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"He wouldn't!" yelled Anna back at Elsa, "no, no, no, that can't be right."
"It is Anna!" exclaimed Elsa back, "we have to go, we have to go now!"
"But, Elsa," she replied, "you said he couldn't get to Ahtohallan?"
"I know," said a distressed Elsa, "I don't understand it."
"Okay, Elsa," said Anna trying to keep calm, "General Mattias, Kristoff, wait here for me please, I will be right back."
They both nodded as Anna raced away to her bedroom in the castle and as fast as she could she changed into the outfit she wore only about a week ago when she went to Ahtohallan with Elsa. Anna was dressed and ready in what would have been a record time for her, she just brushed her hair a few times and left it at that then ran back to where she left Elsa and the others where she arrived huffing and puffing from her run and tried to catch her breath as she looked to General Mattias and Kristoff.
"General Mattias," she started trying to catch her breath, "can you organise as quickly as possible the same crew that took Elsa and I to Ahtohallan for Kristoff to sail to Ahtohallan with, are you okay with that honey?"
"Of course, Anna," he replied, "I will be there as soon as I can."
"Your Highness," spoke up Mattias, "I'll have the ship crewed and ready to go within the hour."
"Thank you," puffed Anna still trying to catch her beath. "General Mattias, you're in charge as well while I am gone and you have full authority to do what you think is appropriate should the Southern Isles show up while I am gone, but please, don't turn it into too bad a diplomatic incident."
"I will do my best your Majesty," Mattias replied.
"Okay Elsa," she said, "let's go."
Elsa and Anna walked quickly down to the water's edge near the castle and Elsa called the Nokk who promptly appeared before them. Elsa turned to Anna.
"This will feel a little weird to you," she said as she mounted the water horse and then put her hand out to help Anna up.
Anna straddled the Nokk behind Elsa and commented, "you're so right, it feels like warm water but I'm not getting wet."
"I know, now hang on," replied Elsa as she commanded the Nokk to take off towards Ahtohallan with tremendous speed.
"Woah!" exclaimed Anna both exhilarated and fearful.
Elsa than looked up to the sky.
"Gale, are you there?" she asked too which Gale appeared around her.
"Good," she commented, "Gale, just slow him down, don't sink him, same goes for you Nokk."
Gale whirled around Elsa's head as in acknowledging her command and the Nokk shook its head in the affirmative as they raced towards Ahtohallan, so fast that Arendelle was already disappearing below the horizon.
It had been smooth sailing for Hans so far and he was pleased with the time he had made. The Queen Elsa was one impressive boat and it was amazing how well he could sail it by himself. He was getting excited by the anticipation of success as each minute went past and he was getting closer to his destination. Again, he imagined his brother's faces as what would appear to be a natural disaster engulfed his oldest brother's ship on its way to Arendelle and the Southern Isles. High winds, fire, earth and monstrous waves. He just wished he could be there to witness it.
Of course, this would upset Elsa and Anna, but it wouldn't actually harm them and Arendelle would appear to be totally innocent of any wrong doing. He at least owed that to them, it was, in his mind the perfect plan, nothing could stop him now.
Originally when he first thought up the idea of damaging Ahtohallan he was thinking along the same strategy he initially tried, getting Elsa mad so she would lash out at the Southern Isles. However, after the dinner and hearing General Mattias describe how the spirits turned on the Arendellian soldiers and the Northuldra, he figured that by doing this, he would anger the Spirits and he would even say he was sent from the Southern Isles to do this so they would take their wrath out on his former kingdom. Hence why it would appear simply like a natural disaster.
He started to enter the Dark Sea and he immediately noticed the wind pick up and almost immediately the sea went from silky smooth to chopped up with small swells that seemed to grow in size with each passing minute. 'Good' he thought, 'here's the challenge and I will see how good sailor I am; I will get through this.'
He began to manoeuvre his ship so that it would cut through the waves bow first and tasted his first bit of spray. The waterproof gear he found after he left Arendelle which he had put on in anticipation of the rough seas now began to show their worth. He tacked to starboard then to port as he conquered one swell after the other as they now grew to over a metre in height and the wind strengthened. The challenge was exhilarating to him and he had no fear, he had sailed in worse.
Meanwhile, Elsa and Anna were gaining on him as the Nokk thundered across the water.
"Anna," said a worried Elsa, "I think he will get there before us, he has too much of a lead."
"It will be alright Elsa, "Anna said trying to be comforting, "we'll get there on time, by the way, I trust you have told Gale and the Nokk to calm the waters for Kristoff?"
"Don't worry Sis," she replied, "already been taken care of."
The swells were now over two metres as Hans continued manoeuvring the Queen Elsa through the stormy seas. The bow would raise then come crashing down with each wave it split, for many people, this would have induced a terrible case of sea sickness, but to Hans, it was simply fun.
"Bring it on!" he yelled at the sea whose swells now had increased to over three metres.
Time and time again Hans got his bow facing straight towards the wave and crashed through it never letting the waves to crash into him from the side. He just started laughing as he became totally obsessed with his journey towards his goal.
"Spirits or no spirits," he yelled to himself with a determined smile, "I am going to Ahtohallan to detonate that black powder and bring the wrath of the spirits down on my brothers!"
The waves just kept getting higher until they peaked at just over six metres, but they didn't seem to slow down Hans that much, his experience and skill as a sailor just shone out as he constantly conquered one wave after another as he kept his course due north as that is where he had read Ahtohallan was. He couldn't wait to see it, but he kept focused on his duties as time seemed to drag out for him as the anticipation of success was so tantalisingly close.
Elsa and Anna finally reached the Dark Sea and could see the maelstrom ahead being caused by Gale and the Nokk. Elsa thought that this has got to slow down Hans and maybe they may get to him before he gets to Ahtohallan. For Anna, she looked on in amazement as the rough sea ahead of them would suddenly become calm as they approached it. For her, it just demonstrated just how powerful Elsa had become and she admired and loved her even more.
She also was thinking how long they had been gone and if Kristoff was on his way yet. It would take him two days to get to Ahtohallan, maybe a little less depending on winds. Then she remembered about Gale and realised he would get to Ahtohallan quicker than what she thought.
The Queen Elsa continued to crash through the waves as Hans continued to sail her masterfully forward. He was positive he would see Ahtohallan soon as he burst through another monstrous wave, then crested another, but suddenly, the waves seemed to be settling. The next one was definitely smaller, and the one after that. This was strange to Hans, but he thought he must be getting close as the wind also began to die off.
Suddenly up ahead he saw a bank of mist as the waves just seemed to die out back to a silky-smooth sea and then he saw it. The great glacier of Ahtohallan off in the distance.
"I've done it!" he exclaimed excitedly with pride, "I have conquered the Dark Sea and arrived at Ahtohallan, yeah I bet none of you could have done it!"
He was of course referring to his brothers as he slowly manoeuvred the Queen Elsa towards the shore getting it as close as he could which was much closer than he actually thought. It looked like he could dock the Queen Elsa right up against the shore so he could simply jump off onto the snow and ice, which is exactly what he did and then dropped the anchor which sunk to a surprisingly shallow bottom and stuck fast holding the boat steady.
Hans went down into the hull of the boat to retrieve the black powder and the detonators and using a rope he tied the four barrels together and lowered them down onto the snow of Ahtohallan. Once that was done, he jumped down himself and landed firmly on his feet. It was surprisingly warm for a place covered in snow and ice but then he just said "Elsa," and collected the four barrels and began to walk towards the front of glacier.
As he got closer, he could see what appeared to be steps leading up to an entrance into the glacier and he thought to himself, 'this must be it,' and began to climb reaching the entrance in no time. It seemed illuminated from the inside which was strange so he walked in and began to make his way down the passage.
"So far so good," he whispered to himself, "no spirits have tried to kick me out yet."
He came to a junction of tunnels but only one was illuminated so he thought it was only logical to follow that one. Still, he thought, the illumination was strange, didn't seem natural, but he didn't worry that much because he was obviously on the right path and the light was just a blessing. However, the floor was slippery, so he stepped very carefully as he didn't want to slip over carrying the black powder.
Then he knew he was on the right path because he came across Elsa's bridge which reminded him so much of the stairway to her ice castle. It was beautiful and easy to cross as he walked across it to where he entered what was the Grand Hallway. He looked around it and just mouthed out 'wow, this is just stunning.' He actually thought it was more impressive than her ice castle and he suddenly felt a tinge of sadness that he was going to destroy it.
But there was no turning back now and he saw another larger entrance to what he believed was the heart of Ahtohallan. That was where he would put his black powder and detonate it, though strangely, it wasn't illuminated like the rest of Ahtohallan.
Suddenly he thought he heard something, like a whisper in his ear, but he shook his head and walked closer to what he thought was the heart.
"Hans," he thought he heard whispering in his ear and he turned around but no one was there, so again he continued forward to where he came to the entrance and he looked into the virtually pitch-black room.
"Hans," it came again only louder, which again spun him around.
"Whose there?" he replied, but there was no one there so he entered the room and placed the first barrel.
"Hans," came the voice again, which sounded a bit like Elsa.
"Elsa?" he cried out here, "are you here?"
But he thought about that and didn't think there was anyway Elsa could have gotten here so fast, even with her powers. He then placed the second barrel.
"Hans!" said the voice quite loud now in his ear.
"Whose there?" he yelled out again and this time he knew it wasn't Elsa's voice, someone was there with him.
He then quickly placed the third barrel, then the fourth.
"Hans!" came the voice again.
"Who the hell are you and where are you!" he yelled now getting very frustrated.
"Hans!" came the voice again and again.
"Show yourself!" he demanded, "who are you, there's no one here."
Hans was losing it, the voice just kept calling and calling his name to the point where he couldn't function and laid down the floor holding his arms over his ears trying to block out the voice, but he couldn't. He suddenly thought that this was the spirits denying him his revenge, or maybe he was simply going mad because of it.
Elsa and Anna suddenly had Ahtohallan in their sights as they raced towards it on the back of the Nokk.
"There's the Queen Elsa!" said Anna aloud.
"Yes, I see it Anna," replied Elsa, "he's already here, we have no time to lose."
They arrived on the shore next to the boat and saw the rope Hans had used to lower the black powder and detonators and dismounted from the Nokk as quickly as possible.
"Anna," started Elsa, "before I forget, your boots."
Anna remembered what that meant and leaned on Elsa as she pointed the sole of each of boots towards Elsa so she could put ice spikes on them to help her keep a grip on the ice inside Ahtohallan.
"Okay Anna," she said with urgency, "let's get inside."
They ran to the stairway and climbed it with haste reaching the entrance in no time. They then jogged as quickly and as safely as they could to Elsa's bridge and made their way into the Grand Hallway. It was there that Elsa and Anna heard Hans crying out, "who are you, where are you?"
Elsa turned to Anna a little disturbed, "he shouldn't be hearing voices? Why am I not hearing them?"
Then as they approached Hans Elsa could hear in her mind his name being called out over and over again.
"Anna," she said, "the spirits are calling out his name over and over again."
"How's that possible Elsa," replied Anna, "even I don't hear the voices you do."
"I know," she answered, "we have to find out."