Ocean
When Anna was younger Elsa explained the fjord eventually connected to the ocean and that's how Mama and Papa sailed their ships out to the other kingdoms they visited. Anna longed to see the ocean, the way her parents described the waves and the vastness. They always promised to take the girls one day.
"In a few weeks the tsar's son is getting married, and we'll bring you both to the wedding," Papa assured as he and Mama boarded their docked ship. Currently they were headed south to celebrate the birth Emperor of Austria's first child.
"I'm not even sure why we have to go," Mama said, "The emperor canceled last minute when we invited him to the celebration when Anna was born."
"It's all politics my dear, even among kings we have to play petty games," Papa said.
At 15 Anna was supposed to be well versed in what Papa was talking about but she had recently started spending most of her study time napping in the library, when Elsa didn't rat her out, that is. The girl barely said two words a day to Anna but she had no problems moving like a shadow through the library and turning her sister in.
"Elsa," Papa said sternly, "You know the procedure. In the absence of His Majesty the King you are, in according with your rank and title as Princess of Arendelle, henceforth acting queen until such a time as the King's Majesty returns. You are regent of the dominion and speak with the king's voice," he said, "Try not to declare war on anyone," he winked.
Elsa only nodded, not even a smile cracked. They'd done this procedure multiple times a year. Papa would dole out the official statement putting Elsa in charge while he was gone, then he'd come back and put out the official statement relieving Elsa of her burden.
But this time they did not come back and Elsa was forever burdened.
It was the ocean that did it. There never even made it to the emperor's ball. A storm caught them in the North Sea and the boat capsized. Only a handful of crew members survived, and of them only two lived long enough through illness and injury to get word back to Arendelle that their king was dead.
Elsa and Anna were at dinner together, silent as usual; save for the few obligatory questions from Elsa making sure Anna did her studies. Anna was about to make a joke about the pheasant they were eating when Kai, burst into the room.
He looked Elsa dead in the eyes.
"Forgive my intrusion Your Highnesses," he said, visibly shaking.
"Kai?" Elsa asked, prompting him on further. She lowered her silverware and placed her hands in her lap.
He stepped into the room, his arms were locked at his sides and he refused to break eye contact with Elsa.
"Their Majesties were lost at sea."
It was as though a ton of rocks dropped in Anna's stomach and dragged it to the floor. And Elsa turned paler than Anna had ever seen a human before and the both knew what came next.
"The king is dead," announced Kai, "Long live the queen."
An echo of "long live the queen" followed from the servants elsewhere in the room.
"Long live the queen," Anna said barely above a whisper.
"You are dismissed," Elsa said and Kai was out the door bowing, "Everyone is dismissed."
The room cleared instantly, servants off to gossip or off to cry, with only Anna and Elsa, sitting at opposite ends of the dining table. Elsa dropped into her chair, a look of pure terror covered her normally stoney face. And Anna burst into tears. But that didn't seem to register with Elsa whose eyes remained trained, wide and terrified, on the glossy wood of the dining room table.
Mama and Papa were dead. They were never coming back. She'd never hear her mother's voice again. In ten years from now would she even remember what it sounded like? The only time she'd ever see their faces again was on portraits and in fading memories. She'd never feel a hug from them ever again.
Elsa. Anna, through her teary eyes, looked to see Elsa silent and terrified at the end of the table. Elsa would be queen. She wouldn't be officially coronated until she came of age in three years but the job was already begun. Princess Elsa, one day to be queen, was permanently and irrevocably in charge of the kingdom until the day she dies.
Anna suddenly felt no desire to see the ocean as their parents talked about them doing. She didn't care for the waves, they stole her parents. It wasn't fair and it never would be.
In the days that followed she watched the fjord for hours hoping to see a glimpse of an incoming ship from the sea. Perhaps they made a mistake, at any minute Mama and Papa could come back and all would the way it should. But the ocean never gave them back.