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

CHAPTER NINE - SNEAKING OUT

Arendelle

Fifteen Years Earlier

All was quiet in the orphanage, The Bjorgman' s Home For Children, in Bergenstad, a quaint village located just north of the royal castle in the Kingdom of Arendelle.  Kristoff was snuggled up with his favorite blanket in the bottom bunk of his bed.  The dark never bothered him.  Even at six, very few things frightened him — and the dark was definitely not one of them.  As a matter of fact, he preferred the dark.  Since the ice harvesters began their work at sun down and worked all through the night, that was the only time he could sneak out and observe what he wanted to do most — harvest ice.

Ever since Katie found Kristoff in the woods six years ago, she had loved him like her own son.  She would read to him every night, give him his nightly milk and a good night kiss before retiring to her room across the hall.  She was always the last one to fall asleep.

Kristoff was anxiously waiting for Katie to fall asleep — this night, she was taking especially long.  His eyes grew heavier and heavier, but the anticipation for the lantern in Katie's room to finally go out was stronger than his urge to fall asleep.  His bedroom door was slightly ajar, so from his bed, he could see the soft light glowing from under her door.   He could hear the slow, heavy breathing of his roommate in the bunk above him, the ticking of the clock that sat on the table next to his bed, and the soft hoos of an owl that was perched on the tree outside of his bedroom window.  All of these comforting sounds were making it extremely difficult to stay awake.  "Don't go to sleep," he kept telling himself over and over in his mind.

Finally, the lantern's light went out.  He quietly got out of bed, being very careful to not wake his roommate.  He quickly took out his clothes that he kept under his bed, along with the long rope of sheets that were tied together.  He got dressed, stood on top of the toy chest that was under his window and unlatched the lock on the wooden frame of the glass.  He threw his rope of sheets out of the window and tied his end to the bunk post.  He climbed down, holding on tightly, as he felt with his foot for each knot on the sheet. 

The climb down from his second story bedroom window seemed much higher than it actually was (due to his short stature, being only six years old) — but that didn't stop him.  He jumped to the ground from the last knot in the sheet.  Not wasting any time, he ran off to the Mountain Lake.

Kristoff, not far from the lake, could already hear the harvesters' work song low in the distance, along with the clanging of their picks and the cracking of ice that was echoing off the mountains.  Kristoff, full of excitement, ran as fast as he could to his favorite snow-covered boulder which gave him the perfect view of the harvesters and kept him out of sight.

He never grew bored of watching them.  The hours flew by as he daydreamed about getting his first ice pick, working alongside the ice harvesters and one day owning his very own ice business.  He grabbed a stick off the ground and picked at the snow, pretending to harvest his own block of ice.  "You're stronger than a hundred men!" he imagined one of his fellow ice harvesters telling him.  

The sound of men talking, the crunching of boots in the snow and metal clanking together, interrupted Kristoff's daydream.  The sound wasn't coming from the harvesters, but from behind him in the forest.  He saw four burly men dressed in black leather armor and long, black capes.  Two of the men were carrying a crate which was emitting loud honking sounds that seemed to be from some kind of animal that was inside it.

"This is the spot...we'll make camp here for the night," said a gray-haired man.  He broke off dead branches from the trees, preparing to build a campfire.

Kristoff moved down the hill, closer to the forest, and hid behind one of the pine trees to watch them.  The gray-haired man struck two round stones together, causing sparks to ignite the pile of wood.  A trail of smoke began to rise, as small flames erupted.