Chapter Twelve
It was such a beautiful day out, I was happily sitting in the garden with my Anna. We started out talking quietly but once we ran out of things to say, we sat without saying anything. Soon, Anna rested her head on my shoulder and fell asleep. I didn't mind, but my arm was getting a little numb. I flexed my fingers.
I looked down at Anna's sleeping face and wondered if there was any way of changing positions without waking her. With a sigh, I realized that there wasn't so I would just have to put up with it. I didn't mind that much, I smiled as Anna made a small snorting noise in her sleep.
A gust of wind blew, causing fallen leaves to dance around on the ground. The wind felt fine to me, but by the way Anna shivered and seemed to burrow into my shoulder, I figured it must have been a little chilly. It was that time of year. Soon it was going to be snowing, I couldn't wait.
Not very many people enjoyed winter as much as I did. For some, it was the worst part of the year. It was cold and caused frostbite, sometimes death if someone was out long enough. But the cold never bothered me and winter was just so beautiful. My favorite part of winter was when the first snow would fall and blanket the ground, glittering in the sunlight, undisturbed. Winter seemed so quiet and calm, like the world just slowed down for a bit.
I was startled out of my thoughts when I felt the ground shake. I turned to see what was going on and saw that it was just Olaf and Marshmallow. They were coming right towards us, I glanced at Anna as I felt her stir.
"Elsa! Hey, Elsa!" Olaf yelled happily as he approached.
"Shhh, Olaf." I shushed. " Anna's sleeping." He glanced over at Anna and put his hands up to his mouth.
"Sorry." He said quietly, but it was too late. Anna sat up and yawned, stretching her arms above her head.
"Oh, hi Olaf." Anna said. "Marshmallow, how are you?"
"Good!" Marshmallow roared excitedly. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Why was he roaring? Was he angry?
"Why are you yelling?" I asked, glancing at Olaf and then Anna.
"That's how he always talks." Anna shrugged. "You'll get used to it."
"Oh. Alright, then." I said as I looked back up at Marshmallow. I noticed he was holding something gently in his hands, but I couldn't tell what it was. I was about to ask what it was but was interrupted.
"Isn't it just great that Marshmallow decided to come play?" Olaf asked excitedly. "He always just spends so much time away!" Marshmallow grunted and sat down, causing the ground to shake.
"Yes, it's very nice to see you, Marshmallow." Anna said with a grin. "What do you do all day by yourself?"
"Explore." Said Marshmallow, with a shrug. He didn't seem happy about it.
"You get lonely though, don't you?" Anna wondered quietly. Marshmallow nodded slowly.
"You know, you can spend more time here." I spoke up. " You don't have to live out there by yourself." Marshmallow perked up. "You can come visit Olaf and us whenever you want."
"Okay!" Marshmallow roared happily. I waited a minute before speaking again.
"So, what have you got in your hand?" I asked when nobody else said anything.
Marshmallow got another grin on his face and bellowed, "Friend!"
"You've got a friend?" I asked confused. Marshmallow nodded enthusiastically, then thrust his arms at me and opened his hands.
I jumped up from the ground with a squeak and started backing up, but tripped on my dress and fell on my behind.
"What is it?" Anna exclaimed with alarm. She quickly stood from the ground and walked over to Marshmallow to see what kind of atrocity he held in his hands. I managed to pick myself off the ground and backed up a considerable distance. Anna looked at the thing in Marshmallow's hands, then over at me with a confused expression on her face.
"It's just a little mouse." She said. I shook my head.
"It's a rat." I said, disgust lacing my voice.
"What's wrong? You're not afraid, are you?" Anna asked. I could tell that she was trying to hold back a laugh.
"Of course I'm not afraid." I snapped at her. "They're filthy and carry disease. Marshmallow, go put it back in the forest where it belongs."
"No!" He roared at her, suddenly snapping his hands closed. A terrified squeak could be heard from within. "He's my friend!"
"I know that," I said calmly. "But he belongs in the forest with all the other...rats and other don't need the rat to be friends with when you've got us."
Marshmallow pouted, but reluctantly agreed. We watched him walk away slowly, carrying the rat with him as he went. Olaf trailed behind, talking excitedly about something or another. Guilt stabbed at me, I hated being the bad guy...But I just hated rats so much. They just stared at you with their beady little eyes, twitching nose, and long, quivering whiskers. I shivered at the thought. When I looked back over at Anna, she was grinning at me.
"I didn't know you were afraid of rats." She said, playfully pushing me.
"I'm not afraid of them." I said cooly. "With you being with child, I didn't want to take any chances of disease." Anna didn't believe me, I could tell.
"Then why did you scream and fall back when you saw it? That looked almost like fear." Anna said.
"I did not scream." I stated. "I merely voiced my surprise. But fine, I don't like rats. Lets just leave it at that."
"Alright, fine." Anna said with a laugh.
"It's getting late. I should go." I said, straightening my dress.
"Wait, why do you have to go? It's not that late." Anna asked, sounding disappointed.
"Don't tell me that you forgot, I've been talking about it all week!" I said, surprised. Normally Anna paid better attention.
"Forget what?" Anna wondered.
"The prince from the Northern Isles is coming to our kingdom to discuss trades." I reminded her. "He'll be here any minute and I have to be ready to greet him."
"Oh yeah, I thought that was tomorrow." Anna admitted, blushing slightly.
"Well, no harm done. Just do not be late for supper and wear something fancy." I told her, then made my way towards the castle to meet Prince Erik.
When Anna and I entered the dinning room to have supper with Prince Erik, he was already there, waiting for us. I glanced at the clock,worried for a moment that we were late, but Prince Erik was just early.
"Prince Erik," I greeted as I approached him. "It's a pleasure to see you again. This is my sister, Anna."
"It's nice to meet you." Anna said, suddenly looking a bit shy. That wasn't normal of her, I've never known Anna to get shy. I looked Prince Erik over. He was thin and a couple inches taller than myself. He had red, curly hair and light dusting of freckles across his nose and cheeks. His eyes were a forest green and had a couple of small, brown flecks on the iris that normally would probably go unnoticed.
I supposed that he was rather attractive, perhaps that was why Anna seemed shy.
"The pleasure is all mine." Prince Erik said softly. He took her hand and bowed his head down, kissing the back of her hand softly. His eyes fluttered closed and he lingered a moment longer than necessary. Something about him made me uneasy, but I ignored it.
"Shall we sit down?" I asked once he stood up straight. Anna's face was red as a tomato.
"Yes, whatever your cook has made smells delectable." Prince Erik said as we all took our seats.
"Yes, she's the best cook around." Anna said. The servant took off the lids of the dishes and Anna exclaimed in excitement.
"Beef stew again!" She said happily. "It's one of my favorite and its one of her specialties!"
"Well, dig in you two." I told them. Prince Erik picked up his spoon and scooped up some stew, then put it in his mouth. He moaned, slowly taking the spoon from his mouth and looked at Anna, who was blushing again. I noticed she looked slightly uncomfortable, but I wasn't sure exactly why.
"You were right, Princess Anna. You've got one of the best cooks around."
We continued eating, Anna and Erik talking for the most part. I was partially glad that Anna was there because I was horrible at small talk, especially with somebody I barely knew. Anna was good at it, she seemed genuinely interested in what Prince Erik had to say. It wasn't that I wasn't interested, I just didn't like him, it seemed.
He seemed nice and he looked nice, but I didn't like the looks that he was giving Anna. They were hungry, like she was a piece of meat that he wanted. I frowned, perhaps I was just getting jealous again. I would have to stop that, I decided. She was my sister, so If she met a nice man to be with, I would just have to let her.
"So, do you have a girl back home?" Anna asked. Prince Erik smiled.
"Yes I do, and she's almost as pretty as you are." He said, making Anna blush again. I felt relief spread through me. It looked like I didn't have anything to worry about, he already had a girlfriend. That was good. My thoughts drifted off as Anna and Erik talked about his girl back home.
My thoughts were interrupted when I heard Prince Erik say, "Who's your baby's father?" Anna stiffened next to me. Without thinking, I reached under the table and took her hand, rubbing my thumb over the back of it.
"Uh, well...He had to go away." Anna said, her face was getting pale.
"Who is he, though?" Erik insisted.
"Nobody you would know." I told him, when Anna failed to answer.
"Well, it really is improper for a princess to have a baby with no father." Erik stated. "What will people think? I'm sure they're already starting to wonder." I didn't know what to say and Anna seemed to be at a loss of words as well.
"You really should find somebody to take the father's place." Erik continued. "You wouldn't want it to be lood down upon, would you?" Anna shook her head. She was shaking, I could tell. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and make her feel better. I could almost feel the pain radiating off of her.
"I'm surprised you even got pregnant without being married in the first place." Erik said. " That isn't something that happens first, it's not proper. Normally people are embarrassed in situations like this. Are you embarrassed?"
Anna suddenly took her hand from mine and stood up.
"Excuse me, please." She said quietly. "I'm not feeling well." Before either of us could say anything, she was out the door and gone. I wanted to go after her. I knew she wasn't ill, what Prince Erik said really bothered her, just as it did me.
"Was it something I said?" He looked confused. I wanted to tell him, yes it was. I wanted to yell at him and make him see what he did. But I couldn't. He was a visiting prince from another kingdom, he was important. I would have to make it seem like I liked him, even though I didn't.
"No." I lied. " She gets nauseous sometimes. You know, being pregnant and all."
"Oh, I see." He said. Then I realized that with Anna gone, I would have to try to make small talk. What was there to say? Anna already asked him everything there was.
"Should we get to discussing the trade?" Erik asked, breaking the silence. I could have sighed in relief. Now I wouldn't have to worry about small talk, discussing trades was the last thing to talk about. Once we were done, I could leave and go fine Anna.
After a couple of minutes of talking to him, or rather, him talking to me, I could see that he talked just like the letter that I originally received. He added a lot of unneeded details, often confusing me. Half the time, I didn't know what he was talking about. He kept straying from the original subject, only to lose track of what he was trying to say.
"Oh, wait. What was I saying?" He had asked me at one point and I had no idea what to say. What was he trying to tell me? Weren't we supposed to be talking about trades? We'd been talking for at least an hour and I don't believe we even started on the important stuff. It was going to be a long evening, I could tell.
I wondered what Anna was doing. Was she up in her room? Was she crying? Or was she just sitting there,thinking? Perhaps she was reading, or painting. Hopefully she wasn't talking to the paintings on the walls again. I caught her doing that a couple times already. I remembered telling her that she could always come find me if she was starting to get lonely and needed somebody to talk to. But for some reason, she felt the need to not bother me sometimes. I guess, it was probably normal. Since I locked myself away from her for so long, I shouldn't blame her.
"So we're decided, then?" Prince Erik suddenly asked, shaking me from my thoughts.
"Excuse me?" I asked, slightly embarrassed.
"You would trade your crops for our wool this year." Erik said. "Then when we get back on our feet you'll trade apples as well, and we'll give you some ore along with wool." I nodded, that seemed fair.
"Yes, that sounds fair enough." I told him. "I can have the paperwork ready for you by tomorrow afternoon."
"Excellent." He said with a grin.
"Well, I think that ends our little meeting." I said, eager to go find Anna. "I'll have a servant see you to your room."
"Oh, that won't be necessary. I remember where it is." He said. We stood up and began moving towards the door.
"Alright then, I'll see you tomorrow. I'm going to go check on Anna, make sure she's doing alright." I told him, then we went our separate ways. The first place I checked was Anna's room, which was empty. Next I moved onto the library, which was also empty. gallery was empty, save for one maid who was cleaning.
"Have you seen Anna?" I asked the maid.
"No, your Majesty." She said. "I have not seen her at all today." With a frown, I turned and left. I went to go to the garden, thinking she might have went there for some alone time to think. The garden was empty. I was beginning to worry deeply, but I tried to keep a calm head.
Heading back into the castle, I spotted Greta.
"Greta!" I called out, making her stop in her tracks and turn towards me. "Have you seen Anna at all?"
"Yes, my dear." Greta said with a slight frown. "I saw her head into the village. I tried to stop her, she seemed upset about something."
"Did she say where she was going?" I wondered.
"No, she did not." Greta said, regretfully. "I asked her and all she said was that she needed to be alone. I told her to at least wear warmer clothes, since it's getting colder out, but I was unable to stop her. She was very determined."
"I better go find her." I muttered. Then, "Thank you."
I wandered all through town, looking for Anna everywhere. When I was having no luck, I began asking the villagers if they'd seen her. Nobody had. Fear was beginning to get it's crippling grip on me, but I did my best to hold it off. Anna was probably fine.
Finally I spotted a couple of men copping up trees for firewood. I approached them, a little nervously.
"Excuse me." I said, getting their attention. They dropped their axes and bowed.
"Your Majesty, what can I do for you?" One asked.
"Well, I was just wondering if you'd seen my sister, Princess Anna, come through here."
"Yes, she went by here hours ago." The other man spoke up. "She was really upset, crying and everything...I tried to stop her, but she yelled at us to leave her alone."
"Which way did she go?" I asked fearfully. Both men pointed and I felt my heart sink.
"She left the village?" I asked, seeing them point towards the forest beyond. The men nodded. I looked back at the forest and bit my lip. What was I supposed to do. Wait, what kind of question was that? I had to go out and find Anna, that's what I had to do. There wasn't much daylight left and I certainly didn't want her out there all alone at night.
I started walking when I suddenly heard somebody call my name. I turned to see Kristoff and Sven running towards me, so I stopped and waited.
"Elsa, where are you going?" Kristoff asked when he reached me. "You're not leaving the village, are you?"
"Yes, I have to go find Anna." I told him. "She ran off and I need to go bring her back."
"You can't go out there." Kristoff exclaimed.
"Why not?" I demanded.
"There are wolves out there." He explained. "They'll kill you."
"All the more reason for me to go out there." I said, trying to sound calm. "My sister is out there and you can't stop me."
"That's fine, but at least let me go with you." Kristoff said. I was about to protest, but thought better of it. He might come in handy.
"Fine." I agreed. "Lets go." I started to walk towards the forest again.
"Wait, you need a horse." Kristoff said, effectively stopping me in my tracks. "It will be a lot faster." He had a point.
"But I didn't bring one with me and it will take too much time to go back and get one of ours." I said, feeling nervous. Kristoff started looking around and I followed his gaze, which landed on a horse a few feet away from the men I talked to earlier.
"Excuse me, sir?" Kristoff approached one of them and I followed behind. "Does this horse belong to you?" The man shook his head.
"It belongs to him." He gestured towards the other man. Kristoff turned toward him.
"Would you mind if we borrowed your horse?" Kristoff questioned. "We have to go look for the princess and neither of us have a horse with us." The man looked at Kristoff, then at me.
"Yeah that's fine." He said, looking slightly unsure. "Just treat her well and bring her back. Her name's Nora."
"Thank you so much." I told him.
"Do you have any lanterns we can borrow?" Kristoff then asked the two men. One of the men went into the house and came back moments later with two lanterns. I thanked the men again.
Kristoff walked over to the horse and led her to me, then before I knew what happened, Kristoff picked me up and threw me onto the horse before I could protest. Next, he walked over to Sven and jumped on.
"Lets go find Anna." Kristoff said as he took off towards the forest. I'd only ridden a horse a couple of times, but I nudged Nora into moving and soon we were speeding off into the forest to find Anna.
