Chapter 13: The legend.

Sixteen years – Thirteen years.

Elsa hadn't told anyone about what happened on her birthday, though that in itself was a small miracle, considering how difficult the last six months had been. Every night her sleep was plagued by horrible nightmares; in the beginning she had been forced to relive the moment she killed those men, watching it happen over and over. But recently her dreams had changed, and now she was dreaming about herself. Her dreams told of the monster she was going to become, and the horrors she would unleash.

She saw herself as a terrible queen, who ruled over a frozen land she had cursed with eternal winter. She saw herself killing innocents for fun, slowly torturing them in ways she would have never imagined before. She also saw how they all feared her, and hated her, and tried to kill her over and over again without succeeding, but sometimes getting pretty close.

The worst dream though, was when she'd seen a frozen version of Anna. She was cold, immobile, her body no longer soft and full of life as she remembered it; it was entirely made of ice, and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't thaw her.

After that, she did everything in her power not to fall asleep, and succeeded for over a week, but the fatigue eventually caught up to her. Fortunately, the dream hadn't repeated itself since then.

It made her question whether the prophecy was true. Maybe it was not just a stupid tale someone invented to scare children, as she had originally assumed. Maybe, just maybe, the prophecy had actually been talking about her. After all, she'd killed three men without even wanting to, all in less than a minute. Just what could she do with enough time and negative emotions? Could she actually curse her own kingdom into an eternal winter? Including her little sister? Would she really become a monster? An all-powerful witch?

All those questions tormented her every waking hour, day after day. And she hated them. She didn't want to believe the prophecy was true, or that she could become the monster they all feared she was, but… even she couldn't be one hundred percent sure that was impossible. More so considering the murderous thoughts she'd had been having as of lately about a certain group of princes.

Yes, they had returned. Not all at once, of course. First came Hans, and the jerk kept Anna busy all day, taking her on an endless series of dates in hopes of winning her heart. Then the other princes found out and came rushing back, each hoping for the opportunity to court the younger princess. It had been overwhelming for Anna, and she still hadn't decided who she wanted to marry. Not that there was any hurry, of course; Anna wouldn't marry until she turned eighteen, so…

But in the meantime, the princes would stay in the castle, much to Elsa's despair. She hated them and they hated her (especially after they day she trapped them in the library in order to talk with Anna). And most of them seemed to take every opportunity to make her suffer.

They told her Anna should have been queen: that her sister was beautiful, and girly, and nicer than she could ever be. They said Elsa was too rude and cold, and acted too much like a boy, which was probably why she only had one suitor. Not to mention her powers that, in their very loud opinion, made her an evil witch.

Speaking of the devil… Elsa was walking towards the dining room when she saw Hans approaching. She internally groaned, kept her gaze on the ground and hoped he'd just ignore her. But no, the prince just had to try and make some rude comment, didn't he?

"Hello, my dearest sister in law." He said in mock politeness. "How are your freakish powers today? You haven't frozen someone, have you?" He chuckled like he'd just said the most hilarious joke in the world.

"Shut up, Hans." She snarled as she bumped her shoulder against his when she passed by. At this, his laughter died.

"Hey!" He yelled as he took her arm and yanked it, making her turn towards him. Elsa just looked at his ugly face with murderous eyes, hoping she could just impale him on a giant icicle. "Pay me some respect. I'm Prince Hans of the Southern Iles." He exclaimed enraged.

"Why should I?" Elsa asked as she pulled away from his grip and managed to free her hand, seriously considering washing it until the skin turned red, just to make sure she got rid of Hans' (imaginary) filth. "I'm the Crown Princess of Arendelle, while you're just the thirteenth son of a King who's content to have a few small islands for a kingdom." She spat, matching Hans' angry gaze.

"Careful what you say, girl." He narrowed his eyes as he emphasized the last word. He was only four years older than Elsa, but that was enough for him to be considered a man, while she… well, she may have been the princess, and she may have been smarter and more powerful than him, but anyone would listen to Hans over her just because he was a man.

So, the proud princess of Arendelle had to contend with glaring daggers at Hans, trying to let him know how much she hated him. Once she was queen though, she'd throw him in the deepest hole in the darkest part of the dungeon she could find.

"Hey, Hans!" Someone called, making them both turn to see who it was. It was Prince Erik, who came together with the other suitors, probably also heading to the dining room. Elsa groaned. She had enough with one jerk; she didn't need four more.

"Hi, Erik. Leo. Alex. Kristoff." He acknowledged each one of them with a casual greeting. "Are you going to the dining room too?"

"Yes. What about you?" Leo asked. "You aren't making friends with the ice freak, are you?" He teased the other prince, but Hans just chuckled.

"Come on, she's so cold not even a snowman would want to befriend her." At Hans' snarky remark the other princes laughed, not noticing Elsa's scowl.

"I suppose that's true." Leo agreed. "Not even her sister wants to be near her anymore."

"A good thing too." Alex intervenes. "Otherwise we couldn't spend as much time with Anna as we do now." At this, all but Kristoff nodded in agreement, while the blond lord noticed Elsa's ice and quickly warned the others.

"Guys." He said and, having gained their attention, pointed towards the princess, who was looking at them with a murderous gaze as frost and cold spread from her figure across the hall.

It's not like Elsa actually cared about a thing the princes said about her, but she knew she deserved some respect, and she hated having to let them just make fun of her without doing anything. She wanted to teach them a lesson, maybe scare them a little… a small snowstorm perhaps? Or a giant snowball? Or…?

Suddenly, in her mind appeared an image of herself unleashing her magic straight into Hans' chest, freezing him and disintegrating him until he was nothing but a thousand ice fractals… like she had done to those men in the alley. She gasped, and tried to push the thought to the back of her mind where it belonged, but it was more difficult than she expected. A part of her wanted to do it, to kill them all and forget about them. Permanently. She'd have Anna for herself again then. She wouldn't have to worry about her getting married because no kingdom would send suitors fearing they would be killed too. It'd be almost too easy, but…

"Elsa." She heard someone call her name from behind as he placed his hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Percival standing at her side. She didn't know why she was surprised at all; of course the boy would keep searching for her. She didn't know if she should be relieved or annoyed of her presence; he had kept her from doing something stupid, after all. "It's time for dinner, you coming?"

Elsa was about to answer, but Hans beat her to speak.

"Well, well, look who's here: the prince from a kingdom so poor he doesn't have any option other than marrying a witch." He said with obvious contempt.

"I must ask that you don't talk about Princess Elsa like that. She's the heir to the throne of Arendelle and, as such, deserves respect from us." Percival answered, glaring at him, but as much as Elsa wanted to tell him to shut up and let her handle it, she had to admit he was rather eloquent.

"Ha! As if King Adgar was ever going to let that witch reign over this kingdom!" Erik laughed. "I bet he'll name Anna the new Crown Princess within a year." However, his laughter soon died when Hans nudged him. Elsa decided to pay their words no mind; they were just a bunch of princes hoping to one day become kings, after all.

"Whatever." Elsa rolled her eyes. "You are all just a bunch of jerks and I really do not wish to waste my time with you. Goodnight." Saying that, she turned around and walked opposite to where the dining room was, even if her empty stomach protested. She would never admit it, but their words actually stung a little. Plus she didn't want to see her sister staring longingly at all those stupid princes, because then she'd start fantasizing about their deaths again.

"Princess Elsa, wait!" Percival called out for her as he hurried up to walk at her side. Elsa suppressed a long sigh.

"You know? When I said I didn't want to waste my time with you I meant all of you." She remarked, annoyed he wouldn't leave her alone.

"I-I know." He said nervously. "I just thought I could be of help."

"I don't think so." Elsa replied without missing a beat.

"Really? Because you were about to kill them back there." His words made the princess stop dead in her tracks and stare at him, surprise evident on her face.

"N-no, I wasn't." She replied defensively. "I was just going to scare them." She tried to explain, almost to convince herself more than him.

"You're capable of more than you think. Far more" Percival said, also stopping and looking Elsa in the eyes. "Whatever you imagine, your powers will do it. And you were planning their deaths. I saw it in your eyes."

"No, I wasn't!" Elsa denied the accusations once again.

"It's okay. They deserve it." Percival answered, surprising Elsa. "No one should be allowed to insult you. You're a goddess, Elsa, you can't let them treat you like anything less." Elsa resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his crazy beliefs.

"For the tenth time, I'm not a goddess." She glared at him. "And if you really think they deserve to die, then why didn't you let me kill them?"

"Because you're not ready. You lack training." His answer surprised the princess quite a whole lot. She'd expect him to say something like 'Because it's wrong'. But no… he said she wasn't prepared.

"What do you mean? I don't need training. I bet they wouldn't even see it coming if I were to impale them with my icicles." She answered rather coldly, but he only nodded.

"I know you could have easily killed the five of them without trouble, but what do you think would have happened next?" Elsa raised an eyebrow at his question, not sure what he wanted her to answer, but he continued talking. "Your parents wouldn't have taken it lightly. They would have probably order the guards to hunt you and either kill you or lock you up in a dungeon." The princess was about to protest, saying that wasn't possible, but the boy raised a hand to indicate silence.

"Now, you would probably be able to fight five, maybe even ten trained guards, but what about one hundred? One thousand? How many of them do you think are in the castle? Or in the city? Do you really think you would have been able to take them all out by yourself?"

Elsa had to bit her lip and look to the side, not wanting to admit that, indeed, she wouldn't have been able to do such a thing. But then again, she hadn't really thought about the consequences of killing Anna's suitors; it had just been a sudden urge, almost instinctual, to hurt the one ones who were the source of all (or at least most) of her problems.

"That's what I thought." Percival nodded at Elsa's silent admission. "But don't worry. I can help you."

"With what, exactly?" She answered with a doubtful expression, after all the boy appeared to be a wimp, with no especial talents except maybe annoying people.

"My guards and I can help you train, so you know how to defend yourself when the time comes." He seemed serious enough, but Elsa still doubted his words.

"And why would you do that?" She asked, cautious.

"Not here." Percival answered, looking at both sides, clearly knowing there were too many chances of being overheard. "Follow me." That said, he started walking towards the guest chambers. Elsa stayed still for a moment, wondering what she should do, after all, it's not like she had something better to do, and she was curious, but… was it really worth it? Could that pathetic excuse of a prince really be helpful?

There was only one way to find out.

They arrived to the prince's room, who locked the door after Elsa entered. The princess would have been weary of this action if she didn't know she could easily overtake him if she so desired. It was probably just to keep anyone from getting in and hear what he wanted to tell her.

"Well?" Elsa asked, crossing her arms over her chest in a commanding manner.

"There is a legend." He started as he went to open his chest and started rummaging into it, apparently searching for something. "Not many people knows about it; just the ones who lived in this region before the kingdom of Arendelle existed." Those words picked Elsa's interest.

"Arendelle was habited by magical beings though, wasn't it? According to the legends?" She replied. Percival nodded.

"Yes, there were magical beings, but there were also people. And they were forced to leave their homes once the invaders came." He paused. "But they had great knowledge about magic, and some of them learned to write, and wrote a book about the prophecy." He extracted what appeared to be an old and big book out of the chest, and offered it to Elsa. "This book." The princess took it (it sure was heavy), but eyed it in disbelief.

"Are you sure it's from them?" She asked skeptical.

"It's written in an old language, and it took many years for our best scholars to decipher it." Percival confirmed. "But once it was translated, the legend became common knowledge in our kingdom, though we refused to share the information with Arendelle, fearing what they would do if they found out."

"Does it really say something we don't know? I mean, we too have a book about the prophecy, you know?" Elsa commented as she opened the book and started looking through pages filled with words she couldn't understand.

"It says Arendelle was once filled with magical beings, not because it was mostly devoid of humans, but because of the magic that emanates from the northern lights." He explained. "It is said that there was once an ancient goddess, responsible for the creation of the glaciers and the cold north, but she one day decided to leave the earth… not without leaving behind a little present; magical crystals able to create the phenomenon we know as the northern lights."

"Nice story. How does it connects to me?" Elsa interrupted, impatient.

"The trolls found some of these crystals, and founded their entire civilization with the help of the divine magic they held… but once they were massacred by the Arendellians, the power of said crystals faded. At least apparently." He made a dramatic pause, eying at Elsa.

"The truth though, is that magic can't simply fade; it can move to another place, or be stored into another object, even remain dormant for centuries before manifesting itself, if you know how to use it." At this, he turned a few pages of the book, before stopping at one that had a drawing depicting a rock-like creature holding a blue crystal on its hand as words were spoken out of its mouth.

"The prophecy?" Elsa asked.

"Exactly." Percival smirked. "It's not a prophecy, really. It's a spell, created by magic left behind by a goddess. Don't you understand, Elsa? You are, in one way or another, the creation of a goddess." He said enthusiastically, like he'd just told her the most amazing and useful thing ever, when really…

"The prophecy is still a bad thing for my kingdom though, no matter if it was made with divine magic." She objected.

"Why a bad thing? All the prophecy really says is that you'll be a severe ruler, that you'll freeze the land in order to keep an iron grip on your subjects."

"And then I'll be killed with a sword." Elsa deadpanned, remembering all too well that line.

"Or maybe you'll demand the people to make sacrifices in your honor, in order not to freeze them." He countered. "A prophecy can have multiple interpretations." Elsa frowned, not liking his arguments but not really knowing how to counter them either.

"I still don't see how that's a good thing for Arendelle." She decided to say.

"Not for Arendelle." He shook his head. "For you." Elsa raised an eyebrow. How could she be well if her kingdom wasn't?

"The inhabitants of Arendelle are just scum, descendants from those murderers that ruined the magical land created by an ancient goddess. They deserve to be punished. And you, as a creation of said goddess, have the right to implement justice, and being respected as an instrument of her divine authority." He spoke with fervor, like a religious lunatic that had his all-mighty deity standing right in front of him.

"You're crazy." Elsa said for what felt the thousandth time since she met him.

"Maybe." He shrugged. "Or maybe I'm right." He added. "My entire kingdom seems to believe in the legend, just as much as yours believes in the prophecy. It's just a matter of time before we see who's right." He took the book from her hands and closed it, before eying intently at her and making an almost sinister smirk. "But I would ask myself if I were you: do I want to be sacrificed? Or do I want others to be sacrificed in my honor?"

Elsa made a face of disgust; neither option sounded very appealing. But then again… she really didn't want to be killed by a sword. But… would she instead sacrifice others just to fulfill what the prophecy had predicted? No, there had to be another option, right?

Right?

"I have to go." She said, not wanting to talk about this anymore. She almost would have preferred going to have dinner with the jerk princes.

"As you wish." Percival shrugged. "Just think about what I said. I can help you fulfill your destiny, if you want."

"Right." Elsa grimaced. "I'm not sure I want that destiny." That said, she turned around walked to the door, unlocking it and stepping outside, before pausing and turning back to look at the crazy boy from the crazy kingdom. "But… I'll think about the training." She said before she could stop herself.

It's not like she wanted to kill someone in the near future, but… if something like what had happened a few months ago in the alley repeated itself, she wanted to be able to use her powers for self-defense. She really hated not being in control, and this boy appeared to know a couple of things about magic, so…

"See you tomorrow, Elsa." He answered with a smile, before the princess closed the door without another word.

A/N: Okay, so… that legend kind of came out of nowhere haha. I hadn't originally planned it, but it just came naturally as I wrote this chapter XD.

Thanks for reading, and please leave a review sharing your thought about this chapter with me. I really appreciate all the support you give me :)

Thanks to my beta reader moonwatcher13.