Snow Red
By Eversskye
Disclaimer: I already said it in chapter one.
A/N: Thank You to everyone who read, followed, and especially to those who left a review. It really gave me inspiration to finish this chapter quicker.
Chapter Two: Growth and Bonding
On occasion the king would grace the top floor of the castle with his presence to inquire on Elsa's condition. The young princess was always ecstatic to see her father, even if he did nothing more than talk to the royal tutors regarding her progress with her winter magic. It was all for her own good, she reasoned. And so, despite being slightly miffed whenever the teachers mentioned that her magic had not grown anywhere near enough to overcome the poison, Elsa looked forward to her father's visits as they were a sign that he truly cared.
If there was anything Elsa did hate, however, it would be the physical checkups she was required to do after each of her father's visits. A teacher observed her behind a thick wall of glass while the young princess stood in a room surrounded by fire, clothed in the thickest clothing the tailors could muster. The poison in her veins boiled to a most uncomfortable level, and her clothes soaked with sweat, but Elsa was not allowed to drink any water to replenish what she had lost.
With the most indifferent of voices, the teacher instructed her to freeze the room and fill it with as much snow as she could.
"Remember," the old man directed, "You are to learn how to overcome the toxic fire running in your veins by tapping into the winter powers deep inside of you. That is the only way you would be able to overcome the witch's curse."
The first hour was not too difficult; Elsa quickly froze the fires surrounding her before any of the snow could melt away. As time passed by, however, more and more torches were thrown into the room before the young princess could even start to freeze them all. Eventually most of her effort was spent in dodging the growing flames, which licked and marked her pale skin with red scorches.
Water was important, she soon realized. With so many torches consistently being thrown in, it would be too difficult for her to bring the room's temperature- as a whole- low enough to quench the entire blaze. It was simpler to use her powers of snow and ice to stop the flames individually. The problem was, neither snow nor ice can be created without enough water vapor in the air.
She understood the futility of her efforts. But the young princess nonetheless continued to freeze as much water vapor in the room as she could, sending them off in short bursts of power to cool the flares burning closest. Still, the flames congregated and grew. Once the inferno enclosed her the teacher's voice echoed through the cackling flames.
"Princess Elsa, you are not permitted to stop! No one will save you but yourself. You are to proceed until the entire room is frozen."
Surely, Elsa thought, her father would not allow them to burn her to death? But the building panic in her stomach and the smoke in her lungs proved otherwise. The young princess despaired as she wrapped her arms around herself to take up as little space as possible.
"No! NO…father!" she cried between coughs.
Relentlessly, her enemy raged on. There was no one in sight, no sound of the large stone doors opening. As she knelt to the ground, Elsa understood then that the teachers could only be so calm if they were given permission from the king to not intervene. The king's orders were precisely what they had informed her- she was to continue freezing the room, or die attempting to do so.
It made to no sense to the young girl, as in all the fairytales she had read, parents would have done anything to save their children. For the first time in her life, a seed of doubt was planted deep within Elsa's heart, that maybe…just maybe, it did not matter to the king of she had died after all.
Pain overtook her. A horribly cold yet profound feeling spread from her heart, into her limbs, and throughout her body. She screamed, eyes unseeing, and knew no more.
When Elsa came to, she was within the arms of none other than the king himself. The proud sovereign nodded as he noticed her open her eyes.
"Well done, my child. We had always known that with the right push, you would be able to do it. You will be able to control the winter soon enough, and the fire in your veins as well."
He reached to touch her forehead, but stopped as the princess shied away. Quietly, Elsa shakily sat up and looked around the now-frozen room. Tiredness crept in her bones, and her muscles were sore beyond measure. Barely registering what her father had said, and no longer caring much for it at this point, the young princess took in a deep breath.
"I would like to retire to bed. For the day off. To sleep, for now."
It was not a question, yet too gentle to be a request. Still, the king complied and a servant was motioned over to carry the princess to her quarters. Elsa remained motionless upon her bed for what seemed like hours, and eventually the servants retreated for the night. Exhausted as she was, however, the princess could not bring herself to sleep. Later that night the nine year old snuck out of her room once more, headed to the room where she knew Anna was probably no longer waiting.
Tacitly she turned the doorknob and entered, only to be immediately tackled to the ground. Disbelief raced through her for the second time that day.
"A-Anna?"
Arms still wrapped around her sister, Princess Anna giggled and buried her face within the other girl's shoulders. Her reply was muffled yet joyous.
"You were so late, and I was worried. But I knew you'd come! I knew so I waited."
Smiling broadly, the strawberry blonde lifted a messy head from her sister to take a better look at the girl. What she saw made her pull away immediately, distress evident within her greenish-blue eyes.
"Elsa?" she whispered. "What happened to you?"
Elsa did not know how to reply, and she remained silent as her twin sister shuffled to pull her up and sit beside her. With utmost care, Anna moved to examine the wounds on her sibling's face and arms. Elsa remained immobile throughout, too tired to even question the other girl as Anna rushed out of the room and ran back in with a pouch in her hands. She pulled some sort of ointment from it, as well as a few strips of cloth, and proceeded to gently apply the milky salve onto the princess's burns.
The application stung, and Elsa bit her lips as her sister hissed softly in sympathy.
"Don't worry, Elsa. They'll heal up real fast. I get injured all the time from running around the castle, and this is what I always use."
The sotto sound of little the girl's voice was like a warm embrace, and Elsa was surprised to find that her wounds did not hurt nearly as much anymore. Yet a peculiar feeling knotted in her heart, and Elsa took in a deep breath, overwhelmed.
A sob rose in her throat, and she watched through teary eyes as Anna flustered around, misunderstanding the reason why the silver blonde was crying. Unable to think of anything, Anna pulled her sister into a hug.
"It'll be okay, Elsa. Shh. You'll be okay. Don't cry. It won't hurt anymore."
Elsa had never experienced such kindness before. All of her life, she had spent doing everything she could for her father to notice her. And yet this girl, this wonderfully warm girl before her had offered love without asking for anything at all.
How ironic it was. How unfair. How cruel. Elsa's body shook while she wept harder within the other girl's arms.
"It's okay if you want to cry then. I'm here, Elsa. Always."
Voice thick with emotion, and sounding as though she was about to tear up herself, Anna hugged her sister as tight as she could.
The two girls held each other long into the night. It was at that point that Elsa swore to herself that from then on, Anna would be most important in her heart.
Every night they secretly met and grew closer.
Nearly half a year had passed by from the first time the sisters had discovered each other. As her initial shyness decreased, so too did Elsa's heart open and warm up to the other. Yet Anna grew to understand that Elsa was not inherently talkative. The more serious girl thrived in comfortable silences, and would not be bothered to speak much even as they dashed and played and built snowmen throughout the night.
Thus it was left to Anna to fill up those silent moments with her own chatty rambling. It was through these seemingly one-sided conversations that one night Anna discovered that Elsa had never met their mother.
"C'mon, Elsa. I know that daddy is strict. But there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to see our mom!"
The pale princess did not even pause to think before she shook her head in silent disagreement. Anna groaned.
"What's the worst that can happen? She probably misses you. Mom isn't like Dad. She's nice! I mean…not that Daddy's mean, but sometimes he's too stern to be nice-nice…"
She drifted off, as Elsa placed one hand on each of her shoulders. The look in Elsa's clear blue eyes was sad as they bore into her own, as though asking her why the queen had not sought for her other daughter all these years. Why did the queen never ask for her, never care for her the way she did for Anna?
There were things that could not be forced, wounds that could not be healed without truly understanding the source behind it. No matter how much Anna wanted for Elsa and her mother to meet and for the entire family to be together one day, she knew that they would not be truly happy if they did not choose meet out of their own will. Eventually she dropped the topic. Yet it remained in the back of her mind until one day the queen suddenly became very ill, and Anna knew she had to bring it up again before it was too late.
That evening as her father spoke to the royal healers, the young princess knelt by her mother's bed and tearfully told the queen about Elsa and their nightly outings. She told the queen of their first encounter and the subsequent ones, of how they spent their time together, and how her sister had always been lacking in motherly love. Certainly, she thought, at this crucial moment, her mother would want to see how her other daughter is doing all this time?
Perhaps such a happy occasion as reuniting with Elsa would cheer up the queen, might heal her and give her a complete recovery.
What she did not expect was that her mother did not ask for her to bring sister. Instead, the queen shakily grasped her hands and beckoned her forward. Then, in a whisper, the ailing woman spoke her last words into her daughter's ears.
"I do not wish for you to be like your father. Live happy. Grow strong, Anna, and protect what means most to you. Save Elsa. Only true love can thaw the frozen heart."
That night the queen departed. Anna did not really understand the message in its entirety, but as she cried and cried within her sister's arms for the next week or so, her mother's dying words continued to echo in her mind. There was something very wrong with the workings in the castle. Something that her mom did not wish to say.
But as time passed by, Anna's trust in life and innate optimism pushed every suspicion away. All that remained etched in her heart was the thought that should anything happen she would protect Elsa, because now…they only had each other.
End Chapter Two.
A/N: It's shorter than I'm used to, but I felt that ending it here was necessary for the plot to move on next. I'd planned for them to grow up sooner as most of the story does involve and older Anna/Elsa, but I'm afraid that this back story of their childhood does have to continue for another chapter in order for the true events of the story to play out.