We do not own 'Frozen' or any of its characters.
"Frozen Again: 'Love Never Ends"
Act VIII
Chapter 13
"Canopy Dreams"
"Hey! That's our ride, jackass!" After an enlightening midnight unmasking – where she and a certain young scientist had become better acquainted – the sharp-tongued daughter of Corona's Captain of the guard was beyond relieved to be back in her own skin after that foolhardy Masquerade.
The raven-haired chief guardswoman emerges from where that the crazy ginger Princess Anna had dressed the last minute masquerader with the only full costume left in the costume coiffeurs that would fit Cass' tall and thin, long legged size. The protesting guardswoman was tugged and squeezed by many helpful maids into the carnival slinky mermaid tail that no other sensible woman dared sport.
In the dark changing area, Cassandra Schmidt had molted her reluctant little mermaid scales and fin in exchange for her more comfortable, normal gray-purple pantsuit that befitted the warrior huntswoman she was.
Compliant Varian had helped liberate Cass from her detestable mermaid tail, when his 'Cassie' ordered him to give the tight bodysuit over her bare-skinned lower extremities 'a swift pull'. The boy just turned man had covered his wide, investigative peepers under his goggles quickly when more than a little of his adored Cass' skin was revealed in the process.
His senses blown away, shy Varian was about to confess his heretofore unprofessed feelings as the unabashed woman redressing before him without blinking an eye. But catty-eyed Cassandra must've consented to his unrequited emotion, their previously platonic relationship obviously upgraded, if her sizzling first kiss was any judge of that.
Blushing Pierrot Varian had been shoved and pushed into the dark vestibule to be undressed rather intimately by the spontaneous, fierce woman. Right alongside the uninhibited older female who found his exposed lanky form 'adequate' enough to deserve some personal, tactile, further exploration.
After several of those exploratory moments had left the inventor utterly breathless, speechless and in need of a minute to recoup, Cassandra had come out to the ballroom, only to find her ride home of Carpet was flying away.
The mystical Arabian transport was taking off to the sky with that sneaky Prince Ferdinand sprawled with his wedded Duchess situated quite leisurely as his passenger on the rugman's plush pile.
Easily antagonized Lady Cassandra's irate voice breaks through the midnight air sharply, interrupting his romantic magic Carpet ride interlude.
"You call me the pejorative of a small male donkey? I am hurt, ma chère Cassie. And here, I thought our bond had progressed much further beyond such uncomplimentary monikers. But have no fear, dear one. This apologetic mule will send your dear Carpet friend back here by tomorrow evening, after this talented tapis (carpet) kindly drops us off at my home in the Palais Royale on the 1st arrondissement of Paris, ma échoué conquête (my failed conquest)." Prince Ferdinand's wheedling voice seemed to be trying to aggravate the moody young woman who felt this entire episode had brought out a part of herself concerning the male sex that she did not like one bit.
First that impressive, dreamy-eyed, well-spoken Danish cousin of Fitzherbert's; then this dynamic, all forceful arms, pushy hands Frenchman; and to top it all off, impractical Varian showing up all goo-goo eyed wanting to dance with me, too…And the worst part was that I instigated more than dancing with him too…
Ooh! I'm supposed to be a tough as nails, heartless, independent, working career woman! Not some brainless floozy! Get a hold of yourself, Cassandra!
But the ebony haired young woman was nonetheless still able to be distracted by the dashing French Prince's smiling antics which Ferdinand Philippe was employing to his full advantage.
With a laugh, the wily man directs a torn in loyalty Carpet to tantalizingly tailspin soar above Cassandra's seething head and arms swiping at him with her ready dagger. Her evasive maneuvering Owl flies all around the Frenchman's head in circles before dizzied Egalitè and a shrugging tasseled Carpet zoom off full speed with no more than a flaunted wave and tight hold of Helene smirking knowingly down at her caught husband's last female amourette (fling).
"I AM NO MAN'S CONQUEST! Failed or otherwise!" Knowing enough French to be vexed, cagey Cassandra drops any sense of decorum to loudly bellow this defining statement in a fury through the still Arendelle air. She shakes her fists up at the departing high-speed rug until it disappears into the distance with the irritating French Royal's laughter wafting on the air contrail left behind.
"Hey, Cass! It's all right! Don't let him get to you. He's just trying to rile you up! No one would seriously think that of you. At least…I wouldn't." Timidly saying the right words and really meaning them, Varian proves himself to be wiser for the advice Hans Westergaard had imparted to him on their journey here.
The young alchemist, still shy even after dancing in the dark changing room with the girl of his dreams, comes trotting out to the balcony ledge where Cassandra was angrily stewing like a stormcloud. Rapunzel's handmaiden was just short of launching into a another curse word filled harangue at the annoying, loose lecher who swiped their quickest ride home right from under her incensed nose.
Gotta get back to see if Raps is all right after all the trouble she had with those babies. Plus I've got to be there to celebrate Christmas with my Dad, or he'll just do guard duty in the dungeons all by himself. If I'm not home, I know he'll spend Christmas day and Christmas night alone, that workaholic old man!
"Guess we will be staying the night, if you folks can find some room for us here." Calming down by gazing deep into Varian's big baby blue eyes pleading with her, Cassandra sighs, resigned, and turns to Queen Elsa with a sardonic smile.
"One or two rooms?" A slightly inebriated, still reindeer costumed Ryder Nattura hiccups the tactless, accusatory joke from behind the ladies after spending way too much time yucking it up with other young men his age near the punch bowl.
To which, his thoroughly embarrassed twin sister Maren Nattura kicks him in the shins, giving Cassandra an apologetic, shamed chuckle.
"Men." Maren shrugs to the likewise capable, independent female Captain of the Corona Guard before popping Ryder on the antlered head with a punishing wallop for being too crassly male, to Cass' smirking delight.
"Men." Hands on hips Cassandra gives the obviously intelligent, Esmeralda costumed young Northuldran woman a thumbs up over Varian's nodding in agreement, still delirious toothy grin that was learning to respect the female sex in all its unpredictable majesty.
My Cassie said I'm 'adequate'…sigh…she's totally amazing…sigh…Varian was still on cloud nine from being on the receiving end of dazzling Ms. Schmidt's favorable attentions.
"After all you've done to help protect our kingdom in troubled times, never mind being the dear friends you are to our cousin Princess Rapunzel, of course we would be honored to welcome you as our guests! You have become very dear to us as well, Lady Cassandra." Elsa was feeling quite magnanimous in her happiness as Anna nods fervently at her side, hooking an arm around Cassandra's shoulders.
"Yeah, with so many new girl friends staying over, I bet we can have a super fun slumber party sleepover! We can all stay in my room… It's one of my dreams come true to have friends over in my big empty room ready with all those warm and cozy pink blankets and quilts and my comfy chocolate brown soft pillows I've collected for the best night's sleep in the whole wide world! Yawn!" The feisty ginger Princess' spirit was feeling a might more energetic than her thoroughly drained body after the long day of party planning and successful execution at a night of birthday partying and dancing.
Anna lets out a mighty big yawn right in Kristoff's face at the thought of her cozy bed, her eyes flutter closed as she leans against her solid hubby, nearly falling asleep on her feet.
He smirks at being cast aside for the night by his own bride – again – and resigns himself to a solitary, vacant bed in the cottage. Selfless young hubby Kristoff knowingly tickles under Anna's armpit to surefire wake her up as only he knew how to do.
SNN-NOR-RRE!
"Yeah, my room! It's chock-full of fun stuff to do, games to play and maxxed out wall to wall with stuffed plushies and pillows all around! We can keep celebrating your birthday, Elsa, and the start of our best, biggest family Christmas too!" A snortling Anna jumps right back up from her head slumped at Kristoff's magic tickles that did the instant trick, as he knew it would for his spunky girl to get back into the excitable groove.
"What a marvelous idea, Anna! Your sister and yourself should indulge in some quality time with all these fine young women available right here, who were kind enough to attend your ball. I'm sure important relationships between our kingdoms will be greatly enhanced on a night of shared confidences between you lovely young ladies as we kick off the blessed holiday together here in Arendelle. You could even benefit from assisting one another in changing from those stunning costumes and discuss all of tonight's excitement, as I have heard delicate females greatly enjoy." King Agnarr clears his throat and dares tread on dangerous ground of young women and their sleeping arrangement, as his keen mind quite quickly latches onto this impulsive idea of Anna's.
Most likely because it meant that Elsa would have to be part of entertaining a gaggle of giggling girls who would prove to be inadvertent chaperones against a certain balcony climbing young Prince moonlighting, oh say, up to her private bedroom.
I know I would have tried it in my day…
Agnarr would not put such a visitation past the dexterous Dane who was more likened to his younger self than the older King dared imagine. Especially judging from that hungry look in the redhead's eyes drinking in the luminosity of his daughter nonstop since the couple had been reunited.
He may have accepted the fact that Prince Hans and his innocent child Elsa were to be wed in the imminent future. But that didn't mean the overprotective father enjoyed watching the impressive young Dane canoodle with his little girl.
Valkyrie Queen Iduna shoots her wily husband an almost laughable, aghast scoffing look at such a transparent motive as she purposely hands him back his King Olaf's cape.
"Great. A slumber party in a room full of dreamy, gossipy girls mooning over clothes and boys. Just what I wanted." Sigh. Droll Cassandra replies with a roll of her serious gray eyes. But still, there was so much of the familial connection between this effervescent flower Princess Anna and her own best friend Rapunzel as Cass recalled many sleepovers spent dressing and hair fixing and – ugh - dreaming of boys.
Okay, maybe with Raps, the subject always eventually returned to Eugene Fitzherbert, who technically was no boy when they were wooing. He was a full grown man at the age of twenty-five when she was eighteen and primarily the one mooning over him. It's different in my case…Varian's only twenty-two, and he's so…so…
Her entire body shivering with a bizarre sentiment, Cassandra steals a quiet look in the moonlight at the dark-haired young man who was eagerly displaying to Queens Elsa and Iduna his opened wafflebaker gadget on Elsa's birthday present table, his inventor's eyes all alight as he cutely explained its mechanical workings.
Varian can be so sweet when he's like this, in his element…
Cassandra smiles inwardly at this strange emotion her heart understood even ifthe rest of her didn't. The once abandoned little girl, kept waiting for love all her life, could now be sure of this young man's devotion.
Varian Gutenberg proved to be an incredible friend, no strings attached all this time, as he would jump at her every whim. Though he had fallen head over heels in love with her at first sight, Varian never pushed the diffident woman with a troubled past, until Cassandra was ready.
He, though longsuffering, kept waiting patiently in the wings for her these going on ten years since the two met. And all the while the genius inventor boy turned sensitive young man quietly loved only one woman.
I guess a girl's stubborn mind is the last to know…Come on, Cass. You've got nothing left t lose…Cassandra muses at how the ironic worm turned in her most unconventional life as her eyes follow the slender alchemist eagerly displaying his gifted invention to anyone and everyone who listened.
"Your Majesty. May I formerly request shore leave to spend this blessed season of giving with your family –" Indulging in this moment of lull of gifts being presented, Hans begins to ask the King as he approaches. But the eager Prince was thwarted again when Varian suddenly cries out his mid-invention-selling pitch to a startled Queen Iduna and King Agnarr turns away.
"Oh no!" The aforementioned dark-haired alchemist suddenly remembers something very important just when the last remainders of guests were ready to retire.
The young women all oohing and ahhing to spend the proposed 'Princess After Birthday Slumber Party' together with their pleasant hosts, Queen Elsa and Princess Anna, stop their tittering instantly, with frightened looks on their pretty faces.
"What's wrong, young man?" Dismissing Hans, King Agnarr could now see that the tall gangly youth of not much more than twenty years of age, had been one of the multiple 'Black Knight' imposters who participated in that wild charade to fool him at the Masquerade Ball this night.
"Along with my insignificant clothing and totally replaceable tool traveling bag, my raccoon pal Rudiger was sleeping off all those biscuits Gerda spoiled him with from your kitchen, in my rucksack bag that was already packed for us to go on Eugene's Magic Carpet that Frenchman just swiped! I hope nothing happens to Rudiger! We've been together since I was a kid! What if that crazy Prince gets surprised and hurts Ruddy?! What if that silly raccoon rolls off the edge of the Carpet because no one knows he's there in the bag?! What if –" It was Varian's turn to freak out, but with good reason of worry for his gray and black striped furry North American friend traveling unbeknownst over the unforgiving Skaggerak Straits.
"Kristoff? Is it possible for you to –?" Quick thinking Hans remembers the Snow Prince's recently acquired abilities that may come in handy in such a dicey situation of radio silence as the clever Danish Prince points to his head to express the other man's mental capabilities.
Impressed, Agnarr looks at perceptive, unpanicked Hans, seeing true quick-acting, responsible leadership qualities, in a crisis situation, that were commendable.
"On it." Kristoff immediately picks up on Hans' sage idea. "Calm down, Varian. His name is 'Rudiger' and he's a raccoon, right? I'll try to make mental contact to tell him to stay safe and not to panic and wait until the humans he's with won't be startled. I'm wondering if I could reach Carpet, too, if I lock my Wind Whisperer senses on the air he's cutting through…they can't be that far away yet…" Kristoff suddenly pipes up, confident as his Wind Whisperer ability could give him insight into nature. As well as empathy for the poor creature who Kristoff was starting to sense was frightened out of his mind on this unscheduled in-flight ride without his constant buddy Varian close by.
"It's okay, I've got them both." Kristoff closes his eyes and holds his intuitive head for several seconds as everyone watched with baited breath while he silently sent mental messages to Rudiger and supersonic Carpet who were already miles away, flying over the Skaggerak Straits.
"I told Rudiger to be calm and lay low a while and Carpet will keep a tassel wrapped around the bag, just to make sure it doesn't tumble off in the turbulence." Kristoff announces after a few tense moments pass while he communicated psychically with the furry animal and magically animated floor cover.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Varian may have been a scientific alchemist genius who dealt in facts and science more than magic tricks, but he was still a kid enough to be grateful for any help lent to his lost stowaway and furry friend. He gives Cassandra - attentive to any danger as the guardswoman peered from the staircase she was practically being dragged up by Anna and the gang to their girly slumber party – the all-clear thumbs up.
"What about Ferdinand and Helene? Can't you contact them to tell them to return with the poor creature before it does itself a mischief?" Decisive King Agnarr takes charge as he would any precarious situation presented on his ship, however sticky-fingered a critter the raccoon may be.
"Umm…They're both a little busy now." Kristoff answers his father-in-law with significant eyes and a soft cringe at a decidedly different quality of 'mischief' the sensitive young man was picking up on board Carpet. At least, as tactfully as he dared in front of the group of impressionable young women that his extra-sensory perception sensed what the flirtatious French Prince and his reunited wife were currently up to.
As for those innocent princesses present on the staircase, they too were all well impressed. And they were full of questions for Anna about her incredibly gifted, exceptionally tall and handsome, obviously animal loving, blond mountain man who was so full of surprises.
"Come, ladies. We can all talk over my daughters' incredible, dreamy young men while we change." Chuckling Queen Iduna and Queen Miranda lead the girls up to Anna's room on the third story.
"Oh, yes, ehem. Crisis averted, ladies. You may return to your night of fun and pleasant dreams again. Well done, Kristoff… and…quick thinking…Prince Hans."
The Snow Prince was one thing, but it was a little more complex for Agnarr to congratulate the astute young man Elsa had lagged behind to be currently hanging on the arm of.
Hmph. Decisive in battle and an intellectual on his feet in doling out commands in peace times, too. My Vise Admiral is replacing me already, and it has not been an hour since I relented to his position here with my daughter.
Smirking a wry simper, even the King of Norway was becoming accustomed to having the young Dane's sound input around. He could feel his wife's severe gaze linger on him even as she disappeared up the stairs, demanding him to be generous to the lad.
Perhaps his calm head is precisely what my Snow Angel needs at her side…
Agnarr considers how this remarkable Prince of the Southern Isles did selflessly play a valiant, heroic role in rescuing the nation from the Djvælen King Troll, as well as bringing Elsa back to her family and kingdom which loved her.
Then the King recalls all the advice, accolades and adages applied by their mutual French friend and decides to cut the Dane some slack — at least for this special birthday night.
Looks like I am placing my trust in you already, Prince Hans…
"If you would assist me, Vise Admiral, in escorting Queen Elsa to her quarters so that she may prepare and refresh herself, and you may also bring up some of the gifts she would like to have with her at the slumber party in Anna's bedroom. Had I not had…some frost levitating succor of my own…I would, no doubt, have broken my neck coming down the spiraling staircase in these confounded chainmail contraptions. One wonders how our ancestors did so with any aplomb. Nonetheless, I do not imagine I should traverse that winding staircase again to be of any aid to the ladies. At least not attired in this devilishly heavy contrivance." The frustrated Ice King speaks frankly to Hans in a chilled vapor breath at the near accidental recollection of his descent down the three flights of steps earlier this evening that his easily amused Queen found highly comical, though he, of course, did not.
"I would be privileged to accommodate the Queen as your surrogate proxy, Admiral." A secretly exhilarated Prince Hans gives his senior officer a quick, almost clumsy bow before the mercurial King changed his mind.
Hans turns back to Elsa and gently offers her his most gallant, adoring gaze, along with a crook of his arm. "If I may have the honor, my Queen?" Causing all the other girls peering over the staircase railing to nearly swoon, Elsa accepts her betrothed's offered arm with a smile grateful to her father for sanctioning it to happen.
"Happy birthday, my darling Snow Angel. You were an exquisite host to your guests, befitting a true Queen." King Agnarr pats Elsa's cheek lovingly, trying to ignore the fact there was another man on whose arm she was firmly attached. 'May the good Lord bless you with many, many more happy days to come."
"Thank you, Papa, for giving me the most wonderful and remarkable birthday ever." Elsa accepts a loving kiss on the cheek from her parent as Hans dutifully bows his head respectfully to the King before continuing up the stairs with Elsa on one arm and a stack of choice presents deftly tucked under his other. The intuitive Ice Queen cryokinetically assists in balancing the rest of her gifts safely up the steps.
"I expect to see you in my office den in ten minutes, Vise Admiral Westergaard, so you may give me a proper update of my flagship, the HmNos Nidaros', status. Do not delay." The King projects his voice up the steps after a few moments reflection in not too unfriendly terms, giving Hans some hope that he would be able to ask his Admiral for the Christmas holiday leave.
And perhaps a little something more once he returned from escorting Elsa to her room.
"It will be so, Your Majesty." The officer in Hans dutifully submits to his commander and nods with a small, wry smile, though the young lover in him was somewhat dissatisfied to have this special goodnight to his sweetheart cut short.
"Mr. Bjorgman, in the meantime, if I may request your help in defrocking me of parts of this confoundedly weighty outfit in the study, before I attempt the staircase. It appears my usual manservant, our Minister Kai, has gone to cry in his soup, though I don't blame the poor man. And I've already assigned General Mattias to make accommodations here in Arendelle for our remaining visitors. And also…if I may use you as a sounding board for the time being, Son, while I collect my thoughts on another matter entirely where I'd appreciate your counsel." With wary eyes following Hans and Elsa's departure, Agnarr quietly confides in Kristoff when the abandoned mountainman was one of the last present in the Great Hall.
After all, Anna's chosen man of Nature may have some insight as to Agnarr's personal questions as to what the future held as the King catches in the corner of his cleared eyes Northuldran chief Yelana slink away into the depths of the castle's chapel.
"Yes, Sir." Wondering what this new sense of ambiguity his ever-enigmatic father-in-law was now concerned about, Kristoff narrows his eyes to the shadowy silhouette just disappeared into the shadows.
Kristoff had become less self-conscious of speaking with Anna's father one on one, but the tall mountainman only wished he could change first from his own less obtrusive, but still highly embarrassing, leather armored costume. Thankfully though, Hercules was hidden beneath a black domino robe as Kristoff Bjorgman smilingly accedes to Anna's more domineering parent and helps King Agnarr across the now empty Great Hall.
"Come on girls! Let's hurry up and get into our nighties in my cozy bedroom where Gerda's already started the fireplace! Then we can go drool on my Kristly's massive biceps when he brings the extra mattress down from the attic single-handedly. The lot of us will sneak that black cloak off his back to get a last yummy look at him in his Hercules costume! And he can't do a thing about it, with his hands full! It'll be fun watching him blush at us all ogling all his muscles!" A conspiring against her own hubby Anna gives the other girls a big thumbs-up and begins to snigger as she leads her gaggle of giggling guest princesses up the stairs towards the castle's east wing that led into her bedroom.
"Yeah. Kristoff blushes A LOT when Anna shows off, counting his rock-hard abdominals, solid pectorals and massive inter…inter…" As usual, encyclopedia spouting Olaf was tagging along unawares to the girlish group who all stop still in their quick undressing tracks in Anna's bedroom to stare unwelcomingly down at the interloping snow-man.
"'Intercoastals', Olaf. And you're not invited to this Princess Slumber Party." The little snowgirl Eliana fills in the word descriptive for the musclebound man she also enjoyed admiring alongside Princess Anna's long list of adjectives for the Ice Harvester.
The petite snowlady in her Maid Marian costume bars Friar Tuck Olaf's entry into the hall leading to the Princess Slumber Party room.
"Why not?" The naïve snowman blinks up at the five females staring down at him like he was an annoying alien.
"Because you're not a princess, Olaf." Eliana states matter-of-factly to her obtuse snow-boyfriend just outside the door, plucking the wreath from his monkish head.
"Well…You're technically not a princess, either. And you're invited, Eliana." Dumb Olaf unwittingly points out, smiling cloyingly sweet, trying to inveigle his entry into the fun looking party, but not doing a very good job of it.
"Good-night, Olaf." The annoyed snow girl frowns and slams the bedroom door angrily right in Olaf's dumb face. His carrot nose is disturbingly lopped off inside to flop to the floor at Eliana's feet.
"I'll be right back, girls." Hostess Anna chuckles nervously, grabbing up the floppy orange vegetable the visiting princesses were gasping in horror and pointing at the gory dismemberment of.
"Oh, Olaf will be fine. He drops his branches, slushy snowfeet, and would leave his head off everywhere if I didn't follow him around with it. His haphazard ways leave our neat castle in disarray all the time because he's generally a discombobulated mess to keep tidy. But I love him anyway." Letting off some steam under her personal snow flurry of womanly grievances, Eliana relates her complaints to the jaw-dropped princesses, who were just becoming acquainted with the magic of Arendelle's intriguing Kingdom of Ice inhabitants.
"Doesn't sound much different from any other male. Just a few apples short of a picnic until we spice their pies right, eh, ladies?" Lady Cassandra, from her chosen perch in the windowbox sill, interjects in her sassy older sister way, causing the entire room of Princesses Sofia, Amber, Hildegaard and Cleo to burst out laughing at the analogy each applied to their own lad.
On the way back from consoling a nose snubbed, sniffling Olaf that Eliana wasn't really mad at him, and instructing the poor snowman to wait for Kristoff to spend a night with him back at her cottage, Anna hears something.
In her curiosity, the gymnastic girl stands on her head, her yellow nightgown flipping upside down to reveal her pantalettes. From there, the acrobatic ginger gives a squinted glance to the other side of the landing where the winding staircase had one small vantage point view reflecting from the hanging wall mirror she alone knew about.
If you looked at it just the right way the mirror clearly showed a peek of Elsa's doorway.
Anna had stared at that particular entryway in that mirror so many times in her lonely childhood that she could describe every square inch of the polished, white oak wood painted door, framed with their national symbol of violet-purple crocuses.
It was decorated with double pane purple flowers and fancy silvery grey swirlies that Anna could illustrate with her eyes closed still from memory, right down to its extra large, ornamental silver door handle.
The optimistic girl in her younger days always held the childish eternal hope she would one day spot her sister Elsa there in the mirror's reflection, if just for a tiny glimpse, waving for her to come on over.
But this time, in the mirror not only appears her big sister, but also the backside rearview of a certain red-headed man.
That Hans has got one nice, tight—whoa! Watch those wandering hands, fella! Even full of wrapping papered gifts there're still some hot fingers left!
Hans had obviously been handing out some good night kiss, from the way Elsa was a puddle against the familiar doorway he had pushed her into.
Hey, Red! You're just supposed to carry her stuff and escort her up the stairs!
Anna had mentally overheard via Kristoff earlier that Hans had been officially condoned by the King to escort Elsa up to the third story to deliver some of the presents to his fiancée's room, not stick around to bid her a private, juicy goodnight.
Now faced with having Hans here and near and not being just some far-off anticipation, Anna found she wasn't sure she was that thrilled by the prospect of having Mr. Westergaard gallivanting around their bedroom hallways. Even though it took great effort of her own doing to make this positive outcome of Elsa's engagement affirmed and a wedding planned in the works for her lonely best friend.
But that didn't mean Anna wouldn't keep an eye on Hans to ensure he behaved before that date.
Don't know if Elsa's ready for that kind of full throttle treatment, you ambitious, pushy, lucky Red dog! As she watches with wide-eyed interest another ravenous kiss heat up, Anna wonders if either starstruck lover would recall Papa's ten minute time limit.
She could just imagine her wonderful father grumbling thunder up the stairs as the 'Lights-out Constable' like he did when she and Elsa were real little, and sleepless toddler Anna insisted she couldn't sleep because 'the sky was still awake'.
Papa back then would pretend to be a big grizzly bear in a grumpy mood for eating naughty little girls who didn't go to sleep on time, causing his playful children to go screaming up to bed when all they wanted was to stay awake and play.
During that cherished past childhood memory, the explosion of girlish laughter from her room brings Anna back to reality.
That and the droll voice of the man sneaking up behind her awkward, guilty faced, handstand form.
"What - are you doing?" Kristoff Bjorgman had stopped in his tracks. His arms were overfull with wrangling the extra mattress he had brought down from the castle attic his father-in-law told him to continue on up to retrieve.
That is, after getting the King out of his chainmail costume and the two had discussed some weighty matters that had Kristoff's mind busy again.
The tall blond shook his head of the new worries he seals off from his soulmate – for now - when he spotted his perky gal wide-eye peeping at the romantic tryst between her older sister and that guy taking place down the darkened hall on the other side of the stairwell.
"I…umm…thought I saw…uh…ah…? Whew! Heehee." The ginger's yellow nighty slips over her head as her highly amused young man shakes his head. Her pale butter dress tangles in her braids, falling all askew over Anna's face until she guiltily performs a backflip to land unexpectedly right in Kristoff's path, knocking the poor man off kilter.
"Whoa! Anna! Watch out!" Her awkward exhibition distracts the tall muscleman enough to nearly tip-over and drop the mattress balanced on his beefy shoulders down over the third floor stair ledge.
But intrepid Anna grabs the other end of the tipsy feather mattress and salvages it upright with all her feisty might.
In so doing, the princess unconsciously causes her strong man to discard his constraining cloak with a shaking head smile at her lovable pluckiness, just as she intended.
That is, until the group of girls, peering out into the hall, instructed to be ready to lay siege upon Anna's ripped muscle husband, rushes out in nothing but their nightgowns to give Anna and her de-cloaked and gorgeous man a helping hand.
The visiting females were stifling giggles and ogles at a mortified Kristoff all the while, as in a group effort they inelegantly enter Anna's bedroom, awkward mattress and all, having so much youthful fun it felt criminal.
Speaking of criminally having fun…
Mwa-Muah-Mwa-mmmmm…mwam…mwamwa…
"Mmm-mwa-mmm Smack! Did you hear something?" Their succulent lips parting audibly, Hans Westergaard whispers breathlessly, unwilling to tear his eyes as well away from the delicious beauty melted in his arms to investigate the noises going on across the stairwell.
"Just the pounding of my heart." Elsa murmurs in a delirious smile, leaning back into where her Hans had reflexively responded to her enticing. The dexterous Dane had pushed her willing body into the corner nook of the doorway after she first engaged him in her most passionate kiss to prevent his gentlemanly escape after his gift delivery.
"Why thank you…huff…Queen Elsa. That was…gulp…delightfully unexpected. I must admit, I prefer your hot direct kiss even better than the cold indirect one you sent me once upon a snowball, min kjære (my beloved)." Hans rests his face in Elsa's platinum hair, his lips just nibbling her earlobe.
The long liplock had commenced soon after Prince Hans had dutifully escorted Elsa up to her room and the quiet young woman suddenly spun on her high heel and grabbed Hans around the nape of his neck into a zealous kiss as he was mid-bow to leave.
Suffice it to say, the piled high various assortment of birthday gifts from her party guests that agile Hans had balanced smoothly up two flights of stairs—as specified earlier by her father—and was about to deliver to the girls' room, had tumbled to the hallway ground when the fervent birthday girl suddenly and fiercely glomped the retreating man at her bedroom door.
"Hans…Hans… Is this real?! You truly convinced Papa to accept us as a couple? And yet I can't stop thinking that if I go to sleep and wake up, it will all disappear like the frosty dew of the morning." Elsa breathlessly murmurs against Hans' cheek, brething in his rich scent at last so close to her.
She then runs her fingers through her Danish Prince's soft locks of titian red hair and along his Black Knight's armored chest lines as well, as if to assure herself that he was physically viable and not only a fantasy.
"I feel the very same way, my precious dove. But I swear, no one will ever take this away from us again." The coffee doused brandy in his system having some effect on his judgment, Prince Hans plants another mouthwatering kiss on her eager lips to give his Elsa that surety.
Mwa-mmmmm…
"Awake or asleep, we are just beginning our unending new dream together, Elsa, I pledge on my honor to you."
MWA-MUAH!
"All you have to do is set the date to make this completely real for us, my darling." Hans aggressively presses Elsa's body back against her closed bedroom door with another passionate kiss that utterly stole the Ice Queen's breath away.
Or was it his demanding words that sent her mind-numbingly reeling?
…I adore drinking coffee even more now, my caffeinated lover…
"One… One…" Hot coffee connoisseur Elsa barely manages to stutter out between Hans' fervent kisses, her free hand wildly gesturing the single first numeral in her ecstasy as the turned-on Dane presses into her kiss deeply, full of all the stored up yearning he's held. She felt utterly, deliciously intoxicated by the thick, yummy taste of rich coffee and other liquid substances his moist mouth transferred.
Whatever little alcoholic content after that drinking match with Alonso left in Hans' mouth, it transferred full-tongued into hers, eroding susceptible Elsa's inhibitions.
Hans eagerly snatches her sparse utterances as meaning more than a lightheaded Elsa intended. But he too felt as excited as a schoolboy, hanging on his fiancée – it's official! - every word in eagerness for the awaited day.
"One, one? Could it be you setting our wedding for this nearing January 1st, my darling?! A New Year's wedding?! How perfectly apropos to our blossoming love story!" An enthusiastically smiling from ear to Hans jumps to the conclusion, causing a flustered Elsa to shake her spinning head and smile up at him mutely.
"No, no, no. January the 1st is Papa and Mama's anniversary! That will never do!" The tittering platinum blonde's big blue eyes go all startled and alarmed buggy at just the thought of intruding on her parents' special day. "I only meant that there's only one minute left before Papa comes thundering up here, you mad, silly man! You had better finish bringing those presents to Anna's room and let me go with the other girls at Anna's slumber party before this magic spell blows up on us!" Though she was the culprit in starting this tidal wave of hot kisses, Elsa made it appear to be his fault, like every woman to her mate tended to do.
That's fine by me, as long as there's more where that came from...
Hans smirks at the inconsistencies of the mystery called 'woman' as he manfully accepts the blame, indulging in another stolen kiss licked to her moist lips to at least deserve the culpability.
"Hans, my handsome Knight, are we really going to enjoy this precious Christmas time together? Our first Christmas as betrothed..." Her lilac sleeves were catching a-glitter again in the light of the aurora borealis streaming through her large, triangular glazed bedroom window, adding an ethereal glow of her lovely pink blushing cheeks as he gentlemanly opens her bedroom door for her.
Then, swallowing back more than the rise in his suddenly parched throat, Hans backs away to collect the presents strewn across the hallway, though his rakish eyes couldn't help but peek in.
Elsa's purple dress fluctuates with the colors of the Northern lights illuminating her beauty into the candlelit hallway as she glows through the bedroom door before Hans' stunned eyes like a sparkling beacon.
"I, too, will be dreaming of this white Christmas with you in my arms under the tree all night, Elsa. I love you, min dyrebare (my precious). But I vow, I will do nothing to undermine this moment for us." Hans whispers with one final kiss on his fiancée's delectably chilled fingertips from where he knelt at her feet.
Then the redeemed Prince of the Southern Isles gestures her to enter her darkened bedroom…alone.
Pleased by his honest, undemanding integrity, Elsa floats back into her room in her long iridescent Sleeping Beauty Princess Aurora gown, while Hans engraves her dazzling image of this magical evening into his heart and soul.
Elsa pauses to also give her heart one lasting luscious glance of her lover in his dashing Black Knight Prince Philip costume in the romantic candlelight of the muted hallway.
"I will never forget tonight for all the rest of the days of my life — when you were my perfect Knight in shining armor, Prince Hans." Elsa whispers to him in the hushed, still darkness she crosses in a breathless rush back to cryokinatically lift up to embrace Hans' stoic posture now vulnerable against her temptation in the bedroom doorway.
"And I will forever remember how beautiful a vision you were, waltzing amid that angelic radiance of the aurora. You filled the entire ballroom with your indefinable luminescent light, my Sleeping Beauty, electrifying me to fall in love with that familiar gleam in your eyes even behind the mask, all over again." Hans illustrates his fervor with his silvery gloved hands retracing Elsa's elegant waltzing queen lines.
"But…due to our time constraints at the moment, min kæreste, I must compose myself to always be a gentleman worthy of you. In lieu of your naming that blessed day when I will become the happiest man in the world, 'til then, I must simply bid you pleasant dreams…of me, of course." With a lasting finger tracing Elsa's low cut exposed alabaster clavicle in the dimmed light, Prince Hans teases as he steps back once more from the oh-so-tempting open door of her vacant bedroom.
Then he grants his Queen a sweeping, gallant knight bow instead as she extends her hand out to him.
Hans forces himself to tear away from his enticing lover on their thrilling engagement night. He quenches his thirst by kissing Elsa's luscious wrists and hands all the way down her lengthy fingertips that the deft prince fluidly un-gloves with one more meaningful kiss upon her engagement ring finger.
"I know you, I've walked with you once upon a dream…" With the underlying theme of their Masquerade song softly lilting on his melodic tenor lips, Hans takes a deep breath to steady himself from losing his disciplined control as he stoops down to collect the dropped presents repeatedly dotting the hallway.
"Happy, happy birthday to my wondrous muse. I love you, my darling Aurora Princess." Then Hans gives one absolutely final bow to the costumed sleeping beauty in whose boudoir he was hungrily glancing. It was followed by an averted eye glance to quickly turn down the hall to deposit the parcels he carried up for her to Anna's door before the insatiable wild fox in him took over again.
"I love you, too, my dream Prince, with a love that can't be denied much longer." Be-stilling her fluttering heart at this new and terrifyingly beautiful world, Elsa whispers a little late for him to hear. Her suave Prince Hans had already left on cloud nine, dancing across the third story hall like a trained trained terpsichorean danseur.
The resolute profile of the young man looked fully prepared to march downstairs and demand Christmas shore leave permission from his Admiral – Elsa's father, the King of Arendelle. And with the intention of extending it into a full month of honeymoon bliss...
And this time, the tall, determined officer was not going to take 'no' for an answer on this invigorating night.
The masks were all off now and a confident Hans would explain his true love intentions with all his powers of persuasion – which were abundant - until even the chilly Ice King could no longer deny his heartfelt pleas.
After all, Prince Hans had just made a promise to the most important person in his life.
The silver tongued young man was not going to start their beautiful dream together by letting his brilliant bride-to-be down on her first request, when he would move Heaven and earth to keep her happy.
Especially since it was his dream too — the two of them standing under a Christmas tree they would decorate together as beaus.
After each had lived through so many lonely, lean years of Christmases spent alone, that far-off fantasy was now so close at hand for both Hans and Elsa's yearning-for-love souls, they could taste it.
…If they both just reached once more for that distant star upon the highest bough.
'O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
That constant faith
And hope sublime
Lend strength and comfort through all time.'
The noisy slumber party going on in Anna's room was in stark contrast to the hushed atmosphere of third story hallway in Arendelle Palace where Elsa and her handsome fiancé had been having a private tete a tete. There, the once withdrawn, lifelong inhibited Ice Queen had almost lost control amid unfamiliar new passions.
Passionate? Who, me? So much for concealing and not feeling, eh, Papa?
With a steadying hand over her heart, the spirited 5th Spirit laughs at herself and this wondrous new sensation she had just experienced thanks to her young man's advances.
Hans… your kiss is so…intoxicating… Can I live up to your expectations?
Elsa shuts her eyes tightly, but the feverish sentiment of Hans Westergaard's lips burning on hers didn't disappear even after she entered Anna's populated bedroom and tried to join in the lively conversations as each helped the other girls' undress from their costumes to prepare for bed.
"Whoops! Did I pull the hairbrush too hard? Or are you still mooning over that dreamy Knight in shining armor you bagged tonight?" Extroverted Princess Hildegard of Freezenberg teases Elsa's offended senses almost as delicately as she teased the young blonde Queen's unbraided hair.
"Oh, and may I say how lovely are your locks of platinum, Elsa? So silky, cool and chic, glimmering with snowflake crystals all wound in your braid! Are you sure you don't want some curling papers, too? The cascade effect of your platinum tresses and complexion would be stunning. Cleo! Didn't you leave any curlers for Elsa? Prince James always remarks how he adores my curls." The nonstop talkative, purple haired young Princess who had her own waved locks in the hot iron wax curling papers to complete her faultless, wavy coif, berates her quieter and shy best friend.
The four visiting princesses had joined Elsa and Anna for the past midnight slumber party after that exhilarating ball. And it was proving to be every bit as lively and exciting as Anna imagined a girls' night party would be.
Ecstatic to host her own first slumber do, Anna had been setting up late night games and fun snack tables while the rest aided one another in changing from costume to nightdress.
"Umm…not…really, Hildy. I used them all up on…um… Princess Anna's hair styling. I'm so sorry. But Prince James also likes straight, long hair." The guilty faced young Princess of Corinthia adds the last bit about her secret crush in a small murmur as she glances up from where she had just finished whirling up Anna's massive messy ginger hair into a mountain of curlers.
"Hey! Just 'Anna'! Remember the 'no titles rule' here, Cleo!" Anna insists through a mouthful of sticky marshmallow and red and green melted chocolate chips and graham crackers of their Christmas s'mores.
Anna's hair had been particularly chaotic after that very entertaining tussle between the feisty gal and her bashful hubby which ensued on the feather mattress they had dragged in the bedroom together.
Keeping Kristly from hiding out under that black robe was not easy! Good for Sofia and her feather trick when I told her my guy was ticklish! Cassandra is so adept with that knife, it's kinda scary, but effective…Wow, were those girls impressed by my Herculean studmuffin's ample muscles! I've never seen him go so red, trying to hide behind my fuzzy wall of stuffed animals and pillows once Cass sliced and diced off that robe for me! Poor Kristly! I'll make it up to him later…
Big slumber parties are totally FUN! And yummy!
The dizzy young woman munches her sweets at this liberating night to feel young and free again. She savors how it again felt before the lonely duties of running a kingdom on her own without her parents or sister at her side had dulled her natural sense of fun and spontaneity. With a hand touched to her full, warm stomach, Anna smiles jubilantly from ear to ear as she scans the lively party she once thought never thought could happen around her now crowded castle bedroom.
Elsa and laughter and merriment…It's so perfect! The only thing missing is my fuzzy wuzzy Kristly-bear…
DONG! DONG!
"Whoa! 2 o'clock already!? Time for bed, girls, if we're ever to get up bright and chipper for a fun morning of Christmas outdoor festivities in Arendelle!" With a euphoric headful of paper curlers, and armful of stuffed golden brown, giant plush teddy she'd won at a fair last year, the girl who usually didn't 'do mornings' enthusiastically jumps up.
Anna snaps out of her Kristoff and joyous Christmas fantasies when the grandfather clock down the hall strikes the early hour morning gong twice.
"Don't you sound like a young mother hen chasing us all off to bed, Anna!" Princess Amber rises from her seat at Anna's desk vanity where she had been primping at her avocado skin mask beneath her undone bun hair that took hours to style into a true Cinderella fashion. The lovely Princess wearing her favorite silky pale mint green nightdress purposely moves past the large sprawling feather mattress pillow fortress that Anna and Cassandra and Cleo had set up themselves after Kristoff had booked it from the galpal ogling room.
"Huh?" Comes Anna's reply with a mighty big yawn as invisible birdies fly by her head. The implication goes right over her sleepyhead which Anna cocks when her growling appetite spots the fruits and veggies being freshly spooned out. "Ooh, lemme try some! Avocado and cucumbers sound like a yummy combination!" The guileless girl rubs her extremely full, but lately always bottomless hungry tummy, causing Amber and Hildy to chuckle at this young former Queen's innocence.
Anna shrugs as she leads the still deliriously smiling Elsa to the makeshift bed on the floor the good hostesses would share with their new friend Sofia, who was pleasant game for anything.
"Of course, I personally always turn in much earlier to achieve that perfect morning glow when I wake each day, do you not?" Snobbish Princess Hildegard, who had greedily taken first dibs for the window side of Anna's bed, flips her luxuriant locks of purple hair curled in flawless tight papers over her shoulder. The avocado natural green mask on her face that had never seen an unwanted sleepless night's bag or wrinkle gave the Princess of Freezenberg an almost comical look, had she not been so serious about it.
"I thoroughly agree, Hildy. A good night's full eight-hour rest is essential to proper, healthy skin." Amber blindly smiles from under her own fruit paste and cucumber mask to her longtime friend just as haughtily. "But you forgot the necessary touch of moisturizing green tea and yogurt lotion to rejuvenate your freshly washed skin before you apply the mask. Particularly after the ordeal of dancing all night with that dashing Masquerade lineup of Princes, then facing those negative drying, chilly temperatures of the outdoors as we all did to witness your most interesting birthday horn…playing, Elsa." The fashion oriented Princess Amber gently dabs her pale cheeks with the special hydrating face mask that the cliquey snobbish young woman had picked up after their family's latest excursion to Paris' haute couture.
"I thought you hit the perfect note on that interesting ancient Bukkehorn you played, Elsa. And those multicolored snowflakes you created were quite magical. I can't even imagine how you control them yourself! How the winter here is so beautiful to behold! When did your powers start?" Trying to divert the endless vanity competition between the princesses she knew well, quiet Cleo speaks up to the Queen after she finishes folding the cachet of costume jewelry and dress up gear that the six princesses within the spacious bedroom had assisted one another in removing with gracious compliments – whether genuine or merely polite – galore.
Princess Cleo moves her brushed out dark brown hair to the side and looks to Elsa with a sweet, curious smile. She, for one, had been a secret fan and was in awe of the Ice Queen of the enigmatic North. An admiring Cleo wanted to discover the mysteries of Elsa's incredible magic rather than primp or boast of herself like her friends.
"Why, thank you for asking, Cleo. I've just always had this ability with the ice for as far back as I can remember. I didn't understand how much a part of my parents' enchanted love story my role as the elemental 5th Spirit of Harmony was. Not until more recently, with Anna's help, to remind me I didn't have to face the unknown alone." Elsa comes out of her reverie with a grateful squeeze to her indefatigable little sister's hand that was sticky from the snowman shaped s'mores. Not to mention the red and green candied nuts Anna had been doling out to the peckish princesses while undressing from their costumes, brushing each other's hair out and, as expected, talking about their boyfriends.
"That's what sisters are for!" With a final chew on her stash of sweet nuts so her growling stomach didn't wake up any of her slumber party guests in the middle of the night, Anna raises her hands in a humble shrug to her big sister.
"Aww. That's sweet. I'm so glad we're here to meet you two true, true sisters! And also to drink in the stunning countryside of your kingdom, right Amber?! As a pro skater, my friend Hugo is ecstatic to be here in this winter Wonderland of yours! It's like a dream come true for us! I'm so excited about tomorrow, too!" With a squeeze to her half sister Amber's hand across the bed, Sofia giggles in girlish delight at this most magical Scandinavian kingdom.
"I know! Let's give the girls one super cool ice display to bring them to dreamland, since we're so lucky to have them visiting with us for Christmas! Come on, Elsa! Do the magic!" Anna enthusiastically makes the request of her older sibling to show off a bit, biting her lip in anticipation, just like when she was a tiny little girl, because she knew what her Elsa was capable of.
"Yes. What a splendid idea, now that we are here! Do show off some of those famed Ice Queen magic powers we've heard so much about, please." Hildegard sits back on the bed like a Queen on her high and mighty loft lording over the gentry on the ground floor below her high perch.
Undoubtedly that was why she chose the choice spot between the two offered beds as the other five princesses get settled in their very filmy and silky nightgowns to their own selected places.
"Hey, Princesses. Stop badgering the Queen and just go to sleep. Hasn't she had enough of being pulled and prodded for one day? Leave the girl alone." Rolling her eyes at the, as expected, silly feminine flurry of vain clothes and hair and gossip all sickeningly combined together, the toughened ladies' maid was still proudly wearing her pants and long sleeved burgundy shirt rather than sporting any silly girlish nightie offered.
Cassandra had curled up in her chosen secluded spot in the window box where the guardswoman could stretch out to be alone on her own terms at the stupid girly slumber party she had been conscripted to join.
"At least by someone other than a certain green-eyed looker." With a mature knowing smile flash in Elsa's direction alone, Cassandra purses her lips as she stares into the moonlight outside the darkened window that her fit body was perched astride.
"Ahem…" Elsa nervously coughs as she catches the dark haired woman's insinuation which goes over the heads of everyone else in the bedroom. "No, no. I wouldn't mind it all. I'm honored you would really like to see what I'm capable of." Inspired by the mere mention of her lover, the blonde beauty wearing a demure pale blue and lavender long negligee beneath a filmy blue ice wrap, moves her hands gracefully to icy cryokinetic use.
Elsa conjures up a magnificent canopied bed beneath her kneeling form on the mattress, causing she and the other mattress' occupants to hover upon its rising surface midair.
As it rises from the floor, the feather mattress Kristoff had brought in floats on the air beneath Anna and Sofia who gasp in delight and grip one another's hands in gleeful wonderment.
The ice monolith builds and builds to an exquisite construction of architecturally elegant icy scrollwork bedposts and fleur de lis upon its fancy rococo engraved headboard. Upon each section of the elegant furnishing was the embossed crocus symbol of Arendelle, etched in ice rimes.
As a finishing touch, Elsa the Ice Queen stuns everyone beneath a crystalline aurora borealis veiled silky chiffon canopy of verglas thin ice that mesmerizes the entire room full of ecstatic girls.
"Now THIS is a slumber party to remember!"
"Definitely worth the long, arduous trip to mysterious, frozen Arendelle!"
"Amazing little ice dancers!" Snowlady Eliana tiptoes beneath the delicately crafted ice frost, almost regretful to not have her Olaf here to enjoy the beautiful wintery scenery where she was standing at the base of the intricately patterned canopy bed Elsa had created.
The crystal structure was completed with tinkling melodic windchimes in the mesmerizing shapes of they and their dancing partners in recreation poses, just as the artistic Ice Queen wielder saw them at her party, makes each heart go pitter patter. The glassy ice figurines were each so authentically shaped and formed to costume and facial detail, that the gallant figures of those handsome princes and their ladies fair who attended the Masquerade Ball came to life dangling in a masterful ballet like dancing windchimes from the magical canopy above.
Dashing Black Knight Hans and his elegantly Aurora borealis clad Sleeping Beauty Elsa were leading the waltz, once upon a dream; Greek hero Hercules Kristoff was trying to keep up with his Robin Hood cutie's spins in the high speed galop; gentle soul Quasimodo James had been caught pirouetting between showy Roman goddess Hera Hildegaard and shy ballerina Arabian Princess Jasmine Cleo in the quadrille; gentle Merlin Desmond had cast a spell over his enchanted glass slipper wearing Cinderella Amber to sweep across the floor to the polonaise; pathetic Pierrot Varian and slinky Little Mermaid Cassandra were thrown together to slow dance an awkward schottische; flashy gypsy dancer Esmeralda Maren accompanies her brother reindeer Djali Ryder, George Kai Washington and his wife Martha Gerda Washington wobble beside many other local villagers bowing in a boisterous group contradanze; wily trickster Harlequin Ferdinand and his mysterious masked maiden Columbine Helena were performing a mature mazurka; Peter Pan Alonso rhythmically could fly at the whim of his Fairy Queen Titania Valentina in a lively Scottish reel; magical Genie of the lamp Mattias charms native Northuldra Chief Yelana in a polka; Bullfighter Matador Esteban and his unlikely Flemenco dancer Johanne in her expressive shawls; and finally, Ice Valkyrie Iduna stole the show from her Viking King Olaf Agnarr in an expressive tango.
There was even a talented artistic depiction of newcomer Prince Hugo among the frozen figurine assemblage too, twirling his ice dance partner in the valiant garb of Prince Siegfried from the White Swan Russian fairytale beside a beauteous Sofia Belle in the stately cotillion.
"How stunningly beautiful these figures in ice we make!"
"So lifelike!"
"You are a true artist, Queen Elsa!"
"If only the real man would melt at my touch like this!"
"What a perfect way to end your amazing Masquerade Ball, with this memorable diorama visualization!"
The incredibly detailed paired figurines, in full Masquerade costume, dance above the feminine heads in the matching full-length mirror the Ice Queen had also erected with her incredible magic to showcase the ice ornaments of these fine young men and women to all in the room.
They spin and twirl in romantic dances under the iridescent canopy that sparkles and shines with the enhanced Northern Lights aglow in the darkened bedroom after ecstatic little sister Anna snuffed the candlelight out for full tantalizing effect.
The Aurora Borealis lights stream across the hushed world surrounding the magic kingdom of Arendelle where the Ice Queen reigned, illuminating the ice sculptures with brilliant colors and sparkle.
Her tinkling ice melodic windchimes in the shapes of the dancer romancers at the magnificent Masquerade this night sway with each maiden's heart as they each fall asleep under the frozen canopy dreams of young love in Arendelle.
Previously, downstairs…
Varian had been wandering around the empty Great Hall after all the other guests had been warmly welcomed into Arendelle Castle's guest bedroom upstairs interior. But the awkward boy, as being far less than royalty, had easily fallen between the hospitable cracks with all of the key players otherwise accounted for.
"You lost, Kid? I mean, Mr. Gutenberg." The dark-skinned General, thankfully back in his Arendelle military uniform, irreverently called out to the young man with spiky black hair. Varian was poking his inventive fingers at the interesting cuckoo clock in the hallway that had a tiny little Olaf figurine announcing 'it's Summer!'
"That's really a lifelike automaton of the magical snowman. Voice integration and all." Always curious as any good student should be, genius boy Varian was forever trying to figure out the inner workings of every new gadget and gizmo he came across.
"Yeah…something like that. Our clockmakers aren't too shabby." Mattias had smirked to Prince Hans behind him at all the new-fangled inventions that had come about – such as photographs – since he had been trapped in the Enchanted Forest thirty-five years ago. "We're pretty tight in here for guest rooms, so Mr. Bjorgman told me to say he'll put you and Vise Admiral Westergaard here both up for the night in his cottage out back. He'll meet you two at his and Princess Anna's home in a short while and said you should let yourselves in if you get there first, it's unlocked. They live in a good neighborhood, I hear." Teasing General Mattias had stated then after he emerged from the King's study with Hans.
"Here're some Arendelle cloaks. It's pretty cold out there, boys, even for that short ride out to the honeymooner's cottage. You two handsome young fellas go on through our 'secret passage' that I used to sneak Halima's cookies through when Runeard wasn't looking, years and years ago. It's probably the warmest route through the castle to the stables." The older gentleman then urged Varian to follow the tall Danish Prince up the stairs and down the Arendelle halls on their way out towards stable end of the third story interior passageway which Egalitè introduced them to earlier.
"And don't worry. My Crown Prince is a good man, just a little slow on the uptake. He'll come around by the end of the holiday. Mark my words. He's really a hopeless romantic at heart." Destin Mattias had piped in his two cents with a prediction about the young boy turned amazing man and fine ruler he had been loyal to all his life.
"Thank you for that, General.' Prince Hans nodded in gratitude to the experienced older man as he accepted the pair of Arendelle grey cloaks the good soldier had brought for Hans and Varian. After Mattias had gone to see to the accommodations of the guests in a harried Kai's place, he had peeked in to help Kristroff settle the costume change for the King.
There, Agnarr, lost in thought, had made it silently understood he'd prefer having his most prominent officer a little out of reach of his daughter's open bedchamber.
At least for tonight, with their imminent wedding date in the Dane's court now. If I were young, I know exactly where I would be eagerly prowling at all hours to sweep my Iduna away, lost in that crowd of girls when everyone else was asleep …
Most likely how we ended up with an impromptu New Year's Eve midnight marriage ceremony that Iduna's sisters regretfully did not have the chance to attend. Impetuous, impatient, foolish youth, Agnarr, to deny Iduna her family on such a precious day…
"I'd come with you to get you settled in, but I thought I just spied someone who was trying to catch my eye. Excuse me." Mattias' attention indeed was distracted to another corridor leading from the Great Hall behind Hans and Varian deeper into the castle interior first floor.
"Goodnight, Sir. God be with you." Hans had saluted the evening complimentary close to his fellow officer before he turned to Varian.
"Shall we go?" The Prince of the Southern Isles led the Coronian scientist through Arendelle Castle as if he had lived and belonged there all his life.
I have dreamed…
Halfway there, Hans instinctively paused at Princess Anna's bedroom door where a montage of girlish laughter was emanating, accompanied by a certain cryokinetic cold temperature drop in this section of the Hall.
The Prince of the Southern Isles delighted in the cool sensations cascading across his skin that instantly took away some of his anxious disenchantment.
"Maybe we – uh – better get going. We still have to pick up our clothes where we left them in the stable loft." Varian interrupted the spellbound Dane, whose hand rested on the door to immediately withdraw as he backtracked down the hall behind a beckoning Varian.
"Most of my gear, unfortunately, was previously loaded onto that flying Carpet when that French guy purloined it and my bags, along with Rudiger." The dark-haired alchemist darkly shook his fist at Prince Ferdinand's recent memory in the pitch black of the secret ladder stairwell when they entered the connected lighthouse tower loft area.
"Guess I just have to improvise with what he left here." As Varian wriggled out from his white Pierrot the clown costume, he looked somewhat out of place putting on the French Prince's Legionnaire officer's charcoal uniform black jacket with fancy gold trim and buttons and epaulettes. The awkward lad completed the odd fitting style with some wine colored trousers that were a might too loose and a tad too short for the tall and lanky twenty-year-old lad.
"Perhaps Mr. Bjorgman will have a change of clothing for you when we arrive at his abode." Hans collected his Sjoforsvaret officer's naval uniform that diligent ladies' maid Cassandra had seen to being washed while the men were attending the Masquerade Ball.
"I hope so. I've never really worn red before." As he assessed the trousers of the freshly washed uniform outfit, Varian cringed at the dapper French Prince's extravagant taste in fashion that the logical scientist did not espouse as he tugged on the Legionnaire's jacket collar uncomfortably.
"It's really not so bad a color, I do it all the time." Flashing a cocky smile he tried to feel, Prince Hans had brushed a hand through his rumpled titian hair locks after he removed the dashing Black Knight costume black leather doublet and tight inner black shirt from over his lean body.
"Okay, I can see that you have a lot of muscles… And…scars…?" Recently thrown into medical training of the human body, Varian squinted in the dimmed light with a clinical eye over the Prince of the Southern Isles' fine form and firm physique. The stick scrawny boy just out of his teens didn't expect to see that level of scarring hidden beneath that suave exterior of the charming Danish Prince who appeared more of a dandy on the outside.
"I've done my foolish best to earn them all over the years." Deadpan Hans answered drolly, the tone of his slim yet potently muscular build was forged by not a small amount of pain and suffering along adolescence to maturity.
"Yeah… In your experience, Hans, do women find an impressive physique more… attractive?" The young alchemist raised the query of his own romantic status that he was now more inspired to pursue, after tonight.
His baby blue eyes comparatively examined Westergaard's well-defined chest and wiry lower torso, as the Dane undressed and re-dressed swiftly before him. "For instance, should I try to beef up a little more to please Cassandra?"
"In my experience? Hmph. To be honest, my friend, in comparison to other brawnier men, including my twelve brothers, I was always considered the 'scrawny weakling'. And, even if my physique was more attractive if I must say so myself, I would still be the least desired brother to all eligible royal ladies, since I was the youngest and furthest from the Crown. With little or no experience with the fairer sex beyond my lofty pursuit of Elsa of Arendelle, I claim no right to give any advice to any man on romantic matters." Hans had scoffed at himself and his own mountain of mistakes when it came to his views on how to woo a woman.
But when he finished pulling on his tall black boots and buttoning up his Navy blue uniform jacket, Prince Hans clearly detected Varian's disappointment and shame face self-knowledge that he himself sported a body far less than adequate to offer a lady.
Particularly one as 'formidable' as Captain Cassandra Schmidt of the Corona Royal Guard.
"Except, perhaps, to offer the soulful knowledge in extolling the Lord above for creating the female sex to be far more intelligent and insightful, not to mention willing to look far deeper than the surface than we trifling, more visual men do. The ladies search for virtuous integrity and meritorious value, intellect and sound judgment to be the greater impression than any physical attribute. In sum totality, most women seek for the magnitude and strength of the heart beating within. Consequently, there lies the true measure of a man." The remissive thirteenth in-line Prince of Denmark opened his yet tender heart in concern of females whom he held in much regard, despite his home nation's current worldview that demanded the rule of male primogeniture which strove for dominance.
'You're perfectly masculine.'
Hans heard echoes of Elsa's delicate voice whispering the sublime line in his memory, bringing a profound smile of pride to his lips now as he finished buttoning up the jacket of the Naval Forces she had inducted him into.
And he swore allegiance to his Queen and her country for what seemed forever ago now ever since.
"'The true measure of a man'. Gee, that's good stuff. No wonder you're going to marry a Queen, Hans." Apparently assuaged by Prince Hans' wise counsel yet again, an impressed Varian Gutenberg yanked up Ferdinand's oversized, bright red pants. He tightened it with a well-turned belt around his less than stellar musculature waist and a crooked smirk up to Hans.
"Yes. Yes, I am going to marry my Queen." This man to man talk with Varian alleviated a great deal of his displeasure at the King's tepid ruling as his brilliant mind dreamed of what 'marrying a Queen' such as Elsa of Arendelle meant.
So all a puffed up Prince Hans felt was the warmth of love in his heart for his darling Elsa, who would still be his in the new morning.
Min kärlek – my love in Swedish
min kæreste – my dearest in Danish
'O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree)' – German Christmastide song music based on 16th century Prussian Silesia folk tune by Melchior Franck with lyrics referring to the fir's evergreen quality as a symbol of God's constancy and faithfulness by Leipzig composer Ernst Anschultz in 1824.
"Once Upon a Dream" – from Disney's 'Sleeping Beauty' 1959
Hello, Frozen Again friends!
After the exciting Masquerade, there was a lot of kissing and romancing between the newly affianced couple! Mwah!
But the King has deflated our dashing Prince a tiny bit afterwards at their meeting with some indefinite plan for Hans to serve on the HmNos Gler again. Don't worry though, I have a feeling there's more than meets the eye about this abrupt assignment…
Although, knowing our clever Dane, Hans'll probably find some way around his antsy future father-in-law's rules and regulations for some alone time with his lovely Ice Queen to sort it all out during this Christmastime holiday.
Did you enjoy the princess' slumber party? Elsa and her artistic, windchime-like hanging ice panorama was inspired, I think, to show how much the Ice Queen enjoyed her birthday! I gleaned the title "Canopy Dreams" from the psychological analysis that 'a canopy represents the heavens' with 'religious or spiritual connotations' and reference to cultures where weddings are performed under canopies, symbolizing dreams of marriage, love and romance, or safe and warm feelings of good luck in future travel plans.
All of which may be in Helsa's near future…
Whew! Psychoanalysis in Frozen Again!? :o
Thanks for reading all the Frozen Again emotional pre-nuptial turmoil under Hans and Elsa's 'Canopy Dreams'! Can't wait to hear your reviews of this dreamy slumber party chapter! It was a load of lip-smacking fun!
God bless and have a safe & Happy Halloween having fun dressing up in your own private Masquerade balls this crazy year!
BOO!
Love, HarukaKou
