The Snow Queen: Jelsa *Third Book to Frozen Love*

Chapter 18

"Remember who you are." --Disney's The Lion King

Elsa

Once the adrenaline rush wore off, I realized just how exhausted I was. I looked down at the remaining shaft of the scepter while North searched his pockets for the snow globe. I looked to Jack, but he was avoiding my gaze.
"We're okay," I whispered. It was all I had to offer, considering I wasn't sure how to feel about Ursa's death. She was our enemy, and Jack had known that from the beginning. Still, she had lost her only daughter and had had years to wallow in her grief, isolated. I worried Jack would feel conflicted too.

"Huh?" He snapped out of his stare. "Oh, you're right." He smiled softly.
Sandy had snuck inside the fortress to free any other animals, and he clambered back out to is then.

"Well, it's time," North held up the clear orb. Out of nowhere, a flash of white passed me. One of the polar bears ran up to North, clamped its mouth around the globe, tore it out of North's hand, and ran off towards the entrance to the fortress. There was a moment of confused silence.
"What just happened?" Bunny cried out.
"What kind of--" North didn't even finish his sentence, but marched after the bear angrily.
"North, wait! Don't you have another snow globe?" Tooth called after him.
"That was last one I packed!" North threw a reply over his shoulder. The group let out a collective sigh.
"This is weird," I muttered as I eyed the retreating bear.
"This is lack of preparation is what this is," Bunny grumbled. They gave chase to the large Bulgarian.

Eventually, the polar bear led us down into the open hole in the ground, back into the throne room. I approached the bear slowly.
"What's your name?" I asked.
Fjord. The female voice, hesitant, was just above a whisper in my head.
"Since when could she do that?" Bunny leaned over to Sandy. Lady Pitchiner rolled her eyes.
"Well Fjord, I know you know me. So I have to ask you to give that back," I nodded at the snow globe, held firmly underneath her paw. Fjord shook her great head with a grunt.
You can't go. I raised an eyebrow.
"This is ridiculous. Why don't we just take my tunnels?" Bunny asked. Jack had told me stories about Bunny's preferred mode of transportation, and it didn't sound fun.
"No, wait," I persisted. "I think there's an important reason we stay." I felt a stubborn urgency coming from her when I turned back. "Why shouldn't we leave?"
He...is infected. To my surprise, her nose pointed to Jack. I tried to hide the fact I had noticed this from the others, but North seemed to know something.
"Okay." I patted her paw, relenting. The other six stared expectantly. "I think we should stay here, at least until we figure this out." Bunny protested, but Tooth hid her doubt and Sandy nodded. Jack stayed silent. Even North handed the baton of leadership off to me.
"We will spend night," he concluded. After that, no one put up much of an argument; they all needed sleep.
In no time, we had built a fire and were sat on the edge of the fortress' entrance.
We are forever in your debt. We will guard you, I heard Balder's voice say to me from the handful of animals who had stayed. I nodded respectfully to the wolf and told the Guardians they could sleep with him on lookout. Bunny shivered against the cold, but leaned against a snowdrift. Pitchiner sat a ways away with her back to the group, as if she were meditating.
"Jack?" North asked my husband. He looked up from staring at the sky. "Are you not forgetting something?" After receiving only a blank stare, North held up the young man's staff. I'd forgotten that he'd left it near Ursa's body. Jack took it from him, still blank-faced. North studied him oddly.
"What is it?" I whispered.
"Has Jack been acting strange to you?"
"Well, yes, now that you mention it. But he did just see a woman ripped to shreds," I defended.
"I understand. But I have seen behavior like this before..." he glanced down at the empty-head scepter in my hand, to which I had been clinging like a life preserver all evening. "Never mind. It is nothing, I'm sure. Tonight is cause for celebration!" He clapped me on the back and laughed heartily.
* * *
As the others slept, I trudged back to the place of Ursa's body. It hadn't snowed yet, so her remains were still exposed to the icy air. Not knowing what else to do, I swept my arm into the air, covering her with a thick blanket of snow.
"Now you can rest," I said quietly. I then retreated to a shadowy overpass and threw up.
Once my stomach was empty, I wiped my mouth and sat down near Jack in front of the fire. He was snoring softly. I looked back at Fjord, who was slumbering peacefully with the orb wrapped tightly in her paws. She wouldn't be giving it up anytime soon.
So I lay on my back to stare up at the sky. As I did, a flicker of color caught my eye. The flicker turned into a long sliver, then a ribbon, and soon multiple colors were running through the sky like rainbow Chinese dragons.
"The Northern Lights," I said to myself, smiling. It was comforting to know that no amount of tragedy could change this part of nature. I realized then why Ursa had named her daughter Aurora.

~Okay so I thought I'd published this last week but apparently not sorry