By this point, the painted surface of her ceiling was starting to burn into her retinas. She had been lying there all damn morning and hadn't even mustered up the energy to move yet. Anna couldn't explain it really, this general sensation of fatigue filling her to the brim and making all her muscles simmer with some soreness. At first, when she awoke, she had considered it to be a fever which was far from uncommon in Arendelle.
Now that seemed far from the case. The redhead could only lie there, dressed in silk purple pajamas that covered much of her womanly body while her red hair fanned wide and loose beneath her. Her skin was getting clammy with sweat, her breathing growing more labored, and more than once she'd shoo'd off one of the castle staff. She felt bad doing it of course, but whatever illness this was it left Anna in no mood to be civil.
As morning turned to afternoon Anna was still lying in bed, the sheets kicked off and left pooled on the carpet. The staff would come and go to Elsa, reporting of more groaning coming from her chambers and her continued refusal to leave her room.
Stranger still, soon more of the servants were coming to Elsa and reporting of rippling heat waves becoming visible in the corridor just outside Anna's room. Strange to say the least, and what neither sister could know was how much stranger this was all going to get.
Lying back on the cozy mattress Anna turned her head and let her cyan eyes settle on the glass double doors leading to her balcony. Fogged up from a steam she couldn't see. "Weird..." the princess croaked.<|im_end|>
Unlike her sister, Queen Elsa still had a kingdom to run. The icy blonde had spent her entire morning fending off various political issues, issuing proclamations, and just generally making certain that Arandelle stayed peaceful and prosperous. The queen had received a few notices from servants that her sister hadn't left her bed but, well, Anna had been known to sleep in quite late in the past. True, she'd gotten significantly better since the whole incident with Elsa coming out and all. Though Elsa thought she recalled Kristoff visiting the night before.
So she didn't really think much about it. She thought a good deal more as Anna missed lunch. Anna may miss several things through sleeping or avoidance, but meals were generally not among them. Elsa might skip a meal or two, mostly out of business or because she accidentally (or "accidentally") froze a meal, but Anna ate rather regularly. In fact, the staff informed Elsa that Anna hadn't taken food for most of the day. Anna did occasionally squirrel away food though, and Elsa did have duties of her own to attend to.
Which actually left things up to Olaf, who'd been visiting at the time. The perky snowman had come to inform Elsa that things were not right with her sister. The first clue had been that Olaf appeared to be about a third melted despite the spell that Elsa had cast over him. From there, Elsa heard from the castle staff that there had been heat waves. So the queen figured now was the time to check on her sister.
Fearing that Anna may be quite sick, Elsa opted to change into a more demure and rough dress than her normal flowing ones. This one still happened to be teal blue, but probably wouldn't have looked out of place in a peasant's wardrobe. It cinched around Elsa's thin waist fairly well, and covered enough of her. The ice blonde hair had been tied up and pulled back, and Elsa was ready to go.
Or so she thought.
The heat waves proved difficult, and Elsa had to actively expend her own magic in order to get close. She'd cooled the doorknob and then forced her way into the room. "Anna? I'm coming in!" she said, leaning forward to look around the edge. "Can you tell me what's going on here? There's an awful lot of heat for this time of year," so much that Elsa could actually feel sweat beading on her brow, something she hadn't felt for a very, very long time.<|im_end|>