Chapter 9 – The Girl who loved Winter –

"Jack! Please stay! Stay with me!"

Clutching tightly his dark blue cloak, the platinum blonde haired girl cried. She was trying to calm herself to think of a way to help the bringer of winter, hoping there must be a chance for him not to die. Remembering that she had a magic bag with the medical herbs, her thoughts had seemed to reach the most unlikely creature whose tiny feet scurried towards her.

"Frit?!" Elsa glanced up at the smallest Easter candy egg, pulling her known small bag that contained the frozen and preserved medicinal herbs that could cure any illness or poison. As if by magic, the pale blue magical egg sensed her thoughts, appeared out of nowhere, as it was connected by her hopes to save Jack. Grabbing some of the herbs, she formed resourcefully an ice mortar and pestle, pounded the herbs before she tended to Jack's injuries.


Deep below in his warren, the Pooka readied himself to go to the surface, ceased leaving his home when golden light glowed as the goddess of love appeared before him.

"You never ceased to amaze me with your ingenuity, my dear smart friend."

"My lady Freyja…" Bunny whispered her name at the same time gave a respectful bow.

"Creating a specific magical Easter egg to help the mortal girl as long as there is still hope within her heart, have you forgotten your code of time travelling and time wielding, seeing and knowing what the future holds? But, you haven't. You found a way within the flaws of the Universal Laws. That is the reason you remained here, finding a way to help Elsa in whatever way, even striking a bargain with Sandy to send dreams to warn Lord Pitchiner that his departure will be his last with his family. But the egotistical man will never heed your messages, and as you've seen, what's done was already done. We have lost an ally in the high general, and we'll be losing Tsar Lunar next. Our side had decreased and the powers of Good fades with the Golden Age ending."

"Not by a long shot!" The bringer of hope and spring gave a determined look. "No, not everything's over yet. As long as we have them together."

"But do you know the consequences?" The goddess of love and beauty whispered in concern. "For them to achieve, both have to greatly sacrifice. But, the final decision still lies with the girl in the end." The goddess remained her eyes at the Pooka, who finally seemed to accept the inevitable truth because he was aware of the new hope, and that is Elsa and Jack, and their true feelings at each other.

"I know, that is why I rest my belief and trust at them." With those words, Bunny sprinted and hopped speedily through his special travel tunnels before he surfaced from his created hole, peering out when he arrived at the small moon at the heart of Constellation Orion.


Improvising bandages to wrap around his wounds, the blue eyed mortal girl continued to whisper at the bringer of winter to stay with her until she was interrupted by the familiar voice of her father who entered further inside the villa.

"I think your words had reached him. If it hasn't he had died hours ago…"

Her eyes shone in relief, viewed Bunny drew near and kneeled beside her before Jack.

"He'll be alright, sweets, you've done a wonderful thing savin' him. Come on, help me carry him back to the warren. It's safer down there rather stay up here." The Pooka grabbed the deity of winter's wooden staff, the magical bag with Frit, and assisted the girl who seemed unable to leave the boy's side as she placed his arm over her shoulders to help Jack up on his feet. The boy struggled, even though he's weakened, willed himself to remain alive for the girl beside him.

Bunny tapped his foot as a hole appeared below them.

After sliding down into the warren, Elsa felt the familiar warmth of a spring's sunshine inside the Pooka's cozy abode. She stayed beside injured Jack and assisted him up towards the flowery and grassy mound-like house of Bunny who opened his door widely for them to enter.

"Elsa, take the nearest room for him to recover and rest."

Entering himself first inside the room, the Pooka viewed the flowery vines pushed aside the other furniture inside to make space. One of its larger flowery buds which should form a bed did not lower itself due to the extreme cold presence of their wounded guest. Instead, Elsa summoned her snowy powers to create a bed for Jack to lie down on. As soon as he lied down on the bed, the bringer of winter closed his eyes.

"It's not your fault, sweets, he'll be alright. He's just sleeping to help his body recover. To be honest, we never sleep. It is a way for us, immortals, do when we need to recover, in case we are badly injured." Bunny remained observing her, assured the worried and guilt-ridden girl.

"I would like to stay here for a while, please," The mortal girl remained holding the sleeping boy's hand.

"Elsa…" Hopping away, the Pooka respected Elsa's decision to watch over and take care of the immortal boy. He exited slowly the room after he gave a lingering glance at Elsa when realizing that the girl had really loved the boy.

As soon as Bunny left, the platinum blonde haired girl bit her lips and wiped quickly her tears falling down from her eyes. "I'm sorry," She whispered repeatedly at motionless Jack who was sleeping on the snowy bed before her.


Bunny knew it would not good for the girl to punish herself for whatever happened to Jack. If Jack Frost was fully recovered and was in his own shoes, the boy would not like the way Elsa was blaming herself. Deciding to talk to her, he approached the room, then gave a knock before he opened the door and whispered at the blue eyed girl that they need to talk.

The girl still unable to leave Jack's side, just turned and faced Bunny.

"Listen," The Pooka started their conversation as he further entered the room, where the girl stayed for days and nights, watching and taking care of the bringer of winter. "You cannot blame yourself with what had happened to him. He choose to save you…"

"And he ended like this, because of me, I was so careless to let my emotions get through me, I was so pained with anger and sorrow against those dream pirates with what they have done…" Elsa lowered her eyes away.

Bunny corrected her, spoke the truth. "No, he ended that way because he really loved you. I knew and sensed he's always true to you, even if he hid it with his false words and cold-hearted actions in order to protect you from whatever harm or danger that might befall upon you because of him." He paused for a moment. "I had to admit, I was blinded with my own emotions like you too. I was unable to forgive Jack Frost, not only because he's my seasonal adversary and my opposing element, he also broke the heart of the immortal woman I loved. Then, I came to realized something why he broke Tooth's heart and those others who came to love him, it's because he loved only one, and that only one is you, Elsa."

As she heard Bunny say such sincere words, the girl felt her blood rushed to her face particularly her cheeks at the same time, she felt her heart beat loudly.

"If there is one who should be blamed, it should be me," The Pooka lowered his eyes and sat slowly on the nearby mushroom chair, facing before Elsa who remained seated on the bedside near sleeping Jack. "I haven't been absolutely true to you unlike Jack, and this is regarding the last letter I gave you. I knew Lord Pitchiner's family, your family, was doomed."

Shocked, Elsa widened her eyes as her blushing face turned pale.

"I…I sent you that letter to spare you from suffering as you are of now." The Pooka took off his tinted green shades, gave an apologetic look. "I was born a time wielder and a time traveler, and forever will be a being able to master and see time - the past, present and future. But I bore the eternal honorable code, not to break the Universal Laws, especially time. Even how good the intention is, such as to save the Pitchiner Family, I'm never allowed to save them because it is what it meant to be. Lady Pitchiner is gone, Emily Jane is lost, and High General Kozmotis Pitchiner is now corrupted as a new enemy, called Pitch Black - the Nightmare King. As the side of darkness and evil, had a new powerful ally, it was now bent to continue to destroy galaxies of stars including the great houses of good immortals, such as Tsar Lunar of the House of Lunanoff…"

"How could this be?!" The blue eyed girl murmured, forcing to absorb the unfortunate news revealed by the bringer of spring and hope.

"The long anticipated Golden Age had come to an end." Replying her, Bunny looked sadly at her. "As the golden goddess of love once foretold, everything ends." The Pooka paused before speaking again, this time, he uttered emotionally words from the depths of his heart. "Darkness spreads all over where there is no light of hope, love and good, but of fear, hatred, and evilness in the hearts of many, whether immortals or mortals."

"And what do you suggest that we do to stop this?" Asking him, the girl drew near the guardian and held his arm.

"For now, I am still forming a plan …" Bunny did not continued when seeing Elsa's blue eyes looked intensely at him as if she realized something - a part of the dreaded truth that had long been hidden by the Pooka who shivered before he sneezed and coughed. His fur changed briefly into white particularly his arm which Elsa was holding on, forcing the girl to release her hold and moved away from Bunny.

"I…I'm the cause of such misfortune…" Contemplating the unfortunate events were somehow connected to her, tears began to roll down from her eyes.

"As I've told you before, sweets, it's not your fault! Not any misfortune - not my illness, and not the downfall of Pitchiner family…" He did not continue when hearing her words.

"I have to go home. My aunt, Ingrid, was right. Since I never belonged here, and I never will be…"

"Please, don't say that. You have such good intentions to make a difference…"

"…but everything I have thought I have done something for the good, it always turned into worse…" She lowered her face and clasped her hands tightly before her, fidgeting her fingers. "Please, I have already made my decision. I have to leave now." She bit her lips.

There was a deep sorrowful silence between them until the time wielder informed her about the Agreement and its certain conditions about her decision to return back to Arendelle. "If you're leaving here, you're not going to be able to return here anymore. You will age to catch up with your world's time which is differently faster than this world. Your entire memories, anything that transpired and associated in this world, will be slowly forgotten, not even as a sensation, an imagination or a dream will be remembered by you. It will turned into nothing…as if you never left your world, and the time which you were away in your world, will be replaced as if you have been there for your entire lifetime." Feeling a lump forming in his throat, he paused, struggling with his overflowing emotions, asked her one final question. "Are you willing to forget everyone here, including me?"

Without a single word, the girl embraced the Pooka who buried his face on the girl's platinum blonde hair, controlling not to cry with her.


Waking up, he viewed himself with bandages wrapped around his upper torso. He rose up and held out his hand to reach for his upper clothes and his blue hooded cloak for him to wear was motionless when hearing Bunny's emotional words to Elsa. Then, a sudden flash as if a portal was created, forcing the immortal boy to move away from his bed. Suddenly, he viewed Elsa was embracing the Pooka who ended up in tears before letting the girl go. Realizing what is going on, the white haired boy grabbed speedily his frosted wooden staff and desperately wanted to fly even if his immortal body was still recovering from the poison embedded in the dream pirate's weapons, but he fell down and rolled over the grassy carpeted floor.

No, no, please, no!

Struggling up, he viewed her entered the portal as he hurried before the closing portal, willed himself to fly as he summoned his winds to take him wherever she will go.

ELSA!

"Hey!" he could hear Bunny's surprised voice as he barely made it when the portal closed behind him and entering a familiar world of hers. Stumbling clumsily outside and unaware that he had fallen on top of her, Jack moved immediately away from Elsa, and assisted her up to her feet.

"Jack, what are you doing here? You should have been recovering and resting…" She did not finished her sentence, viewed she was in the snow-covered woods in the Northern Mountain, and not inside Arendelle's palace, which is her home.

Strange?! Bunny never made a mistake, usually, the Pooka's portals are precise.

Roaming her blue eyes, she ceased contemplating, viewed it was not only the location which is out of place. The platinum blonde haired girl noticed Jack's changed expression as if the place was so familiar to him. He encircled around but not moving away and leaving Elsa.

Immediately, he held her hand, and then gave a breathtaking smile at her before he whispered lovingly her name near her ear like a loving breeze in the early winter morning that held Elsa muted for a while. Recalling memories of herself so fun-loving and happy before her little sister's accident, playing with Anna and her parents in the same woods.

"You were here," Elsa whispered as Jack did not pulled himself away from her, drew so close near her, then pressed his forehead against her forehead, as she smiled back at him. "You were always here with me, even if I can't see you," She recalled frosts on her windows in the shapes of snowflake-like flowers, trying to comfort her even in the time of her sorrow and isolation.

"No one can see me, but you, even if you are not able to see me… you sensed me and believed in me, even I was nameless in your world." Replying her back, Jack remained holding her hand while Elsa touched his face. "Every time I came, you are always there welcoming me with your swirling dance during my first day of snow. And your smile, your beautiful smile that brought joy to everyone in my cold season, making it bearable and worth to live by."

Reminiscing the time when her aunt asked her once if she had loved winter, Elsa had finally realized that her answer had been always been true - she did loved winter. She did loved Jack. And she still loved him now.

Feeling their arms wrapped around each other in a long embrace, the serene and intimate moment was theirs alone, until they heard voices of people so familiar and dear to Elsa. Moving away from Jack, she drew near and embraced happily her sister, Anna, who with her companions were looking for their queen.

"Elsa! We've been looking for you all day…" The strawberry blonde haired girl noticed her elder sister was acting so strange as if it were the first time they had seen each other.

"You've grown…" Elsa held Anna's hands with both of her hands. She viewed the sleigh being pulled by Sven while Kristoff held on the reins was seated beside Olaf.

"Of course, I'm eighteen." Anna smiled amused at her sister. "Come, we're going home." Stopping in her tracks as she headed towards Kristoff's sleigh, Anna viewed Elsa turned and stood motionless in shock as if she was expecting someone else besides them.

Jack?!

Elsa's eyes stared at where the immortal boy was standing earlier, viewed he was no longer there, not even a sight of his footprints on the snow-covered ground that made the platinum blonde haired royal became muted but hysterical, moved around searching for him until she remembered Bunny's words. Clutching her chest where her aching heart is, she fainted.


After watching her reunited with her younger sister, the bringer of winter became stunned when Elsa started to search for him and ended up fainting. Flying speedily towards her to catch her before she fell down on the ground, her falling body runs right through him as if he were just a specter. Shaken, Jack staggered as if the wind was knocked out of him.

"No…NOOOO!" Shouting, the immortal boy desperately tried to hold Elsa, ignoring Anna and Kristoff who carried Elsa towards the sleigh and headed back to Arendelle. Quickly, he flew following them towards the palace.

Upon reaching the palace and parking the sleigh near the entrance doors, Kristoff noticed the light flurries of snow suddenly became an ugly snowstorm. "I don't get it suddenly the weather turned insanely crazy?!" Kristoff remained helping Anna who assisted Elsa inside, had requested the servants to help them carrying Elsa to her royals chambers. "What happened with your sister earlier? She's so not herself."

"I've no idea," Replying him back with worry, Anna eyed her blond haired fiancé, falling silent for a moment when she felt indescribable cold gust of wind passed by them and entered inside their palace, embracing herself as Kristoff offered his coat for her to wear.


Clutching his wooden staff near him, Jack kneeled sadly near Elsa's bed. Aware, he was not alone anymore after hours of just watching her the entire night, he lifted up his eyes. Golden dream sands zipped behind him, then, it swooped in front of Jack as more streams of dream sands twirled around and over sleeping Elsa while Jack reached out to touch the sands near her that took the shapes of swirling snowflakes.

"Oh, it's you, Sandy…" Jack greeted the dream master who appeared from the gathering and swirling sands before Jack. The deity of dreams remained in mid-air floating at the other side of the bed. Then, the Lord High Protector of Sleep and Dreams raised his right hand summoning his other dream sands that surrounded the god of winter to teleport him in a particular dimension.

"Hey?! What's that about?!" His voice trailing off, stared in absolute amazement. "Wow! You gotta be kidding me! Your place's awesome!" Viewing the surreal heavens where dreams emerged and became fulfilled, Jack stared at the materialized magical-like extensions connected to other people's dreams like a golden ethereal strands which weaved into powerful radiating light spreading endlessly to all corners of the universes, making the streams of golden dream sands abundant, stronger and powerful.

"Sorry about that Jack."

"H-Huh?! Sandy, you're speakin'?"

"Only now, because I like to speak to you. We can talk here in my own Dream Dimensions somewhere in my peaceful little Sandy Island of Dreams, where I love to rest, relax, sleep, dream, and listen to everyone's wishes like anyone who listens to music." The dream master remained floating with Jack while several floating dreams in varied shapes of cloud of sands passed by around them. "Again, Sorry for being rude."

"Not at all. I'll considered ya rude if you will shove me in a sack and tossed it through a magic portal."

"Anyway, seeing you all blue…" Sandy paused.

"You should have known I'm always blue, no wonder that color's associated with me…" He joked, trying so hard to show he's fine, forced a small smile at the dream caster who is a very understanding listener and easy to get along with.

"Jack… I've seen Elsa's past dreams in our world. She knew and understood the real you." Sandy eyed intensely at the immortal boy, knew the boy masked his emotions before him. "She sensed your smile hides your sadness, and when you laugh you cover your pain. No wonder, you really loved her, the only one, who love you completely and made you truly smile and laugh."

"Wait a minute! Hold on! This conversation with you is not all about that, isn't it?!"

"Yes, you get things quickly for a young immortal such as yourself." Sandy nodded, spoke sincerely.

"From where I came from, I had to." Jack replied back at Sandy.

"So, I heard of. That you from Niflheim had to use your wits, speed, strength and determination just to survive. Your realm is a world where the strongest, I mean, the coldest, were only meant to live."

"Please, no more flashbacks. I've had enough hearing about my background stories. Besides, how come you let me in here in this Dream Dimensions of yours? There must be a reason for you to do this, not only to tour me around your treasure rooms of Dreams."

"Truth is this- in exchange of E. Aster Bunnymund's request to help Elsa by sending dreams to Lord High General Kozmotis Pitchiner, I will acquire the powerful essences of one of the Elsa's fulfilled dreams."

"And what has that to do with me?"

"Because the particular dream of Elsa which I wanted the most, includes you."

As soon as he heard Sandy's words, he almost dropped his frosted wooden staff. "W-What? I…I'm in her dreams?!" Jack felt his heart bursting with joy, still trying to absorb the words of the dream master, asked repeatedly like an echo. "Did you just say that I'm in her dreams?! You said…" Smiling blissfully, the immortal boy spoke. "Me! It's me in her dreams!" Jack leaped happily. Even though he is in Sandy's Dream Dimensions, flurries of snow burst forth around.

"To fulfill the chosen dream, you have to take the…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, Sandy, I have to take the offer."

"Particularly, Freyja's offer to you. Hers is the dominating power in the chosen dream. But, I have to warn you, time is of an essence, the moment you leave my Dream Dimensions, time will start to run its course again. You have to tell the goddess of love that you are taking her offer, and you have to hear out her reply and her blessings." Holding out his hand to say good luck to Jack who flew away as fast as he could towards the golden goddess of love's heavenly abode.