A Saga Of Ice And Fire

Chapter One - The Alliance

Deafening thunder erupted through the landscape as sheets of torrential rain cascaded from the dark, murky skies,   the din of  water beating the cobbled, slushy  pavements too loud for anything else to be heard . Everyone huddled inside their homes and not a lit lamp could be seen this late an hour and , as such , no one was around to see the large black carriage being pulled through the water logged streets that led away from Runeard Square  towards the  stone bridge that led to the royal castle—a towering , spiraling building with turrets and towers that stretched to the skies like fingers , it's  grandeur  visible even in the shrouded , near impossible  visibility  of the thunderstorm.

Two men standing at the gates approached the carriage as it slowed down to a halt, the residual mud squelching under the wooden wheels. The men wore silver armour from head to toe , a staple of the knights of the  royal guard. While the armour, helmet and mail might protect them from a blade or an axe, it offered them little to no real shelter from the torrential water beating down on them .

One of the knights approached the side of carriage and peered through the window . The face that looked back at him was that of the royal attendee that had gone down to the docks over half an hour ago. But the fellow looked on edge and  positively  alarmed. Seated behind the young blonde man was the dark silhouette of someone so vast and large, the knight would've  had no problem believing it to be a giant . He nearly took a step back at the sight of man in the darkness of the night .

" Well?" his partner yelled over the sound of the rain.

The first knight stepped back and nodded at his partner. The partner turned to a watch guard who'd  been watching from the top of the battlements on the shut royal  gates .

"Open the gates!" The knight bellowed to the guard .

The guard disappeared  and a second later, two men in rain soaked emerald cloaks appeared behind the gates and worked to open the pathway for the carriage .

The knights approached his partner as the carriage made it's  way past the gates towards the courtyard.

"So ? What did he look like ? The viking? " the knight asked the other.

"God save our king. " the knight responded after a moment.

~~~

King Agnarr Oldenburgg , third of his name , sat in his study, brows furrowed , his eyes fixed unmovingly on the roll of Parchment that stared back at him for the better part of an hour now, lying on the handsomely made wooden table in the center of the chamber. The fire crackling in the ornate blackstone fireplace cast it's flickering amber glow over the room ; a stark contrast to the ravenous thunderstorm that raged outside, rain mercilessly beating the stone walls of Arenhall, the old, gleaming castle of Arendelle that looked down on the capital city of Hovedstad , the downpour that was being pelted at the windows doing nothing to help calm the storm churning on within his own mind.

He couldn't do it.

He knew what the contents of the document were and he knew what agreeing to such a binding contract would entail. It wasn't that he was oblivious to the matter at hand.

But he just couldn't do it. He couldn't sign the ink. He couldn't put quill to parchment. He couldn't dictate the life of anyone like that, especially not that of his own daughter's ; to take away something so precious of hers. The choice. Her choice. The choice to do what she wanted to and be who she wanted to be with the many years that stretched out in front of her ; the road on which she'd barely started on. It was such a cruel thing to ask of him.

If he'd been any other person; if his family had been just another ordinary family living in Arendelle, if he'd been just another working man,a boatbuilder, a soldier or maybe a trader, living by the days, earning bread for his wife and child, he wouldn't ever have had to make such a gut wrenching decision in his life. But no. He was the King. And as King, he had a duty to look after the well being of an entire kingdom and everyone man, woman and child that called Arendelle home ; not just that of his own family's .