The Hour of the Wolf

"According to the ancient Romans, the Hour of the Wolf means the time between night and dawn, just before the light comes, and people believed it to be the time when demons had a heightened power and vitality, the hour when most people died and most children were born, and when nightmares came to one."

It was the Hour of the Wolf in Arendelle. The castle was silent, sleeping, only the flickering of the Northern Lights through the windows breaking the gloom, casting ever-changing shadows onto the floors of the deserted hallways.

Anna was awake. Not because the sky was awake but because her demons had come to taunt her this night. Her nightmares of dying, of the sword coming down, of her sister dying, of the bone-deep pain of her heart freezing, all of these and more took turns torturing her.

Sometimes when a particularly vivid dream caused her to bolt upright in her bed, screaming, she would seek comfort in Elsa's room. Her sister would soothe her with soft whispers and gentle hugs until she could finally fall asleep again. They both had torments that came to them in dreams, they both needed the reassurance of the other when that happened. After 13 years of isolation from each other, being able to share that comfort was a grace and a blessing that they cherished.

Tonight that comfort was denied Anna. The Queen was not in the castle; she was visiting a farming village a half-day's travel from the town and spending the night there. Elsa had been on several such visits already. She felt it her duty to personally see that any damage caused by the Great Winter was repaired, and to connect with the people so they knew they could trust her to be a good ruler, in spite of her magic powers. So far, the people of Arendelle seemed to be supportive of their young monarch when she visited. This helped boost Elsa's confidence in her ability to govern effectively in spite of what happened after her disastrous coronation almost a month ago.

In her sleep-addled condition, Anna didn't remember that she was away until she had gone to Elsa's room and found it empty. She crawled into Elsa's bed anyway, hoping that the cool, icy scent of her sister would soothe her enough to sleep. Hugging one of the pillows close as a poor substitute for Elsa, Anna drifted off into a restless doze until the morning sunlight woke her again.

Elsa returned to the castle late that afternoon. After greeting her staff and dropping off her notes from the trip in her study, she went to her room to change for dinner. She was dismayed to see that her bed had been slept in. Her cleaning staff would normally tidy her room during the day, but she had instructed them that it was unnecessary if she didn't spend the night in the castle.

She knew the disheveled bed clothes meant that Anna had been there, had probably been woken by another nightmare and needed the warmth of her sister to banish the demons. A sister that had been absent last night.

Not bothering to change out of her traveling clothes, she went off to find Anna.

"Gerda, do you know where Anna is?" Elsa asked when she found the housekeeper bustling about getting the dining room ready for the evening meal.

"No, Your Majesty. I haven't seen her all day." Gerda replied.

"Thank you." Elsa was now concerned. Anna was not the sort of person that was ... unnoticeable ... on a normal day. If she had not come to Gerda's attention at all, something was very wrong. Elsa headed for the stable. Kristoff and Sven should be back from their day's work by now, and Anna might be with them.

She found Kristoff forking hay into Sven's manger. A bunch of carrots hung on the wall above it, clearly meant for dessert. Sven kept trying to reach them, and Kristoff kept smacking his snout with a firm, "Not yet! Eat your supper first!"

Kristoff looked at her as she came into the stable. He smiled and greeted her, "Your Majesty?"

Elsa returned the smile. She was becoming fond of him. He may not be Anna's true love yet, but he was certainly a friend.

"Kristoff, have you seen Anna?" she asked him.

"Uh, no. Not since yesterday. Sven and I always leave before dawn, and you know Anna doesn't do mornings particularly well." Elsa had to chuckle in agreement. To say that her sister woke up hard was like saying the North Mountain was tall.

"And Sven and I just got back, and I thought we'd meet up at dinner." Kristoff continued. "Why?"

"No one's seen her around all day, and you know how unusual that is." Elsa told him. He nodded in agreement. He certainly did know.

Just then, Olaf and his personal flurry cloud bounded into the stable.

"Sven!" he gleefully greeted his buddy. Sven tried to kiss Olaf's nose and missed again. One of these days, he'd get that carrot. He was a patient reindeer.

"Olaf!" Elsa smiled down at her little guy. He looked at her and skipped up and down in a joyful reception, opening his twiggy arms wide for a warm hug.

She knelt down so she was at his eye level. "Olaf, do you know where Anna is?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because no one has seen her all day and I'm worried."

This took a little of the exuberence out of Olaf, who looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Now that you say that, she did seem a little sad when I saw her leave." he said to Elsa.

Elsa glanced up at Kristoff, who had racked the hay fork and was listening intently to Olaf, a look of worry on his face.

Turning back to Olaf, she asked him "Olaf, did she tell you where she was going?"

The little snowman shook his head. "Nope." This response puzzled both Elsa and Kristoff.

"But you said you knew where she was!" Kristoff interjected.

"Yeah, I do. I always know where she is." he grinned at Elsa.

This announcement startled Elsa and Kristoff. They looked at each other, Kristoff shrugging to indicate he had no idea what the snowman was talking about.

Elsa stood and took Olaf's hand. "Olaf, where is she? We need to go find her." A glance out the stable door showed the sun sinking behind the castle wall. It would be dark soon.

"She went to see the love experts!" Olaf replied, looking up at Elsa.

Anna was plodding up the trail that led to the Valley of Living Rock. Actually, her horse was doing the plodding, Anna was just sitting dejectedly in the saddle thinking gloomy thoughts.

She had made a copy of the map in her father's library, so she didn't need Kristoff to find her way to the trolls. Kristoff was someone she just didn't need to see or talk to right now. Not in the mood she was in. Her dreams last night had shaken her confidence in her own feelings, had caused her to question his motives for helping her. She was going to visit the trolls to seek advice about the doubt that was eating away her trust in Kristoff and her trust in her own heart.

It was getting close to dark. Anna had left the castle after lunch, the only one seeing her leave was the stable hand who had saddled her horse and helped her mount. The guards at the gate saw nothing unusual in her riding out for an afternoon and saluted her as she passed. There had been no hurry to get to the trolls and she was in a brooding frame of mind, so she didn't push her horse to move faster than a comfortable walk once they were into the hills.

It seemed to her that she was getting closer to Troll Valley. She was looking down at the map, trying to orient herself in the gloom of the shadows of the hills and forest around her, when a deer leaped across the trail, spooking her horse. He bucked and threw her off, then ran back toward Arendelle. Unfortunately Anna landed badly, striking her head on a rock and was knocked unconscious.

It was almost dark, and a wolf howled in the forest.