Note: Sorry it's so short. My keyboard broke, so I'm using on-screen keyboard. Should get a new one soon :)
Everything was a blur to Anna as she fought to stay upright in the raging blizzard all around her. The cold pierced through her, making her quake as each breath she took felt like a punch to her stomach. She had been forced to leave her only home when she no longer could pay, even with her many attempts at working, no matter how low the job. With Winter hitting the lands, nobody was able to give her work, especially not in a time give her enough money. Poor villagers were looked down upon; the ones people looked for to give work to for were strong men. A normally optimistic personality was not nearly enough to substitute strength, and that was why, after fail after fail in her village, Anna was travelling through the storm for a new village to try. At this, point, she'd be willing to stay in a barn. Just any place to get her out of the cold. And food...now that she thought it, she hadn't eaten anything since yesterday; it was already evening, the clouds barely concealing a moon washing the snow with white light. An image of her mother gently stroking her hair by a warm fire ran through her head. Not so long ago, she couldn't have been happier. Though life was hard, she shared laughs and memories with her parents and friends. Her parents had died while on a fishing trip and that was where the nightmares began. The weeks on the brink of starvation, sleeping a hard ground with barely a wink of sleep. The only thing that kept her from giving up on hope was her friends, but even they had been going through Hell with the poverty and harshness of this year's Winter. Most girls like her either lived with family or married to someone with a good job, but nobody wanted a poor girl like her for a wife.
The night dragged on and she trudged through nearly knee-deep snow that melted through her dirty, plain brown dress and soaked her frozen legs and feet. She was beginning to feel lightheaded, all the blues, blacks and whites of the night getting mixed together in her head. Out of all the blurry mess she began to see something completely unexpected. In front of her, towering above her small figure was a castle. She gazed with her mouth open, taking in the scene. She didn't have any choice. It may merely be her imagination, but even so, if there was any chance at all that this was real, she was going to die if she didn't find shelter anyway. Forcing her legs to respond, she weakly made her way to the impossible castle, finding herself at the door before she could worry about what to say to anyone living there. She placed her numb hand on the cold door, begging her bones to obey even if for a few more moments. The was the small sound of knocking, and she stared blankly at the door, quickly losing her sight. A moment later, it opened, catching Anna off guard as she stumbled back. She looked up from her crouching position, amazed by what she saw. It was a woman, merely a years or two older than herself, by the looks of it. She couldn't make out much else with her watering eyes. She struggled to stand. It hurt, but she made herself speak, "H-hello?" she finally managed. She struggled for enough strength to speak, sucking another weak breath, but her throat seemed to tighten itself and lock her mouth shut. She had finally reached her limit. She fell at the woman's feet, feeling her eyes sink shut under the gaze of the woman. Everything fell to silence and the darkness replaced thought.