Frozen Again: 'Love Never Ends'

by SetsunaKou

Book 4 in the Saga. Elsa & Hans have not only been invited to Princess Valentina & Prince Alonso's Royal Wedding in Paraiso, but they've been asked to be maid of honor & best man for the South American couple too! Finally a break from danger & angst in a distant romantic journey alone! Who & what adventures will the affianced Queen Elsa & Prince Hans meet for Valentines Day there?

28. Chapter 28 - Show Yourself

We do not own 'Frozen' or any of its characters.

"Frozen Again: 'Love Never Ends"

Act IX

Chapter 28

"Show Yourself"

For the Ice Queen, this evening spent traveling the dusky sky of Brazil under the sunset in her lover's arms flew by in a delicious dream.

The slow-paced, if not crowded, Magic Carpet ride to Paraiso was nothing short of magical for bedazzled Queen Elsa. The once sheltered young woman who had seen little of the world beyond Norway's frozen cold, from top to bottom, could not have been more pleased to be out in the sunshine with her true love now.

Elsa was thrilled to be spending her vacation time across the ocean with her man exploring the South American interior from above in the intoxicating warm weather, feeling as free as a lark and light as a hummingbird way up there.

Her exciting aerial view above the clouds, soon to be lit by moonlight, was only enhanced by the proximity of being seated rather intimately upon her intended's doting lap all the trip long.

Elsa was at first shy and stiff with cold at Prince Hans' warm breath on his Queen's lovely neck as her last few nights' dreams had similarly held no bars depicting in intimate detail. But his intense body heat enveloping her figure had coaxed the Ice Queen to a more regulated temperature, mainly due to her fiancé's dulcet soft whispers in her ears as they soared the skies.

The 5th Spirit had this overwhelming sense of inner calm as Prince Hans' lilting tenor had been singing a gentle tranquil hymn in between soft explanations like a tour guide of the breathtaking scenery Carpet was passing down below.

"How is it you are so well-versed in the landscape of the South American continent if you've never been here before, min älskare (my love)?" A marveling Elsa had broken the spellbound, companionable silence after the hour-long romantic ride under the mesmerizing dichotomy of sunset then moonlight had come to a hushed end at their palatial destination.

"A simple Scandinavian sailor boy would do well to learn much about the new world through the enlightening medium of literature and shipbound reference material concerning foreign jungles and topography. Not to mention mild eavesdropping upon the jaunty hearsay exploits of many a fellow sailor who had visited and longed for these beautiful tropical shores again." Hans softly murmurs to Elsa in response. His white gloves appeared to gleam in the darkness as Hans motioned across the dusky green landscape of the rain forest they had just flown over.

"I was always a keen lad, forever interested in overhearing my brothers, Didrik and Peiter, speaking of their thrilling adventures and journeys with their wives to this far-flung continent. Though I was never permitted to accompany them, let alone join in their intriguing conversation, how I longed as a young boy, into my adolescence, to visit the land beyond the sea where Spanish conquistadors and famed Portuguese captains had set sail battling pirates on their exploratory searches for the fountain of youth, golden treasures and so much more." In reference to his distant youthful hopes and yearnings, the redheaded Dane speaks softly in his blonde beauty's ear. There was a touch of melancholy at his family's prior cruelty to their outcast child, to never have included Hans in their thrilling travels around the world, despite being a full-blooded Westergaard.

"Thankfully, as an only child I never had any brothers. But yours probably know you talk too much and no doubt preferred a peaceful trip. Not that there's much chance of that with this deafening double windstorm close by either. Good to find out that my Valentine can sleep through anything, it seems." With a quirky smile, Prince Alonso's scratchy commentary pipes up from where he had been sitting diagonally across from Hans with the Paraiso Princess' slumbering form on her soon-to-be husband's lap.

The Córdoban Crown Prince's complaint and rolled eyes were not only towards his companion Hans romantically running off at the mouth, but also that of the loudly snoring thief and his 'meditating' father draped across their extended with fur flying rug transport. Eugene's snoring hadn't let up for almost an hour since the overtired representative of the kingdom of Corona they had gone to save from himself had dropped off to sleep.

And the thief's weird dad King Edmund, who had soon joined his son in zoning out after claiming to keep vigilant, hummed meditation, wasn't much of an improvement on social graces, either.

"Yes, the wind is rather noise-prone this evening, isn't it? It is a shame you had no fraternal friendship as role models growing up. I always regretted my Auguste being robbed of the chance to give our only boy sibling companionship as well. I do pray you and your bride will be amply blessed with innumerable children to serve as one another's best friends and confidantes. May I say, I find it truly auspicious match to find you a patient, even-tempered young man, so content with your mate's ill-timed sleeping habits on this romantic ride. Perhaps your intended is merely storing up for the memorable first night of your love life to begin tomorrow subsequent to the wedding, rather than a signal she is already bored of you. I think you need not worry of the lovely lassie's affection just yet. If you have not spoken to your own father on the matter already, and require any last minute advice on the tender subject of how to treat a lady on your bridal tour—as I so generously expounded upon to my Horace for his successful time of consummation so as he did not disappoint his Corona Princess—speaking as a happily married man who satisfied his dear wife greatly at our time of first bliss, I would be more than willing to share openly with you now, young Prince Alonso." Snapping his eyes open from his silent vigil to go on a long, rambling dialogue, King Edmund had an awkward way of speaking his every thought aloud.

As Alonso was frustrated in discovering firsthand now. Whether tactless or attempting to be pleasantly conversational, Edmund, without guile, prompts in a fatherly fashion to the mouth hanging open, astonished Argentinean.

"Uhh-cough-cough…I'll pass on that, old timer. I assure you, my simply tired from the day's excitement, pretty Princess won't be disappointed tomorrow night after all her merry chase across continents in pursuit of yours truly. Can't say as much for any others on board though. Maybe your invaluable advice wouldn't be wasted on anyone else around here who can't even get his gal to set a day, never mind a night, for all his fine words. Some guys talk too much." The Prince of Cordoba, if anything, was confident in his redoubtable abilities in this field as well as any other as he slings this challenge at Hans on the side.

Unaware of any competition between the virile youngsters, the King of Bohemia simply nods curtly before returning to his meditative state of that droning hum. Hamuel disturbingly follows his master's close-eyed lead where the raven leaned droopily on his wide shoulder.

"Don't listen to him, Hans. There's nothing I adore more than hearing your voice articulate so in depth with me." Flustered Elsa, who only caught bits of the latter part of Alonso's saucy retort of her informative fiancé, softly rebuts their more taciturn passenger. Then she gives an emboldened caress to the Danish Prince's five o'clock shadowed chin which led up to Hans' now blushing red cheek.

"Why…thank you, min kæreste. It is edifying to know my breath has not been expended in vain, for at least one member of my audience."A pursed lip Hans declares with that oh-so-charming tease etched across his handsome face over to Alonso, who merely rolls his eyes again.

"An audience who will ever be your truest devotee through life." Though her crystalline eyes were dying to communicate so much more, in this not so entirely private setting Elsa had not the gumption to update her young man of her intentions to move up their wedding date.

For the entire, populated Carpet ride – though ideally suited for romance with his Queen of Arendelle perched intimately close upon her intended's comfortable thighs – the naturally inhibited female did not consider it an appropriate enough locale to elucidate her true emotions.

Not with a smirking Alonso staring in disgust at the lovey-dovey couple just a few cozy feet away. With the Brazilian Princess aslumber on his lap, the brown-haired Prince of Córdoba shakes his head and looks away to blankly gaze upon the clouds they were cutting through.

Alonso vaguely admires how the southern birds freely soared nearby. All while this troublesome Prince Consort Eugene Fitzherbert Pryzmyslid and his bothersome pops King Edmund were snoring and humming loudly enough to break up any other thought of romance between the two pairs of couples on their way to his wedding.

"Ahem. We are almost at the Palace. And I believe just in time for supper." A red-eared Prince Hans announces, clearing his throat in the sticky, sultry atmosphere between the earth and the clouds where he could sense his Elsa was gazing upon him intently amid the cacophony.

"Carpet, please take us to the second-floor rear balcony, so that we may discreetly drop off the ladies and Prince Alonso in their respective rooms so they may have time to change into their proper eveningwear." In charge Kommander Westergaard gives his directions to the weighted down Flying Carpet beneath them all before he turns to address his Winter Queen.

"After that, I will deposit King Edmund and my Storbror Eugene in my bedroom, for now, so that they can – ahem – freshen up – before any introductions are made to King Pedro and his court, as well as the array of Royal visitors. My Queen, I cannot express enough to you just how much I am looking forward to when we shall meet again in normal circumstances later at the formal dinner." Natural born leader Prince Hans, with first a nod to a snorting awake, still groggy Eugene, then a mesmerizing kiss to the back of Elsa's hand, responsibly explains his itinerary to the party as sighing in relief Carpet stealthily approaches Paraiso's sparkling Palace compound.

The closer the flying Magic Carpet came to Paco Palace, the more the entire city seemed to come alight in the bustling, celebratory aura. With the glorious Santa Teresa Portuguese liner as backdrop after docking to the cheers of a massive crowd of Paraiso onlookers this afternoon, the citizens were growing very festive.

In all ways, the proud Paraiso people were very excited for and had decorated their town in style for their beloved Princess Valentina's much awaited, second chance dream wedding to her dream Prince in her dream Palace home.

For it would not only ensure her personal future happiness, but inexorably tie together the two powerful countries of Paraiso and Córdoba in peace and prosperity for generations of South Americans to come.

As guided, a fur extended Carpet easily maneuvers the travelers down to Valentina's balcony ledge. There Hans nimbly leads Elsa to step off the accommodating staircase that the helpful 'Rugman' had conjured in his obliging way.

"It was a most memorable ride, Vise Admiral. One I enjoyed the choice seat of very much. I never have felt safer. Nor warmer. The least you could allow me to do as a small token of my appreciation is to cool you off on this hot humid midsummer night." Elsa huskily whispers in Hans' ear as she magically blows a cool breath of air kiss towards it and his perspiring forehead, just as she had done in so many vivid night dreams of late.

But here in reality, it only added a gorgeous sheen to Prince Hans' complexion's bright redness that was in competition with the Dane's vibrantly titian red hair, as if he shared in that tactile stimulating fantasy recollection too.

"Ahem. I am most obliged, min hviddue. I promise to join you later." His freckles were even blushing as a clearing throat Hans makes a gentlemanly bow to Queen Elsa while he steps smoothly back onto the helm of his trusty friend Carpet.

"That's a promise you had better keep, my Prince. I believe I spotted many of my former suitors on the guest list roster for tonight's soirée." Exhilarated by the moonlight and their secret adventure under the cover of darkness, Elsa could not help but give the tease with a cool blown kiss and fingertip pop at the tip of her Hans' perfect celestial nose.

"I will be there, my Queen. And I had better not find anyone else in my place beside you at the table." In much anticipation for the wedding, the party was already in full swing in the Paco Palace first floor below, where indeed many of the young and beautiful Norwegian ruler's former suitors were to be in attendance, as keen Hans recalled.

With a pleased, coy smile, Elsa was oddly gratified to see a possessive Hans take it for granted that he would be her only escort at the royal celebration that was about to begin.

As for Prince Alonso, he gently nudges awake a slumbering Valentina. The self absorbed young man proves himself able to lift his fiancée from the hovering Carpet over the balcony and into her inner bedroom sanctum without effort.

"Time to wake up, my Valentine. Only one night more before you get lucky and make this a permanent arrangement with your dream Prince. That is, if we make it through your Dad's apparently colossal, extensively planned nuptials in one piece." The totally sure of himself, conceited Argentine man whispers on Valentina's bronze cheek with a lasting kiss.

Alonso then lays the Brazilian Princess upon her frilly pink canopied bed with a traced caress along her tight shirt lines and traveling pants' curves he had come to appreciate quite well on their impromptu, cozy journey.

Exhilarated by her intended's arousing touch as she comes to consciousness, Valentina was about to respond with something saucy. But looking up into her fiancé's amorous eyes, she felt that little tickle in her throat return to stall her reply.

So the suddenly skittish princess with last minute jitters keeps her eyes closed tight, pretending to be unconscious in a deep sleep, as yet.

Alonso simply shrugs to her non-response and ungallantly gives her collarbone a poke.

"Guess you're still out, pretty lady. Looks like it's up to me to better get you changed and ready for the party into some more suitable clothing before your Dad notices we've been MIA at his state dinner down there, thrown in our honor." The unreserved Prince of Córdoba confidently begins to undress his sluggish Princess bride, rapidly unbuttoning the top clasp of her tight shirt under her wine colored vest his fingers had already loosened on the way here.

"Alonso! I… cough cough cough!" Valentina begins to protest as she sits up in her bed where her young suitor was hovering over her, helpfully removing parts of her adventure outfit in a nonplussed manner like she was his doll.

"Yoo-hoo! There are you are, my girl! I had a feeling I'd eventually find you here with Princess Valentina, Elsa! When our ship arrived this afternoon and you were nowhere to be found to greet it, I told Johanne you'd be just fine and back in time for the grand supper! Chancellor Esteban has been magnificent in assuring kindly King Pedro and Kai that you young people just went sightseeing in this beautiful city as it was just coming alight with sights and sounds for the wedding tomorrow! But, of course, my worrywart husband and Princess Valentina's wary father have still been anxious all day! King Pedro will be so, so glad you're home, Your Highness. Now let's get you both dressed and ready to come to supper, just a little fashionably late!" At this opportune moment, Gerda bounces in with her nonstop chatter, paying little attention that there was a man in the room as well.

The ever-boisterous, slight of vision, older Arendelle housekeeper had arrived in Paraiso from the Santa Teresa Portuguese cruise ship just this morning. Only to find her ward Elsa nowhere on the Paco Imperial Palace premises.

Which circumstance totally freaked out her worried hubby, Minister Kai, whom Elsa's Papa, King Agnarr, had entrusted with her chaperone protection.

But Gerda knew by now that their Elsa was made of tougher stuff and could handle herself quite capably, at all occasions, on any continent.

The pudgy female claps her hands together in joy as was her habit to signal to her little girls that it was time to hurry up and get changed for dinner.

Even though Elsa was more than a grown-up lady by now, her lifelong friend and servant Gerda still saw she and Anna as the sweet little charges that the childless older woman must always watch over like a second mother hen. Particularly now that she was so far away from home where Gerda had promised to look out for the young Queen in Queen Iduna's absent place.

"Johanne! Oh, pardon me, Duchess Flores! Woo hoo! She's in here, dear sister! Bring our señorita Elsa's eveningwear pronto!" Gerda giggles as she shows off her little bits of the local language she had picked up upon her first outing here in South America.

"With the two of us working on you, it'll be all the more quicker and more efficient for this wondrous dinner the King has set out, dearies! Are you having fun here with your new friend on the other side of the ocean, Elsa? I'm sure it was so exciting when she showed you all the beautiful scenes around her lovely home today!" Enthusiastic Gerda begins to remove first Elsa's outer jacket before she goes to do the same for Valentina. There the housekeeper with poor vision was startled to find Prince Alonso mid way through the task, already seated on the Princess' bed.

"Shoo-shoo, young man! I don't know how you do it here in the wild West, but refined ladies back east require their privacy in dressing. Especially from their fiancés on the night previous to the wedding ceremony! This is my duty, not yours yet! Shoo!" Gerda sings, insistently batters a grabbed pillow at a smirking Alonso.

Covering his head, he moves away from her punishing pillow until the Córdoban Prince had removed himself from Valentina's bed and retreats back to the open balcony.

"All right, all right! Take it easy on the perfectly coiffed hair, lady! Sheesh! I know where I'm not wanted. Let's beat it, Hans." Alonso complains of this unwelcome.

"Ooh, Prince Hans too!" Pink-faced Gerda coos with a wave to the Prince of the Southern Isles at the girl's bedroom balcony ledge.

"Yes, it may be best if you and Hans change and hurry down so as not to arouse suspicion nor incur King Pedro's anger should you be late for the Royal supper. With the wedding ceremony almost upon us, Gerda tells me the King is rather uptight and quite particular about punctuality and respect." Elsa converses with Alonso, though her eyes were reaching out to her love still out on the balcony.

"Uptight seems to be a family trait." Under his breath, Alonso grimaces at the way Valentina appeared to be so preoccupied primping in the mirror to even give him a look farewell.

Well, I can't blame her there. I enjoy some private time with my mirror every now and then myself. Especially since there's always something so completely gorgeous to gaze upon…

Utterly confident in himself and his own looks Prince Alonso doesn't give Valentina's standoffishness a second thought as he wanders back to the balcony where Hans had already respectfully left the bedroom to give the lady some room to change.

"We men bow to your wisdom and insight, dear ladies. Come quickly Alonso, we have someone to attend to before supper tonight." With a gentlemanly kiss to the back of Elsa's hand, Hans graciously bows to her, then Gerda from where he was gallantly standing on the balcony.

The redheaded Prince's long arm stretches out to accost disagreeable and less respectful Alonso by his black and gold arm and drags the Argentinean Prince back bodily to the edge of the stone parapet with him.

"Though it pains us, it is clear we must bid you ladies 'adieu.' We will take our punishment like gentlemen and tear our undeserving selves away from viewing your ravishing beauty unsolicited." Laying the charm on thick for Gerda, a teasing Hans dramatically gives a sweeping bow before he tugs a wobbly Alonso back over the dark sky ledge for the two of them to drop and disappear over the balcony without a sound.

"Ooh! I didn't mean anything that extreme, Your Highnesses!" Racing forward with her hand over her mouth, naïve Gerda gasps in fright.

That is, until she until she spies a quartet of tricksters flying away safely on a magic flying Carpet over to the next floor bedroom suites the men were situated upon.

"Well, I never! Neither of you lucky girls will ever be bored or disappointed with either of those comely, daring young rogues as your future husbands around. Will they, Johanne?" Gerda giggles, her round form jiggling with glee.

Her tall and skinny sister-in-law just catches a glimpse of the departing flying Carpet full of dashing young fellows – and a fourth older adventurer as well – waving goodbye as Johanne brushes into the room with Elsa's evening dress and long opera length gloves.

"There truly is never a restless dull moment for a woman in love when her man is so dashing, attractive, and oh so debonair." The bloom still on her recently wedded rose, Johanne shares some of her marital experience of the last delightful month and a half or so to the pair of young women on the precipice of their own connubial bliss.

"Especially with the nonstop festivities this city has planned for you, Princess Valentina! You must be beside yourself with raptures." Gerda chimes in her bubbly way as she sets aside their clothing.

"Bored? Disappointed? Never restlesss? Nonstop festivities?" The insecure little girl whispers inside of Valentina as she stares at herself in the mirror with uncertain eyes at the ostentatious beauty she sees there staring back. Both Johanne and Gerda's choice of words unfortunately seemed to hit home for the teeth gritting Valentina. Deep inside, she fervently longed for some dull quiet moments if they would spell happiness for she and her long sought after young lover.

"Maybe Alonso and I should skip all this and simply elope tonight…"

The jittery young Princess of Paraiso lets the juvenile thought slip her lips. Inwardly Valentina chuckles at the unheard-of idea while she permits a helpful Gerda to dress her up in the party dress after the faithful older woman had finished getting Elsa done up.

"Don't be silly! Weddings are meant to be a joyful public declaration of the Lord's holy bond shared between two people in a love that will last a lifetime. Even if it's overwhelmingly tough on we young brides now, we must share such joy with everyone around us. It proves we are ready and mature to embrace God's blessing of sharing our lives with our husbands with love, fidelity and self-sacrifice, just as we were destined to do, since Adam and Eve." As she speaks of the well-pondered subject, Elsa capably adds some aurora borealis color cryokinetic ice decor of barrettes and ribbons to Valentina's limp hair to perk it up, hopefully along with her Brazilian friend's mood.

"I fully agree, of course, darling Elsa! Hee hee! Me? 'Elope' when my entire country is so looking forward to my wedding at last? I was only joking with you! You're so soberingly serious! But that's why I made you my Maid of Honor! To keep me entertained." Hotheaded and vain Valentina reclaims her haughty nature as she gazes at Elsa's ice treatment and rainbow gleam upon herself approvingly.

She spins around and winds herself up like a music box ballerina with a deep intake of breath.

The Brazilian Princess was never be outdone by the calm, thought provoked Queen of the North on the subject of love and marriage. Particularly not on the cusp of this wondrous, most spectacular wedding of the century that this Cidade Maravilhosa (MarvelousCity)has ever – or will ever – see.

Princess Valentina just had to throw a little bit more of herself into it to make this magnificent occasion shine as bright as she imagined it would, could and should.

Indeed, she did shine with Elsa at her side, as Gerda and Johanne scurry between the two glimmering and sparkling royal young women to help get them prepared for the extravagant Paraiso pre-wedding supper awaiting them with much anticipation below.

---

Elsewhere in the Palace...

After leaving Carpet at the balcony in Alonso's room, on his way down the hallway with Eugene balanced between his and King Edmund's shoulders, Prince Hans had practically crashed into Valentina's heartbroken bodyguard.

Manuel was trudging through the halls as if under a heavy, dark cloud on the eve of his redundancy.

"Quie—Quiénes sois, señores? (Who—who are you, Gentlemen?)" The dark-haired manservant was surprised to find the three foreign men in the hallway when everyone of the other visitors were already at supper.

A supper where the guest of honor, the Princess of Paraiso, had skipped out on without informing her chief bodyguard where she and her intended had gone gallivanting, leaving her once trusted and relied on faithful slave behind.

Again.

Sigh.

Hans had honestly introduced King Edmund and his cousin Eugene to Valentina's manservant as the representative from Corona whom he had simply located on the roadside on his sightseeing excursion near the rainforest. Without committing himself, the dapper prince implied the Prussian dignitary's ill met arrival and unsung trip here to the Palace was due to becoming unfortunately lost on the confusing road that led through the Tijuca rainforests.

Though indiscreet King Edmund almost blew Hans' cover story a few times, claiming 'banditos' had waylaid his 'Horace'- the over-exhausted, scratched-up, perhaps indignant, royal dignitary of Corona who put on quite a plaintive, heroic act – would quietly skip tonight's dinner in order to 'not cause an international scandal' at the 'inhospitable welcome' of King Pedro's Paraiso.

Hans had explained all this to the apologetic Brazilian servant how Prince Consort Eugene preferred to sleep off his mild injuries until the morning, to be more presentable to the King and royal court and spare embarrassment for all concerned at the wedding.

Of course, responsible, longtime servant Manuel was utterly convinced by the smooth Danish conniver by the time the sly Córdoban bridegroom had peeked his head out of his door down the hallway to chime in. Prince Alonso explained how it would be 'Valentina's wish' for dutiful servant Manuel to 'Delay your own dinner, Manny, to care for the poorly dignitary from Corona. And also see to regal head of the Dark Kingdom, King Edmund's mistakenly overlooked accommodations by placing him in the Danish Prince's suite as well for the evening, as not to cause political trouble in Paraiso for the international slight the night before Valentina's happy event.'

Manuel was so convinced by the quartet of newly arrived strangers that the tall servant had already run to the medical supply room to fetch ample ointments and bandages that would heal and soothe Eugene's cuts and bramble scrapes through the night.

Faithful Manuel then escorted King Edmund and Prince Eugene to Hans' state room as directed, where coddled 'Horace' would be devotedly pampered and set right by Valentina's manservant for the duration of the supper that Edmund was told by his son to attend, 'to cover for me'.

Or more likely, to get the doting, often unintentionally strident old man out of his hair so the ex-thief could catch some much-needed shut-eye.

Manuel had also promised to quietly keep the Eugene's location a secret until the Corona Prince Consort made himself known in a more dignified manner sometime tomorrow in the light of day.

Giving Hans an approving thumbs up, sly Alonso had obviously learned how to get around his future wife's ever present bodyguard, who had been like a dogged shadow to the Paraiso Princess practically since her birth.

"I'll just let old Manny stick around long enough to do all the hard work tough stuff, then sneak my Valentine away to spend our days dancing in the sun before the big oaf ever knows what hit him." Supercilious Alonso snidely comments to Hans with a patronizing nose up in the air at Manuel.

Both dashing young princes walking down to dinner had quickly dressed in their evening best after Hans had seen that Eugene was comfortable in their shared room.

"Hopefully, for your sake, Manuel never realizes how you're taking advantage of him and decides to hit you back." Hans teases Alonso with the saucy riposte concerning the larger, beefier manservant.

"That big doof? Manservant moron Manny well may have the market on bigger brawn, but he certainly doesn't have my brains. Or looks, for that matter." Alonso runs a hand through his stunning hair as he pauses at a mirrored glass pedestal near the base of the stairwell to check his pretty boy features.

"An incontestable fact Manuel must come to respect you for. As long as you use your undeniable brains to do the same to respect him." Prince Hans chuckles at the utter vanity of the young man before him as he spouts wisdom the young Argentinean could definitely use in the future.

"In style, Westergaard. In style." The pair of princes shares a composing laugh as they stand and straighten their dinner jackets at the dining room's large, gold-gilt, intimidating door.

Since all their time and adventures together, the two confident young men felt comfortable with one another as comrades and equals now, after all was said and done.

Discreetly waiting for a servant carrying trays out to open the door, inconspicuously handsome rascals Princes Alonso and Hans sneak into the dinner party. Without skipping a beat, they smoothly enter into conversation with the other guests so that no one was the wiser they had been tardy, or even missing all day from the Palace.

No one, perhaps for King Pedro himself, who was eyeing his soon-to-be son-in-law circumspectly all during the soup serving.

The distrustful King of Paraiso opens his mouth and was just about to question Prince Alonso as to his irresponsible whereabouts, when the door is dramatically flung open.

"PEDRO, dear man! It is very GOOD to meet you at long last! Edmund of the Dark Kingdom of Bohemia here. It had always been intimated that that the climate of Brazil was too suffocating sultry warm in my boy Eugene's opinion, and those in your constabulary were just as hot-headed – both reasons of which why I was delayed to arrive, until just now with the speedy transport of your lovely daughter and future son-in-law. May I say, this feast is very ostentatiously suited to perfection for a marriage of two exceedingly compatible young people with such high opinions of themselves." In a matter of a minute or so, noisy and tactless, King Edmund had already let out some secrets and tossed out several insults, as well as drawing much attention to himself as the type of late-comer Dom Pedro distained.

As the vexed Brazilian monarch was just about to turn to grill Alonso just what precisely King Edmund was referring to, the younger man gets bailed out.

It wasn't long before the real star of the wedding show takes center stage, much to a squirming Alonso's relief.

Princess Valentina herself steps into the Paco Palace dining hall to great applause. That was largely due to Elsa's Ice Queen magic in a dazzling illumination of Valentina's frosted pink evening dress ensemble.

In all the hubbub and astounding loud volume and indiscretion of the Dark Kingdom's ruler, no one at all noticed that Corona's Royal representative's name place settings at the long, ornate table went vacant. No one knew Prince Consort Eugene Fitzherbert Pryzmyslid had opted out to get a good long rest and clean up before he could show his very tanned, very hirsute and very dirty face in King Pedro's Royal court.

But at least, thanks to his Lillebror, his Pops, and help from their friends, he'd be there to keep up appearances and attend the big wedding tomorrow.

Flushed with excitement to be at this regal occasion thrown in her honor, the pink frocked Princess looks up from where she was seated opposite her just arrived, oh-so-handsome Argentinean fiancé.

Alonso flashes Valentina a winning smile every time he caught her sparkling eye. Here in her element, the exuberant young woman had forgotten her underlying anxiety doubting she had what it took to make a marriage work.

Not until the last course was served with her father offering up a toast to the guests who were milling about Paraiso Palace's Great Hall, doting over the soon-to-be newlyweds.

"To the apple of my eye, my darling Valentina. Who, by this time tomorrow, I will be forced to relinquish the care of to another man." With an almost disdainful, challenging glance at Alonso, King Pedro stands to his imposing width's tall form. Nonetheless, he turns to smile and raise his glass to his sparkling daughter who was alight with multicolor glistening, thanks to that eye-catching young Norwegian ruler seated beside her.

"May that young man hopefully live up to the test this time, and at least prove himself trustworthy enough to arrive at the Church at the proper hour, unlike the tardiness he displayed tonight. And formerly." The Brazilian father pointedly lobs the attack beneath his breath at Alonso, after witnessing his only child suffer mentally and emotionally the past year or so, at the unsteady hand of this self-perceived Romeo.

But perhaps Valentina's father - who had the wrong end of the blame stick on exactly who left who standing at the altar, as he had taken his distraught daughter's side entirely then against the irresponsible, unworthy, selfish bridegroom whose attitude problem forced her to flee - had the right to question second run-to-base Alonso's intentions as his future son-in-law approached. His own kingly father, Juan Ramon, had been pulled aside like many of the other visitor dinner guests, in rapt attention of entertaining King Edmund's scintillating tales, so Alonso was left to face Valentina's father on his own.

After all, the self-serving, fly-by-night, unreliable lad had skipped out on pursuing his royal nuptials in this kingdom in the past before. The Argentine apparently preferred to set his sights on European shores instead of convincing Valentina in the proper tradition of South American combative romantic relationships to make another try down the aisle.

For all King Pedro knew, the infamous with the ladies, Cordoban brat was liable to break his Paraiso Princess' precious heart this time again, just for the fun of it.

Over my dead body. Or likely yours, if you dared to ever hurt my sweet Valentina again, you Gaucho (Argentine cowboy). You had better show up this time little princeling. And you had better treat my girl better than best, or suffer corporal punishment.

King Pedro subconsciously squeezes the hilt of his sword that was hanging at his decorative belt's side.

"You can count on it, your Majesty. Traveling the world has enriched my maturity and enlightened my mind to appreciate the finer things in life. That of which, this time, I eagerly look forward to the pleasures of joining with your kingdom's splendid beauty." Shrewdly charming, Prince Alonso bobs his eyebrows up and down provocatively at Valentina over the King's shoulder.

"Well said, young man! Let it be said that two nations joined in holy wedded bliss are never to cut asunder by mere mortals!" Voluminous King Edmund raises his wine glass, leading several others in the jolly toast as well to Alonso inopportunely. Which gains a glare from his strict host as a result for siding with that rascally young donkey with the crass mouth full of insinuations of the yet pure Princess of Paraiso.

The overconfident, egotistical Prince of Córdoba was never intimidated to speak his mind by anyone, as he flashes his girl a most presumptuous smile to prove his fearless masculinity, even to her intimidating parent.

But that's when he finally noticed her somewhat lethargic, almost inaudible response in the form of a meek nod.

"You okay, Valentine?" Alonso softly asks with a tender pat to her arm, genuinely concerned before he notices his future father-in-law's eyes upon him, both demanding and questioning.

"If you'll excuse us, Your Majesty, I'll personally see my fiancée up to her room to get a good night's rest. After a long day of...uh.…sightseeing, Valentina and I had better turn in early. We have a big day tomorrow and wouldn't want any sleepyheads on our highly anticipated wedding night. You wouldn't want to disappoint me again at the altar, right, my Valentine?" Foot in mouth disease prone Prince Alonso once again blows any footing gained with his audacious flirting after at first demonstrating his husbandly, responsible side before King Pedro.

"Good night, Dads. Thanks for a great dinner. I'll be sure to brush my teeth, say my prayers, and generally try to be a good boy, at least for tonight." Brash Alonso dances by, samba style, as he intentionally encompasses both fathers as he irreverently addresses the duo of Kings standing before him with familial address. That left King Juan Ramon grinning and King Pedro glowering at him.

"Yes, my Prince. I think it is time to retire for the evening." Valentina gratefully nods to Alonso, he somehow sensing how tired his fiancée was, mentally even more than physically as she stifles a girlish yawn behind her hand.

A hand that daintily slips through her ardent young man's disappointed one.

"Elsa, will you come help me change for the evening?" But instead of lounging on his arm, the wrapped up in herself Princess of Paraiso drags her surprised Maid of Honor away from her own debonair Prince's champagne laden arm.

"Of course." The handsome Scandinavian pair had been quite comfortably arm in arm mingling with the other guests who had recently arrived on the Portuguese liner ship.

Watchful Minister Kai was gladdened by the safe removal of his ward being whisked away from her suave, champagne swilling Dane on this dangerous late night. Their mouthed 'good night' and 'my darling, sleep well' had to be sufficient enough tonight. Although in Kai's suspicious eyes, that Prince Hans seemed disappointed to see Queen Elsa leave without him.

As she bows to the daughter of Paraiso's whim, with a longing look, Elsa blows Hans an icy kiss, waving fondly as she is dragged away early, tucked in Valentina's bossy arm.

But a slightly tipsy from too many toasts Hans knew he had already a far less pleasing bed mate or two in his room anyway for this night.

He, after making the necessary cordial formalities of bidding the other guests a good evening on behalf of the kingdom of Arendelle - with his brothers Princes Didrik and Peiter and sisters-in-law Antonia and Lujza making introductions and niceties on behalf of the Southern Isles at his side late into the night - Hans finally returns to his bedroom suite alone.

There, a tuckered out Eugene was loudly snoring from where he had plopped, sprawled out across Vise Admiral Westergaard's luxurious guest bed. King Edmund, who had retired from the party earlier in the evening to bring a sneak doggie bag of hors d'oeurvres to Hamuel, Pascal and Carpet hanging outside the balcony, had a comfortable Spanish sofa bed made up by Manuel for him in the adjoining room all ready.

And Edmund, beneath familiar bear and Persian Carpet rug covers with an exhausted from running chameleon and flap passed out raven as tucked in tag-along pals, too was snoring in father-like-son synchronization from both sides of the deafening with snores, otherwise still bed chamber.

"Have a gottnatt, King Edmund, Storbror. And please, Lord, please watch over Elsa, my heart, and give at least she this night's peace." Having a feeling his slumber would not achieve any fantasy delight this unsettled eve, Hans directs his prayers above the din of Eugene and his father's noisy slumber.

On top of his own exhaustion, the intelligent Dane had one other worry to keep him up tonight. He was hoping against hope that the international jewel thief was truly cured of his sleep-thieving medical symptoms.

If not, it would be most disagreeable in a palace full of guests from around the world who had brought their jewelry and golden finery to display at this South American wedding of the century.

Hans strips off his warm jacket and tie, vest, shirt and boots that had him overdressed in this hot south of the equator climate. Then he slides into the bed in the small sliver of space on the mattress the snoring ex-con left him.

The clever Danish Prince lies there for a while, pondering the value of strung together dishware accompanied by a bell Manuel had unquestioningly supplied him with from the servant's quarters.

On such short notice, it was the best the Hans could come up with for the not so advantageous solution of a reverse burglar alarm.

That is, should Flynn Rider awaken in the deep of the night with a sleepwalking predilection to somnambulic thievery that hopefully his father who had passed down the one-in-a-million gene, did not share.

But his Storbror's hopefully recently cured sleepwalking kleptomania was not all that was keeping Hans Westergaard up on this moonlit, hot summer night…

---

In a striking weather shift, enter winter's icy cold of Ahtohallan glacier, half a world away…

…'You're not where you're meant to be, Ice King.'…

So, is this stark solitude where you had previously sentenced my Elsa to, old woman?

Though with quizzical brow in ponderous thought, Agnarr's palest blue eyes seemed to alight from within as his wife Iduna watched her curious King tentatively venture into the magical section of the most northern part of his country.

The Norwegian King realized it was by the Grace of God Almighty alone that he and Iduna had survived these treacherous currents then to be standing here at the precipice of this enchanted Ahtohallan frozen river glowing before them now.

Agnarr recalls his 'mother-in-law', Chief Yelana, and her puzzling, unwelcome words of his lifelong dwelling in Arendelle he and his Iduna had finally just been returned to, as he watches the pulsating flicker across the surprisingly sudden still waters that almost appeared to have a life of its own.

The navy man who had been conquered by this particular body of ocean before had already come to terms with the evil that wicked pirate had put the Arendelle King and his Queen through. All the torturous trials, deadly danger and humanitarian heroism of his children and their young men which had brought Agnarr to this day were perhaps meant for his good and greater purpose.

Those seven horrible years spent in constant fear and pain-stricken captivity may have been the catalyst for the test in store and the ultimate goal to come if he proved himself up to the challenge. Even, in fact, to master his latent cryokinetic abilities that the only son of the late King Runeard – who despised magic and foreswore any mention of it in his kingdom – had suppressed all of his life.

But now, after many emotional trials where he had learned to find peace in himself and with his family, the weathered King of Norway stands at the precipice where the glacier met the sea, gazing over the icy white chasm opening with something akin to trepidation.

Agnarr recognized it was only through the courageously embraced magic of their amazing daughter Elsa that the Dark Sea - which once rejected his insecurities from crossing its mystery heretofore - had finally been tamed. His little Snow Angel, all grown up, had stepped into her powers and kept the faith because Anna believed in her sister with utmost love.

Now maybe it was their father's turn to step up to show himself, because he had someone who believed and loved him unconditionally, too.

"Where the North wind meets the sea, there's a River full of memories." Wordlessly supporting her unsettled husband as he channeled his magic to cross the rushing waves and take his first step onto the shore, Iduna now begins to sing her song of old that had been transcribed upon her soul since she was born.

The Northuldran woman sensed, as her adopted mother the village chief did as well, that this was the time. This time, unlike seven years of doubt ago, the legendary River was calling out to them, inviting the pair of man and wife in to explore its innermost secrets.

All at once, the special child born with the gift of Nature understood the voice of the spirit within, and where it was telling her to go.

"Come my Darling, homeward bound!" Confidently dominant as she rushed forward over his ice bridge onto the enchanted glacial haven of Ahtohallan's sub-zero river, Iduna smiles, and seemed to glow herself with a new enlightenment which flowed through her veins. Then she turned back to stretch both her thin arms out to her less assured other half.

"When all is lost, then all is found…" Her almost eerie, enthralling, enigmatic soprano rings in Agnarr's ears as he moved towards her music as if in a trance. As their fingertips touch, the song's echo chimes throughout the iridescent white and silvery caverns of Ahtohallan as elemental lights begin to rhythmically play upon the glistening verglas walls.

Earth, Wind, Fire and Water had gathered their spirits to this spot to all coalesce into an ideal Harmony set intrinsically to Iduna's perfect Melody. The mystical sights and sounds entreaty the eye dazzled Ice King to explore deeper into the Fortress of Solitude. His brave and beautiful baby Elsa had already dared to open an artistic masterpiece within the legendary glacier after so many lost centuries.

And finally, the crystalline notes of a rhapsody in blue, purple, indigo and aquamarine aurora borealis radiance, override the bells that had been relentlessly pounding inside Agnarr Bernadotte's head for years on end.

His disquieted mind looks down to see a symphony of footprints in elemental hues begin to blaze in just his boot size invitingly down the claustrophobically long, tubular ice corridor.

Just ahead of each of Agnarr's perfectly sized fitting, lighted footsteps – seemingly to be magically designated on the translucent icy ground of the cavern for him to evidently step upon - was carved another set of prints. As the King of Norway's anxiety morphs into curiosity, he could discern that those smaller, more delicate, yet concise markings that lay slightly ahead of his aurora borealis infused ones were decidedly feminine.

The mirrored footprints etched effectively full of the 5th Spirit of Harmony in ice's eternal water memory were both as ancient as the Snow Queen's first trek into this hallowed cave, millennia ago, and as recent as the Ice Queen's rediscovery of its hidden majesty just over a year ago, overlaid one dainty footstep upon the other.

"Show yourself! Step into your power!" Iduna's gentle lullaby that had been pervasively leading her man into this unknown symphony suddenly soars to a commanding volume that reverberates into the Ice King's ringing ears to wake him up fully.

As a startled Agnarr gasps with one final human fear, Iduna boldly places her daintiest foot of all to fit perfectly into the Snow Queen and Ice Queen Elsa's footprints that went before them.

"Grow yourself into something new…" Her sweet soprano more subdued and inwardly pianissimo, Queen Iduna of Arendelle and the Enchanted Forest feels her entire body surge with a raw energy she had felt tingle on the outskirts of her soul for as long as she could remember. But the wisps of that Harmony, set to her chosen mate's icy Melody had only been realized in the flash freeze of the moment when their Elsa was first conceived, a quarter century ago.

And again that wondrous day when their Anna completed her sister's musical score.

I'm right here with you, Agnarr, my love. Be courageous as you are wondrous. I will always be the 'song of your heart' to guide you to do the next right thing...

From every energized molecule of water on the pleased wind, to the animated fire of the swelling with pride earth beneath their feet set on the proper place on their path, Agnarr could feel his Iduna's sentiment wrap around him with the generosity of her amazing gift of love.

Just as she did as a little girl altruistically saving a little boy she knew nothing of, other than the recognized spirit of integrity and the shared light of a true love to come which God had granted Iduna and Agnarr in plentitude.

And now that all their dangerous secrets had been surpassed with selfless truth, the chosen, because she had given so freely of herself, Northuldran girl squeezes her partner's hands tight in hers, their spirits becoming as one heart.

Lost in Iduna's endlessly brave, now gloriously glowing eyes, the surreal lightshow of all four elements point his path down the frozen River towards its collection of revealed memories. In his final test, Agnarr would face them now unafraid, as it all dazzlingly melds into the simple, purest tinkle of muted windchimes blessing their homecoming...

And all becomes clear to them both, in the musical caesuras luftpause of stunningly beautiful orchestral ice, that this, at last, was where the two destined lovers who had changed the course of their nation with their incredible love for their children, were both meant to be...

---

Paraiso, Valentine's Day early morning…

The wedding morn in Paraiso dawned bright and vivid.

The entire city of Rio de Janeiro seemed to spring to life with enthusiasm for their favorite daughter's big event after a week – give or take a year – full of preparations for her second try with the same young man at the happy day.

It seemed the only one in the joyful kingdom who did not get a good night's sleep was the blooming bride herself.

That was because an anxious Princess Valentina did not wish to waste a single moment of her glorious wedding day that she had waited for her entire life.

"Dear Holy Mother, please give me the strength to 'be charitable and improve myself to strive earnestly to be good', as my dear Mama wanted me to be, so I can live that happily ever after she never had. And so my Alonso will always love me." Valentina whispers the virtuous mottos her long deceased mother lived and died by that had been burned in the Brazilian Princess's consciousness after she had read her mother's diary.

The holy Sisters of Our Lady of Carmelia Catholic Church had kept the tome locked away, to be delivered only at Valentina's marriage preparation when the girl was to be wed, just as her devout mother, Dona Leopoldina instructed.

She had read it a year ago at the first botched ceremony, but the Crown Princess of Paraiso's last minute insecurity now had taken to heart her pious mother's written words.

This time, Valentina had been desperately scouring the quarter century old memoir all night in search of the secret behind her most inscrutable maxim: 'Love, without expecting a thing in return' as a good marriage should comprise.

But her own parents' torrid, unstable relationship was no example of that whatsoever. So it left their only child uncertain if that sage advice was even feasible for her, either.

Maybe happiness is in giving love without expecting to receive anything back. Wasn't there something in the Bible about that? The confused princess lifts her face to the rising warm sun as it first kisses her cheek.

Doesn't everyone in love need that one to love her back? Am I to be constant in my love for Alonso, and not wish for him to keep constant in his love for me? From that look in his eye last night, I thought I saw love there. But how can I be sure? Does this all even count for a marriage I arranged?

If I ask Elsa her opinion, won't she think me such a capricious girl to ask these questions this late in the game? I think I need to go for a walk and clear my head on the beach first.

A friendly wager involving Paraiso pink cotton candy was made last night between Olaf and his sweet-toothed girlfriend Eliana that the sun would come up before 6 AM in this south of the equator location. Whereas, it took normally for past 9 AM in Arendelle for the sun to rise.

Both curious snow people with differing opines had pledged that they would be the first one to stay up to greet the breathtaking sunrise over the endless flat oceanic bay of Guanabara in Paraiso beneath their romantically melded, double personal snow flurry cloud on Elsa's bedroom balcony.

Of course, neither Eliana nor Olaf had stuck it out, both back-to-back a-slumber on the balcony ledge when the early riser Ice Queen stirs awake with the 5:45 AM sunrise.

Elsa had always been a light sleeper, tonight for some reason obscured to her pleasant dreams with her prince, even moreso than ever. So when her ears perk up to hear a plaintive sound of someone weeping somewhere down outside her open balcony window, the Ice Queen was fearless to go investigate.

Snore snore. Snor—tt!

"Hmm? Good morning, Elsa! I wasn't sleeping, but Eliana was! Ha, ha! You forfeit! So I win!" A jubilant Olaf bounces up and down victorious from where he and Eliana had parked on the balcony upon their downy snow pillow that the Ice Queen had created for her snoozing, permafrost-y creatures to comfortably slumber.

"Olaf. Shh. Don't be a bully. You know what we think of gambling. You were both asleep. So you both missed the sunrise, and no one wins or loses. Now, I'm going down to the beach to see if someone needs my help. I want you both to stay here. Don't let Olaf make noise and wake everyone else up, Eliana. It's still rather early on this wedding day morning where everyone will be busy enough later, and you don't want to be unpopular for giving a bad start." With a final yawn as she pulls on her lacy lavender robe over her royal purple, long nightdress, Elsa icicle zips Olaf's talkative mouth shut to Eliana's self-satisfied delight.

The compassionate, yet responsible young leader pushes aside her natural inclination to stay aloof and introverted indoors within the delicious safety of her pleasant dreams. Instead, Queen Elsa utilizes her magically appearing cryokinetic ice beneath her dainty feet to float her silently down to the beautiful Brazilian beach that was indeed a breathtaking sight to behold at daybreak.

"Valentina? Why are you out here alone? Is something wrong?" In her most tender voice, barefoot Elsa makes her way across the golden sands to find the source of the soft sobbing.

That's when she had spotted the girl from Ipanema huddled in a corner of the morning tide beach on a cairn of weatherworn rocks.

Elsa was surprised to see the usually decked out in frills and ostentatious pink and gold trim Princess of Paraiso quite plainly perched on a beach towel in a plain white robe around her slight form devoutly knelt in prayer with her rosary in her hands.

"Oh! Elsa! It's just you. Thank goodness." Startled to be thus discovered, Valentina leaps to her bare feet. Through her sniffling and tears, she all at once notices someone approaching over the sound of the crashing waves of the morning tide.

"Just me?" Elsa laughs with a hands-on-hips, feigned look of insult at her sniffling royal counterpart.

With a quirked eyebrow Elsa levitates on her ice down to her young friend trying to cover up her tears with a nervous giggle.

"Sorry. I really didn't mean that to sound as bad as it did." Princess Valentina uncharacteristically apologizes as she accepts her tall Norwegian friend's hand on her shoulder with a sincere grin.

"I thought you might be Manuel. Or some of the servants. Or one of those endless older women of distinction that Papai has hired to watch me over the years, coming to order me back in from my secret hideaway." Valentina explains her own stifling childhood as she wipes away the remnants of her tears by intaking a deep breath of the salty sea breeze she loved at dawn.

"Believe me. I know what having an overprotectve father like that is like. It may seem oppressive, but truly his only concern is for your well-being because cares for you so, Valentina." Recalling her Papa's love more than the mistakes, Elsa tries to sympathize with her tearful fellow Crown Princess as the two lock eye to eye.

"I know Papai wants what's best for me. He just doesn't think Alonso is good enough for me, saying he's too overconfident and impetuous. But I admire Alonsy even more because of that assured quality." Valentina speaks of her fiancé with pride as she stares over the ocean.

"Then why are you crying on your wedding day?" Elsa ventures the pressing query as she leads Valentina to a spot where the sun was just dawning to warm the quiet still Ipanema beachfront.

"Crying? Who's crying? Why would I be crying?! This is the best, most wonderful, most important, most pivotal day of my life!" With her scratchy hoarse voice gaining steam with each word of denial, Valentina protests as she shakes violently with a frozen smile on her reddish face.

She was trying so hard to bubble over with falsified joy the past few weeks that the terrified girl suddenly gives up and grips her tall friend's pale cool hands in her dark bronze ones in unmitigated fear.

Normally non-tactile, Elsa brings Valentina in for an empathetic hug until the trembling like a little girl young Brazilian woman calms down from her last-minute panic.

"I can tell you, Elsa. You will be the only one to understand because you're going through the same as I. I just want to live happily ever after with my dream Prince. I'm not as perfect as you may think. So I've prayed and I prayed to God, Jesus and Mary to make me be a good wife. Thank goodness, my Alonso has enough confidence for us both, and I adore him for it. But maybe a selfish, competitive, uncharitable girl like me may not ever deserve to learn how to love without being loved in return, like my saintly Mama wrote the only proper path to true love should be." Closing her eyes after staring for a long time into the deep blue ocean spread out before her, Valentina finally admits her deepest darkest insecurity as she hugs Elsa back fiercely.

Both lovely young women sink to their knees on the warm sands of the empty Ipanema beachfront in silence for several moments, letting the ocean waves sing their neverending song through them.

"Oh, Valentina. Please don't worry so much. If your prayers are sincere – as I know they are from that look in your eyes – God will grant you a true heart that can love, without condition, nor strings attached. Just as the Lord Jesus has loved us. And in turn, that purity of your love will be patiently answered, I believe that with everything in me. Just as I believe that you already understand how it means to profoundly have a faithful love, because you never gave up on your dream Prince, even when you thought he turned his back on you. You showed yourself to believe in the power of a destined love until that light was a beacon that brought Alonso's undeniable love back to you in return. It's clear to anyone who has eyes that he does love you, and deeply, just from the way Prince Alonso looks at you and sees you in his reflection and not only himself anymore." Never in her wildest imagination would Elsa of Arendelle have considered herself a moral authority on giving advice on the principles of love and relationships to anyone.

But she had been born with the inner 5th Spirit of peace and harmony. She had already in her young life, learned and seen and experienced so much that God's Holy Spirit had opened her eyes and her heart as well to stand on the precipice of grasping the truth of the soul.

A soul that not only thrived on basking in the splendor of God's greatest virtue – love – but it also recognized what was required to sustain it.

Two hearts forever entwined, loving through the good days and forgiving through bad, with eyes meeting eyes that knew they only were meant for one another in a special way for eternity.

Like how Hans looks at me.

"You think Alonso really loves me that deeply and dearly?" Valentina chokes out, whispering in Elsa's braided hair with tears of redemption wetting the Ice Queen's neck beneath her pale blue icy dressing gown.

"It is Divine Providence which leads us to whom we are meant to spend our lives with. 'For love comes from God.'" (I John 4:8) Elsa quotes the fitting Bible verse in Valentina's satisfied ear that needed to hear something so definite and profound just about now.

"That's why your choice of wedding day was perfectly serendipitous, Valentina. It's even Alonso's terribly fond and sentimental pet name for you – 'my Valentine'. Today will mark - this year and all the years to come - your celebration of love and eye-opening affection, started by a Christian martyr who symbolically restored sight to the blind through God's unending power of love for us." Elsa felt this could be her moment to wax a little historically poetic on the introspection of love that warmed even a frozen heart, once upon a time.

She was grateful to watch the once vain and jaded Princess of Paraiso's uncertain, frayed expression transfer before her eyes into a wide grin of inspired realization.

"Our celebration of love? Me and 'My Valentine', Alonsy. Thank you for clarifying all this for me, Elsa. You know, for a blonde, you're wiser than you'll ever get credit for about the important matters of the heart. You really could have been a holy Sister. But that would've been such a waste for your Prince." Mildly referring to their recent masquerade as nuns in jest, Valentina hugs Elsa tightly as she gathers them both up from the sandy beach to stand.

"Um… Thank you…I think?" Elsa chuckles lightly at the dumb blonde joke kind of demeaning compliment that only Princess Valentina could get away with on her wedding day without causing animosity between them.

"Now that's all cleared up, shouldn't you and I be getting ready for the wedding?" A bit psyched herself about her role as chief bridesmaid in the affair, Elsa inquires of her strangely nonplussed companion.

She watches in wonder as a liberated Valentina instead stretches out her arms wide towards the sea and completes several spins under the awakening sun until the beach beauty was quite breathless.

"There's plenty of time for that! After all, what's the point of being in charge, if one does not know how to properly delegate one's responsibilities? I left all the details to Papai and the horde of ladies and servants all dying to help, not to mention all the nuns in the church! They know everything I want by now. Particularly after the good practice from the previous runaway groom wedding Alonso had put them through. So you see, there is ample time for you and I to take that beachfront stroll and morning swim I promised would be a little bit more than spectacular a way to start this fabulous day!" Valentina takes a deep and long breath of the fragrant sea she had grown up loving.

In the flash of the few seconds, she strips off her robe to reveal an extremely shapely, formfitting multilayered pink frill swimsuit hidden beneath her plain white robe.

"So what do you think? I designed this one myself." Valentina proudly displays the rather risqué for Victorian times, short outfit that showed more upper body flesh than normally permitted in public. Or even private, for that matter, during this conservative era for clothing.

"It's quite lovely, Valentina." A designing fashionista herself, Elsa honestly admires her counterpart's fine stitch work of layered frills down many hued ombre lacing of the bathing suit's bodice, in – what else? – gradient hues of pink. They were set atop a long pair of stockings that were so thin and tight they melded with her bronze skin tone to look almost nude color, rather than the usual long, baggy pants females were required to be totally covered with on the public beach.

"Thank you, Elsa. I preferred my ideal design a little bit more than even the new latest beachwear I just ordered from Paris for this season. I tried to fix it up to be more stylish after it arrived, but the colors just did not suit my complexion at all. But it will do yours well, I'm sure!" In a flurry of excitement, Valentina whips out of her canvas beach bag a pale blue and purple trim striped, right off the French presses, paletot dress and Turkish pants set made of a heavy flannel fabric that was considered quite stylish and daring for ladies of the time in fashionable Paris.

"Why do you laugh?! We're going to hit Ipanema beach and spend the most breathtaking time of day to visit! I wouldn't invite you to anything less than a little bit more than our most brilliant scenery, my darling friend!" The young woman effervescently bubbles over, grasping her cool friend's pale hands in her dark bronze ones.

"I've been dying to show someone – before Alonsy sees it, that is – my newest beachwear creation I designed for our honeymoon! Scandalous, isn't it?" Valentina wiggles her curves to display all of her suit's well-formed layers. Not to mention all her own finer points, back and front, in this pink one-piece dyed wool swimsuit that portrayed a series of frills in all the right places for some decency of Victorian sensibilities.

"Let's run through the sands in our bare feet and go wading in the morning sea water before the noontime heat sets in! I want to show you every stunning nook and glorious cranny of my fantastic beachfront before we have to go and start to get ready for the wedding ceremony later, okay? You don't think me a crazy nut, do you? But sometimes I feel like I want to run and be 'free to have fun', just as Alonsy says!" Like a little girl shivering with raw excitement and anticipation for her life-changing day to start right, with a fair amount of anxiety mixed in, Valentina whirls Elsa around until they were giggling girls plopped on the beach.

"I think you're a lot, in this manner, like my sister Anna." Elsa murmurs in between dizzy swivels, comparing Valentina's sudden springiness and impetuosity to her energetic younger sibling. "I know she will be brokenhearted to not have run barefoot on the shores of your beautiful beach on this amazing day with us."

"Well, maybe next summer your pretty little sister Anna can visit, too. Speaking of pretty… Here we are! You can change into this one in there!" Valentina points to the little wooden building called a 'cabana' that her father had built along the dunes at his beachcomber daughter's request.

"I can't wear this in public!" The risqué clothing was no shocker to the trendy Ice Queen. However, Elsa found Valentina's bathing suit choices – while indeed chic and stylish – hardly appropriate for the female attire of the conservative era they lived in.

"Don't be silly! We're not in the public eye here. Elsa! Not just anyone is allowed to traipse upon my private Ipanema beach that Papai had long ago sanctioned off from the other beachfronts. So no one can see us here because they're not allowed to cross from nearby Copacabana. So you and I can feel totally free and unrestricted here! Come on! I dare you to get into that sleek swimsuit, Elsa of Arendelle! I will show you, my pale snowbird, how much fun it is to be a seagirl on the beaches of Ipanema!" Valentina declares boldly until Elsa's uncomfortable frowning face puts a damper on her free spirits.

"Please, Elsa? This is my last chance to feel free as an unmarried single woman. I've always wished I could have a little sister, and today, you're just about the closest I'll ever have to one! After all, we're both so gorgeous, the sisterly resemblance is a little bit more than remarkable!" Showing off her poised side, Valentina teases and wheedles, tugging at Elsa's demure and traditional night dress and robe.

"Well…" Like her younger sister Anna, Elsa was having a difficult time saying 'no' to this insistent young woman who had apparently adopted her unofficially as a sibling.

"You want me to wear this?" Elsa holds the daring bathing dress ensemble that Valentina had already cut off the sleeves of and shrunk the bodice to show off her desired neckline, besides making several slits up the long heavy peplum, for more flexibility, of course.

"I'm sure your tall, elegant height can pull off this look stunningly! If you're shy to change under the open blue, just go in that little cabana I use to change from my wet clothes after swimming when others are present on the beach." Obviously not of the shy variety heself, flashy Valentina links Elsa into the small movable house on the beachfront, where ladies of taste were permitted to change from their wet beachwear in virtual privacy.

"But as I rarely invite anyone but important visitors to share my private beach, I often strip down to my birthday suit right here in the sand. It's quite glorious really. I wonder what my dream Prince will think of that..." The young Brazilian woman's muffled voice seemed at ease in the cool of Elsa's presence as she enjoys teasing her friend with some scandalous talk through the door that made Valentina feel more herself.

"Elena said she may drop in a little later for that walk if she could get rid of the noisy baby and leave it to her husband…ehhh…Dave, is it? Poor woman has lost her divine hourglass figure after those half-dozen brats he's saddled her with! How about you, Elsa? What's your game plan concerning children? I'll be sure to take precaution to make sure what happened to Elena, does not happen to me. Thank goodness Alonsy doesn't seem keen on having a large family. What will be the fun of that?! All those noisy mouths to feed." Into a small window hole in the wooden door of the cabana on the beach, self-centered Princess Valentina practically shoves the lavender scrunched up Parisian chapeau (hat) that was part of the French bathing attire of the rejected swimsuit she had bequeathed to Elsa.

"Well…Hans does come from an especially large family of thirteen boys…" Elsa shivers at the frightening idea of motherhood herself.

I'm already terrified for Anna! I haven't considered if it is even possible a notion for my unique physicality…

Closing her eyes tight, the Ice Queen does what she did best with unwanted situations –she conceals them from herself with a put-out-of-your-mind headshake.

"Ooh, I wouldn't want anyone else to see me like this!" Inside the restrictive little cabana, the Queen of the Winter changes the discomfiting subject as she fashions a full-length mirror out of her ice magic so she could see her reflection in the latest Parisian style of beachwear.

"Maybe a few of your ice creative changes will help make it wearable. I couldn't do a thing with it, but I bet you can!" Valentina converses through the door with the artistic Ice Queen, who magically makes some cutting edge lifts and alterations to the old-fashioned garb.

"But what if some of your early rising guests look out their window? Or even worse—happen by and see us swimming? I would be so embarrassed if he saw me in this…" Shy Elsa speaks through the door even as she was cryokinetically altering some of the modest blue and purple striped paletot bathing suit bagged around her slender form with some of her more eye-pleasing flair.

"Don't be silly, darling! What self-respecting royal dignitary would be up at the crack of dawn trolling this secluded section of my lonely beach, where only seagulls dare visit?" Valentina comments drolly with a scoff.

Until, upon gazing across the said beachfront she catches sight of something incoming that was rather unwelcome.

"Eca! (Yuck!) That is the ugliest bird I have ever seen on this beachfront! Go away, you hideous thing! My friend and I are trying to change in peace!" Valentina suddenly shrieks from where she had been seated on a beach chair by the cabana waiting for Elsa. She had spotted a white and gray, orange-billed seagull careening haphazardly towards her pristine seashore edge.

"Wait! Are ugly birds bad luck at weddings?! Or are they good omens?!" The Paraiso Princess pauses in her waved arm fury at the backing off large winged bird, her special herbal sunblock oil splashing all over her flawless bronze skin that was visible under her frilly pink one piece.

"I've heard that spiders and toads are good luck, and rabbits and dogs are bad omens if they cross your path on your wedding day. But I don't remember what was said about seagulls!" Valentina starts to freak out over the superstitious marital tradition she mildly subscribed to.

"Who invited this big clumsy birdbrain to my wedding anyway?!" Valentina's voice goes all scratchy and hoarse as she panics over the wedding day bad/good fortune superstitions. Several of her older lady guests had tried to impress the myths upon the uptight young bride-to-be during the previous day's wedding rehearsal at the church.

"Shoo! Begone! Get out of here! We don't want your kind, bird!" Valentina yells out in a frantic, caterwauling nature, clapping her hands up and down as she rushes along the seafront.

The startled Laridae takes to his wings and clumsily flies backwards towards the sea at her unwelcoming passion.

"Calm down Valentina! You're making your voice raw again! There are no such things as bad luck omens! I'm sure it's a perfectly normal bird—" Just glimpsing the fleeing tail feathers in a squint toward the ocean, Queen Elsa hurries from the cabana in her very much aurora borealis and magic ice altered bathing suit she'd just completed.

While her legs had opted to remain all but bare, the Ice Queen's cryokinetics left a smooth thin verglas encasing that served like a thin nylon over her exposed appendages. That pale bluish hue gave her tall, long-legged body form a cool sleekness.

Which was quite a change after the original heavy fabric French beachwear had almost been totally transformed into artistically ice shredded ribbons to more flatteringly free her legs for swimming.

On the stark bands of blue on the suit's long puffed pants, the Arendelle Queen had created ice rosette streamers rather thin stripes that more flatteringly tasseled over Elsa's shapely hips and thighs.

As for the past the hip line paletot dress's restrictive bodice, it now sported a lovely shirred lace shoulder overlay. The icy capelet attractively complimented the pale shoulders of Arendelle's Queen, with frosted blue chiffon icicle ribbons crisscrossed enticingly around her slender torso where the purplish neck revealed her pale cleavage.

The whole ensemble was so delicately balanced in a cascade of striped blue and lilac petals that it gave an image somewhere between a modest violet and an iris in full bloom.

Either way, Elsa of Arendelle certainly knew how to show herself off, in sleek icy style.

"But…I don't know if I dare to go swimming in public like this, Valentina! What would Minister Kai and other people say to Papa if he saw me gallivanting like this, so immodestly, on some foreign shore?" Elsa bites her rosy lip as the Paraiso Princess smiles approvingly at her usually timid friend bravely showing it all off in the silently transformed for the better Parisian beachwear.

"If I were you, I'd be more interested in hearing what your studly Prince Hans would have to say about it –" Just as Valentina was trying to coax her self-conscious pale friend to step out with her into the fresh morning tide, a strange sound comes from above the brightening ocean horizon.

WHZZZ!

"Elsa! Sweetie! Nice gams, ladies! Can you introduce me to your comely friend? Whoa-oh-ooh! I like a gal with a deep tan!" A familiar voice calls out through the sky flirtatiously before Scuttle the traveling seagull's radar goes haywire.

"It's back! That repugnant fowl has returned to curse my wedding!" Tense Valentina cries out nonsensically, waving her arms and hat up in the air at the astonished bird squawking above her absurdly.

"Mayday! Mayday! Seagull express force to ground control! Mayday! My tail rudder is flapping out of control! Whoa! Tailwinds are experiencing a downdraft! Work with me, retrices!"

WHACK!

"WALL! SQUWAKK!" A terrible screeching of squalling sound suddenly cries out across the daybreak drenched skyline a second too late.

KERSPLATT!

The distracted bird smacks into a protruding rockface, emitting gasped sounds before the white feathered seagull makes a disoriented nosedive towards the ocean.

Not knowing the ceiling from floor anymore, rather than pulling up his tail feather white and gray rudder, Scuttle goes straight down.

SPPLLASSSHHHH!

"Valentina, please stop! That's Anna's friend, Scuttle!" Elsa cries out loudly to halt her Brazilian friend's actions. She strains her eyes to look carefully upon the features of the klutzy white bird who had uncannily been turning up at every stop she made along this journey, just as he had promised the penpal delivery services for her and Anna.

Without so much as a second thought, Elsa forgoes her internal insecurity at publicly swimming in the pure blue ocean waters and kicks into super hero mode instead.

The Ice Queen takes a deep gulp of air as she runs in her bare feet across the dazzling sand fearlessly towards the incoming tide.

Facing her deepest fear of the unforgiving sea once again, Elsa rides against the waves on her ice slide towards the spot where she was sure she saw her friend the seagull plunge into the ocean.

"Elsa! Wait!" Valentina screeches in panic. But her voice was almost nonexistent again as her anxiety once again starts the rise.

"Scuttle!" Standing on the crest the frozen waves, Elsa desperately calls out the faithful gossip-gathering bird's well given name.

Her wide eyes wildly scan the mysterious waters below, as Elsa watches the helpful white seagull splash on the surface of the water. Unforgettable as a friend, Scuttle had selflessly helped them back in Norway before against that evil pirate Houtebeen. And now he had even selflessly volunteered his reconnoiter band of resourceful birds to shuttle messages back and forth between she and her dear sister Anna back home, while Elsa was on this mission far across the sea.

While it would have been an easy task for Gale to accomplish, Elsa – who had had little contact with any of the elemental spirits for the past few days – was glad for the dizzy seagull's reliability in the Wind Spirit's absence.

The Ice Queen instantly uses her cryo-powers to cut through the warm waters until she was just about to reach the sputtering and splashing bird. But to Elsa's horror, Scuttle's dizzy, waterlogged body starts to sink below the crashing waves and sink deep into the fathomless foreign sea…

Nokk! Where are you?! I need help in this sea!

SZZTT!

Though her sight was growingly clouded by her own loss of oxygen as she dived below again and again in search of the drowning bird, Elsa sends an ice tether down to take hold of the descending seagull when she finally spies his deadly descent beneath the waters.

But she is halted in saving the ungainly bird by someone else obviously having the same idea with another lasso made of glowing…kelp?

Elsa was relieved that Scuttle had been retrieved from sinking to the ocean floor and was thankfully being pulled up towards the surface by some unknown force.

Nokk? Is that you?

Her confused mouth tightly shut with her last gasped intake of air, the Ice Queen was reminded of flashes of the Dark Sea back home in the northernmost section of Norway and the struggles she had there to tame the mysterious uncontrollable waves.

Show yourself! Please…

But it wasn't looking as rosy for the platinum blonde Queen of the North Winter as her exhausted, thrashing body too starts to lose the battle and sink beneath the warm seas of Paraiso's stunning Ipanema Beach, with her friend and fellow elemental, the inscrutable Water Spirit nowhere in sight…

So Elsa's soul cries out for the most relied on, most beloved and most trusted othe half of her heart – her true love - to rescue her from these convoluted currents…

H-H-Hans…help me…

---

'Godnatt' - Goodnight in Danish

'drøm søtt' - Sweet dreams in Danish

'God natt min kjære, sov godt' – 'Good night my dear, sleep well' in Danish

Gaucho – (derogatory) Argentine cowboy

'Boa Noite' - good evening in Portuguese

Min ædle – my love in Danish

min kæreste - my darling in Danish

Min kjære- my dearest in Norwegian

Cidade Maravilhosa – 'Marvelous City' in Portuguese

caesuras luftpause – a momentary suspension of music, a break in interval meter in a symphony

---

Easter weekend greetings, Frozen Again friends!

The saga winds towards Helsa's wedding back in Springtime Arendelle! But first, Hans and Elsa are getting some wedding ceremony practice here in sunny Paraiso as they help Valentina and Alonso sort through to their anxiety-ridden wedding march!

This chapter takes us on a turn on the dazzling scenic beaches of Ipanema for some excitement that resulted in our Ice Queen once again in danger! Not again! What – or who - could be waiting in store for her beneath these South of the Equator waves on this supposed leisurely vacation? ^_^

And Nokk nowhere to be found because he's a little busy in Ahtohallan with another spirit woman of nature and an ice wielder who preceded Elsa in Enchanted Forest intrigue...

Stayed tuned for this romantic and dramatic 'Frozen Again: Love Never Ends' finish of Act 9 that promises to turn to Act 10 'Wedding in Arendelle' special!

God bless you as we embrace and hug close those we love for this most precious holy day, where Jesus selflessly gave us all the blessing of rebirth and eternal life. And through His pain and suffering came the miracle of unbelievable Love to wash away our sins and our pain and our suffering in this world with God's power of a Redeemed Hope for a wondrous brighter future of peace everlasting ahead.

I truly thank you for your support and kindness and friendship over the years for our shared imaginations. This is our story of true love and heartfelt redemption in happy endings for our fairytale friends Elsa & Hans, Anna & Kristoff, Rapunzel & Eugene and all the other great Disney characters we have come to love and soar alongside in our toughest times.

May you all have a blessed and safe Happy Easter, treasuring the precious fleeting moments with your loved ones to hold dear for a lifetime.

Love and prayers please, HarukaKou

---

'Down the Via de la Rosa, calle the way of suffering'. Like a lamb came the Messiah, Christ the King. And He chose to walk that road out of His love for you and me. Down the Via de la Rosa all the way to Calvary.'