Mouse
The sound of scuttling and small nails on hardwood floors woke Anna up in the middle of the night. She bolted upright and scanned the dark room for any physical sign of what was most likely a small, furry intruder. She silently waited, not daring to breath, until the sound of another small scratch sent her bolting from the bed and ripping the door near off its hinges.
She bounded down the hall to Elsa's white and blue door and pushed it open and shutting it just as quickly. She leapt onto the queen's bed, narrowly missing actually landing on her. But the bounce from Anna's weight startled Elsa awake and upon realizing Anna was in her bed she bolted up, her long silver hair swung forward in its French braid like a pendulum. She was half dazed but alerted to danger.
"Anna what's wrong?"
Elsa had always been a night person, up hours and hours past Anna's departure to bed. But that didn't mean she didn't enjoy sleeping, and once asleep she intended to stay that way as long as possible. Even when they were children Elsa had a policy of "if you're waking me up someone better be dying" with snowman building being the only exception. Now over ten years later Anna wondered if that policy was still valid.
"I think there's some kind of four legged, furry creature in my room!"
Even in the dark Anna could see on Elsa's face that yes in did that policy was still valid.
"You want to run that by me again?," Elsa said. Even in the dark Anna saw the elgent curve of her sister's eyebrow curling up dangerously. The little moonlight filtering into the room made her wintery hair glow around her face and her blue eyes shone.
"I'm serious Elsa! There's something in my room!"
"It's probably a mouse, I'm sure the castle is full of them," she said. In a swift move Elsa turned over, back to Anna, ready to go back to sleep.
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Anna hissed.
"For someone being courted by a man with a reindeer I would have thought you'd have a better reaction to animals."
Anna groaned and flopped face down into Elsa's bed, letting out a sigh into one of Elsa's unused pillows. Elsa gave it a good thirty seconds before she realized Anna did not plan on leaving. She sighed and stepped out of bed grumbling about Anna in French, one of the three languages she was fluent in and her favorite one to mutter in when she was annoyed.
Elsa pulled a silk dressing gown over her silver nightgown and marched to the door as dignified as she could be while still expressing her annoyance at Anna. She opened her door and gestured out into the hallway.
"Let's go," she said.
Anna huffed and got up from Elsa's bed and walked over to the door. Elsa followed her down the hallway to Anna's still wide open door.
"How do you know it didn't get out while you were in my room?" Elsa said.
"Because I can sense him."
Elsa may have actually rolled her eye for the first time in her life if she was capable of rolling her eyes. She gestured for Anna to go in but Anna nudged Elsa in first and then stuck close to her sister's back.
"We have to be quiet to hear him," Anna whispered.
The stood in the middle of the room, Anna's hands latched her hands on Elsa's shoulders for dear life, for several minutes to the sound of nothing except for the late summer breeze.
"Well," Elsa said, "I think your little mass murder has escaped to torment someone else."
Of course the little sneak would be quiet as soon as Elsa came in the room. She let out the most regal sigh Anna had ever heard, patted her sister's head, and walked out the door towards her own room.
"Try not to get eaten by the little assassin before tomorrow morning, we have to meet with one of Grand Duke George's sons for breakfast," she said and sashayed out of the room completely, giving her hand a wave and closing Anna's door behind her with a gust of frosted air.
"Show off," Anna said when the door closed.
"I heard that," came a muffled response.
For many minutes after Elsa left Anna stayed still waiting to hear the familiar sound of the mouse but nothing happened. She huffed, kicked one of her pillows that was lying on the floor, and then dropped into her bed.
She laid silently in her bed allowing her eyes to close and allowing herself to get comfortable in the bed. She slowly began drifting off to sleep. She almost couldn't feel her body when suddenly the sound of multiple tiny paws across the wooden floor picked up again.
Anna groaned.