All Frozen in the Arendelle Front

The War Council

It was the saddest night that Arendelle had suffered in a very long time.

The church bells everywhere in town kept ringing for several hours to honor the hundreds of soldiers that had already fallen fighting for Arendelle, many families that lived nearby the castle volunteered to work all day attending the injured, it was a total disaster and nobody could believe what had just happened.

Very soon the rumors had spread everywhere, and now everyone in Arendelle knew that the armies of the Southern Isles had invaded the country and started a war...

War!

The frightened people did not want to accept the truth, but there was no other word to describe all of this... plenty of men were already volunteering to join the army, and meanwhile Arendelle Castle remained on High Alert as the Queen was trying to take some of the hardest decisions of her life.

"How many forces have we lost?" Elsa asked, looking down at a map of Arendelle which had been spread on a large wooden table- "Where is the enemy at the moment?"

The Queen of Arendelle found herself leading the first War Council since the times of her father, Elsa was surrounded by some of her best Generals and she was facing the act of taking decisions that would result in life or death for thousands of people.

Just how on Earth could she do this?

Anna was there standing beside her, but at those awful moments all that Elsa wished was to see her father and ask him what to do...

"All of Tannya valley beyond the hills has been occupied" Captain Matthew explained, pointing at the Southern region of Arendelle on the map- "Three villages lost, your Majesty! We are talking about three hundred men dead, five hundred injured and a thousand captured by the enemy and retained at our own castle."

The War Council was taking place at one of the highest and most protected parts of the entire castle, a rather secret, small and circular room that featured only two windows, old suits of armor standing here and there and a wooden table in the middle of everything.

There was a huge portrait of Elsa and Anna's father hanging from the wall, and the War Council was illuminated only by the light of a few candles in that room...

"We have to attack with twelve divisions, from the forests of the East and West at once" Elsa continued- "After all, they do not know about our artillery positions hidden in the hills above Tannya... and after that, our forces must retreat to the Sammel valley, right over here."

Elsa's finger pointed at a long river that ran down from the mountains and through the South of Arendelle, a famous place that, according to her father, had been a traditional defensive line that had protected their country through many difficult wars...

"We shall build a complex of trenches to defend the Sammel Line" Elsa explained- "After all, we have the Crackers that they know nothing about- I expect Hans will be furious after our first offensive, and after that... let them attack us!"

"What are the Crackers?" Anna asked with sad curiosity, already having a bad feeling about it.

"These are dangerous times, my sister" Elsa replied, evading the question and looking right into those teary blue eyes- "There are new technologies in our world, and even though we don't know what weapons they could have, they know nothing of ours..."

Anna, Matthew and the other Generals remained in silence for a long time after that, since they were just waiting for Queen Elsa to give the decisive order at last. The words that would start everything, the point when there would be no turning back.

Elsa looked up with great pride at the huge portrait of her father, she missed him more than ever, her heart was breaking apart and she recalled those distant times when she was just a little girl that hoped to be a great Queen someday...

The years since then had passed so fast, and now she had to raise to the expectations and lead Arendelle to a dangerous war.

"Anna, prepare Arendelle's army... for battle!"