So.
This is a shorter chapter than usual, but the next chapter will be up shortly, so I hope you'll bear with me. The next chapter follows one character out the door and through another. I thought that second door needed its own chapter. If that doesn't make sense right now, I'm hoping it will soon. :)
As usual, I really do love and appreciate all your reviews, observations, comments, kindness, and all-around awesomeness. Please don't stop.
See you soon!
ssg.x.
CHAPTER 28
WINGS, TEETH, AND SINEWS BENEATH
The palace was open to the public Sunday afternoon as it usually was, and Anna was more than happy things seemed to have gone back to normal…for the most part. The palace tours had resumed, but the place wasn't buzzing with activity the way it had on past Sundays. Anna had been dying to play hide-and-seek with the visiting kids while Elsa did the meet and greet thing with the adults, but there wasn't a child to be found on the premises that afternoon. Not in a hide-and-seek kind of way, either. People were afraid to bring their children to the palace, and Anna couldn't really blame them.
News that Hans had been removed from the prison and was currently being housed somewhere in the palace had spread like wildfire, and everyone was at odds over it. Unfortunately this included Anna and Kristoff, who were barely speaking. Okay, that wasn't exactly true. Kristoff was more than happy to talk to her, but she wasn't obliging him in the least.
oooOOOOooo
Anna and Kristoff had been sitting beside each other under their tree by the docks after almost losing her temper with Elsa over the houseguest she'd invited to stay before bothering to check with her.
"You have to stop throwing yourself over every mud puddle in her path, Anna. She's not a little girl and she doesn't need your protection," he'd said after her tirade about how naïve Elsa was to bring the man who'd almost succeeded in killing both of them back into their home.
"Might I remind you that I had to stop that red-scaled dragon from filleting her," Anna snapped.
"After she crippled the country with a massive snowstorm, climbed the North Mountain alone, built a castle out of ice, created that nightmare of a snowman, fended off Weselton's men and –"
"Yes, and after all that Elsa still needed me to protect her," she said, setting her jaw.
Kristoff's eyes widened. "Anna, she made the same mistake you made. You just had the advantage of finding out Hans was the enemy before she did."
"Exactly. And history is repeating itself, but Elsa seems to have developed amnesia. So until she comes to her senses –"
Kristoff groaned tiredly. "When are you going to stop this, Anna?"
"Stop what?" she asked angrily.
"Stop treating her like she's an idiot, or like she's made of glass, or like –"
"She's my sister, Kristoff!" she finally shouted.
Kristoff threw his arms up in the air in frustration. "God, I'm so tired of hearing you say those three words! She's also the ruler of this country, Anna!" he shouted back, his temper finally getting away from him as well. "Start showing her some damn respect, not just because she's your sister, but also because she's your queen."
Anna glared at him, shocked and heartbroken to hear him speak to her that way but determined not to show it. She quickly wiped the beginnings of tears from her eyes and sniffled, jerking away from the gentle hand Kristoff tried to place on her shoulder.
"Anna, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lose my temper with you like that. I know you love her and you don't want anything bad to happen to her, but you need to trust her. Remember when we first met and I asked you why you weren't afraid of her? You said, 'Why should I be?' You need to trust her like that again, Anna. You need to trust that she loves you, and that she loves her people, and if she truly believed bringing Hans here was a dangerous idea, then she -"
"I think you should go," Anna interrupted quietly. Kristoff's brows knitted together and he frowned.
"Anna, come on."
She shook her head, staring off at some ships idling in the distance. "I want to be alone right now."
Kristoff shrugged his shoulders resignedly. "Alright, then. Just…I love you, Anna. Just because I disagree with you, it doesn't make that any less true."
Anna remained silent, her stubbornness keeping her from turning and wrapping herself up in his arms, which was what she really needed in that moment. Instead, she continued to watch the ships on the water as Kristoff granted her request, leaving her alone with her thoughts – thoughts that turned into prayers to her mother and father.
Please don't let this thing with Hans be what it looks like. Elsa almost lost her head once – please don't let her to lose it once and for all.
oooOOOOooo
Anna had been gazing at the hem of her dress, hands folded in front of her, when she was brought out of her reverie by the sound of a slap, followed by a collective gasp. When she looked up, Elsa was standing across the room, red-faced with her head turned to the side. She brought a shaking hand to her cheek.
"You show that man mercy, and you show your country - all countries - how weak you really are and how little you care about your people!" an elderly woman was shouting at her. Anna moved swiftly to her sister's side, and a handful of guards advanced on the woman.
"How dare you?" Anna shouted, clenching her fists. She tried to put her arm around Elsa's shoulders, but Elsa waved her off, her head bowed.
"Anna, it's alright," Elsa said quietly. "Guards, stand down."
The guards hesitantly took a couple of steps back from the woman. She whirled around and pointed a finger at them. "He was your friend! Your comrade! You'd protect the woman who wouldn't think twice about leaving you to die here in a frozen wasteland?"
Anna glanced at Elsa who looked just as confused by the woman's words as she was.
"What do you mean? Who was their friend?" Anna asked as Gerda hurried to Elsa and carefully took her face in her hands to get a closer look at the mark on her cheek left behind by the slap. Elsa cast her eyes to the floor, a faraway look in them.
The old woman spoke to Anna, but continued to glare at her sister. "My son. He was one of the soldiers that volunteered to search for you. He naively entrusted the prince with his life. That man your sister is protecting brought my son up to the mountain under the guise of trying to locate a lost, helpless princess so that he could make an attempt on your sister's life. My son took ill shortly after returning from the North Mountain. He grew weaker and weaker, until…"
The woman's voice cracked and her shoulders began to shake. Anna wanted so badly to defend Elsa – to remind the woman that, yes – what Hans did was wrong, so very wrong, but that her son was a soldier, and as a soldier he'd sworn to protect Arendelle. The eternal winter had been so widespread that even if Hans hadn't taken them to the North Mountain, they still would have all ended up waist-deep in snow somewhere, somehow. God, she wanted to blame Hans for the young soldier's death, for everything, really, but everyone had played a part in this. No one was innocent. Elsa had abandoned her responsibilities, Hans had…well…been Hans, and Anna was the idiot who went after her sister alone.
So as much as she wanted to be angry with the old woman for slapping Elsa, she just couldn't. She found herself reaching out to the woman and wrapping her arms around her.
"I'm so sorry you lost your son…" Anna paused to give a chance for the woman to offer up her name.
"Nyström, my lady. Nadia."
Her body relaxed against Anna's and Anna heaved a sigh of relief as she felt their respective thorny defensiveness from moments before melting away. She felt tears prickling her eyes when Nadia raised her arms and wrapped them around Anna. It made Anna think of her mother. She so could have used her advice just then, even though she was sure it wouldn't have been that much different from Kristoff's.
You need to trust her, Anna. Elsa loves you so. You did it once, and you can do it again.
God, she smirked to herself. I'm going to have to whittle an entire living room set to make it up to him.
Despite the tears in her eyes blurring her vision, when Anna looked up she was still able to see the hurt on Elsa's face with startling clarity as she stood mere feet away with her hand still cupping her injured cheek. Anna's heart sank. She recognized the wild look in her sister's eyes immediately, and knew she had little time to act, but she couldn't very well drop the mourning older woman she still held in her arms.
No, Elsa. Please. Please don't run awa-
"Elsa!" Anna cried. Predictably, though, it was too late. Elsa turned and bolted from the room. Gerda rushed after her, but ended up making it no further than the doorway before she was out of breath. When Elsa ran, there was no catching up to her – not until she was ready to be caught anyway. Anna frowned, her arms tightening around Nadia, wishing that the old woman could comfort her the way her mother once did.
At least this time there wasn't a large body of water to cross and a mountain to climb to get to her.
So why did it feel like the distance between them now was even greater than the distance between them then?
