Once Upon A Time Frozen Over: Shards of Secrets (Book One) [COMPLETE]

CHAPTER FOUR - CHANCE ENCOUNTER

Twenty-One Years Later

Present Day

Jolted out of his sleep, Kristoff quickly sat up in bed, sweating and confused.  Plagued for years by a recurring nightmare, almost as if it were a memory, Kristoff was still unable to decipher its meaning.  The images of a young, blonde-haired woman partially covered in blood, standing in a snowy forest with the moon reflecting an eerie light off the mist of the forest floor, was flashing in his mind.  

He shook his head, as if to erase the haunting images.  He laid back down, adjusting his head on his pillow, thinking he could fall back to sleep.  Tossing restlessly in his bed, and hearing the bustling of people at the inn, he slowly opened one eye and noticed the sun glaring through the gap of the drapes on the window in his room.  

Realizing it was morning, Kristoff sluggishly got out of bed.  He quickly brushed his teeth, ran a comb through his tousled, golden blonde hair (without any real effort) and threw on the only clothes he had with him.  He opened the door to his room and hurriedly went down the creaky, wooden stairs of the inn to the front desk to return his key.  

The plump, elderly woman behind the desk greeted Kristoff with a cheerful "Good morning, sir.  How was your stay?"

Kristoff quickly mumbled, "Thank you," as he threw the keys on the desk, not even paying attention to what the woman had said.  He bolted out the door and ran toward the stables adjacent to the inn where his reindeer, Sven, was waiting for him.

Kristoff knew he had to get Sven out of the stables before the stable boy returned for the day.  Kristoff had secretly slipped Sven into the stables the night before, only having enough money for his one-night stay at the inn and nothing left to pay the stable boy.  He slowly opened the old, worn stable door, and saw Sven still safe in the last stall grazing on a heaping pile of straw. 

"Hey, buddy!" Kristoff said, running up to the stall.

Sven grunted, reciprocating the greeting.  

"What took me so long?" Kristoff replied to Sven's grunts.  "Hey, a guy's got to get his sleep."

Sven grunted again.

"I did get a good night's sleep, thanks for asking," Kristoff said sarcastically.

Sven grunted more urgently.

"Okay, okay, we're getting out of here," Kristoff said, unlatching the stall door and leading Sven out of the stables by his reins.

With the stables and the inn far behind them, they happily strolled along the wide, cobblestone road.  Kristoff admired the quaint, colorful homes that lined the streets and saw the townspeople going about their daily chores.  The aroma of fresh baked breads, lefse and pastries filled the air.

Distracted, Kristoff didn't notice the horse drawn carriage riding up behind him and Sven.  The carriage barely missed them both as they jumped to the side of the road to safety, accidentally bumping into someone behind them.

"Oh!" A young woman shrieked, spilling her basket of red apples all over the ground.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry," said Kristoff frantically, bending down to help her pick up the apples that were now rolling down the cobblestone road. 

"It's fine — I wasn't looking where I was going," she replied, sweeping her mid-length, black hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear, revealing her fair skin and hazel eyes.

They both gathered the last of the fallen apples and stood up as the girl fumbled with the basket.  

"Is that all of them?" she asked.