For anyone who cares to vote, I have a rate me poll up.
Review responses are at the bottom!
On my story,"Bonds Under Ocean Waves, I gave a full report on installment twelve of why I am late for all my stories, but in case you don't want to read all that, a short one here for a story designed to be short chapter wise.
I became ill recently and was unable to leave my house at all, let alone use my computer for anything besides watching videos and falling asleep in the middle of them. When I went back to work, I had a mountain to do to catch up, so I was unable to settle down to type until now. I apologize.
This week is busier than the bees that have spontaneously arose since the heat has come again. I'll tell you something, and I'm not saying this because this is a Frozen story, I'm saying it because it's the truth.
I Hate Summer. It's muggy, it's full of mosquitoes, power outages and the smell of anything left out in the sun with an expiration date, and it's also the days I have the least time to myself to write. Poo.
~ C F Winchester.
Sanity
Chapter Eight: Thirty
Anna wasn't very happy with Joan.
Joan had told her to go and apologize to Elsa.
For what?
Anna didn't know, something about acting too chipper when asking if she wanted to build a snowman.
It was ridiculous.
Was she supposed to ask Elsa that question while acting as if she were inviting her to a cemetery for a funeral?
Admittedly that's how she used to ask her it.
When she was alone.
Desperate.
In need of the one piece of family she had left.
But she wasn't anymore! Elsa was the one stuffed up in her room all alone and miserable. Why should she continue to act that way too?
She didn't want to mope about her room staring at the same four walls all day everyday without only a few steps in either direction of variance. Hey the entire castle was hardly big enough for her as is!
...and she hadn't even tried to pick up any pictures or suits of armor to see if it had hidden passages yet!
Out of pure respect of course. Her friends lived in those frames.
Why would she mess with someone's living space?
Forcing the suits of armor off their pedestals so that they fell and often broke as some door opened?
Her friends talked to her daily, a passage would only entertain her for maybe a few hours.
It wasn't an equal trade. Besides, the pictures would TELL her if they had some secret behind them.
She had already been told about plenty of secrets in the castle.
Like the fact that behind Gilda there was a crevice that seemed to have been a message hiding spot once. There was an old piece of paper that she had found there...but it was in a language she couldn't understand.
That was months ago, she had thrown it away. It wasn't worth much time.
Anna found herself outside Elsa's door.
Her mouth was set into a frown, but she rose her hand none the less. She almost swore she could hear Joan telling her off for stalling...but Joan wasn't down this hallway. She sighed.
She knocked on the door and she heard a stifled gasp and a gust of something swooshing by. Anna guessed it was Elsa's dresses or something or other. She cleared her throat.
"Elsa?"
Pause.
Long Pause.
Okay then...I need to make the second move too.
"Elsa? I'm sorry."
Another pause. Anna waited a while longer and then turned around. She had apologized. Joan should be happy with that. It wasn't her fault if Elsa didn't answer back. Yet there was a creak...and then a voice so close to the door I swore if I looked I could see her feet...
"Anna...?"
"Elsa?"
"Why are you sorry?"
It was her turn to pause now. Really, it was the same question she had asked Joan. Seriously, why was she sorry? She might as well answer what she thought...but while she had originally planned on saying: "For being happy." Her brain kicked into over drive and suddenly she had an answer that sounded less confrontational.
"...For hurting you."
Ana was about to walk away again, so long was the pause, but then the voice came out again.
"When?"
"This morning."
"...But you asked me to make a snowman this morning."
"Yep. It hurt you."
Really, how did Anna know this all of a sudden? She couldn't understand the logic that had let her arrive at this answer, but she knew it was true.
She had hurt Elsa by being happy somehow.
"I hurt you because I was happy...without you."
The last part wasn't planned, but again, once she said it, she was certain it was true. It wasn't that Elsa wanted Anna to be unhappy...she wanted to be happy with her.
There was another pause. Behind the locked door, Elsa was panting. Around her, the snow swirled. She was afraid...so, so very afraid. The snow swirled faster. When Anna had said sorry, and the reason why, the snow had slowed. There was something, some magic...some effect...in that sentence. She couldn't pin it down...but she wanted to...she so wanted too.
She heard a creak, and hurriedly spoke out, afraid Anna would walk away again.
"Anna?"
A pause.
"Yes Elsa?"
"...Do..."
Do? Do like the musical note? But wasn't that Doe? She was pretty sure it was Doe. Doe Re Me Fah So La Te...oh hey look at that, the last one was Do. But didn't it sound the same anyway? Errgh...Elsa was talking again.
"I...Anna?"
"Yes Elsa?"
"This is hard."
"...Let me in."
"...I can't."
The silence stretched. Anna sat down, her back braced against the door. She felt the door vibrate ans was almost certain Elsa had just done the same. Perhaps she could at least see what dress the other was wearing? No. She didn't feel that desperate.
"Why?"
"...I'll hurt you if I do...and I'm not sure I'll get the chance to apologize like you did."
"Why? Do you have fangs or magical evil potions or eat sisters for supper?"
Through the door, Anna could bet she felt a smile. She could bet...but she wouldn't ever know who would win that bet because Elsa never opened her darn door.
"None of those."
"Are you a fire breathing dragon?"
"No."
"A wolf?"
"No."
"Err...a ghost?"
"No Anna."
"Well are you a witch?"
There was silence. Anna blinked. This conversation was all a joke, but her sister had stopped talking.
"Elsa...?"
"..."
"I'll go now."
"No!"
Anna, who was half way up and half down, sat down again hard. Her sister's voice came out of the door again.
"Anna, are you okay?"
"Ow. Sure. My butt's not though."
"...I'm a witch."
"Ooookay. They think I'm the one who's crazy. All I do is talk to Joan and the guys. You think you're a witch. Do you have green skin?"
"No Anna."
Anna was happy to hear the deadpan tone of that voice. Good, she thought Anna was being ridiculous. Perfect prime to cheer someone up. Anna grinned.
"Well okay then! All the wicked witches have green skin! You're all good. Open up?"
More silence...then...
"I promise I will...but not today."
"You can't stay in there until Coronation day you know."
More silence.
"That's ages away."
"My fifteenth is coming soon. So it's not."
"...One day...before Coronation day."
"Okie then, we can build a snowman then!"
Anna pushed herself off the floor and rubber her behind. What was it with her ans snowmen...? The thought just suddenly hit her. About it, but she shrugged. It was the only thing she remembered about her childhood that really got Elsa to smile. Snow and ice. As she walked away however, a thought struck her, and she grumbled.
"With my luck, it'll be the very day before Coronation day. At one minute to midnight."
"At least she'd be telling the truth then. Can't argue with that one!"
"Shut up Christopher."
Anna walked past the picture of a man propping his elbow on a musket and he laughed hard and long, making it ring in her ears as she walked along the hallway, took the first left, and disappeared.
+~E~+
For all three of you, I hope it will be interesting. This alternate version will probably be included in this story, it's one of the reasons I have such a large fluctuation of word count estimates for this story. XD.
I break off a little bit here in this chapter as you can see, so essentially we have reach the point of no return. Events from now on officially will begin to begin to look different, it will be small at first, much like the branches of a young tree.
But they will begin to separate~.
I do think this is the longest chapter on this story so far, but if could be just because of the notes. I have no time to count though~.
~ C F Winchester.
