16- Fog and Death
The fight against the camouflaged troops lasted all night, the shooting ravaged for seven hours, some of them had almost managed to reach the Arendellian positions and, by daybreak, it became very clear what the enemy had been trying to do:
Most of the fallen scouts were discovered not far from the hill where Anna and her friends were entrenched, which could only mean that those forces had been sent with the mission to murder the Princess and demoralize her army…
Hans had sent a cowardly attack that any Kingdom would despise and condemn, a lowly action that spoke clearly of just how sick and twisted he really was.
The fighting had been intense and it would take some time to count the casualties, but the first reports calculated that at least two thousand scouts had been killed by the Arendellian counterattack.
Many others had managed to escape, but the fatal losses in the Arendelle side exceeded seven hundred… the field hospitals received three hundred more that had been injured, and the volunteer doctors and nurses did their best to save as many lives as they could.
The valley was covered by a dense fog that morning, the wind was soft and the sky was cloudy and gray as Princess Anna of Arendelle, awestruck, abandoned the trenches and walked into the field with a sword in her hand…
"Where are you?!" the Princess screamed, commanding her forces as they explored the remains of the murder expedition- "Where are you, Hans? You send these thugs to try and kill me, while you remain hidden like a rat behind your army?"
Alice and Kristoff advanced with caution at each side of Anna and Alistair, both of them carrying swords and finishing off the few Scouts that remained agonized between the wind and the fog…
"There is another one!" Anna would cry every time that she spotted a survivor, and then she smiled as either Kristoff or Alice would advance and deliver a fatal stab to the heart.
Anna could feel a cold cruelty growing in her heart as she witnessed those men dying by her orders, but despite the fact that she was surprised and shocked at herself, she could not help to enjoy and even laugh as they were killed…
She had spent the entire night shooting and getting shot at because of those rats, and now she was going to enjoy a little of vengeance-
"Wait!" Anna said, coming to a halt- "Kristoff, not that one…"
They had found a Scout that looked a little different to the others, wearing a dark red cloak instead of the brown and green that all the others had used as camouflage.
The man remained gasping on the ground behind a fallen friend, and his eyes looked straight at Anna when he realized that she was there-
"You…" the Scout Captain said, fighting for breath- "I see the mission has failed…"
Anna kicked away the captain's musket and saber, she kicked him in the nose as well, Alice and Kristoff escorted the Princess and the three of them just looked down at the man not very sure what to say…
"Hans sent you and your men to kill me, I know" Anna said, pointing her sword at his chest- "I'll tell you something… We have weapons that your murderous King knows nothing about, and when this war ends he will wish that he had never invaded Arendelle!"
The Captain looked up into Anna's cruel eyes, there was for a moment an awkward silence between them and then the man began to laugh.
It was a heartless and cruel laughter, he seemed to know something that they didn't and then Anna herself advanced and stabbed him through the heart. The Captain gasped and shook a little as he died, and Anna's blade emerged completely covered by blood.
The four of them remained in silence for a long time while other teams continued to explore, shivering a little in the fog and listening to the little gasps and cries of pain as even more survivors were stabbed...
"We should have taken him as prisoner…" Alistair said, having a bad feeling about it for some reason.
Anna looked up at the sky, and after that, they returned to the relative safety of the trenches and campsites of the Sammel Line.