Anna's POV
"Liutenant Mattias! Where are those men headed?"
The lieutenant turned to the source of my call and put himself at ease. "Your majesty! We do not know yet, they could've swum their way, but we imagine they are headed to their ship, so we have sent men to guard it."
"Smart, make sure no Arendellian is out of their house!" I commanded and kept rushing on. I was on my way with Hiccup to the dungeon to check the situation, which was located just below the ground. Having arrived there, I opened the barred door of the dungeon.
Considering it was late, I grabbed one of the torches on the wall to illuminate the interior as we walked down. The dungeon was, at the moment, only filled with those men. However, hearing that they have escaped, there was nobody found in the cells.
"Ughhff…" A cry sounded from the other end of the hall, but it was so dark, we couldn't see anything.
"What's that?" Hiccup asked.
"We can only find out…" I answered. We progressed with our walk, and I stopped at my track when Hiccup gasped at something behind me.
I turned around, "What is it?"
The Viking's eyes were locked onto the wall next to us, and right away, I discovered something; blood stain.
"N-No…" I shook my head. Ever since I saw Hiccup bathing in his own blood, the trauma left me scarred mentally. It made me want to see no more drop of blood of my own people.
"Anna, let's go…"
His voice rather startled me, as I was practically frozen at the sight. He took the torch and took the lead. I slowly followed him, but then he stopped abruptly as I bumped into him.
"Stay here, Anna," he gave the torch back to me. Confusion filled my head at this weird behavior.
"Why?"
"Just do as I say," he glanced to me, sharing a stern look. With that, he left me to the darkness. All I could hear was his footsteps, which ended after several seconds. Afterwards, I heard some chatter.
"Oh… You're… gon… alright…"
My ears heard something being ripped, like a piece of cloth being ripped away.
"MFFTT!"
The painful cry defeated me; I rushed my way deeper into the dungeon and found the source of the cry. A soldier stabbed on the belly. Another soldier was trying to mend him but he had nothing on him to fix him up. Hiccup, on the other hand, used a piece of his own shirt to patch the wound.
"You're going to be alright, Chris! We got you!" The other soldier assured. The wounded one, apparently named Chris, was gripping his mate's shirt to endure the pain. He bit his bottom lip so hard; I spotted a stream of blood flowing from it. I had to stop it.
"Chris, is it?" I knelt down in front of him, hanging the torch on the wall. Hiccup spotted me and gave a sign of annoyance, but he continued his work on the patch. Chris looked up to me and miraculously smiled, as if my presence healed him mentally.
"Y-Your majesty!"
I tore a bit of my sleeve and rolled it. "You're making your own lips bleed, Chris. Bite this instead while we carry you to the infirmary, okay? You will make it."
He nodded weakly. I gently shoved the piece of cloth into his mouth after he opened it.
"Patch is up, let's go," Hiccup took the soldier's arm around his neck and the other soldier did the same with the other arm. Simultaneously, they stood up, and Chris groaned loudly in pain.
"ARFFFGGGG!"
It genuinely pained me to hear his cry. "Hang in there, Chris… Hiccup, take him to the infirmary, okay? I'm gonna check the cells," I grabbed the torch again and took off into the depth of the dungeon.
This part of the castle was the least visited one, either by even guards or me, the queen. The place only had those Therondians in the past two weeks ever since Hiccup's arrival, so it explains the low frequency of patrols. Holding prisoners was not our thing.
I stopped at a cell that was opened, and to my surprise, some bits of blood were found on the bars of the door. Violence was their way out of the cells, it seemed. It's amazing how they could utilize such small window to make their way out of the prison.
"What did you find?"
I turned around, and Hiccup was there. "One of them must've somehow grabbed the keys from one of the guards with violence. The blood explains it all. How was that man?"
"A servant took him to the infirmary, he will be okay. Anna, we cannot let those men escape. Let's join the search."
I couldn't agree more. With that, we headed out of the dungeon in a rush towards the village. Before heading out to the village, we took Molly out and rode the horse out of the main gate. But something stopped me at the gate. A guard, being carried by two men, with a cut on his neck.
"W-What happened?" I asked the two men who were carrying the dead body of the guard.
One guard looked up to me. "Must've been the prisoners, my queen. I'm afraid he wasn't the only victim of the breakout, my queen…" he dragged his sentence and continued carrying the body.
I froze instantly. They killed him. My emotion built up inside me, but it was so complex, I couldn't tell if I was shocked, sad, or furious. All of them were thrown into my head, mixing together in a disharmonious phase.
"Anna… you're okay?" Hiccup asked from behind.
I half-turned to him. "I…"
He squeezed my shoulder. "I'm sorry, but let's focus on the task at hand. No one else is going to die in vain tonight."
He was right, I couldn't let anyone else die anymore. It's my duty.
I signaled Molly to go again. Right away, after crossing the bridge, we arrived at the village. From our position, we were able to see the whole village thoroughly, and guards with torches were roaming about in the village, searching for the escapees.
I spotted one familiar figure, Lieutenant Mattias, walking from house to house. Hiccup and I hopped off the horse to go to him.
"Any sign of them, Lieutenant?" I asked.
The lieutenant turned to me, "No, I'm afraid. Queen Anna, you shouldn't be out here. It's too dangerous."
"Sorry, lieutenant, but no. I will join the search party, even if it means going into the woods," I said with full determination. The lieutenant sighed initially, but then he gestured me to be by his side as he kept on with his search.
The three of us checked every house, every alley, heck, every roof there was. Some villagers found the situation to be tense, and I couldn't blame them. Their looks screamed fear and anxiety, as the story of Hiccup's fate with his chiefhood was already spread across the kingdom. They knew how dangerous these men were.
"Lieutenant, let's check the next house, but let's spread this time to cover more ground," Hiccup proposed as we exited a house. I didn't quite agree with the idea.
"It will be dangerous, Hiccup. Let's just stick together—"
The door of the next house opened by itself when we hadn't even reached the house. From it, exited a man, dressed in a simple but dirty white shirt and brown trousers, holding a sword. When the next man came out of the door with the same attire, that's when I learned that it was the outfit of the crew of the Therondian ship.
One by one they walked out nonchalantly to the middle of the street, glaring into our eyes as we tracked their movement.
"H-How many are there, again, lieutenant?" I asked.
"Thirty, your majesty," he drew his sword out, taking a few steps forward. "Surrender now! We have your ship surrounded, you have nowhere to escape—"
He was cut when the very last man to come out of the house was holding a girl in his arms. A knife was pointed right at her neck. From the little girl's eyes kept streaming down tears, sobbing endlessly in fear. A woman attempted to reach for the girl, but a guard prevented her from doing so. Her sobbing told me that she was the mother of the little girl.
"You will let us go, or I will kill this girl!" The man exclaimed. Though their presence out in the open attracted immediate attention of the guards who were searching for them, they showed no sign of fear whatsoever. The man who had the girl 'showed off' his hostage to the other guards around him by dragging her around recklessly.
"L-LET THE GIRL GO! She has nothing to do with this!" Lieutenant Mattias warned. His tone already indicated a sign of fear, sadly.
"Not after I exposed her neck open, if that's what you really want," he smirked.
"Let go of her."
Hiccup stepped forward into the open from the crowd. The man's expression changed when he saw the Viking, as if his presence pleased him.
"My my… Chief Hiccup of Berk, you're still alive? Thought you would've killed yourself after being released!" He said. "Look lads! Our chief is still alive!" He mocked, and his lads laughed.
"Take me instead, sell me to your merchant or whatever, and you'll get your share of money for selling me. Sounds good?" Hiccup offered.
"Hiccup, what are you doing?!" I called out in a volume that I hoped the criminals wouldn't hear. However, the man noticed my presence in the scene.
"Queen Anna? Shouldn't you be sleeping right now, my queen?" He asked mockingly.
I looked up to him and stepped forward with a frown. "You don't get to tell me how my sleeping schedule should be, jerk. We have you surrounded! Release her at once!" I commanded. I heard more swords being drawn, rifles being cocked in the background, and yet, the men didn't flinch.
"It takes me more than that to kill a Therondian, I'm afraid," he placed the edge of his knife on the girl's cheek and made a cut on it. All of us gasped at the sight.
"HUAHHH!" The girl cried in pain.
I took another step forward. "YOU DO THAT AGAIN, I SWEAR—"
"Better offer!" The man cut. "I want Her Majesty as well, with Chief Hiccup too," he proposed, pointing at us with his knife.
Lieutenant Mattias stepped forward. "No, take me instead!"
"And who might you be? You think you will have a higher price than the queen of Arendelle herself? HA!"
The lieutenant merely clicked his tongue in defeat.
I looked at Hiccup, and he nodded to me. I was still unsure with the decision, but then,
'It's a little girl, Anna… we can't let her die…' Hiccup whispered.
He's true. With that, the two of us walked towards the criminals to hand ourselves. From behind, I heard many cries and pleadings of my people to not to turn ourselves in. However, the price was too high, I would not like to witness a little girl die in my life.
With force, two men grabbed us by the hands and placed them on our backs and placed a sword against our necks. My eyes rolled to see the man who was holding the girl.
"N-Now let go of the girl…" I spoke.
"I changed my mind. I'm taking you all," he simply said.
His change of mind fueled my rage within an instant. "YOU SAID YOU'D LET GO OF HER—"
He turned around to face the crowd on the other side of the street. "Move! All of you! Make way!" He used the girl as his path and led his men on his march. The little girl literally opened their way; guards and villagers backed off as they spectated the scene. Hiccup and I were forced to walk along.
"Boy, are we gonna get some big money out of these three…" the man spoke.
I started to feel desperate. I looked at Hiccup, who was strangely looking at something else at the houses we walked past. When I tried to search for the thing that he was most interested in, I found nothing.
"Hiccup…" I called weakly.
He turned to me. He was about to say something, but the man who held me made me look forward with his filthy hand.
"It's going to be alright, Anna," he assured. I looked at him on the corner of my eyes.
"Very optimistic of you, chief," the man who had Hiccup mocked.
We continued to walk past the village and the people who looked at us with full concern. The little girl never stopped sobbing along the way. It was stupid to turn ourselves in, but not turning ourselves in would've been stupider. With that mindset, I set my chin up and continued my current apparent fate ahead of me; imprisonment.
A few minutes later, still followed by my people, we arrived at that very ship. The Therondian's. A plank of wood was already placed to bridge our way to the ship. One by one, each of us climbed the plank. Behind us, what I was sure was all Arendellians were spectating us hopelessly. Once onboard, the men who held both me and Hiccup led us to the lower floor of the deck, but then,
"Hold on lads. I think it's better to just tie them on the center mast here! So we can keep our eyes on 'em, and perhaps do some entertainment to 'em!"
I gritted my teeth. "You disgusting son of a bi—"
Before I could even finish my sentence, I was pulled violently to the mast that the man meant. Each of us was pushed against the mast as they tied us with a rope. The rope was so tight, I could barely breathe.
"Nghhh…" I shoved myself against the rope to create some room, but it was no use.
"Mommy…"
I looked at the girl, who was barely in my sight. She was merely on the corner of my eyes.
"… What's your name, little one?" I asked.
"*sniffles* I-Iduna, your majesty…"
Oh no…
"Iduna, we're gonna get you out of here, okay? I promise. Right, Hiccup?" I assured. I couldn't see Hiccup because he was on the other side of the mast.
Suddenly, the sky up above lighted. I never knew it was cloudy because I was too distracted by our current fate. Lightnings illuminated the sky for brief seconds, giving a warning of an incoming rain.
"Ah shite… take 'em to the cell instead. It will be one wet sailing boys! Up and move it!" The previous man exclaimed. With that, his crew undid the rope around us and led us to the cell.
"Enjoy…"
The man slammed the cell door harshly.
I sat down and pulled Iduna into my arms, and she didn't even hesitate to hug me back. Hiccup warmed me with a hug as well from behind, shoving his hands on my arms. For once, I felt safe in his arms.
"It's gonna be alright, Iduna… I will get us out."
I smiled at her, fixing her bangs which blocked one of her beautiful green eyes. In return, she smiled back.
"Yes, your majesty…" She answered in a low voice.
"Call me Anna, Iduna."
I kissed her forehead, pulling her closer.
"Funny... this was the same cell I was kept in last time."
