Stay with me

Chapter 3;

'Jack whatever it is, I won't be able to help you.'

That was the truth. I'm powerful, I know that, but power is nothing if you can't control it and I can't control it. I need the help, not the other way round.

'It's pitch. He's back and he's coming for me and the other guardians, we need you Elsa, no one else has your power. We- we thought he was drained but he's more powerful than he ever was, only you can stop him now'

The name pitch took me by surprise. The word that reached Arendelle had been pitch's obituary. I had heard stories about 'protectors of dreams' that had fought pitch, but at the time it all seemed like a drunkards tale, like someone had made up a story to toy with the young gullible imaginations surrounding him. When the news of his death were releasing, it had dawned on me he was real and there was someone out there who had killed him. Had Jack fought pitch?

I had been piecing new fragments of information together for more time than was adequate and awoke from my thoughts to Jacks wide smiling eyes. I so wanted to help him.

'You don't get it Jack, no one gets this, whatever ''this'' is. My powers aren't me I can't make them do things and whenever I do people get hurt and that's not happening again.'

It went quiet for some time while Jack looked around the room. He was thinking but not properly. His head was clouded.

'He's got tooth Elsa.'

Who was tooth? Why was he angry? I answered my own question by assuming they were friends; it didn't seem appropriate to ask about tooth. And the anger? nothing explains anger.

Silence clung to the end of his sentence, only to be shattered by the quiet cry that left Jack. The gentle sob hanging over us. He looked straight through me, his eyes red and puffy. He swallowed back the oncoming tears and placed a pained mask over his soft features. His growing smile was smothered with a confused smile- one that didn't know it was upside down.

'Jack I'm so sorry but there is really nothing I can do'

Another moment of silence occurred. I noticed jacks fingers turn a pale shade of grey as he waited for the words to collect. Persuading me must be a difficult task.

'Then let me train you to control your powers, let me help you and then you can help me. I don't want to- I'm not going to lose tooth, I won't lose her and I can't do this alone.'

'I want to help you but I'm really not going to be useful'

'Look, I was asked to recruit you and I can't go back empty handed, you have to come with me.'

'Recruit me?'

'We need you!'

He cut me off with his remark. Suddenly he slammed his fist into the cushions. I had been pulling at a loose tether since he first asked and I think I may have just reached the end of it.

'No you really don't. Who asked for me? '

'The guardians elsa, they protect the happiness of children by giving them something to believe in. '

He explained this like it was something everybody knew, mocking me with his subtle smile as if all educated beings had heard of 'the guardians', here in Arendelle we are just inventing bikes.

'Like Santa?'

'Yes. like Santa, I'll explain more later but we need to get going, tooth isn't safe'

'Ok but Jack-'

'Yes?' he said this in hurried but angry tone, wriggling on the edge of his seat.

'She's going to be ok'

His expression didn't change at my statement, nothing about him had changed. I couldn't reassure him everything was fine because I wasn't sure about this myself. I didn't want to involve myself in giving false hope; in jack's case hope seemed necessary.

In under 10 minutes Jack had introduced an imposing threat and acquired my assistance using anger and begging, but for some strange and unknown reason to me I felt I sense of relief to be leaving my castle. I've been pent up in my solitude for almost a year and even the thought of meeting my possible death, if it were away from Arendelle, made my lips tilt upward in excitement.