NEW CHAPTER! I wanted to clarify something here: in chapter 2, I wrote that Rapunzel was Elsa's maternal cousin, but in the last chapter, she learned that Rapunzel was actually her paternal cousin. When Elsa's parents left for Corona to attend Rapunzel's wedding, Elsa didn't know what the relation was. She only thought it was her mother's relative, and was never able to ask since her parents died on that trip. It makes sense that if your parents never told you what the relation was, you could think it was your cousin on one side when it's actually your cousin on the other side.

Also, I decided that Merida's mother looks enough like Elsa's dad and Rapunzel's mom to be their older sister. Elsa's dad and Rapunzel's mom look like fraternal twins, so they would have almost the same features but not the exact same (I know twins like this where one had brown hair and the other had blonde, but most of their other features were the same, and Rapunzel's mom and Elsa's dad have enough similar features to be twins). Besides, often one sibling will resemble one parent while the other(s) resemble the other parent, so it's very possible that Merida's mom looks more like their mother while Elsa's dad and Rapunzel's mom look more like their father. And in marriages at that time, it's entirely possible that Merida's mom was the result of a first marriage, where her parents either divorced or one of them died and the other remarried, making them half siblings. Without knowing the full background of the parents, or who the grandparents of the four girls are, it's hard to know which is more likely, but for my writing purposes, I'm using the theory that they're all siblings and leaving it at that. If you don't like it, I'm sorry, but I wanted a representative of each of the Four Seasons to be in the same family, and since they all kind of look alike, it made life easy. I just had to make sure I could connect them and I found a way to. It's all about the details!

Anyway, leave a review and tell me what you think! Jack has a cute genius moment at the end, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on that! Like I said in the last chapter, I want to know what you guys think! Also, school starts for me today, but I'll still be updating every Monday!

Now, I'll shut up so you guys can read and enjoy! Snowflakes of fun and love to all of you!

Chapter 5: Meet the Four Seasons

After Elsa thawed Arendelle, everyone returned to the castle. Everyone, that is, except for Prince Hans, the Duke of Weselton and his two guards. They were formally banished from Arendelle and sent back to their kingdoms to be punished for trying to kill the new queen. Elsa created an ice rink for the other guests to skate on, and noticed happily that no one feared her anymore. All the guests were skating together and enjoying themselves, and their skill levels varied. Some of the guests were like Emma, Elsa, Jack, and Olaf and were very talented skaters while others were like Anna and couldn't skate at all. Those that couldn't skate were helped by those who could, and Elsa was thrilled as she could finally promise her sister that the castle gates would never close again.

After all the festivities, which were extended to last a full week, had ended, and everyone had gone home, including the Viking prince from a dragon-filled land called Berk that had danced with Emma the first night, only a few guests remained at the castle. Those guests were Jack, Emma, Anna's new, trustworthy boyfriend Kristoff, Merida, the redheaded princess from Scotland who turned out to be a cousin on her father's side, Rapunzel—who Anna immediately starting calling Punzie—and her husband Eugene. Jack and Emma were given special permission by Elsa to stay, both Anna and Elsa gave Kristoff permission, and Merida, Rapunzel, and Eugene stayed because the girls wanted to spend some time getting to know their long-lost cousins.

The night everyone went home, they were all sitting at the large dining table enjoying a meal together. The three men were talking about the events that had just taken place while Elsa and Merida watched as the other girls excitedly chattered about everything that came to mind. Rapunzel, who was twenty-one and almost exactly three years older than Elsa, got along great with Anna and Emma despite them being several years younger than her. They all had similar personalities. None of them were quite ready to grow up yet, and they all loved fun. Elsa found she got along better with her brave Scottish cousin who fought against everyone to win her freedom and not have to marry. Elsa enjoyed having someone around who understood what it meant to have enormous things expected of you, and who knew what it was like to free yourself. They were both much quieter than the other three girls sitting with them, but Merida knew how to find the right moments to jump in with a fantastic story that had all the girls on the edge of their seats, and Elsa occasionally caught the boys captivated as well. The first hour or so into dinner, the conversations between the men and the princesses—Elsa had decided Emma deserved to be called a princess as well—stayed separated, but that all changed when Eugene and Rapunzel brought up frying pans at the same time.

"Frying pans?" Elsa asked, confused. Her older cousin nodded eagerly.

"Yes, frying pans! That was how Eugene and I met, actually. He climbed into my tower to escape some people who didn't like him—and there were a lot of people who didn't like him—and I hit him with a frying pan. It's a great weapon! You just sneak up behind someone with your frying pan pulled back, and when you're close enough to strike, BOOM! They take a frying pan to the back of the head and are knocked unconscious. It's awesome!" the perky brunette explained excitedly, and Eugene just smiled at his wife.

"I ended up getting one because unless you're trying to use one in a fight against a horse with a sword, they're the best weapon you'll ever use. Every kitchen has one, so they're easy to find and no one would expect to be hit with a frying pan. When Punzie was reunited with her family and became Princess of Corona again, we had a horse as Head of the Guard and all the soldiers carried frying pans instead of swords," Eugene explained as if this was completely normal and made perfect sense. Anna and Emma were listening intently, probably deciding if they would ever need to use a frying pan as a weapon, Jack and Kristoff were exchanging confused glances, and Merida and Elsa were staring at their two cousins from Corona blankly.

"Ok, um, maybe we should go a little more into detail on our backgrounds now. Who wants to go first?" Jack asked slowly, and Merida volunteered.

"My story starts off fairly simple. My parents had an arranged marriage that luckily ended well for them, but I didn't want an arranged marriage. I'm only sixteen, and I had only just turned sixteen when they arranged a competition without my approval where the eldest of each of the clans would fight for my hand in marriage. Trying to prove a point and change my fate, I chose archery as the challenge they had to face and shot for my own hand in marriage. Needless to say, my mom wasn't too happy about that. She had spent years trying to make me a perfect princess, but she wouldn't listen to me so we didn't get along. Things happened, she tried to burn my bow, I ran away, and my mom and three younger brothers were turned into bears because of a magic cake a witch gave me. My mom and I ran off to break the spell, and barely managed to before the curse lasted forever. We get along a lot better now, and thanks to a deal struck during that time, I get to choose who I want to marry and when," the fiery redhead explained, and looked happy at the end. Elsa really admired her younger cousin. She had the chance to change her fate, took it, and succeeded. Elsa could tell Jack was trying to process Merida's mother turned into a bear, and as she shot him a look that said, your best friend has ice powers and you can't comprehend her cousin's mom becoming a bear, Rapunzel jumped up.

"My turn! Before I was born, there was a magic flower. This flower grew from a single drop of sunlight that fell from the heavens. It had the power to heal any sickness or injury, including mortal wounds, and functioned as a fountain of youth, and all you had to do was sing a special song. One day, a jealous old witch found the flower and hid it so only she could use the flower's magic. A few centuries later, my mom was pregnant with me and became deathly ill. Search parties were sent out to find the flower, and they did. They put the flower in water that absorbed its power, and my mother drank that water and was cured. Since she was pregnant with me, I was born with the power that flower had possessed, a power that took form in long, blonde hair. The jealous witch found me and took me from my bedroom in the palace in Corona just days after I was born. For eighteen years, the witch raised me as her daughter, using my magic to keep herself young. The day before my eighteenth birthday, Eugene climbed into my tower and found me, which was when I hit him with the frying pan. I forced him to take me to see the Lantern Festival held on my birthday each year. I thought they were floating lights and I knew they meant something. We had some crazy adventures, including meeting a group of criminals who were actually really nice in a pub, running into a lot of people who didn't like Eugene, and him finding out about my magic. We saw the lights, then I thought he betrayed me and went home with the witch. She was going to take me somewhere far away where no one would ever find me again, and she tried to kill Eugene in the process. I went to heal him, agreeing to not fight the witch if she let me save him, but before I could he chopped off my hair, destroying the easiest outlet for my powers and giving me my new haircut. The witch became old and fell out the window of my tower, turning to dust as she hit the ground, and Eugene died in my arms. I sang the flower's song before starting to cry, and one of my tears landed on Eugene's cheek. It saved his life, and we've been together ever since," the brunette told the group, looking at her husband lovingly as he took her hand and squeezed it gently. Anna almost died thinking this was adorable, and Elsa smiled. Jack still was having trouble comprehending magic.

"So, wait. Does everyone in your family have magic?" Jack asked Elsa. She looked around the table for a minute and then shrugged.

"Apparently," she told him. "Merida has the magic cake that turned her mother into a bear and the power to change her fate, Rapunzel has her magic hair, Anna's love thawed my winter, and I can control ice and snow. Surprisingly though, none of our parents had magic, so it's just the four of us."

Jack took a moment to let that information sink in, and Anna and Elsa took that opportunity to tell their story to the cousins. Anna told her side first, then Elsa told hers. At first, Anna was upset that Elsa had been leaving the palace secretly to play with Jack and Emma, but Elsa—with Emma and eventually Jack's help—managed to convince her that she had only left to learn to control her powers so they could be together again. Anna finally got over it after Elsa had explained to her that love meant putting someone else before yourself, which Elsa had done in locking herself away from her sister so she could be safe from Elsa's growing magic. Apparently before she froze, Olaf had taught her what love was, and had said the exact same thing Elsa told her, just in a different context.

Kristoff, Eugene, and Jack and Emma shared their stories in turn. Jack and Emma didn't have to say much, since their story was completely intertwined with Anna and Elsa's, but Kristoff and Eugene's stories were fascinating, sad, and similar. Both were orphans, although Eugene was raised reading stories to the younger children in an orphanage and the trolls raised Kristoff, both went on adventures with princesses and fell in love with them along the way, and neither of them directly descended from royal blood. Their stories differ the most, however, when they were very young. Eugene never knew his parents, but Kristoff did. Kristoff's family lived in a simple cabin near the lake where the ice harvesters worked, as his father was an ice harvester. Kristoff found Sven one day in the woods near his home when he was about three or four, and the two became best friends. One day, however, the cold became too much for his mother, and she became sick and died when Kristoff was five years old. Kristoff was an only child, and since he had no family to care for him after his mother died, he joined his father at work with Sven and started learning to harvest the ice. Kristoff loved working with his father, but unfortunately, living off of cutting through ice was dangerous. The last day Kristoff harvested ice with his father, a small mistake was made. In normal conditions, such a mistake would go unnoticed and never cause a problem, but they were near the end of the ice-harvesting season, and a section of the ice had taken too many hits from splitting the ice into smaller blocks. The seven-year-old Kristoff could only watch as his father fell through the weakened ice, and was never seen again.

Anna, as sensitive as always, started crying when Kristoff recounted his father's death, and Kristoff pulled the young princess close to comfort her. Emma began to look slightly uneasy, since she and her brother loved skating on the lake outside their home, but Elsa reassured her by reminding her that when she froze the lake, it was magic ice and was completely safe. The youngest girl at the table smiled at that, and eventually Anna stopped crying.

"Hey, Punzie? You mentioned a magic flower song. What was it?" Anna asked her curiously, all traces of sadness gone. It was times like these when Elsa wondered if her sister was bipolar or just easily distracted. Jack looked over at the queen and smirked, and she knew he was thinking the same thing.

"Do you want me to sing it?" the older brunette asked. When everyone cheered her on, her husband the loudest of all, she began to sing in with a beautiful voice, "Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine, make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt, change the fate's design, save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine. What once was mine." When she finished, she was smiling and seemed to glow subtly, and everyone was captivated until Jack broke the silence.

"Hey, I just realized something. Elsa, Anna, Rapunzel, and Merida, you each represent the four different seasons. Anna represents spring, because spring is usually associated with love and warmth and the end of winter, and it was your love that ended Elsa's winter, like she mentioned earlier. Rapunzel is summer, because her power comes directly from the sun and summer is known for its sunny days. Merida is autumn, since autumn is when the year changes from green and flowery and warm to crisp shades of red, yellow, and orange, and is generally associated with changing fate, which is what you did, and Elsa is winter for obvious reasons," Jack explained, then quickly realized something else and continued before anyone could stop or interrupt him. "Rapunzel's song can even be used to describe the four of you, with the first verse starting in spring and ending in winter, and the second verse starting in summer and ending in spring. Flower gleam and glow is Anna, for the flowers in the springtime. Let your power shine is Rapunzel, since she glows when she sings the song and her hair used to glow from her magic powers. Make the clock reverse is Merida, for wanting to change how things are. Bring back what once was mine in this verse is Elsa, since during the winter, usually people want to bring back the warm, sunny days they got used to during the year. In the next verse, Rapunzel comes first with the line heal what has been hurt, again because of her powers and because sunshine and warmth can usually ward off illness. Change the fate's design is Merida because all she wanted to do was change her fate. Save what has been lost is Elsa because she lost her bond with Anna and almost everyone else she cared about and wanted to fix it, and in the winter people save their memories of days past, and in this verse, bring back what once was mine, what once was mine is Anna because she wanted to get her sister back, and in the spring, everyone misses a little bit of winter, whether they miss the snow or the holiday season and being together as a family. If all four of you worked together, you would be unstoppable!"

Everyone—especially Elsa and Emma—stared at the brown haired, usually barefoot boy in shock. None of them expected him to be quite so deep, and he was obviously pleased with himself. Everyone looked at the four royal girls sitting at the table, and no one could say he was wrong. Anna and Rapunzel immediately loved the idea and it showed, and Elsa and Merida took a few moments before finally agreeing with him. They quickly decided on the nickname the Four Seasons, and immediately felt a strange sensation wash over them, like a magic that originated from elsewhere had become theirs, and they knew no force would stand a chance against them if they were united against it.

Yay, the Four Seasons! Tell me what you think! And I got the idea for Kristoff watching his parents freeze to death from a picture I found on Google, although I think that image meant more along the lines of freezing the way Anna did, and not watching them fall through. I may be wrong, and if I am then credit goes to that person for giving me the inspiration. Like it says in the description, anything you recognize is not mine. The only thing I own is the idea to bring everything together in one story.

Also, I have a challenge for you all! Since school started today, I wanted to do a sort of end-of-summer, back-to-school celebration thing, so if I get 10 reviews after this chapter is posted (bringing this story up to 14 reviews), I'll post a new story! And bigger bonus, if I get fifteen reviews after this chapter is posted (bringing this story up to 19 reviews), I'll post the next chapter early, and tell you about the story I'll be posting! So if you like my writing, let me know and review!

Options for the new story: a Jelsa Avengers AU, or just another Jack Frost meets Elsa story with my own personal twist on it (where Jack is already a Guardian when he meets Elsa and has to help her).