Arendelle

April 9th, 1938

A relative calm had descended across Europe just a little under a month following the events of the Anschluss. German troops, with some element of surprise but were largely nothing more than slow moving columns, had marched into the birth country of Hitler. Precise political manoeuvring and the assurance of Britain and France not acting on such a move ensured that the country was now annexed as part of the planned 'Greater Germany' many within the Nazi leadership envisioned. Things were looking up in the eyes of Hitler. Popularity for him soared to an unprecedented level, everyone was happy that they were able to achieve something without needing to go to war and ruin everything that had been created for them.

As for the newly annexed nation, reactions had been almost entirely positive. Hitler paraded through the streets of the city that was the capital of his homeland like Caesar on his Triumph through Rome two thousand years before. Peace had returned so everyone was now beginning to get back into their daily routine and forget about the short, but incredibly tense time they had just been through, though everyone was mentally praying that they would not be thrown into another 1914 as their forefathers had done.

In the city of Arendelle again little had changed. New houses had been built and the small dock on the lakeside had grown a little as well as ships passed in and out of the area on their way to Trondheim a little further up the lake from the sea on the other side of a break in cliffs to the south west at the other end of the lake near a few small villages. People had come and gone both as travellers and as residents of the city but apart from that, the place just stayed the same old same old.

Sadly, however, for Anna and Elsa their situation had not changed either. As stated in the previous chapter, the fourteen years they had been separated from each other looked set to continue into what would soon be their fifteenth year. The longing and depression between the two pounding endlessly within their hearts, threatening, and at the moment doing well, to drag them down further into an abyss of sadness from which they would never escape.

Anna, however, had not given up in her attempts to try and contact her sister. Even now in the fourteenth year of their being separated, whenever she passed her sister's door she would knock on it in the hopes Elsa would throw it open and embrace her and fill her with her warmth and love she had known years ago when they were younger. Anna had only a few days ago even attempted to open the door to Elsa's room herself, but when the doorknob had been half turned it suddenly became stuck and, after wrestling with it for a few minutes, she gave up and walked away, her face full of sadness by that point. The door, however, despite being a barrier between her and her sister, had also been the averter of pain and anguish at the same time because if Anna had x-ray vision she would have seen that Elsa had frozen the doorknob on her side of the door in her room, her face too full of pain and sadness at the acquiescence of having to do something like that to her own sister.

Today, however, as the light of dusk began to etch in through the windows opposite Elsa's bedroom door, movement echoed throughout the house. Anna, who was dressed in a kind of cream dress with long sleeves and tights that covered her legs and black shoes, who had been rushing down towards the room where her parents' room was after coming back from sitting on balcony rooftop, came to a halt outside the door once again. Her teal eyes stared at it as if wishing it would disappear into thin air so she could see her sister once more; the one thing she had wanted for so long. She even thought about knocking once again on the door, praying like she usually would for a response from the other side of the wooden barrier.

What's the point! Her mind snapped at her as if it were berating her for being so stupid. Your sister is not gonna answer you! Don't bother!

Turning, Anna ran on down the hall, glancing back once for a brief moment at the door as if expecting it to be slightly ajar and to see a blue eye peeking out watching her run down the corridor at her. A part of her was even hoping that would happen but no. Her eyes caught nothing in that brief moment. Not even a tiny glimpse of movement or a shadow. Elsa still carried on the shutting out of her sister.

Movement and talking from ahead drew her head back to its front and, looking on she saw her parents packing the last of their clothes and her father's papers into a suitcase, chatting about the upcoming conference and meeting with the Norwegian king Haakon VII and prime minister Johan Nygaardsvold to discuss the changing political climate on the continent. Neither of the two parents wanted to be separated from their children, especially from Elsa, but they had to go. They could only hope they could finish it early or at least have something cut it short.

"Mother, father!" Anna exclaimed as she reached their bedroom, causing her parents to look up and smile at their daughter. "I'm gonna miss you both," she said as she pulled them both into a hug, resting her head on her mother's neck.

"So will we, Anna," Caspian said to her as he rubbed his daughter's back, drawing a smile from her as she looked up at him.

Anna had changed over the last fourteen years. She was now much taller than she had been fourteen years ago; their now nineteen and one month and a day old daughter being only slightly smaller than her mother. Her face had become more heart shaped and the freckles had become more apparent on her cheeks and nose. Her eyes had, like her personality, grown bigger and were always full of light and love; probably one of the few things about her that had never changed. Her strawberry blonde hair had grown much longer too over the years and now hung in two braids that hung over her shoulders, accentuating her beauty and cuteness that everyone fawned over her about. She had become a true beauty like her mother when they had first met many years ago.

With another hug, Anna released her parents and kissed them both on their faces. "See you in two weeks," she said to them, a voice of mixed tones spilling out her words.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Later that day, whilst Anna had retreated back onto the roof of the house to watch the last lights of dusk fade away behind the mountains on the other side of the lake, Caspian and Emma walked down the stairs to the hall where several men were packing away the chairs that had been placed out for the day's gathering of the council and deputies. Kai followed close behind with the last of their suitcases in his hand and he placed it with the others that had been put in a pile near the door. Gerda was standing opposite them talking to Elsa, who had been collected by the former when they were sure Anna was not around.

The conversation between the two abruptly stopped as soon as Caspian and Emma entered the hall and Elsa turned to face them. She too had grown up over the years. She was slightly taller than her mother and was dressed in a blue dress with a top underneath that covered her arms like her sister's clothes. Her face too had formed into more of a heart shape and, though much more faintly, had a trace of freckles across the nose and cheeks. Her eyes were a deep blue sea colour and a small snowflake necklace hung around her neck; having been formed by her own powers. Her white hair was pulled into a bun at the back and on her hands were a pair of gloves for which we shall see the explanation for in a moment's time.

Meeting the gaze of her parents, Elsa bowed her head respectfully to keep in with the customs of her home before looking back at them with a sad gaze on her face, her eyes telling them exactly everything she felt and feared about them going away.

"Do you have to go?" she asked them, a glimmer of hope in her voice that they might change their minds.

Her father sighed sympathetically and placed a hand on her cheek. "You'll be fine, Elsa," he said to her. "I promise you that." He added, giving her a small smile.

Elsa returned it, but inside her she raged with anxiety. What if she was not? What if she lost control again or accidentally hurt someone? What if she ran into her sister and revealed her powers? All of these worries burned within her like a wildfire raging in a forest but she tried her best to extinguish them and force them down to allow her parents to see at least some happiness on her face again.

"Okay. Have a good trip," she said to them both and hugged and kissed the pair of them. "I love you,"

"We love you too, Elsa," Caspian replied. "Stay safe, and remember your mantra whenever you need to calm down,"

Elsa nodded, her eyes falling to her gloved hands. She had been wearing them since she was about ten, acting as a sort of barrier between herself and whatever she touched. Her fears and anxiety of her powers and the potential harm they could bring to other people made her freeze anything she came into contact with. Her father had given the gloves to her as a result and repeated the famous mantra she had now taken up as a result: Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know.

Breathing in deeply as if gathering courage, she watched as Kai and Gerda helped Caspian and Emma carry their suitcases out to the waiting car to take them to a nearby airstrip a few miles away. As she watched them go, however, she began to wonder how hard it would be here without them.

Anna was the only one left for her for the next two weeks.