He'd instructed her to get some sleep because the journey, from there on out, wouldn't be as *mild* (as if a tornado swallowing her up hadn't been *mild* already).

She couldn't though.

After the day's events—amazing, had it really been only a day?—sleep would just not come to her. It was as if all the lights in her head had been lit to their absolute brightest, and each of them shone in the ever fluttering of her eyelashes. Everything felt like a blur until then when she finally was able to catch up with her thoughts. And one such thought that stood above all else was how the white-haired man had come to join her in her quest.

How would that even go, she wondered.

Should she tell Anna? Well, of course; Elsa withheld no more secrets from her sister, not after what secrets did to them both in the past. She was just worried. Worried? Worried about what, you may ask. Did she still worry about Anna and what she would think of her if she told her?

No, nothing *too* drastic, but then again, somewhat. Elsa was just thinking of all the embarrassing things Anna could and *would* do whence she'd found out that Samantha would be travelling with them. The possibilities... made even Elsa shiver. She really didn't want to give him any more reason to dislike her, given the fact that he seemed to despise her enough as it is. If they were going to be travelling together then, for the sake of the mission, she had to have at least *some* semblance of professionalism with him.

Some of the lights behind her eyes dimmed at that thought that sleeping didn't feel too difficult a task anymore.

'He must really hate Arendellians for what we did,' she surmised but then thought better of it. Elsa tossed and turned in the cot she was *supposed* to be sleeping on. 'No that's not true,' She could hear it in the way he spoke about them earlier, 'he cares for my people.' Despite what had been done, he must have grown fond of the guards enough that even he wouldn't fault them wanting to see their families again. He actually sounded more sympathetic to their plight rather than vindictive.

But then that still left her with the question of why he was so cold towards her.

It shouldn't, but just the notion of him hating her hurt more than she would like to admit. Here was a person with abilities just like her; she knew it was foolish, but she couldn't help but expect that they'd have some sort of instant connection, but that would not be the case, it would seem. Despite feeling ecstatic meeting a person just like him, they were strangers to each other. It was understandable for him to have received her so harshly.

It was because they were strangers, right? It wasn't just her?

Then the troubled queen heard giggling, "Anna?" She asked, taking notice of the empty cot next to hers. With just the slightest pinch of worry, Elsa stood up to investigate her sister's whereabouts. The tension that tightened her shoulders went away, however, as soon as she parted the beaded curtains to her domicile and saw her sister talking to someone sitting on one of the rocky outcroppings that looked over the camp.

Worry gave way to intrigue, "Who on earth is she talking to this late?" Calculably, Elsa went to get a closer look. Their backs were towards her so they didn't see her approach, and as she got closer she could easily conclude that it was not Kristoff; the figure was far too slender to be the ice harvester, almost feminine in its silhouette. Then a moonbeam caught in the person's hair and she saw silver. Elsa's jaw dropped.

"So we were following this loooong piece of string, right, that wove aaaaaaall over Arendelle, and, along the way, there were these memento-type-things that momentized—not a real word, I know—the things we've been through together. Oh, oh! Not only that, but she also put together all my favourite stuff, like snacks!"

"You're sister sounds like she cares about you very much."

"Sh'yeah. You're telling me."

Elsa was frozen in morbid fascination of the conversation she'd never admit to having eavesdropped on. He sounded so gentle, not at all like the way he spoke to her but a few hours before. And although he was turned away from her, she could almost hear the smile in his voice; the mischief in his eyes.

The question: was it just her, was answered in that moment as clearly as the night sky she stood under. The answer? A disheartening yup, just her.

Seeing him and her sister talk so amiably, laughing at the smallest nonsensical thing, yet another emotion took hold of the queen, and it was the most boggling one of the night yet. It wasn't quite like anger, nor was it sadness. It was more a form of longing that mixed the two other emotions together to brew a concoction that burned and froze her at the same time.

Forgoing stealth, Elsa marched straight up to the pair. Why? An excellent question she asked her own person but did not care really for the answer at the moment.

"Anna."

Startled, Anna whirled around to see her sister wearing a stern but somehow unsure expression on her face. "Woah, Elsa, you're awake!" She smiled.

The line that was Elsa's lips thinned further as her eyes flickered between Anna and the white-haired man then finally settling on her sister meaningfully.

"Huh? Oh, right! Elsa, have you met-"

"—We've met."

Though her tone had been curt and without emotion, the way she stared down her new friend told her a different story. Anna passed it off as her sister just being overprotective again, but really she had nothing to be protective over.

Jack was just an absolute sweetheart!

"You have? Well then, that saves me the introduction," She chuckled. "Jack, you never told me you've met my sister. We've been talking about her, like, the whole night."

"Oh, so it's Jack?" Elsa interrupted his reply.

She kept her voice in that cool place between professional and indifferent, but even Anna knew that there was something more there. That something was starting to make her feel uncomfortable. "Uh, yeah. But," Anna gestured between the two with a finger, "didn't you say that you two have met already?"

"He never gave me his name," the queen deadpanned.

Anna could not miss the way her dear sister's azure gaze narrowed at Jack, almost as if she were accusing him using just her eyes. But Jack simply shrugged, oblivious to her frigid stare.

"You never asked."

Where Elsa had been professional, Jack was flippant, and Anna took a measured step back just so that she wouldn't be too much in the middle where her sister's stern gaze, now a glare, met Jack's challenging one, "Uuuh, should I leave?"

"Anna, a word," Abruptly, Elsa turned and walked a good few paces away.

The unfortunate princess was now beyond confused, "A word? Yeah. Um, yeah. We could- we could have some words, sure."

Elsa whirled around as soon as she heard her sister's footfalls stop just behind her, "Anna, do you know exactly who you were talking to back there?"

Anna glanced back, "Just Jack. Why?"

"And do you *know* who this Jack person is?"

Her shoulders bobbed in a shrug to demonstrate her lack of knowledge and hummed to that effect, "Should I?"

All Elsa had for a reply was to point her finger at her head.

"What?"

Elsa pointed again but that time with more emphasis.

"Yourrr... hair?"

"His hair."

"Whose hair?"

"*His* hair."

"Jack's hair?" Anna took a quick glance back at her friend.

"Yes."

"What about his hair?"

Elsa visibly shook with the effort not to groan out loud, "It is silver, Anna."

"OOooOoooo..."

Slowly, Elsa was nodding at her sister as if to coax out the epiphany moment from her beloved redhead-

"...And?

—only to be disappointed a second time. Elsa's eyes closed, face fell, and head bowed. A moment to breathe and compose herself was awarded the queen's as her hands formed small fists with which she used to mute clap in front of her forehead in barely controlled frustration. Unfurling her fingers slowly, she steepled them against her lips as if to pray but actually more to keep herself from screaming. "Anna..." She said her sister's name with infinite grace and patience, "that's Samantha."

*Gasp!*

"Whaaa-naw!" She glanced back again and Jack actually raised a brow at how many times she'd done a doubletake on him already. She gasped again, "It is! It *is* him!" She beamed as she turned back to face her sister, but at the same time, keeping her eyes on the mysterious boy, "Wait, but I can see him though, and oh does he look good! Not my bread and butter—a bit on the lanky side if you ask me—but you've got a good eye, sis, he fa-a-aiiiiine!"

"Anna, that's the same person that tried to blow us out of the forest!"

Anna paused as realization steadily trickled in like a loose tap into a metal bucket, "Heeey, you're right!" Anna looked back at Jack, but this time with a frown on her face.

First, she was smiling and the next looked like she wanted to hit him; Jack was getting a bit weirded out. The thought that he should probably leave crossed his mind.

"Hey, you!"

"Anna, what are you doing?!"

"I'm gonna give that punk a piece of my mind! Mess with my sister, will he!"

Elsa grabbed her sister's arm before she could storm off, "No, no! Wait, don't do that."

"But I thought you wanted me to!"

"No! I don't want you too!"

"If you didn't want me to then why the heck did you pull me all the way here for?!"

"I just- just ugh..." Elsa didn't know herself, that pesky, little, unnamed emotion making her thoughts all muddy and actions undignified, "All I'm saying is, don't hang around him too much. You know? Be careful."

"He should be the one that should be careful," Anna haughtily declared all the while giving Jack the stinkeye over her shoulder.

"Anna, please?"

Woah, woah, woah! What was that? Her queen did not beg. Anna focused on her sisters face more. In turn, Elsa avoided looking at her directly, her eyes never staying put on any one thing. 'No...' Anna thought before grabbing her sister's cheeks, smooshing them together and dragging her nearer for closer inspection, 'No!'

"Nooooo waaaay!" Anna's grin was not just ear-to-ear, it went past them.

"What?" Elsa was almost too afraid to ask.

"Elsa..." She staged whispered, "are you... jealous?"

That unnamed emotion, yeah, it had a name now.

"W-What? The queen all but squeaked. "N-No I am not!"

"Yes, you so totally am are, and this is your way of asking me to stay away from your boy!"

"He's not my- woh!" She tried to say before finding herself in a fierce hug.

"Oh, Elsa, you don't have to worry. I have Kristoff, remember? Besides," Anna pulled away with a sly gleam in her eyes, "if I *really* wanted to, I'd have had Jack eating out of the palms of my hands by now," she chuckled darkly, "you wouldn't stand a chance."

The blonde's eyes grew wide and blinked a few times as she looked at her red-haired counterpart, actually feeling a little threatened by her even with how vehemently she claimed to not be jealous.

"Kidding! I'm kidding! You should've seen your face," which Anna then preceded to mime with her own, "priceless," she wheezed as she wiped a stray tear from her eye.

"Not funny." Elsa deadpanned.

"It was to me- Anywho," Anna quickly injected before her sister could say anything, "the sky is no longer awake so I shouldn't be awake so I must bid you two adieu."

Elsa was watching her sister walk in the direction of their tent when something she had said tickled her curiosity. 'The sky isn't awake is her way of saying that the moon is not out, but it's the middle of the night...'

Where was the moon?

She gazed up where the moon should have been only to see the tops of a mountain she was so sure wasn't there moments ago. Then the mountain lifted its foot to bring down on her puny form.

"Watch out!"

Apologies for the long wait, and even bigger apologies for my rant yester-chapter. It was just my thoughts escaping me, not that I still don't think those things. Thank you for receiving my rant so graciously, however. I hope it did not turn you off to read the rest of my story.