Many Beauty and the Many Beast

by Felicity Collins

  I'll see to keep you updated,

  Take care,

  Skylynn

  P.S.

  Before you open it, the other envelope is for my brother. I know the envelope is addressed to you, but in case your snow-falcon left it on your desk while you were out, or it fell from its beak, I don't want anyone to put their nose in what Hans and I have to say to each other. I trust you'll give it to him and keep your curiosity to yourself.

  I found myself smiling at the letter once I was done reading, glad that their trip went well and of hearing from my pragmatic friend. I was worried about Storm's situation, but Sky's determination was evident even in the way she wrote about the trial he was going to have. I admit that at first I was expecting her to sugarcoat the situation, but I was glad she didn't. I trusted them, so hopefully they were not going to do anything too extreme to reintegrate Storm… but with Skylynn Westerguard, you never know… Engel-Westerguard.

  I folded the letter and placed it safely in my drawer before picking up Hans's letter. I admit that even if some time had passed since that conversation I overheard between the two siblings, I was still tempted to know what they had to say to one another… but I kept my curiosity to myself and placed it in the drawer, ready to be delivered as soon as I was done with my duties.

  Once done attending some boring but important meetings, and making sure Anna paid attention to it, I finally had some free time after lunch. Usually at about this hour, I would go for a walk with Storm around town or the royal gardens, but since Storm wasn't here, I changed into my riding outfit and headed towards the stables, but not before getting Hans's letter, in case I found him there, and placed it in my gilet pocket. I asked Anna if she wanted to join me, but sadly she declined since she had to meet with the wedding planner. I let her be and headed to the stables. The moment I got there, first thing I noticed was that there was a small fuss around one of the enclosures, I took a look and noticed there were a few of my men along with a couple of stable boys dragging a horse out of the compound. The horse, clearly, had no intention of going out as it was pulling and kicking. The next thing I noticed was that the only stable boy away from the fuss was Hans who was putting clean hay in the horses' box.

  "Hans" I called taking a few steps towards him. The moment he heard his name being called, he turned around and straightened up as he saw me.

  "Queen Elsa" he said bowing "Does her Majesty wish to go out for a ride? I'll go prepared Sapphire"

  "I do and thank you, but can I ask you what's all that fuss about?" I said pointing at the men dragging the aggressive horse out.

  "You have a rather feisty yearling in your stables, your Majesty" Hans replied "It's a young stallion and it's time for him to start training, but apparently my… colleagues… don't realize that in order to do that, they need to tame him first, and by 'tame' I mean gaining it's trust" he said in a slightly bitter tone. Clearly he did not like how those men were working.

  "If you're an expert, why are you here?" I asked him.

  "What would an ex-prince know about training horses? Everything we have is served to us ready on a silver plate. No… mucking horse poop is a much more approachable job and perfectly suitable for a scoundrel like myself. I may have saved the Queen's life, but I lied to Arendelle once… now they're not so blind" he explained, probably quoting what the others had told him "I'll saddle your horse" he said and headed to Sapphire's box taking saddle and reins with him. I glanced back at the men and noticed how distressed the horse was, and how they were forcefully leading him to an open box and tied him to the two side poles. Then Steward, the head of the stable boys, a tall buff man with sandy blonde buzz cut hair and a thick mutton chomps beard stepped forward. First thing he did was take a brush and heading to the horse's main, but the horse clearly had no intention of being touched as his ears were held back.

  "And… bite" Hans muttered and in that moment, the horse moved its head and bit Steward's hand. The stable boy held his hand and glared at the horse. I turned towards Hans, slightly impressed by his timing. I glanced back at my men and watched as they held the horse, while one of them forced a sack on its mouth, before forcing his head down and tying it tightly to the side wood poles. Steward went to brush its dark brown mane again, but the horse smartly moved to the side and squashed his bitten hand between his shoulder and the wood pole. Steward let out a yelp of pain and fell on his butt as the horse moved away freeing his hand. I glanced back at Hans who was soothingly petting Sapphire's shiny white coat, then he took the reins and led Sapphire out of the box and not too far away from me.

  "Your horse is ready, Milady" Hans said. I looked away from Steward and took a step towards Sapphire.

  "Thank you" I said, then I gently stroked her muzzle as she nuzzled my hand "Hey, beautiful girl" I said softly, petting her neck, but when I turned to the side to ask Hans to help me up, he was there, and I mean right there. I almost bumped on him. The closeness felt a little awkward. Hans cleared his throat and took a small step back.

  "I- I apologize, your Majesty" he stuttered.

  "No, it's fine. I didn't notice you were there already" I apologized.

  "Shall I…?" he shyly let the sentence hanging.

  "Yes, please" I said. There was once again a moment of awkwardness when helping me up on the horse, he placed his hands on my waist and I placed mine on his shoulders as he lifted me up to the side- saddle. I settled myself on the saddle when I heard Hans mutter:

  "You've got to be kidding me…" he said looking incredulously towards the horse. I followed his gaze and noticed that the yearling had been tied to the sides, so that he couldn't move to squash Steward's hands any longer.

  "You think you can do better?" I asked him with a challenging smirk.

  "Will all due respect, my Queen, I know I can do better" he replied confidently. As we glanced forward, we saw Steward bending down and taking the horse's right front leg and was about to clean the hoof… but the horse slipped the leg away and hit the stable boy's butt with the hoof, sending him falling face first with a hoof footprint on his backside. "Much better" Hans added raising his eyebrows amused at the man. I didn't say anything but an amused smile formed on my lips, amused at both Steward and Hans. Steward's helpers immediately rushed to him and helped him up before getting other ropes and tie the horse's front legs to the poles.

  "That is no way to treat a horse!" Hans complained. I turned to look at him and couldn't agree more "He's a yearling, he's young, afraid and has no idea what they are doing. He needs to trust them first. If they tie him up like a piece of salami he's not going to do that anytime soon and it's going to make the training harder" he said.

  "Have you ever trained a horse?" I asked him.

  "I have, I tamed and trained Sitron" he replied. Then an idea popped to my mind, both to relieve the horse from being tied up like that and to test Hans.

  "Would you mind walking me there?" I asked him. Hans looked up at me surprised at first, but nodded.

  "Of course" he said and grabbed Sapphire's reins leading my horse to the open box. I told him to stop a few meters away. Once again, Steward had caught the horse's front leg and went back to cleaning it, but, the horse lifted his back leg to the front.

  "Steward look out!" a man said, Steward looked up and the horse hit him square in the face making him fall on his butt again.

  "Ouch…" Hans muttered "See, my Queen? They're like people. The horse is just more frightened than he was before! Like you when-" he immediately cut himself off looking away as I glanced down at him from my mare. Silence. Hans embarrassedly looked back up at me "I-I'm sorry… that wasn't-"

  "-No, please, continue. Like me when…?" I challenged. Hans looked at me in the eyes and boldly continued.

  "When the volunteers and I assaulted you in the ice palace. You were scared from the beginning, having no idea what was going to happen now that your powers had been revealed. When we attacked you, you were trapped and your fear only grew to the point that… when you were
defending yourself you almost became the threat. Fear was fueling your anger" he said.

  "A very accurate description…" I commented. What else did I have to say? He could read people very well and he had clearly understood how I had felt in that moment. I glanced back at the men, who hadn't noticed me, then I glanced back at Hans.

  "Would you like to give it a try?" I asked Hans. He looked up at me surprised "I'm serious. Would you like to try taming the horse and show my men that they've underestimated you?" Hans's surprised look morphed into a cheeky half grin.

  "With pleasure, my Queen"

  "Gentlemen" I called. All eyes turned to me.

  "Queen Elsa!- Your Majesty!" they said bowing at me.

  "I see you're having trouble with this yearling" I said nonchalantly motioning towards Steward's swelling black eye "You look like you need some ice, Steward" I said and taking out a tissue, with a wave of my hand I put some ice in it and closing the tissue in a sack, motioned Steward to come take it. The middle aged stable boy, quietly thanked me putting the ice on his eye.

  "No, it's just that this young stallion is quite a… feisty one" one of them said.

  "Feisty is an understatement" Steward said "I can't even put the horse shoes on him without getting kicked! In my years I've never had a horse like this one. This beast is far too nervous for battle, let alone, pleasure walks. His mind is broken. It can't be ridden" he said.

  "My father said the same thing about Queen Skylynn's stallion. It was a yearling when she got it, but she was the only one among my brothers who got to tame and ride him" Hans said.

  "No one asked for your opinion, ex-prince. Go finish your job" Steward harshly snapped.

  "Horses are like people. If one is much more different than the others, than you need a different approach" Hans argued "Let me try"

  "You?" another said mockingly, as others snickered among themselves.

  "Go back to muck horse poop, it'll be much better" another mocked.

  "Yeah! That's were scoundrels like you belong" another ridiculed

  "Why are you being so harsh, gentleman?" I interrupted narrowing my eyes at them "Yes, the former prince did his wrongs, but he's trying to make up for it, there is no need to ridicule him" the men lowered their heads "Besides, if an ex-prince doesn't know a thing about taming horses and mucking horse poop is a much suitable job for a scoundrel, what are you afraid of? That he might actually find a way to tame the horse? If that stallion can't be tamed, than Mr. Westerguard is going to find out for himself" I said eyeing him. The other men moved away from the animal. Hans looked at me and I gave him a nod. He slowly walked to the horse and did hushing sounds as he untied the horse's ropes. The moment he also freed the stallion from the sack on its muzzle, the horse's head snapped up, in a way glaring at Hans and getting restless. The horse's ears were tightly bent back, clearly angered by his presence. But Hans didn't flinch, instead he slowly moved a hand towards him, but with confidence, hushing the horse. A smirk appeared on my face when the others looked, between surprised and offended when Hans managed to place his hand on the horse's muzzle and stroke his neck as the stallion's ears slowly moved forward. Then keeping a hand on its neck, Hans grabbed the brush and gently brushed its mane, softly whispering things to the horse to soothe him. When he was done brushing, Hans went back to the horse's face and stroked him gently. Then keeping a hand on the horse's coat, he followed the line of its neck down its shoulder and to the knee and with a gentle swift movement, he got the horse's leg up. Not too long after, Hans was done cleaning the hooves and putting the horse shoes on each hoof.

  "There you go" he said petting it's neck "See, that wasn't too bad" he said. Then Hans untied the horse from the poles and gently lead it inside the enclosure where he was going to be trained. I looked towards Steward. He was looking at Hans impressed by how he single handedly managed to ease the horse, relaxing it and getting it to trust him. As Hans started walking around the enclosure with the horse at his side, petting its neck or keeping a hand on it, Steward caught my gaze. In that moment I realized we both had the same idea, but he needed my permission. With a glance and a nod of the head towards Hans, I gave Steward that permission. The man gave me a small bow and walked to the enclosure keeping the ice on his black eye.

  "Westerguard!" he called. Hans turned his attention to him, but kept an eye on the horse as the animal immediately drew its ears back, but Hans soothed it "If you manage to ride that horse today, training duty is yours… you seem to be more useful at that than at mucking poop" he added.

  "Then tell your other assistants that they might as well get ready to take my place in the mucking department" Hans replied with a confident smirk. Steward looked back at me and gave me an apologetic bow, silently apologizing for his and his men's earlier behavior. Seeing as I wasn't needed anymore, I politely bid my goodbyes to the stable boys and headed out for a quiet relaxing walk. Sapphire was much calmer than Sitron, so she didn't get restless if I didn't canter a bit, she was fine with walking. Usually I would canter around, but today, I felt more like a nice long walk, feeling the autumn wind blow on my face.

  It was impressive how Hans could read people and animals so well. What he had said earlier could have sounded like an insult, being compared to a horse, but truth was, I was indeed the perfect example, and Hans had once again known how to interact with the different element. No surprise that when I got back to the stables, Hans was in the enclosure putting the saddle on the horse. Steward was checking on him, since I had order for him to be guarded 24/7. I commanded Sapphire to halt and watched.

  Hans was just done putting the saddle on the horse and was about to put the reins in its mouth, however, the stallion didn't seem too happy about that. Hans then did something that surprised us. He hushed the horse and then, opened his mouth and got the bite close his lips and pretended to bite it (without putting it in his mouth), then he put the bridles on his head. Now, that was one singular way to get a horse to put the bite in its mouth. Then Hans took the bridles off of him and gave the horse the bite, which the animal took almost instantly, then he put the bridles on the horse's head and adjusting the harness, the yearling was ready to be ridden. Hans petted the horse's neck, then he went on the left side and mounted the horse. The animal stirred a little nervously, standing on its back legs for a few seconds, but Hans caressed its neck making it calm down. Then he lightly kicked and the horse started to move and a walking pace around the enclosure. Hans let it walk around for a few minutes encouragingly patting its neck. Then he kicked again and a little harder and the horse started to trot around the fence. As the stallion seemed to get a little more confidence, Hans kicked a little more. At first there was some complaining, but after soothing it, Hans tried it again and got it to canter around the enclosure.

  "I can't believe it… Ex-Princey did it" Steward said, mostly to himself, but I heard. Steward walked towards the enclosure's gate and opened it. Hans saw him and halted the horse, making it come to a stop.

  "I rode him" Hans told him proudly.

  "And tamed it" Steward said, but did not dare to touch it yet "A deal is a deal. You're not off the care duty, but you're done mucking poop. Training duty is yours"

  "Thank you" Hans said and patted the horse's neck.

  "I like your technique, but it is kind of slow, you think you can speed that up?"

  "No, sir. It mostly depends on the horse's attitude, but efficiency takes time" Hans replied.

  "These horses are for our soldiers, we don't have all the time of the world" Steward replied.

  "Tell me, Steward. If you were to go to battle, would you prefer to go with a companion you don't know or someone you've got a strong bond with?" Hans asked.

  "Well, a trustworthy companion, that's for sure" Steward replied.

  "So, would you prefer a horse you don't know or a horse with whom you've built a good trust bond with?" I asked, preceding Hans's question, as I walked closer on my horse.

  "Your Majesty" the two men said bowin
g "A horse with whom I've built a trust bond" the stable boy replied "My Queen, with all due respect, I have heard of these techniques, but your father had very strict requests" Once again my face fell, but I didn't show it… my father was very demanding in the military field. Our country was peaceful, but if there was one thing he was aware was that if the soldiers did not train, because of the peace, there was a high chance for them not to be ready when war came. This had been matter of discussion in today's council meeting.

  "I am aware of that and I don't blame you for doing your job how you were used to. Tomorrow you'll receive new orders" I told him. Steward bowed. Then I looked up at Hans.

  "Hans, would you mind accompanying me for a walk? I'd like to speak with you" I said "Plus, I believe walking with another horse, such as Sapphire, will be good for the yearling's training"

  "Of course, my Queen" Hans said.

  "I'll go get a horse" the stable boy said.

  "No, need Steward. I'll take it from here" I said stopping him before he could get a horse to chaperone us "Mr. Westerguard is well aware of my abilities" Steward bowed his head and walked away, as Hans had the yearling walk towards me. As soon as he was next to me, we both walked away heading for the ice-harvester's mountains. Silence ruled among us until we were far from the stables.

  "Thank you, Queen Elsa" Hans said quietly "But why?" he asked.

  "I don't know about you, but in my world 'punishment' doesn't mean 'humiliation'" I replied "Whether I like it or not, you saved my life and I didn't get you to work in the castle to be humiliated. To me 'punishment' is a way to try making up for your deeds through hard work and some… 'meditation'… let's call it that. Humiliation only fuels anger and stress until you get to a breaking point, like that horse. And usually when you get to a breaking point, you make bad choices, like you did" Silence ruled between us, as I knew I had nailed it "After what your brothers put you through, they made you get to that breaking point. Seeing what happened when you came here for your trial, I suppose humiliation and neglect were far worse than the physical pain" Another heavy silence. It was just a few seconds, but Hans's features had slightly furrowed. He did not like the way I had just read him, mostly because I knew I was right, but then he looked back at me.