I groaned as I started to wake up. As I stood up, I was still half asleep and dreamt that I was in the middle of an earthquake. Then water took over me. Then I woke up fully and realised I was underwater for real. I swam to the surface and saw nothing but open sea. I couldn't see my island. It made me wonder how far that bird monster flicked me away. Then I noticed I was shivering. That meant I wasn't in the warm sea; I was in cold water.
Then I got picked up and landed on a boat. It looked a lot like Moana's boat.
"Are you okay, Miguel? You just fell off the boat."
I turned to see who was on the boat with me – Moana!
"I feel better for seeing you, Moana," I told her.
Then we hugged and kissed. Then I got hugged by someone else. I turned to see it was Olaf who was hugging me. I hugged him back. Then I realised why I dreamt of being in an earthquake. While I was half-asleep, I was walking on the unsteady boat before I fell into the cold water, which helped me wake up fully.
"We thought we lost you," Olaf said to me.
"Speaking of lost, how did we get here?" I asked.
Then Moana explained to me after I got swooped away by that bird, she went after me with Olaf joining her. They found me knocked out on her boat. I couldn't remember landing at all, let alone hitting that boat. When Moana and Olaf attended to me, one of the monsters that looked like a giant lobster attacked us. They tried to get me to safety, but the monster swooped the boat with us three on it out to sea. The swoop was so powerful that Moana and Olaf couldn't stop it from sailing too fast. Until now.
"And we had been sailing for just under two hours," Moana said. "I'm sorry if we might never see your island and your friends again, Miguel. I might never see mine ever again."
"I'm sure we will," I said, holding her hand. "And thank you for saving my life."
She smiled.
Then I turned to Olaf. "Olaf, thank you for saving –"
"Hey, we're approaching Arendelle," Olaf said.
I looked at where he was looking and I saw he was right. We were approaching Arendelle. It hadn't changed since I left six years ago, apart from the castle being rebuilt.
"I see the harbour," Olaf said.
I looked at it and saw there was commotion going on it.
"Should we hide, Miguel?" Moana asked.
"Yes," I agreed. "Let's hid behind one of the ships."
Moana lowered down her boat's sail and we used the oars to sail behind it. We stopped at the edge of the boat and we peered across to see what was going on. I was shocked to see my friend Princess Anna in chains and balls on her hands, her legs and even her neck, which a man, I was assuming was this Emperor Hans, was holding himself. I could tell who the people of Arendelle was and who were Hans's soldiers. The people of Arendelle, including Kristoff and Sven, protested and fought with all they could, but sadly they were no match for the army. Then I noticed Elsa was just sitting there looking sad. I learnt why she wasn't using her powers to fight back; she had some sort of heavy golden things over her hands and that was why she couldn't use her powers to help her people fight Hans's men.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Hans called. "This morning will teach you all a lesson about trying to betray or outsmart your emperor. Your beloved Princess Anna here, intentionally or not, decided to be the first volunteer and she will now be the first demonstration of punishment." As he dropped the chain ball he held into the cold water, poor Anna was dragged in as well.
"ANNA!" Elsa cried. "NO!"
The Arendelle people yelled in protest and rushed to help Anna, but Hans's men held them back and pushed them towards the kingdom by brutal force.
"What are we going to do about Anna?" Olaf cried. "What are we go –"
I put my hand over his mouth. "Don't worry, Olaf," I said, taking my red shirt and my shoes off. "Moana and I are going to save Anna."
Moana took her skirt off. "Miguel, how are we going to free her from those –"
"Those chains?" I said. "With this." I showed her my sword from Kumandra. Then I turned to Olaf. "Stay on this boat, Olaf, and don't let anyone see you."
Moana and I dived into the cold water. Though it was freezing, the thought of Anna drowning to death and the determination to rescue her encouraged me to swim as quickly as we could.
We found Anna and we saw she was still breathing, but she didn't look like she had much breath left. I swam to her and tried to break the chain on her neck with my sword.
Snap! It worked!
Then I cut the chains holding her arms down. They were both a success.
Then I went for the chain on her left foot, but my sword broke. I couldn't use the half I held in my hand to free her because it was too damaged and I probably would only hurt Anna than help her. Just when I was about to swim to find something else to break her free from her feet chains, I saw Moana arriving with a rock and bashed it on the feet chains. Anna was free from them. Then Moana and I took her arms and we swam back to Moana's boat, staying underwater in case Hans's men spotted us.
We reached Moana's boat and gasped for air. Olaf helped me and Moana put Anna on the boat and we got on ourselves. I felt a bit upset that my sword was broken as it was all I had to remember of Kumandra and of Raya, but I was happy that it was used to rescue my beloved friend. I knew she was okay because when we got back on the boat she coughed at first and started to take a few deep breaths.
"Anna, are you okay?" Olaf asked.
"Olaf!" She hugged her snowman friend. "How did you rescue me?"
"I didn't," Olaf said. "They did."
She turned to face me and gasped. "Miguel? Is that really you?"
"Yes, it's really me, Anna," I told her.
She wrapped her arms around me, crying her eyes out. I didn't know if they were tears of sadness because of Hans trying to kill her or tears of happy for seeing me. "Thank you for saving me."
"Well, I had help," I said, turning to Moana. "This is my good friend, Chief Moana of New Motunui."
Anna hugged her and thanked her for saving her.
"And we found your children as well, Anna," Moana said.
Anna gasped. "They're still alive?"
"Yes," I told her. "They're still alive, healthy and safe with Tulio and Chel on my island," I told them.
She seemed absolutely delighted that her children were alive and they hugged us again. "Thank you so much, both of you. But what are you doing away from your island, Miguel?"
Before I could say anything, Olaf interrupted.
"Anna, doesn't that underground tunnel lead to the dungeon?" our snowman friend asked.
She looked at it and said, "Yes, Olaf. And now that you have found help, let's go and free our friends."
After I put my red shirt back on and Moana put her skirt back on, we four grabbed oars and we rowed to the tunnel entrance. As we rowed, we checked that none of Hans's soldiers spotted us. We couldn't find any, but they could always spot us, like a predator hiding behind a tree or a bush ready to strike.
We arrived at the tunnel. It looked so old, collapsed and abandoned that someone had to be really desperate to use it to hide or escape. We parked our boat outside it and then the four of us squeezed through the rubble of the entrance.
"Be quiet, everyone," Anna warned us. "Hans's men have taken charge of it."
"Couldn't we disguise ourselves as them?" I asked.
"We could if we could find any of their uniforms," she said.
I noticed a bottle of something being left there. I picked it up and it felt very full. I wasn't going to use it because I was thirsty. I thought it could be used to distract Hans's men if we couldn't find any uniforms.
Then we heard some noises of protest. We followed it and it took us to one cell door. We saw through the window with bars on it that one woman was chained up to the wall.
"It's Honeymaren!" Anna cried.
"A friend of yours?" I asked.
"Yes," I said. "She's a member of the Northuldra."
I noticed there were some keys on the table nearby. Then I saw three of Hans's men in there with Honeymaren. They picked up a sword each and went to her. Then I noticed the door slightly ajar and then at the bottle I was holding. This gave me an idea. I opened the cell door.
"Miguel, what are you doing?" Anna asked.
When I barged into the cell, Hans's men turned away from Honeymaren and turned to face me. So far, my plan was working.
"Who are you?" one demanded.
"I am Emperor Hans's new servant," I said to them. "And he has ordered me to give this wine as a token of gratitude for serving him."
"That doesn't sound much like Emperor Hans," a second soldier said.
"Well, as he doesn't give many gifts, I say we take full advantage of this," the third one said. "Give me that, servant." He snatched the bottle of me.
So far my plan continued to work. As they fought and drank over the bottle to each take a drink of what I still didn't know what it was or why it was left there, I made my way to the keys and took them.
Then the soldiers all groaned and fell down. I checked them. They weren't dead, they were just unconscious. I still didn't know what was in that bottle, but it was empty now. I assumed it must be very strong alcohol that could knock people out if they drank too much wine.
I peeked around the door and told my friends to come in. Then I went to Honeymaren and used the keys to free her from the chains.
As I helped her down, she looked at me with more than just gratitude. "Thanks for saving me. You were brilliant fooling those guards."
That nice compliment remind me how Tulio and I always fooled the guards back in Spain. I couldn't help myself be amazed at how beautiful she was. "You're welcome, Miss Honeymaren. I'm Miguel."
"Delighted to meet you, Miguel," Honeymaren said. "And please just call me Honeymaren."
"Why? Was Miss Honeymaren your mother?"
She just chuckled. Then she looked at who came into the cell. "Anna! Olaf!" She went to hug them.
"This is our new friend, Moana, Chief of New Motunui," Anna said.
While everyone was busy catching up with old friends and making new ones, I was busy stripping the uniforms of Hans's unconscious men off. I kept one for myself, gave one to Anna and another for either Moana or Honeymaren. Moana let Honeymaren use it. Then we walked out of the cell and I locked it up with the men in their garments.
"Honeymaren, you were escorted here," Anna said. "Can you take us to where our friends are?"
"No problem," she said. "Follow me."
We all followed her.
