Lily woke with a start, her heart pounding in her fragile chest. Someone was banging on her shelter's door rickety wooden door. She crept out of her thin, musty bed and went to open it. Instead of seeing the streets of town as she normally did, she saw a starry night sky with the purples and blues of the flowers she saw in her books.

Lily's eyes widened as large as saucers. Suddenly, a strange glittery wind swirled into her room, causing her mind to go blank, forgetting all of her horrid past. Lily screamed and tried to run away, her feet slipping on the wooden floors, but the wind magical wind was too strong and tore her out of the room. The last thing she saw was a blinding flash of light as she was transported into the glittery night sky.

"Where am I?" was Lily's first thought as she slowly sat up. She was sitting on a cliff overlooking a small kingdom ravaged with the season of winter. She decided that she would go down there and ask for directions, hoping not to find any horrors.

Suddenly, as she was making her way down the steep, rocky cliff face, the rocks she was standing on gave way and went tumbling down the cliff, taking her with them. Lily screamed as she fell down the steep cliff face. She shut her eyes to block out the sight of the rocky ground she would soon land on. As she fell, a bright pale blue light erupted from her hands and hit the ground far down below.

---}i{---

"Ow."Lily pushed herself up from the massive pile of snow she had landed in. Spitting snow out of her mouth, she wondered how the snow came to be there. A pain in her knee brought her to her senses. Upon close examination, none of her bones seemed to be broken. She just had one or two small bruises and scrapes, and a small gash in her knee was trickling blood. It was quenched by a handful of snow that she pressed upon it, staunching the flow of blood. Slowly, she picked herself up and started to head toward the castle and village.

Lily stared in amazement at the village she had just walked into. It was completely deserted. Clank! Her foot had bumped into a small lantern, which was still strangely glowing. Nevertheless, she picked it up and started to head toward the castle.

Knock! Knock! The doors swung open as Lily knocked on them. She nervously entered the castle. It was bright and warm inside. When her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw two richly dressed figures sitting on gilded thrones.

Her heart beating fiercely, she dropped into a curtsy. "Your Majesties," she murmured. "I'm sorry to bother you, but could you help me...?" She related her situation to the king and queen.

"Hmm," the king said thoughtfully. "Five hundred years ago, this kingdom was cursed with the harshness of winter. One by one, our people died, until only we were left. This curse has given us an extra long life so we could watch our people die and do nothing about it.

"Prophecies say that a mortal girl would come and break the curse. We have waited and waited, and now you have come. YOU are the only person alive who is able to break the curse and free the land."

Lily reeled with astonishment. "Great. I came here to ask for directions and now I find out that I'm the only person able to break a 500 year old curse on a kingdom. What have I gotten myself into?!?" she thought.

She said,"Well, how am I supposed to break a five hundred year old curse?"

"Use this to guide you." the queen said softly.

Lily found herself holding a thick leather book with the title,"Magic". She opened it and found a legend titled,"The Ice Princess." Reading it, she found directions on how to find the cure for the curse.

It was found on a mountaintop, on an icy pool on the top of Mount Loana. Putting the book in her bag, she started up toward Mount Loana.

"According to the book, the cure is going to be found on the top of Mount Loana." Lily read. She squinted at the book and read,"The last Ice Princess disappeared during the reign of Lord Ombra. Rumor was he vowed to wipe out the Ice Princess line because they were more powerful than he was.However, it is said that one Ice Princess survived and might have been captured and transported to the mortal world." Lily felt that she would not want to be the Ice Princess, wherever she was. She sighed and faced the towering mountain, barely silhouetted in the upcoming blizzard.