Merida noticed the ball get a bit foggy before the queen hastily returned it to its pillow and stormed out of the church. Which was weird because it was the middle of summer and they looked like they had looked perfectly clean. She hoped that the fair faced monarch was okay.
As Merida walked up to the castle for the post-coronation festivities with her mother she realized that the queen, who no doubt was single as her sister occupied the post ordinarily reserved for consorts during the ceremony, would make a wondrous political match for the Scottish kingdom. Kingdom DunBroch had lovely portside access, and was materially rich, if a tad underdeveloped. Arendelle was extremely prosperous, well developed, and mercantile. It only made sense that they should arrange a political union of some sort. In spite of tradition, the match would fulfill all of her mother's qualifications for a proper suitor.
In the ballroom Merida's mother introduced her to several Scandinavian lords and princes from several kingdoms. Merida was supposed to have studied their houses before meeting with them but found she didn't care enough to memorize names of people she'd never met. She'd been amused by the older one who was obviously plotting to exploit Arendelle's wealth and danced around her like a crab. Ultimately the cake with a bust in it was far more interesting than most of the people the highland queen introduced. Merida kept her eyes peeled for the little queen.
And she was not disappointed.
The little queen was off to the side of the dance floor wishing she was someplace else. The queen was in fact taller than Merida but her slender form seemed shrunken into her heavy cloak, away from all the people. Merida still felt like the queen was small, in need of protection.
Elsa did not want to be here one bit. There were too many people for one thing and too many people wanting to talk to her for another. It was hard to suppress her feelings when there was so much to respond to. But it was pleasant enough she supposed, a nice excuse to eat cake and have musicians play for her. Or at least it would be if a certain fourth son of the king of the Southern Isles wasn't trying so hard to chat her up.
That was when she noticed a ferocious looking woman with what could only be described as a mane of red hair strutting towards her.
"Can't ye see that y'aren't wanted?" Merida gestured angrily, scowling up at the blond prince.
"Pardon me, your highness." The prince took off quickly into the sea of people, embarrassed.
"Thank you for that." the queen murmured, pleased to be rid of a nuisance.
Noting the small upward curve of the queen's smile, the first sign of pleasure that Elsa had displayed all day, Merida was grew bold. She had to be forthright with the queen, none of this mamby pamby bumbling around, she deserved better than that. She grinned widely.
Elsa decided she liked the shorter woman's frank attitude.
"I am Merida, of clan DunBroch, and I would like to ask for yer majesty's hand in marriage." Merida announced.
Elsa changed her mind about the Scot's attitude.
Elinor, who had just found Merida, raised her hand to cover her face. She'd hoped that Merida would find someone to marry on this trip but not like this. This was a disaster.