A.N. - Hello! I'm not sure if I want to continue this or not, so please leave me some feedback and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.
Anna was the first one to call attention to it, of course. It was a cold winter morning and the royal family was enjoying a day of rest in the castle gardens. Kristoff and Anna were playfully chasing their youngest, a small boy with fiery red hair, through the snow. Elsa stood regally with Anna's eldest children, two twin girls with fresh snow in their honey blonde hair, as she created tiny flurries that swirled around their heads and made them shriek in delight.
Out of the corner of her eye, Elsa saw her sister stop and take a few deep breaths. Kristoff looked concerned, but Anna shrugged him off with a smile and a small kiss. She did, however, walk over to a nearby bench and sit down carefully.
Elsa proclaimed to the girls that the festivities would continue right after she took a short break. Ignoring the answering groans, she moved to sit next to Anna on the bench.
"Everything alright?" Anna asked, smiling at her sister. Elsa nodded, her eyes following the twins as they grabbed their brother and began showing him how to build a snowman.
"I was actually about to ask you the same question," Elsa said, laughing at their antics. "You seemed to tire faster than normal."
Anna glanced at Kristoff and then looked back to her sister. "Promise not to tell him?"
Elsa promised, growing slightly worried. Her fears were immediately assuaged when Anna grasped her stomach and a soft smile lit up her face. "I'm pregnant again."
"Oh, but that's wonderful!" Elsa whispered. "Why aren't you telling Kristoff? He'll be so excited."
"I was waiting for our anniversary next week. You know, like a surprise!" Anna laughed nervously. "Erik was supposed to be our last. But you're right, I'm sure he'll be very pleased." She looked over to her husband, who was helping his children from the snowman's face with bits of bark he spirited from nearby trees.
"Kristoff is an excellent father. And it'll be good to have something to take his mind off Sven," Elsa said, sobering as she finished her sentence. The reindeer that lived well beyond a normal lifespan had just died a couple months ago at the impressive age of 38. Elsa privately speculated that exposure to troll magic had kept him alive so long, but she kept her thoughts to herself as it didn't really matter. Anna nodded in agreement.
"Oh, Sven... he would have been so happy with another baby to play with," Anna said as she sniffled a bit. They sat in silence for a few moments, enjoying the simple sounds of happiness all around them.
"Hanna is doing well in her studies," Elsa began cautiously, knowing she was treading into dangerous territory. "She'll make an excellent queen one day."
"Seeing as Elise doesn't even seem remotely interested in the throne, you're probably right," Anna mused. Then her face turned stormy. "But we won't have to worry about it for a long long time, will we?"
"Of course not," Elsa assured, smiling halfheartedly. "But we should be prepared for anything. We didn't expect mother and fa-"
"This is a ridiculous conversation," Anna stated firmly. "Besides, you look half your age. You don't look anywhere near death." Elsa opened her mouth to argue, but Anna suddenly stilled and her head cocked to the side. "You really don't look like you're any older at all. It's almost like-"
"Mama, Aunt Elsa, come on! Don't you want to build a snowman?" Erik said, running over to the sisters.
The two sisters met eyes and all previous conversation was forgotten. "Of course we do," Anna said, her eyes sparkling, and they quickly rose from the bench and ran to their family.
Over the years, Elsa's lack of aging became more and more obvious. As Anna's face began to wrinkle and her hair turned gray, Elsa slowly began to realize that her skin was still as smooth and hair still as white-blonde as it was on the day of her coronation. Soon, the twins looked as if they could be Elsa's sisters and odd to think that she was their aunt. Anna worried tirelessly about her sister, helping her search ancient texts of magic and make many journeys to visit the trolls, but it was no use. Everyone around her began to grow old, but Elsa remained the same.
When the twins were a few years past coronation age, Elsa knew that she couldn't stay for much longer. She was supposedly 53, and the people of Arendale were beginning to grow wary of their sorcerer queen that didn't age. Not that the people didn't love Elsa, but it would have been better for her if she had wrinkles and a stray gray hair or two. People were beginning to whisper things like "inhuman" and even "black magic".
Anna understood. Truly, she did. She would miss her terribly, but she wouldn't hold it against her sister for leaving.
Elsa, on the other hand, could not bear to leave her sister. She knew that if she didn't age, she would only have a limited amount of time with her before...
Well.
So Elsa slowly backed out of the public eye, Anna assuming all of her social queenly duties and Elsa signing papers and writing treaties and decrees and such. She was confined to the castle again, only daring to leave when it was dark and quiet outside. Her family kept her company and she spent all the time with them that she could. Surprisingly, she found a kindred spirit in Olaf, who constantly remained by her side. He was always urging her into the courtyard and gardens to play with the children and spend time with Anna and Kristoff. Other times, he would wake her in the middle of the night.
"Elsa," he would whisper into her ear as she woke from an uneasy sleep. "Let's play."
"It's too late to play, Olaf," she whispered back, turning over to her other side. "Why don't you go get Elise and Hanna and play with them?"
"But I want to play with you," he said softly. "Everyone else is going to leave."
Elsa sat up sharply in her bed then, looking to Olaf with questioning eyes, but it was too late. He had already gone back to his miniature ice castle to go to sleep. Elsa turned back over and didn't fall asleep for a long time.
Kristoff's funeral was a solemn affair. It took place on a muggy summer day, and his entire family of trolls was there to honor his memory. Queen Hanna, who had taken the throne several years ago, helped her mother out to the grave to mourn with her children. Anna cried for awhile, falling to her knees in grief, but could only stay with her beloved for a while before her bones began to ache and her knees shook. It took Erik and her youngest, Jakob, to help her off the ground again.
Or so Elsa was told.
She visited his grave late that night, long past a time when any stragglers would be hanging around. "Thank you for being so good to her," Elsa whispered, dropping a flower next to the gigantic rock that would immortalize Kristoff. She walked back to the castle slowly, a trail of frost spread out listlessly behind her.
When Anna died, Arendale was encased in a blizzard for a solid month. All of the townspeople and many from faraway lands braved the storm to mourn her passing. She was a beloved figure of Arendale; a queen, a wife, a sister, and a mother. She would be sorely missed.
On the night the blizzard stopped, many would say they saw two figures trekking up to the North Mountain through the freezing cold.
"The tall one was horrifying," one man exclaimed, sharing his tale over a pint at the pub. "Its eyes were cold and dead underneath its cloak, and I swear that the snow around it froze to solid ice when it walked across it."
"Someone's had too much to drink," the bartender said, reaching out to grab the man's glass.
"I saw it!" he exclaimed once more. "And the short one- well, you won't believe me, but I swear on everything that-"
"What was it? A little fairy?" The men within ear shot roared with laughter.
"No!" the man muttered, his face growing red. "A snowman! A funny looking, living and breathing little snowman!"
"That's it friend, time to head on home," the bartender said, not unkindly. "I bet the wife's waiting up on you, eh?"
"I did see it," the man swore as he tumbled out the door. "I may be drunker than I should be, but I know what I saw."
And so the years passed.
