Chapter 4

"Do you think there are other people in this world who are like us?" Elsa asked one day while she was lying on the grass.

On that day, she was dressed in a simple brown dress, her hair tied into two rows of plaits. She looked up at the sky as she fiddled with one of her plaits. Her other hand was stretched outwards, barely touching Jack's fingers as he lay next to her.

She had no idea when it started. Maybe it started on the day they celebrated Jack's 'birthday', when their fingers had accidentally brushed against each other's when they tried to clean up the mess at the end of the party. That feeling, that subtle touch, was indescribable, a touch that was cool and yet sent a surge of warmth up her arms. Jack had always hugged her or placed an arm around her when she was upset and needed comforting, but now it seemed that he was touching her even when she was happy, simply because he could, because he wanted to. And Elsa, in return, was unable to stop her fingers from lacing with his when his hand came into contact with hers. He had held her hand as he guided her to a tree to show her something. She had reached for his hand when she wanted to whisper something into his ears. Their hands had sought out each other's when they had leaned against a tree and talked about nothing in particular. She had blushed terribly the first few times it happened. She did not know if Jack noticed it, but if he did, he did not mention it.

Somewhere behind them, they could hear the mumblings of Olaf as he talked to himself, wandering between the trees.

Olaf had started to melt at the end of Jack's 'birthday' celebration and Elsa had, with Jack's prompting, made a tiny snow cloud that hovered above his head. She had literally squealed in delight when she managed to accomplish that. The snow cloud snowed on a regular basis, keeping the snowman frozen. The trolls were surprised to see a living, walking snowman at first, but they soon (like, in five minutes) got used to his presence, although some of the trolls still tried to kick off Olaf's head when he was not looking but it was all in the name of good fun (which meant that they picked up the head after that and put it back onto the snowman's shoulders). Others tried to 'snow-nap' the cloud, or tried to stand close to Olaf in an attempt to get some snowflakes on their faces.

She rolled on to her stomach and imagined that she was now much closer to Jack. Maybe they were so close that their noses were almost touching.

"There is grass on your hair, princess," Jack chuckled. Drats, he was not that close. Elsa subtly crawled on her arms toward his general direction, and then remembered the grass on her hair and clothes and made a frantic attempt to sweep them off. Jack laughed.

"Stop laughing, Jack. If I can see you, I will pinch your nose right now to stop you from laughing."

Jack laughed even harder. Elsa sulked.

She stood up, and she heard the sounds beside that told her that he had stood up too.

She turned to face him, her hand raised, ready to pinch his nose and then she remembered that she had no idea where his nose was. She felt that slight ache growing in her chest, and let out a sigh as she turned and walked away.

Jack grabbed her hand from behind.

"You are not angry with me, are you?" he asked, still laughing.

She looked at where he was supposed to be and could not help the next sigh that came out.

"Jack, it's not funny. Why can't I see you?"

"Why do you want to see me?"

"Won't you want to know how I look like if you cannot see me?" she posed the question. "Won't you be the least curious?"

Jack thought for a while.

"Well….maybe. But I can always ask you to describe yourself if I can't see you."

"So how do you look like, Jack?"

"Let's see…. I have three eyes... no, two eyes… , one mouth, one nose."

"How tall are you? What colour are your eyes? Your hair? What kind of clothes do you wear? What kind of shoes do you wear? Will you be able to draw a sketch of yourself if I gave you a piece of paper?"

Jack chuckled again. "That's too many questions at one go, princess. But I can tell you one thing."

"What?"

"You know you cannot see me…. So what kind of clothes do you think I'll wear?"

A fleeting thought, and Elsa turned red.

"You're not wearing clothes?" Elsa screamed, and quickly covered her eyes with her hands as if Jack would suddenly materialize in front of her without clothes.

Jack laughed, and then she felt a pair of arms around her, pulling her to him, towards his chest.

She nearly screamed at the thought of touching his bare chest and instinctly closed her eyes, and then she felt the woolen material of his sweater at her fingertips. It was soft and worm. It felt like a well-loved and well-used towel or blanket, and she felt like burying her face onto it.

"You lied!"

"Of course I lied," he admitted, unable to keep the chuckle from his voice. "It is so fun teasing you, Elsa. As you can feel, I do wear clothes." He took her hand and pressed it against the fabric of his sweater. Elsa spread her fingers and felt his chest underneath the sweater.

She stood there, in his arms, as her other hand reached out and felt his shoulder, the hood of his sweater. She curled her fingers around it, feeling the cold of what must be frost or snowflake. It was the first time she was so close to him, and she thought that she could smell what could pass off as fresh snow. She leaned against him, resting her head against his chest and feeling the slight moving of his chest as he breathed.

The playful atmosphere just now was gone.

Jack placed his hand on the small of her back and she let out a contented sigh as she wrapped her arms around him. He was slightly taller than her, and his body was lean, not like the muscular warriors that she used to see in Arendelle, but more like the ordinary men on the streets. She opened her eyes, and saw her fingers stretched out against thin air. She gripped his sweater, but while she could see the way her fingers curled tightly, while she could feel the fabric against her fingers, she could not see his sweater and she could not see him. Her pulse quickened as she unclenched her fist and clenched it again. And this time round, she could see a thin layer of frost spreading from her hand and coating Jack's sweater.

She broke away from him with a gasp, a hand to her lips.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked, concern in his voice.

She shook her head. No.

"What's the matter," she felt a hand on her shoulder, as a finger wiped away an ice-cold tear that fell from her eye before it froze.

She wanted to go into his arms again. Just wrapped her arms around him and let him do the same. Maybe if she tried again she would be able to see him.

"Jack…," she whispered, feeling rather pathetic. Aren't princesses supposed to have a glorious and charmed life? And here she was, someone who had hurt her own sister, banished to a land outside her castle, living like a commoner with the trolls instead of being with her family, and not being able to see the boy whom she was thinking of every day.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him again. Elsa looked at the face that she could not see. She reached out a hand, and touched his face. And still she could not see him. A thin layer of frost crept slowly from her palm and curved around his cheek. She imagined the frost covering his whole face, enabling her to see his features. She imagined an uncontrolled blast of ice from her hand, stunning him, killing him instantly.

Elsa let out a cry and fled.

She ran deep into the forest. Her tears blinded her, but her hands were stretched out in front of her, feeling her way through and blasting the roots off any tree that blocked her way. The cold never bothered her, but even when she was running away from the monster that was herself, she was dimly aware that the green surroundings had turned white.

Behind her, she heard the voice of someone else, a boy's voice as he called out a name. She wanted to stop running away from him and go back into his arms. She wanted to feel his arms around her, his breath on her hair as he hugged her close. She wanted him to tell her that everything would be alright.

And then there was a slight breeze and suddenly his arms were around her.

"Elsa, Elsa, what's the matter?" Jack asked as he lowered her onto what was formerly a lush, green forest ground.

Elsa looked up as she tried to catch her breath. It was now an ice field as far as she could see, the grass all buried under a sheet of ice, and the trees all stiff and frozen. A tree nearby snapped under the weight of all the ice on its crowning leaves. Elsa buried her head onto Jack's chest as the loud roar echoed throughout the forest, her fingers gripping his arms even while her whole body shook uncontrollably, her face frozen by her own tears.

"Elsa, it's alright," Jack stroked her hair gently. "It's alright. Everything is alright."

Elsa looked at her hands as she stayed in Jack's arms as if they were some evil limbs. She willed herself to calm down, to count to one hundred, but the numbers kept jumbling up and she had no idea which number she thought of just now. And then, amidst the rapid beating of her heart, she heard his voice counting out loud. She must have unintentionally said out the numbers.

"Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-tree…"

Elsa closed her eyes as she concentrated on his voice, his soothing voice as he counted to one hundred for her, and then two hundred, until he reached one thousand.

She stayed in his arms even after he had stopped counting, even after the tears had stopped.

"Elsa?" he whispered her name gently and she felt his hand on her cheek, cradling her face gently. She leaned into his touch.

"I nearly killed you just now, Jack," she confessed after a while.

"You didn't." His voice was serious.

"I nearly did."

"You can't. It is not possible."

She looked up.

"Nothing is impossible, Jack. It is not possible for someone to have the powers of the ice and snow, but we did. It is not possible for a girl to be injured by her sister with a blast of snow. It happened. I am out of control, Jack. One of these days I will kill you, Jack." There was a chill in the air, and a new layer of frost coated the ground. It started snowing.

"You won't. You can't." he told her as a thumb caressed her cheek.

"Maybe not today, Jack. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not even next year," she gestured, getting more agitated. She felt the wind around her grew stronger and it whipped up the ice and the frost and snow like the beginning of a hurricane but she was unable to stop it, unable to stop herself from thinking of the worst. "One day, Jack, I will lose control again and I will hurt you like I've hurt Anna and I will k -"

He shut her off with a kiss.

The one and only person who had kissed Elsa before was Anna, who had this very terrible habit of kissing her family members on the lips. But she had not seen Anna for years (and most probably her younger sister had outgrown this habit) and the furthest the trolls went was to kiss her cheek (and that was only Grand Pabbie and Bulda) (though every single troll had kissed Kristoff on the lips before).

But this was Jack, and his kiss was definitely different from the chaste ones that Anna used to give. She felt his hands on her face, his cool, chapped lips as he kissed her again. She felt a surge of warmth from her heart, spreading to the rest of her, and in that cold frozen ground with the biting wind, she felt warm.

The wind died down.

"Jack…" she spoke when they parted. She wanted to ask him to kiss her again. She wanted to tell him that she felt the same way. She wanted to tell him to run away so that she would not be able to hurt him, the boy whom she loved. "Jack…."

"Elsa, there is something that I need to explain. It's about why you won't be able to hurt me. It's may also be the reason why you cannot see me."

"Tell me." She placed her hand over his which was still cradling her face. Hope flared up within her.

"I want you to listen with an open mind."

She bobbed her head.

Jack took a deep breath before he continued.

"Elsa," he spoke. "Do you believe in Jack Frost?"