AN: It was never my intention to make you all wait this long for a new update and I'm really sorry.

First there were my exams, which I did pretty well on, because I have been accepted for study on my master's degree come autumn! And now when school is finished, there is my job where 6 out of 10 full time workers are out on long term sick leave and I work as a replacement throughout the summer. I have had much less time to write than I would have liked, but I will try my best to find some, because I really love writing on my stories and will try my best to get some writing done.

Second Northern War 1655 - 1660

On Thin Ice 1658

At first it had seemed like a very good idea to Denmark, launching yet another attack on Sweden, purely out of revenge for the last humiliating defeat he had suffered at the other Nordic's hands. He was hoping to regain some of his lost glory and pride and finally put the man in his place. All past humiliation was as good as forgotten as soon as the forces were ready to march out with renewed purpose.

Now however, it was starting to dawn on him that maybe had bitten of far more than he could chew and that he should have left Sweden and Finland alone this time. The war so far had not gone well at all. He had made a defense alliance with Netherlands, but it would only be triggered should Sweden be the aggressor, something that was not the case this time since he had been the one who had started the war out of revenge. So like most other times, he and Norway was standing alone against the power of Sweden.

This winter was one of the coldest one in ages and the fighting had died down for the winter since travel had proven difficult. Now Denmark felt like he would go crazy if he was stuck indoors for a minute longer just looking out the window to stare at the falling snow outside the fortress where they were stationed for the winter, so he begged Norway to join him for a walk outside to get some fresh air and maybe some time to have a proper conversation.

Norway was definitely not as enthusiastic as Denmark was about going outside and he had grumbled in annoyance for several minutes until he eventually gave in and donned a coat.

Denmark had grinned excitably when he finally succeeded. He took Norway by the hand and dragged him along the paved roads leading down towards the sea when he though the Norwegian was moving too slowly.

"Wow, it sure is cold outside" Denmark stated as he tightened the scarf around his neck to prevent any more heat from escaping and leave him freezing. Each breath either of them let out turned to white fog that danced around them as they walked. Norway only replied him with an evasive hum, to pretend that he was paying attention to what the Dane was saying at all.

They walked along the piers on the dock and looked at the ships anchored up for winter; they were no use in these conditions anyways with the ice making it impossible to get out the open sea. Anyone they met was dressed in heavy winter clothing, coats, hats, mittens and boots and still their faces had turned slightly pink from the cold. Denmark greeted almost all of them with a bright smile and exchanged a few words of pleasantry.

A few steps behind the Dane, Norway looked bored out of his mind and didn't even offer a glance to the people they met on their way and kept his hands firmly in the coat pockets and his face partially hidden in his scarf.

Denmark had started to notice how Norway was slowly but surely becoming more and more distant as time passed. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep a conversation going with the man as he would reply only with hums or one word sentences when that was possible. He would also stay silent in the company of Iceland. Even the child wasn't enough to bring a smile to his lips anymore.

Denmark couldn't help but put some of the blame on himself for Norway's behavior. His lack of enthusiasm had become most evident in the time following the settlement after the Hannibal wars. Perhaps loosing land had had been rougher than Norway cared to share. He felt guilty for not having been able to protect his partner in union from harm and that they were both suffering from his inability to win a war against Sweden.

He was trying not to let it show, but he was starting to feel the effects of losing war after war himself. His muscles ached and normal everyday activities would wear him out faster than it used to. It was like everything he did demanded more energy. Old wounds had started aching again like the day when he had first received them. He was barely capable of hiding the limp he had in his leg after the Hannibal wars when Sweden had struck him with a sword. It was like it had never healed properly in the first place.

His breath came out in a great white puff of fog when he sighed heavily and turned his attention back to Norway trudging a few steps behind. "It's amazing just how cold it has become out here" Denmark said cheerily, trying to lighten the mood a bit by starting a conversation. He held up and arm to shield his eyes somewhat from the sharp light of the sun as he let his gaze wander. "The entire harbor is frozen. The ships are stuck and you can't even spot the end of the ice at all."

Norway just cast him a bored sideways glance. "It's just ice and snow. We see it every winter and it has never been anything to be excited about before."

"But it hasn't been so cold the harbor has frozen completely shut before" Denmark exclaimed happily and laughed off Norway's cold tone. He grabbed a hold of the Norwegian's hand again and pulled him away from the docks and towards the water edge. "I bet it can hold my weight too."

He let go of Norway's arm and while the other male stood passively on the side, he took a few testing steps out on the ice. "If you fall through I will not help you get out." Norway commented dryly and folded his arms when Denmark almost tripped on the ice. We are in the middle of a war; you shouldn't be taking things so lightly."

Again Denmark ignored Norway's tone and lack of enthusiasm as he laughed heartily and started skating around just a few meters away from land. Just for a moment all his worries was gone as he childishly played around on the ice. There was the refreshing sting of cold wind on his face and Norway making harsh remarks from land like nothing bad had ever really happened.

The moment of peace didn't last long however. Back on the docks they could hear the sound of raised voices and it drew them both out of their daze and they looked towards where the noise came from.

Up on the pier they could see one man, dressed like a messenger with the royal seal embroidered on his coat. One of the locals was pointing towards where Denmark and Norway was standing by the sea edge. They were speaking urgently and the man looking like a messenger came running towards the two of them and they realized it had to be something serious.

Denmark's smile fell as reality came crashing back; they were still in a war after all. He hastily made his way back from the ice and stepped on land, anxiously awaiting the news. Even Norway looked more alert as he stared at the messenger, trying to come up with an idea of what could have happened.

The messenger was red in the face when he made it over and sweat was running down his forehead despise the cold and his breathing was ragged from exhaustion. "The Swedes" the messenger managed to breathe out. "Swedes are on the ice."

If Denmark had looked nervous before, it was nothing compared to the looked he gained when the messenger managed to stutter out his first few words. "Swedes on the ice?" he asked, clearly in horror. "You need to explain further, where and when did this happen?"

The messenger took a few moments to regain some breath so he could speak properly. "A patrol on duty caught a few Swedish soldiers crossing the ice over the Little Belt. They have started questioning the prisoners, but we have yet to make them reveal anything. We think they may have been sent to test the ice and see if it was possible for a larger force to cross it. They might be marching over the ice as we speak; it's been hours since we caught them."

"Have word been sent to gather a defense?" Denmark asked sharply, trying to hide the growing panic. "We need to prepare for an assault."

The messenger nodded. "We have sent out several riders to gather up as many forces as we can, but I doubt it will be enough on such a short notice."

"We'll manage" Denmark said. "We will gather up who we can and ride to join with the patrol as soon as we can."

Norway cast him a sideways glance but didn't question as Denmark led the way towards back to the fortress where they could gather their weapons and fresh horses so they could set off.

They rode like madmen through the snow, followed by a small group of soldiers that could follow them to join in as a line of defense where they believed the Swedes would cross over.

When they arrived in the bay near where the first Swedish scouts had been captured. The other forces had already lined up in defense positions on land. For the most part it consisted of light cavalry and a group of foot soldiers. The horses were nervous and tripped around in the snow. The foot soldiers were little more than farmers that had been handed weapons to defend their country. They were all staring out over the ice.

Denmark rode in front of the small company he had brought along from the fortress and the commander for the defense group came forward to meet him. Norway rode close behind, careful not to overstep any boundaries, fully aware that his position was considered lesser.

"How many men have you been able to gather?" Denmark yelled over the noise from all the noise the men made while preparing for battle. The authority was heavy on his voice and no man present would doubt he was a much higher ranking officer than the commander.

The officer looked just as nervous as his men. "Just a little over 3000" he replied anxiously. "We have estimated the Swedes have at least twice our numbers. You came just in time, they will soon be here."

Denmark squinted towards the ice but saw nothing. "You might have more luck spotting them with this." Norway rode up beside him and handed him a set of binoculars he had hidden in his folds of clothing and Denmark wordlessly accepted.

With thee binoculars no longer seemed like just an endless sheet of ice stretching on forever as far as the eye could see. There were dark shapes, slowly coming closer at a steady pace. They were men marching, split up in to several different groups, all of them were following the lead of one man. One man that made Denmark's blood freeze when he realized who it was, Sweden.

"I can't believe he took the chance of leading his troops over the ice" Denmark muttered in disbelief, so quiet only Norway could hear him and handed back the binoculars back to the shorter male. "We were not expecting him to make any attacks until spring, yet here he is."

Norway peered out over the ice as well. "What are you going to do now?" he asked. "You're outmanned and practically defenseless."

"I can handle it" Denmark said defensively. "Just you watch me."

"Damn it Matthias, how can you possibly think you can win this battle?" Norway hissed under his breath. "He is ready to beat the crap out of you again. He's going to waste you!"

"I'll think of something" Denmark replied in a tone that most people would have perceived as confident, but Norway had known the man long enough to pick up on the doubt in the man's face. The Dane seemed to notice Norway was reading him and turned away to face the troops instead. "Prepare the cannons and be ready for assault, the Swedes are soon upon us and we will not let them get any further."

The men cheered at his short speech and some of them started working on pushing and dragging the large canons down to the front lines and loaded them with ammunition. The rest started making their own preparations, some praying and other checking the state of their weapon and armor.

Soon they could hear the noises of the closing army, voices and the footsteps from thousands of marching men. Shortly thereafter the Swedes could be spotted from land with the naked eye alone as dark shapes moving towards them.

The Swedes were marching; split up into several smaller groups instead of one great one in order to avoid having all of them disappear should a crack form in the ice and try to swallow them. The ice already showed signs of stress under their weigh and several men were marching with water reaching up to their knees, but that did not seem to dampen their determination to make it across in the slightest.

Denmark was muttering several creative lines of swearwords as they stood there waiting for the first Swedes to get in range, so they wouldn't waste any ammunition. The wait was fraying all their nerves.

"Wait for it" The commander was repeating the same phrase over and over again, partly for the soldiers and also partly for himself.

"Fire!"

The first shot was deafening. And it hit in the middle of one of the Swedish companies, crushing one man and smashing its way through the ice, leaving large holes that the Swedes had to step around and slowed them down just a little bit, but not completely.

"Kill them!" Denmark screamed above the noise of firing canons. "Kill them all! Defend your country!" The man's desperation was beginning to make him seem like ha had lost his mind completely and turned into a deranged lunatic, yelling in symphony with the guns.

But the cannons were to slow in stopping the Swedes and the first line of troops were about to step on land.

"Attack!" Both Denmark and the commander were screaming in chorus and the defense troops stormed out on the ice with raised weapons. The small bay was swarmed with Swedes and there was barely any room to maneuver for either party. Those out on the ice were struggling to move through the overlying snow and water and not slip on it.

It turned to a bloodbath the moment the two forces clashed violently together in battle. The snow was dyed red and the water a top the ice as well had started to gain the same dark crimson as well.

"Please tell me there is something you can do to stop then, Lukas" Denmark yelled over the noise of battle while he was furiously swinging his axe to force his enemies back. He and Norway were fighting back to back out on the ice among the front lines, more or less surrounded by enemies on all sides.

"Like what?" Norway snarled back as he aimed a kick at a man and follow though by lashing out with his swords it was imbedded deep in the man's shoulder and he fell to the ground dead. With an enraged roar he launched at another soldier that had run forward to replace his fallen comrade to force him back as well.

"Use magic" Denmark demanded. "Crush the ice under them, make it crack and drown them!" Denmark held the axe with both hands and smashed right in the face of another soldier and crushed the man's nose with the impact. "I know there is something you can do; I have seen you do strange things before."

The two of them managed to get a few steps away from the fighting masses when another wave of Danes came to their aid. "I don't have the strength to do anything demanding that much magic great right now" Norway hissed angrily. Still he kept his two blades firmly in hand and slightly crushed, ready to attack at any moment. "We have lost too many battles and lost too much land lately, I have no strength left to summon that much energy and especially not in land that does not belong to me."

"You will have to find the strength" Denmark said, sounding angrily. "We are dying here unless you do."

Norway lowered the swords and stared at the taller male with disbelief. Denmark truly looked like a mad man now. His eyes were wild and his clothes and face were stained with speckles and larger stains of blood. Norway cast a glance around the battlefield. Groups of Swedes were still marching over the ice. Their commander could barely be spotted in the distance yelling out orders for his men.

Norway was a bit at a loss of what to do. Denmark was looking at him expectantly, seeming to almost forget that there were men storming their way. He moved the axe to one hand and the other grasped firmly around Norway's upper arm. "You have to do something."

Norway could feel his heard speed up from nerves and he was barely able to form words. "Just keep the others away, I'll sew what I can do, but I won't make any promises. Magic is no easy thing to do."

"I don't care" Denmark said forcefully. "I will keep you safe, but you have to break the ice."

Norway put the swords back in their sheaths and pulled further back from the oncoming waves of Swedes. Denmark stepped in front of him, ready to shield him from harm should the Swedish soldiers be able to fight through the quickly thinning line of defenders and get to them. Norway closed his eyes, concentrating and trying to start a connection with magic and gather enough strength to break the ice.

His fingertips started to tingle with energy, but it was much weaker than his magic had used to be ever in his life before. People's belief in magic had faded almost into nothing and it made it harder for him to take it into use. And his magic had always been stronger within his own land borders. Denmark's land did not belong to him, even if the two were in union. Denmark had been to controlling and his royalty was the one in charge. There was little Norway way in control of and it made his tie to the land weaker.

He gathered up energy in his palms and the air around him seemed electrified. He brought his hands down towards the surface of the ice and held them down in the layer of freezing cold water lying on top. He muttered a few careful words of old Norse and the energy started flowing from his fingers and into the ice.

There was a loud crack, like a whip snapping in the air as a fracture started forming in the ice, right where his hands were held and it grew in size and spread out over the ice, towards the Swedish forces. Norway could feel his energy draining quickly from the exertion of maintaining a steady stream of magical energy to send into the ice and make the crack grow further and his mind was starting to get fog up.

But the crack kept on growing. The group of soldiers it was heading towards heard the creaking of the ice and started to panic. The fracture along with the weight from soldiers was enough to make the ice give in under them. The soldiers fell through and into the freezing water. With the temperatures as cold as they were, the water nearest the surface started to refreeze and the soldiers that was able to swim, were trapped under a thin layer of ice that didn't give in no matter how much they smashed their fists against them and they ran out of air and sank to the bottom, never to be seen again.

That was all Norway was able to do with the little magic he managed to gather before the world started spinning and he felt to one knee heaving for breath and unable to move. The Swedes had been smart to split their forces up in groups and now it showed. Only two of the groups fell through and disappeared in the blue and it was not enough.

Denmark barely seemed to take notice of Norway's weakened state as Sweden had stepped out between the groups of Swedish soldiers he had been fighting to keep back. Instinctively he stepped back, just because of Sweden's powerful aura. He already knew the battle was lost, but he still refused to say it out loud and instead clutched harder around the axe in his hands.

Sweden stalked forwards without a single word, he was expertly wielding a two-handed staff and moving it around to test its balance before he launched. The other soldiers on both sides seemed to sense the atmosphere and scurried back to get away from the fighting enemies.

With a horrible cry, Denmark threw himself forward, axe already swinging down, aimed at Sweden whom blocked easily. The Swede made a low sweep in retaliation and knocked Denmark of his feet so he landed with a splash in the cold water.

The Dane was barely able to block a rapid series of incoming swings from Sweden. The water in his gloves was making his fingers hard to move and he felt his grip around the axe weaken when they grew numb from the cold. He couldn't get up from the water either; Sweden didn't give him any room to do so.

Sweden didn't let up his beating at all and furiously kept on swinging at him until Denmark was unable to hold on to the weapon any longer and the axe splashed down in the water as well. He was about to reach for it, but Sweden stepped on is hand and aimed one end of the staff against his face. "I wouldn't do that" The Swede growled angrily."Give yourself over and it will be easier for all of us."

Denmark retracted his free hand again and after glancing around the battlefield once, he lifted his arm in defeat. Most of his men were dead and the others had fled when they realized there was no hope of victory for them. Two men had hauled up the exhausted Norwegian and held him up by the arms and Denmark barely caught the worried look cast his way, before Norway's eyelids fluttered closed.

The two prisoners were being forced to walk in one of the last companies when the Swedish army was ready to march on. They were both tied up and lead by a length of rope like dogs on a leash. Denmark had been gagged with a rag as well to shut him up. It had happened within the first hour of marching as he kept on yelling insults at his captors and attempting to spit at them in defiance.

A few days after the battle, they marched over a second field of ice over the Great Belt. The Swedes send over a few smaller groups over first to test the stability of the ice and the next day the rest of them crossed when they had been given the all clear.

Once they were over, Sweden came to the back group to walk along with his prisoners for a short while. Denmark immediately began struggling against his restrains the moment the personification came into view, but his curses only came out muffled and indecipherable.

Norway hadn't uttered a single word from the moment they had been taken captive, so he had been left without a gag. They walked along for several minutes in silence before Norway grew tired of Sweden's obvious gloating and cleared his throat to make the other male turn to look at him. "Where are you taking us?"

Sweden almost smirked and Norway realized just how much the man had changed with growing power. "To the capitol" he replied confidently and turned to stare back ahead.

It took them a few more days, but then the city came into view and they made their camp. They made sure to light a large amount of torches in the night so everyone in the capitol was sure to know they were there. Denmark had paled noticeably and stopped his constant struggling the moment the city came in to view.

Two days later a company of officials came to meet them where they were camped. The messenger was pale and nervous when he asked to meet with the leaders. "There will be no fighting" the man almost whispered in terror. "We yield."

Historical Notes: The Swedish army crossed ice over two places, the Little Belt and the Great Belt. They met resistance crossing the first point, but it was quickly defeated. They then made their way towards Copenhagen and the Danes in yielded more or less in panic because they had not expected an attack before spring. That led to negotiations for peace being held in Roskilde, where the outcome was disastrous for Denmark and they lost all of Scania to Sweden.