Thanks again for the faves and follows! They mean a lot to me! Well, here's the third chapter, and I'm sorry there was such a long delay between this one and the previous one. This story has proven to be a little harder to write than my first one, as there's more narration than dialogue. But I hope you enjoy it, and please review!
Chapter 3: Do You Have to Go?
Elsa – 18; Anna – 15
It was another bright, warm, sunny day. The air was warm, the flowers were blooming, and people were rushing about excitedly in the square. Spring had finally arrived, and the citizens of Arendelle were happily celebrating the end of another long winter. As it was the first mild day in weeks, everyone wanted to spend as much time outside as they could. The mood was so infectious, it spread into the castle, even through the locked gates and closed doors.
Anna was laying on her bed reading, the open window letting in a gentle breeze. After weeks of being stuck inside a stuffy castle, it was a welcome relief. Anna looked up from her book and closed her eyes, letting the breeze play across her face. She lay there for a moment, enjoying it, before suddenly springing up off her bed and racing to her door. She tugged it open and flew out into the hall. Excitement overcoming her, she started skipping and twirling like she used to when she was little. She knew that at fifteen, she was now too old to be doing that, but she didn't care, and besides, there was hardly anyone around to see her.
Too lost in her excitement, she didn't notice the closed door until she had twirled past it. The closed door with the blue pattern on it. The door that had refused to open for the past ten years. Elsa's door. She stopped with her back against the wall, looked at it for a moment, then raised her hand to knock. But then she remembered why it had been closed in the first place, and lowered her arm. She knew that she would get the exact same reaction she had gotten all the many other times she had knocked: nothing. She sighed and walked away slowly.
She had finally given up on getting Elsa to talk to her. What was the point anymore? Elsa would never talk to her again. She still didn't understand what had happened between the two of them. She had stopped asking her parents about it because they had never given her a straight answer. What had happened that had made Elsa so distant? And why wouldn't she tell Anna about it? Before Elsa's isolation, she and Anna had shared every little secret together. They had been best friends, as Anna had said, in every way possible. They had shared a room, they had sung and played games together, they had done everything sisters (and best friends) would do.
Anna wished she and Elsa could go back to the way things used to be, being best friends and, most importantly, sisters. But judging from Elsa's complete lack of response during the past ten years and her parents' continuous looks of worry and fear, she knew that would never happen again. And that brought a wave of fresh tears. She wanted to be close to her sister again, but didn't know when or if that day would ever come.
She suddenly didn't feel like going outside anymore. What was there to do anyway? Nothing that excited her anymore. At least, not like when she was little. She had always been able to find something to do, but she had done those same activities so much over the past ten years that the fun had worn off. Still, she was sick of being cooped up inside the castle, of not being able to go anywhere or do anything outside the castle gates. She wanted to meet people, travel, have adventures; not sit inside a stuffy castle almost all day, every day.
She went back to her room and slowly and silently closed the door. She leaned against it, trying to fight the tears that were threatening to spill out. She blinked hard a few times to rid her eyes of the blurriness that had started to form in them before she went over to her bed. She laid down on it, staring at the ceiling and absentmindedly twirling the little tuft of white hair at the end of her braid, something she hadn't done for several years, since she was little.
Her thoughts strayed back to Elsa. She pondered the question she had asked herself so many times over the past ten years: why wouldn't Elsa talk to her? What had she ever done to her? Why did she shut her out? Why did she shut the world out? What was she so afraid of? She would never know the answers to those questions, because she had stopped asking questions in general, frustrated with the cryptic responses she always got.
Anna closed her eyes and was just starting to drift off, lost in her thoughts, when she was startled awake by a knock on her door.
"Princess Anna?" said a male voice on the other side of the door. It was Kai, one of the few servants who had been allowed to remain in the castle since the gates had been closed.
Anna walked over to her door and opened it. "Yes, Kai, what is it?" she asked the older man.
"Your Highness," he said, bowing. "Your parents will be leaving for their vacation shortly and they've requested your presence to see them off."
Anna gasped. Lost in her thoughts of Elsa, she had completely forgotten that her parents were due to set sail on their two-week vacation late that afternoon.
"Oh my gosh!" she cried, putting her hands over her mouth. "I completely forgot! Thank you, Kai! I'd better go tell them goodbye right now!" And ignoring Kai's startled look, she raced past him and down the hall.
She found her parents in their room, packing the last of their things in suitcases and trunks. They were both dressed in traveling clothes. She ran to them and gave them hugs.
"See you in two weeks," she said, hugging them tight. "I'll miss you."
"We'll miss you, too, Anna," her father said, hugging her back.
"It won't be the same without you here," she said quietly.
"We'll be back, Anna," her father said, smiling at her.
"I know," Anna said, looking down at the floor. "It's just lonely without you here, what with…." She stopped. She had been on the verge of saying "Elsa". To try to gloss over the awkward moment, she said, "Can I help you pack anything?"
"That's okay, Anna," her father said, picking up his and her mother's cloaks. "We've got everything we need. Kai," he called.
Kai came shuffling in. "Your Majesty?" he said, bowing.
"Please tell the footmen that our luggage is ready to be brought down to the ship," the king said.
"Right away," said Kai, bowing again.
Anna followed her parents downstairs to the entrance hall, where she was surprised to find Elsa waiting for them at the foot of the stairs. Having not seen her sister in ten years, Anna hung back, while Elsa also said goodbye. She looked so much different than when they had been little. Her hair was no longer in the simple braid she had had when she was a young girl, but coiled into a simple knot at the base of her neck. She was also more solemn, serious, and reserved, and she stood with perfect posture, with her gloved hands clasped in front of her. When her parents reached her, she curtsied.
"Do you have to go?" she said, her voice a little shaky.
"You'll be fine, Elsa," her father said, smiling at her. "We'll see you soon."
The two sisters, one at the bottom of the stairs and one at the top of the stairs, watched their parents board the ship and sail away, neither knowing that the other had tears in her eyes.
I know, it's a bit shorter than the other two and it was originally gonna be longer, but as I kept writing, I realized that I didn't want it to be too long. So I cut off the extra bit I added to this chapter and made it into a separate chapter, which will probably be even shorter than this one. But we'll see. Hope you enjoyed! Last chapter coming soon!
