Elsa Comes Out: Dancing Through the Night

        The drawing room was distressingly cramped. Between Elsa and Anna, their guards, Kai, the messenger, and his guards, it was standing room only.

        Elsa was dumbfounded by what the messenger had to say

“Say that again?”

The man bowed, and repeated the last part of his missive, “The Queen Mother, shall be arriving four days hence.”

        Elsa allowed the man to leave and the messenger bowed once more and retreated. The whole audience was thrown together rather haphazardly. Elsa had given the man free board in some of the castle apartments. All the better to not run back to their cousin and tell them how terribly they received him.

        And to buy them some more time to throw something together to greet her.

        The rest of the audience left, the guards finally filing out leaving the sisters alone once again.

Elsa put her head in her hands,”This is terrible.”

        “What? It’ll be nice to see Auntie again. It’s been so long,” Anna said looking up from her book, “I haven’t seen her since I was… eight?”

        “Seven,” came Elsa’s muffled voice, “I was ten.”

        “So what’s the problem?”

        “She’s the Queen Mother, Anna,” Elsa said, rubbing her face, “We have to prepare; we have to have a proper reception. There has to be a party.”

        “Oh! You should let me be in charge of the party!” Anna said standing up, “We’ll have purple and gold curtains, and, and tapestries. Little sandwiches and we’ll cut out the olives to look like-”

        “Anna, do we even have any of that?”

        “I’m sure we have everything from when she last came. Do you think Uncle will come? OH we should have a dance!”

        “Anna…”

 

        Regardless of any actually order, Anna was true to her word, throwing herself whole heartedly into preparing a receiving party. Old wall hangings, not seen for nearly ten years were found and set out, food was test and selected, slowly the audience chamber’s paintings of famous battles waged, the royal heirs, kings and queens, tapestries showing the lines of queens, were replaced with purple, green, and gold.

        “I have to say, Anna, you’ve done very well,” said Elsa, looking around the room. The sconces along the pillars cast a warm light around the room, even in the darkness of the early evening the place was inviting, “What are the wires for?”       

        Anna looked up, “We’re going to be hanging lanterns there. They have that tradition there, right? And around the columns we’re going to have golden tulips and crocus and it’s going to look so great!”

        Elsa looked around and tried to imagine what it would be like when the party arrived. In would come the guests. Prominent families in the kingdom would be the only ones able to attend. They’d have to gather all of the court guests to fill everything out. In enter the Queen Mother and her husband, then their retinue. Greetings shared, she’d have to make some kind of official greeting and proclamation, and the party would start.

        “I didn’t just ask you here to see how you were doing, actually, Anna.”

        “Hmm?”

        “I um. That is, the dance…”      

Anna chuckled, “Haven’t you and Kristoff been practicing?”

        “Well…” she hadn’t been.

        “You’ve still got two left feet.”

        “More like two left clogs…” Elsa said hanging her head.

Anna laughed while she rubbed her sister’s shoulder, “You want me to help?”

        With a strained smile Elsa looked up, “Please?”

        “Come on”

        Anna pulled her sister into the center of the chamber and the two quickly started going through the steps. Anna led the queen through the dance, four steps in and they turned another four steps and another turn.

        “What are you talking about Elsa, you’re doing wonderfully!” Anna said as she spun her sister, “You’ll be dancing with Kristoff in no tiAAHM!”

        Elsa stopped as Anna hopped away, concern on her face, “Anna I’m sorry.”

        “It’s fine it’s fine,” Anna said, waving her sister off. Anna sat down in the throne and took off her shoe; rubbing her foot, “Hmm…” she put the shoe back on, “Let’s try something…”

        She got up and they tried again. Steps and turn, steps and turn, Anna spun her sister and they came together again. The pair danced through the pools of light.

        Anna stopped them, “Alright, so now let’s try something else.” She took her sisters hand again and pulled her closer than before. Elsa let out a little ‘oh!’ Anna smiled at that, “Now let’s have you close your eyes, and let’s say you’re dancing with Kristoff.”

        Elsa was able to get through ten steps before her heel came down on Anna’s toes. Anna sat on the floor, nursing her foot.

“I am so sorry, Anna, but you did have me close my eyes…”

“Yeah… that’s my fault,” Anna said with a smile. Her sister still needed her help.

 

        For the next three days the sisters spent their nights dancing through the audience chamber, as each day brought more and more decorations to the hall. Before long it was just like the coronation. Courtiers were assembled, larders, cabinets and grocers were raided and on the fourth day the royal party sailed into the harbor.

        Elsa wringed her hands. This would be her first real official reception since the coronation, and that worked out so well.

        It should be easy; all she had to do was remember to not freeze everything and everyone.

That should be easy.

        The queen looked over the guests. They certainly weren’t what you should have when greeting a woman who ruled a country as powerful as Corona, but with such short notice they didn’t have any time to invite anyone else; mostly just the court members that lived inside the walls of the city, a few village leaders from out in the woods, the head of the Ice Lake Mine, and of course the Ice Master.

        Kristoff pulled at the dark blue and purple doublet. It looked a little small on him, but it did show off his large shoulders. The purple stripe down the side of the trousers was a nice touch as well. He was doing his best to avoid speaking to the head maid. She was an older woman, and notorious for her flirting. Kristoff must have been fending off advances left and right. It was cute.

        Elsa still wasn’t sure how she felt about the man. She still felt the… what? The infatuation?  The attraction?  She still felt it from the weeks before. There were two sides to her about him. She knew that Anna loved the man and despite her sisters insistence otherwise she truly didn’t want to get between them. She’d hoped he’d forget about her and stay with Anna. Another part wished he’d walk up to her and sweep her off her feet. Oh they’d spent time together since, but nothing so intimate as their tryst in her bedroom. More than once she’d thought about the encounter, late in the night when no one was around-

        “He does look rather dashing, doesn’t he?” Anna said.

Elsa jerked out of the little day dream and looked at her sister, “Oh er, yes. Did he always have that?”   

        “Kristoff?” Anna laughed, “I practically had to dress him myself to get him to wear the outfit. He hates it.”

        “I think we should make it the Ice Master’s Official Dress.” Elsa said, grinning. The girls giggled together as the doors to the audience chamber opened and a herald dressed in the purple and gold of the visiting nation, a sun emblazoned on his chest.

        “Presenting The Queen Mother, Princess of Corona, Mother of King Maximillion, and beloved of the kingdom, and her husband!” the man shouted over the din of the room.

        When the woman entered it was to thunderous applause. She didn’t rule in Arendelle, but there wasn’t really a person alive there that didn’t know her. She was bedecked in a gown of pink and purple and gold, the sun of Corona stitched onto the bodice of the dress. Purple cloth was bunted around the skirt and it ruffled as she moved. The woman herself was old, by now she had to be nearly ninety years old but if there was an image for ‘aged well’ it was her, she barely looked fifty. It was said that she was often mistaken for her son’s wife, rather than his mother. She had longer hair than Elsa last remembered, but that was eleven years ago. A round face with large bright eyes, creases betrayed a life of smiles and laughter. The man was older, and looked older, but still very well preserved compared to others his age, over ninety years old and only barely looking sixty. He looked so debonair when they last visited, and now with more grey in his brown locks he looked downright regal.

        The couple walked down the aisle made by the crowd as they still applauded. They moved with a poise and elegance that both Elsa and Anna envied more than a little and both were left confounded when the royal couple reached the little dais. The Queen Mother curtsied to the sisters, the man bowed low.

        “It is wonderful to see you again, your majesty” the older woman said.

        “And you both look far lovelier than the last time we saw you,” added the man.

        To the rest of the world they were, possibly the most influential couple this side of the Rhine, to Elsa and Anna, they were Auntie ‘Zel and Uncle Eugene.

        “Stop it, Eugene, you’re far too old for either of them,” his wife said playfully slapping the man.

Both Anna and Elsa smiled at the couple.

        “All of Arendelle is happy to have you both here,” Elsa said, “You and your party can all stay for as long as you’d like.”

        The queen and princess both bowed to the couple, and the couple returned it. The musicians struck up another song and the girls stepped down from the dais and hugged the couple.

        “It’s wonderful to see you Auntie!” Anna laughed.

        “Oh my goodness, is that truly you, Anna? Look at you!”

        “Uncle Eugene,” Elsa said, as the man released her from the hug.

        “Little Elsa,” he said with a smile, “Look at how big you are. You look quite the queen.”

Elsa blushed at the platitude. The man took both her hands, “Perhaps, if my wife would let me, you and I could share a dance?”

        “Er. Hum, of course,” Elsa said, turning to the Queen Mother, “If Auntie ‘Zel is fine?”

The Queen Mother waved them off, “Oh please, I’ve had enough of the man on the boat. You’ll be doing me a favor.”

        The man pulled the queen out into the floor and amongst the crowd they danced.

 

        “I would simply love to hear more about how you slayed that awful snowman,” the woman said.

        “I er.. I actually just ran away from it. Uh…” Kristoff looked around him. There had to be someone who could get him away from this leering woman.

        “Oh no, I heard that you used those... big… strong shoulders, and just cut him down to size on that mountain…”

        “No, I’m pretty sure I ran…” Anna was near the thrones standing in a dress of green and a purple so dark it was black. She was speaking with the woman in pink. What had they called her? Mother something? She was introducing her to Olaf. No help there.

        The woman came closer, a devious luster in her eyes.

        “Oh er, it that the head cook? I should see if, uh. He needs more…uh. Ice…” He pulled away from the woman, and quickly tried to lose himself in the crowd. In doing so he found himself pushed to the edge of the dancers, and there found Elsa dancing with an older man. A man who, at one time, was a king.

        She was blushing. Laughing.

And she was actually really dancing. He’d never seen her dance before. The man never jumping from having a foot stepped on, never stopped because of a misstep. For once Elsa showed the same kind of elegance on a ballroom floor that she could show anywhere else.

        The couple spun and sashayed through the spotted chiaroscuro cast by the ‘floating lanterns’ Elsa and the man would move from light to dark, only to show up again in a shimmering brilliance.

Elsa was clothed in a dark blue dress with accents of icy blue, with a formal half jacket of the same color over it. As she turned the skirt would ever so slightly twist around her hips, hugging them close. The man leaned in and she laughed again.

        Kristoff wondered about the etiquette of asking a King if he could cut in.

 

        “…and then with the whole kingdom watching, he turned the pot over and dumped the whole thing over my head,” Eugene said with a grin.

        Elsa laughed and patted his chest, “I’m glad you’re here, Uncle.”

        “Well, we’re sorry we weren’t here for your parents when you needed us,” he said, “Or for your coronation. We did send the grandkids, but well, they didn’t fall far from the tree.”

        “They were a handful,” Elsa admitted.

He spun her, the skirt and jacket flinging out and returning as she did. He picked up and flicked her braid over her shoulder.

        “You’re wearing it down now?”

Elsa blushed again, “Yes, it… it feels better.”

        “It looks nice. A Queen should always look beautiful. I remember when Blondie was first put on the throne,” he said, a nostalgic smile playing on his face, “she had the entire kingdom fawning over her. I may have been the most envied man you’d see for miles.”

        Elsa laughed again as the both spun, “Why do you call Auntie ‘Blondie’ Uncle?”

        “No one ever told you that story?” he said as the music stopped. Like all the other couples he and Elsa bowed to each other. He straightened up, “Well it starts like this. ‘This is the story of how I died…’”

        “Excuse me?”

        Eugene stopped and turned around, far quicker than Kristoff would have expected from a man his age, “Yes?”

        “Kristoff?”

        The older man was grinning at him, “Er… mind if I… uhm… cut in?”

        Eugene looked the boy up and down a look of bemusement on his face. After a few moments he held up the queen’s hand, “If she says so.”

        Elsa took Kristoff’s hand; Eugene kissed her on the cheek. Kristoff over heard him whisper ‘You danced better when you were ten,’ and laugh as he walked off.

        “What was that about?”

        “He was just making a joke,” Elsa said.

New music struck up and Kristoff could already feel his feet start to ache. Elsa never stepped on a foot. A few steps in Kristoff spoke up.

        “What uh, kind of joke?”

        “When Uncle Eugene was her last, Anna and I both danced with him. I was ten and she was seven,” She laughed as they spun, “We did little more than just bounce around as we held his hands.”

        It was actually one of the few good memories she had after she’d hit Anna with her powers.

        “Well, you seemed to be having a find time with him,” Kristoff said.

Elsa smirked, “Kristoff, it sounds to me like you’re jealous.”

        “What? No. No. I’m not. Just-”

        “Well I’ll admit, back then I did sort of have a crush on him,” the queen said with a smile, “You know he proposed to me?”   

        “What?!” Kristoff said as he let go of the queen.

Elsa laughed, “When I was ten!” she took his hand again, “Uncle Eugene always loved stories. And what better story for a little girl trapped in her room than for a handsome prince to come and rescue her?”

        Kristoff stayed silent for a moment, until another thought occurred to him, “The former king of Corona is your uncle?”

        “Well… no. Auntie ‘Zel is our…” she trailed off as she remembered it, “First cousin, twice removed. But they’ve always been Uncle and Auntie. That’s what our parents called them.”

        “Huh.”     

        “We are royalty, even if we’re not the most prominent,” She said. Elsa rubbed Kristoff’s shoulder lightly. They were actually related pretty far and wide. Corona was simply their closest relation. Elsa had been a little interested in genealogy when she was younger; she’d read up on their family tree. Distant relations in Germany, France, Spain, Ireland, she was fairly certain that Anna’s erstwhile beau Hans had at least been a fourth cousin, “Since our parents died, Corona’s been the closest family Anna and I have.”

        Kristoff knew how the girls felt about family. He knew Anna loved him, and he loved her. He wasn’t sure about Elsa, but well… he cared about her too. He knew both of them would leave him behind if it was him or their sister.

The music came to an end. Kristoff was going to apologize for butting in, but Elsa cut him off, smiling.

        “Well maybe not all the family we have left.”