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Original prompt
The heavy wooden door slid open, scraping slightly on the polished stone floor. A gentle pattering of something soft on hard ground accompanied a light hearted hum, heralding the arrival of a squat figure into the silent room. The figure pushed the door shut with a grunt, before skipping along the length of the room.
Coal black eyes barely at the height of the table ignored what was on it, piles of scrolls and a map covered by figures carved from stone, wood, and ice. The ice models did not melt in the summer night's heat, ignoring the warmth un-bothered. The squat figured shared the disdain for temperature though he had the luxury of a cloud above his head, constantly replenishing his frosty reserve. Eventually the diminutive dancer stopped skipping, standing by a silent figure. The head of snow tilted up, eyes resting on the figure staring out of the window. "Your majesty?" the little form asked, his voice cracking in the quiet.
The stately form straightened, drawn from introspection by the little one's voice. "Oh Olaf!" Ice white hair tied in an elaborate braid fell down one shoulder, a thin circlet of silver and iron wound about a furrowed brow. "You startled me." Her lips curled slightly. "You don't need to call me your majesty, not when it's just us."
Olaf's snowy face widened from simple pleasure. "Well, okay Elsa! I made sure to wait until everyone else left before coming in. You guys seemed like you were discussing something important, everyone left looking serious." He stretched out a twig arm. "Is everything okay?"
Elsa, Queen of Arendell, smiled sadly. Though the snowman's arm was made from wood and cold at the touch, she felt nothing but warmth from her little friend. "No, not really Olaf. Lots of things aren't okay."
"Oh no!" the snowman gasped. "Is something bad about to happen to Arendell?"
"Perhaps," Elsa conceded. "Nothing immediate. But we must make a choice, and I think either choice will cause a lot of trouble for Arendell and her people."
"Is there something I can do? I'm sure I can help."
"I don't believe so," Elsa began, noticing the look of disappointment crossing Olaf's face. "Well, actually, maybe you can help. I have heard the opinions of my councilors, it wouldn't hurt to hear yours." The Queen walked away from the window slowly, steps heavy with thought. She led the little snowman to the large map on the table. Her smile grew when the snowman tried to scramble up to see, before she waved her hand creating a stool of ice for him to perch on.
Olaf looked eagerly over the map. He saw that it was a map of the world, recognizing where Arendell sat on the coast. The lands surrounding Arendell were colored pale blue under an array of stars. Far to the west he saw a large swathe of land divided in three. Yellow lands under the flag of a stylized Sun stood border to border with Bear holding a Bow imposed on a tartan of blue and green and an open Book coiled by a Rose on lands of royal blue. To the East lay an even larger land all covered by white and gold, graced by a Tiger's head with a Sword in it's mouth. "This sure looks impressive!"
"It does, doesn't it," Elsa replied softly. "So very impressive. Two incredible things have happened. First, the East has all come under one banner. Well two banners really, but one serves the other. Together they have claimed the East, a feat no one ever thought imaginable. The Flower of the Sands and the Flower of the Middle Kingdom did the impossible.
"Which led to the second impossibility." She gestured at the three flags. "The Silent Tower made a tentative peace with the Learned Rose and the Bear Queen. Three strong minds, always fighting, now together under a greater threat than each other. Normally, any alliance by those three would be met with wonder. It doesn't take a genius to see why they have aligned however. Not from peace or progress, but from necessity."
"How are those things bad for us though?"
Elsa rested a hand on Olaf's head, relishing the pleasant chill. "Because while Arendell has always stood apart, now we have to make a choice. Envoys from all of them have come and demand that we stand with them and not the other. They were always happy to leave us alone until now, thinking we couldn't effect them at all. But now..." Her voice trailed and fell silent.
"There...isn't a way we could all be friends?"
Elsa almost sobbed at Olaf's naivete. "No. I don't think so."
The two stood in silence, staring at the riot of colors that threatened to overwhelm them. "Well, if we can't all be friends now, and we weren't all friends before, maybe we can make new ones."
Elsa looked down at Olaf. "Make...new ones?"
The snowman's head bobbed until it wobbled, threatening to fall. "Sure! Like when you left the first time and you made me! If they didn't want to be our friends back then, well we don't need to get involved with them now. You can do what you want, like you always do, and make other friends. You're good at that."
Olaf's confidence in her warmed her heart. At first his words seemed too innocent, too ludicrous. Yet the more they danced in her head the more they made sense. "Make new friends, and stand apart." Her eyes drifted to different parts of the map, at royal purple under a pair of green Frogs, at a Clam shell surrounded by song notes on sea green. "Thank you Olaf. That is a wonderful idea."
Olaf beamed before his smile melted slightly. "That will mean the others will get really mad at you though. Even give you the cold shoulder."
"Oh I'm not worried about that." Elsa walked away from the table, steps light and hand on Olaf's head. "The cold never bothered me anyways."
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