9- Into the Fires
The fierce battle that followed the clash was nothing like Anna had imagined it would be, nothing romantic, no beautiful heroism at all… real fighting came and terrified her like the awful monster that it was, with the sabers rattling and men falling dead everywhere around her.
Anna managed to avoid a direct crash and crossed the enemy lines between two riders, slashing the throat of one of them as she passed. A second later she barely escaped from a blade that nearly hit her left arm, and then the Princess stabbed another rider right through the heart.
The man looked into her eyes as he died, and then he fell from the horse and crashed on the bloody ground below-
"Your Highness!" Alistair screamed not far from her, engaged in battle against two men at once- "You have to get out of here! Now, to the castle!"
The screams of men and neighs of horses drowned every other sound apart from the muskets firing, the air remained full of acrid smoke and all that Anna could see was the savage cavalry fighting all around her.
The colorful flags and bloodstained blades were everywhere, and she did not know anymore what direction would take her to the White Castle…
An enemy General was so surprised to see Anna that he became frozen on the spot, giving her just enough time to deliver a wide slash of her saber and slice his throat open from one side to the other.
The blood splattered her face and Anna could not believe what she was doing, now advancing and trying desperately to escape from the terrible fray-
The seconds felt like hours for Anna as the fighting continued, she was throwing saber slashes left and right to defend herself and then a red cloaked rider spotted the Princess and carefully raised his musket to aim at her…
"Anna!"
Anna turned her head at the sound of that voice, a dagger came flying out of nowhere, the sharp blade hit the man right in the throat and the musket fired anyway, but the shot aimed at Anna's heart missed and hit her right arm instead…
"What?!"
Kristoff came riding a brown horse out of nowhere, wielding a bloodstained saber and throwing a second dagger at an enemy Captain. Anna could not believe her eyes when she realized he was there, and incredibly she could feel no pain coming from her arm even though the bone was shattered.
"Just follow me, Anna!"
The cavalry fighting had started to disperse as the thunderous artillery returned, the distant blasts were deafening, there were great explosions in the fields and Anna realized that this time it was the enemy guns which were firing against the Arendelle forces.
Anna and Kristoff escaped from the fighting soon after that and rode together into the fires of the battlefield, the White Castle visible once again between the distant columns of black smoke…
"What the hell are you doing here?!" Anna screamed- "Kristoff, I ordered you to stay!"
"That doesn't matter now!"
The infantry forces from both sides had arrived at the valley, throwing grenades and shooting at each other from a distance… the Battle of Tannya was raging, and then the first enemy shell hit and destroyed the highest tower of the White Castle.
"They are trying to demolish the castle!" Anna cried out, shocked to think of the Arendellian troops that remained captive inside- "We have no time!"