The men left, and the boy and his little reindeer couldn't keep up. He was in the woods now, but he wasn't lost. He wasn't sure where the others had gone, but he knew he was approaching one of the roads.
As they approached the road, there was a loud commotion of horses in full gallop. As they disappeared down the road away from the town, he noticed something strange.
"Ice?" he said, looking at the road. "Come on, Sven!"
They followed the ice path.
The road eventually led beyond where the boy had ventured before, and there was a rocky clearing. He saw the horses in the center of the small valley, and the riders, a man and a woman, had two girls with them, about his own age. One was standing there, worried, and the other was in the woman's arms, not moving at all.
After some shouting, the rocks began moving. There were trolls. They were performing some kind of magic on the girl who wasn't moving, but she seemed better. The man and woman, who were apparently the king and queen, got back up on their horses, carrying the girls with them. They stopped at the edge of the valley.
"Who are you?" the king demanded of him. "Did you see anything?"
"I- I didn't see anything!" he promised. He wasn't sure what he had seen, and he certainly wasn't about to talk about it. A fanciful story like that would get him a beating for wasting everyone's time.
"Who's with you?" the king asked.
"Nobody! It's just us!"
"You and who else?"
"Me and Sven," he said, petting the reindeer by his side.
"Oh…" the king's face softened, and he looked over at the queen. "Where do you live?"
"Nowhere in particular," the boy said.
The king and queen looked at each other, not saying anything. The older girl was looking straight at him and the reindeer.
The queen looked at him. "You didn't tell us your name," she said gently.
"Kristoff,' he told her.
"And you don't have any family?" she asked him.
"No," he admitted.
She looked at her husband.
He sighed. "I suppose... The Head Groom has been asking for some help. Kristoff, can you work with horses?"
"Yes!" he said. He hadn't actually worked with horses, but he would learn.
"Then we have a position for you. But there will be rules. Most importantly, you must not talk about anything you did or didn't see tonight."
"Of course!" Kristoff agreed.
Kristoff heard the birds chirping outside. He threw off the covers of his bed, and changed into his work clothes. He had never had a second set of clothes before. Life at the castle was strange, and there were lots of things that they weren't supposed to talk about, but he had a warm place to sleep, plenty of food, and everyone was nice enough to him.
The Head Groom didn't expect him for another hour or two, but Sven slept in the royal stables with the horses, so Kristoff liked to get up early to visit him.
Usually, when he got to the stables this early, there were no noises other than the sounds of the horses, but this morning he heard a child's voice.
"Who's there?" Kristoff called out.
He heard a giggle, and then a happy snort from Sven.
"Oh, hello!" a girl called back. "I just wanted to see the reindeer! I've seen him in the courtyard, but I've never gotten to see him up close. He's always gone when I have riding lessons."
It was the princess, the younger princess who had been asleep the night with the trolls.
"He's mine," Kristoff declared. Sven looked at him and snorted at him, but not a happy one.
"I just want to play with him," the princess said.
"Well, I'm not supposed to talk to you," Kristoff told her. He couldn't remember if he was supposed to tell her that. There were a lot of things he wasn't supposed to tell this princess.
"I didn't ask you to talk to me," she replied. "I just want to play with your reindeer. Does he have a name?"
"Sven," Kristoff replied.
"Hello, Sven, I'm Anna" she said to the reindeer. "Do you want to play with me?"
