Parallel

     The girl squealed with delight as she pranced through the castle garden, displacing small heaps of snow wherever she went, red hair smattered with white from the snowflakes gently tumbling from the sky above.  Hearing clomping footsteps behind her, she changed course and dove to the right, taking cover behind a tree.  After a moment of silence, she peaked around the trunk, only to receive a face full of snow in return.

 

     “Hans!” she shouted, voice wracked with childish laughter.  “No fair!”

 

     And then she was off again, bounding through the trees and around the frozen pond, taking occasional glances at the boy chasing her before shrieking with joyful fright and redoubling her escape efforts.

 

     “I’m gonna get you, Anna!” her brother called out after her.  All he received in response was more giggles as she ducked behind a large snowdrift, narrowly dodging the latest snowball thrown her way.  Hans dropped to the ground, piling some snow in front of him to use as a makeshift bulwark.  Not that he needed one; Anna’s aim was atrocious.  Most of the snowballs she let loose ended up disassembling in mid air, falling to the ground in a small spray rather than a single projectile, and those that were tightly packed enough to stay together landed nowhere near Hans or his shelter.  The younger girl didn’t seem to care though, never tiring of the game even after taking several of her brother’s more precise snowballs to the face, constantly laughing and calling out childish, playful taunts.

 

     Hans was not so patient.  Realizing that Anna’s nearly boundless energy and unceasing amusement in the decidedly one-sided snowball fight meant that they could be out there for hours, he decided to switch tactics.  Pulling his cap more tightly over his ginger hair, he waited until he saw his sister dip behind her cover to gather up more snowballs.  He scuttled to the side, through the trees and away from his shelter, keeping low to the ground and hiding behind a mound of snow when he saw Anna’s red hair coming back up to fling more powder at the boy’s former hiding place.  As she continued her battle with an enemy she was unaware had long since moved on, Hans took the opportunity to flank her, edging closer and closer to her unprotected side, staying out of sight all the while.

 

     At the base of a large tree some small distance away from his still-distracted sister, Hans stooped low to gather another snowball from the thin layer of snow that managed to make it through the tree’s widespread branches.  Taking a moment to aim, he let it fly as hard as he could, watching as it sailed through the air towards the completely unaware Anna.  With perfect accuracy, the ball slammed into her head, making contact at the temple and knocking her sideways.  She landed in a heap in the snow… and didn’t get back up again.

 

     Hans found himself watching, waiting for her to spring back up with another clump of snow.  After several moments, in which the air and snowfall, which had previously been so alive, seemed as still as his sister’s body, the young boy walked over to Anna’s motionless form.  It took but a moment to spot the rock that he must have accidentally gathered into the snowball, laying on the ground a foot away from the girl.  He looked curiously at Anna, studying how she lay, how completely unmoving she was, how little her chest rose and fell with her breaths, how the snow around her head seemed to slowly be turning red.  No natural reaction forthcoming, Hans could only observe as the young girl bled.

 

     “Anna!”  Hans’s transfixion was broken only by the voice behind him, a sharp cry that shattered the silence in the garden.  Glancing around, he spotted his mother sprinting through the snow towards him, followed closely by his eldest brother, Anders.  The woman reached her children, scooping the unconscious girl up and cradling her head in her arms.  Her voice was panic-stricken as she turned to Hans.  “What happened?”

 

     “We were playing, and she fell and hit her head on a rock,” he replied.  The lie sprung easily to his lips, and he continued.  “I was just about to come for you, she needs help!”

 

     His mother, the Queen of the Southern Isles, was too worried to question her youngest son any further, and immediately rushed for the doors of the courtyard, shouting for servants to fetch the royal doctor.  Anders, however, took a moment to look Hans over, appraising the boy with a suspicious eye.  Grunting harshly, he moved after the Queen without a word, leaving Hans alone in the middle of the courtyard.  With a blank look on his face, he stared back down at the small, crimson red stain in the snow, before following his brother inside.

 

--

 

     “Elsa!  Psst!”

 

     The whisper broke the peaceful quiet that had settled over the castle of Arendelle, its perpetrator peeking hopefully over the edge of the bed at his sister, golden blond hair falling over his eyes, wide and awake despite the late hour.  He clambered onto the bed, an impressive feat considering his tiny stature nearly preventing him from gaining a foothold.  Pouncing on top of his sister, the boy attempted to rouse her from her sleep.

 

     “Elsa!” he repeated.  “Wake up, wake up, wake up!”  He punctuated each phrase with a light shove to her shoulder, and was rewarded when she opened one eye and gave him an annoyed, albeit more than a little amused, look.

 

     The slightly older girl closed her eye again and said with a tired voice, “Kristoff… go back to sleep.”

 

     He responded by flopping over on top of her, his small body not weighing enough to hurt Elsa.  “I just can’t!  The night lights in the sky, they’re so bright and pretty.  That means we have to play!”

 

     “Go play by yourself,” she grunted as she flung and arm out and pushed the boy off of her and the bed, making him land softly on his rump below.  Rejected but not discouraged in the slightest, Kristoff hopped back up to his sister and peeled one of her eyelids back, looking intently into her icy blue eye hidden beneath.

 

     “Do you wanna build a snowman?” he asked, struck by a sudden inspiration, a sly smile spread across his face.  When Elsa smiled back, he knew she was helpless to refuse.  Mere moments later the two children were racing through the halls, Kristoff in the lead, unable to contain his excitement, dragging his sister along by the hand as they headed towards the ballroom.

 

     “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon!” the boy said as they ran along previously calm and quiet corridors, Elsa only half-heartedly trying to shush him, feeling the same excitement herself.