Chapter 1
The full summary of the fanfic:
Hans escaped years ago from his family and landed on a farm in Sweden by the door of a childless couple, which raised the boy as their own son. Due to a missing document, Hans is unable to keep his adopted parent's farm and his first opportunity to get it back is to accept a deal of a Swedish prince in exchange for the farm. Along with an enchanted dog he saved from mistreats both make their way to find a certain person named Anna. In the meanwhile, in a Norwegian kingdom, a queen is worried about her missing sister and has as well to deal with suitors from other kingdoms, which were here for her hand. Despite her low interest, she befriends the young, unprepared Spaniard due to a few common interests. Upon figuring out Anna's disappearance from her own castle Elsa has set up a wanted call hoping to obtain information about her hoping to find her and hope to look for a better plan to end the curse...
Note: This is a crossover between Disney's Frozen and Wizart's Snow Queen movies. This is all fanon and an AU. None of the characters have the knowledge or their "role" from canon at all.
Once upon a time around the time of the 18th century, there was a royal family living on a small island located near the country Denmark. The isle had a kingdom of its own, including a village around them. Most of the villagers had an okay life on-going, but since the new king took in charge of his father-in-law's title and became greedy with the time that passed and was harsher towards the outside of the kingdom to his villagers demanding higher taxes and stricter punishments at little crime rates. The habitants with the time grew unhappy and hoped for justice towards them one day, which worked for a short while as one of the villagers victimized himself to help them all out by robbing the kingdom until being caught and ordered the death sentence that had put the entire village in shock from having lost their only light at this submissive situation.
Years passed by and after the decease of the previous kings a couple of villagers, who couldn't live with this escaped from the island making their way into a different place, others remained, which had no choice or no faith in a better future. King Magnus Westergaard, the one responsible for all this didn't seem to mind this as in fact, he had grown busy with his family. The original heir of their throne, Queen Dana had recently suffered an abortion and in agreement with her husband, she quit on having another child. What makes it odd to know is, about three years ago she had her last baby, a boy named Hans and what's so special about this boy? Well for now on the only special thing about it is, that he's the 13th child of the couple. Exactly and her first twelve other children are all just like him, males. According to the Queen, she had wished to have at least one daughter or two and that was said, after she had received her second son, Franz. But after the 7th time she had the twins named as Runi and Runo, she felt like it wouldn't ever happen to her and she tried other methods, which supposedly would lead her to be blessed with girls instead, but even this didn't work out and she ended up having boys again until she stopped at her last birth and gave up for her own health.
The atmosphere inside the castle of all the sons grew quite tense with the arrival of the last newborn. They were used in the space of four years to be a group of dozen and after Hans' arrival, he became their toy ball. As the youngest and most inexperienced his older brothers bullied him and mistreated him. Despite it been witnessed by the King a few times there were no consequences from the father's side, no they were actually praised because in his eyes the strongest should always pick on the weak ones and this was the case with the brothers. The oldest ones were the strongest one out of the entire family while Hans was the weakest one. This went on for a big part of his childhood, no matter what Hans tried to do in order to obtain his father's respect or even from the oldest brothers, it either ended up in failure or by knowledge of one of the brothers, the plan was manipulated into making Hans look incompetent or even bad. As always King Magnus just showed disgust or no interest at Hans' attempts and ended up as the joke for the entire day, being bad-mouthed by all the siblings again. He had only one person, who he could talk with all the time about the issues and this person was his mother.
Queen Dana grew up to be a loving woman, loved by the villagers and other people who got to know her. After her marriage, she hasn't been often out of her castle due to her duties and the family. As the hen of all the boys, she loves them all. As known by all the boys, she doesn't have a favorite child. A big part of the children believe, she indeed does have one, but she doesn't say anything fearing it would be worse. Hans. That's what every one of the Westergaard lineage thinks. The young boy is the one she loves the most. All this, because unlike the rest of the boys, he has a stronger bond with the mother and he seemed more humane. To Hans, his mother was his only light in the abusive relationship with the sibling line.
At the age of 14, Hans had grown to dislike his family intensely, the only exception was his mother. On his last conversation with the woman, he commented, that he would try to handle his problems by himself and show them, that he was man enough to handle them. Shall we see, if this will have a good outgo?
Young Prince Hans stood down at the entrance of the castle between his mother and the second youngest brother, Lars looking at the entrance along with the other family members of their castle and a few staff members of the place, which stood vice versa to the siblings. The family had an important visit, the Queen of Flensborg was coming to visit the Southern Isles along with her husband and two of their children. A Prince and a Princess. The fourth oldest brother Gunther met both on a diplomatic deed along with his father and a few of the brothers. The Princess was about a few months younger than the man and had shown interest in him as well the man had done the same for her. The point of this meeting was for both families to get to know each other, eventually seeing a possible future between Prince Gunther and the princess.
„ If Gunther and Princess Ulrika get married in the future, this will be the fourth time one of the Westergards becomes a king in another place," Spoke Lars, the second youngest boy. „ Runi, Runo, Jürgen and Viggo are the next ones in line to bring their girlfriends here to us,"
„We all have our time. Soon we will see them as well and if it works, you'll see the list of successful future Kings grow more,"
„In a few years I'll be on that list too," Stated Lars proud making the mother nod. Hans looked up at his mother, which observed the waiting people. Hans looked at Lars, which was glancing at the entrance as well, then he rolled his eyes at the younger brother, which shrieked and looked away from Lars.
„Am I in your way, little brother?" Asked Lars making Hans shake his head.
„I was just looking," Answered Hans making Lars nod.
„ Don't worry, you will become a king too when you're older. All you need to do is to marry a princess, who's destined to be a Queen in the future. The only thing is, when it's your turn it will be more difficult. You would have to look out of Denmark perhaps. Viggo will eventually get to marry Princess Ruut from Vaasa," Spoke Lars. „You know in Finland,"
„ You two along with Thorsen, Kasper, and Anders will almost have no choice, rather than go out of Scandinavian waters to visit other kingdoms if you would really want to get married and become a king in first line. There are nearly none around us,"
„ That's really sad, then" Commented Hans making one of the brothers' chuckle.
„ You find a Princess on your own? Out there?" Asked one of the middle-aged brother, which was a twin. „Not gonna happen, little midget," Commented the brother making Hans frown, then their mother placed her hand on Hans' shoulder.
„Boys, it's a special occasion today. We're all old enough to behave and show our good side to our guests," Mentioned Queen Dana. „This means every one of you should treat each other decently,"
„But Hans won't get strong any stronger, if you keep giving him a special treatment," Mentioned the twin making the mother frown.
„Runi, you're 22 now, you should begin to act more your age. Caleb and Franz have stopped that long time ago,"
„That's why they're barely here," Spoke Runi making his mother sink her eyebrows stern.
„Runi, that's no way of talking," Mentioned the woman serious, making Runi sigh and look away from his mother. Hans looked up at his mother, then placed his hand on her waist smiling a little at the woman.
„I want to protect myself. I can do that, if I get the chance to," Promised Hans making the woman smile and caress the boy on the cheek.
„Give your best, my son," Spoke the mother, then Hans nodded to look at the entrance to see a brunette woman get into the castle followed by a younger man and a third man, which Hans knew as one of his older brothers, Gunther.
„Welcome to the Westergaard castle. Allow me to introduce you to my rather big family," Announced Gunther and looked at the side of the entrance, where all the brothers stood in line, all dressed gently for the evening across the staff. „ These are all my brothers and the woman on the end of the line is our mother, Queen Dana," Gunther introduced watching the mother move her knees down while moving her dress up a little.
„Starting from down here, ranked from the oldest brother up to the youngest I will present you all my brothers," Spoke Gunther exchanging looks with the Princess' family. „This is Caleb, this is Franz and that's Dustin. All of them are currently King-in-waiting and have already got married. The twins are Runi and Runo, Jürgen is the one with the ponytail, there's Viggo, Anders, Kasper, Thorsen also with the ponytail, but you can tell him apart by his mustache, then we've got Lars here which will turn 18 next year and this little guy here is Hans, who's currently 14," Spoke Gunther making the Princess chuckle a little making Hans feel a little intimidated.
„ Alright, up there we have a few of our servants Nathalie, Gabriel, Klaus, Laura and Henry. The wives of our married Princes you'll get to meet later at dinner and until there we can take a look around the castle and I will tell you our story," Gunther said moving with the guests along followed by the father, then the mother signed the servants to move and she followed them into a living room connected with a door to the corridor and the Princes stood back looking at each other.
At dinner time, all sat around a long table eating and listening to Caleb, the older brother, which was telling a story, earning the attention from almost everyone. Hans was focused on his meal avoiding his attention from the story, which he didn't find it interesting anymore since from all the last important dinners or meetings he had heard the story a couple of times and lost his interest in it. A few of the brothers were as well focused on themselves rather than the story, mainly for the same reason, but stood silent to let the evening flow decently.
A few chairs away from Hans on the other side of the table sat the twins Runo and Runi eating, then Runi looked across the table to look at Hans, which was eating peacefully beside Lars, then elbowed the twin and rolled his eyes back signaling the friend to look at the youngling.
„What's up?" Asked Runo, then Runi whispered at Runo's ear making him smile at his idea. „Brilliant!"
Runi got up looking at the young boy, then whistled to call his attention, but received Lars' instead.
„What?" Questioned Lars, then Runi shook his head and pointed at Hans, then Lars elbowed the younger brother and mention Runi's call. Hans simply moved his head up, signaling the older brother, what he wanted and Runi pointed at the pot with soup in front of him and Hans got up and tried to push it over the table while pushing the table sheet over it. Hans blew off his face his bangs, then looked at Runi, which smirked at him knowing Hans seemed incapable of lifting up the pot. Hans looked at the brother, then stretched out his hand.
„I will put you soup in there," Mentioned Hans making the boy chuckle, which handed out his soup plate at the boy and watched Hans carefully fill into the deep plate the bouillon, then picked it up carrying it carefully to the brother. Runi moved his chair back holding out his hands waiting for Hans to arrive, then he grabbed it carefully on the side and watched Hans look at him normally. Hans felt odd at that moment, then observed Runi smirk and move his plate up to empty the soup over his lap to cry out loud in pain.
„Ouch! Hans!" Shouted Runi making Hans jump back and obtain the attention of almost everyone.
„ What's going on?!" Asked King Magnus loud looking at Runi and Hans. „Runi?"
„Hans just threw the soup he scooped out for me on my lap!" Complained Runi, while at the end of the table Queen Dana face palmed in disappointment feeling that it felt too good for the dinner to go well.
„He emptied over himself! It wasn't me…." Spoke Hans watching his father furrow his eyebrows sternly, making Hans widen his eyes seeing his dad wasn't pleasant about it. „Why did you do that?" Asked Hans looking at the twin.
„You're the clumsy, incompetent boy, that brought me the soup and emptied it over me," Contered Runi. „I simply asked you a favor. I knew I should have done it myself,"
„You really should have. I should have known this was a trap,"
„ The easiest thing in the world and even that you couldn't do well," Added Runo making Runi laugh, making Hans angry.
„It wasn't me, it was an accident, ask Lars. He saw it for sure!" Spoke Hans looking at Lars, which had just shove into his mouth a piece of meat, then watched confused at the sitting people looking at him.
„Uh…..did I do something wrong?" Asked Lars, then saw Runi with a dirty uniform, then understood what happened. „I didn't see, what happened, I just remember Hans wanted to give him soup,"
„There's your proof," Spoke Runi followed by Hans doing a facepalm.
„Just forget about your dinner and go back into your bedroom, we will talk later to you," Warned King Magnus, then Hans rolled his eyes up annoyed at the twins, which grinned at him making Hans feel annoyed, then he moved back to his place to put the chair back and looked at his unfinished food, which contained meat, mashed potato and vegetables
„Are you deaf?" Asked the father loud, then Hans grabbed the plate and threw it against Runi, missing it, which landed on the clothing of the brother Viggo.
„Hans! What the heck are you doing?!" Complained the brother, then Hans heard the squeaking of his father's chair as he stood up and made his way towards the son, which noticed him coming and shrieked to see him come along and ran around the table followed by the man starting to run as well, then Jürgen, who sat next to Viggo stepped with the chair back to block Hans from moving on and Hans dodged and as he came closer to his mother he got stopped by the father, which pushed him on the arm and used his hand to slap him hard on the face, causing most of the guests to gasp at the man's deed. Queen Dana covered her mouth in shock at his deed, then watched Hans' pass his hand on the place he was hit and his mother got up from the chair and the husband held his hand in front of her.
„Don't say a word. This is not a behavior for a boy of his age, even less for someone's who's a Prince," Spoke King Magnus. „He'll be under arrest in his room with nothing to eat until the breakfast tomorrow. Until there I hope you have thought about your actions,"
Hans rolled his eyes up at his father, then raised his voice.
„Actions?! Runi and most of the others have been mistreating me and bullying me for my entire childhood and YOU praised them, because they were showing the weak how to be strong and now that I showed the strength you used to praise you scold me?" Questioned Hans making his father frown.
„I have no idea, what you're talking about. This is an unlikely behavior from you. Where have you even got it from?" Questioned the father making Hans frown.
„Can we discuss this later? This is no good time?" Asked Gunther a little tensed about seeing the royal of the foreign family a little worried about what was happening.
„Sure, we want to spare father from more embarrassment, right?" Questioned Hans looking at the father, which began to cook at the situation.
„I think the best thing is for me to take him into the room," Spoke Queen Dana getting up from her chair, then her husband stopped her.
„No Dana, you're not going to escort him up. It's just thanks to you, that's he's not as strong as the others?"
„Excuse me?!" Asked Dana stern. „Who's been ignoring him these past years?"
„I'm not talking about this, I'm talking about the times you're up alone with him talking to him. It's just because you're soft on him, that he didn't grow enough,"
„ Hans has been mistreated by almost all of our sons, which you praised because it was a godamn way to show them strength. Hans was young when you all began to pick on him and never stopped. This all just gotten worse,"
„It's his fault, he couldn't learn to defend himself,"
„You or the others weren't a help either. You're more trying to destroy him rather than building him up. He's a child, goddammit!"
„ Most of our sons already knew how to use a sword with 12 already. Franz even with 10!"
„So what Hans will use it with 14 or even 15, who cares. His mental health is more important, but you're all damaging it more and more and I feel like I'm his only help,"
„There's no such thing as mental health. You've been thinking too much with your head since our last visit at the doctor,"
„ At least I use my head for something unlike you. I'm not the one, who had to witness the own son cut himself on my own birthday," Spoke Dana making the father drop his mouth along with Hans, which was surprised her mother had revealed that dark past moment.
„ What?" Asked the father, then noticed the guests look at each other with questioning looks.
„The poor kid," Commented the mother earning a nod from the princess.
„I can't believe this was even possible at this age,"
Hans saw the people look at him, which took a step back and shrieked as he got packed on the shoulder by the father, then pushed him further away from the dinner table.
„Get immediately up at your room. You're causing a disaster here," Ordered the father, then pushed Hans hard making him run towards the corridor of the castle and King Magnus looked back at the guests, which glanced at him a little shocked about the scene.
„Are you sure you don't want anyone to talk with him?" Asked the finnish Queen making the Danish man shake his head.
„For now on I think he should be alone for a while," Spoke Magnus, then watched Princess Ruut get up from her chair, earning Gunther's attention.
„Where are you going?" Asked the brunette man getting up as well, placing his hand on her arm.
„Something is wrong with that boy. He could need someone to talk with,"
„He…...I don't think he will listen to you,"
„What about you? You're one of his older brothers?"
„Well…...we don't get quite along with each other," Confessed Gunther passing his hand behind his neck.
„You're telling me, just like your mother mentioned you mistreated your own little brother?" Asked Ruut with a shock, making Gunther nod.
„We were all younger. We meant it to be a joke…..," Gunther tried to get out of the situation, then watched the woman growl and move further heading to the corridor.
„You don't have to go behind him!" Ordered Magnus, then looked at the table and Gunther got up along with Franz, Jürgen, and Anders to follow their father.
„Boys, get back here!" Ordered Queen Dana seeing the group disappear into the next hall, then she facepalmed and looked across the table at the Queen.
„This family doesn't seem quite healthy or am I mistaken?" Questioned the Queen and Dana got up and walked at the exit to encounter one of the servants cleaning the railing of the stairs and grabbed her arm.
„Nathalie, I want you and the others to look for Hans and report it to me, I'm coming as well," Said the woman running upstairs, followed by the maid, which went a different direction.
Hans was on the hall of the second level and got into the room, then looked back to see Princess Ruut come along and spot him, then Hans closed the door leaving her out. Hans leaned his back on the door, then heard a gentle knock on the door, which notably was from someone with a smaller hand.
„Hey little guy, it's just me here, do you wanna talk about it?" Questioned Ruut. „You don't sound good,"
„I don't need help." Commented Hans sinking his head down, deeply knowing he needed more help than he actual had. „I'm…..fine,"
„You're voice is cracking. I know you're not fine and it's understandable. If you really suffered all these years in silence from your brother's treats,"
„ Nothing will ever change. I've been hoping for it every day, but I know it will never happen,"
„I could try to speak to them," Suggested Ruut.
„My mom already tried, but it's no use. My father is the one, who always has the last….." Hans spoke, then shrieked as something crashed against the door making Hans jump away. „Hey!"
„Your majesty, I'm trying to talk with your son!" Warned Princess Ruut.
„You're not one of his parents! He only has to listen to me or the Queen," Warned Magnus stern, then Hans looked at his room and pulled a chair to lock it under the handle and watched the father tried to open it, then began to hit hard on the door.
„Open up the door Hans! It's an order!" Shouted the King beating hard on the door, then Hans reversed back getting close to the window, then looked out to see it was raining and he opened the window, then shrieked as he saw at the end a lighting . Hans gasped aloud as the thunder cracked at the same time as behind him the door got opened back with his father standing angrily in the bedroom and Princess Ruut got into it with a shocked face.
„I have nothing to do with him, I'm honest," Warned Ruut, then Hans watched his father stomp his way to the son, which looked out of the window to see another lighting streak across the sky and Hans jumped out of the window landing on the roof and walked across the roof carefully, then held himself on the next window on the ovale-shaped roof above the window. He observed his father look out of the window, then point at the inside of the room, then Hans slowly moved further to the next window and watched the window open back, so he would see Jürgen show up and sat down on the window awaiting the pre-teen and Hans turned around to move back and see on the next window Franz appear making Hans gulp and look up at the top of the roof, then he tried to climb it up and slipped on it falling on his belly, sliding half of the roof.
„He's going to fall!" Warned Princess Ruut, then saw from the window, where Jürgen had sit him get out, followed by behind him Ruut's brother get out and hold himself on the arc of the window to see Hans in the middle of the roof. The young boy glimpsed down to recognize on that side the stable of the horses and near the castle stood a carriage filled with horse manure mixed with hay, which was been finished by two men and Hans looked at the road the vehicle would take, then heard someone call his name and he noticed Gunther appear on the window and wave at him.
„ Hans! You're going to fall!" Warned Gunther, then Hans looked at the men board the carriage before leaving and Hans tried to get up on his feet, then carefully walk on the roof to the edge and held himself on a chimney, then watched the carriage depart and Hans passed around the chimney balancing himself aside of the roof to get closer to the vehicle.
„Should I really do this?" Questioned Hans himself, then heard someone step on roof plates and watched Gunther get on top of them, followed by his friend, who's the brother of Ruut and he slid down on the roof getting closer to the chimney, making Hans go faster while on it Ruut's brother walked to the last window of the roof and slid down to the corner, so he could block Hans from escaping and held his arms wide.
„My sister is worried about you, I won't let any of your brothers harm you, I promise," Commented the Prince looking at the frightened Hans, which threw himself aside to avoid passing by the Prince and slipped down at the feet of the man, which helped Hans get up.
„Let me down!" Cried Hans, then the Prince held his hand on Hans' cheek to look into his eyes, then Hans widened his eyes from seeing his clear blue eyes making him feel a little safer. Hans looked behind to see his father slowly descent the roof down along with the oldest son Caleb, followed by a light illuminating the sky from the storm and Hans looked up at the Prince, then shrieked as a clap of thunder cracked louder in the near along with the man, which had put his left feet back and began to flatter with his arms trying to avoid himself from losing the equilibrium.
„No!" Shouted Hans grabbing the man by his shirt.
Up at the fourth window appeared the twins Runi and Runo, which opened up the window to spot Hans along with the Prince witnessing the Prince slide out of the boy's hand, then Hans fell as well, but managed to hold himself tight on the edge.
„Oh my gosh!" Shouted Runo surprised to see, what had just happened.
„He just dropped Prince Miika!" Added Runi, then Runo pointed at the edge to see Hans' hands moving up to pull himself up.
„ Miika!" Shouted a voice making the twins drop their chins, then Runo looked out of the window to see the Princess look in panic at the roof and disappeared into the castle along with Franz and Magnus slid down at the edge to look down and see, what happened. Caleb moved towards Hans, then gave his hand to Hans, which moved it up and got pulled up by the brother, which helped him stand up on the roof.
„What are you doing here?" Asked Caleb serious, then looked down to see Prince Miika lie down on the ground lifeless making him gasp.
„I tried to save him, but I….. wasn't…..strong enough…... he was here…..he..., "
„ Hans! What are you doing on the roof?" Asked a voice, then Hans looked up at the window to see his mother come between the twins, then Runi pointed down at the ground.
„I think Hans dropped Prince Miika into the ground," Commented Runi.
„Mom, we need a doctor. I don't think Miika is alright," Warned Caleb while Hans stood there in panic, then looked up at his mother, which looked down sad. „I'm not even sure, if he's alive at all," Spoke the older brother making Hans move his eyebrows up in shock knowing the fate of the Prince, that helped him.
„Miika just wanted to help Hans, but this ended up terribly," Spoke Runo.
„He shouldn't have got there in the first place, if he didn't nothing would have happened," Commented Runi.
„He literally killed Prince Miika, mother. We saw him letting Miika go off his hands," Spoke Runi making Hans sadder.
„It was an accident. I didn't want…..I didn't want to have him fall. I couldn't hold him so long," Spoke Hans watching the mother pass her hand under her eyes terrified by what had happened and Runo placed his hand on his mother's shoulder followed by Runi, which looked down at the child. „Mother, it's…...it's not my fault….right?" Asked Hans, then looked up at Caleb, which placed his hand on Hans' shoulder.
„You shouldn't have come to the roof here. Nothing would have happened, if you just had stood back in your room," Spoke Caleb making Hans sink his head, then both males looked up at the mother, which turned around looking into the room while the twins looked at their older brother.
„Get in there boys, Gunther and I will bring Hans up," Spoke Caleb putting his hand on Hans' shoulder watching the boy look down at the carriage turn around the corner of the castle to head towards the exit and Hans frowned and ran above the long, corner of the roof shrieking Caleb which watched Hans jump down landing in the large, pile of manure causing Caleb to wrap his face in disgust.
„Hans! What are you doing!?" Asked Caleb, then watched at the window the mother appear again to look around for the son to see he was nowhere to be seen.
„Where's Hans!?" Asked the Queen, then Caleb pointed at the ground.
„He just jumped into the cart with the manure," Spoke Caleb watching Hans put his head out warping his face in disgust trying to clean it with his arm, which just caused more dirt.
„ He's leaving the place!" Warned Caleb, then saw the mother frown her face and push the twins by their ears.
„You two take Thorsen, Kasper, Viggo and Dustin with you and go behind him. Caleb, you stay here with the rest," Ordered the mother. „Move it!"
Hans watched at the exit the guards wait for the carriage to approach, then he closed his eyes passing unnotable by them and opened them again to see them head to the outside of the village and Hans recognized a ship, that had been standing there on the water while being loaded with a few boxes.
Hans remained hidden for several more minutes, then felt the carriage board the ship and raised his head up carefully to watch one of the members up on the ship walk towards the man, that led the carriage and shook his hand.
„Wow, that's a lot of manure for only one castle. Are you sure, this is only from the horses?" Joked the man making the owner of the carriage laugh.
„They have around 20 horses I think. I never cared to count, to be honest. There was some action going on now on the castle again, this time a couple of the brothers were on top of the castle looking for the younger brother and apparently one of them fell off the roof,"
„Ooof that's terrible, which one was it?" Questioned the man, which walked to the entrance of the ship to order another carriage to get up on the boat.
„I don't know, but it seemed to be one of their guests that came from Finland,"
„Sadly,"
„Yeah, honestly there is really no chance, that someone stands up against the King again as Venlig did," Spoke the man, then prayed along with the man remembering the only hero, that helped the village throughout the hardest times before his death.
„Have you got any idea, what happened to his family?" Questioned the man.
„I remember his wife left with her daughter cause she feared to be pursued and whatever happened to them remains unknown,"
The second man of the carriage with the manure got down and joined the duo, placing his arm on the shoulder of his work partner.
„I heard she was found by one of the guards and put into jail. Not sure if that's true or not,"
„ Someone will hopefully raise up against this. I can't imagine my life here anymore," Spoke the second rider, then watched the owner of the ship get to the end of the ship and wave at the other side, where another man appeared and together both rotated a wheel to pull up the bridge to close the ship's back.
Hans looked out of the carriage again to watch the men head to the end of the ship, then heard one of the two yawn.
„Which was our destination?" Questioned one of the men.
„ Nabben at Falsterbo. That's where we meet our usual customers Peter and Klaus. They promised to tell the others about our local delivery and we will probably be able to sell most of the manure there,"
„Good," Spoke the other man.
Hans yawned, then began to spit as he felt a bit of straw inside his mouth, then leaned his head on the side of the vehicle holding his eyes open, soon he ended up falling asleep.
Over the night, Hans traveled as a blind passenger on the ship transporting goods to the point of Sweden, where Falsterbo was located. Hans still was inside the carriage with his head lying on top of the edge of the cart and the carriage began to move out of the ship heading to the bridge leading out of the port to a road, where a few farmers stood with various sizes of carriages, which they had empty, so they could reload it with goods.
„God morgon!" Greeted a voice making Hans move his eyes slowly, then close them again while the cart moved over the bridge approaching the land, then moved aside to park the carriage and the two men got down and walked up towards the farmers, then waited for the next carriage to come down.
Hans opened his eyes again to look around, then saw, that it was day and saw he was in a foreign place, where he could only see sand and a large, green landscape. Hans glimpsed out of the carriage to see the two men he saw the other day leading the cart and a few farmers, he could recognize by their overall, that they were wearing each of them had it in a different color, mostly darker ones. One of the farmers walked up with two bags towards the carriage and Hans sank his head down to avoid them to notice him and he noticed them go to the back of the cart, where the owner of the cart got up and used a shovel to help the farmer fill up his bags. The other man came with another farmer and went to the opposite side to do the same leaving Hans in safety, thereafter he moved aside and glimpsed at the farmers, that stood back looking at the next carriage come by with a couple of boxes. Hans watched the cart go in the other direction, then he tried to climb out of the carriage, then fell down on his face. He moved his head up noticing no one had seen him, then he helped himself up by placing his hand on the wheel of the cart and walked slowly up towards the sand with the destination of the water, then began to go slower and felt down on the ground.
The three remaining farmers awaited for the rest of the shipped carriages to leave and one dark-blonde man with a long beard noticed Hans lying on the ground, then squinted his eyes to see what was lying there and called the attention of the second farmer, which shrugged his shoulders. The farmer made his way down, then noticed that Hans had the looks of a young boy and he raced down to him and got down, then approached him, while biting his lips noticing the boy was fully covered in manure. The farmer took from the pocket in his overall a tissue to pass it over Hans' face to clean a part of it to see, that he was indeed a young child, mostly in a pre-teen stage.
„ Hey! Did you guys carry this boy with you?" Asked the farmer watching the man, that was using the shovel look down and shake his head.
„He was in there?" Asked the man surprised, then got down on the ground to take a look at the boy, then held his hand in front of Hans' nose. „He's breathing. I assume he must be out of senses,"
„ What shall we do?" Asked the second farmer, that had been receiving the amount of manure from the carriage. „Someone should take him to a doctor,"
„I know in the other carriages we have caught one or two refugees, but most of them have warned, they wanted to escape from the Southern Isles. This child here is kind of strange, why all by himself?" Mentioned the man, that led the carriage and looked down at the boots, then took one out to look at it, then cleaned the under part of the shoe to spot the letter W under the boot. „That's one of the Westergard's. I think it's their youngest heir,"
„A Prince?" Asked the dark-brunette farmer. „Why is he here?"
„ I assume he tried to escape?" Guessed the man. „Once in a while, I hear loud arguments coming from the castle. Usually followed by a whining boy's voice or a complaining one. I assume he was been mistreated or just didn't like it to live there. There are many possibilities. I have never been in there,"
„ Well we all know how King Magnus is, I assume the atmosphere in there isn't quite healthy and this guy probably wanted to get out of there" Spoke the brunette, then the blonde felt bad and got down trying to pick him up into his arms.
„I think I will take him to my home and see if my wife and I can take care of him for a few days and see if we find out what's going on," Suggested the blonde farmer watching the brunette farmer take out one tissue to wet it with a bit of wine he had in a small bottle and cleaned Hans' face better.
„I think his nose really comes from the king or at least it reminds me of him," Said the man making the farmers nod.
„I will take him into my carriage, after getting the manure I'll leave," Announced the farmer making the man nod, which moved on to assist the brunette in refilling his bags. The blonde carried Hans along to the road, then noticed Hans opening his eyes and look up at the farmer.
„Where….am I?" Asked Hans.
„You're in Falsterbo, my boy," Answered the farmer. „Were you hidden inside the pile of manure?" Questioned the blonde making the boy nod.
„I…..it's a long story," Commented Hans. „I….I don't know if what I did was good,"
„Well, you can stay with me and my wife for the next few days. Then we can see, what we will do," Offered the man making Hans nod. „What is your name, by the way?"
„Hans…..,"
A few hours later, Hans had arrived along with the farmer on a large field, which had a few fields planted with various vegetables and at the end was the house with a small stable beside it, where the farmer had parked the carriage. At the entrance stood his wife, which was a head shorter than the farmer, wearing similar clothing to her husband, but instead she wore a lighter overall and had at the moment over her clothing an apron, as she must have been cooking at the moment as the husband arrived.
„You brought a guest?" Asked the woman surprised at seeing the new face, then got a little bewildered from seeing the boy covered in dirt and watched the man get down of the cart along with the boy.
„ I found this boy back on the beach and offered him to stay with us for a few days and see how else we can help him. You think that's possible?"
„ Sure Gustav and I think the first thing he can do is taking a bath," Mentioned the wife.
„That's my wife Wilma. She's at the moment cooking the lunch, which you're going to eat as well. I hope you like potatoes with cod ,"
„I think I like it. I haven't eaten since yesterday night….well I didn't eat a lot to be honest," Mentioned Hans.
„Then you better hurry with the washing, come I will show you, where to go," Offered farmer Gustav making his way around the house. „I will empty the cart after I showed the boy, where to shower," Spoke Gustav making the woman nod.
„Sure and he can leave his dirty clothing right there next to the lavoir. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the entire dirt out of it,"
„ Sure honey," Answered Gustav walking the boy to the lavoir, which was filled with water and had a brush the side. „You can take all your clothings down, except your underwear if you want," Said Gustav watching Hans remove his clothings under the man's watch. „I'm going to get a bit of ash for the bath," Offered the farmer leaving Hans back, which removed the pants, then tried to remove his shirt along with jacket but ended up getting his face dirty again. Hans dropped the clothing on the ground, then passed his face with water to clean it and saw that Gustav had returned with a small bucket filled with ash and placed it on top of the lavoir.
„Do you think this is enough for you?" Questioned Gustav, then Hans looked at the brush.
„Have you got another brush or a cloth for me to wash myself better?" Questioned the boy, then Gustav pondered about it and remembered on the side of the house his wife had hung up clothing to dry and brought a small cloth and handed it out to Hans.
„Is it okay if I use this brush with the cloth to wash?"
„Sure and if you need help, I'm back there at the carriage," Spoke Gustav making Hans nod, then the farmer walked away and Hans climbed into the lavoir and entered into the water, shrieking that it was a little colder, than he expected.
„Brrr!" Shivered Hans, then Gustav looked back and shook his head from Hans' sudden surprise of the cold water.
Later on, Hans sat inside a small dining room, which contained a small, rectangle table with 4 chairs around it. Hans sat between the two and all were eating fish. Just like Gustav, Hans earned a rather big portion, which Hans was eating with appetite, which farmer Wilma noticed.
„You really look like you haven't eaten in a long while," Stated Wilma watching Hans chewing on the piece of fish he had put into his mouth, then he placed the cutlery down.
„You really okay with me eating this much?" Questioned Hans.
„ There's no need to worry about. There's still one fish left. Gustav is used to eat a lot due to the amount of cosume he has from working,"
„ Do you also work at the farm?" Questioned Hans looking at the woman.
„I do most of the time in the afternoons. At the moment he hasn't gotten a lot of work, but when the harvest time comes I'm helping him out, where I can,"
„ All this vegetables out there you will take out all on your own?" Asked Hans making the duo nod. „And you will keep all that for yourself?"
„Not all," Answered Gustav with a chuckle." We keep around a bag or two, the rest we keep inside the shrine and open the stand so people can come to buy it. Every month on Tuesday we go to the next village and put it out to sell. Once I had the luck that our King Svensson was the one in-person to buy from me a bag of carrots. Man, that was a glorious day," Recounted Gustav glad remembering the day he met the King.
„Gustav made on that day 400 Thaler only by him. Usually, he received around 15 Thalers depending on the amount or what vegetables he sells,"
„ At home, I never really saw from where the vegetables came from. I know it came from the village, which had a few farmers as you two. I never witnessed them harvesting it,"
„ In the afternoon I'm going to the field and take the potatoes. If you want you can tag along. It might look easy for you, but it's not how it looks like,"
„If you don't mind it, I could go," Commented Hans making Gustav smile.
„So…..I heard you had twelve older brothers, right?" Questioned Gustav making Hans sigh.
„Yeah," Answered Hans placing his fork down sad.
„You're okay?" Questioned Wilma noticing his sad expression.
„I'm…...you know I wasn't….I feel like I was unwanted there in a way….you know, I was the youngest one, and all my brothers teased me and treated me badly, as I was the youngest one. My dad….well he didn't mind it. On the other hand, he actually supported all my brother's deeds as they were learning to be strong. I had no chance alone to be mean back to them, not even my father helped me. My mother was the only person in the house to help me see the light and move on with my life. I even had some plans to make an impression on my father or some of my brothers but they failed. Mostly because one brother or the other knew about it and ruined it before I could go with it. There was this one moment in my life I felt so desperate….I had no idea what was going on, it was the birthday of my mother...I don't even remember how old she had got there, I remember I had given her a gift and out of all the gifts she received mine was the….poorest one made….again my brothers picked on me again, messing with me for the entire day and I don't know why I did this, I was sitting in my bedroom, I had got access on an army knife and I wasn't myself on that time. My head was streaming with many negative thoughts and I suddenly began to feel better as I began to cut myself on the…..arm…...eventually my mother got into my room and caught me and spent the rest of the evening talking with me while fixing my injury,"
„ My poor little thing," Commented Wilma saddened by Hans' story.
„Well I grew up with seven siblings, but I was the 4th oldest. We barely treated each other like trash, we worked with each other at the farm and now each of us is in a different place. Me being the one keeping dad's farm," Gustav commented.
„Hasn't your mother ever talked to your older brothers about their behavior towards you?"
„It wasn't worth anything. Not even with speaking with father would do a thing. He's always the one with the last word. He isn't even the original heir of the kingdom,"
„Men and even women from upper classes tend to be very old-school. They still arrange marriages between kingdoms and other countries," Commented Wilma.
„You know honey, it's hard for a Prince or Princess to go out there and find another Prince or Princess from another kingdom. Mainly that's why there are arranged weddings…..well three of my brothers and one sister had an arranged wedding with others, but this was many years ago."
„Uhm….how many years do you two have if I'm allowed to know?"
„ 54 and 55," Answered Gustav making Hans nod. „What about you?"
„14," Responded Hans.
„Oh by the way, how did you get here to Sweden?" Questioned Gustav. „You were hidden for the rest of the night inside of the manure?"
„Was it because of your family?" Questioned Wilma, then Hans sank down his head.
„Someone died because of me," Answered Hans sad. „I was angry at my father and my twin brothers, then I went into my room and wanted to be left alone. To avoid my father's hands I escaped on the roof and a few followed me on it long with the Finnish Prince Miika. He came to talk to and to offer me help…...in the end he lost his equilibrium and I tried to hold him up, but I had let him fall down and well…..he died because of me," Sobbed Hans covering his face, making the farmer couple exchange looks saddened about the boy's reaction. „I didn't know what to do…...people believe I have let him fall on purpose, but it was an accident. My….mother…..I saw the way she looked at me. She was disappointed as well, I never had seen her feeling like that, mostly about me….
Wilma placed her hand behind Hans' back caressing him, then Gustav filled the cup of Hans' with water and shove it to him.
„Take a sip, when you're better kid," Commented Gustav watching his wife comfort the boy. Wilma placed her chin over Hans' head to look at her husband, which had a neutral expression plastered on his face.
„You know…..this kid deserves something better after all this, what happened to him," Commented Wilma. „I really wish we could keep him,"
„Returning him back to his kingdom at this moment doesn't sound like a great idea either, I really think we could let him stay for a while and see what he says,"
„ Yes, we will see,"
Curious to know what happened? Well, little Hans after a few days felt better and was offered by the farmer to stay with them. The only condition was, he had to live as if he was a son of a farmer, which he accepted. It was indeed a hard road for the boy, but with the time he got used to it, eventually, he even began to like it. At least some of the tasks. The boy hit puberty and grew tall. From living outside the village, Hans wasn't seen often, and even though he was seen, no one would guess, that this was the Hans, that had disappeared years ago in the Southern Isles. To be honest I don't think he even wonders if people are looking for him or not. He grew out of the names of the Westergaard's and got used to living on a farm with Wilma and Gustav, which he saw as his parental figures. Finally, he even had a good father figure, Gustav. When Hans was a little older he got to learn, that his adoptive mother was infertile and unable to have her own child, so Hans was like a gift from God for her, which she cherished every day. Hans grew up quite happier in this new atmosphere. He practically almost forgot about his real family. Has he ever thought about seeing them again? This question he has asked himself a few times, mostly he'd loved to be able to see his real mother one time again, hoping for her to understand, that what happened at the roof was a big understanding. Maybe this time will come someday, but before that, an adventure awaits the former Prince and on this adventure, he will get to know me. - Donny. Who I am? Well….I'm not sure if I should say this or not, but…...l'd rather wait. All you need to know is, that Hans and I will become friends for life.
