The House Of Immortality

All Anna could do to stop her boredom was play with her food. It was normal for important people from other countries to join them for dinner, but this was the first time Anna had had to suffer through it without Elsa. On a normal day, the King and Queen would listen to stories of what their youngest daughter had done that day – painting, drawing, playing with her dolls, typical 5 year old activities – and Anna loved the attention she received as she embellished the details of her stories to make her day sound even more exciting and adventurous than it really was, but on days like these, the entire mealtime conversation was centred around treaties, trade agreements and alliances, things too serious and complex for a child’s mind to comprehend.

Without her older sister to make whispered jokes about the visiting French ambassador behind his back, Anna was left to roll a yucky brussel sprout around her plate with her fork, trying to imagine that it was a ball and that she was the fork, playing outside in the courtyard, kicking the ball around. She tried to imagine Elsa there too, running around before calling to Anna to kick the ball her way. Of course, Anna kicked the ball to her big sister…

And the sprout rolled off of her plate, across the table and bumping into the French ambassador’s forearm. Big blue eyes widened and the fork dropped onto the plate as the princess snapped out of her daydream, looking rather like a startled bunny. All eyes fell on her with disapproval, making her feel smaller then she already was. Sure, Anna liked attention, but not this kind of attention! Slowly, Anna reached out to the escaping vegetable and-

“Anna.” Her mother’s voice, while soft, held a stern tone behind it as her eyes looked towards Anna’s outstretched hand. Oh, yeah, table manners! The little strawberry blonde picked up her fork once again, stabbed the brussel sprout, and returned it to her plate, refusing to eat it now; who would want to eat a gross vegetable that had touched an old man’s arm?

As Anna returned to her food silently, the French ambassador cleared his throat, addressing the King of Arendelle.

“I see that your oldest daughter is not here, your majesty.” He pointed out, gesturing to the empty seat which Anna had begged her parents to reserve for Elsa, just in case she made an appearance. “That is a shame; I was hoping to meet the next in line to the throne. If you don’t mind my asking, where is Princess Elsa?”

“Princess Elsa is… Well, I’m afraid that she is sick.” Wait, what? Anna looked up from the plate of food to her father, noting the flash of confusion on her mother’s face out of the corner of her eye before it soon disappeared. Elsa was sick? But Elsa hardly ever got sick! Was that why she had locked herself in her room? Was she contagious? Was she ok? Many thoughts of worry and concern for her sister in her mind, but the King would answer all of her questions as he spoke. “She has been rather sick for the past couple of days and is bedridden. I would say that you could go and see her, but her illness is rather contagious.” Aha! That explained everything!

“Oh, I see. Well perhaps next time.” The French ambassador returned to his meal, as did the King and Queen, but Anna’s mind was too preoccupied with the new information to eat. Instead, she couldn’t stop thinking about what she could do to make Elsa feel better.