Hey everyone, it's me! Elphaba818! I'm back with an all new story, only this time, I'm writing for one of my favorite crossover fandoms: Rise of the Brave Tangled Frozen Dragons, or otherwise known as RotBTFD and has a slight Jelsa romance genre to it!

This fandom and crossover pairing of Jack Frost x Elsa has been dear to my heart for several years now, and I've always wanted to write a story that starred not only Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians and Queen Elsa from Frozen, but also the other lead characters in the crossover fandom: Rapunzel from Tangled, Merida from Brave, and Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon. All together, the five of them are the Big Five! However, out of all the above listed movies, my favorite one is without a doubt Frozen. I love the idea that an act of true love can conquer psychological fear and thaw a frozen heart! Then, sometime last year, I had the wild idea of changing the plot line of Frozen so that Jack Frost is the one accidentally caused the unnatural winter in Arendelle, and that the other members of the Big Five along with Jack's little sister go on a quest to bring him back to the kingdom and correct the mistake. I started looking around here online to see if there were any other authors that had thought up a story idea like this, and to my utter joy, no one else had thought of this first, or at least not in the same way that I have, so kudos to me! :D

This story is dedicated to every reader out there who values the following: Jelsa romance, the lifelong friendship between the members of the Big Five, and the love and importance of family. Nothing is more important in this world than family who love you. I know that better than anyone, and I hope that this story with a new twist on the story of Frozen will reiterate to all you readers just what people are willing to do for their family.

Also, I would like to note that I doubt that this story will be updated at the same pace as my previous story, A Hyuuga's Honor. I've been working on this first chapter all throughout my college's winter break, and the second semester starts back up again in about two weeks. I'll be taking a number of classes this semester, and may not have a lot of time to write. I'll of course write whenever I have free time, but I don't think that this story will be updated on a weekly basis that ninety percent of A Hyuuga's Honor was. I'll update whenever I can, but no promises as to when those updates will be. I do hope that you all understand. I can't afford to flunk anymore of my college classes.

I also want to give a special shout out to my wonderful online friend and beta reader Silken Danser, who has already critiqued this chapter! Thank you so much for checking over all my grammar mistakes! Hope you stick with me for the rest of the story! And I do hope you love it! ;)

Please note: I do not own the movies Frozen, Rise of the Guardians, Brave, Tangled, or How to Train Your Dragon. Frozen, Brave, and Tangled belong to Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Rise of the Guardians and How To Train Your Dragon both belong to Dreamworks Animation. This is a fanfic made for fun, not profit!

Please, be sure to review the chapter when you're done reading! Reviews keep me motivated! More reviews = More chapters! :D

Chapter One: The Boy of Ice and Snow

Ice and snow.

These two chilly, watery entities of mother earth are two of the most beautiful, but still deadly natural creations that the planet can produce. They are born of cold and winter air with mountain rain combined. This cold, freezing force of nature is both foul and fair, but when a bit of wintery magic happens to strike a still beating, loving heart, people will do anything to thaw the frost that attempts to freeze a good person to solid ice. Especially if that heart happens to belong to one of the most innocent, happy people that one could ever have the privilege of meeting in their lifetime.

This is especially true for people who have the pleasure of living in or visiting the lovely little kingdom of Arendelle, hidden away from the rest of the world in the great, vast mountain regions of snowy Norway.

You may think you know the true story as to why Arendelle is one of the most magical places to visit if you're ever in the mood for a touch of winter spectaculars: the legend of the wise Snow Queen, Queen Elsa of Arendelle, the first of her name. Born with the powers of ice and snow, a new monarch who initially ran away from her position in court on the night of her coronation out of fear of what she could do, was eventually returned to her throne by her headstrong, younger sister Anna, and went on to become one of the greatest rulers of Arendelle in the past century.

But the truth is, you are one hundred percent wrong.

The tale of how Elsa became known as the legendary Snow Queen is a tale that underwent serious flaws as the details of the story became lost over time. Details that ended up making Elsa the accidental creator of the never-ending winter in the middle of the summer season rather than the true person who accidentally caused the devastating winter. Because of how the details about the myth of the Snow Queen faded away from memory over time, the truth of how Elsa grew to become the Snow Queen was eventually forgotten in the history books.

Because in all honesty, Elsa was never born with her powers over the ice and snow. They were bestowed upon her quite by accident by the true hero of this story.

This is a story of what really happened in that small Norwegian kingdom many centuries ago.

This is a story of how a band of unlikely heroes went on a quest to try and stop the unnatural winter that spread across the land on the night of Queen Elsa's coronation.

This is a story of how the light and magic of the moon was able to overcome the darkness of fear that threatened to overpower the mind of an innocent young boy.

This is a story that goes to show just how wonderful and fun the winter season can truly be.

This is a story of how an act of true love was able to thaw a frozen heart.

This is a story of how a hero sacrificed himself to save the person he loved the most in this world.

This is a story of the boy that became lost and forgotten in the legend of the Snow Queen.

This is a story of the Snow Queen's ever faithful Winter Servant.

This is a story about Jack Frost…

It was a calm, peaceful night in the kingdom of Arendelle.

Stars twinkled merrily in the nighttime summer sky, illuminated lustrously by the beautiful, iridescent rainbow rays of the Northern Lights. Each one of them glimmered brightly as they weaved back and forth in the air against the pitch-black background. In the winter months, there would almost always be a certain chill in the air around the Arendelle castle, despite the entirety of the royal palace being constantly warmed with roaring fires in every fireplace, and even the paupers that lived in the small village in front of the castle had more than enough firewood to stoke their small fireplaces to keep their homes warm and cozy.

Anyone who came to Arendelle, be it nobles coming for a diplomatic visit or simple commoners who needed to make a fresh start in a new kingdom, would always agree that the kingdom was beyond prosperous and lively for the common folk, but more importantly, the current king and queen of Arendelle, King Agnar and Queen Idun, were without a doubt two of the finest, kindest monarchs they had ever had the good fortune of meeting. King Agnar was a good-humored man who had been born into the royal Arendelle family line. He was a good and fair ruler, and on the off days when he had little work to do in his duties as the king of the realm, he could almost always be found with a select number of royal guards, embracing the commoners that lived in the village at the base of the castle and trying to be one of the people. His wife Idun, a former duchess of Arendelle before her marriage to Agnar, was also one for getting to know the people of the kingdom. She would often accompany her husband during his outings to the village, and while Agnar would often get to know the villagers by helping to organize the local sporting festivals and even occasionally partaking in them himself, Idun preferred to get to know the people of the village in a more relaxed setting. She would often be the one to plant the new sapling that symbolized the beginning of a fresh start for a new year on the first day of Spring every year at the annual Spring festival, and would every now and then drop in on the local bookstore in the village whenever new book shipments came in from other various kingdoms across the sea. Even though the Arendelle castle had its own, luxurious library, Queen Idun often preferred to come and select the new books for the library herself so as to still get to know the people in town.

Even when the king and queen became parents to the first child, the Crown Princess Elsa, and then to their second daughter, Princess Anna, they still flourished in the public eye of the people of Arendelle. Little Elsa and Anna were the pride and joy of the kingdom, adored by all who met them, be it noble or peasant, but more importantly, they were truly the apples of their parents' eyes. King Agnar was known to spoil his two little girls rotten with delicious pastries and chocolates whenever he took them with him on his outings in the village, and Queen Idun would often take Elsa and Anna with her whenever she dropped in on the local bookstore, allowing the girls to browse the children's books for sale and even play with the village children as she chatted with other fellow mothers and swapped mothering tips.

It was during one of these many outings that the king and queen made while Idun was still pregnant with their daughter Elsa that the two of them came across another woman around Idun's age who was also pregnant, Kirsten Overland. Kirsten and her husband Tobias had only married a little less than a year ago, but just recently Tobias had lost his job. What that job was, Kirsten never said, but Agnar and Idun always got the impression that he was a tailor. Nonetheless, as months ticked past and Idun's and Kirsten's pregnancies progressed, the babies in their bellies grew bigger with each day, but Tobias remained out of work, and a genuine friendship sparked between the two women. Idun wanted desperately to help Kirsten, considering her husband was still out work and the young couple had a baby on the way, and Idun couldn't help but empathize with her friend considering that she too was about to become a new mother herself in a few short months. She talked it over with her husband, and then went on to offer Kirsten and Tobias room and board in the castle, working as a lady-in-waiting and a butler. Kirsten was ecstatic over the job offer, as was Tobias. The two moved into the palace when both mothers-to-be were around seven months pregnant, and two short months later, the babies were born. The Crown Princess Elsa was born on December twenty-first, the Winter Solstice, while Kirsten and Tobias's child, their little boy, was born a little less than a week later. The strange thing was, on the night when Kirsten and Tobias's son was born, the full moon from the said rare lunar event that took place on the night of Princess Elsa's birth reappeared in the night sky, baffling everyone in all the kingdom. While the phenomenon was undoubtedly strange, most of the townsfolk and the servants in the castle dismissed the appearance of the silver moon, and the event eventually faded from their minds.

But for King Agnar, Queen Idun, Kirsten, and Tobias, the silver moon that had appeared in the sky that fateful night had been a telltale sign. A sign that, looking back on the night when the young Overland boy had been born, should have been a clue for all the strange things that would eventually surround the boy as he grew older.

On this night, a little over eight years later, the said boy was tiptoeing through the many hallways of the Arendelle castle in his light blue pajamas, his two dark brown eyes containing a trace of mischief in their twinkle, but at the same time were wide awake and alert for any sign of perhaps a palace guard patrolling the halls or a fellow servant like his parents performing any late-night servant duties. He had slippers that he was supposed to wear, but the boy personally hated all kinds of footwear, and had left them back by his bed in the servant's quarters so he could instead wander around in the castle barefoot, just as he preferred to do. His dark brown hair was usually messy and untamable, but just now, after having feigned being asleep for hours long enough for his mother and father to fall asleep so that he could sneak out of their designated quarters, his bedhead was even messier than it usually was, sticking up in every direction imaginable in spiky brown locks. It was wrong of him to be sneaking around the palace right now in the dead of night when he wasn't supposed to be awake, the boy knew, but just knowing that he wasn't supposed to be wandering around the palace only added to the thrill of the adventure.

The boy had spent many nights in his short eight years of life exploring every nook and cranny in the castle whenever he had the opportunity. He loved exploring, but more importantly, he loved to have fun, and nothing was more fun than sneaking around behind his parents' backs to play all through the night in the Arendelle royal palace, pretending that he himself was the actual king instead and could fight and defeat any villain, human or monster, that dared to threaten the castle.

Yep, nothing on earth could beat playing and running around the castle corridors in the dead of night.

Except playing and having fun with someone else too, perhaps.

You see, the little boy was not actually alone right now as he scurried through the winding staircases and mazelike hallways of the palace. In his arms, he carried a small bundle of swaddled up white blankets, and from something hidden away deep inside them, a soft, friendly mewing could be heard.

The little boy was carrying a baby in his arms as he sneaked about his home in the palace.

His two-month-old baby sister, to be exact.

Ever since his sister had been born, the little boy had been all but a doting big brother to her. His sister might take up all their mother's attention and his father might get short with him more often now telling him not to cause too much of a ruckus in their living space and wake up the baby or attract the aggravated attention of everyone else that lived in the servants' quarters, but the boy didn't care one bit. He completely adored his little sister. She might just be a little baby that only knew how to sleep and cry for attention whenever she was hungry or wanted her diaper changed, but that didn't stop her big brother from already loving her. She was an object of great fascination to the boy. How could a human ever be so small? He remembered that before she was born and he officially met her, his mother said that his little sister lived in her tummy, as did he before he was born. That made absolutely no sense to the Overland boy. How did his sister end up in their mother's tummy? And how did he end up in her tummy at some point, too? Did their mother eat them at some point? Were babies part of all human bodies that eventually happened to everyone? Would he have a baby in his tummy too at some point? His father would often roll his eyes at his questions, but his mother would laugh. They would tell him to put his questions aside and focus instead on his new sister. The change in topic was very easy, as it was easy for the boy to become fascinated all over again with how cute and tiny his sister was.

His sister was, without a doubt, one of the best people in the little boy's life. She was going to be a great playmate for him as soon as she could walk and talk, he just knew it!

That's not to say that he couldn't include her in his adventures and games now, though. Indeed, that was the whole reason why he brought her with him tonight. He wanted desperately to play and have fun with his two very best friends in the palace tonight with his 'special' trick, but he didn't want to keep his sister away from the fun. No, it was all but natural for the boy to sneak over to her little crib in the corner of their family living space in the servants' quarters, pluck her straight up and tickle her silly for a moment just to see her little face smile at him, and then carry her away in his arms right out the door before hurrying along down the halls to find the room where his two fellow cohorts in crime slept.

A small whine that was louder than the previous sounds from the baby swaddled in his arms made the boy pause in the middle of his walk down the dark hallways, and he instead ducked behind a particularly tall suit of armor to stay hidden from sight in case anyone else in the castle happened to be awake and wandering around before focusing all of his attention on the squirming infant in his arms.

The boy smiled when he caught sight of her little face. "Hey, what's wrong? Did you wake up?" he excitedly whispered, his great big smile evident in his voice as he spoke.

More mewing and whimpering from the baby in the blankets answered him.

The boy's smile only grew. "Yeah, you look awake to me… You're probably wondering what we're doing right now, aren't you Emmy?"

His little sister, Emma Overland, still squirmed a bit in his arms, but her eyes definitely focused in on her big brother's face, and it almost seemed she stared up at him inquisitively as though she was indeed silently asking her big brother what on earth could have possibly possessed him to take her out of her warm bed in her baby crib in the middle of the night to go on this seemingly pointless walk in the dark through the various halls of the castle.

The boy chuckled a bit when he saw her curious expression. "Yeah, you definitely look like you're wondering… What if I were to tell you that you and I are going on an adventure, Em? That we're going to laugh and play and have lots and lots of fun? Does that answer your question?"

Emma's big brown eyes only blinked at him in reply, as though to tell her big brother that no, that did not answer her question as to why they were running around like they were right now in the middle of the night.

The boy only laughed some more. "Well, Emmy, you and me are going on our very first adventure together! We gotta pick up my friends first, but after that, we're going to have our very first nighttime playtime! Just wait and see! You, me, and the princesses are going to have a blast! A little… how should I put it… icy blast! Does that sound fun now?"

This time, Emma's tiny mouth broke out into a big, toothless smile. She giggled and cooed as she waved her little fists straight up towards her big brother's face, looking very excited at the prospect of going to play with her big brother and the royal princesses in the middle of the night, but also seemingly wondering what he meant when he said 'icy' blast.

The little boy grinned in return. "Glad to see you're on board now, Emmy! Now let's go! The sooner we go and get Elsa and Anna, the sooner we can go and play! Fun waits for no one!"

And with that, the Overland boy snuggled his still giggling baby sister close to his chest, and set off again back down the hall, still trying to be as quiet as possible, but it was all but impossible to miss the sound of his energetic footfalls as he half ran, half walked as fast as he could down the hall, searching for the door that led to the shared bedroom of his only two friends in the castle, the Crown Princess Elsa and Princess Anna.

It took the little boy a bit of time to find the correct door, but pretty soon, he was standing directly in front of the gigantic door that led to the bedroom of both Princess Elsa and Princess Anna. The boy smirked mischievously, and then adjusted his grip on his little sister so that he could hold her in only one hand, and then turned the round, golden doorknob before slipping quietly inside.

The shared bedroom of the two little princesses was a very spacious room, composed of bright pink wallpaper covered with a very decorative diamond-shaped repeating pattern with a white border running along the entire perimeter of the room, and was furnished with very regal and highly expensive dark wood furniture. There were two toy chests and little dollhouses, one beside each of the two beds that were placed directly across from one another in the great room, and both beds were surrounded by recently played with toys and dolls discarded on the hardwood floor. The only window in the room, a great triangular window that gave a perfect view of the village outside and the far off mountains in the distance, protruded out from the slanting roof of the castle as a gable, and stretched all the way until it reached the pink padded window seat bench which ran all the way along the width of the window's base. To the right of the window, tucked away in a corner of the room was a beautiful fireplace made entirely out of white brick with a fireguard around its edge, and only a little way off from it was one of the two enormous double-sized beds. It possessed two large, thick red curtains hanging from the top, and bright pink sheets with fluffy white pillows piled up at the head. The little girl who was supposed to be fast asleep in the grand bed at the moment though, the five-year-old Princess Anna, was currently missing from its fluffy pink depths. That meant nothing to the little intruder in the room, however. He knew exactly where little Anna was if she was not sleeping in her own bed. His eyes darted away from the bright pink bed to look at the opposite end of the room, where the second bed was. Elsa's bed. Just like Anna's bed, Elsa's bed was a large double-sized bed with thick red curtains hanging on either side, creating a canopy around the bed, but unlike the pink bedspread on Anna's bed, Elsa's blankets and sheets were all a light shade of blue, and nestled deep in their folds was none other than Elsa herself, fast asleep and ignorant of the fact that there was a tiny trespasser in the room. Curled up at her side was none other than Anna, also fast asleep as she snuggled up to her big sister. Yes, the two sisters were thick as thieves, and nothing on earth could ever possibly come between them to drive them apart.

The Overland boys' playful smirk grew even larger as he slipped silently inside the room, shutting the door behind him carefully with his foot before padding further in on the large pink rectangular carpet in the middle of the room, adorned with a beautiful symmetrical rose pattern in the very center. The fact that Anna had seemingly decided to sleep with Elsa in her bed tonight worked out rather nicely in regards to what he intended to do in order to wake up the princesses so as to invite them to come and play with him and Emma. He quickly moved to deposit his sister on Anna's bed before tiptoeing towards the other bed where Anna and Elsa were still fast asleep. No need for her to get hurt when he did what he had planned.

As soon as he was standing right at the edge of Elsa's bed,looming down over her and Anna's small bodies, he chuckled a bit. This was going to be totally awesome! Oh, he couldn't wait to see their reactions!

And then, with little to no warning at all or even a soft whisper beforehand to try and wake either of the little princesses up to alert them that he was here, the boy whooped loudly before literally flinging himself down hard on top of the blue comforter of the bed and then hopped up and down wildly in a rather uncouth manner.

"Elsa! Anna! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

Both girls awoke with a start, Anna in particular squealing a bit in fear from the rather abrupt, rude wake up call. Elsa looked about ready to start screaming for help out of alarm of the fact that a stranger was in her and her little sister's bedroom, but then she heard the rather obnoxious laughter erupting from the small shadowed figure hovering over hers and Anna's bodies, and she instantly relaxed.

"Oh, wow! I knew that would be great, but I didn't expect you to almost scream, Anna! And Elsa, you look like the Boogeyman came and gave you a nightmare!"

Anna giggled and clapped her tiny hands happily while Elsa folded her arms and pretended to huff in annoyance. The two royal princesses resembled their parents, King Agnar and Queen Idun, very much. They were both fair skinned with turquoise blue eyes and had light dustings of freckles on their small faces, but while Anna had rosy red cheeks and strawberry-blonde hair like her father's that was always tied back into two cute, bouncy pigtails, Elsa was the spitting image of their mother, the queen. Her cheeks were always a pretty shade of soft pink on her petite face, and her hair was a rich shade of chestnut brown exactly like her mother's, and it was a very rare event to see it arranged in anything other than its usual loose French braid plait that was most often swept over her left shoulder.

The brunette princess scowled at him as she blinked away the drowsiness still clinging to her eyelids. "What do you expect when you jump on top of us while we were fast asleep?! And I was having such a lovely dream, too!"

"Oh? I take it the Sandman visited you tonight, then?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact! I dreamt that I was hosting a royal tea party with Anna and our mysterious lost cousin while you were acting the way a good servant in this castle should act during such an event: serving us our tea quietly, politely, and definitely not being seen or heard!"

"What? You wish I was invisible, Elsa? That hurts! I'm one of a kind, you know! I'm meant to be right in the spotlight!"

"Yeah, Elsa!" little Anna chimed in. "Don't talk that way to him! Jack came to play with us tonight! You should be just as happy as I am!"

The boy, his full name being Jackson Overland, laughed wholeheartedly at Anna's words as he continued jumping up and down from where he was standing over Elsa and Anna's bodies on the blue bedspread, and consequently causing both princesses to bounce haphazardly a bit from where they were resting on the fluffy mattress. Anna giggled and cheered even louder as she too began to bounce in rhythm to Jack's wild springing, but Elsa continued to huff as she struggled to find a way to be able to lay back down without flying all over the place thanks to Jack's and now also her own little sisters' playful nature.

Finally, Jack managed to calm down enough to stop bouncing all over the bed and sat down nicely, and as soon as Anna stopped bouncing as well, he spoke again. "Well, I didn't exactly come alone this time. I brought Emma with me!"

This caught the attention of both little girls, and they sat up alertly as their dark-haired servant friend hopped down off the bed, and then darted his way across the room to collect a small bundle of white blankets off Anna's pink bed, and then hurried back over to where they were, setting the small bundle down on the bedspread for a moment before climbing back up beside it. Jack picked it up again before scooching his way closer to the two girls, allowing them to get a closer look at the tiny, dark-haired baby girl hidden away inside the blanket's many folds.

"Aww! Hi, Emma! Do you remember me?! I'm your honorary big sister Anna!" Anna cooed, blowing kisses at the sweet little baby nestled in Jack's arms.

Even Elsa lost her scowl for a moment as she stared, enchanted, at the little baby Jack was holding. "Hello, Emma. You look very cute tonight, unlike your stupid big brother here."

Jack gasped in mock anger. "Hey! Don't go telling my little sister that!"

"Well, it is true, you know. You are stupid. I mean, what person in their right mind would risk sneaking around the castle in the middle of the night and getting caught by the guards, all the while bringing their infant little sister along for the ride, to come and see the royal princesses of all Arendelle?"

Jack grinned. "Me of course! Look outside! The sky's awake!"

Both Elsa and Anna turned their heads to spare a peek out their bedroom window. In addition to seeing the beautiful, round silver orb of the moon hovering high above them in the dark night sky, the iridescent rainbow lights of the aurora borealis were weaving about in their breathtaking nightly dance, creating a rather magical nighttime scene.

"Pretty!" Anna exclaimed.

Jack nodded eagerly as he adjusted his grip on Emma's blankets so that she wouldn't fall. "If the sky's awake, I'm awake! And when I'm awake, I wanna play and have fun!"

Anna was instantly on board. "Yeah! Come on, Elsa! Let's go play!"

But Elsa just shook her head before laying back down and snuggling herself back into the covers of her bed. "Go play by yourselves," she muttered. "It's the middle of the night. I don't wanna play…"

Anna pouted at her older sister's apparent grumpiness, but Jack's mischievous little smirk just continued to grow. With little to no warning at all, he thrusted Emma into Anna's arms and ignored the puzzled expression on Anna's face as he wiggled himself closer to Elsa in order to peel back one of her closed eyelids to make sure that the Crown Princess was paying attention to him.

"Oh, come on now, Elsa! Surely you wanna help me build a snowman, right?" he grinned.

Normally, this would be a rather strange question to ask when it was technically the middle of summer and there was no snow to be found anywhere in the capitol city of Arendelle, but in the case of Jackson Overland, asking the two royal princesses if they wanted to help him build a snowman wasn't a strange question at all. In fact, it was actually a pretty typical question to hear from the carefree and good-natured boy.

Anna gasped in delight at the prospect of what Jack was offering while Elsa's eyes slowly opened again as a small smile of her own spread across her face. What Jack was suggesting was something that was not only amazing and beyond fun, it was something that he had been expressly forbidden to do by both his parents and their own parents, the king and queen themselves, especially when the two of them or Emma was anywhere near him. But the fact that he had been forbidden to do this at all only added to the thrill and excitement for the three of them whenever they played, so now, the only chance for the two princesses and the little servant boy to play together whenever Jack used this highly-forbidden skill was in the middle of the night like this while everyone else was asleep. Only this time, Jack had brought his new sister along so she could join in on the fun.

The fact that Jack had brought Emma with him to play this time would only make tonight even more memorable and special.

But only if Elsa agreed to come play and have fun.

"Pleeeeeeeeease, Elsa? Please?" Anna pleaded, puffing out her lower lip a bit to emphasize her words. "We always have the most fun ever whenever we play with Jack!"

"Yeah, come on, Elsa!" Jack begged. "It's not the same without you!"

There was a momentary pause, but then Elsa fully sat up and swung her legs out of bed. "Well, I suppose if it's only for a little while…"

Jack whooped for joy as Anna cheered, and then they too jumped down from the bed, although Anna's jerky movements jostled little Emma a bit, and she whined in displeasure as she squirmed some more in her blankets. Anna struggled to keep a good grip on her.

"Hey, hey! Don't squirm like that, Emma! I'll drop you!" Anna cried.

Jack hurried over and took his wriggling baby sister from the little five-year-old's arms. "I got her, don't worry," he told Anna. Then his focus shifted down to Emma herself. "What's wrong, Emmy? Are you getting impatient? Do you want to go and play right now? Well, now that her oh-so-important royal highness, the future-queen of Arendelle has decided to grace us with her ever so regal and so mature and highly sophisticated presence—"

"I'd watch what you say if I were you, Jackson Overland. Remember, when I'm older, I can lawfully decree to have you banished from Arendelle, or even have you beheaded if you annoy me!"

"Elsa! You mustn't say awful things like that!"

"I am making a point, Anna. Jack never seems to understand the meaning of being polite and reserved and not making a huge commotion in whatever he does."

"—and has finished making a few smart speeches about what her first royal decrees will be in regards to what she's going to do to me, your wonderful big brother, when we're all older and she's queen, now we can all go and play! We're going to have so much fun, you won't be able to sleep a wink when we all sneak back to bed!"

Emma, as though she understood exactly what it was Jack was telling her, giggled and cooed at that prospect as her little hands reached out from the white cloth of her baby blankets to try and grab hold of one of Jack's much bigger fingers. Elsa and Anna both smiled as they watched Jack smile himself as he cradled his precious sister to his chest and let her be entertained with his finger as he waved it back and forth in front of her face for a short time. Jack might have been an only child for the past seven years, but he seemed to be falling into the role of a good big brother rather naturally. Elsa and Anna could tell that when Emma was a little older and was big enough to talk and play games with the three of them, Jack was going to spoil her rotten.

But then, without warning, he suddenly took off like a shot to the bedroom door and started sprinting as fast as he could out into the hall while still trying to stay as quiet as he possibly could, all the while trying to keep Emma balanced so that she wouldn't get freaked out by the sudden fast, jerky movements.

"Last one to the Great Hall is a rotten egg!" he half-whispered, half-shouted to Elsa and Anna over his shoulder as he raced silently down the palace corridor.

After getting over their initial surprise, both Elsa and Anna's faces morphed into matching scowls as they too dashed out of their bedroom to chase after their friend, who they could hear was snickering somewhat loudly to himself up ahead from catching the two of them off guard when they least suspected it.

"Hey! No fair, Jack!"

"Yeah! You cheated, Servant Boy!"

Jack spared a peek over his shoulder at the two fuming princesses, and playfully stuck out his tongue at them before continuing to zip on down the hall. It was Jack's genuine pleasure to find new ways to tease his two friends, in particular the Crown Princess Elsa. She was a constant source of fascination to Jack, how she was all but his polar opposite. The eldest daughter of a rich and powerful king and kind and wise queen, whereas he was the only son of two castle servants, a stern and harsh father, and a smart and loving mother. She was proper and polite to all she met, but instead he was wild and could make a teasing remark to anyone he came across.

But most importantly, while she was an entirely ordinary little girl, he was not.

Jackson Overland, was… special.

Very special.

There were so many differences between the two of them that Jack had no idea why he found it so easy to be a clown whenever Elsa was around, but it came so naturally to the boy that he just rolled with it.

After all, even though Elsa got annoyed with him for always teasing her, she knew deep down that he only meant what he said in jest.

It wasn't as though he liked-liked the future queen of the country.

They were friends.

Just friends.

But they would still be best friends forever.

Elsa and Anna finally managed to catch up to him when he slowed down enough to not trip over his own two feet and possibly injure Emma by slipping and falling at the top of the castle's grand staircase. The trio of friends still hurried as fast as they could to make it to the bottom and get to the Great Hall first, but they all did their best to try and hush their laughter and whispered words so that they wouldn't get caught when they had all come so far already. To be caught by either the guards, the late-night castle servants, or more importantly either of their two sets of parents would spoil their fun before it even began.

"Hurry up you slowpokes! Me and Emma aren't gonna be labeled as rotten eggs! One of you will!"

"What?! No way! Me and my big sister will never be considered rotten eggs! C'mon, Elsa! C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon! Faster!"

"Both of you, shush! We'll all get caught if you keep talking that loud!"

Sweet little Emma gurgled happily as the other three children laughed and giggled when they made it to the bottom of the grand staircase and continued zooming down the main floor of the palace in the direction of the Great Hall. Childhood was such a precious time in a person's life. It was the only period that a person could live without fear of thinking about repercussions to actions and being burdened with the enormous responsibilities that fall on people's shoulders when they grew up into adults.

Finally, the gigantic-sized doors to the Great Hall appeared before the children's eyes, and the princesses and the little servant boy all sprinted as fast as they could to be the first one to reach them and get inside.

"Give it up, your royal highnesses! Emma and I are gonna get there first!"

"Not a chance, Jack! I am the future queen of Arendelle! I will be the first one inside!"

"Forget it, Jack, Elsa! I'm totally gonna beat you both there!"

The three of them continued to run with all their might, but pretty soon, it was just Jack and Elsa who were neck and neck in the front as they dashed to the doors. Even with Jack having to slow down so that he didn't scare Emma who he was still cradling, it was a close race, and by the time the trio had finally reached the enormous, beautifully crafted dark-wooded doors trimmed with pure gold, all three of them were completely out of breath, but the outcome of the race was not well received by any of them.

"A tie?! Seriously?!" Anna cried out in disbelief.

"I can't believe I run at the same speed as Elsa! A girl! If only I wasn't laden down with Emma…!"

"And just what is that supposed to mean exactly, Jackson Overland?! Are you suggesting that girls are automatically slower in this world than boys?!"

"No. I just meant that I can't believe that I'm as slow as you in particular. You act so dainty and delicate all the time, you have no muscles whatsoever!"

"Why you—!"

"Elsa! Jack! Stop! I still wanna build a snowman before the night is over, and I bet Emma does, too!"

Anna's words brought a hush over the two older dark-haired children. Anna might be younger, but she was right, of course. Jack and Elsa had been so caught up in the race, they had nearly forgotten why they'd been running here to begin with. Elsa smiled excitedly as Jack's face broke back out into a mischievous smirk, and then he turned and passed Emma's baby blankets over to the crown princess before reaching up to turn the doorknob of the door to the Great Hall and then pushed it open as wide as he possibly could.

"C'mon you guys! Hurry!" he urged with a haughty wink.

Elsa and Anna didn't need to be told twice. Pausing only momentarily to ensure that precious Emma was nestled securely in her arms, Elsa motioned for Anna to follow her as she ran inside the ballroom, and Anna eagerly ran in after her. The Great Hall was a very large, spacious room that doubled as both a ballroom for parties and the throne room. At the far back of the Great Hall were the king and queen's thrones themselves, both situated on an elevated platform with red carpeting and on the wall behind both royal thrones was a beautiful red curtain. Red curtains were everywhere in the room. They hung between the numerous pillars that lined the entire perimeter of the room, and there was even a small alcove behind some of the curtains for a small bandstand for when balls took place, and on the opposite side of the room from the bandstand there was a set of closed double doors that led out to a small balcony. A large window hung overhead to allow light to enter the grand room, projecting a six-pointed diamond-shaped design on the exact center of the floor, coincidentally where there was a diamond-like design made in the very center of the striped flooring.

Jack trailed inside after both girls, slamming the door shut behind them all with a good, firm kick to the wood, and then allowed little Anna to seize hold of one of his free hands, and literally drag him over to where Elsa and Emma were waiting for them on the diamond-shaped symbol in the exact center of the Great Hall.

"Okay, Jack!" Anna cheered. "Do the magic! Do the magic!"

"Yes, please! Show us what you can do!" Elsa pleaded, adjusting her grip on Emma a bit so that her little head was poking out a bit more from the blankets and she could fully see.

Tiny Emma had no idea what was going on exactly, but that didn't stop her from giggling and gurgling in pleasure as she listened to the happy voices. She might be only a little baby, but she wanted to join in on all the fun, too.

Jack grinned, and then he glanced down at his two bare hands before making them swirl a bit in a circular shape in front of him, but never allowing the two of them to touch each other. Within seconds, magical crystals appeared, hovering in between his hands as they morphed into the shape of a perfect white snowball.

It was a mystery to everyone as to how and why the boy could make it, but from the moment he was born, Jackson Overland had been gifted with the extraordinary powers of control over ice and snow.

It had baffled his two ordinary parents when hours after their first child was born, he had been laughing and giggling to himself in his small cradle… and snow was blanketed over their small infant son and frost was coating the edge of the wooden rim of the tiny sleeping space. It had been impossible for the Overland's to keep their son's powers a secret from the king and queen, as within days of being born and first meeting the new Princess Elsa, little Jack had apparently made ice coat his hands as the two babies interacted with each other. Despite Tobias's slight anger with his infant son for possibly endangering the princess even though he was just a baby and didn't know any better, and Kirsten's fear of what the two monarchs might do to her only child upon knowing what strange and mysterious powers he possessed, King Agnar and Queen Idun did absolutely nothing to Jack when they found out about his magic. It had shocked them, no doubt, but they saw absolutely nothing dangerous about little Jack, and they certainly weren't going to order an execution of a defenseless infant. Especially not the son of Kirsten, one of Queen Idun's dear friends and most trusted handmaidens.

All King Agnar and Queen Idun requested of the Overland's was to teach Jack to keep his powers under control and to not use them around Elsa, and then also around Anna when she was born, too. While they could tell that, as he grew older, the boy himself was not at all a bad person and although he was a little wild and a bit of a stinker he was still a good boy, his powers over ice and snow were dangerous themselves, and they didn't want Jack to hurt either himself or anyone else. Not to mention, if other people were to find out what Jack could do, it could cause either a mass panic from the common population, or people could try to take Jack to use him for their own selfish means. After all, King Agnar's younger sister, the Princess Arianna, had married King Frederic of Corona and was a queen herself, but when she grew ill during her pregnancy with her daughter she had to eat a soup made up of the magic of a golden flower that had the power to heal the sick and injured to endure the remainder of the pregnancy. When her daughter was born, the Coronan Princess, she had been born with beautiful golden hair like the golden petals of the magic flower even though her mother and father were both brunettes. It could be rightfully assumed that the new princess had somehow been effected by the magic of the flower her mother had eaten while she was still carrying her, but even though Arianna and Frederic loved their daughter no matter what, within a few days after the princess's birth, a strange old woman had broken into the castle in the middle of the night and kidnaped the baby. It had been eight years since that horrible event, and even though King Agnar and Queen Idun had even sent out a number of search parties throughout both Corona and Arendelle in search of their little niece, Corona's Lost Princess remained lost. No one knew exactly why the woman had taken the little baby, but people speculated that the mysterious woman probably thought that the princess had healing powers similar to that of the magic flower and that was why she had kidnaped the girl. Neither of the monarchs nor the Overland's wanted to see anything remotely like that event happen to little Jack.

No, the best course of action was to simply forbid Jack from using his powers at all, especially around Elsa, Anna, and now that he was a big brother, Emma too.

But kids never liked to listen to their parents, especially not Jack. His ice and snow made playtime twice as fun, and he loved to show them off to Elsa and Anna whenever they played together, and this time, he was going to include his little sister in all the excitement. Tonight was going to be great!

As Jack continued to make the snowball floating in the air between his palms grow bigger and bigger as more snow appear out of thin air and compacted around it, his three spectators marveled at the sight.

"Oh!"

"Beautiful!"

A cute giggle was followed by happy baby squeals.

Jack smiled as he looked away from the snowball he was busy making to instead look back up at the girls. "Ready to have some fun?" he asked.

Elsa and Anna both nodded excitedly while tiny Emma continued to squeal happily. All three of them were very eager to see whatever it was Jack intended to do next with his magical snow.

Jack's grin grew, and then he literally threw the snowball high up in the air, as though he wanted to strike the ceiling of the Great Hall with his creation. But his snowball didn't hit the ceiling of the room. Instead, when it was only inches away from hitting the overhead window, the snowball exploded in midair, and it morphed into thousands of tiny, beautiful white snowflakes that floated down from the ceiling and started to fall back down to the floor and swirled around all four of their heads.

The three girls gazed in wonder up towards the ceiling. Anna was dancing in joy while Elsa cradled Emma securely to her chest as she twirled in place, marveling at how Jack had been able to make it snow in the room.

"This is amazing!" Anna screamed with joy.

"It's wonderful, Jack!" Elsa agreed, still sounding completely wonderstruck.

Jack smiled as more laughs from Emma resounded from the bundle of blankets Elsa was carrying. It meant the world to him knowing that he could make the three of them so happy just from using his magic. "You guys think that's cool? You haven't seen anything yet! Watch this!"

He stomped one of his bare feet down hard on the tiled floor, and in less than a second, the entirety of the floor that made up the enormous, airy room was coated in a sheet of strong and slippery ice, perfect for sliding and ice skating.

Both Elsa and Anna gasped in wonder as they slid about a bit on the new coat of ice, but Jack was standing perfectly upright on the ice, not showing the slightest sign of his bare feet possibly losing his footing and slipping and falling. Despite being barefoot, Jack didn't feel at all cold standing on the ice like this. In fact, being barefoot on the ice felt very refreshing. It was strange that something like standing shoeless on ice would immediately cause any other normal human being to get frostbite, but not for Jackson Overland. No, being barefoot on ice felt no different than being barefoot on a regular floor. His powers made him completely immune to the cold in every possible way.

Elsa and Anna were so excited by the appearance of the ice, they couldn't stop themselves. They restrained themselves only for a moment so as to allow Jack to make a small, cozy snow pile with his powers for them to set Emma down in so she wouldn't get hurt. Then, being sure to deposit her safely inside, the girls quickly started skating about the floor in their slippers, laughing cheerfully as they held each other's hands to maintain their balance, but their skating technique was nothing compared to Jack. Even being barefoot he was still able to zip all the way around the room without breaking a sweat, all the while leaving a thick trail of ice and frost behind him as he skated.

Anna pouted as she leaned up against her big sister to keep from falling. "Slow down, Jack! Don't be a show off!"

Elsa nodded in agreement, even sticking out her chin to try and act all prim and proper. "Anna is right, Jack. Be fair to those of us who don't have great ice magic on our side."

Jack smirked. "You want me to be fair? Hmm…"

He tapped his chin repeatedly with his index finger several times as he mocked the action of thinking the matter over. Both princesses were rather miffed at his teasing, but before either of the girls could comment on it, a resolved look suddenly appeared on his face as he snapped his finger in realization.

"You're right, Elsa! You're absolutely right!"

Elsa blinked. She hadn't expected Jack to agree with her so easily. "I am?" she said, unable to mask her surprise from her voice.

"Yep! I should be fair! I should be fair to all of you! Emmy's being left out of the fun! I gotta include her!"

Anna blew a huff of hot air to blow her bangs out of her eyes while Elsa rolled her eyes. Trust Jack to completely miss the point she had been trying to make and twist it into a way to both tease them again and think of his new sister again first and foremost. Jack ignored their expressions as he raced back over to the snow pile where they had left Emma in, and promptly scooped her up in his arms as he cradled his precious sister close to his chest.

"What do you say, Em? Do you want some winter magic, too?"

Emma's happy giggles answered him, and that made Jack laugh himself as he bounced her about before creating a single snowflake in the palm of his hand, and letting it land directly on her little nose. Emma squealed, clearly enchanted, and Jack felt his heart grow at least three sizes as he watched her. Seeing his little sister gurgle and smile at him meant the world to the little eight-year-old boy. He lived to see Emma smile at him.

Being a big sister herself also to a sweet little sister, Elsa couldn't help but smile as she watched Jack rock Emma back and forth as he cooed at her. "You really love your new sister, don't you Jack?" she asked.

Jack beamed at her and Anna as he tore his eyes away from Emma's cute face. "'Course I do! She's perfect! She's gonna be a great playmate once she's bigger, and she'll be an even better little sister to me than Anna is to you, Elsa!"

Anna stamped her foot upon hearing that last bit. "Hey!" she growled furiously.

Jack only laughed at her scrunched up, angry face. "It's true though, Anna! I'll bet you anything that Emmy here will never try to run around the castle when she's your age one day trying to avoid bath time!"

"But bath time is boring! And I hate getting soap in my eyes! And I'll have you know that—"

She was cut off when a snowball was suddenly pelted right at her face, courtesy of Jack.

You would think that such a naughty deed would be rewarded by a screaming fit from the youngest princess, but something strange occurred when Jack threw the snowball at Anna. A barely noticeable blue sparkle shined on Anna's face as the snow fell away from where it struck her, and almost immediately, Anna's angry scowl abruptly changed into an excited, cheerful smile. She had most mysteriously forgotten about her previous anger and was once again ready to have lots and lots of fun.

"Oh, you asked for it, Jack! Prepare yourself!"

She gathered up a fistful of snow from the pile of snow, but as she attempted to mash it all together to make a snowball of her own, Elsa quickly grabbed hold of her shoulder.

"Don't throw a snowball at him, Anna! You could miss him and hit Emma by accident! She's a baby! She could get seriously hurt!"

Anna rolled her eyes at her older sister's warning, but nonetheless listened to what Elsa said and dropped the clump of snow she had gathered up. "No fair! If we can't have a snowball fight, what else can we do?!"

Both Jack and Elsa were silent for a moment as they contemplated what they could do that was safe play with Emma in the room, but then Elsa's eyes brightened as the perfect idea came to her mind.

"Jack, Anna, do you guys wanna build a snowman?"

Both Jack and Anna's heads whipped around when they heard the question, and in surprisingly perfect synchronization, they both eagerly nodded.

"A snowman? That sounds awesome!"

"Snowman! Snowman! Snowman! I wanna build a snowman!"

Elsa giggled. "Okay then. Anna? Why don't you sneak on down to the kitchens and go get a few rocks for the eyes and a carrot for the nose. Jack and I will stay and start gathering up the snow to build the body."

"Don't go building the snowman without me! I wanna help!"

"Well, then don't take too long then, Anna. Take forever and I'll make the snowman with just a wave of my magic, without either yours or Elsa's help!"

"What?! Oh, you better not, Jackson! I'm going to be the one to add the perfect touch to that snowman!"

And with that, the strawberry blonde-haired princess skidded as fast as she could across the icy floor back to the two main doors of the Great Hall, and disappeared out into the hall.

She wasn't gone too long, and by the time she returned, carrying the carrot, several tiny rocks, and two large sticks that she had found on the ground right outside the back-entrance doors of the kitchens, she was surprised to see that Jack had made many more white piles of snow in her absence, and Elsa was making a snow angel in the snow while Jack blew soft flurries of snowflakes into Emma's hair while they both waited for her.

"I'm back!" she called out while she struggled to juggle all the items that were in her arms as she hurried over to her sister and their magical, dark-haired friend.

Jack grinned. "'Bout time, too. I was just about ready to start off on that prior threat."

"Oh, boo, Jack! I went as fast as I could! I even brought back sticks for arms!"

"Anna, Jack, don't fight. Let's just start building the snowman."

To Elsa's immense relief, neither Jack nor Anna debated with her, and after setting Emma down on the icy floor and allowing her to wiggle her way out of her blanket wrappings and crawl around happily on the ice to get an up-close look at what the others were doing, the three older children started to build the little snowman.

It wasn't a conventional tall, three perfectly round balls snowman that they built. That type of snowman was a snowman that was impossible for Jack, Elsa, and Anna to build, as they were only small children and were neither tall enough to build a tall snowman nor had the patience to roll up three perfectly round balls for the snowman's body. No, the snowman that they built was very short, no bigger than Elsa and Jack, and the three balls of snow that made up its body were of various different sizes. Instead of the biggest snowball being on the bottom with the second biggest being in the middle and the smallest being used as the head, the biggest, roundest snowball was used for the bottom like usual, but the smallest ball was used for the middle, and the head took up at least a third of the body and was of a strange, oval-like shape. The carrot Anna had brought for a nose was planted directly in the center of the oval-shaped head, with two of the small black rocks being used for eyes while the remaining three made up three black buttons. There weren't enough left over to be used for a mouth, so instead, Jack used his magic to carve out a snow-shaped mouth in the head with a large bucktooth sticking out. The two sticks stuck out from the second small snow clump of the body to be used as arms, but not before Jack had broken away three small twigs from one of the sticks and stuck them on top of the snowman's head so that they stuck straight up in the air, rather much like strands of hair.

Overall, the snowman was rather unconventional compared to how a traditional snowman would ordinarily look, but it was still very cute.

All it needed now was the perfect name.

"I hereby dub thee, the Great Frosty the Snowman! Guardian of everything fun and magical in all of Arendelle!" Jack proclaimed, spinning the snowman around so that it could be looking at Elsa and Anna, who were both sitting down on their parent's thrones as they watched Jack add the final touches onto their friendship-snowman.

"No, no, no!" Elsa proclaimed, doing her best to sit nicely and not move too much since Emma was on her lap and she didn't want to spook her. "Frosty for a name? That just won't do!"

"Why not, Elsa? Frosty the Snowman is a great name!" Jack protested.

"Shouldn't it be obvious, Jack?" Anna rebuked. "Frosty doesn't suit this snowman at all! Frosty the Snowman is supposed to have a corncob pipe and a button nose and eyes made out of coal and a silk top hat! This snowman has no corncob pipe or a hat at all, and its eyes and nose are made out of rocks and a carrot! We can't name it Frosty!"

"Well fine then, your royal highnesses! We'll put it to a vote! Who here thinks that the snowman should be renamed?!"

Both Elsa and Anna giggled as they raise their hands.

"We obviously win, Jack! It's two against one!"

"No! It's two against two! Emmy will vote with me, won't you Emmy? You think Frosty is a great name, right?"

Tiny Emma giggled and gurgled in Elsa's arms in reply.

"Ha! See, guys?! Emma's on my side! It's two against two!"

Anna folded her arms and huffed. "She's just a baby! She doesn't get a vote! And even if she did, you two are just commoners! Me and Elsa are royalty! Royalty gets two votes per person! That makes it four against two!"

"Oh, we're adding special rules onto the voting, huh? In that case, every person here who has magic powers gets four votes each, and with Emma's vote, that makes it five against four!"

"What?! No fair, Jack!"

"Hey! You added the special rules in the first place and started it!"

"Enough you two! The person who gets to name the snowman should be the oldest one here, in others words, me! I'm the oldest by almost a full week!"

Jack threw the brunette princess a scowl. "Okay, fine! What should his name be then, your royal highness?" he grumbled.

Elsa was silent as she considered possible names for a moment, but then her entire face lit up as the perfect name came to her mind, and she nimbly leapt down from her father's throne to gently nudge Jack out of the way and pass him his baby sister before getting behind the snowman in his place. With a small snicker to herself over what she was about to do, she hugged the snowman around from behind in order to take hold of both of its stick arms to make them move like a puppeteer playing with its puppet, and she even played with her voice a bit to give the snowman its own unique accent.

"Hi, I'm Olaf!" she said cheerfully with the snowman's high-pitched voice. "And I like warm hugs!"

Anna immediately approved of the name as she clapped her tiny, chubby hands to express her delight before hopping down from the queen's throne. "I love you, Olaf!" she squealed, actually rushing forward to hug the newly-dubbed Olaf's oval-shaped head with her small arms.

Jack, on the other hand, made a face of disgust when he heard the name. "Olaf? What kind of a name is Olaf?" he asked. "What on earth possessed you to think that's a good name for a super awesome snowman?"

Elsa stuck up her nose at Jack's words. "We don't need our snowman to be 'super awesome' Jack. We just want him to be friendly and sweet!"

"Yeah! That's right! We want him to be our friend!" Anna piped.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine! Name him Olaf if you want! But deep down, Emmy and me will always know that Frosty is his true name! Isn't that right, Emmy?"

Sweet and innocent little Emma waved her tiny little fists in Elsa and Anna's direction as she giggled and gurgled, almost like she was playfully telling the two princesses that she wanted to hit them for naming the snowman Olaf instead of Frosty like Jack wanted.

And with the small dispute over naming the snowman over, the children went back to playing. Anna held Olaf's stick-like arms in front of her and Elsa hugged Olaf from behind with one hand and cradled Emma to her chest tightly with her other while Jack stood off to the sidelines using his powers to make the ice on the floor extra slippery, and then used a bit of additional magic to propel the girls and the snowman forwards all over the ice rink as they swirled and twirled around using Olaf for support. Elsa, Anna, and tiny little Emma seemed to love the fun, and they all laughed and squealed at the top of their lungs as Jack used his powers to spin them around. Jack himself was whooping for joy. He was having a blast watching them having fun with his magic. This had to be one of the best midnight playtimes ever!

As soon as the girls got bored with playing with Olaf, they went back over to Jack, and they skated on the ice for a while side by side, and taking turns twirling around with Emma every so often to make sure that she was still included and didn't get left out of the fun and games. Skating was easy for Jack thanks to his powers, and he zipped all over the floor skating circles around Elsa and Anna, but for the princesses, they both did somewhat okay on the ice, but they still wobbled and toppled over after every couple of minutes. They were really uncoordinated on the ice. Thankfully, Jack always made sure that whenever they were on the verge of slipping and falling over on the ice, they always landed in a soft and fluffy snowdrift, especially if such a tumble happened whenever either of them were snuggling Emma. He would die a thousand times over if they fell while holding his infant sister.

Pretty soon, both Elsa and Anna were black and blue with bruises from their constant fumbles and tumbles on the ice, and they got fed up with skating, and that led to Jack creating a gigantic snow hill for the group to slide down and a smaller snow pile in front of it for them to land in once they reached the bottom. This time, Emma was left on a small snow pile off to the side to ensure that she didn't get hurt before the boy and two princesses climbed to the top of the small mountain of snow so that they could all slide down together.

The three friends formed a type of three-person sled at the top of the snow hill with the biggest one sitting in the back and the smallest sat at the front. In that order, it was Anna sitting in the front followed by Elsa in the middle, and then Jack took up the rear. As soon as they were all ready, Jack grinned, and used his powers to give them an extra fast push off from the top of the semi-large hill. All three of them laughed and cheered as they slid down the snow together. This was such great fun! It was impossible for the trio to squeal out their delight. When they were at the bottom, Jack had slowed down enough to stay on the bottom of the snow pile, but Elsa and Anna had slid down fast enough to fly through the air a bit and land on the snow drift in front of the snow hill Jack had made earlier. The two sisters laughed wholeheartedly as they sat up from the snow pile indentations of their bodies they had made when they landed, and they threw the snow up in the air and at each other and Jack somewhat in their excitement.

"Tickle bump!" Anna cried.

"That was fun, Jack!" said Elsa.

Jack smirked as he puffed out his chest. "Well, what did you guys expect? I'm the living embodiment of all things fun!" he proudly declared.

Tiny Emma giggled as she watched them, and she again crawled right out of her blanket wrappings to try and move closer to where her big brother was standing at the very bottom of the snow hill. Jack bent down and patted her cheek, but quickly straightened back up again when he heard Anna's voice calling out to him.

"Keep the fun going then! Let's keep playing!" the strawberry-blonde-haired princess shouted as she and Elsa got to their feet.

"Yes, please! Make stepping stones for us!" Elsa added,

And then, with little to no time whatsoever for Jack to regain his bearings, the two girls hopped right off the snow pile, but Jack only laughed as he waved his hands and made a second snow pile appear in front of them for them to land on top of. But then they both jumped right off that snow pile and jumped ahead again, so Jack had no choice but to make another one, only this one was a tiny bit higher than the one before, so they were now higher up in the air.

Jack laughed as he made more snow drifts for Elsa and Anna to jump on top of, each one taller than the last. "Hang on!" he called out, his snow magic swirling about around his head as an outward manifestation of his inner playfulness.

"Catch us, Jack!" Anna shouted, she and Elsa continuing their quick hops from snow pile to snow pile.

"Faster!" Elsa added, she and Anna even beginning to race each other a bit as they jumped from each of the tall snow drifts.

"Again! Again! Again!"

"I'm gonna make it to the top of the sled mountain before you, Anna!"

"No way! Me first! I'm gonna get there first!"

"Only in your dreams!"

At first, Jack only continued to laugh at their dialogue as he kept on making more tall snow piles for the girls to land on, but then a panicked look slowly spread across his face. While it was true that Jackson Overland could make ice and snow appear instantaneously with only a mere wave of his hands, the girls were now racing each other so fast, it was getting harder and harder for him to make snow piles fast enough for them to safely land on, and it certainly wasn't helping him at all with how baby Emma had seemingly decided at this exact moment to suddenly latch her little hands onto the edge of his pajama pants and start tugging restlessly on them, as though in a baby way to tell him to pick her up again.

It was a horrible distraction for Jack, as he needed to keep all his focus on Elsa and Anna right at this moment so that he could always ensure that the two of them would have a soft landing on the next snow pile.

"Wait! Guys, please — stop that, Emma!" Jack pleaded, alternating between keeping one careful eye on where Elsa and Anna currently were hopping and then glancing down at his feet where Emma was tugging on the hem of his pajama bottoms. "Elsa, Anna! Slow down! You're both going – Let go of me, Emma!"

Else and Anna paid no mind to Jack's words and continued to race against one another as they jumped from snow pile to snow pile. Why would they take heed of his warning? There was nothing to fear whatsoever in either of their minds. Jack was the master of all things icy and wonderful. He would make sure that they kept having a good time. After all, the things that worry an adult could never once cross the minds of a child and cause them to worry, too. Everything would be all right in the end.

But everything was not all right. Jack was barely managing to keep up with them thanks to how Emma was demanding his complete and undivided attention. He tried to wiggle his leg a bit to shake Emma off, but that decision turned out to be a horrible one, as doing so caused the boy to lose his balance, and he slipped and fell hard onto the icy floor. Jack groaned as he hit the floor, bumping the side of his head in the process. He rubbed the sore spot carefully as he sat back up again, but then he saw, much to his horror, that neither Elsa nor Anna had noticed his small tumble, and were now leaping off their current high up snow pile into midair, completely unaware of the fact that Jack was not preparing another pile for them to softly land in.

"Elsa! Anna!" he cried fearfully.

In a last-ditch effort to keep the two royal princesses from falling from at least ten feet up in the air onto the hard icy floor, Jack sent out a large blast of his magic to try and create another snow pile for the two of them to land in close to the ground. While his intentions had been good, the one thing that the boy didn't take into account was on how fast Elsa and Anna had been falling at the time that he let out the stream of his magic, and instead of the ice magic creating a snow pile right near the floor, the blast whacked Elsa right dab smack in the middle of the head, and then ricocheted off her to momentarily strike Anna as well. It didn't hit Anna nearly as hard as it had hit Elsa, but the blast of magic did succeed in knocking both girls completely unconscious before they both fell lifelessly to the floor.

Neither of them moved so much as a single muscle as they laid there on the floor. They were both completely out cold.

The moment Elsa and Anna hit the ground, Emma screamed. She might only be a baby that didn't know the difference between something simple like an apple or an orange, but she was a smart baby, and she understood that some terrible had occurred when Elsa and Anna fell from the air. She screamed at the top of her lungs, and started to crawl away from Jack, not wanting to be anywhere near him.

Ice cold fear unlike anything Jack had ever experienced in the course of his eight short years of life seeped instantaneously throughout his small body. "Elsa! Anna!" he screamed, dashing forward to where they were on the ground and quickly getting down on his hands and knees right beside their bodies to try and shake them awake. The little boy was horrified. He had hurt them. His two best friends. It had been an accident of course, but still he had hurt them with his powers. How would he ever be able to make this up to them? Were they going to be okay? And what about Emma? It was by the mercy of whatever type of gods or spirits that were watching over them right now that she had not been injured in any way, thank heavens, but she just wouldn't stop screaming. She seemed to be downright afraid of him right now. How could he get her to trust him again? He was supposed to be her big brother! She wasn't supposed to be afraid of him! She was supposed to trust him inexplicably and he would always look after her and protect her no matter what!

Still though, Jack knew he had to fix this somehow. Calming down Emma and convincing her that what he had done was just an accident and that he didn't mean to hurt anyone would have to wait. Right now, Elsa and Anna were his primary concerns.

"Elsa! Anna! Wake up! Please, you guys! Wake up! Wake up!"

Jack shook both girls relentlessly in his effort to get the princesses to awaken, but his efforts were to no avail. Both Elsa and Anna stayed completely unconscious, but something else did happen. Something that really confused the poor boy. Elsa's hair was gradually transforming from its usual chestnut brown to a beautiful shade of platinum blonde. Jack was really mystified, but something similar, but not exactly the same was happening to Anna's hair. A lock of Anna's hair was turning from its lovely strawberry-blonde coloring to a streak of platinum blonde, just like how the entirety of her beloved sister's hair was turning platinum blonde.

Why Elsa's whole head was turning platinum blonde instead of only a lock of her hair turning white, like Anna's was currently doing, Jack didn't know.

Was it because Elsa got the full brunt of his accidental blast of ice magic?

Was Elsa more susceptible to his powers?

Was it because Elsa was older than Anna?

Or maybe it was because Jack considered Elsa to be more important of a friend to him than Anna was, not that he would ever admit that to anyone, ever.

Jack didn't know the answer to these questions, and he didn't know why neither Elsa nor Anna would wake up. All he knew for certain was that he was scared beyond all belief right now that he had possibly killed both of them by pure accident.

"Elsa! Anna! Please! I'm sorry! Wake up! Please, wake up! I'm begging you! Wake up!"

His efforts were to no avail. Elsa and Anna still refused to awaken, and Emma just kept wailing at the top of her lungs.

Jack was already on the verge of panicking, but it was the fact that no matter how hard he tried to shake the girls awake they refused to open their eyes that really sent him over the edge. "Help! Someone! Please! Mommy! Daddy! Help!" he screamed.

What the boy didn't know was that his emotions were directly tied to his ice magic, and due to how scared, guilty, and overwhelmingly sad he was right now due to what he'd done to his two friends, in particular Elsa for reasons unknown to him right at this moment, his powers were spiraling out of control and he was unintentionally causing great havoc in the room. More ice appeared from near his bare feet, and it spread wildly throughout the floor of the Great Hall and was even traveling up the walls, creating a fresh coat of ice and frost. The ice and snow swirling about the hall caused havoc in the air, making almost a windstorm of snow that not only caused Olaf the Snowman to be knocked over and accidentally destroyed, but also sent a great, icy chill throughout the entire room. Now, Jack had never actually known what it felt like to be cold thanks to the subconscious influence his powers had over his body, but for everyone else in the room, primarily baby Emma, it turned down to below freezing temperatures. Elsa and Anna were still unconscious, but they instinctively shivered in their fainted states, and Emma's screams only grew in volume.

Jack started to cry himself as he hugged Elsa's lifeless body close to his chest. "You're okay, Elsa! I got you! I'll… I'll figure out how to help you! You and Anna! Just as soon as I calm Emmy down!" He turned his head to look over to where his sister was still howling at the top of her small lungs. "I'm sorry, Emmy! It's okay! I'm gonna fix this, I swear! Believe me! I'm gonna fix this!"

Emma only cried harder, and that just made Jack's little heart break all over again.

What on earth was he supposed to do to fix this?

At that moment, the thick amount of ice that had been slowly coating the two main doors to the Great Hall were shattered apart as the grand doors slammed open, and Jack jumped a bit as his head snapped around to see who had found them. His and Emma's father, Tobias, and Elsa and Anna's father, King Agnar, had someone managed to break open the doors, and were now standing in front of the two mothers, Kirsten and Queen Idun, as they stared in horror at the scene before them.

In truth, the fact that Jack and Emma had gone missing in the middle of the night was what had led the adults to finding the children here right now. Kirsten had been half asleep in her bed with Tobias when she had realized that it had been far too quiet that night. In the two months that she had become a mother all over again to her new infant daughter, most nights she and her husband would be roused in the middle of their dreams by Emma crying, demanding attention and fresh milk. She had thought it strange that Emma had been so quiet this particular night, and her motherly instincts told her that something was not quite right, so she couldn't stop herself from forcing herself awake to do a quick check on her two children. It was then that she discovered that both Emma and Jack were missing. It wasn't hard for the then frantic mother to figure out even while still half-asleep where they were. It was a well-known fact between the Overland parents and the king and queen that Jack would often sneak out of bed on occasion to play with Elsa and Anna while using his wintry magic, something that all four of them had tried to explain to him on a daily basis was a dangerous thing to do.

What none of them had ever considered however was that Jack would try to include his new infant sister in the fun and games.

Emma was barely older than a newborn.

It was bad enough that Jack didn't listen to any of them when they told him not to use his powers around the royal princesses.

Using them while around a little baby was a thousand times worse.

Kirsten had been in a full out panic as she scrambled to shake her husband awake and tell him what Jack had done, and then the two of them were hurrying quietly through the servant's quarters to ensure that no other servants woke up, and then ran at top speed through the halls of the castle to find King Agnar and Queen Idun. It was bad manners for Jack to go into Elsa and Anna's bedroom in the middle of the night to ask to play even if he was a child and didn't know any better, but for them to enter the princess's bedroom without permission from their parents even in a state of emergency like this as grown adults would have them both dismissed from the staff and thrown out of the palace by dawn the next morning.

Kirsten and Tobias had banged their fists relentlessly against King Agnar and Queen Idun's bedroom door for what seemed like an eternity before the door opened to reveal the tired, somewhat annoyed face of the king and the still half-asleep but confused face of the queen. After the Overlands had explained what they thought Jack might have done, King Agnar and Queen Idun were instantly awake, and within seconds, all four parents were racing down the hall to Elsa and Anna's bedroom, hoping against hope itself that the children were all inside and were hopefully alright. To their dismay, Elsa and Anna's bedroom was completely empty, showing no sign whatsoever where the two girls, Jack, and Emma might have gone.

The adults had all been at a loss for several moments, but that when they heard the screams resound from several floors down below in the Great Hall, and they were all off again without a single hesitation.

It had taken Agnar and Tobias a bit of time, but when they finally managed to wrench open the frozen solid doors to the Great Hall, the two sets of parents had been horrified by the sight in front of them. There were great snow piles throughout the room, with insane coats of thick ice covered the entire surface of the tiled floor, and frost clung onto everything on the walls and ceiling. Tiny defenseless Emma was screaming in terror at the top of her lungs right near Jack's feet, and he was cradling the unconscious form of Elsa on his lap with the equally lifeless body of Anna right next to him. Instead of the eldest princess being a brunette, her hair was platinum blonde and Anna had a matching white streak in her tufts of red hair. Jack had a look of pure horror on his face over what he had accidentally done to his two friends, and great streams of tears were flowing out from his eyes as he gazed at his parents and the king and queen.

The moment Queen Idun saw the state of her two daughters, she screamed.

"My babies!" she shrieked. She forced her way past her husband and Tobias as she ran straight into the room to gather Elsa and Anna into each of her arms. "Elsa! Anna! Oh! Oh, my God! My babies! Please! Open your eyes! Look at Mama! Please, look at Mama!" she begged.

The king was right behind his wife, as he too was frightened of the prospect that his two most precious treasures might be gone forever, but then a blur of another formed whipped right past him. The form of another terrified, loving mother.

"Emma!" Kirsten wailed, dashing right around the hunched form of the hysterical queen to scoop up her still screaming daughter and cradled her protectively close to her chest. "Emma! It's okay! It's okay! Mommy's right here! You're okay!"

"Jackson Overland!" shouted Tobias as he and King Agnar finally managed to reach the two anxious mothers and the one sobbing little boy. "What did you do?!"

Jack cowered under the furious gaze of his sweltering mad father. He was a mischievous little boy, but he always knew when he crossed the line whenever his father shouted his full name. His father had a very short lid on his temper, and although he often got annoyed with him for his happy-go-lucky personality and occasional pranks, it was a whole other matter for Jack all together whenever Tobias completely lost his cool with him. There had been more than one occasion when Jack had to wear long sleeves around the castle for a couple of days to hide the bruises on his arms whenever his father grabbed him too hard after an incident with his powers, not that his mother or the king and queen knew that. Truth be told, Jack loved his father dearly, but when he yelled out his full name, he quickly became very scared of what his father might do.

The little dark-haired boy gulped as he bowed his head. "Daddy…! I'm sorry! It was just an accident—"

"An accident?!" Tobias yelled. "Look what has happened! The princesses are hurt and Emma – Your own sister! — is screaming in pain!"

"Emmy's fine, Daddy! I swear!" he quickly protested. "She just got scared! I didn't hurt her! I'd never ever hurt Emmy!"

"So you instead hurt the royal princesses with that witchcraft?! Jack, we have told you so many times not to use those cursed powers of yours!"

Jack whimpered as Tobias harshly grabbed hold of his arm to emphasize his point. "I didn't… I didn't mean to! Please, let go! That hurts!"

"That's enough, Tobias!" King Agnar cut in as he looked away from where he was checking over Anna's head to instead shoot a sharp look at the Overland patriarch. "Yelling isn't going to help!"

Tobias had to literally bite down on his tongue to remember to keep a civil tone as he released his grip on his frightened son. Shouting at the king of the country was a definite no-no, after all. "With all due respect, your majesty, I do believe that this is the perfect time to yell! We have all told him countless times not to play around with those ice powers of his! Especially around Elsa, Anna, and most recently Emma! This is getting out of hand and it has to stop!"

"Just stop it already, Tobias!" Kirsten snapped, glancing up from Emma to shoot her husband a glare. "King Agnar is right! Yelling at Jack won't help at all!"

Tobias was furious at his wife, but before he could say anything, Kirsten was already turning her attention to her beloved son.

"Jack, you need to tell us what happened. How did Princess Elsa and Princess Anna get knocked out?"

Jack wiped the tears away from his eyes with his fist as he sniffled. "We… We were just playing! Me, Elsa, Anna, and Emma! We even built a snowman! We… we were sledding, but then Elsa and Anna went jumping from snow pile to snow pile! I lost my concentration making the piles and I hit them with my magic by accident! It was an accident!" he sobbed.

Queen Idun was completely oblivious to what everyone else was saying. All her focus was on her two precious little girls. Her dear sweet Elsa and Anna. Elsa was all but her miniature clone in every single way. In addition to her beautiful chestnut brown hair and her mirror image face, she took to ladylike manners so easily and loved to follow her mother into the gardens some days to enjoy teatime together. She was her firstborn child and her beloved crown princess… And Anna… Oh, lively and energetic Anna… Anna was the epitome of everything sweet and wonderful. She loved to forget the fact she was a princess and run around and get dirty, but she still found a way to make anyone smile at her antics, what with how she made a game out of everything. Anna was so kind, it was impossible for anyone to ever hate her. How Idun had ever managed to create two perfect and sweet little girls, she didn't know, but the fact that this night could very well be the night she could lose them both at once had sent a panic throughout her body that she never knew she could ever feel, and she didn't dare to stop trying to shake her two dear treasures with all her might to try and force them to wake up again as tears pooled forth from her eyes.

"They're both ice cold!" she gasped through her tears and she cradled both her little girls close to her heart.

A determined look spread across King Agnar's face. There was no way his sweet little girls were going to die tonight.

Not if he had any say in it.

"I know where we all have to go," he declared.

And just like that, less than ten minutes later, the two families were on top of horses from the palace stables, Queen Idun with Anna on her lap and Elsa on King Agnar's, and Tobias had Emma in his arms as Jack rode with his mother, and all four of them were galloping as fast as they could away from Arendelle in the direction of the faraway mountains, following the path on an old, almost falling apart map that he had kept hidden in the palace library for many years now that led to the home of great and powerful creatures that might be able to help his daughters.

And trailing behind the horse being ridden by Kirsten and Jack, a great trail of ice and frost zoomed along on the stone pavement after them because of how out of control Jack's emotions were right now.

Jack saw the trail of frost traveling along behind his and his mother's horse as they all rode together out of the city, and he turned in place in his seat on the saddle to give his mother a tight hug.

"Mommy… I'm sorry! I'm really sorry," he whimpered into her shoulder. "I didn't mean to hurt them! I didn't! I didn't!"

Kirsten gave her sweet son a small smile as she looked away momentarily from the path ahead to softly stroke his dark brown hair. "It's okay, Jack. I know it was an accident. King Agnar and Queen Idun knows that it was an accident. Everyone knows that you didn't mean any harm."

"Daddy… Daddy doesn't…" Jack muttered.

Kirsten stiffened a bit at that, but then forced herself to keep smiling and sound strong. "Your father just had a bad scare, Jack. He was worried about Emma's safety and Elsa and Anna. He didn't mean to be short with you. Okay?"

"Okay…"

"Now, you do Mommy a favor and keep your eyes right on King Agnar, alright? Your Mommy's look out. You tell her which way to go. That sound good?"

"Yes, Mommy…"

"That's my good boy."

Deep in the forest of Arendelle, hidden away by a thick grove of evergreen trees far off the main pathways that ran through the green woodlands, there was a bedpost. An old bedpost with wood that was gradually rotting away and becoming steadily covered with an overgrowth of moss and other greenery from many years' worth of neglect to its care and upkeeping. It would normally be considered strange that there was a bedpost in the middle of the forest, since bedposts generally belonged inside people's houses with soft and fluffy mattresses on top of them, but this was not an ordinary bedpost. It belonged to one of the most powerful beings on the planet, and it was actually one of many entryways that were spread across the globe to the said mysterious being's home, deep down in the very center of the earth.

It was the home of Pitch Black, otherwise known as the Nightmare King, or more commonly, the Boogeyman.

The Boogeyman was just as spooky looking as children everywhere had always believed him to be. He was a tall fellow with glossy black hair that was slicked back into sharp spikes, and he had golden eyes that could pierce through the darkest corners of a child's room, making them glow brightly. He donned a long, ankle-length robe with a v-neck collar that helped to conceal him in the shadows, and his skin was a dull shade of pale gray, making him look almost pasty white when compared to his black hair and black clothing. He was definitely creepy looking, and he thrived in knowing he could frighten anyone just by his appearance alone.

Pitch thrived on fear, primarily children's fear. In fact, fear was what kept him alive. He haunted children's room when they were fast asleep in their little beds, and would turn their lovely dreams into chilling nightmares that would often scare the poor little boys and girls into waking up screaming and crying as they suffered through the aftermath of the terrifying visions he left them with. With every nightmare a child suffered through due to his influence he grew stronger, and would even be able to turn their dreams into actual, living and breathing Nightmare spirits that were akin to black sand horses with glowing yellow eyes.

In the past, his darkly lit lair would be filled with the biggest, most frightening Nightmares from beyond even his own wildest dreams. They were great, monstrous-sized stallions that would paw the ground restlessly with their black sandy hooves, eager to fulfill his demands of spreading dread and fear to the children of the world.

Oh yes, the Dark Ages had been such a fun time for the Nightmare King. Everyone was frightened and miserable, and that made it such a happy time for Pitch. He wielded enough power to make enough Nightmares to start his own personal army. He had been so close to building up the perfect army to plunge the children of the world into an endless world of darkness and fear, but that was when divine intervention stepped in to stop his master plan.

Intervention from the Man in the Moon.

The Man in the Moon was a curious fellow, and he went by many names. Manny and MiM being two of the most common ones. He was all but silent to the magical creatures of the world, but he influenced what he wanted to tell his followers by occasionally casting moonbeam shadows down to earth so as to communicate with them. He had once been an actual person back during the Dark Ages, but when Pitch had prepared to threaten the children of the world with his army, the Man in the Moon stepped in and brought forth other beings to stop him. The Guardians of Childhood, who would all protect the children of the world with their very lives, while also bringing them wonder and hope and dreams and memories of all that was good.

The battle that had waged between Pitch and the Guardians had been long and hard, but in the end, the Guardians had unfortunately come out on top and the children of the world had simply written him off as nothing more than a silly superstition for when they had bad dreams.

"There's nothing to fear! It was only a Nightmare from the Boogeyman! He can't really hurt you!"

All at once, Pitch had lost everything. His power from the fear of the children of the world, his Nightmare army that had been supplied by his mass quantity of fear, and most importantly, his pride.

His pride had been wounded that day when the Guardians had defeated him.

He would find a way to regain his powers and get back at them.

Somehow. Someway.

On this night, Pitch was restless and bored as he wandered aimlessly through the winding corridors of his dark lair. Ever since the fall of his precious Dark Ages and the wondrous Golden Age began for the Man in the Moon and his oh-so-special Guardians, he had been weak. Weak enough for his Nightmares to gradually die away until there was only one left that was so small and frail looking, it was practically the size of a small, sick pony. Children didn't believe in the Boogeyman anymore, so Pitch had no way to become powerful again. These days, he spent most of his time trying to figure out the perfect way to regain his powers by spreading mass fear across the globe like he did in the past. If he could just make the perfect plan to gain enough power to spread fear once again, the rest of the chips would easily fall back into place.

After all, he may have lost that final battle long ago against the Guardians, but not before taking out their most promising and dangerous member. So long as he could somehow regain his powers once again, he could and would be able to create a new age of Darkness and Fear, and this time, the Guardians wouldn't be able to do anything to stop him.

But first, he just needed to think up the perfect plan!

Pitch sighed as he approached his last surviving Nightmare and patted its black sand neck. "It's been so long, hasn't it, my sweet?" he crooned to the sickly-looking beast. "We've been exiled here for far too long. We must find a way to reclaim our rightful place as the most powerful spirits in the world."

The Nightmare faintly neighed in reply, too weak to do much else in response.

"Mark my words, I shall conquer the Guardians in the very near future. They will pay for causing me to lose all my believers in the past and leaving us both in these pitiful states of being. But we must find a way to spread fear once again. Help me think!"

The Nightmare ignored Pitch as it turned away from its master to instead go and find a quiet corner to lay down in. These days, the Nightmare had little purpose to exist in this world other than to be a creature for his master to vent his frustrations on or to proclaim his desires to plunge the world into darkness and fear once again. The Nightmare was tired this night, and had no desire to listen to it for what had to be the hundredth thousandth time. Pitch could tell it his grand wishes again tomorrow, but for tonight, the Nightmare wanted to rest. With little to no power whatsoever, it felt sickly and tired all the time, and slept whenever it could.

Pitch growled as he watched his last remnant of the past walk away from him. This was nothing short of embarrassing. How could he reclaim his old powers again if he didn't even have a good source of fear to feed from?

After all, it's not like some random child would suddenly experience a vast quantity of fear so great in the next five seconds that it could replenish him all in one fell swoop!

But then, almost as though the fates had somehow heard the last random thought that had run through Pitch's mind, a great quantity of a child's fear unlike anything he had felt in the most recent years suddenly surged throughout all of the lair, and Pitch nearly stumbled as he felt the wave sweep over him. It wasn't as though he was overwhelmed by the emotional turmoil that he was experiencing from this random child. If anything, he could already feel his powers growing stronger by the second just from this unexpected visitor – whoever he or she was – passing by the entrance to his lair overhead. He had simply been unprepared to experience this much fear at this exact moment, and in such a large amount, too.

Pitch quickly overcame his momentary startle, and then allowed the sweet taste of terror to wash over his being. It had been so long since he had tasted such a pure, raw fear from an innocent child. Whoever this child was, young or old, boy or girl, he had to find him or her. He had to try and suction as much fear as he could out of it before they calmed down, or if possible, find a way to keep him or her scared long enough for him to create a few more Nightmares and heal his last sick one. This was too good an opportunity for him to miss. He'd be a fool to let it slip past him without taking advantage.

And with that thought in mind, Pitch chuckled darkly as he vanished into the shadows of a wall, and then reappeared at the very entrance of his lair beyond the hole at the surface of the forest floor hidden by the rotting wood bedpost.

At first, Pitch was confused as he didn't see any trace of a child anywhere. The only way he could have felt all this fear at once was if there was fearful child somewhere in the nearby vicinity. And on top of that, it was the middle of the night. While Pitch thrived in the darkness, he knew very well that children were generally tucked away in their beds at this late hour. Why would a child be all the way out here in the middle of the forest at nearly two o'clock in the morning?

But then, four blurs whipped through the forest at top speed, followed closely behind by a thick trail of ice, and upon feeling the lingering traces of the pure and unadulterated fear traveling along at the same speed as the four blurs, Pitch's curiosity of the situation increased ten-fold. He was invisible to these mortals as they didn't believe in the Boogeyman, but he was still capable of interacting and watching them despite that. These were obviously humans riding horses, but the children accompanying them were what had drawn him to them in the first place. There was a baby being carried by a furious-looking man, two unconscious little girls being cradled by an obviously anxious man and woman, and a sobbing little dark-haired boy in the lap of a distraught young woman.

If it weren't for the fact that three out of the four adults looked panicked and two of them were impeccably dressed in the finest clothing imaginable, Pitch would have easily assumed that this was some type of kidnapping case, but this was obviously something else entirely judging by that magical trail of ice following the horse that was carrying the panicked woman with the crying boy. Even if Pitch hadn't felt the mass amounts of fear coming off the group – off the boy in particular, he quickly realized – that ice would have been more than enough to grab his attention. Who were these people? What had made this boy so terrified that he was radiating enough fear that he can replenish his powers and heal his sick Nightmare? He needed to find out more.

A sickening grin spread across Pitch's face as he thought that, and he hurried along after them via melting into the shadows, determined to find out more.

But Pitch wasn't the only being in the forest that had been attracted to the strange party riding on horseback at top speed. Not too far away from the rotting bedpost entrance to the evil spirit's lair, there was a little boy heading through the forest. He was around the same age as Jack and Elsa with golden blonde hair and big light brown eyes, but unlike Pitch, the boy was not alone. He was accompanied by a small baby reindeer with white fur around its neck and tiny, still growing antlers on top of its head. It was carrying a small lantern in its mouth as it pulled the sled that the little boy was riding in, and the boy was sitting on top of a small block of solid ice.

His name was Kristoff Bjorgman, the orphaned child that had been given room and board with the team of Arendelle ice harvesters, provided that he too learned the trade of the business and harvested a few cubes of ice during every trip up the North Mountain. The reindeer accompanying him was his best and only true friend in the world: Sven.

Kristoff had been an orphan for as long as he could remember. His earliest memories involved fighting with other kids in the Arendelle city orphanage for an extra scrap of bread at dinnertime before bed. It had also been a living hell living in the orphanage, which was why he had chosen to run away from the cursed place last year and take his chances on the streets to survive. He wasn't the only one either to escape the place. He had been joined by his only true friend in the poor house, but during their escape from the hellhole, the matron had seen the two boys trying to run away and had called the other villagers to try and help her catch them. The boys had been separated while dodging the villagers, and while Kristoff had managed to get away from the mob by hiding in the cart of some ice harvesters about to leave the capitol to go back up the North Mountain on an expedition to get more ice, Kristoff had no idea what had happened to his buddy. Maybe he got sent back to the orphanage, maybe he got away. All Kristoff knew was that he had never seen him again, and although he felt guilty about the fact that the two of them were separated, he wasn't risking his chance of getting away from the orphanage by traveling with the ice harvesters to go back and look for him. It wasn't an easy life following in the footsteps of the ice harvesters who had been kind enough to offer him a place in their ranks rather than send him back to the city, but it was highly preferable to the little boy when compared to fighting with the other kids at the children's poorhouse. And as it turned out, running away from that hellhole was the best decision he had ever made, because if he stayed there, he never would have met Sven, his pet baby reindeer and now only friend in the whole world.

It was actually because of Sven that Kristoff now lived by his new personal philosophy of life:

Reindeers are better than people.

And indeed, tonight more than ever before, Kristoff believed this to be true, considering how the adult ice harvesters hadn't even slowed down on their trek down from the peak of the North Mountain or even realize that he was lagging so far behind them. If it weren't for the fact that Kristoff had traveled this forest path with Sven in the dark at least a thousand times before in the past, he would have easily wound up lost.

It was a summer night, but there was a strange chill in the air that made Kristoff shiver a bit in his long-sleeved, dark purple jacket he had worn for the expedition in the icy mountains. The boy shivered from the bizarre cold temperature from atop his single block of ice as he leaned forward a bit to pat Sven's neck. "Cold out here, huh, Sven?"

The baby reindeer craned its neck to look back at him instead of paying attention to the road ahead, and then gave Kristoff a nod of agreement to his words. Kristoff had been Sven's friend for over a year now, and during that time, Kristoff had come to figure out what his reindeer buddy often thought whenever he spoke to his animal companion, and had developed a habit of expressing Sven's internal dialogue so that the two of them could have a type of one-sided conversation.

"'Yes, it is! Strange weather for summer!'" Kristoff verbalized for the reindeer. Then he laughed as he answered his old pal. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think it was late fall or early winter with how cold it is! We better hurry and catch up to the rest of those stuffy adults! The faster we get back, the faster we get hot soup and fresh carrots!"

The reindeer happily snorted at that idea, and was just about to continue pulling Kristoff and the mini sled behind him with a new spring in his step when four great blurs suddenly barreled right past them on the trail, going the opposite way that he and Sven were going. Within seconds, Kristoff pulled back the reins of the sleight to force Sven to a halt before whipping around to see what had just zoomed past them. He was surprised to see four adults on horseback with kids in each of their arms riding like the wind as they continued on down the trail, either oblivious to the fact that they had just ridden past the small sled in their rush, or else considered him beneath their notice in whatever state of panic they were in. Kristoff would have just shrugged the incident off and continued on their way if he hadn't seen what was trailing along on the ground behind the horse ridden by a frantic woman with dark brown hair and a boy about his age who was full out sobbing into her shoulder.

"Ice…?" Kristoff whispered, confused but at the same time awestruck by the sight of the beautiful trail of perfectly crystal clear wintry substance that was following the frantic party of adults. Ice was Kristoff's life. To see ice appearing out of thin air like this was nothing short of enchanting to the little boy.

Who were those people that were making this magical ice appear like this?

Kristoff was puzzled, but before he could say or do anything to try and figure out what could possibly be going on, something else caught his attention from the shadows of some nearby trees just off the forest path.

Or rather, someone.

Someone dark, evil, and undeniably sinister.

Kristoff and Sven both ducked down to avoid being spotted as a man with pale gray skin, oily black hair, and wearing a black robe that swirled around his feet as mysteriously as shadows followed the group on horseback from the cover of the trees. Kristoff couldn't quite hear what the man was saying due to how far away he was, but he was muttering something under his breath that sounded something like, "… interesting, very interesting…" and "… could very well be my chance…" as he chuckled rather ominously to himself out loud.

All in all, the man was very creepy, and just looking at him made the hairs on the back of Kristoff's neck stand right up.

Common sense told Kristoff that he should simply sit back down on the sled and urge Sven to start running as fast as he could in the opposite direction that the evil man and the rest of those adults and kids had gone in, but something about the situation was calling out to him, beckoning him to instead follow all of them and see what was going on.

Besides, if he just turned around, he'd never find out where all that beautiful ice came from.

Ah, screw the rest of the men in the ice harvesters! Adventure was right at his fingertips! He had to see where it would lead him!

And with that final thought, a huge grin broke across Kristoff's face, and he hurried to take the handle of the lantern out of Sven's mouth, blow out the candle inside and toss the lamp off to the side, and then unfastened his best friend's reins from the mini sled that he had been riding in. Kristoff noticed that his friend was giving him a quizzical look, and couldn't help but translate what was going on in his mind once again per habit.

"'Wait, what're you doing, Kristoff? Shouldn't we leave this area and not get mixed up in whatever is going on?'" Kristoff laughed at the translation as he finished unhooking his pal to the sled, and then patted his neck before climbing up onto his back so he could ride him like a horse. "C'mon, buddy! It's an adventure! That Shadow Man in the trees looks scary, but we can take him if he gives us trouble! Let's go see what that ice was about! It looked so cool!"

There was a momentary pause as the baby reindeer considered his human friend's words, but then the animal seemed to nod his head in assent before dashing as fast as he could on his four tiny legs to try and catch up to the other humans who were riding in the forest, but at the same time, sticking to the shadows of the opposite side of the tree line where the evil man shrouded in shadows had been lurking about. While the dynamic duo were indeed interested in what the human party was doing and why that trail of ice was following the horse carrying the distressed woman and the scared little boy, they certainly weren't stupid enough to ride in the middle of the path where either the humans or that pale man in black could easily spot them.

Eventually, the two unlikely buddies managed to catch sight of the human party up ahead, but instead of continuing on the forest trail, they all turned sharply to the left and started riding off the trail, and the mysterious stranger quickly followed them, still staying close to the shadows as he tailed them. How the shadow man could follow the group so close behind them without any of them noticing, Kristoff didn't really know, but he did know for a fact that if he and Sven didn't hurry, they would lose track of the group and become completely lost in the forest.

"Faster, Sven!" Kristoff urged as he kicked the heels of his boots lightly into Sven's sides to urge him to hurry, but also not risk hurting him.

Sven forced his legs to run faster than ever upon hearing Kristoff's words, not wanting to let him down, but the two of them quickly realized that they instead needed to slow down rather than speed up when they too made the sharp turn to the right. Instead of there being more tall trees and dirt ground ahead of them, there was a low area that led to an entirely rocky alcove, and almost every rock that was spread out in random places in the gorge seemed to be covered with great vegetation. Primarily moss. And there were also a number of bare, dead trees and some hot steam geysers surrounding area, making the place even more strange and mysterious.

Kristoff and Sven spied the people ahead of them on the horses ride right into the center of the small valley with the kids still in their arms, although the hysterical woman did put the crying boy down on the ground next to her as he was not unconscious unlike the other two girls in their pajamas or a baby like the bundle that the angry-looking man was cradling to his chest. The mysterious, evil-looking man was – to both Kristoff and Sven's amazement – flying in the air to be able to watch whatever was about to happen from behind the cover of some boulders that made up the top of the strange rock valley in the middle of the forest. Again, Kristoff wondered briefly if the mysterious shadow man could even be seen by anyone in present company other than him and Sven, but then he heard one of the adults down in the valley below – the other man with the strawberry-blonde hair and mustache – start to speak seemingly to the air in front of him, and he and Sven were forced to duck behind a particularly large boulder in front of them to also avoid being seen, but they did peek their heads out from behind the oversized rock a bit to watch the strange happenings.

Kristoff wasn't the only one who was confused. From where Pitch was hiding in the shadows near the tops of the boulders at the rim high above the small valley, he was gazing down at the humans below him with furrowed brows and an obviously confused expression plastered to his face. He was well aware of what this place was: it contained other magical creatures, but unlike him, these creatures were undeniably good and could be seen by humans without needing to be believed in first. Who exactly were these humans that knew about this place?

At that moment, one of the men in the group began calling out desperately for the creatures, and Pitch leaned in anxiously, eager to learn all he could about this curious group of humans and find out what had made that boy clinging to his mother so scared that he could supply him with more than enough raw terror to help replenish his powers slightly.

Jack was confused as his mother climbed down off her horse and then reached up to safely help him off the beast and get down on the ground, too. He knew that the king said that they were going to see someone that could help heal Elsa and Anna from the ice blast he had accidentally hit them both in the head with, but there was no one around here. There was no person or even a hermit hut anywhere in sight. They were simply in the middle of a small rock valley in the middle of nowhere in the forested mountains.

Just what was going on?

The little boy couldn't stop himself from wandering a few steps away from his mother to tug a bit on his father's pants leg. "Daddy? Where are we?" he asked.

But Jack's innocent question was met with a cold glare from Tobias as he handed the still screaming Emma over to Kirsten. "Not now, Jack! The king is looking for someone!" he hissed.

Jack flinched from the harsh tone, but didn't stay silent. "But who is he looking for? There's no one around—"

"Jack! Quiet!" his father snapped.

"Tobias!" Kirsten said sharply as she tried to gently rock Emma back to sleep, but not to much success as the little girl was still wailing. "We said it before! Don't yell at him! He's upset and scared enough as it is!"

Tobias shot his wife a cold look, but never got the opportunity to say anything further, because at that moment, King Agnar had climbed down off his horse while balancing Elsa carefully in one arm before turning to help Queen Idun down off her horse too, as she was carrying Anna. As soon as they were all down off their horses, he began to shout out to the air in front of him.

"Please, help!" he yelled out desperately. "It's my daughters! They need your help! Please!"

Jack was now completely lost as he hugged one of his mother's legs, too upset with his father to stay close to him. Why was King Agnar yelling to the wind? There was no one here! Elsa and Anna needed a doctor! Not a trip out into the middle of nowhere just for the king to prove to everyone that he apparently had a few screws loose in his head.

He opened his mouth to ask what was going on, but then something strange and completely unexpected happened, and his eyes went wide as he stared at the mysterious sight.

Kristoff and Sven's jaws simultaneously dropped as they watched in utter disbelief as all the loose rocks and boulders in the valley started shaking all at once. It was all very bizarre, but then they all began rolling one by one and circled around where the four adults, the scared boy, the two unconscious girls, and the little baby were all standing in the very center of the valley.

Kristoff couldn't stop himself. He turned and shared a look of surprise with his best pal. What on earth was happening now? The mysterious shadow man was one thing, and the ice trailing after the horse with the dark-haired woman and the little boy was strange, but this was something else entirely. If Kristoff hadn't seen the mirrored look of shock on his buddy Sven's face, he would have been sure he was hallucinating all this. It was all just too unbelievable.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg to all the strange and mysterious things happening tonight, at least for young Kristoff Bjorgman.

Slowly, all the moss-covered rocks that had rolled around the group of people seemed to somehow unfold themselves, and then, rather unexpectedly, two arms, two legs, and small heads all sprouted forth from the rocks, revealing rather small and round rock people wearing moss for tunics as clothing, and with small glowing pebbles and crystals being used for jewelry.

One of the little rock people that was standing nearest the group of visitors gasped rather loudly when he recognized the man with the strawberry-blonde hair and the small mustache. "It's the king!" he proclaimed.

Many of the small rock people that were gathered around all gasped at the realization that they were in the presence of royalty, and they all murmured anxiously amongst themselves as they bent over as best as they could into low, respectful bows. Kristoff himself was amazed. He hadn't realized that the tall man with the unconscious blonde girl and the woman with the younger unconscious girl were the king and queen of Arendelle, which meant that the two girls had to be Princess Elsa and Princess Anna. But who were the other people, then? The scared boy, the frantic woman with the baby, and the mean-looking man? And why had they all come to see these rock people?

Then it suddenly occurred to Kristoff that these weren't simply tiny people made of rocks.

They were something much more extraordinary.

"Trolls…?" he whispered, completely in awe.

But Kristoff barely had time to absorb this sudden revelation, because less than a second later, the rock that he and Sven had been peering over suddenly started vibrating, and then unfurled itself in-between the duo to reveal a female rock troll that was also trying to listen in.

"Shush! I'm trying to listen!" she whispered to the boy and the tiny reindeer.

Kristoff was highly taken aback by the sudden, unexpected appearance of the rock troll, but Sven didn't seem to care one way or another, as he began licking the lady troll's cheek. The lady troll was surprised by the abrupt reindeer kiss to her cheek, and turned away from the happenings down below to take a good look at Kristoff and Sven.

"Cuties…" she mused, a big smile spreading across her face as she patted both Kristoff and Sven's cheeks. Kristoff was still very befuddled by what was going on, but what the troll said next knocked all coherent thought right out of his head. "I'm going to keep you!"

The apprentice ice harvester blinked. "K-Keep us?" he asked. "Why? You… You don't wanna eat us, do you?!"

His words made the troll laugh a bit. "Eat you? Certainly not! I've just always wanted to be a mama. You look lost. Do you not have a mama of your own?"

Kristoff shook his head. "No, I… I barely remember my parents. They died a long time ago. It's just me and Sven."

"That settles it then! You will henceforth be my son! What is your name, young one?"

"I'm Kristoff! Kristoff Bjorgman, and this is my best friend in the whole wide world! Sven!"

Sven's pink tongue flopped off to the side of his mouth as he cuddled his face up against the rock troll's side, earning another big smile from the magical creature.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both, Kristoff, Sven. You may call me Bulda. Mama Bulda. From here on out, you will both always have a family with me and the rest of the rock troll tribe."

Kristoff smiled, and he threw his arms around Bulda and hugged her as tight as he could. He wouldn't be alone anymore with just Sven for company. He had a family again for the first time in who knows how long! Who cared about what was going on down in the clearing below? The fact that he had someone to call his mother again meant the world to the little boy, and nothing else mattered to him in the slightest.

In his joy for finding someone who was willing to adopt him, Kristoff forgot all about his initial reasoning for following the strangers here to the Valley of the Living Rocks.

And he also forgot all about the mysterious shadow man that was also hiding and watching everything from his perch high above.

Jack clung to his mother's leg tightly as the green, moss-covered rocks rolled up around him, her, his father, and King Agnar and Queen Idun. He didn't know what was going on now, but he did know that he was more than a little freaked out by the mysteriously rolling rocks that were forming a large circle around all of them. Had he been in his normal, playful and mischievous set of mind, he would have found the rocks rumbling and tumbling around him nothing short of enchanting, as it seemed as though they too were something magical, just like him.

But Jackson Overland was not in his right state of mind at this moment. He was confused over why King Agnar had brought them all here, and terrified over the states he had caused Elsa and Anna to be in, not to mention feeling guilty for scaring his sister into such a horrified mindset that she was still screaming now… around fifteen to twenty minutes after the accident in the Great Hall had occurred.

There seemed to be no limit to the number of small mossy rocks that were rolling right up to all of them. Ten… Twenty… Thirty… Jumping up to fifty… Scratch that. Maybe around a hundred…! It just never seemed to end! But the more that appeared, the more nervous Jack became. He had always thought that King Agnar was a kind man, but why was he summoning rocks like this? Had his accident with Elsa and Anna finally pushed the good ruler to the breaking point? Were these enchanted rocks what he was going to use for a possible death sentence? It might seem like a silly thought to a reasonable adult that that was what Jack was thinking at this exact moment, but to a little boy who had – albeit unintentionally – injured the only two daughters of the king and queen of the realm and was beyond terrified at the very thought that they may never be okay again, it was a very realistic prospect.

Just what was going on?

But then, all of the rocks seemed to somehow be able to uncurl their stone bodies, and Jack had to blink twice in disbelief when he saw that they all took the form of tiny people made completely out of rocks with the moss on them being used as clothing as well as strands of leafy green hair, although the females also had wildflowers strewed across their heads as well. They even had rare and precious gems and pretty crystals for jewelry, with the boy trolls wearing blue and green stones, and the girls with pink and red jewels on their simple, twine necklaces.

They were a tribe of rock trolls.

Jack gaped at the sight of the mystical creatures, and they gaped right back at all of them. Or rather, at King Agnar in particular.

"It's the king!" one of the male trolls gasped, sounding completely astonished that they had been graced by a visit from royalty.

The rest of the members of the rock troll tribe murmured anxiously amongst themselves about the fact that the royal family was here, but all the noise died away when another troll started to walk forward. This troll looked much older and wiser than any of the other trolls in the valley, and the rest of the tribe quickly cleared a path for him to the visitors. He was obviously the leader, as in addition to the long, lion-like mane of ferns for hair on his stone head, he wore a moss cape with a darker shade of green swirls imprinted upon it that trailed along behind him on the rocky, mossy ground, symbolizing his status as the ruler of the tribe. There was also a different set of crystals on his necklace than on the ones that the rest of the members of the tribe were wearing. Unlike the blue and green crystals that the boys wore and the pink and red ones that were around the girls' necks, the elder rock troll had several strands of delicate yellow gemstones looped around his neck, glittering a bit under the light of the full moon. He also had a rather large and round stone nose in the exact center of his face, and he was the only troll with eyebrows, even if those eyebrows were composed of the same ferns that were used for the mane of his hair and were bushier than any eyebrows Jack had ever seen.

Despite his fear for his friends and his little sister, Jack was amazed to see these rock trolls, and the king and queen seemed to be unfazed by their appearance, but his parents' reactions were the exact opposite. Kirsten shrieked in terror when she saw the troll leader approach, and Tobias backed away rather nervously as his cold glare only increased tenfold.

"What the hell are these things?!" he demanded, his furious expression whipping around to glare accusatively at King Agnar and Queen Idun.

"Trolls. Rock trolls. They are gifted in the arts of healing magic," Agnar answered him, keeping his tone relatively civil so as to not lose his temper at the Overland patriarch even though he was acting so horribly at the moment.

Under normal circumstances, both King Agnar and Queen Idun would have been rightfully offended by the fact that Tobias was forgetting his place in life and that he was yelling at them, the king and queen of the realm, but the man was stressed enough as it was and not to mention shocked beyond belief at the sudden appearance of the rock troll tribe. They could let his tone and bad manners slide. At least for tonight.

The rock troll leader heard Tobias's words, and politely bowed before all of them. "My apologies if we alarmed you, good sir. I am Pabbie, leader of the Rock Troll Tribe. I, on behalf of all the trolls in the tribe, would like to wish you all a warm welcome, in particular both of you, your majesties."

Agnar, Idun, and Kirsten all smiled politely at the kind welcome from the rock troll leader, but Tobias just nodded shortly and Jack hid himself slightly behind his mother's leg. Although he was curious about these strange creatures, his wonder over seeing them had mostly worn off, and he was back to feeling scared again. He just stayed as quiet and as invisible as possible as the adults spoke to Pabbie.

"It is good to see you, Pabbie, but I am afraid that this is not a social call," claimed King Agnar, his brows furrowing slightly as he nodded towards the unconscious Elsa in his arms and towards Idun who was cradling Anna.

Idun's eyes filled with tears once again as she addressed the wise, magical creature. "It's our daughters. They were injured quite by accident after an incident with magic."

"An incident with magic? How did that happen?"

"It was because of this young boy here."

She gestured to Jack, but Jack hid himself behind his mother again. He was ashamed of himself enough as it was for accidentally hurting Elsa and Anna and scaring Emma so badly that she was still screaming. He really didn't want to be yelled at again for what had to be the umpteenth time.

Pabbie didn't mind that Jack was hiding slightly from him. He simply nodded kindly to the boy before doing the same to his parents. "It's a pleasure to meet you, young one," he said rather pleasantly.

Kirsten seemed to have finally managed to gather her thoughts, and did her best to try and shush Emma one last time before attempting to curtsy as best as she could while holding the squirming, squealing baby. "I am Kirsten Overland. This is my husband Tobias, our daughter Emma – and I would like to apologize for her screaming! – and our son Jack." She nodded to her son as she tried to urge him to step forward. "Go on, Jackie. Say hello."

Cautiously, Jack did as his mother asked and stepped around her so that Pabbie could see him clearly.

"Hi…" he said rather quietly.

As he stood there rather awkwardly, a ray of moonlight broke out from beyond a particularly large cloud hanging overhead, and happened to fall right over Jack. None of the adults paid this any mind as there were currently more pressing matters on their mind, but Pabbie took note of it, as did the rest of the trolls watching from the sidelines. The Moon was a very important figure after all, and if the moonbeams were descending upon Jack in particular, a boy who the adults had revealed possessed some form of magic…

Excited whispers broke out amongst the trolls, but Pabbie easily silenced them with a vague wave of his tiny stone hand. This was not the time to be excited over this boy. A boy that they had been told about by the Moon himself. He hadn't come here of his own free will to listen to them. He had come here accompanied by his parents and the king and queen because of an accident he had apparently caused with his powers. No, Pabbie had to deal with the present situation being presented to him rather than be like the rest of his tribe and get all excited by the fact that they had finally found and met this boy.

And with that final thought, Pabbie forced those ideas right out of his mind as he carefully studied the frightened, dark-haired human boy standing before him. He even took one of Jack's small hands in his own and appraised his fingers.

"What type of magic do you have, Jack?" he cautiously asked the boy, trying to be mindful not to make him even more afraid.

"I… I make ice with my hands. And snow," Jack told him.

Pabbie nodded as he continued to study Jack's palms. Then he glanced up at Kirsten and Tobias.

"Was he born with the powers, or cursed?"

"H-He was born with them," Kirsten replied, her worry for her son evident in her tone, even if she was still preoccupied with trying to calm Emma. How she was still crying and screaming so hard after all this time was anyone's guess.

"And they're getting stronger!" Tobias added as he stepped forward. "Look, I don't know what any of you are exactly or what you can do, but I want you to take that ice and snow nonsense out of my boy this instant! It's getting out of hand and it has to stop!"

Pabbie became very rigid at those words while the rest of the trolls watching struggled to hide their gasps. That was completely out of the question. No way was he going to remove the ice and snow magic from young Jackson Overland. Too much depended on that magic far in the future.

"My apologies, Sir Overland, but I'm afraid that that is beyond my powers," Pabbie easily lied. "It is impossible for me to take the powers away from your boy."

Tobias fumed at the elder troll's words. "You have to do something about it! Too many things happen on a daily basis because of that cursed magic! Look at the princesses and our baby!"

Pabbie gazed over at the screaming baby and the two unconscious little girls. There was a momentary pause, but then his face softened.

"I can't promise anything, but I might be able to help them. But that's as far as I can help any of you. I cannot and will not tamper with any magic that young Jack possesses. That would be going against the natural order of magic from higher powers. We rock trolls are bound by that law. I can help calm the baby down for sure, and I might be able to help the girls after an examination, but that is all."

Judging by the expression on Tobias's face, he was definitely not pleased to hear this, but Kirsten, King Agnar, and Queen Idun all nodded appreciatively at Pabbie's words. He might not be giving all of them a guarantee that he could help all three girls with his healing magic, but just hearing him say that he was willing to try meant everything to the three of them. Just because Tobias wasn't exactly parent of the year didn't mean that his wife and the king and queen weren't either. The three of them always put their children's wellbeing first. Always.

"Thank you! Please do whatever you can!" said Idun appreciatively.

"Let us take care of the baby first. May I?"

Kirsten slowly bent down so as to be kneeling as best as she could on one knee. Pabbie carefully inspected tiny Emma for any possible injuries, but upon discovering that the small baby was completely unharmed, he instead turned to look at Jack.

"The child appears to be fine. Why is she screaming as she is, young Jack?"

Jack bowed his head, shame washing over his whole body. "I… I scared her when I hurt Elsa and Anna. It was an accident, I swear! But she won't stop screaming!" he explained in a frenetic rush.

Pabbie only smiled kindly at the response. "It's all right. A good calming spell will soothe her, don't worry."

The humans all stared at the troll, puzzled, but before any of them could question the rock creature, the elder troll was muttering some strange incantation lowly under his breath in some type of foreign dialect. A few seconds later, the troll's stone finger glowed a dull white color, and then he gently patted Emma's face. At first, it didn't seem as though whatever Pabbie had done had worked as she continued to scream and kick her pudgy legs through her blankets while Kirsten cradled her, but a few seconds later, her baby wails slowly died away to soft mewing, and then she was completely silent. Her face was no longer full of distress and terror as thick tears streamed down her little cheeks, but it was instead forming a great, toothless smile as she laughed and waved her small fists up in the air, trying to grab hold of her mother's index finger.

Almost immediately, happy and relieved tears sprung forth from Kirsten's eyes as she snuggled her precious baby close to her chest.

"Thank you!" she gasped as she turned to look away from Emma to smile gratefully at Pabbie. "Thank you so much!"

Tobias also checked over his daughter, and a brief look of utter relief crossed his features upon seeing that she had finally calmed down and was completely unharmed, but the second that Jack tried to step forward to look and see that his little sister was indeed all right, his cold scowl spread across his face. He quickly blocked Jack off from approaching Kirsten and Emma.

"Stay back, Jackson! We don't need another accident with Emma just after she's calmed down!" he demanded.

A hurt look spread across Jack's face as he flinched away from his cold-hearted father. He hadn't been planning to touch Emma at all. He had only wanted to look at her.

Everyone else there though were not pleased with how Tobias had treated the poor boy.

"Tobias," said Agnar warningly, sounding more than a little angry with the man at this point.

Tobias forced himself to lose the scowl as he addressed the king. "With all due respect, your majesty, what I said has a valid point. How would you and your wife feel if – after both your daughters are healed – Jack gets too close and possibly hurts them again? I'd rather not take that risk with my own daughter, thank you."

There was another tense pause after that, but none of the human adults said anything further while Jack just blinked away the unshed tears gathering in his eyes after hearing what his father had just said. Whether any of them liked it or not, Tobias was technically right in a way. Although the whole mess Jack had created had simply been an accident, it went without saying that none of them wanted another incident with the boy's mysterious wintry powers to result in another trip out here to the Valley of the Living Rocks. The adults all just wished Tobias would be more understanding towards Jack with realizing that he was only a little boy and obviously never intended for any of this to happen, and Jack only wished that his father would simply be nicer to him. For as long as Jack could remember, Tobias had hated his magic. He would act kind and loving to him the way a real father should every now and then whenever Jack refrained from using his powers for a full day, but should the boy make so much as a single snowflake appear, the dark-haired man would quickly become as cold as the ice that Jack produced. What was it about his unexplainable powers that made his father hate him so much all the time?

Pabbie however didn't wish to waste time waiting for one of them to say something. Time was of the essence after all when it came to healing people who had been injured by magic, even if in this case it had been nothing more than a complete accident. He turned to face King Agnar and Queen Idun, and gestured for the two rulers to bring Elsa and Anna closer so he could examine them.

"Here, here," he said.

Agnar and Idun quickly bent down so that the elder troll could see their daughters. Pabbie ran his stone fingers through each of the princess's hair as he carefully inspected both Elsa and Anna, and took mental note of the platinum blonde streak that was in Anna's hair now and how all of Elsa's hair was of the same blonde shade rather than the chestnut brown that she had originally inherited from her mother, the queen. Everyone there, especially Jack, stood with baited breath as they waited for a verdict on the girls' conditions.

After a short period of time, Pabbie finally looked up. "You are lucky it wasn't their hearts, or even their hands," he declared. "Hearts are not so easily changed, your majesties, and the hands can create anything that seems magical with only a little bit of faith. But the heads? The heads can be persuaded."

Jack let out a deep sigh of relief he hadn't even realized he had been holding in when he heard the elder troll say that, and Queen Idun's eyes started overflowing again with tears. Happy tears, that is. King Agnar's rigid stance meanwhile instantly relaxed.

"Do what you must," he told Pabbie.

Pabbie nodded, gladdened by the news that the monarch had given him the permission he needed to restore both his daughters to health, because the troll knew that even if the adults would all understand and accept what he was going to have to do to help Elsa and Anna, Jack was definitely not going to like it.

He tapped both Elsa and Anna's temples gently with his oversized stone fingers, and when he drew his hand back, two trails of snowy magic followed his index finger, and he drew the magic away from the girls to an open space of air next to them. Jack and the adults all stared, not quite sure what was happening initially, but then the wisps of snow that Pabbie had extracted from Elsa and Anna's heads formed two identical circular windows that showed direct memories from both girls, and the memories were of the exact same thing: the two of them playing with Jack and little Emma with Jack's ice and snow magic in the castle's Great Hall.

"I recommend we remove all magic. Even memories of magic, to be safe," Pabbie explained. "There's no need for me to do the same to the little baby, though. She'll be too young to remember any of the things that transpired this evening. But don't worry. I'll leave the fun."

King Agnar, Queen Idun, Kirsten, and Tobias all nodded in agreement to Pabbie's plan, but Jack felt his stomach twist into tight knots as he watched the troll alter the precious memories of his two friends so that all occurrences of his powers were nothing more than natural things that happened while the three of them played outside during winter as he was babysitting his little sister for his parents.

The memory of Jack creating a huge snow pile with his snow powers in the Great Hall with one hand and nestling Emma with the other as he cheered for both Elsa and Anna as they slid down the mountainous pile of snow?

That was now a memory of all of them outside bundled up in warm wintry attire as Jack cradled Emma to his chest while he shouted out his praises to Elsa and Anna as they slide down a particularly large, but still natural snow pile on two identical wooden sleds.

The memory of Elsa and Anna struggling to maintain their balance with their arms stretched out on either side of them as they skated in their bedroom slippers on the makeshift ice rink in the Great Hall, whilst Jack laughed teasingly and easily skated circles around them, and giggling Emma left on the sidelines of the room momentarily?

That was now a memory of all of them skating on the frozen fjord right outside the castle while Emma had been left on the snow-covered banks as she squealed and gurgled happily at the three of them.

The memory of Jack sitting on the icy-covered floor of the Great Hall right in between Elsa and Anna, both girls happily hugging him as he cradled Emma on his lap and they all gazed, wonderstruck, at Olaf the Snowman right after they had finished playing with him?

That was now a memory of all of them sitting together in the snow at the edge of the lush forests on the outskirts of the city as they gazed at Olaf, who had apparently been built on a large snowdrift directly underneath the snow-covered branches of an enormous, frozen evergreen tree.

Overall, the changes to the memories were very nice and seemed perfectly normal with not even the slightest inclination whatsoever that Jack was anything but a completely ordinary, if only slightly mischievous servant boy that loved to play with Princess Elsa and Princess Anna, and in addition to his baby sister Emma that he adored, he was their dearest and most trusted friend.

Nothing about these memories screamed that Jackson Overland had any magical talents at all.

With a small nod of satisfaction, the troll leader gathered up the two memory windows in his hands, and seemed to set them back into Elsa and Anna's heads. Almost immediately, the still expressions on both girls' faces changed. Anna simply rolled over in her mother's arms and began to snore softly while Elsa's monotone features morphed into that of a small smile as she pleasantly dreamed on.

"They will be okay," he assured the group.

Queen Idun wept with joy. "Thank you!" she gasped between the tears that cascaded down her cheeks. "Thank you so much!"

But Jack did not share in the queen's glee. "But… But you changed their memories! They won't know the truth! They won't remember my powers now!" he exclaimed.

Kirsten quickly knelt down to Jack's level as carefully as she could since she was cradling Emma, and spoke calmly to Jack before her husband could speak up.

"Jackie, I know that this all seems unfair, but trust us! This is for the best!"

King Agnar nodded at her words. "Your mother is right, Jack. It's a good thing that Elsa and Anna won't remember any of this, and I also think that it might be a good idea if you don't use your magic around your sister anymore either. In fact, don't even let her know about your powers when she gets older."

"That goes without saying! He's not using those godforsaken ice powers of his ever again! Especially not around Emma!" Tobias snapped.

Jack felt as though he had been punched right in the stomach when he heard his father and King Agnar tell him this. He didn't doubt for even an instant that the adults were serious this time when they said that he wasn't to use his magic around the girls anymore, and he knew deep down that they were right when they told him that he needed to stop using it judging by everything that happened tonight. But at the same time, he didn't want to listen to them. His ice and snow magic brought so much joy to Elsa and Anna, and the fun times that the three of them spent together playing with his powers made breaking the rules all worthwhile in the end. Even when Emma was born and he started making snowflakes land on the tip of her nose, he knew that his powers were special. The idea of never being able to see any of them become wonderstruck by his magic ever again… the thought couldn't process in the small boy's mind.

Pabbie seemed to guess Jack's thought process just from viewing the heartbroken expression on his face, and he quickly patted his arm. He didn't want to have to crush the boy's hopes and dreams like this, especially since Jack was still only an innocent child, but Pabbie and just about every other troll in this valley watching from the sidelines knew of the great destiny that Jack had in the future. The boy might still be too young to explain everything to him at this point in time, but Pabbie could at least warn him of what his powers could do if he didn't use them properly.

Jack needed to be made aware of how powerful an enemy the very essence of fear could become.

It was the only way he would be prepared for what he would do and who he would face one day.

"Listen to me, Jackson," Pabbie began, and Jack's attention returned to him. "You're power will only grow…"

Jack watched in amazement as Pabbie turned and waved his hands over his stone head. Wisps of blue magic formed high above all of them, and the magic slowly morphed into the outlined shapes of Jack himself – only many years older – as he playfully used his ice and snow magic while surrounded by crowds of civilians watching him.

"There is beauty and fun in it…"

The real Jack couldn't help but smile as he watched the apparition of himself form snowballs out of thin air and chuck them at the phantom figures of civilians and laugh wholeheartedly when he saw his projectiles hit their targets. Even the crowds all seemed to smile and laugh as they watched the fake Jack use his magic to make a gigantic snowflake high over all of their wispy magical heads. Even in a fantasy projection, it looked as though people had fun playing with his magic. His powers made people happy, and that was all it took to make him happy in return.

"But also great danger."

The pretty blue snowflake suddenly glowed a vivid shade of bright red, and the delicate crystal designs that made up each little piece of the beautiful wintry magic suddenly turned jagged and dangerous. The real Jack down below gasped fearfully when he saw it. Before his little accident with Elsa and Anna tonight, he had never realized that his powers could be considered unsafe in any way, but seeing this fake scenario presented to him by the rock troll elder was hitting home like never before how treacherous his magic could be.

"You must learn to control it. Fear will be your enemy."

Just like the enormous snowflake, the phantom figures of crowds that were surrounding the fake Jack turned bright red, showing their anger at the spirit Jack as they mimed yelling and screaming at him while they threw ghostly apparitions of pebbles, rotten food, and even occasionally a few sharp weapons. The fake Jack, meanwhile, stayed the same shade of blue, and was doing his best to try and back away from the angry mob, clearly terrified of what he had done with the snowflake and what the masses might do to him in retaliation. But then, most mysteriously, a black shadow with menacing, glowing yellow eyes and an evil smile descended upon the figures, and seemed to swarm around the blue outline of the older Jack. While the magical figure of Jack appeared to be downright horrified at this strange shadow that had just attacked him, the frenzied mob just went ballistic at the sight of it, and started lunging toward Jack. The fake Jack let out a terrified scream, and then they all disappeared with a few swirls of magical smoke.

The real Jack gasped in utter terror when he saw this, and he quickly spun around to bury his horrified face into his mother's side. His mother didn't hesitate to adjust her grasp on Emma to support her with one arm before wrapping her now free arm around her scared little boy. Her poor son…

"I… I don't want people to be afraid of me…" he whimpered out, his words almost muffled by the fabric of Kirsten's clothes. "I don't want to hurt anyone with my powers again! Not Elsa! Not Anna! And not Emmy! Definitely not Emmy! I don't ever want to hurt Emmy!"

"Jack! Jack look at me! Look at Mommy!" Kirsten kindly pleaded. Jack didn't obey right away, but eventually he did indeed poke his head out from her side to gaze sadly up at her with slightly teary eyes. "Everything going to be okay, alright? Your father and I are going to make sure that nothing bad happens, right, Honey?"

Tobias gruffly nodded, although his words were more of a mumbling to himself rather than addressing the current situation of trying to comfort his scared son. "Don't know what we're going to do now… Gotta get new work… New house, presumably far away from anyone or anything—"

"Wait, what exactly are you saying?" Agnar cut in, matching perplexed expressions appearing on both his face and on Idun's.

Tobias blinked. "I think it's safe to say that Kirsten and I are both fired after tonight, right? After everything that happened with Jack and your daughters."

Queen Idun seemed to be completely taken aback by the Overland Patriarch's assumption. "Fire you both? We weren't planning anything of the sort!"

Tobias quickly became confused. "You weren't?"

"Agnar and I aren't happy about what happened, but Jack is only a child and this incident wasn't intentional. It was just an accident. We aren't going to punish any of you for a mere accident. And besides, you, Kirsten, are one of my dearest friends amongst the castle staff. I would never dismiss you so carelessly!"

"No, Tobias, Idun and I are not going to fire either of you. If anything, we are both going to help you," Agnar declared.

"Help us?" Kirsten repeated, puzzled.

"We can offer all of you sanctuary in the palace while Jack learns to control his powers. He can learn to control them, I'm sure. Until then… we'll lock the gates. We'll reduce the staff – excluding your family, of course – we will limit his contact with people, and keep his powers hidden from everyone. Including the girls."

The queen nodded in agreement. "Elsa, Anna, and Emma."

Kirsten and Tobias both nodded, agreeing that this was the best course of action to take in regards to Jack's uncontrollable magic, but Jack felt his heart shatter upon hearing this. He wouldn't be allowed to play with Elsa, Anna, or Emma again. Not until he learned to have better control over his magic anyway, and who knows how long that would take? Deep down, Jack knew that his parents and Elsa and Anna's parents were right, considering that he had already injured the princesses and scared his little sister to death once now, and he didn't want this to happen a second time.

But still… not to play and have fun with any of them again?

It was too much for Jack, and he buried his face back into his mother's side as he started to cry.

Hidden behind some gigantic rocks that lined the rim of the valley high up above, Pitch Black watched with great glee as the human party eventually left the Valley of the Living Rocks after the elder troll warned Jack of the danger his powers presented and the fear he could accidentally invoke in others. While Pitch was amazed at the resemblance that the boy had to that of an old enemy of his that had died many centuries beforehand, what amazed him even more were his powers, which were nothing at all like his previous enemy's powers.

Ice and snow… The boy could create ice and snow… Who was he exactly? Obviously human, as he had two human parents – even if his father did seem to hate him for his magic – but was it possible that he could only be half human? Some malevolent or even mischievous spirits were known to take on human form to trick mortals for sex. It was entirely possible that one male winter spirit had decided to take on the form of the boy's father to sleep with his mother, and that was how the boy came to be born with his unexplainable powers. But even if that was the case, why did the boy look so much like his old fallen enemy? Granted, he had brown hair and brown eyes instead of snow white hair and green eyes, but the facial features… They were so much like that of a spirit that could fight with the power of moonbeams…

Well, whatever the case, it didn't really matter all that much that Jackson Overland looked so much like his fallen foe, because there were much more important things for Pitch Black to think about, with what he had just witnessed.

When Pitch looked at Jack, he saw an opportunity.

An opportunity to be known to the world as the Nightmare King once again.

Jackson Overland was an anomaly of a whole new nature, and anomalies were known to spark fear in other normal, everyday people. There was no doubt whatsoever that the boy's father both hated him and masked his fear of his son behind his cruel nature, but the mother and the king and queen? Pitch wasn't entirely sure if they were afraid of the boy, but the three of them were definitely afraid of the thought of what his powers could do, especially now that he had accidentally hurt the princesses and scared his little sister, and he the Boogeyman could also sense that they were also afraid of what other people would think of Jack should his powers be revealed to the general public.

Yes, their fear was a good source of rejuvenation, but it paled in comparison to the one person whose fear completely towered over theirs a thousand times over.

Jack.

Pitch couldn't believe how much fear was radiating off this one boy, especially after the troll leader made it clear how dangerous his powers could become and that fear itself would be his enemy.

Well, the leader had been correct about that.

Fear would be Jackson Overland's enemy.

Pitch Black was the essence of fear itself, and he was going to use this boy to replenish his powers and recreate his once great army of Nightmares.

It might take years to get enough fear to launch another war with his grand army. Unless of course the process was sped up by Jack's fear finally spiking over, causing him to accidentally reveal to the world his powers. Pitch didn't doubt for a second that that could happen one day and if it did, people would definitely be afraid of the boy. But either way, Pitch intended to stick to this boy in the meantime, and make him twice as afraid as he already was by supplying him with terrifying nightmares in order to feed off of him.

Pitch grinned as he followed the human party back to the Arendelle castle, and watched in obvious amusement as the king and queen bid the Overlands goodnight, before leaving the family so as to take their still peacefully sleeping daughters back to bed. The boy's parents, however, returned to the servants' quarters, and Pitch stood by the sidelines as he witnessed Jack's parents move Emma's small cradle close to their bed before quietly dragging Jack's small bed far to the other side of the room. Jack was crying silently as he watched all this happen, but didn't say anything in protest, as he knew that this was the only way to keep his sister safe from him. Tomorrow, more permanent arrangements for his newly agreed on isolation would be made, but for now, this would have to do. He would just have to deal with the internal pain of feeling completely isolated from the rest of his family for not only tonight, but quite possibly the rest of his life unless he figured out how to control his powers.

When the family finally managed to put aside all the hullabaloo that had happened that night, finally allowing them to fall asleep, Pitch waited until he saw the golden, sandy tendrils of the despised Sandman's dream sand float in through a nearby window and make their way to the sleeping heads of Jack in his bed and Emma in her cradle. Pitch paid no attention to Emma's dream as he swept through the room from the corner he had been standing and waiting around in until now. Other than taking note of the fact that the infant was apparently dreaming of something akin to the smiling faces of her parents and her brother, the girl was of little interest to him as she was apparently completely ordinary.

But Jack's dream?

Now that was something that demanded his full and undivided attention.

Despite all the fear he had experienced tonight over possibly hurting the Crown Princess Elsa and the young Princess Anna, Jackson Overland's dream was of the three of them plus Emma back in the castle's Great Hall, playing with his ice and snow magic again and being enchanted by his powers. In his dream, his minor accident with his powers with Elsa and Anna never happened, and together, the three of them were taking turns holding Emma so she could join them while they ice skated across the Great Hall. They were all so happy as they played and had fun together.

All in all, it was a very sweet and happy dream.

Pitch chuckled as he watched the dream sand figures play. "My, what an adorable dream…" he quietly mused. "Such wonder… Such hope… Such a happy memory…"

His whispers echoed throughout the cramped room, but no one awoke, not even Jack. Jack dreamed on as a small smile spread across his face, completely obvious to the fact that the figure looming over him as he slept was nothing short of a monster with the evilest intentions imaginable.

The sweet and innocent expression on Jack's small face brought forth a dark chuckle from Pitch's lips. "Ah yes, such light in this boy. But with those ice powers, there's only one thing missing… A touch of fear!"

He extended his long, pale and bony finger towards the memory dream that was swirling about over young Jack's sleeping head, and gently poked the dream sand with the very tip of his finger.

Instantaneously, the golden sand that made Jack's dream light and happy turned inky black and horrifying. The black sand Jack in the dream suddenly made a great deal of ice shoot forth out of his hands quite by accident, and it struck not only Elsa and Anna on the heads this time, but little Emma as well. The black dream sand Jack was horrified by what he had done, but no matter what he did, neither the princesses nor his baby sister awoke, and this time, no one came to help him get any of the unconscious girls to the healer trolls. Young Jack's peaceful breathing turned into a scared groan as he tossed and turned back and forth in his small bed. He was clearly terrified of what he had done in his dream, and even though he was still fast asleep, tears were sprouting forth from the corners of his squeezed shut eyelids as he started sobbing in his sleep, and unconsciously his distress was causing ice and frost to slowly form on the bedsheets he was clutching tightly in his small fists close to his chest.

As Jack continued to quietly sob as his nightmare progressed, Pitch began to swirl his hands over the black sand that was still hovering over the boy's head. The black sands began to rise as they morphed from the shapes of a small boy crying and screaming over the lifeless forms of his two friends and his infant sister to that of some type of dark, gigantic black creature.

Pitch grinned as he saw the creature take shape. "Feed your fear! Come on! Come on, that's right! Yes!"

The creature eventually took up its final shape, that of a strong, healthy black Nightmare with glowing yellow eyes. Unlike the former last surviving Nightmare that Pitch had barely managed to keep alive all these years and was slowly dwindling away into a sick, gangly little thing, this Nightmare was tall and sturdy, vigorous from the fear it fed on from this one little boy.

Pitch couldn't help but be amazed. Jackson Overland's fear of hurting others with his powers was more than enough fear to produce one of the strongest Nightmares he had ever had the privilege of creating. Pitch still didn't understand why this boy resembled his old immortal enemy so much, but either way, he could still use him. This boy's newfound fear of possibly hurting other people – in particular those he held dear to his heart – might be just the thing that could bring back his army. It would take years of influencing this boy for his army of Nightmares to be at a good enough size, especially because he would only be able to create one Nightmare stallion per night with the boy, not counting the obvious nights where he would have to force himself to leave the boy alone so he could sleep easily and unknowingly recuperate from the strain of having his pleasant dreams turn into terrifying Nightmares. While Pitch thrived on making children afraid, he also knew that making them afraid all the time on a nightly basis made them ill and weak.

No, he would have to take his time with grooming Jackson Overland into the most scared little mouse he could. It might take years for that to happen, but that meant little to Pitch Black. The Boogeyman was immortal, so he had all the time in the world to rebuild his army with Jack's fear, but more importantly, the boy's powers were only just becoming dangerous. If he, the Boogeyman, could continue to supply this boy with more and more fear of himself with the worst Nightmares imaginable over the next few years, there was no doubt whatsoever that one day, the boy would snap. It didn't matter how hard the stupid king and queen or his idiotic parents – primarily the boy's father – tried to hide his powers. Magic was something completely unpredictable and was not meant to be contained or hidden away. One day, this boy was going to break from the pressure of both keeping his powers unnaturally contained and keeping him hidden away from other people – especially if those people were children his own age and his own little sister. Since Pitch thrived on making children miserable, he knew firsthand how it broke any child to have no friends and were not loved by their families. These adults were fools. Separating this boy from his two friends and his infant sister was a recipe for disaster. Still though, he wasn't complaining. This was good news for him, after all.

Patience was a virtue. Being patient with this boy's fear would be his ticket to being believed in again by not only children, but maybe even adults in the human world, too.

Back in the Valley of the Living Rocks, Pabbie was enduring his own troubles.

Primarily from his daughter Bulda.

His daughter had introduced the little orphaned human boy and his pet reindeer that she had found lost and wandering around the edge of their home in the rock valley to everyone and put them to bed in a hurriedly made bed of moss with soft grasses and leaves. None of that had been problematic, however after putting them to bed she had come to him and began demanding why he told Jack and the other humans what he did.

"You all but condemned that little boy to solitary confinement back there, Father," she snapped. "He's a child. He deserves playtime and friendship just like any other boy his age. Between the king and queen worry about the safety of their daughters, and keeping Jack's ice powers a secret from the rest of the world to avoid a panic from the mass population, and his parents worrying over Jack's magic potentially causing the entire family to be dismissed from the castle or him accidentally injuring his sister – I truly believe that they're all going to go too far with trying to keep his powers secret! I wouldn't be surprised if that little boy becomes all but afraid of himself from now on between the accident tonight and hearing what you told him about fear being his enemy!"

"First of all, Bulda, I do not believe that the adults are going to put Jack into solitary confinement. While I do not like the way that his father spoke to him, I can tell that his mother and the king and queen are all reasonable people that at the end of the day want to do what is best for him as well as make sure he is safe to be around other people. They may take more precautions with him from now on after tonight, but I do not think that they will make Jack even more afraid of himself than he already is. Secondly, what I told Jack was nothing short of the truth. Fear will be his enemy later in life. You know that just as well as I do."

"But you influenced him into thinking that, Father! The Man in the Moon has great plans for that boy, but they can't be carried out if he's forewarned about his future enemy and Manny's test!"

Pabbie merely shook his head at those words. "My warning was vague, Bulda. Neither Jack nor any of the adults back there realized just who I was referring to exactly when I told him that. And anyway, even though we trolls are forbidden from directly telling that boy about his future destiny, don't you think that it's a good idea for him to try and have extra motivation to learn to control his powers? Right now, his ice and snow magic is very unstable. He has yet to discover his center. We can't tell Manny that he is ready to be tested until he has a firmer grip on his powers."

Bulda sighed. "Let's say that you're right, Father. Let's say we give it a few years to give Jack a chance to try to learn how to control his magic. What if he doesn't find his center? No one back in the capitol city has any idea how to control magic, so that's a definite possibility. If that boy doesn't learn what his center is and how to use his powers properly in the next few years… It's going to be pandemonium! I don't even want to think about what might happen to the entire kingdom should that boy lose control before he is tested!"

Pabbie was silent for a moment. In this instance, his daughter was unfortunately correct. Repressed magic could be a very dangerous thing indeed.

"If something should happen, the Guardians will undoubtedly come to help correct things," the elder troll said finally. "We know that they will always be around to protect the children of the world from any threat, and should something else accidentally happen with Jack, they will naturally come to restore the balance of children's wonder, hopes, memories, and dreams. Either way, I think that Jack deserves a life before he is tested."

"A life?"

"Yes, Bulda, a life. Did you not see him properly before? He is only a little boy right now. A little boy that made a mistake and was clearly terrified and sorry about what he had done to his two friends and for scaring his little sister. He needs to grow up a bit more. Let him be around the princesses and his sister, and know the love of his parents and be guided by the good King Agnar and Queen Idun. Let him live a normal life before we send word to the Man in the Moon that the boy is finally ready to be tested."

Bulda considered her father's wise words for a moment, but then at last nodded. "I suppose you have a point Father, and I know that your reasoning makes total sense… but are you one hundred percent sure that this is the right choice? I just… I just have this feeling deep down that not telling Manny about Jack now is a terrible idea…"

"Do not worry, Bulda. The Man in the Moon will watch over the boy until it's time. Jack will be just fine. I know he will."