"Elsa! Elsa, wake up!"
"Go away, Anna!" the elder girl shoves her sister.
"I can't!" the little girl protests. "The sky's awake, so I'm awake!"
Elsa says nothing, pushing Anna off the bed. The younger girl pouts, and an idea forms in her head.
"Do you want to build a plant man?"
The older girl's dirt brown eyes snap open and she sighs, pushing off the covers. "How did you discover my weakness in so few years?"
Anna giggles and pulls her out the room and down the hall, strawberry-blonde hair flying. She sits on the rail and slides down, whereas Elsa walks down the stairs, shushing her squealing sibling.
"Anna, be quiet!" she whispers in vain. Anna manages to drag Elsa into a large room, closing the gigantic doors, then running over to Elsa.
"Do the magic! Do the magic!" she giggles again, clapping her hands.
Elsa smiles. "Okay…." She rolls her hands and puts them on the ground. There's a slight rumbling sound, and vines shoot through cracks in the flooring. Anna half-screams in delight and begins jumping up and down. The two sisters make different things: hedges that look like creatures; slides of flowers; and the crowning achievement – a plant man made of soft vines.
"Hi, I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs!" Elsa says in a silly voice, pretending to be Olaf. Anna squeals and grabs Olaf's "hands" and pulls him out to dance.
Eventually, though, the tiny girl gets tired of this and climbs a mound of roses, jumping and shouting, "Catch me!"
Elsa smiles and chuckles at first, catching Anna with soft mounds of flowers and leaves, but when the little girl begins to speed up, Elsa starts to get worried. "Anna, slow down!"
The girl pays no heed to her sister's warnings, jumping once more. Elsa slips on a vine and sends a panicky bolt of magic towards Anna, accidentally striking her in the head.
Elsa hurries over to her sister, holding her fragile form in her hands. A lock of Anna's hair begins to turn a dark gold, like Elsa's, and the girl begins to cry. "Mom! Dad!"
The two girls' parents burst into the room after a few more calls for her parents, and immediately pick up their comatose daughter.
The family leaves right away, promising Elsa that they know someone who can save Anna and help Elsa control her powers.
None of them notice their tiny tail: a boy with blonde hair and his reindeer have noticed the vegetation following the family's horses, springing up in the footsteps of the horse farther behind. He is curious, and mounts his reindeer, following the distraught parents and their daughters.
The girls' father unmounts his horse in an empty clearing. Elsa glances worriedly at her mother. Iduna shrugs her shoulders and turns her attention to her husband, who has begun calling out into the clearing.
"Help! My daughter is hurt! Can you help her?" The many boulders within the area begin to move, causing Elsa to gasp.
"They're rock trolls!"
Indeed, they are. The oldest one walks up and holds his hand up to feel Anna's head where the power struck her. "Hmm. Yes, this is only a head wound, so it should be easy to heal. You were lucky. If it had been her heart, it would have been harder. However, she will need to have her memories changed so that this doesn't happen again."
"You mean… she won't remember I have powers?" Elsa asks, clutching her hands to her chest.
"Yes. I feel that until you master your powers, it is the safest course of action. Your powers, Elsa, will only grow," the troll replies, creating images in the air to show her. "There is a great beauty in it." The figure for Elsa creates a blooming flower. "But also great danger." The flower bursts in a flood of red light, and Elsa gasps. "You must learn to control it. Fear will be your enemy." The figures of other people jump Elsa's shadow, making her whimper and grab onto her mother.
Her father wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sure that she can learn."
In the following days, Elsa learns that her father's environment for her learning is in a closed off castle, hiding from everyone, including Anna. The younger princess, however, is not easily discouraged.
"Elsa?" Anna knocks on her sister's closed door. "Do you want to build a plant man?" she sings. "Come on, let's go and play. I never see you anymore. Come out the door: it's like you've gone away! We used to be best buddies and now we're not. I wish you would tell me why! Do you want to build a plant man? It doesn't have to be a plant man!"
Elsa, fearful for her sister, replies with a heavy heart, "Go away, Anna!"
Anna's lower lip trembles. "Okay, bye."
"Elsa?" Anna knocks on her sister's door for the first time since she turned fifteen last week. "Do you want to build a plant man?" she sings, as is tradition. "Or ride our bike around the halls? I think some company is overdue. I've started talking to the pictures on the walls!" She looks at a picture and says, "Hang in there, Joan," before continuing her song. "It gets a little lonely, all the empty rooms, just watching the hours tick by!" The young princess sits down heavily and begins clicking her tongue, waiting for a response she knows won't come.
xXx
Elsa and Anna's parents go on a trip to their cousin Rapunzel's wedding the next week, and while Anna handles it with a simple, "I'll miss you," Elsa is otherwise frantic.
"Do you have to go?" she asks, vines creeping up around her, deep brown eyes flashing with fear.
"Oh, Elsa," her mother sighs. "It's only for a few days."
But the King and Queen never return. Their ship is torn apart in a lightning storm, never to be seen again.
And Elsa becomes more and more reclusive in the days leading up to the funeral, refusing to leave her room.
"Elsa?" Anna knocks tentatively. "Please. I know you're in there. People are asking where you've been. They say, 'Have courage,' and I'm trying to. I'm right out here for you. Just let me in!" Anna begins crying quietly and asks through tears and sniffles, "Do you want to build a plant man?"
She never gets her answer.