CHAPTER FIVE: HOPSCOTCH, ANYONE?

Jack could hear the silent cries of his princess and began to rock her gently. Everything was quiet, still. Not a single soul dared to breathe. All that could be heard was the silent weeping of the ice princess.

"Shhhh….It's okay now, Elsa. I'm right here. I'm right here" he repeated gently, reassuring her that he wasn't just some holographic duplicate of him, if that was even possible.

Elsa turned around to face him, as he was hugging her from the back, and buried her face into his chest and wrapped her frail arms around his body. Jack gently stroke her hair while softly hushing her; planting soft kisses in it. He had never seen her as broken down as this before. So he just trusted his instincts to handle the situation.

Though Jack was only a year older, he was a head taller than her so he easily towered her. Once again, she refused to let go but Jack gently pushed her away.

"Hey hey hey. Elsa, elsa it's okay" he said while wiping away a tear from her cheek.

Everyone else just watched them in silence; hoping that Jack could ease her nerves.

"Jack I almost killed Anna" she stifled, pausing after each word to catch her breath. Her words were so faint only he could hear her.

"Anna's fine. Everyone's fine. Come on, Elsa. Let's get you home" he said as he put one of her arms around his shoulder and placed his hand on the small of her back to support her weak, frightened body. Rosaline was the first to recover from the situation and immediately ran over to Jack and Elsa to help them. Anna and Holly came running behind her. Some of the townspeople made way for the princess and the others to get to the carriage.

Stoick decided to stay behind to try to lift the spirits of the townsfolk. Hiccup spotted Merida in the crowd and the both of them decided to go to his house to check up on Elsa.

Neither of them said a word, but both of their minds were wondering the same thing. Merida decided to break the awkward silence.

"So those two really are inseparable, huh?" she blurted out, stifling a laugh but Hiccup could feel what she was going through.

"I know your pain" he replied. They both fell silent after that.

Elsa had finally managed to calm down thanks to Rosaline and her family. They had the maids escort her and Anna to their bedroom. Elsa asked if Jack could stay longer, but Rosaline informed her that it was already late and they needed to head home themselves. So Elsa hugged him one last time before retreating to her room.

Unlike the turn of events that happened earlier, her dreams were soft and gentle and full of fun. The moon decided to pay extra attention to this ice princess. Just so she wouldn't be traumatized or anything.

Hiccup and Merida arrived at the house and inquired about Elsa to one of the maids. She only told them that the princess has calmed down and to not disturb her. Hiccup walked Merida home and came back thirty minutes later. He retired to his bedroom afterwards.

At the crack of dawn, Elsa woke up and rubbed her eyes as she was walking towards her vanity to get ready for the day. She stretched her arms out and yawned and slowly opened her eyes. She let out a gasp as she stared at the reflection in the mirror in front of her, flabbergasted. Her eyes were wide, her mouth hung open, she didn't move. She just stood there, in complete and utter shock. She couldn't believe it. Her once dark brown hair turned platinum blonde. Her deep brown eyes changed into blue sapphires, complementing her hair.

When everything slowly started to sink in, she grew anxious. She turned around to get a view of her sister if anything as bizarre happened to her. Besides the streak of white hair that was already there for years now, everything was completely normal. 'Why do I have to be the freakish one?' she asked herself while staring at Anna's unconscious body snoring ever so lightly it was almost inaudible.

She sat on her bed to recall past events to see if her sudden change in appearance were related to those. All she remembered from last night, though, was a blur. Unlike most of her memories, she couldn't remember the details of it. All she could remember was her and Jack having fun and then the scene changes to when she got mad at herself and started a blizzard. She sat there and concentrated long and hard to remember anything specific. Then the flashback of her wrapping up presents came to her mind and just now realized that it was Christmas. Excited, she jumped up from her bed and shook Anna vigorously in an attempt to wake her up. But to no avail, she failed. She tried again and successfully did it this time.

After a couple of yawns and stretches, she just looked plainly at Elsa, as if nothing was wrong. But that moment was short-lived as her new appearance began to sink in. She just stared at her sister in awe.

"Elsa, how did you….what…what happened to your hair?" was all she could manage to muster up.

"I don't know" Elsa replied. She, too, was puzzled and wanted a reasonable explanation; but alas, none came.

Anna, on the other hand, was on the verge of freaking out. No, she WAS freaking out. Elsa's attempt to calm her down was successful. They finally came to an agreement that they go downstairs and tell their uncle what happened.

Both banged loudly on the door. They were both very tense, they didn't know what to do. They were only children after all. After a couple of minutes, the door opened and revealed a man that had just woken up.

"What can I do for you?" he said with a loud groan.

"Elsa's hair turned white! Elsa's hair turned white!" A very frantic Anna shouted at the top of her lungs which caused Stoick to jump a bit. He just nodded and was about to close the door when he finally processed what Anna was saying. Quickly reopening the door wide, his gaze automatically turned to Elsa and was in a state of shock. Luckily, he quickly recovered and led them all to the dining room to discuss it over breakfast.

Hiccup was walking over to the dining table to have some breakfast of his own when he noticed the rest of the family already there. He politely greeted everyone and was surprised to see that Elsa's hair and eye color had changed. He joined in on the conversation to figure out what's happened. They agreed that they wait for the King and Queen to arrive before they take any action.

"So, since its Christmas today, why don't you kids go out and have fun?" he said.

"Oh yeah, I totally forgot. Elsa its Christmas today! Merry Christmas everybody!" Anna cheered. The rest exchanged greetings and nodded happily at each other.

"Uncle Stoick, is there still gonna be a celebration at the town square?" Elsa asked, finally regaining her memories. She was worried that the people were afraid of her now and that she ruined Christmas.

"I don't know, Elsa. I still have to talk with the other council members. But don't worry, if anything goes wrong at least you still got your family" he beamed a warm smile at her. It was as if he was trying to relay a different message to her, but she didn't get it. She just nodded and headed upstairs with the bubbly auburn following her.

She got out all of her presents and noticed that she didn't wrap up Jack's present yet. She took notice of its sudden change of appearance and was convinced that this was related to her change of appearance. She searched through her closet to look for a box that the necklace would fit it. Unfortunately, all the boxes she had were either too big, too small, or too damaged. Clearly, she thought that her best friend only deserved the best, as also a thank-you gift from last night.

An idea came to her mind and she set the necklace on the table. Focusing her energy on the trinket, particles of magic materialized from her fingertips and swirled around the crystalline object. Finally taking the form of a box, she waved her hands a couple more times to decorate it. It was white and it seemed to have a rough texture but in reality, it was as soft as freshly fallen snow. She decorated it with snowflakes varying in color from light blue to almost white. She finally placed a blue ribbon in the middle and got a piece of paper and wrote Jack's name on it. When she was finally done, she smiled at her work in satisfaction.

"That should do it" she said out loud. Little did she know that her sister was quietly watching her from behind.

"Wow! Elsa it's so pretty" As soon as Anna spoke out, Elsa slightly jumped in surprise. She sighed deeply and smiled at her sister.

"You wanna go give your gifts now?" she asked.

"Elsa! Are you crazy? You're supposed to give the gifts later when it's nighttime so everyone can cuddle up in front of a fire and drink hot chocolate and stuff…" Anna trailed off.

"Oh right" Elsa just realized. She was so used to celebrating her Christmas here that she totally forgot what it was like when it was only your family around.

Anna giggled and said, "Silly Elsa" to which Elsa started giggling too.

"So what do you wanna do today?" Elsa asked.

"I want to play hopscotch!" was her reply. Elsa thought that she would say 'build a snowman' or something else that had to do with the winter but this was just unexpected.

"Alright. Let's go to Auntie Rosie's and maybe Holly would want to play with us" Elsa said.

"And Jack too!" she added. The sisters headed to Jack's house afterwards.

They exchanged pleasant greetings. When Jack took notice of her hair and questioned it, Elsa told him what they only knew. Nothing. She told them that no one had any idea why, neither did she.

"Well, it looks pretty good on you" Jack complimented. Elsa blushed faintly and replied with a simple "Thanks".

"So…you guys wanna play some hopscotch?" Elsa asked to which both of them nodded in agreement. She noticed the sly grin plastered on his face and chuckled.

They almost finished the course, with Anna in first place and Jack in second so far.

"Haha! You're going down, Jack" she stated.

"Did Elsa forget to tell you that I'm the unbeatable champion at hopscotch?" he declared. Elsa just snickered at his confidence.

It was when Anna accidentally stepped on a line at the last minute, and this gave Jack his chance for some payback. He was hopping on the squares with confidence that he was going to beat Anna when he suddenly lost his balance and stepped on a line. Before anyone could notice, he shouted out,

"Look a flying turtle dove" with his fingers pointed to a random direction. Confused at what he said, they all turned their heads in the direction and he moved his foot an inch away from the line. Holly turned her head back to Jack first and noticed his trick.

"Hey, you're cheating" she accused, pointing her finger at him.

"Cheating, who's cheating?" Jack denied, continuing his path. He finally finished it and won.

"I saw you move your foot!" she said.

"I did not" he replied. "Right, Elsa?" he continued. Elsa just shrugged, although she didn't see it happen, it was still possible; knowing Jack that he would play tricks all the time.

"Yes you did!" she retorted.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too"

The two went on. Elsa was getting pretty aggravated and so was Anna.

"Alright, enough you two" Elsa decided to split them up. Her patience was shortened. She came up with an idea for them to have fun.

"How about we go ice skating instead?" she suggested. Holly nodded, but both Anna and Jack disagreed.

"Well, what do you guys wanna do?" she asked. But out of the corner of her eye, past the trees, she caught a glimpse of what seemed like a carriage. As a confirmation, she saw her family's crest on the side and soon got blocked from view by a tree.

"Build a snowman!/Snowball fight!" Anna and Jack said accordingly. But Elsa had already changed her mind. They needed to be at the manor to greet their parents.

"You know what? I change my mind. I saw Mama and Papa's carriage so we need to head back." Elsa said firmly. Mostly pointing her attention to Anna. Anna nodded, and so did the others.

"You can come if you want" Elsa told the siblings with a warm smile.

"Nah, we got chores to do." Jack simply said. Holly, on the other hand, wasn't pleased.

"No we don't!" she protested. Jack suddenly went into a state of panic. He was continuingly shushing her and said, "Yes we do", almost whispering, but audible enough to make sure Elsa and Anna heard. They both stared at the arguing siblings with a confused look. When Elsa had found her voice, she bid them a farewell and made their way to the grand house.

Just to clear up some stuff, this is in the 1700s. And, yeah, spaghetti was already invented at that time XD. just kidding...Anyway, I hope you can understand my wild imagination. I kind of accidentally and purposely made the traits of the characters OOC from how they were portrayed in their original movies so, sorry about that. I had to adjust them to line up to my story. I hope you enjoy the story so far as much as I am writing it. Please forgive me if there are any typos, mistakes in grammar, etc. I did my best.

Reviews are always appreciated! :-)