Chapter 3 Elsa contemplates...
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.
Dawn Saturday July 22
Elsa wakes up and freezes. She thinks, surprised, "A blanket? I do not need it.' She can feel Anna against her back. Her fingers are... A peak down, her fingers are in Olaf's head. She, barely, stops her lips from smiling. He snores. She already knew that Anna did.
She relaxes again, closing her eyes. 'Dawn.' She thinks. 'I have always awoken then.'
'Go back to sleep?' She mentally shakes her head. 'Why did they not wake me up when they removed the door? Something like that should have taken an hour at most? I'm sure Kai will explain.'
'Kai... no. Think about something else.'
"Elsa?" Olaf asks in a whisper.
"Sorry, Olaf. I did not mean to wake you." She whispers back.
"It's OK. Sleep, it's nice, but I like being awake."
They continue to talk in whispers, trying not to wake up Anna.
"Olaf, I love you. Always remember that."
"I love you, Elsa."
"But, Olaf. I am Queen here. There are people I must meet. Decisions that are mine to make. I can not spend the time with you that you deserve."
Olaf's snow moves around her fingers as he nods. "Yeah. Gerda explained that last night."
"Good Gerda. She helped. No. She raised me, more than my mother did." A hitch in her voice, a suppressed cry. "I had hoped... But. She must help you, as she helped me."
A creak at one of the doors.
"We have until they wake Kai and he can get down here." She says quietly. "Is Ida a good person?"
"Yes, she's OK, once she got used to me." A pause. "some... people were... afraid of me, I think."
"Yes. They will be. Just as they will be afraid of me. If they try to hurt you, come to me, before you do anything."
Olaf nods.
"They will be afraid. WE must make sure that they have no reason to become more afraid. Do you understand, Olaf?"
"Yes." A pause, "Can I play with the kids, again?"
"Of course. Just make sure their parents know and someone, an adult, is watching you and them play."
Elsa, still whispering, asks, "Now, Olaf, can you be quiet for a few minutes. I need to think about what I need to do today. This will be only time today that I will be alone."
"I'm here? Are you still alone?"
"Shh. You're here and I am really not alone, Anna's here. I meant... I have time now to stop and think. Once Kai opens the door. I become the Queen and have to do things, not think."
Olaf nods and whispers, "OK."
Time passes.
After thinking about other things...
Elsa thinks, 'I may have been a little hasty about removing my door.'
She judges her actions, 'I may have overreacted. The first time I saw the door and realized how much I hated it. Removing it, Father would have hated that. DID I do it to get back at him? Or something else?'
A mental sigh, 'It is now obvious that Father's orders about concealing my powers were wrong. And years ago, I determined that isolating me and Anna would hurt us in the future. How can I rule, when almost no one has met me, much less knows me?'
A physical sigh, as she broods, 'I'm going to have to spend most of the next few days, weeks, maybe months even meeting people. Those meetings should have occurred years ago.' Her lips twitch, 'Of course my powers stopped that from happening. If only...'
She analyzes her actions of yesterday, 'Was I right? When I let the envoys leave so early? I had plans to talk to them. Especially that Irish envoy. He, personally, may have been from Ireland, but I need his contacts in London. The growing Ice Trade is flowing through London. Arendelle MUST be part of that. The smaller ports in Europe can not do.'
Her teeth clench in anger, 'Just 4 years ago, the ship Tuscany sailed from Boston to Calcutta, India with 200 tons of ice. It delivered 100 tons at the dock. And the owners made a profit. A large profit. We have to get that trade!'
A hiss from Olaf, "Elsa? Snow?"
Elsa starts and looks around. Snow is falling, gently in the room. She calms herself and the snow vanishes. "Thank you, Olaf." She thanks him in a whisper.
Angry now at herself, she decides, 'I must remember. I have gained the skill to stop my powers and it remove its effects. And I learned, for sure, that my powers are part of my emotions and soul. My powers spring from my emotions. I must control my emotions in order to truly command my powers. NOT the other way around, which is what I thought was correct for years.'
A mental shake of her head, as she resumes to her previous train of thought, 'No. The envoys wanted to leave. I could not hold them. I had no right to do so. And, from what I found out when I suggested staying, their sailors would not hear of it. My Blizzard frightened them and they wanted to leave, at once. If I tried to stop them, I risked riots. That fear is why they worked so hard to prepare the ships to leave so quickly.'
She further studies yesterday, 'From what I heard from Kai as he came back from the dock, the envoys themselves wanted to leave, quickly. They were rushing to get home, first. To tell the story of...the Ice Queen, I suppose.'
She whispers, "That story will cause problems... But, that is for the future. It will take time for them to travel home, talk and then travel back. Concentrate on the present. Today and Tomorrow, I must make the best impression I can."
"Elsa?' Olaf whispers, "I know you asked me to be quiet, but? You are thinking dark thoughts, I can tell."
Elsa starts and nods, "Yes. I suppose I was."
"Think happy thoughts, Elsa. That is always better than thinking about bad things."
She closes her eyes and laughs quietly. "You are correct, Olaf."
She thinks about the glorious beauty yesterday as she removes the Blizzard and spontaneous joy in the faces of the children as they skated in her Rink. A smiles grows on her face.
Time passes as she thinks about other potential problems, but with a positive point of view, now.
The door creaks and Kai's head and belly appears.
Elsa, still smiling, opens her eyes and places a finger against her lips, sees Kai nod, and gestures for him to approach her.
"Quiet. Let her rest." She whispers as Kai stops next to her.
"Yes, ma'am." he whispers.
She closes her eyes. "I'm sure that you have a dozen emergencies that I have to deal with, immediately."
"Last count was over twenty."
She groans, quietly. "None of them are that the citizens are storming the castle, though, right?"
"Huh?" A startled Kai starts to say at a normal volume. He stops and whispers, "No. Your majesty. That is not one of them. The only problems at the gate are..." He points to the sleeping Anna. "Her...Kristoff Bjorgman person."
Elsa's eyebrow raises in a silent question.
"He showed up at about 2 am and wanted to see you, immediately. He is currently sleeping outside the gate."
"If he can sleep, it can wait."
"My thought as well, Your Majesty. The other problem is minor as well." He points to Olaf. "There are a couple of children asking when the... when Olaf can come out and play."
Elsa looks down at Olaf. He smiles and nods. "Go. Just remember what I said." she whispers in a loving tone.
Olaf nods and glides, silently, out the room.
"Then all the rest of those problems can wait until I bathe, change clothes and eat breakfast." Queen Elsa states.
Kai, hesitates, and then nods, yes.
"Go ahead and get them started on those orders, then come back. We have other things to discuss." A hard tone is in her soft voice.
A minute later...
"I do not have a schedule today, do I." Queen Elsa asks, in a hushed tone.
"I have fragments of a possible schedule, at best."
Shared groans...
Queen Elsa begins her orders. "I am going to tell you want I wish to do. You will try to fit them into today's events."
Kai nods, waiting.
"Sometime today, you and I will have a private conversation." Ice forms on the ground. Kai, barely, avoids slipping and falling onto Anna.
"Sorry," He whispers. Elsa grimaces, then her face calms, her fingers twitch and the Ice vanishes.
Neither Kai or Elsa notice that Anna's snores have stopped.
"Your Majesty," Kai begins to speak, calmly and softly, "Before we have that conversation, I strongly recommend that you read your Father's Diary."
Elsa's eyebrows scowl as she thinks angrily, 'Great. The chance that those chains were left over medieval torture devices, or some other odd, but, reasonable explanation just vanished. My father wanted to imprison me. AND all Kai wants me to do is to read what rationalization he used?!'
Ice forms on the floor and along the walls and ceiling, the temperature drops.
"Hey!" Anna exclaims as she wraps her blanket around her. "Turn off the ice, will you?"
Elsa turns around rapidly, slips off the couch and slides on the floor into Kai. They both tumble, tangled up and skid a few feet. More skids and crashes as the servants and guards open the doors, rush in and slide on the ice.
Anna giggles and claps. "What a way to wake up!"
Elsa looks at Anna, looks at Kai's face just inches from hers, looks at the servants and guards and starts to laugh.
Anna joins in.
Everyone joins in.
The Ice vanishes.
End chapter 3
Elsewhere in Arendelle. The home of a very wealthy man.
Morning. Just after dawn. Saturday July 22
A bed with two people on it, a naked older, heavy-set, no, fat man and a young, teenage, girl.
The man wakes up and rings for service. Maids enter the room and help him dress. The girl slips out carrying her dirty and torn clothes.
After dressing, the man orders the maids out and stands next to the window. He gazes out, but since he thinking, he does not notice the view.
"Females are, by definition, NOT competent to rule. As it says in the Bible, in Genesis: a Woman's desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. NOT that women shall rule over men. She should never be Queen." He states as sure as he is watching the city.
He thinks, 'I had plans to get the longshoremen to cause problems. To push her. To prove to her that she needed me to control the city. To BULLY her into following me. But. Does her powers change that plan?'
He shakes his head, 'No. Actually. Now that I think about it. If she uses that power. That would be a good thing for me. The Duke was wrong about somethings, but he was right about her powers. That is sorcery. The more she displays that power, the more she will frighten people.'
He rubs his chin in thought, 'Could I use that to become King? What would happen if the city rose against her? Something to think about. I will be able to make myself the man who rules Arendelle, no matter what, though. Without me... the city will descend into chaos. It will take weeks or months, though, before anything like that happens.'
He nods, 'After yesterday... It will be weeks before anyone disobeys her. They will be in terror of her. But, as time passes...that fear will change. With a little push that fear can become hate.'
"First, though, I must prove to her and the city that she is NOT competent to rule Arendelle." he remarks to himself.
He leaves the room and begins to bark orders. Orders to disrupt the city...
His opinions... Are his, not mine. In the 1830-1840 time frame there was a lot of opinions that are not acceptable in modern times. His is one of them, and he will have followers that will agree with him. "You can tell a bigot, but you can't tell him much."
Note: Olaf's behavior. His primary memories are that of Elsa at age 8. So, that will be his default behavior. YES, he does have other behaviors, which will occur whenever I can fit them in.
thank you for reading
jeff shelton