_ "What is it? Snow?"

The inhabitants gazed curiously at the rain of snowflakes which was slowly starting to fall on the region. As Queen Elsa had fled and ice gradually covered Arendelle and the fjord, the temperature began to drop abnormally. Anna and Hans had both returned to the castle courtyard, and feeling the cold begin to cover them.

_ "Are you alright?" Hans asked the princess, seeing her rub her shoulders to warm herself up a bit.

_"No." she answered sincerely.

_ "Did you know ... about ...?" the prince then asked, but again Anna answered him no. Anna and Hans walked over to the Duke and his bodyguards. Weselton's little old man was also starting to panic seriously.

_ "Look! It's snowing!" cried the duke, contemplating with fear the snow falling from the sky "... The queen has cursed this land! She must be stopped! You must go after her!" he started to tell his guards.

_ "Wait, no!" Anna interposed before such a proposal. The duke then looked at her with great suspicion.

_ "You! Is there sorcery in you, too? Are you a monster, too?" asked the duke, hiding behind his two guards, who also showed suspicious looks. Anna was outraged at such a suspicion and immediately defended herself.

_ "No. I am completely ordinary."

_ "That's right, she is." then affirmed Hans, coming to support the Princess of Arendelle. "In the best way." he added for clarification. Anna smiled at him, silently thanking him for his support.

_ "My sister is not a monster!" Anna said in defense. But that did not prevent the Duke from insisting on the serious accusation against Queen Elsa.

_ "She nearly killed me!" shouted the little man from Weselton.

_ "Come on, you slipped on ice." Hans replied.

_ "Her ice!" added the duke heavily. Anna had had enough and interrupted their conversation.

_ "It was an accident. She was scared. She didn't mean it. She didn't mean any of this..."

The duke huffed, rolling his eyes, not at all convinced by Anna's explanation. But the princess did not care what he thought and continued to speak, and going so far as to denounce what was for her, the real culprit of this catastrophe.

_ "Tonight was my fault ..." Anna said with conviction, to Hans's surprise "... I pushed her. So I'm the one who needs to go after her ... bring me my horse, please."

_ "What?" Hans said, astonished, as the Duke seemed to approve of the idea. Anna walked without delay to the servant who brought her a horse saddled and ready to go. Hans, however, ran to the princess to hold her back.

_ "Anna, no, it's too dangerous."

_ "Elsa is not dangerous ..." Anna replied, touched by Hans' concern "... i'll bring her back, and I'll make this right ... and you, Prince Hans, must stay here, to take care of Arendelle."

_ "On my honor, I'll do it." Hans said to her. Anna smiled, trusting him, and mounted her white horse, covering herself in a green winter cloak to protect herself from the cold.

_ "I leave Prince Hans in charge!" cried the young princess to the inhabitants, as a final order from her. People around were taken aback, but said nothing to contradict this order.

_ "Are you sure you can trust her?" Hans asked, really worried and not wanting Anna to go alone on this crazy quest.

_ "She is my sister. She would never hurt me." Anna said to reassure him. Though Hans wasn't convinced, he respected Anna's choice and stepped aside. Slamming the horse's bridle, Anna then set off at a gallop, leaving the courtyard of the castle and beginning her journey to rescue her sister.

***********

Lost in the dark night, under the snowflakes which fell by the thousands, Elsa now wandered alone, devastated, on the rising slope of one of the hills at the foot of the North Mountain.

Still wearing her queen dress and tiara, Elsa walked slowly through the thick snow, her face sad. She paused for a moment, looking behind her. She felt even more monstrous than before. She had abandoned her family, her sister, her kingdom ... Elsa sniffed softly, shedding a tear that she wiped from her cheek ... after all, it was maybe better this way, for her and for everyone...

_ "I have no place in this world ..." she sighed sadly, resuming her solitary walk towards the mountains, where she was sure not to harm anyone. Every step she took away from Arendelle was torture to her broken mind, but she continued, persuading herself to make the right choice.

But as she walked and reached the top of the hill, Elsa gasped in fear, as a rotten arm emerged from the snow right in front of her. Elsa took several steps back, her eyes wide with fear, as a few meters in front of her emerged three men, at least corpses judging by their gray and rotten skin ... their eyes were an unearthly glowing blue. , and they wore armor and helmets of a frozen black steel, very similar to the outfits of Vikings.

Holding swords and axes in their corpse hands, the three undead uttered inhuman grunts, turning their blue eyes to the frightened young queen. For Elsa, what she saw was simply impossible ...

One of the corpses roared wildly and rushed over to Elsa to grab her.

_ "No, stay away!" the queen cried fearfully, closing her eyes and wanting to protect herself with her hands. From her palms arose a wave of magical ice that formed a row of sharp stalacmites, which impaled the undead in the belly, stopping him in its course. The dead man, growling, looked briefly at the ice spike piercing his body, feeling no pain, and began to growl and roar again, raising his arm to try to grab Elsa anyway.

Seeing the other two dead approaching her, Elsa wanted to run in the opposite direction, but stopped as other living corpses in armor, a dozen or so, loomed from the snow all around her, trapping her. The one who had been impaled managed to free himself and joined the others, no drop of blood falling from his wound. Terrified, completely surrounded and unable to react, Elsa watched as these creatures of ice and death approach her. Knowing that they seemed immune to any form of fatal injury, she didn't know what to do. Who knows what they were going to do with her? Elsa closed her eyes, praying that her death would be painless.

_"Enough!" suddenly cried a powerful, deep and inhuman voice.

At that moment, the undead stopped and moved away from Elsa, who then saw them take a few steps back and remain completely unmoved.

Puzzled, Elsa turned her gaze to the direction of the mysterious voice, and what she saw petrified her in amazement and terror.

At the top of the snowy hill, stood an imposing black horse with blue eyes, cadaverous appearance. On top of him was a man who was also very tall and strong, covered in intimidating full armor, a large black cloak floating behind him and a creepy, horned helmet hiding his face. Elsa immediately felt the aura of power emanating from him, and felt overwhelmed by his mere presence. She didn't dare look at his eyes, blue and shining, showing a very great and frightening strength.

_ "Who ... who are you?" Elsa asked shakily. The armored man was silent at first, looking the young queen up and down, then stepped into the snow and stomped towards her. Elsa didn't dare move, seeing this creepy stranger, who towered over her by more than two heads, come and stand right in front of her.

_ "My ancient name was Arthas Menethil, but today I am known and feared as the Lich King."

Elsa gasped, unable to believe what he had just said. The ... The Lich King, like the one the legends talked about? The legendary king of the dead and ice?

To Elsa, it seemed impossible that this was true, but with what she saw around her, the line between myth and reality seemed to no longer make sense.

The young queen, more than intimidated, then seemed to resign herself, tilting her head and closing her eyes.

_ "In that case, I accept this fatality that is mine. What are you going to do with me, king of the dead? Take my soul and condemn it to hell for the monster that I am?"

The Lich King listened, showing no reaction, initially silent for the first few seconds.

_ "I don't mean to do anything to you." he replied simply in his calm, dark voice. Elsa was taken aback, looking up at him. She then saw the king take her thin hand in his, looking at her with a certain interest.

_ "This power which is yours ..." said the Lich King "... it would be more than a shame to see it disappear."

Elsa didn't know what to do, and let her hand be held by the mighty armored hand of the King of the Dead. She could feel the morbid cold that he emanated from him, and she felt a shiver of deep anguish. She then dared to look him straight in the eye, remaining frozen looking at these two small cold blue flames which served as eyes under his monstrous helmet.

_ "This power ..." Elsa sighed sadly, gently removing her hand from Arthas' and began to slowly move away from him, hiding her hands "... this power is a curse ... because of it, I have only caused harm to my family and my kingdom ..."

_ "What if I told you that there is a way for you to control this power, and that I can help you?" The Lich King then said, to which Elsa stopped in her walk, listening to what he had to say.

_"What do you mean?" she asked.

_ "This power is a curse because you are convinced that it is and you let it dominate you ... your parents wanted you to hide this magic, but it was a terrible mistake ... on the contrary, it's up to you to release this unique potential that you inherited ... forget ordinary humans, they will never understand beings like us ... only I can understand you, and accept you as you are, Elsa..."

How could he know about her parents? And her name, how had he guessed it? Was he able to read people's minds? Elsa wondered, but thought back to what he was saying, having to admit that he wasn't entirely wrong about ordinary people. She turned to Arthas, looking at him again.

_ "You ... you ask me ... to come with you?" she asked timidly.

_ "It's up to you to decide ..." replied the Lich King darkly. "if you wish to leave, I won't stop you, but in this case, you will know, just as I once did, what eternal solitude is ... this world was not made for beings such as us. So it's up to us to find our place there."

With these words, the Lich King turned around and climbed back on his monstrous zombie horse, and began to walk away towards the great mountains, accompanied by his undead warriors.

Elsa remained motionless for a moment, Arthas' last sentence echoing in her mind.

After hesitating for long seconds, the young fallen queen made her decision. She took her tiara, looking at it one last time, then dropped it in the snow. She took off her cloak and let it fly in the north wind. Freed from these royal symbols, she left in silence, walking to follow and join the Lich King and his creatures in the mountain.