The Quest For Hope

The Battle: Chapter Twelve

Princess Elsa grabbed Anna's hand and pulled her towards the stairs.

"Elsa, stop, that hurts," Anna said, pulling her arm back and rubbing the spot Elsa's fingers grasped. "Where are we going?"Anna asked her friend. 

Elsa took a deep breath. "Anna, I don't know exactly what I'm going to do yet, but I need your help. The men can make their plans, but I can't just sit here and wait. Prince Hans attacked us because of me. This is all because of me." She grabbed Anna's arm again. "I need you to do something, but I need you to trust me."

Anna wavered, deliberating between her devotion to Prince Hiccup and her friendship with Elsa. "I will help you," she said, resigned, "but don't get hurt. You have to promise me."

Elsa smiled at her friend and raised her arm in an oath. "Of course I'll stay safe. I promise." She gave her a quick hug and grabbed her arm again, leading her down to the library. 

Elsa rushed around the room, grabbing maps, notes, and old war books. Anna looked on as Elsa struggled to the table, her arms overloaded. They filled the library's few tables end-to-end with books, maps, and scrolls.

Their heads were down, focused on each of their books when they heard a soft cough at the door. Elsa looked up and saw a boy about their age standing in the doorway. His green robe gave him away as one of Pabbie's group.

"I thought maybe I could help you," he said, his eyes fixed on the ground. "I saw you run down here from the castle walls. With so much going on, I thought I could help. I'm Kristoff."

Elsa smiled and ran over to him, grabbing his arm, and pulling him into the room. "Kristoff, thank you," she said with a broad smile. "We need all the help we can get."

Elsa explained what they were looking for, and Kristoff got to work. He sat at the table with Anna and looked over the maps, while she perused some old scrolls.

"I don't know what you're hoping to find," Anna said after a while had passed.

Elsa sighed. "To tell you the truth, I don't either. I thought something was going to jump out at me and tell me that this is what we needed to focus on."

"Do you know what you want to do?" Kristoff asked. "if you knew that, then we can go from their to make a plan."

"you make it sound simple," Elsa said, realising that it should be. The simple plans always seemed to work best. She knew she got bogged down by too many details. 

"We're looking for a battle plan," she said, thumbing through her own notes. Embarrassed, she showed  Kristoff and Anna the pages from the day she had learned about Hawthorne's Theory. "something like this."

Anna smiled at the sketches Elsa had drawn of herself and Jack, but Kristoff went straight to the point. "That could work, Princess; something simple like this is perfect. We have no way of getting out there though, so distract them and surround them, without being noticed. We're inside, and they are right on the other side of the castle gates." His confidence grew as he spoke. He felt excited to have found a place to be and a way to help.

"We can if we do it this way," Elsa said, her voice picked up speed, her fingers flipped through pages until she found the map she was looking for. "Here, right there on the map," she said, pointing to an arch mark under the castle. "and here," she added, pointing to the other arch in the great forest.

Kristoff smiled. "A tunnel is perfect."

Elsa looked at him in surprise. "You know what that symbol is?"

"We had lots of tunnels in the caves I grew up. As an apprentice, I've been down them all. They say that the tunnels were once used for safe passage for trolls and wizards from all territories, hidden underground. The tunnels to the north and south were collapsed because of the dragons, and I guess these tunnels haven't been used since the days of the exile. We need to find the opening. We can do this together." He grabbed the girls' hands.

Anna looked down at Kristoff's hand and grinned back at him tentatively. "Where do we begin?"

 Elsa interrupted, "The Dungeon. Let go."

The three of them dashed through the halls until they reached the courtyard. People huddled in every corner, afraid to let their children down.The armed guards walked through on patrol, trying to keep order and cam. They held hands, afraid to lose one another in the crowd.

Inch by inch they made their way from one side of the courtyard to the other, trying to remain unnoticed. Kristoff's face remained hidden underneath his hood, And Elsa and Anna kept their heads down. Elsa looked around discreetly, feeling the anguish of her villagers as they struggled to find a place to sit, a place to weep. The snow settled on the cobblestones, chilling everyone to their bones. Their faces grimaced with pain. Elsa clenched her teeth, more determined than ever. These people were hurt because of her, and every one of their cries felt like a heavyweight added to her shoulders. 

Elsa found the entrance to the dungeon and let out a sigh of relief: no guards. Looking left and right to make sure no one had seen them, she pulled as hard as she could and opened the door. The three of them slid inside as quickly as they could and closed the door behind them. 

The air was cold and dusty, sending Anna into a coughing fit. Elsa found it hard to imagine the magic that Pabbie had spoken about. The dungeon rough walls were stained, the crevices home to colonise of mould. Piles of dirt and hay littered the floor. Kristoff saw her scrunch up her nose at the smell, and chuckled.

"It was even worse inside the cells," he said, recalling his brief imprisonment. "Let's find the opening. I'm not sure if it's the same, but in our caves, we have the arched marked on the walls, so even those trolls or wizards, who cannot see can feel where it is."

Kristoff stared at one end of the room, Elsa and Anna on the other. The walls were cold, but the dust and dirt did not bother them once they got started. Urgency spurred them on.

Elsa found it. Her fingers traced the outline of the carved arch above a locked wooden door. 

"this must be the entrance," she said. "Now we need to find a way of opening it."

Kristoff gave her a wink. "At my princess's command." He reached into his robe and pulled out a purple crystal.

Anna watched him with a silly smile.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Exhaling, he opened his eyes and focused on the lock. He pointed the stone, touching the tip to the steel, as he did so the crystal began to glow a bright purple. The three of them could hear the lock slowly turn. Kristoff bowed deeply to Princess Elsa. "Your Highness, here is your tunnel."

Princess Elsa let out a squeal as she hugged Kristoff and Anna. She had a plan.