When All is Lost… Part Four
Hello! I hope everyone is having a good Monday so far, and if you’re not hopfully this will make it better! This part of the story definitely gets more exciting.
If you need a reminder, here’s part one, part two, and part three.
It had been several days, and Jack was still at the palace. He could hardly believe it. Queen Anna was so kind to him, and even King Kristoff seemed to be warming up. Now that he had gotten used to them, the children weren’t so bad either.
Nevertheless, he was still wary when Queen Anna sent him outside with the children to play. Surprisingly, the talking snowman that the children seemed to love didn’t bother him.
“So, what should we play today?” Frigga asked as she skipped around her three playmates. Before anyone could answer, she exclaimed, “Let’s play adventurer!”
Lars groaned. “But we always play that, and you never let me be the adventurer.”
Frigga shrugged. “It’s a good game. And I’m the adventurer because I’m better at it.” She said it so matter-of-factly, that Jack couldn’t keep from smirking.
Unfortunately, Frigga caught him. She whirled on him. “Well, if you think it’s so funny, why don’t you come up with a game?”
Jack thought for a moment, and then said the first thing he thought of. “How about you be the queen and the rest of us can be your loyal subjects and do things for you.”
Frigga scowled and seemed rather offended. “No way.” She brightened again almost immediately. “I was supposed to be the real queen, you know,” she said, even though there was no way Jack could have known that. “But then Lars was born, and even though he’s younger than me he gets to be king because he’s a boy. So I’m free!”
She flung both arms out to the sides and spun around in a circle, drawing the last word out into a shriek. She spun faster and faster until she fell in a heap on the ground.
Jack had learned by now that there was no need to make a fuss. She would be fine.
Sure enough, she sat up and with mind boggling speed, changed the subject again. “Ooh!” She leapt to her feet and jumped up and down. “We should play Jack Frost!”
Jack was startled. “Wait, what?”
Frigga, Lars, and Olaf all gasped. “You don’t know about Jack Frost?” Lars asked.
“This is a tragedy.” Frigga shook her head gravely. She flopped down and patted the ground beside her. “Everybody sit.”
They all sat in a circle around Frigga. She lowered her voice dramatically. “There have been tales spreading around about a boy. He travels all around to different kingdoms. He doesn’t do much; he just stays for a while and then leaves. But some people say they’ve seen him freeze things with just a touch of his finger, or make it snow when there’s not a cloud in the sky.
“He calls himself Jack, but never gives a last name, so people added on Frost.” Frigga cocked her head and looked straight at Jack. “Kind of like you.”
Jack’s heart froze. “Th-that’s crazy. It can’t be true.”
Frigga shrugged. “Most people don’t believe it.”
Jack let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
“But I do.” She beamed at her audience. “We all do, don’t we boys?”
Lars and Olaf eagerly nodded and voiced their agreement.
And there came the panic back again. “Well, I don’t believe it. There’s no way someone could create ice by magic.” Jack tried not to show too much emotion, because if he did, he had a feeling Frigga would figure him out right away. But the frost that was forming on the fingertips of his clenched fists gave away the lie in his words.
Frigga stared at him again, a frown wrinkling her small forehead. Jack struggled to keep from glancing away. Then the mood broke, and Frigga was back to being bright and sunny. She shrugged and hopped to her feet.
“I don’t feel like playing Jack Frost anymore. Let’s play unicorns! You all can be unicorns, and I’ll be a hunter who wants to steal your horns. Ready… run!”
Suddenly, the courtyard was alive with movement and noise. Olaf and Lars ran shrieking as Frigga chased after them. It was not the ideal environment for Jack right now. He slipped behind the gardener’s shed when none of the children were looking.
He backed up against the back wall of the building and pressed his hands into the wood. He sighed deeply, and the magical tingling that had built up in his body went away. He slid down until he was sitting on the ground, and pressed his cheek against the thin layer of ice that now coated the wall. The chill was soothing, but he was still worried.
The story Frigga had told was true. He knew it because, despite what he had told her, he was Jack Frost. He had never heard the name before, but it had to be him. How many boys with ice magic could there be in the world?
Jack had tried to be careful, but apparently he would have to try harder. He only used his magic in the presence of children, and even then not very often. Who would expect adults to believe children who talked about ice magic?
But apparently some of them did. Despite himself, Jack had to grin. It was kind of cool that he had become something of a legend at only twelve years old.
Except… Jack’s father had always insisted that his magic must be a secret. Magic had the potential to be incredibly dangerous. People could get hurt. If used properly, it could be a beautiful thing, but Father hadn’t believed that Jack could control his powers that well yet.
That wasn’t the only reason Father had tried to keep Jack’s powers hidden. When Jack was a baby, people had come after him for his powers. That was why Father had taken him to sea. That way, they could keep moving, lessening the possibility of anyone catching up with them, but Father could keep working as well.
Being in Arendelle was the longest Jack had ever stayed in one place. Father would never allow them to stay in one place more than a week. Jack had been at the palace that long and in the kingdom over twice as much. He had to say, it was nice.
But now, learning that he was now a story, he began to wonder if staying here was a mistake. Anyone who tried to look for him could follow the story trail and use it to track him down. How long would it be before someone caught up with him in Arendelle?
Jack had been found only once before, almost two years ago. A band of pirates had attacked their ship. Father had sent him off in a lifeboat before they pirates had boarded them. The last thing Jack had seen of his father, he was crossing swords with the pirate captain. He found out later that the pirates had killed the entire ship’s crew.
Jack couldn’t let that happen again. Not here, not because of him. He peered around the corner of the shed and watched Frigga, Lars, and Olaf play. No. If anything happened to them… Everyone here at the palace had been so kind to him. He couldn’t let anything happen to them. He would have to leave.
*****
Later that afternoon, Kristoff was sprawled on the floor in the downstairs parlour playing a game with his children. Lars sat on his father’s back, straddling him like a horse. Frigga pranced around the two of them, chanting nonsense words to the tune of an old Arendellian folk song. Olaf sat off to the side giggling like, well, a living snowman. Kristoff wasn’t sure what game they were playing.
This is the scene that Anna found when she came to check on her family. “Well, it looks like we’re having some fun in here.” The two children and Olaf bounced up and ran to embrace Anna. “I didn’t mean to interrupt, but I thought you might like to know that we’re having a surprise visitor tomorrow.”
Frigga gasped and clapped her hands in excitement. “Who is it?” Lars asked.
“Well, if I told you it wouldn’t be a surprise.” Her bright smile faded as she took a quick inventory of the people in the room. “Where’s Jack?”
Kristoff huffed, getting off of the floor with some effort. “I haven’t seen him. Wasn’t he with you?”
“No. Last I knew he was playing with the children.”
“We haven’t seen him since we were playing outside earlier,” Frigga said. “Actually, I don’t think he came in with us.”
Anna fought down a rising sense of panic. “Okay, well, he’s probably in his room,” she said, projecting more optimism than she felt.
He wasn’t in his room.
They enlisted the servants’ help in searching the interior and exterior of the castle. Anna took Frigga, Kristoff took Lars, and Olaf waddled around wherever he thought he was needed. They agreed to meet back in the parlour when their search was done.
*****
Several hours later, the castle and its grounds had been thoroughly searched, and there was still no sign of Jack. Discouraged and despairing, Anna met with Kristoff in the parlour. The children were distraught over the disappearance of their new friend, so Mrs. McIvery had taken them up to the nursery for a rest half an hour earlier.
Anna paced back and forth. “Where could he be, Kristoff? We’ve looked everywhere. What if he was kidnapped? Or maybe he fell in the fjord? Or–”
“Anna, calm down.” Kristoff, ever the voice of reason, grabbed her shoulders firmly to stop her pacing. “We’re going to find him. I know what it’ like to be in his situation. Something probably scared him, and he felt like he had to leave.”
“Scared him? What would have scared him here?” Anna’s eyes widened as a terrible thought occurred to her. “Do you think I scared him? I mean, I know I can be loud and overwhelming sometimes but I never meant to scare him off!”
Kristoff fought back a smile. “No, I don’t think you scared him off. You were nothing but kind to him.
“Then what?!” Anna wailed very un-queenly. She pushed away from Kristoff and tried to resume her nervous pacing, but he stopped her again before she got very far.
“I don’t know.” He pulled her in to a tight embrace and she buried her head in his chest. He rubbed her back soothingly. “Tell you what. You head on to dinner–”
“Dinner?” Anna questioned, her head popping up. “How do you expect me to eat at a time like this?”
“You didn’t let me finish. Go to dinner, and take the children. I will go speak to General Mattias and have him organize his men into a search party to cover the kingdom tonight. You and the children can get some rest, and if we don’t find him tonight, you can join in again in the morning. How does that sound?”
“Good I suppose.” Anna sighed. “I hope we find him soon.”
*****
Gasp! Where could Jack have gone? See, I told you it was getting more exciting! The climax is coming up soon, and there will be some big surprises!
Thanks for checking out my blog today, and I hope you’ll come back soon!
~Jadyn