Chapter 1: The Prison, the girl, the food.
It is common knowledge that a princess, when expected to ascend the throne, must take upon herself all the responsibilities of a good education; for a monarch must be in the possession of an educated mind if their country is to fare at all. As such, it left the chosen princess little time for the usual princess-like activities of frolicking, chasing butterflies and having tea with her handsome collection of stuffed toys.
Anna, as fate would have it, was a princess at the tender age of fifteen. She bemoaned this fact to whoever would care to listen: be it her uncle, maids, or more often than not, her childhood friend: Hans, a prince of the Southern isles. Such was their discourse one fine morning a few days after he'd arrived for Anna's sixteenth birthday.
"Hans, I thought you'd be the last person to tell me not to skip my morning lessons."
"What? I would never encourage truancy!" Hans retorted. This response caused Anna to cross her arms in staunch protest. Hans took an involuntary step forward, since Anna was currently perched precariously on the railing of the balcony.
"I don't see how it's fair that you get to skip three days' worth of tutoring by coming to Arendelle, and I don't get a single hour to spare; even when it's my birthday," The princess said.
"Anna, your birthday was two days ago," replied Hans, stoically.
"I know," retorted Anna.
"And we spent the entire day looking for good sandwich spots in the mountains."
"Yes we did."
"And the day after we sailed the fjord because you insisted you wanted to go fishing."
"And your point is, Mr Westergard?"
"Haven't you skipped quite enough lessons as it is?"
Upon hearing this statement Anna covered her mouth with a hand in feigned surprise. Hans didn't know whether it was nobler to laugh or to frown. He, possessing such a long history with Anna as to be called her best of friends, was considered an expert in the moods of the princess. Nevertheless, even he sometimes found her impossible to handle. Hans recovered his wits and, after a moment of reflection, did his best to appease the princess who was still pouting, and thus still in danger of toppling over backwards to her doom.
"Look, Anna…"
Anna looked Hans in the eye and raised a suspicious eyebrow. She had heard this tone before, often from the lips of an exasperated and irate uncle. Hans went on:
"You're going to be crowned Queen of Arendelle one day. I, on the other hand, am twelfth in line to the throne of the Southern Isles- I'll never be king...or anyone important. You must realise that your education is magnitudes more important than mine."
The princess opened her mouth to object; however, upon seeing the look in Hans' eyes she promptly became silent and downcast. Six years of friendship and an inner conviction that Hans possessed a greater wealth of wisdom, convicted Anna of the wrongness of her truancy. With a sigh, Anna decided the battle lost and stepped back onto the balcony, eliciting an unconscious breath of relief from Hans. It wasn't like Anna had never fallen off from some of her precarious perches; after that, it was the business of the house physicians, apothecaries and broken arms.
"Alright. I'll go." Anna said, and then added with a hint of sadness. "You leave tomorrow don't you?"
She managed a slight giggle as she made for the door. "For twelfth in line, you sure are busy."
Hans could not deny it. Even though he was last in line, there was no shortage of work for him back at home. After all, he was at the age where princes were expected to attain the set of gentlemanly qualities that would procure them the hand of a princess. Hans who, having been blessed by nature with dashing good looks and a charming humor, was looked upon by all as the favored suitor for the up and coming princess Anna, felt the full brunt of those great expectations. His father, the honored king of the southern isles, was chief among those who saw Hans' friendship with the princess as the promise of an early marriage and a second son who will one day inherit a throne-a good throne too-for Arendelle was a prosperous trading nation, with one of the finest navies the known world had to offer.
So it came to be that Hans suddenly found himself plunged into the training program meant for only the most eligible of princes. The result was two-fold: the youngest prince suddenly found himself the envy of all but one of his brothers; and Hans suddenly found that he had a lot less time to spend with Anna. This visit, for the commemoration of Anna's birthday, was his first to Arendelle in over a year.
He watched Anna leave before he too, removed himself from the balcony and made his way into the Arendelle castle. He would tour the markets today, making acquaintance with as many reputable traders as possible. If he was to be king, he needed friends.
When Anna finally found the time to look for Hans, the old grandfather clock was already striking seven. Her lessons today had been comprised of a yawn-inducing combination of economics, geography, and political history. Apparently, Arendelle's relations with the southern isles had never been smooth sailing. Anna ignored the not so subtle hints that this was all supposed to change when she ascended the throne. She found the prince reclining by the fireplace-nose deep in a book he had borrowed from the library. She managed to glimpse its cover before he snapped it shut and rested it on the leather couch beside him-'History and Construction of the Arendelle Castle' it had said: a perfectly boring cover. Anna was convinced he hadn't really been reading.
"Hans," said Anna, a grin plastered on her face.
"Anna." He said.
"So…"
As awkward silences went, this was not the worst. Hans had already decided upon a path of discourse and was merely waiting for Anna's prompt to begin. Meanwhile, Anna had decided that Hans, being the better talker, should in this case be the progenitor of the conversation. They stood facing each other, Anna sporting a rather goofy smile on her face. A few seconds later, Anna realised she was staring and spoke.
"So, what were you reading?"
Hans smiled and began to elaborate his fascinating study of the Arendelle castle and its history, not only did the book contain detailed maps; it also contained a list that tediously stated the various contributions of past kings to the building's construction. Apparently, they had a vast dungeon system built under the castle in the sixteenth century for political prisoners and prisoners of war. Hans explained with gruesome detail how the dungeon was shut down after it was accidentally flooded, resulting in the deaths of all the king's prisoners. Anna made a face, but also found herself interested, albeit with a rather morbid curiosity.
"Why don't you take me on a tour of the castle?" Said Hans.
"Huh?" Anna looked at Hans quizzically.
Hans got up and walked over to the fire, staring into the flames as they danced over the wood.
"Just for old time's sake."
Anna nodded slowly. "Ok."
Hans smiled. "It's been awhile since you've lectured me on how your late father collected all those pictures in the art gallery."
A small smile formed on Anna's lips; she had a better idea. "We could go exploring!"
"Exploring?" said Hans, feeling for a moment that his dignity as a grown man, might now suddenly be under attack. Anna huffed at the change in tone and replied:
"For old time's sake."
"Fine." Said Hans.
Five minutes later and Anna had lost Hans. In fact, she had also lost her bearings. But as Anna looked around her, she realised with a certain anxious excitement that she was most certainly lost. Lost in her own castle-the thought was absurd. But then again, she wasn't exactly in her castle either. The hide and seek game had prompted her to leave the monotonous indoors-she knew them all and she knew Hans knew them all. It was only logical she should go outside and into the gardens; the summer sun had yet to set, hovering several inches above the horizon; there was light enough.
'Well… maybe not so logical' she thought.
Fir pines hemmed her in from all sides; standing like tall dark giants, they blocked out what remained of the evening light. What had happened was this: Anna, while roaming the garden, had decided to plunge into the fir pines. She knew there was a waterfall somewhere in the pine forest, and a ledge that let a far sighted man see all of Arendelle; a splendid place to be found. However, on her way there, she had noticed a ravine sloping down towards a part of the castle she had never been: close to the sea wall and the crashing waves. Her interest tickled, she tried to climb down, only for an unseen tree root to hasten her descent with a tumble.
Anna picked herself up off the ground, her green dress dirtied by the loamy earth. Pine needles stuck out of her hair and clung to her undergarments; educated princess indeed, she looked more like a farmer's daughter.
'Running off and getting lost… Not my best idea.' She thought wryly.
Anna looked around her. It was dark, not pitch black, but a few shades deeper than evening. The tree branches hung low, their boughs looking like dark fur covered arms sweeping over the ground. Tentatively, Anna peered through the gathered gloom. Suddenly, to the right she fancied she saw a little light. In that direction Anna went and found that it was the light of a torch mounted on the stone wall of the Arendelle castle. Anna breathed a sigh of relief-as long as she had the castle in sight; she'd be able to find her way somehow.
Walking towards the light, Anna saw to her astonishment that the light shone over the entrance of a dark tunnel. Closer still, Anna could see the moss and weeds hanging off the stony arch that framed the tunnel. A flight of stairs leading to the dark stone tunnel were chiselled into the castle wall, they seemed to be well trodden and not a plant sprouted from their well smoothed surfaces. With the utmost caution Anna approached the steps; her thoughts ran wild and her imagination ran wilder. By the time she the top of the stairs, Anna was prepared to face anything from giant man-eating spiders to the Cretan labyrinth.
Anna stood at the entrance and peered into the darkness; she was surprised that the tunnel sloped upwards and that further up, there were more torches, their flames casting a gentle glow onto the smooth cobblestones.
"Well, I did say I wanted to go exploring...but...that was a...joke." Anna muttered to herself. "Well, since I've already made it this far, I might as well."
Her words were more for her own morale than anything. Taking a deep breath in, Anna strode forward into the tunnel. Pressing a hand to the cobblestone wall, Anna took the next flight of stairs in her stride. The torches came at regular intervals so that she never walked in total darkness, nevertheless, an abundance of spiders on the ceiling kept her on her toes. Suddenly Anna shivered. She looked in amazement as her breath misted before her; for some reason it was getting colder the further down the tunnel she went. There were no spiders now, and the moss that had been so abundant near the entrance was totally absent. Pressing a hand to the stone, Anna retracted the hand with a gasp of amazement-the stone was ice cold and covered in a layer of water droplets.
Anna walked on; this tunnel was too strange not to see to the end. The tunnel was leveling off into a stony corridor. Strangely, the stone work stopped here. The rest of the tunnel, incredibly, was wrought with cast iron. Anna gazed in mute astonishment at the feat of engineering, wondering just how hard it must have been to cover the walls and ceiling in metal. Beside her, on the wall, hung a fur coat; beneath it was a jug of water and a loaf of bread on a platter.
But Anna was not interested in these seemingly out of place items; she could see the end of the tunnel now. A great iron door stared at her from under the soft shine of a torch, sputtering pathetically over the door frame.
"Okay?"
The princess of Arendelle glanced around and shivered again-it was supposed to be summer. Heavens, it was summer, but she could see the frost patterns crawl over the cobblestone ground.
"I didn't know we had a freezer…" she said, thinking aloud. "Is this where they keep the ice cream?"
The remark wasn't funny but Anna giggled anyway. This entire 'exploring' thing had blown so much beyond her wildest hopes that she felt a little light headed.
Anna looked around, stared at the fur coat and the water, stared at the ice encrusted ground, stared at the massive iron door, and realised she had no idea what to do. There was nothing more to find here; she had gone down the tunnel and reached the end. For someone who had been prepared to fight giant monsters, Anna was rather disillusioned by the iron cage she found herself looking at. At least the ice was interesting: a tunnel into the castle had no business being so cold in the the middle of summer. Perhaps she'd ask about it when she got back: Kai might be interested, Hans would certainly get an ear full. In her mind it was already determined, she was bringing Hans the next time she visited this strange tunnel (which would probably be some ungodly hour later in the night).
Anna turned to leave, then nearly jumped out of her skin in fright- someone had just coughed behind her. Anna whipped around like she'd been stung, only to find herself staring at the same old iron door. There was no one there- no vengeful specter had suddenly appeared, no mournful ghost, no terrifying phantom. Just the door and…
"Hello?"
Anna clutched her hands to her heart; she thought she was going to have a heart attack. The shock of hearing a human voice in a place she had assumed to be devoid of life was immense. Anna stood frozen to the ground, staring at the iron door. Then the thought hit her and she couldn't help but say it.
"Dear God, there's someone in there."
The voice came again:
"Hello? Is someone there?"
And Anna's eyes simply grew wider. It was a girl. The voice was a bit hoarse, and a bit thin, but it was without doubt the voice of a girl-her age too, if voices were anything to gauge age by.
"Um. Yes!" Anna blurted out. "I'm here."
"Is there… Do you have any water?"
Anna fumbled for a response, before remembering that there was a bowl of water under the fur coat. She retrieved it hastily and, finding there to be a latch on the bottom of the door, opened the latch and slid the water through. The bowl disappeared quickly and there was the sound of someone drinking greedily from the other side.
There was a pause, and then.
"Is there…?"
Anna knew what the girl wanted-she already held the loaf of bread in her hands. She sniffed it and immediately determined it to be at best stale, and at worst, toxic. To give someone such an unpleasant morsel was nothing short of the purest cruelty, and Anna quickly resolved that she would do no such evil.
"Please."
The girl's request had become a high pitched whine, causing Anna's heart to clench itself up into a most uncomfortable knot. After a long internal deliberation, Anna slid the loaf of bread through the latch. However, as the sounds of tearing bread drifted to her ears, she promised herself that she would visit whenever possible with a morsel from her own table.
A muffled 'thank you' was heard. Anna didn't smile.
The silence that followed was both unpleasant and lengthy. Finally, Anna, feeling all the unease of the stifling silence, endeavoured to speak.
"Who are you?"
Silence.
Anna realised that there wasn't much she could say that sounded proper for the situation. Given that she'd never even dreamed up such a situation, she could be forgiven. She tried again.
"I'm Anna, princess of Arendelle. Pray, what is your name?"
There came from behind the iron door a metallic scraping noise, like chains being dragged over the cold hard rock. Meanwhile Anna, not one to be offended by the continued silence, ran up to the great metal door and looked all over it. There were a great many bolts fastening the door to the wall. They were all connected, by a complicated system of levers, to a great big lock on the side of the door. Anna had no key, and even if she did, it would have been a difficult task getting the door to open considering the keyhole was chock-full of ice.
"Why's there so much ice?" Anna muttered to herself as she studied the door intently. She looked for anything that might help her pry the thing open, any screws she could unfasten. Not a chance-the door was solidly locked in place. She did however; remember the sliding latch on the bottom of the great steel door. Anna slid the thing open and, letting her curiosity take her, lay down on the ground so she could peek through it. The ground was ice cold; causing her to shorten her stay on the ground for fear her hands might go numb forever. She managed to catch a glimpse of two dainty white feet, albeit grimy from the bare footedness, backed into the farthest corner of the room. A long, heavy looking chain hung down past the dark blue skirt and was fixed to some point beyond her range of vision. Anna did not see much else for the girl inside gave a startled gasp; the feet rushed over and Anna suddenly found a pile of books dumped in front of the peeping hole.
"Well that's rude." Said Anna, getting up and rubbing her nose.
Anna sighed, shivering. Looking around her, she frowned at the ice and asked.
"Aren't you cold, in there?"
"No." Came the flat reply.
"What? There's ice all over the walls and you aren't even wearing shoes. How can you not be cold?"
This time the silence lasted so long, Anna almost left. At the last moment, however, just as Anna was about to drag herself away from this most strange of discoveries, the girl spoke.
"Magical witch powers." Came the reply.
"Right..." said Anna, half incredulous, half confused. She decided that she wasn't going to buy it.
"Princess Anna, ma'am, you should go now." Said the other girl.
"What?"
The sigh from behind the door this time was audible.
"People will be looking for you. People who care for you will get worried and wonder where you've gone if you stay any longer. The sun's already set."
"Oh."
Anna saw the truth in the statement.
"Oh, Hans, and Kai, and uncle…"
Turning back to the iron door, Anna made an apologetic smile before remembering the other girl couldn't see her.
"Well, I'll be going then. Um, yeah, I'm going now. See you again."
"Actually, it would be better if you don't come back. At all."
Anna stuck out her bottom lip.
"Not a chance; I'll be back here tomorrow at the same time. Wait for me."
And with that, she was off, hurrying down the tunnel. Hans was going to get the earful of his life when she found him.
...
That night, as Anna got dressed for bed, she looked up and saw Kai enter with a glass of milk. Accepting it with a smile, she took a sip and sat down on the side of her bed.
"And Ma'am, your dress will be ready for you by tomorrow morn. I do hope you avoid any more tumbling down hills, hide and seek is only fun when you know where you are hiding. I daresay you had Prince Hans in quite the bind-we almost sent out a search and rescue party." The butler gave her a tender smile.
"Thankfully you came back in once piece. You'd think we'd be used to you doing such things seeing how often this has happened before."
Anna finished her milk. She wasn't listening-her mind was still far away, down an icy tunnel where the witch dwelt. Seeing Kai was about to leave, Anna coughed and said.
"Kai, would you mind staying a little longer?"
The butler turned around, surprised.
"Ma'am?"
Anna kicked her feet. Taking the hint that Anna was still mulling whatever she had in mind, Kai did the smart thing and drew a chair for himself beside her. Anna looked at her trusty butler, wondering if she would have a better reception here than it did with Hans.
Hans, at any rate, was so relieved when he finally found her he had kissed her on the forehead and hugged her for a full minute. But after that, he was too busy proving her safety to the concerned household of the Arendelle castle than to listen to her story about the tunnel and the girl and the ice.
Anna looked into her empty glass and said:
"I wasn't being completely honest when I said I had fallen asleep in the tree I was hiding in."
Kai looked at Anna, surprise evident on his face. But he spoke not; he had wisdom enough to realise that the princess was to be allowed to ramble on till the end without interruption. His gut told him that Anna not being 'completely honest' was the understatement of the year.
"I fell down somewhere, and, well, that's not important. I found a tunnel...no, a prison, in the side of the castle I've never seen before. At first I thought it was the old abandoned dungeons I had read about in a book, but those were flooded so it couldn't be because this one had torches all the way through. I had to climb up a long flight of stairs and the tunnel itself was going up into the castle itself- I can't help wondering why I've never come across it before, I mean, it's so close to the royal gardens and everything."
Anna was staring at her socks while she spoke, so she was blind to the changes that had come upon Kai. As Anna described in detail the tunnel, the torches, the metal and the stairs, Kai's face had gone strangely white. His eyes had widened with the shock of realisation; and soon after, had become glued to the ground.
At this moment the princess turned and looked at Kai, eyes sparkling with a renewed disbelief at her own story.
"And Kai, there was a girl in the prison. I mean, I don't know for sure because I couldn't see her but I could tell from the voice. And I don't think she's that much older than me, unless she's an old woman with a lady's voice, then ugh-" Anna made a face. But her attention was soon drawn away from her story and focused on Kai; for the butler hand his face in his hands and his elbows leaning on his knees and he looked as if he was in mortal terror.
"Kai? What's wrong. You look like you've seen a ghost."
Anna looked around the room, just to check there weren't any real ghosts lurking about. Kai stayed deathly silent. At length, he stiffly, the butler placed a heavy hand on Anna's shoulder and said in a whisper.
"Princess Anna, you don't know what you've just seen."
"I think I do." retorted the princess.
Kai ignored her and persisted.
"I trust you haven't told of this encounter to anyone?"
"I told Hans, but he wasn't listening. I haven't had the time to tell anybody else."
"Good." Kai swallowed thickly and said again: "I'm dreadfully sorry to ask this of you, but please Princess Anna, trust me when I say that you would do very well to speak of this excursion to nobody. No one can know about the tunnel- it is an unhappy accident that brought you there."
Anna blinked, frowning.
"Is it because of the witch?" She said.
"The what?"
"The girl, she said she was a witch. She said that was why she wasn't cold even with all the ice and everything."
"A witch?"
"Yes." Anna looked at him, puzzled at the sudden request for reconfirmation. Kai could only sigh and shake his head.
"Anyway, Princess Anna, promise me you won't tell a soul about this. Prince Hans is smart enough to know sensitive information when he hears it and wise enough to keep his mouth shut around the wrong people."
"I won't tell a soul. I swear, I promise." Said Anna; placing a hand over her heart to emphasize the point. Kai nodded and took his hand off Anna's shoulders.
"Good."
After a moment, he added.
"I'm sorry about my rudeness ma'am. But the less you know about her the better; and as long as other people don't find out, you will be spared a world of hurt. If the wrong people find out that you've spoken to her, your life will be in danger."
"My life?" Asked Anna; astonished. "How can talking to a lonely girl in a frozen prison endanger my life?"
Kai realised he had just stepped on a metaphorical land mine.
"I will tell you more tomorrow, princess. Now, you simply must go to bed and sleep. Your tutors will not be happy if you miss another morning lesson by sleeping in."
The princess stared at her socks and nodded slowly. Looking up, she gave him a faint smile so as to reassure him that she could keep her promises.
"Thanks Kai. Sorry for, well, jumping you with all this. I'm in over my head aren't I?" She gave a mirthless chuckle.
Kai smiled sadly.
"I'm afraid so, princess Anna."
Anna sighed and collapsed back onto her bed.
"Good night."
The moon had already begun its descent before Anna finally shut her eyes to sleep.