Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; the elements taken from Frozen are obvious, and while this version of Zorro is taken mainly from Mask and Legend, I've incorporated elements of his history from other adaptations. Even the original idea for this fic was inspired by the artwork of shishyoukai on DeviantArt, although I have created my own narrative for it; the artwork only inspired the idea of a certain sister becoming Zorro.

Feedback: Always appreciated

The Frozen Fox

As her first week in Arendelle came to an end, Anna reflected that the only thing she truly disliked about this situation so far was the inability to take her horse out as often as she would have normally enjoyed doing.

Once she'd confirmed that the chosen building would do for her purposes, it was simple to have the ship's crew move her remaining luggage to her new premises. Moving the horse in secret had been more of a challenge, but once the animal was hidden in the underground, the actual experience had been enjoyable in its way. The crew had departed with strict orders to tell nobody in Arendelle about what they had helped her move, and so far they seemed to have gone along with that order.

Naturally, Anna's first priority had been to make sure that her horse had somewhere to exercise out of sight before she was ready to make her debut as Zorro. As promised, the tunnels under her new house led to a secret opening outside of Arendelle's walls, so as long as she was discreet immediately around that entrance Anna could take the horse out for a short while each day.

With Elena's social contacts in Europe to start making reference to Anna's work, the young woman had been assured that it wouldn't take long for the upper class to start taking notice of her presence. She would need time to set up her shop, but part of her walks through town focused on finding potential employees. She took care to do some background 'research' in local public houses to be sure she was talking to the right people, but that part of her work had to be done with great discretion. Anna spent some of her days searching the city in men's clothing, wearing a brown leather jacket to conceal her figure and hiding her hair under a hat, as well as a fake beard to further complete the illusion. She occasionally went out as herself to visit fine restaurants or visit prominent tourist sites, but for the most part she worked to create a balanced view of her current activities, including visiting some of the more famous tourist sites in her male disguise to better sell the illusion. She wanted to help people who had experienced difficulty because of King Runeard's policies in both her identities, but at the same time she couldn't make it obvious that was what she was doing in her 'civilian' identity.

As the de la Vegas had made clear, the goal at this point was to establish herself as a person with money who didn't have much of a defined goal in life beyond exploring options through her shop. As Alejandro had suggested, she was working to create the illusion that she was a woman 'in search of a vision', but at the same time she should wait to let the king send an invitation to her; forcing her way in would just draw unwanted attention.

It was during one of her walks that Anna first saw the woman in white. She had been taking her usual evening stroll around the city in her male disguise, discreetly familiarising herself with the various back alleys and other routes she'd need to know when she was out as Zorro in future, when she first saw a figure in an elegant white gown walking along the streets of the city near the port. The woman paused to talk with a large man running a stall of some kind near the main church, but even at this distance Anna could see that the man was particularly surprised at the new arrival even as the woman leaned over to talk to him in a soothing manner that made Anna think of how her mother and Elena often had to talk people into not treating them differently when they were helping out in the towns. For a moment, Anna thought about approaching the woman herself, but decided it wasn't worth the 'risk'; if that woman was someone important in Arendelle, she didn't want to directly attract attention to herself before she was ready.

Of course, she thought to herself as she walked up to the stall once the other woman had walked off down another street, that doesn't mean I can't ask someone else about her…

"Good afternoon," she said, nodding politely at the man as she walked up to the stall. She kept her voice slightly low to maintain her current male disguise, but she took care not to go too far. She was planning on emphasising her Spanish accent when she made her debut as Zorro to ensure that the Knights of Aragon knew of her link to the man who had already defeated them once, but in her current appearance it was important to have a simple but deeper voice.

"Guten dag," the man replied, an accent to his voice that Anna wasn't sure how to define. "Can I help you?"

"Just a… warm drink, please," Anna said, looking over what was in the stall. She was impressed to see that the stall had something in it that was emitting a kind of steam, and the drinks all appeared to be warm. She let her hands hover over the offered cups for a few moments before she settled on something that was listed as a kind of warm orange juice, which she took a cautious sip of. The taste was pleasant, and while the warmth was a shock at first it gave the drink an extra edge.

"It's good," she smiled at the man.

"You're welcome," the man smiled at her. "I am Oaken; you are?"

"Andrew Declan," Anna replied. She had wanted a name that bore some resemblance to her own, so she wouldn't fall for the mistake of forgetting to respond to her alias if it was called, but she had to go with something that wasn't obviously connected to her real name. "I'm just passing through Arendelle."

"Passing through?" Oaken looked at her with a curious expression. "You are traveller?"

"Tourist," Anna clarified. She wasn't planning to maintain this disguise once she made her 'official' debut, but it didn't hurt to create a story that would justify 'Andrew Declan' coming back in future. "Which reminds me, who was that woman in white earlier?"

"You mean the princess?"

"Princess?" Anna raised her eyebrows in surprise, automatically turning to look in the direction that the woman in the white dress had walked before reminding herself that the woman would have already gone. "She's part of the royal family?"

"Da," Oaken said. "Only child of Prince Agnar; mother vanished years ago."

"Huh," Anna said, taking another sip of the drink as she turned over this news. "Does she… often come here?"

"She comes into city often, I hear," Oaken confirmed. "I run trading post outside with family, so I cannot say for sure, but she often stops by when I come in each fortnight for trade."

"I see," Anna nodded in contemplation as she sipped at her hot drink. Obviously she wasn't going to try and abduct the princess as a hostage or something like that, since threatening innocents was not what Zorro should do, but the fact that she came out to the city was something to consider. If any of the royal family were at least interested in what was going on outside of the palace, that gave her a new chance to make an impression…

She ignored the part of her mind that she had never even dared to share with her mother that had acknowledged just how attractive the woman in white was, even at such a distance. For the moment, the goal was to learn more about the people of Arendelle; getting to know the royal family more directly could wait.