prologue
COLD WATERS

[Arendelle – September 1520]

Anna ran. She felt the tall grass brushing against her legs, her skirt swinging around her as she sped through the fields. The harsh and unforgiving northern wind whipped at her face, ripping her hair from her braids and sending it flying behind her. Her breath condensed in her wake and her lungs burned as the pain in her legs, but she couldn't stop running.

They were after her – she knew it.

Her mind swam in fear as she desperately thought of everything she had done to conceal her flight. She had left her ladylike clothes behind in exchange of a simpler skirt, cotton undershirt and leather corset – a pair of trousers would have been the best option of course, but she hadn't had the chance to get her hands on one of those. She had walked the narrow lanes and dark alleys, keeping away from the bigger and more crowded streets of her beloved Arendelle in order to avoid being noticed. She had headed for the fields and kept off the beaten track, hoping that her pursuers would have never thought that Lady Anna would have darted through the tall grass and the sticky mud.

She had done all she could have done… and it might have been enough if it hadn't been for Elsa.

Tears streamed down her cheeks and were immediately swept away by the wind as the agonized cry that had torn itself from Elsa's throat resonated in her ears. But Anna shook her head and stubbornly ran on, denying herself the weakness to trip.

She had to get as far away as she could – she had to get away from her own home, from her own beloved sister.

The urge to scream her frustration pooled in her throat, but she fought it back – she couldn't allow herself to run out of breath. Yet such thoughts raged on in her mind as she cursed the day that damned Prince of Denmark had shown up on their doorstep.

"It's all his fault." she growled in her own mind, angry both at him and at her own self – because after all she was the one who had been taken in by his alluring demeanor, she was the one who had opened the castle doors to him, even though whatever charm he used to hold on her had died away quickly as soon as she had noticed the way he had been looking at Elsa. "He never wanted to help."

She heard the roaring stream before she saw the dark skyline of the forest, blurred by the painful, warm tears in her eyes, and something sang within her as her shoes struck the rock of the riverbank. They weren't likely to follow her in there: according to the rumors, the forest was haunted – Frost Wood, they called it.

…yet, she thought, a few more precautions weren't going to hurt anyone. For that very reason she decided to cross the river there and then, on that slimy line of rocks instead of heading up to the nearest bridge – because doing so would have interrupted the trail she knew her scent was leaving behind, just in case they had chose to track her down with the hounds.

Carefully, ever so carefully, she began to tread her way across the rocks that served her as an improvised ford, hopping from one stone to the other.

But careful wasn't going to be enough: the rock was slippery, covered with moss and coated with frost, and the night was dark, even darker there because of the pitch black shadows cast from the branches of the forest that blocked out the faint moonlight.

All it took was a little hesitation, a small misstep, a slight slip.

Anna fell, the freezing waters surrounding her, filling her lungs and soaking her clothes. The shock of the cold was so intense she barely felt herself hit the bottom.

Author's Note:

Hello hello, dearies!
I know, I know, this is really short... but it's a prologue, and I've never been famous for long prologues. Chapter one's longer, I promise!
So just one thing I want to say about this story: I took inspiration from a thread that started on Tumblr, which we nicknamed 'Sherwood Frozen', for a Robin Hood AU that sees Anna as Robin Hood, Elsa as Maid Marion and Kristoff as Little John. We got some headcanons going and I 'volunteered' to write my own version of said headcanons. This story is the result.
Hope you'll enjoy the ride! If you do, please make sure to leave a little comment here and there, they keep me happy and mean the world!
Love,

Clarisse