Austrian: You know, I actually really like Hans. I think he is one of the best well-designed Disney villain/jerk, he is just so realistic, just like Pitch (he is definitely the BEST). They are evil, but they also have a personality and a motive.
This chapter screwed me over. I know writing a battle is hard but it was harder than I had expected. I read an article about how to fire artillery, made hours and hours of research... If only I dedicated myself to my lessons and studied them as much as I did for fanfiction.
Chapter 11: Siege Of Pitch's Castle
She smiled peacefully, even though she knew it also came off pale and bittersweet. She snuggled closer to the man, who was sitting right next to her, her back was rested against his hard chest. His one hand was on the top of hers, his thumb was caressing the skin almost shyly. His other hand was wandering around her hair, within each stroke, she was jiggling sweetly.
The sun was setting on the horizon, soon, the last of remaining sunlight would mix with the darkness and fade away. The landscape was breathtaking, the center of Northern Island was laying in front of their eyes, the waves were hitting the shore and the sound of wind whistling was absolutely mesmerizing.
If they were in different circumstances, Elsa of Arendelle would think that they had the perfect romantic atmosphere. However, the circumstance wouldn't let them.
It has been two months since King North declared war on King Pitch Black. Tomorrow... Tomorrow, the battle that they had planned for weeks would finally occur.
Tomorrow, there was a chance of never having tomorrow ever again.
So, the two young people, a man and a woman who were in love, decided to share their very last peaceful moment together.
"Snowflake." he whispered her nickname affectionately, his chin was resting on her head as he wrapped his arms around her body.
"Yes?" she asked softly, with an equal amount of passion. It has been two months and one week since they had met. It was more than enough for her to completely fall head over heels in love with him. She got the impression that he returned her feelings, nevertheless, neither of them confessed it.
"I refuse to lose you, I can't, even the idea of it..."
"Jackson. I-"
Her breath hitched when she felt her chin turned with a sort of a push by his slender fingers, his lips were on her forehead now, kissing it softly. "I beg you, promise me you won't sacrifice yourself or do something that will risk your life. I can't stand that, I... I can't live without you."
"I can't promise, Jack." she replied silently. "You know I can't." she gave an intense kiss on his cheek, she was clinging on him to make him feel her love. "I also know you can't promise me. This is who we are... We have the personality of winter, we don't run away from danger, we embrace it."
She craved for telling him that she loved him. God, how much she cherished his smile, his carefree, adventurous personality, his optimism, his protectiveness, simply everything that made him himself. Nonetheless, this wasn't the right time. They were both having an emotional outburst due to the upcoming battle.
"Elsa, I... I-"
She shushed him by putting her index finger on his smooth lips, her thumbs began to caress his cheekbones as her head rested on his neck. He pressed his forehead against hers, he was clutching her like the very same way she has been doing.
There was one particular promise that she could think of however. "Together, Frostbite?"
"Together, Snowflake." he bobbed his head a little and planted a kiss on her forehead once again. "Always."
There would be blood, that's for sure. There would be fear, certainly. However, the sun would appear on the horizon once again and would soar into the sky, that's for sure. There would be hope forever or else, they have already been defeated. And no matter what, there would be always, always love.
The daylight met the cold breeze, well, she supposed it was a little bit chilly because people seemed cozy in their armors while she was feeling too hot. Either way, the sun was fully on the deep blue sky now, allowing them to find their path easily.
The walls of the castle could easily be detected to the naked eye, they were really close to their destination now.
The army departed from the safe land, they have been on a journey for a day. Over the night, they had made a camp at a big meadow and left there before the first sunlight could replace the soon-to-be-finished darkness.
The army had parted their ways, when the left their camp, they were split into two. King North ruled the main forces, which consisted of 90.000 infantrymen in total, each of them had their own rifles and swords.
Prince Jackson Overland was in charge of the elite team, he had 10.000 men, the best cavalrymen among Northern Island, Southern Isles and Arendelle.
Their war strategy was simple but effective. Pitch's castle was located on the North Mountains, the third quarter of it was surrendered by sharp-pointed, massive mountains that had no vegetation. The mountains possessed only dark crawly rocks. There was only one clear path, which was not much of a challenge to walk and reach the castle. That path, however, led the way directly to the devil's inn, the massive entrance of the macabre castle.
The elite team was in charge of attacking the fort from the entrance, they were responsible for breaking the wall of the entrance and attack Pitch's troops. Each man had their own horse, so they would reach the destination faster than the main forces, that's why the bigger battalion left the camp area earlier. In order to destroy the main wall, elite team had twenty siege artillery, at least five men were in charge of one of them, so that the siege artillery could be utilized. Elsa created four ice giants that were similar to Marshmallow, each ice giant carried five siege artillery. They would also assist them.
The main forces, which King North was regulating, would attain the castle from the west while the elite team would go from the south. The road that the bigger army utilized was a lot more compelling, they had to get through from the massive rocks. Even though Pitch's fort wasn't laying on a high height, they still couldn't use horses, that's why the bigger battalion consisted of infantry, instead of cavalry. Also, they had twenty siege artillery and four Marshmallow-like ice giants just like the elite team.
Their goal was to break down Pitch's castle from the south and west, then to onslaught his army. It was as simple as that. Though... They had one more card to use: The special operation team that consisted of only three people, Elsa, Sandy and Tooth.
King North halted, did not take a further step. His army stopped as soon as he did, now, they were all glancing at the enormous walls. They've reached the castle. "Immobilise the siege artillery!" North yelled as loud as he could, the soldiers proceeded with their task as soon as those words left his mouth. Elsa signaled the ice giants to set down the weapons.
Jack's army would make the first move, when they smashed the wall, they would immediately send North the news, thus the King would order his soldiers to fire the artilleries. When the real mess began, the special operation team would get involved and take advantage of it. Elsa and Jack discovered that Pitch had windows in his throne room and they were certain that Pitch would hide inside his castle during the siege. Both Tooth and Sandy were capable of flying, so they would break into the throne room and afflict Pitch, once and for all.
They had 100.000 soldiers while Pitch had only 15.000. They knew the exact number because he took over five villages, 15.000 civilians were imprisoned in total. They were sure that Pitch turned them into Fearlings, the ghost-like monsters who desired nothing but to follow their master's orders. Of course, they didn't want to harm the Fearlings since they were only innocent villagers after all... However, they knew, they had no choice, they were in a war now. And no matter what, the Northern Island had to checkmate the King of Nightmares and win this battle.
Elsa of Arendelle was ready for the siege of Pitch's castle. Once she was a Queen, a leader and a ruler. She was raised to keep her strict posture in every kind of tough and catastrophic crisis, she was educated to overcome every kind of problem.
She did not, however, face the possibility of losing the people she cared for and two months were more than enough to make new loved ones. North, Aster, Tooth, Sandy, Emma, Jamie and Katherine... They were all her friends now, close ones. North and Sandy were fatherly figures, Tooth and Aster were like bigger siblings, Emma and Jamie were like smaller siblings and Katherine, she considered Katherine her best friend, next to Honeymaren of course.
She did manage to convince Anna, Kristoff and Pabbie to leave the Northern Island, they had to protect Arendelle after all. Nevertheless, Honeymaren stubbornly insisted on staying, Ryder, Olaf and Bruni remained with her too. Moreover, Anna sent lieutenant Mattias. He was North's second man in the war now, he was promoted to that position instantly.
They were so many people that she could lose, even the thought of it was enough to make her feel weak and well... afraid.
Lastly, Jackson Overland. The young man who understood her more than anyone else, her best friend, her confidant, the man she loved dearly. He was separated from the main force and his troop had the riskiest task. Yes, those cavalrymen were the best of the best, but they were only 10.000 men. Furthermore, that stupid jerk Hans escorted Jack as his second man. Elsa did not trust Hans, neither anyone in the kingdom but Hans was a good soldier and he was damn clever, cunning. She didn't want to admit but... he could avail.
"Hey, Queenie."
Elsa snorted, her lips formed to a small smile. "Hey, Aster." she greeted the prince with a slightly stiff tone. Even though she wasn't a Queen anymore, Aster used this nickname occasionally.
She flinched visibly when she felt his big paw on her shoulder. She averted her gaze away from his emerald green eyes, a deep scowl sunk into her outlines. "I am scared." she admitted eventually.
"Everybody is... Jack's gonna be fine. He is tough, strong." Bunny reassured her curtly. He was always so direct and honest, which was good a trait that she truly appreciated.
"Thanks, Bunny." the platinum blonde-haired woman rested her blue eyes on the tall rabbit and said those words meaningfully with a soft smile.
"King North, your Majesty!" they heard a shout. A soldier was rapidly approaching them at full gallop with his horse. "Prince Jack is about to smash the front wall!" the messenger proclaimed joyfully, he sure wasn't hiding his excitement.
A massive grin spread over North's wrinkled face, his blue eyes were shimmering with contentment. "Ready the siege artillery!" he commanded with his rotund voice. "I want every artillery to target the same spot!"
The gunners immediately commenced on their duty. First, they shoved the gunpowder down the muzzle of the siege artillery and pushed it all the way by using rammers. Then, each gunner tucked in the wax, which was a combination of cloth, oakum. Lastly, they placed the artillery ball into the weapon very neatly and precise movements. "Your Highness, the siege artillery are ready for your service!" the head gunner announced loudly, he was standing upright to reflect his respect for his king.
"Fire!" North demanded and bobbed his head, he closed his eyes for a moment to show his appreciation.
Twenty gunners picked slow matches, everyone stepped away from the rears of the cavalry. Elsa whistled at Bruni, gestured him to burn the matches. They had practiced this for two months, so without delay, Bruni light up the twenty slow matches less than a moment of an eye blink. Soon, each gunner was applying the burning match to the touch hole, where it met the gun powder.
The artillery balls left the weapons with a strong blast and slammed their target, a loud bang was heard in result. During the wadding shot, the gun itself leaped backward. It was the basic physic rule: For every action, there was an equal opposite reaction. Thankfully, the guns were immobilized to the ground.
As soon as the balls were out of the weapons, the spongers came in. Each one of them dipped their sponge, which was attached to a pole, into a bucket of water. Soon, they were sponging out the the inside of the guns, cleaning the burning wadding, the powder, which was char. If North ordered them to fire again, it was safe to put the powder back into the artillery.
However, this was not needed because there has already been a huge crack in the middle of the west wall of the fort. All it required was a little bit of a push... Elsa swirled her hand with a proud smirk on her face, the ice giants headed toward the wall with that swirl. They applied force on the wall by delivering punches with their extremely slow but powerful movements. After a few punches, the stones of the wall sank on the rocky ground, within the noisy sound of the collapse, the army cheered together merrily.
But it did not last long.
"Fearlings!" Aster shrieked with his stoic posture, nevertheless, there was a hint of concern hidden in his thick voice.
Elsa's vision was swarmed with darkness, the ghost-like black creatures were everywhere. Before North could order his soldiers to attack, the infantrymen have already raised their guns and pointed them at the nemesis. The Fearlings were flying toward them with their extremely disturbing and eery screams.
The soldiers were shooting them crazily but it was no use, Elsa focused for a moment, they had to fire severely in order to injure a Fearling, she did not know the exact number of bullets to kill them, she wasn't going to find out that soon since she didn't have a rifle.
The young woman began to strike the annoying monsters with her weapon-like ice, she was circling around herself to attack at the enemy that was approaching her from every side.
She caught the peek of the other soldiers' condition. Most of them were attacking the Fearlings with their swords or piercing them with the bayonets that were attached to their rifles whereas they were shooting promptly. The Fearlings were trying to get closer to them because they had no rifles or any other weapon, except their extremely sharp claw.
She witnessed a Fearling, bashing an infantry, his armor was ripped apart immediately. With another dash, the infantry tasted the monstrous claw. He was murdered brutally.
Elsa shook herself away from what she has just seen, she had to be emotionless now. The platinum blonde blasted ice shaped daggers continually, she didn't reserve a moment to feel triumphant when a Fearling collapsed on the ground with their ugly scream. If she got distracted, she was dead.
She startled when heard a high-pitched howl, really close to her ear. Just when a Fearling was about to dredge her skin up and she was about to respond to the unexpected attack by freezing the nasty hand, she was lifted up. She felt soft feathers, Tooth's arms around her waist, the bird-like woman was clutching her.
"We have been battling long enough. We gotta start with the operation!" Tooth yelled while she was flying towards the castle hastily. Sandy was also following them promptly, they all attempted to avoid the Fearlings as much as possible thus they didn't lose time.
"Head towards the north side of the castle, the window is there!" Elsa commanded Tooth, the woman did not respond, simply followed her request.
They caught their breath when they somehow managed to land on their destination. "Stay quiet." Tooth reminded them, her pink eyes were glaring at them with a warning look, Elsa and Sandy nodded silently.
Thanks to his golden magical sand, Sandy created a crowbar. He pressured the acclivitous part of the crowbar to the edge of the glass, then grasped it and pressured it with his all might. The pry open tactic was the quietest way to break into the castle that they could come up with. A couple of minutes later, Sandy's task was done, Tooth and Elsa took out the big piece of glass by holding the opposite sides. They carefully placed it on the outward side of the castle.
The trio glanced at each other, all of them ceased for a brief moment.
"Let's do this." Tooth eventually spoke out.
Elsa nodded in agreement. "Do not let him manipulate you." she cautioned them. Tooth clasped her once again, they have already been floating in the air.
She was not going to let Pitch weaken her, never again. He would never be able to get in her head. She had fears just like any other human. However, Pitch was not in control of them.
Elsa of Arendelle simply closed her eyes, sucked a deep breath and let the darkness take her.
I have already written the next chapter, that's why the next update will be soon. Thank you all for your support, love you all! Also, please review?
