Summary: Elsa, Rapunzel, Anna, and Gerda are the four daughters of the King of Arendelle. Their lives are filled with luxury, privilege, and splendour - but that all changes when the King of the Southern Isles declares war on Arendelle.
The characters Elsa, Anna, and the setting are from Frozen. Rapunzel and the Queen are from Tangled. Gerda originates from the Russian animated film The Snow Queen. Inspired by the story of the Romanov family.
December, 1920
Gerda's knees buckled at the scene before her. Her blue eyes flickered and blinked rapidly, almost, dare she admit it, sparkling with fresh tears. Her orange satin gown, embroidered with milky pearls in an vastly intricate pattern, could not replace her deep feelings with the cheerfulness she always used to have.
This is it, she realised in a quickened heartbeat, This is war.
Behind her, Anna placed a gentle hand on her shoulder - with her tightly pulled up ginger hair and a bright spark of determination in her face, she now seemed more mature than ever. Rapunzel nuzzled her head against Anna's, her dark brown crop brushing sounding like the whispers of trees amidst the gunshots that crackled in the dark of the night. She squeezed Anna's hand tightly, as if to say, Please don't grow up yet. May you stay the same bright and bubbly girl you've been for life.
Elsa wasn't present in the sisterly huddle, who watched the scene slowly unfold before them like the pages of a book. Instead, she was in her own room, her chest thumping, eyes full of panic and skin paling by the minute. She wished - longed, even - for comfort, something, a voice, that would firmly tell her that everything was going to be fine, that the war would soon be over. But it couldn't happen. Her mother was in the study, frantically calling for ministers, officers, anyone that could put an end to what had now gone out of control. And Father - Father wasn't there to wrap an arm around her, kiss her fondly on the cheek, and say softly, "My dear, precious Elsa..."
Somebody help, she thought desperately, Somebody help us.
-o0o-
August, 1916
"Elsa!" Fifteen-year-old Anna skipped along the red velvet carpet, the castle hallways stretching out like some sort of maze from storybooks of knights and dangerous quests she often read in the royal library. Not that she'd ever gotten lost before. Growing up in a palace, it was nearly impossible.
Where was Elsa? Anna had been told constantly, even by her elder sister Rapunzel, that Elsa might be busy and should wait a while before she finally came around. But Anna couldn't wait. Patience was a virtue that she dearly lacked - she needed Elsa now! She wanted to tell Elsa something, before it all got muddled up in her forgetful brain!
"What are you doing?"
Anna yelped as she skidded to a sudden halt. Standing before her, arms folded against chest, was Gerda. Even though she was only twelve and therefore the youngest child, it didn't necessarily make her the idiot or dunce of the four sisters.
"Gerda, you know I'm on an errand of importance whenever I skip like that."
"That's an amazingly accurate description of you-" Gerda pretended to place a finger on her chin while thinking "-on any given day."
"Fifteen and I still skip, so what?" Anna sighed exasperatedly. "The point is, I need to find Elsa fast."
"That's an awfully suspicious-looking piece of paper sticking out of your skirt pocket," Gerda said suddenly, thrusting out her pointer finger towards the lower waist portion of Anna's dark green dress.
"It's only bits of rubbish I meant to throw out minutes ago."
"Really? It looks so neatly folded, I doubt you'd have labelled it as a useless thing." Before Anna's mind could adjust to what her sister was talking about, Gerda swooped down and snatched the paper square clean out of Anna's fingers, which had been lingering over the edges.
"Hey! Give that back-!"
"Like I'd do that. I want to see what you've been hiding."
"Okay, you can look at it, but only after I show it to Elsa," Anna spluttered, and slapped Gerda's hand, retrieving the piece of paper, now slightly crumpled, from off the carpet.
-o0o-
Sunlight filtered in through the glass panes of the lace-curtained windows within the room as Elsa sat at her desk study, writing a brief letter to her father (who happened to be the ruling King of their home island Arendelle), wishing him a safe travel. Dipping her quill pen one last time to scribble her own name in loopy handwriting, Elsa nearly upset her ink bottle when Anna and Gerda barged in through the doors without prior notice. Both appeared particularly excited - in the case of Gerda, anyway. Anna always seemed to be excited, no matter the occasion.
"What's going on?" demanded Elsa, brushing imaginary dust off her navy blue skirts. "Has Father come back?"
"No, he's not home for another two weeks," Anna answered, looking surprised. Elsa's lips curved in disappointment. "But," added Anna, whipping out a piece of what seemed to be repeatedly folded paper, "I wanted to show you this."
"Ahem. We wanted," interrupted Gerda, elbowing her sharply in the ribs. Anna tried to tell her that she didn't actually know what it was, and shouldn't talk, when Elsa spoke up, holding up both hands in a quizzical manner. "Hold on. What did you want to show me?"
Anna handed the piece of paper over, struggling to stifle a few giggles. Elsa unfolded it carefully, in the grace of a regular princess, and smoothed it out. Her eyes wandered slowly over the paper.
Gerda held her breath. Anna silently wondered how their eldest sister, a serious girl of seventeen, would react to this.
Elsa's face froze like stone for a short second. Then, unexpectedly, and most uncharacteristically, she burst out laughing.
"What? I want to see!" Gerda's hands immediately groped for the paper, her eyes hungry, while Anna finally let the noise inside her fly. When at last Gerda had gotten ahold, all three had now thrown themselves into fits of laughter, stitches forming around their clutched stomachs, tears running uncontrollably down their red faces.
They were laughing so much, in fact, that no one initially noticed a fourth figure appear in the doorway, hands on her hips.
It was Rapunzel. Dressed in a soft lilac dress, her long golden hair cascading like a waterfall down her back, the second of the sisters could very well be passed off as an angel. But not this time. Her bright green eyes were narrowed, and even though her mouth was fully shut, it told them that if somebody didn't answer her question (which was at the moment, obviously, what are you laughing at) that very minute, there was going to be some trouble.
"Rapunzel!" giggled Anna nervously, "what a pleasure to see you."
"I've been in your sight since morning," replied Rapunzel curtly, "and I can tell that something's up. You don't just go into the room of an elegant and poised princess, with a sister who you hardly get along with at times, and all of a sudden you're all chuckles. You're hiding something. I know you are."
The smiles faded from the sisters' faces. They couldn't show Rapunzel what they just saw. After all, she didn't know about it yet. If she'd seen it, then she'd come marching to the men who ran the printing press, demanding that it be altered for her sake. And then all the fun would be ruined.
It was rather strange, however, for something as small to be an affecting factor on Rapunzel's moods, for really she was a cheerful and intelligent girl who did everything a princess didn't always do, like painting murals on walls, pottery, playing instruments, reading botany and geography books, and was even beginning to practice archery. Only their father was aware - they didn't dare tell Mother about her lessons, as now they didn't Rapunzel about the paper.
"Well? Why are you staring?"
It just couldn't happen. Especially since it was a portrait of Rapunzel and Eugene, Duke of Corona - it was an announcement of their long-awaited engagement. Rapunzel looked beautiful in print, with her diamond tiara atop her head and wearing a regal gown, but there was something - odd - about the Duke of Corona's face. He was a handsome, swoon-worthy person in real life, but there was one mistake permanently etched on the paper...
"His nose!" cried Rapunzel, horrified. "What's wrong with his nose?"
"I know," Gerda chirped, a cheerful look spreading over. "The regular artist must have dropped out at the last minute, and a clown who had no experience in drawing filled in the remaining space left."
"Don't worry!" added Anna hastily, "I'm sure no one will notice!"
But Rapunzel didn't hear her. She kept staring at the announcement, now clenched tightly in her hands. "This'll humiliate him!" she shrieked, "if not humiliate our representatives of the arts! Their reputation will be smashed to bits!"
"Oh, for heaven's sake, it's not that big of a deal," huffed Gerda. "It can't be changed. The people of Corona and Arendelle will just have to deal with a hook-nosed Duke. Besides, there's already a thousand other copies printed and probably being sent out right now."
Only Elsa hadn't said anything since Rapunzel had come into the room - what was there to say, anyway? She was never a chatterbox at all, but she wasn't just going to remain silent, her thoughts left unaccounted for. So, she was about to comment on the situation, when Anna elbowed her, eyebrows raised. "How come you haven't got a suitor, Elsa? Rapunzel's a year younger than you - it's bound to happen eventually."
Of course Elsa had an answer to that. "As Crown Princess and successor to the Arendelle throne, I haven't time for romance. I have to think about more my studies and training to be queen," she finished smoothly, and promptly gave a that's that nod.
"Besides," she added, "I don't need a lover. I have my sisters," giving each a kiss on the cheek, and receiving four in return - Anna had given hers twice.
Rapunzel sighed as she glanced once more at the announcement paper. "I suppose the damage will have to be left be," she mused to herself quietly. "What's done is done."
-o0o-
The sun was setting beyond the tall transparent window standing from floor to ceiling as the four Arendelle princesses ate supper with their mother the Queen. While Elsa and Rapunzel sipped from porcelain tea cups and patted their lips with simple white napkins daintily, Anna and Gerda gulped down their strawberry fudge, demolishing each piece in thirty seconds. Looking on with disapproval, Rosemary stood up to make an announcement. "I have excellent news, girls."
"What?" Anna mumbled through the fudge stuffed inside her mouth. Elsa glanced up, her eyes full of gleaming hope.
"I've just received a telegram from the parents of the Duke - they want us to come meet their son in Corona!" exclaimed the Queen, her long brown curls bouncing happily.
"Will - will Father be home in time for us to all go?" asked Elsa tentatively.
From the doubtful look on their dear mother's face, Elsa's chest slunk down to her belly, knowing that the potential answer could be no. "We can't be sure," the Queen said finally, making tiny chops through her fudge with the fork in her hand.
"Are we travelling on the December Duchess?" was Anna's question, as she hopped eagerly in her seat.
"Yes, she's being brought out again for the trip."
Anna couldn't control her excitement.
The December Duchess hadn't been used since they were children. It was a shame, because the ship had everything - from a library of fairytales to a huge expansive deck with practically enough space to run about and play, nothing could ever replace the cherished memories she and her sisters carried from their beloved ship.
"What do you mean?" Gerda asked in bewilderment, her eyes moving from Anna, who was doing cartwheels around the table, to the Queen, who was watching her third daughter amusedly.
"The December Duchess was a ship," explained Rapunzel, finishing off the last of her tea, "it retired from use before you were born."
"You'll get to experience how fun it is to be sailing on the best ship there is!" said Anna, grinning from ear to ear, and broke off her cartwheel, wrapping her arms around Gerda in a huge bear hug. Then she frowned. "Before it's put away again."
"Not to worry," Rosemary informed them, "once the December Duchess has returned, it won't be retiring for a long time yet."
Anna whooped loudly, and continued to parade around, pretending to blow a trumpet using her lips to form short tooting sounds. Rapunzel and Gerda giggled, and Elsa only moved up closer to her mother, hugging her absent-mindedly. No one may have realised yet, but Elsa happened to be more worried about their father than anyone else.
-o0o-
A week had passed. Since then the Queen and her daughters had spent the last few days packing their things into several leather suitcases, with the assistance of servants and their personal ladies-in-waiting. On the day of departure, the Arendelle royal family stood in the port early in the morning, wrapped in matching brown coats over their winter dresses, each wearing a large plume hat over their heads. The chilly air wound around their bodies as fifty men carried a crate or suitcase across the wooden boards that connected the ship and dock - now that summer was nearly over, much to Anna's dismay, who wished she could pull out a pearl trimmed fan and wave it to hide the red flush on her face.
Elsa turned to look at Anna, noticing something wrong. "Your nose is turning red," she said. "Are you sure you don't have a cold?"
"No, of course not!" Anna replied, forcing a dismissive laugh from her lips - which were starting to turn not red, but a light pastel blue. "I'm not getting a cold - not today, anyway," she said under her breath, as if she were threatening herself. "And certainly not at Corona."
"Gerda!" one of the ladies-in-waiting hissed, catching the young princess swinging on the rails as they climbed up to the ship's deck. "Your mother will have a fit if you end up getting a concussion!" Gerda pulled a mocking face at her and leapt down.
The two younger sisters jogged up ahead of Elsa, Rapunzel and their mother, expecting in earnest for the familiar faces of the captain and his sailors aboard the ship, but what they saw rendered them speechless.
The entire crew of the December Duchess were there, but it wasn't just about their newly furnished velvet blue suits and white-striped hats trailing with red ribbons that attracted their attention. Anna and Gerda gawked like birds at one man that stood in the centre. He was tall, with well groomed caramel hair and a finely trimmed moustache, dressed in a black uniform with many medals and ribbons pinned to the chest.
"Father?" Gerda cried incredulously.
-o0o-
Early September, 1916
The December Duchess cruised at steady speed along the calm ocean waters - the air was now slightly warmer so the women had all removed their coats and placed on simple silk dresses - as the younger sailors, about as old as Elsa, offered the King's four daughters to a lively dance on the main deck.
The other passengers and ship crew watched and cheered as each girl, arm in arm with one sailor, spun around in a dizzying circle, hopping and skipping as the sailors guided them with a hand and sometimes leapt right along with them. A bronze gramophone had been set up not far away, its merry instrumental sounds playing along. The King and the Queen stood at the front of the crowd, laughing as Anna tripped at one point and Rapunzel nearly whipped her partner with her golden hair, which was now almost reaching her waist, while spinning around at a fast pace.
For the first time in a while, Elsa was smiling, too. Now that Father was back and safe from his travels, she could finally breathe again. As soon as she and her sisters had gotten over gaping at the King as if he were a priceless jewel, she had been the only one who didn't flock away, but instead remained with him to ask him a few questions.
"How did you get back to Arendelle so quickly, Father? I thought you weren't going to be home by that time," said a bemused Elsa.
"I came home early," was Agdar's answer as they walked along the poop deck (Gerda often snorted whenever the name was mentioned). "Yesterday, that is. I decided to hide out here with the crew so you'd have a little surprise when you boarded the next morning."
"Father!" cried Elsa with a giggle, "We had no idea!"
"That's the whole point of surprises."
"No, I mean," explained Elsa, "you could have returned to the castle or informed the staff of your return."
The King only shrugged. "Well, it doesn't matter now. What's important is that I'm here, with your mother and you and your sisters, and that I can at least be there to visit the Duke of Corona. The lad's name - Eugene, isn't it?"
Elsa hadn't told him much about the announcement paper, but, after all, what was another misplaced nose on a poster?
At least she was happy, and so were her sisters - the dance had ended, and while she tried steadying a dazed and cross-eyed Anna against her shoulder, both Rapunzel and Gerda sneaked off down a secret staircase that led deeper into the ship.
"Where are we going?" whispered Gerda as they crept down the many wooden steps.
"You'll see," Rapunzel simply replied.
When they got to the bottom, she felt the wall and found a switch, flicking on the light. A pair of heavy doors opened with a click. Gerda stepped forward, and gasped in amazement.
It was huge. The room was filled with shelves of hundreds of books and volumes that extended from floor to ceiling. A great paper globe stood in the corner, next to a mahogany desk supplied with rich stationary in front of a glass window the size of an entire wall. A lamp shade frilled with yellowish lace hovered above, turned off to let the sun rays of the afternoon shine through.
"The library was my favourite part of the ship when I was a child," her elder sister told her softly. "I used to read and re-read every volume that rested in these shelves. Sometimes I'd needed to use a ladder just to reach the highest ones." Rapunzel laughed. "I was sad when the ship had been put away, never to be used again. But now we're on it once more, and I hope you'll enjoy this ride just as much as I did." She kissed Gerda on the cheek, who hugged her back.
Rapunzel may have been the only daughter who had inherited their mother's beautiful leaf green eyes (the rest had the King's shade of blue) but it so happened that Gerda took after both their love of books. Gerda spent a lot of time down there, poring over timeless stories such as Little Women and Treasure Island. Her favourite literature character was the grinning Cheshire Cat from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Gerda had always been particularly close to Rapunzel, just as Anna was with Elsa. They both shared the same interests, both had the same blonde locks (although Gerda's just barely touched her shoulders). One was just as creative and free-spirited as the other. All in all, they were born to be sisters.
I have to remember to thank her later, Gerda thought to herself, grinning.
Along the corridor, Elsa tucked Anna in using several blankets and quilts, just barely succeeding in keeping the girl warm. The bedroom carried three other beds, where they were to sleep together, unlike back at Arendelle where everyone had their own rooms.
"You have to stay in bed, Anna," said Elsa, with a sigh as Anna sneezed into her handkerchief for what seemed like the hundredth time. The bedside lamp cast a ghostly light over Elsa's pale face and dark brown hair. "I knew it. You do have a cold."
"Probably from the air back at home," assumed Anna, the tip of her nose as red as their mother's rubies.
"No, that's not the only thing. You've been wearing summer dresses even when you're not meant to."
Anna could only cough repeatedly, and dwell over the disappointment of being sick. So much for coming to Corona a healthy woman.