"Elsa! Elsa! You've got to help me!" Anna said, knocking on Elsa's door much louder than she should have in the middle of the night.
Elsa scampered to the door, still in her nightgown, brandishing a golden frying pan she'd received from the Kingdom of Corona. "What's going on? Did someone hurt you? Did something bad happen?"
"No, it's nothing like that. It's just that I need to see Arendelle's Declaration of Independence!"
"What?" Elsa inquired, lowering her frying pan.
"Kristoff told me about a story that the trolls told him! Last time he visited his family, they told him about a legendary treasure from the pirates or vikings or something, and the map is on the Declaration of Independence."
"That's great," Elsa said, stifling a yawn. "Why don't you just take a trip to the National Archives? It's inside the castle."
"I can't. The guards won't let me back in the National Archives ever since I made some 'edits' to Arendelle's constitution when I was little. I thought that putting 'Elsa HAS to play with me!' at the bottom would make it a law or something, but noope, I just got in trouble."
Elsa winced.
"Why don't you just go in? Ooh, As the Queen, they'd have to let you in!"
"I would, but there's an old law on the books that outlaws the sitting monarch from entering Arendelle's Archives. Trust me, the guards are really strict about it. I've checked. I used to go in there all the time because-" Elsa trailed off, seeming uneasy.
"Because why?"
"Because it was one of the places in the castle that you weren't allowed— But, listen, I've looked at the Declaration dozens of times, there is no map on it."
"The map isn't on the front, it's on the back."
"I've seen the back. The old archivist showed me."
"Well, it's written in invisible ink!"
Elsa blinked disbelievingly. "I'm going back to bed."
"No, wait! Please, Elsa! I can prove it. Please help me with this. Just come to the library with me. You'll see. We haven't done anything that could be this exciting and fun together for a while now because you've been working so hard as the queen." Anna said, trying her best to tug at her sister's heartstrings.
"Alright." Elsa sighed," Just let me change."
After putting on something more suitable, Elsa lit a lantern as she and her sister walked towards the castle library.
"Are you sure you aren't putting too much faith in this story?" Elsa asked, "Remember the time you got lost in the woods trying to catch a 'Snow Jackalope' after mom told you that bedtime story about the little hare with antlers?"
"Hey, I really saw a Snow Jackalope in the forest. It had antlers and everything! But also, the trolls said that the treasure was from a one hundred-percent true story, and it's even in the history books! All we need to do is find an old book written by Arendelle's first king."
The two sisters reached the library, where Elsa guided her sister over to an enormous bookcase.
"Anything on early Arendelle is going to be somewhere in here."
They both poured over the bookcase until Anna spied an ancient leather-bound tome.
"Ooh, here it is!" Anna cried out, waving the book over her head before handing it to her sister.
"King Thorald's personal writings… Wow, this book is really old." Elsa said, as she delicately put the book down on the table and started reading by lantern light.
After nearly an hour and a half of reading, Elsa found the passage they'd been looking for.
"Anna! Wake up. Here it is." she said, prodding Anna, who was visibly sleeping in the chair next to her.
"What? I'm awake! Yep, have been the whole time." Anna said, almost falling out of her chair.
"Of course you have." Elsa started reading the faded text. "I, Thorald the first king of Arendelle, early in life came into possession of a sizeable amount of forgotten Viking treasure. My newfound wealth allowed me to break free of Norwegian bonds and expand my small village of Arendelle into a proper kingdom. However, as I approach my winter years, I despairingly watch as both of my sons fight over my wealth; my eldest, Håkon, believing that he deserves the larger share because he is to be crowned king, and my youngest, Sigurd, who believes he deserves a larger share being that he will not. I believe that this fight may become the end my kingdom, with open talk of treachery and assassination abound from both. In my wisdom, I commanded my most trusted subjects to hide the treasure where no person will ever find it, and to create a trail of puzzles to allow my sons to once again recover the treasure after my passing."
"See, I told you Elsa! The treasure is real!"
"Alright, alright. I believe you." She said before she continued reading from the King's journal."But, I have made the path to my riches such that both my sons; Håkon, and Sigurd, will need to work together. In this, I hope that the quest will unite my bickering progeny. The first piece lies on the Declaration, which is inaccessible to Håkon by law after my death. "
"So that must be why a reigning monarch isn't allowed into the Archives room!"
"It makes sense." Elsa replied. "He wanted both his sons to work together so that they wouldn't destroy the kingdom he worked so hard to build. But, it seems that his sons must have refused to work together to reach the treasure, considering that Sigurd was poisoned after his brother took the throne. "
"Hey, what does the scribbling on the side of the page say?"
Elsa squinted to examine the faint writing. "To my son Sigurd: If you wish to find the treasure which you and your brother so desperately seek, you must bring my Declaration to the place it was first signed at sundown on the day of Arendelle's independence. Once there, all will be revealed."
"Independence Day? But that's tonight! I mean today. Wait- Tomorrow? What time is it?"
Elsa checked the clock. "It's two in the morning, so it's today. So we need to take the Declaration to the northeast tower of the castle at sundown. But how are we going to get it by then?"
Anna stood up. "I know exactly what we're going to do... We're going to steal the Declaration of Independence."
"That's crazy." Elsa said as she put the timeworn book back on the bookshelf. "We'll just have to get the Declaration next year."
"Nope, we're going to do it tonight!" Anna said, taking her by the hand, leading her out of the room.
"No, we aren't." Elsa said, pulling away.
Anna stood her ground. "Elsa, If we work together, we can accomplish almost anything!"
Anna started towards the doors, pulling her sister with her.
"Wait, Anna! I'm not on board with this idea at all!" Elsa exclaimed, trying to match Anna's rapid pace.
"Don't worry. You'll warm up to it!"
Anna dragged Elsa, who had since given up resisting her younger sister's pulling, past the Archives. Anna was dead set towards the gates while Elsa's eyes bolted up to the roof.
"The skylight…" Elsa said, in a moment of realization.
"What did you say?"
"I'll explain later. But we actually should try it this year. Let's go to… Wait, where are we going?"
"I think we might have to ask Kristoff for some of his climbing gear and help and stuff." Anna said as she took Elsa along with her toward the gates.
After crossing the bridge to the village, they came to the small building containing Arendelle's Office of Ice Delivery. Creeping past the stables that housed a sleeping Sven and Olaf, they came to the door, which Elsa attempted to open.
"It's locked."
"Don't worry, I have a key."
"Anna why do you have a – never mind."
Anna unlocked the door and stepped in, awaking Kristoff.
"The office of ice delivery is open from 5 a.m to 5 p.m and is closed on Sundays. Please come back during operating hours. " mumbled a very sleepy Kristoff from the bed behind his desk.
"Hey Kristoff, we need some help!" Anna said.
"Oh. Hey, Anna. How's the treasure hunt thing going?"
"Not good. Elsa isn't allowed in the Archives by law, and I'm permanently banned, so we're going to steal the Declaration of Independence."
"Youre going to do what!?" he said, not really sure if he was dreaming or not.
"The clues to the treasure are made so that two royal siblings need to work together to find the treasure, and the first clue is on the Declaration which we need by tonight, but neither Elsa or I can go in, so we're just going to steal it. Don't know why either one of the two brothers didn't think of that."
"Waitwaitwait. Hold up. You're going to do WHAT!?"
"Steal the Declaration. Come on. Keep up, Kristoff."
Anna went over to the blackboard that Kristoff used for scheduling his ice deliveries and completely erased it.
"My schedule…" Kristoff whimpered.
"Sorry. I mean- *ahem* by royal decree, you have the week off. Mandatory vacation. Elsa, come help me start planning!"
"Your sister's in on this too?"
"Yes…" said Elsa.
Elsa went over to the blackboard and started her planning by first drawing an incredibly accurate diagram of the Archives.
"Okay. The archive room houses Arendelle's Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence in a large glass case. From the time I spent in there, I learned that there are two sets of guards, two guards on the outside, and two on the inside. There's usually a brief moment at four in the morning during the changing of the inside pair of guards when there are no guards on the inside watching the documents."
"So that's when we'll get in, right?" Anna asked.
"But how do you both get past the guards on the outside?" Kristoff inquired.
"You mean how do *we* get past the guards on the outside."
Both of the girls looked at Kristoff.
"Yes, how do *we*- wait, now I'm in this too? Oh no. You are not dragging me into this."
"Please Kristoff, we really need your help. We have to do it today." Anna begged.
"Sorry, Anna, I draw the line at stealing important documents. Still not doing it." he said.
"Kristoff, please. We both really need your help for this to plan to work." Elsa said.
"Alright, fine." Kristoff said, giving in to the girls' pleas. "How do we get past the guards on the outside?"
"Well, for the time being, a flimsy wooden board has been put over one of the skylights that broke under the the snow this summer after I-"
"Froze everything?" Kristoff said.
"Yeah, you could use your ice magic to help us get in there!" Anna said, striking an action pose.
Elsa sighed. "No, I probably won't use my ice magic unless I need to. I'll probably just talk with them about the Independence Day celebrations."
"Well, that's boring." Anna groaned.
"It's boring, but I'm pretty sure it'll work. You and Kristoff go on top of the roof where the both of you will have to remove the nails from the board over the skylight. Once I give the signal, Kristoff will have to remove the board lower you down by rope through the skylight. That's how you'll get the Declaration."
"But won't the guards notice that the Declaration is missing?" said Kristoff.
"There is a copy in the castle library. All you guys need to do is switch the two." Elsa said. "Oh. And we have to go back to the castle anyways. It's almost 3:30."
The trio quickly returned to the castle library, where Elsa ran over the plan once more.
"Alright. Is everyone clear on the plan? You two should head out onto the roof. Once you're done, we'll all meet back in the library. And don't move until I give the signal. Got it?" Elsa said, handing the copy Declaration to Anna.
"Got it." Anna and Kristoff said.
"Good luck." Elsa said to the both of them.
"You too." Anna said, giving her sister a hug.
They both parted ways, Anna and Kristoff went to climb onto the roof, and Elsa went downstairs to the courtyard. After waiting for a couple minutes, she came to a realization.
"I never told them what the signal was."
Elsa raced back up the stairs, but it was too late. Anna and Kristoff had already climbed out the window and scampered along the roof until they reached the boarded-up skylight. The couple started to quietly pull the nails holding the board in place.
"- so anyway, I'm walking through the forest and then I see this cute little rabbit with antlers eating some grass in a meadow, but everyone thinks that I'm lying just because my mom just happened to tell me a story about one the night before."
"Anna, I can tell you that I've seen every animal in the forests around the Arendelle, and there are no rabbits with antlers living anywhere around here. Also, it isn't a rabbit, it's a hare. Rabbits don't live in Arendelle."
"Well, they're almost the same thing." she groaned.
Down at ground level, Elsa, upon seeing that the two guards from the inside had left, walked through the courtyard towards the remaining pair of guards.
"Good morning, gentlemen." She said.
"Good morning , Queen Elsa." They both said, saluting.
She cleared her throat loudly, glancing quickly at the pair on the roof, then back down to the pair of guards. "I would like to ask the both of you for your input on today's Independence Day festivities …"
Back on the roof, Anna and Kristoff had finished removing the nails from the board, and Kristoff was tying a rope around Anna's waist.
"I'm just saying that if I asked you before this summer, you'd say that talking snowmen didn't exist, so why can't you just admit that there's a chance that a Snow Jackalope-"
"Shh! I think Elsa just gave the signal." Kristoff said.
"She just cleared her throat. That wasn't the signal. The signal was- Wait,did she even tell us what it was?"
"Nope, she was pretty vague on her part of the plan."
Elsa noticed that Anna hadn't moved at all, so she cleared her throat even louder.
"Queen Elsa, are you alright?" one of the guards asked.
"I've never been better. Why is it you ask?"
Kristoff and Anna were still confused as to whether Elsa clearing her throat constituted "the signal".
"Was that it? I mean she did it twice." Kristoff asked.
"I don't think so. Maybe she has something wrong with her throat? I'd think a secret signal would be a bit more obvious than that. " said Anna.
Elsa briefly looked upwards and started to panic, seeing that Anna was still on the rooftop whilst the new shift of guards slowly approached from the other side of the courtyard.
One of the guards looked at her, puzzled. "Queen Elsa, you're acting strange today. Is something troubling-"
Elsa was nervously wringing her hands."No! Nothing! But how would you both like to see what I have planned for the end of the Independence Day festivities!?"
With no time to lose, Elsa quickly pointed her fingers upwards and fired off an enormous firework made of ice in the opposing direction from where Kristoff and Anna were.
"Okay, that must have been the signal. " Kristoff said.
"Yep. That's definitely it. I wonder what took her so long?" Anna said, as she readied herself to descend into the Archives.
Kristoff removed the board and lowered Anna down through the skylight into the archive chamber. Within mere seconds of reaching the archive floor, she had opened the case housing the three documents, quickly grabbed the rolled-up middle one, replaced it with the copy, and pulled on the rope, signaling Kristoff to pull her up. Kristoff happily obliged, and once she was up on the roof, he replaced the board over the skylight. They both gave a thumbs up to Elsa, and hurried back to the library.
Back on the ground, Elsa gave a sigh of relief. "So? What did you think of the finale?"
"Umm.. I really how it sparkles at the end." said one of the guards.
"Yeah, so did I!" said the other guard.
The first guard shot him a dirty look. "Copycat."
"Alright. Thank you both so much for your input." Elsa said as she headed off to the library, passing the incoming pair of guards.
As the sun rose, it cast a red-golden glow that filtered into the library, Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff stood triumphantly with the most sacred document in Arendelle's history. They all crowded around the table as Elsa ran her fingers over the hallowed parchment, and carefully unfurled the document. Immediately, she noticed something very strange.
"Anna, this is Arendelle's Bill of Rights."