Anna dropped the saber, breathing heavily. "You win, you win", she said. It had been another good bout in the ballroom of Arrendelle castle, but, practice as hard as she might, she still couldn't beat Sgt. Johansen, the kindly older guardsman who had volunteered to be her tutor in fencing. Her adventures in trying to rescue her sister three months ago had left her with a distinct impression that she should learn at least the rudiments of how to handle herself. Elsa now had a whole kingdom to look after, and Anna didn't want her sister to be constantly worrying about Anna's safety, not when the whole kingdom-Queendom now, she thought to herself-needed so much looking after.
And honestly, wouldn't the whole scenario have been a bit easier if Anna had known how to travel in the wilderness, use a sword, and a whole host of other skills? She was totally not gonna be ready the next time something crazy like that happened. Not that she hoped it did. At all. But she did sort of like the idea of being a heroine, like Joan of Arc, whose painting was on the wall. That was, in fact, one of the reasons she'd taken to having her fencing lessons in this room. And not because it was the largest indoor open space in the castle. Not in the slightest.
"Well, if you focused a bit more, perhaps you'd have held out longer," said Johansen, not unkindly.
"I'm sorry" Anna said, heading over to the large jug of water she kept at the side of the room for these sessions. "I'm trying to stay focused on spacing, just like you're telling me, but," She took a drink, letting the cool snowmelt splash on her face, washing off some of the sweat, "It's Kristoff. He's been acting really strangely lately."
"I'm an old man, and a guard. I'm not sure young romance is the kind of thing you need to discuss with me, Princess" said Johansen.
"Nonsense!" said Anna, summoning up her best regal mannerism, which, she would be the first to admit, was not very good. Elsa had apparently inherited all the regal-ness, as well as being born with magic. "You've seen a lot in life-not that you're old, or anything, sorry, anyways, maybe you can help me." She took a deep breath, reminding herself to slow down and stop babling, "Kristoff and I have had a standing date every friday, and he's missed the last three. He didn't even leave a note for the last one."
Johansen walked over to her, looking very serious. "Have you considered that maybe he just needs some time. I mean, you and he did meet under some very stressful circumstances, and he may want to take some time by himself to figure out if what he feels for you is spur-of-the-moment, caused by the chaos that happened when Elsa...left." He paused for a moment, considering what he had said. "I'm sorry, Princes Anna. It's not my place to speak like that, especially after Hans."
"I know Kristoff," Anna said, "and if that was happening he'd tell me." She paused for a second, as a thought hit her like an avalanche, "He must be in trouble! I have to go find him!" She shouted, grabbing the sheathed saber and dashing from the room.
There were mild flurries in the air as Anna walked towards the small cottage on the outskirts of town that Kristoff had taken residence in since becoming the Royal Icemaster. Despite opening up somewhat, Elsa still showed emotion less than the average person, and far less than Anna, so Anna had gotten somewhat adept at reading her sister's emotional state from the prevailing weather conditions. This kind of snow usually meant that Elsa was somewhat stressed, probably trying to untangle some kind of bureaucratic snarl. The lightness of the flurries meant that Elsa was confident she could handle it, however.
Kristoff's door was closed and the lights were off as she approached the cabin. It was a simple one-large-room affair, but Kristoff had said he liked it, even when she'd asked him to move in with her in the castle. "It's simple, and I'm a simple guy" she remembered him saying. "I don't think that living in the castle would suit me." She had relented, especially when he had reminded her that the staff already tolerated one animal running around the halls and breaking nice things-her-and probably wouldn't be particularly fond of one that was both larger and in possession of antlers.
"Kristoff!" she called, hoping he was just asleep or something, and they could talk. But there was no answer.
"KRISTOFF!" she yelled again, louder. Again, no answer, not even a rustle that might indicate that Sven was there while Kristoff was away on some errand.
"OK, that's it" Anna said to herself, marching up to the door and shoving at it. It was locked.
Where are you, Kristoff? she thought to herself. Oh no! What if you got kidnapped? What if the trolls decided that they didn't like the idea of you living here, and grabbed you so you'd go back and live with-no. Focus, Anna. Stop worrying. He's probably out on...an ice run. Or something. Yeah, a several-week-long ice run. She walked around to the back of the cottage, where there was a small window looking in, and a back door out to the small patch of winter vegetables that Kristoff had put in. Peeking through the window, she could see nothing inside. She tried the back door. Finally, a way inside!
Lighting the lantern that hung on the wall by the door, Anna saw the cabin in the exact same layout she remembered: a small cast-iron stove by the window, looking out over the vegetable patch; a single cot with several thick woolen blankets, close enough to the stove that it would stay warm from residual heat, but far enough that the blankets wouldn't catch fire. There was even the scuff mark on the floor that showed where Sven liked to sleep, right next to Kristoff's bed. But no Kristoff. No Sven. Not even Olaf, who dropped by Sven's cabin on a pretty regular basis.
Looking around the place more closely, however, she noticed that one of the floorboards was loose! She'd never noticed that before, but that might have been because every time she'd been there before Kristoff had been there too and they'd been talking and laughing.
She walked over to this spot in the floor, thinking that perhaps Sven had kicked up a nail or something, but no, this seemed to have been made on purpose. Why would Kristoff need to pull his floor up? She thought.
She moved towards the spot on the floor fully intending to see why it had been put there, but stopped herself. "What are you doing, Anna?" she said to the empty house, "Don't you trust him enough to let him have his privacy?"
Standing there in Kristoff's cabin, which she had just broken into, she came to a decision. "No. After Hans, no. I need to know he's not going to hurt me like that. And better I find out if he's hiding something than Elsa does. I don't want to know what she'd do to him if it turns out he's involved in something shady."
She walked the rest of the way to this secret cubbyhole in the floor, and pulled up the floorboard. It had been cleverly worked to have a hinge that would normally be invisible, but it seemed that Kristoff, for some unknown reason, had forgotten to close it up entirely. If he hadn't, Anna wasn't sure she would ever have even known it was there.
Opening it up, she saw a small leather satchel, which appeared to have been made relatively recently. She knew Kristoff's everyday satchel, and this was not it. She opened it up, and whatever she'd been expecting to find, it certainly wasn't this. Two thin books of some kind, apparently bound in sealskin, and some kind of folded-up cloth...something. Removing it, she found that it was some kind of robe. Not a big fuzzy warm bathrobe, like she liked to wear at the castle sometimes. This robe was thin white cloth, covered in embroidery in abstract patterns she couldn't see well enough to make out in this light.
"What have you been up to, Kristoff?" she asked herself. Stuffing everything back into the satchel, she closed up the cubbyhole, and started the long walk back to the palace. The pleasant flurries had become a decidedly less-pleasant sleet. Elsa must be getting more stressed.
Maybe helping me solve a mystery will help Elsa get her mind off of whatever's troubling her, she thought to herself as she pulled her cloak tighter against the chill. Goodness knows people would appreciate a queen focused on something a bit less stressful.