Chapter 4: Leaving where It Left Off
"So are you ready to do this?"
"I think." Jack had the sand in one hand and orb in another.
"Well once you combine them, there isn't a moment to loose. Sandman and I will make sure the portal works for as long as it can."
Sandman nodded in agreement with North.
"I…I appreciate it. I just really hope I can figure this all out. It seems like I'm just working off a small hunch…"
"So now you don't think you should go?" North asked.
"Well no…but-" He remembered the girl's wide blue crying eyes. Something about that…the window opening…it meant something. "I will." He breathed out. "Lets do this…actually…how do I do this?"
"Well I think you just let out the Father Time Sand and then see what happens." North suggested.
Frost nodded. He set the bag of Sand on the floor and held the orb carefully in his other hand. He opened the bag of sand and waited. He wondered…should he sprinkle it over the orb? Or…
The three stared in a short silence at the issue at hand. Jack wondered if the Father of Time had spitefully given them a regular bag of sand.
Jack stood up, when suddenly the Time sand seemed to trail on its own into the air and follow the Orb containing the Moon's star dust. Jack eyes widened. Sandman and North stared too.
Jack hesitantly let the Orb out from his grasp. Suddenly the Time sand spun around the orb, as the two were suspended in mid air.
Suddenly they began to spin so fast the three shielded their eyes away from a bright light being emitted.
When Jack looked back at it, suddenly the spinning Time Sand was orbiting around the Orb and projecting a rather strange looking portal, and extremely hazy. It looked like a mix of silver blue and an earthy grey spinning around the same as the orb and it's orb.
"So I think it worked." Jack said surprised.
"Well I'd say so but you'd better get going. I have a feeling that Time Sand does not float as well as Moon's Star memories do." North said as he started to notice the faintest falling of one or two grains of the sand to the ground. "Time does not wait for anybody."
"Your right!" Jack gripped his staff. He just really hoped they hadn't made a mistake in doing this. He nodded to the two and took a breath before jumping into the portal.
"That boy is either going to make history…or he is going to ruin history…" North said. "Hmph, the Moon knows what its doing I guess…lets guard this place to make sure he gets back safe."
Sandman nodded and used some of his own sand so nobody could go near the portal without falling asleep.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, that, as your Royal guidance, our council recommends that there is a King for every Queen…not that you're not able, actually you're more able and strike the most…well fear and happiness in all of the land and people around, which is hard to do…but…political matters…wars, should it ever come to that, really need a male figure to handle –"
Elsa sighed and put her fingertips to her forehead. "Well I don't have a King at the moment."
"So we just recommend you …look. Another thing is, if it matters, you will need an heir. Your sister can take over the throne should anything happen, but normally…well normally it's a direct descent." The councilman looked at her with a slight bit of grief. He'd worked for her father and mother too. Nothing he said was absolute and Elsa knew it, but she knew the world of Kings and Queens had a certain amount of appeal for public appearance, traditional rules, and well, a structure to withhold.
"Alright. I'm not about to make some kind of public ordeal. But I'll keep an eye out I guess. Thank you for your advice though. " Elsa smiled to him, but looked away as she crossed her arms and looked out the window to Anna and Kristoff out in the snow with Olaf. They played around as if they were children, but she really had envied that look that Kristoff gave to Anna when she wasn't looking, and the look Anna returned when she caught him staring.
She was happy. She wasn't cold. She wasn't even lonely. She had people that loved her. People accepted her. And yet there was still something missing in her life. Maybe it was a King. Still…she knew what the harmful effects were of letting a relationship move to fast…Hans' malicious behaviours had made their people even wary of any trade with the Southern Isles.
Life had gotten easier, but life had gotten harder in a different way.
Suddenly Anna and Kristoff burst through the castle doors, laughing.
"I can't believe you actually lost!" Anna smiled widely.
"Well you had Olaf, and he's a snowman…so he's probably better at snowball fights."
"Nah, I just think you don't have the skill."
"Well I can't help that Sven doesn't have any hands to make snowballs with! It was unfair!"
"Hah, you're just mad because you lost to a girl!" Anna teased as she brushed the snow off her dress.
"Yea go team girl!" Olaf said. "Oh wait…I'm not a girl….or am I? Do snowmen even have any gender…? I mean I am pretty good with snow balls but I wonder if there are any snowwomen out there…" Olaf paused before he looked up. "AH Queen Elsa, why didn't you join our snow fight? You should have seen it, snow flying everywhere!"
"I watched. I had a few responsibilities to attend to."
"Responsibilities being what? I told you if you needed any help you could ask me and Kristoff any time!" Anna said.
"Kristoff and I." Elsa corrected. "I know. This was a little more personal though."
Anna watched her sister's face grow more concerned. "Tell me Elsa. Maybe I can help." Kristoff then shooed Olaf off towards the hallway as he caught a side-glance from Anna, as they left the sisters alone.
Elsa sighed. She knew hiding things from her sister never really did help anything…as the past had proven.
"Well, the royal councilmen…are advising that I get married…or rather find a King to help me with all of the royal issues. They're afraid I am getting too…stressed. I guess nobody really wants to see me mad again. But I'm really fine. I mean I told them I'd look but who's saying I need to rush. Plus, I want you and Kristoff to be happy and not have to worry about these things. I really need to repay the city for the damage I did last …summer…"
"Don't worry about that! Everyone loves you now! We all know there is no way you'd ever go rogue again, and hell who could blame you after all that protection Mom and Dad gave you, and then my silver hair thing, which again, no biggie I'm all cozy and warm again…but nobody else worries so don't worry! Plus, if you want I can play matchmaker!"
"Oh please, don't even say that. Remember you were the one who said you wanted to marry Hans after what was it…an hour of the coronation party?" Elsa smiled and raised an eyebrow.
"Oh my god. Can't anyone let me off the hook for that one?" Anna said dragging her hands down her cheeks in frustration.
"As long as I am the Ice Queen you will be the one who released-the-Hans." Elsa teased.
"Well I really do hope that man is rotting in a dungeon somewhere…"
"Anna!" Elsa said, stunned by her sister's hostility.
"What? Okay, maybe not rotting. But still he needs to stay far away from any throne." Anna said. "I wonder what is going on with him…"
Meanwhile…
In the Southern Isles, a certain Kingdom was having a winter's night of high winds and a rather blustering winter storm. It was on this night, a certain Weasel took it upon himself to visit.
"King Roald."
"Yes?" The King of the Southern Isles acknowledged, sitting rather bored, on his throne, as the windows of the castle clashed against their locks. He looked similar to a certain Prince named Hans, but as the eldest brother, and a good ten years older but with a longer hair of black from his mother's side, the first Queen of the Isles before his father had remarried after her death. His face was fair and chiseled, his eyes a similar green, but he never did have to pray for the Kingdom, it had been bestowed upon him and sometimes he wish he had a little more.
"There is…someone at the front doors of the castle that wants to see you. A man…a rather small grey haired man…he-"
"Is it another peasant? I really can't do much about this weather, and half of them don't have a house because they never did pay their taxes…" He looked boredly out to the rather terrible Winter weather they'd had.
"No, no it looks rather like the old Duke of Weaseltown actually…"
"That one?" His brow rose. "Was he not that one who followed my poor brothers follies in Arendale? Nobody is proud of what my brother did…he never was successful in any of his dumb plots to gain a bit of throne…or a princess…still I heard he was de-Duked due to his own poor decisions of their trading being revoked from Arendale...and now a few other Kingdoms seemed to have followed suit…"
"We did too sir."
"We had to. If Arendale did, we must. Our ties are not strong with them because of Hans' wonderful doings. They are our next door neighbor…I highly doubt a Queen with powers of Ice is a formidable enemy.
"Ah, but a formidable friend could be a good ally or maybe even more than ally…" A voice said from the doorway.
"Come in Weaseltown….or rather …?"
"Yes, yes. The Ex-Duke of Weselton, but it is now just Sir Elfrigg." The old man said in rather old looking clothes through his mustache.
"Alfrigg? Like the mythical dwarf?" Roald raised a brow.
"ELF-frigg." He said crossing his arms.
"So Elf-frigg, what do you want? You're an ex-duke. Clearly the King of Weasletown disregarded you for some rather foolish following of my dear brother, who we've made sure stays out of public eye for a good long time." Roald said rather bored with the conversation. "I have enough trouble keeping tabs on all those brothers of mine, let alone the fact that they all want a piece of my land."
"Ah, but I have some good knowledge from the inner circle of Arendale…" The small old man rocked back and forth on his toes.
"And what does Arendale offer other than icicles or a loss of merchandise trade?"
"A … Queen of Ice…more or less. I mean I do agree her witchcraft is quite uncanny…but if you make the Southern Isles part of Arendale…and then have the help of an Ice Queen on your side…well…you could conquer the world…if you were into this kind of thing…"
Roald chuckled. "The Queen ? What does the Southern Isles offer Arendale for such privileges?"
"Well…for one, one of the rumors in the Arendale council…is that she needs to have an good ol'hubby soon before the Princess Anna comes of age, or they might pressure her to give up the throne…they're worried a male King is rather a preferable aid to war…bla bla bla…"
"So a marriage proposal? Is this what the ex-Duke of Weasletown is pitching?" He stroked his smaller closely trimmed and shaped beard on his chin that extended down from his longer side-burns much like Hans'. "And what do you get out of this?"
"Well if you were in need of a Duke then…I could manage your commercial affairs…"
"Hmm, yet, I highly doubt they'd let you into Arendale…"
"It's getting you in there, your Majesty!"
"Why come to my Kingdom and pitch this to me off all people? You know they do not prefer us?"
"A man with an apology and charm may win the heart of a cold Ice Queen? Plus, its surprising enough to think few Princes and Kings are even of the right age…" the Ex-Duke suggested. "She cannot keep her lineage if she does not have children…and so they are doing this in her interest…they seem keen now to her powers."
The King of The Isles thought for a moment. "And yet I would feel somewhat accomplished in knowing I could do what my poor young brother could not. For my lineage to have a power of Frost would be quite…dominating don't you think?"
"You mean to have children like that? With a Frost-witchcraft? Well its unheard of…"
"…and a wife that could make the world fall on its knees at the threat of the world icing over? You know, should I do this, and offer my services to her as retribution for my brother's mess…" He was now pacing.
"…And then you make me the Duke and I can get my place back among high ranks! I'm still convinced Arandale has more to offer…but of –"
"This might actually work. Send the Kingdom of Arandale a letter of my deepest apologies…tell them there is no other way to express this but of a personal and private apology, two which, should they allow, my arrival so I can express my own disdain for my brother's poor and unjustified actions." Roald scripted off as another scripted the words before leaving.
"We shall see how this plays. If this does fail, Sir Ex-Duke-of-Weaseltown, I will likely have your head to pay for it if I do not end up on ice."