Cold Hearted

The Palace

Third Person

Harry held Elena's hand nice and tight as they continued to walk up the northern mountain range, Nokk stayed beside them and now was beyond calm due to the situation with the snow giant being resolved. The higher up they got into the mountains, the more comfortable Elena got as the cold temperatures greeted her with the utmost sense of comfort. She took big deep breaths of the crisp air and felt herself become more and more rejuvenated with every deep breath. Soon she got a pep in her step and they began heading up into the mountains even faster than before.

Elena had filled Harry in on the newfound information regarding the creator of the snow monster, and now Harry was convinced that Elena's mother wasn't just the creator of the beast, but of the castle it supposedly guards. It made sense to both of them, who else could manipulate snow and ice in such a way? Only Elena and Elsa could, but Elena triple clarified that she wouldn't forget making a snow monster or building a large palace in the middle of the mountains, so it was safe to rule her out.

Harry was simply in awe of the landscape. Never had he seen mountains so vast and snow so deep, even the sky was different up here. He could only imagine how beautiful it would be at night. With Elena's hand held tight in his, he came all the way back down to earth and was able to relax after being frightened about Elena facing the snow giant alone. He also had to remind himself that she was Elena, an elemental spirit with so much power that not even she knows about, that he doesn't have to worry as much about her as he sometimes does. He smiled to himself though as he knew he couldn't help it, he'll always be at least a little overprotective over his dear doe eyes and nothing could stop him from doing so.

The trees slowly thinned out until they were so high up that there were none, the snowy peaks were all across the horizon as the air grew colder, thinner, and even stiffer. Harry shivered a little bit but was smiling as he looked in awe of the beautiful landscape, all the snow was unlike anything he'd ever seen in his whole life. He thought the sky even looked bluer. Elena mindlessly hummed as she happily looked across the landscape that she couldn't help but feel familiar with. It felt so homey to her, being surrounded by the cold and the snow made her feel very much in her element, she looked at her feet and smiled as she watched her and Harry's feet crunching in the snow. She looked at her feet until she was drawn to a prompt halt by Harry tugging at her hand,

"Elena....... I think we've arrived"

Harry said in awe which made Elena look up and immediately look in awe as well. Before them was a beautiful sight that Elena could barely believe and Harry swore should be a hallucination. The grand palace stood before them proud and tall, the ice walls, staircase, and pillars that made up the palace that could say so much if it could speak were beyond impressive to them. Even Nokk was looking at it with perked ears, but the one who felt most drawn to the elemental spirit herself.

Elena slowly broke away from Harry and Nokk, wandering closer to the staircase which led to the palace. Snow covered the railing and the steps, even the palace was mainly covered in snow that had stuck to the sides as it has stood for so many storms. Elena slowly walked up to the stairs and looked at the railing before gently laying her hand on it, but as soon as she touched it the ice ignited under her grip, the snow blasted off the railing where her hand sat and the ice began to glow a soft blue, she jumped away from it with surprise and squeaked as Harry rushed over to see what had happened,

"What was that?"

He quickly asked, Elena looked up at him and shrugged before wearily hovering her other hand over the other railing,

"I-I don't know! I just touched it and it did a weird thingy!"

Elena said in a slight panic but mainly in awe of what she had just inadvertently done. She wearily put her hand down again and kept it there, watching the snow blast off of the railing as the resting ice came to life with that lively blue glow at her touch. Harry's eyes widened in awe as she looked over to the other railing and slowly put her other hand there as well, the snow and ice reacting the same way as she stepped forward to begin up the stairs.