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The celebration goes on well into the night. It seems clear that, for most of the old Arendellian guard, this is the first time in 35 years that they are sharing a meal with the Northuldra. It all goes smooth — if due to the starry sky above their heads or the sweet liqueur being passed around the campfire, Elsa can't say for sure.
She tries to enjoy it as best as possible, but worrying is second nature to her, and she can't help but think of all that remains to be done before she can move on with her new life. Gale seems to have fixed the structural damages left in its wake when she woke the spirits of the forest; after she stopped the wave, she saw the cobblestone streets of Arendelle rearranging themselves, shattered glass mending back into the windows. Still, the sudden inflow from the broken dam should have raised the water level at the fjord. What of the port, then, and the buildings near the water front? The castle dungeons must have flooded, at the very least.
And how about their people, displaced to the Valley of the Living Rock? Elsa thought of the elders and infants having to sleep under the chilly autumn breeze, all because she had to follow a magical voice. Anna would have put them first, selfless as her sister was. She would make a far superior queen — once they went through all the bureaucracy for Elsa's abdication and then Anna's coronation and...
She's brought back to earth by a touch on her arm. "Are you ok?" Says Honeymaren, concerned.
"I'm just a little tired," Elsa answers, shaking her head and blinking. She wishes the Northuldra girl a good night and gets up from her seat around the fire. Bruni squirrels after her, climbing up her legs and seating on her shoulder.
Wrapping herself tighter into her mother's shawl, she walks away from the party, fully intent on staying awake. With the help of Nokk and Gale, she can reach Arendelle in a matter of minutes; she should be able to check the castle and town for damages, get some paperwork signed and reach the Valley before sunrise. She could then be back at the Enchanted Forest early enough that Anna wouldn't even notice she was gone. Or maybe she could send her a message and they could all meet at the Valley. No, but Anna would hate her if she just left without at least leaving a note...
As she turns her back on the drunken campfire songs, something catches her attention: a light, dangling in the dark a few meters ahead. She recognizes it as the lantern at the front of Kristoff's wagon — and sure enough, if she squints, she can see the top of his blonde head poking out of the cart. He seems to be looking down. Anna must be there.
Elsa approaches the vehicle slowly, giving it a wide berth. Who knows — they are far enough from the center of the village for this to be considered an intimate setting, and she doesn't want to invade their privacy. There might be nudity involved, and even though she sees no issue in her sister having a sexual life, some things are just not meant to be seen. Still, if she manages to catch Kristoff's attention from a distance, she should be able to relay her message to him. She knows he's awake, at least: as she comes closer, she can hear him very quietly singing a lullaby. He seems to be improvising the lyrics, something about reindeer, humans and how his sweet ginger love is better than any of them.
It's a catchy little tune. He'll make a great father one day, Elsa thinks.
Kristoff notices her presence and looks up at her, bringing a finger to his lips. (He's dressed, she observes with some relief.) Is she asleep?, Elsa mouths. More or less, he answers her with a shake of his outstretched hand. Elsa comes to the side of the wagon, then, and sees the little mound that is Anna, wrapped in a woolen blanket, bundled close to Kristoff with her face pressed against his chest as they both lean on a bunch of pillows. Anna's hair is loose, and their boots have been discarded on a corner near their feet, next to a sleeping Olaf. Sven is just a few feet ahead, also enjoying a quiet slumber with his head resting on his crossed front legs.
Elsa and Kristoff smile at each other and spend a moment in silence, watching the rhythmic expansion and contraction of Anna's rib cage.
"She had a long day," Elsa whispers at last. A long sequence of days: the harvest festival was three days ago. That in itself would have been tiring, but then they had to flee the kingdom, solve a 35-year old war conflict, watch their parents die before them, and have a series of close encounters with death. And that was only as far as Elsa knew — Anna refused to share with her what happened after she sent her and Olaf away at the Dark Sea.
(At some point during the celebration afterwards, she saw Anna retreat with Kristoff somewhere and come back with her face puffy and eyes red, wiping tears from her cheeks. Kristoff looked at Elsa funny, then, but didn't say a word.)
"We all did," he whispers back, looking down at his fiancée. Whatever Anna told him earlier, he seems to have forgiven Elsa by now. "Do you know where you'll sleep?"
"No, I'm actually..."
Before she can finish, he's already shuffling back in the wagon bed, pulling Anna with him to free some space behind her. Anna mumbles something unintelligible and cuddles closer to him, grabbing the front of his sweater. "It's a bit snug, but I don't think she'll mind," Kristoff whispers to Elsa over a mess of red hair.
Elsa shakes her head and sighs, smiling. "Actually, I have to go."
Kristoff's eyebrows shoot up, then fall into a frown. "Is... anything wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong," she gestures for him to lower his voice more, pointing at Anna. "I just want to make sure of it."
He stares at Elsa inquisitively, and also points at Anna. What about her?, he doesn't need to say.
"Just tell her that I'm fine when she..."
Narrowing his eyes, Kristoff rests a hand on the curve of Anna's hip and tenderly shakes her awake. She turns back and gives Elsa a groggy, sleepy look over her shoulder. "Mhm. Hey."
Elsa glares at Kristoff over her head. He returns the stare, unflinching. "Tell her yourself," he grunts.
"Tell wh—" A yawn cuts Anna off as she turns the rest of her body around. She doesn't seem to have fully returned to the conscious world. "Tell me what?"
She sighs. There goes her attempt at subtlety. "I... I'm going to check on the castle. Back in Arendelle. Just to see if it's safe for people to go back to their homes." She knows what happens now. Anna will insist that they do this together, in spite of her exhaustion, and she will say no, and Anna will get mad at her. If she had sneaked out without a word, she could have avoided more conflict. But it seems Kristoff has already stepped into his upcoming role as king consort and took the decision out of her hands.
Elsa braces herself, mentally rehearsing the arguments in favor of her going alone. To her surprise, however, Anna just hugs Kristoff's arm wrapped around her waist and snuggles closer to him, her back against his chest. "I sh' go with you. Have to... be the new qu..." She closes her eyes again with a light frown, her voice dwindling along the sentence, and then her head lulls forward on the pillow.
She's out like a lightning bolt.
Well. That was easier than Elsa anticipated.
She opens her mouth to say goodbye to Kristoff, but he speaks over her, his voice tired and low. "There's literally no reason for you to go check on Arendelle right now."
Elsa runs by her list of arguments again, wondering which of them might work on him, but her mind is getting foggy and the spot next to Anna on the wagon looks cozier by the minute. "There's... a lot we'll have to do when we get back. The abdication, her coronation... And everyone must..." Kristoff yawns behind Anna's hair, and she finds that it's true that yawns can be contagious. "Everyone must be wondering about us."
"They can keep wondering for a few more hours." Freeing his arm from Anna's grip, he blindly pats the space above his head and finds Elsa an extra pillow. "Jump in. We'll leave at dawn."
He will make a good king, too, Elsa thinks as she climbs over the side of the wagon and lies down on the empty space between Anna and the wall. It is snug, but there is enough space for them to turn. Maybe not all three at once, and Kristoff seems to have pulled the short straw, seeing that he is the largest between them and Anna has him cornered against the other side of the wagon bed. Still. They’ll make do.
As she rests her head on the pillow, Elsa feels the events of the past three days suddenly weigh on her. Bruni — she almost forgot him for a moment — crawls down the side of her torso and curls into a ball on the hollow of her waist.
She brushes away a strand of red hair that had ventured into Anna's mouth. Her sister smiles in her sleep and reaches over, fingers grasping an end of their mother's shawl. Kristoff's arm is back at Anna's waist, her other hand wrapped around it like a vine.
"She snores," Elsa mutters to Kristoff over the top of Anna's head.
"So I've heard," he answers, laughing through his nose, and closes his eyes.
Feeling her own eyelids heavy, Elsa starts to sing their mother's lullaby to herself, almost soundlessly, and falls asleep before she reaches the third verse.