Chapter 1:

Trouble Sleeping

A short chapter, but a good chapter. I'll try to make them longer as I go.

(three months after Hans received the mirror)

Arendelle was entering its last day of winter and its first taste of spring on this March night, with the northern lights flickering overhead. Blizzards used to be a normal occurrence in Arendelle this time of year, but ever since Elsa learned to control her powers, she was easily able to keep most of the lighter storms away, making winter in Arendelle a very pleasant experience.

Normally, everyone is asleep, especially at two 'o'clock in the morning, but that wasn't the case for princess Anna. Despite eagerness, she and Kristoff decided that it would be best to wait until spring to be wedded, when the weather is warmer and the flowers are in bloom. As she prepares for this life-changing day, however, she finds herself questioning her decisions. She wants to marry Kristoff more than anything, but she can't escape the lingering thoughts of doubt and anxiety, some of which pertain to her previous, hasty engagement. On this night, Anna stays awake at the fireplace in the castle library, huddled up on the couch, covering herself in a white blanket.

Elsa was also up this night. After her encounter with her guardian angel, Elsa had been more at ease with herself and her powers, and has since been more outgoing and confident than she had ever been. Despite the occasional important decisions regarding politics, her only source of anxiety had been her feeling toward Sir Jase, the knight who she had become attached too. Though she has strong feelings for him, she is unsure if they are feelings of love or not, or if Jase reciprocates these feelings. But she is patient, and is willing to bide her time until she is sure. After all, she is still young and is not expected to marry for some time.

But this is not what kept Elsa up this night, rather, it was something far more trivial; un unfinished book. For three days now, she has been reading a fascinating mystery novel that has taken up most of her time. With only three chapters to go, Elsa was unable to wait until morning to finish, and decided to sneek down to the library to finish.

Reading as she walked, Elsa was to drawn into her book to notice Anna sitting on the couch. Anna, likewise, was too deep into thought to notice Elsa approaching. She sat down on the couch, unknowingly next to Anna. They both sat there for a few minutes, completely unaware of each other's presence. Anna let out a sigh, which surprised the nearby Elsa…

"YAHHHH!" yelled Elsa as her book flung into the air, landing in the fire.

"OH MY GOSH!" yelled an equally surprised Anna, throwing her blanket into the air, which landed on Elsa. Anna looked around the room as Elsa stumbled around, trying to get the blanket off her face.

"GHOST!" yelled Anna as she defended herself by swatting a pillow at Elsa.

"Be gone, spirit!" she yelled, believing that she was being attacked by a supernatural force. After several swats with the pillow, Anna threw it aside, grabbing the metal fireplace shovel, readying to strike the "ghost" with it. Luckily, Elsa was able to get the blanket off in time as she saw Anna with the shovel in striking position…

"Anna! Stop, it's me!" she yelled, her hair now frizzled by the blanket. Anna froze, realizing that she was about to strike her sister with a shovel.

"Wha…where you going to hit me with a shovel?" asked Elsa.

Anna, embarrassed by her earlier assessment, hid the shovel behind her back. "In my defense, I thought you were a ghost... Wait, why am I defending myself, why did you scare me?!"

"I didn't scare you! you scared me! Why are you even here!"

"I have been here half the night!"

Elsa's face of frantic panic quickly turned perplexed. "Wait, why were you here all night?..."

Just then, a man, sword drawn, entered the room…

"Alright! show yourself! I'm armed and dangerous!" yelled Isaac, a fellow knight and best friend of Jase. He was breathing heavily, sword drawn, pointing ahead of him, frantically looking around the room for a threat.

Elsa quickly tried to relax the frantic knight, "Whoa, Isaac, it's just me and Anna! We scared each other, there's nothing wrong, we're safe!"

Isaac slowly regained his composure as he analyzed the situation, slightly embarrassed by his outburst. "Oh. Right. Well… this is awkward... I guess I should… get back to my post… which I was not sleeping at by the way" he pointed out as he put his sword back into his scabbard and turned to exit the room. "Sorry to have disturbed you."

"Sorry we disturbed you" said Anna. "…And thanks for coming to our aid, not that we needed it, but all the same..."

"Oh, don't worry about it, just glad I have some motivation to stay awake now" he said, lazily waving his hand as he left the room.

Elsa and Anna sat back on the couch, catching their breath. As Elsa looked into the fire, she saw as her book burned to a crisp.

"Oh no, was that your book! I'm so sorry!" said Anna, realizing the fate of Elsa's recent obsession.

"Oh, don't worry about it" said Elsa, staring wide eyed in disbelief as her book roasted away, "I can always get another one... just have to wait until the bookstore opens tomorrow...seven hours from now" she tried to say calmly.

"Elsa, tomorrow's Sunday, the stores are closed."

Elsa just sighed, realizing that she would have to wait until Monday until she could finish her book.

Elsa sighed, and then regained her composure when she went back to address the fact Anna couldn't sleep all night. After a few minutes of silent mouring, Elsa looked to Anna, who had obviously been distressed for a while.

"Hey, are you ok?"

Anna looked up, trying to hide her anxious face. "What, me, oh, I'm fine, there's nothing wrong here!"

Elsa shot back a glare, as if to say "really?"

Anna sighed. "Fine, you got me, I'm not ok" she said, sitting back down, staring blankly at the fire

Elsa leaned over to look at Anna, who was now crouched up on the couch with her hands holding her curled up legs. "You want to talk about it? I'm all ears."

"I don't know, it's kind of stupid."

"Come on. No more secrets, remember?" smiled Elsa as she sat back down on the couch.

Anna looked back at Elsa, smiling. "Fine, I'll talk."

She put her legs back on the ground and shifter her body to face her sister. "Well, I've been kind of, anxious lately, about the wedding."

"That's normal" said Elsa.

"Yeah, well, the thing is, I'm afraid that it, well, that it won't be what I expected. I mean, the last time I was engaged, I rushed into it and, well, you remember how that turned out..."

Elsa finished for her, "…And you're afraid that you won't be happy with Kristsoff."

Anna shot a worried look back at Elsa. "It's not that, I mean, I know he's no Hans and he would never do anything to hurt me, and I truly love him, at least, I think I do... I just feel like I'm making another mistake."

Elsa paused for a few seconds, putting together a response. She put her hand on Anna's shoulder, "look, you weren't yourself when Hans proposed, you were afraid of being shut out again and he took advantage of that. You love Kristoff, and I trust you on that… and I trust Kristoff when he says that he loves you. I think you're just second guessing yourself."

Anna looked back at Elsa, more concerned this time. "But how do I know this time? I'm not saying I'm having second thoughts, but I can't shake this feeling that I'm being foolish again."

Elsa smiled, recognizing a familiar emotion. "Anna, I know exactly what you're going through."

"You do? You've never been engaged before."

"No, but I know what anxiety feels like... It's basically a pointless fear, like you can't do anything right." Elsa looked down to her side, "I've felt it many times when I was locked in my room. It's like you don't know what's right or wrong anymore and you can't trust your decisions or yourself." She looked back to Anna, "you just have to run this through your mind, trust your decision, and ignore the irrational thoughts, and have faith that they'll go away."

Anna looked down, trying to comprehend Elsa's logic. "Well, I guess that makes sense."

"Of course it does. Now lighten up, will you, you're supposed to be the happy-go-lucky one!"

Anna, looking relieved, smiled. "Thanks Elsa."

"Hey, what are sisters for?" she said as she gave Anna a hug.

"Look, you're only going to get more emotional as we get closer to the wedding, unfortunately it's a woman thing, so if you need help figuring things out in that crazy head of yours, I'm always here to listen."

"Ok" replied Anna, who had regained her normal, happy composure. "And I'm not emotional!"

"Of course" said Elsa with a fake smile, rolling her eyes. "Alright then, what do you say we go downstairs and find some ice-cream?"

"You read my mind!" said Anna as she flung to her feet and ran to the exit.

Elsa followed behind, but not before she glanced back at burnt remains of the book…

"It was probably the uncle; it's always the uncle in these types of stories."

Jase and Craig, knights of Arendelle, were on the road back to Arendelle. Almost two weeks ago, a notorious gang, who had been responsible for a series of thefts in several kingdoms, had been spotted near Arendelle's borders. In an inter-kingdom cooperation, Arendelle agreed to send two representatives to aid in there capture. Elsa sent Jase and Craig to go and represent Arendelle. After a week of tracking, the group, consisting of knights, captains, and skilled trackers, finally found them hiding in a cave and, after some "persuasion", they surrendered and were taken into custody, with Welington providing the prison cells. After that ordeal of tracking through the wilderness, Jase and Craig were happy to return home, there new home, which had just come into view as the came over a hill...

"Ah! I miss the ocean!" said Jase as they stopped there horses. "Can't wait to get back to the castle, say hello to everyone, go to my bed, and sleep, for three days!"

"Neither can I, boy. I'm just glad to be home again... It's hard to believe, just over five months ago, we were living in a ghost town, guarding an ancient force of evil, and now look at us!

"I can't believe it myself, Craig. I never dreamed that life could be this good!"

"Well let's get going then, shall we?" said Craig. Before they actually road off, though, he added "wouldn't want to keep Queen Elsa waiting."

Jase glanced back at Craig, as if he was trying to imply something. "What?"

"Come on Jase, do you think you can keep a secret from me?"

Jase tried to bluff, "what secret?"

Craig only smiled, "just don't take too long, will you! I did, six times actually. And I've regretted it, (sigh), six times. Heh! women!" he said before riding off, leaving a dumbfounded Jase behind.

Hope you like it so far. Let me know what you think.