Chapter 10: Friction Among Friends
"The ship will be done in another two days time or so. At least this way we won't overstay our welcome. I'm sure that my visor is fighting off my brothers for my throne anyway…"
"You're throne is that coveted?"
"When is a throne, not coveted?" Roald asked with a slightly devious look on his face.
"Fair enough." Elsa stepped into the evening sun coming through the windows of the castle hall. She'd spent a day with him. She hadn't felt much, but to be fair, he seemed like he handled his King-responsibilities well.
"So, how can a woman with such great beauty and power such as yourself be alone all the time?"
Elsa swallowed. How could she answer this one?
Frost had left the castle for much of the day, but found that he had a curiosity that he knew, as from his previous experience with memories…was enough to kill the cat. He drifted back to the castle when he saw Elsa and Roald in the hallways talking. He drifted closer to the window to hear…although…if she saw him…
"I am…uhm just unsure of myself around people I really don't know well. Feelings are…off point. Should someone get on my bad side, I really don't think they'd want to get to close…not that I'm a ticking time bomb but…I'm getting better…that's why I normally don't shake hands on meeting…its only a temporary distance though… being warm and friendly is more my …new motto."
He looked at her and then decided, boldly to take her hand, in a similar manner to which he kissed it on their first meeting. His hand didn't freeze, but rather felt cold. Strangely colder than a normal hand.
"So I'm not on your bad side, but you haven't seemed to warm up to me just yet?" he asked her raising a brow, his green eyes meeting hers like a snake, entrancing and yet…
"No…I mean…not exactly…" She took her hand from his, when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Was that…Jack? She darted her eyes over by the window. She casually walked closer.
"So what would I have to do to get the Queen of Ice to warm up to me?" He asked following.
"Well..well before…I would have just worn my gloves around you…"
"Gloves?"
"Well my parents …gave me them. They make me feel secure…I think its because I know they were trying to do what was best for me."
"Hmm. Then maybe you should wear them sometime. Until of course, we become better acquainted…I'd really hate to think-"
Roald caught Elsa looking at the Window.
"I'm sorry is there something outside?" Roald asked, looking.
Jack saw him and hid under the ledge of the window. Just in case. Or actually…he thought for a moment…he flew up straight in the view of the window. "There's nothing out here?"
"Oh, just thought I saw a rabbit." Elsa gave Frost a look.
Jack grinned and "left". Jack had discovered something; King Ronald couldn't see him.
"So, I was saying that I'd hate to think that you dislike me, especially for my brother's actions…maybe tomorrow we could talk like this again? I don't get normally, such a wonderful opportunity as this to-"
Elsa was looking out the window again. Jack was hiding again, and she felt like his spying was rather immature…there was no need for it.
"Is something wrong?" Roald asked.
"No, I was just thinking, why don't we have our talk outside tomorrow… " Elsa opened the window and breathed in the fresh air. "…alone." Elsa looked at Jack with a glare.
Jack met her gaze and shrugged. "You want to be alone, fine. Just thought I'd meet the gentleman." Jack then left around the corner. He was peeved, but on the other hand…he wasn't going to give up.
"I like it. I'll meet you here tomorrow, around the same time. The evening sun is setting; I must go check with your ship. Shall I walk you to your room?"
"Thank you." Elsa said, as she was guided off with Roald. Jack instinctively flew around to the other side where her bedroom window was. He saw him drop her off. But he didn't turn to go out to the ship. Instead… Jack realized he was going into Jack's room.
Oh this was going to be fun.
"There must be a reason the Queen did not want me in this room?" Roald asked as he quietly crept in.
"Oh that would be because she has me staying here." Jack said floating past the King. "She tends to keep the ones she likes most closer to her actually…" Jack shut the windows with a loud slam.
Roald shuddered at the noise, and looked. Must have been the wind.
"And yet…it seems to be a regular room." He looked in the drawers. Not even the gloves were in here.
"Looking for something?" Jack leaned over him. "Funny, I don't remember Queen Elsa inviting you into my room?" Jack used his cane to nudge the drawer closed on King Roald's hand.
"Ouch!" He said, in a whispered yell.
"Actually, I don't really like the way in which your looking for something of Elsa's? Really is that all you want? Queen Elsa's hand in marriage maybe? Or was it something a little more?" Jack asked leaning against the bed frame.
"Agh this was a waste." Roald said, holding his sore fingers. "I might as well send a letter down and be done with it."
"Because I really don't think that you should intrude in my room…" Jack put his staff on the other side of the rug that Roald was standing on. "…ever again." He pulled at the rug towards him with his staff, and it went flying backwards under Roald's feet as he hit the floor hard on his butt.
"This…room is nothing…but cursed." Roald said groaning as he left.
"As for those letters… lets see what's going on with that shall we?" Jack then followed Roald into the hallway when Olaf suddenly appeared.
"Oh oh Jack what do you think of King Roald?"
"Shush, he can't know I'm here. Remember? Nobody does. And does he even know about you?"
"I think…I'm not sure. But I think King Roald is much nicer than Hans ever was…but I only saw mean Hans…not nice Hans…but he could be good for Elsa? I mean she does need a-"
"Olaf not now. And no, I don't think he'd been good for Elsa…actually I'm-"
"Oh, oh who would be good for Elsa then?"
"I-I…I don't know. But-" Jack looked down the hall to see someone coming. "There's a guard coming. Can't talk." Jack moved out of the way, as Olaf walked down the hall.
"Hiya there!" Olaf said passing the guard from the Southern Isles, nearly giving him a heart attack.
"Uhm…Hi." He said as he scratched his head, wondering if he'd just seen a talking snowman, and walked down to King Roald's room.
Knock, Knock.
"Who is it?"
"It's me sire, I'm here to deliv'r the message?"
"Ah, send it to the old bat Elf-whatever right away." Roald opened the door. "I think pieces are following together. But considering the way that the Ice forms…I think its best he gets this message."
"Done, your majesty."
"Any word from home?"
"None of the brothers have overthrown you yet sir."
"I'd have them killed should they try. Goodnight." Roald closed the door.
Jack wondered if he showed this hostility to Elsa. He followed the knight out into the dark sky of Arendale, down past the town to the docks.
Jack followed him into the Southern Isle's ship.
"King Roald has this for you."
"Ah, ah, lets see it. Hopefully he's made progress. I'm betting on the young man!"
Jack watched as the hooded figure took the letter. Short. He was really short, with a rather old sounding voice. And yet that hood covered his face. Jack …couldn't just take it off could he? There was no "breeze" at all in the cabin...
"All this magic and what not! If the King wants to marry into it that's fine, but he'd better have-" The short figure looked at the letter. "Oh yes, those. I remember…oh grand idea! Pitch it or ditch it ! She'd have to say …yes…yes…then I shall try my best tomorrow…I just need not be seen…good, good! Jolly ho!" The man then promptly burned the letter. "If he does all this, and should he fail, I can just renounce ever being involved so much as nobody sees me! And if it does ah, ah, Arendale's covets will be mine !"
Jack sighed. There goes that idea. He couldn't steal back the ashes. He'd have to intercept one tomorrow. But Magic? Marry into it? Jack knew now he couldn't leave Arendale yet. Not if Elsa was going to end up entrapped in that sneak's plan…whatever it was.
…Speaking of Elsa, Jack went back to her room. Her window was almost closed.
He entered slowly. "Elsa?"
"What?" He looked to see her, surprisingly, this time in a nightgown, her hair down in loose strands of white blonde hair and a blanket around her shoulders. She looked undone, but even so, it was strange to see her looking less put together. She still looked good, even through the waved hair from her braid falling in her face and the large knitted green blanket that covered her white gown.
"I just came to talk but-"
"Well…well I'm going to sleep tonight... I can't believe you were spying like that?" She said, as suddenly Jack realized why she hadn't waited for him.
"I…I left for the whole day. I knew you needed to figure things out, but then I saw you and hell, I was curious! You cant blame me? I mean it was kind of fun, considering only you could see me-"
"Until he starts to think that I'm crazy! Do you want the people to think I'm strange again! I'm happy…I was happy…I mean…ugh…"
"Is that what you care about? What people think of you? Elsa can't you just be happy on your own? I mean people matter, and yea people care about you, but you can't let other people's judgments – actually is that all I am? Some crazy apparition you choose to ignore in public? You haven't made my presence known to anyone here!" Jack suddenly felt a little undermined and betrayed.
"How can I? I can see a ghost of Frost future? It's strange. I mean – Olaf can too…but I'm not trying to hide you! How do I know that when everyone else sees you, they won't take you away? I mean how long are you even staying? I mean aren't you trying to make things easier for me, because I mean I can't just neglect all my Queen duties and if you are leaving than how will I deal-"
"I'm not asking you to. I just – look I shouldn't have spied. I'm sorry. But there's something about that King, I just don't like."
"Well…I get to make the decision of judgment in the end. "
"What if you make the wrong decision?" Jack muttered out.
"Well what is the right decision, Jack? Because I just don't know."
"I…I don't have an answer yet either. I wish there was a way I could answer that." Jack suddenly felt the weight again, of realizing that even if he did stop whatever Roald was planning…good or bad, he couldn't tell Elsa of three things...at least not yet.
One, that Roald was planning against her, not when he knew too little.
Two, that most of the reason he couldn't become closer friends was he knew sooner or later he'd return and never see her again.
Three, he wanted to be…more than friends, and he hated to see her in pain, but he'd bent time already farther than the Father of Time was willing to bend it, and frankly, he had no clue what the Moon had been planning bringing him back here in the first place...
Frankly, he was starting to think the Moon just had it in for the two of them.