Summary: Three years before Elsa's coronation, the kingdom was controlled by a corrupt prime minister and his subjects. Three years after her parents died, Anna didn't always stay in the castle. Now, after regaining the monarchy, they must now try to correct what has been wronged.

*Note: Chapter 2 of 6 Pre-Frozen Chapters

Anna was mad.

No, she was angry.

Scratch that, she was enraged.

She was enraged and hostile, actually.

The reason she was like this had transpired earlier that morning. You see, all Anna had wanted to do was go outside of the castle on her own, without any guards on her birthday. She had been dying to ask her parents the day before and when she had finally summoned enough courage to ask, they had flatly refused.

"I want to go outside."

The spoons her parents had been holding clashed to the table and a pause overcame the royal family. The newly turned 14-year-old tilted her head in confusion as she glanced at the faces of those occupying the table.

The 17-year-old Elsa had begrudgingly dragged herself out of her room–a rare sight to behold–and had actually seated herself on the main table in the dining hall, choosing to eat breakfast with her family for once. Anna glanced at her sister and saw panic with a hint of confusion written on her face as she looked from their parents and to her. Instantly, she began having doubts, but she pushed it aside when she remembered that it was her birthday, she was now fourteen, and she had been living inside the castle for too long. And when she did go outside, it was all in secret, and frankly, she was getting tired of the secrecy. For once, she wanted to go outside without worrying about getting caught or getting into trouble. Unfortunately, that would be denied of her.

"No." Her father had answered bluntly. His wife had shot him a look of questioning, but he did not relent.

"But father, I've just turned fourteen surely I can-"

"No," her father repeated with an irritated tone, "You can do anything you want in the castle. You do not need to step foot in the village. You are safer and-"

"Bored!" Anna exclaimed cutting him off. She jumped up in her seat, "I can do anything in the castle. But when you've been doing the same things for the past eleven years, it no longer gets fun!" From the corner of her eye, she saw her sister grimace at her statement. She looked as if she were guilty for keeping the castle doors closed and Anna's boredom. But Anna ignored her as she stared at her father helplessly.

"Anna-"

"Please! Its only just for the day and its not even cold outside. I just want to go and walk around the village. Father, please, its my birthday!"

The king stood up from his seat, his eyes set, "I don't want to hear any more of this, Anna. You will stay in the castle. I will hear no more arguments."

"But-"

"No more!" he shouted. The king felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to his left and saw the queen with sympathy in her eyes. He looked again to his two daughters. One wore a stricken expression, glancing worriedly at her younger sister. The youngest wore a hurt expression as her eyes began to tear up, but she held them back.

With a slight sniffle, she replied with gritted teeth, "Yes, father." Before anyone else could do or say anything more about the matter, Anna ran out of the dining hall, leaving the three staring after her in silence and regret.

Anna had run to her armory in tears. Immediately, she had picked up her wooden sword, a wooden mace, and a small bow and arrow (she had yet to learn) and pulled down the torchholder. The stone door slid open and Anna grabbed the lit torch before making her way down the long, damp halls. In truth, she was seething underneath. She kept her growing anger pent-up until she had reached the other exit. As soon as her foot hit the grass, Anna threw herself in a sprint towards the clearing she had found a year ago.

After entering the clearing, Anna removed the bow and arrows from her back and with the wooden sword, threw them at a large rock nearby and clutched the old wooden mace. She let her eyes scan around the clearing before it found the target. It was located in front of a huge pine tree that stood in the center of the clearing and towered above all the other trees. A year ago, Anna had dragged a training dummy from the armory into the woods, fully intent on training herself to become a warrior. But she found herself unexperienced and saw the problem in her plan. She had no training or anybody to teach her. Letting her anger get the best of her, Anna marched up to the dummy and began swinging her wooden mace at it.

And that was where she found herself now. She stood, whacking the dummy with all her strength. After a while she would find her muscles tiring, so she would stand back for a few seconds, catch her breath, then go back to unceremoniously striking the inanimate cotton, sand, and straw filled cloth with a wooden mace.

She continued this for who knows how long, but after a while, she began to feel the effects of the hot, afternoon sun. Even as sweat dribbled down her face, she refused to back down. One last surge of anger came over her and she swung at the dummy with all her might. The contact caused the dummy to fly off its pedestal and break the wooden ball of the mace, regarding it useless. Anna stared at the broken mace head as she panted violently.

"That was very relentless, but I suggest you take a break before you overstrain your muscles," a gruff voice commented behind her. Alarmed, Anna swung around with the broken mace handle in front of her to find a late middle-aged man standing with his back to against the rock where she had flung her other weapons at earlier.

The man, from where she was standing, towered her at 6'3'' (At the moment she was 5' 2"). He had a receding grey hairline, but sported sideburns and a full goatee, both also greying. He stood tall and confident, as if his age didn't matter. He wore a simple dark brown tunic and trousers, but around his neck, he wore a forest green stole with dim-gold shoulder marks and ended at his waist. On his belt, he wore a scabbard with an undrawn sword in it. It was the stole and sword that gave away his identity.

"You're a Master-at-Arms," Anna stated as she lowered the broken mace handle. In Arendelle, only the Master-at-Arms wore such a stole like he was wearing.

"Master Kylos, if you please," the older man replied, not denying the statement. He continued, "And though I may just be a master, I am also a guard of this realm. Some villagers have reported hearing someone 'beating' something in the forest." He looked pointedly at the discarded dummy, then back at Anna who bit her lip, "So I decided to see for myself. Tell me, what is your business with inflicting imaginary wounds on a nonexistent–and might I add, helpless–enemy?"

"Nothing," Anna said, still a bit out of breath, "I just needed to vent, that's all." She walked towards the rock he had been leaning against and picked up her bow, quiver, and wooden sword. "I'll just go."

"Do you even know how to use that?" the old man asked, grabbing her bow and pulling her back before she had a chance of running away.

"No… but I have a book," Anna answered shortly. Soon after she had found the armory, she snuck a few books from the castle's library into the room. The topics had ranged from parts of a weapon to the history of a weapon. She had been meaning to read the 'how-to-use' books, but the new lessons that her parents had made her take had gotten in the way of that plan.

"Books do not do justice," the master remarked, "You are going to hurt yourself if you are not trained properly."

Anna blinked; he was right. She knew weapons were hands-on, nothing you could learn from a book. And knowing her clumsiness, she probably would hurt herself. The fourteen year old looked at him questioningly, "Well what am I supposed to do? Like I said, I just came here to vent. It's not like I'm going to really need to use a weapon, anyway."

The old man chuckled before replying. "In my opinion, everyone needs to learn how to use one weapon. You never know when you may actually need to protect yourself," he said.

Anna nodded in agreement, "I understand what you are saying, master… sir… whatever. But I'm just being stupid out here anyway. So if you'd please, I have better get going. My parents are probably looking for me anyway."

She tugged the bow from the old man's grasp and turned away to walk off when the Master-at-Arms called to her, "Even a princess needs to know how to defend herself."

Anna gasped and whipped back around. She had never told him that she was a princess. Now she was worried he would tell her parents about her secret outings to the forest. "H-how do you know that? Did anybody tell you?" She raised her wooden sword as threateningly as she could at him.

The old man only pushed away the wooden stick, "Careful, you will poke someone's eye out with that." Anna only glared in response, so he added, "I am an old soul dear. You would not think I would recognize the family members was protecting?" She dropped her arm, bringing down the wooden sword and he continued, "Besides, I remember when I was training the new recruits that you and that sister of yours would be playing in the courtyard. Loud, you were, for only two little princesses." He tilted his head at her and asked, "What are you truly doing out here, princess?"

Though reluctant in trusting the man, Anna let her guard down and paused before hesitantly replying, "It's… kind of my birthday and my parents won't let me go down into the village all by myself…"

"I take it nobody knows you are here?"

Anna blushed in embarrassment, "Yeah… there's this sort of secret passage and… I just got angry, okay? I don't suppose you know why they closed the gate?" She looked at him with a hopeful gleam in her eye. If she was going to be sent back, she might as well know why the castle gates are closed.

He only responded with a shake of his head, "I'm sorry, Your Highness, but I don't know either."

Anna's shoulders sagged in disappointment, "Its alright, I've been let down in my life enough that this shouldn't have surprised me." She sighed before looking at him in the eye, "I'm sorry, Master Kylos-... sir, but please don't tell my parents I was out here. I promise to stay in the castle and never come out here or touch these weapons ever again."

Instead of responding to her words, the master asked, "Why do you have these weapons with you in the first place? How did you acquire them?"

Anna was taken aback. He hadn't answered her pleas. But she decided that she should answer his questions, in hopes that he would accept her pleas and not report her to her parents. She blushed, remembering her eleven year old self's motivation. "I was reading some books and then I got bored so I went to an abandoned armory in the castle that I had discovered a while back. Those weapons were there and I was reading Robin Hood and I got really impressed by the hero… I guess I just wanted to feel what it was like to, um, be a hero."

He raised an amused eyebrow at her, "Let me guess. You were planning on training yourself to become a hero like him."

Anna rubbed her arm, as she looked to the ground in humiliation, "Heh, yeah. I know, kind of unrealistic…"

Kylos pursed his lips before shaking his head, "Actually, not at all." Anna looked back up at him with a small, sad smile.

The princess did not behave much like a princess, Kylos noted. She didn't speak with a tone so confident it sounded condescending, like most royals he knew did. Sure, she would give him a short reply, but most of the time, she spoke in an awkward, stuttering manner, as if she didn't speak to people on a regular basis. He supposed it was because of the closing of the castle, they didn't let anybody in, so they probably didn't let anybody out, even the princess. The repercussion of that action not only affected the staff and villagers, but it caused the princess to lack the social skills she needed if she were to rule. Now, instead, he saw a simple girl who had been let down too many times by those close around her.

"I'll tell you what, your majesty, you meet me here in two days time with that sword, that bow, and a few arrows of yours right before the dawn breaks, and I'll teach you how to use each one of them," Kylos said.

Anna's eyes widened in astonishment and disbelief. "What?" she managed to stutter out.

"Meet me here in two days time with your weapons before dawn breaks and I'll teach you how to use them," Kylos repeated. His eyes and tone softened, "Consider it as a birthday present, your Highness. I promise I will tell no one, especially your parents, of our little lesson, nor of our encounter today and–what I assume–of your previous visits."

Anna let a smile flicker on her face before she found herself throwing her arms around the man in a hug. "Oh my gods, thank you," Anna said as she found herself smiling for the first time in what felt like forever.

Kylos was taken aback by Anna's sudden hug, but patted her back after remembering what it felt like when his daughter had last hugged him. Unfortunately, his daughter had passed away a few years ago, due to some sickness. Coincidentally, she had been the same age as Anna before she passed away.

"Its the least I can do, your Highness," Kylos bowed respectfully as soon as the fourteen year old released him, "Happy Birthday."

Anna pulled away and looked him in the eye one last time, "Thank you." She smiled and then left the clearing and the Master-at-Arms behind.

One good thing that actually happened today.

Yeah, I know. A bit iffy on the stranger trusted very easily, but what do you expect of Anna? She's younger than ever and she's still looking for someone to at least pay attention to her. I guess it's just kind of a thing with Hans, hopefully this story will lead you to believe that Kylos was the first stranger who was a kind soul, so Anna just safely assumed that Hans would just be like that. Except he's younger, her age, and her "true love".

Extra information on Kylos:

• He has been Master-at-Arms in Arendelle 2 years before Elsa was born.
• 54 years old
• His only daughter died at 14 due to pneumonia, when Anna was 4 (after Elsa struck her with the ice, and her memories wiped)
• After the castle of Arendelle closed the doors, he was taken to the walls that lead up to the mountains to act as a guard.
• Pronounce his name (`Kī lōs)

Just to clear things up.

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