The Snow Queen

Flowers

Ansgar, like many a shepherd, was accustomed to time alone—animals and trees were his primary company even in his youth. He wasn't a boy who shriveled in isolation, but rather thrived in it. He liked his alone time, though most of it had not been his choice. At age four, his mother died from the flu, and when he got the same infection three years later, it was the most affection Elrond had ever shown in his life, taking care to stay by his bed day and night, insisting the doctors took care in their efforts of getting his fever down.

A swift two weeks of headaches and sleepless nights went by before the boy could breathe and walk around again. Ansgar couldn't remember if Elrond cried for his wife's death or not, but he recalled some tears when he finally recovered. It was those moments the boy was always reminding himself of whenever people called his father too distant or absent. He cared for him; deep down, he did. No one knew his father like him. Ansgar didn't even think his own mother knew him that well. While the child was resilient and was ready to get back to life as usual once he was better, Elrond dreaded the sight of his ill son again and pulled him from all schooling to not catch another virus.

From then on, Ansgar was homeschooled, but this was preferable. He didn't like other kids interfering with his reading or quiet time. He hated teachers always telling him how to digest what they were being taught. At least from home, Ansgar could work at his own pace and study whatever he liked. It was only during holidays and other village gatherings that he got to be with peers, none of which he knew well but always made an effort to chat up and behave as any normal child would.

He did have one playmate in his youth, but it was short-lived. He was always told to steer clear of the troublemaker Jackson Overland, who was always getting his hands whipped with a ruler or sent home from school with teacher's notes. The students would always laugh at his pranks, but then immediately bow their heads in silence once he got punished for them. Strangely enough, Ansgar was told he was also the smartest kid in class, which made no sense to him back then; smart kids were always docile and obedient and never caused mischief.

Now he understood. Jackson wasn't a brilliantly evil little boy... just bored and knew nothing else to do about it. Parents liked to call him 'attention-seeking,' that getting in trouble was his way of being acknowledged... that's what Elrond said. This was something else that made no sense to Ansgar; he'd met Jack's father, and he was a kind older man, nothing he expected from such a jokester child. He'd once seen him trying to carry home a heavy basket of food his father sent him to fetch and offered to help. Ansgar insisted otherwise, but Nicholas took the heavy basket with ease and led the boy to his front stoop.

"Thank you, Mister Overland!" Ansgar said.

"What's your name, boy?"

"Oh, it's Ansgar."

"Ansgar... you're around my son's age. How come I don't hear about you?"

The boy blushed, "I don't go to school. I get sick easily." Those were the words of his father when he'd asked why. "You're Jack's dad, right?"

"That's right."

"I hear he's super smart."

Nicholas rolled his eyes. "Too clever by half." Ansgar didn't know what that meant. "You seem like a well-mannered young boy... maybe you two ought to meet."

"Oh, I don't know." He lowered his gaze. "I shouldn't be around other kids. I might get a cold."

"Weren't you just at our Midsummer festival?"

"Well... yeah?"

"You don't look sick to me." He chuckled. "I won't pester you any longer, dear boy. But Jack could use someone his age to teach him to behave." Ansgar just nodded and waited until Nicholas walked away to enter his home, alone again. The boy, who was only a few months older than Jack, began to wonder if maybe he was just lonely too, and that's why he was always wanting someone to look at him. Maybe that's what his father was trying to suggest. Ansgar would have asked his father if he could go play, but Elrond wasn't given to such questions. Then he'd have to meet his parents, and that would take up too much of his time.