Chapter Text
Kristoff and Sven traveled down the mountain through the night and arrived in the square as the first rays of early morning light crested over the mountains. The square was quickly filling up with vendors, townsfolk, and visitors as ships arrived in the harbor carrying envoys from other nations, who hadn’t been invited to Arendelle since the death of the king and queen. Kristoff noted with satisfaction that the weather was quickly heating up, which meant he would likely do well in selling his ice today.
He set up his cart quickly and immediately people began flocking to him and Sven to buy ice for their drinks, or just to hold against their heads to cool off. One adorable little girl had no money, but she begged Kristoff to trade a carrot for a little ice chip, and he was only too happy to oblige.
He turned to Sven to give him the carrot, teasing him a little by doing a silly voice to imitate what he thought Sven might say.
“What do you want, Sven?” he asked, then responded in the voice he always used for Sven, “Give me a snack?”
Sven was used to Kristoff’s antics and waited with patient excitement for Kristoff to give him the first bite of the carrot. Still teasing, Kristoff gave himself a bite of the carrot as well, rewarding them both with a treat after their successful morning of sales.
Just then, there was a flurry of excitement from the milling crowd, as Princess Anna made her way through the square. It was rare for there to be a sighting of one of the two mysterious princesses – Kristoff hadn’t had a glimpse of either of them since that night the royal family visited the trolls under the Northern Lights. He couldn’t help but notice her beauty, although he supposed all princesses were beautiful. But there was something about the bright sparkle in her blue eyes that drew him in, made him want to step closer and see if he could catch her eye. She looked overjoyed to be there, smiling and waving at people as she danced around, singing about how excited she was to be out of the castle for the first time in forever. Everyone who saw her was drawn in, and Kristoff couldn’t help but smile as he watched her dance down to the docks.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed someone else was watching the princess as well. It was a well-dressed man, one of the foreign princes, sitting on an enormous horse. The prince was handsome, and his smile was affectionate, but there was something about the sharp look in his eye that made Kristoff want to put himself between him and the princess. Before Kristoff could even process that crazy impulse, the prince urged his horse forward toward Princess Anna so that the horse bumped into her – and she stumbled and fell toward the water.
Without realizing he had moved, Kristoff had already started to run toward her, although he was so far away he had no hope of catching her before she fell in. But the prince on the horse caught her first, and they tumbled into a rowboat that was tied to the dock. The prince’s horse caught the rowboat with its foot, and with a few stumbles, Kristoff watched as the two clumsily clambered out of the boat. Kristoff was glad to see that the prince appeared to be apologizing profusely to Princess Anna. The princess didn’t seem to be angry or upset at all, and Kristoff figured they probably knew each other. They were both royals, after all. As the princess walked off, Kristoff watched the prince wave goodbye to her from the rowboat with a dumbstruck expression on his face. The prince’s horse put his front hoof up to wave goodbye as well, forgetting that he was holding the prince in place, and the prince tumbled down into the water with a splash.
Kristoff laughed as he turned away, but he also thought, Good. That prince deserved it – he could have hurt Princess Anna with his careless stunt.
…
Anna watched Elsa out of the corner of her eye as the national choir intoned a low melody from their position above the princesses’ heads. Throughout the coronation, Anna could almost feel the nerves rolling off of Elsa in cold waves as her sister focused on the bishop performing the ceremony. Anna had been distracted for a moment as she noticed her new friend, Prince Hans, who had rescued her when his horse accidentally knocked her off the dock. He waved at her awkwardly, as an old man snored and drooled a little bit on his shoulder, clearly not finding this pomp and circumstance to be of interest. Anna waved back, forgetting to be royal and regal as she giggled at his predicament.
But now, Anna’s focus was fully on Elsa as the bishop reminded her sister to remove her gloves before picking up the ceremonial orb and scepter to complete the ceremony. Anna repressed a shiver as she watched Elsa take a deep breath before spinning around to face the crowd while holding the objects. In the blink of an eye, Elsa had spun back around to place them back on the pillow, and was pulling her gloves back on. Anna felt warm waves of relief from Elsa as the ceremony concluded, and she smiled in pride for her sister. Even as she felt Elsa’s nerves, she knew Elsa would be a good ruler for their kingdom. Even though Elsa never left her room, she had never failed to provide guidance and instruction for the care and keeping of the kingdom in the form of written notes passed under her door since their parents’ death.
From reading those notes, Anna knew that Elsa hadn’t wanted to have a public coronation ceremony or open the gates again to the foreign visitors. Anna guessed that Elsa doubted her own ability to lead at such a young age, but she hoped that seeing how well this day was going, and how happy everyone was to be freely moving about Arendelle again would encourage Elsa to keep the gates open and allow for open trade again. Anna had full faith in her sister, and knew if she allowed them the chance, the people would love her just as much as Anna did.
Everything just had to go perfectly today, so Elsa would see there was no harm in keeping the gates open. It was a lot to hope for, but on this beautiful, wonderful day, Anna couldn’t help but feel optimistic.