Hi everyone :-) before we get underway, let me address some things
*Yes, I have seen Frozen Fever
*Yes, I am aware of the snowgies but they haven't come up in conversation and Elsa hasn't sneezed any during the story
*Yes, I am aware Elsa shot a snowball out of her nose, through the birthday horn and into Hans in the Southern Isles. I just didn't mention it because it didn't seem like an important matter to address. Out of all the things, I don't think Hans would have being hit by a mysterious snowball on his mind right about now lol.
Anyways, here's Chapter 5, a little short so I'll have six up soon for you guys. Enjoy!
Anna awoke slowly to something nuzzling her face.
"Oh Sven, stop... go back to sleep..." she mumbled when her eyes suddenly snapped open. "Sven?!"
She turned to look, but there was no Sven. Just a horse being led by the stable boy, who looked very confused.
"Princess Anna? Your highness, what are you doing out here?" he asked her. Anna looked down at the bale of hay she had laid on the previous night. Her dress was covered in the hay and it was in her hair, which was naturally a mess. She looked down at her hand and saw that she still clutched Kristoff's gray tunic.
"It's fine... I'm fine. Honestly. Don't worry about me." she assured the stable boy.
"Are you sure? I could send for someone to get Queen Elsa."
"No!" Anna said a little to loudly a suddenly. "I mean er... no- no thank you. I'll be fine, honestly. Just... take care of the horses... please. And keep this stall here vacant."
"Your highness, Sven hasn't been back since what's his name-"
"Kristoff."
"Kristoff left for that trip. I could store another horse here and make it more-"
Anna was losing her patience now. "Did you not here what I just said?" she demanded.
"Yes, your highness, I did."
"Then do as I say... darn it." she said, stomping her tiny foot on the stone and hurting it a little. She bit her lip and continued, "Until Kristoff and Sven both get back, I want that stall empty and to be cleaned and maintained as well as all of the other stalls in this stable, is that clear?"
"Yes, your highness." the stable boy said.
"Good. Now good day to you." she huffed and turned to go, but her dress was caught on the stable. Anna looked down and scowled, jerking it loose and ripping the hem. She caught eye of the stable boy looking, but he quickly went back to his normal duties as Anna marched back up to the castle and opened the doors, on her way to her room.
"Good morning, Princess Anna." she heard Henrik say as he passed her on the stairs.
"Morning." she mumbled. He was just about the last person she wanted to see at this moment. Apparently the auburn haired man couldn't take a hint as he began to walk with her, keeping up with her brisk pace.
"How- how are you this morning?" he asked, wanting to be polite and not mention her appearance. Anna knew he was just being nice with not mentioning how she looked, so she kept walking.
"Fine." she said quickly as she neared her room.
"Oh. Well that's good. I'm doing well this morning. How would you feel about-" she heard him say before she cut him off by slamming her door in his face.
She took the key from her bedside table and quickly turned the lock, knowing he would know better than to come in a lady's room uninvited but she wasn't taking any chances.
"Anna! There you are!" she heard a disembodied voice say. Olaf's head rolled out from under her bed and rejoined with the rest of his snowy body that came running from her wardrobe. Olaf's twig arms reached down and placed his head back on, turning it a few times on the top of his body until he got it perfectly back on.
"Ugh. That's better. Oh!" he said, taking note of Anna's appearance. "Um... Anna? Where have you-"
"I look terrible, I know." she said, going over to her vanity and looking at her hair. It wasn't too atrocious, she must have not moved very much sleeping in the hay bale. She picked stray hay straws from her hair as Olaf came up on the desk to help her. "Thank you, Olaf."
"What happened? Did you fall asleep in the stables or something?"
Anna nodded. "That's exactly what happened."
"What? Why'd you sleep out there?" he asked, concerned.
"Because."
"Well, because why?"
Anna could feel herself getting more irritated as she grabbed her brush and ran it through her hair, roughly smoothing out the tangles.
"Just because, Olaf. You wouldn't understand."
"Why wouldn't I? Just tell me, I'm worried!" the snowman shrieked, "Why, Anna?"
What happened next seemed involuntary to Anna as she never expected to act like this towards anyone, let alone innocent little Olaf. "Because Kristoff is missing and nobody's doing a DAMN THING ABOUT IT!" she screamed, flinging her brush across the room and getting up, crossing over to her bed where she angrily flung her pillows off the bed.
"Anna! Calm down-"
"Don't tell me to calm down, Olaf!" she yelled at the snowman as she smashed a pillow with her fist then slammed her face into it, screaming into the pillow. Suddenly, she felt a little weak in the knees and dropped to the ground beside her bed, her face still in the pillow.
Olaf rushed over as quickly as he could and put a twig hand on Anna's shoulder, which he now noticed was shaking. She was crying. And she was crying bad.
"Oh Olaf... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..." she sobbed into the pillow, slumping down onto the floor. Olaf went around and sat beside her, gently rubbing the top of her head.
"Aw Anna, don't cry." he told her, "It's gonna be all right. It's not like I haven't been screamed at before."
"I know... but I shouldn't have taken it out on you..." she sniffed, wrapping her arms around the pillow as she sobbed even harder.
"Well, look on the bright side, you can't really hurt me if you hit me with anything by accident. I have no bones to break. Or skin. Or muscle. Or... any of that." he assured her. Anna laughed a little through her tears.
"It's just... Elsa cares so much about Hans's dumb old brother and she doesn't give a damn about Kristoff and Sven."
"Oh Anna, that's not true. You know she adores Sven. And... other Sven." Olaf said.
"Then why hasn't she sent out any search parties? Anything? I mean... she's the queen." Anna replied, lifting her face from the pillow, her eyes rubbed red from crying. Olaf waddled over to her vanity and brought over a frilly hankie and handed to her. Anna tool it gratefully and wiped her eyes before blowing her nose rather noisily. "Thanks."
"Of course. And... you are the Princess, right?"
"Right."
"So... can't the Princess have some sort of say in these sorts of things?" Olaf asked, "I mean, I'm just a snowman but your sister's the boss and you're in line to be Queen after her, right?"
"Yeah."
"So, wouldn't that give you some sort of power to do something about people looking for Kristoff and Sven?"
Anna thought about it for a moment and amazingly... Olaf was right. Her sister was the Queen, sure, but Anna had power too. She was royalty, too. Surely he could organize a search party for them even when Elsa wouldn't.
"You know... you're right, Olaf." she said.
"I am?"
"Yeah. That's what I'm gonna do." she explained, "If Elsa won't do her Queenly duty and do something about this, then I'm gonna do something about it!"
"All right!" Olaf grinned, happy to see the confident side of Anna again. Anna got up and put the pillow back on the bed, then went over to get the others she had thrown off and her brush.
"I'll get myself ready then go into town and tell everyone that I need their help and surely people will agree to help. Everyone in town loves Kristoff and Sven!" she rambled on.
"Right!" Olaf agreed.
"And then I'll get some people to go out with me and help me look around and see if maybe we can find something they left behind or something. I mean, I know Kristoff's really careful about losing things but it doesn't hurt to check, right?"
"Uh-huh."
"And if we find something then maybe we can find some sort of trail that can lead us to Kristoff and Sven! We could find them today maybe!" she squeaked. Sure, it was wishful thinking, but Anna had always been the optimistic one.
She dashed behind her shade and stripped off her ripped dress and picked a new one from the closet, slipping it on and coming out, stopping to fix the rest of her hair, not even bothering to braid it. Her thoughts turned to the portrait in the hall of her, Elsa, Olaf, Sven and Kristoff that she had received for her birthday.
"I could go to the artist in town and have him draw a picture of Kristoff and Sven, like he did with our painting in the hall and then post the pictures all over town and on the next town over and on trees and all that. Someone's bound to have seen him!" she said.
"Let's do it, come on!" Olaf agreed, suddenly very excited. Anna went over to the door, unlocked and opened it right as Elsa was about to knock.
"Oh. Hi." she said awkwardly.
"Hi..." Elsa said back, "Um... are you all right? I heard you came in a little upset?"
"Er... no. I'm okay." Anna lied, "Who told you that?" Henrik.
"Well, Henrik did but... I wanted to see for myself. If... you were okay." Elsa explained.
"Oh. Well, I'm fine. I'm okay."
"Okay, good." Elsa sighed, relieved. "Where are you going today?"
"I'm gonna just... y'know... look around town and... stuff." Anna lied again.
"Okay well, how about some breakfast?"
"Sounds good. I'm starved." Anna said, walking down the stairs next to Elsa as Olaf followed.
"So... I'm very sorry about last night. I've been thinking about it a lot." Elsa said delicately, "I... guess my liking Henrik sort of got in the way and clouded my thoughts."
"It's okay, Elsa-" Anna began, feeling better now that Elsa actually admitted she was wrong.
"No, I- I was being selfish. And a bad Queen. And a lousy big sister..." Elsa trailed off.
"You're not a lousy Queen or big sister. Everybody makes mistakes." Anna said, putting a hand on Elsa's shoulder. "Actually, I have a plan on how we can fix the problem. That's what I was going to do after breakfast today. You want to help me?"
Elsa raised an eyebrow. "What sort of plan? And... which problem?"
"The 'Kristoff and Sven are missing' problem. I was going to go down to the artist and have him make some posters that we can post around other towns to see if anyone's seen them." Anna explained.
"Sounds like a good idea."
"And I was going to see if I could round up some people to go out and look for them."
"How do you know they would help you?" Elsa asked.
"Well, Kristoff and Sven are pretty well liked. I think most of the people in town would want to have them back."
"I suppose it can't hurt." Elsa shrugged, "The sooner we find them, the better. But I'm sure they're all right."
Anna sighed, "I hope so."
After breakfast, Elsa retired to her study to sort out trade with Henrik as Anna took Olaf into town with her to look for Kristoff. By noon, she had a few people recruited to help her look for Kristoff later on in the day, after the posters were done. A few hours later, she picked up the posters and went for her horse. She rounded up the searchers at the stable and told them what to do.
"Go as far as you can, but make sure you can make it back before it gets too late. All of you have lanterns, but don't stay out too late in the dark. We can search again tomorrow. Everyone meet back here and tell me what you find."
"Your highness, what if we manage to find the boy and the reindeer?" a man asked.
"Bring them back here as quickly as you can. If I'm not here, bring them in anyway and send someone to get my sister as soon as possible."
"All right."
Anna turned her horse towards the gate and gave him an urge. "Come on, let's go find him."
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