BookLuv: Oh, good to know this story stood out to me.
MHS0501: I figured he should have some use besides being a cameo.
I am a burglar: Well, it's too late now.
Strange and proud of it: Your welcome.
Anna and Thaw: I didn't delete this because it technically wasn't trolling. And how is anyone acting out of character, exactly?
Miaka: First guess, huh?
HollieC1974: Well let's just see how things pan out.
Antha1: Eh, hanging seems more formal. And useful to the plot.
Flint watched as Anna and Kristoff were taken to the gallows to be executed. Agni had wanted them hanged in front of the whole of Arendelle, to break their spirits to see their remaining royalty be put to death before their eyes. When that happened, surely they wouldn't have the will to rebel against their new ruler.
Around him, the crowd were shouting their protests at the wicked queen as she stood atop the gallows, awaiting her prisoners be brought to her. The shouts of "Demon!" "Monster!" "Witch!" were only a few of the words hurled at the Fire Queen.
Flint admired their courage. In Arcturus, no person would dare refer to the Queen by such foul names, much less in her presence, lest they wished for death. However, he knew it was also stupid, and futile. No amount of protesting would change Agni's mind; in fact, it could prove more deadly than anything.
As Anna and Kristoff walked up the stairs, the shouting and protesting only increased. Agni had been mostly ignoring the jeers of the townspeople, but now, he could see Agni was on the tip of fiery anger. Her eyes were closed shut and she took a deep breath, letting the insults rain down upon her.
Evil despot!
Burn in Hell, demon!
May your body rot!
When her eyes opened, Flint could see only fire in them.
Before anyone could react, Agni rose her arm up, and a wave of fire arose from the ground beneath the feet of a section of the crowd, consuming them in flames. Their screams of agony were cut short as they were utterly engulfed in red fire. Around them, terrified townspeople scattered as scores of them were obliterated right before their eyes.
When the smoke cleared, the crowd could see a massive pile of ashes and cinders where their fellow folk used to stand. Silence swept through the crowd, in utter contrast to the uproar mere moments ago. Even Flint stood there, his face paled in shock.
"Anyone else?!" Agni shouted out, her eyes scanning the crowd for anymore signs of dissent. A grin appeared on her lips when she saw the citizens of Arendelle cowed before her.
"Now, where were we?" She asked, turning to the two prisoners, chained and standing before her. Anna and Kristoff glared at her, enraged at the death of their subjects.
"Former princess Anna of Arendelle and Ice Master Kristoff, I, Queen Agni, hereby sentence you to death," Agni sneered to them. The two prisoners didn't say a word; they simply walked past Agni towards the twin nooses that sway above them.
Flint watched on, angry at Agni's display of tyranny. He knew it would be only the first of many acts of despotism towards Arendelle's citizens now that she was ruler, just like she had done with Arcturus.
Unwilling to watch the execution, Flint began to slink away from the crowd and back towards the castle. He knew Agni was too preoccupied with the sensation of killing off two potential threats to her rule to notice his absence. Even as he walked towards the castle, he could hear Agni give the death sentence to Anna and Kristoff.
He wished their souls peace.
Then, as he came closer to the castle, he heard a crash in the dungeons below it.
Within the dungeons, Thaw had freed nearly all of the prisoners. Agni's guards, meanwhile, were thrown into the very cells they had been guarding mere minutes ago.
Thaw reached the last cell and unlocked it. Immediately, Ander rushed out of the cell towards Thaw.
"Oh, Ander!" Thaw said, embracing the reindeer, happy at being reunited after being separated for so long. She then turned to the imprisoned guards.
"We'll deal with the lot of you when Elsa comes back!" Thaw snapped at the guards through the cell bars, trying to look brave. She then turned around to face the nobles.
"There's a secret entrance that leads out the back of the castle," She explained to them. "Agni and everyone else is at the front of the castle in the town square. They won't notice us slip out."
"Excellent, princess," King Andreas congratulated. "We were wrong to have misjudged you. But, where will we go?"
"Elsa's in the mountains," Thaw explained to the nobles. "I'll take you there, and we can form a plan with Elsa to stop Agni!"
"Good!" Andreas said, grinning.
Thaw began to gesture for the freed prisoners to follow her down the dark hallways. The corridors were filled with the nobles, Arendelle's guards, Christian's family, and the trolls as they rushed to reach the back exit.
The hallways were twisted and burning, as a result of Agni's magic. There were glowing orange stalactites sticking out from the ceilings and walls, hampering their escape. The prisoners had to struggle to avoid the pointy objects as they squeezed through the hallways.
The escapees heard the sound of a loud groaning sound coming from the end of the hallway. Thaw stopped the crowd, grabbing a torch of the wall to illuminate the hallways to see what was there.
She found a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring back at her. Before Thaw's eyes, she saw a lava monster crawl through the hallways towards the group, lava dripping from its gaping jaws. Screams of terror rippled through the group.
Thaw trembled in fear as the lava monster approached her. Instinctively, she waved the torch in front of her, shouting, "Get back! Get back!" She struck the beast in the jaw with the torch, only for it to break off upon impact. The princess froze as she found herself holding only the edge of the torch.
"Well, I probably should've seen that coming," She said to herself.
The lava monster let out a roar and surged towards the young princess. Behind her, the escapees all backed away in fear.
Thaw quickly reached into her pocket, and pulled out the bag filled with the snowballs Elsa had given her. "This better work," She mumbled to herself, and hurled the tiny snowball at the lava monster as it reached to grab her in its large hands.
The snowball pelted against the lava beast's shoulder, scarcely slowing it down as it lunged towards her. As Thaw stood still, eyes shut, waiting to feel the lava monster's burning hands grab her, she heard the lava monster let out a gasping wheeze. Opening her eyes, she saw the snow on the monster's shoulder begin to expand over the lava monster's large body, slowly encasing it in ice.
"Goodness," Princess Circe whispered from the back of the group.
The lava monster struggled to reach forward, but the ice expanded over it until it was fully encased in ice. Soon, the lava monster was nothing more than an ice statue.
"Phew," Thaw said, sighing in relief. Hesitantly, she reached forward and tapped the ice statue on the head. Immediately, the statue shattered into ice and crumbled onto the ground, causing Thaw to stumble backwards. Straightening up, she said, "Come on!"
The group continued forward, rushing through the corridors, this time more confident. Occasionally, they'd come across a lava monster or one of Agni's guards in the corridors, but Thaw would freeze them in place with her snowballs before they could do much damage.
Soon enough, the group saw sunlight coming from the edge of the hallways. "Yes!" Thaw said, rushing faster than before. 'We're at the exit! We're free!"
Just as Thaw was about to reach outside, she saw a shadow cast over the ray of sunlight. Before she could see who it was, she felt the tip of a spear poking her chest. Behind her, the crowd stopped in their tracks.
Gulping, Thaw looked up to see none other than Flint, blocking the entrance. His sword was in his hands, the tip of it aimed at Thaw's chest.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" The bodyguard asked, glaring at Thaw. The young princess stood where she was, unmoving. She realized that she didn't have time to reach into her pocket and grab another snowball.
"Elsa sent you here, didn't she?" Flint asked. "To free everybody?"
Thaw slowly nodded. "We're going to stop Agni and free the kingdom," She said. "Now let us pass. Now."
"I can't," Flint said bitterly. "If I do, all of Arcturus will pay for it when Agni finds out I let you go. My daughter will pay for it." He pressed the sword against Thaw's chest. The crowd was silent behind her.
Thaw breathed heavily, and looked up to stare Flint in the eyes. "How long are you going to let Agni push you around?" She asked, standing tall in spite of the sword pressed against her body. "Are you going to let her bully you your whole life? Are you going to allow your daughter to grow up with such an evil queen ruling over her. What about her?'
"It's for her own good," Flint said.
"Is it really?" Thaw asked. "What's better? A quick death doing the right thing, or a slow one under the heel of a monster? I don't know about you, but I'd rather die, right here and now. At least I'll go the grave a free girl."
As she stared into Flint's eyes, she saw his expression change. He said nothing, but the look in his eyes said everything.
Flint lowered his sword. "Go, now," He said, stepping to the side of the entrance. "Leave, before I change my mind!"
Immediately, Thaw bolted out the the entrance and out the back of the castle. The other escapees followed suite, rushing out of the dungeons and towards the forest. A few paused to thank Flint for his mercy as they left.
"May God bless your soul," Prince Howard told the guard as he exited.
Flint watched as the escapees rushed out into the forest. Unexpectedly, he shouted, "Wait!"
While most of the escapees ignored him and continued to flee into the forest, Thaw stopped and turned to face Flint.
"When you return with Elsa and defeat Agni, promise me you'll bare no hard feelings against my kingdom," He asked. "Nobody wanted to go along with it; it was all Agni's doing."
Thaw smiled and nodded. "For your daughter's sake," She said. Then, she rushed into the forest, leaving the guard at the back of the castle.
As she ran, Princess Circe said, "Thaw, what about your parents?"
Thaw paused for a moment, turning back to stare at the kingdom. She realized that she had left them. However, she remembered Anna's look to her back at the crowd, and she smiled and said confidently, "They'll figure something out."
With that, she continued towards the mountains.
Agni watched with glee as Anna and Kristoff had the noose tugged over the heads by the executioner. Anna and Kristoff had retained the same look of stoicism ever since they had reached the gallows.
"Do you want to face death with some honor?" She taunted the two. She motioned for the hanging man to open the hatchet for Anna and Kristoff to fall through as per their execution.
"If it's any consolation, I might spare your daughter when I find her," She sneered at the two. When the two didn't respond, Agni asked, "Do you have any final words before your death?"
"Yeah," Kristoff said. "Come here."
As Agni leaned in, she heard the faint sound of the click of a lock behind Kristoff and Anna.
CRACK!
Before Agni could react, Kristoff's fist connected with her face, knocking her back. With a shout, she collapsed off the gallows and onto the ground below just in time to see Kristoff's shackles clatter onto the ground next to her.
"What?!" Agni shouted out in shock, looking up at Kristoff and Anna. "How did you-"
It was then that she saw Kristoff pick the locks of Anna's shackles with a carrot. It didn't take long before she recognized who the carrot belonged to.
"Olaf!" She shouted, only now remembering the snowman.
A shout of surprise erupted from the crowd, and Agni turned around to see the snowman himself, riding Sven through the crowd. The snowman was missing his nose, but had a triumphant grin on his face nonetheless as he neared the gallows.
"Before you sent us to the gallows, Olaf gave us his nose!" Anna explained to Agni as she and Kristoff removed the nooses and jumped off the hatchet. "We both knew his nose was good at picking locks! Bet you didn't anticipate that, Agni?"
Agni was silent only for a moment. Then, with a roar of anger, she threw out her arm, and a blast of fire was sent in Anna and Kristoff's direction. However, the two dodged under the fire blast.
"Time to go!" Kristoff said, grabbing Anna by the waist with one arm. With the other, he grabbed onto one of the nooses and used it to swing him and his wife from the gallows and over the crowd. The townsfolk let out a gasp of awe.
Sven leaped through the air, and Anna and Kristoff landed on his back. The crowd all rushed out of the way as the reindeer landed on the ground and proceeded to bolt through the town square.
Agni growled in frustration. Throwing out her arm, she summoned several rocky spikes out of the ground to pierce the reindeer and its occupants. Sven dodged through the spikes to avoid being pierced by them.
"They're getting away!" Agni shouted to her guards. "Get them!"
The guards attempted to pursue the escapees, but couldn't keep up. By then, the four had escaped the town square and were now riding out the kingdom and towards the forest, leading to the mountains.
Soon, they had exited Arendelle and were now fleeing the kingdom.
"We made it!" Anna shouted, stunned at their escape. Grabbing Kristoff, she shouted, "We made it!"
"No time for celebrations yet!" Kristoff said. "We're not out of the fire yet. Now, we just have to make it to Elsa's ice palace before we can actually celebrate our escape!"
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