Since it's only inevitable that she'll become queen herself, Merida decides to go under Elsa's wing. Meanwhile, Anna continues to have fun playing little sister and bugging her older sister about her being boring.

Tales of A Queen's Apprentice
Two days after the dinner fiasco Merida found herself riding on her horse, Angus, from Corona to Arendelle. Merida was at least thankful that her mother did not require escorts for her. Or perhaps Elinor knew that Merida had selected cooking as one of her prospects and decided against bringing guards along lest they get food poisoning also. Either way, Merida was going solo.

Okay so maybe dinner makin' isn't for me. At least Anna and Elsa are not that far away.

Entering into Arendelle territory, Merida noticed that the kingdom was not exactly a large kingdom, but it seemed to be doing pretty well for itself.

"Not bad for a country that trades away a lot of fish, huh?" Merida asked to her horse. The horse spluttered either in agreement or apathy. Merida could not have guessed because she was busy focusing on getting to the castle.

Entering the town, Angus slowed to a walk to avoid running into anyone or anything. They passed a burly man riding a reindeer and both riders nodded their heads to each other in silent respects. Even their steeds showed admiration to each other. Eventually, Merida reached Castle Arendelle where Anna was waiting for her by being her jumpy, bubbly self.

I hope whatever bug that's crawling in Anna right now isn't the same one that crawled in Rapunzel. Merida thought while smirking.

Anna ran up to Merida and tried to make the less hyperactive princess jump up and down with her.

"Merida, you're here!"

"Yeah."

"Oh my gosh. You're gonna work for us. Well not for us... I mean yeah for us but it's not like we're gonna order you around like we do our butler. And it's gonna be so fun and Elsa can get boring work done much faster, and then we can all build snowmen for the rest of the day and…"

Merida simply smiled nervously as the princess of Arendelle kept talking nonstop…. for thirty minutes. Once Merida was able to say something, she talked about how Rapunzel's job was a disaster for her. Anna gave the archer emotional support but was secretly happy that she and Elsa actually missed out on the social event. Gatherings were all good and fun but keeping a hole from forming in your stomach had higher priority.

"Don't worry about us though," Anna assured. "I'm sure what Elsa has set up for you can't be any different than any duties your mother already wants you to do."

"My mother usually has me practice walks, curtsies, music and... eating with a fork," Merida said, shuddering at the last thing.

"Oh tell me about it. Eating with a fork? Ugh!"

Merida was happy that at least she finally had a friend who would rather roll in the mud with her than practice her curtsy.

Elsa was not ready to see them yet so Anna had to entertain Merida with whatever story she had on her mind.

"And that's how I was right about me knowing that my sister really DOES has a thing about dirt by using muddy boots, the ballroom, her braid, and a rubber ducky," Anna concluded with an exaggerated gesture. "So, how did you like it?"

"I think you need to stop listening to Eugene's stories," Merida answered. She couldn't believe what Anna did with that rubber ducky.

"Oh speaking of Eugene, I wanna tell you about the time I almost assassinated him using a frying pan, my boyfriend, and an assumption of beast…"

Anna's beginning of her new story was cut when the butler said that Elsa was ready to see both of them.

"Okay, cool. Thanks, Kai," Anna said. "Come on, Merida, let's go."

Merida followed Anna to Elsa's study.

Being the queen was not something that Elsa had chosen of her own free will but she did make the best of it with what she had. She thought outside the box with her brilliant, yet slightly warped, mind to come up with solutions to national and complex problems. But for all her intellect, Elsa was not a social butterfly, even if she did learn how to gain new friends. So that is where the younger sister came in.

Anna found her calling through her love of people and longing to help her sister. Since she was the more sociable of the two, Anna did her part by talking to the people and listening to whatever local problems or successes there were, which Anna would relay back to the queen. Arendelle was well off under their reign. With this strategy of Anna being the face of Arendelle and Elsa the brains, they were a well-oiled ruling machine, or as Elsa would dryly say, it was two knuckleheads working together at full capacity to do the job of one normal woman.

Well, I'm going to do this queen crap eventually, Merida thought. And I don't want to learn it from Mom. Might as well learn it from the best, try not to look stupid, and even get some money out of it.

Anna opened the door without knocking - because, screw it she's not doing that anymore - and went into Elsa's study. Elsa yelped in shock as a mound of snow fell upon Anna.

"Anna!" Elsa cried. "I told you I'm never locking the door on you again. Stop scaring me out of my skin and knock."

"Never!" Anna defied as soon as she stuck her head of the snow.

Anna tried to get up only to fall down and land on her bum. Elsa laughed and Merida walked over the klutz and towards Elsa.

"Yo whatup Els?" Merida asked.

"You're still talking like that to me even when your mother is not here."

"It's funny," Merida winked. "So what am I going to be doing?"

"Well, you are to be my lady in waiting," Elsa explained.

"But don't get the wrong idea, Meri," Anna scolded as she put her arm around her sister's waist for a side hug, "I still have the awesome title of Elsa's best friend."

Why would me being a lady in waiting.… oh whatever.

"Sounds sweet," Merida spoke out loud. "What does a lady in waiting do?"

And why didn't my mother have one?

"Well, as lady in waiting you'll handle the secretarial stuff, assist me in duties, go over reports, supervise the servants, master etiquette…" Elsa explained.

Merida's face fell further at each of the duties she had to do.

No wonder, my mother doesn't have one herself. They probably died from boredom.

Anna read the look on Merida's face, "Yeah the translation is that you're gonna do all the boring stuff while boring Elsa does even boringer… stuff."

"Anna!" Elsa loudly spoke.

Anna giggled, "Oh I'm just teasing you, sis. Even though I'm still right, when you do queenly stuff, you go deep into boring mode."

Elsa tried to reassure Merida, "Don't worry. It's not THAT boring. Besides, I'm not asking you to take care of my clothes. And we have head servants to make the load easier on supervision."

Merida wasn't completely convinced but she let the subject drop. But she wanted an answer from Anna, "If it's so boring Anna, then why are you here?"

"I'll do anything to help my big sister. Besides, the faster she finishes up boring royalty stuff, the faster we get to play together and do fun stuff."

"Despite the fact that your falling asleep during meetings make these boring meetings longer when we have to wake you up," Elsa smirked.

"Elsa!" Anna whined with indignation. "Gosh, I fall asleep just once…"

"Nine times actually," Elsa corrected.

"JUST ONCE," Anna said, too proud to admit, "and suddenly I'm the bad guy. Well I'd rather be the bad guy than be BORING!"

Merida noticed that the two ladies older than her are bickering like schoolchildren and it was actually quite amusing to see mature Elsa stooping down to the level of an immature child. And Anna… well this is probably just Tuesday for her.

"At least Elsa doesn't play pranks on you like pouring ants on your dress," Merida muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all. So is it always like this among you two, cause I can just simply go back to babysitting my little brothers."

"No, we usually have a bit more dignity," Elsa sighed.

"Actually, your babysitting skills can help us," Anna explained. "In babysitting you have to pacify children from throwing a tantrum when they don't get their way. It's the same in governing… only it's pacifying rich old farts when they don't get their way."

"Either way, a diaper usually has to be changed," Elsa finished.

Merida and Anna laughed. "Good one, Elsa," Anna complimented.

"I'm… not really joking."

The two princesses stared at the queen.

"Yeah I know. Some of them SHOULD retire from politics already."

"Uh huh," Merida shrugged wanting to get away from the idea of grown men not controlling their bowels. "And what about war?"

The sisters stared at her in utter confusion. "We would rather avoid war, you know?" Anna said.

"Awww and my dad that's the greatest part of being a monarch."

"Oh come on, Merida," Anna brightened. "It's not all bad."

Then Anna began to sing to the tune of a familiar song. "Do you want to write a tax coooooode? Or maybe declare martial laaaaaaaaaaaaaaw?"

"ANNA!" Elsa yelled.

Anna kept singing, "I think we should have a great snow force. And use brute force. To quell stupid Denmaaaaaaaark….. OOF!"

At the last statement, another mound of snow fell on Anna, "I was kidding, Elsa. Stop being dull!"

Merida couldn't help but laugh. Sure this maybe not the most exciting thing in the world, but at least she's going to have pleasant company to make the workload less annoying.

"What the hell, guys? Count me in. Let's do it."

Anna jumped up and cheered, "YAY! This is gonna be fun since you're going to help us! I'm so excited, I don't think I'm gonna fall asleep."

Elsa was elated as well though she kept her excitement behind her 'queenly face.' "This is going to be exhilarating. Shall we begin?"

Merida and Anna sat down as Elsa grabbed a paper from her files.

"Okay, here's a start. Article W8293, 'The Reconciliation of…"

And Anna fell asleep in eight seconds with her hair becoming messy like a bird's nest.

"Anna?" Merida asked poking the sleeping beauty's head. "Anna?"

Anna was still snoring away like a big baby.

Elsa sighed. "Well… at least she lasted six seconds longer than her average. Shall we continue, Merida?"

"O…okay," Merida stammered.

So the remaining two awake women started on going over these papers. While Elsa found herself at home with her work, Merida was struggling to make heads or tails of these documents. Her mother hasn't taught her these lessons yet and her father has a policy of 'No longer than one damn page.' It did not help that Merida was also struggling to stay awake as well.

"Honestly, I wish they would stop calling it Elsacare," the Snow Queen groaned. "Not only is it very juvenile, it's not even its proper name. Merida, dear, how are you doing?"

Merida dozed off a bit holding a bill in hand. However, when her head hit the desk, she woke up and spazzed out.

"Damn Viking bears!" the archer shouted, "WHA… I mean I'm fine! I'm fine."

Elsa just gave her an empathetic smile. "Yes I have to admit, making laws is not exactly the most exciting thing on Earth. I too would rather build snowmen than read over all of these bills."

Merida felt guilty on the inside. Here was one of her friends offering to help her with the dilemma and she had the nerve to fall asleep.

"Sorry Elsa. It's all my fault. I'm sure the remaining duties aren't as dull. Besides, I am getting paid for this. Might as well try to do a good job."

Elsa shifted awkwardly in her chair, "Ummm I'm sorry. You…. can't get paid."

"WHAT?!" Merida shouted. And that somehow didn't wake Anna.

"It's just that…. having a princess from a foreign land as my lady in waiting made the council very anxious. We can't have secrets getting spilled, you know? Even though I told them you were trustworthy, I had to make a compromise. This meant no payment."

Merida stared in silence as she could not believe Elsa's… underlings had the gall to deny her a day's payment all because of their xenophobia.

"But there is good news," Elsa brightened. "The experience you'll get from this will be worth a lifetime of treasures, yes?"

Then again, Merida could not believe that Elsa was trying to salvage a good thing out of this.

"Gee, Elsa, I'd love to stay but I have to…. see some big guy about breeding my horse and his reindeer… Yeah let's go with that… so..."

Merida sprinted out a door for the second time in a few days.

This is harder than I thought. Merida thought. And I knew the policy stuff of ruling would be terrible. People should fistfight to solve their problems.

Elsa was left alone with her sleeping sister as she put her hand on her forehead.

"Way to go, Elsa," she mumbled to herself. "In addition to being boring, you are now seen as cheap. Could this get any worse?"

Suddenly, Anna began to talk in her sleep, "zzzzz…. What do YOU know about true love, Elsa? Unless you and your bedroom door… Ewwwwwwwwwwwww!... zzzzzzzzzzz"

Elsa rolled her eyes. Now she was seen as boring, cheap, and apparently an objectophile.