Anna

For the first time in Anna's life she woke up at a reasonable hour. Today was the day that Kristoff was coming back from his longest trip ever and Anna hadn't been this excited since coronation day. This trip had not been for Arendelle nor had it been an ice delivery service. This trip had been for the trolls. They had wanted him to deliver something to one of their neighboring tribes in Corona. This meant that this journey had taken Kristoff and Sven nearly a month.

Much like a child on Christmas morning Anna had woken up with the butterflies in her stomach already running rampant. She didn't think she had ever changed so fast in her whole life and she thanked her lucky stars that her hair was being reasonable.

Anna ran out of her room and flew down the hall. She didn't bother knocking on Elsa's door. She knew that Elsa would have risen before the break of dawn, like she did every morning. If Anna had to bet she would say that her sister was in her office, furiously working on the mountain of paperwork that never seemed to get smaller. This was where Anna was headed, ready to bombard Elsa with the full force of her excitement.

She threw the mahogany office door open, "Elsa, guess what day it….." Anna's voice faded out as she realized that she was talking to an empty room.

Anna had never been up this early and she thought that her sister spent all morning working but she supposed that Elsa could have been eating breakfast so she sped off towards the dining room.

When she reached the dining room she threw open the grand double doors to find that it was completely empty and now Anna was becoming incredibly anxious. Even if she hadn't expected Elsa to be in there she had expected to find somebody. There was always somebody in the dining room, whether it was Kai polishing the silver or Olaf sniffing the center piece. Especially in the morning when Gerda should have been in there, setting the table for when Anna came down for a breakfast that was usually cold because of how long it had been sitting.

Anna went back up the stairs trying to remember whether or not Elsa had told her about an important meeting or celebration that the whole town was required to be at. She came up blank but this time as she walked past Elsa's room there was a commotion she hadn't paid attention to the last time she had walked by. As she got closer it sounded as if there were many people bustling about Elsa's room. She did her signature knock.

"Elsa?"

Unsurprisingly it was not Elsa who answered the door. It was Olaf.

"Hi Anna!" Olaf said a bit too enthusiastically. "What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for Elsa. Is she in there?"

Olaf spread his stick arms across the door. "No!"

"She's not in there?" Anna asked disbelievingly. Olaf shook his head. "Then what were you doing in there?"

Olaf seemed to be trying so hard to think of an excuse that his eyes had crossed.

"Olaf, what's going on?" When Olaf answered with nothing but silence and a guilty glace up from the ground, Anna barged in to Elsa's room ignoring Olaf's desperate protests.

What Anna saw once she entered the room made her skid to a halt. There were doctors and nurses everywhere. Half of the doctors were bent over something that was lying on the table at the far side of the room. They spoke passionately but in hushed whispers. Everyone else in the room was bent over Elsa who was lying deathly still on the bed. Anna couldn't see her face because of all the doctors huddled at her sister's shoulder but when she finally did catch a glimpse the sight left Anna feeling winded.

Elsa's face had gone from a healthy ivory color to a ghostly white. Even her usually dark red lips had paled to the point where it was hard to distinguish them from the rest of her face. Elsa was also doing something that Anna had never seen before; she was sweating. Elsa had never been effected by temperature but now Elsa's hair was stuck to her damp forehead. Anna rushed to Elsa's side and grabbed one of her cold, clammy hands.

"Princess Anna." One of the doctor's said patiently.

Anna looked up at him. He was looking at her kindly with something like pity in his eyes. This made Anna's eyes fill with tears. "What happened to her?"

Just last night Anna had seen Elsa. She had been fine albeit a bit stressed. How had she changed so quickly from the healthy regal queen into a woman on her deathbed. The realization that she had just referred to her sister as a woman on her deathbed, even if it was just in thought, made Anna's stomach twist uncomfortably.

A guard in the corner of the room answered Anna's question. "There was an assassination attempt last night mi 'lady. We heard a crash and found her with an arrow in her shoulder." Anna looked over to Elsa's bandaged shoulder and realized that was what all the doctors were huddled over her for.

"Why wasn't I informed?" Anna asked hysterically.

"We decided that we should inform the royal physicians first."

An aged doctor with thick glasses continued from there "We treated her as quickly as possible but… we think that perhaps we acted a bit too quickly."

"What does that mean?"

The doctors looked nervously between each other until the kind doctor who had first addressed her said "Your sister was bleeding profusely so we decided that the smartest course of action would be to cauterize the wound." Anna's throat tightened, knowing her sister had endured that kind of pain. "she was bleeding so much that we didn't check to see if the arrow had been poisoned and it turns out that it has been. Cauterizing the wound trapped the poison but unfortunately did not destroy it. Your sister will still endure the effects of the poison and unless we can find an antidote she will…"

Anna struggled to choke out the answer that was eating her away. "How long-… When?

This time nobody bothered to answer and Anna could feel the life that had finally come onto grasp crumble around her.

"We'll give you a minute." The doctors and nurses left the room and Anna looked down to discover that Elsa was conscious and looking at Anna worriedly.

"I told Olaf to keep you out of here."

"Why?" Anna sobbed hurt that, in what may have been her last moments, Elsa didn't want her there.

"I didn't want you to see me like this." Elsa said squeezing Anna's hand weekly. This made Anna feel a bit better and made more sense considering that Elsa had spent more than half of her life trying to protect Anna. Though, just like the last time Elsa tried to protect Anna, Anna ended up much more hurt and distraught then she would have been. "I'm sorry." Elsa added seeing the look on Anna's face.

Anna was glad that some things never changed and Elsa could still read her like a book. Then Elsa coughed violently and Anna remembered that some very scary things had changed.

Anna pressed a cool cloth to Elsa's forehead. "Don't worry. We'll make you better." Elsa didn't seem to be so sure but didn't seem to have the energy to argue. Elsa drifted back into unconsciousness within minutes.

"Even if you don't believe me I promise to make you better, Elsa." Anna had never gone back on a promise and didn't intend to go back on this one.