"Shall we?"
Ellie nodded and they went to their closets. They both kept a peasant cloak around just in case they wanted to sneak out. And what a perfect time to do so. They changed and quietly left the room. Anna was about to leave her room as she saw the two hooded figures lurking around the halls. "What are those two up to?" She thought, keeping a close eye on the girls as they snuck down the hallway.
The twins knew every secret passage and followed one to the stables were they mounted their horses and snuck out of the palace gates. Anna quickly followed behind, knowing the girls were up to something, but at a distance. It was getting dark and Annaleise led the way creating a bird of flames to lead the way. She clutched her necklace and pulled the wolf pup from her cloak and sat him on the saddle, holding him at the same time. Anna, still behind, noticed the flame bird.
"What...Fire?"
The girls finally reached the glade where the trolls resided. All there were was, was rocks. Mossy green rocks. They jumped down from their horses and looked around the glade.
"Uhm..I see. Rocks. No trolls. Rocks." Annaleise said, taking a few steps, accidentally bumping into one of the rocks.
They suddenly began to shake. Ellie and Annaleise held each other close, unsure of what was going on. The rocks became little troll-like creatures.
"Sis, are those..." Ellie asked.
"Apparently." Annaleise gulped.
"Hello princesses, what brings you here this fine evening?" A male troll voice, well, Grand Pabbie, asked.
"Uh...well..we...uh" They uttered at the same time.
"No need to be afraid, young ladies. I know why you're both here." The old troll hopped onto another troll to get a better view of the two. "Your cloaks, you can put them down."
The girls lowered them.
"You must be Annaleise. You look just like your mother." He said to Annaleise. "And you must be Ellie. You too look like your mother, more of your father but still." He chuckled. "Now, first of all, kneel down." The girls nodded, Pabbie motioned for them to hold their hands out. He reached out to Ellie's hands first. Anna, hiding in the trees, was listening in to the conversation.
"Ah, just as I thought. You inherited the magnificent powers of your parents. Some practice is always good. Have your parents given you help?" He asked.
"Uhm...well..not exactly." Ellie shyly said, blushing,
"Not exactly? Do your parents know about your powers?"
Ellie looked down and awkwardly smiled. "No?"
"They...they have powers? Just like in the dreams Elsa had. But, how did we not know?" Anna asked herself as she hid behind a tree.
Pabbie slightly shook his head then went on to hold Annaleise's hands. Her hands shook with fear, the texture of stone felt awfully weird on her soft hands. "You my dear have a very rare power. The power of fire and light. A rather unusual power coming from a family of ice-makers. I can tell from your hands that it has been hard to conceal it when it wants to be made known."
Annaleise felt the tears building in her eyes.
Pabbie threw his hands into the air and made a shilouette of each of the girls. They were adults. "You girls are very unique. Never has there been sisters born with opposite powers for hundreds of years. As you grow, you should be able to fully control these unique powers like your mother did." The shilouette of Annaleise faded and focused on Ellie. A purple figure stood tall, long ebony black hair tied back in a ribbon, her hands creating works of art with her ice.
"Ellie, the princess of arts. Kind and right hand to the future queen of Arendelle. You will grow to do great things. With a bit more practice, you should have a full grasp on those powers in no time." Pabbie then focused on Annaleise. "My dear Annaleise, your powers are a wonder and a blessing. The future Queen of Arendelle, following in your mother's footsteps. What's this?" The figure of Annaleise stood across from Ellie, as if they were fighting, ice striking Annaleise's chest and her disappearing into darkness, Ellie falling to her knees. A flash of flames created a new form, flaming hair and dress, black ice and thorns surrounding the figure.
"My dear, you need to learn to control the flames. It may be hard to do it without parents with fire powers, but if you have the will you can do it."
"How?" She asked, becoming frightened, holding onto Ellie.
"In time, the ones who can help will show themselves to you. But be cautious. Not everyone in this world is how they really appear. What I can tell you, is that you both can help each other. You may be opposites, but you are your best defenses."
Annaleise bit her lip and nodded. "It's getting late. We should go back." Annaleise suggested.
"My dear princess, you may find more discoveries about your powers in the royal library." The old troll added. "It will have more answers than I. Oh and one more thing. Please tell your parents about your powers." The troll became a rock, as did the other trolls.
Anna rushed back to the palace, mainly to greet them once they got back.
"Shall we go?" Ellie asked.
"Mhmm." Annaleise nodded.
Mounting their horses, they raced home in the moonlight. The palace gates were still open and we're going to close any minute. The girls hopped off of the horses and attempted to sneak into the palace. "Have a fun outing?" A voice asked, the girls freezing. "A-aunt Anna?!" They whispered. The girls turned around and there was their aunt, a look of worry upon her face. "Maybe a chat to end the night, what do you say?"
The girls removed their cloaks and sat them near the rose bushes, following Anna to the second courtyard. Elsa, who was getting ready for bed noticed the girls with Anna. She wondered why the girls were out late and hid behind the curtains, cracking the balcony door so she could hear their conversation. The girls sat upon a bench with their aunt, looking at the quarter moon.
"It's a lovely evening, isn't it? Nice for a ride in the moonlight, huh?"
"Y-yeah. It is." Annaleise nervously said.
"Before your arrival, your mother kept having weird dreams of two girls with fire and ice powers. Did she ever tell you about them?" Anna asked.
"N-no." Ellie replied.
"Please don't tell her." Annaelsie blurted out.
Anna cocked an eyebrow.
"Please, just...I don't know...we are going to tell them.. Not yet. Not until we can get them under control." Annaleise pleaded.
"I followed you girls. I didn't think there was any other place to go that had something to do. Why haven't you told anyone?" Anna asked.
"Well...for one thing, ice and fire don't mix." Annaleise said, creating a tiny firebird in her hand.
Anna's eyes widened at the thought of her niece having warm powers. Ellie then made a bunny out of snow, it hopped to Anna. "Oh boy...your mother will have a fit if you don't say anything soon."
"I know, but we can't yet. Please, still don't tell her." Ellie shyly said, brushing her ebony black hair from her face.
"I will have my powers under control. When I become Queen, I will make sure there are no secrets between any of us." Annaleise proclaimed.
Ellie held her hand and smiled. "I'll be right there next to you."
Anna got up and embraced her nieces. "You girls are stinkers." She laughed. "How about we go inside, it's time for bed." She yawned and led the girls in. As they went in the palace doors, they had no idea who had been listening in on the conversation from their room upstairs, the window open. Elsa still hid behind the curtains, tears streaming down her face. She felt as if she had been shot in the chest with an arrow. She made her way to the bed and sobbed into the pillows.
"Dreams...they were supposed to be dreams..."
For the next few hours, Elsa laid in bed wide awake. Because of what happened late last night, she had not gotten a single minute of sleep. All the hours of crying, trying to fall asleep, and millions of thoughts running through her mind didn't help one bit. This was the worst night she had ever had, second to the couple of weeks she barely slept when Laurence was born. Five minutes. At least a five minute nap.
Just as Elsa had closed her eyes, she was awoken by someone shaking her gently.
"Mom, mom, wake up."
"Huh...wha?" She triedly asked.
"Aunt Anna wants to see you. She said there was something important she wanted to tell you." It was her boy. Laurence. The apparently only "normal" child that she knew about at the moment.
"Tell her I'll be down in ten minutes." She stretched and hugged Laurence.
"Mother, have you been crying?" Laurence saw his mother's cheeks, streaked with tear lines from hours before, her eyes a bit red.
Elsa wiped her eyes with her arm. "A little, yes. But I'm fine." She kissed her sons forehead and sent him off.
"Why couldn't they tell me about their powers.." Elsa thought. Instead of her ice dress, she dressed herself in one of her mothers dress, which fit like a glove. A purple and green dress. For some reason, she felt like putting her hair up. Not in a coronation bun, but a looser braided bun. She wasn't much in the mood for really anything at the moment, but Anna was her sister and if it was important it was for sure important.
Elsa made her way down to her office and took a deep breath. The first thing she saw was Anna pacing the floor nervously, almost fast enough to possibly make a hole in the carpet. "You wanted to see me." Elsa calmly said, composed.
"Well, it's about the girls to be honest." Anna nervously said.
Elsa had the hunch it was about last night.
"What happened?" She sternly, but softly asked.
"The girls told me something and begged me not to tell them, but I have to tell you. I can't keep it from you, it's not fair." Anna said.
"Go on." Elsa replied.
Anna gulped. "They..uhmm...well...have powers."
She knew it. It was true. Her own daughters keeping a secret from her for so many years. This was not something she would have expected from her girls. Just thinking about it made her feel as if her heart had been ripped in two. What was she to do? How would she handle a situation like this? Clear her head. Go somewhere and clear her head.
"Anna, I'll be back in a few hours." Elsa took a deep breath started walking towards the door.
"Elsa, wait. What are you..well, you and Jack going to do about the girls?" Anna asked, following her sister out of the office.
Elsa stopped. She looked with Anna, a fake smile on her face. "I'll think about it." She turned away grasped her arms and quickly walked down the stairs, out the doors, past the gates and dashed into the woods to the one place she would clear her thoughts; her ice palace. Just keep going. Everything's going to be fine. Keep going, almost there...
Elsa ran through the warm September morning, through the woods around the mountains and finally, the steps of her bridge.
"It's. fixed." Elsa told herself, amazed that someone fixed it. Could it have been Ellie? It wouldn't have been Annaleise, for she was a bit too impatient for something like that. Elsa carefully stepped onto the first stair and saw the purple patches of ice holding everything together. She followed the purple splotches up the bridge and finally came to her palace. She opened the doors and caught her breath. "It's been too long." She said. She looked around her palace, remembering the reason she came up in the first place.
Walking up the staircase, she grabbed her arms, a flurry beginning to surround her, growing bigger as she thought of her girls. "How could they do this?" Ice surrounding her fists, a sheet of white ice forming behind her. "They know better than to keep secrets from us." She lifted her fists and released a blast of snow and ice off of the edge of the stairs. She made her way to the spare bedroom and blasted the wall with shards of ice.
Elsa grabbed her hair and sunk down near the side of the bed.
As she was about to release a flurry of snow, her ears perked up as she heard voices from outside of the palace.
"Maaaaahmmmm...why did you drag me out here so early in the morning? ?" A young mans voice asked, no older than sixteen or seventeen.
"My dear Bjørn, it's only seven thirty. As I've told you time and time before, I promised to bring you to see the ice palace. And here we are. Isn't it magnificent?" A woman's voice asked.
The young mans eyes lit up as he saw the humongous ice palace before him.
"Whoever built it must have had time on their hands." He said.
"It wasn't built over years. It was built in a night." The woman replied.
"A NIGHT? Who would have the skills to do that so fast?" He asked.
"Queen Elsa of Arendelle created this beautiful palace. From what I've heard, her ice powers are absolutely magnificent and a sight to see." She replied once again.
"Arendelle...isn't that the kingdom where-"
"Yes, but let's not talk about it. What's done has been done. Now come, we've got this delivery to make to Arendelle."
Elsa scrambled to her feet and ran to the nearby window where she saw the two outside. It looked like mother and son. The mother was quite young, possibly as old as herself and the boy no more than fifteen or sixteen. The woman's hair was a very light brown while the sons hair was a reddish brown, almost like a certain someone's hair.
"Aww. I want powers like Queen Elsa, but instead of ice, I think fire would be pretty nifty. I could use it for cooking, heating the house, heating the water.."
For a moment, Elsa forgot the reason she went to her palace in the first place. "Should I let them come to me about their powers, or...ugh I don't know." She shook her head and began to walk out of the room, still unsure about to handle the situation. She did know, however, the relationship with the girls would drastically change. "I'll figure it out...somehow.