The single light flickered leaving the reflection of fire in Hans' room window. The snow falling outside made him feel trapped inside his own home, he chose to ignore the feeling and played with the broken wooden toys that his mother gave him when he was born. As he was playing with a the wooden general its head came off. He sighed as he silently tried to attach it back on the course wood was tough on his sore hands he stopped trying to fix his toy and just gave up he looked at his favorite now broken tow in his chubby red hands. He remembered receiving before his father had died the Christmas when he was nearly 3, his eyes swelled with tears. As the tears quickly dripped down his red freckled cheeks they landed on the tiny wooden soldier making the small wooden toys faded paint run. Hans puts the now very broken toy in a shoebox hidden under his bed, along with other broken toys he was hiding. He turned his head toward the Large grandfather clock in his room, It was a few hours after Midnight, Hans put his toys away and tried to sleep but couldn't.
A sweet graceful knock was on Hans' door "Prince Hans?" One of the Castle maids opened his door she had pale skin, beautiful blue eyes thin brown hair. Hans looked up at her and wiped his remaining tears out of his eyes "Good morning Esther." The young maid walked in and sat down on his bed she looked concerned at a large bruise on his neck,Hans instinctively covered it "I slipped.." he lied "o-o-of course" She looked at the floor sadly. Hans got out of his bed and got dressed, Esther looked at him and smiled "you look great" She got up the took his hand leading him to the living room. "Are you excited for Christmas," Esther said looking at him. Hans stayed silent as he looked out the large window the Beautiful sun reflected through the icicles it reminded him of his family 12 big icicles on each window pane. "F-fine" he finally responded whispering to Esther not fully remembering her question and drawing his attention to the shiny reflective floor. Finally, Esther and Hans reached the living room. Hans' brothers sat suspensefully looking at thew thousands of presents under the tree. "Go greet your brothers" Esther smiled gently pushing him to the group of boys. Hans excitedly looked at the large green tree shining like a thousand stars. "Boys" Hans' mother called cheerfully, All the southern Isles brothers gathered around their mother excitedly Hans sat in the circle smiling until he was pushed away by his brothers "H-hey I can't see," Hans said trying to see other his brother's shoulders. "Hey did you hear something" His brother Klaus asked, "All I hear is an annoying bug," His other brother Filip said pushing Hans' small face off of Klaus's shoulders. "Ehem boys, enjoy your presents now that the whole family is here you can begin to open them," Hans' mother said. Before she could finish The 12 boys dove under the tree violently opening their several presents. Hans quickly dug through the thousands upon thousands of presents for one with his name addressed on it. None. he tried again before getting pushed out of the way. " William hey!" Hans yelled "Shut up you fly!" William yelled slipping him. Hans was quiet for the rest of the opening presents. At the end, under the tree was empty, all of his brothers had received new clothes and toys, cookies,candies, and cakes, Loving notes, new equipment for riding, anything imaginable; All the boys talked and laughed about their gifts. Then there sat Hans, with nothing he took a small gold ball ornament off the Christmas tree and held it pretending it was his present he blinked back tears as he stared at his reflection on the shining floor. After the excitement had died down, and all of Hans' older brothers had gone away to try their new presents, Hans went back to his bedroom and sat on his bed and finally let the tears fall out of his eyes he dropped the gold ornament it shattered all over the floor. Hans cried, even more, he dropped his head on his pillow crying his eyes out, he wrapped his arms around it, before he felt something he opened his tear-filled eyes and moved his pillow away seeing 2 boxes addressed to him wrapped in green wrapping paper with a bow on top her smiled as he quietly opened them inside were some new wooden soldiers toys and a horse, in the other box was lots of candies and sweets, his tears of sorrow turned to tears of joy as he hugged his presents. At the bottom of the box was a little piece of paper that simply said, From Esther. He smiled and put the piece of paper in a tin box along with some hard candy, He took the toys and began to play with them on his floor he pushed away the pieces of the broken ornament so he could play soldiers. He heard a small laugh from outside his door, he turned around and saws Esther's big eyes peeking in he smiled and waved happily at her Esther quickly closed the door pretending that he didn't see her. Using her apron she wiped a few tears away from her eyes before continuing her duties.