Once upon a time
Love will thaw
(A Season Four Fanfiction)
Written by Faenya
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Characters of Once upon a time by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz,
Frozen by Disney,
The Snowqueen (2002) skript by Simon Moore,
The Snowqueen by Hans Christian Anderson
Prologue
The wind felt like a lash as it blew mercilessly into his face. Shivering from deep inside he hoped the newborn he held close to his chest did not freeze as much. As he tried to shield her from the wind he already knew, that the cold he felt came from within him.
He didn't have the slightest idea where they were going.
He just felt that they had to get as fare away as possible, as fast as possible.
The belt of the satchel cut heavily into his shoulder. Probably more so, because of the meaning of its contents, than because of its weight. Not wanting to think about those they had left behind, the nagging thoughts he had didn't care much that he wanted to bury them deep in the back of his mind as they dug themselves to the surface over and over again.
Where they alive?
Would they find them eventually?
Or would the evil they just had barely escaped from
come to haunt them and finally finish him off?
He didn't see it coming, just wanting to protect the little girl who - up to this point - hadn't cried once since her mother put her in his arms.
But she never stopped a silent whimpering.
However, now their journey ended abruptly.
When they crashed to the ground, he shielded the bundle with his arm, held her head in his hand, pressed to his body. He rolled over several times before coming to a halt, lying on his back. Only when the little girl started stirring and crying, he awoke from unconsciousness. His eyes flew open and first he reassured himself that the newborn wasn't hurt. As he sat up, carefully rocking her back and forth soothingly, he felt some of his rips having been broken due to the crash. Standing on his feet turned out to be equally painful, his left side being damaged as well. He didn't care. This hands became numb and his teeth began to chatter. He didn't have much time left anyway. He heard horses approaching and the sound of carriage wheels. Call it coincidence or call it fate. Or maybe it was both.
He gathered his last strength and ran to the next road, crossing the way of the carriages,. He stopped them waving the arm that was not occupied by holding the child. This ribs burned as he shouted for help. The guards that approached him wore heavy armour and were yielding swords. That gave him a hint as to who was sitting in the carriage. Royalty. Talking to them would take some convincing. Still, his choices were limited, he only had one shot at saving the child. As a matter of fact the guards did not seem quite that content their convoy had been stopped by an armed stranger in the middle of a road.
"Get out of the way!", one of them shouted at him.
"I mean no harm." he replied, kneeling down to underline his words but it turned out more difficult than he expected, given his deplorable physical condition. He tried to compose himself when the pain shot through his body and yet he couldn't hide his state from the newborn in his arm when he hugged her closely to his body. The baby's cry unsettled the guards as they clearly had no idea what to do with them. They did not have to rack their brains for long. The carriage door opened and a woman disembarked. She was certainly royalty judging by her poise and by the tiara on her head. She approached him against the advice of her knights and of the man who followed her with a worried frown on his forehead.
It was now or never. He bent his head as gracefully as his state allowed him.
"Your Highness."
"What is the meaning of this?", the royal man demanded to know. The woman shoot a calming look at him as only a wife could.
"Who are you?", she asked the man kneeling in front of her in a reassuring voice.
This was his chance, most certainly his only one.