Chapter 07:

Chapter Song:

The next few nights passed without incident, and for this the Winter Spirit was grateful. During the day he would venture out into the main town and also the villages surrounding Arendelle, searching for whatever had escaped that night. Elsa tended to council meetings and the like while he did whatever he could to find answers.

He hadn't confided in Elsa about all his thoughts and feelings about the situation, choosing instead to keep it to himself. He didn't quite know what he had felt that night, the strange almost deja vu feeling mixed with the strange call that he had felt course through him. She didn't need any added worries.

A guilt gnawed at him though. He had told her he didn't know what had been in the room that night, but that was only mostly correct. It was a who and Jack had encountered that entity before. But the answer was lost and foreign to him. It bothered him. That night, that feeling he had. It was a feeling he had felt before. The knowledge that evil was present.

But what was the evil?

He was in Harmon that day, one of the smaller villages outside of the city proper. He had been quite amused by the baker of the village earlier. He had taken rather well to the message from the palace requesting his baked goods at the princess's upcoming birthday celebration and the small bakery seemed to be in a tizzy.

The breeze carried him gently over the village and over the heads of passing adults. The grown ups were of no use to him, they tended to speak of more practical day to day things, and it was rare that he would find the information he needed. Now, children would speak about anything and everything.

And it was with this thought that Jack touched down, choosing to listen in on a group of young boys as they played with wooden swords. Or at least they had been. The wooden swords now hung limply at their sides and their faces seemed rather stricken.

Jack stopped to watch them, disliking the fearful faces. And who knew, maybe it was something he could help with.

"Yeah, it was really scary," one of the boys was saying. "And I thought it had been real, but Pa said it was just a shadow."

Now that was information. Jack listened with attention as the other boys also shared similar experiences. By going off of what he had heard from these children alone, the entity had seemed to come feed off the nightmares of children instead of the Queen.

Now that, Jack didn't like one bit.

And apparently he wasn't alone in that feeling as he was suddenly aware of someone beside him.

The Sandman was to his left, golden eyes watching the children with worry.

"Can you help them?" Jack asked.

Sandy nodded without hesitation, he was a Guardian after all. Protecting children was what he did best. Golden signs flashed above the man's head, the passerby not noticing the magic display, which Jack found slightly odd, as he had been sure the Guardians' abilities were visible to most mortals.

But Sandy was asking for him to tell him what he knew, and Jack did. He told the Sandman about Elsa's dream as well as the shadow entity. The usually happy man's face seemed to darken at the mention of the voice, new signs above his head asking to be taken to the castle. He wanted to speak to the queen about what had happened.

Jack nodded and the two journeyed back to the castle.

Now, Jack was used to moving through the castle unhindered by this point, so he assumed that Sandy would have the same luck.

But, as luck would have it, the next corner they rounded crossed their path with none other than Anna herself, who looked at the sandman, confused.

"Who are you? I'm sorry, but this part of the castle isn't open to visitors," She said, never once seeing Jack beside him.

"Anna! Anna, wait up!" Jack looked over Anna's shoulder to catch sight of Olaf chasing after her. He caught sight of Jack and waved. "Oh, hi, Jack!"

Anna looked at Olaf and pointed at Sandy. "Olaf, do you know this guy?"

Olaf gave the Sandman a quick once over before going, "Nope! But, hi, I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!"

"Then who's Jack?" Anna frowned, putting her hands on her hips as she tried to figure out what was going on.

"That's Jack." Olaf pointed at the Winter Spirit, who was starting to think that walking right through the front door was a mistake and they should've came in through a window.

"Olaf, there's no one there."

Jack sighed and looked at his Guardian friend. "Should have entered through a window, huh?"

The Sandman only laughed jovially, unbothered and seemingly entertained by the situation.

Jack ran a hand over his face, being caught in the royal family's wing wasn't in his plan at all. It made it especially difficult to think of a way out of the situation when the one person who could be seen was mute. The Sandman had made no move to try and communicate with the sweet but mildly reckless princess using his magic. He simply smiled at the princess and her snowman with a warm kindness.

"Excuse me? Who are you? Where did you come from? Did you just say you should have entered through a window?"

Jack looked back at the princess and was surprised to see her staring directly at him.

"Anna! I told you, that's Jack!" Olaf's sentence muffled at the end as Anna shoved him behind her. "Hey, don't shove."

"Are you trying to rob us? I'll call the guards!"

Jack's eyes flew wide and he quickly started protesting. "No, no, no! We're not here to rob you! We're here to meet with Elsa! I'm a friend of hers, she asked for our help."

Anna's eyes narrowed in unwavering suspicion, her eyes landing on Jack's staff, attached by a leather strap to his back. She snagged a candlestick from the nearest hall table and brandished it at them.

"You mean, 'Queen' Elsa. My sister does not have many friends, but I certainly know the ones who speak about her with such familiarity. I don't know who you are, I have never seen you before."

Jack's expression turned to a bewildered stupor as he stared briefly at her weapon of choice. "Huh?"

"Anna?"

All the tension left his shoulders as he sighed in relief at the sound of Elsa's voice. How is it, that the first time someone could see him he had managed to stay relatively cool, but the second time almost leads to him getting hit by a princess wielding a candlestick.

"Elsa! These people are trying to rob us!"

Jack looked to the ceiling and sighed before looking at the younger sister. "Anna, I promise. We are not trying to rob you."

The sound of muffled laughter drew everyone's attention back to Elsa, her smile visible from even behind her hand.

"Are you laughing at me?" and "Elsa, what's happening right now?" were both heard at the same time which only resulted in a few more moments of laughter.

Elsa shook her head at her sister with fondness. "Anna, put the candlestick down. It's alright, Jack's a friend."

Anna frowned, arms falling to her sides. "But I've never heard you mention a Jack?"

Elsa contemplated her answer for a moment. "Well…to be honest, I didn't think you'd ever meet him."

Anna gave Jack another suspicious glare.

"Anna, I'd like to introduce you to Jack Frost. People aren't usually able to see him," Elsa said the last part quietly as she watch the cogs turn in her sister's brain.

"Like the storybook? From when we were kids? That was just a book, though…right?"

Jack had pulled his staff from his back and twirled it lightly from hand to hand, a small cascade of snowflakes forming in its path. He grinned at Anna, who was now staring open-mouthed at the display of magic.

"Something like that." He said.

"Olaf, I think I need to sit down."

Sandman shook his head at the both of them before bowing to the queen, who nodded in acknowledgment.

"I've seen you before," Elsa said, thinking hard. "You were with Jack at the campfire in the woods that night…"

"What night?" Anna was now seated on the nearest hallway bench, Olaf at her side. "Did you sneak out when we were younger?"

Elsa nodded, giving her sister a guilty smile. "Only a few times."

The redhead's jaw dropped. "The shocks just keep coming."

Jack moved the conversation back on track. "Sandy thinks he can help figure out whatever that thing was."

Elsa was aware of her sister watching her, she chose instead to focus on the short elderly gentleman in front of her. She squinted, something was awfully familiar about him. Like when you reread a story that you hadn't read in forever.

"Sandy…" and like a veil had been pulled, the answer came to her. "You're the Sandman."

"Woah," Anna said.

The little man bowed, pleased to find the young royals had been able to see him as he was. There had indeed been a sort of glamour covering his true appearance and instead presenting him as a little old man.

"It could have been the trolls?" Anna suggested. "We have a lot of magic around Arendelle, some of it real and some of it only stories. Kristoff would know more, but I'm sure Grand Pabbie would be able to hide or disguise magical things easily."

Jack and Elsa exchanged a glance. The trolls. They'd know about this, too.

"Back to before though," Anna said. "You said something about a thing? Did something happen?"

Jack nodded at Elsa, letting her make the decision on what to tell Anna.

She thought for a moment, taking Anna's hand. "Can I tell you after we've had our meeting about it? I'll know more. I'll find you as soon as I'm done."

Another moment before Anna nodded. "As soon as your done."

"I promise."

The sisters hugged before Anna steered Olaf back down the hallway. "Come on, Olaf! Let's go tell Kristoff I almost beat up Jack Frost with a candle."

Olaf laughed. "That sounds like two totally different stories in one!"

Jack and Sandman followed Elsa down a separate hallway, towards her study. A heavy weight tugged on him again. He couldn't keep anything from her anymore. He had wanted to keep as much of whatever was happening under control. He knew he was being irrational. He had been gone for almost a year, and here he was, back at her side, attempting to alleviate anything that could cause her worry. Just like before, as if he hadn't even left.

But the guilt came in the knowledge that she was stronger. A small voice inside of him had sprouted in his head during the day, a reminder that she wasn't who she used to be. She was stronger, growing into the queen he had known she could be. She didn't need him to take care of things for her. She needed the same thing she had needed in the beginning. A friend.