Chapter 4: The tree.

Eight years – Four years.

"Elsa! Elsa, wait for me!" Whined a four years old little princess who was running after her older sister.

"Oh, come on short legs, run faster! What? Don't you want to see the surprise?" The taller girl answered giggling mischievously, but still slowing her pace a little to allow her sister to catch up with her.

Both girls arrived finally at the courtyard, where the head servant, Kai, stood beside a big object covered by a cloth. He smiled when he saw the two playful princesses appear with excited smiles on their faces. Elsa's eight birthday had been a few days ago; there had been a great ball where all the noblemen of the kingdom were invited and, against all odds, both princesses had behaved as they were supposed to… only because their parents had promised to buy them something fun if they did. Now, it had been delivered.

"What is it? What is it?" The younger girl asked while jumping in her place. "Kai, please, uncover it!"

"It's my birthday present, you know?" Elsa teased.

"But you're going to share it with me, right?" Anna countered.

"And why would I do that?"

"Because I'm your cute little sister." She answered battling her eyelids, trying to look as cute as possible, something she succeeded on. Elsa rolled her eyes as she smiled at her antics.

"Okay, Kai, you can uncover it now. Or else Anna will go and rip out the cloth herself."

"As you wish, princess." The servant replied with a kind smile as he did as he was told, and what was revealed was quite a surprise for both girls; it was an strange machine that had two wheels and two gears connected with a chain. Elsa had only seen it in pictures, but she knew it was a bicycle, the last call in fancy transporting technology, usually used by nobles to wander around. She never thought her parents would actually grant her with something so wonderful.

"Wow" Both girls exclaimed in awe, their breath having been taken away by the precious gift.

"What is it?" Anna asked.

"A bicycle." Elsa replied. "It's… like a horse made of metal."

"Uh?" Her little sister asked with a confused gaze.

"Never mind, do you want to ride it?" Elsa asked instead.

"Of course!" The younger girl exclaimed overly excited and began to make her way to the mysterious object, but was soon stopped by Kai.

"Wait, princess. The king and queen ordered that you shouldn't ride on the bike until your sister had learned how to do it."

"But…" Anna tried to protest.

"You're too young to ride it yourself, and it's not as easy as riding a horse. If your sister doesn't learn to do so first, you both would fall and get hurt." Anna pouted hoping to make the head servant relent, but he did not, and this time her sister didn't support her.

"Maybe he's right this time, you know?" Elsa admitted, though reluctantly; she didn't want her sister to get hurt. "But I promise I'll try to learn how to ride it as soon as possible, so we can play with it, is that alright?" Anna nodded resigned, still keeping a little cute pout in her face. "Why don't we instead go to the garden and feed the ducks? I know you like that." Elsa suggested instead, trying to please the stubborn girl.

"Alright…" Anna sighed, a little disappointed, but still happy about the prospect of spending the day with her sister, and followed her to the garden.

They were supposed to just feed the ducks and then retire for their respective classes, but of course, things rarely go like planned, especially when two hyperactive girls wanting to avoid their duties are involved. It was Anna the one who had suggested to try and climb the three, but it was Elsa the one who agreed (almost too eagerly) to do so, since she really didn't want another history lesson that she wouldn't even remember in a couple of days anyways.

"Come on, Elsa!" Anna urged her, having already put her small hands into the lowest branch and trying to lift herself up. "I bet I can get up there faster than you." The little girl challenged her.

"Oh, really?" Elsa smirked, loving challenges, but loving even more wining at her own way. "Look at this." Saying that, the princess moved her hand and a stairwell materialized in front of her so she could easily get to the top of the three. Once she was there, she looked down at her still hanging sister. "See? You never even had a chance. Never challenge the ice queen."

"Not fair!" Anna whined pouting. "No magic!" But Elsa just laughed.

"Magic is a part of me, you know? And I will always use it if it gives me an advantage."

"But… that's cheating!" The little princess complained.

"It's not. Besides, the whole point was to get up here, wasn't it? Just climb it already". Anna pouted and Elsa sighed; she knew her sister had a point, but she didn't really want to admit it. "Look, of you can manage to do what I do without having magic, you will be better at it than me." She said instead, confident that Anna would never manage to climb that three… of course, she wasn't counting on the feisty redhead's recklessness.

Anna, a look of determination on her little face, decided she'd prove Elsa she could be just as good as her, at anything she did. So she somehow managed to lift herself up into the branch, only to immediately reach for the next one repeating the process. Elsa looked at her in amusement, as she still had three more branches to go, and the next one seemed to be too tall for her, however, when the little redhead started bouncing in the tip of her feet trying to reach the branch, Elsa's smile disappeared; Anna could easily fall in that position, and it'd all be her fault. But to her utter shock and surprise, she actually managed to grab said branch and climb it… to then immediately fall.

As it turned out, it was an old branch, so it easily broke under Anna's weight, making her fall in the ground with a thud.

"Anna!" Elsa screamed as she quickly descended her stairwell and kneeled at her side, worried about her wellbeing. "Oh my god Anna! Are you okay?" She asked touching her shoulder. The princess slowly turned around and Elsa saw unshed tears in her eyes as those teal orbs looked down. Elsa followed her gaze and found that she had scratched her right knee and both of her hands. Fortunately, it didn't seem like it was something serious.

However, Anna apparently still felt it like it was a huge wound, because she soon started crying, tears falling freely from her eyes and hiccups interrupting her whining. It broke Elsa's heart that it had been her who cause her such discomfort, so she tried to make her feel better by pulling her close and rubbing her back.

"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have… I'm a cheater, okay? You were right. You win. I'm sorry." She said as her little sister continued crying in her arms. In that moment, Anna turned to look at her with teary eyes and, despite the situation, the older princess couldn't help thinking she actually looked cute when she cried.

"Kiss me?" Anna asked pouting. "It helps."

Elsa knew her sister was referring to that one time when she'd fell a few years ago and their mother had kissed her hands saying it was magic and that it would cure her. Of course, the older girl even then knew it was all a lie to calm her down, but in that moment she decided to comply; after all it was her fault that she was suffering.

"Of course." Elsa answered smiling before taking Anna's hands and kissing each of them where the scratches were before leaning down and also kissing her knee. "Better?" When Anna nodded, grateful for Elsa's efforts, the older girl decided it was time to go inside the castle; she didn't want to get in trouble in case her sister managed to somehow get hurt again, so she helped her stand up and walked with her to the door.

"What were you two thinking?!" The king yelled to the little princesses. "We've both told you many times not to do anything dangerous. You're both royals, you can't risk yourselves like that."

Elsa rolled her eyes; she'd heard the same thing countless times for far worse injuries. Really, this was just a scratch. Regardless, she wasn't going to argue; she knew it'd only make the punishment worse.

"But we were just climbing a tree" Anna protested and Elsa shot her a 'shut up' glance.

"Princesses don't climb trees." The queen intervened. "It's not proper for a girl, much less for one of royal blood like yourselves." She sighed. "Elsa, I'm very disappointed of you; you are the older, you should've known better."

"Not to mention you're heir to the throne." Their father agreed. "One day you'll be queen of Arendelle, and a queen must be serious and composed."

"Yes father." Elsa answered through gritted teeth. "It won't happen again."

"And you, Anna." The queen continued. "You may not be destined to be a queen, but one day you'll have to get married, and a prince won't want a wild lady who goes around climbing things and hurting herself. You may not realize it yet, but you have to start preparing yourself for marriage since now."

In that moment Elsa understood what her mother was implying; since Anna wasn't born first and neither was she a boy, she wasn't really useful in Arendelle. She'd read about it in her boring history lessons; princesses were usually sold-off as wives to make alliances with other countries or to strengthen existing ones. And she really didn't like the idea of her sweet innocent sister being treated like that.

"But I'm still too young!" Anna whined.

"Yes, but our parents are really worried about the quality of their future merchandise, am I right?" She turned to look defiantly at the monarchs. "You see Anna as just another good of the kingdom that you can just sell like everything else. Well, you're wrong; I won't let you do that to her! As long as I live, Anna won't marry any foreign prince just because you say it!" At this, Elsa stormed out pushing her father in the process.

"Elsa! Come back, that's no way to talk to your parents!" The king yelled after her, but it was already too late; she was gone. He sighed and rubbed his temple. "Sometimes I don't know what to do with her."

"I know." The queen agreed. "She doesn't seem to care about punishments anymore."

"Maybe we should be harsher. She's too used to getting what she wants."

"Wh-what are you going to do with her?" Anna's small voice startled them; they had forgotten the youngest princess was still in the room. "It wasn't her fault, really. The tree… I suggested to climb it. Please, don't punish her."

"I'm sorry sweetie." The king said kneeling before the redhead and placing a hand on her shoulder. "But she has to understand what her place is; she has to learn to follow the rules, otherwise she could be dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Anna asked. "Elsa isn't dangerous, she's a little arrogant and sometimes she likes to play jokes, but she's very sweet and caring, really."

"You'll understand when you're older." The king said. "Now go to your room."

"But… what about Elsa?"

"She'll get what she brought to herself." He answered with a stern voice. "Now go to your room."

"But…"

"Now." The king's voice left no room to argument, so Anna just bowed her head and left, hoping she hadn't managed to get her sister in trouble.

A/N: Please follow, favorite and review if you want to. See you next time :)

Thanks to my beta reader moorwatcher13 :)