Happy holly jolly Merry Christmas Solstice tidings of good cheer at 'That Time of Year'!

Here is the third and final part of our prequel set between the 'Frozen 2' movie and the start of my 'Frozen Again Trilogy'. Thanks for coming along for the exciting ride's kick off! Merry Christmas, Frozen friends! - HarukaKou

We do not own 'Frozen' or any of its characters.

"Frozen Again Prequel"

"And Now These Three Remain"

Part 3:

"My Favorite Place to Be"

Staring longingly out the library window as the evening Midnight Sun starts to set in, Queen Anna had finished going through like a zillion pages of Arendelle wedding political protocol.

But she still failed to find the information she had been searching for.

"Argh…Do I have to invite every world leader and ruler of each nation? Or just the ones we're trading partners with? Won't the others who might soon be negotiating get angry if I don't? Or will that just make the ones who are our allies upset? I'm so confused! Ooh, Elsa would know! " Rubbing her eyes after a good scratch of her head, Anna stretches her bent over stiff shoulders.

She was wearing her mature looking black, dark teal green and violet gown that was stylishly draped across her torso with the autumn leaves design that so defined her unexpected reign.

But she didn't feel mature.

The young ruler had been busy all morning and late into the afternoon that she had forgotten to take a much-needed break for hours now.

Anna's quill nib had been penning so many Royal letters and documents that she thought her aching hand would fall off from all the effort, the bump blister already formed on her right hand writing finger palpably sore.

So Anna had ingeniously begun signing in her even less legible left hand the important agreements and steep stack of decrees she had 'okayed' with her trusted Royal Adviser, Counselor Kai, all the week before.

"I can't read a single word of this indecipherable one, Anna. Unless it is, perchance, in a foreign tongue's language – say Greek for instance? Oh, how I would find it irresistible to travel to Greece some day to see the plethora of historic demolished temples and ancient theatrical ruins, wouldn't you? Oh! Perhaps we can convince Kristoff to travel to the Parthenon or Acropolis and trek up Mount Olympus to see the gods like Hercules, Megara or even Phil for our honeymoon! Very intellectually romantic, don't you think, Anna?" Olaf had waddled into the Royal Library to inform Queen Anna that the dinner gong had already rung several times, and she had not yet shown up in the Dining Hall where everyone else was waiting for the Queen before they could start.

When Anna had simply stated that she was not hungry, the nosy snowman started on this harangue as he perused the ginger Queen's still open letters which yet required Arendelle's Royal Seal of approval.

"If they're gods too, how come I don't see them depicted at all in church in the pictorial images, icon statues or stained-glass windows? Besides, isn't 'Phil' a funny name for a Greek god? It sounds more like some 14th-century English Prince's moniker to me. Not important or holy sounding enough to be Godly." After learning to read about a year ago, the curious snowman had gobbled up the information of nearly a third of the references book in Arendelle's Royal Library he could get Johanne or Gerda to reach for him on the shelf.

Apparently Olaf had bookmarked the Encyclopaedia Britannica with some brochure literature from the traveling European salesman tour guides who had come on that recent boat into the port.

"It's probably the short nickname for something like Philosthenes or something like that." A tired eyed Anna looks up from her massive stack of papers that she never imagined she would be saddled with. The not trained to be studious young woman had been so absorbed in signing and responding to each one that her answer to her snow friend's query came several minutes later.

"And Olaf, when you read in the encyclopedia or any other material that Hercules or Perseus or any of those other guys were 'gods', they're not really anything to do with our Christian faith in one holy and Almighty God who created the heavens and the earth, and animals and people and everything you see around us. Look it up in that encyclopedia again, Olaf. The term 'god' is in lowercase, right? That means they aren't true deities but merely stories and myths. Folks at the time were just confused because some of those regular, no doubt heroic, normal people had been blessed with powers and gifts that a lot of writers made up and exaggerated some imaginative fiction, that's all." Her mind scattered in a thousand places at once, Anna wanted to clarify this vital point at least for her friend's sponge-like brain the difference between false gods and the one true God, the Father of Truth and Light and Love that they worshipped.

Sometimes I miss Olaf before he could read.

Inquisitive Olaf had been prattling on and on about his latest interest in this Greek portion of the reference book that he had been reading. The older, if not yet wiser, snowman still had a hard time distinguishing between real facts documented throughout humanity's timeline and imaginary tales of creative writing passed down through the ages.

"Ah! I see… Magical gifts like Elsa has! But she's not a goddess… Is she? One of those immortals who turn into constellations when they join the stars for eternity? Is that why she's hiding way in the north in that Fortress of Solitude? But our Elsa's a normal girl like you, right?" The recently impressed by Greek tragedy, inquisitive snowman bites his sniffly lip and rocks back-and-forth on his wobbly snowball pins in front of the young ginger haired woman.

Now Olaf's nonstop chatter of facts and knowledge and hungrily soaked up stories that he had been voraciously devouring catches Anna's divided attention.

"Yes, Olaf. Elsa has been gifted from God with so much magic. But she's not a goddess. Nor is she in hiding. She's just my warmhearted, wonderful, sweet and kind big sister who has so many responsibilities now that it keeps her away from home a lot. And I too do miss having her around so much talk to and help me explain to you all this learning that she would be so much better at. Because Elsa is so much better at all of this than harebrained little me!" Still at times overwhelmed by the enormity of her duty, the young female fights back tears of fond remembrance of the good old days when her sister was in charge as rightful Queen of Arendelle.

It was not so very long ago that Elsa was Queen here and Anna had peeked in watching her meticulous sister sitting in this very chair, diligently using the kinda-hard-to-get-the-knack of Royal seal on her documents and letters of national import like a pro.

"Elsa was so good at getting the wax just hot and melty enough to make a proper crocus seal. All mine just look like mangled, lopsided chocolate kisses, or something even worse. And the ones running off the envelope edges look like blood dripping down. Pretty yucky." Imaginative Anna's frazzled face makes a deep frown that not at all matched her fancy dress and bun hairdo which she starts pulling out at how poorly her royal seals' appearance must give the impression of disorganized chaos to Arendelle's neighboring trade partners.

The hot wax just doesn't like me!

"Ouchy!" Anna lets out a squeak at her well-scorched fingertip pain when her quick digits recklessly tried to snatch up some of the runny purple wax before it drips down onto Papa's mahogany antique desk.

"Oh, poor Anna! Let me help on the next seal! I bet I'd be an expert at melting wax at just the right liquefaction point temperature…" Pleasantly scientific Olaf helpfully offers, but Anna trusted her none too steady-handed little friend made of malleable snow, flammable wood and caustic coal even less than herself with holding the hot wax over a flickering candle flame.

"No, Olaf! I'll do it. It's my job now. I'm not gonna complain. I just gotta get the hang of it… Someday." With a wipe of her sweaty brow that musses her flustered updo, Anna sighs in failure at the really messed up final document as she guiltily affixes a crooked Arendelle seal upon it.

"Of course, this is probably the least crooked one of the bunch of all thirty-three that I've signed and sealed today! So I'm improving, right?" With a critical eye on her haphazard pile of papers with a scrunched up nose, Anna tosses them all onto Kai's east wing desk in the corner of the room for him to check and sort through in the morning.

Anna buries her face in her hands with one more deep sigh. She still always tried to see things on the sunny thing side of life, but all this castle duty, imperative matters of state and nerve-racking solemn political meetings day in and day out for these nine months had worn down the once spirited girl's optimism more than she cared to admit.

"Has it really been nine months?! That's worse than having a baby!" Not aware that Olaf was on her quick heels out the side patio door, Anna loudly declares to the wide-open sky in total frustration. She felt about to pop if she didn't stop to rush out to feel this Summer's never-ending sun on her too long cooped up face which longed to be outside and seize the day.

Her eyes closed, Anna surreptitiously – as the energetic young girl tried to keep this secret rendezvous with herself at least once a week – clambers down the white flowered trellis to take at least one good sprint down the path around the garden to unleash her dutiful tension.

But what the young queen often didn't take into account was set her restricting clothing, the hair pins that left her a little headachy causing her hair bun to get caught on one set of crisscrossing wooden trim lattices of the trellis.

"Oof! I could use a little help here. Olaf! Could you carefully walk over on that little gable and unhook my hairpins from the trellis slats? Ouchy. how I wish for my free wheeling braids again!" Anna calls up to Olaf who was sitting on the nearby midsection roof, merrily whistling with the birdies as he waved his legs about.

He had been patiently waiting there for his slower paced human pal to sneak her way down to the garden grounds before he easily rolled along the sloping roof in a disassembled snowmound of body part pieces.

"You ever ponder if I'm going to graduate to a grown-up, mature snowman because you're going to be an all mature married woman, Anna? I've stayed up nights worrying if I had learned enough about what they call the 'facts of life' to go through the transformation of maturity. I have read that wedded ladies leave their old families behind to 'cleave' to their new husbands with a new family of their own. But doesn't 'cleave' mean to hack up something with a knife? Ooh, married life sounds grisly." A terrified look crosses Olaf's unhappy face to an unbeknownst Anna as he unwillingly considers these wholly unwanted thoughts.

"Anyways…is that's what's going to happen to us, Anna? Are you going to leave our family behind now, too? Like Elsa did? Elsa didn't even get married. She just upgraded her mystical powers to 'Snow Queen' and joined a new kingdom with magic water horses and fire lizards and gigantic rock spirits. Can't blame her for forgetting her favorite snowman who can't do anything more magical than split apart and roll off roofs. I don't even get invitations to go for a visit to that Enchanted Forest place. Now I know how Woody and Puff felt when their kids grew up and went away." With this newfound maturity, Olaf also went through some glum moments of reflective honest feelings in a way.

"Oh Olaf! I'm soo sorry for being too busy to pay proper attention to your feelings! All this time, I had no idea you felt that way, too! Why didn't you tell me about your worries?" As she was painfully hanging onto the trellis lattice for dear life, Anna starts to empathize with the upset frowning snowman, reaching out to give him a much-needed warm hug.

"Indubitably I will endeavor to be more matur—Oh-oh-Anna! Oh no, I'm really losing you!" As he was distractedly speaking in his attempt to be sophisticated ways while undoing Anna's tangled, queenly-done-up, off balanced hairpins, Olaf goes tail over teakettle off the two-story high trellis.

SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

The gravity of Olaf's branchy arms, snagged in Anna's wild hair mass, grabs on and knocks the teetering young woman over the precarious edge of the roof as well –

"Gotcha, Baby!"

The topsy-turvy Queen of Arendelle peaks through her upturned skirts and strewn ginger hair strands to discover that she had been caught safely in the strong arms of the hunky young man she was so madly in love with that she was going to marry him in a couple of days.

That, of course, depended if a certain someone precious would make herself available…

"ELSA! You're home!" Anna, the coronated regal Queen of maturing years of three and twenty or not, never grew out of being the excited little sister to her beloved elder sibling whenever Elsa returned to their home for a visit.

The two young women had shared so much pain and heartache, friendship and responsibility, and utmost of all, love that the bond between Elsa and Anna Bernadotte was unshakable. The sisters' close relationship was well renowned throughout this country as both had played instrumental parts in maintaining the peace and tranquility thereof in their Royal parents' untimely absence.

"Of course I wouldn't miss your wedding for anything the world, Anna! There's no one and nothing more important to me than you, remember?" Elsa stretches out her arms that had been rather full in ensuring that she and Kristoff would make it on a quick sled ice slide beneath the roof just in the nick of time to rescue her clumsy little sister and snow friend.

Without a second thought as to his feelings, Anna leaps straight up from Kristoff's ditched arms to go racing right into Elsa's waiting embrace.

That's cool. My love still isn't fragile, Feistypants.

Fortunately constant in matters of their undeniable love, the young Ice Harvester did not mind his fiancée treating him like second fiddle whenever her precious big sister appeared on the scene.

In fact, Kristoff Bjorgman's big soft heart would play an entire symphony on that backup violin all day and all night if it could make his precious Anna be herself and vibrantly happy again.

He understood Anna enough by now to plainly see that his Princess was not complete in this new duty she had to tackle all by herself in these dark months without her sister.

The bighearted blond boy understood and loved his feisty pants so much that any jealousy for her attention was never an issue. Kristoff loved Anna too much for that green eyed nonsense to ever interfere in their harmonious relationship.

"Really, truly?" Teary-eyed Anna sniffles into Elsa's blonde mane that had reverted to its single side braid her little sister adored. Then she emotionally looks up to Elsa with her big, wet, turquoise orbs glimmering full of hopeful love.

"Really, truly." The platinum blonde responds, her warm heart sensing how much it meant for Anna to share in this physical hug with her best friend and only family member close by.

And you know what? It meant that much to Elsa too, as the Ice Queen feels her stiff anxieties which had grown quite jaded in dealing with the tedious duties of doing nothing, day after day, almost totally melt away in her loving little sister's needy embrace.

"You look different than last I saw you, Elsa. A good different, you know what I mean. Way beautifuller, too. It's good to see you wearing your stunning Ice Queen blue dress and heels again, Elsa. They suit you so much better." Anna admits honestly, not realizing it wasn't very tactful a way to address another woman's clothing style. But they were sisters.

"I mean – you still looked stunning in that Snow Queen getup! Maybe even more stunning-er! But I never saw open toe sandals as your style. Like all this regalia and hair done up in this fancy bun isn't really mine, either." Tripping over her own words, Anna tries to cover up her uncouth faux pas about Elsa. She gestures to herself in the once again half ripped and shredded dark teal Queenly attire that poor Johanne has had to repair on countless occasions thus far.

"What you think, Kristoff? Do you prefer Anna in an elegant chignon or in her adorable braids?" Elsa ventures to ask the young mountain man who looked somewhat out of place in his more formal looking Prince consort jacket that snobbish Kai had rushed out and hurriedly forced road-dust-covered Kristoff into.

Even dirt-covered mountainmen must dress in their finest in the presence of two Royal Queens of Arendelle.

"I think Anna always is perfect as Anna." He answers simply and safely while struggling with Kai who had shooed the tall blond into the cloak room to get changed for this impromptu Royal luncheon.

"So eloquent, isn't he?" Grateful for his constant support in all her choices, a teasing Anna ruffles Kristoff's mildly slicked back hair before he makes a beeline retreat to the sideline buffet table where Sven was chewing on some fresh cut cud.

"I suppose you never excelled at pretending to be a picture of sophisticated royal grace, Anna, as I was never raised to be a rugged, untamed outdoorswoman. But this is what duty to our nation has dealt us." With a chuckle at her former royal advisor and Father's old friend literally using the feather duster on Anna's suitor, Elsa responds to her sister's frustrated face with her more resigned air of maturity.

"'Lemonade out of lemons'?" Anna recalls some of their Mama's down to earth wisdom. She poses the fruity question to her adored best buddy of a sis who instantly understood all the unspoken complaints. Anna offers to Elsa one of her special summer lemonade jubilee 'cocktails'– lemonade with maraschino cherries stirred, not shaken, swimming at the glass' base – which was waiting for the two of them on the outdoor table that fastidious Gerda had ordered for the Royal pair.

"How about a lemon jubilee slushie instead?" Elsa easily conjures up some ice out of the air moisture molecules to one of Anna's favorite summer desserts.

"That's EPIC, Elsa! You mix the best drinks EVER!" Taking a long sip of the cherrylicious cool drink, Anna giggles to her just as pleased sister in carefree glee like a smiling Kristoff hadn't heard her in many months' time.

That's more like my girl.

The pair of queens take their seats at the dainty little table in the scenic garden where the servants had scurried to put up for their balcony-hopping, 'runaway' Queen and her favorite royal visitor.

"Hello there, funny large donkey with the big wet nose! I'm Olaf, and I love warm hugs!" From the other side of Arendelle's side garden, at the far end of the trellis, pieces of the discombobulated Olaf strangely come back to consciousness.

Wagging his tail, Sven trots up and nudges the snowman's previously speechless and motionless parts with the reindeer's summertime rutted antlers as Kristoff ambles up to the pair.

"Wow! You really must've taken a bad bump to the old noggin, Olaf! Don't you even remember your old pal, Sven?" Kristoff confuses the obviously addled snowman even further as he throws his voice in a switch just in sync with Sven's facial motions and head nodding intonation.

"Of course I recognize Sven! He's the reindeer who tries to chew on my carrot all the time… So, who's the big donkey in the rumpled vest with the funky slicked back hair talking to Anna, Sven?" Olaf says from the corner of his crooked mouth to the grey furred Rangifer after Kristoff effortlessly plops the magical snowperson's three dizzy mounds back together in the proper order.

"Okay, try to focus here…Anna! Elsa's home! Let's go and play in the snow!" Olaf yells out gleefully.

"What's up with Olaf, Kristly?" Anna asks dubiously as she gazes down, incredulous at her 'learned' snowman friend who goes back to cooing at Sven's squishy muzzle cheeks a few seconds before throwing his arms around Elsa's shimmering legs.

"Dunno. I think that hard fall from the third floor roof must have joggled his brains back to factory reset or something." The tall mountain man looks from where Olaf – instead of spouting some wise connotation or another ponderous query as he was wont to do of late – had reverted to his less than brilliant, dense snow pea brain act again.

"Or maybe Olaf is just smart enough to realize, before even I did, that learning more about the world and growing up with new responsibilities doesn't necessarily mean you have to grow apart from your true self or the important friends you cherished before. Keeping both elements of your life alive will somehow be possible, because I know in my heart that some things are too precious and should never be let go of. Like family and love and the unchangeable feeling of togetherness God blessed us with." Frankly sagacious, Elsa's answer covers all the bases as she includes the forever bond of their beloved snowman in the sisterly equation as her cryokinetic magic pulls Olaf into an embrace with her sister.

"I could never forget how much you mean to me, Olaf. I'm sorry if my striking out into the unknown, searching outside for answers that were right here in front of me all the while, confused you, too. Just please know, I love you, Olaf." Elsa's mind's eye had come to peace in reminiscing of that fateful night some seventeen years ago as she now repeats little toddler Anna's unreserved, loving response to her big sister's first creation.

That noseless little snowman had become not only their lifelong Christmas tradition, but Elsa and Anna's undying tradition of sisterly love as well.

"Really, truly?" Olaf blinks up at his beautiful friend with his most innocent query.

"Really, truly." Elsa reiterates, definitively kneeling down to hug away the snowman's unspoken sadness and feelings of betrayal he had kept bottled up inside.

Olaf had taken it hard being discarded like an old toy when his 'kid' had gone off to different adventurers with bigger, 'shinier' friends who each possessed magic powers of their own in the Enchanted Forest, like Nokk and Bruni.

"So I'm unforgettable, like the feel of your hand in mine?" Olaf contentedly croons the well delivered phrase in tune as he takes firm hold of Elsa's very human hand into his grateful branchy one.

"In every way, Olaf. I'll never forget you ever, I promise, and I will do my utmost to never let you feel left behind again." Elsa pledges to the joyously clapping snow creature whose slight case of mental breakdown amnesia is washed away by Elsa's reassuring cooling touch and words of love.

And it was icing on his ice cream cake when she follows up with a snowflake kiss to Olaf's grinning, pleased cheek.

"Does that mean you can stay for the whole week, Elsa? YEAH! We've got an entire wedding to plan! I've put it all on hold because I wanted you to not only be here for the ceremony, but also help me plan everything about it. That's what sisters are for, right? I didn't really know where to start without you!" Anna did not want to alarm Elsa, but she had always imagined it would be her responsible, creative big sister sorting out all the wedding details for her.

"Yes! Yes that's right, Anna! You and I have a perfect wedding day to set into motion. Doesn't matter what strings I have to pull – I am their all-important Fifth Element and Snow Queen, after all – so I will stay for as long as you need me too, little sister. I want you to feel free to fully enjoy this most precious time of your life, just as you always dreamed. Like I said before, you're the most important person in the world to me. And nothing can hold me back from making this wedding plan attack unforgettable for you!" With a vigor and excitement she had not felt of late from deep inside, Elsa grabs hold of Anna's hands in hers as the two go spinning out from the courtyard, through the gates and into the Arendelle Main Street Square.

Holding on tight to one another with that certain feeling of hand-in-hand sisterly love unchanging, Elsa makes a declaration to herself as much as to her sister.

"See this snow globe? I believe it was supernaturally created to give me the ability to have dual watch over Arendelle as well as the Enchanted Forest and the elemental spirits there, for whatever time you need to feel free to be a young bride, Anna." In an ethereal glisten of the summer evening mists gathering at her fingertips' beckon, Elsa conjures her special link to the spirit world of the North.

The more powerful than ever before Ice Queen displays that magical snow globe her tears had created within the mystical glacial Fortress of Solitude in Ahtohallan.

"Wow. Pretty." Anna was always fascinated by her sister's snow magic as she leans in to view the snow globe's scenic tableau of the peaceful Enchanted Forest scenes floating in the lands where autumn never ended.

There was Bruni on his best behavior, tiptoeing at the edge of the river, only causing the Nokk to let off a little steam with his fiery hijinx. The Northuldra people who had stayed behind helping keep nature in balance there with their wise old leader Yelana, were meditating, despite the fact that the Rock giants were amusing themselves with their favorite game of tree stomping nearby.

Earlier last week Elsa had a hard time negotiating with the massive, rigid stone creatures that the elimination of only certain overgrown trees in the forest would be suitable. That hard-fought negotiation would result in more than enough firewood for the native people as cooler weather in that far northern location would soon be setting in.

They stubbornly didn't at first agree. Not until the Northuldra promised not to encroach on a certain section of rocky habitat did the immovable stone giants finally comply.

"For the time being, I will be able to stay and serve the people of our home once again as Queen of Arendelle, while you and your Kristoff are off on that bridal tour across Norway I sensed from your many letters that you have been looking so forward to. And I don't want either of you to worry about a single thing back here at home in the Castle while you're gone, Anna. I've got your back this time, little sister, just as you always uncomplainingly have had mine. This is to be your moment, Anna, as I proudly stand witness at your side for the happy marriage you deserve more than anyone. I never did get the chance to tell how much I appreciate all you've taken on in my place here, after I had to suddenly leave you and Arendelle behind." Elsa speaks in her softest tone, gently smoothing out with cool waves of the breeze the worry lines and early wrinkles of anxiety that were starting to take root on her pure-hearted baby sister's overtaxed face.

"Not just any witness, Elsa. My Maid of Honor, right?" Anna declares, with hope springing to life across her perked up features. She gratefully hugs her sibling whom she felt handed her the world with this opportunity to be free of all her exhausting palace duties as reigning Queen.

Then the beaming young woman takes the tiara diadem that had been weighing heavy on her ginger head, to place it upon the more fitting crown of Elsa's platinum one.

The two young women stare deep into one another's eyes with the easy transfer of power as they were waltzing hand-in-hand in town that was starting to bustle with Arendellians welcoming Queen Elsa home and expressing their excitement for Queen Anna's wedding.

"The Queen of honor." Captain Destin Mattias had been quietly observing the sisters interaction as he had sensed the North wind blowing in with Agnarr's amazing eldest daughter arriving in the near vicinity.

The tall, dark, older man bows his salt-and-pepper curly head in reverent salute to the rightful Queen of Arendelle. The wise old Captain of the Guard of Arendelle had been wondering just how long it would take before the gifted platinum blonde royal daughter – who had selflessly united her kingdom with the native Northuldra and the spirit elements who protected the Enchanted Forest as well – would realize that her true place was not to rule alone in the cold throne of lonely isolation the mystical North offered.

But rather, here was Elsa's place, her home, with people she loved right at her side, to give the girl susceptible to a cold heart in the past, all the warmth of their love right back.

The Arendelle sisters pause to stand before the intricately done, bronze statues of young Northuldra girl Iduna standing proud and sure beside the teenage Prince of Arendelle, Agnarr, with the winds of change swirling all around.

Noticing the two royal young ladies standing before their parents homage in Main Square, it pained former Lieutenant Mattias all over again to have left his dear friend Agnarr's older child up in the lonely Enchanted Forest.

That magical place already had swallowed the majority of his life and that of many of his comrades as well, trapped in the midst of its mists for nearly thirty-five years.

And though the secretive, elemental circumstances had been altered by this amazing pair of royal descendants, now Queen Elsa was the enchantment's unfortunate, yet willing, captive.

But what good would it have done to give his personal opinion on matters that only time and tide and experience could teach such a headstrong young woman, who believed she was doing the right thing for her entire nation?

As a dutiful Royal guard of the house of Bernadotte, Mattias had not forgotten he was sworn to obey his ruler's command, no matter how he differed. And though King Runeard had proven to be unworthy of Mattias' loyalty in the end, nonetheless his one and only son and heir with a good soul, Prince Agnarr indubitably had it.

Lieutenant Mattias had formed a close friendly bond with the lonely child during the introverted boy's sheltered youth that was far too inhibited by his cruel kingly father, once the eager new recruit was assigned to care for the Arendelle Prince as personal guard.

The courageous soldier became more of the much needed father figure to the Crown Prince than a mere guard, and was protecting his charge on that final journey that kept the loyal guard in the dark within the mists and separated the close friends forever, it seemed.

Mattias never saw Agnarr be crowned as King. But now having read up about the young monarch's record as a fine Naval officer and fair and peaceful ruler of his nation, unlike his predecessor, beloved by all of his people, the older man was gladdened to know his lost friend had become a noble King to his country during his reign.

Yes, his reclusive tendency to close the gates when little Elsa could not control her growing ice magic was a little extreme. But her young father too had been fortified behind the castle walls to safeguard the monarchy for all of his sheltered life. Mattias was surprised to discover Arendelle Castle's gates were ever open to the public at all.

That Northuldra princess must have been a very special, free spirited influence to move you, my Prince…

Now, all old Mattias could do for Agnarr was to watch over his brave younger daughter as she ruled Arendelle in peace with the Northuldra and the spirits. And Mattias would hope and pray that the older special child of Arendelle and Northuldra, gifted with her mother's connection to nature, as well as some inexplicable magic of ice and snow likened to that of the Snow Queen of legend, would learn as much about herself alone in the Enchanted Forest as she could.

And then Elsa must come home back to Arendelle to live her extraordinary dream out of hiding for all the world to see.

Here the faithful old soldier could keep close eye on both his good friend's children for the rest of the days the Good Lord granted him.

For what use was it that Elsa and Anna of Arendelle together were the bridge between two worlds, if the close sisters were censored and sentenced to spend the majority of their so integral lives apart by some cruel hand of fate?

Gazing upon the momentous bronze statues of his Prince as the boy he so fondly remembered and considered more the son he never had, as well as the brave young native woman who changed destiny with her generosity and eventual love, Mattias lets out a little sigh.

He was raised too religious a man – his own father serving as both fine soldier and goodly Chaplain in the Arendelle Army barracks – to buy that the Lord God would deem to do that for these two precious girls who had already lived through so much isolated sorrow.

Elsa and Anna's only crime was to have boundless hope for their country, true faith in the people in it, and a selfless devotion of love for each other that surpassed all earthly comprehension.

Sounds like the perfect love you prescribed in the Good Book to me, Lord. So I know You'll reward them in the end.

Heck, if you deemed to give some slack to this jaded old man by setting him free and return him to find a good woman like my Halima, so constant and patient waiting for him all these decades later, you can work miracles for Agnarr's utterly good little gals. Please help them both be happy.

The tall, dark and still handsome, lifelong guardsman strokes his salt-and-pepper moustache in this prayerful self reflection. He catches sight of his now wife, Halima Mattias, standng in their bakery window.

Hey, after being gypped out of having a woman's touch in his life for thirty-plus years, no self-respecting guy would want to wait a single second more, right? Especially having a lovely apple dumpling like my Halima at home.

The now General of Arendelle's Armed Forces strides across the Arendelle main street from the Palace courtyard where he had made a special delivery. The town's finest baker, his Halima, had been sent word late this evening by Queen Anna to bring out another batch of not only their regular box of gingerbread cookies, but also some other baked goods for her to 'test' what a proper wedding reception snack should look like.

Had no idea her big sister would grace us with her presence today. We just imagined that Queen Anna just woke up a hungry sweets monster like her Dad was.

"You think I'll ever discover a lifelong soulmate, like Anna and Elsa's Papa and Mama. Or Anna and Kristoff now, or like you and Mrs. Halima have ascertained, General Mattias? Sometimes being the one-of-a-kind specimen as I was created to be distinctively unique by Elsa, I feel so dreadfully alone the world…" His rattled brains settled again, Olaf speaks with a sigh resigned to his fate as he waddles up alongside the dark skinned man on the clear summer Midnight Sun early evening.

Using as many 'big words' as he could apply in one sentence, Olaf often found that his exploration of thought-provoking literature caused the mild-mannered snowman to ponder the deeper meaning of life.

Especially now that his friend Anna was about to take the next big step called 'Marriage' and send his world all topsy-turvy with change again.

Though Elsa had reassured him of his place in her heart, Olaf couldn't help but let out a sniffle at his forever solitary notion.

"Don't you worry, little snow friend. If nothing else, this crazy life has taught me that there are more things under the sun than we could ever comprehend. If there's someone special out there for you, Olaf, you'll find her. Because the Lord made every living thing to walk this earth two by two. So, if she's out there, she'll be looking for a unique, one-of-a-kind snow guy like you too, you can be sure of it." Mattias had spent enough time with the sage old woman Yelana - and now was learning to be upbeat from his unsinkable Halima - to not have both of those far more sagacious women rub off on him a little for him to spout a few anecdotes of wisdom every now and then.

"Really? You actually think so, General Mattias? Oh! I believe I'll place an advertisement in the newspaper – perhaps front page so that a one-of-a-kind snowgirl I never met will unquestionably know that I'm here! This is far more exhilarating than studying the entire 'H' edition of the Encyclopedia I had scheduled for over the summer vacation!" Olaf's charcoal eyes sparkle as he blissfully sways back-and-forth, the dark cloud of depression quickly evaporating from his permafrosty brow.

"Oh, poor Olaf. I think all this celebrating and talking weddings gets him a little bummed." Anna murmurs behind her hand to Elsa, half listening in to General Mattias and Olaf's serious conversation while the sisters were sampling some of Halima's delicious baked gingerbread scones.

"Then how about you and I together make our favorite friend a special wedding present to cheer him up, Anna? One that will remind him how unforgettable he is every day." Empathetic Elsa entices her intrigued sibling by gliding over to the little bakery off the square's Main Street where their mother often brought the two girls when they were tiny things.

"Anna! Oh! That's what this sugar rush was all about! You're home for a visit at last, Elsa! You two girls get in here out from that summer heat and have some cool milk and fresh baked cookies! Gingerbread dark chocolate chip! Your favorites combined!" The kind gregarious woman had always generously showered her tasty treats upon the pair of adorable little princesses whenever Queen Iduna had brought them into town square before the gates were closed.

Halima né Kranse had been the Arendelle Royal Baker for years, having secretly snuck precocious young Prince Agnarr her famed gingerbread cookies into the gloomy Royal Castle of seclusion via the new Guardsman Mattias when she was very young.

The perky young baker girl persisted, even when her 'Sugar' Prince Agnarr's father – the strict, mercurius and definitely prejudiced King Runeard – looked down on his only son as being a weakling for having a sweet tooth and associating with such local rabble.

It was through this clandestine delivery of forbidden, tasty gingersnaps that Mattias could credit his relationship with his long-suffering sweetheart Halima.

The pretty, dark skinned, surprisingly slim for she baked so well, sweet cook was adept at all things sugary and sweet. And years ago, Halima, with brash young guardsman Mattias' stealthy assistance, had started to faithfully bake her special cookies for the sheltered, motherless, held back Royal Crown Prince.

Lieutenant Mattias clandestinely delivered a bakers dozen of sweet treats to the introverted young prince week after week, for years under his domineering father's stuck-up kingly nose.

The events that happened in the far, far North caused the demise of the ungenerous old King almost thirty-five years ago.

Then, Runeard had only permitted the Prince and the boy's personal guard to come and meet the Northuldra because it played into the ruthless monarch's hand extended in supposed friendship in the Enchanted Forest.

But that underhanded subterfuge resulted in King Runeard's death and teenage Agnarr's early ascension to the throne.

Halima was brokenhearted that though her dear friend, her 'Sugar Prince' Agnarr, had returned, his personal guard – dare say, her fiancé and beau – Mattias, had been lost.

Somehow behind the veil of the northern mists, none of the guardsmen, nor Royal entourage were thought to live to tell the tale about what occurred.

From that entourage of Royal advisors, guards and soldiers, whom the King full of trickery had convinced were all going North to sign a routine peace treaty, only Prince Agnarr had been returned to Arendelle in one piece.

By some miraculous propitious wind involving a very special young girl, only the heir to the throne was recovered that day.

Although his memory was fuzzy, at best as to what precisely happened, save for the fact that he saw his father fall from that northern cliff to his death during a fierce skirmish with the Northuldra.

Soon upon his re-arrival in Arendelle, Prince Agnarr was declared King of Arendelle.

The motherless, and now fatherless, Royal Prince was blessed by good fortune to have his lifelong tutor and appointed Regent, Councilor Kai Rosenvalen, now at his side. Growing up with his own issues, Agnarr was glad Kai was present in the background of his youth to play the boy's better conscience in stark contrast to the cruel father who truly cared nothing for his people.

Nor his son really.

His only interest in the secretly despised young boy had been to control and continue his ancestral dynasty's name.

The highly educated, young councilmember had volunteered to take on the assignment to be precocious Prince Agnarr's special tutor from a young age when the emotionally trodden down, sickly Queen Margherita of Arendelle asked her friendly washerwoman named Gerda to find a kind instructor for her son.

She knew her husband, Agnarr's father, was callous and unconcerned for his troublesome son, so the weak Queen wished for her dear boy to be especially cared for in her eventual demise.

Since the beginning of the lonely Crown Prince's sheltered youth, Kai had promised Queen 'Rita' to always be there for the young Prince to lean on. Kai and his perky young wife Gerda did their best to teach young Agnarr the true goodness in life, and not merely the harsh drilling of King Runeard's ruthless example of rule.

And when Agnarr was abruptly thrown onto the throne at a youthful age, Councilor Kai was there to be the steady hand to help implement all the responsibilities that were suddenly required of the special young lad to lead his nation.

But teenaged King Agnarr was determined to lead his nation much differently than his father. His kingdom would be one of true peace and patriotism. Proven heroic in his own right in the Sjoforsvaret Norwegian Navy, the young man who would be Admiral held a loyalty and love for all people throughout all the country, even the cold North he was, unbeknownst, so vital a part of.

As for the young baker woman the loyal guardsmen left behind, ever optimistic, sweet Halima never stopped believing her Mattias would come home some day. She never gave up on being faithful to her one true love, though he was presumed dead.

Even if he never returned, even if it took all the years of the prime of her life, Halima would remain constant to his memory that no one could ever take the place of – though there were many offers and broken hearts along the years –the only man she ever loved.

And besides, something inside, something on the wind every night as she prayed for her love, told stubborn Halima Kranse that her Mattias still lived.

As she still believed, she still delivered that bakers dozen of gingerbread cookies herself now to the much more kindly disposed towards all his people, unprejudiced King Agnarr every week he spent in the Castle.

That is, until the cool eyed, handsome Royal ruler and Naval officer brought home a new wife – an exotic eyed Princess of Sweden – and they were blessed with a pair of children who appreciated her gingerbread sweet treats every bit as much as their Sugar Prince of a Papa did.

Then generous Halima squeezed as many gingerbread men as the overstuffed bakery box could hold.

Even when the castle gates were inexplicably closed, Halima still brought the heavy box of cookies, rain or shine, snow or sun, to push through the rear fence post where she and Mattias had rendezvoused with their secret sweet mission decades before.

Halima's unwavering belief, good faith and constancy through the countless, empty years were rewarded when her man – albeit thirty-four years of age had passed, though through the eyes of love it was naught but a season – had knocked on the bakery door.

And he was no less asking, hat in hand, if she had ready that bakers dozen of sweet handmade confections for their friends at Arendelle Castle.

"Lieutenant Destin Mattias, at your service, Madame. With 34 years worth of almost 1800 Saturdays of back payments requisite in exchange for your weekly hand delivered fresh gingerbread bakers dozen, sweet bakery lady." Mattias had barely been able to utter then, holding back his own tears as Halima's jubilantly shocked ones overflowed with choked up tears.

"I'm home for more than that, Halima." Elsa's high-pitched words call the sweet old baker woman back from her tender reminisces of her reunion with her fellow, just nine months ago.

The young queen smiles broadly, gladly squeezing Halima's eternally flour dusted hands in hers.

"I'm sure you'll be conjuring up some magnificent confections and sweet culinary delights for Anna's wedding at the castle in a few days." Elsa begins to speak when the dark lady's eyes light up like a Christmas tree.

"Then the wedding is definitely a go, Little Anna?" Halima reaches for and squeezes Anna's now thoroughly flour dusted hands in hers.

"Thanks to the old/new Queen, who's going to stick around in Arendelle while Kristly and I have a real chance at freedom for a bridal tour across the country – no responsibility strings attached, at last!" Anna dances a little jig that confidante Halima joins in, both dragging Elsa around for a jaunty spin on the bakery floor.

"That's wonderful! Anna's been an amazing inspiration and friend to all we citizens, Queen Elsa. But our free-spirited little princess serving as a Regal Queen? She'll be bouncing off the Castle walls the rest of her days if I know her Papa's little Gingersnap! It's almost as bad as when that sailor boy child had you two poor little lambs cooped up in that big ole' castle all them years! I guess my Sugar Prince Agnarr really needed Mattias around to steer him right by way of good advice, instead of that other individual." Opinionated and unrestrained, Halima seem to have a bee in her bonnet about a certain Royal advisor who steered King Agnarr to shut in his entire young family and become recluses at the slightest sign of supernatural trouble.

"Ahem. Stuck-up. Cough cough. Minister. Cough cough. Kai." A laughing Halima responds, wiping her hands on her apron after punishing some dough with several extra pounds in the properly pompous Councilmember's honor.

Just then she notes the elder sister's quiet introspection.

"What's wrong, Elsa dear? Anything old Auntie Halima can help make right for you? It's not something a cookie can't fix, is it? A matter of the heart, perhaps? You got man troubles, girl? Here, a sugarcoated gingerbread man always does the trick for that, sweetie." The wise older woman had an easy way of endearing herself to her audience as she smoothly slips the sweet treat into the platinum blonde Queen's hand while inquiring of what was on her obviously engrossed mind.

"Oh, no no no. He hee hee. It's not about me. Or a man, or anything like that, at all." Elsa stumbles over her words of denial, especially when the gingerbread baked good in her hands seems to her to take on the likeness of Prince Hans in some warped way with its red headed frosted cookie form.

"Not a visible one, anyway." Elsa almost inaudibly admits, breaking off the redheaded gingerbread man's disturbing head by accident when Anna in her dessert frenzy pushes past her sister to sneak behind the bakery case and swipe some of the chocolate icing off the cake Halima was just starting to decorate.

"Oops, sorry." Elsa's cringed apology to the cracked neck gingerbread man left the bakery woman perplexed.

"Trust me, Hon. Most men are just as tasty, with or without their heads." Halima saucily gives some experienced veteran female advice, trying to relieve the distressed younger woman. But her spicy words seem to have the opposite effect on Elsa.

"Right... Well, back to the subject I wanted to ask you about, if I may, Halima." The distracted platinum blonde carefully puts the broken cookie back together with some 'frosting' of her own magical variety before delicately placing the remastered redhead gingerbread man on the cookie sheet lying on the table before her.

"Go ahead and shoot, Snow Angel, while I finish flouring these pans for the next batch. And that cookie man won't bite if you don't, I promise you, Sweetie." The lighthearted woman giggles at the jumpy blonde monarch's adversity to eating that particular gingerbread man.

"Yes, Halima. I know it's asking a lot, but I was wondering if you had kept in your inventory a certain cake decorating, dress-up outfit from the old days which you used on Anna's favorite birthday cake that you let us play with here in the shop when we were little." Elsa goes out on a limb here, hoping the sentimental bakery woman who had decorated their young lives with her phenomenal sweet treats, had kept some artful supplies from over twenty years ago in her kitchen still.

"It's so funny you should mention that, Elsa! When I was just cleaning up an old trunk we moved from the back room – Mattias kept stubbing his big toe on it - I did happen upon one of those cute little frocks I used to decorate my cakes with. You remember, the one with all the frills and a matching parasol little Anna adored? It was for the one your dear Mama commissioned me to bake for your – no it was Anna's!—I think? – Well, one of you girl's birthday cakes. I made so many for my precious little princesses in those good old days!" Halima stops her kneading of the dough to sit back in her rocking chair to reminisce of those early days of her shop first being dubbed the official Royal bakery of Arendelle.

Those were the happy years when her Sugar Prince had first gotten married to that playful meringue whiff of an adopted Swedish Princess named 'Iduna'. And soon after, precious gumdrops Elsa and Anna popped out of the oven as just wee little things of their young parents pride and joy.

"Oh, it was definitely itty-bitty Anna's third birthday, I remember, because it was summertime and I wondered why on earth you and your Mama Iduna insisted on having a snowman as the cake design. A snowman in summer of all things! I recall baking up three mound cakes for three years in a row!" Halima scoffs at the outlandish memory, she not exactly privy to the family secret involving the ice and snow and real snowmen, as close as she was to her Sugar Prince's adorable family.

"So after I finished the triple round mounds, I baked 'em and frosted 'em with white shredded coconut, licorice lumps and gumdrop sugar cubes for eyes and mouth. Then I thought the poor thing looked so stark naked to attend a Royal birthday, that I should dress it up in that cute little pink frock I had made out of food dyed cheesecloth for one of my award-winning decorated cake scenes I entered in the state fair my first year of baking. Ah, Lordy! Those were the days of my youth gone by." Talkative Helena had a knack for telling stories almost as good as she baked as her hands were nonstop deftly moving across her cooking sheets and wire racks while she spun tales.

The older woman had Elsa intently listening, and by now Anna raptly as well as she was quietly sitting on the counter, contently chewing on all the yummy nutty stock til all the walnut and pecan baskets were empty.

Halima goes to a nearby drawer and carefully pulls out the twenty-year-old pink dyed cheesecloth baby doll sized dress. Out comes its matching cute parasol that she had taken the artistic liberty to decorate little Princess Anna's snowman cake with all those years ago, thusly turning the requested snowman into a snowlady for the snowbuilding obsessed, three-year-old Princess instead.

"I remember that! I REMEMBER THAT! Oh, oh, how I loved my Snowlady cake! You made that, Halima?! I love you even more now! I thought she was so beautiful and magical that she could come to life and sing and dance and drink tea with us! Remember, Elsa?! My favorite birthday cake snowlady!" Anna exudes excitement, tears in her emotive eyes as she presses the nostalgic old dyed pink doll frock to her cheek lovingly, more like an old friend than a food decoration or mere toy.

"Didn't know it meant so much to you, girl. It was soon after that I wasn't asked to bake birthday cakes anymore for either of you princesses. And none of you ever came to my shop no more, so I thought this little lady must've been a disappointing flop, even if I put all my love and care into making her for you two precious babes of my Sugar Prince. You know, I never saw him nor your sweet Mama again, but from afar at church every now and then. Poor lambs lost at sea, what, six years ago now? And it wasn't until years later that you gals came back out of that hermit castle to bring some sparkle into this bakery's humdrum life. But I am proud I kept on delivering your Papa's cookie box every week. I didn't know if either of you even got it, but I suppose it became my tradition as my Sugar Princesses official birthday cake baker." Halima says with a soft smile of sadness and regret that missed the little boy Prince who enjoyed her cooking for over forty years and was nondiscriminatory enough to make the once looked down upon minority baker woman the success she had become today.

"She only meant the world to us both, Halima! I even gave her a name back then! Let me see… It was a combination of our two names because I wanted Elsa and I to share her as our new dolly to play with! I guess I was too little to realize that the more cake we gobbled up, the smaller my snow lady became! Oh well! We tried to keep her full of snowflakes and planned to rebuild her again to stay with us forever. Until Kai and Papa and Mama caught us sneaking her sticky, gooey remnants off the table into the backyard! Oh! This brings back so many good memories, big sisty!" As she fingers the pink parasol, Anna coos over the still vivid recollection of that early birthday surprise that five year old Elsa tried to use her premature snow magic to keep going for her weepy little sister.

"ELIANA! That's it! We named her 'Eliana'!" Anna stops mid-swirl of the parasol to dangerously suddenly shriek out, startling Halima awake from her rocking chair.

"Yes, Anna. That's why I brought you here. Because knowing Halima cherishes keepsakes as much as you do, with your enthusiastic love of snowmen and childlike innocence to believe in miracles, along with a little nudge of my ice magic, maybe you and I can do something special for Olaf for his hurting his feelings. Because when we're together, it's my favorite place to be, Anna. In seeking the truth about myself, I almost forgot that was the most precious truth of all." Elsa was gazing from Anna's elated face, to the memorable lacy frock to the bright pink parasol back and into Anna's loving, lively eyes again.

"I'm sorry I missed your birthday this year, Anna. I promise I will never miss another one of your important dates again. And I hope I can make it up to you and Olaf now with this." Elsa says enigmatically enticing, squeezing Anna's hand tight with a big smile on her lovely face.

"Do the magic! Do the magic!" Anna squeals like a tiny tot all over again as she dances around in place, in sudden anticipation for something miraculously excellent about to happen.

"Okay. So….Anna. Do you want to build a snowlady?" Elsa responds with that certain glint of enjoyment in her stunning blue eyes that frost over momentarily as Anna claps her hands and nods as she breathes in excitedly as was her ecstatic habit.

And in a cloud of flour dust and ice flakes, confectioner's sugar and snow powder combined, another simple, yet miraculous, creation of the Ice Queen begins to take shape.

One mound of snow. Two mounds of snow. Three perfectly formed, oh-so-familiar shaped mound of snow appears on Halima's bakery counter, cryokinetically filling out the frost levitated pink frock.

As Elsa intricately molds two button-up snowboots, delicately heeled, she invites a giggling Anna to affix some candied chocolate chip kisses as the snowwoman's shirt buttons, just as she recalled how her third birthday cake was decorated almost twenty years before.

The Ice Queen, in her element, magically applies the baked sugar lace, Halima had so painstakingly created as a master baker all those years ago, to take flight and spin around the cheesecloth dress frayed hem with its icy sugar lace decor.

After rifling through Halima's larder, Anna comes racing back into the bakery to attach a pair of long cinnamon sticks as the snowwoman's arms and chocolate frosted finger tips.

And upon the three foot tall snowwoman's blank, closed eyes, Elsa attractively applies lashes made of the shoestring black licorice Halima produces.

Then Elsa artistically illustrates some ice lilac lip gloss to a dainty mouth that makes the experienced cake decorator proud of the talented young Queen.

So that only left for the one last, finishing touch –

"Hold on! I've got a carrot in my pocket!"

Halima may have been amused by this outburst, but Anna did not surprise her sister at all with this revelation. Elsa was close enough to her sibling to know the compassionate girl pretty much kept a spare carrot (or two) in her pocket, just in case Sven got a little hungry on one of their outings. Or Kristoff. Either one responded positively to the orange veggie as a snack.

Anna breaks off the long carrot's rooty end to make it a more petite girlish artifice as the crowd of children watching in wonder outside the bakery window erupt in applause for the fantastic cake boss show their Royal family sisters were giving the pleased crowd out for an evening stroll.

Spplunk!

"Oh! That was so much fun! Just like when we were kids! I love you, Eliana!" Full of joy, Anna claps her hands together as she recalls saying those same words to another faceless snowman many, many years ago.

"And I love you, Elsa. Thank you." Anna says more reflectively, hugging her sister tight.

Both sisters linger in the warm embrace as they stand before the little snow creature they had built together now again.

"I will always love you, Anna. What would I ever do without you?" Elsa unreservedly offers the warmth in her heart that could never go cold again. Not now that the Ice Queen knew love outweighed the balance of the arctic chill within her soul, if she just let the constancy of their sisterly togetherness take hold.

"You'll never have to find out! I'll always be here for you." Anna responds to her dearest friend with all the honest truth of her affectionate heart full of supportive love for Elsa.

And that was where the real magic came in.

Summoning up her cryokinetic energies with a focused mind to give her other beloved, Olaf, an equal companion, a friend for life, a helpmate to walk alongside him all his days, just as every creature on earth was created to exist, two-by-two and side-by-side by their Creator.

The pretty sugar and candy coated snowlady – long ago dubbed 'Eliana' in the half-and-half inseparable shared sisterly moniker – magically sparkles to life through the power of love and sisterly friendship.

Plus more than a nudge of Snow Queen Elsa's ultimate snow magic tapped through the sisterly bond God's generous love granted the special two Arendelle girls.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Comes Eliana's first musical words, borne with the sweet memory of a special party for her precious little Princess in days of yore as her black licorice eyelashes flutter open with new life.

As the small business woman named Halima gasps in surprise at seeing the magical mystery taking place on her humble cake decorating table firsthand, Anna and Elsa clap their hands together and applaud in glee, right along with their audience outdoors, at the birth of their new/old friend.

Just then, the bells over the door jingle to signal a customer entering the bakery.

Halima's heart was caught her mouth for once and how she would explain this strange event on her previously hygienic food decorating table to her customers.

But she needn't have worried.

For it was only her husband Mattias, who had seen so many magical things in the world of ice this kingdom was so intrinsically part of before that he did not even blink an eye anymore.

"Guess who needs another sweet drink of pure cane to get that sugar rush boost out of his newest insecurity?" The tall, dark toned general of the Norwegian Armed Forces speaks with a hint of sarcasm as he opens the door to this bakery establishment.

After all, Mattias lived and worked and paid innumerable sums of orts in exchange for so many gingerbread cookie boxes back payment that he rightly partly owned it, alongside his new wife.

"Olaf?!" Anna and Elsa exchange a panicked look. This was not exactly the right setting for how they were planning the romantic introduction of this now two of a kind pair of snow people.

"Hi, Anna. Hi, Elsa. Kristoff wondered where you two went. Did you guys need a sugary cookie boost too? Our hometown baker Halima makes the best – Huh? Ohhh… Who's that!?" It was love at first sight for Olaf as he leaps up to sit on one of the stool benches that the popular town baker had installed for the short legged childish fans of her sweet treats.

"I'm Eliana. And I like sweet kisses." With that somewhat shocking announcement from a primly dressed little snow lady that had Elsa horrified and Anna chortling, Eliana takes her first sure step.

In her neat little booty high heels no less, she makes a beeline towards a wide eyed, jaw dropped, thunderstruck Olaf.

The pink frilly dressed, exuding confidence from every sparkly molecule snowgirl then hooks her speechless counterpart in by his neck with the curve end of her pink parasol to give Olaf his first big snowy kiss right on his instantly slushy lips.

The shimmering icy lilac gloss that remained on Olaf's stunned mouth was a telltale sign of his utter staggered astonishment.

"May I help you clean up this messy kitchen, Madame Baker? I'm an expert making things neat and prim and tidy!" Ambitiously going right to work as she flutters her eyelids, leaving Olaf in her literal snow dust, Eliana's high pitched voice sings politely as she smiles up to the befuddled Halima.

The older woman takes a step between the apparently romantically aggressive magic snowwoman and her tickled pink chuckling husband Mattias, who breaks out in a belly laugh he hadn't felt in ages. The older pair watch in amazement as the little snowwoman takes control of the little dustpan and broom in her cinnamon stick arms right out from a flabbergasted Halima's hands and starts sweeping the sugar dust up from the bakery floor.

"Isn't she sublime? So this is what romantic love feels like." Olaf sighs blissfully with a silly smile pasted all over his lovestruck face in this new venue for his curiosity now to explore.

"Yup, little snow buddy. You can take it from a happily married man. Once you find the right woman, love just gets better and better from here on in." General Mattias shares a wry smile with his wife playfully, giving her tight bottom underneath that flour dusty apron a mischievous pinch as the still madly in love couple chuckle sweet nothings in one another's ears.

They felt so rewarded with this second chance at true abiding love at last that the older pair ignored their growing audience all around.

"Sounds good to me." With a crooked smirk, Kristoff had wandered into Anna's favorite haunt of a bakery in search of everyone, just in time to hear the older man's praise of the satisfying role of being a husband. Especially since he was on the track to become one himself, very soon. Kristoff blatantly agrees with the old soldier on such taboo, private matters in their conservatively Victorian day and age.

But Anna was a love warrior/fearless bride-to-be enough not to be at all flustered by her fella's roving eye fallen upon her, as he was obviously imagining some of what the older gentleman was insinuating.

In her enthusiasm of meeting Kristoff's hungry gaze with one of her own, Anna grabs up the nearest gingerbread cookie – the redheaded one Elsa had carefully repaired after a regrettable breakage – and chomps his head right off, chewing it luxuriously.

"Yum Yum."

"Oh, oops! Was that your cookie, Elsa? You made it especially tasty with those iced sugar crystals!" As she hears Elsa's gasp, the ginger haired young woman had no idea how she was sending her older sister into a tizzy, as she extends the remainder of the gingerbread man's headless cookie to the platinum blonde.

"No, you may…enjoy…all of it, Anna. Some of us are watching our waistlines if we are to be presentable to stand before all of Arendelle for a special wedding ceremony in a few days time." Elsa chuckles, trying to eradicate the inclination of thinking that gingerbread cookie Anna was happily devouring and crunching away at was in any way associated with a Prince from their past named 'Hans Westergaard'.

Wherever you may be right now, I wish you well, sir. I have considered our mutual wrongs thoughtfully, and truly hold no hard feelings for mistakes we both made out of cold fear, and not letting in the warmth of love and understanding.

"Me and Elsa are heading back to do some wedding planning things. Okay, Kristly? You and Olaf be sure to bring our new friend Eliana back to the Castle later so we can get her all settled in to her room! She looks like she's going to be a big help in kicking my last-minute wedding preparations in high gear! Speaking of which…" Anna trails off before leaning intimately close to her fiancé's adorably still reddening face to say: "Be sure to have Baby ready and rearing to go on our extended honeymoon. Just you and me under the stars in a few days time, my sweet baboo. Then we can get to know each other so much better…" Anna boldly nibbles on Kristoff's already beet red ear with a little provocative blow into it before she sprints off with Elsa in tow to prepare for the whirlwind wedding she at last felt ready to say 'Yes!' to spending her forever with her chosen guy, Kristoff Bjorgman.

Shoveling a piece of scrumptious chocolate cake into her mouth before she exits the door, a full cheeked Anna blows her man a farewell kiss, waving to the two now contented snow people entranced in one another's sweeping waltz with a broom around the bakery floor.

"Anna! You must chew your food more! I cringe to see what your waistline will be in the morning, sister dear." Anna found herself only mildly humiliated in front of all the spectators, as she shrugs her shoulders with a genuine careless smile while Elsa chuckles.

In that single moment she both realizes how incongruous Anna was for the job of Queen and just how terribly she missed being around the energetic, lovable girl.

Elsa more elegantly glides from the bakery, giving little pleasant waves to the townspeople who were so pleased to see the elder Queen in her home setting again that they start to cheer.

"Pish-posh! Kristoff would still marry me even if I had a waist like a walrus, or that great big rounded loaf over there! Let's hurry back to the Castle so I can show you Mama's wedding dress Gerda and Johanne have been helping refit to my tummy's healthier size! Mama was sure a petite little thing when she married Papa!" Anna pivots from defending her eating habits to talking about the former Queen of Arendelle in recent memory.

"We know how they first met when Papa was fourteen and Mama twelve years old, but I've been wondering how they, you know, got together again when they were older, haven't you? And how did Mama become a Princess of Norberg?" Anna's lively conversation suddenly turns a little more somber as she and Elsa walk hand-in-hand down the square towards that bronze statue depicting their parents's pivotal first meeting.

"I don't have to wonder anymore, Anna. So many of Mama and Papa's most important memories were dotted along the Ahtohallan River of memories. Suffice it say, theirs was an amazing romance of destiny, start finish. A fairytale of generosity and sacrifice being rewarded by the Lord's gift of true love. Even Aunt Arianna's encounter with Mama in the orphanage on a hiking outing with Aunt Willow was Providential." Elsa elucidates to Anna's query of their mother's good fortune in being discovered in a church charity orphanage near the Swedish border. That meeting with the older Princess of Drottningholm whose precocious younger sister Wilhelmina needed a companion more her age was just one of many scenes in Iduna's life story that her daughter could attribute to God's guiding Hand.

The subsequent encounter with Crown Prince Agnarr in a chance meeting at Corona for King Friedrich's wedding to Princess Arianna, was anything but left up to chance.

"I saw through those memory visions how Mama and Papa loved us so perfectly, so wonderfully, they always only meant to do what was best for us." Elsa whispers, understanding that greatest mystery of all a little better through her parents' example in the recollections she could now in her new capacity as the 'Snow Queen', view of those near and dear to her heart as she and Anna pause at the bronze statues of their embracing young parents erected in the center of the town square.

Reminded of her dual responsibilities both here in the south and in the northernmost section of her country, Elsa ice materializes her magical snowglobe. She glimpses into the Northuldra land of the Enchanted Forest that she must keep watch over as the Fifth Element of harmony.

"I wish they were here right now to share in my big moment with my big guy, Elsa. I know it was tough at times growing up all hermit-y in the castle like that – especially for you. But I'm kinda glad now I had so much time to spend with Mama and Papa, knowing they were always there for us because we were so inseparable a family who loved one another even in the hard days. We were so close." Tears fill Anna's emotive eyes as she and Elsa stand before the frozen in time statues and embrace tightly in a like fashion to their departed parents.

"Yes, their supportive presence was the one constant I could cling to amidst my storm. Sometimes I lie there in my lonely bed and close my eyes, dreaming that they're still alive. It felt so real, they felt so close, so alive, until I wake up." Elsa murmurs, on the verge of heartfelt tears of her own she never thought she'd shed into her sister's sweet-smelling ginger hair.

"Yeah, me too." Anna responds with a quiet sniffle, hugging Elsa all the tighter to know she missed Mama and Papa just as much.

But, like Papa instructed his girls when they were just little: 'Remember: You must always protect each other.' That meant in Anna's loving eyes, that she and Elsa could not spend their lives apart.

These special sisters were meant to be each other's best friend, inseparable partner, and confidante for a lifetime and more, together.

Just like they were going to be close again now.

Nothing would stop Anna's happiness now that Elsa was back home in Arendelle with the people who loved her most, where she was most needed to help her darling little sister cerebrate her happy joining with her young man.

Planning and encouraging, laughing through the emotion-filled maelstrom a stressed Anna had been facing alone.

But both anxious young ladies could let go of their unspoken pressures since they were together now, to lean on, supporting each other like sisters were designed to.

The young Arendelle royal sisters were back where they were meant to be, side-by-side again as best friends, enjoying this cherished time of awakening new chapters in their lives as one heart.

And no matter what exciting adventures lie in the road up ahead, at least Anna had Elsa and Elsa had Anna, together an invincible pair that could face this bright world of new dreams.

An exciting world of this wondrous fairytale which, when all was said and done, was the inseparable sisters' favorite place to be, for now and always.

"Having the chance to sift through the River of Memories, I saw how much Papa and Mama loved us, Anna. So I'm sure their spirits are still with us now. I feel so much closer to them both, more now than ever, my eyes open to finally understand who they really were and how much they loved us and this country God gave them – and now you and I - to be faithful caretakers of. And most of all, they loved each other with a caring, unselfish love that nothing could ever take away. Just think that it all began with one incredible selfless act of kindness, linking our peoples with a bond that blossomed into an unsurpassable love." Elsa explains as the two girls stroll along the quiet dinnertime streets of Arendelle center.

"If only Mama was here, I could ask her so many questions about how to be a good wife and what it takes to grow into a love like she had with Papa all those years." Anna opens up to her sister of her secret anxieties as they walk hand in hand towards their castle home.

"Just like the kind of love that you and Kristoff share, Anna. I can tell when I look into his eyes and see only you there, reflecting back." Elsa warmly brushes a stray strand of Anna's cookie dough and flour sticky hair with a little wet ice cleaning between her magical fingertips as she loosens the tight bun, rebraiding it into the two loose tails which she knew grateful Anna so preferred.

"Because when it all comes down to it, as the Gospel writer wrote: 'And these three remain: Faith, Hope and Love. But the greatest of these is Love…For Love never ends'." Elsa had become so much wiser for her journey as she whispers to her beloved little sister the hope inspiring verse, enveloping Anna in the cooling breeze on this hot and humid mid-Summer night.

"You sound like Mama, Elsa. Makes me feel she and Papa are still close by." Smiling at the Biblical truths that warmed her heart, Anna winds her warm palm around Elsa's chilled one and pulls her close alongside as they walk home together.

Summer apple blossoms flow on the wind past them to circle around the bronze statues of the two breathtaking young figures who would once upon a time be Arendelle's King and his Queen.

"Yes, Anna, we'll all be together for your wedding. I can feel them, can't you?" Channeling those elemental spirits she had befriended for a second with a soft balmy breeze, Elsa comforts her sister with the assured belief that their parents would approve of the happy day.

Anna nods, holding back tears, glad beyond expression that Elsa was here with her again. Anna was certain of her love and Kristoff's and that their wedding would be a happy day.

Because it was one now where Elsa would be attending, at peace with herself and the gifts inside her to stand before all of Arendelle proudly by Anna's side, as her sister always hoped and prayed she would find the courage to, together.

After all, the wondrous place called 'Together' was always and forever to be Anna and Elsa's favorite place to be. Elsa understood this truth now more than ever.

And she vowed to never let Anna down again, as she grasps even tighter her sister's hand.

Elsa knew, deep inside, that she was truly home.

Both pretty faces upturn to God's miracle that was the Midnight Sun hovering over their magical Home of the great frozen North where their remarkable family's life began with an incredible act of Love which never will end.

'Bless this happiness we found! Bless this good and solid ground of our home! Our home…'

Yksinäisyyden Linnoitus – Fortress of Solitude in Finnish

Ahtohallan Joen - Ice frost River in Finnish

jään pakkasta luola - icy frozen caverns in Finnish

Merry Christmas Eve, Frozen Again friends! I hope you felt the love and joy and peace on earth togetherness for our heroines as you read this third and final part of our prequel set in between the 'Frozen 2' movie and the start of my 'Frozen Again Trilogy'.

This incomparable sister act is back together where they belong, understanding their sisterly bond and love for their lost parents is integrally part of who they are now.

So the next story begins with Anna's grand wedding (at last!) to longsuffering 'righteous romancer', handsome mountainman/ Ice Harvester/ boyfriend of the century, Mr. Kristoff Bjorgman!

Please come along as Elsa & Anna, Kristoff, Sven, Olaf & now new snowgirl Eliana along with many familiar Disney faces move towards new romance and new adventures together in 'Frozen Again: Faith, Hope and Love'.

It's just the beginning of a long tale full of sweet sisterly devotion, old acquaintance's redemption and the discovery of an incredible love borne of God's forgiveness that surpasses all fear & past wrongs.

If you haven't already—and even if you have, maybe it's time for a reread ;P For me, too, as author about to tackle some tweaked adjustments planned to keep the story both true to canon and true to the heart of our beloved characters in the New Year – Please take a look at our continuing Trilogy 3 book series, 1) "Frozen Again: Faith, Hope and Love" 2) "Frozen Again: But the Greatest of These is Love" & 3) "Frozen Again: Love Never Ends" after you've now seen this "Frozen Again Prequel: And Now These Three Remain".

In the meantime…

We wish you a Merry Christmas, dear Frozen friends! And thanks again for the gift of your friendship and your keen interest in reading my Frozen Again Trilogy, as we start this New Year – an exciting New Decade of Frozen happy endings promised - Together!

メリークリスマス! God jul! Frohe Weihnachten! Joyeux Noël! Feliz Navidad! Maligayang Pasko! Buon Natale! Geseënde Kersfees! Καλά Χριστούγεννα! C Рождеством! Suksanwankhritmat! Selamat Natal! Gleðileg jól! Selamat Hari Krismas! Shèng dàn kuài lè! Veselé Vánoce! Glædelig jul! Chúc Mừng Giáng Sinh! Wesołych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia! krismas key subhakamanaen!

Merry Christmas to all my Fanfiction friends around the world!

God bless us all, everyone!

Joy to the world as the greatest gift of all, 'a Savior, Christ the Lord, is born this day for all nations to rejoice.' He shall be called 'Emmanuel' – God is with us.

Love and Nativity joy to you all on this blessed Christmas Eve,

Your Frozen friend, HarukaKou

p.s. Did you enjoy Mattias and Halima's part as much as I did? They make a handsome, sweet couple and I can't wait to involve their characters into the rest of my Frozen Again saga! Please watch for the General of Arendelle and his faithful sweetheart to make some vital character appearances in the trilogy, along with a few other tweaks along the way into this exciting New Decade Year 2020! :) Writing and reading 'Frozen Again' with you is my favorite place to be, dear friends! Thanks for coming along for the sleighride!

Merry Christmas, everyone!