Anna was falling through the air again, and Elsa was helplessly watching from the ground. "Anna!" she screamed, trying to catch her sister. Instead of making another snow mound, however, Elsa's magic flew toward Anna's head. It collided with the five-year-old's face, and Anna instantly turned to ice before plummeting to the ground. This time, though, there was no pile of snow to break her fall, and she landed on the ground with a crash, so hard that the ice she had turned into shattered into a million pieces.
"ANNA!" Elsa screamed again, louder this time as she ran toward what was left of her sister. Sobbing, she fell to the ground in front of the shattered remains of the ice statue that had once been a warm, high-spirited princess. Frantically, Elsa glanced around for Rapunzel, hoping beyond hope that her cousin could fix this. But all Elsa found was another pile of broken ice pieces. It took a second or two before Elsa realized that those pieces were Rapunzel.
Elsa jumped up and ran out of the ballroom, trying to get to her parents' bedroom. However, she stopped in her tracks when she saw them, in the middle of the hallway, their bodies turned to ice. "Papa, Mama!" she whimpered, falling to her knees in front of the two ice statues. As she watched, they too shattered, leaving nothing but more pieces of broken ice. Elsa buried her face in her hands as a horrible realization struck her: she had just murdered her whole family. She was a monster. "No," Elsa sobbed. "NO!" she screamed.
"Elsa, wake up!" a frantic voice called through the depths of her misery. "It's just a nightmare!"
Elsa's eyes shot opened and she bolted upright, immediately clobbering her forehead on something hard, which worsened her already throbbing headache. "Ow!" a voice exclaimed-Anna's voice.
After rubbing her head, Elsa opened her eyes again to see Rapunzel, Anna, and even Pascal staring at her worriedly. Rapunzel and Anna were already dressed, and Anna was wearing a low-brimmed hat that was positioned in such a way that her white streak couldn't be seen. "I'm so sorry, Anna!" she apologized, after noticing that her younger sister was rubbing her own forehead. She was apologizing, though, for more than just slamming into Anna-she was apologizing for what had happened the night before.
"It's okay," Anna assured her with a grin, "I've got a hard head." She playfully rapped her knuckles against her forehead to prove her point.
Rapunzel, though, was still looking at Elsa in concern. "Are you alright, Elsa?" she asked. "You've got a pretty nasty bump on your head from where you fell last night." She grabbed a section of her hair and held it up. "Here, let me heal it."
"No!" Elsa exclaimed, backing away as best she could, her eyes wild with fright. "D-don't touch me! I'm a m-mo-monster!"
Rapunzel and Anna immediately went silent, staring at each other in shock. Elsa thought this meant that they agreed with the statement, and so she began to cry. A moment later, though, her sister and cousin both burst out with, "You are not!"
"Where on earth did you get that idea?" Rapunzel exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at her cousin. Elsa was only eight after all, and the fact that she suddenly saw herself as a monster was both ridiculous and horrifying.
"Yeah!" Anna chimed in. "Whoever told you that is gonna get pounded by me!" She balled one hand into a fist and punched her other palm to prove her point.
Elsa looked down at the bedsheets, brought her knees to her chest, and wrapped her arms around her legs. "I…I nearly k-killed you last night, Anna. That makes me a monster."
Anna shook her head violently. "No it doesn't!" she insisted.
"Exactly," Rapunzel added. "It makes you a girl who made an honest mistake, just like everyone else does from time to time."
"What she said!" Anna agreed. She grabbed Elsa's hands before the older girl could protest and stared seriously into her big sister's eyes. "Please don't say that again, Elsie," she begged. "It means that you're sad, and it hurts me when you're sad."
The sisters stared at each other for a long, quiet moment, and then Elsa slowly nodded. "Alright, I won't call myself a monster again," she promised. It didn't mean she couldn't think it, though. "Just…please don't touch me right now," she begged, pulling her hands away from Anna's.
Anna was a bit hurt by that, but she slowly nodded. "Okay, I won't."
"At least let me heal your head," Rapunzel spoke up. Before Elsa could protest, she added, "I'll be careful not to touch you, and I'm pretty sure you can't do anything to my hair."
Elsa's resolve wavered, and she allowed her cousin to wrap her hair around her injury. After all, her head did hurt, and some relief would be nice, even though she saw it as a much-needed punishment for what she had nearly done to Anna. Rapunzel finished singing, and Elsa mumbled a "Thank you" in reply, though she was a bit relieved at the pain having gone away.
"You're welcome," Rapunzel replied with a smile. "Now, it's just about breakfast time, and Anna and I are starving. Are you ready to eat?"
Elsa hesitated for a moment, then shook her head. "I'm not hungry," she mumbled. "Just go without me. I'll be fine here. Maybe I'll come down in a few minutes." Without another word, she lay back down on her pillow and closed her eyes, recent events playing through her mind. She was hoping her sister and cousin would take the hint and leave.
Rapunzel and Anna glanced at each other worriedly, but when they saw that Elsa wasn't going to go with them, they slowly nodded. "Okay," Anna replied solemnly, "see you in a bit." Then she and Rapunzel left the bedroom, leaving Elsa to ponder the events of the previous night.
0o0o0o0o
"Good morning, girls," Iduna chirped cheerfully as Anna and Rapunzel walked into the dining room.
"Morning," the girls replied, though their voices didn't hold as much cheer as the queen's did.
"Where's Elsa?" Agnarr asked as the princesses took their seats at the table.
"In bed," Anna answered, helping herself to the food.
"She's not feeling well," Rapunzel added quickly as she, too, filled her plate.
Agnarr and Iduna glanced at each other. "Is she sick?" Agnarr asked worriedly. Rapunzel shrugged, not sure what to say.
"I'd better go check on her," Iduna suggested as she stood up. She left the dining room and Agnarr, Rapunzel, and Anna decided to go ahead and eat without her. The queen returned several minutes later, a worried frown on her face. "She won't talk to me or even look at me."
"Is she coming downstairs to eat?" Agnarr asked.
Iduna shrugged. "I don't know."
"Did something happen last night?" Agnarr asked, directing his question at the two princesses seated to his left.
Rapunzel and Anna glanced at each other in panic. "Um…" they both stammered.
"Girls, tell us the truth, please," Agnarr scolded.
"Uh…" Rapunzel stammered. After a moment, she sighed when she realized she couldn't avoid the question. "We…sneaked downstairs last night to play," she admitted sheepishly.
"That doesn't explain why Elsa's acting the way she is," Iduna said.
"She, uh…she fell and hit her head," Rapunzel replied, hoping that would be enough.
Agnarr and Iduna both nodded, although it was clearly evident that they weren't satisfied. "Something tells me that you're not telling us everything," Iduna mused, raising a suspicious eyebrow.
"Also, Anna's choice of accessories seems a bit…strange to me," Agnarr added, staring at Anna's low-brimmed hat.
Rapunzel and Anna gulped nervously. "Why's it strange?" Anna asked, trying and failing to sound natural.
Agnarr shrugged. "I guess it's not that strange in of itself, except for the fact that you almost never wear hats, especially that kind. On top of that, we have a rule of no hats at the table, and you are very clearly breaking that rule. Please take the hat off."
"But I like it!" Anna protested, pulling the sides of the hat down for emphasis.
"Anna, please obey your father," Iduna told her. "Even if it wasn't out of the ordinary for you to wear hats, you know the rule."
Rapunzel and Anna both sighed in defeat, and Anna slowly took off her hat. Instantly, Agnarr and Iduna gasped. Rapunzel had tried her best that morning to hide the white streak underneath the rest of Anna's hair, but it was large enough to be seen nonetheless.
"Wha-?" Iduna began, but then she shook her head and fell silent, her mouth hanging open in surprise.
"Alright, I for one am very confused," Agnarr finally spoke up, shaking his head. "What does that white streak in Anna's hair have to do with how Elsa's acting? This isn't making any sense."
"Rapunzel, Anna," Iduna added softly, her eyes full of concern, "what happened last night? Please tell us everything."
Rapunzel and Anna glanced at each other, sighed again, and then turned back to Agnarr and Iduna. Immediately the whole story tumbled out. "And then this morning I think Elsa had a nightmare about it," Rapunzel finished. "She refused to let either of us touch her, and she even called herself a monster."
Iduna and Agnarr gasped again. "What eight-year-old calls themselves such a thing?" Agnarr asked in horror.
"Apparently, ours does," Iduna replied, just as horrified.
"Rapunzel, Anna," Agnarr continued after a moment, "I think you should go find your tudors, because it's nearly time for your lessons." The two princesses groaned and slumped down in their chairs.
"We'll talk to Elsa and see if we can help her feel better," Iduna added, smiling encouragingly at Anna and Rapunzel. "Please obey without complaint and go do your lessons."
"Okay," the princesses mumbled, slowly getting up from the table. They then trudged mournfully out of the room.
"Why's Elsa so upset?" Anna asked as she and Rapunzel made their way down the hallways of the castle. "I'm all better now, so why does she still feel bad?"
"I think it's because she's more worried about what might have happened." Rapunzel stopped and stared down at her cousin with a serious expression. "She's right, though; you very well could have died last night. After all, none of us know the extent of Elsa's magic."
"But I didn't die," Anna protested with a confused expression. "I couldn't have; not with you there."
Rapunzel sighed and shook her head. "Let's just get to class." The five-year-old was too young to understand the dangers of the night before, and Rapunzel knew it. Therefore, there was no point trying to argue with Anna, and so Rapunzel decided to drop the subject for the moment.
0o0o0o0o
Agnarr and Iduna did manage to convince Elsa to join her sisters for their lessons, but the girl was in a very sullen mood, and hardly paid attention to anything around her.
"Hey, Elsa, can you freeze his tea?" Anna whispered to her big sister during a particularly boring lecture on the Southern Isles. Their thin, unbearably strict teacher had his back turned, and therefore didn't hear the princess' conspiracy.
"Yeah, you'd be doing both of us a favor," Rapunzel grumbled, rubbing her temples in an attempt to ward away the headache that she could feel coming on.
Elsa smirked and started to nod, but then her expression dropped into a pained one, and she quickly shook her head. "Too dangerous," she mumbled quietly before bending over her schoolwork and focusing on that instead of her sisters. Over her head, Rapunzel and Anna exchanged worried glances. This was completely unlike the Elsa they were used to.
0o0o0o0o
At lunch, Elsa seated herself on the far end of the table, and ate her meal in complete silence, refusing to even make eye contact with her family. When lessons were finished and it was time for fun, Anna and Rapunzel managed to convince Elsa to play dolls with them, but the eight-year-old was very quiet during the game, and eventually her sisters gave up and allowed her to sit all by her lonesome on her bed and read a book. The servants, who were used to the three girls shouting and running through the halls together, were quite perplexed to not see Elsa as her normal self. They were too polite, though, to question the royals, and besides, Agnarr and Iduna wouldn't have known what to tell them anyway.
Night soon fell, and by the time that the king and queen came in the girl's bedroom to read their daughters a bedtime story and then wish them goodnight, Elsa was already tucked in bed, fast asleep. The next day, she skipped lunch, and went to bed without supper. The day after that, she refused to come out of her room at all, and ignored every attempt by Rapunzel and Anna to get her to play.
After two weeks of this routine, Rapunzel and Anna decided that it was time for drastic measures. They put a plan in action, though they refrained from telling the adults, who most likely would have commanded them not to do it. With the help of Rapunzel and her hair, Anna managed to situate herself in a high branch of a tall tree in the gardens. Then, Rapunzel rushed into the castle and toward her and her sisters' bedroom to execute the next part of the plan.
"Elsa, come quick!" Rapunzel cried, barging into the bedroom and putting on her best scared face.
Elsa jumped in surprise and glanced up worriedly from the book she'd been reading. "What happened?" she asked.
Rapunzel shook her head and raced toward Elsa's bed before grabbing her elbow and trying to tug her away. Elsa hadn't allowed anyone to touch her since the accident, and now was no exception as she tried to pry her arm out of her cousin's grasp. However, Rapunzel held on tightly and refused to let go. "No time to explain! You just have to come right now!"
Wordlessly, Elsa allowed herself to be dragged out to the gardens, where she stared in confusion at the tree Rapunzel had led her to. "What's going on?" she asked. Then she noticed Anna, who was perched on a branch nearly ten feet in the air. "Anna of Arendelle, what on earth are you doing up there?!" she screeched, all fears of her magic forgotten.
"I'm climbing a tree," Anna replied simply.
"Get down from there right now!"
Anna shrugged and grinned as she prepared to carry at the next part of her and Rapunzel's practically fool-proof plan. "Okay," she agreed nonchalantly. The princess stood up with the help of the nearby tree trunk, and then casually stepped off the branch.
"Anna!" Elsa screamed, thrusting out her hands and creating a three-foot-deep pile of snow for her sister to land in. Anna plopped down into the snow a moment later, and as planned, she didn't immediately get up. "Not again!" Elsa exclaimed, sounding close to tears as she dashed to her little sister's side. Rapunzel followed close behind, trying her best to hold back a grin. She certainly hoped the plan would work.
"Anna, are you okay?" Rapunzel asked. She had asked that as part of the charade that the two girls had set up, but she was also genuinely a bit concerned, since the fall had been a long one.
Anna popped her head up just then and grinned. "Yup!" She threw her arms around a frantic Elsa, who had knelt down beside her. "See, you can catch me when I fall!" the five-year-old proudly chirped. "And you didn't hurt me at all! You saved me, Elsie!"
"I-I did?" Elsa repeated, trying to grasp what her sister was saying. "I didn't hurt you?"
"Of course not, Els," Rapunzel answered with a grin. "The accident two weeks ago was just that; an accident. Just because something went wrong one time doesn't mean you have to live in fear for the rest of your life!"
Just then, Anna grabbed ahold of Elsa's hands, which made the eight-year-old jump in surprise. "Anna!" she exclaimed, trying and failing to extract her hands from Anna's vice-like grip. "Don't touch my hands! I'll hurt you!"
"You're not hurting me with your magic now, and you won't ever again," Anna assured her with a smile. "You hurt me more when you call yourself mean names and act all scared of yourself. You're my big sister, Elsie, and I care about you. I know you'd never hurt me on purpose. I love you, sis, no matter what."
"Me, too," Rapunzel added in as she knelt down beside her cousins. "You're not dangerous, Elsa, and you never will be. Not so long as you let us be there to help you. We love you, Elsa, and we'd never call you a monster, or anything else like that."
Elsa stared at her cousin and little sister with teary eyes. "Thank you," she whispered gratefully. The she wrapped both of the other princesses in a tight hug, something she hadn't done since the night of the accident.
"You're welcome!" Anna chirped as she shivered.
"Anna, are you alright?" Rapunzel asked, noticing the shiver.
Anna nodded in reply. "Yup! I just got a little chilly from being in this snow."
"Well, then, who wants to build a snowman?" Rapunzel asked as she stood up and brushed the snow from her dress.
"Me!" came the excited reply from a certain five-year-old princess. Rapunzel and Anna turned pleading eyes toward Elsa, who finally gave in and nodded.
"Alright," Elsa agreed with a smile. "Last one to the ballroom is a rotten egg!" she shouted as she dashed off toward the castle.
"No fair!" Rapunzel and Anna complained as they chased after her. However, they were both thrilled to see the old Elsa back, and if she felt like being a little mischievous, then who were they to stop her?