Ice, Snow & Steel (Jelsa adventure) [Discontinued]

Chapter 3: The excursion

Anna was starving. The stately diner she'd had with Arendelle's government officials somehow couldn't satisfy her ravaging appetite. She seized the opportunity to sneak to the kitchens once the moon was high above the mountains and the candles had been extinguished throughout the castle.

She poked her head through the door of her room and examining the hallway for any sign of life, she then dashed out, running as silently as humanly possible. She made an abrupt turn to her left down another narrow corridor, skidding a little to avoid falling flat on her face.

Anna's strawberry blonde hair was catching the breeze of each step she took, still impeccable after the evening's affairs since her stomach had kept her from going to bed. She'd allowed herself to change into her ivory nightgown, and it caught the moonlight in a haunting manner, its rippling fabric making Anna look like a ghost as she ran.

After dodging a few guards, she finally reached the central spiral staircase and without stopping her race, she lept onto the railing and whizzed down. The lack of windows in the stairs to provide light made her unable to see and keep a perfect balance on the banister, making her heart leap to her throat.

She reached the last landing, the great hall, with its large ornate front doors for impressing royal guests and its perfectly polished glass windows. The wooden beams that lined the walls reached the cathedral ceiling to fan out in an intricate symetrical pattern, supporting three grand chandeliers that ran along the length of the room.

Anna walked cautiously down the hall, trying to avoid making the long floor boards creak beneath her. The tall narrow windows to her left cast an eerie blue light across the floor, and the areas it didn't touch were like an endless dark abyss.

As Anna walked she couldn't help feeling uneasy knowing there were hollow armours standing guard along the walls, watching her silently in the dark, with only their slight reflections of the moon giving them away.

Anna had progressed half way down the hall when she suddenly heard a door creak open some distance behind her. She froze, then scrambled out of the light of the window to hide behind the nearest curtain. She controlled her breathing with difficulty to conceal her presence, yet asked herself if she was being paranoid now since all she could hear beyond the fabric was silence.

She was bold enough to peek her eyes from behind her hiding spot to look for the nuisance that was slowing down her midnight excursion. Scoping the hall she saw no one, but then again they could be hiding in the shadows, just like she was. A member of the staff wouldn't be concealing them self in the night...

What if it was another assassin sent to kill Elsa, or herself? The attempt had only been intercepted twenty four hours ago, how could Sweden have possibly dispatched another hit man and know the previous ones had failed? Anna's palms were getting sweaty as she gripped the curtain edges tightly. Her mind was in a frnezy, thinking of the possibilities.

Without warning, the window next to her burst open abruptly, letting in a blast of cold summer night wind. Anna screamed, fell backwards and stared in horror at the anomaly.

Clink. Anna looked up. The brass candle chandelier hanging high above her was swaying hazardously in the air. Clink. Anna dove away as it freefell at a flashing speed, nearly crushing the princess.

She now knew there was more than a single intruder in the great hall with her, hiding in the shadows, so she scrambled away in the opposite direction as fast as her legs could take her.

All of a sudden as she sprinted, she heard the lineup of suits of armour crash onto the floor in a glistening mess.

"I need to find someone," Anna thought to herself as she ran. "I need to find a guard before these people  kill me!"

She had made it to the other end of the hall were another set of doors led into the ball room but as Anna tugged and tugged on them to open, she noticed they had been sealed along the edges with ice.

"Oh no, Elsa must have started that new security precaution she was going to try today!" Anna was frantic, and looked to her left and right, where the hall opened into two long corridors or either side. Without a preference she chose the one to her right, only hoping to run into a guard.

As Anna ran she couldn't hear any footsteps behind her so for a moment thought she'd lost the intruders. She reminded herself though that these people were trained murderers so she pushed on, not helping her panic-stricken mind.

Looking behind as she raced, Anna didn't notice the long patch of ice that spread out in front of her. Suddenly she was whizzing down the corridor, her bare feet for skates. She flailed her arms around, looking to find some sort of balance and she screamed in her incapability to gain control.

"ELSAAAAA!!!" She wanted to yell, her sister the only one to blame for her poor judgment in castle security.

The corridor lacked windows, so its obscurity made it very difficult for Anna to see where she was headed at full speed. She slammed into a wall and couldn't see anything around her except for the distant opening into the moonlit hall. The few doors she knew were close led into a variety of rooms.

Quickly, before the intruders could catch up, she felt her way through the dark and stumbled into what she knew was a small salon.

The room had a single window at the back, which provided enough dim light for Anna to see a love seat perpendicular to the door. She curled up against the back of it, hoping she wouldn't be found.

"Where are all the guards at a time like this? Hasn't anyone heard all that racket?" she asked herself in frustration.

In the distance she heard soft footsteps coming along the corridor in her direction. Her heart pounding, Anna glanced cautiously from behind her hiding spot and watched the open door for her pursuer. Suddenly a human shape appeared in the opening, the dark shadow outlined with the little light provided by the room's window. They were holding something long, a staff that reached the floor.

She looked away from the door and made herself as small as possible in her hiding spot. "Maybe they won't think to look around, maybe someone will show up and help... I could fight them off if I needed to, I think..." She thought desperately. 

"Princess Anna?" Asked a male voice.

Her heart jumped at the sound of her name and she stopped thinking. She held herself tighter, as if to protect herself better from the imposter.

She heard the person approach slowly, maybe even cautiously. Once the intruder was right behind her, the steps stopped. Anna shut her eyes tightly and contained her trembling breathing as best as she could.

She jolted as a gentle hand rested on her shoulder. She opened her eyes, the dim moonlight letting her see the blurred features of a crouched guard's worried face, who'd set his spear on the floor.

"You're highness, what-"

"Oh thank God!" she said, relieved, as she covered her eyes to release the tears she'd been holding back.