The Bargain

When Anna was five years old, her father, the king, told her about the demon of North Mountain.

"Listen carefully, Anna, because this is a very important story." Her father lifted her up into his arms, so that she could look out the window toward North Mountain, its peak hidden behind thick, dark clouds. "Our kingdom was not always strong. And once, we had many enemies. A long time ago, our enemies gathered together and marched north to conquer us."

"What happened, papa?" Anna shivered and buried her face in her father's shoulder. For as long as she could remember, clouds had always hidden the top of North Mountain. But just looking at the mountain frightened her. There was something up there, something that nobody liked to talk about.

"The king during that time asked many other nations for help, but none would lend us their aid. He was so desperate to save our people that he climbed North Mountain to speak to the demon that lived there." Her father paused. "Tell me, Anna, what do you know about the demon?"

"The demon is why North Mountain is always buried in snow. It's the reason winter lasts so long sometimes." Anna hugged her father as tightly as she could. He felt as strong and solid as a mountain.

"Yes, the demon is very powerful. The king was one of our ancestors, and he went all the way to the top of the mountain. He made a bargain with the demon, and the demon promised to protect our kingdom. When the king returned, he brought an army of soldiers made of ice. These soldiers would never tire or feel afraid, and no normal weapons could hurt them. The demon also sent blizzards and avalanches to sweep away the king's enemies.

"Ever since that day, none of our enemies have ever tried to march over the mountains to attack us. But to make sure that we stay safe, each ruler has to make a bargain with the demon." Her father eased away and gazed into her eyes. "Anna, one day, you will be queen of Arendelle. That means that you will have to make a bargain with the demon too."

"Me?" Anna trembled. "But…"

"You do not have to worry about it yet." Her father smiled gently. "The demon will not expect you to go to North Mountain until I formally name you my successor, and the earliest I can do that is when you turn eighteen."

"Oh." Anna relaxed slightly. She was only five years old. It would be a long, long time before she turned eighteen.

X X X

When Anna was ten, she witnessed the power of the demon for the first time. A great fleet from the Southern Isles had laid siege to their harbour. Perhaps they believed they would be safe on the water. They were wrong.

The clouds around North Mountain darkened and stretched out to swallow the sky. Wind rattled the windows and tore through the streets. And even though it was the middle of summer, snow began to fall.

"Come with me, Anna." Her father led her to a window with a clear view of the harbour. "One day, this kingdom will be yours. You should see, with your own eyes, what the demon is capable of."

A dull roar came from the mountain, and a massive cloud of snow rumbled toward the harbour. The waters of the harbour froze solid, trapping the fleet in place as snow billowed outward in all directions. When the snow finally cleared, there was an army standing on the surface of the harbour – an army made of gleaming ice.

There must have been thousands of ice soldiers there, each one of them crafted in perfect detail. They marched in thunderous lockstep, the ice shuddering beneath their feet. The battle – if it could be called that – did not last long. The ice soldiers swarmed over the ships, and they did not spare even a single one of the Southern Isles' soldiers or ships.

When it was done, the icy soldiers vanished, swept away on a harsh wind. The snow stopped, and the harbour unfroze. The dark clouds that had spread over the entire sky receded until only the summit of North Mountain was hidden. The whole thing couldn't have taken more than an hour – an hour to kill thousands of men and lay waste a fleet.

Later, Anna would find out exactly how much the attack had cost the Southern Isles. Their king had fallen, along with a third of their nobility. The Southern Isles descended into chaos soon after, as the king's sons and the remaining nobles fought for power.

"Did you ask the demon to do that?" Anna turned to her father.

"No." Her father shook his head. "Not even I can command the demon. But the terms of the bargain are clear. The demon cannot allow harm to come to our kingdom, but it is free to choose how it aids us." He sighed heavily. "I warned the Southern Isles. I told them that their attack would fail. I wish they had listened to me."

X X X

As the years passed, Anna began to think more seriously about what she would offer the demon in exchange for its aid. Her tutors had made it very clear to her that although many of the people she knew were quite respectable, there were others that were motivated entirely by greed. Such people would do almost anything in exchange for gold, land, or power.

But she doubted the demon was interested in those. It already had more than enough power, and what use did it have for gold or land? No, she needed something else to offer the demon, something that only she could give it. She would have asked her father what he had given the demon, but he had sworn an oath to the demon not to tell anyone.

She sighed. Perhaps a ride would help her think of something. As necessary as all of her lessons were, she much preferred to be out and about. There was nothing as enjoyable as going for a good, long ride.

X X X

When Anna was fifteen, the demon saved her life.

She had gone riding through the woods, leaving her guards far behind as she urged her horse into a gallop. The wind rushed past her, and she gave a cry of delight as her horse leapt over a fallen log with ease. Her delight would not last much longer.

Winter had not been kind to the woods. Most of the game had fled, seeking warmer climes, and the wolves were hungry. As she rounded a bend in the road, a wolf leapt from the side of the road. Her horse startled, and she tumbled to the ground. Luckily, the snow was thick enough to take the edge off her fall, but when she got to her feet, she and her horse were surrounded.

"Help!" Anna shouted. "Help!" Where were her guards? They couldn't be too far away –

Slice.

Anna gasped as long, jagged fingers of ice tore out of the ground and impaled the wolves. It was as though some gigantic monster had reached up from underground with its claws. Blood dripped down the ice to turn the snow around her a sickly pink. Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the ice vanished.

The wolves thumped onto the ground, and her guards found her a few moments later, staring at the cloud-strewn summit of North Mountain.

"Were you watching?" Anna whispered.

No reply came from the mountain, but a cold wind brushed past, and she could have sworn she felt fingers tracing the curve of her jaw.

X X X

When Anna was seventeen, she dreamed about the demon for the first time.

She dreamed of endless plains of ice and snow, of a wind that never ceased. She dreamed of a palace carved of ice that would stand forever. And she dreamed of blue eyes so cold they burned.

And when she woke, her window was open, and a single, perfect snowflake lay on her pillow. It was as hard as diamond, and not even the heat of the midday sun could melt it.

"Where did you get that?" her father asked.

"I had a dream," Anna said. "And when I woke, it was there."

Something close to panic flashed through her father's eyes before he put on a smile. "I see. Well, it looks very good on you." But his smile didn't reach his eyes, and he could never bear to look at the snowflake for long.

X X X

When Anna turned eighteen, her father formally named her his heir. A week later, she decided to travel to North Mountain. It was time to strike a bargain with the demon. But it would not be an easy journey. The bargain between her family and the demon forbade anyone else from climbing the mountain with her. She would have to go alone.

She loaded a sled with supplies, hitched a team of dogs to it and began the journey up the mountain. With each moment that passed, the air grew colder, and the wind grew wilder. As night fell, she could have sworn she heard wolves growling at her heels. But there was something wrong with the sounds they made, and she never saw any wolves when she turned and stared into the gathering dark. Their growls sounded more like the low rumble of a glacier being split in two.

She fell asleep surrounded by her sled dogs. But when she awakened, they were gone. There was no sign of them at all, and the blizzard that had sprung up made any search impossible. She had no choice but grab what supplies she could and weather the storm in a nearby cave, hoping that she would survive and make it up the mountain.

The next day came, and she continued the long, winding climb up the mountain, carrying the supplies she'd salvaged on her back. The wind kicked up again, and the snow fell so thickly that she could scarcely see ten feet in front of her. But still she walked, legs aching, lips chapped, and half-blind from the gale thundering past her.

How long she walked, she wasn't sure. It might have been hours. It might have been days. Lost in the snow and wind, time ceased to matter. All that mattered was putting one foot in front of the other. All that mattered was taking one deep, icy breath after another. It was impossible to tell night from day under the thick black clouds that never seemed to break. All she could do was take stock of her ever-dwindling supplies and continue up the mountain.

She was halfway up when she encountered ice wolves for the first time. They appeared out of the snow, sleek and deadly, their bodies carved of blue ice. They growled as they drew close, and it was like listening to an avalanche. Anna closed her eyes and kept walking. The demon would not let her die here. It needed her to strike a bargain.

She was right.

The wolves parted to let her pass and then melted back into the snow. Even so, she could feel their eyes upon her throughout the day and all through the night. More than once, the light of her fire played across powerful jaws of crystalline ice. But the wolves never ventured closer than the edge of the firelight, content to watch and to wait.

It was only later, when she awakened after dozing, that she realised why they'd stayed so close. A bear had wandered near her camp. It was dead, torn limb from limb. And amidst all the blood were the footprints of wolves.

Eventually, she ran out of supplies. Yet there was no turning back. She couldn't be that far from the summit now, and she would never make it back down to the bottom anyway. So she continued her ascent, half-mad from hunger and delirious from thirst. This high up the mountain, the winds were too strong to allow for a fire, and there were no caves or rocks to use for shelter. Instead, she had to huddle against the battered skeletons of trees and hope it did not grow colder. To drink, she kept snow in her mouth and waited for it to melt.

Then something changed. She woke, and for the first time in her whole life, there was no storm around the summit of North Mountain. The wind had died down to a whisper. The snow had stopped falling. The clouds were gone, and her path was clear. For high atop the mountain stood the palace of the demon, a fortress of ice that gleamed as though forged of starlight, slim yet strong, graceful yet powerful. It was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

Despite her thirst and her hunger, she hurried up toward the palace only to stop as a vast chasm barred her path. Yet as she was about the turn aside and look for another way up, the strangest thing happened. The air hummed, and there was a quiet murmur. Then a bridge of ice began to form over the chasm. It was roughly shaped and a dull white at first, but within moments, it shone in the sun, every bit as perfect as the palace.

Gingerly, Anna took one step onto the bridge and then another and another. It held firm and then vanished behind her once she'd crossed the chasm. There was nothing to stop her from reaching the palace now, and she continued her ascent, climbing up a long, winding ramp of glittering ice until she reached a pair of vast, heavy doors.

She tried pushing and pulling them, but they refused to budge. Then she spotted the small indentation where a keyhole would have been on a normal door. It looked – yes. She reached for her snowflake – the one she'd found after dreaming about the demon. She'd had one of the kingdom's finest jewellers make it into a pendant.

The snowflake fit perfectly. A small twist was enough to unlock the doors, and they swung open, revealing a foyer made of the same, shimmering ice as the rest of the palace – or perhaps not exactly the same. Slender veins of red, blue, white, and violet ran through the floor, walls, and ceiling, tracing out mountains, forests, and people.

Entranced, she ran from one end of the foyer to another, trying to pick out familiar scenes. At the far end of the foyer were stairs that led deeper into the castle. She climbed up, eyes drawn to the statues that lined the stairs. She knew them – she'd seen paintings of them in her family's castle. These were her ancestors, all of them, from the very first king to strike a bargain.

At the top of the stairs was a statue of her father. It captured every nuance of his appearance from the small smile that he often had to the way he favoured his right leg slightly due to an old injury. She smiled.

"I made it, papa. I –"

Her words died in her throat as she caught sight of another statue set aside in a small alcove. Like the others, it was incredibly detailed. But it was… it was a statue of her. She walked over to it, shaking her head slowly. How had the demon captured her features in such fine detail? She'd never met it before –

Or had she?

She'd always thought her dream was just a dream. But the snowflake was real, wasn't it? And her window had been open. Had the demon come to see her? A shiver ran down her spine. No, she couldn't let her fear get the better of her. She needed to stay brave.

She wandered deeper into the castle, but there didn't seem to be anyone around. At last, she reached a great ballroom. Transparent sections of ice let the morning light flood into the room, and the chandelier that hung from ceiling sparkled like the sun.

"Hello." Anna spun in a slow circle. "Is there anyone here?"

This wasn't the first time she'd called out. But it was the first time she received an answer.

"Who are you?" The voice came from the very walls of the palace. It was a woman's voice, regal and cold, yet there was something about it that sent a flush of heat through Anna's body. She'd heard that voice before, she was sure of it. Yes, she'd heard that voice on the wind, a low murmur hidden under the howl. "Why are you here?"

Anna looked around. The stories had never said anything about the demon being female, or about it having such a pretty voice. "I am Anna, the crown princess of Arendelle. I have come to strike a bargain."

Mist filled the ballroom, and she stumbled about blindly. Once again, the voice spoke. First it came from the floor beneath her and then from right behind her.

"Your father struck a bargain with me. He gave me what I wanted, and I promised to protect Arendelle and all that he loved most."

Anna went completely still as a slender arm wrapped around her waist. A feminine form pressed against her back as graceful fingers draped her snowflake pendant back around her neck.

"You forgot this."

Anna tried to turn, but the demon would not let her. Instead, the demon leaned closer, whispering into her ear. "Tell me, Anna, what can you offer me? For Arendelle, for all that you love, what can you give me?"

"What do you want?" Anna trembled. Her knees had gone weak. Everywhere the demon touched her, she burned. "Tell me, please."

Anna looked up and saw herself and the demon reflected in the pristine walls of the ballroom. The demon was taller than her with platinum blonde hair and eyes so blue they burned. Those blue eyes stared into Anna's own in the gleaming surface of the ice, and then the demon bent her head whispering into Anna's ear and trailing one hand up to caress the slender column of her throat.

"I want you."

X X X

Author's Notes

As always, I do not own Frozen. I'm not making any money off of this either.

Oh, Anna, always finding trouble. But seriously, I've been meaning to write something else about Frozen for a while now, so I thought I'd try my hand at an AU. And what could be more fun than having poor, innocent, little Anna strike a bargain with a demon version of Elsa? Not much, I think. Let's just say that the terms of their bargain are going to be… interesting.

I also write original fiction, mostly fantasy. You can find links to it in my profile.

As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.