Hans is Back
Chapter One: Preparations Begin
I walked into the castle kitchens after running some arons for Elsa and our cook, Heidi. I was to pick up groceries from the market in the center of the kingdom and find a new bolt for the freezer door. Heidi's clumsy husband, Stephen, always found a way to let the door close behind him. Heidi and Stephen had in a way, become my parent figures. They took care of me while Elsa was away on business and what not. If they weren't here Arrondale would be falling apart at it's seems. The groceries how ever, were for the one-month-aversary of me and Kristoff's wedding. Elsa insisted we have a celebration. We've been having quite a few of those since the gates were opened permanently. Which I'm not complaining about.
I set the groceries on the wooden block island in the middle of the grand kitchens. The smell of something with beef in it was now wafting towards me from where Heidi had herself positioned at one of the stove tops. I closed my eyes and inhaled the delicious aroma. It made my mouth water. "Oh, Heidi! That smells delicious!" I sneaked up behind her and made an attempt to dip my finger in the pot, but before I could, she smacked it with the wooden spoon she had been using to stir. I retracted my hand quickly and started shaking it. There was already a red spot forming.
"Ah ah ah, young lady! You'll wait for dinner like everyone else in the castle!" As a reaction, I gave her my puppy dog eyes.
"But….but Heidi," I leaned in towards her a bit. "It smells so good! Can't I just have a little tiny bit!" She looked at me and raised an eyebrow. Lifting the wooden spoon again, I dropped the puppy eyes and raised my hands as if surrendering. "Alright, alright. Message received." Heidi nodded triumphantly and sent me off to wash up for the ball. I sighed and headed over to the cobblestone stairs that lead into the dining room. When I reached the dining room, butterflies began to swirl in my stomach. I always get this feeling when we are to have a ball. In the dining room almost all the help was setting up tables and laying out plates. It was organised chaos and it was one of my favorite parts of preparation.
As I reached the halfway point of the dining room my personal maid, Marie, caught a glimpse of me and scurried over to meet me. "Why princess Anna! You're hardly ready at all, and the ball starts in only a wee bit of time!" She said in her heavy Irish accent. She looked me up and down and shook her head. "Tell you what. I'm gonna fix you up. You head up to your chambers and get undressed. I'll run you a bath." I began to protest but she just held up a finger and shooed me away. I groaned and sulked up to my room. As soon as I reached my room I began to strip and found a towel to cover myself until Marie came to draw my bath. I sat down on my little reading nook beside my window. I had just begun to think about Kristoff as he barged into my room loudly and awkwardly. He looked at me and saw that all I had to cover me was a towel.
"Oh, um, sorry Anna. I didn't realize-" His face turned a deep shade of red and he began to back out the door.
"Kristoff," I said. He paused and looked up at me. I was now walking to the door to meet him. "When are you gonna start remembering that we are married now." I had now reached him and was resting my arms on his shoulders.
"When my brain gets wrapped around the fact that this isn't a dream." I leaned in close to him and we were about to kiss when Marie burst through the door. She was carrying an overly large amount of assorted soaps and lotions in her arms, which meant she had to kick open the door. She did so with such force that it swung open all the way and smacked Kristoff right in the back of the head. He fell to the floor dizzily. I crouched down next to him and moved his long blonde hair out of his eyes. He opened one eye and looked up at me. "Okay, now I'm sure this isn't a dream." I helped him sit up and Marie was now frantically apologizing. Her accent so thick it was nearly impossible to interpret the words flying out of her mouth. Kristoff held up a hand to shush her and she slapped her hand over her mouth. "Don't beat yourself up Marie. It's just a little bump. I'll live." Marie looked down and nodded removing her hand from her mouth and scurrying off to my royal bathroom to draw the bath. Kristoff stood up and placed a kiss on my cheek. He began to wobble towards the door before turning a little too quickly as he set his hand on the door handle. "Oh! I almost forgot why I came in here in the first place. He walked back over to me and pulled something out of his pocket. "Happy one-month-aversary Anna." He handed me a slender black box. I opened it slowly, afraid that if I opened it too quickly I would damage the contents. I held a hand to my mouth once I saw what was inside. It was a magnificent diamond necklace with a gold chain. The diamond had been shaped into a small flower and there was a tiny gold sphere in the middle of it. Kristoff raised his arm and put it behind his head how he often times does when he's worried. "You like it, right….?" I looked at him and straightened up then I slammed the box shut. "No, I don't like it…." I paused and his face fell. Then I smiled. "I absolutely, positively, love it." He looked up and smiled brightly. Then I jumped up and kissed him on the lips.
"I love you, Anna." he said after we pulled away.
"I love you too, Mountain Man." I giggled and skipped off to the bathroom where Marie and my bath were waiting.
After Marie had finished scrubbing my entire scalp off, it was time to pick out my gown. I sat on the bed and Marie brought out a few dresses at a time. "How do these suit you?" Marie asked, cocking her head to the side as she held up the first batch which consisted of a red and white flowy dress with a sweetheart neckline and mesh straps, a blue and green dress with a black mesh back and a long trail of blue fabric, and as I looked at the last dress, my face fell. It was a black dress with lace flowers and a thick black cape that went over it. That was the dress I wore to my parents empty casketed funeral. Marie noticed this a bit too late. She set down the other two dresses on a nearby chair and hung the black dress over her arm. "I'll swap this one out for you." I nodded and she retreated to the closet and returned a few short moments later. She came out with my favorite ball gown. The one I wore the first day we had opened the gates after Mother and Father passed.
"That one," I said. "Definitely that one." Marie nodded and began to take the dress off the hangar. "Um….Marie….Do you think it would be too much trouble to have Queen Elsa help me get ready from here?" She smiled and set the dress on the bed behind me. "Not at all, deary. I'll go fetch her for you." She smiled at me and disappeared down the hallway towards Elsa's chambers. As I waited, I stumbled around my room looking for a pair of clean underwear and a pair of nude colored tights. I finally found underwear and slipped it on quickly while still looking for my tights. But before I could find them I heard a knock on my door.
knock, knock, na, knock knock. I grabbed my towel off my bed and rushed to the door knowing it was Elsa because that was our secret knock. I flung open the door and without giving her time to think, yanked her inside the room and shut the door behind us.
"Calm down Anna! We still have two hours before the ball starts! No need to rush!" That was easy for Elsa to say. She was always ready for a ball. Ever since she opened up about her secret, she wears nothing but ball gowns to represent her freedom. Unless she has important trade business or something.
"That's easy for you to say." She looked at me and gave me a sideways smile.
"I'm here to help you get ready. Do you want me to stay or not?" then without giving me time to answer, because she already knew what I would say, she whisked past me and grabbed my arm as she went. She sat me down in a chair. "Okay. Let's see here…" she looked around my room and made various looks of disgust. "How do you live in this pigsty of a room! I can hardly see the floor." she kicked up a ball gown from the last ball we had which was a celebration held because we had finally made trade partners with a Neighboring kingdom called Charmia. Elsa proceeded to pick up gowns and socks and undergarments and toss them down the laundry chute until she found my tights. "Aha! Here we go." She started scrunching them up so she could put them on for me. She knelt down in front of me and shimmied the tights up my legs. I stood and adjusted them around the waist. Elsa then dragged me over to my bed and grabbed the dress that was laying there patiently waiting for me to put it on. Elsa picked it up and held it high in the air so that the hem of the dress didn't touch the floor and she let out a tiny gasp. Then she held the dress up to her own chest and smiled at me. "You can never go wrong with this dress." I laughed as she began to twirl around the room holding the dress up to her chest still.
"Are you gonna help me get ready or what?" she stopped twirling and stayed positioned in mid twirl with one arm in the air. "Oh. Right." then we both erupted into a laughing frenzy and flopped onto my bed. Then after the laughing died down to a slight giggling I looked at my sister. Like really looked at her. She was truly beautiful. With her white hair to compliment her bright blue eyes and her fair skin to tie it all together. I was jealous of her. Sure, I'm not exactly ugly but Elsa….She's gorgeous. I know Kristoff hates it when I think poorly of myself but sometimes I just cant help it. Especially when I'm up against Elsa.
"Alright thats enough fun for now." She pulled herself up into a sitting position and stretched her arms up. "At least until the ball." Then she stood and held out her arms for me to grab. After I took her hands and she hoisted me up off the bed the real work began. Make-up, hair, more make-up and more hair for another hour and a half. Elsa pinned the last bit of my hair into place and then I was ready. I stood and looked in the mirror. My mouth fell slightly ajar at the sight of myself in the reflective glass. I looked older, more….mature, sophisticated even. Elsa had pinned my hair back into a complex braided bun similar to the one that I had worn on coronation day. She also applied a subtle mix of brown and purple eye shadow. Elsa stepped up closer behind me and rested her hands on my shoulders. "I really thought that eye shadow would set off your eyes." She gently smiled at my reflection before continuing. "I'm sure Kristoff will be stunned at the sight of you." I reached up to my neck so I could grasp the necklace he had given me then gave my shoulders a firm squeeze before turning and sitting on the ottoman that sat at the end of my bed. I turned away from the mirror to face her and I flopped my arms out and let them fall back and hit my thighs with a muffled clap. Elsa leaned back against the foot rest of my bed. "Anna, you look gorgeous." She stood to come fix a hair that had sprung out of place. "Kristoff is the luckiest man on this planet to have one the heart of my dear, dear younger sister." Just then there was a quiet knock on my door.
"Come in!" I shouted. The butler, Kai, Poked his head in and announced that we should head to the Throne Room soon as the public will be entering the building in approximately twenty minutes. Elsa thanked Kai and he nodded and went off down the hallway leaving the door cracked slightly.
"Okay, I'm going to head off and check on last minute preparations. You finish up in here and head straight to the Throne Room. Got it?" She pointed her finger at me waiting for me to reply accordingly. Which I hardly did. I rolled my eyes and let out a sarcastic and playful 'Yes your highness.' Elsa gave me a playful glare and whisked herself out the door. I gave myself a final look over in the mirror, took a deep breath and walked out of my room to head down to the kitchens to see if I couldn't sneak a bread roll or something to hold me until the ball began.
Chapter 2: The Ball Begins