The fresh smell of sea salt cleared her mind of any doubt or regret for the choice the blonde made an hour ago and lifted her soul with relief. With nothing but excitement and wonder filling her, she took a step out of her room and covered her eyes from the bright sun and thought to herself - so this was what an adventure was like. The wind brushed against her skin, and she felt light, like the seagulls chirping as they flew over her head in formation - freedom is beautiful.

"Land ahoy, Captain!" Kristoff shouted from above.

Curious, she ran over to the bowsprit where the captain stood with her map. Based on her past five years of geography, there weren't any island remotely close to Arendelle save for the Southern Isles - and they passed them early yesterday morning!

"Good morning, your tallness," the captain greeted.

She rolled her eyes. "It's your Highness. And I'd rather you call me Elsa. "And at the same time, they both craned their necks and saw a black dot in the distance. As it drew closer and closer, details she couldn't see earlier formed - mountains behind the buildings, and the shadow of… a castle.

"That's not just any land, that's the-!" She exclaimed."I don't- How do you even- guys? Anna?" She turned to the captain who was no longer looking ahead but was instead, inspecting her map like they were lost, just like she had suspected.

"W-what?" The captain asked attemptedly nonchalantly. "A-And that's captain to you!"

Oh so she wanted to play it that way, the princess smirked. How cute. She crossed her arms and sat on a barrel and picked up the drumstick off the captain's plate.

"It's been two days. Aren't we supposed to be somewhere in the Seas of Corona by now?"

"Yes…?" Cool droplets formed on Anna's forehead.

"Why are we at the Southern Harbour of Arendelle?"

"It-it-it-"

"-was all part of our plan, wasn't it, captain?" Hans said, hooking his arm around Anna's neck, munching onto an apple.

"Hans, apples weren't on the menu when I last checked with Olaf." Elsa said.

The man took another bite of the apple and replied, "Exactly why we're at the Southern Harbour! We're out of food, to be honest. We won't-"

"Oh, yeah! That's the plan!"

" -last a week, let alone enough to reach Corona. Arendelle was meant to be our pitstop. But someone came home without food, but with a princess instead!"

"Hey! Not my fault she hopped on the minute I just landed!"

"I had no choice!"

"What do you mean you had no choice, you-!" Hans massaged his temples and groaned, "tell me again how we ended with you as captain?"

An offended "Hey!" came up from somewhere below his ears and he chose to ignore it.

For humour's sake, the blonde joined in agreement, "Just my luck. Of all pirate ships I chose to be kidnapped by, it had to be this." She hid her face behind her hand in feigned disappointment.

"Hey! But it's true we need to get food, so our plan was to enter Arendelle again from the Southern Harbour. It's only been two days, and they've only seen my face. Hans and Kristoff will get us what we need. Olaf and Sven, stay guard. Meanwhile, Elsa and I will be in our room. We can't have our missing princess be in sight."

"Nice recovery," Hans whispered and nudged. "Spoken like a true captain for once."

"Tha- hey!"

When Kristoff had finally climbed down the mast, Hans gave his captain a wink and picked the man's hat, luring him off the ship. "Alright, guys. Captain's orders! Kristoff, let's go! Food's on us. Olaf, anchor our baby and wake Sven!"

The young chef saluted the man and waddled back into the galley.

The blonde frowned at the thought of returning indoors until a pat on her back made her turn to raise an eyebrow at the captain. Anna grinned at her and pulled her by the hand into the cabins, "come on, I haven't showed you my room yet, have I?"

Her smile was contagious - it was so weird because this person was supposed to be a criminal, a villain in her books and yet - Elsa found herself willingly caught up with this redhead's flow, and smiling as well. "Sure!"

"Welcome to the captain's home!"

The lamp hanging neatly over the center of the room blinked to life, revealing swords of different kinds hanging on the walls. Ropes strewn all over the ceiling over the bed in the right corner and on the left, there was a table with a shelf of books on top. It sort of reminded Elsa of her room back in her castle, except it was covered in purple paint and wasn't made of wood. And instead of blades on the walls, she had books, books, more books, and a piano.

"Hey, hey, don't get all gloomy on me. Every frown in this room means 5 coins in the sad jar."

"I'm sorry, I just- it's just that…" regret from earlier returned twofold and Elsa could feel the weight over her shoulders again. The nagging image of her father yelling at Gerda and the guards about how her precious little daughter blinked in her head and disappointment in herself washed over.

"Homesick?"

"Yes."

"You know you're home now, right? You can literally waltz off this ship and return. I don't mind."

And return to preparing to inherit a throne she wasn't sure she wanted? Could she even do it? What if her kingdom fell in her hands? She was sure Kai could do a better job than her.

No, she instantly shook her head at the thought. "I told you, Anna. My father will make a ransom, and I'm literally your ticket to richness, don't you want that?"

While she took a sit on the chair by the desk, Anna opted for the canopy. While exploring the contents of the drawers, the captain spoke, "I've been wanting to ask since yesterday, but you seemed to be enjoying yourself so much, I couldn't bring myself to do it. Why'd you hijack my boat?"

"Well…"

Exactly forty-seven hours ago…

Elsa quickly picked the thickest book amongst the stack the moment she heard her father's footsteps nearing her study. The clicking of his shoes sounded like the sizzling of a cannon to her, counting down to the launch of her demise.

"Elsa, how's the reading going?"

"It's going fine, papa. I-"

"-oh! You're reading that! You're going to love it! I can't wait for you to finish it. I've been informed by Kai that your progress recently has been marvelous and so I've hired another one or two tutors so hopefully you could complete your education sooner and you'll be able to take part in council meetings before your coronation! It's a fantastic idea, isn't it?"

As her father went on and on, Elsa found her will to interrupt her father withering away with every word and eventually, she simply gave up and forced herself to smile and nod at him. "Yes, papa. I can't wait." was her soft reply.

After the man gave her a hug, wishing her the best luck, he returned to work, leaving her alone in her room again. All quiet and lonely, sitting by the window, Elsa suddenly noticed how big her study room was.

It was approximately the same size as her bedroom except the study contained twice as many books as it did. With the remaining space in the study, if she could shove her couches and desk to the side where it didn't obstruct one from picking a book out of the shelf, she could probably place at least three duplicates of her own bed. The ceiling was so tall she wondered how long a ladder would be required to reach it. She wondered how it would feel like - the texture of the paintings she couldn't reach, and how old or dusty some of them could be since she had never seen a servant ever climbing up to clean them all.

Being a princess felt lonely and boring.

She wanted more.

Given the time to think by herself, honestly, the urge was just like any other day since mama passed away. She understood from papa's perspective that the funeral was difficult for him to accept that death was inevitable and that he wanted what was best for the both of them, but she didn't think papa knew what was best for her.

All of a sudden, she flipped. Channeling all the anger in her to her hands, she threw the book in hand as far as she could, but watched in disappointment it only reached the couch in the middle of the room - a distance away from even the door.

Disgruntled by the distance Elsa felt so frustrated with everything in her life she couldn't even let out a groan. She stared at the book that flopped lifelessly on the couch as if in hopes it would move somehow. She couldn't help but feel like she just watched a metaphor of her life.

She was so done.

And she was going to change that.

She picked it up and resumed to finish it.

After two hours of listening to Aristotle drone on about practical and theoretical studies, with a relieved groan, she slammed the book on the table, and she called on Gerda.

"Yes, your Highness?"

"Gerda, I've finished a third of the assigned readings, I'd like to take a breather by seeing the city."

The woman widened her eyes at the princess' request, "Uh-uhm, I- your Highness, I'm afraid I can't adhere to your request. His Majesty has specifically-"

"-commanded that I do not leave the castle grounds, I know. And I won't." She said easily, commending herself mentally for not stuttering on her first rebel. With pride glowering in her, she took a deep breath continued, "all that I'm asking is that you inform the guards to open the gates. I'd only like to see them from there, if I can. Papa has never said I couldn't. You can follow me to the gates if you'd like."

With much visible reluctance, the servant agreed. Despited all that she had been taught about manners, Elsa couldn't stop her body from fidgeting on the spot or the echoing beat of her heart from head to toe as she eagerly waited for Gerda to catch up to her at the castle gardens before they walked together to the gates.

When she had finally reached the gates, she greeted the two guards kindly, who nodded back. The moment she saw all three individuals take their eyes off of her, the princess bolted.

She sprinted as fast as she could, ran as far as her legs on heels could take her. She chanted to herself to keep going, muting the yelling of the guards and Gerda's high-pitched screaming to 'stop the princess'.

And when she could no longer take the burn of her legs, she paused and looked back. Fear crawling up her throat, she almost couldn't breathe. She had nowhere to go. As she turned her head to face front again, on her right, conveniently, was the harbour.

She picked up her dress again and hobbled, ignoring all the people shouting a decreasing short distance behind her. They were getting louder and louder and finally, she fell - onto another girl.

"Stop her!" Gerda's voice reverberated in her skull and she almost couldn't shake it off.

The girl who fell on her back groaned and shook her head to recollect herself. Her eyes widened into the size of cannonballs and before they exploded, Elsa decided she wasn't going to fail after reaching so far. "Wha-" She clamped her mouth shut before she could say anything else.

"I'm rich beyond believe. If you row as fast and hard as you can now, I promise you enough money to buy an island." She glared at the girl, as if daring those teal orbs to grow any wider.

The girl, to her surprise, nodded and rowed.

The next thing she knew, she was a safe distance away from land that her guards couldn't dive to reach her. She met the rest of a pirate's crew, teaching the captain how to read, and was helping Hans write a ransom letter to her father.

Back to the present...

"I… don't know." She said with much pride.

"You don't know why you ran away from home." Anna deadpanned.

Elsa nodded, unable to stop the wide grin from spreading across her face. "I don't."

Anna smiled back, "well I'm glad you don't regret it."

The princess turned around, content with the fact the redhead didn't push any further. Thinking back, claiming to be rich enough to buy islands was ridiculous and she doubt despite how much of an humorous idiot Anna was, she wasn't dumb enough to believe that. "Why did you agree to row?"