Kristoff woke to laughter and a headache. He popped one eye open, his skull throbbing as though he'd had one too many beers before falling asleep. He opened his other eye and rested his head against the scratchy surface behind him—tree, he decided—to try and still his vision. There looked to be a camp around him. Several figures stood spread about the premises, some lowering underbrush into a pit in the ground, others standing and talking animatedly amongst themselves. It took him longer than it should have, but Kristoff counted seven of them... and one small girl skipping from group to group.
Kristoff's eyes popped wide open as he remembered being knocked over the head before waking up like this. He immediately lurched to rise to his feet but was held in place by tight ropes binding him to the tree trunk behind him.
"Ah, he's..." One, a round middle aged woman, observed Kristoff's regained consciousness and pointed his waking state out to the rest of them.
Kristoff narrowed his eyes, double-checking his count. Seven, plus the child. There was no way he could take them all on his own. Suddenly he panicked. Sven!? His eyes darted left and right. He calmed when he spotted Sven roped to a tree some yards away from him. His friend was preoccupied with grazing on the grass by his own tree. Kristoff permitted himself a relieved sigh, but he tensed up as a few of his captors circled around him.
"Finally up?" a clean-shaven carrot-topped youth asked, prodding at Kristoff's knee with his boot. Kristoff jerked his leg away, glancing at movement to his far right. The little girl had gone up to Sven. She appeared to be talking to him now, barely tall enough to reach up and feel his antlers. Kristoff held his breath and hoped Sven wouldn't react badly. Much to his surprise, Sven stuck his tongue out and licked the little girl's nose. It appeared he liked her, whoever she was.
"Look," Kristoff said, surprised by the rasp in his voice. He cleared his throat and looked up to them with his most piercing gaze. "I don't have anything valuable. Just let me go."
"Ooh?" the redhead asked with a chuckle. "What're these?" He held his hand out to the solemn faced woman on his left. Kristoff watched her pass Grand Pabbie's red boots into carrot top's hands.
"Hey!" he objected, furious that they'd been pilfered. The man shook the boots back and forth inches away from Kristoff's face, making Kristoff growl. "Give those back! Those were a gift!" He jerked forward, testing his restraints. But it was no good. He was stuck to the stupid tree.
"Aye, and now they're your gift to us," the young man answered, handing the boots back to the silent woman beside him.
Kristoff frowned at the three of them: the woman, the carrot top and a balding, sour-faced man on the right. "What are you going to do with me?" he asked. He might as well know his fate. But none of them would answer.
Hours passed without any of the group speaking to Kristoff. He had come to think of them as robbers. They had stolen from him, after all.
The girl was the youngest among them. He'd watched her bring apples to Sven and pet the reindeer's fur. There were a couple of other reindeer at another end of the camp, bound to a tree with a lone, shaggy chestnut mare. In spite of having pre-established animal companions, the girl seemed oddly attached to Sven. Kristoff assumed the robbers would want to keep him, but what would they want with a crude ice harvester? He eyed their clothing with purpose for the first time. They wore neither Arendelle's fashion nor Sami attire. Who were they?
A couple went into the woods and returned some time later with a few rabbits. Kristoff almost refused when the little girl offered him some morsels for dinner. But his pride was no match for his hunger, and he gruffly thanked her before wolfing down the meal.
He kept his curiosity to himself as he watched them start a campfire. The sky turned to dusk and then twilight. Kristoff kept glancing over at Sven, hoping to catch the reindeer's attention. But Sven was always snorting at the grass by his hooves or happily beaming at the little girl when she ran over to give him attention. Kristoff wasn't sure which he found more irritating.
Eventually he let himself relax. He'd been traveling since daybreak and the journey was finally catching up to him. The chances of his escaping a group that large when he was that exhausted were slim to none. He actually felt relieved when he accepted this. Tomorrow would be another day. There'd be another reason to talk sense into them. At least none of them had tried on Grand Pabbie's boots yet. 'Flight boots', he'd called them. Kristoff frowned. It wasn't that he doubted his grandfather, but he didn't see how the boots could aid him against an ice-wielding witch.
"Do you like stories?"
Kristoff jumped at the question. He glanced left and found the same little girl squatted down and staring at him. He raised his eyebrow. Hadn't he just seen her with the others, staring into the fire? How is it she appeared to be everywhere at once?
"It depends on the story," he answered after a moment's hesitation. She was just a child, after all. Probably harmless. He eyed her now to reassure himself. She was bright-faced for someone bone-thin. Her pretty black hair dangled over her shoulders in loose, static waves. She wore a white band around her head to keep those dark locks out of her face. Her eyes were as dark as her hair, but they twinkled with the light from the fire. Kristoff saw secrets in those eyes. He suspected the girl was older than she looked.
"What's your name?" he asked.
She smiled. "Maija."
Immediately after she introduced herself, Maija turned away from him to look back toward the campfire. Kristoff looked past her to see what had drawn her attention. The robbers were all gathering around the fire now. It looked like it was a ritual for them.
"Listen," Maija whispered. Then she left Kristoff to join the others by the fire.
Kristoff watched with some confusion as the girl skipped off and found herself a seat between Carrot Top and an elderly gentleman. Once Maija was seated, she clapped her hands. Once she had everyone's attention, she spoke in a voice as crisp as autumn. Then like an elder, she began spinning a tale Kristoff had never heard before...
Long, long ago, there was a wicked sprite—in fact, he was the most mischievous of his kind, always playing tricks on his more docile siblings and mortal kinds. One day he was absolutely pleased with himself, for he had forged a mirror unlike any other. Some might call the mirror 'evil', for it drove many to such a fate. But while the mirror was enchanted, the only evil in it was that it could not lie. Rather, it could only reflect the most sacred and naked truths. Some truths are not meant to be beheld, however. This was how many who looked upon its surface were pushed to insanity. For truth lies in many places.
"What fun!" said the sprite, cheering as nations warred against one another when one learned the other's true intentions. No man could hide his darkest thought from the mirror. The sprite laughed heartily over this clever discovery.
All the sprites who went to his school—for he kept a school—told each other a miracle had happened and that now, thanks to their headmaster, it would be possible to see the world for what it truly was. They flew the mirror from continent to continent until there was not a land or person who could trust another, for they had seen the worst of their secrets hidden away in their hearts.
Then the lot of sprites had a most clever idea. What if they flew the mirror up to the heavens, where all the angels surely kept ugly secrets of their own? What a joke that would be!
But the higher they took the mirror, the heavier its burden became. Higher and higher, all the way to the stars they flew, until they could barely carry it. Suddenly the mirror shook and fell from their grasp, falling to the earth where it shattered into a million pieces. Now it caused more trouble than it had before, for some shards flew into people's eyes while others were left alone. Some shards found their way back to each other, making smaller mirrors of equal consequence. For now while some people saw the truth and accepted it, others went mad from it. Then there were people who had not seen the truth, but fought valiantly for what they believed in anyway. This caused a great number of quarrels and betrayal, much to the wicked sprite's amusement. He chuckled at his work, splinters of the one mirror still loose upon the earth, causing havoc and confusion. And that is how evil came into all of our hearts. But if we'd only accept the truth the mirror show us, rather than let it overpower us...
Kristoff woke with a start to his name in the wind. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head to make himself more alert, looking back and forth all around the camp. He could not recall nodding off. The fire had weakened, but was still burning. The robbers rested in still forms all around, some of them snoring.
"...Kristoff."
There it was again. He turned his eyes over to Sven's tree. He nearly squawked in surprise to see Sven standing much closer to him, stretching the end of his rope from the tree.
"I thought you'd never wake up!" Sven whispered, grinning goofily.
Kristoff hesitated. Did what he think just happened actually happen? Did Sven … talk?
"What the—?! Did you just...?!" Kristoff hissed, rubbing his eyes to make sure he was actually awake.
"Cool, huh?" Sven said, giving him a classic, dopey smile.
"Cool?! Did they poison me or what? Am I hallucinating?!" Kristoff panicked.
Sven scowled. "We don't have much time. Listen..."
"LISTEN!? But you're talking!"
"That didn't seem to bother you before," Sven retorted with a snort.
"That's, err, that was different."
Sven gave Kristoff an unamused-reindeer face. "What, when I didn't have a voice of my own?"
"Wait, could you talk all this time or... wait a minute..." Kristoff thought quickly, recalling the flight boots that Carrot Top had shown off earlier. But what happened to Grand Pabbie's purple carrot? "You ate the carrot, didn't you?!"
Sven looked guilty for all of two seconds before he shook his head. "Can we focus, please?" Kristoff took a moment to dwell on the fact that Sven's voice was deeper than his own. Then he snapped himself out of it.
"Focus?! Grand Pabbie specifically said that carrot was only to be used—"
"In a time of dire need, yes, you did mention that once or twice or a hundred times," Sven interrupted. "Now please, for the love of all carrots, would you listen?!" As he snorted in impatience, steam actually puffed out of his nostrils.
Kristoff would have made another snarky remark but stopped himself when he observed Sven's anxious face. It was rare for Sven to be so serious. "What is it, buddy?" Kristoff asked, putting aside the issue of the purple carrot ... for the moment.
"I overheard them talking earlier," Sven whispered, his eyes shifting toward the sleeping forms on the ground. Kristoff frowned in question. "They're going to take you to some kind of trading post! It sounded like they'd be trading you."
"Me?" Kristoff scoffed. "What about you? That Maija seems to have taken a liking to you."
Sven nodded. "Me, they'll keep. Trading you was Maija's idea."
Kristoff's heart stopped. The little girl wanted to trade him off... as what, a slave? But she was just a child!
"Ahem."
Both Kristoff and Sven turned their heads toward the campfire. One of the robbers had sat up, overhearing them. Kristoff's blood ran cold as he realized it was Maija sitting up.
Wide-eyed, Sven hung his head low and sauntered back over to his tree, pretending as though he hadn't just been conversing with his human companion.
Kristoff looked away from Maija's gaze and turned over, knowing full well he would not be able to fall back asleep. Instead, he contemplated a plan to escape.
A/N: Thanks for reading! I figured Kristoff deserved a little adventure time after being stuck in Arendelle. Granted, he may have walked into more than he bargained for... but fear not, he and Sven are a dynamic duo! (Special thanks to Moonshadow396 for helping me brainstorm for Kristoff's side-story. :D)
Slightly different twist on the story about the mirror. Also, the poll for Hans POV chapters is still up, so feel free to submit your vote if you haven't yet... I'll leave it open for a little while longer.
For anyone wondering, you'll see more of Elsa and Hans/Anna in future chapters!