A Cold Summer Day || Maleficent and Elsa
Maleficent stayed away from her home as much as possible. She traveled far and wide, sought out places where her reputation did not precede her, or at the very least, where people feared that reputation enough to leave her well enough alone.
A singular find among these far and wide destinations was a small kingdom--or more precisely, a queendom--known as Arendelle. In the middle of summer, just inside the village walls, the water in the fountains was frozen solid, and the cobblestones were covered in ice. It took no extraordinary powers of deduction to see that this ice had not occurred of natural means, and yet the people did not fear it--they celebrated it! They danced and skated and laughed together upon it!
To say that Maleficent was intrigued would be an understatement. That very moment, she had conjured up a paper and quill and drafted a letter requesting an audience with the queen. She did not precisely return when she received word of her appointment, for she had never precisely left, but lurked about outside the village and watched with a kind of sick fascination as the nonmagical humans of Arendelle embraced magic every bit as much as the people of Maleficent's kingdom feared and reviled it.
When she was escorted into the throne room, Maleficent met with quite a surprise: Queen Elsa was very beautiful, and very, very young. It wasn't so much that young monarchs were unusual, but that Maleficent should have been permitted to meet with her directly, and not with a series of ancient advisors.
"Your Majesty," Maleficent bowed her head in a show of deference, but she never quite took her eyes off of the young queen. "Thank you for granting me an audience on such short notice. I am certain you must be frightfully busy, especially given the curious state of the weather."
