There she stood, armored and glistening in the winter sun. Her blade was masterfully burnished—forged from the remains of great weapons before. It was said to be indestructible.
The cold wind was welcome, brisk. It ruffled the ends of her cape as she stared onward. The mountains looked utterly breathtaking in the backdrop. Clouds billowed by slowly and melded with the snowcaps all around.
Stood on the highest plateau in all the land, relishing in the light of day.
From the edge of the faux-horizon, her expected approaches. A tousled mass of platinum blonde billowed as the sun shimmered upon it. Strident; grand; deliberate. Her gown was of utmost intricacy, but all varying shades of blue. Parts of it were still hidden from view as she reached the summit. Her icy breast plate shone a piercing brilliance, the natural blues, magentas and golds of her ice shimmering outward in rays—a valkyrie of ice and snow.
The snow gave way as she ceased her movement no more than twenty feet away from the other. Wind blew forth between them, from the east. The other had her eyes closed, hands situated atop her blade as it stood sheathed between her feet. The head of crimson shifted upward just slightly.
"I'm surprised you came," she said, finally meeting gaze with the blonde. The echo of her words was of little surprise atop the North Mountain. The wind changed angle slightly, lessening in strength to a low whistle.
"I looked everywhere for you." Those deep blue orbs bore into her, though holding composure. The emphasis on where she looked was hard not to notice.
"Me?" Anna relaxed her hands atop the longsword in a shrug, giving the other a quizzical look. "Elsa, I don't understand. You call me to the top of a mountain after years of absence, and expect me to put it all to side." Her sister's off-handed response did not sit well with her. "You were gone, Elsa. I looked for you."
She had said it with the blessed assurance of a queen, that which she ascended to after the painful memory—the revelation in a flash of ice.
"And you never even came back," she said with a hint of hurt in her voice. Reaching up to put a stray hair back in place behind her ear, she looked off into the vast expanse. The blue sky felt freeing, like looking into the soul of the world.
The sigh from in front of her was subtle, but it commanded her attention to the fore. Her eyes widened as those slender arms hung down to the side, head shaking.
"Anna, I.. it wasn't what I intended—"
"Elsa, I swear, as Queen, if you don't cut to the chase, this will not be pretty." She huffed exasperatedly, something she would've done in the time Elsa still knew her. "Please, no secrets."
Elsa's eyes widened. She hadn't thought of such a sudden shift from commanding to endearing.
"Do you still love me?"
Even she couldn't believe she had said it. After five years of absence, her first priority made itself obvious. As she looked across, the dubious stare left her uneasy.
"I loved you like a sister, Elsa. I wanted to spend every day with you, grow with you; and then coronation day came and I felt so proud of you." She pulled in breath as her eyes screwed shut, the emotion clear in her face. She gulped hard, and then let the light into her eyes. "I met a man, who I now know to be traitorous scum, asked for your blessing, and then.. you know the rest."
In a single movement, the golden-clad Anna removed her sword from its spot on the ground to a specially-made holding place on her waist. Her left hand lingered on the sheath absentmindedly. Her leer hadn't moved from the ground.
Elsa merely stood unsure.
"Yes, Elsa."
But that gave her a rather decisive indication—
"Stop."
Elsa halted herself mid-run as the command hit her. The toothy grin that had been thrown onto her face at a moment's notice at the very word, as well as her flying legs, ceased.
As she looked over to see the Queen's face quivering slightly, her face grew concerned.
And then she was knocked from her standing position in a flash. She could vaguely feel the blunt end of the sword press into her abdomen suddenly, and then she noticed a gasp of snow leave the ground as her back met it. The next thing she felt, however, would be remembered forever.
"How could you know what it was like!?" The tears trickling onto her neck were the first she had felt in many years. "I was literally talking to a door for thirteen years—after ten of which our parents died, and then you left, leaving everyone to assume you were a monster while I had no way of proving them wrong." Her sniffles resounded like the peals of a powerful bell. "And then my dumb love ended up with an attempt on my life, which I had to settle myself. I murdered him, Elsa! I ended his life after what he said he'd do to you and our people! People told me that our parents would be proud, and they didn't even bother to mention you! Do you have any idea what that was like!? I had lived my entire life up until that point and then you vanished. I had believed that I could make things right, but after two years of looking for you in places all over this Earth, I.. I-I gave up on you Elsa!"
The body atop her shifted and set its face to the right of hers, still sobbing. "I couldn't believe it, but I did. I failed you, Elsa—it may have been one hell of a wait, but you kept true and I didn't." Anna felt a hand at her back tap lightly at the armor. In a moment, she sat up and removed the protective plate and resumed her position atop Elsa. "You know how I know?" Elsa nodded to continue beneath her sister. "Because I found mother and father's scrolls hidden in their room. They said we'd only look for them if something happened to either of us—something bad. And they were right. Mom wrote about how my memories of your powers were erased and dad wrote about how you were just keeping me safe all those years.. well, trying to."
Anna then sprung up and pulled Elsa off the snow, hand reaching back to undo her armor. Upon realizing this, Elsa dissipated the creation before her very eyes, earning a gasp. Anna looked at her wistfully as they sat together in the field of white.
"But none of that came close to what they wrote about you. They said that you never stopped talking about me, not even in passing. They said you were always concerned about me when new arrangements were made. And even if I never heard a word of it," she said, a blush spreading to her face, "I knew that it was true."
Her hand reached out to touch the pale face before her, the owner of which was losing a battle with tears. "If you loved me that much, then how could I ever do the same for you?" She closed the distance in a breath-knocking hug. Elsa finally let go and the tears dampened the shoulder in front of her, the sobs reaching her ears just as quickly. She cried from the depths of her soul.
"It's true! It's all true, Anna! You were never away from my mind—not even one day went by without you in it, I always made sure." She pulled back and stared into those mesmerizing teal eyes, saying, "I hated every moment I was gone." She copied Anna's positioning from earlier as she laid her head to the side of her sister's. "Oh, Anna, if you'll allow it, I'll tell you from the beginning how I came to learn how wrong I was." Her hands reached up and wrapped around Anna's neck. "I won't spare a single detail."
Despite wanting to ask what she was wrong about, Anna nodded against her sister and promised she'd listen.
The air was warm, made so by the fire burning in the parlor. The steam rose in small plumes above their drinks. They had been talking now for hours; where Elsa'd been; what things Anna had done as Queen.
"So you're still without a King?" asked Elsa. She noticed her hand had become slightly clammy flush against the hot mug.
"Well, yes, but I'm far from helpless. I once led a regimen against Berk when they tried their hand at sieging us," replied the Queen.
"That steel at your side isn't just for show then." The blonde had felt that its presence at her side was naught more than a symbol of her stature. She would've expected it from her. But apparently it was crafted for her by some uncredited faction that was particularly fond of her crowning.
"Well, what did you expect," she said, placing a hand on the scabbard and relishing in the clink of metal, "this is your sister we're talking about." She laughed, then her eyes met the floor. "Which leads me to say that I've done an awful lot of talking about myself." She fiddled her hands with her drink. "W-well?" She put her cup down with a pout. "Dammit Elsa, I'm the Queen. I'm not supposed to be stammering."
"Oh Anna," Elsa said, punctuating her endearment with a giggle, "all you had to do was ask." The redhead slumped over in shame.
"What am I ever to do with you?"
"Hm.. let's start with my banishment." Her sister's back suddenly went ram-rod straight, jostling her chair.
"Your what!?" Anna nearly snapped in two from surprise.
"My banishment," Elsa repeated, perhaps somewhat fittingly unfeeling in regards to her own words. Anna still was looking at her probingly. "I didn't stutter did I?" Anna shrank under her eyes.
"No. No, you didn't." Elsa sighed.
"Anna, this isn't easy to talk about—"
"And talking about your powers was? If I'd have known that you could control ice and snow, I would've always been there for you if you shut me out or not." She then clapped her mouth shut, hoping she didn't just open a whole other can of worms. Her older sister laughed.
"You didn't let me finish. But I guess the main reason that was easy to talk about was because I have control over my powers now.
"Yes, that may have been the reason I shut you out for so long and it may have been why our parents were so intent on me studying. I just didn't want you getting hurt. Now that's not such an issue.
"But what is is that I've never told anyone about this point in my life; my time as an overseer. Okay, maybe one other soul, but—" she caught how Anna's face scrunched, "that can wait."
A/N: This was originally all I had written until a few days ago. Next chapter begins the real story I guess you could say—the Elsanna is a long ways off. Till then.