All Frozen in the Arendelle Front

Shell Shock

The celebrations continued for awhile at the Arendellan positions that day, most of the Generals could not believe just how effective the Crackers had been and many soldiers remained awestruck, shaken by what they had witnessed and at the same time relieved to think that this would for sure put an end to the war.

Everything seemed perfect for Arendelle, but soon the reality of war returned in a dark and sinister form that nobody had ever seen before...

Anna had already noticed that something in Alice was not quite alright, but then it started happening to many others as the day advanced... the medical staff was called to action, but sadly they would soon inform the Princess that there was little they could do.

"What is this?" Anna asked, standing at those moments between a doctor and a nurse- "What happened to her? We must try to do something!"

They were inside of the brand new field hospital, which was composed by a large and white tent equipped with the scarce medical resources that they could save from the artillery attack. The place was already full of injured soldiers of all ages, but curiously, there were no wounds to apply any kind of medicine on...

This was a very different kind of damage, one that the medical profession had never seen before.

"Your Highness, we are not sure what to do" the aging doctor replied, analyzing Alice's eyes with great attention- "She is not hurt, they are not really injured... This must be a psychological disturbance of some kind, caused by the bombardment!"

Alice was sitting on a bed, and she looked really scared as the medical staff tried to diagnose whatever that her condition would turn out to be. Her beautiful green eyes had acquired a weird stare of fear and alarm, her hands were shaking violently and her left leg was jerking and twitching out of control.

The young woman was unable to walk, her speech had become rather twisted and the same was happening to hundreds of other troops at the Front...

"Anna" Alice gasped in despair, looking up at the Princess- "W-what is happen... what... What is happening to me?"

"Alice, something similar happened to me when we were down there at the bunker, especially the third night... but it passed" Anna replied, her hands now resting on Alice's shoulders- "Tell me, did this unknown condition start during those nights?"

"I am not s-sure" Alice said, and she sobbed as constant tears were sliding down her face- "I thin... I think so..."

General Alistair came dashing into the field hospital at those very moments, desperate to see what was happening to his daughter. Alice managed to produce a little smile at the sight of her father, but then her anxiety returned and her hands began to shake even worse than before.

"Alice! What is happening? What is this?!"

"Some type of psychological shock induced by the shellfire" Anna said with great sadness, now holding one of Alice's hands between both of hers- "Alice, you'll be alright! General Alistair, please proceed to evacuate her and everyone else back to the North!"

"Yes, your Highness..."

Anna allowed her favorite General some time to comfort his daughter, and meanwhile she decided to leave the field hospital and start to coordinate the evacuation herself.

It was then when the Princess discovered that yet another snowstorm had started while she had been attending Alice and the others, now the wind was even wilder and the Arendellan troops were quickly gathering around great campfires...

What was this shell shock disease? How could they treat it, which means... in case that it was treatable after all?

Anna's green cloak was rippling in the wind as she witnessed how even more of her shell shocked soldiers were being taken to the hospital, where the doctors would tell them anyway that nothing could be done except to send them back home.

The seven nights bombardment had done more damage to her army than she had thought at first, the trenches were gone and the Sammel Line was ruined, but at least the Crackers had decided everything already and now all they had to do was to stand on guard and wait for the enemy to abandon Arendelle forever...

Anna was lost in her cold and deep thoughts as she tried to decide how many troops should leave and how many others were needed to stay, and then Kristoff came dashing like a boulder through the wild and snowy wind.

The young soldier carried Anna's magical mirror between his gloved hands, and Anna was not surprised to see that a soft white light was emanating from the gateway...

"Anna, your sister is calling!" Kristoff cried out, coming to a halt as Anna advanced towards him- "Wait a second your Majesty, here she is!"

"Anna! Are you there?"