We do not own 'Frozen' or any of its characters.
"Frozen Again: 'But the Greatest of These is Love"
Act V
Chapter 32
"An August Appointment"
GRRRR! RRROAARRR!
Disoriented from the passionate kiss he had been bestowing upon his lady love in the moonlight by the earsplitting feral scream, Prince Hans reflexively comes to his senses.
On pure adrenaline rush instinct, Hans instantly spins on his booted heel to gallantly push the Queen of Arendelle behind his back defensively. He forcefully, yet gently shoves her down to the Rose Garden bench where the young lovers had been just romancing upon minutes ago.
But those automatic chivalrous actions only cause the Snow Beast to growl fiercer and thrash his pontificating arms in madness. Rows full of sharp ice spikes shoot out to enlarge threateningly with his protective rage.
Hans produces his naval broadsword that Elsa had commissioned him with as the unforeseen aggressive assailant suddenly approaches his flank.
"Marshmallow! No!" Elsa cries out as her frozen, nearly thirty foot tall bodyguard roars his intimidating vehemence to sleet ice rain drool down at the despicable man. The bestial snow creature clearly recalled with utter loathing that this person was the one to have hurt him before, both physically and in pride.
Marshmallow reaches down at the insignificant – compared to the gargantuan, anyway – little redhaired boy who had once chopped off his left leg and sent the snow giant plummeting off the North mountain.
"Marshmallow! Please! He's not the enemy anymore!" Elsa begs her big frosty friend, jumping back up from the bench to her icy stilettos to approach Marshmallow. But the protective Danish Prince's halting arm holds her back from the out-of-control Snow Beast's vicious ice fangs a few feet above their heads.
The angry ice monster could no longer hear Elsa's tearful plea in his torrential blizzard storm of cold vengeance and hatred for this despised prince who bested Marshmallow in his duty to protect his Ice Mistress before.
Never again!
A silently seething Marshmallow's snow blind anger made him a rather fearful force of unrelenting nature as he towers menacingly over the sword wielding man who was a fifth his large-scale form with more anima than ever before. Perhaps this excessive fury was spurred on by Ice King Agnarr's mental wariness of this tainted Prince who dared to woo his daughter. After all, it was the Ice King who sent his large frozen minion, Marshmallow, out to collect Elsa and bring her back in from spending alone time in rendezvous with this Danish firebrand and solidify their undesired relationship further.
So when Marshmallow arrived to find the iniquitous Prince forcing his wicked grasping intention on his previously sheltered and pristinely pure Queen Elsa, it set off his icy venom of frostbite spikes forming along his back and knees and body to enumerate.
"GO AWAY!" Marshmallow's livid smoking cold mouth threateningly growls the angry declaration with bitterness towards the nemesis who still haunted the big snowman's nightmares.
Undaunted by this formidable threat, Prince Hans Westergaard stands tall before the monstrous snow creature. He takes exactly the same defensive pose in the exact same swordsman stance with his long blade gleaming back at his opponent. Along with it came that same masculine determination to win when challenged and be the victor in battle, his eyes never straying from Marshmallow's.
"Hans! Please don't!" Beside herself with fright for both man and beast, Elsa's joyful bliss of being in her love's embrace moments ago goes frigid in her struck cold heart in fear for her two dear defenders at such deadly odds pitted against one another, again.
But there was something else, well beyond assurance and determination behind Hans' stunning green eyes that flash back over his shoulder to her that heartened Elsa to trust him to handle this his way.
Going by faith in her love alone, Elsa quietly steps back and watches in frozen horror as her Prince Hans takes several swift, decisive steps towards Marshmallow.
With his sword drawn from it sheath held high, the Prince stridently moves in as the Snow Beast glowers down at him, preparing a deadly counterattack for the imminent strike…
SPLURT!
But Hans shocks both woman and bodyguard with ice in their veins as he plunges his razor-sharp sword not into leg nor fist nor heart of the humongous creature for any debilitating incision or blow, but rather into the dirt of the rose bed precisely at Marshmallow's feet.
"Huh?"
Hans astounds a bewildered Marshmallow even further, as, instead of rushing at his foe in assault with the confrontational violence the gigantic ice monster was fully ready to battle and win this time, Hans fall to his knees.
Vulnerably he kneels at Marshmallow's massive feet beside his abandoned sword weapon that was harmlessly immobilized in the garden's earth.
"I am here before you, Sir, on my knees with my heart in my hands outstretched to you, as Queen Elsa's sworn protector, to beg pardon for our deleterious past encounter." Hans' glistening eyes plead with the huge, aggressive Snow Beast, silently adding: 'I surrender myself to you because we both care too much for Elsa to ever cause her any fear or frustration.'
"I bow to your strength with a humble request I place before you now, my dear fellow, for a vital task that I can rely only on you alone to fulfill in my place." In his cool and collected, lofty demeanor, a deferential Prince Hans bows his head in respect to the utterly flummoxed snow monster as the Danish Prince continues to bravely speak.
The consummate performer in Hans once again uses his vocal eloquence to not only calm the Snow Beast, but attempt to befriend him as an equal, to boot.
Perplexed, Marshmallow ceases his loud roaring, thumping his angry chest and shaking his fists about that intended to squeeze the life out of this annoying red scum once and for all. With furrowed snowy brows in confusion, the baffled creature pauses in mid-vengeful action.
He stares down at the man kneeling oh-so-gentlemanly beside the detestable discarded sword that left Hans Westergaard completely defenseless at the Snow Beast's mercy now.
Elsa, at first petrified at the inevitable fight where one - or both - of her dear ones would certainly have been injured, lest she stepped in to stop their male confrontation, was now delightfully impressed by Hans' remarkable ability to ingratiate himself and charm his way out of almost any situation.
The confounded Snow Beast retreats his vicious fanged teeth. The armor built up around his head recedes when he leans in cautiously, in curiosity, to hear more of what this now interesting human was proposing to him as if the ice creature was perfectly sentient and intelligent company.
Elsa watches in awe as she witnesses Hans placate a livid Marshmalllow, without lifting his sword, enough for the pair of enemies to almost peacefully come to a stand down. She marvels at young Mr. Westergaard's diplomatic abilities — even with this cold hearted snow monster who had a beef with him.
Rather than either side forcibly striking out at each other as expected, Marshmallow in angry vengeance to crush and reduce this infuriating infinitesimal being to a red splat on the ground; or Hans' defensive sword raised to sever and debilitate another matching monstrously frozen body part again, to prove some aggressive male dominance; Hans had a softened Marshmallow practically eating out of the palm of his hand by the end of their 'manful discussion'.
As the Queen's most loyal defender, Hans wanted to recognize Marshmallow and in order to legitimatize that belief, he glances to Elsa, pointing to his newly acquired estate fiefdom of Augustenborg coat of arms medallion wordlessly.
Their minds as one, Elsa understood that Hans desired for her to create a similar coat of arms badge for Marshmallow, made of ice. She ice magically complies, copying the proud Augustenborg coat of arms that displayed in symbolized azure colored truth and loyalty of the realm, with its saltirewise lances piercing a ring argent drawn in St Andrew's cross denoting the equine ring jousting in that stunning southeastern Jutland fiefdom. Elsa artistically illustrates the four noble horse heads of the estate castle, protectively guarding the represented Christian Cross as sentinels on either side of the coat of arms that characterized the stud farm of Augustenborg Slot that embodied the kingdom's passion for raising horses for racing.
"As the first act of my kingdom estate in the realm of Augustenborg, I choose you, Snow Beast Marshmallow of Ice Queen Elsa's North Mountain, to serve as the steadfast honorary Captain of the Guard of Augustenborg. You will be appointed my royal estate's principal guardian in defense of Queen Elsa's future residence when we will request your company to join us there as our most trusted chief defender."
Prince Hans smiles at the perfectly enlarged ice badge, hued azure by the refracted colors of the aurora borealis the Ice Queen now controlled. Elsa had created for her brilliant love the symbol of Augustenborg that the new lord of the manor holds proudly in his hands.
With it, Hans tentatively stands and approaches a more passive Marshmallow, offering the ice coat of arms of honor up to the quizzical Snow Beast that Elsa cryokinetically floats through the air to magically affix to Marshmallow's chest armor.
In doing so, the sagacious Danish prince had just granted a position of great esteem to this, singularly lonesome in the world, creature of ice. And that act of offer and acceptance spoke solely of the love and devotion they shared for their Queen.
"And because you are her most dedicated guardian, I will be relying on you in my absence from Arendelle, during the tour of my naval service to her great empire, to beseech you to protect my Queen in my stead, dear friend and Kaptajn for vagten (Captain of the Guard) Sir Marshmallow." Hans uses the familiar name that he had heard Elsa and Anna, and Olaf —however drippingly sweet and sticky he considered it—to impress upon the giant snow monster that he was a trusted friend, and not an enemy.
A thoroughly confused Marshmallow's ebony eyes blink several times with a big frosted question mark floating over his flummoxed head as he gazes at the fancy ice created badge with the equine symbols guarding the Holy Cross that was made just for him.
But Marshmallow was torn. Part of him wanted to strike Hans down and smash the little red worm to a pulp underfoot instantly. But the other part wanted to stare this despised Prince deep in the eye to see if any of what he was saying was possibly true, and not all just deceit.
But how could he tell? The cold baritone voice ringing in the depths of his bestial mind prompted the Snow Beast in Marshmallow to frigidly do away with this bothersome Danish Prince. Shaking his head, the Snow Beast roars to life again, his ice spikes rebuilding…
"You see, Marshmallow, Prince Hans is my true love now. He has proven so many times how honestly repentant he is of all the things he did wrong in the past, and I've forgiven him. I love him, and wish for you to learn to be fond of him, too. Please, won't you try for me?" Sensing his split distress, Elsa flutters her feminine wiles up at her huge creation of snow and ice.
Marshmallow could hear Elsa's soft warm soprano over the cautious and chilled, wary kingly baritone messing with his head as he looks over the bowed to the ground red Prince.
Just then another voice enters the fray. A silly, little one that Marshmallow always would pay some attention to for its honest innocence and insightful knowledge.
"Yeah, Marshmallow! Just Hans is a good guy now. And he wants to make you his Royal Captain of the Guard?! How cool is that!? I always imagine myself to be the 'Royal Captain of Love Experts'. I believe Hans really loves Elsa, too. Let's see if I can elucidate…Good word, eh?" The erudite little snowman bounces up to his big counterpart nearly ten times his size, wielding his recently learned terms. Then Olaf begins to count on his branch fingers all the exciting things Prince Hans of the Southern Isles had done to prove his love for Elsa of Arendelle.
"Just Hans fought a vicious pirate with a sword, rowed a boat clear across the ocean and followed his heart to find Elsa. Once they were reunited, he traveled through rain and sleet on a sleigh in search of finding our kidnapped friend Anna. He and Eugene – his long lost cousin, FYI - used just an ingenious pulley and their raw muscle to get us to the top of a great big mountain where we freed Anna and found the King and Queen on a deserted island. You know what happened up there? This guy here actually jumped in front of a bullet for King Agnarr! Just Hans even had the guts to ram a sailing ship into a huge sea monster as he stared down its thrashing tentacles while his heart was being literally frozen." Olaf was really getting into his storytelling skills as, extolling an embarrassed Hans' virtues unabashed, the animated snowman was scratching his branches about the empty air dramatically in imitation of each scenario, finishing up with the wild tentacle action of that fearsome Draugen.
"Just Hans faced death and destruction around every corner to save Elsa and Anna and their Mama and Papa and Rapunzel and Eugene and me, I guess, too, on that incredible journey. Yeah, Just Hans is our greatest super hero now. And I am going to give him a warm hug right now for all he's done because he cares so much for Elsa! Hug time, Just Hans!" After his long, uninterrupted tale that had Marshmallow absolutely mesmerized, Olaf turns around with his arms outstretched up to the tall, svelte redhead who was blushing from all the little honest snowman's blunt accolades.
"Oh… Yes, certainly, Olaf. Heheh." Hans chuckles at the silly moment as he stoops down to gingerly wrap his arms around the cold mound of ice with a warm heart of gold inside, looking up to Elsa with adoring amusement at her first creation, over Olaf's giggling head.
"You're right, Olaf. My Hans is my new superhero. I love him—and there is no more fear in love." Elsa was finding it easier to speak of her affection for her man truthfully from the heart without compunction nor embarrassment, as her luminous eyes envelop Hans' within them meaningfully.
"THIS IS SO GREAT! I LOVE WARM GROUP HUGS!" An ecstatically friendly Olaf tugs the laughing young woman down to join their kneeled hug.
A smiling, chuckling Hans welcomes Elsa to the cozy - albeit discomfited with Olaf squeezing both slim young bodies at his level tight – embrace. The handsome prince draws his arm around Elsa with a warm caress along her beautiful, slender neckline that he, in shame, vows to never let anyone endanger ever again.
As Marshmallow gazes down at the touching scene, all the rest of anger's ice spines, that were sharp enough to impale a man, slowly retract as his frozen heart melts into a soft slush at Olaf's adventuresome account and their lovely Ice Queen Elsa's appeal for her lover.
Suddenly feeling left out as he awkwardly plays with Hans' relinquished sword in his monstrous hand, Marshmallow leans down low to be at their level. The snow creature extends his great big finger towards the hugging trio with softened charcoal black eyes.
"Thank you, Sir." Hans responds with due respect as Marshmallow gently hands Hans back the discarded sword, watching with baited breath as Vise Admiral Westergaard peaceably replaces the weapon in its empty sheath.
The gargantuan pats a stiffened Hans gently on his unflinching stately shoulder in his way of joining the group hug. Then the silent Snow Beast proudly grins as he adjusts his new royal Augustenborg coat of arms ice badge that signified his role as the estate's Captain of the Guard whenever Queen Elsa's chief bodyguard came down to reside with them at Prince Hans' new manor.
"I give you my greatest trust, my friend, to guard all my worldly and my heavenly possessions in my absence." Hans addresses Marshmallow with as much dignity and respect as he would a human of great standing.
Hans' gaze of pure worship upon the cherished gift of his greatest possession in this lovely Ice Queen was mirrored in the appeased Snow Beast's, too, over his shoulder glowing down to her. Even Olaf totters over to Elsa to smile up and sway at her with sincere adoration.
A shy, blushing Elsa, speechless upon deciphering Hans' denotation, graces the early twilight with her unrepressed lilting laughter at all this undulated attention, as she shyly moves away down the garden path.
The Ice Queen's sleek, demure movements cause Hans to follow her every step. As Elsa pauses to modestly glance back at him, Hans stands back to soak up every wispy contour of her lithe, elegant outline as only a man so desperately in love could.
"Oh Snowflake, min kærlighed (my love), you are so soft and perfect and lovely in this moonlight. If only I had time to capture you just as you are now. To keep a vivid picture of you with your platinum hair all wispy and loose looking so beautiful and free, close to my heart at all times. Perhaps I could survive this trial, just to have this scene of you looking up at me with those eyes so full of love as they are now." Romantically caught up in the rising moonlight, Hans fights the urge to embrace Elsa, fearing he would mar the picturesque vista of her beauty with his impure touch.
"Hans, you're making me blush again. Why a portrait of me? You were the one so wonderful with Marshmallow just now. How could I not gaze upon you with anything other than awed admiration? I am hardly as noteworthy memorable as you were in this instance." Elsa breaks her reserved quiet to softly articulate with a coy smile still tickling her lips up at her man.
"It's not that I could ever forget what you look like, my love – that is forever seared in my mind and engraved on my heart! But this lonely man wishes he could have a miniature—a small memento of you—from this precious moment, to take across the seas with him. But, alas, I fear there is no time." A reddened Hans unabashedly blurts out his overly sentimental desire to have something of her that he could keep close to his heart during their separation.
But the artist in Hans also knew no human hand could capture her as he envisions her now, even more clearly stunning and vibrant with eyes full of requited love gazing back at him.
"Then you will have it, my handsome Prince." Swallowing her modesty in favor of artistic perfection to please him, an earnest Elsa closes her eyes to focus her magic cryokinetic powers. The Queen of the Ahtohallan masterfully crafts a tiny memory cameo sized miniature on a necklace pendant that she imbues with an endless frozen crystal shell.
Beneath the crystal clear snow globe-like tiny dome the Ice Queen artistically illustrates a crystallized miniature type of portrait to be placed on this elegant little ice carving her heart sculpted for her lover to keep beside his for always, no matter how many nautical miles lie between them.
A perfectionist by nature, the artistic heart in Elsa had glimpsed her reflection in the mirror enough times to illustrate herself with her tremendous ice magic skill that Hans had encouraged her to develop. And Elsa had processed even further in her training due to his inspiration to create this miniature of herself for her beloved.
The result of the Ice Queen's delicate artistry was the beautiful tiny image of Hans' lady under the moonlight that would be etched on the ice and permanently encased in this two inch diameter miniature.
Elsa had completed this small portrait of herself for him to keep as a locket that he could take with him to sea, just as her romantic fiancé had requested. She slides the locket onto the silver necklace chain with her own Crucifix pendant to bestow around her knight in shining armor's neck instead.
After staring blankly speechless for several moments at the magical small locket Elsa had lovingly placed around his cutely freckled neck, Hans could finally bring himself to speak to her prompting eyes.
"Snowflake, you never cease to amaze me." Hans fingers the delicate shimmering ice pendant of his lady love smiling just as she was a moment ago, with special attention to the eyes on the sculpture filled with her love for him. "This is a treasure beyond comparison to me." Hans strokes lightly the continual ice locket with Elsa's image delicately chiseled upon it, his deft fingers reverently touching her personal silver crucifix for all its merciful significance blessedly entwined on the same chain.
"Thank you." Hans sincerely smiles upon her with unmitigated love and pride, making Elsa color sweetly again. All at once, she felt so happy to be able to do this for her love to cause him to smile like that at her.
"If I can build an entire architecturally sound Ice Palace on the edge of a mountain in one night, and stop an entire fjord of raging water cease from destroying all of Arendelle, I think I can handle this little piece of artwork for my man." Elsa responds with a tad bit of pride in having his love to inspire her to achieve this new endeavor of her ice's creativity. So much so she forgets herself with her bold new term for him that caused Hans' titian eyebrow to quirk in pleasure.
"There is no doubt in my mind and in my heart that 'my woman' can do anything she sets her beautiful mind to do, sweet Elsa of Arendelle." With the matching moniker tease he took a secret thrill in, Hans exceeds Elsa's satisfaction with his own belief in her magic on so many levels unquestioningly, as she slips into his arms as easily as his gentle lips slip into hers.
"Let's hope that is so, for both of our sakes, min elsking (my darling)." Elsa says, breathlessly parting their stolen kiss in the moonlight with a bit of trepidation as she glances over to the castle where the sounding trumpets of the herald signified that the knighting ceremony was complete.
"Before I escort you back into the Egeskov you gave back to me, my dearest Snow Angel, there is one more thing I would ask you to do for me. For this task you are unequally qualified, because I know there are no limits to your skilled majesty, akin to your endless beauty." Smooth Prince Hans' silky, yet commanding voice breaks through Elsa's meditative apprehension as he intriguingly produces a piece of paper from inside his navy blue jacket breast pocket.
The quickly sketched drawing scrawled upon it causes Elsa to look up at her clever, handsome Prince who never ceased to amaze her, with unqualified curiosity in her titillated smile.
Minutes later…
As Elsa enters Egeskov Castle to see the guests leaving the Throne Room for the Knight's Hall gathering, her anxious Papa was waiting impatiently in the Great Hall's doorway passage, tapping his foot for her to appear so all of them could depart.
Just one glance in his icy blue eyes as she glides in, Elsa realizes that King Agnarr's tolerance to suffer her foolish romantic entanglement with this 'Dane' she had gotten herself engaged to was all but spent tonight.
She could see her mother, Queen Iduna, doing her best to codify him so as to give Elsa some waning and oh-so-precious time alone with her prince, but the Ice Queen was still pensive to approach.
"Elsa! Elsa! Here she is at last, Iduna! That 'breath of fresh air' took you quite a while, young lady." About to go out onto the grounds in search of her himself, King Agnarr was the first to sense his ice queenly daughter reenter Egeskov Castle.
The anxious man had been held back from leaving the Throne Room by Iduna during the ceremony before, and had bolted it as soon as the ceremony was complete. The King of Arendelle now suspiciously eyes Elsa's flushed features as he glances around her for any unwelcome Danes.
The most handsome, youngest one in particular.
"Where is Prince Hans?" Agnarr asks cautiously, looking over Elsa's shoulder when she enters the Knights Hall to join her parents, alone.
It's not that the King of Norway felt guilt exactly. He was half-panicky that eager Marshmallow- ahem, Snow Beast - may have caused Prince Hans' untimely demise at the Ice King's mental urging.
"Hans is fine, He's still out there with Marshmallow. Did you send Marshmallow out there to spy on us, Papa?" With a smirk on her pretty features, Elsa, in an even tone, accuses her father in the sweetest manner of spying on his twenty-five-year-old daughter who just happened to be the Queen of a nation – or two - in her own right. Since her time spent in the Enchanted Forest and the Ahtohallan, Elsa was growing more confident in her role as an independent woman too.
And that maturity was growing leaps and bounds, with her Hans to always support Elsa in all her endeavors.
"N-N-no. Not at all. I simply alerted your Snow Beast to go and fetch you, my child, now that the ceremony has finished, because I wish for us all to return home to Arendelle shortly." Agnarr conjures up the excuse as he guiltily tugs at his naval high collar seeing his daughter and his wife's accusatory stares up at him.
Though he was a demanding Admiral and jealous father, King Agnarr was still a good man, enough to be gladdened to hear that Prince Hans was in tact, and not a victim of his icy rage via the gargantuan Snow Beast.
"Tonight?…already…" Smiling through her sadness, Elsa murmurs with a tinge of melancholy upon her lovely face. Queen Iduna touches her child's cool cheek with warm sympathy for her feelings in turmoil.
"Elsa! You missed Eugene's knighting ceremony! It was so incredible! Right, Sir Eugene?" Giddy with the evening's excitement, Princess Rapunzel, dragging her lackluster husband behind her, shows off her guy's new valorous medal, as she elbows him in glee.
After all, it wasn't everyday that Eugene would be sworn into the Danish 'Knights of the Order of the Elephant' hero's club that King Christian had offered to his sister's one and only child who was reluctant to claim any title from his Southern Isles' kin.
"You mean 'Sir Horace', surely lass! Ha ha! Your Mother would be proud, my boy, that you have earned some proper respect and recognition from her kingdom at last! Even if it means serving as a Danish Knight astride a creature belonging to the Proboscidia order. An elephantidae is a magnificent specimen, to be sure, in its own right, although rather too slow and foolishly plodding to exemplify my attractive, well-formed heir, Crix. Would a steed like the fine ones Freidrich breeds in Corona not more applicable?" Honest to a fault King Edmund speaks up in his vociferous tone from where he and King Friedrich had been in dialogue with King Christian near the room-long tapestry of other past gallant knights on their noble horses.
"You said it, Pops. I sure feel like a proper fool with this monstrosity around my neck." An overdressed Eugene complains as he uncomfortably shifts on his feet to tug at the red collar with the ridiculous embossed gold Loxodonta Elephantae that was hardly the svelte thief's ideal of chic chivalric representation.
"Ha, ha, ha. Edmund! Whatever you wish for our handsome Prince Eugene Horace will be done! Remember what I asked you? My kingdom is your kingdom." The Danish King simply chuckles at his brother-in-law, generously reiterating his offer for King Edmund to come and stay in Egeskov with him for a while. It would not only give the two older gents the chance to spend time together to get to know one another as brothers as Auguste would have wanted, but also for the lonesome Gypsy King to meet his family of many nephews and grandnieces, now that his mission to expose Count Rugen's evil has been concluded.
"What say you, Horace!? Shall I take up Christian's offer and outstay my welcome until 'Uncle Edmund' is reviled, like every other normal family has an artificial 'favorite' relative?" Edmund's goofy smile and crazed eyes were as insanely charming as his quaint bluntness made the older man affable.
"Whatever tickles your fancy, Dad. If Hamuel approves…" With a flick of the derpy bird off his frilled collar, Flynn Rider smirks at the quirky idea for his loner father to now be rolling around in a household full of relations. It wasn't his son's cup of tea, to be surrounded by too many nephews and grandnieces to count.
But to each his own poison, right?
"He's not too much trouble, really, once you get used to his volume. Take care of him for me when he comes for a visit to my Mom's old country, okay, Cuz?" Eugene gives a nodding Kaleb a sideways smirk as the restored Crown Prince of Denmark passed his way with a look of interest at his Aunt's husband.
"My old Onkel with his shaky sword at my shoulder, hovering around my neck area, was one thing, Liebling. But all this… Just look at this silly 'dubleu' thingy, these sardine can tight white breeches, velvet straitjacket and all they got me suited up in! I feel like a blinkin' convict– ahem – with all these crazy buckles and straps tying me in. Sir Eugene Horace, R.E.? Hmph! Give me a break! Who asked to be a Ridder of the stupid Elephantine order, anyway? I prefer just good ole 'Flynn 'Rider' any day! How am I ever going to live this down with the guys at the Snuggly Duckling all attending this fiasco?" Eugene's mortified eyes bury in his hand at all of chuckling faces of the tavern boys all laughing it up at his expense. To his wife's chuckle, he points fingers at his silly high collar and furry funny ceremonial suit all during the knighting ceremony.
"Eugene, Keep it down! Someone may hear you! This is a high honor!" Queen Arianna fiercely whispers a motherly warning as she and her husband King Friedrich overhear his rant during the mingling cocktail party. She then raises her wine glass congenially and pastes a quick smile on her still lovely features when Prince Ivers and his pretty wife Marguerite pass, entertaining the curious ambassador of Avalor.
"Just get me out of this monkey suit, Sunshine, so we can book it ASAP." Eugene pleads with Rapunzel, who had already been briefed of their quick departure with King Friederich and Queen Arianna at King Agnarr's insistence. They would all travel by ship with her sister Queen Iduna back up to Arendelle for their own Norwegian knighting ceremony that Elsa intended to collect Hans and Eugene for in the first place.
"Sounds like more fun… Just so's all the evil pirates and vicious sea monsters have sunk to the bottom of the ocean by the time we get back to Norway's lovely vacation spot. And I don't have to get trussed up like an antiquated loon…" Eugene was entertaining all these comical thoughts spinning in his head as his interested eyes watch Elsa. The Queen of Arendelle was speaking to diplomat after ambassador after envoy all drooling in her stylish wake as the shapely Ice Queen all in violet velveteen glides about the room like a sleek cat.
Speaking of lovely things from Norway… Boy, Lillebror… Have you got yourself one platinum, silky kitten caboodle…
He mentally mangles the phrase to more suit his naughty thoughts.
"Eugene." Rapunzel seemed to have the uncanny ability to detect when her Eugene's mind was wandering to subjects forbidden to husbands, i.e. by wives.
"I think being all tied up and restrained is a good look for you, Fitzherbert. All you need are the handcuffs now, Raps, and he'll be set." Cassandra teases her rival, seeming and feeling quite out of place at the stately ceremony and now in the ornate Southern Isles' Knights Hall beside Rapunzel, as she perceives her friend's need to soon escape.
"Come on, Eugene. Let's go say goodbye to your Uncle." Rapunzel sighs, feeling acutely all the day's exciting events and emotional farewells to her new friends that she already felt a part of the family of catching up with her.
The Westergaard clan was that extended large family the lonely gal always wished for, and her never dull Eugene unwittingly provided her with even that. "It is 'happily ever after, after all' for us, isn't it, Eugene?" From her dreamy gaze down to her full stomach and its occupants to add to the family tree that the creative girl would no doubt illustrate on the wall when they got home, Rapunzel was at last contented in saying this. It may have taken the headstrong girl years to realize it, but she was certain she was ready for their happy end now as she smiles up to her handsome rogue of a hubby.
"You've got that right, Brownie. Now we start a new dream." With more wisdom than many gave the orphan thief credit for, with one hand to his wife's full stomach, Eugene then fluffs his sentimental girl's layered wafts of brown hair with a loving smile that appreciated the thought of that fantasized family more than he'd ever admit.
"Yep! But for now, my public awaits. No jokes please, Cass, but I've got to say farewell to my dear old Onkel Crix." Eugene smirks with less bitterness and more compassion for the man who shunned his father and broke his mother's heart once upon a time. But the orphan thief about to become a father himself soon, now had grown up from being that discarded little boy with nothing into a mature man with everything to look forward to.
So there would be no more resentment, nor rancor, like the Good Book said. It was all in the family now.
"Talk about an elephant in the room." The witty handmaiden can't help but let out one more little sneering jibe at her preferred sparring partner to her new acquaintance. The saucy young adventuress takes to Job's tall, dark and silent arm - that self-possessed Cassandra found rather appealing - where the big Caribbean man had been like a shadow all evening, quietly standing by his friends, Eugene and Rapunzel.
"It's the Ridder af Elefantordenen, (Knight of the Order of the Elephant) which happens to be the highest order of Denmark, for your information, Cass. Knights of the order are granted a place in the first class of the Danish order of precedence.'" Eugene stresses over his shoulder with a snobbish air repeating some of the lines from the ceremony that the herald proclaimed to the dark-haired woman in her fancy white veiled garb.
"You don't even know what that means, do you, Fitzherbert?" Cassandra rebuts in her semitone snide voice with a pair of rolling eyes as she leads Job away to help her gather the Snuggly Duckling gang scattered across the festive room in her inimitable, no-nonsense style for her father, Captain Schmidt and his guardsmen to shepherd home.
"Maybe not, but I take a lot of precedence in this joint. I just have to snap my fingers and -"Cassandra's insolent question gains a stuck out tongue from Eugene Fitzherbert, R.E.
But in doing so, the reckless triple Prince doesn't watch where he was going and trips on his own size-too-large, tall black Navy issue boots provided to the soaked wet former felon earlier.
"I'll always jump to catch you." Princess Rapunzel leaps to her feet, overcoming any bout of morning sickness to stabilize her swaggering mate.
Well, maybe he wasn't too mature a man, yet. But Rapunzel wouldn't trade her thief with the heart of gold for all the lofty princes in the world, handsome as all these guys dotting the room may be in resemblance to him in some crazy, serendipitous way.
"Anna! Get ready to go soon, min spadbarns (my little child). Your Papa is quite anxious to head out home tonight. Kindly Prince Jurgen has assured us that he would personally escort us on his ship back to Arendelle in the Søværnet's swiftest royal yacht." Queen Iduna holds a welcoming hand out to her fluttering about other daughter who had been danced off her feet in a dizzy daze by the Duke of Weselton.
The little man with spectacles enjoyed to dance more than his aptitude allowed — 'with the face of a chicken' — until Anna was quite dizzy. But the feisty ginger Queen couldn't turn down the enthusiastic Duke she and Elsa had recently befriended, after Kristoff had left to meet Ryder in the stables to see that Sven and Svala, the horses and other reindeer were fed and groomed and ready to travel.
Queen Iduna was anxious to board that vessel going North, with Prince Hans safely upon it. She had to fight hard with her husband for the knighting ceremony in their own kingdom to still take place. That was despite King Agnarr's anticipated contradictory, chilly reception of a certain red-headed young man's proximity to Elsa on the ship all the way home.
Cagey father Agnarr had been eyeing the way Elsa had been mooning around the Knight's Hall saying her farewells to each of the Danish princes and their wives whom she had made unlikely acquaintances with in her time here as their 'maid'.
On the other hand, delighted mother Iduna knew from that certain glow on her Elsa's radiant features that her daughter had not merely taken a quick stroll alone out in the sunset as it descended to twilight under the rising moon.
"Our Elsa is like a hothouse flower that has at last tasted fresh sunlight and clear rainwater to blossom to her full potential, my love. She has proven her strength and resolve and creativity to adapt to any situation, not only in Arendelle and the Enchanted lands, but also here in this kingdom where she and Anna have made so many influential and lasting friendships." Iduna speaks sensible pearls of wisdom to her stiff-necked husband quite enigmatically, befuddling the Norwegian King for a contrary retort as she always outfoxed him with her wily words.
"Yes… But I needn't wonder why the Danes have been so very accommodating to our girls." With a prejudiced glance towards the multiple Southern Isles Princes mixed into the crowd, particularly the savvy political leader of this country, Prince Anders, Agnarr brushes at his ginger moustache with that bit of sarcasm under his deep baritone. He watches their once debilitatingly shy and introverted Elsa greet and weave her elegant way through the maze of pleasantly interested royals and ambassadors like she owned the room.
Just as Iduna said…
With King Christian's pleased gaze and nod upon her every turn, that thought wasn't too far from the truth. The old King of the Southern Isles was already directing his political son and his cabinet gathered for the birthday bash to draw up some beneficial trade agreements with Arendelle, mainly due to his affection for its lovely Queen.
"Mama! Do we have to go so soon? It's such a wonderful party! It's way too early to leave before all the enjoyable parlor games! I'm having so much fun talking and dancing with all of these actual, real live people! Please, can we stay a little while more?" With a great big wheedling smile on her adorable features, dancing all night Anna was fully embracing the music and lights in this ostentatious house of Egeskov and all that its now friendly inhabitants had to offer this energetic girl.
Enthusiastic Princess Anna was the life of any party and wished to stay up all evening to waltz all through the night with her buttery Snow Prince. She would dance and talk with everyone, play each game to be entertained by with all new friends from around the continent to meet.
Drunk with excitement of the daylong party, Anna clumsily spins and dances in rhythm to the classy orchestral music playing in the background, her equilibrium still a bit off after Weselton's dance foray.
But her more taciturn Papa was in no mood for frivolity, nor the interest to linger around the home kingdom of his former rival, nor his new challenger for Elsa's affections with those come hither green eyes.
Namely Westergaards.
"No, Anna. No more arguments. We leave shortly." King Agnarr's icy eyes guardedly gaze around the undesirable noisy Great Hall of Egeskov which was full of the disliked royal house bloodline all chattering and hobknobbing with one another and their guests.
"Party pooper." Anna purses her pouty lips and leans heavily against the refreshment table – nearly knocking the punch bowl over – in grumbled protests of her stuffy parent's militaristic order to leave the fun festivities prematurely.
"What was that you said to your father, Miss?" The chill behind his eyes making his tall and imposing posture all the more arresting, Agnarr raises a perturbed demanding brow down at his rebel in braids who had been so brashly saucy to her patriarch in public.
"Ummm… Tarty Popper?" Rearranging her spicy words, Anna quick grabs a square of proffered raspberry tart filled pastry Mattias points with a grin at the buffet table to cover her naughty mouth to her inquiring parent. But her reckless action causes the silver tray she had scooped up snag on the lacy tablecloth.
With all her might, Anna gives an unintentional disastrous tug of the silver tray full of tasty tarts and mouthwatering muffins as she begins to trip and fall forwards towards her distressed parents. Her Papa glides on a quick patch of ice slick he created to catch his little gingersnap's fall before she went top over teakettle.
From the sloshing over punch bowl Mattias clings to for dear life; to the carefully stacked silver trays of hors d'oeuvres tottering at their heights; to the back-and-forth swaying of the elegantly lit candelabra that decorated the gold gilt table full of Queen Louisa's trembling polished tableware and quaking fine porcelain china—all of it, perfectly balanced before 'Hurricane Anna', now begins to tip over…
{"Hang on, Baby!"} Kristoff mentally projects to his step-and-fetchit little wife as he rushes back into the room to swing through the glass doors like a superhero swashbuckler from the outside where he had been busy attending to an undisclosed new venture.
His able arms and great big powerful hands manage to momentarily steady his tipsy wife in her attempt to borrow trouble and make a slippery mad grab for everything else from falling. Delicate polished silverware clatters to the marble waxed floor in her clumsy wake as her Papa was doing his best to levitate the precious porcelain while his trusted General dexterously catches the silverware and cutlery.
The quick-thinking Wind Whisperer makes quick contact with Princess Eugenia's beloved pet doggie Blysk who had been dozing in his mistress' arms at the far end of the long refreshment table.
The normally pampered pooch springs to action to make a death-defying athletic leap from Eugenia's surprised grasp to do as Kristoff strategically asked. The furry Russian Svetnaya Bolonka doggie knocks down the lance from the metal gloved hands of that empty knight suit of armor. The silver lance (just missing an oblivious Ruddi's oversized ear, had his quick Princess Maria not yanked him away) perfectly pierces through the other end of the lace tablecloth, effectively pinning everything remaining upon the fancy table to safety, before all the royal glassware and fine porcelain dishes could come crashing down.
The majority of airborne pink frosted cupcakes Anna had sent flying high towards the ceiling of the pristine Great Hall in her calamitous accident was one that Ice Queen Elsa, whilst stabilizing the shaky glassware with her deft ice from clear across the room, had cover for her little sister here, too. The intelligent young ice wielder masterfully creates small little snow puff clouds, much akin to the flurry she whipped up for Olaf, beneath each rising and falling sweet confection.
Iduna watches how a jaw-dropped Agnarr was staring in pleased wonder of his elder daughter's magical cryokinetic save of the delicate glass porcelain on the table. The Ice King was extremely impressed at how Elsa could calculate, from a distance even, just how much or how little ice force was necessary to not shatter each fragile piece of glass or porcelain ceramic.
The air-light cupcakes upon their own sparkling snowdrifts, care of her talented big sister, float back down to the silver tray that Kristoff athletically catches each dessert back upon with a little shake of his own buns.
"Gotcha." Looking rather dapper in his golden yellow royal guardsmen jacket uniform, enough to make some of the snobby ladies and several of the maids swoon, Kristoff works in conjunction with Elsa as he places the full tray back into Anna's pleasantly surprised hands.
And just in time for the orangey Princess to be pulled upright by her stalwart defender from General Mattias' obliged arms.
"Whoa. We got this." Anna coos up at her big blond teddy bear as Mattias was attempting to right her lithe little form from being turned nearly upside down.
"Yeah. Yeah, we do." Sharing a grateful nod with Mattias, Kristoff answers his feisty little bride about this amazing save and so much more to come.
"They're even tastier served chilled, Elsa!" Anna, without missing a beat, takes a big bite out of the pink frosted cupcake and revels in the cool whipped, cream cheese frosting splattered on one of her mountainman's cheeks.
Everyone in the room, though tingling with a pleasantly frosty chill on this warm early autumn day in the Southern Isles, is tickled pink to applaud the entertaining floor show that these droll Norwegian royals presented. That's when a windblown Hans, smoothing his mussed hair back, enters the room. His eyes, seeking her out, instantly knows where his love is, becoming entranced with his Elsa's enchanting orbs.
As if for his sole benefit, a radiant Elsa, extending her elegant arms and creative hands, was unafraid to show off with a flourishing light a flurried mist of powdered snow, followed by bursts of snowy festive shapes in hearts and stars and intricate snowflake patterns outside the open glass patio door to dazzle the spectators even further.
They all curiously peek out of the warm castle room and soon put their hands together to see the Ice Queen's artistic ice mastery firsthand. Elsa's ice fireworks' culminate into a a snowy design of Egeskov's own coat of arms and the proud heritage it represented for those who would inherit it for generations hence and those yet to come.
"Bravo, Elsie! Ah, there you are, boy. Is she not a wonder, Hans?" King Christian was no exception as he congratulates his future daughter-in-law for her magical reaction that, in part with that quick thinking Snow Prince of little Anna's, saved his Knight's Hall from becoming another glass shattered, chaotic mess on his birthday.
"She is that and so much more, Father." Full of unbridled admiration at Queen Elsa's impressive frozen enchantment that he caught the tail end of when he arrived, Hans answers breathily to his parent. King Christian, full of contented good spirits, claps Hans on the back firmly.
"You must put some more meat on your bones, boy, if you're to be our Elsie's stable rock in times to come." King Christian encourages his terribly thin, wiry son to fatten up as he compares Hans' svelte, thin frame with his more robust brothers as Prince Peiter and Prince Franz come by to inspect what these interesting Arendelle royals were up to.
"Like this strong young fellow of Princess Anna's. Thank you for your assistance in averting another disaster, Snow Prince." While his Captain of the Egeskov Guard Jorgensen had been eyeing the mountainman sporting his unit's uniform since Kristoff had entered the room, Christian was not at first entirely certain about this strapping young man's royal bloodline, either. But the formerly portentous King decides right here and now that he no longer considered European royal 'blue blood' as the be-all and end-all when it came to heroism and worthiness, if deplorable Count Rügen of Württemburg was any prime example.
If Elsie's adorable little sister. Princess Anna, was so fond of this capable-looking lad, the King of Denmark would consider him worthy to address as royalty, too.
"Uh, sure. No sweat." Practical Kristoff was less awe-inspired of this intimidating old king than most. He blushes with an embarrassed arm raised uncomfortably over his head as King Christian thumps his fist against the Ice Harvester's solid chest.
"Prince Kristoff is a fine example of our honest, hard-working and diligent Norwegian stock." Queen Iduna speaks up to the King for the industrious lad. "And he's good-looking with a lot of capable muscle, too." Iduna softly adds behind her hand to her daughter with a squeeze to Anna's palm with admiring eyes upon the young blond Ice Harvester with the rippling musculature thinly veiled beneath that tight uniform.
The mother and daughter approvingly watch Kristoff swiftly move to the other end of the refreshment table as he sets the tipsy, empty knight's suit back upright in a snap after Rune and Ruddi in their clumsiness had knocked it down many times in foiled reassembly. All three men exchange hearty handshakes after Kristoff dexterously assists the hapless twins replace the knight's shifted pieces and relinquished lance into proper place.
Kristoff gives a nod of gratitude to helpful Princess Eugenia and a scruffed pat to her now wide-eyed and bushy-tail dog, Blysk. The usually sleepy, sullen doggie wags up at the man of nature with friendliness.
"Blysk deserves some of the credit. He liked being a hero, too." Kristoff smiles gratefully down to the pampered and furry unspoken jouster of the evening.
The Russian Crown Princess Eugenia and her giddily giggling sister Maria nod back at the tall blond boy with their somewhat intoxicated father, the Czar, granting him a quick bow in respect. To which, after the Russian monarch goes a little too far, so the invaluably sturdy Kristoff has to steady the big eastern European royal up to his feet, with a laughing King Edmund pleasantly on his other side.
"Don't sell yourself short, Kid. You were pretty darn impressive just there." Mattias gives the young blond the deserved kudos his father-in-law wasn't forthcoming as he should be. So his old friend who had learned the better part of valor was often diplomacy, felt the need to fill in the gaps.
"You could say that again, Mattias." With a grateful nod to her head of the Arendelle Army, Anna was as proud as punch when it came to her helpful Kristoff. She already witnessed how Papa blew off Hans for Elsa, and she was not going to let her grouchy father do the same to her dreamy guy, too.
Our marriage is way past signed, sealed and delivered.
Anna muses with a tingling body all over as she begins to drool. Her dream of getting back to the interrupted honeymoon soon with her hunky mountain man was way sweeter than the cherry topping on the cupcake she was lustily munching.
"It looks like you'll have your hands full with that one, too, Agnarr. Feisty and proud of it. She reminds me of her vibrant mother in days gone by." Wandering over as he sips his glass of sherry sedately, Prince Anders could not help but toss the little gloat tease at his sparring partner before he turns his dapper attentions to Queen Iduna who smirks up at her jilted lover coyly, hands on her still spirited hips.
"I pray you to have a safe and unencumbered journey home with your miraculously recovered parents and sister, Butterfly Queen." Using the old pet name that he once addressed his youthful fiancée to Anna now, Anders seemed to enjoy rankling Agnarr just for the fun of it as he dares to brush his snide lips to the back of Anna's shocked hand quite gentlemanly.
"And just think…this lovely wild little lass could have been mine…" Anders ponders, as he keeps hold of Anna's hand, just loud enough with laughing eyes that dared Agnarr to react as he tosses the remark into the ring. But with a quickly hummed bar of 'Greensleeves', Iduna's healing hand that quickly drapes her across her irritated love halts his cold hoarfrost from forming, as she directs her fiery gaze to Anders one of warning to back off.
"Umm…Thanks…for the party?" A baffled Anna looking between her parents and this strangely charming, older man, could not stop the weirded-out blush from rising to her cheeks at this suave and debonair, mature Prince's waggish politeness.
Then with one last challenging stare into Agnarr's frigid eyes and a sweeping bow to Iduna, the Danish Chancellor bids his leave to join where his wife Frederika was patiently watching and waiting in the doorway with their two similarly aged daughters inquisitively looking at Elsa and Anna.
"I don't like him." Taking his place beside Anna, Kristoff remarks decidedly out of nowhere to a concurring General Mattias once Prince Anders had left the Arendelle clan, and gives the departed older man a standoffish look as he passes.
"Agreed."
Did Kristoff pick up on Agnarr's begrudged antipathy at the Danish Chancellor? Or did the manipulative politician rub the honest soul in Kristoff the wrong way, too?
Either way, a calming down King Agnarr looks to Mattias at Kristoff's side, and was satiated enough to leave the rational, commonsense mountain man alone.
At least, for the time being. Now as for the other one…
Agnarr's eyes vigilantly watch Prince Hans snake through the party to attend to Elsa with a warming cup of tea, along with some hushed serious words exchanged in secretive collaboration.
As if sensing King Agnarr's icy gaze upon him, Hans excuses himself from Elsa who had become engaged in pleasant conversation with the Austrian conductor brave enough to approach the obviously lyrical 5th Spirit to anyone who had a truly musical ear.
"Admiral Bernadotte, if I may speak to you on a matter of impending import?" Hans quickly cuts through the Knight's Hall to approach a startled Agnarr with this forthright address.
"Speak, Vise Admiral." The measured King of Arendelle responds, showing respect to Hans' father who was mingling at a table not so distant.
"If I may have your permission, Sir, to oversee the transport of your kingdom's livestock, i.e. the horses and reindeer, and certain other extemporaneous passengers—" Hans begins to present, but the Ice King's patience was growing thin.
"Yes, yes, sir. I leave those mundane details for the animals in our equipage under your direct command, if you so wish." Agnarr answers impatiently, not seeing the imperative necessity of bringing chain-of-command to this paltry chore of the six or seven equestrians and about that many reindeer to be corralled on board the Danish sea craft they were to be supplied.
He, as Admiral and Ice King, had a far more pressing problem on his mind to contend with concerning his entourage's travel accommodations.
I suppose I will have to attend to that larger predicament during the journey on my own terms and timeframe. Perhaps it will be necessary to catch up to the rest of the family later, though it will loathe me to leave Elsa alone on the ship with that Dane meandering on board…But as her father, I can not leave that other harsh task to my girl. She will travel home first class in luxury with her mother and sister, as a royal Queen should.
"Thank you, Sir! It will be handled with the greatest alacrity and perseverant forbearance." With aplomb in his motivated step as he meets Elsa's heartening gaze, Prince Hans dashes out from the room in much animation as he turns to nod over everyone's heads to signal Kristoff.
"Strange lad." Agnarr murmurs under his cool breath. Although, as he squeezes his Iduna's soothing arm under his, he couldn't refrain from the lofty thought that the mark of a responsible minded, good officer was to be concerned even about the small minutiae that impacted the little details for those who served under him that Agnarr himself was a stickler for in his younger days.
But that assiduous attention would be rather boring to a royal of the Southern Isles conquering bloodline, or so Agnarr always thought.
Extraordinary young man, indeed…
"Wouldn't Princess Anna's strapping young man also make a grand addition to our naval guardsmen division, Jürgen?" The bearded King remarks in a teasing playfulness as he rejoins the Arendelle party, giving Elsa a wink.
"It would be a 'fair swap', as the sailors say, now that our littlest brother will be serving as the Sjoforsvaret's Vise Admiral, eh? Though I don't know if this mountain boy looks like he has sea legs…" With more than little bit of envy at Hans skipping so many ranks due to whom he knew and not what he knew in all the years that this seventh-in-line Navy man had put into his lifelong naval career, Prince Jürgen remarks with a superior simper on his face. He looks Kristoff up and down as the Søværnet naval Kommander recalls Ruddi and Rune's outlandish insistence of flying reindeer and amazonesses that turned out none too scatterbrained.
"You do NOT want to go there, fella." Mattias murmurs under his breath with a low whistle at the youngest Arendelle Queen's expected reaction.
"Fair swap?! Ha! My Snow Prince Kristoff is worth all bakers' dozen of your Danish toffee cookies. And he's got way nicer legs than any of you." Anna grumbles beneath her breath, as a wide-eyed laughing Queen Iduna was the only one to pick up her younger child's feisty comeback in defense of her rugged mountain man.
"Oh, Anna. The years and strife and challenge haven't changed you one bit, my little hoyden. I am very happy to say." Iduna motherly wipes the pink frosting from Anna's upper lip with a napkin, knowing as only a mother could, that her younger girl had endured much, and rose above even more, yet still maintained her unsoiled purity of spirit to always do the right thing.
In his own amusement at Anna's sauciness to these Danes, Agnarr could not dissuade the amused smile creeping beneath his moustache despite his best efforts to remain stoic.
His smile though turns serious when he observes the young blond Snow Prince quietly tidying up the potentially messy scene with one steady arm around his obliviously munching wife.
My little girl is this dirt-covered plebian boy's wife…
Papa Agnarr was cold as ice towards all young men, even this relation of the venerated Snow Queen herself. The King of Arendelle was about to make another blind edict concerning this other child's questionable relationship that he had not been present for, to be adjudicator of their worthiness, when Elsa speaks up.
"Lucky thing Kristoff is always there to catch you when you fall, Anna. Thank you, Kristoff. I don't know what Anna would do without you as her husband. The Lord truly brought you two together, just as He knew when she would need you most." Elsa says to her little sister when she finally makes it through the crowd all wanting to wish the Queen of Arendelle felicitations on her announced engagement to one of Denmark's princely sons.
Elsa directs her decisive blue eyes pointedly towards her moody father with a no-nonsense stance and set mouth that stated plainly here on this point she would certainly be adamant upon. As Royal Queen, head of the family, and leader of the nation in his absence, Elsa had exercised her right to bless Anna's marriage to Kristoff Bjorgman. She would not stand for that being rescinded, by King or Papa or anyone, who dared her authority on this closed subject.
Because Kristoff was not only a good man, a constant protector and perfect match for Anna, he loved her without question. He had seen her at her best and at her worst of times, through thick and thin. And even with all the responsibilities and hard choices that came with Anna of Arendelle, he still loved her — perhaps even more, for knowing it all. That kind of true love was enough for Elsa, she now understood the pair's deep bond better, due to her new and wondrous miracle of love with her own Prince Hans.
"Yes, Anna is so fortunate to have such an honest and noble man as Prince Kristoff at her side." Queen Iduna pipes up for Elsa, glad to hear her more timid daughter lay down the gauntlet before her lordly father in one of his moods, to dare challenge her regal decision and undermine her.
King Agnarr vacillates his frosty gaze between his two girls and his wife on either side of him as all four of the tight-knit family members watch Kristoff disappear like the wind again out the patio door he had swooped in through a few minutes ago.
"I suppose 'the Lord establishes their steps'…" The better heart in Agnarr begins to give in to their feminine sway as he whispers to himself the Proverbs 16:9 wisdom.
"But it appears your brave Ice Harvester may be a bit reticent in addressing his King, despite being so 'noble and honest'." Agnarr mocks their words of praise for the blond lad, who might not be so bad. The Ice King had a simper beneath his ginger moustache that wanted to believe he won this match of wills, leaving Agnarr satisfied with himself enough to chill out and sip his wine in this Danish Royal setting.
Hello, Frozen Again friends!
Here is another chapter I had to split in half practically due to length! :) Marshmallow's important appointment to his new position as Lord Augustenborg (AKA Prince Hans' new castle estate was a fun twist, wasn't it? Turning an old enemy into a new and valued friend was rather ingenious of our handsome tactician. Particularly when the Snow Beast was in full attack vengeful mode towards the man who lopped off his leg once upon a Frozen movie time! And don't no one mess with Prince Hans' 30 ft tall and vicious Captain of the Guard in his new fiefdom either! ^-^
Now what can our clever Dane do to charm his future Father-in-law...? Stay tuned to see!
So, there's just the epilogue to finish off this Book 2! Then we'll dig right into Book 3 of our trilogy Frozen Again :'Love Never Ends'!
Thanks for coming along for the long ride!
God bless and see you soon!
HarukaKou