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elsanna-shenanigans · 1 year

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January/December Contest Submission #7: Sleep Fighter

Words: ca. 2,500 Setting: canon divergent Lemon: no Content: anxiety, implied violence, off-screen death

Sleep-Fighter

Anna rolled over, night sweat prickling at her skin. Her breaths were quick and shallow as she searched the castle.

“Where’s Elsa?” she murmured to herself, racing down hallways. “I need to find her!” Anna’s footsteps ricocheted - tap tap tap tap tap! - off the stone surrounding her as she hurriedly spiraled down a dark tower staircase.

“Maybe - the kitchens,” she panted. The stairwell opened back up into a wide hallway and she took off in the direction of one of her favorite places in the whole castle.

As she ran and panted, a lovely warm scent of baking bread pervaded her senses. It was almost enough to calm her down and make her stop for a minute, just to breathe — but she couldn’t.

She had to find her sister.

She needed her.

Soon, Anna burst into the kitchens, startling a handful of the nightly bakers who were busy preparing the next day’s breads and pastries.

“Oh, dear! Princess, what on earth is the matter?” Frieda, Anna’s favorite baker asked, placing a hand over her chest in shock. It was certainly not the first time Anna had journeyed to the kitchens at night, but she usually wasn’t barging in as if she needed to warn them of a catastrophe.

“I need to find Elsa,” Anna said breathlessly. “Have you seen her?”

“Oh, no, dear, I’m so sorry—!” Frieda was saying as Anna grabbed a fresh loaf, raised it in thanks, and spun back out the door.

As Anna ran, continuing her search, she tore off a soft piece of warm bread, stuffing it in her mouth. There was never too inappropriate a time for fresh bread, after all.

“Mmm…” she slowed down, approaching a window nook in the hallway. “Just a quick little break…” Anna mumbled with her mouth full, letting her back slide down the wall. She took another bite directly off the loaf and leaned her head back to the wall. Why was bread so good? Anna’s tongue felt coated with the soft, comforting flavors of stolen wheat. She could taste the care that the night workers baked with, reminding Anna of the first loaf she ever stole, back before anything traumatic had even happened in her life. Before her sister had changed, before her parents had left, before Hans — “Ugh. I need to find Elsa.”

Anna swallowed her bite, and abandoned half of the bread loaf by the window, feet taking her away down the hall once more.

She continued searching the castle as her mind filled with thoughts of Hans and his trickery. His charming smile, his stupid, handsome outfit and outstretched hand for their first dance. Ugh, she’d been so relieved not to be dancing with some old, gross dignitary, she’d let her naivety cloud her vision.

Leave it to baby-Anna to think she’s falling for the first guy to give her any attention in her entire life.

And look where that had gotten her — Hans almost gained control of their entire kingdom. He almost killed Elsa. Elsa! Where was she?

Anna was beginning to worry.

She had to find Elsa before… Before what?

Fear and confusion prickled at the edges of Anna’s mind. Why was she looking for her sister?

She stopped in her tracks, near the dark, empty ballroom.

When had she started looking for her sister? It felt like she always had been. It was at least all night. But this night felt like it was stretching on and on, for ages.

Anna tried to think back to the beginning of the night.

She was… sleeping, yes. Elsa was… next to her? In bed? Like she was supposed to be?

Anna’s cheeks warmed.

Yes… she and Elsa had spent the evening tangled together under the royal bed sheets. Anna absent-mindedly swept her fingers past her lips, feeling a soft tingle as she remembered what else those lips had been doing.

“Elsa,” she whispered, suddenly remembering how she’d woken up early in the night, after just barely drifting to sleep, to find her bed empty.

That’s why she was looking for Elsa. They had just — and she disappeared. Where would she have gone?

Anna started walking again, jogging even, through the empty castle halls. What was Elsa thinking? Was she regretting what they’d done? Anna’s cheeks burned. She would never regret the way she felt for her sister, but she could understand why Elsa might’ve been scared off.

All Anna had wanted was to wake up next to Elsa, for her to be the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes. She had been wishing for that for quite a while, and that night it should’ve come true. Anna should’ve opened her eyes to find her sister laying there in her bed, blissfully asleep.

Instead she was racing through the castle, growing more and more anxious about where Elsa had gone.

Eventually she found herself farther down than she’d ever wandered, and her sister was standing there, waiting for Anna to find her.

In a trance, Anna walked up to Elsa, relief washing over her like a waterfall.

She couldn’t believe she found her! Anna reached out her hands and Elsa took them, squeezing them eagerly.

“Anna!”

Anna smiled.

“Anna?”

The smile dropped slightly as she answered, “What?”

“Anna! Wake up! ANNA!”

She opened her eyes and let in a long, strangled gasp. “Elsa!”

Anna spun her head around, blinking heavily, taking in the scene around her.

Elsa asked, “How did you get past the guards? You were sleepwalking?”

“I…” She was lost for words. She was in the dungeon, and Elsa was… “I… needed to find you.”

Elsa was locked up in the dungeon.

“I’m glad you did find me, Anna, but… how? How did you get past all the guards? Are you okay?” She reached for Anna, but her hands were bound in heavy chains.

Anna was still blinking the sleep from her eyes, trying to make sense of what was going on. “I was dreaming,” she said slowly. “In my dream, we were in my bed but then you left, and I was just… looking for you. I was searching all over the castle, and eventually I ended up here and I found you — you were holding my hands. And then I woke up… to this. I don’t know how I actually got here. You’re right, there should’ve been guards, but in my dream the castle was empty, except for the kitchens.”

Anna’s mind was soon flooded with the truth. With reality. The truth was that, when Anna had found Elsa on the frozen fjord, and Hans had been about to kill her, Anna had leapt in front of the sword. The next moment, she’d turned to ice, making the sword bounce feebly off of her. Before Anna had a chance to thaw, Elsa broke down and let Hans and his men take her back to the dungeons. He gained control of the crown immediately, and even though Anna’s body soon thawed, there was nothing she could do to stop his takeover of the kingdom.

That had been a few weeks ago now, and Anna hadn’t gotten to see Elsa since. She had been all but confined to her room while Hans no doubt prepared their imminent wedding.

“I’m so sorry they have you locked up, Els,” Anna rushed to her sister and hugged her cold, chained form.

Elsa softened at Anna’s touch. “I wasn’t sure if you…” she said quietly. “I heard the guards talking as if you were still here, but… I thought I killed you, Anna.” Her eyes were downcast when Anna pulled back to look at her.

“Hey,” Anna said, touching Elsa’s chin. “Look at me.”

Elsa’s eyes met hers in the dark dungeon chamber.

“I’m here. I’m alive. You didn’t hurt me, and you never would, okay? I love you.”

Silent tears fell down Elsa’s face. “I love you, too. How did it all come to this?” she shook her head. “You need to get out of here, Anna. It isn’t safe to be down here with me. If they find you…?”

Anna shook her head. “No, I have to get you out of here. Hans is trying to have us married — and soon. If he does that, I don’t know how we’d ever get Arendelle back from him. We have to do this now.”

“Do what now?” Fear danced behind Elsa’s eyes.

“Do you think you can freeze through the metal on your hands?”

“What? Anna—!”

“Can you?” Anna repeated fiercely.

Elsa looked down at her hands, bound in thick metal gauntlets. “I probably can. But you��d have to stand back.”

“You probably can — but you’ve never tried?” Anna asked. “For weeks, you’ve never tried to free yourself?”

“Why would I?” Elsa asked in a tiny voice. “I thought you…” she cleared her throat. “I didn’t have a reason to try.”

Anna’s heart was breaking. “We’ll talk more about that later. I promise. For now, I need you to do whatever you can to break out of those chains, okay? I’ll be right outside the door. I’m not leaving you.”

She kissed Elsa’s forehead before hurrying out the dungeon door. Once on the other side, she fell against the wall and sobbed silently for her sister. Elsa had thought she’d killed her? How did Anna stay away this long? How had she not immediately gone to find Elsa? What kind of sister was she?!

Anna wiped furiously at the hot streaks running down her face, and suddenly noticed the painful, swollen bruises blooming on her knuckles. She examined her hands and realized it seemed as if she’d gotten into a fight. Or, many fights…

It was then that she noticed the unconscious guards at the other end of the short hallway. “Oh, shit!” Anna scrambled to her feet and watched them warily as they lay there, motionless.

“If I sleep-fought my way through the whole castle,” she muttered to herself, “we probably don’t have much time before someone comes across a down guard… We need to hurry.”

Then, a blast of cold, bright energy burst from the dungeon room behind Anna. She turned around and saw frost sprinting along the stone wall, completely coating it within seconds.

Anna smiled. “There’s my girl.”

Elsa appeared tentatively in the doorway, wringing her bare hands together. She saw the guards where they lay, and looked at Anna.

“Hey,” Anna said, waving slightly.

Elsa smiled. “Hey.”

“What do you say we get the hell out of here?” Anna asked, holding her hand out to her sister.

A cold hand slipped into Anna’s and Elsa responded, “Please.”

It was soon apparent that Anna had fought pretty much everyone in the castle. They encountered guard after guard, crumpled on the stone floor.

Anna was feeling more awkward about it the more guards they found, rubbing her sore knuckles at the carnage she hadn’t known she was capable of.

Eventually, they made it to their unspoken goal. The hallway where Hans was staying. The guards here seemed to be the only ones left conscious — as well as completely oblivious to all of the other guards’ lost battles.

Anna stepped from the nook they were hiding in and Elsa pulled her back.

“You’ve fought enough of them. Let me,” Elsa whispered, worried for Anna’s bloodied knuckles.

“No, I’ll need you to take care of Hans. He’ll be well-armed. Just let me get you there, and you can let loose.”

Elsa weighed what Anna said and sighed. “Fine, but if you have any trouble, I’ll back you up.”

Anna nodded and focused on what she was about to do. She cracked her aching knuckles and stepped out of the shadowy nook once more.

As soon as the first pair of guards spotted Anna, her vision darkened and it was as if all of her senses were turned down by a dial. White noise rushed in her ears as she charged the guards, drowning out the sounds of her fists impacting faces and bellies. In a trance, she worked her way through each pair of guards, not even feeling the blows to her knuckles. At the end of the hallway, it got even darker; it felt like time had slowed and Anna was moving through it like sludge, guards falling around her.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been fighting in the growing darkness before a burst of light flooded her vision, and a wave of sound nearly burst her eardrums.

The next thing she knew, she was laying on the cold floor, face pressed into freezing stone, while her ears screamed a high pitch song over everything else. Her eyelids slid closed just as she felt thin, strong arms scoop her up into a chilly embrace.

It was the warmest she’d ever felt in her life.

Anna slowly opened her eyes to a bright, sun-filled room. It was her room. She was tucked under warm covers. She nestled deeper into the mattress and rolled over, catching a glimpse of pale, shining hair beside her, holding the sunlight and making it brighter. She opened her eyes with more purpose this time and looked toward her extra pillow.

Anna stared for a minute at her sister’s sleeping face before whispering, “My wish came true. I woke up next to you.” She reached carefully over and tucked a lock of Elsa’s hair behind her ear, to get it out of her peaceful face. While doing so, Anna caught a glimpse of her own bruised, swollen knuckles.

She pulled her hand back, remembering what they’d just been through.

At the sudden movement, Elsa stirred. Anna thought she might never grow tired of watching her sister wake up, yawn, and stretch.

“Anna,” Elsa said as she noticed where they were, “You okay?”

She nodded. “Are you?” She asked Elsa back.

Elsa nodded, too. “I’m sorry I shared your bed without asking,” she said, a blush growing on her cheeks. “I think once I got you here, I sort of… passed out?”

“Hey,” Anna smiled and brushed her thumb lightly against Elsa’s cheek. “Don’t be sorry. I’m glad you were right here when I woke up. What happened? With Hans? Is it all over?”

Elsa’s eyes grew wide for a moment, as if she’d forgotten the events leading up to their bed-sharing. “Oh. Yeah, it’s over. I might’ve… killed him? On sight?” She ran a hand through her hair. “Oh, this is going to be a diplomatic nightmare…”

“Hey, shhh,” Anna comforted her. “We’ll deal with that when we have to. Today, I want us to celebrate. We have each other back in our lives again for the first time in forever, and I don’t plan to change that anytime soon.”

Elsa shifted to pull Anna close in a cuddle. “That reminds me…”

“Hmm?” Anna responded, feeling very content in her sister’s arms.

“Last night you said something about a dream you were having… where we were in bed together? Could you expand on that?” Elsa asked.

Anna was thankful she was too close for Elsa to see how red her cheeks bloomed. “Uhh, nope! No, I cannot… expand on that. I don’t recall.”

“Oh,” Elsa sounded crestfallen, but wasn’t buying Anna’s lie. “That’s too bad. It sounded like a really nice dream.”

#elsanna #submission #december 2022 contest #prompt: dream #cw: anxiety #cw: implied violence #cw: death

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creativeflowers87 · 2 months

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febuwhump 21

CW: fire, mild gaslighting, implied violence

AN: this doesn't really fit because the unresponsiveness only happens at the start but idc

✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

"Mama?" Emery calls, dangling her feet off the edge of her wagon. "Are we there yet?"

No response.

Emery huffs, lying down onto her back and staring up at the top of the wagon. "How 'bout now?" she calls again, after a second of waiting.

"It's 'about' not ' 'bout'."

She groans, rolling over and grabbing her plush mouse, Minute, holding it tight to her chest. She'd only gotten it recently, after her Papa had snagged it off a shop a few weeks ago, but she already loved him. "I'm bored," she announces.

"Well," her mother calls back because of course correcting her is the only thing she is able to do, "Being bored is good sometime—"

"We're under attack!"

Emery flinches, glancing around to figure out who in the world said that. After a quick study of her wagon, she finds nothing, and instead peeks outside, just to see a small group of soldiers, maybe five to six, standing outside, weapons drawn.

Emery, understandably, screams.

One of the soldier's eyes snap to her, and they say something in a language she doesn't understand. One other person turns to her, and the pair instantly start running towards her wagon, what she now recognises as torches in their hands. As they approach her, one of them strikes a flint and steel and lights it.

Emery clutches Minute to her chest tightly – wouldn't want him to get burnt – and slips off the other side of the wagon, where she thinks they wouldn't look.

Surprise, surprise, they look there.

Emery finds herself face to face with a soldier. They have a gruff face, unobscured by a helmet of any sort, and are at least five heads higher than her.

"Hey, kiddo," the soldier starts, but Emery cuts in.

"Whaddaya want?" she asks, face scrunching in a way that she thinks is aggressive.

The soldier chuckles. "To get you away from your parents, of course," they say.

"Why don't you want me to stay with Mama and Papa?"

"Sweetie," And Emery does not like the way they say that, "Your Mama and Papa are bad people. You know that, right?"

Emery steps away. "No they're not," she says, "Mama and Papa love me."

The soldier tilts his head, as if confused. "They don't love other people."

"Yeah they do?" Emery says, also a little bewildered. "They love my brother, and the cook, and—"

"Yes, but other than your servants?"

"They're not our servants! Papa said that people who have servants are bad!"

The soldier sighs, turning to the side, where Emery now realises that the other soldier, who she almost forgot about, has made their way over to her, and is now blocking her path back. Twisting around, she sees that her wagon, and some of the other ones out front, are fully on fire.

"Wha—" Emery begins to say, but before anything can happen a gag is shoved in her mouth.

"Sorry," the soldier says, a very not-sorry smirk on their face, "Just couldn't get to you."

"So can I knock them out now?" The other soldier, an impatient frown on their face.

The soldier nods.

Emery feels a sudden hit to her forehead, then nothing.

#febuwhump2024 #febuwhumpday21 #febuwhump #flowers.docx #cw: fire #cw: gaslighting #cw: implied violence

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