A Snow Queen's Tale- a Frozen Fanfiction

Chapter 42: In the Treetops

🌻Anna's Pov🌻
Before Nikko arrived the next morning, I walked into the library, where Olina was arranging books. "Could you help me send a letter?" I asked.
"A letter for your parents? How lovely!"" Olina said.
"Oh, no," I explained. "This is a letter for a friend."
Olina's eyes grew wide. "A friend?" she asked. She knew I did not leave the castle or play with other children.
"Like my friends in the paintings," I explained. They were perfectly real to me.
      "I see, I see," Olina replied, smiling.
       She showed me how to fold my letter carefully and put it in an envelope. "Next, we write the address here," Olina instructed, pointing to the center of the letter. "Where does Astrid live?"
I made up an address just as quickly as I had made up Astrid. "Her address is One Pumpkin Pie, Across the bridge and over the mountain, kingdom of Arendelle," I announced. Some of the words were hard to spell but I managed to squeeze them all onto the envelope.
      "Now we just need to seal it!" Olina said
      I learned my parents used a special seal on all their letters. It was a round stamp that showed the crest of the kingdom, a crocus. As a member of the royal family, I could use the seal myself!
      Olina led me out of the library to a pantry in the kitchen, where sticks of wax were stored alongside the candles.
      "We will hat this wax until it is hot enough to melt," Olina explained.
      She lit a match and held the flame to the very top of a stick of wax. Before long, the top of the wax turned to liquid. It reminded me of the candles on my birthday cake.
      Just as it looked ready to drip, Olins tilted the wax stick over my letter. A tiny drop landed where I had closed the envelope!
      "Quickly now," said Olina. From an intricate wooden box, she took out a gold circle that bore the crest of the kingdom. Before the wax melted, I stamped it with the circle and left the imprint of the crocus.
I loved the way my letter looked official now. No one would know it was from the younger princess. To anyone outside the castle, this could be a letter from the king or queen. Or from Elsa, I realized, since my older sister was the only other person who could use the seal. Thinking of my sister gave me a pang of sadness. Did Elsa write to other people, when she hardly spoke to me.
The sadness lifted as soon as I heard the familiar sound of Nikko's carriage coming to the kitchen door. I rushed outside the moment he stopped his horse. "I have a letter to send today!" I called to him, waving it in the air.
Nikko had just lifted a heavy wooden barrel from the back of his carriage, but he put it down to take the letter from me. "Looks very important," he noted, looking at the seal and reading the address. "I will make sure it gets to . . . One Pumpkin Pie." Nikko took a burlap bag from the front of the carriage and tucked the letter safety into its pocket.
Once Nikko left, I went to the schoolroom, but I had a hard time staying focused. I didn't want to memorize the names of past rulers or read maps when I could be outside. As soon as my lessons were done, I raced through the kitchen on my way to the garden. Would my new squirrel friend come out to play?
Olina, who was cleaning the counters, peered out into the afternoon fog. "It's a little drizzly out there," she told me.
But nothing could keep me from exploring the garden, not even a giant stack of pancakes with chocolate chips and whipped cream. I secured the hood of my jacket over my head and raced into the light rain.
It was not that different from snow, I thought. I stuck out my tongue to catch raindrops, just the way me and Elsa used to catch snowflakes in the winter. I found two acorns and placed them side by side in a small stream of water created by the rain. Which would float faster? I wondered. I also hoped they would catch the squirrel's eye.
Then, suddenly, the squirrel appeared. He darted out from under the hedge, leaves flying behind him. I was sure he was the same one, with his red fur and bright eyes. The squirrel took a few steps toward me and walked right into a puddle.
I thought he might take a swim in the puddle, or maybe a bath, but then he dipped his little face into the puddle and began to drink. When he finished, I could see tiny drops still clinging to his whiskers.
Was he ready to play with me now? I wondered.
He was—but not with me. The squirrel dashed through the flower garden, past the berry patch, and up a tree trunk!
       I hurried to follow him. I loved to climb trees! I  jumped high to catch the tree's lowest branch, then pulled myself up so I was sitting. From there, I could climb up the tree's branches like a ladder. It was hard to keep up with the squirrel, though. He scampered way up ahead of me, then paused.
      Was he watching me climb? I wondered. Did he want me to follow him? Where was he going?
There was a big distance between me and the next branch, so it took me a moment to hoist myself up. But when I finally got balanced on the limb, the squirrel was gone.
I looked in every direction, but I couldn't see my squirrel friend, no matter how hard I tried. He had disappeared into the leaves near the top of the tree, and I knew that a squirrel could easily jump from treetop to treetop. There was no telling where he was now.
I could be waiting a long time for him to come back and I did not like to wait. I longed to have a playmate that afternoon. But at least I had a letter to write.