Chapter 7
Another year had passed, and a lot had happened over the past year. Anna was growing taller, stronger, and was very intelligent and clever for her age, and was an extremely worthy page. She was learning more advanced forms of hand-to-hand combat, excelling in her studies, and never got angry or frustrated at all with anything or anyone. Soon, she'll be learning sword techniques and lancing techniques, and will start learning archery and acrobatics as well.
Another development that occurred was that Elsa was also learning some self-defence as well, as she didn't want her little sister to not have someone watching her back if she had to fight. She was a bit too soft at first, but quickly got the hang of fist-fighting, and also dealt extremely well with the disciplinary practises that Pyra taught Anna. The girls also trained with their horses Malena and Maria everyday by riding into the forest with Pyra and Elena, and took it upon themselves to take care of and feed their horses instead of letting the stable hands doing it. Their parents were very impressed with the great work Pyra has done for both of their daughters, and Pyra was now a Lieutenant, and Arran was now a Captain, due to training and caring for the girls when Pyra was unable to.
However, in the meantime, the sisters were having a rare whole day to themselves, playing tag and hide n' seek around the castle, pilfering chocolate from the kitchens, and even wrestling in the ballroom in a winter wonderland. However, after rebuilding their signature snowman, Olaf, and having an epic snowball fight (which ended in a draw), they pleaded with their parents to go out and ride their horses for a few hours.
"Please, Mama and Papa!" Elsa begged, Anna loyally at her side, "Just for a few hours!"
"We won't go to the cliffs behind the castle," Anna added, "We'll go to our usual open field just past the trees to the south. Please, can we go?"
The King and Queen sighed with slight smiles on their faces and The King relented "Oh alright, but be back before sunset."
The girls grinned and hugged their parents, thanking them profusely and running off to get their riding clothes on.
The Queen laid a hand on her husband's shoulder with a chuckle and asked slightly wearily "What are we going to do with them, Arthur?"
Arthur half-smiled with a shrug and replied "I have no idea, Ida. I have no idea."
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Anna reappeared from her room a short time later, wearing dark brown leather pants, black knee high leather boots, a dusty brown coloured undershirt, a pale green tunic that stopped a fair bit before the knees, a dark brown leather vest, and matching fingerless gloves and belt. She knocked on Elsa's door, hearing her call out "I'm coming!" a waited a moment before her sister came out. She was wearing the same undershirt, pants, boots, belt and gloves as Anna, except her tunic was one that came down to the middle of her thighs and was royal blue in colour, which matched her headband, and wore no vest. She smiled at her sister and asked "You ready, Anna?"
She nodded eagerly and replied "Uh-huh! We need to go to the kitchen first and pick up our backpacks so we can have lunch and afternoon tea up there."
Elsa smiled slightly wider and patted Anna's head, saying "Great idea, Anna. Now, lets grab our grub!"
They raced each other down the hallway and the stairs, Anna cheating by sliding down the banisters (much to the older sibling's shock), and reached the kitchen in record time, barely puffing due to their training with Pyra (much to the chagrin of the staff and the royal majesties when they're on a sugar high – which Pyra uses on occasion for her troops' stamina and agility training called 'Catch Those Damn Princesses').
Kai and Gerda were the only one's in the kitchen, save the cook and two kitchen hands, and they were just tying up the buckles on the bags when the princesses stumbled in. They chuckled merrily at the hyper princesses and handed them their bags, Kai saying "Take care, your Highnesses," while Gerda told them "Don't eat the food all at once!" before seeing them off from the kitchens.
Elsa and Anna sprinted outside and slowed down as they approached the stables, opening the doors slowly so the horses inside didn't get startled. They walked towards their horses' stalls, which were right beside each other, and they seemed to be interacting with their parents' horses across from them, which were Brynja, their mother's stallion, and Sophia, their father's mare. Arran's stallion, Navar, was beside Sophia, and Pyra's mare Elena was beside Brynja. They went into their respected stalls and prepared their horses, putting on their horse blankets, saddles, bridles and reins before leading them out and walking to their parents, who came out to say goodbye to their young children.
"Alright, you two," Ida said as she hugged both of her girls, "stay out of trouble, don't do anything stupid, and don't do anything dangerous, are you clear?"
"Yes Mama," the girls chorused in synchronisation before hugging their father goodbye.
He then told them "Okay, my darlings, have fun, and be back by sunset."
"Yes Papa," the girls replied, before mounting their horses with little difficulty and riding out of the gates, riding through the town at a respectable trotting pace before cantering off into the southern woods. The royal couple waved them off with a smile, before a young maid came along to inform them of the rest of their schedule for the day, which involved a small council meeting about the kingdom's monthly spring harvest, drafting a letter to King Fergus of Scotland, who was the husband of Ida's eldest sister, Queen Elinor (the middle and last sister being Queen Primrose of Corona), and riding out to the town's outer defence to overlook new building plans to make the walls trickier to penetrate. Arthur and Ida sighed as one at this notion, and dismissed the maid politely before heading back inside.
'Well,' they thought, 'the moment was nice while it lasted.'
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Elsa and Anna rode through the forest for fifteen minutes, before reaching the field where they always practised their riding skills everyday. While they did this everyday, it was extra special as they did not have an adult's supervision this time around, and the girls were eager to show each other what they could do.
The field had hay barrels and jumping posts of various heights and weaving obstacles around the place, with plenty of open field to just ride around in circles on or rest on. The girls did a few warm-up laps on the open field area, before riding to the obstacle course to start jumping and weaving between them, with Elsa riding in front of Anna. She and Malena jumped over perfectly, with Anna and Maria perfectly following suit, and they went through the obstacle course about five times before trotting a few laps around the empty space, and eventually just walked the horses around while not dismounting, just chatting with each other and gently patting their horses from time to time.
After they did that for another near hour, they dismounted and took of Malena and Maria's saddles, bridals and reins, slipping off their horse blankets in the process and letting them graze on the grass nearby. Anna and Elsa then sought shade by a pine tree and unpacked their backpacks, bringing out a picnic blanket and a small sack of food from Elsa's bag, and bringing out two bottles on chocolate milk and a couple of carrots for their horses from Anna's bag. The girls set up the picnic blanket and drinks and fed their horses their treats, before opening up their food sack and setting out four club sandwiches, with two of them being corned beef, cheese, lettuce and tomato, and the other two being salami, cheese and lettuce, two apples and oranges, and two slices of rich, chocolate cake.
Anna shivered in excitement and exclaimed "No more waiting, let's eat!" causing Elsa to back her up with a cheer and making themselves both laugh simultaneously while unwrapping the corned beef club sandwiches.
After the girls were stuffed to the brim on food ("Jeez, do Kai and Gerda think that we're starving or something?!" Anna asked incredulously while nursing her too full stomach), they both laid down on their backs and held hands, smiling at each other.
Elsa just simply remarked "I wish things could stay like this forever."
Anna smiled back at her and squeezed her hand, replying back gently "So do I, Elsie. So do I."
After that the girls fell asleep, unknowing of the rude awakening that they'll receive in two hours time …
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Nearly two hours later, the royal majesties were pouring over a few blueprints of the outer walls with Captain Arran at their side, pointing out where improvements could be made, and what could stay the same.
"What would you recommend, Captain Arran?" Arthur asked him seriously.
Arran clasped his chin with his forefinger and thumb, resting his am on his other arm and replied "I would add one more outposts in between the walls here," he pointed to the middle of a wall with two watch towers on either side, "We're lacking vision on the walls, especially at night time, and therefore why stealthy attackers are able to climb over the middle of the wall, knocking out the guard swiftly, and flee inside our walls and pretend to be a citizen before more of us go outside to check the commotion. The only thing we should worry about is the price of materials."
Arthur nodded and stated "That can easily be arranged. We'll see what we can do now, and you can order the workers to go through with this plan of yours, thank you."
Arran saluted and replied "No problem, your majesties. Do you require an escort back to the castle?"
Arthur and Ida smiled and Arthur told him "That won't be needed, but thank you anyway, Captain. Keep up the good work."
Just as Arran was about to reply, a scared whinny was heard and the trio turned to the sound, seeing two riderless, and unequipped white horses. The three of them recognised the horses as the soldiers calmed them down and they all paled, all of them murmuring "Elsa! Anna!" before jumping on their own horses and galloping off to the princesses' aid.
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Fifteen minutes prior, a few low growls were heard and Elsa woke up, rubbing her tired eyes and looking around at her horse's startled cry, seeing with widened eyes as a group of no fewer than thirteen wolves started to flank their horses. Elsa shook her sister desperately awake and cried "Anna! Wolves! A lot of wolves are coming after Malena and Maria! Wake up!"
Anna jolted awake and rubbed her own eyes, mumbling "Wassapanin-?" before she saw the wolves, and all of a sudden jumped full awake.
"Maria! Malena!" Anna cried, rushing off in the direction of the bucking and rearing horses, with a terrified Elsa hot on her heels. Anna then focused her left hand on the shadows of the trees, drawing out a three-dimensional shape to her hand as she ran, eventually clasping it and ripping it out of the shadows, revealing it to be a shadow cutlass as she raised it while nearly reaching the wolves.
"GET AWAY FROM THEM!" she yelled as she swung at one of the wolves, severely injuring its side and falling to the ground, whimpering in agony and pain. The wolves noticed her now and growled angrily at her, allowing time for Malena and Maria to knock aside five wolves, rendering three of them unconscious, and running to Arendelle to get help. Another wolf jumped at Anna and she cut its stomach midair, not killing it, but rendering it unable to fight. Another one jumped her when she did so and Elsa cast out ice from her fingerless fingertips at it, freezing it midair in ice up to its neck.
The wolves got really edgy about their powers and circled the girls, not allowing them to escape, and the girls stood back-to-back with Anna's cutlass and Elsa's powers at the ready. Two of the wolves lunged at Elsa, but she trapped them in ice cages that wouldn't break from their constant smashing and barking. Another jumped at Anna and she sliced its face enough to most likely scar it, and it ran back in fear after the injury. The last two were really scared now and barked and whined nervously at them, with Anna approaching them and growling right back at them. While that happened though, Anna heard Elsa scream and turned around to meet a sight she never wanted to see again.
The wolf she just injured snuck around the back of her and went after Elsa, knocking her down onto the ground. Anna saw this and ran towards her, screaming "NO!" as the wolf went down to bite Elsa's arm, which was shielding her face.
It seemed to go in slow motion, as Anna clenched her right fist and pulled it back as she was nearly at the wolf's side, ran two more paces and punched the wolf's head before it could sink its teeth into her sister, her fist exploding with a burst of fire.
Time went back to normal at this point, and the wolf howled in pain as a small fist-sized fire burnt the side of its face, rolling over and over to put in out, which it eventually did. It scampered off behind its stunned and healthy brethren, whimpering in fear and agonising pain as it did so, and covered its eyes with its paws with its tail in between its legs.
Anna looked at her flaming hand in shock, with her sister doing exactly the same, then Anna steeled herself and spun around to the two remaining wolves, striding straight towards them. The whined in terror and looked like they were crying, and then moved in front of their most heavily injured family members and wouldn't back down, pleading with their eyes to leave them and their family alone. Anna looked confused at this behaviour, her sister doing so as she came to her side, and her tiny yelps from behind the trees, seeing a pack of six little wolf pups run up to the first injured wolf, and two more groups of seven wolf pups run to one of the unconscious ones, and to one of the imprisoned ones.
Anna then murmured as she observed this "You were trying to feed your young."
The wolf before her looked at her with confirmation in its eyes, before hearing more little whines and turning to one last group of five pups, all of which started nuzzling her and snuggling her. Anna turned to Elsa and said "I feel so bad right now."
Elsa looked like she had, well, kicked a puppy and declared "I'm never going to harm animals like this again, unless I am starving for something to eat."
Anna was about to reply when she heard three sets of horse hooves gallop towards them, before bursting out of the trees and startling the wolves, revealing themselves to be Arthur, Ida and Arran, all of which looked frightened and pale.
"Elsa! Anna!" their parents cried as they dismounted while their horses were still slowing down, running straight for them and hugging them tight, kissing the top of their small heads and rubbing their backs as they murmured their gratitude to God. They let go very slowly and Arthur demanded softly "What happened here? Didn't your mother tell you girls to stay out of trouble?"
They nodded and Elsa said "We did … but … those wolves her hungry and trying to feed their pups, so when we were napping from our big lunch, they tried to take Malena and Maria. I woke up first, saw what happen and woke up Anna, and she charged at them with a shadow sword and attacked one, allowing Malena and Maria to run away, knocking down some wolves for us. Then, we both fought them off until seemingly two were left and Anna started to make them back away, but one of the ones she just injured snuck behind her and attacked me, but as I fell over and protected my face, Anna charged at the wolf and punched him away, and her fire powers activated and set some of his skin on fire."
"What?!" the trio of adults exclaimed, staring at the younger princess.
Anna nodded and finished off "Yeah, well, that wolf ran off scared, and as I went up to the last two, they protected their most injured ones and then their pups came after their mothers, and that's when Elsa and I knew that they were just trying to feed their family, so we did nothing to them, and then you guys came."
Arran nodded surely at this and said "You both did really well, and showed justly placed mercy on these wolves by not killing them. Some of them have a long time to recover, so for now, don't come here for another week or two. However, you can let the wolves get free now Elsa."
Elsa nodded and did as he said, releasing the wolves and seeing them return to their pack's side. Arran started loading the horse gear for Malena and Maria on Navar and said to the girls "Well, you may want to grab all of your gear, girls, we're going out."
They nodded and packed up their picnic gear, not hearing their parents and friend discuss about Anna needing to tell Pyra about the incident as soon as possible, and decided to let the girls rest for the day and tell Pyra the following morning. The girls came over with their gear and held it in their laps as they sat on their parents' laps: Elsa on Ida's lap on Brynja, and Anna on Arthur's lap on Sophia. The trio rode off back to Arendelle at a gallop, unknowing of what was flowing through the children's minds.
'I'm never going to be weak anymore so I can protect myself and Anna,' Elsa pledged to herself.
'I'm never going to let Elsa get that close to death again,' Anna vowed to herself.
It was a strange and trying day, and that's the day that Anna really began to change.
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The figure nearly cried tears of relief at the chapter's end, crying out "That chapter was so long! I'm so glad that's over!" before refilling his or her goblet and chugging it down before relaxing in his or her chair before writing the next chapter.