part 1 - in the study

It's a beautiful night. Clear skies. Only just past sundown yet look at those stars. He sipped his wine, as he noticed Elsa doing by her reflection in the corner of the window. Wine really isn't so bad. Another way I've changed.

"What was your father like, Kristoff?"

He had wanted to break the silence himself. He was going to mention the stars. Take initiative, as Anna had implored him to do just before she departed on her journey overseas. Get closer to Elsa because Elsa needs someone willing to get and stay close to her. 'You're more alike than either of you realize. I mean it!' Anna'd snapped, because he'd laughed at that.

But Elsa had spoken first. He turned from the window and faced the firelit study, and the Queen, who watched him from her seat by the fireplace. He took a swallow of wine and thought about what to say. Then he thought about where to sit. On the sofa? That would be nearest to her. He walked across the room, round the chaise lounge, and sat on the very end of it - facing the Queen. Anna was right. The wine does help.

"My father died when I was seven. He was skilled, and he taught me his skills while he was alive. But I don't think he was thought of as a very nice person."

"He wasn't?" Elsa held her wine glass inches from her lips, her blue eyes on him.

"He was nice to me. But not so much to other people. He was…cold. Mostly, I think, because of losing my mother."

"You lost your mother too?"

"When I was three. It was an accident. She fell through the ice of a lake my father's team was harvesting from one winter season. I'm not sure how it happened. They got her out, but she'd swallowed too much water. They couldn't wake her up."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's alright. I can only remember some things about her. Watching her cooking or cleaning up things. Sometimes playing with me."

"You were only three."

"Yeah. 'Never go out onto the ice alone.' That was something my father taught me, over and over again, after it happened." He swallowed more wine. "That's why, after he died, I didn't trust walking out onto any ice at all until I had Sven with me."

Elsa sipped from her wine glass, then smiled at him. "But how old were you? When you met Sven."

"Eight."

"And you tried harvesting ice that young?"

Kristoff nodded.

"And the other harvesters let you?"

He shrugged. "As long as I watched my step, they didn't seem to mind me very much. Some of them even taught me a few things. To help me make it on my own. They had known my father, and my mother. I'm pretty sure they did it out of respect for them."

"But you didn't live with any of the harvesters, correct? Or at the orphanage in the village? Didn't you end up living with Grand Pabbie and Bulda?"

"Uh-huh. I lived in the valley with the trolls, most of the year. I went out with the harvesters in the winter and early spring to harvest ice. To try and make a little money."

"I see. So that's how it was."

Kristoff gulped the rest of his wine. "Actually, I have you to thank for leading me to what became my new family." He returned the smile she had given him a moment before. "I don't know what I would have done - or how I would have turned out, probably much worse than I did - if I hadn't been adopted by Bulda."

"You're thanking me?" She held a slender pale white hand to her chest.

"You left a trail of ice behind you that one night, when you rode with your father to the valley. When I saw it, I had to follow it." He stared into her eyes. "How couldn't I? A trail made of ice, appearing right before my eyes. It was amazing - sparkling, beautiful. It felt like it was made for me, or…something." He reached for the wine bottle on the small table between them and poured himself a full glass.

Elsa held forth her own glass. Kristoff refilled it till it was as full as his own. "That was a terrible night for me," she murmered. She set her glass down on the edge of the table and folded her arms across her chest. Then she leaned back into her chair, looked to her left, and stared into the fireplace.

Of course it was. He set the wine bottle down on the table then ran a hand through his messy blonde hair. He looked at the Queen, at the flowing seagreen dress she wore, her usual summer outfit. How many more days would she wear that design? The weather was turning cold quickly. Today might be the last.

"My father was a nice man." She wiped the corners of her eyes with her fingertips and looked back at him. "And a good king."

He set his glass down on the table - just as she had done - and straightened his posture. "He taught you how to be a queen. To rule?"

"Yes. Most of my lessons were right here, in this room." She glanced around, at the ornaments atop the mantelpiece, at a bookcase in a darkened corner of the study, at the chess table behind the sofa, and finally out the window that overlooked the fjord, over which an increasing number of stars glittered in the blackening sky.

"He…clearly taught you well."

"He did his best. And my mother too. I didn't ever have a proper tutor, but I took to my studies on my own quite enthusiastically. I loved all my books."

"But why didn't you have a tutor?"

"Because my father believed my magic was too uncontrollable for me. Especially after the accident with Anna. He didn't want anyone else from outside the castle to know about it, not until I had it completely under my control. Only our most trusted servants knew - Kai, and Gerda. And my mother. No one else ever knew a thing. My father made sure of that."

"Anna knew."

"Only before the accident."

Of course. Kristoff shook his head. Too much wine - slow it down. "So you…studied with your father and mother?"

"And on my own." She smirked, then looked over her bare shoulder, up at the large portrait of her father's coronation that hung on the western wall, faintly lit by the light from the fireplace. "Anna had gotten me into trouble several other times before the accident happened. No one had ever been hurt, nor discovered anything, but now…I think I understand why my father took the opportunity to keep it a secret from her too."

Kristoff only glanced at the portrait. He watched the Queen. The smile on her face faded.

"So what was it that made your father a nice man?" he asked.

"He taught me that I should always consider the needs of other people in my care. My servants'. My sister's. And while I became more and more afraid of my magic, he always reminded me that he believed in me." She stroked her sparkling blonde braid, smoothing it over her left shoulder, down to the tip. "There was a time - over many years - where I thought he was the only one who did. So I always listened to him. I tried to trust everything he ever taught me."

But he wasn't the only one who believed in you. Anna did. Still does. So strongly…how could you have not realized that? "So…you said at dinner that you wanted to talk to me about some things tonight?"

"Yes." She shifted in her chair to face him. "Do you know that our final rescue ships have returned?"

"Yes. I saw." I know.

"You know what it means."

"I do. They didn't find anything."

She shook her head. Her slim arms hugged across her chest.

What now. He hung his head. What do we do now?

"I've ordered them back out. Every ship. Tonight." She shook her head again. "I'm not giving up."

The fireplace crackled - the light in the study dimmed.

"Do you really think there's still a chance somebody'll find her…or her ship?"

"Kristoff. I'm not losing her. Not to the sea." She wiped her eyes. "Not another. Not again."

Kristoff rubbed his arms. He saw his breath puff from his mouth, the molecules hanging in the air, fogging his view of his beloved's sister now slouching before him in her chair. The stars. Mention the stars. "Did you see the sky yet tonight?"

"No." She rubbed her arms - just as he was doing.

Mention the children. The ice skating party tomorrow. "I have that poem memorized. The one Anna wanted me to recite to the children at the ice skating party in the courtyard tomorrow morning."

Elsa looked up. She sniffed, then rubbed her nose with the back of her hand. "Oh. That was something else I wanted to ask you about." She leaned toward him. "Could you recite it for me? It was always a favorite of Anna's. I'd like to hear it…"

"Alright - but just a small part of it. I've had a little more wine tonight than I should have." Kristoff squared his shoulders. He cleared his throat, closed his eyes, counted in his head, and recited:

I begin to laugh from happiness

because of the departure of the

wintry season during which I confess,

I lived in a dreary cage under duress.

But now I change my tune from one

of suffering to one of song.

For I have found radiant June,

and I bore my suffering for so long…

Kristoff opened his eyes.

The Queen was sitting up straight. She clasped her hands, as if intending to clap, but instead she lowered them gently onto her lap. "Perfect." She sighed, then tilted her head. "Do you know all of it?"

"Um, no." Kristoff chuckled. "But I memorized all the stanzas Anna had directed me to, plus a few more. I might try to get even more of them memorized tonight."

And the Queen nodded. "Well done." She breathed in deeply, then released her breath slowly, pressing her hand to her body just below her chest.

Kristoff shifted down to the center of the sofa, and held his hands out toward the fireplace. The warmth in the room was returning, but the light had not - the fire had shrunk.

"Kristoff? There was one more thing I wanted to talk to you about."

He rubbed his hands together. "What is it?"

She sighed, then reached for her wine glass. She held it in her palms and stared down into the rosy liquid.

'Have just enough to help you relax. Really - it'll work,' Anna had instructed him, the night before she left, after they'd made love one final time then spent the next hour in bed, discussing all his questions and fears - about his duties at the castle, about their family, particularly about Elsa. 'No avoiding her while I'm away. Please. After me, you're all the family she's got.'

"It's been very hard for me, these past several days. And I know…it's been very hard for you too." Elsa set the wine glass back down on the table - still full. "I've heard reports about you."

"Reports?"

"One of our guards has informed me. You've been yelling in your sleep at night."

What?

"Kristoff - please tell me. Tell me anything." She was leaning toward him again. "You know that Anna instructed me to do this before she left? To try to open up with you - and get you to open up to me. And you wouldn't go against her wishes. Not now. She wants us to be friends. And I bet," she said, picking up her glass, and raising it to her lips, "we could even be good friends. If we try." She sipped, then set the glass back down on the table.

I knew it. Oh Anna. "Alright." He moved back down the sofa - to the end closest to the Queen. "I told you how I didn't remember much about my mother?"

Elsa nodded.

"But sometimes - in the past - I dreamt about it. Her…death, I mean. Falling through ice and disappearing from me. It's been years since the last time I dreamed it, actually."

"And you've been dreaming this again?" she asked.

"For several nights now."

Elsa rose from her chair, stepped around the small table between them, and sat beside him on the sofa. She reached out and touched his broad shoulder. He felt her hand gently squeeze.

"But it's been worse," he continued. "It hasn't only been my mother this time. I dreamt of my father falling through the ice. And then I dreamt of Sven. I even dreamt, a couple nights ago, of a giant wave crashing through the valley where my family lives. Stripping everything away. Every tree, every stone. The wave washed through and I saw nothing left behind. Just empty, grey valley floor."

"Kristoff, that's awful."

"But last night was the worst." He looked at her from the side.

"You dreamt of Anna, didn't you?"

"I dreamt of the fjord. It was frozen over - just like that time years ago. You know when."

Elsa swallowed, blinked rapidly, and nodded.

"In my dream, I was calling out for her. I knew she was in trouble. But I couldn't see a thing. A snowstorm blinded me. Just like before…" He covered the Queen's hand on his shoulder with his own. "But then I did find her. Saw her standing out alone on the ice. Far from the shore, beyond even the ships moored around the harbor." He gripped her hand tighter. "I ran to her. I knew what was going to happen." He shut his eyes.

"But…you weren't in time."

He slowly nodded. "I saw…the ice cracking beneath her feet. I saw her lose her balance and slip down onto her hands and knees. I watched the ice tip up behind her from her weight, and she went down into the water." He opened his eyes, staring emptily before him, into memory. "So smoothly. She sank down and away. Disappeared. Just like everyone else did, in my dreams last night, and the night before, and…"

Elsa's breath shuddered. She pulled her hand away from his shoulder.

"But I didn't wake then," he added, "as I usually do."

"What…happened next?"

"I dove into the water after her. I kicked my way down as deep as I could go. But there was so much darkness - there were shards of ice in my way - the water wasn't clear - "

Elsa raised her palm to him. He quieted. "I'm sorry, Kristoff, I can't listen to more…"

"It's alright."

She stood up from the sofa and walked away, toward her father's portrait. She looked upon it for a moment. Then turned toward the window.

"Elsa?"

"Yes?" She stared through the glass, over the dark waters of the fjord, at the ships scattered atop the water with lanterns lit, preparing to set sail after having returned to the harbor only hours before.

"Maybe we should cancel the party in the morning."

She noticed her reflection. Her green dress still sparkling despite the fading firelight. The blanched skin of her face. The dark circles under her eyes. And she noticed the sheen of frost encrusting the panes of glass, thickening more quickly the darker her thoughts became.

"I know it's sudden. But people would understand," Kristoff continued. "They know about Anna's ship. That it never reached Corona."

"We can't." She squeezed her hands into fists at her sides. "Anna planned it. She wanted us to host it together, and tell her how it went and how we got along when she returned." She spun away from the window, toward her Ice Master, who had already arisen from the sofa and begun crossing the room to meet her the moment he heard the tremble in her voice. "And that's just what I intend to do."

She let him hold her as she wept into his chest.

He waited to speak until she quieted, several minutes later. "You know…we do have some things in common." He stroked her back, his fingers quickly numbing from the iciness of her dress. "I never had a tutor either…well, not a human one."

She rested the side of her head upon his tear-stained shirt, and looked blankly out the window - cleared of the ice she had feared would envelop the room only minutes before.

"I didn't have any books though," he continued. "Only a couple that my mother left behind…but they never interested me."

"You didn't finish telling me about your dream." She looked up at him.

"It's alright. Maybe we should go and rest, if we still want to hold Anna's party tomorrow."

"No." She shook her head. "It isn't fair of me to not let you finish."

"But…I'm not sure it's a good idea."

"Why?" She stepped back from his embrace and wiped her tears away from her cheeks with her hands.

"Because you told me to stop…"

She waved away his words with her hand. "You are right," she said. "We have things in common. Our love for Anna, for example. Which means we have to be there for each other at a time like this. So tell me." She crossed her arms.

Maybe I should have had more to drink. "It's like I said. I dove into the water after her. But it was too dark. I couldn't see."

"But you still didn't wake then?"

"No."

"So what happened?"

"I just…reached out with my hands. As far as I could. I thought if I could feel her, then grab her, any part of her, then I could pull her up and out of the water."

"Did you?"

"Did I find her in the water?"

She nodded.

"Yes." He ran both of his hands through his hair. "I grabbed onto her - her arm, it turned out to be."

"And you saved her?"

His hands dropped to his sides. "No. But I felt her hand grab my arm back. That is when I woke up."

She covered her mouth with her hand.

"I shouldn't have told you."

"No. It's okay." She reached out and touched his arm. "Thank you. I don't know if sharing this has helped you, but…somehow it's helped me. You can go and rest now."

"But what about you?"

She turned and looked out the window. The small fleet of ships had departed the harbor, their lantern lights shining like stars that floated atop the ocean just beyond the fjord. "I'm going to stay here for a while and think."

"About what?"

"About the rescue mission. About Anna. Maybe there's…something else I can do."

He nodded. "Alright. Tell me if I can help. With anything. I'll do anything." He turned away and walked toward the doorway. Before he left the room, he turned around one final time and said, "It has helped. Sharing things with you. I think it has."

"Goodnight Kristoff."

He said goodnight back, then walked out of the study and down the lamplit corridors of the castle to his and Anna's bedroom.

part 2 - come home with me

Kristoff paced the bedroom floor, as he had done for an hour since departing the study, reciting stanzas and intermittently running his hands through his hair. Finally he grabbed the poetry book Anna had given him from its place on the nightstand, opened it to a random page, and glared at its contents.

Elsa thinks I could memorize all of this?

He flipped through the pages of the small, leather-bound book.

She's got to be kidding me.

He returned the book to the nightstand and sat himself onto the edge of the bed.

…but she wasn't kidding me, was she? Elsa doesn't kid around. Not unless Anna's around too.

He stroked the empty bedsheets beside him.

Elsa doesn't kid around…what if…

He rubbed his face with his hand. His clothing for the morning - a white bunad, brown trousers, a belt - rested at the foot of the bed.

"Why did you plan for the party to start so early in the morning, Anna?" He collapsed onto his back and sprawled his limbs across the bed. He heard the ruffle of his morning outfit slipping to the floor. And he remembered Anna's words, the evening before she left.

'The kids are excited, Kristoff! They love Elsa's ice shows. They love the skating, and the snowball fights, and playing with Olaf and all his little brothers and sisters. And I bet they'd love you, and Sven, if you guys, you know…showed up and helped out?'

He closed his eyes.

'You're a little afraid of her. I get it. But please, just trust me…it only seems like she doesn't like you. It's that she's still afraid of herself. A bit. She tries to be perfect to compensate. It's so hard. I'm still trying to show her that she's accepted. And you could really help me while I'm away…'

He took several slow breaths, counted in his head, and recited:

Now my song has turned again,

from one of sorrow to one of cheer.

From the time I was imprisoned and

longed

to see the glorious spring season of

the year.

He opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling. "Was that good, Anna? Will Elsa approve? Did I get it right? I think I got it right. Past that part, though…"

He heard the doorknob turn and immediately sat up.

It was Elsa. She peeked through the doorway. "You're still awake. That's good."

"What is it?" he asked.

She swung the door open and strode into the room. "I've been thinking about some of the things you told me. About your family - the trolls - how I coincidentally led you to them." She stopped before him, her arms crossed. "Kristoff, I'm glad that something good for you came of that night."

"I…yeah. Me too." He scratched the back of his head. "I mean, I'm sorry about what happened to Anna and you then. But Grand Pabbie knew what to do, didn't he?"

Elsa nodded.

"So…was that all you wanted to tell me?"

The Queen shook her head. She picked her steps to avoid the bunad and trousers crumpled on the floor and sat beside him on the bed.

"Do you remember what Grand Pabbie told me then?" she asked.

Kristoff shrugged. "I remember most of that night. Hard to forget the things I saw."

"One of the things he told me was that my powers would only grow. Which they did."

"Right…I remember."

"Kristoff, what if that were still true? Even up till today?"

"I don't know…what do you think it would mean?"

She sighed, and stared down at the carpet. "Listen. Nothing my father taught me to control my magic worked. He spent days at a time, in the castle, just to work with me, but always trying the same things." She turned her face away.

"He was dedicated to helping you," Kristoff said.

"Yes. He was confident that I could gain control, one day. That I would be fine. Because I was his daughter." She looked back at him. "Don't you see?"

"See…what?"

"I needed a different tutor." She leaned toward him. "One of your tutors. Grand Pabbie, maybe, or someone else there in the valley who could answer my questions, teach me to practice. Not only conceal and don't feel. Although controlling my emotions…is an important part of this for me."

"So you're saying…you should have visited the valley regularly and studied there about your magic?"

"Maybe. Maybe the valley should even have been my home. For a while. I obviously didn't belong here, in the castle, always in danger of hurting somebody…"

"But you made it to your coronation day without hurting anyone else. What your father taught you worked."

"I was Queen for half a day before I cursed the entire kingdom. No - I was not ready to fulfill my duties as a ruler. I endangered the lives of everyone. I did not belong on the throne."

What has gotten into you?

"But my father was right - it's going to be fine. Because of Anna, and you, and Sven and Olaf…" She touched his shoulder. "It's time for you to…come home with me. For a visit."

"Huh?"

Elsa rolled her eyes. "I'm saying - I need you to take me to the Valley of the Living Rock."

"To the Valley?" More questions popped into his head. But he settled on asking only one: "Is this for Anna - for helping the rescue mission?"

"Of course. And I still wish to the host the party tomorrow. So we should go now."

He stood up from the bed - startling the Queen - and made his way directly for the doorway. "Right. Meet me and Sven in the courtyard in five minutes."

part 3 - magic

"Endre. Endre. It's time to wake up."

Raelyn poked at the sleeping boy in the bed lined up just beside her own.

He rolled away from her and buried himself deeper into his blankets.

"Everyone's already up - I can hear them dowstairs."

"I don't wanna," her little brother mumbled through his bedsheets. "It's cold."

"You'll be sorry if you miss the ice skating party."

Endre curled into a tighter ball.

"I think I can hear Halen downstairs…"

"So?"

"So you better rise - before I go get him to help me get you out of bed." She slipped her hand beneath his covers, searched, and found a bare ankle.

The boy gasped and kicked her hand away. "Your fingers are cold!"

"It's my ice magic." She planted her palm against his back. "Freeze!"

"Okay, okay!" He twisted away from her touch. His blanket slipped over the side of the bed, and he sat up. "Where's my shirt?" he asked as he rubbed his eyes then glanced around the small room.

"Over there." Raelyn pointed. "Oh, Endre, you should have stayed up with me last night."

"I tried. I was too sleepy." He slipped over the side of his bed and tiptoed to the corner of the room. "Were the lights in the sky pretty?" He grabbed a white shirt from the wooden floor and pulled it over his head.

"More than pretty. They were…amazing." She hugged her knees to her chest. "I can't believe what I saw. You probably will think I'm lying."

"What did you see? Were the lights really bright?" He rummaged in a drawer, then pulled out a set of trousers.

"Yes. Bright and colorful, like on any good night, but…this time…Endre, swear you won't say I'm lying?"

"I swear I won't say you're lying," he sang. "Hey, I can hear Halen downstairs. Do you think his mama brought some cloudberry jam?"

"I saw…I saw shapes." She crawled forward on her bed then swung her legs over the end.

"What?"

"Like…animals. In the sky, within the lights!"

Her little brother's mouth opened. She pointed a finger at him. He swallowed, and looked at her with wide eyes and a raised eyebrow.

"I swear it. And you can't tell anyone else, because they'll just think I'm lying too."

Endre shut his mouth. He glanced at the doorway, through which they could hear the sound of feet running down the hall just outside, then he looked again at his older sister. "What…kinds of animals?"

Raelyn sighed. "Birds. Foxes. Or maybe they were wolves…they were all made of the same colors as the lights in the sky. Some of them even came down closer and ran over the rooftops across from us - oh please, just listen. I have to tell someone."

Endre covered his grin with his hands. "Sorry! It sounds funny."

Raelyn slid off the end of her bed and walked to the dresser. "It's fine. I've told you enough anyway." She shook her head as she yanked out clothes from within her drawer. "I thought I heard whistling too…from somewhere very far away…you don't believe a word I'm saying, do you?"

"Nope. Well, I'm hungry, so I'm going downstairs." Endre opened the door to their bedroom, then smirked back at his older sister. "Now you better hurry. Or you won't get any jam for your bread. I'm gunna eat it all." He dashed through the doorway and slammed the door shut behind him.

Raelyn listened to his footsteps pounding down the stairs. She looked out the window. Then she sat on the edge of her bed.

She loved animals. Especially bears, after her father had given her a small carven one as a birthday present the year before he died and left her and her little brother alone. The year before they had to move into the village orphanage, where they lived now.

She wondered about the bear-shaped vision she had seen meandering just outside their window, sometime after midnight, long after her brother had fallen asleep. She wondered about what it had been doing - as she had slipped out the same window and followed the bear as it trundled up the pathway, down the castle causeway, and through the open gates into the courtyard. She wondered how it had been able to pass through the wall of the castle, like a ghost, then appear again in an upper-stairs window just over her head. And she wondered why, when its light had suddenly winked out, and the window darkened, she had felt so sad.

Maybe I just dreamed it all.

She rose from the bed, dressed, and made her way out of the room and down the stairs. But as she found her seat and began eating her bread and cold fish, she noted how quiet some of the other children sitting around her were. There was Queen Elsa's ice-skating party that morning - and even though they knew Princess Anna wouldn't be there this time because she was away on a voyage, they all had still chattered about how excited they were for days and days before this morning.

…I wasn't the only one who saw something strange last night. She chomped on her bread and scanned the faces of those across from her. I bet I didn't dream a thing. I bet…

"I bet it was magic!"

'The Queen has performed strange, and powerful, magic tonight.'

Sven pulled the cart through the gates and into the quiet, empty courtyard.

'You must take her back home and watch over her. Do not allow her to extend her energy any further. She must rest.'

Kristoff pulled the reigns, and Sven came to a stop at the base of the stairs that led up to the foyer of the castle. He saw the front doors open - Kai scurried out and down the steps toward them.

'Did it work? Grand Pabbie - please tell me.'

'The beings Elsa summoned will find her. You will know where she is by the morning. You will be told if she is still alive. The answers will come to you - both of you - in a dream. Tonight.'

'What do you mean, if she's still alive? That's not good enough!'

'The Queen needs you now, Kristoff. She is very weak. Take her back home.'

'No. No, I can't. I can't go back until I know Anna is safe.'

'There is nothing else that can be done. Not right now. Take care of your sister-in-law tonight. Do it for Anna.'

He carried the Queen up the steps, through the doorway, and to the base of the grand staircase that led up to their upper floor rooms. Gerda, and other servants, insisted that they take over for him, so he lowered her gently down and onto her feet. She quavered and steadied herself with a hand against his chest.

"Kristoff." Her voice was rough, and small. "Tell me what Grand Pabbie told you. I saw you speaking to him before we left."

"He ssaid we will know where she is by the morning…"

"Is she still alive?"

"He didn't know."

"My Lady," said Gerda, "I insist you let us get you to bed. You look very ill."

Two other female servants lifted Elsa's arms over their shoulders, and began to guide her up the staircase.

Before she reached the top, Elsa turned and looked back down at Kristoff. "Kai," she called, "let Master Kristoff rest as well. Allow Olaf and his brothers and sisters into the courtyard - they can entertain the children until I'm ready to come down."

"Yes, my Lady."

Kristoff waited until Elsa and her servants turned down the hall and were out of sight.

"Don't let her join the party," he said to Kai, who waited beside him.

"My Lord?"

"Grand Pabbie's instructions. She needs to rest for the day. I'll host the party this time."

"But you need rest as well - you were out the entire night."

Yeah, I know. "Give me a couple hours. I'll come down by mid-morning. Have something ready for me to eat then. Can you do that?"

"Of course, my Lord."

"Thank you…"

He walked slowly up the staircase and turned down the hall, already brightened by the light of the oncoming morning.

Kristoff gently shut the bedroom door behind him, and immediately went toward his bed and collapsed onto the bedsheets.

"Two hours…" He held his arm across his eyes, relishing the slight pressure on his sockets, and the darkness. "Gotta recite poetry to the kids."

His thoughts drifted. He remembered how Elsa had slept upon his shoulder on the ride home, back from the valley, an hour before. He imagined Anna in the bedroom with him. She told him to go to sleep, but not until he recited one more line. Just to make sure he got everything right - for the kids, and for Elsa, who apparently loved this particular poem.

He stretched his arms out, groaned, breathed in slowly, counted in his head, and recited:

Her deeds suffice to show to all,

how God has given her more courage

than all the men of world renown.

But she is yet to finish her mission,

for I believe God sent her here to

bring peace to earth,

this I envision.

And he fell asleep.

a/n: Excerpts are from Christine de Pizan's The Poem of Joan of Arc.