Chapter 2 - The Snow Queen

The next day was Christmas day, of all days of the year. Jack knocked on Anna's door, still wearing his blue hoodie.

"Want to go ice-skating?" he asked, when she opened the door.

"Yes!" She clapped her hands together excitedly. "One moment." She disappeared a moment, then returned wearing her pink cape and fur-trimmed hat, blue mittens, and boots.

Jack carried two pairs of ice skates as they made their way to the frozen pond. He laced up Anna's skates for her.

"Come on, I'll teach you how," Jack said as he took Anna's mittened hand. He pulled her out onto the ice. She was soon gliding along on one foot, which was more than he could do. He speed-skated along side of her as she figure-skated. They went in a figure-eight, an eternity sign, around the frozen pond. Anna spun around in a pirouette, then stumbled slightly. Jack reached out his hands to grab her, and both ended up landing together in a pile of snow. Both laughed loudly.

"Oh Jack," Anna said, "will it always be like this?"

"I promise it will," he said.

"When will we get married?" she asked him, sitting in the snow with her arms around her skirted legs.

"Why not today? It's Christmas Day, after all," Jack said, his voice rising in excitement. "Go home and get dressed, then meet me at the church as soon as you can."

"Whatever you say, Jack, I'll do."

They returned to their houses and individual rooms. Jack glanced out his window but Anna's curtains were pulled shut. He changed into his best clothes, a long-sleeved white shirt and brown vest, with a warm brown cape over it. He looked at himself in his mirror, satisfied. Then he hurried downstairs and out the front door.

The quickest way to the church, he thought, would be to cross the frozen ice-skating pond.

He had crossed the pond half-way when the ice cracked.

Jack fell into the icy water with a splash. He wasn't afraid to die, if it came to that. He felt himself sinking downward to the depths, until a firm hand took hold of him and pulled him out.

He was dragged out of the water and up onto the ice, gasping for breath. He looked up at his savior to see a beautiful girl, a hard look on her face. She was dressed in a sparkling icy blue corseted gown and her white-blonde hair in a long braid.

"You could have died," she said with a cold frown.

"I'm not so sure I didn't," Jack said, gripping his heart and looking up at the girl. He didn't recognize her, yet she seemed familiar in a way. "You saved me."

"I couldn't just let you die," the girl replied matter-of-factly. "Come here. You must be cold." She put a slender sheer-sleeved arm around him. "Come with me."

She led him to a white-painted sleigh on runners, parked in the snow beside the pond. The sleigh was pulled by a horse, or a horse-like creature. Jack had heard stories of the Nokk, the water-horse who was said to live in the pond, but had never seen it before. The Nokk pulled the mysterious maiden's sleigh.

She guided him to the sleigh, but he gave her a hand to help her step into it, then followed her. He shivered from being wet and cold. Again she put her arm around him. "Are you cold?"

"No, not me," he said. "I'm Jack Frost, after all."

"Here, I'll make you feel warmer." She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "There, now you won't feel the cold anymore."

Jack blushed blue from the cold. "Where's Anna? The church, the wedding-"

"Anna?" the girl repeated icily. "I'm afraid you didn't make it in time."

"I'm sorry," Jack said to her. "You saved my life though. I should be grateful to you."

Jack stared at the ethereal maiden, stunned by her beauty. She seemed to sparkle like light on the ice. The girl leaned in and gave him a second kiss, this time on the lips, long and lingering. "There, now you won't remember anything either."

"What's your name?" Jack asked.

"Elsa," she said. "I'm the Snow Queen."

"I'm just Jack," he replied.

"Jack Frost," Elsa teased. "Just a normal boy. Or, you used to be. Come with me to my ice palace, where we can live like royalty, with no one to tell us what to do."

Jack was mesmerized by her icy blue eyes. Everything he had planned to do that day was completely forgotten. "I'll go with you," he said at last.

"Up the North Mountain!" Elsa called to their steed, the Nokk. "To the ice palace."

The Nokk pulled the sleigh into motion, snow flying in waves around them. Jack curled up next to Elsa, their arms around each other to keep each other warm.

After a long ride out of Burgess and up the North Mountain, they arrived at the Snow Queen's ice castle. Jack entered and stared around him.

"Whoa," he said. He was taken aback by the grandeur. "I could get used to this."

He saw a glimpse of his reflection in an icy wall, and was startled. His brown hair had turned white! A hand flew up to his head. When, why, had his hair turned white?

Elsa stood behind him, meeting his eyes in the icy mirror.

"What's happened to me?" Jack asked in confusion.

"When I kissed you on the cheek, your hair turned white from the snow," Elsa explained. "When I kissed you on the lips, I froze your heart. You turned into a winter sprite, invisible, visible only to me and others who believe."

"And if you kissed me again?"

"You've been kissed by the cold. Your heart is frozen. I can kiss you now whenever I want," she teased with an icy smile on her lips.

"Now I really am Jack Frost," the boy said confusedly.

"But you get to live here, in my ice castle!" the girl said, throwing out her arms and genuinely smiling. "Like a prince!"

But there was something Jack had nearly forgotten, in the back of his mind. He saw a magical reflection on the icy wall, of someone who wasn't there. . . a girl, with hair in two braids, rosy cheeks, and a plaintive, heart-warming smile.

"Anna," Jack breathed, staring at the icy image. "I remember Anna!"

"Who?" Elsa demanded, turning around to face him.

"My . . . sister," he said, for lack of a better word.

Elsa stared at the pink-caped girl in the icy mirage, her brows furrowed, seemingly staring at her own reflection, one that didn't match up. "And do you love her?" she asked dangerously coolly.

"More than anything," Jack answered, staring at the face in the ice.

"More than the whole world?"

"More than anyone else could know."

Elsa fumed, clenching her fists tightly at her sides and stamping her slippered foot in frustration. "But what if you never see her again? Never?!"

"I know I will," Jack answered, still staring at Anna's reflection. "Even if it takes forever."

"Well there just might be a first time in forever," Elsa taunted him. "You can tell me what the word 'forever' means!" She threw her swirling veil around her, causing snowflakes to go flurrying like a blizzard. Jack held up a hand and, to his surprise, formed a snowflake above his palm.

"Love lasts forever," he said lowly.

"This winter can last forever, for all I care!" Elsa cried.

Jack winced and held a hand underneath his brown cape to his heart, feeling it encased in ice. He could feel his heart was frozen. But it was still his heart.