We do not own 'Frozen' or any of its characters.
"Frozen Again: 'Love Never Ends"
Act VIII
Chapter 35
"We're Making Today a Perfect Day for You"
Tonight would mark the start of the Winter solstice and the Kingdom of Arendelle was a-bustle even before late morning's first daylight. The aurora borealis seemed to be twinkling particularly bright this year, even this far in the south of the magical country of Norway.
It was as if the purple and pink and green colorful rainbow streaked sky knew that today, the 21st of December, was a very special day for a very special young Queen of the North Winter who now commanded them.
And Hans Westergaard, as promised, was here at last to glimpse her kingdom's beauty.
Swift moving Carpet had flown for his stalwart friend at incredible speeds between Corona and Arendelle, to ensure the Prince of the Southern Isles could keep his vow to his fiancée that he would attend her Birthday Ball this night.
Upon pleasantly discovering he had preceded his platinum blonde beauty in returning home first, a pacing Prince Hans could not just sit back complacently and wait in the castle. Not after he'd heard reports from Chancellor Esteban that many of the people of Arendelle were not yet heard from in their outskirt farms. Some elderly were said to be hit hard during the recently stopped blizzard and were still struggling without food or vital medicine. They certainly would not be able to attend the celebratory day's events.
So, the dynamic soldier, full of pent-up love energy, found he still had time and opportunity to reach out and be a hero of Arendelle once more, in the faint dawn of the early morning. Against the belief of some, it was because Hans genuinely cared for the kingdom's citizens and not that he only wished to make a prestigious name for himself in this world.
"This reindeer doe and I are frankly up to here with birthday decorating and party planning. We certainly wouldn't mind getting out in the wide open countryside." An early riser herself, Lady Cassandra soon saunters over to the two new arrivals when her faithful Owl instinctively had flown in through her bedroom window earlier to alert the tactical woman of Hans' and Carpet's presence.
"We will appreciate your company, Captain Schmidt. Your shrewd know-how and ready combat attitude makes you a valuable member of any party. As a naval officer, I too fully understand your disdain in wasting your skills on frivolities." Hans accomplishes one of his chameleon transformations to suit his audience as he switches tone from tough Captain of the Guard Cassandra to eager Carpet to wise Svala in order to manipulate the guardswoman to do as he planned. "While I am grateful for your smooth ride, dear friend Carpet, I must confess I miss practicing my equestrian – ergh, rangifer in this case- form. Mademoiselle, if I may request to commandeer your attractive ride, while you lend your astute and invaluable assistance to our mutual friend and inventive genius on board Carpet…?" As he spoke to Cassandra and Carpet, charming Hans walked over to the tan reindeer and stroked her neck luxuriantly until the female doe was quite submissive to his pleasing touch.
As for the other female the handsome Prince was verbally coaxing…
"Whatever. Move over on that rug, Varian. And keep your rabid animal in the bag." No-nonsense Cassandra saw no point in arguing with the assertive Dane after Prince Hans opted to ride a swooning Svala. The hard-hitting young woman and her hooting Owl simultaneously give the suddenly shy and quiet Varian an evil eye that clearly stated 'what are you doing here?'
Cassandra climbs her sleek body aboard the floating low Carpet where the ogling, goggle-eyed inventor was still modifying his last minute gift idea with Rudiger the raccoon's paw-ful handy assist.
"That sounded somewhat amatory to me. What do you think, my young friend?" A smirking, worldly Chancellor Esteban whispers to Prince Hans after the Avaloran Duke had come out of Arendelle Castle with directions for the farms, to see the trio off so early in the morning.
His comment garnered a shared adult mood chuckle as the athletically toned, svelte red-headed Prince mounted Svala.
"One can hope." With a quirky brow, Hans softly laughs away his own edginess at the young couple to have watched a nervous Varian end up landing his dizzied head in Cassandra's lap after Carpet was tickled by the Rudiger's claws to launch a wobbly take-off.
"Hi, Cassie." A winded Varian pulls down his goggles and cutely wiggles his gloved fingers up at the girl of his dreams after doing his darndest to keep his mischievous raccoon pet and her resentful owl at bay from killing one another.
Prince Hans, at their back, turns to salute back to the Kingdom of Arendelle he had only just arrived at, as the Magic Flying Carpet and the enchanted reindeer doe take to the darkened Norwegian sky towards the south.
A few hours later, another pair of vehicles comes thundering down the long winding road from the opposite northern direction that led into Arendelle Township, causing quite a stir, even at this early hour as the church bells ring for the finish of the 6AM weekday Mass.
The Ice Queen's steady focus and enchanted ice may have given the chariot she was standing at the command of a slight edge over Princess Anna's no holds barred racing attitude. Or maybe it was just that the sweet baby sister had let the birthday girl take the lead over her award-winning racing sled on purpose. But either way, Olaf losing his head when 'Baby' hit a hard bump and catapulting his toothy grinning features right into Alonso's grossed out lap in the victorious chariot certainly punctuated the thrilling ending of the fun race.
"Whee! That was amazing! You beat me!" Anna announces as her sled and Elsa's chariot had made good time to reach the bridge that led to Arendelle Castle.
"'For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever, Amen.'" Making a quick Sign of the Cross, she reverently whispers the last line of the Lord's Prayer as they swish by the churchyard, Elsa guiltily looks behind them to see how far the Snow Queen's ice carriage, led by Sitron and the white mares had been left behind in the abrupt race Anna proposed.
"Yes, it was fun, Anna." The platinum blonde Queen answers her perky little sister distractedly.
Papa and Minister Kai won't be pleased… But this is my birthday, right? So maybe they won't mind too much.
The few local tradesmen hurrying back from the service start to open their businesses for the half-day national holiday of their current monarch's birth on this third Tuesday of December. They and their families streaming down the streets from church all explode in applause for their triumphant young Queen returning to her kingdom on her most special day they have all been working towards celebrating.
"Hip hip hooray for Queen Elsa! Happy birthday, your Majesty! You saved our nation from the wicked Devil Troll and stopped the Eternal Winter again! Thank you, your Majesty!" The proud, unafraid citizens clap and wave to their beloved monarch, as Alonso prods Elsa to revel in her adoring subjects' accolades.
"They're applauding for you, girl. Sit back and enjoy it." Feeling like a guy giving a tour, the Crown Prince of Argentina gestures from one lane of happy residents to the other side's path of content civilians, all obviously fond of their Queen.
So, shy Elsa gives her most demure smile with a small, self-conscious hand wave to her subjects. A smirking Alonso reclaims his chariot's reins from the introverted young woman.
There was a long line of citizens and servants alike streaming in and out of Arendelle Castle's front entrance and rear, all carrying some sort of decoration or present or homemade card for their Queen's birthday party today.
"Three cheers for Queen Elsa!" There was also a growing audience of well-wishers and thankful Arendelle citizens waiting in the Castle courtyard after they had heard of their royal monarch's heroic sacrifice and Mirror of Love that unlocked the key how to stop the terrible blizzard and keep their kingdom out of the feared Djvælen's hand for evermore.
"But why?" The change of a confused smile springs to Elsa's surprised face when she sees the countless citizens so early in the morning, some she recognized well from their shoppes in town, others her good memory only recalled spying a few times perhaps in the past two years at church service on Sundays.
Nonetheless, each were holding a present or decorated banner extolling their young Queen's celebration with gratitude in their genuine smiles.
"To welcome you home, of course, Elsa! I think every single person in Arendelle is here to wish you a Happy Birthday, big sisty! They all love you because you're the most wonderful person ever!" Even more vibrant when the joyful word 'Birthday' was uttered from her lips, Princess Anna spread her arms wide in her sled that pulls up beside Alonso's plush chariot.
Anna brought her own sunshine to her big sister at this 6 AM chilly winter morning from where the passionate ginger was currently driving Kristoff's fast sled.
The nerve wracked Ice Harvester, now left behind in the dust, had taken over as coachman for the King in the Queen's carriage when Kai needed a break and Queen Idun insisted King Agdar remain resting his eyes inside because of his pounding headache.
Loving the thrill of speed, Anna was rather racing Baby through the streets of Arendelle than driving her though. The spirited girl had proposed a friendly birthday race with her sister Elsa in Prince Alonso's chariot to get the blood pumping on this normally cold – but gloriously not blizzardy anymore – December 21st morn.
"You're a pretty admired leader, Elsa. Don't you think two stunningly gorgeous, popular, well respected, awe-inspiring future monarchs have potential together?" Admiring their reflection together in his handheld mirror as his chariot slows, Prince Alonso gives Elsa an approving roguish glance after sprucing up his own windblown tossed brown mane of hair in his ever present handheld mirror.
"Modesty forbids me to answer that, Your Highness." Breathless from the race, but no fool, a prissy Elsa was becoming more accustomed to deflecting Alonso's open flirtations, knowing they were harmless by now.
"Modesty and a certain redheaded Prince, eh? You still predict you're going to see your gallant Dane here tonight?" Prince Alonso was mentally taking odds that his rival Southern Isles royal wouldn't show.
But one glance in Elsa's crystalline true blue eyes full of belief and faith in the man she loved told him otherwise.
"Oh, I'm counting on it. Why, weren't you just referring to how much my 'stunningly gorgeous' Prince Hans and I complement one another?" Elsa states, giddy and catty after her exhilarating victorious win. She cracks the whip high up in the crisp air to startle a bored-stiff Alonso more than his pair of laughing equines.
"Ha ha. You're a real riot today. By the way, if I didn't say it yet – because I generally only celebrate my own auspicious origin – Happy Birthday, Elsa. After all you've been through, I really hope your wish comes true. You deserve it, lady." Alonso sighs in resignation, his ambition to secure this Norwegian Queen's kingdom and/or heart fairly squelched.
"Thank you for your friendship, Alonso. I feel like we've been through so much in our short time together. I hope you find your soulmate soon, too." Elsa turns to honestly give the Argentinean Prince a genuine smile, realizing this narcissistic, self-absorbed young man had become a good friend, through her dark times, too, though he originally came here with other intentions.
With a tickle of her ice invisible fingers Elsa offers chilled sugar drops from the sample cookies on a table at sisters' favorite local bakery to the gratified horses' chins. Then the Ice Queen hands Alonso back his chariot's reins after she had raced willing Lento and Estable to victory.
Now the team slowly cantors their royal blue and gold vehicle across the bridge with Anna, Olaf, and Sven with Baby, close behind.
"We really left Kristoff, Papa and Mama, Gerda and Kai in the dust, didn't we?! Slowpokes!" Anna whistles in the dark. "Now let's beat them home and run upstairs before you have to be introduced to every single important person visiting the castle! I want to show you your special present first! It's a real doozy! You'll like it for sure! Ooh! We've got so many surprises planned in store for you today, I could just pop!" Anna was a bundle of energy, tickled pink to give her dearest big sisty the full birthday treatment. There were fun plans and surprises Anna and her Mama and even Papa got into with projects secreted away to celebrate the special day for their special, best girl.
"Queen Elsa! We're making today a perfect day for you!" The cheering crowds decorating the dawning landscape for their precious Queen continue to applaud with happy waves and smiles as a chuckling Anna leaps from her barely stopped sled and pulls Elsa out of the chariot.
"It's your birthday! Lucky you!"
"Sven! It's birthday time! I love birthdays soooo much, I am like the birthday expert!" Olaf claps so hard he accidentally dislocates his carrot nose to fly into a nearby snow bank.
There it stays lodged for several seconds before Alonso's Criollo horses, awaiting their master who had wandered off to fetch some help from the yawning stable boys, notice the colorful equine savory treat.
"Oh no! Lento! Estable! Not the nose! Not the nose! How do I say that in Córdoban?!" The frantic snowman starts to freak out at his lack of linguistic skills when he sees his orange carrot nose about to be devoured by the South American horsey team.
That's when the castle window above suddenly flies open as a flurry of white and pink makes an elegant slide into the snow bank.
PLOPP!
Rustle Rustle Rustle …
Suddenly Olaf's imperiled carrot nose is then sucked into the snow inexplicably before the disappointed horses' chomping teeth get the chance to claim it.
"Tada!" The skittish Criollos jump back when Eliana the snowgirl emerges like a dancer from a birthday cake. In triumphant glee she holds up her snow boyfriend's carrot nose that she had elegantly dived down from the second story to rescue for her own sweetie.
The prim snowgirl hops down from the snowbank and dusts her snow dusted poofy pink frock off while scooting up to her dumbfounded male counterpart.
SPLUNKK!
She lands a wet kiss on Olaf's blank noseless face which lights up like a Christmas tree at her show of affection. His eyes go all sugar rush swirling until Eliana shoves the orangey veg back into proper place to pull the dizzy snowman out of his blissful delirium after their first sloppy kiss together.
"Eliana! You missed me?" Olaf sighs dreamily as he trails behind the pink hem of his snowgirl dream's frilly lace as she leads him into the Castle.
"Of course, Olaf! If you weren't here, who would put the star on our Christmas tree? I couldn't possibly float all the way up there!" Not as romantic or brassy as her frosty counterpart, well mannered Eliana recalled the yearly Arendelle Christmas tradition. She considered the indecorous implications if she, in Olaf's absence, was the one called into service to fly and place the crystal 'Olaf star' on the tree above the crowd all gazing up at the third annual Arendelle outdoor Christmas tree lighting ceremony. "Br-rr! Imagine, everyone would peek under my skirt! Good thing you came back in time."
"Doesn't sound like true love to me, Olaf." Kristoff snidely teases as he finally steers Sitron leading the Snow Queen's horses up the drive with a snoring Kai leaning on the beefy Ice Harvester's strong shoulder on the front bench.
"You're no love expert. What do you know about love, Kristoff?" An insulted Olaf dares to challenge Kristoff with a skeptical pursed mouth.
"Not ever enough. But I'll spend my whole life learning, for Anna." Kristoff modestly responds to the affronted snowman as he gently prods Kai and helps the big man down from the ornate Brougham carriage's high driver bench. The disoriented Councilor of Arendelle had missed that whole exchange, but someone else was listening.
"It's by God's Grace, that we're all together and on our way home now, Papa. Please don't be cross with Anna or Kristoff. You know how she's always been as free-spirited as the breeze? It's her way of releasing stress, like Mama singing. You and I keep it bottled up inside, Papa. But I've learned through all thisl that 'concealing, not feeling' is not good. Besides, I think it's nice that Anna and Kristoff are finding time to be young newlyweds for a change after all the heroism through danger and sacrifice both went through to help free the Fire Trolls and rescue me from myself as well. Since it's my birthday and Christmas combined, all I want – all I ever wanted – is for us to all get along with proper understanding and open compassion for one another's eccentricities like a real family should. Please, Papa, try…for me."
Feeling particularly infused then by the tenerity of the illuminated aurora to be brave as her birthday dawned fresh, the tender-hearted, blonde young Queen had been bold enough to approach her father earlier that morning, when the carriages stopped to rest the horses, to speak up for her baby sister. Elsa had squeezed her Papa's hand and taken on her role as big sister and spokesman go-between for her bright-eyed ginger sibling and her sulky, tersely standoffish father as the three sets of vehicles had at last pulled towards Arendelle's front gates.
"'Releasing stress in the free-spirited breeze', indeed?" An amused King Agdar had opened his eyes that had been resting at Idun and Kai's insistence when the carriages stopped earlier for their last break before the town's limits.
The King had done his best to focus on those lovely true blue orbs of his elder child who had developed quite an eloquence as Anna's advocate. But he succeeded to achieve only a blurry haze of azure blue set upon a pallet of pale blonde looking up at him attentively.
Just like when you were a tiny little girl…
Nonetheless, her dancing azure vista was comforting and strong as the half blind King was glad to at least be able to distinguish sizes and shapes and colors enough to make out his tall, elegant daughter was reaching out to him from across the bench seat and not, for instance, plump housekeeper Gerda.
King Agdar then appeared to lighten up, his heart softened at Elsa's benevolent request.
"Of course, my Snow Angel. You can rest assured I will do anything and everything I can to ensure your happiness, particularly on your special day of days full of surprises, my beautiful child. I won't let you down."
"Good man." With the reminiscence playing in the back of his mind, King Agdar now peers out the Snow Queen's carriage window, enhanced hearing had overheard the blond mountain man's true confession of the heart. The King had been temporarily vexed with Anna's new husband for his crude exposed nature and indiscretion with his daughter at the hot springs.
But that initial conformist, paternal resentment had cooled down as the King had time to think along the journey. Young Mr. Bjorgman had proven once again to be responsible and caring for his untamable young bride. The conscientious, big-hearted youth always considered his sister-in-law's welfare, too, as Idun rightly pointed out examples many times during their ride home.
Agdar observed how, without a shred of envy, a sharing Kristoff would silently stand aside and take second place for Elsa and Anna to have sister time together, unlike most possessive husbands of the day.
A member of the peerage he may not be, but this Kristoff is not a bad selection, really, for our windswept flutter budget. I can't see anyone else having such patience with my free-spirited, strong-willed Gingersnap. Besides, as my intelligent Idun inferred – all men do it. I simply have to get used to the idea that my babies are grown-up young women now, experiencing life in an unsheltered world, and that's that. Times are changing and my little girls too…sigh
Kristoff smiles quirkily at how unpredictable his now pleasantly assenting father-in-law could be after the complex man had time to reflect. The mountainman was glad to be back on the vision injured monarch's apparent good graces, as he assists Queen Idun first from the carriage.
"That goes for your sister as well, I suppose..."
"Agdar? Were you saying something?" Queen Idun turns her head back to interrupt her murmuring husband's answer to his memory flashback of a heart-to-heart with Elsa from yesterday when exiting the carriage they had been traveling in for days now.
"Just that… Family is family, eccentricities and all." King Agdar concedes with a smile as he straightens himself to stand on the terra firma of the land of his birth right under his own flesh and blood power.
"Glad you can see that now, old man." Idun retorts with a whispered tease as she watches her poor husband stumble forward with a loss of equilibrium, tripping over the descending step from the carriage. But Kristoff's strong, steadying arm reached out from where he was tending to the horses to stop the King from injuring both body and pride.
"Thank you, son." Doing his best to erase from his appalled mind the previous morning's uncouth happenstance as Elsa's birthday request, Agdar awards a tentative Kristoff with a wan smile of gratitude, patting the boy's well-endowed arm to stop the vertigo and stand on his own two pins.
Kristoff shares a nod with Anna's father, looking him right in the eye to silently ask the older man if he could walk on his own. After all, Kristoff was still a little sheepish to face Anna's parents now that it was all over and his Wind Whisperer senses told him they both fully witnessed his bare necessities.
"Nice equipment." The older Queen, in passing, squeezes a hand to her strapping son-in-law's rippling tight biceps. She for one appreciated him in new ways as a blushing Kristoff flexed his impressive, bulging muscles to lift the suitcases and trunks filled to the brim from Idun's shopping spree with her girls in Flåm.
As Kristoff quietly brings in the luggage, the King and Queen pause to greet the Arendelle people who had turned out quite early on this dark morning. At Johanne's appeals for last-minute help at the previous Sunday's church meeting when the blizzard let-up, the good people had not shirked. On this busy day, some came to decorate, some be employed as servers and some just looking for choice gallery seats above the ballroom where Queen Elsa's exciting birthday Masquerade Ball – the most prestigious place to be in all the kingdom, open free to the public, too– would take place later tonight.
Anna had been in charge of party planning at the beginning and made sure all her friends in town were invited to celebrate at the castle first before any foreigners.
'After all, Elsa is your Queen, no one else's, right?! As long as you each wear a costume of some sort – we know you have them from Julebukking, right?! –It'll add to the dress-up mystery fun tonight, and you'll be admitted to join in our Masquerade Ball! It'll be the biggest party EVER! Elsa will be so surprised to see how everyone cares!'
The King reconciles himself that this Ice Harvester whom Anna had chosen – even though he may be uncouth at times and definitely not as polished nor well-heeled as other princes would have been – Kristoff Bjorgman was always there to wordlessly bail the royal family out, from simple stumbles to earth shattering dangers.
Both of which his little Princess Anna had an uncanny affinity for as she slides and skitters around the drive and front step excitedly.
Though he may not be my ideal, Gingersnap, your sister is right about the holy season being of compassion and understanding that a blind old man should open his eyes to.
"Perhaps this Snow Prince is the perfect match for our bull-in-a-China-shop baby girl, Idun." Agdar muses aloud as he, now safely moving forward on the ice with Queen Idun's arm on one side and Elsa's on the other, witnesses Kristoff's fast-paced chase of the out-of-control skating girl to his own sled once he deposited his in-laws from their coach.
There, the young man smoothly uses the ample muscles of one arm to halt the many colorful packages of Troll presents that were loaded on 'Baby' that ambitious Anna with Olaf and Eliana's 'help' was attempting to stack remove all at once. Prescient Kristoff's other appendage rushes to hoist up the split-leg, clumsy ginger Princess from where she was dutifully clinging to her packages, though her size 5 little feet were slipping beneath her where she was leaning on Sven's bracing antlers versus landing headfirst on the slick ice covered ground.
"Back off, boys! I've got this! Whoa-oh!" The occasionally overconfident, independent gal thought she was invincible and able to pull up herself without Kristoff or Sven's assist. But her awkward, askew legs which Olaf and Eliana were vainly struggling against were not cooperating until they are suddenly strengthened by the glowing light of ice magic.
"We've got this." Elsa corrects her little sister with a coy smile as her cryokinetics easily right the teetering, piled high packages about to spill all over the ground to now mystically float across the courtyard entrance and up the steps as if animated and alive.
As in a Fantasia-like magic spell, the brightly wrapped presents were dancing merrily to a cheerful holiday tune as they march in rhythmic step, floating on the crisp, cool air on this magical late December morn.
"That's kinda freaky. But mild after all I've seen going on around this kingdom… Hey! I spy with my little eye…" A jaded Prince Alonso comments from his lone chariot where he was staying out of the nutty family action. Then the lazy young man perks up when he thought he caught a chancery glimpse of a certain ostentatious pink and gold gilt carriage parked in the stable gleaming in the fresh morning sunlight which the sight of sent chills up his leg. "I knew you wouldn't miss this chance to try to get me back…" The egotistical Prince of Córdoba wanders into that stall to pet a snobbish pair of hot pink feathered and shocking pink blanketed white Arabian mares.
Fully aware from previous, horrific experience that a certain persnickety Princess who preferred pink had the unnatural habit of rousting everyone out of their royal beds at 6 AM exactly to greet the sunrise— or maybe it was the other way around, that the sunrise would come up to greet her— for a morning drive.
So the Córdoban Crown Prince starts glancing around curiously around the stall to pet the pair of flamboyant pink arrayed horses he recognized well.
"Lento and Estable will be pleased to see you ladies again…Can't say as much for the owner…" Alonso chuckles at his hushed horseplay suggestion as he recalled his stallions and her mares hitting it off last time they were together at the Avalor peace summit.
"Come and see who I found for you to reacquaint yourselves with, boys." The brown haired Prince calls out to his pair of stallions whom numerous Arendelle coachman had finally attended to lead the Criollo steeds and golden chariot into the stables after the Argentinean Prince had wandered away.
But instead of an equine response, a dark-skinned woman unexpectedly tosses the stall door open with a flourish to have the burgeoning sunlight aglow artfully perfect behind her frilly pink fur shawled silhouette.
"What are you doing in here, Prince Alonso? Bothering my prize mares with your slow, dimwitted donkeys again? Interfering with my extraordinary carriage once more just to prove your inferior little chariot is still so… tacky?"
Antagonistic Princess Valentina of Paraiso marches in her tight purple pants and vested riding suit through the stable to squeeze between the door and Alonso to separate him from her beloved horses and carriage.
"Oh, you are asking for it, pretty lady." An affronted, insulted and offended Prince Alonso was finding it hard to breathe for the intimate proximity this curvaceous, bossy Princess was putting him through.
"Am I? I thought you were the runaway Casanova who had trouble with popping important questions to poor, innocently naïve girls who let you think you strung them along." With the insinuating accusation and threatening horse whip in hand, the embittered-to-have-been-dallied-with-before Princess Valentina pins the vulnerable, gulping young man in his black and gold ensemble to the wall of the stable stall.
And despite their torrid recent past, Prince Alonso, all of a sudden, finds he didn't dislike the position as much as he thought he did before, so utterly intoxicated in Valentina's enthralling eyes and fresh perfumed scent as he was now…
"We're home!"
With many handshakes and well-wishes for her birthday from the already busy staff just emerging from the courtyard and stables, Elsa joins Anna with a stabilizing arm in arm gesture and encouraging sisterly smile that shone extremely bright in the crisp winter early morning.
"'We're making today a perfect day for you!' We're making today a perfect day, all shiny and new!" LOL! With the jaunty song at hand, Anna and Elsa both recall that wonderful, special first birthday – Anna's 19th, over two years ago – when the BFSF (Best Friends, Sisters Forever) discovered the joys and perils of surprise planned birthdays. Elsa with a cold was trying her best to make a perfect birthday for Anna, until they discovered that, all along, every day was their perfect day because they were together, sharing love together again.
"I can't wait 'til you see all your birthday presents! Let's go and play with them now before breakfast! We're going to make this the most unforgettable birthday for you, Elsie – err, Elsa." Anna snickers, swinging hand in hand with Olaf and Eliana begging to keep up until they pull off their branchy appendages trying to race up the front steps.
Tickle bumps!
Yanking open the double doors together as one, hand-in-hand singing and laughing, the two sisters dash through the front entrance and up the stairs as innocent and eager as joyful little girls again on this unforgettable birthday that would make up for all the ones missed being spent together.
The laughing sisters, who would never let another birthday go by lonely, rush into the Castle, swinging one arm branch of Olaf and Eliana each high at the tasteful lilac banners commemorating Queen Elsa's 23rd birthday inside.
"Race you up the stairs to see your super present! Then we'll get changed into our sparkly Winter birthday outfits and French braid each other's hair! Then have a big, big breakfast full of all your favorite yummies! After that, we'll play games and follow red strings and go ice fishing and eat sandwiches on the windowlift for lunch and HAVE SO MUCH FUN before we get dressed up in costumes for your Masquerade Ball tonight! There's so much to see and do for the party!" An uncontainable, ecstatic Princess Anna claps jubilantly, naming herself the 'Birthday Guru' since that wonderful day Elsa, even if she was sick with a cold, gave her.
Now it was a head-spinning Elsa's turn to get the full birthday treatment.
"I'll be your birthday date until you-know-who gets here!" Anna whispers in conspiratorial airs as she squeezes Elsa's hands. Excited and desperately wanting to keep her sister happy today most of all, Anna tosses back to splurt in place (Oops! Sorry already-cracked Italian statue guy!) one arm each of the clapping snowpeople's swiped branches that she had been using for conducting batons for the wrapped packages of last-minute gifts cryokinetically airlifting up the staircase. The Ice Queen gives a dreamy smile to the optimistic thought of her young man's promised arrival that both sisters were counting on to make this birthday complete.
After all, I arranged it, so that Red better not let me down! Or else!
"Love is an open door~!" The sprightly ginger evokes her most potent melodic memory of Mr. Hans Westergaard in song form as she twirls her big sister in the same style as Prince Hans' signature dipping dance move.
"This celebration certainly should give our lovely daughter every opportunity for many new doors to open for her on this happy day. Hmm. There appears to be a fine array of equines gathered in our stables signaling the guests have arrived." Hearing Anna's loud soprano echo through the castle open entrance double doors, King Agdar nods a purposeful, knowing smile to Kai as the cabinet member leads his ready to get cooking birthday breakfast cook, Gerda, indoors.
Arm in arm, the King and Queen take one last deep breath of the cool crisp air at the break of day before entering Arendelle Castle.
There at the entrance of the castle of their dreams, now open to all, Agdar and Idun pause together in the beautiful dawning morn. They look around the castle entrance tastefully decorated with banners and bows. They watch servants scurry about with the kingdom's finest china within, see the good townspeople pitching in with decorating, from the courtyard to the ballroom upstairs, as well as observe Kristoff outside being conscripted to hang some ribbons even on the doors of the stable area where he was taking Sven in with his trophy-winning sled.
"Yes… It's always good to see old friends and make cordial new acquaintances to celebrate a party…" The quizzical Queen who had invited a few friends of friends her better connected big sister, Arianna, suggested would make fine company for Elsa's surprise Birthday Ball.
The Queen Mother though now wonders why her usually unsociable man was so eager for visitors and keen on peering into the stable, as if counting the carriages to try to decipher the owners thereof with some wily calculations in his whirring mind.
Idun leads her husband up the steps in to Arendelle Castle, wondering what her King was plotting for this special evening that she thought she had perfectly planned.
"How many invitations did you send out again, Agdar? When we left, I made sure to give Johanne the guest list I had made to be certain she would be able to provide accommodations for our visitors in our absence, had we not returned in time to oversee the party arrangements." The Queen asks her husband, never seeing their stable so completely filled before herself as she tries to gain his strained eye attention from peering out the side window.
"Hmm? Just a few friends, my love. I thought they may liven up the party for our shy girl. Now, while you rest, I think I'd like to stretch my legs in familiar surroundings after that extended carriage ride. It will give me a chance to reassure the servants and inspect the décor for Elsa's big night. Then if there's time, I will get right to work in catching up on my—no doubt thick piles of correspondence and communiqué— concerning our recent inclement trouble awaiting me in my study, my dear." Agdar responds as he whisks his petite wife into the Castle's front portico entrance where Kai was holding open the door for the Royal couple.
"I was not aware you had that many friends, Agdar. Particularly not ones who to could liven up anything beyond an old naval compass." The Queen quips at her recluse of a husband who had little social relationships with anyone outside of the few Agdar had forged in the Navy. And those acquaintances were generally that of men older than even the youngest Admiral King of the Sjoforsvaret.
"On the contrary, Idun. Weren't you always the one saying we should 'expand our social standing in the world'? Over the years, I have made innumerable contacts and friendly transactions with other countries and their representatives. More than you know. So why not invite them to celebrate with us? Now you go get some rest before it's time for breakfast. You must look your grandest to hobnob with and charm all our guests in a few hours. I will see you in the dining room later, my beloved." With that, Agdar plants a kiss on Idun's forehead as dutiful ladies' maid Johanne appears to lead her mistress up the steps.
"But Agdar, you may need me to help you through –" A tired Queen Idun turns around when she remembers her husband's lack of sight and requirement to have someone at his side.
"Don't be silly, my beloved. I was born and raised in seclusion in this Castle for far too many years to not know my way around it with a blindfold on. You need to spend this precious little time resting so you can be bright and chipper to dive into all of your last-minute party preparations. The girls are no doubt playing upstairs with all those treats and toys Anna drove us crazy importing for Elsa, so they're fine. If I need anything, I'll call for one of them. Don't worry, for once, I will be good." King Agdar smiles to his wife reassuringly, both hearing Elsa and Anna's merry laughter mingled with Olaf and Eliana's squeals and giggles from the second story up the stairs.
"All right, min älskare. You just go slowly and look around at the party decorations which have changed the landscape of the Castle interior already. Everything so lovely, Johanne, but I can't see to keep my eyes open. (Yawn!) Forgive me, Agdar. I didn't sleep much on the road." The exhausted Queen apologizes for yawning practically in her laughing King's face.
"Yes, yes, I know, my pet. That is why I want you to go right upstairs and get some much needed rest so I can show you off to all my guests as the vibrant, still damn fine looking woman you are. As a proper wife, you made sure that I rested during our travels, so I must, as a good husband, do the same now for you. I promise to watch my step without you here as my guide."
It was Idun's turn to stand on her tippy toes and kiss her man's cool cheek while humming the Swedish birthday song's healing tune set to the 18th century composer Hayden's "Opus 76 Sunrise" to tide him over in her absence.
"'Ja, må hon leva, Ja visst ska hon leva uti hundrade år! Hurra, hurra, hurra, hurra!'"
(Yes, may she live! Of course, she will live for a hundred years! Hooray, hooray, hooray, hooray!)
"Just remember not to get over excited, Agdar. Remember, it's our Elsa's happy day, so let's make it just that, okay? Don't overdo anything, my love. I'll see you at breakfast." And with that, the petite Queen and a chattering Johanne, climb the long flight of stairs together.
"Are the stairs getting taller, or am I getting shorter, Johanne?" A dispirited Idun asks after hearing Prince Hans was not hitherto seen in the castle by the ladies' maid. The Queen mother had not been able to sleep last night on the road back home at all and she felt a little drained as she trudged up the staircase with her maid at her side.
"I wouldn't mind being a tad shorter, M'lady. I've heard men prefer petite ladies to tall, imposing ones." While tall mountain man Kristoff salutes the ladies as he comes into the castle, stomping his snowy feet on the doormat as they stop and turn from the steps they were ascending arm in arm, Johanne affectedly speaks of her own nonexistent lovelife situation, rarely ever spoken about.
"That becomes moot if the man is incredibly tall himself." Idun encourages her friend with a soft smile, thinking she saw a mysterious flash of red and black dart across the hallway above.
Must be getting punchy, Idun. Too many nightmares of devils and demons lately. But sleep does sound heavenly…
"But what if the man is not only tall, but an important and well-heeled fine gentleman and high government official, too? Those highborn men would not seek out a tall, plain-looking, dowdy old woman of awkward stature who was in servitude, to boot." The grayish, slim and gaunt woman who towered above Idun had shared the Bernadotte family's reclusive isolation for so many years that she had not much experience when it came to the ways of the world. Her one and only romance was a quarter century ago when she was young and vital and so much more…alive.
But now that that very man had been flung now back into her life, if just for a brief time, faithful Johanne had no idea what to do with him before her chance slipped away again, this time probably forever…
Yes, Johanne and Chancellor Esteban had been spending a lot of time together, flirting and in close proximity during the dire circumstance, for almost three weeks now. The older woman, who had already given up on romance, was almost sure she could still feel that spark between them.
But still, gentlemanly Esteban said nothing of their unspoken prior relationship, and made no move whatsoever now beyond polite niceties. His smiles she thought had traces of longing that never were acted upon, though Johanne found she was still willing to do anything to please him.
"Perhaps that's because the kind gentleman feels he would be taking that austere, unadorned, naturally beautiful woman away from all she knows. Because he is such a high class man, he would never ask such a loyal, faithful servant to leave her friends and family. Not without the proper encouragement that she would be willing to travel the globe to be with him. Love crosses every bridge and conquers all barriers, if we invite it honestly into our hearts." The Queen Mother was not too tired to assist her maid, who was more of a dear lifetime friend than a mere servant, in this matter of the heart.
After all, Minister Kai's younger sister, Johanne Roservalen, was not much older than Idun when the young nursery maid, twenty-five years ago greatly helped the adventurous seventeen-year-old Swedish Princess in her, at times, difficult acclimation to the secluded kingdom of the mysterious Crown Prince of Arendelle she had just married.
After all her loyalty and service over the years, Idun could certainly exert herself through her fatigue to aid Johanne's second chance at love with her dear friend and mentor, Esteban Flores. The fine-looking, eligible bachelor seemed to have kept himself unattached all these years, perhaps because of this star-crossed, inequal, yearning love across the sea.
"Your Majesty?" Johanne wonders at what her petite mistress could be scheming up in that pretty little head as Idun swiftly rushes into her bedroom to open the latches of her newly bought trunk. The Queen rummages around frantically before she pulls out a brand-new corset of sorts that had come with extra padding for some less than well endowed feminine locations.
She hands it to an incredulous Johanne who just stares down at the feminine article in her hand, perplexed.
"You get yourself undressed and try this on, Johanne. I'll be right back to help you lace up. I just have to get something from the costume room for you to wear to the ball that will inform the Chancellor that you are not off the market yet." The feisty Princess turned zesty Queen under this good woman's care, would rise to the occasion and not let Johanne's last chance at happiness down either.
Just as the Queen Mother prayed her baby girl Elsa would not be disappointed on her days of days, this Masquerade night later.
No, my girl. Prince Hans is a fighter, too. We can rely on him to be here, just he promised, mitt barn.
"But, m'lady–!?"
"Now, Johanne. Close your eyes and open your heart. Put that on. It is your Queen's order. I will be right back. 'Take courage and let not your heart be troubled.'" Idun lends a clipped bit of Bible study to her ladies' maid's frazzled nerves. But the Queen felt she must give the directive to her red cheeked maid, or else Johanne would shy off the enhancing undergarment.
But Idun's indigo eyes seemed to thrive on this level of scheming and mystery. Her fatigue of before disappears into a drive to pull all loose ends of her intricate plan of love – now raised to another level with a second lovelorn pair – she had started months ago, to finally thread together.
Queen Idun quickly traverses the hall and ducks into the upstairs cloak room that she and Anna with Gerda and Johanne's help had turned into the costume changing room. It would be used just for tonight's Masquerade Ball for the Castle's visitors to select an outfit.
The Queen and her daughter Anna had specially imported so many varied costumes of the day, rented from theaters and opera houses and crafted specially by local seamstresses into all types and sizes that the guests would be supplied, should they not have furnished themselves with Masquerade gear of their own.
There were capes and fur tails, animal ears and goat horns, leather gloves and wings and feathered hats of many colors. Of course, masks of every genre imaginable were hanging from a long closet bar they had erected between some bookcase shelving.
After a moment of perusing through the Renaissance costume fare, tucking a piece here and there into her satchel after some particular tantalizing garb theme, Idun was suddenly certain she was not alone in the dark room.
"I had not expected to find the Carnival masks of Comedia dell'arte here in quiet Arendelle, Madame Bernadotte. I applaud your flamboyant taste for the costume and theater." A decidedly French accented man wearing one of the said macabre Venetian theater black face masks, steps into the dim light, startling the busy Queen.
"Oh!" Idun may have tripped backwards on a furry toed pair of bunny feet had the quick man not reached out and grabbed her around the back with utmost balance and grace as if dipping his partner in a waltz.
"A thousand pardones, your Majesty. I do not know what I was thinking to speak out of turn without proper introduction. Of course, I feel I do know you well, Queen Idun, for your beauty has not diminished a day since your wedding portrait, that my mon ami Admiral Bernadotte kept hanging on his bedside cot in our shared cabin. Ah, the days of that tense confrontation in Navarino during my short naval stint before the Legionnaires dared to take me in." The handsome Frenchman with the striking blue eyes and wavy brown hair with matching debonair moustache that rivaled her husband's removes the black theater mask obscuring his features to make his apologies to the gasping Queen.
"Crown Prince Ferdinand Phillippe Egalité?" Idun recalled Agdar's oft mention of the French crown Prince had become a close friend during wartime battles at sea, and with whom he still kept correspondence with over the years.
"My reputation precedes me, I see. At your service, Madame." Looking quite fetching in a tight red and black bodysuit, Egalité gives Idun a shortened sweeping bow, given his tall height and the small accommodations of the overfilled cloak room.
"My Anna tells me that you are a good friend of Prince Hans? Is he coming tonight? Please tell me you know definitively that Hans is close to arriving! My daughter will be so heartbroken on her birthday, despite her best efforts to conceal her feelings, if he does not attend for even a little while." All these sentences spill out as a panicky-to-not-find-Hans-here-already Mama Idun urgently grips the arm of the comely Prince of the French who was wearing a half black/half red triangular interlocking diamond patterned, Harlequin outfit, sensing he knew more than he saying.
"Oui (yes). On all three counts, Queen Idun." The Frenchman announces to the whispering woman succinctly with an affirmative nod as he slips back on the black three-quarter face covering Venetian mask over his flattened white neck frill.
"Really?" Idun smiles from ear to ear up at the intriguing young man, more curious than ever, with hope springing eternal in her dazzled eyes for Hans' and Elsa's reunion.
"We did not have a chance to speak to one another much before he left. I only saw mon frére Hans for brief moments just before daybreak. But no sooner had the Danish Prince stopped for coffee this morning, then did my gallant comrade hear of some emotionally disturbed citizens with weak little children and elderly aged parents who wished to also attend the Birthday Ball tonight of their adored Queen. Before I had a chance to discuss anything, le hero and his petit garçon (little boy) companion thieved ma chérie trésor (my sweet treasure) Cassie. Then they all departed away on that Arabian Nights Magic Carpet and enchanted flying reindeer into the countryside of your- ehem -remarkably picturesque land. May I say, Queen Idun, I find many sights in this incroyable (incredible) kingdom of yours breathtaking? But perhaps sometimes such sheer beauty could use a little playful diversion…?" Irresistibly flirtatious Egalité insinuatingly compliments both the Scandinavian home of his old friend Admiral Bernadotte, and his wife too, brushing his wavy mane of hair back with a devilish flirtatious smile as he leans an arm over a growingly uncomfortable Idun in the increasingly cramped closet.
"Agdar did tell me you were a bit of a rogue. A charming rogue, but a rogue who nonetheless must be kept at arm's length." With a flippant flip up of his Harlequin frill in self-defense, Idun takes a step back from the lady killer's philandering overt advances, placing her bag of costume pieces between herself and the amorous rascal, pointy feathered hat and all.
"Quel dommage (What a pity)." The glib Crown Prince of the French shrugs her rejection off with a smooth smirk, returning to their more serious conversation. "I believe Prince Hans left to fetch those stranded citizens and give them transit out from the rural outskirts and supplies to those who required medicine in this thankfully relented blizzard. However, if my fiancée was as gorgeous as le belle Elsa and was begging for my presence so desperately urgent, I know I would not go out gallivanting on this important day we worked so long and hard across jungles and oceans and deserts to achieve. But I, as a simple citizen prince, cannot speak for our selfless gallant knight, can I?" Unloading his humored aggravation to a totally mesmerized by his sing-songy romantic foreign accent Idun, loquacious Prince Ferdinand pulls on over his tight Harlequin guise the 14th-century, silver armored Black Knight doublet costume that he had been coolly assembling around himself as he spoke.
Prince Ferdinand, though raised a revolutionary man of the people, doubted that he himself would not have chosen - after a long month of dangerous travel and battle - to stay in a warm, welcome castle with fireplaces blazing and red wine flowing for the deserving conquering heroes. He, for one, would stay put where his beauteous lover was soon scheduled to join him, rather than be a lunatic and race back out into the bleak cold he just arrived from to collect some strangers who most likely merely want fan service of the Queen and all her Masquerade Ball guests.
But this was heroic Prince Hans Westergaard we were talking about.
"I realize you, ma chere Queen Idun and your vivacious younger daughter Princess Anna have arranged for Hans to attend this important ball, but is the Admiral still not inclined to relent in this two-year long betrothal agreement between the Prince and his Queen?" Speaking on a more serious note, Egalité continues to put on the final touches of his second costume in these sparse minutes as he queries a mystified Queen Idun.
"Well… Not exactly…" In between the Frenchman catching his seemingly nonstop supply of breath and energy, Idun bites her guilty lip, seeing how her own and Anna's well-meaning, headlong foolishness in meddling may have jeopardized everything Hans and Elsa deserve.
"Sacre bleu! Then, it appears my audacious auxiliary plan may still be required. May I say, Queen Iduna, I like your friend the Chancellor very much. He has been an invaluable liaison in my scheme of fashionable subterfuge with ready seamstresses at hand to keep mon frère Hans in the clear and still be able to rendezvous with his beautiful je'taime Elsa. Chancellor Esteban instantly understood and embellished my plan, for we think so compatibly alike. We are comrades at heart for certainement, just as Hans and I are blood brothers now, whom I, Ferdinand Egalité, will lay down my life for." And with that extreme loyalty statement, a fully costumed French Crown Prince dramatically holds up three perfectly matching crimson red satin capes attached to three equivalent English armored black tunics with three corresponding gold royal crests of the feathered crown badge of the 14th-century famous Black Prince costume he was wearing. His other hand held three identical bejeweled pewter-black three-quarter face masks which the French Prince was again roguishly sporting.
'Ich Diem' – 'I serve' – was the Latin motto inscribed on the device borne by another heroic Prince of the past who faced a vicious fire-breathing gargantuan dragon, evil sorceresses wielding the powers of hell, a wall of sharp thorns and deadly vines standing in his dauntless way, not to mention irate possessive fathers.
All for the fairytale love of his beautiful briar rose Princess he met once upon a dream, the legendary medieval hero by the name Prince Phillip Edward, the Black Prince, would do anything.
Just as Ferdinand correlated Prince Hans of the Southern Isles would do now for his own dream lover.
Not to mention you will look drop-dead spectacular and irresistible in the sleek fit of this costume I have selected for you, mon ami.
"I take it, Madame that King Agdar's sight is still not yet that excellente, correct?" Displaying one of his own stylish crimson red caped, silver armored black Prince Phillip ensembles with flair, Ferdinand asks Idun the odd question as he wordlessly helps her reach for a particular colorful feathered hat on the top shelf of the changing room, like any chivalrous knight should.
"No, it's not. Poor thing tries not to look foolish feeling along the walls, but my stubborn King will never admit that he is infirmed. Bless him." The Queen smirks at her proud partner who really was still such a little boy at times.
"Magnifique!" He goes from masked 14th-century Prince to red and black trickster clown again in a matter of seconds due to some well-placed, ingenious seamstress fastenings. The ever entertaining Frenchman provocatively tosses off the cape and shirt and attached leg armor in all of its exquisitely embroidered Princely outfit glory.
Before Idun's wide eyes, in a flash of black and red in the next second, Egalité shows off how he easily removed the ornate costume to reveal his tight, black and red Harlequin suit again. Egalité laughs, silently enjoying a bit of his own theatrical pantomime flair of the bizarre Venetian theater.
CLAP CLAP CLAP!
"Oh, you are clever man, Prince Ferdinand. Now I can see why both my husband and Prince Hans have been wholly impressed by you." Idun applauds the dapper Prince's change from knight to clown in less than sixty seconds flat.
"An excellente reason for the two of them to get along as father and son, non?" Egalité smirks at the thought.
"Excellent, indeed. I'll show you where a safe place is to hide your enterprising costume initiative from the servants and other guests. This looks like it is certainly going to be a night to remember for my big girl, Prince Ferdinand. I thank you for being a friend to our young lovers." Idun excitedly finishes collecting the remainder of the costume she was accumulating for her own romantic matchmaking adventure. Then, with a quick peek around, she stealthily leads a cloaked Harlequin Ferdinand Egalité out into the hall and into the connecting lighthouse tower.
Elsa's Birthday has begun!
Hello Frozen friends! This is the start of a 3 part Birthday arc! 1st part: preparations in the morning, opening presents after the Arendelle royal family has returned; 2nd part: some fun with meeting intriguing birthday guests and matchmaking on the side for the party; 3rd part: Masquerade Ball with all these romantic twists and schemes and mystery for Helsa and gang!
I have part 2 already written and typed almost ready to go for next week at August start, and the exciting conclusion all mapped out, so hang on tight with all these plans and enigmatic schemes for Elsa and her handsome Prince and friends. Please enjoy this first installment of Elsa's incredibly exciting birthday celebration!
I'd love to hear your reviews!
Jesus loves you!
Love, HarukaKou
Countdown time! My birthday's in 27 days! :) (I'm a kid at heart like Anna for birthdays! heehee)