THE PUNGENT REINDEER KING
It was getting dark as the brawny delivery man approached the Main Gate of the castle. It was only half past six but the storm clouds overhead blocked out the evening summer sun. Soft rumbling could be heard rolling in from the north.
Kristoff roughly patted his best friend's head and walked him through the large doors into the courtyard. Sven was happily chewing the carrot given to him by one of the guards earlier, and was happy to have some 'down' time. He was pulling the sled a much longer distance than he would have done during the winter since finding high quality ice in the frozen lakes during the summer resulted in longer travel distances.
"Good Evening Master Deliverer.", the ranking guard greeted Kristoff. "Are you staying for the evening? The weather has turned for the worse, and you'll be throughly drenched if those storm clouds let loose tonight."
Kristoff regarded the thickening dark canopy before replying. "I was invited for dinner this evening, by Ann... Ahem, Her Highness Princess Anna. But I won't presume anything after that. Sven and I are used to a lot more than a few rain drops."
"Very Good, sir. If you'll allow me to escort you to the dining room and make your presence known to their grace'. My men will attend to your hors... Your reindeer." Replied the officer guard.
"Oookaay..." Kristoff thought. Is this how it's going to be every time I want to see my girlfriend?
"Well, not quite yet my girlfriend." he mused. Still, he got a warm fuzzy feeling when he thought about Anna, but in truth, she only kissed him once. Just before the "ice rink thing" a few days ago.
Okay... so they did more than kissing. It was actually more like ten or fifteen minutes of heavy necking by the docks. But since it was the middle of the day and everyone in the village seemed to be about, he really couldn't do any more.
Also, though Anna didn't seem to mind when his hands travelled down to her butt and proceeded to gently squeeze her bubble, it was he who found himself self-conscience. He actually pulled his hips back slightly when he felt a growing tension from the bulge in his pants. Anna didn't seem to notice.
"I guess my manners got in the way of my heart, AND my 'other fellow'." he mumbled softly to himself.
"Sorry, what was that sir?" Replied the guard.
"Nothing." he replied back. "Better stop talking when I'm thinking with my dork!" Thinking silently.
He quickly sniffed his armpits before the guard opened the main doors to the Dining Chamber and announced his presence.
#######################
The castle kitchen was an area that Anna frequented often as she grew up by herself. Her parents, God rest their misguided souls, made it a habit to keep a regular routine for the evening meal as often as they could. This included having the youngest Princess share their company at the Main table.
Anna however resented the empty seat beside her place at the table. When she was much younger, she used to sulk, create a scene or make a complete mess when she was forced to eat with her parents.
Her mother and father soon became tired of her antics and eventually settled to having their shared meal only on the eve of the Sabbath. Though she loved her parents, Anna eventually mirrored her sister in having her meals served to her in her room for most of the week.
Holidays and Birthdays were an exception of course, but even then, Elsa's absence meant that even those special days were less than joyous.
With her unusual but repetitive routine eventually etched in stone, Anna's regular visits to the kitchen to obtain snacks and such as she grew up became commonplace with kitchen staff.
It became obvious from the beginning that Anna was completely hopeless when it came to cooking. Even boiling water for tea once resulted in a fire that looked a lot worse than it really was, but only showed her lack of ability.
It was decreed by her parents that within reasonable limits, Anna could just order what she wanted from the cooks and have them prepare it for her. Meals where then eaten in her room or at one of the various dining tables in the castle.
As long as the food that Anna ordered was deemed to satisfy the nutrition of a growing girl, she could have it. Chocolate cake and ice cream for dinner for example was not considered nutritionally appropriate regardless of how many times Anna tried to convince the cooks otherwise!
So it really wasn't a surprise when Anna announced to the kitchen staff in the late afternoon that she would like to to do something different for the evening meal. She ordered a list of entrees and appetizers to the cooks and told them to have it ready for her sister and herself by the 6th hour of the evening. She personally would deliver the feast with the servants to her sister's room.
"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! This is going to be so great!" Anna clapped her hands quickly as she stood outside Elsa's bedroom door.
She waved to the servants down the hall who were peeking around the corner waiting for her signal. Trays and carts loaded with serving trays with silver covers were waiting to be brought into the Queen's room when the Princess gave the order.
"Elsa? it's Anna, dinners ready!" She could barely constrain herself as she tried to keep the excitement out of her voice.
"I'm coming Anna..." came the reply from within. "Will you wait for me?"
"I have a better idea than that, Els!" her sister said with a huge grin and opened the door. "Dinner is coming to you!"
With a frantic wave to the waiting servants, four carts were rolled in to Elsa's room as Anna was hopping up and down and quickly clapping her hands. A huge grin of glee on her face.
"Oh my, what a pleasant surprise!" her sister said. "Is there something special about tonight for you to make this effort?"
Anna thought hard about it. She wanted to have a special dinner tonight, of all nights, because of something that she must have said or done earlier. But for the life of her, she couldn't remember?
"Nah," Anna replied. "I just wanted to do something nice for you!"
Elsa smiled lovingly at her little sister, "Well that's just lovely, thank you Anna!"
"It's one of my 'Special Seven Course' dinner menus, Elsa! You're going to love it!"
As the servants were arranging the covered serving trays and moving two chairs around a modest table in Elsa's room, Anna was looking out the main window to the courtyard.
Elsa was being helped into her chair by a servant and Anna was about to join her when she spotted a reindeer being guided to the stables by one of the stablehands.
"Sven?" she whispered to herself. "What in the...?"
Then she saw a muscular man wearing field clothes being escorted to the front doors by a guard with officer markings.
"KRISTOFF!" she yelled!
########################
AUTHOR NOTES:
This chapter is only semi-fluff, not like the last two. Sorry if it's too fluffy, but I live in a fluffy world.
I actually wrote the middle chapters first since it deals with life outside of Arendelle and is the reason I actually wrote this. I only started writing the beginning just three days ago and there is a LOT of prep to smooth out where the movie left off and this story continues.
Bear with me and thanks for sticking around.
Any comments are appreciated.
########################
Preview of Chapter 5
GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER
"You seem to be a lot quieter than usual. I kinda figured you forget our, uh date and that's why dinner turned out ... differently than I expected, but..." He was awkwardly saying.
"I'm SO sorry, Kristoff!" Anna exclaimed, turning to him and placing both hands on his chest. "I don't know how I could forget something like this! Or you!" She looked pleadingly up into his eyes. She was shivering slightly.
He could tell she was sad and embarrassed at the same time.
"It's okay, you know I'm used to your goofy antics by now." he said softly. He put his hands to her waist and slowly lowered his face.
Raising herself on her tiptoes, Anna lifted her face and began closing her eyes as she puckered her lips with the intent of kissing him.
As their faces slowly came together, through lidded eyes, Anna thought she saw a shadow further down the hall.