Of Frozen Bitterness

Five; Hans's Story

If Elsa were to compare the worst weekends between her weekends alone, isolated in her room to royal delegates having provocative meetings with her - the worst would be the latter. Not that Elsa hates anyone or anything, it's just that she's not really a people person. Her coronation night was quite enough of a traumatic number of people to talk to, what more if the depth of the conversations go beyond casual greetings? Needless to say, she had quite enough with people on a specified weekend. It only made things worst for her, to be honest.

At least it was over now. Yesterday, the tradable goods from the Southern Isles have arrived, as promised by Hans. Elsa hadn't really talked about the amount that their kingdom will be giving hers, but when she saw how many there were, her mouth went agape. The Southern Isles had sent enough to feed two armies. She felt grateful for it and mentally noted down to call up the Corona kingdom to help her with the agricultural growth of her kingdom so she'd have something to pay the Southern Isles back.

Much to her dismay, neither Christian nor Hans came yesterday. Instead, Anderson did. Anderson was the least person she'd expect to meet on a Monday. Elsa never really liked his attitude. She has a feeling that he likes pushing people even though its beyond their obligation and she didn't like someone abusing their power. However, Anderson can be formal and quite serious about the trading and the mechanisms of it - which is a few points up for someone at the bottom of the family tree.

The only good thing about the weekend was that the winter was slowly being thawed. Whenever she's not on a meeting, she'd go to the gardens and practice controlling her powers. Every once in a while, she tried to thaw the garden and almost half of it is thawed now. Although she isn't sure if the kingdom itself is slowly being thawed, at least she knows that there's progress in thawing the kingdom. It was better than nothing, that's for sure. She'd have to thank Christian again for helping her in controlling and concealing her powers without the gloves. It was really heavenly not using gloves anymore.

While Elsa was organizing the trades from the Southern Isles yesterday in the ball room on a cold, winter morning, Olaf gave her an idea that would probably be the death of her.

"Maybe you should hold a ball in here tomorrow, Elsa!" Olaf suggested as he counted the apples in the wooden box. He suddenly frowned, not remembering what comes after twenty nine. Giving up with a small sigh, he turned to her. "You know... just to celebrate! New trading partners and all that. Wow, that'd be a scene."

Elsa pursed her lips as she marked something on her clipboard. "I'm not sure, Olaf. I mean, these goods have just arrived today. It's going to take a few days to settle everything in the kingdom with these."

"Really, Elsa, you've got to relax a bit." Olaf sat lazily on the floor. "You've been talking to people all weekend, which is weird, considering that you hate people."

"I don't hate people." Elsa defended, slightly offended. "I just... I'm not used to them."

"Uhuh," Olaf nodded, not convinced. "And now you have this heap of materials to count. Do yourself and your kingdom a favor. Open up the gates!"

"Olaf, the last time I opened up the gates I threw Hans out of the window due to irritation." Elsa interjected, remembering that very afternoon when Hans tried to get to her and the only way to get away from him was to throw him out through the window. "This time, I might throw innocent people out."

"You only threw Hans out because he was being annoying." Olaf reasoned as he stood up and waddled up to her. "Come on, Elsa! It'd be like a celebration because of the new trade partner. Plus, it's your birthday tomorrow."

Elsa's eyes widened. Call her crazy or insane, but she was probably the only queen existent who has forgotten when her own birthday is. "How did you know?"