We do not own 'Frozen' or any of its characters.
"Frozen Again: 'Love Never Ends"
Act IX
Chapter 23
"You Get to Go Find a New Dream"
The New Year's first morning had dawned particularly bright in Arendelle after the winter solstice's polar night finally relinquished to sunlight at the late hour of 9 AM.
"Mmmm…" As a young girl, Iduna of the Enchanted Forest could only have imagined her life on this earth would've turned out to be as thrilling as this.
When her parents died in a traveling river accident when she was very young, life as the adopted daughter of the Northuldra village chief and his wife Yelana seemed sure to keep wild child Iduna within the Forest's confines the whole of her existence.
But one fateful day when the gifted girl, who was born with a special connection to the four spirits of nature, chose to look beyond race and creed and prejudice – and most of all, the hidden enemy, fear – her life was inexorably changed.
In her song, all magic flows…
It became intertwined with that of the mysterious young boy she had saved that day of destiny. He not only would be her friend and lover, husband and eventually King, but also the other half of her soul that cried out for love's perfect Harmony to be fulfilled within her.
"Agnarr…"
With her partner's name on her musical lips, the small woman who had moved heaven and earth to return to claim the love of the amazing boy with those secret ice crystal eyes, awakens to her palatial surroundings with a final yawn and stretch of her arms up to the ceiling of her master bedroom suite.
"Thank you for these twenty-eight years, dear Lord. Twenty-eight glorious years with my King who gave me my two precious, precious girls." Iduna murmurs in the wee hours of the morning with a wistful smile at the previous night of passion spent in her husband's arms.
Finally having a moment of quietude and peace with the world and one another, Iduna and Agnarr had properly welcomed in their 28th anniversary. And that included some backdated silver wedding anniversary commemorations they had missed out on celebrating during those seven long, terrible years in that pirate's exile too.
Theirs had been an exciting, at times lonely and terrifying, at times fulfilling and thrilling, life together, since that encounter over three decades ago in her Enchanted Forest.
From the veil of the seal over her homeland and its dark secrets Iduna had spent years in her youth trying to cross with the ice gifted Crown Prince of Arendelle at her side; to their unlikely courtship that took the vied over, twice engaged, young native woman with the indefinable sparkle all the way from Norway, down to Sweden and Corona and back into his arms to be now King Agnarr's Queen; to the mystery of their first child's inherited cryo-magic that the deep spirited, special soul within Iduna sensed had something greater coming.
Something immense that both frightened and inspired the young mother to dream for Elsa to find herself someday.
Let me see who you are…
"Min älskare?" The Queen of Arendelle's sleepy eyes had been too languid to even try to wrench themselves open until she turned over in their massive king-sized bed awaiting her husband's comment, only to find him gone.
Their intimate, mutually dependent circumstances she had been reflecting on had Iduna first in a panic to find her mate missing. Iduna's little body had long ago adjusted to the cool ambiance he emanated, so the usually keen Queen was surprised that she had not noticed when her Ice King had quietly left their bed.
You must have tired me out excessively last night, my love, for me not to feel the temperature change!
Queen Iduna's eyes strain themselves through the drawn curtain of dimness set upon their bedroom. Her eyes snap open when she spies the familiar silhouette.
Agnarr possessed as dashing a handsome profile as she recalled opening her eyes to see on that fateful morning for the second time twenty-nine years ago. That was when young Prince Agnarr became suddenly more mature than the gangly teenaged boy she had left behind in Arendelle
And for once, the Crown Prince was chasing after her and saved his wildflower girl from that terrible rockslide in Corona, bringing Iduna back to his home and his heart forevermore.
"Agnarr?" Bare shouldered, Iduna was wearing nothing but the diamond heart necklace anniversary present her husband had gifted her when she discovered it early some months before.
She emerges from her silky sheets in the muted light just rising over Arendelle's white countryside.
"What are you up to out there on this fine morning, Mr. Bernadotte? It's too early to get up." She lazily reaches a hand out for her man to rejoin her on their shared bed . But the ginger King seemed preoccupied with some inexplicable materials and strangely clattering items on his writing desk across the room.
"Ahh-Iduna! Oh! A good morning to you, Mrs. Bernadotte! You're awake at last! I suppose it is past nine in the morning, my stunningly gorgeous Windlass." Agnarr nearly jumps out of his skin, sliding in sweet words to cover up his scattered thoughts as well the items he'd accidentally made a mess of on the desk.
Not too far across the expansive master bedchamber where he was seated, King Agnarr tucks several curious map pages and reference books in the drawer.
His crooked smile replaced the angst on his features made him appear quite dapper in the wine velvet robe his Queen had given him for Christmas as he swiftly crosses the room to his lover with a culpable smile on his lips that spoke greater volumes to her.
"Well, I'm not that young vibrant child who first came to Arendelle from the secluded north, who could stay awake all night to match your indomitable stamina, your Majesty. I'm simply the little old mother of two grown up and independent young ladies, who obviously needs her beauty sleep." Iduna chuckles at herself with an achy neck stretch, daintily testing the waters that the intuitive female had an aching feeling were being stirred.
Then she warmly snuggles her above aged forty frame over her man's chilled lap and under his velvety robe as soon as he arrived to perch on the mattress.
Iduna revels for a few seconds in silence how they still fit so well together even after all these years, like hand in glove. But, to Iduna's wonder, her husband's usually tactile hands did not reach out to touch her. Instead, they almost wring themselves bloodless before he let out a profound sigh.
"What's wrong, my handsome one?" The dark brown, long ringlet haired woman whispers in the chilly ear of her husband as she softly strokes his cheek in an attempt to get him to open up. The Arendelle King had obviously been presented with something unknown and distressing for the past week or so.
Agnarr did his level best not to show his anxiety all through their family's Christmas and New Year anniversary week, but Iduna had grown so close to him over their decades together that she could feel something disturbing her man.
"Nothing…" He begins to cover again his pent-up self-torture, not wanting to ruin this special morning when the two of them were finally alone in the castle to enjoy their commemorative 28th year of marriage. After all, there was no impending danger to the country nor trouble now and Agnarr was at last content that his grown-up Elsa and Anna were both nearly settled in their own romances and lives.
But one look in Iduna's crystal clear orbs which knew him better than himself as she draws Agnarr's stubborn chin to meet her gaze was all the poor man could take.
"Oh, Iduna. Why am I 'not where I'm meant to be'? What did she mean?" The distraught look on Agnarr's face pained Iduna to see. Her mate was generally so confident and assured since assuming his leadership role for his kingdom, his people, for now going on thirty years.
But as these words all spill out in obviously well-pondered wonderment, the Queen believed she recognized the source of his quandary very well indeed.
"By 'she', you no doubt mean…?" Having a suspicion of just who was involved here, Iduna prompts Agnarr, by now holding his pounding head in his hands in consternation.
"Your…cough…'mother', Chief Yelana." Agnarr struggles with uttering those two titles together that spelled the close bond between his wife and the at times abrasive, tactless older woman.
After all, the enigmatic Northuldran named Yelana would not speak directly to the Arendelle King unless there was an urgent matter on her mind.
And now that included him, too. Rubbing his forehead, Agnarr found it difficult to focus on anything else, even at this peaceful, restful time without his disquieted aching mind conjuring up further trouble and uncertainty.
"Why did she say that, Iduna? Now that you and I have finally come back to serve Arendelle? Surely this is where I am meant to be." Cradling his head-achy eyes, Agnarr finally reveals the crux of his mental problem that thus far the Ice King had held back on sharing with anyone else, even as the echoes of mystifying – yet beautiful - faint music had never ceased playing low pianissimo in the back of his soul.
But his Iduna was hardly 'anyone', as Agnarr finally let go and divulged to his patient wife his heartache over the mysterious conundrum the older Northuldran leader had predicted for him.
Her own brow was now too creased as Iduna hugged her mate's head to her chest tightly, replying almost in a forbidden whisper.
"Ahtohallan knows." She whispers the familiar phrase that her native heart felt would solve all, if one dared to face the northernmost River's unending song.
"Where the North wind meets the sea, there's a River full of memories." Iduna's lips softly part with the initial whispers of the familiar song, as if involuntarily prompted to sing.
"Ah. Your mysterious 'River of Memories' in the farthest north of our nation that doesn't like me?" Scoffing, Agnarr glances down at the cracked open drawer where he had hidden all the maps, ancient tomes and reference book materials Iduna had gathered once upon a time in their search for Elsa's sake. The King had been secretly studying once again for this past week or so, at all which pointed him in that fearful direction where the HmNos Iduna was sunk seven fateful, wasted years past, nearly costing the King and Queen of Arendelle their lives.
The older man rubs at his ginger moustache, half in jest, half in trepidation of the spirit protected frozen glacier that rejected the well-meaning two parents who had gone on a quest to seek the truth for their daughter seven long years ago.
"'In her waters, deep and true, lie the answers and a path for you…'"
"It is in the crucible of lithifying fire that the strongest glaciers are formed anew. Maybe we were not yet ready until we faced the trial, Agnarr. Perhaps the spirits weren't either, until Elsa and Anna braved the storm to show them the way man and nature can be harmonious." Iduna lets her Northuldran side speak in the enigmatic tongues of her people directly to her Arendellian husband. She sensed it may be time at last to speak the echoes of deep questions and answers in her soul now that Yelana started the ripples in him as well.
"Follow the lead of our children?" Quirking a smirk, King Agnarr did not find that role reversal idea as perplexing a thought as he once might have. For Elsa and Anna both had proven their heroism and courage to lead the nation with open truth and loving hearts in troubled days many times before.
Far better than I ever could rule a kingdom in my ignorance to conceal the fear of what power was inside us…Dear Lord, please make me a shepherd to marshal my emotions and the dread of their overwhelming magic, with Iduna as my rock and my daughters' light and love as our guide…
"To best discover how God created you special and placed us in a unique position to serve Arendelle, and perhaps all His children, we must go to that place where all will be found." Squeezing his icy hands, Iduna murmurs breathily on Agnarr's frosty skin, as if hearing his thoughts that thirty years of closeness taught her. Her body heat immediately melts away his chilled fears, encapsulated in the warmth of her stabilizing eyes and tender song up at him.
""Yes she will sing to those who hear. And in her song all magic flows!'"
"Thank God for you, Iduna. I have been so afraid to speak the words which may shatter the peace and tranquility I just brought you back to. But still, I know something must be done about the swirling mists reverberating over my heart, lest its song – wondrous as it may be -drive me mad." Unashamed to reveal all in his unsettled heart to his wife now that they were alone, the uncertain King touches cold fingers to his chest. The cryokinectically mastered digits thump the beats on his gifted fingertips which had some prescient intuition that there was more awaiting him ahead.
"And you can face what you most fear! Side by side we'll find what the River knows…"
"Oh, Agnarr, my darling. We will surpass this one more test together. So please trust me, rely on me as if I were another part of you. Because I am not whole without you, Agnarr Bernadotte. Just as you are incomplete without me. We are two halves of one heart now, my beautiful boy, as the Lord designed man and woman in the beginning to cleave one to the other, to give us strength and fulfillment, two by two in our walk on this earth. No matter what lies ahead, I promise to always be at your side through it all, and you will never be without me." As she lays him down to the pillow on their bed gently, Iduna sings these heartfelt words in a melodic fashion. She strokes her handsome mate's worried brow away with talented massaging and her perpetual, soulful lullaby.
"Sleep my darling safe and sound."
"It's time, Agnarr. With the girls both away, this will be the perfect opportunity for us to travel to the Enchanted Forest we attempted to cross the boundaries of so many times in our youth. I can feel it now open and ready for our exploration, partner. Tomorrow we will venture forth, just you and I, like in olden days. I will take you to my home at last, Agnarr, with faith all those mists will be so much clearer there. Please don't worry anymore, knowing how much I love you." Patting his pounding heart as she visualizes their yearly secret rendezvous to the edge of the Forest's seal when they were teens, Iduna whispers as she crawls back onto the bed. The petite queen leans her face to his with a kiss, her entire little lithe body curling up into her still svelte and thin husband's strong frame.
"When all is lost, then all is found…"
"God truly blessed me with you on that day of days, my Windlass. You will forever be the warmth of my heart, dearest Iduna, who makes right everything wrong." After closing his icy hazel eyes for several minutes of rest in each other's tender embrace, Agnarr declares this to his lover. Reiterating that sentimental statement which was engraved on not just his Queen's wedding ring, but also her heart, Agnarr places a grateful, quick kiss on Iduna's forehead rather than her upturned waiting lips.
Taking a solidifying deep breath full of newly inspired determination, the robed King compartmentalizes his imperative, pressing thoughts to more enjoy their special anniversary day as he had planned. He hops right up from the bed to return his busy hands that had been trying to placate his anxious mind all this early morning back to what involved something else secreted within the drawer.
"Oof! There's a fine how-do-you-do good morning, Sir!" Iduna artificially complains with a rub to her dumped rump as she was rolled off to the plush mattress. "By now I know from that sneaky look in your eye that you are up to something…" Glad his pent-up nervous unease had been calmed by her reassurances, Iduna feigns playful injury. The mature woman's long waved cascade of brown tresses were in quite a convoluted mess as she leans back to her soft pillow, assessing her mate's cute, guilty features once he had wriggled out from beneath her.
"Pardon my reserved recalcitrance, dearest, and for being so abrupt, but this is now an invigorating morning. What could I possibly be conspiring on such a glorious day, with my beautiful Queen looking all fresh as a flower up at me?" Smiling as if his heart was finally starting to see light at the end of his fretful tunnel, the engrossed ginger haired King sounded like he was stalling.
Iduna peeks to watch in curiosity how his busy hands and deft cryokinetics behind his back were finishing up some clandestine project.
"Fresh as a flower, indeed." The man's wife ridicules with a Cheshire cat smile as she collects herself and runs a hand through her messy bedhair with a modest blush.
"But in view of the fact that you completely spoiled my planned surprise – one, two, two and a half– I have had to improvise some last-minute – a little of that and that, that, that…yes, coming together… ideas for another surprise. Though hardly an expensive undertaking, and definitely not as valuable as the diamond necklace around your sumptuous neck I originally purchased, I do hope the result is not too substandard, my dearest. But this present was created with love, if not expertise." His confused words were as twitching as his debonair moustache when Agnarr spins around from his work desk to face his now thoroughly curious wife.
Iduna was sitting up in her bed, with wide open indigo eyes excitedly questioning her King as he finally returned to her bedside.
"Happy Anniversary, Madame Bernadotte, my eternal native beauty who deserves every sweetness." With sparkling eyes filled with love and devotion, King Agnarr reveals what had been obscured within his large frosty cupped hand extended to her.
"Oh! Handmade Swedish chokladbollars and pepparkaksbollars (Swedish chocolate and gingerbread balls)! I haven't eaten these in years! They're just like the ones we found our first morning together that Arianna and Willow had tucked in the pocket of my dressing gown for a first breakfast after our blissful wedding night, Agnarr." Iduna instantly recognized the coconut and pearl sugar covered balls in parchment paper wrappers that the Ice King – who never cooked anything before in his life – had patiently mixed and rolled and frost chilled from her adoptive sisters' passed on recipe book.
Agnarr knew his wife would cherish these reminiscent sweet confection treats as much as he, with a wink full of fond memories of being freshly wed and consummated twenty-eight years ago in this very room a over quarter-century ago.
There they were, sitting cross legged on their wedding bed together, just a pair of young teenagers eating the sticky, gooey treats made of rolled oats, butter, almond paste, and coconut flakes in chocolate or ginger flavors, laughing and savoring the shared moment, and one another.
"Oh how this brings back such memories, min älskare! As precious to me as all the jewels and silver and gold treasures you have spoiled me with over these wonderful two and a half decades, my love! Thank you for being so thoughtful a husband." The Queen had tears in her eyes as she takes a small nibble of the super chilled chocolate ball in his left hand, and then follows suit with a dainty bite to the ginger ball in his right.
"It is the least I can do for the woman who gave a lonely young man a lifetime of happiness and sustained his introverted heart, opening up to her warmth. That same beautiful lady blessed me with a family of good and dear children, who, like their wonderful mother, have mercifully tolerated and found ways to surmount my stubborn nature with unconditional love. And that love makes me strive each day to be a commendable husband, deserving father, and worthy King as God intended me to be, despite my intractable temperament. It has taken me a long time to learn it, but you are my good conscience, the angel on my shoulder, who makes me want to be that better man, Iduna. I should be the one thanking you." King Agnarr fully confesses his heart to his partner in life, realizing that his mulish inflexibility, introverted anxiety, and, at times, extremist apprehension, has been the cause of so much of her uncomplaining grief in the past.
"I married an excellent man, Agnarr Bernadotte, and I have enjoyed every moment of our timeless fairytale. But like every seaworthy craft, even in enchanted fables, its captain occasionally needs to be steered in the right direction. That's why God enlisted me to be your navigator, I suppose." Iduna gathers her contrite husband's chin in her cupped hands, drawing his gaze to her intent one.
"If you knew all that would become of our lives, my genius inventor Windlass girl, after all the trouble and danger and heartache I put you through, whether intentional or not, would you still agree to marry me? After I so doggedly pursued you across continents and claimed you from other suitors, for all my faults and blunders over these twenty-eight years, would you yet choose me?" The deep down sensitive man who thought way too much, too excessively sometimes, required some reassurance from his mate on this, their overdue silver wedding anniversary the pair could finally celebrate.
Iduna pulls her Agnarr's strong fingers to lace into hers as the buttery sugar treats in their hands start to melt and re-solidify at the hot and cold fingertips between them.
"Are you kidding? Lord Peterssen, God rest his soul, would say I was the crazy one chasing you down all those years, you impossible, silly man!" Iduna laughs, referring to the old soldier and royal advisor who had brought her to Arendelle long ago.
Recalling Lord Peterssen's calm patience, Iduna pledges to herself to be slow to anger towards her tender, good-hearted Crown Prince grown into quite a respected King who truly meant well, but often became lost trying to accomplish his goals.
"But, yes, I would choose you in a heartbeat, my forbidden Arendelle dreamboy. I could not imagine being alive without you since the first moment I laid eyes on you, my dearest one. I knew you were the only one for me. I also believe God brought us together so young then, because He knew we would help each other grow and bless us with special children. And to see each other through to continue to be the other half of each other to fulfill His greater plan even now, Agnarr. Whatever awaits us in the future, always know I love you as much as you love me and more." No more dark secrets ever allowed between them again, Iduna expresses all that her open heart could say to relieve her mate's troubles with the pure love she still felt for her one and only.
"Which is just as immeasurable, my Queen. I promise this New Year to listen more to my ship's co-pilot and be less obstinate a Kommander on the high seas of our life together as I follow your instinct I trust more than any other's into this new unknown. Because I love you even more today than ever before." Feeling her womanly tears on his cheek as they shared the sweet moment of heartfelt confessions, Agnarr nuzzles his cool nose to Iduna's warm one, just as he and she did when they woke up that first morning as husband and wife.
"With this ring, I pledge to be the better man you deserve this year, and all the years, by the Lord's will, we have left together, to be filled with joy and no more concealed secrets, Iduna of Arendelle." Agnarr whispers as he significantly removes then re-slips on the wedding band ring on her finger after giving the golden band's diamond heart an icy blow polish of its coconut dusted sheen.
"And with this ring, I pledge to cherish every beautiful calm day, and surpass every stormy one, too, on this ship called 'love' we continue to sail together. Even if it takes us back full circle to Ahtohallan, which the Lord miraculously has bestowed us the second chance to voyage and find our destiny, now in our proper season, Agnarr of Arendelle." Taking her husband's honest, romantic lead, Iduna slides the golden wedding band on his frozen finger off and back on again, after giving it a meaningful kiss.
'Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me…" Agnarr's contented heart hums the favorite healing hymn his magical Iduna often saved his wretched body with as his grateful baritone serenades his wife with eyes of love now.
"May I now properly kiss the bride?" Agnarr teases their impromptu second wedding ceremony that only God and His sun's breaking dawn were witness to.
"Yes, you may. But only after we each take another bite of these special Anniversary sweet bollas you prepared for me especially." The Northuldra born girl who adored European sweet pleasures playfully pops a handmade chokladbolla fully into her mouth and chews it lusciously, inviting her King to follow her example.
"I do hope I followed your sister Willow's scrawled recipe for this ginger confectionary right. It's a bit more complex." The King of Norway – who had never cooked a recipe in his entire life – places the sweet pearl sugared gingerbread ball whole in his mouth and begins chewing the more spicy flavored sweet thoughtfully.
"So true. The best gingers always are that, your Majesty. But entirely worthwhile." Iduna murmurs with a touch of sultry seduction between munching of the sticky chocolate treat, her mouth quite rudely too full to speak in any other company but her other half.
"I do wonder how our Anna is out on the open road, and Elsa so far away at sea, for that matter… " Speaking of gingers, perhaps a little less complex, the naturally anxious father contemplates his paternal worries aloud, pondering their itinerant children's whereabouts as his mind finally gets the chance to gaze out the window while he was eating.
"Now, Agnarr. I thought we made a deal last night that neither of us worry over the children. They are a pair of grown-up young ladies now with conscientious, worthy protectors, each of their own choosing. You're not the kind of man to go back on a promise, are you?" Queen Iduna baits her husband with challenging eyes as she licks her fingertips clean.
"No, my flower. You are correct. Our girls are as strong-willed and brave of heart – not to mention as delightfully lovely – as their wise mother. Who, by the way, has a phenomenal shape still." King Agnarr sets aside his anxiety in exchange for enjoyment of the present with his Queen.
"Why, thank you, kind sir. I am glad to find after all these years that I can still keep my man of his word enthralled." That's when Iduna, not showing her age at all, was about to give her proper, at times rigid, husband an anniversary shock.
Her cheeks full like that of a mischievous chipmunk, lissome Iduna crawls quite intimately onto Agnarr's lap on the bed he was perched at the side of and kisses him squarely on his mouth.
The delicious ginger and chocolate flavors melt within the sweetness of their tongues, doing a tasty tango on this first day of the promising year of renewed devotion together.
And the sun rises, full of hope and love in Arendelle on this first day of the New Year, 1843, as Agnarr and Iduna, somewhere in the rear of their pleasured minds, consider the new dream of the spirit-called journey home to the Enchanted Forest ahead.
It would be fine because they were of one, unconcealed heart now, and would face this new discovery together, by God's amazing grace.
'Tis grace that brought me safe this far, and Grace will lead me home…
Down on the European continent, the Kingdom of Corona…
The second day of the New Year in Corona, Prussia, dawned to the sound of first one, then two, babies wailing for their absent father throughout the Palace of their birth.
And though she was feeling that lonely yearning as well, Crown Princess Rapunzel was trying to be a good mother and becalm her squalling twin girls alone in her bedroom with a tender lullaby song.
"Guten Abend, gut' Nacht,
mit Rosen bedacht,
mit Näglein besteckt,
schlupf unter die Deck':
Morgen früh, wenn Gott will,
wirst du wieder geweckt.
Guten Abend, gut' Nacht
Von Englein bewacht
Die zeigen im Traum
Dir Christkindleins Baum
Schlaf nun selig und süß
Schau im Traum's Paradies
Schlaf nun selig und süß
Schau im Traum's Paradies…"
(Good evening, good night,
With roses covered,
With cloves adorned,
Slip under the covers.
Tomorrow morning, if God wills,
you will wake once again.
Good evening, goodnight,
Watched over by angels
In a dream they point
The Christ-child's tree for you
Sleep blessed and sweetly
Look for Heaven in your dream
Sleep blessed and sweetly
Look for Heaven in your dream…)
In the early morn, Rapunzel had reached a hand across to her babies' shared cradle, wanting to feel their soft little heartbeats close as she sang them to sleep.
Local inventor friend Varian, at Cass' direction, had customized a movable double bassinet to be stationed on Eugene's now vacant side of the bed. The twins would be near their Mama at arm's level reach at all times where she lay on her pillow resting.
The trio had been this way for the past few hours or so before daybreak, Rapunzel not sure if her restlessness had kept the two-week-old infants up, or vice versa.
Either way, she could not sleep at all this night for all her fitful tossing and turning.
The Princess of Corona sighs, ceaselessly recollecting how she had to bid farewell to her children's dashing father just yesterday, here from her now lonely bed…
After the New Year's traditions were observed by the Corona royal family, and the clock struck twelve, Rapunzel had cried herself to sleep on Eugene's muscle toned bare chest.
Eugene Fitzherbert Pryzmyslid had scooped up and gently balanced his tired Rapunzel to be held up in his strong arms as he carried the exhausted young woman to bed.
As he held his princess tight all night, the thief was unable – or unwilling – to let slumber claim him this final night at home, lest he turned sleepwalking filcher again, to embarrass his loving partner and disrupt her good family.
Deep down, Eugene knew he had to go seek treatment, no matter how hard it was. His woman's health and state of mind – as well as that of their babies - depended on a good night's rest.
"Oh, Eugene. I love you so much! Please get better and come back to me soon. I mean, come back to 'us'." Rapunzel had whispered to the man lying beside her as she squeezed him close as she could all the while in their shared bed. There were tears streaming down her sweet freckled features that tried to stay awake as long as possible to savor each last moment with her wide awake and apprehensive lover.
Rapunzel then recalls her last conversation here at yesterday's daybreak with her husband in their repaired window bedroom.
With peripatetic Pascal hugging his little body to her cheek with a farewell lizardy peck adieu, Rapunzel had waved goodbye the Carpet as well to her Aunt Willow.
The enterprising single woman was loading up with supplies and explorer gear binoculars and the like, complete with traveling bags and non-spoilable foodstuffs for the journey across the Atlantic upon their new friend, Carpet.
Her royal parents King Friedrich and Queen Arianna had spent the morning with younger sibling Princess Wilhelmina, and were there to see the travelers off at the open-air balcony. The incessantly pacing, elderly King had agreed for his son-in-law's departure to South America to undergo his sleep problem's treatment there that well traveled Willow had offered for the sake of his daughter and granddaughters' health.
And now that the family's New Year celebration was complete, it was time. Although sleepless himself over the idea of some unknown medical procedure, King Friedrich, who had grown fond of his son-in-law over their years together, on the verge of tears continually kept embracing Eugene as if he might never see the boy again.
But the over-emotional King of Corona seemed mundane compared to the one extra passenger on this trip across the equator, who apparently was loaded for bear.
Literally.
King Edmund, donning his jeweled crown and heraldic royal sash with pride, had brought not one, not two, but three of his signature thick bear fur capes to pack on board Carpet.
"But what if the Brazilian bride's motif calls for me, as Bohemian Crown Royal representative to wear gray fur, or even brown, Horace!? Once there, I must strive to conduct myself with utmost rapport, as not to embarrass our kingdom in the sight of a number of other nations and potential trade partners gathered, for the sake of its future ruler and title holder! Namely yourself, Son!" The eccentric King of the Dark Kingdom – who had not been much in public, nor regal event attendance for the past thirty years - vociferously had declared as he hauled his furs up to Carpet and hefts their great weight to the uncomplaining Rugman's rear.
Although he had invited himself along for this ride into the west, Edmund had been squabbling about his excessive wardrobe luggage with his testy only son all morning, much to Willow's rolled-eye frustration.
"Does he always talk this loud?" She had complained in a not so tactful whisper from her side of Carpet to her elder sister. She gives a quirky smirk and thumb back at the last minute hanger-on of this impromptu journey by increasingly populated, flying magic transport.
Queen Arianna shrugged helplessly with a snigger at the trio of none-too diplomatic people going to the other side of the world to represent Corona in her husband and daughter's place at the big regal event.
"Okay, okay, Dad. Calm down. You've still got the sword and your sash looks great. But you sure won't need that extra thermal outerwear where we're heading to an 85 degree tropical temperate zone. Might give Carpet a heat stroke, carrying all that fur around in the blazing sun..." The wily thief used his last course of guilt on his decked out father with the detrimental threat to his magical rug of a friend.
"Well…I suppose gray is a neutral tone to go with any shade…Don't you think, Hamuel? I should try not to be a burden, lest Horace grows annoyed with me on this outing we should be father-son bonding on." Speaking out loud his innermost thoughts, King Edmund had conceded with a cock of his bearded head to the derpy-eyed raven on his shoulder who would give his own wings a rest and fly first-class this time with his master.
"That's settled, eh, Pops?" Was Eugene so flippantly speaking to his own parent or Rapunzel's as he draped the two black and brown fur capes over King Friedrich's unsuspecting wide girth shoulders that slump under their heavy weight.
"Oof!" Nonetheless, the overloaded Prussian King still managed to give Eugene one more furry hug farewell.
"I'll be back and right as rain again in two shakes of your fat, overfed Lamby's tail. All right, Sunshine? We'll see those witch doctor pals of Wilhelmina's; maybe get an even darker tan to go with my already stunning complexion at that Brazilian wedding we have to attend; then it's right back home to my little woman and her budding brood! None of that deadbeat dad stuff for me!" Once extracted from 'ole Fritz', Eugene had tickled each of his cooing little girls' tummies in their cradle with his talented left hand at the same time he was caressing an emotional Rapunzel's cheek with his deft right.
"Look, like your Mom said, this little interlude time out for us will give you some quality mother-daughter moments with our wee babes. I'm sure by the time I return, you'll be so great a natural mom with them that Anxelin and Ruby won't even know their silly, yet devastatingly handsome, father was even missing from the scene!" Eugene had planted a fatherly kiss on each of his babes' foreheads where Cassandra and maid Ingeborg had each lifted one of the tiny little girls up say goodbye to their dad.
"My boy is such a good father, but his constant attention will spoil those little babes. Will he accept my input as a grandfather, though the scars of his own outcast childhood I am entirely at fault for may still run deep? Perhaps he thinks I have not expertise on the subject? Take care not to crush my grandchildren's adorable craniums, Horace, as they are yet soft as mush in the head! Particularly the blonde child who giggles excessively and does not resemble our side of the family whatsoever." Saying aloud many disjointed thought processes he probably should have kept to himself was a trait of King Edmund's that all who knew him had come to accept.
"Maybe those mental disorder docs down there can do something about him, too." Eugene had asided to Rapunzel the joke about his similarly sleepless father whom he inherited this somnambulism problem from.
The former thief in need of sleepwalking therapy had been as encouraging as possible while he imparted his resignation to this journey with a happy face to his sad eyed wife. If just to pep her up as he rubbed her trembling, miserable shoulders caringly.
"Right, Cassandra?" With the pointed words to the catty woman who would remain behind this time with his still recovering from childbirth wife, Eugene gives Cassandra an eyebrow raised high sign to keep his best girl safe and in good spirits while he was gone.
"Nope, no one will even know that you're gone, Fitzherbert. Except the Palace guards who will be looking forward to spending some peace and quiet night shifts without having to protect the crown jewels at all hours from an inside job." The droll monotone voice of the catty Captain of the Corona Guard had taunted her usual verbal combat opponent with a simper.
"Gee, thanks for that vote of confidence, Dragon lady. May I say that diaper duty is at the top of the list of things I'll miss here at home. That, and burping the babies. But, oh darn shucks drat, I'll just have to leave those fun jobs to you, Captain Handmaiden. Or maybe your handy lil' boyfriend Varian can invent some nifty device for that, too. And one to dull your nasty sarcasm at the same time." Eugene had thrown his hands dramatically up in the air with a smarmy sneer at the charcoal haired young woman as she was already ordering her puppy-dog alchemist/architect to fill Eugene's empty side of the bed with an open bassinet.
That caused Maximus to let out a horsey snigger at Eugene's biting humor to the raven haired guardswoman from the Palace Hall when the nosy horse had come up to be prancing about at the door.
"Ouch." From where he and quiet Job were conversing in a corner of the room, Lance Strongbow had given his sharp tongued buddy a thumbs-up. Lance desperately wanted to join his pal on this far-out excursion - 'for old times sake' – but the Carpet was already booked and over its weight limit with Eugene's kooky dad hopping the line.
So, affable Lance and best buddy Eugene had included their Caribbean pal Job in a chat last night about the two staying behind to watch out for and cheer their favorite Princess up like a pair of good godfathers in these months Eugene would be missing.
"Seriously, what I really will be missing is waking up in the middle of the night and holding you close, Brownie." Eugene had murmured these words in Rapunzel's ear with a kiss to her forehead as she was sniffling onto his chest, turning his demeanor on a dime back into his Princess' dashing romancer.
"Come on, Liebling! You're going to be just peachy here with your folks and your friends, raising our little girls to be freedom loving, independent-minded princesses with magical smiles – beware the hair. Then you'll all look forward to greeting your favorite fella when he gets back all cured and healed from his nighttime thieving tendencies, if not his devastating ladies' man smolder." Eugene had then sizzled his winning smolder in her direction to at least make Rapunzel laugh herself out of her tears.
"'Here comes the smolder.'" Overly sentimental Rapunzel, in her emotional state, had recalled every word from their first meeting in the tower that was now long gone - her fault, too – and had burst out into even further weeping, to Eugene's panicked distress.
"Hey! Remember the fun of last night's unforgettable Saint Silvester New Year's Eve party, with all those church bells ringing and wishing each other 'Gutes Nue Jahr!?' There was singing and dancing as we joined your folks in taking part in that exciting New Year's Bleigießen. I've gotta admit that reciting that great poem all together was momentous. Let's see if I can remember some of its snazzy rhyme…" The audiographic memory thief tried to throw in something humorous to gain that elusive smile from his weepy wife.
"'In der Silvester-Nacht, wird das Blei zum Schmelzen gebracht.
Es wird gekippt in Wasser, kalt und klar; rate, was stellen die Figuren dar?
Schau sie an, so wie sie sind; rätst die Gestalt du nicht geschwind.
Halt sie hinters Licht, das Schattenbild dir mehr verspricht.
Kommt es dir nicht in den Sinn, schau auf dieses Büchlein hin.
Es sagt dir frank und frei, so allerlei…'"
("'On the night of New Year's Eve, the lead is melted here. Dropped by a spoon, 'tis dipped in water, cold and clear; Guess what each of the leaden figures represent, look at them truly as they have been meant; If thou canst guess the figure swiftly, hold behind the candlelight; The silhouette promises more of the future, what may be and what might; If the answer does not come to your mind, look to the booklet's writings; it tells you frankly and freely, all sorts of things of what this New Year brings...')
"Of course, Lance's bit of lead turned out in the shape of a vase that he claimed meant 'popularity with the opposite sex', Job's a pretzel that symbolized 'prayers going up to Heaven'. Cassandra's lead melted into a ring that – easy one –meant 'near engagement', and Varian drew a hat that showed 'positive news was coming your way'."
All that mumbo-jumbo made pragmatic Eugene think that this Bleigießen business was definitely rigged, as alchemist Varian had supplied the lead and spoon and all its trappings, probably to promote his romantic chances with his cat woman.
But it was worth enduring all the silliness to see the normally staunch guardswoman go quite red in the face before her stoic Captain of the Guard father at her lead melt reading.
"After my chunk of melted lead on that spoon over a candle turned up in the water a kinda smooshy shaped anchor that, according to Lance - who is expert in all things superstitious – means 'good luck help will come my way when I need it most' – Whatever the hell that means! And you poured a pretty artsy butterfly – 'boundless luck' – in a palm tree that signified 'all your dreams will come true'. So, in lieu that you are my dream come true already, I have to reward you with a lip smacker that will knock your socks off, Sunshine, to keep you good for the next few weeks without me around. Not that you, my barefoot contessa, ever wear those disdainful foot coverings. So, each time you're aching for me, give that butterfly in her palm tree a smile and envision my handsome face getting a tan in your vivid imagination for the time being, Darlin'." Eugene struck a ripped bodybuilder pose that succeeded in making his little wife giggle at the mental image that accompanied his montage of humorous phrases.
"Now as for that unforgettable kiss I promised, take notes, Kid. A little interference, Buddy?" The charming thief directs an instructive look over his shoulder to Varian, then at Lance to physically use his big body to block the intense kiss display from Rapunzel's more conservative parents.
Then Eugene cracked his knuckles together with a suave grin plastered across his handsome mug before he delivered a blisteringly scorching kiss to his breathless bride's ravished, thoroughly satisfied lips and tongue within her watering mouth.
"He's a chip off the old block. I used to kiss his mother like that when we had to say long goodbyes in Egeskov. My dear Gussy always considered me her romance expert. I was quite the ladies man in my day." Recalling his own youth's past love encounters with his one and only woman with puffed up pride, Edmund had bragged to Willow from where he sat cross-legged on Carpet behind her.
Eugene and Rapunzel's farewell kiss lasted forever it seemed, while Pascal's chameleon colored temperature rose to a feverish hot pink pitch where he was perched on Eugene's shoulder.
"Fair winds. T'ief." An unaffected Job had to literally drag an eye popped, jaw-dropped, speechlessly finger waving Lance to the balcony to intercept the King and Queen from scrutinizing the passionate osculation.
"Whew whee, little Mama! Still got it! Look out New World! Flynn Rider is ready to fly!" Eugene then carefully transferred his bride into his big friend Lance's strong arms.
Next, the wily thief had hopped in one svelte move onto Carpet's back that would take he, his father King Edmund, and Rapunzel's Aunt Willow south of the equator to pay a visit to her friends of medical experts on sleeping disorders currently studying in the rainforest there.
"Now, I'm trusting you to watch out for the kingdom in my absence, Max! Lance, old buddy! I'm relying on you to have my back here with Job here to take good care of my three girls and her aged Ps while I'm away! And Cass?" He looks down from the Magic Carpet that was floating above all their heads.
"Enjoy late night diaper duty with Varian!" Taunting Eugene smirked as he had given the catty eyed woman a salute along after his final instructions to all the others.
"Du bist mein herz (You are my heart), my Rapunzel. I'm 100% sure we'll both be better than ever when next we meet and I ask you to let down your hair!" From where he was standing tall astride Carpet, Eugene's amber eyes and gregarious voice had softened to whisper this overtly sentimental, lasting farewell to his wife.
He understood his lover would hear him, no matter how low or breathy he spoke, through their eyes and ears of love, despite the distance between them.
"Du bist mein alles (You are my everything), Eugene."
"Du bist mein alles (You are my everything), Eugene." Rapunzel had whispered back to the daybreaking sky then, just as she repeats it again now silently to the thief who had freed her from that tower she was once locked behind, both physically and mentally.
Rapunzel desperately missed having around the amazing man who changed her life for the better in so many ways, once he taught her to believe that all dreams were possible.
'And once you achieve one, the best part was that you get to go find a new dream.'
Rapunzel recalls her lover's optimistic mantra that so impacted her less than encouraged start of life stolen and raised by a selfish woman like Gothel.
What am I going to do with myself for almost two months without you here with me, Eugene? I have the babies, but they can't speak… I know Cass and Varian and Lance and Job try to fill in the gaps as good friends, and are always here if I need them.
But they're not you!
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"May come in, darling? Cassandra passed by and gave me a heads up that you and the girls were unable to sleep, Rapunzel. I realized this is a rough time for you, healing up, worrying about the babies, sleeping alone without your husband's strong arms around you. So, Mother has come to stay with you and your little ones tonight." A calm, caring, muffled voice comes through the closed bedroom door.
"Mother? What are you still doing up? I hope we didn't wake you! You had a pretty late night, too! The twins and I just have little insomnia, that's all. We're doing fine." Wiping away her tears, the abruptly smiling, drawn eyed, cocoa brown bob haired Princess sniffles back her weeping that she could not omit from falling this lonely night.
"You don't have to put on a brave show for me, Rapunzel dear. Mother knows how lonely this time away from such a devilishly dashing and dynamic mate like your husband Eugene will be for you. But I think I've figured out a way you can cope in his absence, if you want to hear me out. I mean, besides what Eugene told about you throwing yourself wholeheartedly into learning how to be a great new mom. I hope to help you with that as best I can, with what little experience I could efficiently offer in the field." A winningly chuckling, self-deprecating and humble Queen Arianna had wisely peeked into her daughter and granddaughter's sleepless bedroom after the keen ladies' maid had alerted the royal grandmother of this sleepless first night of the year in Corona Palace.
"A way I can cope?" With bags under her eyes, Rapunzel puts down her baby Anxelin. The wispy brown haired baby had finally drifted off to sleep in the specially made cradle beside her drooling blonde twin in the open side cradle situated on her large king-sized bed. That's when her mother the Queen helpfully took over the rocking of the twins thereof.
The exhausted Princess plops down on her multiple pillow lined side and rubs at her tired eyes to yank at her rag-tangled shorthair with the golden brush her mother had brought for her.
"Willow and I were just talking about her girlish dream that she and Iduna shared as youngsters growing up. When we brought Iduna home after one of our adventure jaunts up north on the Norwegian border, along with her came so much imagination and joy to our lives. My pair of wild little sisters, whom I tried to raise as best I could in Mother's place, had taken turns writing short stories about some mysterious 'Enchanted Forest' as they called this fabled magical land full of secret spirits and sunlit fantasies in unending seasons, to entertain each other about their days as well as their nightly dreams. They would also vividly re-create contemporary stories about the servants or people they encountered in town, or avant-garde tales of Father's daring past in the army. I encouraged both my sisters to write with a sprinkle of imagination to liven our quiet, mundane world up as they put their daily accounts into words to recite to me as part of their lessons. Iduna and Wilhemina really enjoyed it as a game when they were younger, seeing who could write the longest, most creative 'diary report'. And, later on, just before Iduna went back north, it gave she and Willow something to reread and reflect on with laughter in our days of mourning for Father, your grandfather, King Carl, when they were just teens." The older woman fondly fingers the pearl necklace at her throat. It belonged to her departed mother and her dear, kindly father had gifted the pearls to her, saying she was the 'pearl of the house' on her eighteenth birthday, not long before he too would be taken from the trio of Swedish princesses and their older brother Prince Oscar who would succeed him as King.
"You see, nothing could warm the heart more in times of sadness and separation and fill in the void than cherished remembrances of happy, exciting times spent with the one you miss most. And you have at your fingertips, my girl, not just any novel or memoir. You have lived real-life fairy-tale yarns that could be told in the vivid language and colorful pictures of the remarkable adventures by your creative hand, Rapunzel. You have, in your short life, a storehouse of amazing experiences featuring you and your swashbuckling thief/hero that you, as a first-hand artist witness and imaginative authoress, could excel in chronicling." Arianna starts by speaking softly, presenting her idea to her child that she and her sister had hatched during this Christmas season after discussing memories of their own youth.
The queenly mother was concerned on how to keep her emotional girl – especially in this fragile recovery stage after the harrowing childbirth just two weeks ago – occupied since her beloved husband and father of her children would be detained so far away.
"What? Me?! An author of books?! I'm an artist, Mom! I mean, I did write some stuff in the notebook you gave me, but they were just short snippets of what I was thinking at the time, or what my friends said during the day to go with the pictures. I wouldn't even know where to begin writing a novel!" Artistic temperament Rapunzel spazzes out at the challenge as she turns over her first rejection the thought of taking on this new creative venture to stretch her imagination.
"Just hear me out, sweetie." The graying, long brown haired older woman pets her upset daughter's tousled head after she opens her bedside nightstand drawer and removes a thick purple booklet with the Corona sun crest embossed on its cover. "You've already brightly filled the pages of this first journal I gave you all those years ago with drawings, sketches and artwork during your incredible journey to unlock the secret of the Rapunculus flower that is so much a part of your story. The journal was creative and imaginative and very interesting, showing its readers your point of view through vivid pictures and descriptive captions. I always thought it quite gifted, and not just because I'm your mother." Smiling proudly at her child's untapped genius, Queen Arianna leafs through the well-worn pages of the colorful diary from her daughter's adventure over eight years ago.
"But your story didn't end there, did it, my girl? Even if you came home to your happily ever after and your journal ran out pages. Remember our motto: 'Plus est en vous' – There's more within you." To Queen Arianna's compassionate delight, at those key words which reminded her daughter about fulfilling inspiration, there was a light bulb going off over Rapunzel's head at the thought of transcribing her life story since then that followed.
"About Eugene? Like the 'Tales of Flynnigan Rider' he loved as a boy…" Then she recalls her lover's early confession to her when they first met, of his fondness for reading as a child himself.
Books would liberate him from reality's bonds of poverty and rejection and hopelessness in the abandoned life of a disappointed orphan left to emptiness and solitude that was all too often brought upon such an unwanted young kid with nothing.
"You possess in your beautiful imagination not only your story's incredible fairytale meeting that started in a tower prison and ended up in a palace, but also you have your latest adventures spent with your cousins Elsa and Anna and their friends in the beautiful North country. You came back with so many tales of life-threatening pirates, heroes with ice magic, harrowing ship voyages, sea monsters, kidnapped rulers' miraculous healing and recovery, friendly trolls, flying reindeer and the legendary Snow Queen. All contributed to the redemption of a princely man's soul that led to not only his re-acceptance into his Royal family which he had been an outcast from his entire life, but the forbidden love of a forgiving, beautiful young monarch that defied all convention. I myself had witnessed some small part of this tale, filled with the all-important emotion that Almighty God blessed this life with, called 'love.' This adventure has goodness and purity and romance woven throughout. Willow and I both believe it can be a wonderful saga, Rapunzel. And you are the perfect one to script it, my darling girl, because you hold dear every character as friends, and you lived each situation or personally know someone who did. Through those stories, your imagination will make your loneliness evaporate for these months spent apart from the one you love, my dearest little girl. Believe me, writing will fill the empty hours and never leave you lonely." Queen Arianna speaks with experienced knowledge of how the gift of storytelling could change young lives.
"Wow, Mom. Did all that happen? When you say it like that, it does sound pretty exciting. You think I can really inscribe such an epic tale as that? I mean, I usually only paint and sculpt, Mom! I only added a few descriptive scribblings of the places and people I saw and met. Nothing that big and important."
"Only? But you have been there and done that, my girl! I know you can accomplish this new endeavor because you are so talented and able to paint with your hands. So why not paint with your words, Rapunzel? I believe in you, my bright and sweet, intelligent child, and so does Eugene. We know by now that you can do anything you set your mind to."
"When you open up your imagination to this magical world of writing and reading, anything's possible. You can relive those stories anywhere, even here, laid up in bed. Just try it out a while and see if you like writing, in between bonding with your babies while they sleep."
Capturing those stories will keep my girl so preoccupied that she won't have time to miss Eugene so much as her attention will be kept busy learning how to care for his babies by day and her mind absorbed in recalling their adventures at night. As she knits at her daughter's bedside, Queen Arianna smiles to herself to have successfully introduced this positive outcome for her indecisive, easily distressed child in these difficult days ahead.
The wise mother had come already prepared with a new thick notebook full of blank pages that she places squarely on Rapunzel's lap as the convalescing young mother was lying on her bored, empty bed.
Rapunzel fingers the fancy gold binding and pretty flowery decorated cover as her mother places the book on her lap in place of the half-knitted baby clothes the older woman claims.
The mystified young woman reads aloud the bold words etched in the binding of her new journal in her mother's fine ribboned calligraphy: 'Rapunzel's Tangled Adventures'.
"Now all you have to do is fill in the title of your first story." Queen Arianna says above the pair of clicking knitting needles that she had taken command of from her daughter.
'The New Adventures of Flynnigan Rider, Hero Extraordinaire.' The first hint of an animated smile crosses Rapunzel's eager face, replacing her previously forlorn features. The now enthusiastic Princess of Corona's sad thoughts begin to rummage through her recollections and ideas on where to begin this intriguing new dream.
Picking up the pastel pencil set Eugene gifted her as their first anniversary present seven years ago, Rapunzel's imagination begins to soars alongside her inspiring leading man.
Eugene Fitzherbert, AKA Flynn Rider, AKA Horace Pryzemyslid would always be the star of her show. Even if he was far away high on a Magic Carpet across in the dazzling ocean blue, he was right beside her now, still encouraging her to reach for the stars in her dreams.
'That's the good part I guess. You get to go find a new dream.'
Speaking about that roguish, handsome dreamer…
"Blondie would've loved to see this view. She'd say 'ooh' and 'ahh' and whip out her trusty pastels to sketch every mountain peak and cloud and each little birdie that flew by." Eugene says suddenly out of nowhere, lazily laid out and staring out over the ocean they were crossing high atop Carpet at record speeds.
"You think Rapunzel will be missing her favorite hero too badly tonight? I wouldn't blame her if she did, handsome devil as I am, but the gal needs some serious shut-eye." As he stares in a mirror to give a five o'clock shadow trim to his well-kept goatee, Eugene Fitzherbert gazes at the sun setting orangey and red hues that magnificently replace the blue sky.
Rapunzel's husband, his in-law Aunt Willow, and Pascal the chameleon were soaring upon Eugene's Magic Flying Carpet for the past day and a half.
"I'm sure she'll find something else to amuse her. Like getting properly in tuned with her less self-absorbed other babies while I'm taking this one to get fixed." The Queen's younger sister had a blunt way of speaking, perhaps learning to cut to the chase long ago. And that was due to her globetrotting linguistic translations and fast-paced lifestyle that didn't wait for any man to catch up to her
"Ouch. Fixed? That sounds way worse than you meant it to, I'm sure, Wils. Ahem." Clearing his ticklish throat, Flynn Rider gives his infamous feigned 'I'm hurt' line to the fast talking woman just a few years his senior. He shares a smug look with the silent chameleon on his shoulder before stifling a big yawn.
"I'm sure young Wilhelmina meant no harm, Horace. You must give my son leeway, my dear. Of late, he is too touchy for hormonal lack of proper sleep and inadequate amounts of endorphins in his nervous and endocrine systems due to high stress levels." King Edmund interjects from his perch on Carpet's rear seat where the older man had been 'meditating' as they flew along over the Atlantic.
"Yeesh, Dad, discussing my 'endocrine' and 'hormones' in the presence of ladies? A little less personal information, if you please! You sound like Varian with all those big terms you're picking up in those dirty books he lent you on my supposedly private subject." Eugene complains with a grimace at the icksome term he had a sneaking suspicion referenced to parts of his body not preferably thrashed out in public.
"Don't sweat it, Eugene. I've been places and seen some pretty shocking things in all parts of the globe in my field of archeology to dull my delicate sensibilities long ago about the vaulted subject of the male anatomy. But thanks, nonetheless, for deeming me 'young' as yet, Edmund." Though he was bellicose and loud at moments, explorer Wilhelmina in her late forties still found a quaint, naive demeanor about Eugene's father that made him charming rather than crass like his worldly son.
"Ooo-kay. You more mature folks shoot above my paygrade." The dark, drawn-eyed thief whistles under his breath at his traveling companions and their unashamed, clinical discussions of him like he wasn't even there.
"Well, if you two can keep yourselves amused without the riveting subject of moi, I guess after staying up all night at that super fun St. Sylvester New Year's Eve spent melting lead pellets – Yeah! – and generally not sleeping very well at all for the past few weeks – or so I have heard tales of – I am one pretty tuckered out fella. And since there's absolutely nothing to do at this high-altitude on board my trusty Magic flying Carpet friend here – minus my sylphlike gal – I will be turning in early tonight. Then me and all my taboo systems can be bright eyed and bushy tailed when we arrive south of the equator." As he drawls out to the older pair surrounding him, Eugene was already laying out his bedding of a pillow fashioned from their clothing change bag full of his father's extra fur cloak that, in the end, couldn't be parted with.
Eugene stretches his long lean and limber body out across Carpet's colorful pile and closes his eyes to slumber on the brown fur's high pile that at least resrmbled his dreamy wife's hairdo a little.
"Ungh-ungh-ungh, sleepyhead! There is no way I am going to allow you to go beddy-bye way up here when you have the proven tendency to unconsciously wake up at all hours and walk around in your sleep. Just think of what one wrong move at this altitude would do to you if you sleepwalk off this supersonic flight!" Sitting up on her haunches, Princess Wilhelmina of Drottningham exclaims of the dire consequences. The ponytailed woman leers over her nephew as she kneels on an equally anxious for his new master Magic Carpet zooming westward in the limited space beside him.
Ker-splatt!
Little fist smacking Pascal silently fills in with pantomimed falling in fear, followed by a slashing claw action then prayerful mime scene of pushing up daisies to dramaticize Willow's words.
"Oh, come on, you guys! How's a guy supposed to catch any beauty rest before he's examined like a test tube guinea pig by some crazy looney doctors?!" His eyes fly wide open as fearless of heights Eugene stands straight up on Carpet in exhausted exasperation.
"Help me out here, Pops!" Plaintively Eugene turns to his father, sure the kooky and cracked, but deep down sweet old softie would back his exhausted son up in his desperate quest for rest.
"It says here that insomniacs do tend to regress into sleep patterns of nocturnal walking and should not be left to endanger themselves. And I judge falling from this massive height would not preclude self-endangerment, my boy." Edmund, though feeling for his tired bags-under-eyes only child, sides with Willow and Pascal here on the matter of safety. "We will have to stand guard to keep you alert, Horace, for your own sake." The old swordsman shrugs, none too gently removing the plush soft fur 'pillow' of his cape from beneath Eugene's snuggled down head with a harsh pull.
"Ouch! Great bedside manner." The angry brow ex-con rubs his head and spits fuzz form his rug fiber-eaten mouth to glower up at his parent, making King Edmund surprisingly clap and smile.
"You have mastered my famed glower, Horace, my boy! Makes a father proud!" He strangely pronounces so loud to the sky that a bevy of birds happening to fly by were startled to zoom off into the other direction.
"Oh, come on!" Eugene hisses at the whole ridiculous situation.
"Or, I guess we can try the acupuncture technique my Himalayan yoga master instructed me in that's said to stop somnambulism, temporarily at least. I promise to try to be as gentle as Master Patanjali taught me to wield the sharp needles to achieve proper chitta vritt nirod han - controlled mystic mind fluctuations. But we had better get started before it totally gets dark and I can't see my needles to the target area clearly –" Aunt Willow, in her nonchalant way, begins exposing Eugene's pulled up shirt abdomen from where she was kneeling at eye level.
Eugene flinches as she eerily extracts from her endless supply survival kit of a knapsack a pouch full of demonically sharp pointed pins and needles of all shapes and sizes, along with a ghastly chart of the in-depth male anatomy used for acupuncture's predominant aim points.
"Ooookay! No thanks! Suddenly not tired, whatsoever! It passed. Would you believe? Okay, I'm on night watch with the frog, while you two get some shut eye, Dad, Wilhelmina. My buddy Carpet will have us lightning fast dancing in the rainforest by morning with your therapeutic and parapsychology experts. I feel wide awake already with all this fresh night air!" Eugene proclaims, pulling his sleepy eyes open and slapping his cheeks vigorously as he settles back down to sit on the relieved rug.
"Well, if you're sure…" Willow considers if her nephew-in-law was being legit or not. But she was feeling more than a little exhausted herself from staying up reading some research on the peoples of Brazil since they left Corona last morning, not to mention her ears exhausted from putting up with Edmund's verbose speeches all day long.
"No problemo! Being a night owl comes with a thief's territory. How about an invigorating round of three man stud poker, Pascal, Rugman? I must warn you, I'm such a killer at it, you'll be sure to lose your shirts, if either of you were wearing any, that is! Hah!" Eugene pulls out a dog-eared deck of playing cards and starts dealing out face down and face up cards for himself, Pascal and Carpet where he was sitting Indian style beside Wilhelmina.
"Oh, yes, Hamuel! Cards! HA! What luck, my boy! Solitaire's my absolute forte after twenty-five years of constant playing by myself all alone in the castle! But I forever longed to play Bullermannchen of my youth, though it required more than a participant of one! Let us spend all night strengthening that father-son bond as we slay one another in a rubber of Pinochle, then utterly destroy our friendly opposition in a competitive round of Stuss. Or better yet – Silesian Schlesische Lotterie! Hamuel could never master the rules of that one, could you, old friend?" The old gentleman who had not enjoyed a partner other than his cross-eyed raven for almost three decades, had long dreamed of spending quality time in a challenging game of cards with his own son.
And now this late-night Carpet ride filled with invaluable relaxation time together, getting to know one another through the joy of good, clean competition was finally Edmund's chance to make that dream come true.
"Gee, it's what I always dreamt doing too." Eugene's sarcasm goes right under happy as a clam King Edmund's utterly straightforward radar.
"Then you are just like me, son!" As he expertly shuffles and deals the deck procured from Eugene's unwitting hands, King Edmund was almost in tears at his longtime wish to play with his boy being fulfilled after all those long lonely years. "Horace, you've made me the most content of men!"
"All right, Edmund, Eugene. I'll leave you two to it. But make sure you keep awake. I promised my niece I'd bring you home in one piece to her. And it wouldn't do for the sharks down there to tear you to pieces in a feast first." Willow concedes with a chuckle at Eugene's wide-eyed gulp under his father's eager grin from ear to ear that was looking forward to an all-nighter of multiple card games he always fantasized of with his boy.
Wilhelmina puts away her Ayurveda homeopathtic acupuncture set and places her sleeping eye-cover over her face.
Then the Queen of Prussia's sister leans back in a trained Kundalini chakras yoga balance left side for regulated breathing. Wilhemina keeps herself balanced vital meditation high aloft Carpet, with her head towards the south and legs facing north for the magnetic field not to affect the function of brain cells, according to Ayurveda logic.
"And if he does start to doze off Pascal, Rapunzel told me that you know what to do." Willow was shrewd enough to issue the warning with a subtle rub to her ear as she braids back her long brown ponytail to prepare for sleep.
GULP.
"Yuck! Keep your lizardy tongue to yourself tonight, frog! Beware of the slithery tpngued one, Pops! Let's team up to wipe his little reptilian bottom with our hereditary card sharp skills, if we have to play here all night! So have a pleasant sleep, Woman. We've got an intense, high stakes game on, right, Carpet?" Aggressively confrontational, shamed to be wide awake, resigned Eugene slaps down his hand of cards dealt from the card deck his dad had shuffled to Carpet's back so vehemently that Wilhelmina's peaceful yoga position was ruffled.
She gives him a dirty look as Carpet turns his 'head' back to apologize to her, then gives King Edmund a tassel signaling he was betting high for the first round of the four man card game – actually two men, one chameleon and one magical being.
The card game progresses all through the night, when Aladdin's Magic Carpet proved to be an even more streetwise gambler than Flynn Rider or his experienced gamer father, betting both of the father-son team under the rug, so to speak.
But the challenge of irrationally laying bets kept the exasperated thief awake, just as his cleverer-than-anyone-thought father predicted. Over and over the unlucky gambler tried to regain his losses against the savvy older man who teamed up with the smug champion player rug cruising the sky over the twilight sea with his best poker face on.
Halfway across the same Atlantic Ocean, somewhere down below on the rippling waves…
The flagship caravel of the Portuguese fleet, Marinha de Guerra Portuguesa Armada Santa Teresa was every bit as regaled and splendid as Princess Valentina described it to be.
From its well-designed quadruple sails that harnessed the powerful Atlantic winds as the maritime explorers of Portuguese captains of old used to their utmost advantage, to its festooned in pinks and decorated multi-decks, the Santa Teresa made excellent time, even without steamship capabilities.
It's Norwegian steamship counterpart, the HmNos Gler, under its Admiral's order, was sailing at a close, but safe, sea distance in front of the large Portuguese navi caravel. The Gler had easily set the knot speed with its upgraded double turbine and multiple boiler steam engine as to keep sail side-by-side with the Santa Teresa.
At Vise Admiral Westergaard's deft command, the Gler proceeded just as Admiral Bernadotte ordered as escort to the Portuguese cruise ship, just in case some treacherous waters, weather, or marauders threatened.
Kommander Westergaard followed his superior's order to a 't', and cautiously kept to the deck as he directed the Gler as lead scout ship, as it were. As for his royal passengers – including Queen Elsa, much to Hans' chagrin, and Counselor Kai's prodded encouragement– had been forced by etiquette to accept the Princess of Paraiso's insistent demands.
Queen Elsa and the Enchancia royals, their friends, and Chancellor Flores were to take passage aboard her grand vessel instead to travel in the Santa Teresa's opulence in the excitable bride-to-be Princess Valentina's pink frilly honor.
All but the bridegroom, that is.
Prince Alonso had opted at the port of Sintra at the last minute – after feeling excessively bossed around and bullied by his particularly high-strung betrothed — to come aboard the Gler and spend the final few weeks of his precious bachelorhood in Prince Hans' virtual solitary company, beyond the ship's crew.
"Let me enjoy this one last voyage in peace where I may still have freedom of my own choice." The cynical young man had muttered under his breath as he requested his luggage and horses Rápido and Fuerte (Fast and Strong) to be loaded onto the Gler at the port.
"Fine. If you and your silly little horsies prefer the dull solitude on board that ordinary naval ship when my family's top of the Armada has just a little bit more class to it – pardon me for saying, Elsa – who am I to stop you, Your Royal Highness?" Princess Valentino turned up her nose and simply said with flashing eyes at the dock as she strode up the gangway steps to her tall and proud, Portuguese royal sailing caravel.
"Hmph. All the important people are traveling in comfort and style onboard my ship with so many enjoyable events, planned entertainment, shipboard games and compelling competitions scheduled to keep our spirits contented together on this promising pleasure cruise for the next few weeks! I do hope you don't regret your decision to travel over there on that dreary craft, when you could look around and see how much more fun my honored guests and I will be enjoying over here, Alonsy!" As the ships had launched from the port simultaneously to begin the four thousand nautical mile journey, Valentina's increasingly scratchy voice had screamed out to taunt her fiancé over the railing.
But the Prince of Córdoba remained standing unruffled on the deck of the Gler beside its perplexed Captain.
In demonstration, Valentina had sauntered up and grabbed Elsa, giving the elegant-framed young Queen a fanciful sardana dance spin with her. That left Elsa forlornly waving a silent farewell and blowing several snow butterfly kisses to her adored fiancée Prince Hans on deck of the opposite craft.
"Oh, I'm regretting it already." The Argentine Prince had let out a sigh, with a gaze of discontented consternation back at his saucy dark skinned betrothed. She was standing beside the alarmed, more demure and very regal Norwegian Ice Queen's blue eyes that Alonso felt more drawn to at this moment.
Prince Hans' fingers were automatically tapping on his ever ready sword hilt when he noticed the objectionable gaze.
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! I must be on my best watch now. It appears that this shaky South American royal engagement is one I may need to personally rise to on this voyage, if I'm ever to be rid of this Córdoban menace once and for all.
Prince Hans had winced, his keen mind already presuming the unsavory prospect's consequences of his formal rival for his own Elsa's desirable hand being set loose a swinging bachelor in need of a proper royal match yet again.
But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure…
Little did the jealous Danish Prince know, but Alonso was not Hans' only source of unexpected trouble on this trip. There was another he was more acquainted with on the royal entourage invitation list gathered onboard the Santa Teresa Prince Hans had not yet glimpsed.
An intriguing individual had arrived at the last minute at the Portuguese port where the royal crown envoys of Europe had gathered for the grandiose wedding in Brazil.
The certain undeniably charming and indisputably handsome representative of the Southern Isles was the natural choice to attend this important South American event as Egeskov's diplomatic delegate.
The sixth-in-line royal son of Denmark was highly entertained by the show with a particular roving eye upon the entrancingly lovely, dancing delight of the snow Queen of Norway.
And he smirks with a twirl of his dark handlebar moustache in enticement of the trip to come.
With a whistle, the dark-haired, tall, svelte man skulks below the deck of the ornate Portuguese yacht with a haughty chortle out loud, his presence yet unbeknownst to his naïve younger brother on the other ship on its way to sunny Paraiso…
Bleigiessen - A fun New Year's Eve Tradition in Germanyfor families try to divine their fortune for the New Year in an ancient form of lead pouring divination, also known as Molybdomancy.
"Guten Abend" – lullaby lyrics from 1809 German folk poems, 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn' set to Brahms Wiegenlied Lullaby
Hello, Frozen friends!
How was that for a Valentine's Day treat?
Romantic Agnarr started it off with homemade chocolates for his Windlass Iduna. And she reassured him of not only her great love, quelling his anxiety with kisses, but also that whatever destiny lie ahead for him as Yelana predicted, they would cross it together. No more dangerous secrets concealed between the lifetime lovers on their anniversary as Agduna plan a trip of discovery to the far north, just they two to find a new dream.
Only Ahtohallan knows…
And next, our 2 teams set out on the first leg of the Atlantic crossing to Brazil in a sneak peek into what intrigue awaits in the next chapters to come!
On speedy Carpet, Eugene, Willow, King Edmund and Pascal are on their way to meet with her medical somnambulism experts in the rainforests nearby in southern Brazil.
Meanwhile, speaking of getting to dream new dreams, Rapunzel is taking up the challenge of (drumroll, please) ...
Writing a novel!
It will feature her adventures and exploits with her Frozen cousins, starring her gorgeous Flynnigan Rider! Raps becoming an aspiring authoress in her spare time in lonely hours without Eugene?!
As the writer here of a story being written within a story (kinda cool idea, eh?:), I didn't see that one coming! ;) But, speaking from experience, it will engross our Princess of Corona from a single moment of being bored or missing her love so terribly. For now her Eugene will ever be dear to her imaginative heart in between learning to care for her twins, I suppose! Mother knows best! ^-^
Explosive, hot tempered Valentina and Alonso's marriage that hasn't even happened yet is already on the rocks! And guess which favored brother of Hans' Southern Isles clan has been chosen to act as delegate to Paraiso for the wedding!?
So stay tuned for all the ups and downs and fun times amid romance for the relationships of our beloved couples on their long and winding paths down the altar!
I'd love to hear your reviews as this new Act IX sets sail in all directions!
God Bless!
May your Valentine's Day be blessed with love, sent down from Heaven by the Lord above!
Love, your humble authoress, HarukaKou (: aka Rapunzel Fitzherbert :)
