DISCLAIMER: Once Upon A Time and all related characters are the property of Kitsis/Horowitz Productions, ABC Studios and the ABC Television Network. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money has changed hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations and story are the property of the author and may not be used without permission. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the interest of full disclosure, I have a confession to make: I don't actually like Once Upon A Time. I think it's a stupid show, and there are maybe one or two characters that I actually find likeable. That said, I did watch the first half of season four for the Frozen storyline because I love the movie and I love the characters. So, this story has a narrow focus. Just like the title says, it's about Arendelle sisters, the ones borrowed from the movie and the ones made up for the show. Maybe a main character will have a cameo here and there, but if you clicked on this thinking you're going to see the whole Storybrooke gang you're gong to be horribly disappointed. Just so you know...

Also, while I had the idea for this story for a while I didn't start setting it down until I found another story on this site that brought Elsa and Anna back to our world. It's called "Once Upon a Time: Modern Vacation" and it's on my Favorites page. I tell you this because if you really do want to read a story with Elsa and Anna and all the Storybrooke gang this one's got it, and all you have to do is go to my favorites to find it. (Although the author's doing a live rewrite so be careful how you read it.)


ARENDELLE SISTERS

by Darrin A. Colbourne


Anna, Princess of Arendelle, said heartfelt goodbyes to each and every soldier in the squad just inside the gates of the palace as servants hefted her pack and bedroll to her room. Once she was done, Anna raced throught the halls of the palace and up to Elsa's chambers. Standing in front of Elsa's door, she raised her knuckles up to deliver her signature knock. Knock!-KnockKnockKnock!-KNOCK!

"Come in, Anna!" Elsa called out.

Anna grinned and threw the door open and rushed inside. She found Elsa laying in bed dressed in a nightgown (not a surprise, since it was late in the evening) and reading a thick book. "So how was your camping trip?" The Queen asked her sister.

Anna rolled her eyes. "El-sa! It wasn't just a camping trip! I went on a real bivouac!" Right now she was dressed in a rough hiking outfit colored in earth-tones and accented with what Elsa thought were ridiculously mannish boots.

"Fine," Elsa said, "how was your bivouac? I take it you just got back?"

"Yes! I just had to tell you about it right away!"

"And it was really so important that you came to visit me without taking a bath?"

"What?" Anna said, just before she sniffed one of her pits. "I don't smell that bad, do I?"

"Anna, you just spent the weekend in the woods with an army platoon. Right now you smell only slightly better than Kristoff usually does."

Anna huffed. "Okay, so I'm stinky! Can you just tolerate me long enough for me to tell you what happened?"

"I already know what happened. You joined one of our army units on an extended patrol just to see what it was like, and since we're not actually at war with anyone right now, you did what every soldier does out in the field in peace time. You cooked over campfires and slept on bedrolls in tents and complained about being in the army."

Anna thought about it. "Yeah, there was a lot of complaining. I don't know why, though. I thought the bivouac was wonderful!"

"Of course you did. You got to come back here and your unit has to go back to barracks. Perspective, little sister…"

Anna shook her head. "Look...never mind that! That's not what I came here to tell you about! I wanted to tell you about what happened night before last!"

"Okay...what happened night before last?"

"We told ghost stories around the fire!"

Elsa just stared at Anna for a moment, then went back to her book. "Go bathe," she commanded Anna.

Anna huffed again and plopped down on the side of the bed. "Elsa, listen to me!" She said, her face close to Elsa's ear. "Everybody told really scary stories, but the one told by Corporal Gruendorf was super-interesting!"

Elsa sighed as she put her book down and turned to face Anna. "And what, praytell, made Corporal Gruendorf's tale so interesting?"

"It's who the ghost was...Queen Gerda."

A strange look came across Elsa's face. "What!?"

"Corporal Gruendorf said he was on another patrol about a month ago in the Western Plateau and he and one other troop were sent to scout ahead. They had only gotten a short way away from the rest of the platoon when they heard someone singing. They followed the sound to a side clearing and saw a shimmering figure through the trees. When they looked more closely they saw it was…"

"...our mother!" Elsa said.

"Yes! She was gesturing to them, and trying to tell them something with sign language, and...Elsa, you look upset."

"Of course I'm upset! That...soldier used our mother's memory for a night's cheap entertainment! That's...it's...well if it's not illegal it's certainly in poor taste! I should give that man a piece of my mind."

"Wait...you don't think it could be real?"

"Oh, Anna, of course it's not real. There's no such thing as ghosts. It's all just creaking floors and squeaky hinges and wind blowing through trees. It's all just to scare impressionable people like you."

Anna frowned at that and crossed her arms. "Right. Ghosts aren't real! And there's no such things as other realms with no magic! And no such things as sorcerors with magic hats! And no such things as enchanted forests! And no such things as nordic queens with the power to create snow with gestures...even though I'm related to two of them!"

Elsa raised a hand to stop Anna, waited a beat, then said, "Fine. Let's say for the sake of argument that ghosts are also real. Even if our mother is one herself, why in the world would she be haunting some back woods area like the Western Plateau when she could be roaming around the nice big comfortable palace she used to live in?

"I don't know, Elsa, so why don't we go up there and ask her?"

"Absolutely not."

"Oh come on, Elsa…!"

"You are not going to talk me into hiking into the mountains again on some wild phantom chase. If you really want to go, you're welcome to do so. Let me know what you find when you get back."

"Elsa, you have to come with me…!"

"No, I don't. Since my Coronation there is a long list of things I have to do, but chasing ghosts with you is most assuredly not one of them."

Elsa went back to her book and the sisters lay in the bed pointedly not looking at each other or talking to each other for a few minutes, then, without looking at Elsa, Anna said, "Is there anything you wish you could have said to mother before she died?"

Elsa, exasperated, said, "Well, of course. There are always regrets…"

"Well, maybe she has them, too. Maybe, if she is a ghost, she's come back because she wanted to tell us something she never had a chance to tell us."

"I thought she took care of that with the note in the bottle…"

Anna shrugged. "Maybe she doesn't know if we got it. It's not as if she can easily check on the delivery."

More silence, this time with the girls looking each other in the eye, Anna's pleading, Elsa's unsure. Finally Elsa closed her eyes, turned away and moaned, "Oh, I can't believe I'm going to do this…"

"Yay!" Anna cheered as she jumped out of bed. She was grinning and started to bounce up and down with joy. "I knew you'd come!"

Elsa raised a finger toward Anna to make her stop jumping. When she was still, Elsa said, "We'll ride up this weekend and spend a day - one day - looking for signs of any ghostly activity, and if we find nothing before late evening we'll ride back and I don't want to hear any more about it. Understood?"

Anna nodded. "Yep! Absolutely understood!"

"We're also going to take Corporal Gruendorf and whoever he was with to the plateau with us so they can lead us to exactly where they supposedly saw mother."

"Sure! Of course!"

"So, now that that's settled, will you please go take a bath?"

"Oui, oui, mon capitaine!" Anna said with a very enthusiastic and sloppy salute. Then she giggled and stormed out of the chambers the way she stormed in.

Elsa just sighed at the sight. "That girl's going to give us both heart attacks…" she muttered.


Come the weekend, Elsa and Anna had an early breakfast and prepared for their day trip in different ways. Elsa prepared a picnic lunch and snacks for when cravings hit over the course of the day. Anna packed incense, supposedly magical totems, and a guaranteed ghost trap provided by Wandering Oaken's trading post. As they prepared, Elsa sent word for Corporal Gruendorf and Private Bierstein - the other eyewitness - to meet them at the royal stables with packs for a day's patrol. Hearing that, Anna wanted to get back into her bivouac outfit, but Elsa forbade it. The queen and princess would be dressed in appropriate summer attire and nothing else. Anna pouted at the unfairness of it.

After a brief conversation between Elsa and the Corporal about the impropriety of telling ghost stories about other peoples' parents, the quartet set out on horseback toward the Western Plateau. It was late in the summer morning, bright but not humid, and despite the ultimate goal of the expedition Elsa was enjoying the ride, and thus proceeded at a leisurely pace. Anna, frustrated at Elsa's "old lady" pace, kept threatening to ride ahead and leave her in the dust. Gruendorf and Bierstein kept an orderly pace with Elsa's horse on its flanks.

They'd been on the plateau for about twenty minutes when Gruendorf pointed to a stand of trees. "There, ma'am," he said to Elsa. "That's where we saw her."

"And where we first heard her singing," Bierstein added.

Elsa squinted to get a good look and nudged her horse in the direction of the treeline. "Then what happened?" She asked.

"Well, of course we were on foot at the time, your majesty," Gruendorf said, "but first we were approaching the trees and heard the singing…"

"What was she singing?" Anna asked.

Bierstein thought about it. "Actually, miss, it sounded like a lullaby. Isn't that right, Corporal?"

Gruendorf nodded somberly and said, "Yes, yes...it sounded very much like a lullaby."

Anna gasped. "Maybe it was the song about the little girl and the windmill, Elsa, like she used to sing when we were real young!"

Elsa calmed Anna with a raised finger and turned back to Gruendorf. "Finish your story."

"Well, we heard the singing and when we turned to see where it was coming from we saw sort of a glow in those trees…"

"A soft white glow…" Bierstein interjected.

"Yes, yes...a soft white glow. Well, we approached the treeline and tried to make out where the glow was coming from, but it started to evade us, so we chased it further into the trees."

"It led us around on a merry chase, ma'am," Bierstein said, "but we finally caught up and could get a good look, and in the center of the glow…"

"We saw Her Majesty Queen Gerda," Gruendorf said, "God Rest Her Soul." He thumped his chest with his fist and gave a reverent nod.

Elsa fought the urge to roll her eyes as she said, "And did she do anything or say anything, or did she just glow?"

"Actually, ma'am, she did sort of gesture at us," Bierstein said.

"Yes, yes…" Gruendorf said, "quite so. A beckoning gesture I would say."

"See, Elsa?" Anna said. "A beckoning gesture!"

Elsa turned to her. "And what does a beckoning gesture mean, exactly?"

"Well...I...don't know, but it happened!"

Elsa just shook her head and climbed down off her horse. The others followed suit as she said. "Very well...we'll set up our picnic here and wait until evening…"

"We can't just wait!" Anna said, exasperated. "There's a ghost out there! We have to hunt it down!"

"There you go with that 'have to' again. Weren't you listening? If the Corporal's story is true and it's meant to happen again, then all we have to do is wait here for those trees to start glowing."

"But, it's our mother! And I have a ghost trap!"

"Anna, I am not going to go dragging my skirts around the woods looking for a ghost that may or may not show itself without any effort on my part."

"Oh, you can be so impossible sometimes! I-"

Elsa held up another quieting finger. "But I will not stop you from doing it. Corporal, you will stay and help me set up our picnic. Private, you will accompany my sister on her wild ghost chase."

"Fine!" Anna said. She turned to march off with Bierstein falling in step behind her. "I'll show you what's a wild ghost chase. I bet I'll find her before you do!"

"You shouldn't gamble!" Elsa called back. "It's unladylike!"

"I'm not listening!" Anna sang out.

Elsa giggled as she watched Anna and Bierstein walk into the trees, then turned to unpack her things.


An hour later, she was sitting on a large blanket eating an apple and reading the book Anna interrupted a week ago when the princess and the private returned, Anna with a dejected look on her face. Anna plopped down next to Elsa with a huff, while Bierstein sat next to Gruendorf at the blanket's edge.

"Help yourself to something, private," Elsa said as she reached into her picnic basket for peach.

Bierstein noticed Gruendorf munching on some cheese and smiled. "Thank you, ma'am."

As Bierstein dug into the basket Elsa handed the peach to Anna, who reached for it absently while her brow remained furrowed. She took a large bite and chewed remotely, her attention completely on some strange problem.

Elsa smiled as she said softly, "I take it the ghost hunt didn't go well?"

Anna finished her bite and swallowed before she said, "I admit, there was not as much progress made as I expected…"

"Ah," Elsa said. She took another bite of apple and returned to her book.

"I'm just taking a break," Anna said.

"Mm-hmm," Elsa said.

"The truth is out there," Anna said. "It's just a matter of finding it."

"Oh, of course…" Elsa said.

"Oh...hush…" She took another bite of the peach and sat working out the problem in her head.

Everyone sat and ate silently for a few more minutes before Bierstein started choking on the sweet roll he was eating. His eyes were wide as he coughed and gagged and Gruendorf pounded on his back to help him recover. When he was out of danger he raised his hand and pointed toward the trees, drawing the others' gaze.

Something behind one of the trees was glowing.

Anna was on her feet in a snap. "That's it! The ghost!" She turned to Elsa. "You were right! All we had to do was wait!"

Elsa stood, forcing the men to stand as well. "I don't believe it!"

"But that is what we saw, your majesty!" Bierstein said, finding his voice at last.

"Yes, yes...quite!" Gruendorf confirmed.

"But it can't be a ghost!" Elsa said. "It's a trick of the sun, or…"

"Let's just go look at it and find out!" Anna said. "It's right there!"

"All right, Anna! All right...let's go. Gentlemen, stay close."

Anna led the way at a brisk walk as the group advanced on the glow behind the tree. It disappeared just as Anna reached it, then reappeared behind another tree a few yards away. The chase was on! Anna jogged over to that tree with Elsa and the soldiers a step behind. It faded again as they got close, then reappeared further away.

This pattern of appear-chase-disappear kept repeating until the group found themselves in a wide circular clearing. The glow was floating in the center, a pillar of soft light that was beautiful to look at.

That's when they heard it. "It's the singing, ma'am!" Bierstein called out. "The singing!"

Anna listened and gasped, "Elsa! It is! It's mother's lullaby!"

As they watched and listened, the pillar of light settled to the ground and resolved into a human form. It was still luminous and willowy, but now the person's features could be made out clearly. It was, indeed, Gerda, former Queen of Arendelle.

Elsa and Anna were transfixed as their mother smiled at them and sang their lullaby, going through the whole song. Beside them, Gruendorf and Bierstein had gone down on one knee and lowered their heads in reverence. There was no other movement in the clearing, no other sound until Gerda finished her performance. Once done, she continued smiling as she held out her hands to Elsa and Anna.

"She's beckoning," Anna said.

"She certainly is," Elsa said. "Go to her."

"Me? Why do I have to go to her?"

"You're the one with the ghost trap!"

"Well, you were the one that wanted to know why she was haunting the woods!"

"But I would have been perfectly happy to remain ignorant on the question, but no, you had to drag us out here!"

They turned their attention back to Gerda. She was still smiling, still holding out her hands, still patient.

Finally Elsa sighed and held out a hand. "Together, then?"

Anna sighed and took Elsa's hand in hers. "Together."

Elsa started to step forward, but paused. "Of course, given our recent experience with magical events it's probably best to have a failsafe. Corporal!"

Gruendorf sprang to his feet. "Yes, Your Majesty?"

"If something should happen to us - anything - ride back to Arendelle immediately and have the Commandant return with enough men to secure this whole plateau. No one else is to come up here until the crisis - whatever happens - is resolved."

"Understood, ma'am! I will make it so!"

Elsa nodded to him, then turned back to Gerda and started walking, with Anna holding her hand and keeping pace.

"Are you going to ask her about haunting the woods?" Anna said.

"Lullabies are one thing," Elsa said, "but if she actually starts talking to us I may run back and hide behind Gruendorf's cloak."

"You can't do that!"

"Why not? Because I'm the Queen?"

"No, because there won't be enough room for both of us back there!"

They stopped and looked at each other, then giggled at what Anna said...then the giggling died when they saw Gerda laughing as well. They resumed walking.

"She looks so pretty," Anna said after a few steps. "I hate to say it but death must really be good for her."

Elsa shook her head. "Only you could reduce the mystery of the afterlife to a beauty treatment."

Anna shrugged. "It's the nicest thing I can think of to say about it."

"Agreed."

As they got closer they reached out their free hands to Gerda, matching her pose. Gerda seemed to be overjoyed at that and reached out a little more.

"Do you think we'll really be able to touch her?" Anna said. "Wouldn't that be amazing?"

"I can't imagine what it would feel like," Elsa said, "but the closer we get, the more intrigued I get. I've missed Mother so much, wanted so desperately to feel her touch, see her smile...if this is truly her, I think that this would be the greatest gift she's ever given us, reaching out to us from beyond."

Their pace increased ever so slightly, free hands out, daughters reaching for a mother who was reaching back. Soon their fingertips were seperated by a foot, then mere inches, then centimeters, then there was a thrill up Elsa and Anna's spines as living fingers brushed against ghostly ones.

The contact triggered a blinding white light that filled the clearing. Elsa and Anna felt the ground fall away from them and were disoriented, as if floating aimlessly through empty space. The sensation lasted only a few moments, but was profoundly intense. Anna screamed, but neither sister could hear the sound. Their feet landed on solid ground a second later, and the light dissipated to reveal…

...snow!

Elsa tried to get her bearings. Afternoon had turned into late night, Summer warmth had given way to biting Winter cold, and the clear skies had been replaced by storm winds and heavy snowfall. She was standing in a drift that went halfway up her calves, and the white stuff was still coming down. They were still in the woods, but she could tell by the shape of the treeline that they weren't in that circular clearing. So where were they? Still on the plateau? Somewhere else? And where was Mother?

She was about to call out when a moan next to her reminded of her of something important. She could withstand these conditions with ease. Anna couldn't.

"Anna!" She said as she kept Anna from collapsing. The effects of the storm they were in were brutal and Anna was wearing light summer clothes...just as Elsa had commanded. She hugged Anna close and said, "I'm so sorry! I didn't know!"

"M-my f-f-f-fault!" Anna said, hunching close to her sister. "Sh-sh-should know better...always k-k-k-keep winter stuff handy!" She tried to laugh, but the temperature was wearing her down so quickly. "S-s-s-s-ooo cold!"

Elsa stretched her free hand out and commanded the wind and the snow to die down. It did, but only in a fairly small area around them. She tried her best to also raise the temperature, but that was beyond her abilities.

"I still have my powers," Elsa said, "but this storm is natural! My ability to counteract it is limited. I can't make you more comfortable."

"W-winter somewhere…" Anna said. "Not Arendelle…"

Elsa thought about it. "Maybe it's Storybrooke?" She suddenly hoped it was. "If it is, we can get you to shelter."

"Don't...recognize…" Anna tried. She was fading.

Elsa looked around again. Storybrooke was surrounded by woods. She'd walked through a patch of them when she first broke out of the urn. They also flanked the road that led to the town line, and Ingrid The Snow Queen had hidden there to hatch her plans. The area they were in was certainly wooded, but Anna was right: none of it looked familiar.

Then something familiar came toward them out of the distance. Elsa immediately flashed back to her first moments in Storybrooke. She was walking on the road to town when something sped toward her from behind, something with blazing lights and a loud shrill screech, and at the time she thought it might be some strange demon or runaway iron coach. She lashed out with her power in panic, freezing the monster in its tracks.

But that was then. Now she knew about driving machines, and she was sure that was what she was seeing coming toward them, shining bright lights and plowing through the drifts as if they weren't there. Storybrooke or not, a driving machine meant immediate shelter for Anna. If she could get the attention of the occupants, maybe they'd be willing to help.

As she watched the machine approach she realized getting their attention wouldn't be necessary. The machine turned off the snow-covered road and pointed its lights right at them. Somehow, the driver knew they were there. That was strange, but Elsa chose not to question such good fortune. She just stood tall, held Anna up and maintained the little area of calm surrounding them.

The machine kept coming, surging through and over snowdrifts and kicking snow to either side. Elsa could tell it was big, bigger than the first one she'd frozen, and much bigger than her friend Emma's yellow one. It was squarish and painted mostly white, so that it almost blended in with the snowstorm.

It stopped about a foot outside Elsa's calm zone. Elsa had to shield her eyes from the machine's lights, but not for long. A moment later they dimmed, and a few minutes later the driver stepped out, face sunken in a hood and half-covered with a scarf. She was wearing a heavy coat, but Elsa could still tell it was a woman because she wore the same type of tight, rough leggings Emma wore - in this case, light blue ones - that showed the shape of her legs and hips. She was tall, and walked with a grace that would seem impossible given the snow on the ground and her big, fur-lined snow boots.

When the woman entered the calm zone and started to marvel at it, Elsa said, "Please, we mean you no harm. We need help. My sister is freezing. Could we please use your driving machine to shelter her?"

The woman stopped looking around and turned her attention to the sisters, mainly Anna. "It is terribly cold, isn't it?" She said.

Elsa was struck again with a sense of the familiar on hearing the woman's voice. Anna was too weak to notice. "Y-yes, ma'am…" she said, "...very…"

The woman straightened up and said cheerfully, "In that case it's a good thing I found you when I did, isn't it?" With that, she pushed back her hood and lowered the scarf from her face and smiled.

Elsa and Anna were aghast. "Ingrid!" Anna breathed.

"Never fear, girls," Ingrid said, "Auntie's here!"

TBC...