Price of Freedom

Chapter 2

The Prince led Kristoff through the hallways of the prison, past rows and rows of cells and rooms. Although many housed poorly looking people, the saddest contained a man in his late forties, a woman around the same age with graying hair, and a young lady with striking blue eyes and hair with a strange red-orange color to it. As Kristoff and the prince walked by, the girl stood up and addressed the prince with a fierce hatred that looked out of place on her face.

"Hans, you will pay for this some day. I swear it."

"Anna," the man spoke, while the woman grasped her hand.

"Keep walking," the prince told Kristoff.

Kristoff couldn't resist another glance back at the girl, who was now being embraced by the older woman.

"Who were they?", he asked the prince.

"Simply prisoners from Arendelle," Hans replied, with an all-knowing grin.

The Prince had shipped Kristoff off in an hour with new clothes, some money, and a knife. He was to board a trade ship from the Southern Isles to Arendelle, a day's journey, at least. He would then spend a month gathering as much information as he could about the princess and her kingdom before killing her. Hans had allowed him a month to carry this out.

Kristoff felt extremely uneasy about this arrangement, but kept reminding himself of the freedom that he would soon have.

As soon as he got off the ship, he asked for directions to the castle.

"Ah, the castle. Straight up there," a man pointed straight ahead to the castle, separated from the town by a bridge. "However, Princess Elsa has had the gates closed for almost six years."

"Why?", Kristoff asked.

"No one's quite sure, but it's believed that she did it out of mourning after the accident." The man's face grew somber.

"Accident?"

"Her parents and sister were off on a business trip to the Southern Isles, when their ship got lost in a storm. It was only a day's journey, no one believed anything would happen."

Kristoff could feel himself sinking deeper and deeper into a pit of guilt. Killing a princess was bad enough, but to kill one who had lost her family at such a young age?

He thanked the man, and walked away. Night was beginning to fall, but he didn't feel like seeking shelter. After spending six months in a dark room, he planned to revel in his freedom. Well, not complete freedom. Yet.

He bought a loaf of bread and some carrots, and decided to explore Arendelle's surrounding forests.

It was almost midnight when he decided to stop and rest under a tree near a cliff. Kristoff leaned back against the tree, and looked up at the night sky, slowly closing his eyes.

A hard prodding in the side woke him up an hour later. Kristoff looked to his left and saw a reindeer slowly eating carrots. His carrots.

"Hey, what are you doing?", Kristoff snapped. He tried to grab a carrot from the reindeer's mouth, but stopped when it gave him a look that could only be best described as annoyed.

Kristoff stared back at it for a second, and then relinquished the carrot.

"Fine, keep it."

The reindeer appeared to be give him a smug smile, and continued to eat the carrot.

"You're weird."

-snort-

"You can stay for this carrot, but after that, you have to go."

Kristoff sat there, arms folded, and waited until the reindeer was done eating.

"Good, you're done, now go."

The reindeer slumped down next to him.

"I'm serious.Go."

It looked up at him with the reindeer variant of "puppy dog eyes".

"Stop. I'm not going to fall for it."

-blink-

"...Fine. You can stay. Might as well, I'm all alone."

The reindeer joyfully opened its mouth and moved closer.

"You're lucky I'm not in a bad mood today."

"Thank you kind sir, even though I ate your carrots and invaded your personal space," Kristoff spoke in a goofy voice.

-snort-

"Hey, you're lucky I even gave you a voice. I'm crazy, I'm talking to a reindeer...that's really just me. I'm talking to myself. I'm doing it now!"

Kristoff slumped back against the tree.

"I might as well just give you a name too. How about Stinky? Thief? Daniel? Alf? Sven?"

At the last name, the reindeer pricked its ears.

"Fine. Sven it is. Goodnight, Sven."

Kristoff placed a hand on Sven's head, and fell asleep.

There you go!

Chapter 2 is finished. :)

While typing this up, I was listening to "When Will My Life Begin?". Whenever I have to type up homework or whatever, I end up listening to that, and "Almost There" on repeat. Am I the only one who does that? I also make it a habit to sing "Part of Your World" in the shower. I'm so weird.