Chapter 19
Gerda sat in a small dining room along with the woman Una and her younger son Kai having together mashed potato as their dinner.
„Wow how the tables have turned this week. You have talked about that you missed your biological daughter and the next thing you see is her showing up at the door," Kai commented squeezing his mash more than it was, before taking the fork into his mouth.
„This only because Prince Rollan's steed had noticed our conversation and yours, then eventually assumed we had anything in common," Mentioned Gerda.
„I think the horse on the day we met had tried to tell you something, but he somehow was ignored by my eyes. At least this is what it seemed,"
„Now that you talk about that, I really begin to believe Valiente had felt it,"
„The most important part of this is that we've found each other at last," Mentioned Una placing her hand on Gerda's arm making her smile.
„I agree," Mumbled Kai after swallowing the porridge. „About the part, where you both used the magic mirror to see in the past, why didn't you see that scene before and eventually recall the moments, that showed Gerda older?"
„You know Kai, it would be a little hard to go out look for that certain person and just show the mirror. How would she have reacted, her surroundings and what impact it would have in all their lives, mostly up there with the royals,"
„Well about that, I'm just a simple advisor and friend to the queen. I'm no royal princess or anything. I sure have been doing a few things, that are somewhat important according to her, but I have never considered it like that," Gerda foretold and took the third-last scoop of her plate, then Kai observed her and got off his seat to grab the spoon from the pot to take out a bit mashed potato to drop it over Gerda's plate.
„Oh Kai, that wasn't necessary," Commented Gerda neutral at the boy giving her more.
„Come, so we don't have rests to throw away. I'm taking along with mom too," Promised Kai making Gerda nod and take another scoop into her mouth.
„Alright, thank you for your hospitality," Commented Gerda making Una smile.
„You're welcome dear," Answered Una. „I know this all must be now strange for you. I don't want to force you into anything. When you feel ready to come to visit us and have a moment or two to get to know us, you're welcome here,"
„Thank you," Spoke Gerda taking the next scoop. „I sure will pass here more often, when I can,"
Una smiled, then the trio continued with the dinner, and later on, Gerda's time arrived to leave and she stood at the exit together with Una looking at the lightened road leading across the village up to the castle.
„You're okay with going by yourself?" Questioned Una making Gerda nod.
„Don't worry, some of the guards are around the place in case there is something," The blonde mentioned making Una smile, then placed her hand on the daughter's shoulder. „Take good care of yourself,"
„I will," Promised the Danish-born girl and left, walking the road up leaving her biological mom back.
During her walk, she got close to the first crossroad, where a carriage passed by guided by a guard. Gerda listened to the loud clacking of the horse hooves on the ground echoing through the avenue signaling her loneliness of her at that time.
„The candles here really do look like they're shining brighter," Gerda mentioned crossing the crossroad while facing forward to see her way. She began to hear another clacking of hooves on the ground, then listened curiously to where the sound would come from, and turned her head back to see Prince Rollan along with Valiente pass by, making Gerda smile and lift up her hand to wave at the Spaniard. Rollan noticed her, then made the horse stop, so the blonde would approach the duo.
„Hey Gerda," Greeted the prince. „I didn't know you were still in the village. Were you this entire time with your mother?"
„Yes," Responded Gerda. „I had there dinner as well,"
„I took two apples from an apple tree I found on the way," Mentioned Rollan followed by hearing his horse puff. „Well, and Valiente had a couple of apples as well. I'm sure the castle's got more for him,"
„Sure, when we get back I make sure he's getting them," Added Gerda, then climbed up at the horse to sit behind the prince, then he looked back to see if she was completely on top of the saddle. „Where have you been the entire day?"
„I've spent the entire day getting to know Arendelle," Answered Rollan. „By the way, you remember that large rock you showed me the last time from the room you sleep in?" Questioned the prince making Gerda nod. „I went up there as well,"
„Really?" Asked Gerda surprised making Rollan nod. „Great,"
„What do you think? Shall we go up there? The view at this time is amazing,"
„Hmm….shouldn't you be back to your father eventually?" Queried Gerda making Rollan shrug his shoulders.
„I don't think he's going to say anything. Queen Elsa isn't here for him to be motivating me to have her wake the interest in me," Stated Rollan, then Gerda placed her hands around Rollan's stomach to look at him.
„I can come with you,"
Rollan beamed, then gazed at his horse which moved his head adjusting his mane waiting for a commando by the rider.
„Valiente, let's return to the canyon," Ordered Rollan making Valiente neigh and run the road down towards the exit of the village, making Gerda clam herself with her hands around the prince. „I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you,"
„I didn't expect him to go real fast," Confessed Gerda making the Spaniard nod.
„Alright, keep on holding tight. It's going upright," Mentioned Rollan making Gerda nod and look above his shoulder to see the horse gallop swiftly reaching the end of the road to follow a dirt track leading through the woods. Gerda observed the many trees the trio came along on their ride, then looked up to see the dark sky with tiny, little points and returned her face down to watch their path.
Rollan smiled as he noticed they were soon arriving at a path splitting into two and entered into the left one, which would leave the forest and show the side of the large rock with a small path beside it. "Stop!"
„We're here?" Asked Gerda making Rollan nod, which got down, then offered the woman his hand watching her get down by herself, then she noticed his offer and grinned embarrassedly. „Oh I'm sorry,"
„It's okay," Commented Rollan, after that he placed his hand above the nose of the horse, „Amigo, we'll be right back. You can stay here,"
Gerda smiled, then passed her hand beside Valiente's cheek making the prince smile at seeing the girl adore the stallion as well.
„Come, it's an easy path for us," Spoke Rollan advising Gerda to get to the path beside the wall, followed by the prince to go over it.
„Did you discover this on your own?" Asked Gerda making Rollan shake his head.
„Valiente did, actually. Or to be precise, he saw a lynx running here and we followed it above here,"
„You two saw a lynx around here?" Questioned Gerda curious, watching Rollan roll his eyes up to ponder about the meeting, then shrugged.
„Could also have been some sort of cat. It ran fast, I assumed it was a lynx at first sight,"
„Do lynxes exist in Spain as well,"
„Well, there is the Iberian lynx. I haven't seen one in a long while, I just know their looks from my history books," Commented Rollan making Gerda nod, then notice a few thin, young trees looking beside the slope and Gerda took a look down to see they were growing on another edge of the rock and looked further to see a right turn, afterward both stopped as they reached the corner and saw from there the ledge of the cliff with the waterfall covering half of the ledge. The duo could recognize its pointy end from where they could look down at Arendelle and Rollan moved his hand towards the place gently, for Gerda to step in front of him first, then Gerda looked up at him and placed her hand behind Rollan's back.
„We go together," Offered Gerda making Rollan nod with a little smile, then continued their path beside the rock, until they reached the ledge and were between the waterfall, which both observed astonished. Rollan put his hand under the water watching it get wet, as Gerda slowly observed the surrounding over the cliff listening to the loud waterfall, and glimpsed at the prince, which stood on the same spot and returned his eyes at the blonde. Gerda signaled the prince to follow her to the edge, then Rollan got beside her, walking along the path getting closer to the edge, and stopped as they got to see the castle of Arendelle and the bridges splitting it up from the villages.
Gerda stared in awe at the view of the kingdom from the rock's edge, speechless thereafter Rollan glanced at the girl.
„Isn't it amazing?" Asked the prince making the girl nod, then Rollan sat down on the edge and looked up at the blonde. „Have you thought about sitting on the edge?" Questioned Rollan seeing Gerda look down at him, then sat down carefully beside the prince to admire the forest under them, which they had come from a while ago and she returned her eyes up, then widened her eyes as she saw a shooting star pass by quickly and pointed up.
„Did you see that?" Asked Gerda, then Rollan looked at her watching the skyline and he glimpsed up at it. „You just missed a shooting star,"
„Oh"
„There will be another shot some other night," Commented Gerda making Rollan nod and look along with her at the sky.
„The stars from up here still looks as far as from when we view it from under our ground," Commented Rollan making Gerda nod.
„It does," Agreed Gerda, then remembered something and nudged Rollan on his arm. „Rollan, have you ever seen the northern lights?"
„No, but I heard about them," Answered the raven-haired. „Our family's advisor said I would most likely get the chance to see them when I'm here,"
„The winter season is almost here, we'll get the chance to see them,"
„Hopefully I'll get the chance before my time here is over," Commented Rollan making Gerda nod, then look up again. „This place sure would be great to admire the northern lights,"
„It sure would," Agreed Gerda glimpsing at the Spaniard, which kept looking at the stars, then she slid closer to the prince and placed her hands on his shoulders to peck him on the cheek making him look surprised at the deed. „Thanks for taking me up here,"
„I…...you're welcome," Responded Rollan making Gerda grin and move one of Rollan's locks up behind his ear. The Spaniard gazed at the young woman slightly perplexed, then Gerda felt strange about the confused facial expression the prince had on.
„Prince Rollan?" Spoke Gerda, then waved her hand in front of his face bringing him back into reality and look down at himself.
„I'm sorry, I…...got carried away," Commented Rollan, then Gerda nodded and glimpsed back at the castle, then Rollan sat there processing the last few seconds and looked back at the friend of the queen before he would speak again. „Gerda?" Spoke Rollan watching Gerda look at him, then he quickly planted his lips on hers for a short kiss making her widen her eyes in surprise, then the Spaniard backed off to see her facial expression and slapped his forehead. „I'm sorry, you sure meant to do something else, cierto?" Questioned the prince making Gerda shake her head and lean her face on Rollan's to kiss him back, but this time on his lips allowing it to take longer, and slowly placed her hand on his arm. Rollan felt amorously at that moment and placed his hand beside her shoulder taking the lead while leaning closer on her thus continuing making them to forget about the current time.
Prince Oscar sat at the bar along with both his guards sharing a cup of beer with another. This time they had encountered the mysterious wizard, that had given them info about the princess from Arendelle.
„Okay, I'll call you Frode," Questioned Oscar earning a nod from the older man. „Alright, if you haven't heard yet those are Garth and Osmon," Introduced the prince seeing the guards lift their glass one after the other as Oscar announced their names.
„Nice to get to know you," Commented the wizard Frode. „Out of curiosity, I haven't heard anything about Princess Anna since she was freed from the ice palace. Where is she?"
„She's around Malmö at the moment. I had heard about a personal issue and as at that time I was a little busy I offered him to get his farm back while he would for me go on this mission to get her," Explained Oscar. „Let me say, I feared a little, that sending this farmer I spoke about wouldn't probably be a good idea and he wouldn't pass through the ice palace, but when I received his first letter I was surprised. He had got the princess out of there and these creatures hidden in there were not as dangerous as people assumed. I don't know what he did, but he seemed to have figured out it was possible to pass there without any war,"
„That sounds very interesting," Commented Frode. „About the princess….is she aware, that she's coming up here because of you?"
„According to this Hans, she seems to be really interested in meeting me," Commented Oscar taking out from his vest a letter out for the wizard to see it, which furrowed his right eyebrow.
„And you're still thinking about wanting to marry her?" Questioned the wizard. „Or are you thinking about convincing Queen Elsa to change her with her kingdom as you somehow got to hear from the vision?"
„I would have to get there first. But before I have to wait until Princess Anna arrives. Then when Anna feels ready to leave again we go. I think after so many days she could need some rest, eat, new clothing and so on….,"
„Indeed," Commented Frode. „Look, maybe you haven't heard about it, but Queen Elsa left Arendelle to go look for Princess Anna and this friend, that helped her out of the castle. By morse code, Arendelle obtained pieces of information from other castles and villages, which have spotted Anna anywhere. Malmö or another region around it was the last spot to have informed Elsa about Anna's location and left to look for her,"
„So Queen Elsa may get here because of Anna?" Questioned Oscar making the man nod. „Is there a way we can contact her and ask her to come to Falsterbo?"
„Perhaps we can communicate with morse code as well?" Suggested Garth, the brunette guard.
„How without any address of the airship of them?" Questioned Osmon looking at the guard, which pondered about the comment and shrugged his shoulders.
„We could just inform our ground to send a notification and by any sight be informed back?" Suggested Oscar looking at the trio, then the wizard had an idea and put his arm inside his coat to pull out a blue pill.
„I have a better idea," Spoke Frode making Oscar drop his mouth.
„I'm not doing this again," Complained Oscar, then the guards looked at each other and played rock, paper, scissors, and Garth made a scissor while Osmon had an open hand.
„I won!" Chanted Garth, then Osmon smacked with his hand on Garth's fingers.
„That's a piece of wood. I won," Commented Osmon shoving the pill towards Garth who frowned.
„That's not how the game works," Commented Garth stern making Osmon pout, then grabbed the pill to add it into his drink and drank half of the beer and looked into the glass to see an airship with the blazon of Weselton, then he moved it towards Oscar to see it. „That's the Weselton blazon, right?"
„That small duke?" Questioned Oscar surprised, then Frode shrugged his shoulders.
„Their kingdom is near to Arendelle actually," Commented Frode. „I think in terms of negotiations Weselton seems more appropriate to be honest,"
„Okay, so now we know how the airship looks like, We just write a letter to the queen, advice our swift to look for the airship and we got her informed," Spoke Oscar making Garth nod, the Osman placed his bottle down on the table.
„What about we ask our majesty to have his swift deliver the message?" Questioned Osmon. „He usually sents the lace with the kingdom's name on it to have the others know the origin?"
„I think this would be even better, I just have to see if I can make it tonight into seeing the king again before he heads to bed," Stated the prince, then the door of the entrance crashes back shrieking a few visitors seating near the entrance to see a dark-dressed person come in.
„I've seen an ogre do a better entrance!" Commented one of the guests loud making a few people laugh, then the unknown person moved her hand to use magic causing a chair to levitate with a person sitting on it and threw it across the room taking the table down with the quartet, that had joked.
„Who's that?" Asked Oscar shocked, then the guards got up a little frightened about the villain, then Frode got up and grabbed the guards by their shoulders to stop them.
„I take care of this," Commented Frode, then walked to the middle of the bar to see at the entrance the mysterious wizard. „Long time no see, brother," Spoke the wizard, afterward the other wizard took down his hoodie to reveal him to be the twin brother.
„You've got a brother?" Questioned Oscar surprised making the wizard nod.
„The main cause for the princess's curse," Commented Frode noticing the guests step away from the corridor in fear of anything to happen to them.
„If he's looking for the princess, she's not here yet," Stated Oscar. „One day or two and she'll be here,"
„Right, she's out there with some farmer and his dog," Commented Sigmond with a laugh. „The fact they didn't even put on any effort to fight the bear is embarrassing,"
„Certain situations can also be solved without any violence," Spoke Frode stepping forward to the brother, which frowned.
„Of course, mama's favorite would come up with such a wise comment," Commented Sigmond, then used his hand to send an lighting against Frode, which shrieked and jumped aside, while Oscar cried smacking the table up in the air to get hit by the lighting and fall down on the surface.
„Sigmond, calm down. I know, that our mother has always favored me instead of you, you don't have to take your anger out on the other ones in here," Stated Frode, then Sigmund looked at Oscar, which sat together with the guards fearing the current situation.
„Explain me one thing, who are these friends behind you?"
„He's the one who sent the farmer to get Princess Anna up here," Explained Frode. „Just that,"
„He wants to exchange her with Queen Elsa's kingdom to be the next ru…..." Spoke Osmon, then Garth covered the guard's mouth along with Oscar, followed by Frode turn around to shush the trio.
„He wants to get the kingdom as well?" Asked Sigmond surprised watching Frode place his fingers in front of his eyelids. „This is even better!"
„Why so?" Asked Oscar crossing his arms, then Sigmond walked at the counter where a man sat in fear with his glass of beer and Sigmond took it off his hands to take a taste of it, afterward warped his face in disgust and smashed the glass on the ground.
„Yuck!" Commented Sigmund, then walked towards his brother. „You know the day I got to meet this princess, she was in a comatose state and the castle staff, that brought her had told me every single thing, that happened throughout life….One clairvoyant foresaw in my future wealth and fame and on that night I realized that this was the chance for me to get there. So I lied by promising them to remove the freeze out of her heart, but instead I made it turn into a curse and revealed my treason," Explained Sigmond making the trio look stern.
„The part with locking Anna up in the castle was done as Sigmond reappeared at Arendelle to offer healing in exchange for the kingdom. But Queen Elsa and the entire kingdom was against it until as Arendelle began to lose villagers due to Sigmond's threats, Anna was sent to that castle in hope, that she would be safe and someone as brave and bold would pass by and help her out," Added Frode.
„As I see this young prince here doesn't seem to want that princess as much as I had imagined," Commented Sigmond with a chuckle. „The poor princess only has a couple of months until the period of time ends for her and yet no one has any interest in getting to know her well,"
„She still has a chance to fall in love with someone," Countered Oscar making the two guards nod.
„The question is would that person fall in love with her?" Questioned Sigmond, making Oscar raise his right eyebrow up perplexed.
„Are you telling me, people are unable to fall in love with her?" Questioned Oscar exchanging looks with the guards.
„I'm referring to the fact the first two people she has ever met outside the castle have no interest in her, only because of materialistic goal, you're the kingdom and the farmer...whatever you promised him,"
„She could meet anyone else around the kingdom and still defeat her curse, wouldn't she?" Questioned Garth. „It doesn't make any sense. I have even seen people like each other and not realize it,"
„And there are even those who did but expect the other to confess first, but it just ends in a disaster," Added Osmon earning a nod from the brunette.
„Guys, I think the issue he's referring to is that the love between the two has to happen naturally. If certain people, that got together with the time took longer to notice it, Anna's chances get really low," Oscar commented making the guards nod. „And I believe after this knowledge I don't know if I wouldn't actually even fall in love at all with her,"
„Well observed, young man," Commented Sigmond watching Oscar turn neutral at the thoughts of the curse of the woman. „You know I can fix this without a problem all I need is Queen Elsa to pass by the kingdom to me and I'll just snip away the problem,"
„Why wouldn't she just agree and accept his suggestion?" Questioned Osmon. „They wouldn't be in this situation if they had accepted it in the first place,"
„The best for all of us would be if Princess Anna would make it to fall in love along with her suitor and break this curse. With this, she would be protected from being cursed again if Sigmond dared to screw up Arendelle again," Commented Frode making Oscar nod.
„Well I think I will get going and prepare myself for the day the princess arrives," Commented Sigmund turning around to make his way towards the door, afterward Osmon got up with his sword and ran towards the magician, which moved his hand up to send the guard flying across the room to crash against the wizard, getting hurt with the guard's sword on the arm.
„Youch!" Yelled the wizard, then Garth got down to help the wizard and another guest ran towards the wizard to check his injury.
„I'm a healer, don't worry," Promised the man, afterward Oscar looked at the exit to see Sigmond leave with a smirk on his face making Oscar swallow hard worried about what might be coming towards them all when Anna arrives.
