Chapter 2: Considering The Changes
She glanced apologetically at the them.
"Might work…you know…Frost made a bunny for me once out of ice. It was really awesome." Jamie said. "Sophie come here. I promise nothing bad will happen! It was just a dream before!"
Sophie trudged over carefully. Suddenly a small little bunny-snowman came out of the snow and hopped around her.
"There you go. Keep him all winter long with you. He just has to stay out in the cold okay?" Elsa smiled.
"Bunny! Snow-bunny! Bun-Bun!" Sophie's eyes lit up.
"Are we square now ?" Elsa asked kindly.
She smiled widely. "Thank you kind Ice Queen!" She ran off to the other side of the lawn hopping with the small snow animal.
"You know normally I don't think it would have been that easy." Elsa shook her head.
"My sister really loves bunnies for some reason… and Princesses and Queens normally. If she gets those night-things again, I'm sure 'Bun-bun' will help her get happy again. I don't know what her other ones were about but I'll ask my mom just in case. I'm sure it was just a coincidence or something!" Jamie smiled, looking sympathetic. Suddenly a voice called from inside their house. "Hey, we gotta go now it's dinner time! Thanks Elsa!"
Elsa watched as suddenly she was left alone in the streets. She hated the feeling of knowing nobody else could see her. She understood what Frost felt like now. What his struggles were. More so, she knew the feeling of loneliness that sat in her heart awakened…why hadn't North let her come to the meeting? What secrets were they keeping from her? And more why would she seem frightening to any child?
"Elsa!"
She turned to see Olaf.
"I've been looking for you ever since you left in a rush this morning with your frosted lover …" Olaf chuckled.
"I'm sorry! Jack wanted to help me figure a way to get my name out here as a Guardian of winter too…" Elsa smiled. Olaf always made her happier. He reminded her so much of her sister.
"Sooo, Where is Jack?" Olaf asked.
Elsa sighed. "Olaf, do you think I'm …I'm cut out for this Guardian stuff?"
"Of course you are! You watched out for generations of Arendelle! And you made sure your sister was safe! That's why the Moon probably chose you…" Olaf looked to the side. "…whatever that means…"
Elsa laughed a bit. "But only Arandelle knows of me, and even now I'm becoming nothing but a faint legend there. And … it seems like they haven't really accepted me as a new Guardian. I have nothing to give to these children…"
"But what about the itty bitty snow bunny? Ahh, it's almost as cute as me, it's so caw-uute!" Olaf watched it prance around the snow piled lawn.
"I guess. I just thought it would all mean more. Something more noble… I mean why would the Moon want Jack and I both have ice powers? Why did he even let me meet him if I was only meant to end up here where he seems to reign better? Maybe Jack can explain things later…I just can't help but-"
"Actually you reigned Arendelle better than he did when he was there… so just do it like you did then!"
"But …I'm not a real Queen here… people have no obligation or knowledge… I mean-"
"You know you're the exact opposite of how Anna was…" Olaf said suddenly.
"What?" Elsa was taken off guard. Olaf rarely talked about Anna, because he knew how hard it had been for Elsa to watch her sister and her family grow old, while she remained in…well in this form.
"Well I mean uhm… Anna…do you remember when Anna tried to marry Hans the minute after she met her? I wasn't there but I sure heard about it…I mean come on he nearly-"
"Yes, but what does this have to do with me?" Elsa looked skeptical at Olaf's near rant.
"Well Anna doesn't always think things through completely right? Or she didn't… but that's not the point. The point is she was spontaneous and let her heart guide her actions. You, however, let your brain do too much thinking…you question things and then…I mean it's good because your logical…but then you also think too much and don't let things just happen…you tend to knock down what your heart tells you for your mind…or your brain tells you for your chest? Or something like that…do you get me?" Olaf said crossing his eyes in confusion for a moment, before looking up to Elsa.
"I think I do Olaf."
"And…well Jack is the same way kind of as Anna was…so maybe it's a good thing you're with him. You know even the scales a bit…" Olaf nudged her slightly with a smile.
She laughed. He was right again. Jack had happened to come into her life just as she was stressing about needing a King and showed her a world where being carefree might be possible. Anna had tried to relinquish that pressure on her too back then. Jack would likely fill her in on whatever was happening, and she had to trust in that…plus she was the newest member right? Surely there were things they knew about…or things that concerned them that maybe she wouldn't understand. She would have to trust Jack this time on this. She was a Guardian now. Plus, North didn't seem to dislike her. None of them did.
Maybe Olaf was right it might have been all in her head.
"Olaf…do you think you could do me a favor…" Elsa said suddenly.
"Yeesss?" Olaf asked. "Oh, oh tell me you need me to do something fun like-"
"Can you return to Arendelle for me … only for a short while. I want to know if people still believe in me there. Frost told me earlier we depend on people to believe in us, and I really want people to believe in me. If the Moon did give me this gift, I don't want to be forgotten…maybe if I can find a way to understand how they believe in me there, I can make it…happen here…" Elsa began more speaking to herself then to Olaf directly.
"I'm game! But…but what if people don't like snowmen…talking…there anymore? I mean come on I am a bit of a one of a kind package."
"Olaf, you're a snowman. Just pretend to be a snowman if you really think it might get bad." Elsa laughed.
"Oh, oh right." Olaf laughed. "Well…could you at least give me a boost?"
"Sure." Elsa summoned a gust of snow in a chill of wind, and Olaf left for Arendelle. Things were much easier in terms of travel as a Guardian now. She looked around. Maybe she'd return to her castle for now. All she had left was to wait for the other's return.
-
Meanwhile…
-
"What did you need me for that Elsa couldn't come with? I mean she's one of us you know…"
"Jack, that's not the point bloke…you'll understand when you get there…" Bunnymond shook his head.
"Wait, we're not returning to North's place? What's going on?" Jack asked when suddenly they emerged in a dark area of a forest. Blinking his eyes he realized where he was.
"Ah, Jack you're here." North said, with Tooth and Sandman beside him.
"What are we doing here? And what's going on about excluding Elsa…"
"I'll reveal why in a moment. But look here." North said calmly.
Jack looked behind North as he stepped aside. The hole that Pitch Black had once been sucked into was open. Wide open, with a blast of dark particles surrounding it, as if an explosion had caused it to reemerge into the air.
"Did he get out?!" Jack spun around with wide eyes, concerned.
"We don't know Jack…but if he did…or even if the Night Mares got out…" Tooth said delicately.
"But how? He was stuck down there with all of his fears…I mean he would have been sleeping right? Or something?"
"Can't tell. But he hasn't reared his head yet so…maybe she'll be alright." Bunnymond said approaching the cavern in the ground.
"…but he may have. And that's a problem…" Jack paused. "Hey, I just thought of something…" Frost thought for a moment and looked up to the group. "Jamie's sister and some people her age were having what Jamie's mom called Night Terrors."
"Oh I've seen kids have those. It's a nasty thing, and they're not eve real nightmares." Tooth looked concerned.
"Yea, but this is what's off. He told me that kids don't remember their dreams during night terrors…but Sophie remembered hers. She had one about Elsa."
"What? Elsa? But why her?" North suddenly seemed concerned.
"Might have been the thing on her mind? That child was obsessed with me until royalty came along." Bunnymond speculated.
"That's not the point. Kids aren't supposed to remember their night-terrors. So then it's not a night terror is it? It's a nightmare." Jack looked at them, his words echoing through the trees.
"But that's not a nightmare. No, nightmares are things kids wake up from. Terrors…well terrors…that um-" North bit his lip.
"What? Do we have to Wikepedia the little bad dreams now? Come on, doesn't anyone know about them?" Bunnymond asked annoyed.
"Jamie's mom seemed to know about them. Let me go ask." Frost turned to leave.
"No, wait Jack not yet." North stopped him. "I still have yet to answer your other question. Do you not want to know why it is only us and not all of us?"
"I do." Jack stopped and turned around.
"Well I thought of it after I noticed this…mishap. Last time Pitch went for all of us; diminish our powers with the children so he could take over…and the only one left of us that really had power was you…do you know why?"
"Because…well because I wasn't really a full Guardian…nobody knew about me…and the one person that did never stopped."
"Yes, and if Jamie were to somehow loose that ability this time, then you would still be fine…considering others believed…but if not then …" North tried to explain.
"What he's saying is you'd be just as done in as the rest of us, if the masses were cursed with bad dreams again. Jamie might resist, but we don't know what his plans are." Bunnymod summed up North's longer explanation.
"What does this have to do about Elsa?"
"Jack, Elsa has followers. People that believe in her, but less then all of us. She's the only one with a loophole. If Pitch does return and tries the same thing, Elsa might be the only one we can depend on." Tooth explained.
"So then she should know." Jack finished looking at them all, lost as to why they were keeping this a secret.
"No Jack. If Pitch does not know that Elsa exists…if he does not get introduced, then her few followers may survive. He won't know to target her…she might be able to do something that nobody expects because nobody knows of her."
"But then why did Sophie dream about her? Who else believes in her?" Jack knew the answer in his head. Arendelle. People on her side of the world. But then, how many people there, actually believed in her? He knew most people thought they were just myths… they were anomalies, but would people in Arendelle remember her as just a deceased Queen now? Or would it be more? Did she leave a larger legacy after all those years?
"It may have been a fluke. Don't you remember? Everything Pitch touches, with those nightmares turns them dark. The opposite of a good queen is a bad one. Right Sandman?" Tooth said lightly, trying to help. Sandman nodded.
"Jack, we want her on our side. But if we keep her in the dark about this, until we know the truth, if he's really out there, and then …and then you can tell her it all. But keeping it hush and a secret from him, means she might be the only one who can save us if he tries the same things again. Do you understand what I say?" North asked.
"I do. But she's going to question this. We can't keep her on the outside long." Jack said.
"We won't." Bunnymond shook his head. "Just long enough, then she's all ears. Plus, getting ol' shadow boy caught up on her wouldn't be good. He plays games with them newbies, remember Frostie?"
Jack recalled. Still he couldn't underestimate her. That wouldn't be fair. "Then let's go back. We've left her for too long. Tonight I'll ask Jamie about it. You and me Sandman, just incase he strikes around his sister again…if that's the case." Jack nodded slightly to Sandman who returned the nod.
North opened a portal back to his palace. He looked wearily at the large gaping hole in the ground. Elsa was their only secret weapon, and, if Frost or her castle was any proof of her powers, she was worth more than just a weapon. She might be one of their strongest allies against Pitch.