The Winter Servant

by Elphaba818

Jackson Overland was born a servant in the Arendelle castle, and he does a good job. The only problem? His uncontrollabe ice and snow powers. On the night of Queen Elsa's coronation, he accidentally sets off an eternal winter throughout the kingdom and runs away. But his little sister, the new queen, and some new royal friends are on a mission to bring him back home. RotBTFD story.

3. The Open Gates

Here it is, everyone! Chapter three! I managed to shock myself with getting it uploaded today, the day that classes start up for me again at college. I'm hoping that I can continue to post chapters at least once a week, but again, no promises. This is going to be a brutal semester for me, what with how my schedule is arranged. It's necessary, I know, but it's still going to be brutal... T_T

This chapter was technically finished last night, but I figured I would just post today. Why, you all ask? Why, so you all wouldn't sleep right through the update notification, of course! I wanted you all to see the notification that the story was updated instead of sleeping right through it, lol! I hope you all like this next chapter! We're getting to see how Rapunzel, Merida, Hiccup, and necessary supporting characters from their respective movies that all have roles to play in this story are introduced in this AU world of Frozen. I hope I did justice to all their characters!

Once again, this chapter has yet to be critiqued by Silken Danser, but she'll get back to me soon with all her edits! Until then, please ignore all the typos and grammar mistakes. They will all be corrected very soon!

And now, let me move on to thanking the five people who were kind enough to review chapter two:

- Cloud4012

- XYZArtemis

- Elena

- NotCanadian

- Fangirl309

Thank you all so much for taking the time to express what you think of the opening chapters of The Winter's Servant! You have no idea how happy it always makes me to see new review alerts in my email inbox! Now please leave more wonderful reviews at the end of this chapter! Pretty please? It would mean the world to me if you would!

Please note: I do not own the movies Frozen, Rise of the Guardians, Brave, Tangled, or How to Train Your Dragon. Frozen, Brave, and Tangled belong to Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Rise of the Guardians and How To Train Your Dragon both belong to Dreamworks Animation. This is a fanfic made for fun, not profit!

Again, please be sure to review when you are done reading! Every time I read a new review, I am inspired to keep writing! :D

EDIT:

As of 2/9/17, this chapter has been edited by my beta reader Silken Danser. Other than a few tweaks here and there with grammar mistakes, pretty much everything is still the same.

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Chapter Three: The Open Gates

Three years.

It had been three years since the premature deaths of Arendelle's cherished monarchs, King Agnar and Queen Idun. The common folk had spent weeks mourning the loss. Although the king and queen had seemingly decided on a whim to close off the gates many years ago and chose to keep to themselves, they had still been good and fair rulers to the country and the people still adored them. Their deaths hit them just as hard as it had hit the monarch's two daughters, the Crown Princess Elsa and Princess Anna, and for the past three years, the country had wept daily for their beloved king and queen.

But all that was about to change.

Because on this lovely, perfect summer morning, every citizen in Arendelle was abuzz as they partook in the joyous news that today was the start of their small Norwegian country's chance to begin a new again.

Because late in the winter, the Crown Princess Elsa had officially turned eighteen.

And today, she would finally claim the birthright passed down to her by her late father to be crowned as the new queen.

Today was Princess Elsa's Coronation Day.

All the peasants that lived in the capitol city were so excited at the prospect of simply being alive at the time of the coronation of a new monarch, but more importantly, the citizens of Arendelle were thrilled at the news that the palace gates were finally going to be open again after being mysteriously closed for the past ten years by the previous monarchs. Rumors had spread throughout the kingdom from the castle servants who occasionally ventured out to bring back supplies to the castle. The story was that neither Princess Elsa nor Princess Anna knew why their parents had chosen to isolate the kingdom all those years ago, and the employees that gossiped with the other citizens were clueless about the matter, too. But the workers all assured the curious peasants that the gates being opened again for the coronation was definitely not going to be another one-time thing as it had been for King Agnar and Queen Idun's memorial service several years prior.

No, upon the orders of their queen-to-be, Princess Elsa, the gates were to be permanently opened from now on.

Whatever reasons that her parents had in deciding to isolate the castle from both the people in their country and from other neighboring nations that Arendelle was allied with, Elsa did not share in those reasons.

She wanted the royal family of Arendelle to be welcoming to both the small folk and other royalty once again.

Speaking of other royalty, many visiting sovereigns from neighboring countries had come via grand and luxurious ships to witness this magnificent event – the coronation of a new Norwegian queen. It seemed as though every important noble in all of northern Europe had come to pay their respects and well wishes to Elsa and her younger sister Anna on this iconic day. The youngest prince of the Southern Isles had come as a representative, and the Land of Weselton had sent a duke, but the announcement of three particular ships with country leaders coming to the coronation was what everyone was talking about.

Although the first of those ships wasn't all that surprising, considering that the royals aboard the vessel were well known to be relatives of the Arendelle royal family.

"So, this is Arendelle? The country you were originally from, Mother?"

"Yes, Rapunzel. I grew up in the castle with your late Uncle Agnar before I married your father."

"Best decision that she ever made, in my opinion."

"Frederic!"

"It's true, dear! I'm lucky to have you as my wife!"

"I'm glad that you both love each other, your majesties, but can we hurry up and get through the village to get inside the castle? I'm pretty sure all the townsfolk here recognize me!"

"Eugene! If I have to pull out my trusty frying pan from all my luggage, I will! Have some patience, please! This is my first time visiting my mother's country! Give me an opportunity to look around!"

There was the sound of a particularly angry neighing from a certain white horse and the furious chittering of a tiny green chameleon riding on top of the said horse's head as they glared at the twenty-four-year-old man that was escorting their mistress through the main city square. A select number of royal guards, all dressed up smartly in professional red military suits, were accompanying the small group of royals alongside the horse and small chameleon, and although a few of them were sending the young man some snide looks, they mostly kept silent as they circled around the four royals they were sworn to protect as they strolled through the city to reach the Arendelle castle.

They were the Coronan royal family – King Frederic, Queen Arianna, the former Lost Princess Rapunzel, and soon-to-be Prince Consort Eugene Fitzherbert, as he was technically engaged to Rapunzel.

The king and queen were both brunettes. Arianna pinned part of her hair back a bit so it was out of her eyes but still flowed loosely down her back and Frederic had a heavy brown beard that took up most his chin. While Frederic had crystal blue eyes that went well with the deep blue overcoat he was sporting, Arianna's were a bright shade of emerald green that were sparkling happily as she looked around fondly at the old village she remembered spending time in as a child. She chose to wear a beautiful light purple gown that made her look both elegant and wise, and as the reigning monarchs of Corona, the king and queen both had solid gold crowns on top of their heads. They also shared one more trait in common: sun jewelry. The sun was the symbol of the royal family of Corona, and while Frederic had a rather heavy golden sun amulet around his neck, Arianna chose to wear a simple pearl necklace with a sun pendant attached.

They were a kind royal couple, the Coronan king and queen, and while most of the older generation of peasants were pleased to see that their former princess was doing well and was obviously happy with her husband, most of the common folks' attention was on that of their daughter, the famous former Lost Princess and cousin to their queen-to-be and current princess.

Princess Rapunzel was indeed a vision of loveliness. At eighteen-years-old, the same age as her cousin Elsa, she had the same light dusting of freckles across her nose just like both of her cousins whom she had never met, clear and fair-colored skin with a natural soft shade of pink on each of her cheeks, and pretty green eyes just like her mother Arianna and the deceased King Agnar. She was dressed very regally for the coronation of her relative in a gorgeous, long-sleeved purple dress with pink accents and a lavender corset-like top that was laced with pink ribbon. The purple skirt was decorated with swirling floral designs in other shades of pink, dark purple, and even white. On her head was her royal tiara, solid gold just like her parents, but with three tear shaped diamonds in the exact center of it, each one lined by miniscule white pearls, and near the base of the golden band were rubies that glinted red in the sunlight. Around her neck, she wore the royal crest of her family just like her parents: a simple pearl necklace rather like Queen Arianna's, but with a somewhat smaller golden sun pendant attached.

She was undeniable beautiful, there was no question about that.

But her hair?

That was what really attracted everyone's attention to her.

Everyone knew that Rapunzel had been born with blonde hair instead of brown like both her parents, because of the magical golden healing flower that Queen Arianna had ingested during the last stages of her pregnancy after falling ill, so that wasn't at all a surprise. But no one had been told about the length it would be when they saw her. Rapunzel's hair had to be bound up in a rather tight braid to keep it from dragging behind her on the ground, and several beautiful strands of pink and purple ribbons had carefully been woven into the clever up-do to add an extra pizazz. Many people watching the Coronan royals pass through the square couldn't help but whisper curiously amongst themselves about her hair as they speculated on just how long it had to be when it was not braided up as it was.

She was definitely a curiosity, the former Lost Princess of Corona, make no mistake about that.

As Rapunzel walked through the square, she had her elbow linked with that of her fiancé, Eugene Fitzherbert, who also happened to be her rescuer from the evil woman who had kidnapped her as a baby. Eugene was of average height and build for a fair skinned man in his mid-twenties, with short dark brown hair and a matching shock on his chin that made up his goatee, and rather light brown eyes. Like his fiancé and future royal in-laws, he wore the royal color purple and sun sigil in his attire: a rich purple jacket with black sleeves trimmed in gold, matching black pants and boots, and around his neck was a golden sun amulet very similar to King Frederic's.

That being said, while his fiancé Rapunzel was sweet and bubbly, and his future in-laws King Frederic and Queen Arianna were kind and wise, Eugene Fitzherbert was cut from a whole other cloth all together. Having been originally born a peasant and orphaned at a very young age, Eugene had spent most of his childhood in a poorhouse learning from other, meaner kids that if he wanted anything in this world, he'd have to cut through the nose to get it, and that led the boy to grow up to become a rather arrogant, but still rather devilishly charming master thief. That's not to say that he wasn't a good person though deep down. Before he had chosen to run away from the hellhole of an orphanage, back when he was around thirteen, he had often comforted the younger, nicer kids by reading his favorite children's book to them every night: The Tales of Flynnigan Rider. There was one kid in particular he had always been rather fond of and tried to protect from the rest of the bullies, but remembering him was always painful for Eugene, so he tried to avoid thinking about him as much as possible.

At any rate, in the picture book, Flynnigan Rider was a rich swashbuckling rogue who went on great and thrilling adventures wherever he went, and he wasn't too bad at charming the ladies, either.

And for a kid with nothing, like poor orphaned Eugene Fitzherbert, a life like that seemed like a much better prospect to aim for.

Aiming for the rather selfish dream of being just like Flynnigan Rider by trying to become as wealthy as possible, Eugene had taken to being an infamous thief in Corona, going by the alias of his childhood hero: Flynn Rider. It wasn't until three years ago, back when he was twenty-one, that his outlook on life began to change, and all because he had the audacity to steal the Lost Princess's crown from right under the noses of the Coronan monarchs and the royal guards .He had, by pure chance, happened to stumble upon a certain lonely fifteen-year-old girl with the longest blonde hair imaginable, who had been locked away in a hidden tower all her life, and strangely kept a pesky green chameleon for a pet. Upon meeting Rapunzel, and in helping her to achieve her own dream to see the Coronan Festival of Lights that happened every summer on the Lost Princess's birthday – her birthday – Eugene had gradually cast aside all his initial dreams of riches and glory and instead replaced it with spending the rest of his life with the girl he had fallen in love with. Of course, when it was discovered that Rapunzel was the famous Lost Princess that everyone had been searching for relentlessly over the past fifteen years, Eugene had naturally taken Rapunzel and the stolen crown back to the king and queen for a long overdue reunion and to reclaim her throne.

He had long since stopped thieving after that life-changing adventure and went back to his birth name of Eugene Fitzherbert as he started officially courting Rapunzel. Despite the six year age gap between the couple, Rapunzel and Eugene were very happy together. So happy, in fact, that after three years of being romantically involved, Eugene had officially proposed to her, and Rapunzel had happily said yes.

But if anyone asked, Eugene would always claim that it was Rapunzel who had been begging him to marry her for the past few years and that he had been the one to finally say yes.

Eugene was definitely a better person now after having met Rapunzel, but there was still a few remnants of the old cocky Flynn Rider in him, after all.

As the visiting Coronan royals wove their way through the village square, the former thief kept his head bowed and his eyes staring directly down at his feet, trying to avoid making eye contact with any of the townsfolk, but the princess smiled and waved happily to everyone she saw as she squeezed her fiancé's arm encouragingly.

"You know, Eugene, I know that you're always afraid of what people will think when they see you, because you used to steal for a living, but I think you tend overthink things a bit. Especially right now!" Rapunzel exclaimed.

Eugene glanced up to give his future wife a sheepish smile. "What makes you say that, Blondie?" he asked.

"Well, you look just like how you did three years ago, when you were sneaking around the village in Corona with me for the lantern festival because you stole my crown and were avoiding the guards!" the blonde-haired, green-eyed beauty giggled.

Queen Arianna laughed at the comparison her daughter made, but nonetheless nodded in agreement. "I agree with her, Eugene. You are acting unusually skittish today. Are you perhaps worried about what the people might think about your past?"

"Uh… well, yeah. Kind of…"

King Frederic heartily chuckled as he gave his future son-in-law a friendly thump on the back. "I wouldn't worry too much about that. Arianna was originally a princess from here, and she was well loved. You helped restore our daughter, their former princess's daughter, back to the throne. They are just as indebted to you for bringing Rapunzel home to Arianna and me as the townsfolk back home are."

Rapunzel nodded, and gave his arm another affectionate squeeze. "See? There's nothing to worry about. Come to think of it, I never thought the day would come where I would end up being the confident one in a new setting and you would be the one that's scared and nervous…"

That earned a nicker of what was obviously amusement out of the snow-white horse accompanying the party and another chittering of laughter out of the green chameleon that was still riding on top of its head.

Eugene glared spitefully at the two animals. "I swear, those two just hate me…" he grumbled in irritation.

"Maximus, Pascal? Be nice!" the princess gently scolded.

The horse blew some of its mane of white hair out of its eyes, but otherwise did as he was told and made no further comment.

The chameleon shot one last glare at the soon-to-be prince consort, but then rolled its eyes before hopping down off the stallion's head and landing neatly on Rapunzel's shoulder.

Rapunzel giggled as she stroked its tiny green head. "Pascal! If you wanted to ride with me, you should have just said so! I would have put you here on my shoulder sooner!" she said cheerfully.

The little chameleon chirped happily at what his lifelong friend had said. Their antics seemed to snap Eugene out of his out of character funk, and immediately the somewhat nervous expression on his face melted away into a mischievous smirk.

"That frog of yours is so weird, Blondie. I still don't get why you kept him after all these years…" he teased.

Pascal the Chameleon shot him a glare, but Rapunzel playfully swatted his arm. "First of all, Eugene, Pascal has been with me ever since I was a little girl and still lived with Mother Gothel. Be nice to him. Secondly, he is not a frog. He's a chameleon."

"Nuance."

Rapunzel giggled at her lover's antics, but then turned her attention back to her parents.

"I can't believe that I'm finally going to meet my cousins Elsa and Anna! You both met them before, right, Mother, Father? What are they like?"

"Well… that's hard to say, because the last time we saw either of them was before your late aunt and uncle locked the castle gates exactly ten years ago," Frederic explained. "If I remember correctly… Elsa would have been about eight, I think, and I believe Anna was… five? Yes, five. They've obviously grown up a bit since then, so they may not be the same as they were when your mother and I last saw them."

"But they were definitely very sweet little girls," Arianna chimed in. "Elsa was acting like the perfect little lady and always had good manners. She looks a lot like her mother, come to think of it, what with her beautiful dark brown hair. And Anna? Anna was always the more playful one, running around and getting dirty whenever she had the chance. She takes more after my brother in her appearance, with her lovely strawberry-blonde hair… Oh, I wish we could have been able to attend the memorial service for Agnar and Idun three years ago. I still feel so guilty not being there to pay my respects to my brother…"

King Frederic gently patted his wife's shoulder to console her, and even Eugene had the decency to send her an apologetic look, but Rapunzel glanced sadly down at her feet when she heard those words. Guilt was eating her up inside.

"Mother? Do you think Elsa and Anna will hate me when we meet?" she asked in a small voice.

Instantly, all heads snapped at once to look at her. Even the royal guards accompanying them looked stunned.

"Rapunzel! What on earth gave you that idea?!" Arianna cried.

"Well… because Uncle Agnar and Aunt Idun died at sea on their way to officially meet me!" she explained. "I mean, I know it wasn't my fault, but… but I wouldn't blame Elsa and Anna if they resented me for the deaths of their parents…"

"Silly! It's all in your head, Blondie!" Eugene quipped, squeezing her arm a bit to emphasize his words and direct his fiancé's attention back to him. "I've yet to meet a single person that has ever hated you!"

"Eugene's right, Rapunzel," Frederic agreed, setting his hand under his daughter's chin and tilting her head to look at him next. "I'm sure Elsa and Anna have changed since your mother and I last saw them, but I am positive that they are both still kindhearted. I'm sure that they do not hold you in contempt for that unfortunate event."

"Just wait, Rapunzel," Arianna assured her. "I am sure that before the day is over, you will be friends with not only your cousins, but you'll make a few other friends with some other royals or nobles, too. I know that we're not the only royals to come witness your cousin's coronation. Lots of kingdoms have come to wish Elsa well in her reign as the next queen of Arendelle."

Rapunzel smiled. Her true family always seemed to know just what to say to cheer her up whenever she felt down, unlike Mother Gothel. Mother Gothel would always find a way to say good words that sounded nice but actually held disguised blades of malic, or she would figure out how to make the subject all about her instead. Her real mother and father were the most wonderful parents in the whole world, and she couldn't wait until she was officially Eugene's wife. He may not be the perfect prince charming, but she loved him anyway.

"I hope I can make lots of new friends, Mother! I really do!"

---

And indeed, the royal family of Corona wasn't the only royal family that had come to meet the new Norwegian queen. There were many other monarchs, nobles, and foreign dignitaries that were still leisurely strolling up to the castle or disembarking from their vast galleon ships at the city docks.

In the case of a certain minor Scottish country called Dunbroch, not only did the entire royal family come along with a few select guards and a couple of trusted servants, but so did the three most prominent noble clans.

"Merida, stop fiddling with your wimple! You'll make your curls fall out!"

"Mum! The wimple's so uncomfortable! Can't I just let my hair be loose?! I hate having it confined in this stupid headpiece!"

"Aye, Elinor! Our lass is the princess of Clan Dunbroch! She's proud of her red curls!"

"I know, Fergus, but those red curls of hers are too wild to tame otherwise! I couldn't pull it back into a nice braid no matter how hard I tried! The wimple is the only thing that will tame it! It's a coronation, after all! Our daughter has to look her best!"

"Hear that, boys? Our sister has to look—"

"—her very best!"

"Like a perfect, polite, and dainty princess!"

"Hamish, Hubert, and Harris! If you devils ever dare to call me a dainty and perfect princess again, I'll shove my arrows up your wee bums!"

"Merida! Boys! Behave yourselves! We're not in Dunbroch anymore and we need to make a good impression! Is that clear?"

"Fine."

"Yeah."

"Crystal clear."

"Yes, Mum."

"Ah, Elinor! Leave them be! The best relationships always have arguments! And better that they fight now rather than later today!"

"Yeah, Mum. Better you let us fight now rather than later. After all, Hubert, Harris, and I would rather have Big Sis tell us what she honestly thinks about stuff now rather than after she turns us all into bears again!"

"Hamish!"

"Hamish Dunbroch! If you don't behave there will be no sweets for a month! Now, apologize to your sister!"

"Fine. Sorry…"

Merida huffed as she shot one of her three younger triplet brothers an irritable scowl. Despite being the future queen of her country, Merida was not a typical everyday princess. Whereas other seventeen-year-old princesses liked to powder their faces in make-up, wear formal dresses at every occasion, and dreamed of living happily ever after with their perfect prince charming, the royal crown princess of Dunbroch was not at all like that. Make-up made her face feel heavy and she would often smear it by accident whenever she so much as touched her face, and wearing formal dresses, like the turquoise blue one with gold trimmings and matching belt she was forced to wear for today meant wearing a corset, something that she completely abhorred because it meant that she couldn't fire off arrows easily with her favorite bow.

And falling in love and getting married?

That was something that the red-haired girl had gone to great lengths to avoid having to do for a good long while late last summer, when her parents – primarily Elinor – had tried to marry her off to one of the three sons of the three other prominent clan lords in the kingdom. Granted, Merida's desire to change her fate of being forced into marriage led to her stupidly making a deal with a senile old witch, who gave her a cake that accidentally turned her mother into a bear, as well as her three little brothers. But it all worked out in the end though, because when Merida mended the strained bond between herself and her mother, she broke the spell that had been set upon her and turned her back into a human, and with the spell on Elinor broken, so was the spell on Hamish, Hubert, and Harris. After the whole fiasco, her parents had decreed that the three lord's sons had to win her heart before they could win her hand in marriage, and that had worked out just fine for Merida. At least that meant that she could have a few more years of enjoying her freedom before she had to worry about being married away again.

But right now, Merida was in a very bad mood. She was annoyed with her brothers for teasing her. Her head was aching from keeping all of her natural, long and curly red hair confined inside the dreadful wimple her mother had forced on her. She was struggling to breathe from how tight her corset had been laced up in this formal dress. And she had been expressly forbidden from carrying her prized bow and arrow set, and from standing beside her best friend, her horse Angus, while she and the rest of her family waited at the edge of the docks as the rest of their visiting party from Scotland disembarked from the other numerous ships that they had sailed here on.

But those were all secondary reasons as to why Merida was so short tempered at the moment.

The primary reason was because of the three Scottish noble lords and their sons that were hopping down off their own ships onto the gangplanks that the citizens of Arendelle had set up.

"Mum, Dad, was it really necessary for the other clans to follow us to this foreign queen's coronation?" she complained. "I thought we all agreed last year after the games that I was allowed to choose my own fate?"

Elinor sighed. "Merida, we agreed to let you break tradition and choose your own husband in time, yes, but as a princess, certain duties are still required of you, so you must eventually choose one of the lord's sons for a husband. But despite what you may think, it's not like your father and I requested your suitor's families to come with us to this coronation. They were invited by the future Queen Elsa herself because she heard that all four of our clans have been close allies and friends for years! She was only trying to be considerate and include all the nobility from our homeland."

The princess rolled her eyes at her mother, the queen. Merida and Elinor had never had much in common, not even in their appearances. While Merida had giant, untamable red curls, a light dusting of freckles, and deep blue eyes which she and her three seven-year-old brothers had all inherited from their father, Elinor was slender and fair-skinned, with caring brown eyes and brown hair with one gray streak in it that was so long, it reached her ankles and was pulled back several times in multiple gold hair ties. She pulled off the look of royalty so well, what with her gorgeous emerald green long-sleeved dress with the gold chains looped around her waist, and the simple gold tiara on her head adorned with lovely jade gemstones. Where Merida was a tomboyish, headstrong, and free-spirited teenager that loved adventure and was fearless in the face of danger, Elinor was an elegant, strict, and wise queen that strived for perfection in everything. Up until last year, the two never saw eye-to-eye on things, especially after Elinor had tried to force Merida to accept the destiny that royalty entailed by arranging the three noble clans' sons to try and win her daughters' hand in marriage through the annual Highland Games. After the whole ordeal of accidentally turning the queen into a bear, which required the mother and daughter to work together to break the curse, Merida and Elinor had been on much better terms with one another and tried to see things from each other's perspective.

But even so, they still didn't agree on everything.

Especially when it came to Merida choosing a suitor one day.

Merida rolled her eyes as she played a bit with the silver pendant around her neck, the engraving of her clan's crest etched into the metal: a mighty sword covered in vines, symbolizing the bravery and protection of the Dunbroch kingdom. She was the firstborn child of Clan Dunbroch. The daughter of Fergus Dunbroch, the man who had fought the demon bear Mor'du, and nothing her mother said could ever make her willingly contemplate the subtle hints that she always imposed on her to just give the idea of marriage a chance.

And definitely not when her only three marriageable options were the three lords' sons that were pushed on her at every social gathering.

Hamish, Hubert, and Harris all seemed to be able to guess what their big sister was thinking as she stood there trying to fight the urge to scowl as the guests from the other three clans finished disembarking and started marching toward where they were all waiting. The trio grinned at each other a bit before tugging on the shiny blue fabric of the skirt of her dress to get her attention.

"Merida, we like your suitors!"

"You should just pick one to marry and be done with it!"

"Choose the Macintosh heir! He's the coolest!"

Merida's eyes went wide at her younger brothers' teasing, but then the glower she had been fighting back spread rapidly across her face as she lightly smacked all three of them upside the head.

"Ow!"

"Hey!"

"No fair, Miss-Merry-Must-Marry!"

Merida's glare deepened when she heard the nickname. "One, do not call me Miss-Merry-Must-Marry, Harris! You know I hate that nickname! Two, the day I marry Ryan Macintosh, the same lad who threw a tantrum at the last Highland Games just because he couldn't shoot a perfect bullseye with a bow and arrow, will be the day that Maudie finally accepts the fact that you three wee devils are all but impossible to catch whenever you scheme to get sweets! And three, you boys were much better off when you didn't speak!"

Hamish, Hubert, and Harris just kept grinning cheekily in return, not at all put off by their big sister's words.

They were little trouble makers, the three princes of Dunbroch. Make no mistake about that.

Elinor shot all four of her children a pointed look of disapproval. "Enough! All of you! We are not back in the Highlands right now! Everyone in Arendelle is looking to us as the faces of our country! Behave yourselves! And remember to smile! The lords and their sons are walking our way!"

Hamish, Hubert, and Harris scowled irritably as they folded their arms across their small chests in perfect unison with one another, but Merida did as Elinor asked and forced her lips to turn upward into an acceptably polite smile.

There was only one reason why Merida was putting up a good front when it came to nicely greeting the lords and their sons as they disembarked right now, and why she had allowed her mother to squeeze her into this terribly uncomfortable dress and wimple.

If she played the part of a kind and well-mannered princess all throughout the coronation today and the grand ball planned afterwards tonight, her mother would pull some strings and politely ask the new queen if she, Merida, could be allowed to ride her horse Angus in the forest just outside the capitol city and shoot a few arrows with her bow. Not at any animals of course, as that would automatically be considered illegal poaching, but just at the bark of a few choice trees.

She had to keep her eyes on the prize.

One day of acting like a princess.

And then she could change her fate all over again by being herself out in the beautiful evergreen forest.

She could be a dutiful daughter and put up with all the stifling rules of high society for one day. And even if her mother hadn't promised to grant her this reward for being respectful at the new Queen Elsa's coronation, Merida would have still done her best to behave. After all, even though Arendelle had mysteriously locked its gates ten years back for reasons unknown to every neighboring kingdom, Dunbroch had still remained on good terms with them and had come all this way to continue offering the Norwegian country their hand in friendship.

She just had to be nice and charming with all the foreign nobles for one full day to make a good impression.

She could make it through one full day.

The clan lords, Lord Malcom Macintosh, Lord Duncan MacGuffin, and Lord Ewan Dingwall, strolled purposefully away from their ships with their sons and fellow clansmen following closely behind them. Just like Merida's family, the three noble lords and their sons were dressed in their best for this important event. They all wore the traditional tartan robes in their clan's color – Macintosh in red, MacGuffin in yellow, and Dingwall in light green – but what really took Merida aback for a moment was that Lord Macintosh and his son were not bare chested as they usually were with blue war paint covering their bodies, although there was still some painted on their faces. The tomboyish princess didn't understand at first why the father and son were not as they usually were, but then she realized that while being bare chested and covered in blue war paint was perfectly acceptable to greet her royal family back home in the Highlands, in a foreign Norwegian country, such an act would be considered a high insult to the new queen. No, just a small splash of blue paint on their faces was all that Lord Malcom Macintosh and his son could afford to do to remain in touch with their clan roots while here in Arendelle.

She was brought out of her musing when the three large groups finally reached her and her family and respectfully bowed to all of them.

"Your majesties, your highnesses," called out Lord Duncan MacGuffin. "Glad to see that you all arrived safely."

Fergus heartily chuckled as he slapped the bulging leader of the MacGuffin clan on the back in a friendly manner. "You as well! You as well! The four clans united again at the coronation of the new queen of our allied country Arendelle! This will make a great bard song one day, won't you agree?"

Lord Ewan Dingwall chuckled himself and shook a bit of his wiry white hair as he nodded. "Too true, your majesty! I think I speak for everyone here when I say that this will be a coronation to remember!"

Queen Elinor smiled kindly as she nodded to the white-haired lord of the Dingwall clan. "I'm sure the new Queen Elsa will agree with you, Lord Dingwall. And you all remember our children, I take it? Our daughter Merida, and our sons Hamish, Hubert, and Harris?"

Lord Malcom Macintosh let out an amused guffaw as he bowed down before the three princes and the princess. "Aye, aye! Who could forget the headstrong princess and her three mischievous younger brothers? And of course, allow us to present our own sons once again!"

He and Lord Duncan and Lord Ewan all gestured proudly to their sons standing beside them, and Merida had to fight the urge to roll her eyes and scoff when she saw them.

Ryan Macintosh, Alan MacGuffin, and Wee Dingwall were all but miniature copies of their fathers. Ryan was tall and rather athletic-looking, with wavy dark brown hair, blue eyes, and a large prominent nose. He was bowing exaggeratedly to Merida as he sent a haughty, seductive smirk her way, one that he apparently believed would impress her. But Merida was anything but impressed. Ryan was an egotistical and melodramatic ass that flirted with any lady possessing an ample chest and an hourglass figure. Like she had told her brothers, the day she fell in love with him would be the day their always nervous servant Maudie stopped trying to hide sweets from the triplets and just left them out in plain sight for them to find.

Alan MacGuffin, on the other hand, was just as tall and large as his father, but he did not possess the same thick blonde beard that Lord Duncan did. Instead he had a bit of stubble around his chin that he had yet to shave. His bright blue eyes were staring at Merida rather bashfully, as he was a rather shy and timid lad despite his enormous size. Merida just smiled politely and nodded to him when her eyes locked onto his. Personally, she thought he was the nicest one out of her three suitors. In his case, it was the fact that she couldn't understand half of what he said ninety percent of the time, since he always spoke in a traditional Doric dialect, that made her keep her distance from the MacGuffin heir.

And finally, there was Wee Dingwall… who was cut from a whole other cloth all together. He was the shortest one out of the three of them, and was lanky rather than muscular like Ryan and Alan. He had blonde hair that stuck straight up in the air like his father's, pale skin, a long thin nose, somewhat big ears, and his blue eyes were, as usual, not even really looking at Merida as he bowed to her. He always seemed to have this blank and vacant expression on his face that showed he was not completely together in the head. If Merida had not gone against tradition last year by going against her mother's wishes and competing in the archery competition in the annual Highland Games, she would be married to him right now, since he had initially won the games quite by accident before she stepped in. Thankfully though, that had not happened. She considered Wee Dingwall to be nice enough during the rare instances that he zoned back in to reality, but Merida honestly didn't know how she would have been able to live in this world if she had been forced to marry him.

Truth be told, the headstrong princess didn't know how she was ever supposed to pick from any of them eventually one day.

"Princess Merida! How lovely to see you again!" Ryan said with a sly undertone in his voice, going so far as to take hold of one of Merida's hands and kiss it as he winked at her. "Have you missed me?"

It took every bit of willpower that Merida had to not snatch her hand back and give the dark-haired heir to the Macintosh clan a good right hook to the eye. His attempts to charm her only succeeded in making her nauseated. "Hello, Ryan. I've been counting the days until I had to see your face again," she said with forced politeness.

That wasn't even a lie exactly. She had indeed been counting the days when she would be face to face with all three of her suitors.

Counting down the number of days she had left before she had to force herself to put up with Ryan Macintosh in particular, that is.

Ryan grinned at her response and opened his mouth to say more, but that was when the shy Alan MacGuffin timidly stepped forward and politely nodded to her.

"It's nice tae see ye again, Princess Merida. Hiv ye been brawly?" he said in a fast, nervous blur of traditional Doric as he gazed shyly at her.

No one in attendance, other than Alan's father, had the slightest idea as to what Alan had said to her, least of all Merida herself. But still, she forced herself to dip down into a small, acceptable curtsy as she smiled back.

"I've been well, thank you. And I hope you have as well."

A relieved, happy smile spread across Alan's face at her response. He had clearly been terrified that she might sneer at him for not speaking in normal, everyday English. Merida nodded to him once, and then turned her attention to Wee Dingwall so he could greet her properly next and they could all start their long march through the Arendelle village to reach the castle.

But to Merida's complete surprise, Wee wasn't even looking at her. His generally short attention-span was fixed on something out on the blue waters of the city fjord. The princess blinked, but then her expression became very fixed with suppressed rage. She knew Wee wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she never thought him to be rude enough to completely ignore her upon meeting her again.

To Merida's utter relief, she wasn't the only one there who was offended by Wee not even greeting her. Ewan looked confused, her father looked furious, and even her mother looked rather stony.

"Lord Dingwall? Is there some reason as to why your son is not greeting our daughter?" Elinor asked, her words level, but undeniably displeased by this turn of events.

Lord Ewan initially jumped, but just as he was about to try and direct Wee Dingwall's attention toward Merida and the rest of the Dunbroch royal family, Wee finally spoke up. But his words were not of a pleasant greeting. They were of both bewilderment and curiosity.

"I didn't know Vikings were coming to this coronation. Were you aware of this, Dad? Your majesties?" he asked, finally looking away from whatever he had been looking at across the fjord to stare quizzically at his father first and then at King Fergus and Queen Elinor.

His words took everyone standing there aback, and within seconds, all heads turned to look out at the fjord where he had been looking a moment ago. Sure enough, there were a few latecomer boats sailing across the fjord to reach the city docks.

Viking longboats.

It was impossible to make a mistake as to where the boats originated from thanks to the dragon carvings on the ships' bows, and the pictures of dragons sewn into the white sails.

Within seconds of this discovery, nearly all the Scotsmen standing on the dock were shouting out in an angry uproar. Even Merida was boiling mad. Vikings were coming to this coronation? Vikings?! Her country's sworn enemies?! How dare the new Queen Elsa toy with her people's political dispute by inviting bloodthirsty, horrible Vikings here to bear witness to this event when they, the good and faithful allies of Arendelle, who had never once raised a sword against the Norwegian country, were already coming to wish her well! Oh! When she got her hands on her bow, she would—!

"No one is to do to anything in regards to the Viking visitors."

Merida snapped out of her train of thought as her head and the heads of all the other clansmen quickly whipped around. Her mother had her authoritative queen's face on right now as she gazed rather seriously at everyone, silently letting everyone standing here on the dock know that there would be serious repercussions if anyone dared to disobey this order.

"Mum?"

"Elinor?"

"But Mum—!"

"They're Vikings!"

"Evil and murderous—!"

Elinor merely raised her hand, and the confused murmurs from her daughter and husband and the angry protests from her three sons were all immediately silenced. When Elinor Dunbroch tapped into her queenly mode, she could command an entire armada to listen to her without so much as batting an eye.

"No one," she said in such a deadly whisper, none of them dared to look away from her as she spoke, "is to do anything in regards to the Viking visitors. Do not antagonize them in any way, and should they antagonize any of you, do not fall for their taunts. We are guests here in this country, and we will act respectfully to Queen Elsa's guests for her coronation. Should it be discovered that anyone here tried to provoke a fight with the Vikings during the duration of our stay here in Arendelle, he or she will answer directly to me and to the king. Is that clear?"

She said this with such conviction that everyone quickly nodded to show they understood. With the obvious exception of Elinor's headstrong daughter, there was yet to be a person who lived that had found the courage to say 'no' to the queen of Dunbroch.

"Good. Now, may I suggest we get going? It is not polite to arrive late for such an important ceremony."

All the Scottish visitors nodded again, and one by one, everyone obediently followed the royal family of the Highlands as they made their way away from the Arendelle harbor and toward the beautiful castle in the distance. It was so different compared to the castle of Dunbroch back home in Scotland. The stronghold of Clan Dunbroch was of an earthy design, made to look strong and unyielding with its stone structure, but still rather simple at the same time. But the castle of the royal family of Arendelle? It was a beautiful, pristine castle with many tall towers and green gables and an enormous wall surrounding it that had one main castle gate.

That gate had remained locked to everyone outside the royal family and those that worked in the palace for the past decade, but now, finally, they were going to be permanently opened again. The very idea was enough to distract the hotheaded Scotts from their angry musings about the fact that Vikings were also attending the coronation for the new queen, and all thoughts and conversations returned to the excitement of meeting the new ruler of Arendelle.

Well, almost everyone, that is.

Merida was not distracted in the slightest by the Arendelle castle and its new ruler and she gazed over her shoulder to glare with utmost loathing at the approaching Viking longboats while she joined the rest of their party in hurrying through the village. Vikings were a menace to the world. She had promised her mother that she would play nice tonight in order to be granted a little bit of freedom for the remainder of this trip, but come tomorrow, should she encounter one such disgusting, barbaric pig, he was going to be used exclusively for target practice with her arrows.

---

"So, this is Arendelle, Dad?"

"Sure is, Hiccup. If things go well at the negotiations tomorrow, we might create the first political alliance in many generations for our tribe outside of the archipelago."

"Well, that just adds to the pressure in setting a good impression today, doesn't it? Dad, you do realize that these people in this kingdom are part of a monarchy, right? I don't think they're going to take well to our people visiting…"

"We have to try at least, Hiccup. Trader Johann can only bring us so many supplies at a time. We need to start looking at trading with other countries if we want mass quantities of supplies at a time."

"Yeah, yeah. I know…"

Nineteen-year-old Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III turned away from his father as he shifted a bit of his rich auburn hair out of his face and leaned up against the railing, gazing out across the ocean blue waters to catch a glimpse of a picture-perfect view of the kingdom of Arendelle. His bright green eyes lit up from seeing such a beautiful castle just off the horizon. He also had a number of freckles dotting his cheeks and a small, barely noticeable white scar just below his bottom lip on the side of his face. He was of an average height for a teen boy his age, which was strange considering that for half of his life growing up on his small island of Berk back up in the Barbaric Archipelago, Hiccup had been considered the runt of the litter. That was actually part of the reason why he had been named Hiccup in the first place. The first reason was because Viking parents believed that a hideous name would frighten off gnomes and trolls. As if the charming Viking demeanor wouldn't do that in the first place. But the second reason was because, despite being the son of the chief of the Hairy Hooligan tribe, Hiccup had initially been born premature and very, very tiny. Despite his long dead mother, Valka, believing that he wouldn't live to see his first birthday, his father, Chief Stoick the Vast, never doubted for a moment that Hiccup would make it. But he was still named Hiccup regardless.

Up until four years ago, back when Hiccup was fifteen, Stoick's hopes that his only son would grow up to be a great leader to their tribe had all but dwindled away to nonexistence, considering that Hiccup was, in Stoick's own words, the worst Viking that Berk had ever seen. Hiccup had even earned himself the nickname of being called Hiccup the Useless, considering that he had been small and gangly rather than tall and muscular like the other Viking boys his age. He was clumsy and accident-prone and had a knack for creating disasters whenever he tried to help out in the village, and he couldn't lift a hammer, couldn't swing an axe, and couldn't even properly wield a sword.

And why was it so important that Berk had a perfect successor for its next chief?

The answer came down to one word and one word alone:

Dragons.

For over three hundred years, every Viking tribe in the Barbaric Archipelago had dealt with dragon attacks on an almost daily basis as they raided their villages and took their livestock. Most people would simply up and leave such a dangerous place. But no, not them. They were Vikings. They had stubbornness issues. They instead spent the past three hundred years defending their islands against the overgrown lizards with wings, taking pleasure in spilling their blood and mounting their reptilian heads on the walls of their Great Halls for all to see.

There were many kinds of dragons in fact. The Deadly Nadder, the Gigantic Gronckle, the Hideous Zippleback, and the Monstrous Nightmare were all some of the most common types and were generally the ones to attack Berk daily for their various flocks of sheep and few yaks, but there was one dragon that was more dangerous and rare than any other dragon out there.

The Night Fury.

The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Viking students who were still learning how to kill dragons in Dragon Training were always instructed to never engage this dragon. Their best chance was to hide and pray it would not find them.

But of course, for one outcast Viking teenage boy who was always looking for a way to prove himself to both his father and indeed the entire village who looked down on him, he thought of the Night Fury as a worthy challenge.

Using his brain to construct a type of catapult that would bring down the dragon as it flew about in the sky, Hiccup had been all but ready to kill the black dragon of nightmares and present its head on a platter for Stoick and everyone else in his village to see. However, after finding the Night Fury looking so sad and helpless with those cat-like green eyes after he shot it out of the sky, and seeing that he had accidentally ripped off one of its tail fins when the net from the bolas he had used had wrapped around the dragon, Hiccup's naturally kind nature had kicked in. He had not only freed the dragon, but he had even befriended it and gave it the name of Toothless since the dragon had retractable teeth, something that no other Viking had ever dared to do in the past. He even constructed a new tail fin for Toothless so he could be able to fly once again, but that new tail fin had to be operated by him, the inventor, while up in the air. Hiccup had been the first Viking to ever ride on a dragon and see the world from high above in the clouds.

When his secret became known to the village, Stoick had been furious with his son, even going so far as to disown him. But after Stoick had all but led the entire village on what was nothing short of a suicide mission to destroy the dragon nest, Hiccup had to fly in atop Toothless and kill the queen of the nest, the mountain-sized dragon known as the Red Death, to save everyone that he cared about. Hiccup had nearly died over the course of the epic battle, but he had been saved at the very last moment by Toothless, who the Viking heir was not in the slightest bit ashamed to admit was now and would forever be his very best friend. Unfortunately, Toothless wasn't able to save all of him, though. He lost his left leg up to his shin while fighting against the evil dragon, and now in its place was a metal prosthetic leg. It was hard to walk every once in a while thanks to the handicap, but after four years of practice, Hiccup did just fine now. Stoick had admitted that he had been wrong about dragons after Hiccup's encounter with the Red Death, and the two were not only on good terms with one another once again, but now Berk had no shortage of Vikings riding dragons.

The dragon killing days were over and done with forever.

Dragon training days, though?

Those had only just begun.

Ever since the Red Death had been killed, Hiccup had been named the Dragon Training Instructor on Berk. He had first taught his small circle of friends how to befriend and ride dragons, and then his father and his mentor, Gobber the Belch, and then he went on to teach everyone on the Isle of Berk. There wasn't a single member of the Hairy Hooligan tribe now, be it young or old, male or female, that didn't know how to at least make friends with a dragon, even if they all didn't choose to ride them.

There was now only one thing left to do with the new knowledge on how to deal with dragons.

Sell it.

And that was the only reason why they were here in this boat right now, rowing their way towards the Arendelle docks for the coronation of this unknown Norwegian queen.

While Stoick undeniably cared now about all the dragons on Berk, Hiccup knew he cared about the well-being of his tribe more. Trader Johann was running low on supplies to offer them when he came to barter with them lately, which left the island low on goods to support themselves with when the next episode of snow descended on them. So Stoick had decided that the best course of action to take was to look for new allies outside of the Barbaric Archipelago to try and sell the knowledge of dragon training to in exchange for tradable goods. Although it was highly rare, dragons would occasionally appear outside the group of Viking islands. People should know that there was a better method to dealing with them other than rushing forward with sharp blades and bows and arrows.

Deep down, Hiccup knew that his father was only acting in the way a good chief of the village should by trying to look after everyone through selling off the knowledge of dragon training, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel conflicted about all this. He didn't befriend and learn to ride Toothless four years ago just to have the knowledge he worked so hard to discover all on his own be sold to the highest bidder. To him, it felt like that they were now using Toothless and his dragon brethren for their own self-serving reasons.

It truly felt wrong.

The young heir sighed as he ran his fingers through his messy auburn locks. Whether he liked this predicament or not, it wasn't like he had any choice but to go along with it. And besides, there were worst things that could have happened when his father said that Berk needed more goods as soon as possible if they were going survive this coming winter.

He could have decided to have the Vikings back on their island sharpen their weapons, mount their dragons, and fly away to the first village just outside the archipelago so as to raid and loot the place.

Or, worse, his father could have considered getting him betrothed to some Viking heiress from one of the other tribes, or tried to hook him up with one of the noble ladies that were undoubtedly going to be here at this coronation.

The very idea of marrying some girl he had never even met made Hiccup shudder. It didn't matter that he was technically the heir of the tribe. If his father ever tried to do that to him, he would hop on Toothless and wouldn't stop flying until he reached the land far down south that Trader Johann had once told him about. Where it was supposedly hot all year around and there was sand as far as the eye could see and stretched out for miles and miles.

The only thing was, he wouldn't go with only Toothless for company. He wouldn't leave Berk unless he brought—

"Hey, Babe? Why the long face?"

Speak of the devil.

A genuine smile spread across Hiccup's face when he heard the feminine voice, and he hurriedly turned his head to smile at the girl who had approached him, only to be momentarily surprised when he found his lips locked directly onto the set that belonged to his girlfriend for the past four years.

Astrid Hofferson.

Aspiring shield maiden of Berk.

Despite being initially taken aback by the enthusiastic greeting, Hiccup felt himself grin into the kiss as he closed his eyes and started kissing back. It astounded him every day that he was lucky enough to have Astrid of all girls as his girlfriend. He had had a crush on her ever since they, and the rest of their circle of friends, had all turned twelve and were old enough to start realizing the differences between boys and girls. She was beautiful, what with her long, silky blonde hair pulled back in its usual French braid style and expressive blue eyes. Before he had taught everyone that dragons were truly good and wonderful creatures, Astrid had been one of the strongest students in Dragon Training, and she used to get so jealous of him when he slowly became the best student in her place by using the dragon training techniques he learned from Toothless in the ring to subdue the dragons rather than kill them. But after she found out about his best friend, and he proceeded to all but kidnap her for a – dare he say it – rather romantic flight to change her mind about dragons, she had not only been his girlfriend, but his biggest supporter in dragon training as well.

Granted, Astrid wasn't exactly the picture-perfect princess people tend to think about when they imagined a princess. But she was a Viking princess, and that made her even more exotic and amazing to Hiccup Haddock. She was bossy, short-tempered, a fierce warrior with her favorite axe, and tended to be a perfectionist, but at the same time, she had a caring heart and was undeniably loyal to everyone she cared about. Be it him, her Deadly Nadder that she had named Stormfly, their friends, the village, and bringing honor to her family. And she loved him. That was something that the timid twelve-year-old boy who had shyly watched her from the windows of the blacksmith shop back on Berk had never imagined would one day happen. Unrequited love between himself and the heiress to the Hofferson clan was what he expected would become of his feelings – never mutual feelings of love and affection.

Before he met the Night Fury in the woods, he used to think that the gods – if there were any out there – truly hated him.

But now, after finally becoming lifelong friends with Toothless, gaining the respect of his father and tribe, and having the incredible Astrid Hofferson as his girlfriend, Hiccup knew that they favored him instead.

Who else could be responsible for making him so lucky?

When the couple finally broke apart for air, Hiccup couldn't keep the grin off his face as he gazed into his girlfriend's eyes. "Well, if I knew I'd get a greeting like that, I think I'd get lost in thought more often, Milady!" he joked.

Astrid rolled her eyes as she playfully swatted his shoulder. "Oh, please! Look so serious all time and you'll be as stern as your dad is in ten years! No way am I dating someone who doesn't look like they remember how to smile."

"Duly noted," he replied, taking the opportunity to snake his arm around her shoulders as he gazed back out across the fjord toward the village they were still approaching.

"You nervous?" she asked.

Hiccup initially shook his head no, but paused as he thought better of it, and then shrugged before nodding.

"I'd be stupid if I wasn't. Leaders of other countries outside the Archipelago are supposed to be a lot more formal at stuff like this than we are. Plus, we need to make a good impression on this new queen if we want to strike up a trade route with them. And then there's Toothless…"

"I take it you're worried that someone might discover him out there in the forest before you and your dad can talk with this so-called Queen Elsa at the negotiations tomorrow?

Hiccup stiffly nodded. Hiding Toothless out in the forest beyond the fjord was the reason why their ships were arriving a little later than all the other guests' ships. In order to prove to the new Norwegian queen that dragons could in fact be tamed, they needed a dragon to demonstrate with, thus one dragon had to be brought all the way from Berk to here in Norway. Hiccup didn't hesitate to nominate Toothless for the task. He didn't want to be separated from his best friend for several weeks while out on this diplomatic mission. And that door swung both ways. Toothless wanted to be with him, too. Smuggling Toothless to Norway had actually been very easy. While everyone else that came on this trip rode on the boats, Hiccup had simply flown the entire way over their heads on Toothless until earlier this morning when they drew closer to Arendelle. From there, things got harder. They had to stop the boats for at least two hours so that Hiccup could find a good place to hide Toothless out in the forest outskirts of the village that would ensure that the dragon would not accidentally be found before tomorrow, but was also close enough to the fjord so that the Night Fury could fish for its own meals later tonight after it grew dark so none of the townsfolk would see it. Thankfully, Hiccup had managed to find a nice thicket of evergreen trees just a little way away from the shores of the water, and got Toothless settled in for the day with the promise that he would come back to check on him later tonight after the party before going to bed.

That being said, it was still possible that his best friend could be discovered by some nosey villager. That's how Astrid found out about him back before Toothless was publicly revealed to the people of Berk.

"'Course I'm worried about him! I don't like the idea of hiding him out in the forest. It's like I'm fifteen again and trying to keep him a secret. What if someone finds him before tomorrow and goes and tells everyone? The queen will probably order to have him killed!"

Astrid gave him a quick peck on the cheek to try and calm him down. "It'll be all right. It's not like it was back when we were learning to kill dragons. You're not hiding him for weeks. It's just for one night. Toothless will be fine."

"Yeah, I hope so. I can't stand the thought of something happening to him…"

The couple stood there in silence for a short time, but then Hiccup was all but shoved forward and nearly fell over the edge of the railing when a large hand slammed down on his back, and obnoxious laughter filled his ears.

"Hey, cousin! You ready to act as an all mighty diplomat today?"

An amused look spread across Hiccup's face as he gathered his bearings from the unnecessarily hard shove and turned around. He and Astrid had been joined by the rest of their circle of Viking teen friends. There was Snotlout Jorgenson, his cousin on his deceased mother's side, the insane brother and sister twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston, and then the second dragon expert in the group after Hiccup himself, Fishlegs Ingerman. They all used to bully him back when they were kids, but those days were long gone. Now, they were all a tight clique of best friends.

"Ready as I'll ever be, I guess," said Hiccup with an absent-minded shrug. "The real question is, are you guys ready to act like you actually know what manners are when talking to other people when we dock? This isn't Berk anymore. The new queen will expect proper respect from us."

It was a fair question. Vikings weren't exactly known for being on their best behavior when around outsiders.

The twins scowled in unison.

"Manners? Don't make me barf!" Ruffnut scoffed.

"Acting polite is for suckers like you, Dude!" Tuffnut snickered. "You're the heir, which means you're the representative! You and the chief are the only ones here dressed to the absolute extremes, after all! I mean, look at you in that red tunic and leather vest! You look ridiculous!"

Hiccup blinked, but then chuckled a bit as he glanced down at himself. It was true that Vikings had little reason to ever dress up for formal occasions, so the fact that he was wearing a newly made red tunic with the symbol of the Berk Dragon Training Academy of Toothless curled up into himself stitched neatly into his sleeve underneath his usual brown leather vest was beyond unusual.

"Well, I won't deny that being dressed like this is pretty weird…" he said rather awkwardly.

Astrid huffed as she folded her arms across her semi-formal blue dress. "You have no right to ridicule him when you're wearing formal wear too, Tuffnut," she retorted. "We all have to dress properly today for this so-called queen's coronation."

Snotlout grimaced at the thought. "I wish it wasn't necessary," he grumbled. "Dressing up like one of those rich snobs? So stupid!"

"It's only for one day, Snotlout, relax," Hiccup muttered with a roll of his eyes. "You guys only have to show up in dressier clothes for the party after the queen is crowned the queen. After that, you guys can wear whatever you want for the remainder of our visit. It's just Dad and me who will be at the coronation itself and handling the negotiations in rich clothing tomorrow."

"Doesn't change the fact that we still have to wear these stupid clothes now!" Tuffnut groaned.

"I'm burning this dress with Barf's fire as soon as we get back home," Ruffnut added, glancing down at the dress she had been forced to put on. "I don't know how girls in these other countries wear stuff like this. Seriously, how do they stand all the layers in the skirt?!"

"At least be thankful that these dresses don't need to be worn with those things people here down south call corsets," Astrid shrugged. "Hiccup? No offense, but I don't care if you are my boyfriend. I would never have come on this trip if I had been forced to wear one of those horrible things. They're impossible to breathe in, and there's no chance in Hel that I could have been able to throw my axe while wearing one."

It took every bit of willpower Hiccup possessed to not turn red in embarrassment as his girlfriend spoke with an annoyed look on her face. The idea of Astrid in a corset – and only a corset – was enough to make his head spin. Think safer thoughts! Snotlout in a corset! Getting slobbered all over by Toothless! Those kinds of things!

"Uh, none taken," he rasped, still doing his best to not let what he was thinking appear on his face for everyone to see.

Thankfully, no one there noticed his nervousness, because right at that moment, the last member of their group that had yet to speak up suddenly gasped.

"Um, guys? Hiccup? You might want to go get your dad and Gobber. We have a situation…"

All heads turned to look over at their oversized friend. Fishlegs had been rather quiet this whole time, choosing not to engage at all in the conversation as he instead looked out at Arendelle through the scope of a spyglass he had purchased from Trader Johann before embarking with all the other members of their tribe who had decided to go along on this great mission. But right now, he had finally lowered the handheld telescope away from his eyes as he stared anxiously across the waves toward the rapidly approaching city. Whatever he had seen had obviously made him very, very uneasy.

Hiccup however was the one most confused out of their circle of friends. "Huh? Gobber and my dad? Why?"

"Just do it! They're going to want to see this," the Ingerman clansmen insisted.

Hiccup blinked, but nonetheless parted ways from his girlfriend and friends to walk over toward where his father was standing and talking next to Gobber, the one-armed and one-legged blacksmith back on Berk who so happened to be the boy's honorary uncle and who he was apprenticed to.

Stoick noticed his son approach, and a smile appeared underneath the great thickets of red hair he had for his enormous beard. "Excited yet, son?"

Gobber chortled, and slung his good arm around Hiccup's shoulder. "Of course he is! It's not every day that Vikings attempt to make trade negotiations with places outside the Archipelago! Let alone with the queen of a country!"

Hiccup awkwardly chuckled back, but then he shrugged himself out of Gobbers' grasp. "Uh, yeah, sure… Listen, I don't mean to change the subject, but Fishlegs says that there's a problem."

"A problem?" Stoick repeated, his bushy eyebrows furrowing. "What kind of problem?"

"Dunno. He was looking out at the city through his spyglass and then got all nervous. Says he wants you and Gobber here pronto."

His father stared at him curiously for an extra moment, but then waved his hand motioning for Hiccup and Gobber to follow him as he made his way over to the overweight Viking teen, leaving both his one-legged friend and one-legged son no choice but to follow after him.

"You needed something, Fishlegs?" Stoick asked.

Fishlegs glanced nervously back and forth between Stoick and the approaching shoreline for several moments, but then finally found the courage to speak.

"Yeah, um, Chief… Well… I was looking through my spyglass a minute ago… I just wanted to get a better look at the castle, you know? There's nothing like that back on Berk! I was… Well… I didn't mean to see it, but—"

"Oh, spit it out, boy! We ain't got all day!" said Gobber.

Fishlegs jumped, clearly startled. But then he spat out his words in a frenetic rush.

"The Scottish nobility came to this thing!" he gasped.

He said this a bit too loudly, because within seconds, every Viking that had been on board both this boat and the other two a few meters off on either side of it suddenly grew very quiet for a time.

And then all the screaming erupted.

"Scotts are here?!"

"Those mongrels!"

"How many are there?! I'll deliver them all to Helheim's gate with my bare hands!"

As the shouting commenced, Hiccup felt his stomach churn into tight knots. This was bad. Really, really bad. In all his dad's preparations to organize this political alliance with the new Norwegian queen after her coronation, the one thing that no one ever anticipated was Scottish royals and nobles also coming to the ceremony to wish the new Queen Elsa well in her reign. How could they all have been stupid enough to not consider that the royal family and the nobles from Scotland would come to this?

They were all idiots.

While Hiccup had nothing against people hailing from Scotland and even personally believed that the feud the Vikings had with the Scottish was rather pointless, considering that it all started over a disagreement over which side could have which sets of land to build their villages and homes on from some war that broke out who knows how many years ago, the rest of Berk didn't feel that way. How could they hate people from a faraway land that they as a tribe hadn't even encountered in generations because they had been far too busy dealing with the dragon attacks?

How were they going to get through this important diplomatic mission if everyone other than him on board each of these three ships looked about ready to grab hold of the swords, axes, hammers, and shields that they had brought with them all the way from Berk and start attacking every last Scotsman standing there on the docks the instant they disembarked from their ships?

"Enough!"

Hiccup and just about every other Viking on board the various longboats jumped a bit from the volume of Stoick's booming shout, and within an instant, all was silent on the water as they continued drifting towards land.

Stoick kept a hardened look on his face as he addressed his people. "I will not deny that I too am furious to discover that the new queen invited the royals from Scotland here to this coronation, but this changes nothing! We are here to establish a friendship and trade routes with Arendelle! If I find out that anyone here has gone behind my back to attack one of the Scottish visitors, he or she will be immediately sentenced to a blood eagle upon our return to Berk! Is that clear?!"

Panic spread across everyone's faces as they hastily nodded with wide eyes. Even Hiccup had to admit he was spooked by what his father had suggested. A blood eagle? The ritualistic execution of traitors? There hadn't been one on Berk in at least three generations, but part of Hiccup wondered that if his father hadn't changed his mind about dragons after the whole incident with the Red Death a few years back, if he would have been sentenced to one due to how stubborn his father used to be. Stoick was dead serious about making sure the negotiations went well if he was threatening everyone with blood eagles to ensure that they wouldn't provoke any fights with the nobles from Scotland.

Upon seeing everyone readily agree to not provoke fight, Stoick nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Now, let's get moving! We're nearly there!"

There were murmurs of acknowledgement from people in all three boats, and everyone pitched in to adjusting the sails in order for them to catch the breath of the wind better so they could hurry up and reach the shore.

While Hiccup didn't exactly like the way his father had made everyone agree to behave themselves over the duration of the visit to Norway, by threatening everyone with the prospect of a blood eagle to make sure they didn't get into fights with the Scotsmen, he did have to admit that his words had the desired effect on the tribe. There likely wouldn't be any fights between his people and the nobles from Scotland. A few rude words and arguments, perhaps, but not any bar brawls. Or if there were to be any, they wouldn't be started by those from the Hairy Hooligan tribe.

"Geez! Hiccup, your dad can be so scary sometimes!" he heard Snotlout mutter behind him.

Hiccup rolled his eyes as he turned his attention back to his cousin and the rest of his friends. "Well they say that when he was a baby, he popped a dragon's head clean off its shoulders…" he retorted with a slight shrug.

"It's easy to believe it, too," Tuffnut said.

"Yeah! He gets this big and scary look on his face before he shouts! I wouldn't be surprised if your dad managed to scare a dragon to death before you taught us that dragons were actually good!" Ruffnut proclaimed.

Hiccup awkwardly chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. "Well, I don't know about that, but I guess it's possible…"

Astrid huffed. "Pity he had to forbid us all from trying to fight those dirty Scotts," she grumbled. "I would have loved to knock a few teeth out of one of their mouths! Teach them all a lesson about what it means for a Viking woman to fight for both honor and glory!"

"Are you kidding, Astrid?! It's a good thing Stoick enforced that rule! Everyone would have jumped off this boat ready to spill blood if he hadn't!" Fishlegs insisted.

Hiccup couldn't help but nod at his assumption. This was one instance where he couldn't agree with his girlfriend. "Fishlegs is right, Astrid. If we dock and start a fight with the Scottish visitors the second we see them, there's no way the queen will set up trade negotiations with us. You don't have to like them, but just… be tolerant of them, I guess. Don't pick a fight, okay?"

His girlfriend gave him a rather sour look, but she didn't argue with him, so Hiccup took that as a sign that she'd agreed to be civilized towards the nobles from Scotland over the course of their visit in Arendelle.

"Let's just forget about those damned Scotts, okay? I'm more interested in the queen and princess of this place! Do you think one of them may go for the macho type?" Snotlout cut in, proudly flexing the bulging muscles in his arms to display before them all.

Everyone blinked at the heir to the Jorgenson clan for several moments in utter disbelief, but then Tuffnut chortled as he stuck out his chest in what he obviously assumed was an impressive way.

"With you, Snotlout? Definitely not! They'd want a real man! Pretty girls like queens and princesses want a Thorston over a Jorgenson any day!"

"I doubt they're that pretty," Ruffnut snipped. "Me and Astrid here are probably a thousand times prettier than either of those southern girls!"

"Guys, I really don't think you should be talking about this," Hiccup advised, not even bothering to hide the nervousness in his voice. "Don't go to the party later tonight trying to flirt with them, please! I don't doubt they'd both be right offended if you tried to hit on them!"

"Hiccup's right," Astrid agreed. "Trying to put the moves on a new queen and her younger sister on the night of the queen's coronation party? That's a recipe for disaster! They'll probably kick us all right out of the kingdom if you dared to try that!"

Both Snotlout and Tuffnut blew hot air at the couple, clearly furious that they couldn't try to charm the royals while they were here, but they nodded to show they understood.

"What do you guys think the queen and princess are like?" Fishlegs asked suddenly. "I mean, I read up on Arendelle a bit while on the way here. Apparently, the castle has been completely closed off from the common population for the past ten years."

This news caught everyone's attention, and they turned to look at Fishlegs in surprise. "Ten years? You serious?" Ruffnut asked, clearly surprised.

Fishlegs nodded.

"What in Odin's beard for?" Snotlout asked.

"Well… no one really knows, to be honest. The last king and queen just closed the castle gates and fired a lot of the staff without warning one day back when the new Queen Elsa and Princess Anna were just kids. People tried to ask the monarchs why they did it, but all they said was that it was so their daughters could grow up in a stable family environment, whatever that means."

Hiccup's head was reeling from this new information. Why on earth did the previous king and queen of Arendelle close the gates like that? The explanation behind it made absolutely zero sense whatsoever. In a kingdom like Arendelle, two prospective heirs to the throne were supposed to be in the spotlight all the time, not hidden away from the rest of the world. It was all so mysterious.

"Strange," he muttered. "So… I take it that this would be the first time that the gates are going to be open for a grand party in over ten years?"

"Well, technically the gates were opened to the common people down in the village a few years ago for a couple hours when the memorial service was arranged for the late king and queen after they died so that everyone could be able to pay their respects to them. But other than that, yeah. Pretty much."

"I don't know how I could live like that, being locked away in one building for my entire life. I'd probably go mad," Astrid stated.

"Wonder what the queen and the princess are like after being hidden away from the world after so many years…" Fishlegs questioned again.

"Eh… probably just two dunderheads, if you ask me," Ruffnut grumbled.

"No way! I bet they're both totally hot!" Snotlout grinned.

"They're bound to be a mystery," Hiccup murmured, his eyes now focused on the royal castle as their boat, along with the other two boats from their tribe, finally pulled into the city docks at long last. "And I bet they're both even more excited for the gates to finally be opened again than any of us are."

---

"Elsa! Is that the dress you're going to wear today?"

"Yes. Yes, it is. What do you think?"

"You look so regal! Like a true queen! You're going to rock it today!"

Eighteen-year-old Elsa laughed as she modeled the dress she had commissioned for her long-awaited coronation to her fifteen-year-old younger sister before turning around to glance at her reflection in the bedroom mirror. In addition to the beautiful teal dress that had long black sleeves, a sweetheart neckline trimmed in bronze and maroon, and purple rosemaling on both the bodice and skirt, she wore a long magenta cape that flowed down off her shoulders, dark brown flats with teal soles, and a lovely pair of cyan gloves with teal designs imprinted upon them that matched the rest of the outfit. With her blue eyes shadowed in a dusting of lavender eyeshadow, her cheeks possessing the tiniest amount of pink blush, and a soft layer of magenta lipstick covering her thin lips, Elsa couldn't help but think that she looked just like her and Anna's late mother back when Idun was her age, based on the paintings she had seen of her mother around the castle.

Except for her hair, that is.

She had yet to arrange her hair into an appropriate style for such an important day. While Elsa preferred to wear her hair in its usual French braid style, it was an impractical hairstyle to wear for such an important occasion.

A French braid was far too casual for her own coronation. She wanted to arrange it up into a beautiful coronet. That was the style that their mother always wore her hair in before she and their father passed away. That way she would have a little bit of her mother with her today as she took her vows as the new queen. There was no need to worry about honoring her father though. Her father would be with her all throughout the ceremony in the chapel, as she would be sworn in as the next queen by the bishop before all the royals and nobles that had been invited to the event while holding up the royal orb and scepter that he had held years and years ago, when he was named the king of Arendelle.

Still though… as she stared at her reflection, contemplating the prospect of borrowing her late mother's usual hairstyle, the color her hair continued to perturb her.

It was the fact that Elsa had platinum-blonde hair rather than brown like Idun's that made it difficult to picture.

Elsa had to fight the urge to frown so as not to make Anna worry as she stared at the reflection of her hair in the mirror. It had been exactly ten years since she woke up one morning claiming that it was odd that she was a blonde rather than a brunette, even though the rest of her family claimed that it was odd for her to think that way. Anna never understood why Elsa continued to ponder the strange questions surrounding her blonde hair, but Elsa knew it was mystery that she desperately needed to solve. Neither of her parents had such white and beautiful hair, and neither did any of their distant relatives. Elsa had heard that their cousin Rapunzel, who they were both going to meet for the first time today, had blonde hair rather than being a brunette like her parents, but that didn't count because it was simply a side effect from the magic of the healing flower that had saved their Aunt Arianna while she was pregnant with their cousin.

So where did her white-blonde hair come from?

Despite Elsa's best efforts to hide her thoughts, Anna could tell that something was up. She and Elsa were more than just sisters. They were each other's best friends. If something was wrong, Elsa could hide it from everyone else in the world except her.

"Is something wrong, Elsa? Are you nervous about today?" she asked.

Elsa blinked, immediately snapping out of her musing, and then promptly shook her head.

"Oh, no! No, I'm not nervous…! Well, maybe I am, but that's not what I was thinking about. I was just pondering about my blonde hair."

"What? Again? Elsa, we've been over this a million times! Nobody cares that you have blonde hair rather than being a brunette like mother or a strawberry-blonde like father and me! You're perfect just as you are!"

Elsa cringed. "I know that, Anna. I know you've told me this before, but… but what if there's a legitimate reason why I look so different."

"Like what?"

"Well… I used to spend time looking into the royal family records. I know mother and father didn't have any blonde hair, so I thought maybe the blonde hair was just something that had skipped a generation, but no one on either side of the family has blonde hair like mine…"

"Again, Elsa, who cares? It's just hair!"

"It just seems strange, doesn't it? And mother and father used to get so uncomfortable whenever I brought it up… There has to be a reason!"

"Soon-to-be Queen Elsa in a few hours, in the name of our family sigil the crocus flower, I hereby declare that you are talking utter nonsense! It's the day you and I have been waiting for our entire lives! You officially becoming queen and me being your trusted right hand! We're going to rule the kingdom together after today, and you're more concerned about your hair?! And here I thought I was the crazy one between the two of us!"

Elsa couldn't stop herself from laughing at that. "Yes, yes. You're right, Anna. I guess I'm just so nervous; I just started spouting nonsense again. Pay no attention to what I said."

Anna smiled in return. "Don't be nervous! You were born for this, Elsa! You're going to be a great queen! I know father did a good job at ruling the kingdom, but you're going to be at least a thousand times better! And do you know why?"

Elsa immediately nodded. "Of course I know why! Today marks the very last day that this castle will be isolated from the rest of the world! I don't know what possessed mother and father to lock the gates all those years ago, but those days are officially over. You and I, Anna, are not going to live the rest of our lives invisible to the world anymore, and we're not going to keep the servants here hidden either. Everyone in this castle deserves to be seen and appreciated."

Anna squealed with joy as she hugged her big sister tightly. "We're going to actually have people here in the castle again on a daily basis!" she cheered. "We're going to have banquets and balls and festivals! We'll see people other than just each other and the servants every day! We'll even be allowed to go down into the village to spend time with the townsfolk!"

"I know. It's going to be wonderful."

After ten years of living in a castle that had been closed off from the rest of civilization, due to whatever strange reasons their parents had for locking the castle gates, Elsa and Anna's lives were going to begin again. They had a chance to meet and talk to people.

It was going to be amazing.

But first, they had to finish getting ready.

"All right, Anna. Help me arrange my hair to look like mother's, will you? We need to hurry and finish getting ready. I might be dressed with my make-up done, but you're still in your nightgown! And besides, I still need to stop and check in on Emma and Jack before the ceremony starts. They both have very important jobs today, and do you remember what we decided to do for Jack? He doesn't even know yet! I forgot to give him the pin yesterday!"

"Oh, geez! You didn't tell him yet?! You're right! We do have to hurry! Where's the hairbrush and the blue ribbon?! We should weave it into the coronet for a little bit of extra oomph!"

"Good idea! You're always so clever, Anna!"

---

Elsa and Anna weren't the only ones in the palace who were excited for today and all the days to come in the castle after today's coronation.

There was one special little girl who was literally bouncing off the walls of her tiny bedroom as she got herself dressed.

Ten-year-old Emma Overland was squealing and giggling happily to herself as she hurriedly dressed in the special miniature formal green servant dress she was required to wear today for the coronation. Even though Emma was of age to start training to be a good member of the staff in the castle, and was even apprenticed to Gerda to learn how to be a good lady-in-waiting to the new queen one day, normally Elsa was more lenient about children wearing the required uniform. At least if they were under the age of twelve, that is. If they were twelve, the rules got stricter with servant apparel. Because of this, Emma and the rest of her circle of friends were generally allowed to run around the castle while wearing their normal everyday clothes as they learned their future duties as members of the castle staff for when they were all older.

But not today.

No, today Emma had to be dressed up in the small green uniform.

But the little girl didn't mind.

After all, none of the other servant kids were single-handedly selected by Elsa to be given the ever so important job today of carrying the royal tiara. It would be carried on a special pillow down the aisle in the chapel and presented to the bishop so that he could officially crown Elsa as the new queen.

The moment that thought popped into her head, Emma started squealing again as she paused in the midst of tugging on her proper black shoes to start hopping excitedly up and down. She was going to be a part of the ceremony to make Elsa the queen. Out of all the loyal castle employees that were both older and smarter than she was, Elsa had picked her. She was going to be the one to carry the queen's crown to the bishop. She was going to be part of the coronation ceremony. It showed just how much the new queen Elsa liked her since she picked her out of everyone else!

This was, without a doubt, going to be the single greatest and most important day of her life!

Not to mention, today was the day when her life was going to change for the better, too. Unlike Elsa and Anna, Emma and her friends Jamie and his three-year-old sister Sophie, the twins Caleb and Claude, Pippa, Monty, and Cupcake had no memory of what life was like outside these castle walls since King Agnar and Queen Idun had locked the gates back when they were all babies or not even born yet. With the gates finally being opened after ten long years, they were going to see what it was like to have parties and meet other guests in the castle for the very first time. She was going to create newer, happier memories inside this castle from here on out. She was going to have lots and lots of fun!

And so, Emma finished slipping into her shoes, buttoning up her dress, and ran a brush through her straight brown hair at record speeds before dashing as fast as she could out of her bedroom. Ever since Tobias had left and Kirsten died, the three-bedroom apartment had been resided in solely by her and Jack. Their parents' bedroom had been closed off after their mother died. Taking care of their mother's room was actually the only thing that had brought Jack out of his bedroom after locking himself in for nearly a week after she died with the king and queen at sea. Anything that their father left behind when he left their family was automatically thrown away, as Jack had no desire to keep anything of his, despite Emma's weak protests that it would be nice to keep at least a few of his things. But their mother's things? Those he had wrapped up into fresh sheets so that they wouldn't get ruined before storing them away into a number of crates that Elsa and Anna had been kind enough to provide them with for storage purposes. The room was basically an empty room containing a bedframe without a mattress on it now and a number of wooden crates surrounding it with their mother's most treasured belongings put away inside them, but Emma went inside a lot anyway, just to remember her warm and kind mother; and she occasionally unwrapped a few pieces of her simple everyday jewelry so she could just look at them. She missed her mother more than anything in the world. But the number of times Jack had gone in to reminiscence about Kirsten? Zero. Her big brother had never dared to step foot inside the room after he had finished cleaning it out. In Emma's little mind, her seemingly stoic and cold brother now treated their mother's death as simply something that happened and made no difference in their lives in the long run.

Out of all her older brother's faults when it came to being a cold person who seemed to consider no one worth the time of day, Emma had to say that that was the one thing that she definitely held a shred of resentment towards Jack for.

Never playing with her or letting her into his room?

That was one thing.

But acting as though their mother's life wasn't even worth remembering?

That bothered Emma.

She never brought it up, though. There was no point. Jack wouldn't change even if she did. And besides, even if it was possible for Emma to change one thing about her big brother, that wasn't what she would choose anyway. She would choose to have her big brother smile at her all the time and play with her when she asked. She would choose to have him open his door to her whenever she knocked on it. She would choose to have him hug her for the very first time in her life. Emma wondered what that was about anyway. Jack didn't touch people ever. She knew he was a neat freak when it came to dirt because he always wore those unnecessary white gloves on his hands, but actual physical contact with people? Zilch. Zip. Nada.

Well, whatever.

Jack was still her big brother at the end of the day.

She still believed in him like she believed in the Moonbeam Boy from his bedtime story so many years ago.

And she would never stop believing in him.

He would thaw his frozen heart and be the big brother she had always dreamed of having one day.

She just had to keep believing in him.

And speaking of believing in Jack, now was as good a time as any to try and get him to warm up to her. After all, he couldn't stay locked away in his bedroom all day today, not when he too had also been given an ever so important job at the coronation ceremony: carrying the royal gold orb and scepter down the aisle in the chapel with her to be given to the bishop so he could give them to Elsa. She wanted to walk downstairs to the royal chapel with him.

With a smile on her round, petite face, Emma strolled right up to Jack's bedroom door, and knocked politely on the white-painted wood.

"Hey, Jackie! I'm ready to go to the coronation! Do you wanna walk downstairs together?"

There was a brief pause followed by what sounded like a small thump of something falling and landing hard on the floor from beyond the door.

"What happened, Jackie? Are you okay?" Emma called out worriedly.

"Everything's fine, Emma," Jack automatically answered. "I just… I just dropped something, that's all. You startled me."

"Oh, sorry. But never mind that! Let's go to the chapel together! They can't start the coronation without the Royal Crown Bearer and the Royal Orb and Scepter Bearer!"

"You go on ahead, Emma. I'm not ready yet."

"Oh, okay… I'll wait for you, then!"

"No, that's not necessary. Go on ahead. Go spend some time with Jamie and the rest of your friends before the ceremony starts. I'm sure they'll walk down to the chapel with you."

Emma frowned. She didn't know why she felt so disappointed. It's not like Jack refusing her was anything new.

"'Kay. I'll meet you there then, Big Brother…" she murmured softly.

With one last heavy sigh, she turned away from her brother's bedroom door, and miserably shuffled out the door of their family unit. When Jack decided to close himself off to the world by locking himself inside his bedroom, there was nothing anyone could say or do to make him come out. So long as he didn't miss the coronation ceremony and did his duties as a castle butler and occasionally a shepherd out in the fields well, there wasn't anything Elsa or Anna could do to get him to come out. Jack technically wasn't breaking any servant protocol by being closed off from everyone, after all.

She started heading down the hallways still feeling rather blue and wishing that her only brother would act like the brother he was supposed to be for her rather than a complete stranger, but then she heard someone call out her name.

"Emma…"

Emma nearly jumped right out of her skin. What on earth was that?! Who had dared to whisper her name in such a haunting, frightening manner?! Her head whipped around frantically in every direction imaginable to see who it was that had tried to scare her, but her fear only spiked when she saw that she was all alone in the hallway.

"H-Hello…?" she called out rather nervously. "Who's… Who's there…?"

There was a brief pause, and then—

"It's us…"

"The ghosts of the castle…"

"We're here to claim your soul…!"

Emma was shivering at this point. Ghosts?! There were ghosts in the royal palace?! She never knew that! Oh, god! Her legs were shaking with terror. She didn't want her soul to be taken away.

"D-Don't take my soul, Ghosts! I like my soul!"

"Well… promise to give us all your chocolate for a month and we'll leave it be…!"

Emma blinked. The ghosts wanted her chocolate desserts at dinner for a whole month? But why? What would possess ghosts to want—

"Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate! I want chocolate!"

"Sophie! Shush!"

Emma's wave of terror instantly ebbed away. Instead, anger and annoyance filled her veins.

"Jamie Bennett, you are such a jerk! How dare you scare me like that! Come out here so I can rip you to pieces!"

Within seconds, there was a great deal of giggling, that all but muffled a rather irritated sigh, from one of the hallway walls off to Emma's right.

"Darn it, Sophie! You spoiled it for us! We all almost scored a month's worth of extra chocolate after dinner every night!"

Emma scowled as she planted her hands firmly on her tiny hips and began furiously tapping her foot as she glared at one particular spot on the castle wall.

"Okay, everyone! Joke's over! Come out here and stop teasing me!" she demanded.

"Fine, fine! We're coming, Emma! Keep your hair on…" grumbled the voice of her very best friend.

And then, just like magic, a section of the wall suddenly swung open as if there was a door there, and out popped the faces of all of Emma's fellow servant friends. The twins Caleb and Claude, Pippa, Monty, Cupcake, and then her best friend Jamie Bennett with his three-year-old little sister Sophie. They were all giggling and laughing in amusement when they saw Emma's furious expression firsthand.

"Aww, what's the matter, Emma? Are you still scared?" Jamie teased.

Emma huffed and stamped one of her little feet. "Jamie Bennett! That was so not funny! And I most certainly was not scared!" she vehemently denied.

"Oh, come on now, Emma! You should have seen your face!" Jamie disagreed. "You really thought that we all were ghosts! It was hilarious!"

"Ghosts! Ghosts! Ghosts!" his toddler sister echoed in between her giggling fit.

Emma's scowl only grew. "Ooh…! You are so immature! All of you! Using the castle secret passageways to scare me?! You're all so… so… so mean!"

Pippa caught sight of how Emma's lower lip was beginning to tremble, and quickly spoke up before Jamie or one of the other immature boys could make the situation worse. "We're sorry, Emma! We didn't mean to make you so upset!"

Monty adjusted his red glasses and hurriedly nodded. "Yeah, yeah! Pippa's right! We were just having a bit of last minute fun!"

"And besides, it's the only type of fun we can get into with the castle being permanently opened from now on!" exclaimed Cupcake.

"With the gates being opened—"

"—we'll all have to work harder in our new duties around here in the castle."

The twins Caleb and Claude pouted at their own words, looking rather down and sad at the prospect of not having enough time to play anymore with the castle gates opened again after being locked since before a few of them were even born.

There was a brief pause as they all considered what the twins had said. As much as they all didn't like it, with the obvious exception of Sophie, their time for acting like children was slowly coming to an end. They were the children of castle servants, and at the end of the day, with a new queen back on the throne to overturn the previous king and queen's mysterious decision to keep the gates closed, more people would be visiting the castle on a daily basis. That meant that more servants would be needed around the castle to help with the guests. While the soon-to-be queen had every intention of naturally hiring more employees from the village, it also made sense to have the children in the castle get a jump start in performing their duties.

When today was over, Emma, Jamie, Pippa, Cupcake, Caleb and Claude, and Monty would barely have time to play anymore as their training to be good child servants would triple exponentially.

No more time for being a kid again for any of them.

No more fun.

There was a long pause as everyone absorbed all these unspoken thoughts, but then Emma forced a smile on her face.

"We can't be thinking that way! Sure, things are going to be different for all of us from now on, but it'll be a good different! Just take a look over there! The windows are open! And so's that door! Who knew that they even did that anymore!"

She pointed her little finger towards some adults on the other end of the hall, and Jamie and the others all turned. Sure enough, a number of the castle servants were happily removing the locks from the castle windows and doors as they gladly let them open up for the first time in the past decade, allowing the warm and bright sunshine to stream inside the castle.

Sure enough, Emma's words did the trick, and they all began smiling as they watched the adults make the hallway look bright and welcoming for the incoming visitors.

Jamie's grin in particular grew even bigger when he noticed what many of the employees were carrying in their hands as they headed towards the grand staircase. "Yeah! Check out what those guys are carrying! Who knew the castle had a thousand salad plates?! Did you guys know?!"

The others in the small group all laughed.

"No!"

"Nope!"

"Uh-uh!"

"Not until now!"

"Did you say a thousand salad plates?!"

"Plates! Plates! Plates!"

They all couldn't help but stop and chuckle a bit at little Sophie's enthusiasm, but then the conversation resumed.

"I honestly can't believe that this day has finally come! I mean, for years we've roamed these empty halls and explored the secret passages!" Jamie exclaimed.

Emma giggled. "I know! It's amazing, isn't it? I don't know what made King Agnar and Queen Idun come up with the ridiculous idea to close off the castle in the first place! I mean, why even have a ballroom with no balls to throw?"

"Well, well, well! It sounds like you all are happy that we're finally opening up the gates!"

The kids all jumped in place as they spun around. Standing directly behind them were the beautiful and smiling faces of Elsa and Anna, now dressed for her older sister's coronation in a lovely dark green, short-sleeved dress with a black sweetheart bodice and rosemaling embroidery just like Elsa's. Her strawberry-blonde hair with the one silvery blonde streak had been pulled back into an elegant bun, though a small section of it had been cleverly braided near her hairline to act like a self-headband, and a green comb-shaped barrette had been put in along with a few green satin ribbons to tie back the bun. She looked so pretty, but the finishing touch to the whole ensemble had to be the black satin-laced necklace with the bronze pendant around her neck, upon which was the Arendelle's royal family symbol of the crocus flower. She was dressed formally for her sister's big day, but still looked just like the younger, fifteen-year-old girl she still was. She looked as bubbly as ever, and she and Elsa were gazing down at all the small children with raised eyebrows and amused smiles on their faces.

After getting over their initial astonishment of the two remaining members of the Arendelle royalty sneaking up on them, the kids' matching looks of surprise immediately transformed into cheerful smiles, and they all quickly hurried forward to wrap their small arms around Elsa and Anna in tight, friendly hugs.

"Princess Elsa! Princess Anna! Hi!" Emma happily squealed, hugging Elsa with all her might as she buried her face into the new queen's regal blue gown.

Elsa and Anna both wholeheartedly smiled. While it was true that Emma and the others were technically breaking the proper manner of servant etiquette that the older generations of castle employees had been trying to instill in all of them recently, the two sisters honestly didn't care in the slightest. It was nice for them to see that the children simply adored the two of them.

"Hello everyone. You all look very nice for today's festivities," Anna complimented the children.

"Thanks, Princess Anna!" said Jamie with an excited whoop. "We're looking forward to seeing you become queen today, Princess Elsa!"

Elsa giggled a bit behind one of her gloved hands. "I'm glad to hear that you're all excited, but do remember that you must begin addressing me as Queen Elsa after the ceremony in a bit. After today, I won't be a princess anymore."

"Of course, your highness— Oh, wait… Do I call you 'your majesty' yet, or do I still address you as 'your highness?'" asked Monty, his glasses a bit askew as he tilted his head to the side with obvious confusion.

Anna laughed as she knelt downwards slightly to adjust his off-center eye lenses. "You can address Elsa as 'your highness' for now, Monty. She'll only be 'your majesty' after the official coronation," she explained.

"Oh, okay!"

"Princess Elsa! Princess Anna! Is it true that the gates are going to stay open forever and ever after today?" little Emma chimed, her big brown eyes full of excitement as she gazed up hopefully at both of them. "You're not going to lock them up again like you did after the memorial service a few years ago, right? You're going to keep them open for good this time?"

Elsa nodded to her question as a great big smile spread across her face. "Of course we are, Emma. Anna and I never liked having the gates closed. We fully intend to keep them open for good from now on."

"It might take some adjusting to having actual real live people in the palace again after having the place closed off for so long, but we are so ready for this change!" Anna added.

All the kids cheered at this happy news.

"Yay!"

"Thank you, Princess Elsa, Princess Anna!"

"Thank you so much!"

"We can go out to play in the village from now on!"

"The gates are staying open this time!"

"Open! Open! Open!"

Emma was beaming from ear to ear as she hugged both of the princesses tightly again. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I'm so happy!" she squealed with joy. "For the first time in forever, there'll be music and light and magic and… and… and fun! It's going to be so much fun here in the castle from now on!"

Both Elsa and Anna smiled as they patted the little girl on the head. "There's no need to thank us. We've been planning to do this for years. Ever since the gates were originally closed, in fact!"

"Elsa's right! From now on, you kids won't be alone anymore with only yourselves to befriend. You will all be allowed to go down to the village whenever you want to play with the children down there! And who knows! Maybe when guests start coming to the castle on a regular basis, they'll bring along their children as well! You'll all have lots of new friends very soon!"

"Oh, boy! We can't wait to meet all of them!" Jamie said eagerly.

As Emma and the others all nodded eagerly in agreement, Elsa suddenly realized that Jack was nowhere to be seen, and she couldn't help but become a bit worried. She knew that Jack tended to stay locked up in his room whenever he didn't have any of his servant duties either inside or outside the castle to attend to, but today was very important. He had a significant role during her coronation today alongside Emma. She not only didn't want her old friend to be late for the event, but she still had something that she needed to give him before the coronation began. Something so small, she had it clenched up in one of her gloved hands. It was of the utmost importance that she gave it to him and inform him about the decision she had made before she was officially crowned as the new queen.

"Oh, Emma? Is Jack still back in his bedroom?"

Immediately, the happy expression on Emma's face morphed into a sad frown.

"Yeah," she murmured, glancing down rather gloomily at her feet as she scuffed the carpeting with her shiny black shoes. "I asked him if he wanted to walk down to the chapel with me, but he wouldn't. Said he wasn't ready yet…"

"Ah, I see. I suppose that is to be expected with him. Anna? Why don't you take Emma and the rest of the children and go on ahead? I'll meet you at the chapel."

"Are you sure, Elsa? I can go and give that thing to Jack. You're more important than me, after all! The new queen of Arendelle can't show up late for her own coronation!"

"Don't worry. I won't be long, and it doesn't matter anyway! If Jack doesn't show up, the coronation will still be put on hold because he's the one carrying the royal orb and scepter! He's not staying locked in there today of all days! I'll drag that stubborn boy out of his bedroom and down the grand staircase by the ear if I must!"

Anna cracked up laughing. "Oh, wow! I can so totally see you doing that! If that happens, call me back in from the chapel! That's a sight I'd do anything to see!"

"Call me back in too, Princess Elsa! I'd love to see Big Brother being dragged by you down the stairs!" Emma giggled.

Elsa suppressed a hearty laugh. "Duly noted! Anyways, I'll see you all down in the chapel in few minutes!"

"Okay! See you down there, Elsa!"

"'Kay!"

"Good luck, your highness – or your majesty – or… or whatever it is!"

"Bye!"

Elsa laughed one last time, and then with one final nod and curtsy towards her younger sister and the other excited children, she turned around and made her way down the hall to the Overland siblings' apartment.

---

Ice. It haunted him.

All night long, Jackson Overland had been terrified of his ice. He had been dealing with utterly horrifying nightmares of all the things that could go wrong today during the coronation as he tossed and turned in his small bed, and every time he started feeling his fear consume him, his ice would shoot out from both his hands and feet and coat everything in his room in thick amounts of ice, snow, and frost. The very sight of the unnatural wintery phenomenon would send him into a state of panic when he woke up from the nightmares, and it would take ages for him to force himself to become emotionless and numb to feelings once again to stop more ice and snow from appearing.

To say that Jack was scared about today would be the understatement of the century.

He might not be the one who was being crowned the new monarch of the realm, but he had more of a reason to be terrified of what might happen today than Elsa did.

After all, Elsa wasn't the one who was born with such blasted ice and snow powers that could kill – if not seriously harm – everyone who was coming to commemorate her as the new ruling queen of Arendelle.

His fear from both his nightmares and just plain worry of what could happen today left the poor boy exhausted when it was finally time for him to get up and get ready for the day. There were dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep, but Jack was hoping that it might go unnoticed. Other than when he had to carry the royal orb and scepter down the aisle during the ceremony, he had every intention of remaining as invisible as possible today. He was simply a servant in the castle, so he wouldn't be in the spotlight at all. So long as he stuck close to the sidelines at the party today, barely anyone would pay him any attention, and he would be able to keep his powers a secret.

A sigh escaped his lips as he ran a comb through his dark brown hair, forcing it to be slicked back and look smooth and proper rather than messy and wild like it naturally was. Why the hell did Elsa have to assign him the job of carrying the orb and scepter down the aisle in the church and making him a waiter at the party tonight after the coronation? She knew he worked as a shepherd out in the fields. There were so many guests that chose to bring horses for whatever strange reasons they had. He could have been safely hidden away out there all through today and he wouldn't be nearly as stressed out as he was right now. Why, oh why was the universe seemingly against him…?

He shook his head at the thought. It didn't matter anyway. After today, nothing here in the castle would be his problem anymore. He had a plan. A well thought out plan to ensure that his powers would remain secret despite Elsa and Anna's plan to open up the castle to the general public again following Elsa's rise from being a crown princess to a ruling queen. It was completely fool proof and guaranteed to work. He had been planning it for the past three years, ever since his mother and the late king and queen had died at sea.

Jack felt his hands growing progressively colder underneath his special gloves as he recalled his plan, and he immediately forced those thoughts out of his head. Thoughts about his plan were making him both sad and anxious. If he was going to get through being outside his room all day today while attending to his duties during Elsa's coronation, he couldn't afford to get the slightest bit emotional. He had to be numb. A blank slate. Feel nothing at all.

A wave of relief seeped through Jack as he felt his hands warm back up inside his gloves, and with that minor problem out of the way, he turned to look at himself in his small bedroom mirror. He looked every bit the proper castle servant he was supposed to be.

His green servant uniform jacket had its black buttons fastened shut accordingly over his white button down shirt underneath, and his white ruffled neckerchief was tied securely around his neck.

His black pants had been ironed the night before and were completely stain-free.

His usual black leather boots were neatly laced up and he had polished the tops of them the night before so that they would shine.

His hair had been combed back so that it laid smoothly on his head.

And most importantly, his white gloves were on his hands.

He looked as though he could play the role of a proper and polite castle servant just like how Kirsten, King Agnar, and Queen Idun had always instructed him to be without any troubles whatsoever, even if he really didn't feel that way inside.

Normally, Jack would say that he was all set to leave his bedroom and begin his duties for the day, but not today.

Today, before he dared to so much as step foot out of this sacred sanctuary, he had to practice touching things without wearing his gloves for the first time in ten years.

Because when he carried the royal orb and scepter on a pillow down the aisle in the church for Elsa's coronation, he had to carry them without his gloves safely on his hands.

It was servant protocol.

Personally, Jack thought that even if he wasn't cursed with winter magic, the rule was stupid that servants couldn't wear gloves while walking down the aisle with the crown, the orb, and scepter, but he didn't have a choice. Elsa had handpicked him and Emma to carry out the two most important jobs during the coronation. She wanted him and his sister to be a part of the celebration. While Jack thought it was sweet that his old childhood friend, who he still secretly liked after all these years, had been kind enough to include Emma in the ceremony, his emotions were completely haywire from learning that she had been even nicer than he thought by adding him into the event too, even though he had kept her and everyone else in his life at arm's length to keep them safe. It sucked for him because he was being forced to take his gloves off, but it wasn't like he could refuse the task.

So long as he practiced carrying the pillow with the orb and scepter before he left his bedroom, he just might be okay.

The walk down the aisle in the chapel wouldn't even take a full minute.

He could do it.

He just had to practice before he left his bedroom.

Don't let them in.

Jack, very slowly, selected a candlestick off his dressing table along with a small toy ball that he had long ago stolen from Emma's toy chest in her room just to have something of his little sister's to hold onto, and then set them both down on one of the pillows on his bed.

Don't let them see.

Jack gulped, and then, with great apprehension, he slowly began to tug off one white glove.

Be the good boy you always have to be.

He began shaking madly as he pulled off the other.

Conceal, don't feel.

For the longest time, Jack didn't dare to move. He was far too terrified of what may happen. And then, with trembling fingers, he reached forward to carefully pick up the pillow with the substituted royal scepter and orb, and held it out regally in front of him like he was supposed to when he carried the real gold scepter and orb through the church.

Put on a show.

Jack slowly walked across the expanse of his bedroom while carrying the pillow with his bare hands. For the first few seconds, nothing happened. But then, just as the lonely teenager had feared, ice and frost rapidly spread across the soft and fluffy expanse of the entire pillow and glossed over the candlestick and tiny ball.

A look of terror spread across the Overland boy's face, and he quickly threw all the ice-covered items on top of his bed before grasping at the sides of his head in distress and frustration.

"God dammit! I make one wrong move, and everyone will know!" he groaned.

His momentary panic made some more ice shoot right out of his hands and hit the ceiling. His dark brown eyes widened in alarm when he saw the ice and frost patterns spread across the ceiling of the small room, but then he lunged for his gloves and scrambled to slip them back on his hands.

"Don't feel! Don't feel!" He told himself frantically. "Get a grip on yourself! It's only for today! You can do this! It's only for today!"

It took a few minutes, but finally, he managed to force himself to become numb once again. He had to feel nothing. Feel nothing. It was the only way to get through today.

When he at last felt as prepared as he would ever be for the day he had been dreading since that fateful night when he had his accident with his magic, he took a deep breath for courage, and then slowly left the safe confines of his bedroom before heading for the door that led the way out of his and Emma's apartment and into the castle hallway.

He froze for a moment as his hand hovered over the doorknob. He was a nervous wreck. So many things could go wrong at the coronation. What if the moment he touched the pillow with the orb and scepter, all three objects immediately became incased in great blocks of ice? What if, while he was walking down the aisle of the church, his powers spiked again and very noticeable frost appeared underneath his fingers and soaked into the pillow for all to see? What if he simply tripped while walking with the pillow, scepter, and orb and when he tried to catch himself when he landed on the floor, he accidentally froze the floor of the church to resemble that of an ice rink?

So many different, but equally horrible scenarios were rushing through Jack's mind at such high-flying speeds, it was enough to make his head spin.

The anxiety was so bad, Jack had to stop again to clear his head of all the negativity to stop himself from creating tons of ice through his gloves by sheer accident. When he felt comfortable enough to keep going, he stared at the wood of the door in front of him, and then nodded to himself.

"It's agony to wait, I guess… Just put on a show… Conceal it, but don't feel it… And above all, don't let anyone know!"

And with those final thoughts to himself out loud, Jack forced himself to open the door before he could convince himself to do otherwise.

But then he came face-to-face with the surprised face of Elsa, her hand outstretched and preparing to knock politely on the door.

Her shock with the door suddenly opening was nothing compared to Jack's astonishment. He gasped rather loudly as he leapt nearly a full foot backwards, trying to keep his body as far away from hers as possible to avoid hurting her by mistake.

"Y-Your highness! I… I wasn't expecting you!" he gulped, hoping beyond hope itself that Elsa wouldn't try to reach out and touch him to check and see if he was okay.

Elsa blinked to regain her composure, and then smiled kindly back at the dark-haired teen boy. "Good morning, Jack. Anna and I just ran into Emma down the hall with the other children and we saw that you weren't with them."

Jack didn't reply right away, as he was still mentally trying to calm down his heart, which was thumping madly inside his ribcage from his shock of seeing Elsa so soon and just when he opened his apartment door. As soon as he found his courage, he forced his face to flow easily back into his trained, solemn expression that depicted no emotion whatsoever, and then he spoke.

"My apologies, Princess Elsa – or rather, Queen Elsa in the next few hours. I wasn't ready yet. I was just heading out to go and meet Emma in the chapel. I am sorry if I detained you in going down there yourself."

Elsa frowned as Jack carefully maneuvered his way around her in the doorframe so he could start walking down the hall in the direction of the grand staircase. She honestly wished she knew what had possessed him to change into this stiff and proper servant all those years ago, back when they were but small children. Deep down, she actually regretted wishing that he would learn to become a proper and diligent servant back then. She thought him acting like that would be a good thing, but in truth, it was sad that Jack never seemed to open up to anyone. Not even her, Anna, or Emma.

Well, not today! Today was her coronation day, and she had something special to bestow upon him before they both entered that chapel. She wanted him to know just how important his friendship to her was before she was officially made queen. But this wasn't just a thank you to him for being a good friend or even a good worker here in the castle. This was also the only thing she could think of that would make Jack be able to smile again while in public.

"Wait – Jack? Just a moment please," she called out kindly, heading down the hall directly after him and she fingered the small object she was still carrying in her hand as an excited smile spread across her face. She couldn't wait to see the pleased and thankful look on his face when she gave this to him.

Jack reluctantly paused and turned around to face Elsa as she approached him. Why was she doing this to him? What did she want? Couldn't she see that he needed to get away from her as fast as he could? Thanks to the feelings he had developed towards Elsa back when he was fourteen, it was getting as hard for him to be around Elsa as it was for him to be around Emma. He would never admit to anyone should they ask him about it, but Jack knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that he really did love the new queen. But because of his powers and the station of life he had been born into, he could never act upon them. His feelings toward Elsa were not only dangerous for her, but they were also quite silly. Queens and princesses only married for love if they happened to be lucky enough to fall in love with another royal or high born noble in the upper-class life. They didn't marry servants. Not butlers, and especially not stable hands.

"Yes, your highness?" he asked in a calm, neutral voice as Elsa came to a halt right in front of him. His tone betrayed nothing as to what he was really thinking and feeling inside.

Elsa ignored his politeness. "First of all, Jack, you and I have known each other our entire lives. You don't always have to speak so formally to me when we're not around other people. You can just address me as Elsa so long as we're not around other nobles or royalty. Secondly, I have already told the guards to open up the gates."

Jack managed a stiff nod. To go against servant protocol by simply addressing Elsa by her name whenever they weren't around other high class nobles was already bad enough for his anxiety over his emotions as he could feel his fingers growing relatively colder inside his gloves, but the news that the castle gates were already open to the general public and royal visitors from everywhere in Northern Europe? It took every ounce of willpower that Jack had to not allow himself to feel terrified once again over what might happen today during the ceremony.

"Oh, I see… I take it that you're upset with me because I am running a little late for the coronation? If so, I apologize once again, Princ— I… I mean… Elsa."

"Oh, no! No, you misunderstand me, Jack! I honestly don't mind that you were delayed. It's completely fine. In fact, it works well for me because I need to speak with you anyway before I become queen. I have something that I need to give you."

Instantly, Jack's rigidness in his posture melted away as a confused expression spread across his face. "You want to give me something?" he repeated.

Elsa nodded brightly as she uncurled one of her gloved hands to reveal what she had been hiding in her fist. The moment Jack saw it, his blood ran cold, and he had to force his face to not show the horror and guilt he suddenly felt.

"Elsa…"

"The Arendelle royal family's crocus pin of high servitude," she happily exclaimed, reaching forward before he could try to stop her and pinning the small accessory to the white neckerchief tied around his throat. "Given out only to servants in the castle who are of the highest rank. Come tomorrow, you will be the head butler here in the palace!"

For the longest time, Jack didn't speak. He just stared down at his neck where the golden pin of the royal family's sigil of the crocus flower shined in the light. Elsa assumed that he was simply at a loss for words to express his gratitude over his newfound promotion, but in reality, Jack was panicking.

This hadn't been part of his plan to keep his ice and snow magic a secret.

He was flattered by what Elsa had done for him, but he couldn't accept this gift or new job.

"Elsa… I—"

"There's no need to thank me, Jack! You've earned this! Anna and I both agree that you not only deserve this promotion, but you need it, too! For Emma!"

"But—"

"We know that things haven't been easy for the two of you ever since your mother died. We're well aware of the fact that you've had to pick more than your necessary share of shifts here in the palace just to support Emma all on your own! You're still our friend, Jack! We know you need the pay raise, and like I said, you've earned this! You're one of the most diligent employees here in the castle, especially since you double as both a butler and a stable hand! You've worked hard here all your life. Anna and I… well… we both think that this is not only our gift to you, but something that we should have done a long time ago since you deserve it!"

Jack didn't reply right away after hearing this. He just kept staring at the gold pin on his neckerchief with an unreadable expression on his face. Listening to Elsa's reasoning for naming him the new head butler here in the castle, he could see hers and Anna's point of view for bestowing this ranking to him, and he was especially grateful to the two of them for thinking about how this would help him in taking care of Emma from now on.

But still, he couldn't change his plan.

Not with Elsa's decision to keep the gates open permanently from now on.

He had to politely refuse her.

With a small, barely noticeable gulp, Jack willed himself to make eye-contact with Elsa.

"Elsa, I—"

He was cut off by the sound of bells tolling from somewhere outside.

"The church bells!" Elsa gasped, quickly peering out a window nearby to catch a glimpse of all the visitors that had entered the castle courtyard from the open castle gates and were assembling inside the royal chapel. "The coronation! Jack, we have to go! We can't be late!"

"But Elsa—!"

"You can thank me later, Jack! We have to hurry! It would be the story of the century should the new queen and the servant carrying the royal scepter and orb run late for the ceremony! We'll talk later!"

And before Jack could say anything else, Elsa started walking as fast and as regally as possible towards the grand staircase without having to run. It wouldn't be proper for a queen to run at top speed through the hallways even if she was running late for her own coronation ceremony.

Seeing as he couldn't get a word in edgewise at this time, Jack sighed and quickly hurried along after her. It broke his heart to accept this royal pin, but at the same time, he couldn't help but think that the chapel steeple bells cutting him off before he could reveal to Elsa why he couldn't become the head butler here in the castle was for the best. It was her coronation day, after all. Elsa had been waiting for this day all her life. He shouldn't ruin it for her.

After all, not even Emma knew that ever since his mother died, he had been taking on more and more work shifts here in the castle to save up enough money to take Emma and leave after Elsa was made queen.

While everyone else thought of today as the mark of a new beginning here in the royal palace, to Jack, today marked the end of this chapter of his and Emma's lives here in the castle.

Because first thing tomorrow morning, he was officially turning in his green servant uniform and resignation papers.