When All is Lost… Part Three
Hello there! Today is Monday, and you know what that means! A new installment of When All is Lost! If you need a refresher, check out part one here, and part two here.
Enjoy part three!
Much to Jack’s surprise, the presence of two members of royalty didn’t rattle him. It was the appearance of two children that set him on edge.
The doors flung open, and a little boy ran shrieking in, followed closely by a girl who looked a little bit older than him. She seemed to be yelling something about a dragon as she chased him. They began running around the table, the noise growing with each circuit they made.
Queen Anna made several half-hearted attempts to calm the chaos that were completely unfruitful. Just when Jack was beginning to think that she would never get control of her children, she simply yelled, “Hey!”
The children stopped in their tracks, colliding with each other and falling to the floor. They didn’t stay there long, popping up immediately to stare wide eyed at their mother. All she had to do was raise her eyebrows and look pointedly at the chairs across from Jack, and then there they sat.
Two sets of eyes stared at Jack. He stared right back. The boy’s hair he noticed first. It was red, almost orange, like Queen Anna’s. The girl had blonde hair like King Kristoff’s, but hers fell in curls. Both children had blue-green eyes that matched their mother’s.
“Children, this is Jack.” As she spoke, she motioned for King Kristoff to take his seat at the head of the table. “Jack, these are my children, Frigga and Lars.” As soon as her husband sat down, she sat at his right hand.
Jack watched in silence as they began the meal. A familiar feeling settled somewhere in the region of his stomach. He was nervous. His hands grew cold, and a tingling sensation ran down his arms. He clenched his hands into tight fists beneath the table.
He focused on his breathing the way his father had taught him. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Soon, the tingling in his arms subsided, and the chill in his hands went away. With a sigh of relief, he let his hands unclench. The knot in his stomach was still there, but the other symptoms were gone, and that was what mattered.
He glanced at Queen Anna to see if she had noticed any of his actions. She was busy trying to keep Frigga from flinging her food as the girl cut it.
The symptoms may have subsided, but the anxiety was still there. It wasn’t caused by the presence of royalty, nor was it from their fancy clothes or luxurious food. No, the cause of his nervousness was the children themselves.
Children were unpredictable. There was no way of knowing what a child would do. Jack liked routine; he was not good with surprises. Unfortunately, the night would be full of them.
The first one came when Frigga used her spoon to catapult peas at him. She insisted to her mother that it was because she liked him, which was surprising itself. The second surprise came when Lars bean to loudly sing a song about reindeer. From the way King Kristoff’s face reddened, Jack suspected that the boy had learned it from his father. The third and final surprise came right at the close of the meal. This one shocked him the most.
Queen Anna stood and gathered her children to her. “Time to get ready for bed!” she said cheerily. She then turned to Jack. “You too, Jack.”
Jack stared at her for a moment; sure he must be hearing her wrong. “I’m not leaving?”
“Of course not!” She crossed around the table and took his hand, pulling him out of the chair. As she hurried him to join the children, he caught King Kristoff giving her a look. He couldn’t tell exactly what it meant, but he seemed a little skeptical.
Queen Anna ignored her husband, ushering Jack along with Frigga and Lars. Their little group hurried up the grandest staircase Jack had ever seen and along a hall with carpet so plush and soft, Jack wouldn’t object to sleeping on it.
The children were dropped off in their nursery with a nurse to get them ready for bed. Queen Anna led Jack to a room across the hall. She drew him a bath, found some nightclothes that fit him, and then left to turn down the bedclothes while he cleaned up.
Once he was clean and dressed, she helped him get settled in the softest bed he had ever felt. She didn’t leave until she was sure he needed nothing else. Then she turned down the light, bid him goodnight, and shut the door softly behind her.
This had to be a dream. Jack didn’t know when he’d felt so clean and comfortable before. Why was the queen being so kind to him? If this was a dream, he didn’t want to wake up.
*****
Why was she doing all this for a child she had just met this morning? For the life of her, Anna could not figure it out. She paced back and forth in the upstairs drawing room long after all three children had gone to bed.
She paced and thought long into the night. Kristoff came in at some point to try and convince her to go to bed, but she waved him off absently. Reluctantly, he left her to her ruminations.
Anna was determined not to go to bed until she had some sort of answer. So far, all she had gotten was frustrated. She walked to the window and stared at the night sky. The aurora borealis was out tonight. She leaned on the windowsill and was soon lost in a daydream about riding on a Pegasus to paint the colors on the night sky.
He reminded her of someone. The thought was so sudden that it didn’t even register with Anna at first. When it did, she stood straight up and gasped. There was one piece of the puzzle. Now she just had about a hundred more to go.
*****
Jack woke up late the next morning. He barely wanted to move, he was so warm and comfortable. Warm and comfortable? That wasn’t right. He shot up and looked around him, trying to remember how he had come to be in such a lavish bedroom. Then it came to him. Queen Anna had taken him in.
He threw off the covers and slid out of the tall bed. His feet sunk down in the carpet as he walked to the window. He pushed open the curtains and sunlight streamed in. There was a window seat, so he took advantage of it and curled up to look outside.
Jack had never seen a view like this before. The window he looked out of was high up in the palace and he could see the whole kingdom spread out beneath him. Even the fjord could be seen from here. He was so used to a view from the water, that it was strange seeing water from land.
He reached up and absently touched the window with his finger. A small dot of frost appeared. He snatched his hand back, startled, but then he used his finger to write his name in frost on the glass. Jack.
A knock sounded on the door. Jack wiggled his fingers, and the letters disappeared in a flurry of snowflakes. “Coming!”
*****
Elsa slipped back into camp from the woods, the sunrise at her back. It had been a long night, and Elsa had needed some time alone. She had gone down to the stream and watched the northern lights. They had danced in the water as well as the sky, giving her a sense of peace with their beauty.
But now it was time to come back to her duties as leader of the Northuldra. Yelana, who had led before Elsa, was ill. There was nothing left to be done for her, but make her comfortable. All Elsa could do was wait.
She hated feeling helpless. She shivered and pulled her shawl tighter around her. The cold wasn’t what was bothering her; it was the fear. Yelana was invaluable. She always gave advice, and guided Elsa into becoming a better leader. There was more to it than that.
Yelana was her grandmother, her mother’s mother. If Yelana passed away, Elsa would lose another family member. She wasn’t sure she could bear that.
She fingered the stone medallion that she wore around her neck. It was a constant reminder of her greatest loss. But she never wanted to forget. There were carvings on both sides that glowed with magic. One side bore an intricately designed snowflake, the other, a swirling cursive “J.”
She gave the medallion a kiss. “Be safe, my darling,” she whispered. “Be safe Jakka.”
It was times like these that she missed Anna the most. Anna always knew how to pull Elsa from her gloomy thoughts and make her laugh. Elsa wished she could find something to laugh about.
Suddenly, a small breeze brushed against Elsa, ruffling her hair and threatening to steal her shawl. She gasped in surprise and smiled. “Hello, Gale.” She held up her hand and the wind spirit played through her fingers.
Surrounded by the leaves that always signaled Gale’s arrival was a small paper bird. Elsa reached for it, but Gale skittered away from her. Elsa followed, snatching at the bird, and laughing in spite of herself. Finally, she was able to secure the bird from the mischievous wind.
Elsa unfolded it and confirmed that it was what she though. A note from Anna, come at just the right time. She read through it quickly. Anna invited her to visit the family in Arendelle the coming weekend. Apparently, her sister had taken in an orphan from the streets. She insisted there was something special about the boy, and she needed Elsa to help her discover what it was.
“Oh, Anna,” she laughed. She would love nothing more than to help Anna in her new pet project. Besides, she would take any excuse to visit her niece and nephew. She folded the note into a square, and slipped it into the pocket of her gown. Her steps were decidedly lighter as she headed into her hut. Now she had something to look forward to.
*****
And there you have it, part three! It got a little more interesting here, didn’t it? I hope you enjoyed, and will stick around for the next part. We still have plenty more story to go!
Oh, and Happy Star Wars day! May the Fourth be with you!
~Jadyn