Omphalos (Hiccelsa)

Chapter 1

"Got you!" Elsa's arms tightened around her four-year-old niece and the little girl squealed and yelled at the top of her lungs, "I win. Time to go home, right?" She nudged the little girl, and tugged on her pig-tales.

"No fair. One more!" The girl cried, "I don't want to go home yet. Mom makes me eat carrots and gross things for dinner."

"Ah, but they're good for you." Elsa chuckled, and bopped the child's nose with a finger.

"We could miss dinner. Then I could eat whatever I wanted." The girl said, proud of her skills to avoid a problem.

"It doesn't work like that, honey." Elsa sighed, and rubbed her golden hair, "You're braid is coming out."

She leaned down and tightened the braid back together, much to the child's chagrin. She saw the disappointed look on the child's face.

"Ophelia, what's the matter?" She asked, and Ophelia shrugged, "Carrots are hardly something to cry over."

"Mom's so busy now that I'm having a 'new sibling'," Ophelia scrunched her nose up, "And Daddy is visiting his family now, so I'll be all alone if you bring me home."

Elsa rose up, and she frowned. She vividly remembered the acute feeling of loneliness as a child, and saw a little of herself in the toddler. The sky was darkening though, and Anna would worry if her daughter was not returned soon, no matter how pregnant and tired she may be. Elsa had been taking care of Ophelia more and more lately. At this point, she was almost ready to break, for she hated seeing her upset.

"Ophie, how about this. I get our favorite ice-cream, and after dinner, we'll play in your room all night." She said, "But we need to go home now."

"Ice-cream with chocolate sauce?" The little girl prompted, and Elsa nodded. She had inherited the love of chocolate from both her mother and her aunt.

"A whole bucket of it." Elsa promised.

"Then I guess I can go back." Ophelia decided, and Elsa chuckled.

"A wise choice, my dear princess." She curtsied, and the girl collapsed into giggles.

She dropped Ophelia off with her mother (and a plate of steaming vegetables waiting for her) to do some paperwork for the kingdom while her niece ate. After just five years, things had calmed down significantly. It was still worrisome to a few about her magic, but she was not still persecuted for it. The affairs had been simple, and no one had been really badgering her to marry like Anna thought they would. There was the occasion bump along the road, but other than that, Elsa was content with her life.

After about two hours, Elsa went down to the kitchens and retrieved the ice-cream and chocolate sauce, and went to Ophielia's room. Anna stood at her door, a cross look on her face.

"Anna." Elsa greeted, "Is the ice-cream too much? I did promise her, but I suppose if you don't want her to-," Elsa began, shrugging away her sister's face, but Anna sighed.

"Elsa, look, I love that you take Ophelia out, but it worries me when she comes back bloody." Anna said tensely, and tugged on her braids uneasily.

"Bloody?" Elsa echoed, and Anna nodded, pressing her lip into a thin line.

"Look, I don't know what's worse. That you didn't know, or that you let it happen." There was disapproval in her tone, something that Elsa rarely heard addressed to her. And she was a little shocked.

"Where?" Elsa said.

"On her leg. Her knee especially. I wondered why she wouldn't let me touch her stockings." Anna commented, tilting her head. Her expression softened, "I suppose it's not going to kill her, and maybe the ice-cream will make her feel better. I yelled her at her a bit, I guess." She admitted.