Frozen Love: Jelsa

Chapter 14

Jack

Anna's laugh echoed throughout the courtyard as Jack's attempt to build clothes out of ice failed yet again. The frosty cape melted the moment it was formed. "I don't understand," he whined, over exaggerating his pouty lip, "how can I not do the same things you can, when I've had 300 years of practice?" Elsa responded with a chuckle and said,

"I suppose my powers can do things outside of what yours can. and vice versa." Jack nodded slowly.

"That's probably true. After all, I can control the winds and you can't."

"For now!" Elsa punched Jack in the arm playfully. Anna smiled tenderly at this exchange.

"It's just so great that you guys are learning more about each other and yourselves. It's great to be in love, isn't it?" Elsa rolled her eyes at her sister's gushing. She was a hopeless romantic, but Jack thought that she also had a point. After all, when you loved somebody, you were always learning more about them. Suddenly it was as if Jack were seeing Elsa for the first time. He realized that he had barely scratched the surface of her character and her thoughts. And he couldn't wait to find out more if it meant spending time with her. Elsa apparently noticed him staring at her. Her face flushed and she gave a nervous smile. Jack tilted his head down to steal a kiss from her lips. When Anna gave a contented sigh.

* * *

Elsa had just left to join her Council meeting, leaving Anna and Jack alone under the tree. There was an awkward silence for a couple of seconds before she broke it: "I wanted to thank you, Jack."

"Why?"

"Because you gave my sister something that I know she needs. I love her, but I can't always be there." Jack looked down.

"Yeah, well, neither can I. I am immortal, after all." Instead of freaking out, Anna gave him one of her sympathetic smiles.

"I know you guys will figure it out and make it work." Then she got up and skipped up the castle steps. This one sentence seemed to fill Jack up with hope and optimism. He felt like he could do anything-until he heard the scream. Walking through the halls of the castle, dodging servants and butlers (they would probably find it strange to bump into someone invisible) he had been contemplating those words when he heard it. He was strolling leisurely through a particularly empty hallway when what he recognized as Elsa's bloodcurdling scream resonated through the corridor. Jack seemed to be the only one aware of this, but he flew straight to what he knew was the source: a small office off to the side where Elsa did most of her work. He blew the door open with a blast of brisk wind to reveal a terrifying scene.

In the middle of the office stood none other than Pitch Black, holding a sharp blade made of Nightmare Sand. But that was not what Jack was looking at. He was grinding his back teeth together and staring at Elsa, who was pinned to the wall with what looked like a wall of the frozen Sand Jack had seen years ago during his fight with Pitch. The wall engulfed all of Elsa except for her head. On her face was a look of utter defiance. And as for the rest of the room: it was clear that Elsa had battled Pitch here. There was ice coating the walls and frozen Nightmare Sand stalagmites jutting out from the ground at the Boogeyman's feet. But what was making Jack boil with anger was the Sand dagger puncturing the wall centimeters from Elsa's face. When they both laid eyes on him, there were two different reactions: Elsa's eyes widened in relief and Pitch's face split into an evil grin, saying,

"Well, nice of you to join us, Jack. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist coming to help your Snow Queen." Jack was aware that Pitch was just playing with him, trying to taunt him and make him mad. But it wouldn't work, because he knew Pitch would never hurt Elsa. Obviously Pitch took him for a fool because he didn't know him, which could be used to Jack's advantage. He made his best surprised face, pretending to be absolutely baffled that this was a trap.

"W-what?" he whimpered.

"I know that your staff is the source of your power. If you hand it over now, then I will not harm Elsa." Jack had to hold back a laugh. How predictable Pitch was! It was the same trick that he had used on him years ago. Then again, that hadn't happened yet. Boy, this time traveling gets confusing, he thought. Keeping up his ruse, Jack walked towards Pitch cautiously. He made eye contact with Elsa to let her know that he was faking. He hoped she understood.

Just before the wooden staff left Jack's grip, he called to the wind to sweep Pitch off his feet and was about to melt the frozen Sand holding Elsa when she herself made it explode into billions of particles of Sand and ice. Apparently she had been biding her time to escape. Together the two of them advanced towards Pitch, who was already getting up from his fall. Suddenly a Nightmare appeared and started running through the air towards them. Luckily, Elsa froze the dark horse in mid-gallop and shattered it by just clenching her fist.

Pitch had just formed a misty, dark scythe out of thin air and was swinging it in a full circle. Before he could strike Jack with it, Jack and Elsa simultaneously blasted a wave of ice at him, knocking him down yet again. Standing back to back in the center of the room, Elsa and Jack each fought a side; Jack Pitch, and Elsa the Nightmares. Pretty soon though, Pitch started throwing everything he had at Jack, pushing him back against the wall and leaving Elsa to fend off the horses.

Jack didn't like this. He knew that the only way to defeat Pitch was for them both to attack him together. Distracted by the black arrows and blades made of Sand he was dodging, Jack didn't realize what one of the Nightmares was doing before it was too late. Following Pitch's subtle gesture, it grabbed Elsa's cape in its teeth and disappeared in a swirl of sand, along with the love of his life.