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Chapter 22! Enjoy!
Anna officially knew what it was like to be pushed around like an animal, and she was not proud of it. All those giant goons had pushed her around until they found a nice place to make her sit, next to the sleigh where they could keep an eye on her. Hans had disappeared a short while ago into one of the numerous tents circling the field. All the while, Anna was forced to watch as his henchmen teased and shoved Kristoff around.
"Uff!" Kristoff yelped when he was pushed to the ground beside Anna. His hands were bound behind his back and his hat was missing.
"Are you okay?" She asked and examined his face carefully.
"Fine, you?" he quickly glanced over to her, but never took his eyes off the ax wielding muscle men.
"I'm okay. They haven't found Sven yet." Anna looks toward the cave they had been resting in.
"He's probably still sleeping knowing him." Kristoff mumbled as he counted the number of men surrounding them.
"Which is good right? Cuz if he wakes up, he would go back to Arendelle and get help right?" Anna begged for reassurance from him.
"Eh, no, he would most likely stay here and keep an eye on us." Kristoff followed her gaze toward the cave. Nobody had gone inside yet, they probably didn't even know Anna and Kristoff had come from the cave to begin with.
"Kristoff?" Anna looked up to him.
"Yeah?" He measured the distance between them and the nearest mobile sleigh.
"What's going to happen to us?" she whispered. For the first time since he had sat down, he looked directly at her.
"Anna-" he started.
"I'm scared Kristoff. I'm scared of what they're going to do to us, of what this will do to my sister..."
"Anna look at me." he demanded. She obliged and frowned up at him.
"We'll be okay. I won't let anything happen to you, I promise." his eyes softened and he smiled at her, letting his guard down, for her. Anna's heart melted whenever he smiled at her like that and for a moment, she wasn't afraid.
"Well, look what we have here. Guess the rumors about the engagement are true after all." Anna cringed at the sound of that voice. She forced herself to look away from Kristoff and up at Hans. He had that wicked smirk of his plastered on his face.
"Not happy to see me? That's fine, but I have to say, seeing you has probably made my day. It'll make my job a whole lot easier." Hans crossed his arms over his chest.
"Job?" Kristoff stared up at him.
"Well, I guess telling you won't do any harm. Might actually make things more interesting. You see, I have some unfinished business with that sister of yours. I decided to gather some old friends and travel over the mountains by foot to get here. At first I had a hard time figuring out a proper approach to bringing an end to the Queen, but now that you're here, I've got it all sorted out. Thank you again Princess, you never fail to disappoint."
"You can't! I won't let you hurt my sister!" Anna struggled against her bounds. All Hans could do was laugh.
"And how do you plan on doing that?" he knelt down and met her at eye level.
"Just wait until she gets her hands on you. Once she finds out that you're in her kingdom, she will make you regret everything!" She hissed. With an eye-roll, Hans returned to his feet with a sigh.
"Oh Anna, how naive you are. You believe in the best of everyone don't you? You think you're sister is some perfect person or something?" he asked.
"Maybe not a perfect person, but she isn't called the Ice Queen for nothing..." Anna glared up at him with a smirk of her own. For a split second, Hans' confidant expression faltered before he spun on his heels and stalked away. As Kristoff watched him walk away, all he could think was: Whoa! When did his girlfriend become so good at intimidating?
"He's going to go after Elsa. We can't let him Kristoff!" She turned to him with a pained expression.
"I know. But we have to get away from here first." Kristoff turned to look around their surroundings.
Meanwhile,
"If we leave at daybreak, we can make it up the mountain before nightfall." John speaks with his friend and butler Harald. Elsa had given him a room in the palace to rest. Harald had been standing by the window nervously tapping his foot.
"Are you sure you want to do this me liege?" Harald knew what the answer would be, but he had to ask anyway. John stopped what he was doing with his gloves and glanced over.
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Why?" Harald asked.
"Because...I just feel like I need to." he started to fiddle with his shirt.
"Are you doing this in attempt to win over the Queen?" Harald continued.
"No! No, it's not that!" John rushed to deny the claim.
"Then what is it?" John sighed and moved to lean on the chest of drawers.
"He's my brother Harald, and we're princes. I guess I was thinking I could stop him, stop him from making matters worse. Stop him from shaming the Southern Isles even more. If I can't stop him, who will? Someone has to try." he ran his fingers through his hair with another long sigh.
"I see. He is dangerous John, no one will be able to protect you if he should harm you." Harald replied gravely.
"I know. Let's just hope he doesn't hurt me." John removed his gloves and tossed them onto the bed.
"And the Queen? Will you speak to her about your feelings?" Harald asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"Feelings?" John replied.
"Don't think I haven't noticed your anxiety around her highness. Or how excited you were this morning to get out of that blasted ship and over here to see her." Harald crossed his arms and grinned in full I'm on to you mode.
"Was not! I wasn't that excited! Besides! Who doesn't want to get as far away as possible from that floating vessel of pain!" John threw up his arms in exaggeration.
"Ahem, you're as bright as an apple my prince." Harald stifled laughter and pointed to John's blushing cheeks. John shrugged him off and turned away.
"You've never been good at concealing your emotions."
"Says the one who's known me since I was in diapers!" John snapped back and rubbed his cheeks.
"It won't matter anyway Harald, as soon as I retrieve my brother and return the Princess and her fiancee back here, we are returning home. That will be that. I will captain the ship if our current captain refuses to. We have been here long enough!" John gave his final word on the topic. Harald knew better than to persuade him otherwise, that was that.
"Very well." Harald regained composure. John, having seen the obvious tension he built up in the room decided to lighten the mood.
"Anyway! Weren't you the one who told me I should get out more!? Consider this my first and final idea of an adventure!" He threw out his arms and flashed his pearly whites in a big smile. With a chuckle, Harald shook his head.
"You know that is not what I meant."
"Well then you should've been more clear!" John plopped down onto the bed with a laugh.
"Oh my liege, what will I do with you?" Harald asked as he watched his prince clutch his stomach from laughter. But it came to an abrupt stop when there came a knocking on the door.
"Knock knock?" came a female voice. Elsa poked her head in with a shy smile.
"Your Majesty!" John shot off the bed into a bow as Harald did the same.
"Good evening. I just thought I would ask if John would like to join me for dinner in the dining hall. I wanted to speak with him about the mountains he will be climibing tomorrow." Elsa stepped farther into the room with her hands folded neatly in front of her. John forced the thought of spending more time with her out of his head as much as it interested him, he knew it was out of the question.
"Uh, I should actually get to-" John started to reply.
"He would love dinner! He hasn't eaten since breakfast!" Harald abruptly cut him off. John turned around and stared at him with a dumbfounded expression.
"Wonderful! They're setting up the table now if you want to follow me to the dining hall?" Elsa motioned to the hall. All John could do was nod. As they made their way out of the room, John turned around and stared at his butler again. Harald waved and gave the prince two thumbs up as John disappeared into the hall.
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