As several years passed from the incident in the ballroom, Idun had seen both her daughters grow - but not the way she would have ever hoped for. You couldn't have found two children that were closer to one another, but now, walls and doors seemed to separate them.
It wasn't good for either of them, she knew that. But they had almost lost Anna to an accident, and that had instilled such fear into the Queen's heart that she would forsake their healthy relationship for a time to see if Elsa could learn to control her magic.
They had every faith in their eldest daughter, surely their lives would be righted in time.
But the days dragged on, the months crawled by. Fear took up all the empty space in Elsa's room, ice clinging to the walls.
Being alone in that room all day wasn't helping Elsa in the least. And, today, Idun was going to try and fix that.
"Mother, where are we going?" Elsa asked, voice tinged with anxiety simply by stepping outside of her room.
"Not far, dear heart. Just to the gardens," Idun replied, hands held primly in front of herself as she walked. She would have held her daughter's gloved hand, but the girl was keen to refuse such previously commonplace touches now.
Elsa kept her eyes low, barely leaving the path a few steps ahead of her own two feet. Her lips were pressed together in a thin line, teeth biting into the soft flesh of her mouth.
The gardens...? Why? Wouldn't her ice just kill all the plants?
"You know, when I first came to Arendelle with my King Father, I didn't want to be here. I didn't think I was ready for such a courtship, no matter that it was my duty to my Sire and my country," the Queen spoke, leading the young girl through hallways of trees and low bushes. "I thought it would be an ill match between your father and I," she laughed softly, remembering her many contained arguments with her father over the matter.
"...You mean, you didn't like Papa at first?" Elsa ventured, bringing her gaze up from the ground for the first time all day.
"Oh, heavens, no! He was...brash. I'm sure most girls would have said dashing, but all I saw was a cocky young man who seemed to stride about with more purpose than one man ought to," she replied, a small smile forming on her angular face. "But, I didn't not like him, either. Love is a strange thing - and can often be mistaken for loathing if one is so inexperienced with it."
"I was to stay in Arendelle for a month - a whole month! - to court, and to negotiate further alliances for both our realms. To say it was a long month would be an understatement, my dear! He would speak to me of his great hunts; how his hunting party and hounds would run down stags, bears, and all manner of impressive beasts."
"He told me of his prowess with the sword, how he was unmatched in the finer arts of the blade in all of Arendelle."
Elsa pulled a face at that. "Really, Papa?" she asked incredulously. She'd never even seen her father hold a sword.
"Your father was quite different, in his youth," Idun stated, turning a sharp corner, almost so well hidden that Elsa walked a few steps past it before realizing that her mother had gone another way. "Most people forget that this place is here...Since your father claimed his right as King so many years ago, and we downsized the staff at the castle, this old part of the gardens barely goes treated anymore," she explained, raising a hand to delicately run over moss-covered wood before easing open the creaky door.
"A week before our courtship was to be officially announced, and I was to briefly return with my father to our homelands, your father brought me here. I think he finally saw that boasting about his hunts and skills weren't really getting him anywhere with me. So, he took a different approach that last week."
Elsa edged into the dark, single room structure, a hesitant hand reaching out to her mother's skirts; a wispy guide in the darkness. It was dank in the stone room, dusty windows shuttered against most light but the soft, muddled beams that teased through wooden panels and thick cobwebs.
It was surprisingly overgrown, creepers crawling along the simple stonework walls and moss-damp floors.
Idun let out a wistful sigh, walking over to pry one of the shutters open, so the room would see light once more. "I never knew your father had a passion for botany, for things that grew. There were so many plants and flowers in here at one time, brought in from other lands and cared for by him. He told me of each flower, each plant, each and every bulb; how these preferred more sun, and those flourished in the water rather than in the ground. It was a strange and beautiful sight, especially coming from a man I deemed to be interested solely in strength of arm and sword, not of beauty and growing things."
Elsa remained silent, icy eyes wandering over what lay beneath the mess of creeping vines and small leaves.
Dirty pots. A table, overgrown and all but smothered in thriving plant life. Dark, withered forms rested beneath the green; a testament to the other plants that had once resided here, but could not live through the treatment of abandonment. Rusted, unused tools in a corner. Yellowish, cracked parchment crackled underfoot, a long forgotten wind having scattered the now faded notes.
"He didn't just speak of the growing things in this room, though. No, your father spoke animatedly of his plans for Arendelle, the kingdom he would inherit from his own father, just as you will from him. Arendelle is neither big nor small, in the grand scale of things, it is somewhere in the middle. Oh, but your father wanted to change that so dearly - not through war, or conquering other nations, but in a peaceable manner. For one who prided himself on his skills with a blade, your father was such a strategist and negotiator that he could accomplished what he wished with sensible words instead of the tip of a sword."
"His mind was always on growing things, and he wished for Arendelle to grow. And it has, since then. The kingdom has grown, and the people in this kingdom have grown. His family has grown, and it will continue to do so. Do you understand, Elsa?"
Elsa looked up to her mother, processing everything that had been said here.
"Even in the confines of a room, even hidden away from the light, life grows. Against all odds, life will grow and thrive, and strive to be beautiful."