got your bag, dear?" Her mother came up behind her and delicately lays her hand on Rapunzel's shoulder. If it weren't for their eyes, it would be difficult to recognise them as mother and daughter.
Her mother had Hazel brown hair that only reached her shoulder blades, and an incredibly regal posture.
"Yeah, mum," Rapunzel looks over her shoulder and smiles brightly. Her mother could be annoying at times, since she was quite overprotective, but she loved her a lot.
The boat comes to a stop by the docks, and a plank is laid between the stone of the pavement and the wood of the ship.
Waiting to greet them was a teenage girl, with gentle blue eyes, and plaited ginger hair. She smiles warmly and waves a little as Rapunzel disembarks alongside her mother, but then seems to realise her mistake and curtsies, "Hello, your majesties, I'm Princess Anna of Arendelle. It's lovely to meet you."
Her mother shakes the girl's hand, and then she starts leading them towards the castle in the distance. Rapunzel hurries forwards a little to walk alongside her, ignoring a concerned look given to her by her accompanying parent.
"Hi. I'm Rapunzel, but you can call me Punzie if you'd like," She smiles in greeting.
Anna smiles back, seeming quite excited to talk to her. "I'm glad you're here. The castle is too big for one princess, I quite literally find myself befriending paintings."
She laughs a little in return, "Well, I've befriended a chameleon, so I'm not far off." Rapunzel pauses for a moment, smiling as she watches the other girl's eyes widen a little suddenly noticing the reptile on her shoulder, before realising something. "One princess? I thought you had a sister... um, Elsa, right?" She frowns a little.
Anna's expression falters, though only for a second. "I hardly ever see Elsa. We were really close as kids, but then, one day... she sort of just shut me out." She sighs a little. "She rarely comes out of her room."
"Oh," Rapunzel nibbles her lip thoughtfully. "Maybe it's the stress of reigning? She's almost eighteen, right?"
Anna nods a little, though looked uncertain, "Mm, maybe."
They walked in silence the rest of the way to the castle, Rapunzel's thoughts now racing.

Elsa stood back a little from the window as she watched her sister enter the castle alongside an elegant seeming queen and a quite excitable seeming Princess.
Her hands were shaking a little, so she pressed them together quickly.
She was wearing her favourite outfit, that luckily hadn't yet been ruined with ice; a cyan blue dress with a golden belt and neckline, with a deep purple cape that trailed behind. Of course, the sleeves reached up to her wrists, and light blue gloves covered her hands.
She hadn't had to be in others' company in a while. She was afraid that the beast inside of her would escape, seeing as her magic seemed to be stronger recently. You could tell that just by looking at the new additions of ice to her room.
Reluctantly, she placed her gloved hand on the door handle. Her instincts told her not to even leave the room, to miss out on dinner. But she knew her father wouldn't allow for it. So she came to her senses and took a deep breath, before turning the door handle.
The door doesn't budge - it was frozen over.
Elsa bites her lip a little looking at the door. She kicked it lamely, which obviously had no effect.
She pressed her arm against it, and tried shoving harshly with all of her strength.
The door gave way and swung open, causing her to fall to the ground.
"Oh! Are you okay?" A voice asked, sounding incredibly concerned. Elsa glances up quickly, hiding a wince. She sees the blonde haired princess jogging towards her and quickly kicks her door shut before the girl can see her monstrosity of a bedroom.
"Yes, I am fine. The door was just a little stiff," Elsa says quickly, pushing herself to her feet and taking a second to compose herself once more.
"I'm Rapunzel," The princess smiles a little towards her thoughtfully. "I was, um... sent to get you. Not exploring, or anything."
For some reason, this alone causes Elsa to smile, something she hadn't done in weeks, possibly months. "Ah, right. And I was inspecting the hoovering job on the carpet. I didn't fall over."
Rapunzel giggles, her green eyes meeting Elsa's ice blue ones, before reaching forward  and taking her hand.
Elsa looked down immediately at their joint hands, practically flinching at the contact and willing her powers to keep quiet beneath the gloves.
Rapunzel's face seems to fall seeing Elda's reaction, and she releases her hand, "Um... sorry."
"Don't be," Elsa doesn't even try to bother an explanation. She can feel herself sweating, so she knows she wouldn't be any good at coming up with excuses. "Come along, then, Princess Rapunzel. Let's go to dinner."