Trust Runs Deep

Chapter 3

The next morning, Elsa woke up with the sun, as she'd always done. Rubbing her eyes and stretching, she looked out her window. The rays of the morning sun peeked over the mountains in the distance and spilled through the window panes and onto the hardwood floor. She ran a hand through her hair, rolled over onto her side and sat up, stretching again.

She'd slept well, and hoped Conrad did the same. The fall festival was two days away, and there was still a lot she had to do to prepare, especially for the harvest.

The morning sun was beautiful, but it was even more so when shining through the brilliant red, gold, and orange hues of the changing leaves outside. The mountains looked like they were on fire, it was magnificent to see.

Still in her violet nightgown, she went to her vanity to get herself ready for the day. She brushed her hair, deciding to put it into a bun for today. She cleaned her face and did her makeup, and then went to her wardrobe to choose her dress.

She picked out a lovely dark, rich blue-purple dress with long sleeves. The dress had dark pink ribbon sewn in on the hemline, with icy accents placed here and there. Arendelle's royal crest embroidered on the bodice of the gown, and a belt wrapped around the dip in her waist.

She expected for today to be fairly busy, and she remembered her promise to Conrad last night. As she contemplated ideas for what to do during the day, a knock came from her door.

"Come in." The door opened and she turned to see who it was. It was Conrad's advisor, Edvard, with Kai.

"Oh! Good morning, Edvard. Thank you, Kai. What can I do for you?" The young man bowed to Elsa.

"I just came to inform you that all matters of trade and business that might be planned for today, I can take care of. You are free to take his majesty out for the day." Elsa was a bit taken aback, having not expected Conrad's advisor to tell her this, but, Edvard was an intelligent young man who seemed to have quite the knack for business, so she trusted him.

"Well, thank you, Edvard. I'm very glad to hear that. Could you tell Conrad to meet me in the dining hall?" Edvard nodded and bowed.

"Of course, your majesty, right away." With that, he left and shut the door behind him. Elsa smiled to herself and headed downstairs to the dining hall, greeting the servants with a warm smile.

As she made her way downstairs, Anna caught up to her, her wild morning bedhead tamed and brushed into her usual twin braids.

"Morning sis!" Anna greeted, sliding down the banister. Elsa stopped.

"Goodness Anna, you need to stop sliding down the banister, you could fall and hurt yourself!" Anna jokingly knocked on the wood.

"Hasn't happened! So, what's the plan for today?"

"Oh, well I told Conrad's advisor Edvard to inform him to meet us in the dining hall so we can discuss just that."

"Did you already have any ideas?" Elsa frowned to herself in thought.

"To be honest, not entirely. I was hoping you could help."

"Sure! I'd love to!"

It had been four days since Conrad's arrival in Arendelle. The fall celebration was two more days away, and Conrad hoped he had something formal enough to wear. Edvard told him he'd take care of business matters and he could have the day to spend with the queen.

Keeping his excitement down, Conrad made his way to the dining hall where he found the sisters already talking over breakfast. They beamed seeing him join them.

"Anna was giving me suggestions of what we should do for the day."

"I think Elsa should take you to see the trolls!" Anna said with a grin. Elsa gave her a look.

"I-"

'Trolls?" Conrad asked. He knew about them, his father's father used to tell him and his sibling's stories about the trolls when they were very young. They were always warned to not anger them, for trolls had magic that could cause harm. Signe used to be afraid of them as a child.

"Yes, there is a colony of trolls that live to the north. We have an allyship with them, they're good, but they can be a little cryptic." Conrad chuckled.

"My grandfather used to tell my siblings and I stories about trolls when we were children. We were always warned to not anger them since they could cause us harm, or as my grandfather threatened us, we would get kidnapped." Anna and Elsa widened their eyes.

"Goodness, well the troll here are not like that. They're a little strange, but they're very kind."

"Oh, no. I'm not worried at all. I never really paid attention to my grandfather's silly threats. Signe, on the other hand, used to get quite scared of those stories." Anna giggled.

"Well, like Elsa said, these are good trolls, they've helped us on several occasions." Conrad nodded.

"I can imagine. Well, if you'd like to introduce me, I wouldn't mind at all. Anna and Kristoff are welcome to join us too." Anna beamed at that.

"It's settled then. We can leave before noon. I'll have the servants prepare us some food"

"Sounds great!"

After breakfast, Elsa sent Anna to let Kristoff know they were going on a little day trip to visit the trolls, to which Kristoff was cool with.

"Please don't be weird about introducing the trolls. We don't want to weird Conrad out too much." Anna told him.

"I won't!"