1 The Coup

It was bound to happen, a story like this one is just too big not to tell. While I'm not a great story teller someone has to do it. It may as well be me.

Most of you are familiar with the story of how two little princesses were locked away from the world very suddenly, then ten years later when the King and Queen went to a family wedding they were lost at sea.

It was a very trying time for Arendelle as there was no leadership here. How this place escaped overthrow or war I do not know.

Then it all went straight to Hell.

On coronation day the Queens magical powers were exposed and I as a spectator to the event at the fountain, have to tell you it scared the bejesus out of us. Her blasting open the door then firing an icy weapon at the Duke and his men. No wonder they locked her away. The King was trying to protect us from that monster. Then she just runs away, leaving that silly little girl Anna in charge for ten minutes before it was her fiancees turn, a complete stranger she met hours ago.

And then the summer disappeared. Heavy snow and large, sharp pointed icicles hung from our rooftops.

It was Armageddon. It was the Apocalypse. It was Revelations. But where was God?, this isn't how it was supposed to end. Thousands of people, doomed to freeze to death, while handing over an entire kingdom to whoever showed up after the thaw.

As I mulled over those thoughts, it dawned on me what Elsa truly is, she is a monster. She is the most powerful sorceress the world has ever seen, or may ever be.

A few days later my wife Laila stepped out of the doorway of our own home to get some wood that Prince Hans was giving out when it happened. A large icicle dropped from the roof piercing her in the shoulder and went straight into her heart, killing her instantly.

Will they tell her story? Will this be part of the fairy tale? Doubtful. She wasn't a princess, but she was my queen. And I swear I'll see Elsa die before these eyes.

The "Queen" of course sent her apologies and compensated us for our "loss", but I'll spend every gram of that gold to put Elsa in her grave.

Maybe I should just lighten up for a second, and start at the beginning.

I settled down here after years of wandering on the seas. A shipyard hand by trade, I figured I'd open up a shop, settle down and raise a family. Then I met Laila, a native of here whose father had an empty building at the docks. It was a rough go for a while, but Arendelle has been a peaceful Kingdom and there is plenty of business.

Then there's my two boys, Liev and Bjarne, who are growing up into fine adults. I just hate the idea of them maturing in the shadow of that witch, what future do they posibly have here? What future do I have? My biggest connection with Arendelle was Laila. With her gone why should I stay?

A few weeks later someone strange came to the shop. Olaf showed up to acquire some rigging hardware for a small boat that Kristoff was building for Princess Anna. I could barely focus on what the little guy was saying as I stood in amazement at the fact that he was real. This was a living being, and not created by God, but by someone living in a castle only a stones throw from here. No sorceress has ever had the power of life and death like this one, and she instills great fear among a large portion of Arendelles population, including me.

She is the most powerful weapon ever created, just think about that for a second. She could go to whatever Kingdom she wanted, freeze the place over, wait for everyone to die and then thaw the place out, just in time to plant new crops and create a new frontier for Arendelles citizens. I've heard tales about the monster that lives in the ice palace she created on the North Mountain, she could make hundreds of those satanic creations and overrun kingdom after kingdom, raining death and destruction wherever she went.

The good news is, I'm not alone in these thoughts.

I get enough people flowing thru to keep up on all the towns gossip. I have the only boat shop in town and since the only way in or out of Arendelle is by sea I stay fairly busy, well most of the time anyways. When the freeze came I damn near went broke.

Someone in town decided to have a secret meeting and thankfully I got wind of it just in time. Ingulf the barber and his wife have a cellar below their shop and set up a meeting in the middle of the night to discuss plans of Queen Elsa's demise. There was plenty of anger, but not much else. Prince Hans tried to kill her and look how that turned out. I hear he's now shoveling horse dung out of the royal stables in the Southern Isles.

Now that guy was a true Hero, he knew what had to be done and almost reached his goal, he would've been a fine king. Although I was never too keen on what he did to Anna.

Where was I? Oh yes, the level of distraction was high down here, people making too much noise for a secret meeting, if the Queen got wind of this we could all end up as icy statues parked at the front gates as a reminder to those who may challenge the Queen.

"What we need to find is a weakness." I finally blurted out, and a sudden silence filled the room. "So you have all the answers then?" Said Kari, one of the saltier local fishermen. "No, but it sure beats all this bickering." We needed a solid plan, and this group wasn't capable that. Who could we turn to?

That weasel of Wesleton, the Duke, had also tried to do Elsa in, and failed. He's lucky she didn't string him up. But Elsa had shown him mercy, and hit him where it mattered most, his wallet. maybe this was the ally we were looking for. If he thought there could be some profit in it, it could be a revenge most sweet.

"We need to contact to Duke of Wesleton."

"Are you mocking us, Yoseph?" Replied Ingulf. "What can he do for our cause?"

"Well, he has a score to settle, and Weselton has a large Navy."

"What you're suggesting is a war" Dag said. I really didn't look at it that way, but it looks like that is what it's coming to.

"Yes, but we need to keep the fighting away from Arendelle."

Then it dawned on me, the thought seemed like genius. "What we need to do is build a ship, a war ship". There was a burst of laughter, but I didn't get it.

"Um, there's the issue of Arendelles banks being drained by all the ships Elsa destroyed with her little stunt". Said Freyr."Where would we build it? There's only the one tiny dry dock, there's no shipyard here." Then I said, "That's where Elsa comes in, she will be financing her own demise, and the dry dock is perfect for what I have in mind."

This could be the "in" we need.

"Let's build a hybrid ship, one that has a heart of wood, but covered in Elsa's magical ice, her involvement in the project may expose a weakness we could exploit."

They weren't laughing this time, the plan now seemed so much more plausible.

"But what good is one ship against an armada?"

"That's the point, Freyr, we convince Elsa the ship is indestructible with her magic, then we pull the rug out from underneath her and send her to Davy Jones Locker." The wheels in my head were spinning wildly now. "It'll look like she was killed in battle, it'll make her a martyr and she'll be gone, its' a win-win." And our plot to destroy her will stay covered up. If only it could be that easy.