Over the next fourteen years
And things certainly did change a lot over the last decade and a half for the family. Almost immediately the night with which Anna was struck by Elsa's powers, the parents of the two sisters took vigorous steps to keep the two apart. Elsa's bed and her furniture were moved out from the bedroom of the two sisters into another unused bedroom down the hall. When Anna asked why, her parents said that Elsa "needed to grow up," to quote their words. Elsa too responded the same way before walking off with tears falling from her eyes; Anna feeling the same way as she watched her sister disappear into her room and shut the door behind her as if finally sealing the two off from each other forever.
On that day, Anna felt the worst pain ever. She could not imagine why her sister would suddenly leave her and no longer play with her, why her parents had decided to do this to them when they were so happy. It just did not make any sense, nor was it fair! How could they do this to them? How could they break up the two perfect sisters and keep them apart just because one of them needed to grow up? It was not fair at all!
But Anna's pleading got her nowhere, and it got worse from there on. As the years passed and Anna and Elsa grew older, the fun that once existed between them became almost non-existent. Rarely did they see each other, being it only a birthday or Christmas or whatever other holiday they had and even then there was little exchange of words between them, largely because the parents made sure they were kept apart. This continued separation, combined with the growing want to be with her sister and the depression that came as a result of this want of hers not happening only made Anna deeply upset and lost in her life, as if she was dead inside and was left to wander aimlessly, waiting for the happy times to come around again.
For Elsa, it was pretty much the same. Despite her actions in order to protect her sister, the separation was also having horrific effects on her too. Depression was common within her and often her parents, when they tried to comfort and help their daughter, would find her curled up in a ball in the corner of her room surrounded by a covering of frost and snow, tears running down her face. Her want to reach out to Anna, to touch her, hug her and let her sister know that she was there for her and wanted to be with her again. All of that was suppressed by her fears of hurting her sister again and so, very, very reluctantly stopped herself.
The worst of these times had been when it had been snowing at Christmas and throughout winter. Anna would everyday knock on Elsa's door and cheerfully and hopefully ask "Elsa, do you wanna build a snowman?" Every time, it broke Elsa's heart to hear her sister call out to her, each time in a sense pleading with her to come out from her room and be her sister again. She had wanted to just throw the door open and say to Anna "Yes, I wanna build a snowman!" and run off with her to do so but no. Her fears and her worries overtook her every time. There were even times, and Elsa hated herself for doing this, when she said to Anna to go away, to which her baby sister would mutter a sad "Okay," and walk away, feeling terribly hurt inside.
And so that was the situation between Anna and Elsa for fourteen years. Barely seeing and speaking, soon they began to doubt whether it would all come to an end. Their parents could do little to help and watched with near broken hearts the two sisters become estranged from one another; they too wondering if it would ever end, if they would ever see their daughters play with one another again.
However, dear readers, their minds were soon to be occupied with new concerns and new dilemmas, and these originated not within the walls of their house, but outside them, and by outside, I mean outside the country of Norway.
You see dear readers, in the years following the incident, Europe, after the trouble of the early 1920s with Germany's hyperinflation and the attempted putsches that followed, the French invasion of the Ruhr, the Russian Civil War and the Fascist takeover of Italy, things seemed to be calming down. Life was steadily going back to a slow and peaceful state, towards what many hoped would be the same that had existed in Europe pre-1914. It was only that which they wanted, a return to normality, a return to peace and tranquillity. And for a while it did. People were happy, peace largely existed with the occasional outbreak of conflict here and there, and everything that had threatened this new order in Europe before had largely subsided. Things looked positive and set to continue that way.
Sadly, as stated earlier within this story, it was not to last. Without warning in 1929, the Stock Market in Wall Street crashed, plunging America, much of Europe and many areas of the Far East into an economic depression. Before one knew it, 1923 had struck again for many countries. Inflation skyrocketed, people found money worthless and soon employment was decreasing whilst its opposite was on the rise. Some countries such as Italy managed to just scrape through, but others were not so lucky.
One of those countries badly affected by the Great Depression, just as it had been affected by the hyperinflation six years earlier, was Germany. Now a Republic after the end of WW1, this new constitution had struggled and fought long and hard to survive the economic downfall and political extremism that proliferated throughout the country, in some cases barely just surviving both had it not been for the fear of Communism in the now newly Communist USSR. In the mid-1920s, things had cooled down and stability came back with Stresemann and others implementing new economic and political plans to rebuild the country. Things were working well and looked set to continue as such.
1929, of course, changed all that. The new depression brought back the economic downfall and the political extremists. Before long, just as many had done after WW1's end, people were looking for a saviour. Some looked to the political Left among the Communists, some the Centre political parties and favoured the Weimar Republic, others looked to the political Right and envied the nationalists. So called heroes and cult figures were to be found among all three areas, all looking for inspiration within and outside Germany to gather strength and rebuild the country in their image. Kapp, Hindenburg, Liebknecht, Luxembourg, Ludendorff, Ebert, all were looked up to by various people.
And then there was the leader of a nationalist party that was led by someone whom a great many began to look up to. Being a former WW1 veteran and a sympathiser of the nationalist cause, he, like millions of others, felt enraged when the Treaty of Versailles, the 'Dolschstuss' or stab in the back, had been signed by the German government now in power. Driven by anger and found by luck among many influential people, he became a public speaker and soon head of the NSDAP party, the abbreviated form of which was the Nazi Party.
That man was Adolf Hitler.
Gradually, after rising through the ranks to leadership and building up the party's strength, Hitler had hoped to seize power in 1923 with the Munich Putsch, a move that failed and nearly ended up with him being killed in the process. Luck, however, had been on his side for his nationalist agenda was sympathised with by the courts and so he was given a light prison sentence. After being released, he became set on gaining power democratically, realising this was the only way to do it, but needed something to happen as for four years the Nazi party's influence waned, becoming like all the other extremists. Nothing more than a backwater group that many believed would fizzle out over time.
Again, however, the depression changed all of that. Before long, the Nazis were on the rise again, attracting many followers and supporters and, with Hitler's great skill for oratory and industrialist support, was soon on the way to becoming the biggest party in the Reichstag, much to the dismay of President Hindenburg, who despised the "Vulgar little Gefreite," or Lance-Corporal. His aim was to stop the Nazis from becoming too powerful and, especially, to prevent Hitler being chancellor.
By 1933, Hindenburg had no choice, however. All of the other chancellors had failed and, with Nazi support still strong despite some recent setbacks, Hitler was the only real candidate who looked like he could get the job done. Reluctantly, on January 30th of that year, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. A move that Hindenburg regretted doing to the core of his heart.
Now, a year and half later, within the Tannenberg Memorial complex on August 7th, 1934, the very site of the first Russian defeat in WW1, here were both men again, only there was a slight difference between them.
Thousands had packed into the complex, almost completely filling it out, save for a large kind of P shaped space in the middle and towards one of the columns were a large entrance into the walls of the complex was located. Within this P shaped space, stood several battalions of soldiers and officers, all of them placed around a large sarcophagus draped with the German imperial flag. Inside it was Hindenburg, who had died of illness five days earlier. Large bands of flowers decorated the ground it and on the walls of the monument and before the sarcophagus stood a podium. Behind it stood Adolf Hitler, dressed in a black suit and declaring loudly into the microphone, his voice ringing out around the memorial.
"The towers of the castle shall be defiant guards of this, his last great headquarters in the East. Standards and flags shall salute him-" a chorus of applause interrupted him, the shouts of the crowd ringing out around him like those attending a football game all cheering at the sight of near goal by a player. It filled the air for a moment before dying down, allowing Hitler to continue with his speech. "The German Volk will come to its dead hero to gather new strength for life in times of need, for even when the last trace of this body shall have been obliterated, his name will ever more be immortal."
He paused for a moment to wipe the perspiration from his forehead, the midday heat bearing down on him and the crowd before him.
Among the crowd, somewhere along the front, where the people had a clear view of Hitler, there was a short blonde haired woman with green eyes and a small, perfectly shaped face with a touch of freckles on the nose. She was dressed in a black dress and slip on shoes. Next to her was a man who was slightly taller than her with brown hair, brown eyes and a handsome face with a small toupee beard on his chin. He was dressed in black too, though his comprised of a jacket and black trousers and shoes, the shoes, which were expensive he had been given them by the woman standing next to him. Both of them were staring on at the man who was to soon be Reich Fuhrer.
"Dead Commander, enter into Valhalla now!" Hitler's voice boomed out across the memorial. "Let all of us who are witness here today know this: the old Reich and its finest leader have entered paradise. Now in its place comes a new Reich, one which will restore this nation to its former glory. Let us come together as a united people and begin our journey into a new golden age!"
Upon hearing these words, the crowd broke into applause again. Cheering erupted, people shouted in ecstasy and joy. In almost all of them, the feeling of pride and greatness was beginning to rise. This man was truly their saviour! Yes, he would help bring them back to how they had once been! Germany would live with Hitler as their leader!
The two mentioned people at the front were also overwhelmed with amazement at Hitler's words. They had lived through the depression and the hard times of the 1920s and 30s and now wanted to see change. No one else was as committed to it as Hitler and they put their trust in him, even though they were not entirely happy with everything he stood for. Nevertheless, they brushed that aside, hoping that such things would go away over time.
"Long live the movement of the German people, Ich Liebe Deutschland! Sieg Heil!" Hitler shouted out as loud as he could into the microphone, almost simultaneously thrusting his right arm into the air in front of him, flat palm out in a kind of salute that was styled on the same the Fascists used in Italy; who in turn took it from the Romans.
As if they were a reflection of Hitler's personality, the crowd copied Hitler directly. Thousands of right arms thrust themselves into the air, each followed by a cry of Sieg Heil that became a chorus, filling the air like the noise of an explosion. Some called out moderately, others cried out with all their hearts as if putting their entire lives into this man's hands.
In the second row of observers, two more people looked on with sadness and utmost terror lingering in their eyes. A man and a woman. The former was a tall man with a small beard and moustache and dressed in a black suit. The latter, his wife, was a pretty woman with brown hair, green eyes and dressed in a black dress that covered her black slip on shoes. Both had watched the rise of this man with complete apprehension and were now terrified at the prospect of what could happen with the position he was to gain soon.
What worried them the most was that their daughter was being swooped up into his aura of admiration that the man had around him, and there seemed to belittle they could do to stop her from changing her views.
Then, looking ahead slightly, both went wide-eyed with terror, as did a third woman who was slightly taller than the blonde haired woman, with curly black hair, pale green eyes and was dressed in a black dress with slip on shoes as well. All of them could what believe what they were seeing.
The blonde haired woman and the man next to her both had their right arms raised into the ait on front of them, the declaration of Sieg Heil echoing from their lips. It was not one of fear or moderate care; it was full blown commitment and support. Like everyone around them, they had been swept up fully into the euphoria that had gripped the crowd and the nation beyond the walls of the memorial. They were happy they were doing this and were glad to be part of the support for the one who they were certain would rebuild Germany.
And so, dear readers, this is the world with which the two sisters were growing up in. Radicalism was on the rise and had gripped a number of nations like a vice and it would only be a matter of time before it exploded and caused trouble.
Whether or not Elsa and Anna would become directly involved is uncertain at this point, but one thing is for sure. This new world was going to bring a lot of change and a lot of trouble.