Chapter 1: Haakon and the Bandit Queen
The sound of a hundred boots, stepping in unison filled the valley with a metronome's cold, un-breaking beat. Clack, clack, clack, clack. Haakon's eyes fell to his left and then his right, seeing the men that were his marching companions now. They wore simple woolen and cotton trousers and tunics, faded from working in the sun. The carried pitch forks, rusted at the tips from too much time spent farming near the salty fjord. A few carried torches, casting a dancing glow about, although the way forward was clearly lit in the moonlight. All marched northward, stepping in unison on the frosted ground. Clack, clack, clack, clack.
Haakon looked at his own robes, a dark teal of woven wool and purple linen trim. The colors of his kingdom. They stood out in such contrast to the simple farmers, shepherds, trappers and icers marching with him. These were not the regular infantry he normally marched with. How had he gotten here? He closed his eyes, forcing himself to recall, but his mind gave him nothing. He tried to conjure images of his home, of anything that happened in the last few days, but it was if his mind's eye had been blindfolded. All he could remember was a compulsion to march northward.
Clank, clank, clank, clank.
Haakon tried to dig deeper. There was something. A pair of eyes. Perhaps a face? No, the face was covered in a midnight-blue bandana. Black hair framed a pair of eyes, deep blue irises in a sea of salty white.
A deep rumble stirred in the air. Haakon looked up. Was an avalanche forming in the mountains above? It was only mid-autumn—surely there wasn't enough snow built up yet, even in the mountains. But he realized the rumble was in fact a hum. A few of the men around him were humming a single deep note. This was followed by three more notes, rising in a melody that Haakon almost recognized. With each note, more of the men joined in, their marching keeping the meter.
Hmmm-mmm-mmm.
Clank, clank, clank, clank.
Then a pair voices from the middle of the crowd started singing, giving words to the hummed tune.
"Mountains rise, glaciers gleam
Through the fields, across the streams
A North Wind moans—and chills our bones
Away we march—for the bandit queen."
The Bandit queen. That's who those eyes belonged to. She had been lounging across a fallen log where the path bent over a river waiting for him and these men. She had looked them over, and let out her sultry voice, "Oh, yes. You will do just fine."
Why had they even been walking over that path, anyway? Haakon tried to remember. They were searching for a … marshmallow? That couldn't be right. He tried to search his sketchy memory, but was interrupted by a second verse, half the company now joining in.
"A hidden palace, it draws us near
We'll miss our fathers, and our mothers, dear
But march away—through night and day
Our bandit queen, and her visions clear"
In the brief silence at the end of the verse, the dam holding back Haakon's memories finally broke. He was back at the palace, two days ago, kneeling before Queen Elsa of Arendelle. His queen. To her right, Princess Anna was giggling with that snowman Olaf. Elsa had smiled at them briefly before turning to Haakon. Haakon had been a palace guard for over a decade, and despite all the changes in the last three months, it still seemed strange to see Elsa about the palace, and stranger still to see her smiling.
"Haakon," She had said. "I called you here because I've been getting some disturbing reports from the northern valleys. Now that autumn is upon us, some nights are seeing temperatures dropping below freezing. And that means some of the snow capping the North Mountain can … wander down into the valleys."
"Wandering snow, your majesty?" Haakon asked. She must have been referring to the enchanted castle she had created.
"An unfortunate side effect of my time atop the mountain was the creation of a very mean looking guard." Elsa answered, as tactfully as she could, the smile no longer on her face. But Haakon had remembered the towering snow beast. He was one of the guards that had to battle the brute while trying to fetch Elsa back from the North Mountain.
This time, the snowman answered, "His name's Marshmallow."
"Yes, Marshmallow." Elsa went on. "He has been sneaking into the valleys and scaring the farmers. They want to band up and hunt him down. But I think this can be handled more diplomatically. I would like you to take a message to Marshmallow, up on the North Mountain."
"A message for Marshmallow, up North Mountain, your majesty?" Haakon asked with a tinge of nervousness in his voice. There were still superstitions about the North Mountain, ever since it was the epicenter of Elsa's storm that froze summer.
But Anna answered, "I actually went up there a couple weeks ago to get Elsa's crown back. He was really nice. We had a snowball fight, and then he threw me waaaay up in the air, but he always caught me, and it was really fun, so like I said he's really nice, but he was super protective of that crown, and I think he still wears it, and I think he's just being protective of those valleys too, you know, fending off wolves. You know?" She offered a big nervous grin after her rant.
Haakon smiled back. "Of course, your highness." Haakon answered. He looked at the Queen and bowed briefly, "I'll be off immediately, your majesty."
She was smiling again. "Thank you Haakon."
So Haakon had found himself hiking up North Mountain, only to discover giant tracks in the snow, heading down toward the northern valleys. He followed them downward until nightfall, at low enough elevations that the snow gave way to frosted ground. He worked his way to the nearest village, where he found a band of farmers, wielding their pitchforks and torches. He offered to lead them in their search for the Snow Beast, as the farmers called Marshmallow, on the provision that he could deliver a message to the brute before the farmers struck.
They had walked together as a band, down the path leading from the village, until they reached a bridge with a lady blocking their path. She was adorned in a tight-fitting black fur vest, with dark blue vestments, designed for quick motion rather than to conform to fashions of the time. Her nose and mouth was obscured with a bandana, and dark hair framed the rest of her face. Atop her head was the tiara Elsa had worn at her coronation—the one supposedly worn by Marshmallow at the time. But what struck Haakon the most was her eyes. A deep blue, as blue as either of the royal sisters, forming a piercing gaze.
Now, marching northward, those piercing eyes were all that Haakon could see in his memory. Those eyes, and brief vision of a castle on a forgotten island much farther north than the kingdom extended. The eyes, wisps of a deeper blue, radiating out from impossibly black, gleaning pupils, onto a seafoam white background. "Oh yes, you will do nicely" he heard in a voice-over, but on the word nicely, the eyes changed. Starting in the center they crystallized into a pair of multi-faceted marquise-cut sapphires, a deep blue on a deep blue.
The memories of Arendelle, of Marshmallow, all faded away, leaving only a compulsive desire to march northward. He joined in with the other men, singing a third verse whose words he somehow knew.
"Called toward her shimmer and blue eyes' gleam,
Past broken forest, trees twist and lean
Beyond the frost—to islands lost
Away we march—for the Bandit Queen"
Author's note: I had the tune of "Misty Mountains Cold" in mind for the Bandit Queen marching song, but maybe you, dear readers, can come up with something better? Also, first story and all that, so please let me know what you think!