For My Kingdom

A Frozen Fan Fiction

Chapter Eight:

Olaf's Journey

Author's Note: Athena and Artemis are now Charlotte and Faust!

After leaving the pair of royal sisters to their own devices, the now-human snowman discovered the craziest thing. His stomach growled at him angrily. He was hungry.

Since previously he had had no digestive system (or any sort of system, for that matter), the sensation was foreign and intense. He recalled seeing the people eating huge plates of delicious looking food in a big hall on the ground floor of the castle, and so he headed that direction looking around in fascination. Everything suddenly looked and felt different then it had when he was made of snow. He was surrounded with a warm blanket of air instead of being shielded from it by Elsa's flurry.

When he was a snowman, everyone seemed to turn as he walked past them. He'd always smile, wave, and say hi to them, but now as he walked through the corridors it was like he was invisible. He was no longer a walking, talking snowman. Nothing horribly interesting about another human guy walking down the hall. Olaf had to admit to himself, he kind of liked it. It was an interesting change, and variety certainly was the spice of life.

When he entered the dining hall, there were several groups scattered about across the room, sitting at different tables and eating what looked like a dark, heavy piece of bread and white, mushy stuff.

A butler was waiting by the door and approached him. "Sir, dinner for the guests and royal family doesn't start for another two hours. However, if you're hungry, the kitchen specialty today is meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Is that satisfactory?"

It would seem that Olaf blended in nicely with all the foreigners staying in the castle. The butler didn't even ask who he was! He just assumed he was a guest! "That sounds...!" he started out in his normal manner of speaking, loud and happy, but stopped abruptly. In an attempt to appear more lordly, he continued in a low, formal voice, "wonderful."

"Please have a seat wherever you'd like and your food will be brought to you momentarily." the man bowed slightly and went to, presumably, alert the kitchen.

Olaf, not being the sit-alone type, scanned the groups of people in the hopes of finding one that may allow him to sit with them. Most all of them were in deep conversation and didn't even seem to notice him as he walked past. The only group that seemed quiet enough to join was actually a pair. A man and a woman, (a guard and a maid, he guessed according to what they were wearing) were sitting together at a table. For the most part it appeared they were eating silently, but every once in a while they would exchange a couple words.

He strode confidently over to the table, but once he was only a few feet away he slowed down and nerves started to kick in. He took a couple more steps forward and cleared his throat. The man, to whom he was closest to, looked up while the woman took a drink from her cup.

"May I join you?" Olaf asked with a hesitant smile.

The man looked at him, mildly surprised that a clearly high bred man would want to sit with them. "Please do." He gestured to the side of the table opposite him and the woman.

"Thanks." Olaf took a seat and looked at the couple.

The man was the first to speak. "I'm Faust," he proffered his hand across the table which Olaf shook. "And this is my sister Charlotte."

"Those are interesting names." Olaf replied, and a meal of the dark, heavy bread and white, mushy stuff was set before him. It smelled delightful. He took a bite of the bread looking thing and discovered that it tasted a lot better than it looked.

"What about you, stranger?" Faust asked, only playing with his food at this point. "What are you called?"

Olaf swallowed the bite in his mouth before he finished chewing, nearly gagging. "O...cean." He smiled hesitantly. If he had told him his name was Olaf, would they associate him with the snowman that he was just earlier this afternoon and freak out?

"Ocean? Like the large body of water?" the man chuckled.

Olaf, codename: Ocean, laughed as well. "Heh, yeah."

"You from out of town? I don't think I've seen you around here before. Did you come in for the wedding?" Clearly Charlotte's cup had run dry and she was ready to participate more fully in the conversation.

"Um... Yeah..." Olaf took a sip from his own cup now, awkward as he spewed out his fantasy.

"Where are you from?" Faust asked, finally pushing away the half finished plate of food so he could rest a burly pair of folded arms on the table.

"Ice...land."

"Iceland?" the man replied, turning to look at his sister. Olaf shook in his boots, waiting for them to tell him that they had never heard of such a place. "That's an island up northwest isn't it?"

If he had still been made of snow, Olaf would have melted right on the spot with relief.

"Yeah, yeah." Charlotte nodded her head in agreement. "So what are you up there, Ocean? What brought you to the wedding?"

Olaf smiled with a bit more confidence. "Oh, just an ambassador." He shrugged. "None of the royal family could make it, so I was sent to represent them." He was almost shocked by how smoothly the lies fell from his own, new, human lips.

"Have you been to Arendelle before?" Charlotte asked, now looking intently at him.

"Yeah, but, unfortunately I haven't gotten to see a lot of it." This much was true. Even for the two years that Olaf had spent in Arendelle after his creation, he mostly got to know the inside of the castle rather than the village outside.

"Maybe..." Faust started, but Charlotte waved him quiet.

"Maybe I could show you around when you have the time?" she asked, her eyes alight with something that made Olaf uncomfortable.

"Uh, sure!"

"How about tonight? After the banquet? You can meet me just inside the castle gates. Arendelle under the glow of the lanterns is really quite a sight," Charlotte suggested excitedly.

Olaf smiled uncertainly. "Sounds great."

"Well, I'm done. What about you, Faust?" she looked to her brother expectantly.

"Me too. Well, Ocean, I'm sure I'll see you around. Enjoy your meatloaf." The two stood and left the hall, leaving Olaf feeling slightly confused, looking at his meal, and asking himself, "Meatloaf?"