Elsa Comes Out: Girl Talk and Bar Talk

        Anna’s room, pink light reflecting off the walls and the sheets, carpet, and, well, everything else.

And it was a mess, and nearly absolute mess. How did she even get the curtains down? They’re twice as tall as her, at least!

        “Gerda, could you please get a maid in here to clean this?”

        “I’m sorry, your majesty, I just don’t know how she does it.” The maid replied with a bow.

        “You and I both, Gerda…”

Sigfred’s bed was little more than a mountain of blankets, with several from Anna’s bed added to it. Elsa couldn’t help but think of her sister, cocooned in the mass of sheet using the large cat as a pillow.

        “Is something wrong, your highness?”       

Elsa waved the woman away as she tried to stifle her laughter, “No no, it’s nothing. Thank you, Gerda.”

        Elsa left the head housekeeper in the room. It was one of those few and far between days when it seemed that nothing needed her attention. Arendelle marched on and on, all on its own. Elsa walked the halls of the castle, like she’d done time and time before, past drapery and portraits she’d already seen countless times.

        The queen stopped before a painting of her mother, and her parents, her grandfather and mother. The patriarch stood tall and grim, a great white beard with a small streak of blond hair running down it and a shortly cut head of hair. Her grandfather had come from the south, as she understood it, He’d asked after her grandmother seven times as a suitor before she relented. She looked happy in the painting, laugh lines and crow’s feet telling a life of smiles. The then queen wrote the diadem in her auburn locks, pulled back into a bun as was the custom.

        Elsa’s mother stood in front of her parents, she must have been sixteen at the time. She smiled like she always did and like her mother her hair was pulled back, but in a very loose and messy bun. Maybe that’s why grandfather had that scowl?

        “Oh I remember this painting,” came a perky voice behind her. Elsa turned to find her cousin standing near the other wall. Elsa’s twice removed cousin and her husband had stayed in the castle on into the autumn. They’d have to leave somewhat soon, if they wanted to beat any kind of freezing of the fjord.

        “You do?”

        “Of course. This was painted just before your mother and father met,” Rapunzel smiled, “Or given Julius’ face, maybe right after.”

        Elsa returned the older woman’s smile, “He certainly seems imposing.”

        “He only looked that way, he was such a softie. Always doted on your mother, you know. She was always his little princess.”

        “Like Anna was for momma and papa,” Elsa mumbled to herself.

        “Hmm?”

        “Nothing.”

Elsa was of two minds about the royal party. It was nice seeing them, but the smirks and the grins and questions were starting to unnerve the queen of Arendelle. She had enough with her own problems without the older couple meddling with her feelings.

Elsa’s cousin looked her up and down, then shrugged, “Your grandfather and your father never really saw eye to eye, now that I remember it,” she started to walk off. Elsa hurried after her.

        “What do you mean?”

        “Oh, people never get on with their in-laws, Elsa,” a faint smiled was waxing on the woman’s face, maybe from a memory, “And fathers never get along with their son-in-laws.”

        The pair had come to a painting of Elsa and Anna’s father and mother, standing together in very formal wear. The man in a nearly black waistcoat with a purple and gold sash, and white pants. His hair was shorter than the family portrait and he didn’t even have his mustache.

        “Oh now this one was of when they were just married,” Rapunzel said to herself, “I still kick myself for not being here,” she looked at the younger woman, “Do be sure to invite me for your wedding, Elsa.”

        “Oh yes, of course Auntie,” Elsa said, “Wait what?”

Elsa looked into the beguilingly innocent smile of the other woman, “Oh, wonderful,” she said, “Any ideas on who the lucky man might be?”

        “Auntie, that’s not really- I don’t think that will be for some time…“ Elsa stammered.

        “Oh that’s such a pity, Elsa. I hear you’ve had some very fine suitors.”

        “Most of them are really just scared of me…”

        “One of the princes was very handsome I heard. What was his name? Gregor? I think… Of the Southern Isles-“

        “No.” Elsa said flatly. She’d see to it that not another sprig from the Southern Isles would take root in the Aren family tree, even if it took a thousand years.

        “Oh well,” she said with sly smile, “You’ve met Justin, maybe we could have another joining of our families?”

        She had met her distant cousin, and his sister. They’d arrived for the coronation, and frankly, left much to be desired by way of courtly conduct. Elsa and just glad they could get the stains out of the curtains and off the ceilings.

        “I don’t really think so…”

        “Ahh well… maybe someone a little closer to home then? We’ll just have to find someone from your court I suppose.”

        Elsa thought about her court. Most of them were old men and women. People her father and mother had elevated to their positions, some of whom only recently had come back into their titles. All except one.

        “This is about Kristoff, isn’t it?”      

Her cousin smiled, “Got it in one.”

 

        Kristoff mopped the sweat from his forehead after hauling the last of the ice blocks into place.

Around him the air of the icehouse fogged and at his feet a perpetual mist clouded the floor.

        “Alright, that’s the last of it,” he said, climbing the ramp out of the cold cellar.

        “You’re a blessing in disguise” the proprietor said, “This should last us a good long while.”

There were few people in Arendelle that really appreciated Kristoff’s job. What did they need with an Ice Master and harvesters if the queen could just make the ice? At a certain point he just got tired of telling them the queen would just never have the time.

        “Well, it’s only mid autumn; I’ll be heading back out again in a day or so.”

        “You’re a saint, Ice master,” the man smiled.

        “Well this saint likes to get paid all the same. I don’t get an allowance for this, Brynn”

        “Yes yes, of course,” the man counted out the copper and silver coins, “There we are.”

Kristoff scooped up the payment and said hid good byes, the man yelled out for him to spend it on something nice for the princess. Kristoff just hurried off without a reply.

        “Well how’s it feel to be back, buddy?” Kristoff called as he turned the corner to find Sven obediently standing by the sledge. The Reindeer hooted back. A day or two before they headed back out, that was all they really had. Kristoff patted the animal’s neck. He really should look in on Anna, but if he was being frank, he really just wanted some time alone, kind of a strange thought considering he’d been out in the mountains for weeks on end without seeing another person. Well except that one time.

        Kristoff scratched his head at the thought, “Come on buddy, I’ll put you up at a good stable, how about that?”   

        “You mean I’m not going with you?”

        “Nah, buddy. You know they don’t let reindeer in the taverns. Not after last time.”

The reindeer hung its head, dejected.

        “Don’t be like that, Sven. I’ll make sure you get plenty of carrots wherever I put you up, how about that?”

        The place wasn’t too bad actually, big, warm, and Kristoff doubted he’d be able to forget the face Sven made when he saw the giant pile of carrots sitting there for him. Sven nearly had the whole place to himself too, no horses to bother him or anything.

        With that sorted Kristoff headed into town and ended up in one of the two places any young man arriving in town with a pocket full of money would end up.

        The Lute and Fisc tavern was one of the older establishments in the city. Kristoff glanced up at the sign, depicting the stringed instrument over a purse before going in, ignoring the well read sign by the door. Inside was a smattering of patrons, most sitting in tables on their own, a few in couples. Kristoff looked around, doing his best not to breath, and walked to the bar counter. He’d been coming in here ever since they’d let him through the doors and the place hadn’t changed since then. Same tables, same chairs, same stools, same barman.

        “Hallo Mattheus, give me a pint,” Kristoff slapped a few coppers onto the counter top.

        “Right you are, Kris,” the barman said. Mattheus has the bushiest pair of eyebrows Kristoff had ever seen, that and the mustache that ran from the man’s lips right to his ears made it all the more apparent that he had not a single hair or scruff on the top of his head. He poured out a mug of beer from the barrel and handed it over.

        “Thanks,” Kristoff said before taking a swig. The beer was stale, but the first drink here always was. It just got better the more you drank. Finishing the mug, Kristoff ordered another one. Another pour and another frothy mug was placed in his hand.

        “Well look who it is!” Kristoff jumped as hand was clapped onto his shoulder, nearly spilling out his drink. He glanced behind him and came face to face with the elderly man he’d seen at the royal ball nearly a month ago.

        “Ah, uhm. The uh, the Queen’s Uncle, right?”

        “Eugene, to you,” The man said, sitting down beside him, “I thought I saw you coming in here. Where have you been?”

He already smelled of alcohol.

        “Shouldn’t you be in the castle?”

        “I’m sure my cousin-in-law has told you castles can be horribly boring,” he said, “Barkeep! Give me another!”

        Another mug was offered and Eugene eagerly picked it up. Kristoff leaned forward, “How many has he had so far?”    

        “Five,” Mattheus said back with a shrug.

        “Six now!” Eugene said, “You know, kid, you don’t get beer like this in a castle. Most places wouldn’t even stoops so low as to serve beer like this! I mean it as a compliment of course Mattie.”

        The barman turned his glare away from the old king and went back to wiping down the counter.

        “You only get this stuff in the really good bars, see?” Eugene went on pulling Kristoff into a one armed hug, “And lucky for you, I know exactly how you can tell which is which. You just close your eyes and walk in and take a big whiff. If you don’t get the color brown, you just walk right out. Or into a door. I’m sure I’ve hit a door once or twice.”

        “Yeah that’s really great…” Kristoff struggled out of the man’s grip.

        “So is that no reindeer sign out front because of you?”

        “Oh uh, yeah, it is” he said sheepishly.

        Eugene laughed and held up his mug to the younger man, “Cheers!”

Begrudgingly Kristoff knocked his own mug against his and the two started to drink. And drink, and drink. Kristoff glanced at the older man, who wasn’t even pausing between gulps. Not wishing to be outdone he gulped down his own beer as fast as he could. Neither mug was going to hit the counter unless it was empty.

 

        Elsa hurried through the hallways, doing everything she could just short of running to get away from her cousin, but the older woman was far faster than she looked.

        “I am not going to talk about this, Auntie.”

        “You’re going to have to as some point. There’s only so many halls,” Rapunzel said, just a few steps behind the girl.

        Elsa stopped and spun around, a clouding flurry following the draped cloth of her sleeves “Why does it even matter to you?”

        “Because it should,” the older woman said, brushing a snowflake from her shoulder and into oblivion, “And it should matter to you too.”

        Elsa stared at her relative in disbelief as the cloud of snow settled around them.

        “What is it dear?”

        “W-why aren’t you scared?”

        “About what?”

        “My powers?”

        “Oh please, I’ve seen more impressive,” Rapunzel said dismissively.

        “What?”

        “Tell me about Kristoff,” she insisted.

Somewhat stunned Elsa backed up against a wall. She shook her head, “He-he’s just a friend. Anna wanted him to have a place in court so she could see him.”

        “Oh come on, dear, do you really think you’re the only one I’ve asked about him?” she said, “Anna said you were learning to dance for him.”

        “I didn’t…”

        “And I watched you dance with him. Those little touches to his shoulders and back, that smile of yours, oh I remember when I was flashing those at Eugene,” she was starting to sound whimsical.

        Elsa sighed, “I… I uh. I don’t know.”  

        “Elsa-“

        “No, I don’t know, Auntie.”

        “Well, I do. You care about the man. You snuck out to see him. No, don’t deny it I know,” Arendelle’s queen looked hurt and Rapunzel relented, “Look, girl, you’ve not done anything wrong…”

        “Can we not do this here? Someone might hear.”

        The pair walked through the halls to Rapunzel’s apartments, the older woman all smiles, and the young queen crestfallen. When they arrived Elsa told her cousin about what had happened. Anna’s little plan, her well, yes, date with Kristoff, and all the little days afterwards.

        The look of surprise on the woman’s face made her feel a little better about the embarrassment.

        “I never really meant for it, I told Anna the same thing.”

        “Well in truth, this isn’t as bad as I was expecting,” Rapunzel said, “If Anna seems fine with this, what’s the problem?”

        “I don’t know,” Elsa said, “I’m not even sure if I…”     

        “Love him?”

Elsa didn’t respond, the older woman pushed on, “You snuck out of the castle at night to see him. What in the world did you think that meant?”

        “I don’t know. And even if I did, I couldn’t do anything…”

Rapunzel’s eye brow rose, “Couldn’t do anything? You’re queen, Elsa, you can do nearly anything you want.”

        “It’s bad enough Anna wants to marry him, Auntie. At least for her an exception can be made, she’s not the queen. A… an ice harvester wouldn’t do.”

        “Oh, Elsa,” Rapunzel took the girls hands, “Do you know what Eugene was doing when we had found each other?”

        “He rescued you from a castle, or something didn’t he?”

        “Oh God, no! He was stealing the crown.”

        “What?”

        “Oh not this one, the official one. He was a thief, dear. He still is, you’ll want to check our luggage before we leave.”

        Elsa chuckled at the older woman as she smiled.

        “So you see I’ve already gotten you beat there and my husband only saved me. This fellow helped save the both of you,” she said, putting her hand on Elsa’s, “You might find that people are very forgiving if it makes their queen happy.”

        Elsa looked down at her hands, “I’m just… scared.”

Rapunzel sat down next to the girl and pulled her into a hug, “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my years, Elsa, it’s that you should never be scared to love.”

 

        The entire tavern was in an uproar as Eugene led them on into another song.

“Og vi skåler for våre venner og de som vi kjenner, og de som vi ikke kjenner, de driter vi i, hei skål! Og så svinger vi på seidelen igjen, hei skål!” he sang with the other patrons.

        “This doesn’t make any sense, how does he know these songs?” Kristoff asked himself.

        “Oh kid, don’t you know? Everyone drinks in the same language!” Eugene said as he downed the last of his mug. He’d gotten a cheer when he announced that he’d be paying for all the drinks. He didn’t tell everyone that he was going to be getting all of the drinks. He wobbled a bit as he slapped Kristoff on the back, “Wossa song mean anyway?”

        Kristoff closed his eyes, trying to concentrate through the floating sea of beer that was doing its best to occupy his skull. “uhh.. ‘A toast to our friends and those we know. And those we don’t know we don’t give a shit. Now let’s take the neighbor’s wife home.’”

        Eugene gave him another slap on the back, “Hah! I like this song!” He raised his mug and got another cheer from the tavern.

        Kristoff’s nice quiet day to himself had, somewhere along the line, gone awry. How’d he even get away from the bar? When did he sit down at this table?

        He felt Eugene sit next to him on the bench, rocking the whole thing as he nearly dropped himself on to it. The older man once again clapped a hand onto his shoulder.

        “I te- Tell you, Christopher, iss good to get outta those placess.” The old king slurred.

        “Well, at-at least we agree on that,” Kristoff looked up. He always got a little antsy if he couldn’t see the sky. He looked Eugene grin.

        “Sssee? Lookit us, fast friends! Ha!”

The man had to have had more than two dozen beers by now, “How… how are you not dead?” Kristoff blurted out.

        “What?”    

        “You’re. You’re like. So old howre you not dead from all thisssdrinking? Whyre you so. So…. Spry!”

        “Well there’s this flower. Right?” Eugene said.

        “And?”

        “And what?”

        “What about the flower?”   

        “What flower?”

        “Huh?”     

        “You’re not making any sense.”

The two men stared at each other, Kristoff to his credit still sat there, sturdy as a mountain, and Eugene couldn’t help but sway.

        The tavern had become livelier in the half hour since Kristoff and Eugene had started drinking. Maybe it was the old king but Kristoff had never remember the Lute and Fisc as being this popular. All around their table men cheered and caroused and, this being Arendelle, a number of the women drank more and cheered louder than the men.

        “Can I ask you a question?” Eugene finally asked, breaking the would be silence between the two men.

        “Hmm?” Kristoff just generally looked out at the people around him; this whole place was starting to get a little too much like his family.

        “How did you do it?”

        “What?”

        “You know, get both of them under your thumb?”

        “What are you talking about?”

Eugene leaned in close and maybe it was just Kristoff’s imagination, but he stopped his swaying, and his voice no longer slurred, “What does it take for a guy to romance both the princess and the queen, eh?”

        Kristoff stared at him, for how long he didn’t know, but he stared until the man’s words finally clicked in his head, “How? What? Who told you about that?”

        “I heard it from a little flower,” the older man grinned; he slapped the young man’s arm, “Come on, let’s find some place that’s a little quieter.”

        When Kristoff didn’t move, Eugene told him that if he’d rather have him just talk about this in front of everyone in the Tavern that was fine. Reluctantly the mountain man stood up and followed him to a more secluded corner. Eugene sat down and put his feet up on the table.

        “The way I see it, most men would be more than happy with just one of them. So how’d you end up in this mess?”

        Kristoff looked into his beer, “I don’t know. It just kind of happened.” He looked up into the expectant face of the man, he wasn’t satisfied. Kristoff rubbed his forehead, “It was Anna’s idea that startedet. She wanted me to show Elsa what it was like outside the castle. Then she started join in on these little days off and I take them out and such. It all just sort of happened.”

        “So you fell for the queen.” Eugene summed up. Kristoff hung his head as Eugene put his hands behind his own, “Well, I can relate to that. But I have to ask. Why Elsa?”

        Kristoff looked at the man, it was clear to Eugene he didn’t understand the question.

        “I mean, what is it about her? To me, Anna is obvious,” he said, “She’s so much like Blondie. Elsa’s cold in comparison.”

        “She’s not always like that…” Kristoff said, “I mean on her own, I guess she can be, if you don’t know her. But being the queen? Standing there and smiling and waving and all that official stuff? That’s not really her. Get her out of that, get her with her sister, she’s just a girl like everyone else,” He smiled as he finished, “Both of them are just missing something when they’re on their own.”

        Eugene couldn’t help the warm smile, Rapunzel didn’t really have a ‘secret face’ herself, she was always Rapunzel.

        “So why are you here, then? Not up in the castle?”

        “The whole thing’s a mess,” Kristoff said, “After I told Elsa about how I felt some… well, some things happened and I guess we pretended it never happened.”

        Eugene could see how this was turning out. No wonder his wife wanted to get into it. Young people today were so turned about, “How about I give you another round, eh?”

 

        The sun was just starting to pour itself over the sky by the time Kristoff had set out back into the mountains. The light sparkled off of faint dew on the grass and trees as he and Sven made their way out of town on the sledge, its wheels creaking over the compact dirt. He’d been marginally surprised to find how much money he still had in his pockets after what seemed like a day of drinking. He was also surprised at just how much it felt like a weight had been taken off his shoulders. He’d been talking to Anna’s Uncle, he remembered. And he’d said somethings hadn’t he? About Elsa?

        Whatever he’d told him it made Kristoff feel better about the whole affair.

As he and Sven crested the hills outside of town he looked back. The castle had always dominated the view of Arendelle, but now it seemed like it was for a reason other than architecture.

        Kristoff might have been interested to know that at the same time Elsa was leaning out through an open window, similar relief having touched her as well. It would have been romantic to think that, at that moment, the two would be lovers were looking out at each other, but the window Elsa had opened looked out into the sea. But she thought of the mountain man, so that should count for something.