Chapter 13

Gerda watched from the entrance of the castle Queen Elsa move along the bridge along with Prince Ulrich, which had been talking to her during the walk. Gerda looked back at the hall, where the Spanish and the Belgian prince stood there looking at the blonde.

„Have you two planned anything today?" Questioned the girl making the boys shake their heads.

„Write down a letter to my mother," Commented Hugo. „Afterward I may go out and see my father,"

„What about you?"

„I planned to go out to take my horse on a walk," Mentioned Rollan, then Hugo widened his eyes.

„Right I have to do the same. I think no one walked them around, right?"

„Just in the barn," Mentioned Gerda.

„Good then looks like I will have to do that first," Mentioned Hugo making Gerda nod.

„No problem, I will accompany you there," Spoke Gerda walking stairs down, then headed along with the princes to a door leading to the barn.

„I can see my horse right there at the water tank," Spoke Hugo walking towards the horse, which was being brushed by another staff member.

„And mines in his box I'd guess," Commented Rollan, then walked towards the box to greet his stallion.

„Have you planned a specific ride with your horses or will you just trot around?" Questioned Gerda and Rollan opened the door, then picked up the saddle to adjust it over the horse.

„Anywhere," Commented Rollan. „As long as we don't bother the queen of course,"
„I think she's going through the village first,"

„Then I head towards the port," Added Rollan. „I'll be there for a while, then I return,"

„Have you been once on the outside of Arendelle?" Questioned Gerda making Rollan shake his head.

„Where exactly? The hills up there?"

„Yes, or the waterfall up there. You can see from there Arendelle,"

„Maybe tomorrow I could go there or a few days later. I think first Valiente has to get to know Arendelle from around the castle," Commented Rollan picking up the leash to put it on his horse's face.

„I agree. I don't think him standing here all day won't make him get to know our places here,"

„You haven't got your own horse, right?" Questioned Rollan interested making Gerda shake her head.

„No. I just rode one from the Arendelle guards a few times,"

„Are you allowed to take one and come with us?" Questioned the prince making Gerda shrug her shoulders.

„I had to ask, but Elsa is now out there with Prince Ulrich,"

„And if you come along with us on our horse?" Suggested Rollan, then Gerda looked at Hugo leading his horse to the exit, then returned her face back at the Spaniard.

„He's leaving without you,"

„I believe we both were meant to go each own way," Commented Rollan.

„Well, you still got your stallion. He sure will be a good company as well,"

„He sure will," Commented Rollan patting the horse on the nose. „You're interested in coming along?"

„I have to help out with the preparations for tomorrow. Another time I could go or ask Elsa, so we can both go with a horse around Arendelle or farther,"

„Has it something to do with all of us three bonding with queen Elsa?" Questioned the raven-haired boy making Gerda shrug her shoulders.

„It's something else, don't worry,"

„I'm not worried, just a little bewildered about what happened yesterday as we came back from our walk," Commented Rollan, then Gerda placed her hand on his shoulder.

„She's fine, don't need to worry about that," Assured Gerda making Rollan smile, then he looked at Valiente, which puffed afterward the Spaniard got up on the saddle.

„Well I better get going and see again the places here," Commented Rollan making Gerda nod, then Rollan tapped with his boots on the side of the stallion to move further heading to the exit leaving Gerda back, that observed the two leave.


During the ride, Donny rested between Hans and Anna as the two humans looked at the road they were going. The princess glimpsed down at the dog, then passed her hand over his back.

„When I was a child, I wanted to have a cat, but there were two problems. The castle was so big, we would always lose the kitty and my father turned out to be allergic to cats," Mentioned Anna. „Did you ever ask any of your parents if you wanted your own pet or one for the family at least?"

„At my real family, I would have gotten my own horse with 16 according to my mother. At the farm what I can consider as pets are the cows, the horses, and the chickens. That's practically enough to take care of alone at the moment,"

„Your farm pets there are more as a…..way to help out your living. You get milk, eggs, and all?"

„My family has been doing that for years. At the moment, their givings are here to stay with us. When they were younger, they had more capacity and we used to sell their goods to villagers,"

„How many animals are there at the farm?"

„I have two cows, the two horses here and around ten chickens,"

„Do they have their own name?"

„My parents have never given any names to their animals….except the horses. They're around 8-10 years old. Loki is the one with the long, black mane and Odin is the one with the band on the right hind leg,"

„Can you tell them apart from each other?"

„Odin has a black chin and fewer spots on his back. Otherwise, they're similar. They're from the same breeder,"

„Odin is the cutest out of the two in my opinion,"

„I like Loki the most. He's very caring towards children, which is funny we barely have contact with them, just once in a while in the village,"

„Aww, what a great boy," Complimented Anna looking at the horse, which neighed.

Donny moved with his back against the bottom of the bench to lie with his belly up, which earned Anna's attention.

„You're still going to continue leading the horses?" Questioned the Norwegian princess seeing Hans glimpse at her.

„What are you referring to, Princess?"

„You've been leading them the entire week. You could pass me the lead for a few hours for a break,"

„I'm good, princess. I'm your rider, it's my task to lead you to Falsterbo,"

„I insist. I've embossed the moves you've done to guide them. I'm certain I can handle that without much trouble," Spoke Anna making Hans smile.

„Well, I guess I could use a break from this," Answered the brunette man, which handed Anna out the leash, which she grabbed carefully to hold it near her. „That's right," Commented Hans making the princess smile then she looked up to see a bird come along carrying a letter and land on Hans' lap.

„Oh look I got back the note," Commented Hans taking the letter from the bird, then looked into the cart behind him and pointed at a small half-eaten corncob and the bird got down to peak on it. Hans opened the letter to take a look at it.

„Is it that Oscar, you mentioned last time?"

„Yes, this is his response,"

„What did he say?"

„He wrote, dear Hans. I'm glad, that you two got out of the castle without any problem. Funnily this makes me regret to not having come along. Anyway the time you will receive the latter will probably be around one or two days before the arrival here. I have already talked with the king about your farm. I'll got the contract for it and you just have to sign it to officially be the owner. There's no catch nor anything. Meet me up at the castle to seal our deal. See you in a few days,"

„What happened to your farm again?"

„My parents before their death never made any testament about the farm and since I only was their adopted son, they had no information about it and assumed the farm had no owner. The guards, that came to check the farm sent me to the king and I would have needed a proof that I was their son, but I couldn't do anything without a testament or anything,"

„It's great, that Oscar helped you out with this….by the way, how is it, that you don't know him so well? How were you willing to accept his offer?" The princess asked making the man shrug his shoulders.

„I felt like this was the only opportunity I could have to get the farm back. Talking with the king didn't work for me, since he had all the rights and the attorney would say the same as well. I'm fine at the moment the way it went, to be honest,"

„You don't regret it as well?"

„I got the chance to make a friend…..at least, this is how it feels. It's been a while, I have called someone a friend. A part of me is to blame for being all on my own after my parent's death,"

„I haven't met beside you anyone else that like the two of us has mourned about a very close family member's death. I don't think everyone grieves the same way. This oddly reminds me back to when my parents disappeared on the sea, Elsa had locked herself up in her bedroom and we didn't have a chance to help each other out with the grief. I mean this was our only chance to help each other out, but the issue with her magic and anything else now related to the fact she was going to be the future queen pressured on her in a way, that…..she simply just was there for herself,"
„I don't know why she did that. It wasn't fair of her thought," Answered the man, then the princess kept her eyes forward on their path and noticed far on their way a person sitting leaning against the tree.

„Do you see, what I see?" Questioned the woman watching Hans squint his eyes to recognize a young woman in a dark-blue, unkempt coat looking around the place and spotted the carriage come along.

„I think she got lost," Commented Hans, then the girl looked up at the duo and got up to the middle of the road to stop them.

„I need to get back home. I've lost my last ride and you're the only ones to pass by," Warned the girl, then Anna looked at Hans worried and he nodded.

„She could sit here behind the load bed or I switch with her," Suggested Hans, then watched the girl climb up and jump at the load bed to get behind Hans.

„I appreaciate your kindness, I've been almost the entire day here persisting alone waiting for a chance to get out of here," Commented the girl watching Anna convince the horses to move on, afterward Hans grabbed the leash to intruct Anna how to lead the horses to move on and returned it back to her.

„Thank you, Hans,"

„You're welcome," Responded the farmer, then looked at the girl, which had shoved her hand under her coat to search for anything. „Where do you have to go?" Where you on a trip or anything?"

„It's a very long story," Answered the girl taking a look at the various bags and materials inside the carriage. „And I don't seem to be the only one, that is on a trip,"

„That's our supplies for the whole trip. We already had lunch before on our last stop. We could offer you for now raw fruits or vegetables, if you're hungry. Our next stop will be in a hour or two," Spoke Hans. „Or whenever there's an urge to use the bathroom,"

„I think one of those apples here will be enough," Commented the girl, which had opened the bag to search throughout the variations of fruits and vegetables, then kept an apple, which she shoved into the pocket of her coat. The girl watched the duo focus on the road, then she held both her hands in front of her mouth to make a bird noise, causing the dog on the front seat to move his head up and move his head back at the foreign girl. The girl pointed forward making Donny look forward at the road to see the horses only, afterward the girl shove her hand into her coat to take out a knife and got around Hans placing it close to his throat shrieking him.

„Don't move a muscle, if you don't want to feel the blade go through your neck," Ordered the girl making Anna gasp in surprise at the revelation of the girl.

„She's a bandit?" Questioned Anna.

„If I were you, I would just keep the hands on the lead or you'll make it worse," Warned the girl moving her sword at Anna, which watched the girl held the sword back on Hans' neck making Anna frown and swing her leash hard to order the horses to run faster. Due to her hard swing, the horses stopped followed by one of the trailer pole hit the oldest horse causing him to get on his hindlegs to neigh along the other one and raced forward pushing hastily the carriage.

„Odin! Loki! Calm down!" Ordered Hans with a high voice from having the sword still leaned on his neck due to the bandit, which had grabbed herself tightly with one arm around the man to continue her threat.

„Stop!" Ordered Anna hoping for the horses to obey her, then shrieked as they went off the path going throught the woods passing by the trees and Anna tried her best to lead them away from trees, afterward she cried as she saw the horses were heading towards a small space for their carriages to pass through, then pulled aside and the horses moved aside causing the carriage to catapult itself throught the gap crashing against the trees throwing the inmates followed by the content of it downhill at the earth, which was a few meters away from the shore.

„Odin! Loki! Get back here!" Yelled Hans moving his hand up as he called for the two horses. Anna moved her head up to see the bandit girl about to get up, then encountered far behind her the barrel with the bow and the arrows, then grabbed them and adjused quickly on the bow the arrow and stepped in front of the girl aiming the bow at her.

„Hands up, where I can see them!" Ordered Anna earning Hans' attention as he watched Anna threaten the young bandit girl, that planned to injure him. Hans was astonished to see how she was willing to mess up with the bandit, that tricked them.

„You won't go that far with it," Commented the girl with a smirk, making Anna furrow her eyebrows, then look up as she heard a vocal noise and saw a group of bandits standing on top of the hill armed with several types of weapons. Anna glimpsed back at the farmer, which felt bad about the current situation and dropped the weapon on the ground.

„Stay closer you two, I want this job to be easy done," Commented the bandit watching Anna get back to Hans and kneel down beside him, then heard their husky yelp and looked up to see one of the bandits hold up the dog by its back.

„This dog is a pretty one. Would be good in your arch," Commented the bandit, making the girl smile and look at the adult duo exchanging looks worried about, what was going to happen to them.