The rescue convoy came just in time. The sister's ship was half way sunk, what with the tactics used to get Elsa out of the ice, the there was major damage to the hull of the ship, but it was still held together enough to sail. The sisters and the captain went out to approach the other sailors and discussed a plan of action. It was decided to simply get the luggage and transport it onto the other ship. There was no saving their own.
Once everyone was off the ship Elsa stayed behind and watched them haul Anna aboard Corona's. Elsa looked back at what could have been their grave and then bent down and touched the deck with a finger and let out a frost that covered the ship whole. Then she rose and went to grab the rope to be hauled aboard the king's ship just as her's was claimed by the sea. She watched below as the deck became submersed under water and shuddered at the memory of herself being under water; drowning, frozen.
Then she was pulled over board and welcomed warmly by the king's crew and of course her sister, whom wouldn't leave her sight, but that was alright, she didn't want to lose sight of Anna now.
The captains were talking over if the ship could remain afloat with the added passengers, and the king's captain assured him that they weren't that far from the coast, and then he stepped aside so that his comrade could see for himself the coastline. He simply nodded.
The girls walked up to them both, wanting to thank the new captain for his services. When they approached their captain stormed away to command his crew that he wasn't in charge anymore.
"He looks happy." Anna joked cautiously.
"I guess he doesn't trust me." The captain paused and the girls looked back to him in confusion and worry. With a little shake of his head the captain introduced himself, "I am Captain Theodor Reinhold. I welcome you to the Hiltibrant! And to Coronion waters my dear majesties. There is nothing to fear, we shall reach the coast in a matter of hours. For now, you two may rest in my quarters for the remainder of the voyage. Please see to it that you ring for anything you need. We are open to any and every service you may require."
"Thank you Captain Theodor. You are very kind." Elsa spoke for both her sister and herself. "I'm sure my Captain Rupert is simply upset that he has been inadvertently replaced."
"Completely understandable. Please, go relax. As I said we shall arrive in Corona in only a few hours." The captain bowed low with respect and the girls nodded and went to his quarters, where they re-braided each others hair when they felt they were all dry, and then they simply sat together by a window that looked out to the left of the ship. The time flew by and before they knew it they saw the docks and they heard shouting outside of laying anchor and preparing to dock.
There he was. There they all were, actually. The royal family of Corona, all in attendance to welcome the queen and princess of Arendelle. Elsa gulped at the sight of them, and oppositely, Anna was squirming in her skin with excitement. But, Anna stayed at her sister's pace, letting Elsa cling onto her for support. All her fears were being faced at once; dying at sea and facing the royal couple that she once inadvertently imprisoned.
The king let go of his wife's hands to extend his arms open wide then bent down low in an honorable bow. His family and servants surrounding him followed suit. Elsa felt flustered as she never liked it when treated so humbly. She loved being Queen, but hated how she was treated like she was the most precious thing in the world. She hated the attention really.
Once the sisters reached the family they bowed as well to show thanks and respect.
"Come now! You are our guests! You have no need to bow." The king protested up with a warm laugh and strode towards the girls. Anna bubbled up a laugh too, but Elsa could only focus on the vibrations through the creaky boards of the dock from the king's heavy footsteps.
The king extended his hand to ask for Elsa's and she offered him it, though it shook and trembled.
"Your majesty." The king placed a quick kiss upon her hand and then clasped his other hand around it before continuing, "We are all most glad that you both, and your crew, made it here safely. I understand how difficult it must have been to come, but my daughter was most delighted to hear that you accepted her invitation. You have nothing to fear of the sea anymore." Elsa was glad that the king misjudged her trembling for her tussle with mother nature and not her fear of him himself.
"Thank you, your highness." Elsa said with a trembling voice to match her hands.
"Thomas! Please, you must call me Thomas. While you are here you are honored guests. So please, make yourselves at home. What is ours is yours."
"You are very kind Thomas. Thank you, really. With what we just went through, your welcome is a breath of fresh air truly." Anna chipped in, beginning to feel a little annoyed that she wasn't being given any real attention yet.
"Why, of course." Thomas assured warmly. He let Elsa have her shaking hand back to take up Anna's and bless it with a kiss too. Then he stepped beside Elsa and wrapped his arm around the sisters, much to Elsa's terrifying displeasure. She couldn't see past the kind, paternal behavior, and could only think of something negative happening at any moment, that he was going to whisk her away to a dungeon, or at the very least a court.
But, he only lead them to his family.
"This would be my wife and Queen of Corona, Amelia. My daughter and princess of Corona, Rapunzel. And my son and prince of Corona, Eugene." Thomas introduced with a grand gesture towards each of them. Then he stepped away and gestured to the sisters, "And these are Elsa, Queen of Arendelle, and Anna, princess of Arendelle."
Amelia walked up to the sisters and embraced them both. "Welcome. We are so glad to see you two safe." The queen stepped back to look at them whole and she couldn't help but notice the dark circles under Elsa's eyes. "I would love to have you two for tea today once you've settled in. Let's say in an hour? Meet me in my chambers in the West Wing, top floor."
"That's sounds wonderful." Elsa sighed out. The queen put her at ease almost instantaneously. The sound of relaxing by a fire place with a steaming cup of tea, with a wise matriarch sounded simply blissful.
"Very well. I will expect you both in an hour. That is of course-" The queen turned back to look to her daughter and continued, "If my daughter doesn't keep you."
Rapunzel finally couldn't stand it anymore and squealed with overflowing excitement that her guests had arrived and closed the short distance between them in two bounding leaps and grabbed for their arms.
"Elsa, Anna welcome! I'm so happy you're here. We're going to have so much fun! Thank you so much for coming early! Come! Come! I'll introduce you to all my friends!" Rapunzel blabbered on as she dragged the girls behind her by their wrists. The rest of them just got out of their way, knowing it futile to calm down Rapunzel's untameable spirit.
"You may have spoken too soon your highness." Eugene commented as the young girls shrank into the distance. The queen didn't hear him though.
Eugene turned his head back to see the king and queen exchanging whispers with worried expressions contorting their faces.
"What's the matter? Is there trouble?" Eugene questioned carefully and took a step towards them.
Thomas nodded his head once in agreement to the last thing his wife said, and then looked up to his son-in-law. "Everything will turn out how it should and that is all we can hope for now." The king paused to let Eugene soak in what he meant and then Eugene nodded as well, half way understanding.
"And will you please just make sure that Rapunzel lets the girls go in an hour. I'm sure they would like to have a moment of peace soon enough."
"I will escort them to you myself if necessary, which I think we all know it will be." Eugene affirmed.
"Yes." The king chortled, and he wrapped an arm around his wife and gave her a loving squeeze. "Yes, I believe that full heartedly. Until then, let's make sure their luggage is sent up right away. Our other guests should be arriving in three days." The king and queen began to saunter over to the bustling crew unloading the ship, and Eugene followed in their footsteps.
"Why did Rapunzel want the Arendelles here so early?" Amelia wondered aloud.
"Well, think about it." Eugene proposed, and the queen looked to her right as Eugene came to stride beside her. "Hardly anyone can tolerate the Fjordane princess. Weasleton's grand daughter was only invited to be polite as well. And well, the ruthless Florne princess is just as ruthless as her father and so her invitation was sent after the last minute in hopes that she wouldn't get it in time to RSVP, but-" Eugene shrugged his shoulders dramatically, "What are you going to do? Then there's the whole magic thing that really brings it all into focus." The king and queen snapped their heads in Eugene's direction, stopping in their tracks as Eugene kept going.
"You do remember that Queen Elsa froze her entire kingdom in a perpetual winter, keeping me and Rapunzel a little longer than we expected to stay." Eugene stopped when he didn't hear the king's heavy footsteps beside or behind him and he looked back to see them there in deep thought, and realization.
"Oh! Why, I had forgotten all about that." Amelia exclaimed.
"You know, that's probably why Anna was so happy, while Elsa looked about ready to faint at the sight of me." Thomas theorized with a hushed, melancholy tone. "Elsa must have been worried I'd punish her for her past actions. Anna wasn't scared, and they both went through a storm, like their parents did... She wasn't just shaken up, she was actually shaking in fear..."
Sailors were passing by them and the king heard fragments of their whispered conversations to his own sailors.
"She dove in to the mad sea and froze the whole thing still, to save us-"
"No, really, the princess leapt after her and pounded through the ice-"
"The ice must have been twenty feet deep! It's a wonder Elsa came back alive at all!
"Anna dove in after her and brought her back. She almost didn't make it either-"
"She wasn't breathing! The ice began to fade and we all knew why-"
"No joke mate, the queen died for us. How else does ice, ten hundred yards all around you just vanish like that?"
"Don't worry dear one. I will make sure to ease the young queen's mind. We wish no ill will upon her. What a brave woman she is though. To come when she must feel like an enemy." Amelia assured him, turning his face towards her to pull him out of his distraction.
"Yes." Thomas shook his head a little and then looked back to where he could just see the tiny specks of the girls before they vanished into the castle. "Very brave indeed."
Grrrrrrrr... I don't like this, but I'm tired of rewriting it, and I don't want to miss the season premiere of OUAT. Maybe seeing my favorite pair of sisters again will remotivate me! I'm just happy I finally got them to Corona! Took me long enough.