FE: Return to Arendelle (Tiny's Death)

       It's another seemingly ordinary day in Arendelle.  The first days of spring have arrived, but it's still pretty cold outside as winter keeps trying to hold onto its grasp on the kingdom.  A soft dusting of snow fell during the night, blanketing the kingdom like frosted sugar.  But little does anyone know that today, March 24th, is the furthest from being an ordinary day, and no one could expect the news that was on its way...

       Elsa and Anna are walking through the castle, talking and giggling and enjoying each other's company.  The Aesir have long since been vanquished, the kingdom saved, and their dear friend returned to her world, visiting each other when possible.  The two sisters have nothing in particular planned, though Anna is scheming something.  With the fresh snow on the ground, she's thinking it's a perfect day for her sister to add to it with her powers, and for them to build a snowman.  Kristoff and Olaf are visiting the trolls for a few days, and the two sisters always enjoy some time just to themselves once in a while.

       Elsa suddenly stops, and Anna looks confusedly at her.  "Elsa?  Is something wrong?"

       "I...I don't know... But, suddenly, something just, doesn't feel right..."  The blonde looks at her younger sister, and they share the same confused, but concerned gaze.  "I can't explain it, but I just know that something isn't right."

       Anna steps closer to her sister.  "How so?"

       The two girls are immediately joined by another person suddenly appearing, slightly out of breath from running, and looking quite alarmed.  The girls immediately recognize the balding redheaded manservant, Elsa speaking his name with concern.  "Kai?  What's the matter?"

       "Majesties..." he huffs, trying to regain his composure, and his breath, though the look of alarm and worry on his face spreads to the royal sisters.  "F-forgive me...but her highness...miss Kendra....s-she's here...she's returned!"

       Anna's face brightens up upon hearing this.  "Oh great!  I thought we were due for another visit from her."

       "N-no, highness, it's worse..."  Kai finally manages to straighten up, readjusting his shirt and taking a deep breath.  "Something's wrong.  Very wrong."

       The two sisters' faces immediately fall, dread filling their hearts.  "What's going on, Kai?"  Elsa's voice hardly contains any of the regality she shows as queen, filled with nothing but concern.

       "I, I-I-I-I'm not sure," he stutters, "but she looked awful.  She suddenly appeared in the Great Hall, looked like the walking dead, and begged me to find you both.  Majesties...I'm very worried about her, and whatever is going on..."

       Elsa doesn't waste another moment, lifting her dress enough to break into a sprint, leaving Kai behind.  "Elsa wait up!"  Anna calls out to her sister, hiking her own dress up as she dashes after her, quickly catching up.  "So you think you were somehow sensing something was wrong with Kendra?"

       Elsa steals a glance at her auburn-haired sister.  "It's the only logical explanation at this point... Something terrible is happening, and we must get to her, now!"  The two sisters break into a dead run, speeding for the Great Hall as fast as their legs can carry them.  As soon as they arrive, gravity seems to intensify, gluing the two in place, weighing them down with emotions like dead weights.

       It takes a moment before I notice my two friends, my adopted sisters.  But when I do, I feel my own heart sinking as I prepare to tell them why I'm here...why I so desperately need them... I know I probably look terrible... Heck I feel terrible...but for good reason...

       "E-Elsa...A-Anna..."  My voice trembles in a weak tone, cracking and breaking as I speak their names.  I feel my eyes welling up with more fresh tears, my resolve quickly unraveling, my strength leaving my body.  It takes all the energy I can muster to speak the foul words I so hate to say.  "...I-it's my dog...Tiny... Sh-sh-she's gone...!"  The tears explode from my eyes, streaming down my face with a choked sob.  "She died this morning...!  Sh-she's gone!  My baby girl is gone!"

       Everything erupts in that moment, as I crash hard onto my knees on the cold, hard, marbled floor, sobs ripping from my throat, hot tears flooding my face.  Elsa and Anna are already speeding for me, their shoes clicking loudly on the floor.  Elsa was a few steps ahead of Anna, so she reaches me first, dropping to her knees as soon as she gets close to me, gripping me tightly in her arms as she pulls me into a tight hug.  Anna drops immediately afterwards, wrapping her arms around me too, her head against the other side of mine, both girls breaking into tears with me.  Though Elsa is the one who first "met" Tiny when she was in my world, I told her and Anna just how much I love her.  They've heard me talk nonstop about my precious dog, even visiting me when Tiny's 15th birthday came on February 3rd.  They know how much that dog meant to me, and to hear that she's passed away...that she's.....dead.....it breaks their hearts....

       "Oh Kendra..." Anna breathes weakly.  "I'm so sorry..."  She and Elsa tighten their hugs around me, and I respond to their touches immediately.  I grip Elsa's dress tightly in one fist, and Anna's arm with the other, clinging to them both like oxygen underwater.

       Elsa grips the lower back of my head in one of her hands, planting a kiss on the side of my head as her own tears streak down her cheeks.  "It's ok, honey...we're here...we've got you... We're not going anywhere... Sisters stick together no matter what... We've got you, sweetheart..."  Elsa's heart is so broken, she's practically just rambling with words of comfort, doing anything to help her dear friend and "sister" to feel even the tiniest bit better...

       Anna lets out a small whimper as she nuzzles her head against mine even more as well, a quiet sob tickling my shoulder as she fails to keep her own emotions in check.  She wants to be strong for me, but just like her sister, she's just too heartbroken for me to be able to keep from crying with us.  "Y-yeah...we're not going anywhere..."

       "P-please don't..." I whimper, a soft hiccup following a sob.  "'C-cause then...I truly would be all alone...!  And I don't want to be alone...!"  My high-pitched whisper of a voice strains with fresh sobs, my shattered echo of a heart throbbing in my chest.

       Elsa and Anna feel their hearts shattering as well, clinging tightly to me and each other, almost like a protective fortress of love and sadness around me.  Their soft sobs try to mingle with my own, but pale in comparison to the heavy weight of sorrow cementing my body in place.  Life as I know it is over, my whole world has come to a halt, a crashing end, turned upside down and inside out, and completely changed forever.  And I don't know how I'm supposed to recover...or what else to do...other than sob my broken heart out...for all eternity...