blow, blow, thou winter wind

「❥」// Oh! His reaction has her muffling a fit of giggles. Had he  not seen her retaliation coming? He should have. Like she was really going to let a snowball to the back slide without consequence. But, oh— wait, now what is he doing? She’s still laughing, but it is abruptly cut off when she is hit with another snowball. 

Well—- now it’s war. 

「❥」// Oh, she can totally see him. Anna doesn’t even hestitate. She crouches down, grabbing handful of snow and patting into a ball before she throws it; her aim true and concise. 

                         POW! Bullseye!

—— {❄}; Wait, what was she doing? She was moving now, and it looked as if she was arming herself with her own snowball. But that was just silly, she couldn't possibly be—-

                           WHACK!

"Okay, bye." 

So Elsa didn’t want to build any snowmen today or play anything at all today. It’s okay, it didn’t matter! She’d definitely want to do it tomorrow. Little Anna sniffled and shuffled away from Elsa’s cold door and skipped down the hall with a little less happiness in her steps. Her dolls skid along the floor as she did.

Life was getting awfully boring without her best buddy, and more and more Anna got a little less hopeful that she’d play with her. But why didn’t she? She thought she was pretty fun to hang out with!

Anna moved about, on a mission to find something fun. She passed by a tall window giving a view of a tiny courtyard and tugged on Magnus’s (the head butler here at the castle) pant leg to hoist her up a chair to peer out of it.

—— {❄}; That day had managed to be a rather uneventful one for Jack and the lack of children out for him to at least watch while he worked had severely dampened his mood to the point of retreat into the hood of his rather ragged and worn cloak. He enjoyed bringing the frost and snow, of course, it was a way for him to express himself in a more artistic way, but what truly made him whole was to see the bright faces of young children as snowflakes kissed their noses.

The Winter Spirit was in a rather gloomy mood by the time he ventured into Arendelle, not even jovial enough to hum to pass by some of the time. There were no children anywhere to be seen, almost as if somehow they'd all vanished into thin air. Surely that wasn't possible, was it?

And then dread crept up inside of him, causing him to leap into a wind current so that he could hop from rooftop to rooftop and spy into windows for any sign of children. It was a failed endeavor, considering majority of the homes had their shutters closed to keep out the cold, and that only worried him all the more.

Where had all the children gone?

But then he saw her, a little thing stretched up on a chair with her cheeks a rosy pink from blowing on the ice cold window, and all his worries washed away. It was funny how just the face of one child could significantly melt all of his troubles away. Yet there was something sad to her features that shown especially in her eyes, and it broke his heart to pieces.

Jack ascended to the castle courtyard, his staff resting over his shoulder as his free hand thoughtfully stroked his chin. There had to be some way that he could cheer her up, someway indirectly, as he wasn't yet sure if she would be able to see him or not.

A snowman, he deducted, but not just merely any snowman. After all, this was a little princess he was attempting to cheer up - or he gathered the girl was a princess due to the fact that she was in a castle.

Instantly, the sprites features stretched into a grin and with a few waves of his staff he was able to produce a rather grand miniature castle made from snow, along with it a snowman that had an uncanny resemblance to that of a knight.

Now all that he needed to do was get her attention.

She was Queen. People supported her despite the challenges she had put them through. She was home, safe, and alongside her sister. And yet, Elsa still felt alone. She did love her sister, but it still didn’t feel enough to make Elsa truly happy, and the girl didn’t understand why. 

With her eyes shut, Elsa sat on the bench beside the water fountain; the sound of the soothing crashes of water as it leaped from the top and it the bottom - light drops hitting Elsa where she sat. At the pit of the woman’s stomach, she felt like she was waiting for something. For someone. But who? Elsa sat there with just the sound of the fountain and her irritating and foolish thoughts; until she heard someone from the distance. A shadow standing tall; her eyes focused on it, a tilt of her head with a small confusion slipping in her eyes. “Hello?” She rose a brow, “Can I help you?”

But this year, something peculiar had brought him to Arendelle ahead of the season. Odd weather had been reported and Mother Nature was avidly blaming him for it. So maybe Jack did have a history of freezing over some places he shouldn't have, but he hadn't stepped out of line even remotely as of late. So just what could possible have caused such cold conditions during what was supposed to be summer?

Only one thing came to mind: Princess Elsa. Or rather Queen Elsa, he had quickly learned upon venturing to the kingdom. She'd come of age and had her coronation, and that realization made him smile.

"My, look at how you've grown," the sprite chimed, his voice jovial and lilting, "I remember when you were just a little girl that could barely reach up to my knees." Jack chuckled, his bare feet near dancing over the fountains edge. He dared not touch the water, however, not wanting it to freeze.