Klaus - Shall We Then...?

Chapter 5: What My Heart Wants

The ride was really quiet. Jesper tried to break the silence by trying to talk to him. "I hope this weather continues," Jesper said. "I would never get tired of this type of weather. What do you think, Klaus?"

"I agree," Klaus said without looking at the sky or even looking at Jesper. 

"Uh, now that you bought a new set of tools," Jesper said. "Now you can start building toys with a bit of more interesting design! Of course, I'll help you out."

"Thanks," Klaus replied without sounding thankful.

Jesper lost his smile as Klaus' responses were not quite delightful. He started to worry if he was the reason why Klaus was not as excited anymore. "Klaus...?" Jesper courageously asked. "Did I, uh, did I do something wrong?" Klaus shook his head. "Then, why do you feel so down now? I thought you were really excited after getting the tools collection in your hand." Klaus tilted his head away. Instead of speaking more, Jesper decided to keep his eye on the road. I wonder what the reason is... Jesper thought.

Why am I even sulking about this...? Klaus thought. It's like I'm announcing that I have a thing for him! As if I'm advertising that I hate the fact that he's getting along with Alva, even the thought that he is dating her... I have to stop doing this... I have to come up with an excuse of how I was acting like that earlier... but what could possibly make him believe me...? "Um, Jesper?"

"Yes?" Jesper answered.

Klaus breathed silently before saying, "The reason why I became quieter now is-"

When they went higher up into the hills to get to his house, they felt a slight jolt that made the reindeers panic. Jesper pulled on the rope to have them calm down. "Whoa! Whoa!!" Jesper exclaimed. "What is going on here??!!"

"There must be an avalanche somewhere near here that causes the mountain to shake!" Klaus said. "It didn't happen for at least 10 years!" 

"Is it that one over there?" Jesper pointed at the nearby hill where the snow was sliding down.

"Oh, that's a bad one," Klaus said.

"Whoa, whoa!" They both exclaimed as the mountain that they were on started to shake even more violently. Klaus noticed this shaking was different than he used to feel. He hurried and untied the reindeers and grabbed Jesper and hopped out of the coach, dodging the massive snow slide. 

"Are you all right?" Klaus asked. 

"I am," Jesper answered.

Thanks to Klaus, the reindeers were able to escape before the massive snow hit them, but the coach couldn't resist the forces of the snow slide. The coach was starting to be pushed towards the cliff. "No, no! NO!" Jesper screamed as he crawled quickly towards the falling coach.

"Jesper! Stop! Let go!!" Klaus ran after him. "It's not worth it!"

"Not this time!" Jesper exclaimed as he was able to grab the coach with his left hand, but was being dragged along with the weight of the coach. Jesper screamed in fear as his eyes captured the view of the bottom of the mountain from the cliff. 

Before Jesper fell off the cliff along with the coach, Klaus managed to grab Jesper's right arm. "Jesper! Let go!" Klaus screamed in fear. "Please! It's not worth it! I'll build you a new coach!"

"It's not the coach I'm worried about!" Jesper said. "It's the tools collection I'm worried about!" As the gravity dragged the coach from Jesper's hand, he started to feel the arm dislocate.

"Jesper! Listen to me, please! Let go!" Klaus screamed in concern.

"But your tools-" Jesper said weakly.