CHAPTER 35- Jani, Part 1

. .

The teaspoon rang against the edge of the teapot, as Janna stirred.

"Will you not have a cup?"

The hind did not respond, but just sat there at the little table, limply, like a clockwork toy in need of a wind. The trees around them shivered, whispered, and went on forever, as is possible in dreams. Amid the rusty-barked pines, vague figures drifted and stumbled about, translucent as mist.

Mouse Eye sat on the table, like an attentive shadow. Only an echo. Janna tried not to look at him.

Since her guest was being unsociable on account of being dead, Janna poured her a cup of something thick, cold and black.

"Nothing for me, I won't be staying long."

Janna looked around, to see Mari approaching through the pines, shades and echoes fleeing before her footfall. The old Ulda pulled out a chair and sat down next to Janna and her 'guest', cracking her knuckles in the manner of someone trying to look at ease. Except... she wasn't all that old at the moment.

Janna hummed thoughtfully, as she gently tipped the hind's head back and poured the liquid down her throat, provoking a subdued whimper. Then she tore off an ear and crunched on it.

"How is it?"

"Tastes like winning, don't you know. She'll be just another one of these echoes soon enough." Janna commented, indicating the ghostly shapes that drifted mournfully about the forest dreamscape. She finished chewing and swallowed. "Mari Mäntylä, well well. Say- I know I never remember these dreams, but are you normally here like this? Seems... different."

"I'm not a dream. I'm just paying a call."

Janna paused. "O-kay. Here in my dream. Right. Have you always been able to do that?"

The wood hag snorted. "Not for a while. My health has had a boost recently." She nodded towards the gradually diminishing form of the hind woman. "Cheers for that."

"Yes, I noticed you had two arms now." Janna rubbed her chin. The Ulda looked generally a lot smoother and less gnarled than when she had first met her, some years before. So... Janna had not been the only one to feast. "Will there be consequences?"

"There always are", muttered Mari, rolling her eyes. "Though mostly for the better. Her absence will fracture the opposition- the wild and wayward ones. Make it easier to reassert control over the forest. Provided you hold up your end, of course."

A subtle tremor ran through the forest. The Ulda looked around. "What was that?"

Janna smirked. "Something new, Grandmother." She took hold of the hind woman's loosely hanging hand and began to deftly snap the fingers off, one by one. "Now, I assume you're here to confirm we still have a compact. I start up the tributes again, undo what my predecessor did, and in return you basically sort your shit out." She held up a hand. "Don't explain, please- I've no interest in the politics of wood spirits, I just want the sun to come up in this place. You know, the sun? And generally some animal life that isn't cursed or insane. Might be healthy."

She tapped a severed wooden digit against the table like a pencil. "Now, you'll be going soon, so I'll make this brief. As of right now, there's a new condition to our deal. If you want any kind of peace between us, you'd best not screw around with my Elsa again. God knows she's a state as it is- keeping her safe is a full time job."

The Ulda drew herself up indignantly. "I offered her my hospitality when she was in need. I can't see how-"

"Oh, piss off." Janna's tone and face darkened. "You told her just enough, and acted just so as to make her feel unsafe, then left her be." She leant forward, eyes growing hot; and now the tremor returned, intensified, making the pines quiver like blades of grass. "You saw her heart. Knew she'd leave. You knew she'd be fair game once she did. Us Lords- we've been hunters ever since your boy, so don't give me that bullshit. Bait for the trap is what she was."

Mari betrayed no particular emotion. "It worked out in the end."

"She nearly got eaten! One more minute, one more and I- I-"

I nearly lost her.

"Aye, but now you're all cosy and that one is out of the way of all of us." The Ulda rose and stepped away into the trees. "Told Satu it was in the blood. Ha!"

Then she was gone, fading like bitter laughter before Janna could summon a retort for the heartless shitbag. She growled, and gripped the edge of the table until her knuckles turned white, trying to slow her breathing. Peace. Don't lose any more family.

The fading ghost of Mouse Eye croaked at her inquisitively. Crows, parents, friends... she must have been careless, to lose so many she loved. Maybe it was just her egoism talking, yet she could not escape, as ever, the torturous feeling that each death had been preventable, if only she could turn back the clock... see Kaarlo for the traitor he was, or gut Niska before he had the chance to take the initiative. Hindsight, bloody hindsight.

I can't lose anyone else.

No point troubling over it right now. The night was over for Janna, anyway.

Sparks flew through the chilly air as each and every tree burst into flames of deepest blue, roaring like the sea. And the tremors continued to grow, shaking the burning forest, until the dream began to grind itself apart, the trees and the ghosts and the fire and the earth all blending themselves together and fading into darkness. And Janna drifted down, down inside her head, knowing, as she sank, that this dream would be forgotten. Just like all the others.

. .

. .

The baby had come.

Elsa had heard it first, before anyone had told her. The whole castle was filled with a rising cloud of murmurs, which seeped through the walls like smoke, and even up through the cracks from the floors below, where maids making the beds shrieked and tittered like morning birds. She also heard talking, rather more distinctly, in the corridor outside, and, aware in that vague, instinctual way which can exist without any real understanding, that something of great significance had occurred, she had tottered, yawning, over to her bedroom door, and listened to the voices of her nurse and a guard chattering away excitedly.

The baby had come. Mamma's baby had come in the night. A girl.

She was a sister. A big sister.

She was still rolling the word around her soft, infant palate, unsure how to approach it, when her nurse came in. What she had already deduced was explained to her in a series of rushed, enthusiastic bursts, as she was rapidly marched to her wash basin and cleaned up- Nurse got some soap in her eye, but she thought better of complaining when she felt the woman's hands trembling. Her hair was briskly brushed, then straight away she was led back to her bed, stripped of her night dress, kitted out in her best sky-blue frock, and stockings, and her new Sunday shoes, even though it was a Friday, and a bow in her hair, before being marched all the way out of the bedroom.

Struggling to keep up with the adults in their frenzy, on her stumpy, nearly-three year-old legs and in her squeaky formal shoes, she found herself half-dragged along the corridor to the other end of the wing, where more guards, somehow much shinier than they normally seemed, stood to attention outside Mamma And Pappa's Room.

She had always thought of that place in capital letters, the kind of near-religious reverence that small children sometimes attach to the artefacts and attributes of their parents- Pappa's Pipe, Mamma's Wedding Dress- or those unseen actors of the adult world- The Boss, The Revenue, Those Foreign Devils- of which they hear their guardians speak in dread without explanation, and so elevate to the level of inscrutable natural forces. She could not remember ever having been inside- although, to be fair, she was just shy of three, and memory is unreliable at that age.

Am I three? Or am I just dreaming again? little Elsa pondered, as she waited for the doors in front of her eyes to be opened. The fresh white paint on the wood. The patterns of green and purple blossoms. Still so vivid and clear.

The question was quickly forgotten as she heard the click of the catch, and heavy silver handles turned, before the towering white doors swung away before her, and she was swept along into the centre of Mamma and Pappa's Room before she knew quite what was happening.

Then she was suddenly let alone. Abandoned by the sudden retreat of the indistinct adults who had herded her along, she stood at the exact centre of a huge and ornate carpet, which still covered only a section of the floor of what could have been a ballroom but for the fire and the furnishings. It wasn't just her own tiny size that made the room seem cavernous; the master bedroom of Arendelle Castle was far too big for one person- or indeed five people- which was one of several reasons she had never chosen to move into it as an adult. Too-large rooms have a melancholy all of their own, like deserts- or so she had heard from those who had actually visited such places.

Before her, however, beyond the carpet, a grand four poster bed proudly stood, carved from some ancient and dark wood, spread with silky sheets in the violet and lavender shades Mamma liked. And there was Mamma, still sat up in bed in her night clothes! Elsa, brushed and tucked and tidied within an inch of her life, could have cried at the injustice. Pappa was at least dressed properly; he sat by the bed with a grin on his face like she had never seen before, beckoning to her. She toddled uncertainly towards her parents, her slight anxiety at the break in her usual morning routine now causing a light sprinkling of snow to follow in her wake. Then she started to notice the bundle of blankets Mamma was cradling in her arms, and by the time she reached the edge of the bed her pre-school mind had finally made the necessary connections to make sense of what was going on.

That's the baby. Mamma's baby is here.

That's my sister. I'm meeting my sister.

Pappa reached down and scooped her up, planting a kiss on her cheek and sitting her on the edge of the bed. Then Mamma carefully arranged the bundle on her lap.

"Is it safe?"

"Oh, don't be silly, Aggie, she's fine. See?"

The bundle was warm and heavy. She could barely get her arms around it. In its centre, amid the layers of soft wrappings which cocooned it like cabbage leaves, was a tiny red face. Sister. Just inches from her own, that little face stirred and yawned in its sleep, eyes screwed shut as if she hadn't been ready to come out into the light just yet. Elsa yawned in sympathy.

The baby made soft little noises, grunts and squeaks, and the world retreated a little from where the two sisters sat, becoming quieter and somehow less important. Then puffy, newborn lids flickered open, and Elsa looked into bright little aquamarine eyes, which stared straight back up at her with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion.

"It's alright", she tried to reassure the little life in her arms. "I'm Elsa." In her soft infant mouth her own name sounded more like Ewza- a speech impediment she wouldn't shake off for another year or two. "I'm... your big sister."

She looked up at Mamma, who had reached out a hand to help her support the baby. "What's she called?"

Mamma smiled her Smile, warm as sunlight, soft as moonlight, the smile Elsa would never stop missing, not if she lived forever.

"Anna, darling. This is your baby sister Anna."

"Anna..." She murmured the name to herself a couple of times, still gazing down at those bold little eyes. Already so full of spark. Perhaps even then she had a sense that this girl was never going to do what she was told.

"Now, being a big sister is a lot of responsibility", Pappa intoned. "You need to take good care of Anna, do you understand?"

Little Elsa nodded, although this wasn't how it had really happened. "Yes Pappa."

He kissed her on the forehead. "That's my little snowflake. Because we aren't going to be around forever."

Elsa gulped. "I know, Pappa."

"You'll keep her safe once we're gone?"

Tears started to well up in her eyes, but she tried to maintain her composure.

"I promise, Pappa. I'll keep Anna safe..."

. .

. .

"Anna!"

Elsa awoke, blurting out her sister's name, filled with a mixture of anxiety and guilt she couldn't quite account for as the memory of the dream quickly melted away from her. As the disorientation of her sudden awakening passed, she registered an uncustomary warmth against her shoulder and one side of her face. Also, her hand seemed to be snagged on something.

She looked up, and realised that she was lying partly on top of her companion.

Oh, Janna. What an odd dream.

Oh! Janna!

She was uncomfortably conscious of two things: One, that she had woken up calling her sister's name, and could offer no explanation which wouldn't sound foolish, and two, that her hand had found its way up the princess' shirt during the night and now rested on the bare skin of her stomach. That would have been even harder to explain away, so she was immensely relieved when she saw that the Crow Lord was still sleeping.

She gingerly disentangled herself from her companion's clothing and smooth, toned flesh... concentrate, Elsa... careful to avoid any motion that might be interpreted as a caress. Making improper advances towards unconscious people was another thing that should stay in story books. In fact, there had been an interesting scandal in her grandparents' generation when some minor prince had broken into an enchanted castle, filled with sleeping people, and kissed a beautiful young girl he found laid on a bed. She, a princess as it had turned out, had then immediately awoken, since apparently she and the entire population of the castle had been cursed by a powerful fairy to sleep until somebody kissed her. Which, bizarre as it was, accounted for why the kingdom's entire royal family had vanished a century before. The rest of the castle's slumbering denizens had accordingly woken as well, from the king on his throne to the maid in the cowshed, all none the worse for their ordeal. The old king had questioned the young prince, then had him beheaded for mishandling his daughter. Next, the king had gathered his now-conscious army, set out, and, catching everyone quite by surprise, annihilated the prince's own family to a man, burning their new capital to the ground in the interests of restoring his own former kingdom. None of which would have happened if the unlucky young man had just understood boundaries.

Kneeling beside her, she looked down at the sleeping princess for a moment. She realised that she should be scared. Obsessing over the mess this wild-haired creature could make of all her well-laid plans. Agonising over the diplomatic consequences. Fretting over the prospect of war in the north. Pulling her hair out over what Anna might be up to. Had she dreamt about Anna? Perhaps she wasn't giving her sister enough credit for being able to take care of herself, but then the uplands of Myrtle were no picnic, and it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility that she might do something especially impulsive, given how they had parted. Maybe guilt played a greater part than reason in her anxieties.

But the strange thing was, now the upset of the dream had faded, all these concerns seemed oddly distant. Real, but... it was as if her fears had their place, and, for the moment, they were staying there, allowing her to put them towards the back of her mind and enjoy the simple pleasure of watching someone she... cared about. She gently wound a ragged lock of her suitor's black hair around her fingers. So soft- but did she cut it with a blunt knife? Elsa had felt this way in the weeks following the thaw- impossibly light, as if her fear had temporarily burnt itself out. Embracing her new life, her new family, without hesitation. Was this how other people felt the whole time? Normal people, who weren't woven out of raw nerves like she seemed to be? That must be wonderful- to know such serenity day by day. Still, she would make the most of it while it lasted.

Getting up, before she forgot proper boundaries any further, the Queen stepped out of the pavilion she had made the night before. Well, it was actually still night, since sinister, unending darkness seemed to be a permanent fixture of this bizarre place, but oh well. This must be the 'real Myrtle' Jani had promised to show her. There had certainly been adventure.

She was unable to get to the water pool she had made without moving more than twelve feet from the princess' sleeping form, which had proven to be the distance at which the shadows started talking to her again, so she created a new one and set about freshening herself up. She felt rather vulnerable, washing alone, and kept a careful watch on the darkness around in case some other horrible thing decided to make a meal of them.

She would probably swallow her pride and scream for Janna if it did- she seemed fairly immune to the spirits of these woods. A horrifying, collosal, spectral spider the size of a cow had charged them yesterday. Could a ghost spider actually eat people? Regardless, Janna had pushed her back, waved a hand, and something all but invisible had passed into the monster. It had burst into a million tiny ghost spiders, which had run off in every direction except towards Janna.

She moved on to washing her body, as best she could with only ice water. That meant dissolving her dress, so she kept an ear pricked and alert in case her companion awoke suddenly and saw her... well.

Not that she wasn't wearing underclothes- she had standards, even in the mountains with no proper tea service and evil whispers all around. But that was hardly the point. Besides, her underclothes, as Jani had seen before she'd snatched her sketchbook back the other day, were terribly attractive, and it wouldn't be fair to torment her noble suitor so. She had found it necessary to wear something under her ice dresses, or else the crystals caused chafing in unmentionable places, so, she had thought, why not design something nice?

I should design something for Janna... day wear, I mean... she pondered, feeling a tingling run through her as she contemplated the possibilities. She would stick with a piratical theme, obviously, but what about... no, she'd never wear that. Such a tomboy. But a new coat, surely... a more flattering cut... a waistcoat that brought out the colour of her impossible eyes...

It was a shame Janna hadn't brought the sketchbook with her. Of course, if she had it might have ended up crushed under a dead horse, which is apparently what had happened to Janna's adorable little lute. She had looked especially crestfallen when recounting that part of her journey to find her in the forest. Small instrument... fine quality... perhaps it had been a gift from one of her parents? A reminder of home... oh, poor darling...

Sounds of stirring behind her startled her back into the present, and she hurriedly reconstituted her clothes before Janna could emerge.

The princess shuffled out of the pavilion, smiling weakly, coat pulled tight around her body.

"Morning."

She grunted a reply, seeming to avoid her gaze. There was something different about the northerner. A more marked uncertainty around her, for one, which was odd- last night had worked out pretty well, after all. So why did... wait.

Elsa reached out and cupped the princess' face in her hands, examining it closely- she flinched slightly. Telling. Perhaps it was down to the peculiar clarity Elsa felt that morning, but, looking over her companion, she found herself noticing familiar things... something in the expression, ways one might hold oneself... things from, well, before.

Realisation blossomed in Elsa's mind. Of course.

But what to do? How to deal with this? If she'd had time to prepare... her calm started to crumble, mere minutes into the day.

No, she told herself, you knew whom you were offering your favour...

She couldn't deny this might take some getting used to, but she was determined to show a better side of herself this time around. Anyhow, if she judged her suitor for what trouble their magic might cause, there was little hope for either of them.

And he did look adorably nervous.

I can handle this. My hands are shaking, but I can handle this.

Elsa smiled warmly. "Good morning, Jani."

The Myrtlean's jaw dropped. Clearly that had caught him by surprise. She planted a kiss on his cheek; he jumped a little, which delighted her. She rarely got to be the perceptive one.

"You know, it's not actually morning", he murmured.

. .

. .

Notes:

Yes, I thought it was about time.

I'm aware that Elsa's birthday is supposed to be in winter, and Anna's in summer. I had to ignore this however since it made no sense. If Elsa was born in winter, why wait to have the coronation in midsummer? Does she come of age at 21-and-a-half? If Anna was born in summer, why are unprotected snowgies bouncin garound in the sun on her birthday without melting? For the sake of my own fussy mind, in this fic Elsa was born in late spring, and Anna in early spring. This does mean that the events of Frozen Fever occur after the events of Olaf's Frozen Adventure.