Chapter 18 - Hide and Seek

April 19, 1794

Early morning on a Saturday. Anna would typically be in bed for another three or four hours, but lately her current situations have been encouraging her to wake up earlier than she would like. Being in the position of a Queen now, more specifically; sharing it with Elsa once they got her back, she figured it was smart to get used to being up at an earlier hour anyway.

The Boreas had arrived at the location in which they had fought the fierce battle with the Southern Isles flagship, the Odin, exactly one week ago. They had made it there in record time, according to Lieutenant Nikolaus. He attributed it mainly due to the favorable weather, but also because the ship was very light at the moment with only five people on board and very little supplies.

The Ã…lborg fog was just clearing form the area as they approached. After it dissipated, it did not take much searching before they noticed the island. It was the only speck of land on the horizon, and since Nikolaus didn't expect any land to be in the area at all, it was a safe bet that if Elsa was alive, she was on that island.

There was no debate amongst them as they set course for it. Arriving a few minutes later, the first thing they all noticed was the apparent absence of the Aksel.

"Do you see them anywhere on the horizon?" Anna asked Nikolaus as he gazed through his spyglass, trying to spot the fellow Arendellian vessel.

"No... No sign of them" He replied after looking in a complete circle around the ship.

It really didn't make much sense to any of them. The Aksel's task would have taken days to complete, and even if they had already finished by now, the Boreas would have come across them as they were on their way back home. But now, here they were, at a site the Aksel would definitely have been examining on their salvage mission, yet there was absolutely no sign of them.

"Do you think they could be around the other side of this island?" Rapunzel asked as she too began to wonder why they hadn't spotted them by now.

"It's possible." Said the Lieutenant. He then turned to face Anna."If you want, we can circle the island before heading over to look for Elsa on foot."

It was a fairly small island, so Anna thought Nikolaus' suggestion was a good one. Elsa might have been waiting on or near the shores of the island, in which case they would spot her as they circled it. Also, it would also give them a good opportunity to determine whether the Aksel really was somewhere there or not.

"Yes." She told him. "Circle the island once, then if we still don't see Elsa, we'll head over ourselves."

Nikolaus turned the Boreas to port and began heading around the island in a counter-clockwise direction. At the same time, Anna, Rapunzel, Kristoff, and Eugene kept their eyes on the shore, looking for any sign of the missing Queen.


The Duke of Weselton, General Ghemor, and his men were standing around their three Arendellian prisoners who were all on the ground. Anton and Sebastian had their hands bound, but other than that, they were not restrained in any other way. The general had evidently thought that the half-dozen men surrounding the captives would be ample security.

Elsa, however, was still unconscious. The blow she received to the head a number of hours prior had not bled profusely, but there was a nasty wound where she had been hit. Aside from still being knocked out, Elsa's hands were encased in a pair of covered manacles, similar to the ones both Hans and Rasmus had put her in on two previous occasions.

The Duke was confident that his rather valuable prisoners were secure, but he was becoming very agitated with sitting and waiting at their current location. The previous night, as they had captured Elsa and the others, the fog began to roll in once again. In a very short time, the fog, combined with the pitch black of a moonless night, made traversing the island near impossible. They were deep within its interior, surrounded by thick forest and they were unaware if Elsa and the others had potentially set booby traps in the area before they were captured. As a result, the Duke had reluctantly agreed when Ghemor suggested they wait till either the fog clears or the sun rises.

Both events happened to occurred at nearly the same time that day, and the Duke was ready to leave the island immediately, eager to get his captives back aboard his ship.

"Do you think it is safe enough to leave now General?" He asked somewhat sarcastically.

"Yes, I believe it's clear enough now." The General replied. He then turned to face his men, who were getting ready to depart as well. "But I want all of you to be on the lookout for anything dangerous!"

The soldiers collected all of their supplies and got ready to head out, making sure to keep a close eye on their prisoners the whole time. Anton and Sebastian were hauled to their feet and Ghemor forced Anton to pick up and carry Elsa with them as they walked. It was a bit of a struggle for him to do while his hands were bound, but he would willingly suffer a bit of discomfort if it meant keeping the hands of their captors off of his Queen.

As they walked through the woods and towards the beach, Anton gave Elsa a quick visual examination. She didn't seem to be in any pain. If it were not for the gash on her forehead that was surrounded in dried blood, it would have appeared that she were only sleeping. He was fairly certain that she would wake within a few hours, and that she would be alright, aside from a possible headache.

But 'alright' was a relative term. She may not have been seriously injured, but she was still a captive along with him and Sebastian, and therefore, she was still in imminent danger from the Duke and his men. Once they were brought back to the Weselton ship, who know where they would be taken. He really didn't know what the Duke's motive was in this rather bold move. It was obvious he wanted some kind of revenge for the trade ban Elsa had established months ago, but would he really go to all that trouble for revenge? He must have been getting something out of it.

Perhaps he wasn't working alone.

Regardless, Anton knew his primary duty was to Elsa, and he would do whatever was necessary to ensure her safety through what was in store for them, and to take any opportunity he could in order to allow Elsa to escape.

They had all walked for only a few minutes, not even getting completely onto the beach when another one of the Duke's men came running up to their group, out of breath and seeming quite panicked.

"Your Grace," The man greeted the Duke. "We're glad to see you are alright. We wondered where you were."

"The fog made it unsafe to come back right away." The Duke hastily replied. "Do you have something to report?"

"Yes!" He answered, standing up straight and at attention. "News form the ship. A vessel has been spotted approaching the island."

"What kind of vessel?" The Duke shot back, hoping it was not another hostile ship. "What colors are they flying?"

"Those of Arendelle, Your Grace."

The Duke and general Ghemor glanced at each other. It was expected for there to be at least one ship from Arendelle in the vicinity, but for there to be another one on was unusual. They had outmatched the smaller Arendellian ship from earlier, but if this new contact was a larger vessel, it might pose a problem.

Anton and Sebastian, however, perked up at the mention of another ship from Arendelle being present. They too were not expecting any such arrival, and the news left them hopeful, but curious as to their reason for being out here.

But the Duke couldn't afford to just wonder why the ship had arrived. It was a matter he had to deal with, immediately. This other vessel had to be taken care of, and the most efficient method was to eliminate it in the same way the Aksel had been dealt with. But this time, without completely destroying the enemy ship.

The Duke also realized that just in case the Viper was not able to defeat this new target, it would be safest for his three prisoners to remain on the island. Within visual communication with the Viper, but out of the way in case a battle went poorly.

"General, I want you to stay here with the prisoners." The Duke informed Ghemor.

The man nodded in reply and the Duke then faced the messenger who had run up to their group.

"Take me back to the ship." He told the younger crewman. "We will deal with one problem at a time."


The Boreas was continuing to circle the island. Anna, Kristoff, Rapunzel, and Eugene were all intently looking over to the shore as Nikolaus piloted the ship around the coast, keeping as close as possible but not so close that they would bottom out on the seabed.

So far, they had not seen any sign of Elsa. They had, however, noticed that the beach on one side of the island seemed to be littered in debris. The pieces of wood matched the colour of the hull of the Odin, dark blue and black. It was clear now that the remains of the ship had drifted to this island and become imbedded in the sand days ago.

But aside from the debris littering the coast, Lieutenant Nikolas soon became aware of more debris. Except this was not on the shore. This new set of wreckage was still floating in the water, and it lay directly in their path.

"Hold on..." He commented quizzically while gazing out at the floating shards of wood. "What have we here?"

"Huh?" Anna asked as she turned to face Nikolaus.

"Look out there." He pointed far out over the bow of the ship. "More debris."

"More pieces of the Odin?" Kristoff asked this time.

"No, that doesn't make sense." The Lieutenant replied. "All of that debris would have drifted into shore by now. It certainly wouldn't be sitting there in a clump like it is." He gestured out to the mass of wreckage that they were quickly approaching.

"Well then, where did this come from?" Asked Anna.

Judging by the current strength of the wind and waves, and considering how close together this new set of debris still was, Nikolaus could only assume that this was the remains of a different ship. One that had been destroyed recently. Perhaps only hours ago.

"I think this is the remains of a different battle." He began, his mind still trying to come up with an explanation for it all. "But what ship could this have..."

He stopped himself mid-sentence as the stark realization came over him. The color of the wood, the size of the debris field, the location.

Could this really have been... the Aksel?

"Nikolaus?" Anna leaned towards him, wondering why he had suddenly gone quiet as he was talking.

In response, he slowly looked into Anna's eyes, then nodded his head towards the shards of splintered wood they were now passing. "...The Aksel..."

He didn't say anything else, but Anna quickly understood what he had meant. Looking down to the water for some kind of reason to reject that theory, Anna caught sight of a piece of fabric floating on the surface. A wave of fear shot through her as what was on the fabric became visible. It was a flag, half purple, half green, with a golden crocus in the middle.

The flag of Arendelle.

The Aksel had apparently been destroyed. But by who? And why?

Before any of them could take the time to fully process this new information, Rapunzel called out to them from her position still near the ship's railing.

"Um, guys? Did you see that?" She asked all of them in general, not taking her eyes off what she had been looking at.

"See what?" Eugene asked as he came up near her. The others all listened in as well.

"I'm almost positive... that over there," She pointed over to an outcropping of rock that jutted out into the sea from the island, one of many that split up the uniform coast of the small land mass. "I thought for sure I just saw the masts of a ship... peaking over the top of those rocks."

All five of them looked out to where Rapunzel had noticed the sight. There was nothing evident at the moment, but as they moved slowly through the water, the lines of sight over the top of the rocks had changed. It was easily possible that a small ship was hiding behind the promontory.

"Well, if it's there, it's clearly not the Aksel." Kristoff commented, pointing out the grim truth. "Which means..."

Nikolaus stayed silent for only a second. He hadn't seen the ship himself, but even the possibility of its presence was a serious danger.

"Load what little ammunition we have into the forward cannons." He said nervously.

If there was a ship there, there was a good chance that it was the one responsible for the destruction of the Aksel. And Nikolaus would try his best to make sure whoever this mysterious enemy was, they would not be sinking another one of Arendelle's ships today.


The Duke had returned to the Viper via a row boat that had ferried him back from the island. Stepping out of it and across the deck, he walked up to the ship's wheel where Admiral Bronok stood in command.

"Report, Admiral." The Duke called as he reached the back of the ship.

"The Arendelle ship is closing at low speed." Bronok began. "We are concealed from their sight for the moment, but soon they will come around those rocks and they will spot us."

"Do you know what type of ship it is?" Asked the Duke, hopeful that it was another small vessel. One that could be easily captured.

"A large galleon, Your Grace. Three-masted."

It was not the reply the Duke was hoping for, but griping over it would not change the situation. And running away was not an option at this point. Not when all of the plans had gone so well thus far.

"Then we will have to make sure to get the upper hand. Surprise them." He told the Admiral, looking out at the water where the Arendelle ship would be appearing soon.

"Prepare for battle!"


Nikolaus continued to guide the Boreas slowly towards the edge of the rock formation that extended into the water. The angles meant that once they were clear of its tip, they would be face to face with whatever ship was hiding behind it, if there was a ship there at all.

"Do you see anything else, Rapunzel?" Anna asked from her position up with Kristoff and Eugene, trying to load the Boreas' Bow cannons. Normally, the task would be accomplished by several trained crewmen who could load and fire cannons so efficiently they could rival the speed at which ships of the British Navy were known to fire their guns. However, with three royals who were far from experts, Eugene being the only one who had any experience at all, the process took much longer.

"No, I don't see anything...Wait!" The brunette paused a moment as she stared intently. Making sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. "There! Just at the top of the rocks. It looks like the very tip of a mast. Do you see it?"

They all quickly looked up at what Rapunzel was pointing at. Sure enough, they made out the tip of what looked like a wooden pole, but it was in and out of sight so fast that it was difficult to say for sure what it was.

"You all saw it too, right?" She asked again. "There's something there!"

Anna, Kristoff, and Eugene looked at each other and nodded. They had all seen it, and the sight caused them to pick up the pace of their cannon loading. They had no intentions of being caught defenceless when whatever was back there came into view.

"Yes Princess, I agree." Nikolaus told Rapunzel, the ship's wheel gripped tightly in his hands as he maneuvered the Boreas. "There is definitely something there. And although I don't know exactly what it is, if it's hiding, it's most likely not friendly."


A/N: Sorry again for the 2 week wait between chapters. But things are starting to get hectic now, with a lot of back and forth POV in order to cover the events from Anna's perspective, Elsa's perspective, and the Duke's perspective. It's tough to decide when and where to put these breaks in sometimes.

But anyway, things are getting intense. As you can probably imagine, there will be a battle starting in the next chapter, so stay tuned!

As always, reviews are appreciated!