Content warning: Accidental recreational drug use. You'll see.
High
"Okay, so you're telling me Elsa ate a mushroom, then she started freaking out?"
It's a sentence Queen Anna never thought she'd have to say in her entire life, yet here she was, at the desperate missive of the baffled Northuldra people.
"I told her not to eat any without talking to me first," Honeymaren groaned, pacing. "I swear, I wouldn't have let that happen if I'd-"
"Hey, take it easy," Anna rests a placating hand on Maren's shoulder. "Listen, I think you've figured this out by now, but Elsa kinda just...does what she wants. The worst thing you can do is tell her not to do something, trust me. So, where is she?"
The brunette gives a relieved sigh, then looks to a wooden hut.
"I finally got her to settle down enough to go inside, but only spirits know what she's seeing in there."
"Okay, I'll go talk to her," Anna flashes a grateful smile. "Thanks, Maren."
"Your Majesty, please be careful!" Honeymaren urges with a tug on Anna's arm. "She's...not all there right now."
Anna suppresses an eye roll.
"Hey, none of that royal stuff, okay?" she softly reminds the brunette. "We're friends. There's no rank among friends."
This draws a smile from Maren.
"And as much as I hate to say this...Elsa's never really all there. It's just how it is."
"I'll take your word for it," Maren shoots an uneasy glance in the direction of the hut Elsa's in.
"I got this," Anna pats Honeymaren's arm with a sure smile. "I'll take care of her, I promise."
Honeymaren gives a thin smile before walking away. Anna makes her way to the hut currently housing her sister, then opens the door.
"Elsa? You in here?"
"Wait! You'll let the bees in!" comes the panicked, non-sequitur reply from the elder sister.
"Yeah, there's no bees in Autumn," Anna tries to hide her smirk as she shuts the door. "Geez, sis, how bad are you tripping right now?"
Elsa's eyes are wider than they have ever been, her pupils dilated so much her irises nearly invisible. She fearfully glances at every corner, even as Anna settles down beside her. It's not even just normal fear, it's confused fear.
"No tripping here," the blonde shakes her head furiously. "No, I'm staying here until the colors stop being weird."
"Okay, glossing over that, what happened, Elsa?" Anna threads her arms around one of Elsa's. "Why are you all freaked out?"
Elsa shakes in Anna's grip, screwing her eyes shut.
"It's okay, whenever you're ready," Anna soothes, resting her head on her sister's shoulder. She knows this gesture usually instills a feeling of calm in Elsa. "I'm right here."
It's about three minutes before Elsa finally musters the will to speak.
"I saw this mushroom, and I thought it was one of the 'okay' ones Maren told me about."
Anna nods.
"I touched it, and little yellow things flew out," Elsa's lack of eloquence tickles the queen.
"The spores, right."
"I sneezed, and three little snowmen appeared, then they ran away."
"Ah, that's still a thing, I see," Anna smirks.
"They're gone now."
The dark manner in which Elsa makes this statement sends a chill down Anna's spine.
"They're...gone?"
"I...unmade them, I guess," Elsa shrugs. She pauses for a moment, looking around the hut. "They poofed away, I think. You don't think—you don't think they're still here, do you?"
"N–no, they're long gone," Anna waves a hand, hoping it's reassuring. "So, at some point you ate this mushroom, right?"
"Yeah, but then colors got weird and I saw bees. I hate bees."
Anna desperately holds back an amused snort.
"Even imaginary bees?"
"No, they were real!" Elsa insists, jerking forward as though trying to escape the insects that arguably were not there. "They were real!"
"Okay, okay, I believe you!" Anna tugs on her sister's arm to try bringing her back to the world of sanity. "So, you saw bees. And like any sane person, you…?"
"I hit them with ice, but my magic was being weird, too," Elsa wildly gesticulates. "It's like, there's no ice, and it's just...air in my hands."
The clusters of icy spikes littered around the Northuldran camp would beg to differ. Anna hadn't even bothered to ask about those.
"Uh-huh."
"The air got weird, like there's no wind but I'm dizzy and spinny," it's equal parts worrying and fascinating to watch Elsa's speech echo that of someone who is hopelessly high on some strange drug. This is also the most she's ever used the word 'weird'.
"Okay."
"Then...I panicked. I didn't know what to do, I was seeing such strange things and I heard more bees and nothing made sense," Elsa drops her head into her palm. "Am I crazy?"
The word 'crazy' starts a round of panicked, gasping breaths from Elsa.
"No no no, you are not crazy," Anna relieves Elsa's arm of her grip, then firmly plants both hands on her shoulders. "Get that out of your mind right now. This...weirdness is temporary, okay?"
"But why were there bees?"
Anna can't quite get why the subject of Elsa's unease continues to be the hallucinatory bees.
"Er, I don't know, but forget the bees for a minute, okay?"
"They're back!" Elsa cries out, wrapping her entire being around Anna like a human shield. "Oh my God, we've gotta get out of here!"
"Elsa, will you stop? There's nothing here!"
"They're everywhere, we have to-"
Anna expects more panicked ramblings, more desperate words about hostile insects, but the body slumped against her says more than enough. The spirit is passed out cold halfway through her sentence.
"And this is why we can't have nice things," Anna sighs, prying the overgrown insect that is her sister off and onto a nearby cot. She reaches for a blanket, drapes it over Elsa, then tucks her in.
"I hope this wears off when you wake up."
A half-snore answers the queen. Anna clamps her hands to her mouth, stifling her quiet laughter.
"I gotta try some of these mushrooms."
Closing notes: I just really loved the idea of Elsa being completely stoned by accident. I tend to think if she did get high, she'd end up getting really weird and panicky as a result. Drug induced panic plus ice isn't a wonderful combination, hence why (probably Yelena) sent for Anna, presumably while trying not to laugh her ass off.
