chapter 2.
NOTE A castle has many servants. SO... During any scene in the castle, there will be servants and/or guards within sight and/or within hearing, unless mentioned otherwise.
Note: Reviews are welcome.
A few minutes later in the small informal dinning room. Tapestries and paintings of various family scenes are on the walls.
There is a 10 foot long 3 foot wide slender cloth-covered table. On the table, in addition to the food, are a couple of candelabra to help the whale oil lamps on the walls and the candles in the chandelier to provide light.
A Place for Elsa is at one end, Anna is at the other.
Anna and Elsa sit at their places.
Anna looks around, picks a knife, then puts it down. "I... I do not like this. You are too far away."
Elsa looks around, puts down the spoon she had grabbed and nods. "Yes."
Kai coughs into his hand. "Your Majesties, these are the proper settings."
Anna looks at him, gets up and starts to drag her chair next to Elsa's
Kai sighs, takes the chair and places it where Anna wants. "Ma'am."
Anna looks at Kai, "When did I stop being Anna?"
"This is proper, Princess."
Anna shakes her head. "No way. I am Anna." she looks at Elsa, "I'm right, aren't I?"
Elsa suppresses a smile. "You are Anna. IF you would, please, humor her, Kai."
"Queen Elsa." He bows to her. "Anna" he bows to Anna.
Anna smiles at him, "Thank you, Kai."
Elsa sighs and looks at the table. "Being a Queen will take getting used to." She says in a low voice.
Anna sits in her chair, now, next to Elsa, the servants begin to move the dishes around. "This is not right, either." She mumbles.
"Anna?" Elsa asks.
"I want to look at your face, not your profile." Anna replies.
Elsa and Kai share a look.
He coughs into his hand, "If I might, make a suggestion?"
A couple of minutes later.
Elsa and Anna are sitting across the 3 foot wide center of the table.
"This is right!" Anna smiles happily.
A look at Kai, a nod from Elsa.
He nods and states, "You will, when alone, be seated like this, Queen Elsa." He says.
"Alone?" Anna asks.
"We will be having guests for dinner, along with other, better, balls. Dining arraignments will have to adjust." Elsa explains. "No one tonight. I'm not up to it, and I did not think you were, either."
Anna slumps in her chair. "You got that right, Elsa. After the last few days, all I want to do, now, is to sleep for a couple of days."
Elsa smiles and rubs the back of her head. "How many hours of sleep did you get?"
Anna looks up as she thinks, then down to her fingers as she counts. "A few hours that first night. A family was kind enough to put me up. I slept till mid-morning." A glare at Elsa. "There was three feet of new snow on the ground, when I woke up."
Elsa blushes.
"A couple of hours to gather strength before we made that climb up North Mountain. Ahh...Nothing more until this morning when Kristoff was bring me back to Arendelle. And I would not call that sleep." She shivers in remembered cold.
Elsa reaches across the table and grabs Anna's hand and squeezes. "I can not tell you... how sorry I am, Anna." She says in a begging voice.
Anna waves her hand, dismissing it. "I'm fine, Elsa. What else matters?"
"What else matters?" Elsa repeats, quietly. She nods. "Thank you, Anna."
A quiet timeless moment between the sisters...
Anna coughs into her hand. "Elsa. I gave that family an IOU."
Elsa waves her hand. "That is fine."
Another cough, "I had to trade my coronation gown for the clothes I was wearing... And, I'd like to get the gown back?"
A twitch of Elsa's lips, a wave of her hand. "Again, not a problem. Any other favors I need to know about, like that sled?"
Anna blushes, "Ahh. I do not think, so."
Elsa's eyebrow raises in question.
"It was confusing and I..."
Elsa gives a small laugh. "Do not worry, Anna. Little things like this are easy." A pause. "It is good to be the Queen."
Anna relaxes and says, "Thank you, Elsa." She slumps deep in the chair. And shakes her head, to keep awake.
Elsa says, "I think we both need to finish quickly."
"Yes. I would not want to fall asleep in the middle of dinner." Anna says as she grabs her fork and digs in. Elsa, in a slower, more deliberate manner, also eats.
Later outside Elsa's bedroom.
Elsa, Anna, and Kai, plus a couple of servants following at a distance, stop outside her door.
"I hate that door." Anna states as Kai opens the door for Elsa.
Elsa stops and looks at it.
A pause.
"And... so do I." She says in a low voice. Ice forms on the door. Kai jumps back holding his hand. It creaks.
Time...
A look between Kai and Anna.
"Queen Elsa?" Kai asks in a quiet voice.
Time...
Another look.
"Elsa?" Anna asks quietly.
A deep breath...
"Remove it. Remove the hinges, everything." Queen Elsa commands. "I will take a nap on one of the couches in the Portrait Room. When done, awaken me."
Her eyes narrow. "I think... Place it somewhere..."
Anna, her eyes bright, excitement in her voice, states. "Do mine as well."
Both Elsa and Kai turn to face her.
"Anna? Why your door" Elsa starts to say in a.
"If you can do it. I can do it." Stubbornness pours out of her voice.
"stayed open." quiet voice...
"Queen... Elsa and Anna?" Kai asks. "Are you sure. Without the door, your privacy? Changing clothes?"
Elsa shakes her head. "Movable screens will do. For now. IF, and I repeat IF, I decide to change my mind. We will think about something else, then."
Kai opens his mouth.
Elsa shakes her head, no.
The ice on the door vanishes.
He takes a breath and motions to one of the other servants. "Get the carpenter up here and get a couple of strong backs. Now." Running sounds...
As Elsa and Anna enter the Portrait Room.
"Gods, I'm tired." Anna says as she sits on the couch under Joan of Arc.
"Join you?" Elsa asks, politely, before she collapses next to her. Her eyes close.
"Elsa... you were about to say something else about your door?"
Elsa opens her eyes, "I think... I want to destroy that door."
They shift position so they are sitting back to back. Supporting each other.
"Yeah.. want help?"
"Of course."
They both lean against the wall...
Smiles appears and flicker out due to exhaustion.
A hint of excitement tries to appear in Anna's voice. "Let's do it public. You know... Open Doors?"
"Good idea."
A snore.
A matching snore...
A few minutes later a maid covers them with a blanket. Outside the room, maids and guards stand at the doors.
They will get their sleep.
Later...
Gerda opens the door to lead Olaf into the room. "shhh. Be quiet. They are asleep." She whispers.
"Yes." He whispers back.
"Do you want to sleep with them? Or somewhere else?" She whispers, as they stand in the doorway.
"Ahh..." Olaf, for once, does not act first.
"Can I sleep?" slips from his lips.
Gerda, startled, kneels down and looks at him, "Olaf?"
"I've been awake...since Elsa remade me. What happens when I go to sleep?"
Gerda hugs him. "YOU will wake up. Your mother will make sure about that. I promise you."
"I want to sleep with her..." He whispers.
Gerda holds his hand and places him on the floor leaning against the couch. "You'll be fine here."
Olaf looks at her, smiles and whispers, "Thank you, Gerda. You are a great friend."
"So... are you." Gerda whispers as she leaves the room.
Olaf closes his eyes...
A third set of snores begin.
Gerda closes her eyes and thinks, 'I will not think about how someone without lungs is snoring...'
The door closes. "I do not think that he will need that blanket." pause. "good idea, just..." Gerda whispers at the maid.
Outside the castle near the docks of Arendelle.
The Tavern named Ice House.
THE place for the Ice Harvesters working around Arendelle.
Kristoff is celebrating. Precisely what he is celebrating changes from time to time.
The...'friendship' of Anna. The new sled. Simple survival...
He, also, has been awake for days and he was more active than either of the sisters.
So..he is more than a bit... groggy.
"Hey, Kristoff?" One of his competitors asks
"Yeah?" he mumbles, trying to decide... another alcohol-laced mug of grog... or find his new sled and sleep in it.
"The Queen makes ice?"
Kristoff perks up, "Yes!" He looks around. "I did tell you about her Palace, right?"
Another man waves his waves his hand, four fingers up. "Four times already."
Kristoff slumps. "Want to hear it again?"
Groans throughout the tavern.
The first man, older and his face and hands full of scars, "No. no. no. I want to know something else."
His eyes blurry, Kristoff mumbles, "go ahead."
"IF she can create that much ice, at will, Mr. Ice Master and Deliver... when do we go out of business?"
For some reason...
Kristoff is now stone cold sober and wide awake.
Later... Kai and Gerda's bedroom.
As they lay down to sleep, if only for a couple of hours.
"How was the snowman?"
"Anna's energy and Elsa's intelligence."
"We are living in wondrous times..."
"She is going to ask about the chains."
"I have no idea what to say..."
A knock on the door. Another emergency.
Kai does not get any sleep that night...
End chapter 2
Comments are welcome.
thank you for reading
jeff shelton