"FrostFlight"
By Eoraptor
T for Teen.
AN: Frozen and Brave are both Property of the Walt Disney Company. This work is not-for profit and is intended solely for the enjoyment of its audience under fair use.
"Hmmm hm hmm hmm… I saw three ships come sailing in on Christmas day…" The Queen of Arendelle hummed lightly as she watched the servants moving about the great hall, stringing the various bits of winter greenery."
"Elsa! Elsa! Elsa! Four Ships!" The doors of the hall burst open, letting in a gush of cold air and a whirlwind of red hair and braids.
"Yes, that's what I was singing Anna," Elsa smiled and shook her head as she arranged a sprig of holly at the apex of one of the bannisters. "But it's Three Ships, not four."
"What?" The younger sister stopped, inclining her head. Then she shook it hard and seized her sister, guiding her to the windows, pointing out at the fjord, "Four ships!"
Confused and disturbed, Elsa took a breath, allowing herself to be guided. She fiddled with the greenery in her hands and looked out as her sister insisted. At first she saw nothing more than the normal winter-time activity of the fjord. Closed down and iced in almost out to the sea, a few tracks were clear where folks would skate out on the frozen sea to cut holes and fish.
Then a sound reached her ears; a sort of rhythmic drumming, slow and steady. Looking further down the steep walls of the inlet, Elsa saw perhaps the strangest sight in her young life. Four long narrow ships were… walking… up the sea ice from the ocean.
Rubbing her eyes, Elsa stared again. Shaking herself free from Anna's grasp after a moment, she reached out and took a spy glass from the curio nearest the window. Peering through it, she saw that it wasn't the boats which were walking… it was people, under them, carrying them!
And every so often, long oars would appear from the ships and press against some piece of ice, or alternately, smack some member of another boat's crew on the head punitively.
"What on Earth…?" the Queen shook her head, lowering the spy glass from her eye. "Anna, call for Kristoff and Sven. They travel around a lot… maybe they know about… walking boats."
"Yes Your Highness! Right Away! At your command!" Anna snapped off a jaunty little salute and then spun, racing to the edge of the stairs before leaping upon them and heel-sliding down the freshly waxed banister.
Elsa rolled her eyes and sighed. The staff hated it when she did that. The crash that came from below was followed quickly by an, "OOOoops! Sorry! My fault! I'll fix that!" which was followed by a clattering of metal on metal.
Elsa didn't need to see the scene to know that Anna had crashed into Marten, her 'friend' the suit of armor that stood guard at the bottom of the stairs. She chuckled softly and smiled to herself before reaching for the spyglass again, looking out at the fjord. She didn't recognize the ships, or the symbols on the sails, only that they were not like the carracks used along the coast.
"Well Hmmm…"
"Dah!" A long punctuated whine came from atop the leadmost of the ships. "Why are we walking tha boats in?"
"Becase! I will not be without me ships in a strange land." Came a sharp bark from a mountain of a man hobbling along, shouldering most of the prow of the knarr by his lonesome, an odd sort of ski attached to the end of a wooden post which had replaced one of his legs.
"In the dead of winter… when he knew the seas would be frozen." Came a slow, smooth complaint from the forward of the lead ship's deck. "Only yer father would launch a trade mission in winter to a foreign coast."
"Elinor, dear. You were thee one who insisted that we acknowledge the opening of the port of Arendelle." The great man grunted as he trudged along at the head of his men.
"Yes dear… in August, when the straights were clear and the weather fair." The Queen of Clan Dunbroch shivered and held her black sable lined cloak closer to her shoulders. "Not in December, and especially not at the holidays."
"Isht not mah fault tha the daft little man decided to go stirrin' up troubles with those even more daft Welshies across the straights, naw is it…" He grunted again, and then looked up, to see a withering glare from both of the women in his life, "Now is it… dears?"
With a huff, the Queen was forced to admit that, for once, her husband was right… that infuriating little Dingwall had decided to insult the princess of one of the Welsh clans by trying to foist off his barely verbal son on her. War had barely been averted and it had taken three months to clear up the agreements.
"Bored… be right back," the princess declared.
Elinor sighed, knowing that when her flame-headed daughter declared she was bored, trouble could not be far behind. Sure enough, she watched Merida flee to the rear of the knarr and begin digging in the stores under one of the seats amongst the few men still aboard the deck. A moment later she popped up with a triumphant yelp and held aloft her prize.
Her prize was a long recurved bow. In its bolsters were incised intricate royal knotwork and runes, one of the few signs that her daughter was in any way educated. The tips were painted now, hiding the fire hardened limbs with royal purple and green. Dangling loosely from one tip was the string and at the peak, an eagle's feather.
The slim princess quickly swung a leg about like the expert rider she was, using the same muscles she used on her war horse to bestride the bow and bend it down to her will. She strung the other end up and gave it an experimental pluck. Satisfied, she again ducked under the disturbed oarsman's seat, and rooted around until she produced her quiver.
Grinning maniacally, she returned to the prow of the knarr and set about her task. She drew an arrow loose and then fastened some of the twine she saw hanging out of a nearby bag to its nock. Mounting the gunwale with one leg, and crossing her other knee beneath her to set up a stable platform on the slowly rolling walking ship, she looked for her target.
Elinor looked on her daughter's actions curiously. While she felt herself above such lowly trappings as hunting, she could admit that her oldest child could be quite ingenious at the task. Then her eyes followed the tail of the arrow downwards… along the twine… and right to…
"Mah Tepestry! Merida stop! You'll unrav-,"
"There ye are ye wee beauty." Too late the warning came from her mother, as Merida exhaled and loosed her warhead.
The arrow launched itself with almost inhuman force; after all, Merida's bow was just shy of Odysseus's own for its tension and power, and like the ancient king, only she could string it. The iron warhead whistled as the arrow flew, plunging into a slushy circular hole in the ice.
Keen green eyes watched the twine, and in a second it twitched. With an exultant cry, the redhead in her bearskin wrappings pulled with both hands, yanking up the fish she had seen circling beneath the ice and hole.
"Dah! Lunch will be sarved shortly!" she cried as she took her bow and her speared quarry to midships, setting to searing it over the little iron stove.
Elinor sighed darkly, looking at the still unraveling twine, which undid her hard work with each movement of her daughter. It was supposed to be a gift for the new queen of the port of Arendelle, an ancient trading partner of Dunbroch. Now it was just a strung burlap sheet with a few colored threads clinging to it. And she would have to find some other gift for the new monarch.
The slow procession of the ships of Dunbroch, MacGuffin, Dingwall, and MacIntosh up the fjord actually helped. With her daughter distracted by her rather sizable fish, Elinor was able to reclaim most of her twine. Unable to recraft the historical piece she'd been working on, she set to work on something more abstract. Given the winter season, and the huge crystal she had heard of, and could now see perched atop the parapets of the central Keep of Arendelle, she wove out a knot in two shades of royal blue, pointing it sharply to form a snow flake which resembled the great crystal sparkling in the cool winter sun.
By the time they arrived in the port itself, her hands throbbed and ached, but she'd managed her task admirably, she thought. Standing and rubbing her hands, she stuffed them into the sable muff attached to her coats.
"Ach! Ye daft barins!" came an angry cry from beneath one of the other boats, "Clan MacIntosh will look like daft leetle fools if our ship keels over in harbor!"
"Well Maybe if Dah had'na decided to try to dock on what 'mounts ta dry land!" Merida barked right back at the skinny lord with the notable nose.
Elinor felt no compunction to chastise her daughter. The princess was absolutely correct. And while it might be unladylike to bellow at men the way men bellowed at each other… after the rough crossing and the even rougher long walk, the queen was in no mood to spare the boys their tongue lashing, proper decorum be damned.
Merida just about fell overboard as their own knarr was set down on the solid ice next to a pier. Only her father's massive hand grabbing the back of her brown bearskin cloak saved her plummeting several meters to the harsh ice below.
"Ach, thanks Dah." She sighed, wiping her brow, and watching her breath steam away along with her sweat.
"Such a cold land…" the huge man lamented as he looked out at the kingdom build up around the natural harbor. "How is it we sailed due east, but it be getting colder?"
"I dunnae," Merida looked out, holding herself, "I hate sailin' almost as much as I hate them wee pinching corsets. All I nae is tha I heard rumors they can have winter during summer time 'ere."
"Merida," The Queen cautioned as she moved to the gang plank being lowered to the pier, "Spreading rumors, particularly about a fellow royal, is not ladylike. Or do ye forget what transpired just this summer with Lord Dingwall?"
Merida winced in spite of herself. "Aye… tha rumor he spread about tha welshie princess and her tastes fer her horses was… ah bit nasty."
"To say the least," Her mother snorted, shaking her head as if to dislodge the very thought.
"Ooooh lookie, this be the welcoming party Me thinks!" the aforementioned short, squat lord of clan Dingwall pointed as he disembarked from his own ship, straightening his long winter kilt.
Elsa blinked, looking down the jetty as she walked the parapets of the castle. Was that… Sven? Well obviously it was; there was only one reindeer which walked the dockways and streets as if he were people. But, why was he walking towards the protected cove where the strangers were setting down their boats?
Oh, because Kristoff and Anna were already there.
"Oh dear," The queen muttered beneath her breath. She had intended for Anna to bring her male friend to her in the palace, not to go out and greet the newcomers directly.
"But I didn't say that, did I?" She sighed rubbing her face softly, reminding herself again that her sister was rather direct. "Well, best intervene before she triggers an incident."
"Hello!" came yet another familiar voice, causing her highness to sigh. From the other end of the dock came her little winter vassal. "My name is Olaf!"
Thankfully he at least didn't need his personal snow storm to keep him alive this time of year. She'd learned that strangely, that seemed to frighten outsiders even more than the magically animated and friendly snowman alone.
Still, she quickened her step as she turned away from the tall walls of the fortified harbour, wishing to intercept any excitement from the lively and impromptu diplomats greeting the newcomers in… dresses?
They were all wearing dresses, the women in long frocks she vaguely recognized, but the men in intricately striped long… skirts.
"Er… I…" She chewed her lip, slowing her approach to the strangers in uncertainty, still seeing her sister and Kristoff on the far side of the pier.
At least they weren't Vikings… So far as she knew, Vikings didn't wear skirts. Assured of that much at least, she straightened her bearing and started walking towards the assemblage, trying to overhear what was being said so she would have a lead in to the conversation.
"I swear, Mudder, if I have to spend one more second on this daft barq, I'll start barkin' too!"
"…as if you're not already, dear?" Came a terse but more restrained tone.
Elsa looked around, and then over. The nearest of the four long ships still had some people on its upper deck. Elsa recognized even at a distance the glint of a golden crown in the evening sun. Looking from the rough looking men in their checked skirts to the boats, the queen changed course, walking up the gangway towards the apparently royal personage. After all, why talk to the porters when she could address someone of stature?
She made it three steps before the gangway leading up to the precariously leaning boat was kicked aside, dropping down to the frozen fjord below. This brought the Queen up short. Normally she would simply make her own gangway of ice; save for the fact that the pushing of the gangway was no accident. The older woman had kicked it away from the younger's foot.
"Ma! Wha did you go and do that for?" the younger glared at the bulwark were the path had just been beneath her foot.
"To stop you making a fool of yerself, dear," the elder clarified, folding her arms before herself in a sable ruff. "Yer father is in command of this expedition. It is his duty and position to make contact with the officials of the port."
"…and it is ME duty to get me feet on dry land befer I turn into a bloomin' fish!" the younger woman in her deep green dress and bearskin over wrap stamped her foot.
"Oh don't be so dramatic." The older woman huffed, shaking her head "You have been dry fer hours now, we haven't seen the sea in three. Once yer father has met the harbor master, or whomever is in charge around here, we may disembark and you'll have yer precious dry land."
Elsa looked around. If this woman was royalty then her husband should be nearby. Protocol dictated she meet him so that that poor disturbed girl could get off the boat.
"Nay!" she heard a rather strident bark.
She turned to look back, and saw the younger woman again mount the bulwark. She drew out a bow and looked around from her tilted vantage. The Queen of Arendelle watched as the girl in the heavy quilted winter dress put an arrow into the bow and then raised it into position. The girl then sneered and paused, yanking away her toque in a fit, tossing the veiled hat to the deck of the ship and unveiling a spectacular mass of ginger curls.
Before Elsa could think to call out a warning to her guards not to attack the suddenly armed woman; the mad ginger let fly her arrow. It whistled through the cold Scandinavian air and struck home in a mooring post a remarkable distance away. The Queen then watched as the girl tied off a fine rope that had apparently been lashed to the missile to the ship and then went astride the taught cord with leather soled shoes.
"Merida…" came a taut and dangerous growl, "If ye take one step on that blasted rope, I'll set yer father on ye."
This apparently did not phase the crazed redhead, and she took a rather pointed step out over the edge of the knarr.
"No, worse… I'll set yer brothers on ye." Came another threat through royally clenched teeth.
This seemingly got the girl's attention. She paused, looking back at her mother. As Elsa watched, she chewed her lip and weighed her apparent options.
Whatever went through the mad ginger's mind; she decided that either the threat was an empty one, or that her desire to see terra firma outweighed the repercussions. She went sliding down the taut rope, which unfortunately, was not so taut as it first seemed.
Or rather, the knarr it was attached to was not so stable, balanced on its keel on the ice. The sudden shift in weight from its new mooring line and the weight on it unbalanced the long ship. It heeled to the newly weighted side with a loud creak. This had the effect of loosening the lined the raving redhead was sliding down, and sending the men beneath the boat scurrying in a panic.
And while it didn't upset the girl enough to loose her footing, it did drop her pathway a good six feet, which left her charging right at the Queen of Arendelle.
Elsa was so shocked by the sequence of events that she almost failed to react to them.
The ginger astride the rope was in a similar spot; she hadn't counted on the sudden change in footing, nor the appearance of a blonde waif in her new path.
Both girls squawked in surprise at the oncoming collision.
Merida leapt skyward, trying to lift herself up and over the minnie in her route, unfortunately the rope now had too much slack for her to generate much thrust.
Elsa threw up her hands in a panic. With the gesture, a gleaming frostbitten arc of ice appeared before her, curving up and into the winter sun like an angry spire.
Non-plussed by yet another obstacle suddenly in her path, the princess of Dunbrock worked to bring her feet under her mid-flight. She hit the glistening white ramp in front of her, and immediately slipped; having mistaken ice for snow and having only leather sheaves on her feet. She squawked loudly as she went arse over tea kettle, upwards into the sky at a frightening velocity.
Realizing what further chaos was ensuing, the Queen of Arendelle spun about and worked her magic hard. A frigid blast blew across the docks, and in an instant the angry shard of frosted ice broke apart into so many snowflakes, which quickly settled in a neat pile on the plank work.
And just in time as Merida landed in the drift with a thump, a pouf, and a groan.
A moment later, her wild thatch of crimson curls emerged from the drift and she shivered, "Ach… wha in the world was that? I feel like I just tangled with tha dragon of Silene…"
"Er… uh…" the Queen toed the wood planks beneath her feet uncertainly, looking from the apparent princess upwards to her thoroughly put-out mother on the deck of the ship. A woman who had watched the entire debacle unfold from the high vantage, and now saw the crown perch atop Elsa's head, "as Queen of Arendelle, I officially… welcome you?"