"So, you've already seen the entrance tunnel, and down here at the bottom of our cave is the big rock that Ariel and I like to sit on while shoalgazing and playing with some of the treasures we found," Flounder said, guiding Elsa around the grotto. "We keep most of our treasures along the walls going up to the opening at the top, but there are a few that we have scattered in the sand near our sitting rock…"

Elsa watched Flounder dive down to retrieve a clock from the ground.

"Like this one," Flounder said. "I don't remember exactly what Scuttle told us about it, but when Ariel and I first found one of these, we called it a switch-click-a-majigger, because every time we moved the stick thingies in the middle of the circle, it would make a clicking sound."

Flounder tossed the clock over his head and turned the hands of it to show Elsa. Suddenly, a bird sprang out of the clock with a boing! Upon instinct, Elsa gasped and fell back, while tiny snowflakes materialized around her with the bubbles. Flounder reacted with a shout and a jump, dropping the clock in the process.

Both of them swooped down to try to catch the clock, but they knocked into each other. The clock crashed into the rock, its pieces scattering across the sand.

Elsa and Flounder stared down at the mess. Neither of them said a word until Flounder burst into giggles. "I was not expecting that to happen!"

Something compelled Elsa to join in the laughter, and the tension inside her started to loosen.

"I'll go put the switch-click-a-majigger back," Flounder said, once the laughter subsided. He swam down to where the clock had landed.

"But won't Ariel be upset when she finds out we broke it?"

Flounder shook his head, his tail sweeping through the sand to collect the scattered pieces. "Nah. It may not be in one piece, but at least it's not lost. Besides, I think she will be even more excited when we tell her that these things have—"

Elsa noticed tiny, silver snowflakes in the sand near Flounder's tail. "Be careful!"

Flounder leaped away from the sand with a yelp. "What is it?"

Before Elsa could answer, Flounder glanced down and saw the snowflakes on the ground near the clock. "Oh cool! Were those inside it the whole time?"

"Uh, yes," Elsa replied. "But you should be careful touching them. They could cut your tail fin."

Flounder swam back down to the clock and examined the snowflakes. "Wow, these things look like shiny sand dollars! I wonder why they are in the switch-click-a-majigger?"

"Well, can I put them back inside for you while I explain it to you?" Elsa offered.

Flounder leaped through the water with a smile. "Yes, please!"

He moved to the side to let Elsa collect the remaining pieces of the clock.

"I can start by mentioning that the click-a-switcher… the switch-and-clicker? The…I don't remember what you said—is actually called a clock," Elsa told the fish. "Humans use clocks to keep track of the time of day."

She scooped up a pile that contained a mixture of snowflakes and gears with her flippers. "These things are known as either cogs or gears, depending on whom you ask. I prefer to call them gears."

"What do humans use gears for?" asked Flounder.

"That's a little harder for me to explain since I'm not a clockmaker," Elsa said, carefully dropping the gears and snowflakes back inside the clock, "but they basically connect together when they spin so that the arrows of the clock can turn to tell us the time."

"Wow, that's really cool!" Flounder replied. "I can't wait for us to tell Ariel about this!"

Elsa's body tensed. "Are you sure Ariel won't be upset that it's broken?"

"Totally! It's not like the entire collection got destroyed again," Flounder replied. "Besides, Ariel and I accidentally break some of our treasures all the time. Sometimes, we even find treasures that are already broken."

Elsa tilted her head with concern. "What do you mean by destroyed again?"

Flounder laughed. "Oh yeah. We used to have a much bigger collection in a different grotto, but we had to destroy it a month ago, so we had to find a new grotto and start over."

Elsa gazed at the surrounding shelves with wide eyes. "You found all of this in less than a month?"

"Yeah," said Flounder. "Ariel and I swim out to explore shipwrecks almost every day. Sometimes, it's a little scary, especially when there are sharks, but it's worth it whenever we find something new."

Elsa shivered at the mention of shipwrecks.

'Conceal, don't feel. Conceal, don't feel.'

Flounder's eyes widened when he noticed Elsa's discomfort. "Hey, are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine," Elsa said, turning away from the fish.

'Conceal, don't feel. Conceal, don't feel.'

"I think you should go home now," Elsa said, not knowing how much longer she could hold back the ice.

"But—"

"Please! For your own sake, Flounder, go home!" Elsa said. "I'll be fine. Just, please go."

Flounder backed away from Elsa, his fins now droopy. "I'm sorry, Elsa. Goodbye."

"It's not your fault, Flounder," Elsa said, barely looking at him. "I just can't talk about it. I don't know if I would even be able to explain—"

But when she turned around, he was already gone.

Alone again, Elsa felt the ice surge out of her and coat the entire grotto with a blanket of frost and icicles. Elsa looked around in horror as the ice began to spread.

"What have I done?"

Before Elsa could swim out, however, a sheet of ice spread across the exit, sealing her inside!

"The roof!"

But even if the roof hadn't been frozen over with the rest of the grotto, it was too small for her to have been able to swim through.

Elsa was trapped!

Author's Notes: Well, that's a different direction from what I was expecting to happen. No, seriously! The earlier drafts of this chapter were a completely different direction. Hang tight, though. Elsa will be fine… hopefully. This is not the first time my writing has steered in an unexpected direction, and it most certainly won't be the last.

In the meantime, I apologize for the long wait. Hopefully, things will progress more as I delve deeper in this tale, but for now, thank you so much for your patience and for reading this far!

By the way, I like the prediction that Rhi Thrasher made in a recent review. You might actually be on to something! ;-)