It was winter. Snow was on the ground. Bitter cold winds were blowing. People were wrapped up in winter coats, gloves, hats, scarves and thick boots, trying hard not to fall on the black ice concealed by the tarmacked roads. Pulling your woolly hat down a little further to cover your ears, you continued on your way to the café you’d planned to meet your friend at. The cold on this day was on the verge of unbearable. Turning the corner, you entered the walkway through the park. The blanket of white snow covered the trees and park benches creating a serene, frosty scene before you. It looked really pretty and you continued on your way, creating the first footprints in the fresh snow. Odd. Usually people wandered this way frequently. Then again, the snow was rather thick. It was perfectly plausible that in this weather, everyone had decided the best course of action was to stay indoors. At that point, you wished your friend had decided to be equally as sensible and to reschedule the meet up. Perhaps you ought to have cancelled it yourself. However, you hadn’t and now you had to endure the fierce winter cold, fighting its way through the layers of clothing you wore, reaching your skin, causing you to shiver.

                “Cold, I see.” You continued walking, ignoring the rather gruff, high pitched voice that had spoken, unsure if it was addressing you or not. “You were not made for such extreme weather.” Sighing to yourself, you walked quicker, in the hope of evading the weirdo, who you’d decided was definitely talking to you. “You can keep walking but you won’t get far.” The gruff, high pitched voice had turned sinister, making you feel uneasy. However, deciding you’d had enough, you stopped and turned around. You frowned. There was no one there. For a moment, you wondered if your mind was playing tricks, if you had been hearing things, but that was when you heard the words whispered close to your ear, “You won’t make it out of this park alive, not if I can help it.” Your eyes widened. You felt your temperature rise, the adrenaline coursing through your veins as you quickly spun round.

                Everything happened so fast. One minute you were standing in the park, fearful of your life, the next minute you’d been thrown off of your feet and had landed face down in the snow some distance from where you’d been stood. You didn’t even attempt to move, not at first anyway. There had been so much noise, so much screaming, sounds which could not be described coherently without the use of ‘bang’ and ‘crash’. It was hard to make sense of what had just happened but considering you were still breathing and alive, you figured it was a plus. Pushing yourself up with your hands, you felt a sharp pain in your side and winced.

                “My lady, are you injured?” The voice was a different voice. It was comforting. It was a voice which sounded trusting, but as soon as you felt a hand on the small of your back your immediate reaction was to shrink away. You crawled away, trying to scramble to your feet as quickly as you possibly could. “My lady, you should sit and rest for a moment!” Just as you’d managed to stand properly, you felt your head spin, the pain on your side becoming unbearable, so much so that you felt yourself go faint. You fell back to the ground, surrounded by a tampered blanket of snow. The cold was no longer a problem when you weren’t conscious…

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                Gasping, you awoke suddenly finding it difficult to breathe. Your hands went up to your neck, choking as you tried desperately to take in oxygen. Eventually, you felt your muscles relax and your lungs contracted. In. Out. In. Out. You were breathing. You were fine. Everything was fine…except it was not. You frowned, glancing around your room and then down to yourself. You were wearing your pyjamas, sat in your bed, tucked in with your duvet, in your bedroom. Picking up your phone from the side table, you checked the time. It was just past midnight. Tilting your head to one side, you continued staring at your phone in confusion. You felt like you were forgetting something, something important. Shaking the feeling off, you decided you were thirsty and decided to go on the hunt for a drink.

                The moment your feet touched the ground, you pulled them back up under the duvet. Grabbing your blanket, you pulled it around you and sought your socks which were thankfully on the floor beside your bed. Socks on, you took a deep breath and quickly tip toed out of your bedroom and out to the corridor, following it down to the kitchen. You put the kettle on and pulled the cute animal patterned mug  you’d brought from your favourite shop down the road out of your cupboard. Then, you waited…and waited…and waited. Why did the kettle always take so long to boil when you desperately wanted a drink?

                You stood there by the kitchen sink in the pitch black, staring out of the window, watching the snow falling quietly outside. Mesmerized by the sight in front of you, time soon flew by. The kettle finished boiling but you hadn’t noticed. There was something about the quiet snowflakes which reminded you of something. They were trying to tell you something…something important…something which you shouldn’t forget…

                And then the memory came rushing back. The scene in the park, the threatening voice, being thrown off of your feet, the pain in your side…the pain…your hand immediately went to your side. Nothing. You were absolutely fine. Looking back up to the window, you frowned. Had you dreamt it all? Was it perhaps a memory of a reality which had been hallucinated? Shrugging, you prepared your hot drink and decided it had just been a dream. With that, you wandered back to your bedroom, past your wet coat which hung on the radiator and the snow covered shoes which were neatly placed underneath to dry…

                At the very same moment that you were drinking your hot drink in bed, a boy stood in the shadows outside, adorned in a thick fur coat, looking towards your window, watching through the falling snow with stern charismatic eyes.

                “Your Highness, we ought to head back to the Kingdom,” a man a few decades older than the boy tentatively stated, a thick winter coat on with a matching set of gloves, a scarf and a thick fur hat, head bowed in respect, rubbing his hands together in an attempt to keep them warm.
“We cannot go back.” The man digested this piece of information before replying.
“You think he will be back?” The boy clenched his fists.
“I know it. I only managed to temporarily distract that-creature.”
“But-the portal will not hold for long, Your Highness.”
“I cannot leave, not when her life is at risk.”
“But what about the portal-”
“We are not going back.” The boy sternly told the man, who looked up towards the boy in surprise.
“But Your Highness-”
“We are not going back until I know she is safe.”
“But you have put charms up around her home. Surely they’re impenetrable.” The boy put a hand up to silence the man.
“Charms can be easily disabled. I can take no chances.”
“But the legend says-”
“I know-” There was a moment of silence.
“What will you do, Your Highness?” The boy tore his glance away from the window and turned towards the man, a small smile on his face.
“Legends were made for truth. She will come to see this also, in time.”
“I hope you are correct, Your Highness,” the man fumbled with the edge of his coat sleeves, trying to pull them further to cover his hands but to no avail. “These lands are far too cold for my liking.”

                The boy said nothing to the man’s comments on the weather. He was far too busy recalling the way your soft, hair flowed, the mesmerising colour of your eyes, the small smile on your face whilst you lay sound asleep…regardless of any legend, the moment he had seen you, he’d known instantly. He would do everything he could to protect you because deep in his heart, he’d felt it. He’d known. It could only be you, no one else but you.  You were his legend. You were his queen.