A Snow Queen's Tale- a Frozen Fanfiction

Chapter 39: Mother and Father's Trip

🌻Anna's Pov🌻
      I looked out from the castle window. On the bridge far below, I could see a carriage crossing the bright blue water. My parents were inside that carriage. They needed to take care of important business and would be gone for two weeks.
      "We'll be back before you know it," mother had said. She stroked my hair. "We will miss you while we are gone."
      "I'll miss you, too," I had replied, giving mother a long hug.
      I blew kisses and waved at the carriage until it disappeared into the distance.
      I was eight years old, and this was the first time my parents were traveling without me. I would miss having tea in the mornings with my mother, and reading stories in the afternoons with my father. I would do my lessons as usual, but life at the castle would be totally different.
      But I had decided I was not going to let my parents trip get me down! I would make my own fun.
      After one last look out the window, I hurried down the spiral stairs and raced to my room. Miss Larsen, me and Elsa's governess, had told me I could have some free time before lessons. It was the perfect day to play pretend, I decided. I took a sheet off my bed and circled it around myself. The long end trailed behind me like a train.
      I bowed at myself in the mirror, pretending to be an elegant lady. I imagined the sheet was a beautiful party dress. "Charmed, I'm sure," I said to my reflection, twirling dramatically. My new dress was so beautiful that I wanted to show everyone else in the castle.
      I hurried into the hallway and stopped outside my older sister's bedroom door. Elsa never seemed to come out of her room now, at least not when I was around, but she'd loved making costumes before.
      I knocked on Elsa's door. I adjusted the sheet and held the end of the train in my hand. "Elsa?" I said. "Wait till you see my new dress!"
      But Elsa didn't open the door. "Go away, Anna," Elsa said.
      Sighing, I continued down the hallway. I missed my sister, and the way things used to be. Not that long ago, we had been close, and Arendelle Castle had bustled. Now the castle was closed to visitors, and Elsa had shut me out. I still didn't understand why everything had changed.
I swept grandly through the empty castle. I spun and leaped across the great hall, pretending I was at a ball. I took a short break from being fancy and slid across the smooth floor in my socks. Then I gathered up the train of my dress and continued to the kitchen.
"How do you like my dress?" I asked Olins, one of the castle workers, who was in the kitchen stirring something on the stove. I twirled before her. "Let's pretend we're going to a party!"
"I am just finishing this soup," said Olins, pointing at it with her spoon. "Why don't you come back a little later?"
When I left the kitchen, I found Kai and Gerda at the bottom of the stairs. They were polishing a suit of armor. They might not want to dress up, I thought, but maybe they could play a game.
"Count to ten, then try to find me!" I said to the friendly housekeepers. Hide-and-seek was one of my favorites.
"We can play later," said Gerda. She was working on the knight's helmet. "Wait till you see him shine," she told me.
I did not want to wait, though.
I wished that later was right now.
Why didn't anyone want to play?
Luckily, I knew people who were always available. I skipped past Kai and Gerda and threw open the tall white doors that opened into the portrait gallery. It was a big room with a brilliant chandelier, and paintings that lined the walls from floor to ceiling. I loved to imagine that the people in the paintings were real. They were always happy to see me!
      "Good morning," I said to one of my favorites. She was a girl in a billowy green dress, riding high on a swing. "When can I teach you how to jump off that swing?"
      I paused, as if the girl in the painting were really answering me. "Yes, yes, I know. But there's no reason to be nervous. I've done it lots of times!"  I didn't know why the girl was worried.
      Nearby, two more of my "friends" were lying on a blanket in the woods, enjoying a picnic. "What's on the menu today?" I asked the pair. "Pancakes with chocolate chips? Those are my favorite!" I knew that people did not eat pancakes on real picnics. When I was pretending though, anything was possible.
      I daydreamed about going on a picnic with a real friend someday.
       But if I couldn't go on a real picnic, I decided, I could at least eat real pancakes. At this time of day, me and mother usually had tea and bread. No wonder I was getting hungry!
      When I returned to the kitchen, Olins was tending the fire. I heard the pop and hiss of burning wood. I also heard the unusual sound at the kitchen's back door.
      Was that the jingling of a carriage?
      For a moment, I wondered if my parents had come back. I peeked outside hopefully, but I did not see a royal carriage. It was a smaller carriage, pulled by a single horse, with a pile of bundles in the back.
      I had been dreaming of adventure, and an adventure had arrived! I couldn't remember the last time someone had come to the castle!
      Someone would need to greet this visitor, I realized. Since Olins was distracted, I decided to take matters into my own hands.