Klaus - Shall We Then...?

Chapter 2: Where Are You, Jesper?

Jesper worked as a postman in Smeerensburg. Everyone now loved writing each other letters that made Jesper really busy. Although he chose to live in Smeerensburg over the fancy apartment, stagecoach, clothes, galas, personal butler, breakfast in bed, silk sheets, and everything else he used to have, his father sent everything there so that Jesper could be surrounded by everything he had in his childhood. Everything except for servants, but Jesper preferred having no servants. Whenever he came back from work, he always loved his privacy and some alone time. 

Every time he put the mails in a mailbox, people in the house, especially the children, greeted him gracefully. "Hey, Jesper! Thank you for delivering the mails for us as always!"

"You got some good ones! Have a nice day!" Jesper greeted back as he closed the mailbox. He greeted back every house he delivered, and it was sometimes exhausting to greet back, but then he felt appreciated, so he always did so even if he only said, "Have a nice day!" 

Whenever he delivered all the letters, he went back to the post office to put all the packages in the coach to start delivering them. Whenever he had larger packages to deliver, he moved them to his coach and tied the reindeers to deliver. Some packages were big that he couldn't carry all of them in his coach, so he had to take two or three trips. This was the least favorite time of his job. Not because he did not like delivering packages, but he did not like the way Mogens annoyed him every time he stopped by his post office. 

"Hey~" Mogens called in the most annoying tone Jesper had ever heard. "Do you have any packages delivered for me today~?" 

"No, which makes my job easier," Jesper said. "And it proves that no one in the village cares about you."

"Ouch, that hurts, Jes," Mogens said.

"And why are you calling me 'Jes'?" Jesper slightly glared at him. Not the angry glare, but more like an annoyed glare. 

"'Cause~ you are I are buds, no?" Mogens asked. "I helped you the first day you arrived at Smeerensburg!"

"If 'helping' meaning you insulted me and nearly got me killed by being tricked into ringing the war bell," Jesper said. "Then yes, you did help me."

"But you managed to be successful here!" Mogens claimed.

"Yeah, but no thanks to you," Jesper replied as he jumped on his coach. "I need to be thanking Alva and Klaus, not you. Bye!" He took off with the reindeers. Mogens mischievously smiled as he rode away. 

While Jesper was delivering the mail, he found a white horse with a bit of silver hair that was struggling to lose itself from the tree. Jesper hurried and stopped his coach and ran towards the horse. The horse was whinnying in fear and discomfort, and Jesper needed to free it fast. 

"Don't worry, fella, I'll get you out of here!" Jesper said as he grabbed one side of the tree and pulled with his whole body weight. "Ugh! How did you get stuck here!?" Jesper asked as he struggled so hard to take the stubborn tree apart. "If... I... can... just...!" Jesper's head turned red as the blood in his body started to flow upwards as he struggled really hard to break the tree to free the horse. He tried even harder than the time he tried to stop the coach from falling off the cliff. When he heard the tree crack, he felt more hopeful and pulled his body weight even harder. The tree managed to break a little bit more, allowing the horse to have more space to take its head out. The horse whinnied in joy and relief. "Careful next time, fella!" Jesper called proudly as he watched the horse run freely.  

Right when he was about to jump out of the tree, the tree cracked even more that it broke off, causing him to lose his balance as the branch was loose from the tree. "Whoa... whoa...!" As he danced aggressively to regain his balance, his hat flew out of his hat and got carried away in the breeze. When he was trying to catch that, he completely lost his balance, and then he fell into the lake. Not knowing how to swim, he struggled in the freezing, icy water that dragged him down in colder, darker water. Somebody save me... Jesper thought as he desperately needed and wanted to be saved from drowning in the water.