Trouble
Jack stares outside in a relaxing silence. He finally has some time to himself after hours of boring talks with some of the council. Count Eirik, the Count of Arendelle, came over a few hours ago to talk about the engagement. Jack refuses to pay attention—the only thing he kept a note about was how they were still uninformed to his wintery abilities. Instead, he busies himself checking out the unique flower-like patterns in almost every speck of the kingdom—which he has learned to be a rosemaling.
The prince continues to admire the busy evening of Arendelle through the thin curtain of the Borgbro Inn, the fancy inn the Northern Isles' royalties currently staying at. The council had prepared the best inn with the most-qualified services and facilities for the Northern Isles' royal family. It is also located right in front of the castle—only separated by a bridge made of stones which leads to the main gates. The ideal spot enables the young prince to have a perfect sight of the preparations at the castle's courtyard through the opened-wide gates. His eyes land on men lifting and positioning tables and chairs, women serving numerous kinds of traditional foods, and kids running around while helping the adults to place the flowers and balloons. Jack is somewhat curious about the lack of candles around the outdoor decorations. Then, his heart interrupts his mind with an interesting idea.
Well, why don't you find out yourself?
Jack grabs his cloak, lifts its hood to cover his signature white hair, and readies his staff. "Wind, mind giving me a ride?" Twitching his pale lips into a smirk and feeling the wind answering to his call, he sneakily flies out of the room. He finds a spot behind a tree to take off as he puts up his old man cover. He sits on the tree for a while and rests his staff on his shoulder. The staff is his power-unleashing tool, but it is also beneficial for his disguise whenever he wants to take a good stroll around the kingdom without having four to six bodyguards circling his walk.
He admires the decorations put by the citizens. He throws a quick glance at the ice cream cake and figures he can have a taste. He absentmindedly pulls down his hood to prevent it from getting dirty. He wouldn't want his noisy maid making a huge deal out of his contaminated cloak—
"Eek! An old man!" He jerks his hand away from the tempting cake and glances at a young boy covered in colourful cookie dough all over his cheeks to his chin. The boy laughs and verges upon the poor prince in disguise. He quickly puts back his hood, escaping a little scowl for his dumb unconsciousness. His nervousness gets the best at him as the boy—not higher than his knees—tugs his royal trousers.
He prays to the God above this boy won't notice the crest of the Northern Isles sewed on the pocket.
"H—hey, young man." Jack mentally slaps himself at his failed attempt copying the old baker back in his kingdom.
"A stuttering old man!" His laughter echoes bigger but—thankfully—not enough to avert the adults' focus from finalizing the decorations. "I love it!" He scoots closer to Jack, causing the prince to lowers his hood. "I saw you tried to take that cake, sir." The boy toothy grins and wipes off the cream on his face using his sleeves. "Sadly, you can't take that one! Not yet! But, my friends and I are making cupcakes! You can eat them now!" The boy humbly bows and directs the prince to follow him. Jack cannot fight his smirk and lets the boy drag him to the other side of the backyard.
Unlike the sight he was seeing, the kid special area—which is located behind the Arendelle Chapel—is massively chaotic. Children running here and there covered in eggs, flours, and other cake ingredients, though some are sitting carelessly with their books. Jack smiles widely at the amount of happiness all around him. He always has a thing for kids. He admires their free spirits. They aren't tied up with responsibilities. They don't have to worry about a thing. They can do whatever they want to do. Jack can only wish the younglings to stay that way.
His parents might have obliged him to some strict rules regarding his winter abilities, but—aside from his abnormality—he was pretty much a free bird judging from how many times he had escaped from the castle with the help of the wind and appeared at different spots every time he was found. Now that he's coped up with duties as a prince and responsibilities as an adult, he realizes how important it is to always cherish a pure joy of childhood. He had always felt this kick to make sure the children treasure these moments while they last, explaining why he did everything he could to entertain them.
"Here are the cupcakes, sir!" The boy halts beside a white-clothed table and gestures Jack to move forward. His eyes widen slightly at the twelve beautifully coloured and perfectly baked cupcakes. He thought those things were going to be a disaster judging from the boy's apron. He is also greeted by a group of the boy's friends. Jack smiles and waves back at the group's amorous welcome. He sees the boy from the corner of his eyes who is now entering a small cottage with daisies marching around it.
"Old man! Try it!" Another boy—shorter than the first one—gives Jack the pink cupcake which Jack assumes as the strawberry-flavoured one. Jack doesn't say anything—afraid to blow his cover or get teased for his horrible old man voice—and thankfully accepts the offer. Once the kids' focus isn't fully on him, he secretly dismisses himself and climbs up a tree. He eats the cupcake and watches the kids chattering in front of him, laughing at their own absurd jokes. Jack stays silent the whole time with his playful smirk plastered on his mouth.
"Ah! There you are!" The previous kid who dragged him all the way to the children area spots him under the leaves and climbs up to sit by his side on the thick stem. Jack freezes for a moment and wonders how this kid has always managed to find him whenever he doesn't want to be found.
"Phew! You are really cool, old man! You are really good at climbing!" The kid grins the moment he places himself beside the prince. "How is the cupcake, sir?" He points at the prince's mouth while playing with some leaves.
"Good." Jack smirks in triumph. He just successfully said a word with his old man voice.
"I know, right!" The kid smiles. "Queen Elsa invites us to the castle and she teaches us how to bake!" Jack nods with a smile. "She has so many plates and cookies and rooms! I really love the castle! Queen Elsa shows us how to crack eggs and spin the cake dough! After that, she teaches us how to shape the cake and we put them in the oven—then wham! It's yummy!"
Jack watches the kid's shining hazel eyes and forms a smile of his own.
Well, the queen actually sounds nice.
"Queen Elsa invites old people to the castle, too!"
"Really? For what?" Jack quickly shoves the cupcake down to his throat to shut himself for ruining his own act. Fortunately, the kid is too stimulated on sharing the story with Jack.
"She gives my grandpa and his friends some teas and cookies! They talk and laugh—they even dance sometimes! Queen Elsa is so great with words and is really kind!" Jack's smile widens at the thought of Arendelle's recent ruler. "She does that for...uh...twelve years!" Jack drops his grin and leaves it on the ground.
Twelve years?
"She never gets bored making us happy! I love her!" The boy keeps rambling on how great his queen is, but Jack seems to lost track of focus. Twelve years. All Jack ever know about this queen is only her name, that's it, so he comes up with his own calculation.
He assumes the queen inherited the crown at the age of twenty-one and ruled the island for twelve years or—worse—more than that.
His wife could be at least nine years older than him!
Then he just remembers Tooth told him she was 35 years old last time Tooth saw her.
The world must've hated him so much for such destiny.
His train of guesses on how their havoc marriage is going to be is interrupted by a resonant sound of the clangoring bells. "Oh! It's finally ringing!" The boy gasps and jumps down from the tree. He straightens his wrecked outfit as soon as he lands on the grass. "My mom will be mad at me if I'm late. I hope you can get down on your own!" The boy grins and jogs away.
The colours of the prince's face disperse in a blink of an eye.
A ringing bell.
The engagement ball.
"Shit." Jack growls and storms away. Jack is no longer worried about his marriage now, he is more concerned about his father's earth-quacking rage once that hugely scary old man steps inside the room and finds out he's not inside. He's in so much trouble.
The boy watches how the old man bolts away in agape. He seriously needs to learn how to run like that in such a fragile age. "Leif!" The boy turns around and faces his mother with her usual uniform as the castle's loyal servant and a smile on her face. "What stories did you tell the old man?" The mother asks warmly and fixes Leif's coat. Leif had told her mother about his encounter with the old man when he went inside his cottage earlier.
"I told the old man about Queen Elsa and her job for twelve years!"
"Twelve?" Her mother raises her brow and laughs at her firstborn. "Leif, you do remember two is not twelve, right?"
"Oops..."
"Seven guards at the east wing, the other seven at the west?"
"Check!"
"Ten at the front, ten at the back?"
"Check!"
"Plates?"
"Eight thousand salad plates, check!"
"Dishes?"
"All set except for the grilled ones—ten more minutes, I think."
"Maids and butlers?"
"Uniforms on and positioned at all tables. Check!"
"Decorations?"
"Check! I think we need more flowers though..."
"Lastly, guests?"
"Two-thirds of the kingdoms are here." Anna returns to her chair after she stole a quick glance at the ballroom outside the window. The sisters have been spending the last minutes inside Elsa's study, making sure the preparations for the ball is ready before it starts half an hour from now. Anna volunteers to help because she is also waiting for Kristoff to dress up with the help of Kai. She refuses to linger around those bratty royalties; Olaf is nowhere to be seen anyway, probably too consumed by his books now that he can read—which is Dante Alighieri's Inferno recently.
"Including the Northern Isles?" Elsa rests her chin atop her palms and stares at the window with the view to the castle gates.
"Northern Isles..." Anna murmurs and looks through the attendance list once again. She swallows her breath before squeaking. "—is with the one-third one."
"Oh my God—"
"Okay! Before you flip out or anything, I'm sure they're on their way!"
"They're supposed to arrive before anyone else to discuss our act." Elsa groans in distress. She thought these people from the Northern Isles would punch the clock on time—in time even—which was why she didn't want to bother the council to accompany their way here. They stay at Arendelle's finest inn which is situated right in front of the castle gates. They only need to take a couple of steps forward and they are still late.
"I'm sure they have everything managed." Anna grins sheepishly and rubs her arms out of nervousness.
Elsa sighs and slumps her head to her folded arms. "I hope so,"
"All you ought to do is just sit tight and stay pretty," Anna reassures and hands her a jar of chocolate cookies. Elsa sighs gratefully and takes out one. "So, to buy some time...Let's have some sisterly talk!"
"About?" Elsa replies without any hint of emotion.
"Anything!" Anna shrugs and stuffs another cookie into her mouth.
Elsa remains silent for a moment, eyes piercing into Anna's jolly face, ears listening to her happy tune, mouth elegantly munching the chocolate cookie. Anna may be one of those magical creatures who could burst tons of emotions in a split of a second, but recalling from the way she loathed this marriage—even had the intention to ruin it. There's no way she could be this enthusiastic about today's engagement ball.
"Why did you agree to this?" The question catches the poor strawberry blonde off guard, but Anna quickly straightens up.
"I told you yesterday—yesterdays, right? I try to be happy for you."
"It couldn't possibly be that simple, Anna." Elsa reasons and shifts her position to face her sister. "I know you. I know how fast your moods shift and your thoughts change, but not in this case—not when you already derived your mind to something because of how self-willed you can be. I know there must be a major notion behind your effort to try." Elsa finally uses her checkmate confrontation and Anna knows perfectly there is no way of getting out.
Anna bites the insides of her cheeks and grips a hem of her dress to cover up her nervousness. As much as she wants to make it a surprise, she can't dodge away now. "A few days ago while you were doing dessert sampling, I went out with Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf," Anna glances at her to see any slight change of reaction from her sister. "We went to the harbour."
"When I strictly told you not to." Elsa's expression hardens. Anna was still being unreasonable about the wedding that time, so Elsa had to get her out of away by ordering her to stay inside the castle before she could possibly wreck something.
"Exactly! Sorry, but I can't help it..." Anna trails as she lowers her head. "I didn't do anything."
"I honestly doubt that."
Anna shifts her eyes to the floor and fiddles with her toes. "Alright. I'm being honest now," Anna weakly groans and rubs her cheek. "I met—"
"Your Majesty. Your Highness." Kai swiftly merges inside the room with a relieved smile on his face.
"The Northern Isles has arrived."
Anna screams and thanks to the God above.
Elsa mentally notes they will finish the conversation as soon as the night is over.
•••
Author's Note
Hi, folks! Here's another update for you all super supportive readers!
AHTOHALLAN
- Arendelle have names for its streets, Borgbro street is the road which connects village to the castle including the bridge, so I named the hotel Jack's staying at as Borgbro inn, the concept of the inn located in front of the castle gates itself is from me
- Leif is my original character, he is one of the maids' son
- According to 'Forest of Shadows', Olaf listened to a lecture about the book Inferno by Dante Alighieri
Thank you so much for the many reviews, follows, and favorites! I honestly never thought I could reach those numbers. Thank you for making that happen! Hopefully I'll be able to post another chapter soon!
Warm Hugs,
Reynia
