Chapter 48-Pinned

When Elsa woke up the light was dark. Inside, she knew it couldn't be night yet…it just wasn't night yet. Perhaps it was in the late afternoon but not night. Elsa looked around the best she could without moving her head and thought how odd, neither Rapunzel nor Anna was in her room, not even a maid. It took a moment for her to remember that Rapunzel was and probably still sick, that would be a reason as to why she isn't here, but where was Anna?

The drowsiness and sleepiness was still heavy within her mind and body, so Elsa adjusted her head slightly to rest easy but then caught something beyond her window. Snow?

XxXxXx

The air wasn't too cold despite the heavy snow falling, but the flakes would disappear as soon as they touched the earth. It couldn't be her magic could it? Elsa tried to make the snow stop falling but nothing happen, she thought it would be best to find Jack. The air got caught in her throat for a second…Best to find someone…

The castle was too quiet as she roamed the halls. And for the past twenty minutes Elsa has yet to see one single soul in the building, and no one was even in the meeting room. It was maybe by luck that she managed to hear the faint clopping of heels, and even luckier to have located the sounds. Elsa found two maid servants who were making their way somewhere, with one carrying a thick blanket, and the other one was pushing a refreshment cart but the subsistence were replaced with bandages, bottles of alcohols, some candles and towels.

When the pair spotted Elsa, they were surprised and quickly curtsied to their queen. "Where are you taking those items?" Elsa asked.

"To Prince Lipso, Commander Atlas, and the Spirit Autumn Hiccup Your Majesty," answered the maid with the blanket. "Commander Atlas was horribly wounded during battle and are still unconscious. The Spirit Hiccup is unable to move along with his dragon."

"…If their wounds are so severe, why haven't Bellflower heal them yet?" The maids looked uncomfortably at each other and both hesitated to answer. "What's wrong…? Please answer me."

The maid pushing the cart finally answered her queen, "Lady Bellflower is dead Your Majesty."

"—What…?!" Elsa couldn't believe it, she couldn't understand how Rapunzel could have died; she didn't participate in the fight this time. Elsa quickly thought of the worst and believed for a second that maybe it was her sickness that had killed her, and immediately regretted not forcing her cousin home and breaking their Pact sooner. She was overwhelmed, her mind racing with questions and of Rapunzel death along with Jack's…

"Your Majesty!" Elsa heard. "Your Majesty!" It took another minuet for her to realize that the two maid servants were now by her side, and that she was now on the ground for her legs had collapsed under her.

"Where's Anna?" Elsa managed to ask weakly; so faint that it came out as a whisper. "Where's my sister, I need to speak with her."

"Please return to your room Your Majesty," one of the maids pleaded, "you must rest. We can help you and then we'll go and fetch Princess Anna for you."

"—No!" Elsa said sharply, though her voice was still faint. "Tell me where my sister is now," she demanded and quickly stood up shakenly.

"S-She is in the ballroom helping to tend and put the wounded to sleep, Now Your Majesty must return to your own chamber and rest as well—"

"The two of you should return to your own duties," Elsa snapped and slightly regretted the harshness in her tone. "Forgive me," she quickly said and started walking towards the ballroom, "Return to you tasks and tend to those you were instructed to," was her last words to the maids.

XxXxXx

Turning down the Hall leading to the ballroom, Elsa found the Alliance group gathering outside the room's entrance, along with Prince Lipso and Grill; Merida was absent. But more importantly, and to Elsa greatest relief and confusion, Rapunzel was there with the group in her human form.

"Elsa!" cried Anna. She was the first person to noticed Elsa and started rushing towards her sister with withheld tears. When close, Anna nearly threw herself at her sister and embraced her tightly.

When the rest of the group got close, Elsa could see that they were looking at her strangely, but she paid no mind to their looks, instead she asks "Is it true, I heard the news that Bellflower died during battle?" She felt her sister's embrace tightened further around her.

"Yes," Lukas said solemnly cautious. "But let us continue this in our usual meeting room; there is much we have to tell you, and much we need to discuss."

XxXxXx

Elsa leaned herself against her chair and buried her face in her hands. Two days, Elsa thought. Two days…I've been unconscious for two days. But that information alone wouldn't normally be enough to upset her greatly; instead, it was everything else that was built up between her two days of sleep. As it turned out, the Three Kingdom Alliance had lost the battle, and with this one lost itself they are corned by Hans and Pitch. Those two are now stronger and more powerful than the Kingdoms Alliance. When the battle had ended, Hans and Pitch made an offer to the group: they would spare the lives of the remaining soldiers as well as their own as long as Arendelle and the Southern Isle Kingdom both agree to surrender completely to Hans. Also, they will withhold punishment and war on the Corona Kingdom for their participation in this conflict, if they agree to bring back all the evacuated citizens of Arendelle…The two had given them three days to think about their answer.

As it turns out, the caves that they thought the Fearlings and Nightmares were using was not for shelter during mornings; the caves were mined by the creature for their lead. On the first day Merida had told them her thoughts on the matter of the Black armor. She believed their investigation on the caves must've slowed the Fearlings and Nightmares down because they didn't want them discovering their plan, and thus that was why they went on for weeks without confrontations, because the creatures were focusing on the mining but were being slowed.

Not too many lives were taken during the battle thanks to the Golden Armors and weapons, but the men are now mostly dying from their severe injuries. There's not enough medics to help heal the number of wounded, and they can't heal the men fast enough to save them, even with the aid of the castle's staffs.

So that would explain why the castle is so empty; they are all out helping, Elsa thought. Other facts had also played into the quietness of the building. The transportation of the wounded is progressing slowly; not all the men are being brought to the castle, instead some are temporarily hold in residential houses because they are so badly hut that it's dangerous to move them any further than needed. And lastly, earlier before Elsa came, the group was spreading dreams sands to help the soldiers who can afford to sleep to ease them through the pain of their body.

When Elsa finally asked how 'Bellflower' died, it was Commander Gorm who told her. He saw everything that had happened. The monstrous worm that was chasing Hiccup and Toothless during the fight had battered the pair badly and exhaustedly; it was to the point where Toothless was too tied to keep up his tremendous speed and eventually could no longer fly. They were already extremely high when the dragon's strength failed, and so they fell suddenly from the sky and straight into the worm's mouth. By some Miracle, Hiccup and Toothless managed to fight their way out from the monster, but they fell separately from each other and so crashed into the forest trees. Toothless' wings were broken, and Hiccup had sustained several broken bones and currently is unable to move much.

"As for Lady Bellflower, I saw her being knocked hard off the dragon when its wings collapse and she fell into that monster…she never came out of it…"

Elsa discreetly turned to look at Rapunzel, now understanding the situation as to why her cousin can't heal the men. It made sense, but Elsa couldn't understand why Rapunzel didn't just make a reappearance of Bellflower once she regained consciousness. She could've come up with a story, a miraculous story of how she escaped the monster and near death.

When Gorm breached the subject of Jack's death, Elsa stopped him; simply saying she had witness his death herself and would rather not discuss more about it. The only thing she did say about it was that Jack was killed by Pitch; to which no one else knew about the knowledge of how the Winter Spirit was killed. The subject was dropped after that.

"So where is Merida now?" Elsa asked to move away from the topic of Jack.

This time it was Prince Grill who answered. "Merida's currently away delivering messages to the Southern Isle Kingdom. She's actually been relaying and delivering messages for us for the past two days."

"And what's the Southern Isle standing in this situation?"

At the same time while Grill rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers, Lukas took off his glasses and leaned his weight on his chair's arm, and Lipso removed one of the glove from his hand and rubbed his whole face tiredly. "Our brothers there don't know what to do, and neither do we…"

"I see…If I remember correctly, some of Merida's Being friends have volunteered to guard the Southern Isle and escort the evacuation ships. Has she mentioned anything about asking them to come to ais us as reinforcements?"

"About that," started Rapunzel. "The same day we were attacked, the Southern Isle Kingdom and the evacuation ships were surrounded by Nightmares."

"You mean they were attacked?!"

"—Not Quite. After the fighting ended, Merida did went to go fetch some of her Being friends, but when she got to the Southern Isle Kingdom, she found her friends there confronted with Nightmares. The creatures weren't attacking , but they had a message from Pitch warning her and her friends that if they try anything, his Nightmare will start attacking the Kingdom. So Merida friends couldn't just leave with her while the Nightmares were still there.

"When she went to ask those escorting the ships, it was the same thing." Rapunzel released a heavy sigh and continued from there. "Apparently Hans and Pitch had come up with more ideas than just the Black Armors. Pitch have called upon another one of his ancient minions; and according to Merida's friends, they are called Dream Pirates: shadow like figures but more solid than the Fearlings, and they ride on these air like ships that can sail from starts to stars. They have completely surrounded all of our ships rendering them stationary."

Elsa breathed deeply. "Oh how far their hands have reach," Elsa said quietly to herself.

"Pardon Your Majesty?" said Commander Gorm.

"So the Nightmares are now basically blocking us from getting reinforcements," Elsa repeated instead.

"Yes, correct Queen Elsa—"

"What about from the other world?" Elsa asked turning towards Lukas. "Have you tried getting new reinforcement from the Being World?"

"Yes, I have. Myself and Merida have tried," but Lukas had also looked at Rapunzel when he said that, signaling to Elsa that Rapunzel had also gone to the Being World to help. "But this time I couldn't open the portal no matter how hard I tried, not even when the moon's reflection was clear in the water's surface at port despite the ghostly snow.

"And when Merida traveled alone through her own portal, she was met with both Hans and Pitch without ever making it to the other world. Apparently the pair had forgotten about the possibility of more reinforcements form the Being World, but as bad luck would have it, the idea came to them just in time for them to catch the spirit and warn her not to try getting more help."

Elsa bit the inside of her lower lip, at a loss of what to do, what other options did they have?

"…Your Majesty, are you alright?" asked Gorm, to which Elsa lightly nodded her head in response. "…Perhaps we should allow you to rest now. You've just woken up and this is a lot to taken in so suddenly."

"We are press for time Commander Atlas," Elsa said rather heavily, "and I already slept during two of our precious days, I don't need to waste another one."

"But there is no point for us in discussing anything or making decisions now until the spirit Merida retains with the messages from the Southern Isle." Elsa was about to object but Commander Gorm continued on. "—But if you won't rest yourself Your Majesty, then please allow us time to rest. We've all done our best in your absent, and have worried for you every hour you remained unconscious."

Elsa saw what Gorm was doing and she couldn't argue back. When she looked around, for she saw for the first time how tired everyone looks; Gorm's words holds truth. Even the Arendelle council was too quiet from exhaustion to say anything during a meeting for once. "…Forgive me," she said shamefully, and then everyone was dismissed.

XxXxXx

It was only Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Eugene, and Rapunzel who were left in the room. Lukas had left with the others after Elsa dismissed them all; he'd sensed that what is to come next is more private family matter, not that he didn't know what was going to be discussed anyway.

When it was just the five of them, Elsa turned to address her cousin. "What's wrong Rapunzel? Why did you let your 'Bellflower' character die?"

Rapunzel didn't answer, and had also refused to look at Elsa. When Elsa repeated her question, she encouraged her cousin to speak to her. Tears started forming in Rapunzel's eyes surprising Elsa completely. Eugene had stood up and moved over to stand beside his wife.

When Elsa asked what was wrong for the third time, Rapunzel answered. "After waking up from my fainting, I realized I was already looked at. It was the day after the fighting; I regained consciousness the night before and…and as it turned out, I am pregnant."

Elsa was genuinely surprised, but she couldn't bring herself, or rather was unsure as to how to express her feelings onto her face. There were too many other things going on inside her head to express more to her cousin. But that was fine, as long as she doesn't think of Jack…Not yet at least, otherwise she may break.

"Did you had any idea you were pregnant?" Elsa asked.

Rapunzel shook her head. "No…I didn't—I swear I didn't." Her tears began to fell. "After the physician finished examining me for the last time, he was furious. His anger was due to Bellflower; he criticized her ability over life; after spending so much time personally taking care of me, he was amazed that she couldn't figure out the cause of my sickness was due to pregnancy. But in order to protect my other form, I begged the physician not to be mad at Bellflower, and I lied to him saying that Bellflower did figure it out, but I forced her to promise not to tell anyone because I was afraid it would cause massive worries."

"…So who else knows?"

"Just only those inside our little circle," Eugene answered for his wife. "I made the physician promise not to tell anyone."

"How did you get away with that?"

"I reminded him that eventually 'she was going to get on the evacuation ship and leave.' And now one way or another, she was going to go home."

For a while Elsa didn't say and did nothing, but then she stood up and walked over to her cousin and took her hands. "You do understand, you have no choice in the matter now right?" Elsa asked gently, and her sister came over to join them. Anna took hold of Rapunzel's hands, and also her sister's.

"That's the whole reason why I didn't bring Bellflower back to life, even though I could've; even though so many people are in need of my help." Elsa felt Rapunzel squeezing her fingers tight.

"…Kristoff, can you go and get Lukas?" Elsa asked.

"It's alright Elsa. We don't need Lukas to break our Pact, and I already asked him how."

"Then what do we need to do?" Anna asked.

Rapunzel stood up and looked into both Anna and Elsa's eyes. "Just release me from my promises," she said softly.

Eugene took a few steps away to make space for them. Unlike her usual transformation into her Being form, where a flower would grow underneath her and then wrap her up into a bud and then released her in her Being form; Rapunzel's Being form was merged with her human form transparently. It was almost like looking at a reflection of a rainbow against a waterfall. Her symbol had appeared large enough to encircle all three of them, while little size orbs of light floated up from the symbol illuminating the room in a warm glow.

"Anna of Arendelle, Elsa of Arendelle, I hereby release you from all your promises to me."

Elsa felt something inside of her being tugged at, or rather; a better description was a thin line of thread, one so delicately crafted with several other layers of thread that were even thinner, was getting ready to be snip off by a blade of scissor finely sharpened.

"Anna, Elsa, will you now hereby release me of all my promises to the both of you?"

"We do," the sisters said in unison.

And all at once the thread was snipped instantly, and the light below them began to fade ever so slowly. Time had slowed for them. Elsa felt as though a surge of energy was leaving her; floating right out of her body just like the illuminating orbs, but the loss in energy didn't weaken Elsa. However, in the moment that passed her body felt emptier than before, almost to the point of making her wanting to cry for some reason, but she kept herself composed. Taking a glanced at her sister, Elsa saw that Anna was feeling the same emptiness as her, but she appears to be taking it better in comparison. As for Rapunzel, Elsa could see guilt still wielding in her eyes and Elsa understood. Under any other circumstances, Rapunzel would've kept their Pact no matter what until the war ends…

A few seconds later, Rapunzel's symbol vanished, swallowing all the lights and orbs with it. Elsa was the first to release their hands, and started walking away abruptly.

"Elsa, wait—where are you going?" Anna asked, quickly following.

"I'm sorry but I want to be alone, please," Elsa said while never turning around to look at her sister. Elsa could tell that Kristoff was beginning to move as well; with the Commanders and Lipso gone, Kristoff would be the only one left with the heavy footsteps. "Please," she said a little harder, "let me be alone for just a few hours," and speeded up. Reaching the door, she opened it wide enough just for herself to go through and quickly shut it. She started to run.

XxXxXx

Lipso and Grill had wanted Lukas to be with them when Merida return with the reports from the Southern Isle, but he made an excuse and left for the castle's library instead. He had only been there once because he wanted to find a place to hide the Promise Book in case there was an emergency, and he'd thought what better to hide a book than amongst other books. He had even gone the extra mile and asked a book binder if he could make some sort of fake book cover that can be wrapped around the Promise Book. But in the end Lukas couldn't bring himself to part from the book no matter what, and told himself he'll just have to protect it with his life.

When Lukas entered the room, he couldn't help but look around as though he was exploring it for the first time. Lukas had even brushed his hand against several of the books' spine as he passed by some of the shelves. The Arendelle's castle library was big, but the Southern Isle castle library was even bigger. However, Lukas had to admit, Arendelle's library book collection wasn't so bad, even the book stores in the capital had good selections when Lukas was walking through the rubbles. He had found some of them possessing books that were only reserved for the rich and nobles in his kingdom, and most of the times those people don't even buy the books.

Lukas went deeper into the library towards one of the back corners where he thought would've made a good hiding place for the Promise Book. The library in general had several reading tables spread all over, along with several one-person couches and mini fire places. But the spot where he was going to had five reading tables collectively placed together, along with a large couch placed in front of a grand fireplace. He can guess that was the royal family's special reading place, particularly for the children, for there were several children's books stacked around the nearby shelves.

When there, Lukas didn't bother to light the fireplace, there wasn't any need to, he wasn't feeling cold. Lukas had also brought with him a lamp to help guide him; he placed it on top of one of the reading table along with the Promise Book after removing it from his satchel, and settled down himself. Next he slowly flipped through the book's pages, not reading anything from it particularly; he just wanted to touch the pictures and letters in it. Once more Lukas could feel every detail that went into making the pictures and the more lavish letters, almost as if each pages were a work of art; each page a canvas for painting. Lukas felt as though he could feel and see where each traces and strokes were made, the angles taken to make the turn, and where the brush had been press the hardest for more depths and contrast. Katherine, Lukas thought, was the one and only true Story Teller that ever existed, beside from being the very first Story Teller. She created this magnificent book containing so many stories, and each one was lovingly crafted to be well represented of the Beings in the Promise Book. Over the course of the war, he had come to greatly admire the Being and her work, and he could only imagen how his predecessors had had the honor in meeting the Being.

Lukas was admiring one of the minor Beings, a strange looking creature with cream colored fur called Gurgi when the pages started gently pushing against his hands. Lukas knew what to do. He lifted his hands off and allowed the pages to flip themselves, and the book went straight to its blank pages. Names started appearing on its surface: Merida's, Hiccup's, Rapunzel's…and Jack's. Currently Rapunzel's name was the one glowing the brightest, and so were Merida and Hiccup's names but just faintly in comparison to their friend. Jack's name was the only one barely readable, and the only one that looked rubbed off, or a better description, scorched; maybe even burning weakly, in a mixture of light blue and white. Overall, Lukas looked at Jack's name as though ants were clustered around it moving little by little working to pick away at it.

He watched as Rapunzel's name started moving; the letters peeling themselves off the page and dance before his eyes. Lukas reached out to hold the letters in his palm, but they blew apart just like watching a pile of sands, its grains being blown away by the wind.

He turned his eyes back to the remaining names until finally he released the sigh he's been holding in for the past two days. Lukas removed his glasses before resting his head next to the book, still keeping his eyes to where the names are.

"What are we to do?" Lukas asked out loud. "What are we to do Katherine?"

XxXxXx

It was only Rapunzel and Eugene left in the meeting room, Anna and Kristoff had left to go after Elsa, though it was more likely Anna who had gone after her sister. The couple had heard Kristoff in the distant talking to Anna, saying something about it being best if it was only her talking to Elsa, and that it she should dress a little warmer to be safe.

The couple didn't move or talk for a very long while. There were no clocks in the room to keep track of the time, and with the constant snow shower outside, there was no way for them to tell how much time had passed.

Eugene was the first to move by wrapping his arms around Rapunzel. He pulled her towards her seat and had her sat down, with him kneeling before her with a gentle smiling face.

"What are we to do?" Rapunzel asked quietly, looking at Eugene but can't bring herself to return the support.

Eugene rubbed her hands and forearms. "That depends on what you mean, the war, or the baby?"

"…Both," she simply reply.

"…We can't use the baby as an excuse to now ignore the war, but it is out of our hands now. We can't supply any more support then what we already have; we done the best we could."

"But my Guardianship," Rapunzel said firmly. "I am still a Guardian."

Eugene stopped rubbing. He then surprised Rapunzel by burying his face softly against her stomach and wrapped his arms around her waist. "And you're still human," he said, mirroring the firmness of tone. "…I've been meaning to ask you for a while, but, are you in such a hurry to become a full Guardian that you would leave your current life behind?"

"No—"

"Do you really want to leave me, Pascal, Maximus, your parents and human friends that much?"

"—No Eugene I—"

"Then why can't you understand it's ok for you to be human for now?!" cried Eugene. "It's alright if you just live as a human if you wish to. Yes you've taken the Guardian oath and thus you have your responsibilities, but you still have to take care of yourself. You still have human life in you and you want to waste it?" Rapunzel didn't respond and Eugene did feel ashamed for hurting her this way, but he needs her to understand. Eugene lifted his head to look at Rapunzel. "As a Guardian you are still young, your story, your myth has yet to reach the ears of children, you don't even a simple expression like Jack does; Arendelle may might as well be your starting point after this war but Rapunzel…

"Here, do you remember that day when you took the Guardian oath?" Rapunzel still didn't reply. "I remembered how Tooth offered you the Guardianship but you wondered if it was even possible for a human to become a Guardian, and Tooth said yes. She said that there were only two other in the history of Guardianship: that father time guy and some other girl right?

"Didn't you notice something at the time that made you different from them…? I found you as a weird long hair blonde that had never left her tower for eighteen years, to then discovering you were the missing princes of Corona, to then being a Guardian. Your life changed so much just in that one birthday and you were thrusted into new worlds after worlds, metaphorically and literally. But you're different from those two human Guardians; Tooth told you that they came from the past, the days when Humans and Beings lived together. So all their life they've known about Beings; they've been facing Pitch and handling the protection of all the world's children all their lives. They've only known one life, and they couldn't help but dedicate themselves to the life of protection. Try telling me I'm wrong if you can."

Rapunzel looked at Eugene for the first time since their discussion started. She couldn't argue back.

"You are the first Rapunzel." Bringing up a hand, Eugene stroked his wife's cheek. "You have the privilege of having two lives to live Rapunzel. But unfortunately one has a time limit, and the other one…well I don't know how to put this—except bluntly with you, but that second life really doesn't require you to dedicate yourself so much, or at least not yet that is. So why not just live for real with your first life?"

Rapunzel lowered her head again. "Then do you think it was a mistake for me to have taken the oath so soon?" she asked quietly. "Or do you think it was a mistake for me to have taken the oath at all?"

Eugen leaned forward and kissed Rapunzel on her forehead. "I think, the problem was that you got a little overwhelmed. The protection of every children around the world, that's a heavy responsibility." He placed a hand against her stomach. "And now you got another one to protect."

Rapunzel brought up both her own hands and placed it against Eugene's hand on her stomach. "Somehow this single little one feels much heavier than all the other children of the world." Moving forward, Rapunzel leaned her whole body against Eugene and sank down onto her knees, and into his embrace. "Do you really think it's alright, if I were to take a step back from my Guardianship?"

Eugene kissed her again on the side. "Funny, I thought you might think of it as just focusing your Guardianship on one particular child. But yeah, I don't think anyone will blame you. How can they blame you…Weeeell, people may actually blame me for putting you in this situation at this particular time if anything else."

Rapunzel giggled softly and released a sigh while sinking deeper into him. "You know what?" she said into Eugene's shirt. "It'll be alright if we end up having a boy."