Chapter 1: Erik
Growing up, life was both difficult and easy. I am well aware that's a contradiction but allow me to explain. Life was easy for me because I was born into royalty. I was the first-born son to the King of Norway, and thus I was the Crown Prince of Norway. I had servants, delicious food, comfortable living conditions, I had everything and more; I wanted for nothing. Life was hard because I had an…abnormality. For some reason, it was never properly explained to me, I adopted the ability to control and summon fire.
I first discovered this ability when I was six years old. I was playing with my favorite nurse, a middle-aged, gentled faced lady named Olga. We were playing with my toy soldiers, she was keeping me pre-occupied while father was in a meeting. I'm not sure what caused it, but I became angry and one of the tin soldiers I was holding began to melt in my hand. When Olga saw this, she was shocked; I was confused as to why until I saw what was in my hand, a half-melted grenadier. The weirdest thing was that it didn't hurt but it sure hurt Olga when she went to grab my wrist.
She pulled me close and her face turned from gentle to concerned. "Never show this in front of your father, or else he won't be merciful," she warned me. Even at six I knew of my dad's hatred for anything and all things magical. Our entire family lineage is known for its hatred of magic. Magic has been outlawed in our kingdom for nearly 400 years, any creature of magic or anyone who uses it would be sentenced to death, regardless of social standing and without a trial. I think it's the reason why the Kingdom of Arendelle seceded when the law was passed. The were always a bit more tolerant towards magic, at least they used to be, I'm not sure if sure if they still are. So with that kind of fate awaiting me, should I get caught, I did my best to keep it hidden.
However, we both knew of my inability to keep this new found power under control. Anytime there was an incident involving fire and me, Olga always made sure to come up with some clever excuse, like a candle getting nocked over or embers from the fireplace getting out of control. For five years we were able to keep my powers hidden, unfortunately the closer I got to adolescence, the harder it became for control my anger and my power. And what happens next changed my life forever.
I was walking through the streets of the Oslo marketplace with father. I was getting near the age when it would be time for me to start learning how to be a king. Today he wanted to show me what it meant to be a king of the people. As we walked, he greeted civilians, paid them compliments and blessings, and heeded anything they had to say. We got separated at one point, my father was getting swarmed by subjects, so I decided to look at some tapestry that had caught my eye earlier. I admired the beautifully colorful pieces of cloth, they were so bright, beautifully designed, it almost seems as if the picture was moving. The nice older lady who runs the stand even showed me how she does her craft. I was so invested I didn't notice the group of 13-year-old boys behind me.
I thanked the lady for educating me and bid her a good day. As I was heading back to my dad, I ran into those boys. They were huddling around me, snickering at me, making ugly remarks. They were making fun of my black hair, red eyes, my fondness for tapestry, anything they could pull out and pick at. I wanted to get away, but every attempt was meet with a shove back to the center of the huddle. I kept pushing out but they kept shoving me back in, eventually they started pushing around the circle. I called for my dad to help but there was no answer. As the harassment continued, I could feel my blood begin to boil, figuratively and literally. I kept calling and calling, one them punched me to the ground for being so pathetic. I bundled on the ground, tears were beginning to stream from my eyes, they turned to steam as they hit the cold pavement. They were laughing and jeering at me, my anger grew and grew to the point that I let out a scream.
With the scream came an explosion of fire, it consumed the boys and anyone else with in a 15 yard radius. When I calmed a little, I looked around to see the damage I caused. Stalls were on fire, people lying the street with graphic burns, buildings are chard, and circled around me are five piles of ash. I look around at the tapestry stall, those blankets of red, green, and white, were now burning up. I look down and only a few feet from one of the ash piles was the body of that old lady, barely recognizable but I could tell it was her. I looked around my surroundings, people who weren't harmed look at me as though I was the most horrifying thing that ever lived. Shock, horror, and anger were the dominating emotions. I knew what this meant for me, so I did the only thing I could do, run.
I ran through every free ally way and street I could find. Every guard in the city knew what happened, and every observer reported who it was. Guards were chasing after me, some even shot their muskets at me, ME, an 11 year old kid, this is now my life. I continued to run, as soon as I saw the front gate it began to close. I legged it as fast as I could, the ground below began to feel lighter. I gave it all I had within the nick of time, I slid under the gate as it closed and continued running, the guards kept shooting at me but I knew I was safe for now.
I had no idea where I was going, I think I only knew that if I didn't stop running it would mean death for me. I hiked through every single Norwegian terrain; plains, woods, mountain tops, and foot and a half deep snow. Anytime I needed to sleep I made it an effort to find an old hunting lodge or a barn to sneak into and rest up. It didn't entirely matter that I find shelter, I could sleep in the snow and it wouldn't affect me, one of the benefits of having fire powers. But I did prefer to not wake up soaking wet every morning, I only had one set of clothes. Finding food was the hardest, I didn't know how to hunt or track, so I had to resort to stealing anything I could easily run away with. Apples, bread, and potatoes were my main diet. I never stayed in the same place for more than a day or two, even if I liked the place I knew I would have to keep going since my father influence stretched over all of Norway. Although there is that one place where my father's influence doesn't stretch.
I think after three or four weeks of running I realized the safest place for me to hide would be in Arendelle. I probably should have thought of it sooner but its hard to think reasonably when you're an 11-year-old fugitive constantly on the run. I knew they were a port city to the south west of Oslo, so that's direction I took. It took about two or three days to get there, when I arrived it was night time and I saw the castle in its full glory. I knew if I could only get into one of the top guest rooms, I could sleep in a real bed, maybe even stay longer than usual. I made my way down the hill side, swam across the fjord, began scaling the outer walls of the castle, I've always been good at scaling walls, Olga always hated me climbing to such high heights. My eyes scanned the windows, I spotted a large triangular window and decided to go for that one. I scaled my way up and was met with…disappointment.
There was no latch on the window, in fact none of the other windows had latches either. But I remembered that I can control heat, so I attempted something I never did before. I got a stable footing outside the window, leaned my hands against the glass, and began heating up the glass with my hands. I figured I'd be able to heat the glass to point where it starts to melt, that's what I expected, in reality I heated my hands too quickly which only caused the glass within one of the diamond shaped metal frames to shatter along with me tumbling into the room. I stood up to collect myself and gather in my surroundings, hopefully no one heard the glass.
The room was pretty empty, just a bed, some chairs, a desk, a few dimmed out lights, and only one painting, perfect, the emptier the better. I was quickly corrected, however. I turned towards the bed, hoping to get some rest, but in the bed was a girl. She had platinum blonde hair, looked about my age, a button sized nose, and rather sad looking eyes even while she slept. Yeah, you read that right, she was still asleep even after all the ruckus I made with the window.
The moment I saw her in that bed I knew this was a bust. I turned around and made my way back to the window. However, I failed to notice the glass on the floor and I'm not wearing shoes, I think I forgot to mention that I wore out my shoes about a week ago. So naturally, being completely oblivious of the obvious, I cut my foot on one of the shards of glass, thankfully it only a scrape but it still hurts. I let out a scream of pure pain, I stifled it to the best of my ability. I went to check on my foot to assess the damage, but as I'm doing so, I felt a blast of ice and snow hit me and knock me across the room and into a dark corner.
"Who are you and what are you doing here," said a voice shaking in fear and fury.
I pick myself up and look around to see where that blast came from. I see the girl, now awake, angry, and afraid. Her eyes are wide open, glittering in the moonlight coming from the window, and they are locked on me. Her hand is held out towards me as though she's telling me to stop.
"Please, don't hurt me, I mean you no harm," I say to her. I take a step towards her and a blast of snow and ice comes from her hand and splatters in front of my feet, causing me to brace the wall behind me.
"Not o-one step closer," she says in her frightened voice, "I-if you come near me, I-I-I will freeze you!"
This girl is like me, only she controls snow and ice. I need to try and convince her that I'm like her. I know exactly what to do. I hold out my hand and say, "please, there's no need to hurt me," and I make a small flame in my hand, "I'm like you." She sees the magic that I perform, and she calms down a bit but her guard is still up.
"Who are you," she asks.
I take a step forward and I slowly approach her, I only get close enough until the moonlight shines upon me as well. She sees my black, shaggy hair, my unusually tan skin, and my red eyes. She lets her guard down when she sees that I'm just a kid. Her face turned from fearful to a mixture of confusion and interest. "Who are you," she asks again, this time in a more stable and investigative tone.
"My name is," ah crap, should I really tell this girl my real name? Well I mean we're both magical abominations so if she knows who I really am than it probably won't matter. Still it's better to be safe than sorry; I quickly come up with a fake name to give her, "Erik," only to just blurt out my real name, nice job Erik.
"Erik? As in the Crown-Prince of the Kingdom of Norway?"
Well screw me, "Ah no, I mean yes, no, uh kind of, I mean," I let out a deep sigh of defeat, "yes, I'm that Erik."
"So what's the Crown-Prince of Norway doing in the chamber of the Crown-Princess of Arendelle?"
The Crown-Princesses of Arendelle? It must be my lucky day then. There's no point in hiding my intent, I might as well just say exactly why I'm here. "I'm on the run," I respond
"On the run from what," she inquires.
"I'm on the run from my own kingdom."
"Your own kingdom?"
"You haven't heard about what happened in Oslo?"
"No, I spend most my time in here, I don't usually get to hear about foreign news. What happened in Oslo?"
"I…did a bad thing," that's putting it lightly.
"What do you mean?"
"I…accidently killed some people," I bow my head in shame as her face widened with shock, "I lost control of my power and I let out an explosion that killed many people. Now my own subjects want me dead."
"How?"
"A couple of boys were harassing me, they just kept pestering me until…my anger got the better of me," I started to feel tears form in my eyes, "There was an older lady, she was coming to take me away from those boys but she was consumed in my fire before she could do anything." They began to pour and I started to cry, for the first time in four weeks the weight of my actions fell upon me.
She got down from her bed, came over to me, and comforted me, like a mother would comfort her child. But as she was comforting me, I could feel an icy burn crawl around my back. I pulled away from her, her ice was actually hurting me. I looked at her and she knew exactly what was wrong, "my magic hurts you, doesn't it," I nod, "it's curse really," she walks back in sorrow to her bed and sits on the side, looking down at her hands. "Every night, I wish to be rid of this, so I can be normal and finally play with my sister again but…it will never go away. I just want to be normal girl with normal life and not be afraid of hurting my sister again." Tears start to form in her eyes, I've only known her for a few minutes, but I never felt more connected to another person ever before in my life.
"What do you mean 'again,'" I ask.
"When I was younger, my little sister Anna loved my magic. Unlike my parents, who were concerned about my magic, she adored it. She would play in my snow for hours on end, we became really close because of it. One night, she woke me up in the middle of the night to play in the snow. I got up and we ran to the ballroom, I conjured my magic and covered the room with a thick of layer of snow. We played for so long, at one point she started jumping from pillars of snow I would conjure up. But I couldn't keep up with her, I slipped on some ice and saw her falling from one of the pillars. I tried to save her, but I struck her in the head with my magic. I never wanted to use it ever again." She began to cry.
"I know what you mean," I said, "I had a nurse, Olga, who would cover for me any time I would accidentally set stuff on a fire. One day I was in the kitchen with her, I was helping her just because I was bored. I went to find something for her but I couldn't find it anywhere, I became more and more frustrated. Then I heard Olga scream, my anger was causing the fire inside the oven to roar out of control, her hand got burned. When I saw her tucking her hand, my fear caused the flames to return to normal. The other servants came in to see what happened, she said she accidentally spilled some oil on the flames." I bow my head and I start to tear up, "I never wanted to see a familiar sight again, I wanted to be free of this curse, I just want to be normal." I look up and I see the girl looking at me, I can tell she also felt a stronger connection than ever before. I rub the tears out of my eyes and say, "anyway, it's been nice meeting you, I'll let you sleep," and I make my way back towards the window.
"Wait," she jumps off the bed and walks over to me, "There is a room where you can stay."
She leads me out of the room, quietly tells me to be quiet as I follow, and leads me though a hall with walls decorated with white columns, red wallpaper, and a white base. It's almost like home, except maybe change a few of the colors and designs. She leads out to the left, we pass a few doors before we come to a white door with some dark green, ornate designs. She opens the door and inside is a big, person-less room with beige walls, a lot of book shelves, two dressers, and a queen size bed with light blue and chocolate colored sheets.
"What is this room," I ask.
"We use this room whenever we have the Duke of Weselton over to visit, but my father and him haven't been on good terms for a while, so this room remains empty."
"What about servants? Don't they ever come into this room?"
"They used to every now and then, but it's been many years since the Duke's been here that they've pretty much ignored this room."
"Just one more question, why are you doing this?"
She looked at me with a soft smile, "you and I, we are one in the same. Cursed with a power that we have no idea where it came from or how to control it, surrounded by people who don't fully understand us, and we both just want to be normal. We need to look after each other."
I don't know how to respond. All I can do is just hug her, as though she were my own sister. She's surprised at first but slowly her arms wrap around me as well, only this time I didn't feel her magic. I pull back and say, "thank you so much for this."
"You're welcome, now get some sleep, I'll find a way to get you some food and fresh clothes tomorrow."
I turn around to look at the bed. I let out a sigh of contentment, no more haylofts, no more cold nights, no more stealing, and no more running. I turn back around and look at the girl, "by the way, I don't think I ever got your name."
"It's Elsa."
"Well goodnight Elsa."
"Goodnight, Erik, I'll see you in the morning."
I walk into the room and she closes the door behind me. I walk to the bed, hop onto it, burrow myself underneath the blankets, and I take in the comfort. After weeks of hay lofts and cold grounds, this bed feels like a hill of sheep's wool. It doesn't take long for me to fall asleep; my eyes shut, and I drift to sleep in my new bed, in my new room, and in my new home.
Author's Note: This is a revisit to a story that I wrote many years ago. If you look at my account the only story on there is "The Fire Prince," it was my very first story that I wrote and its been one that I've been meaning to revisit. This story will follow the same direction as the previous but I do plan on making many differences and improvements. I hope you have enjoyed what you've read so far and I hope to release the next chapter within the month. Be sure to tell me what you think, favorite and follow, and thank you for reading.
P.S. If you are wanting to read the Fire Prince you are more than welcome to but be warned that it was my very first story so it probably won't be as good.
