𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚈𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝙳𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚘𝚗

The Plague

Elsa led her to the northern east part of the forest. However as they got closer she could smell something.

"God what is that smell" she said covering her nose. Elsa's brows furrowed.

"It's what I wanted to show you" she said. The closer they got the stronger the stench became. Anna couldn't believe it. The scenery began to change as well. It went from green leaves and tall trees to dying and almost burnt wood with the smell of rotting flesh to it. They soon arrived to the border between the northern side and eastern side of Arendale.

"What happened here?" She asked taking a look. They were met with the patrol team, a group of fifteen men, along with Honeymaren surrounding something. They all turned to the two royalties as they approached. 

"Your Highness" Sir Mattias bowed before her. The look in his eyes let Anna know that whatever was behind them was bad. Very bad.

"Are you ready?" Elsa asked. Anna took a deep breath then approached. Her eyes widened when she saw what it was. A pile of what appeared to be burnt corpses all mashed together. They barely even looked human, if it weren't for the occasional arm or head sticking out they would've been confused for animal remains.
Anna took a frightened tug at her horse. In all her four years of reign she had yet to ever see a dead body. Sadly this seemed to only be the tip of the iceberg for her.

"We found this early in the morning while going over the forest border" Honeymaren said. She had a wary look as she looked over at the queen.

"I doubt this is from any incident, a human voluntarily did this" she said. Elsa nodded.

"According to the water there was a fire however Bruni hasn't wanted to come near here ever since we found the remains" she said. She pointed behind Anna. The brunette turned to see the small lizard perched further behind where there wasn't any burnt trees on a branch. He had a scared look in his eyes as he watched them.

"What exactly happened here? According to General Lucas everything was fine just a week ago!" Anna said. Mattias sighed.

"We don't know however it seems these people were apart of the guard" Anna froze.

"What did you say" she muttered looking at him. Christoph nodded.

"He'd right we found this when we got here" he showed a half burnt silver medal. Anna gasped and covered her mouth in shock. This was a medal she had handed a specific officer a year ago for his bravery.

"What do we do now? Do we begin inspecting?" Honeymaren asked. Anna couldn't answer. She had never faced such a crisis. Everything else was always magic and could be fixed with determination and more magic but now... Now she was possibly face to face with a potential attack on her kingdom.
Elsa had to rest a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. She looked at her sister who gave her a reassuring look. Anna sighed. She looked at Mattias.

"For now we need to bury them, cover them with a bash and take them back to the castle, General Mattias, I trust you with the task" Anna said. Mattias nodded.
She didn't have time to over think things. She needed to act now.

"Honeymaren, take half of the guards and look through the forest, I need to know how much damage has been done" the guards split and half followed Honeymaren. Elsa looked at her younger sister.

"Elsa I need you to try and talk to the wind, ask if it has seen or heard anyone it's our only chance" Elsa nodded. The group scattered while Anna headed back to the castle. She needed to investigate.
Back in the castle she informed the patrol team for the night to stay cautious. The team that had died must've been of apart of a daytime team.

"Your Highness!" Anna turned around as a maid came to her.

"It's the villagers! Something's wrong!" The woman was frantic as she told her that.