Robert Hansen didn't regard the queen's birthday as a national holiday. He hadn't for some time.
Today, he just wanted to go fishing and get better as a sea captain. It was pretty much the last career he was capable of these days. He'd only been at it for the last few months, as he had to compete with more experienced captains for the bigger fish. So far, it hadn't been a really fair fight.
Since a lot of them were actually celebrating and taking today off, Robert thought he'd have an advantage. He had his best numbers in a while, but hardly enough of a catch to make serious money. Still, it would have to do.
He returned to the docks sometime after mid-day, then had his catch taken off the boat and got his pay for the day. Afterwards, he went to his boat to take inventory and perhaps nap for a bit, before heading to his home alone.
He had hoped against hope he was too young to be this grizzled. But even in his early 40's, he had been through too much to be completely jolly. Some national holiday this was.
And yet someone else was coming on the boat to share it with him, apparently. He was a younger, clear cut guy, yet his green coat was messy enough to make him fit in here.
"Hello there. You're a ship captain, right?" the man said. "Are you a ship captain looking for a crew member?"
"A crew member?" Robert repeated. "You'd want to work for me?"
"If you need it. I'm a hard worker with experience and everything," he claimed. He probably had more experience than Robert – but Robert figured he didn't need to know that. If he was foolish enough to come here before seeing the more prestigious captains, then it was his own fault.
"Perhaps we can go inside and talk about it," Robert said, figuring he should get him away from the competition as fast as possible. It was a success, as he went below deck without any complications.
Robert led him to the captain's quarters and closed the door. He started to go over to sit down, but the man stopped him. "I'm sorry, I'm being rude. I didn't actually introduce myself," he said, offering his hand.
"All right then. Who are you?" Robert asked, figuring he should at least take his hand.
But while shaking his hand and waiting for an answer, Robert didn't see the man's other hand reach into his pocket. He certainly didn't see the baton – even when it struck his head.
When he woke up, he saw he was sitting down – and wasn't able to get up. Not only was his body tied up, there was a blindfold tied over his mouth as well. What's more, the man who attacked him was now joined by another man, who was slightly older and less clean cut.
What Robert didn't know was he was now the first to meet Princess Joan's future kidnapper.
"All right. We have our base of operations," Robert's attacker said. "You follow the schedule, I'll meet you and bring you back at the right time."
"You're sure no one will come looking for him?" the second man asked.
"Not today, they won't. We'll have an understanding by the time it's over," the attacker answered. "Now go."
The second man then left, leaving Robert alone with his attacker turned kidnapper. He tried to yell, but there was no chance anyone could hear him.
"Let me clear up a few things before you go on," the attacker set up. "We're going to conduct some business here in the next few days. We can't keep you tied up here the whole time. Since we can get away with doing it tonight, you'll be staying here. By the time tonight's work is done, you will agree to do what we say."
The man then went over to the captain's closet and opened the door. "But to make sure you don't try anything after I head out…." he started, then finished by dragging Robert and his chair over to the closet.
Since he had taken Robert's keys while he was unconscious, he was able to get him in and lock him up. He could wiggle his chair around and try to make noise, but no one would hear him – and there was no way out anyway.
So when the time came, the man was able to leave the room and the boat, with full confidence the captain would still be around. Indeed, no matter how Robert tried to wiggle around and get out of his rope, it wasn't enough. He knew there was no way out until they got back.
What he didn't know was that his attacker was meeting his partner at a rendezvous point. That he had a horse and carriage ready for his partner to get into, and that his partner was carrying a….package of sorts with him. A package with a brown paper bag over its top. A package he could keep in the carriage without anyone seeing it.
However, time was of the essence to get it to the docks and into the boat. Fortunately for the man, he used his baton to knock the package out a while longer, just before it started stirring. It was still out cold by the time they got back to the docks – back before word could leak that Arendelle had been quarantined.
Right before rumors and orders began to spread, the men carried their package onto Robert's boat and gotten it below decks. Once they got it into the captain's quarters, they were ready to finally let their first hostage out.
Robert was virtually asleep and exhausted by the time they removed him from the closet. They slapped him once to get him awake, and he thanked them by trying to scream at them again, to no avail.
"Had enough of that?" Robert's attacker asked. "Good. Now we can go over the ground rules."
"In a matter of minutes, Arendelle's gates are going to be sealed," the second man explained. "There will be no way out of the kingdom. That means all fishing routes will be closed. You're still going to stay here in the meantime, go about your business, and not say a word."
"If you do, we'll have to kill you. But more than that….we're going to have to hurt her," the attacker teased. With that, he finally brought Robert's attention to the…..package sitting limp on the nearby chair.
He then took the paper bag off its head, revealing it wasn't just a package.
Robert knew who it was. The entire kingdom knew who it was. And he knew who it's mother and aunt was, very well. And he could tell it was now waking up.
"Hold on, we need to go over her ground rules now," Princess Joan's kidnapper said, as he took the blindfold off over her eyes, if not the one on her mouth.
Robert's attacker had remembered to buy more rope on his way to the carriage. Despite not using it earlier, he started tying Joan to the chair now - right before she woke up and after she could do anything about it.
Joan screamed into her blindfold, but had no luck, just like Robert. She did kick and wiggle around more than he did, but she was being tied too tight. Yet even when her kidnappers were finished, she kept trying to move around and scream.
"Be quiet and listen. You're going to need to listen to this part," her kidnapper warned. "You're not going to stay here for long. You will if the winning bid comes from a far away kingdom, though."
Before Joan could try to ask an unintelligible question, Robert's attacker explained, "By now, our friends will have left the same instructions to every kingdom in the land. Including this one. Then they'll start bidding for your rescue, and whoever comes up with the highest number wins. Then we'll sail you over to them and collect our finder's fee."
"Fair warning, though," Joan's kidnapper went on. "Arendelle might not outbid the richer kingdoms. And a few of them already hate your family. I bet they'd pay through the roof to get you, and ransom you for twice as much. If they even want to. But we'll have no control over that once they pay us."
"When we get the right bid, our friend in Arendelle will alert the winners. And we'll sail to them before anyone can stop us," Robert's attacker exclaimed. "Until then, we're all going to stay here and wait around. Well, he may need to leave once in a while, but you can't."
"Still, if you try anything other than staying still….we may have to limit his movements," Joan's kidnapper warned, before taking a knife out and holding it against Robert.
"Likewise, if he tries a single thing other than what we say…..well, after the bidders find out you're not in….pristine condition, they might actually pay extra to hurry things along," he threatened to Robert and Joan.
"We might need to anyway. Once they find out you didn't get the other one after all, we'll need something to drive the price back up," Robert's attacker frowned.
"You know she's all we need. The Queen's world revolves around her, and they know it. That's why they'll bankrupt themselves to get her. Especially the ones who hate her aunt," the kidnapper gestured. "The other one's useless. He would have just driven the price down anyway."
Regardless, Joan shook around and tried to scream louder than ever at them.
"Get that out of your system now," he continued. "You use any of that after we take this off, and we will hurt him," he warned, gesturing to her blindfold and Robert.
"And if you try anything, especially when they start searching this boat, we will hurt her before we kill you," Robert's attacker told him. "Are we all clear?" The hostages had no choice but to be.
With that, their kidnappers were merciful by setting their mouths free and letting them breathe for a while. Robert was especially relieved to breathe fresh air after all these hours. Too much to risk it by saying anything, perhaps.
As for Joan, she was struggling more to keep from sobbing and crying out. She knew she had to learn to contain her emotions, but she barely knew how. The only one who came close to showing her was her aunt….
"You're no match for Aunt Elsa," Joan suddenly said.
"No, it's the other way around," her kidnapper bragged. "That's why she'll drain Arendelle dry to pay for you. Or her enemies will to get back at her. It's going to be a close, expensive race either way."
"You kidnapped me! And you're turning it into a….a contest?!" Joan yelled.
"Right, contests should only be about choosing a husband for your Aunt Elsa. I forgot," Robert's attacker jumped in. "But you forgot to quiet down. And they'll probably be searching boats any minute. Still, I guess we could cut him and cover the wound in time. Say he cut himself shaving."
On that threat, he got his knife out and put it against Robert's cheek. Joan nearly yelled at him to leave him alone, but then remembered she couldn't talk or scream.
The struggle to keep quiet and not plead for them to spare him was torture. But she supposed there'd be other forms of torture to deal with later.
Finally, Joan got herself quiet, her tears now falling silently. Satisfied, the attacker took the knife off Robert's face, then began untying him. "Now that we understand each other, you're going to make sure no one comes in here. Or at least opens up the closet."
To help explain that, the kidnapper opened the closet up, then went over to cover up Joan's mouth again. Joan breathed heavier, savoring the unobstructed air while she still could – but she still got out an "I'm sorry," to Robert before the blindfold went back over her mouth.
Now Robert was struggling not to talk, even as he was freed from the chair. But that didn't cancel out how they dragged Joan into the closet, covered her up with items inside so she would be even less visible, then locked it back up again.
"She'll be safe in there, like you were. But if you do anything foolish, she'll be less fine when we let her out. So will you, eventually," the attacker repeated. "Do we have a deal?"
Robert wished he had the guts to say no. Wished he could believe he could take them down, get the princess and run. But if he had courage and moral conviction, the chain reaction that led him to this moment might never have started.
With nothing left that mattered to him but his own life – and now the life of the princess – there was no other answer to give but, "Deal."
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When Anna could move around, she could only bring herself to go into her room. Not Joan's room or Elsa's. It was the only place Christian could go as well.
So while Kristoff went over the search plans personally, and Elsa was doing goodness knows what, Anna and Christian just sat in front of Anna's bed, unable to say anything. There was nothing they could say without risking an avalanche of tears.
Finally, Christian dared to ask something. It was somewhat unrelated to the whole crisis – but maybe that's why it was perfect. Maybe. "Mom? What's a spare?" he asked.
"What?" Anna said hoarsely at first. "Why do you wanna know?" Christian then remembered where he heard that, and suddenly wasn't as keen to share. Yet Anna asked, "Who told you that you were a spare?"
Seeing no way out, the six-year-old admitted, "The man who took Joan. He said he didn't take me cause I'm a spare. Is that a good thing?"
Anna cursed Joan's kidnapper and future murder victim anew, then struggled to get the murder-y thoughts out of her head. "It can be," she tried to answer. "He didn't mean it that way, but…."
"What else does it mean?" Christian pressed on.
Sighing, Anna attempted to explain, "A spare is….someone who's not the first child in a royal family. The first born gets to be an heir, gets all the important stuff first…..and the next child only takes over if the first one is….unavailable. But if that kid's available….they don't need the next one for much."
"They don't need him?" Christian summed up. When Anna didn't answer, he continued, "Is that what Joan meant?"
"She meant something? She talked to you? What'd she say?!" Anna sprung up.
"She said it's good I don't understand royal stuff. She said she's glad I don't have to," Christian recalled. "That's the last stuff she said to me." After a while, he asked, "Is she glad they don't need me?"
"Of course not, she couldn't be! Not in a bad way!" Anna had to believe. "She was….she was glad you could be carefree and have fun! Not worry about royal stuff!"
"How do you know?" Christian asked. "We can't ask her now, so how do you know? It's the last thing she said to me and we don't know…."
"It's…." Anna knew she should bring herself to say it wouldn't be the last thing. The mere possibility of being wrong paralyzed her, though. So she stuck to reassuring Christian. "I know she loves you too much to think no one needs you."
"She needed me. And I didn't save her," Christian remembered. "I tried. I couldn't. I'm not brave like her, or you, or Dad or Aunt Elsa. That's why I'm a spare."
"You stop that right now," Anna used with as much gentle force as she could stand. "I'm a spare too. I'm your Aunt Elsa's spare, but I'm much more than that, right? So are you."
"You saved your big sister," Christian answered. "Not me. No wonder no one's happy I'm not kidnapped. They're just sad about Joan….all because of me….."
Anna couldn't keep in a loud, gasping sob anymore. For her son, for her daughter, for this entire terrible night that wouldn't end.
But an even uglier, even less formal gasping sob rang out a moment later. It wasn't from Anna or Christian.
It was from the woman who opened the door while they weren't looking. Of course, even in her moment of despair, Anna never locked her door. Unlike the woman who had opened it.
And now that she was actually back out, she had to overhear those….terrible words from her nephew.
A nephew she raced towards to pick up and hug, with all the ferocity she had left.
"You are the only reason there isn't another eternal winter," Elsa hissed. "If you'd been taken too…." She actually felt the cold when she imagined it.
"But you fought him off. You made him leave you alone," Elsa told herself and him. "You were so brave and I am so proud of you. I know Joan is too. And we all need you more than anything…."
Christian shivered, but not due to the cold from her aunt. Never from her. "I'm sorry, Aunt Elsa….it's not your fault," he promised.
"I won't blame myself if you won't. Deal?" Elsa offered. She felt him nod in her arms in between his tears, so she took that as a yes.
"I'm sorry too, Elsa," Anna insisted. "You cry and be emotional as much as you want. You should be. This is so unfair to you….."
"It's unfair to Joan," Elsa got her priorities straight. "She didn't ask for this. To be….auctioned off."
"Auctioned off?" Anna asked, which made Elsa remember the other reason she came here. Forcing herself to let Christian go, she got up to deliver the news.
"We found a note outside the gates a few minutes ago," Elsa explained as she took it out. "It told us what they're planning for her."
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Dear Queen Elsa,
By now, every other kingdom in the land is receiving the same note you are now. Now everyone knows that we have the Princess Joan and the Prince Christian. But we have no plans to keep them.
Whichever kingdom comes up with the highest ransom for them will get them back. Whether they are allies or enemies of Arendelle, they will all have a chance to participate in the bidding. What the winner chooses to do with the children afterwards is not our concern.
You all have three days to get your bids together. When you have your final offer ready, you will send then to Queen Elsa, and she will put them all in Arendelle's local newspaper that day. When we find out who offered the most, we will make arrangements to deliver the prizes to them.
However, if delivery is interfered with in any way, during and after the bidding, the prizes will be null and void. If there are no offers, or if any ally of Arendelle refuses to make one, the prizes will be null and void. If there are any arrangements between the bidders to interfere with the delivery, they will be null and void. If the allies of Arendelle combine their bids to get them back, they will be null and void.
You have 72 hours, as of now, to carry out this competition. After all these months of holding a bidding war for Queen Elsa's hand, you should know how to make this work. Make it work according to our rules, and the children will be released, to whoever wants them more.
We will be reading and watching.