The Happy Couple (Tag: Alidia and Rahim) rated M

Anna was out cold. And her platinum blonde hair was in the way like always. She heard voices though, but none where Richard's except when he screamed to protect her. She slowly opened her eyes and there were so many thugs. "please let me go...I didn't mean any harm..." Anne said sheepishly.

The men began to back off, letting the robber girl have her way.  Richard still watched her, his breath caught in his throat.  Now that he could see Anne clearly, he found that she was quite beautiful.
"They won't hurt you now." the spoiled brat's voice interrupted his thoughts. "At least, until I say so.  Get it?" He didn't like how she was speaking to Anne and hissed at her for it.
"You watch your manners, freak.  Or I'll throw you out in the cold, and I know you don't want that." she threatened him.  As much as he hated losing to this child, he had to give in.

Anne was wondering who the girl was talking to and she gasped as she saw a lizard but she had a feeling she knew him so she decided to help the poor thing "Oh please don't hurt him...he seems harmless...please..." Anne plead. Her diamond-like eyes sparkled.

"I can tell you'll fit in just fine here.  We need to get dinner ready anyway.  So we'll leave you to get acquainted with my pets." the robber girl told Anne.  She left some of the torches behind to offer light as she and the rest of the thieves left to start cooking.
"Thank you, for standing up for me.  I don't think I could take that punishment from her." Richard told her, honestly.

Anne backed herself into the wall. "Please don't hurt me...I...I wait a second" she paused as she looked closely and moved forward "Richard? Is that you?" Anne brought one of the lit torches closer and saw closer. "it is you!! What happened?"

"It's a strange tale, but we have time.  I got a witch mad at me, really she was angry at my grandfather and wanted to punish me for his sins.  I made a wager with her.  If I could get back to the closest town from where she lived without her catching me on the way, she would let me live out my life with her blessing.  I didn't realize this," he indicated his body as he got off the wall to pace, "was apart of the deal.  She made this challenge as unfair to me as possible."

Anne frowned "That's a dirty trick...please can you come down cause my neck hurts from looking up." Anne giggled. But she cleared her throat. "Is there anything that can break it and we must escape here...cause I can't bare seeing you in pain or locked up..." her eyes sparkled.

"I apologize for that.  Climbing onto the walls like that was a tactic I adopted in order to stay out of reach of that little brat you met earlier." Richard explained, climbing down to stand in front of her.
"I have to fulfill that wager.  And I agree that we need to get out of here.  I kind of need you now.  She actually made me cold-blooded with this spell.  The cold temperature could kill if I don't have something to keep me warm." he added.

Anne took off her jacket and put it on Richard. "Here...I don't get cold up here for some reason...now let's go..." Anne took one of Richard's hands. "Before they find out..." Anne put her hair in a ponytail as they ran out of the cave.

Richard followed Anne through the cold wild.  He was grateful that it was snowing, the fresh snow would cover their tracks.  The coat was keeping most of him warm, but not all.  His feet were left exposed to the elements, but he would ignore it for as long as he could.

Anne began shivering for some reason. But she never got cold. She smiled as she saw her campsite. "We are almost there Richard and I'll make you something to eat..." her eyes sparkling as her platinum blonde hair was swaying in the breeze. But a small feeling of being watched came over her. She wondered if that girl would noticed them gone.

"Thank goodness.  A place where we can both warm up.  I don't feel right about taking your coat from you, Anne." Richard confessed.  He looked around, feeling like they were being stalked.  For a minute, he thought he caught a glimpse of wolves through the trees.

Anne took Richard's hands as she made them run to her campsite. She went her tent and wrapped him in a blanket covering his whole body. "There you go...I'll make a fire and some food..."

Richard pulled the blanket tight around him.  He found the scent of Anne was a bit strong on it, which meant she used it a lot.  He looked over at her and a question formed in his mind.
"Anne, can I ask you something?  What exactly are you doing up here?" he asked as he got himself comfortable.

Anne smiled as she got a fire started. She sat by Richard. "Well I don't know much about my childhood but my 'mother' Joanne said if I came up here and found this lost/rare 'winter rose' I might remember my childhood..." Anne got up and put some food on the fire. "I wish I knew what happened when I was young..."

"So you're adopted?  That's a shame, not knowing your real parents.  I've heard of the winter rose.  Stories say it only blooms when a new princess reveals herself to it.  It's an interesting story to say the least." Richard admitted.  The scent of food caught his attention.
"That smells good." he murmured, his tongue licking his lips.

Anne grimaced "Adopted? Me...no my memories were wiped clean and a princess?! Wow what does she look like?" Anne paused the questions as she served the salmon for Richard "then you go..." she sat down by him. "You know what your eyes are like emeralds..." she giggled.

"She's said to be of the fairest skin, with hair of platinum blonde.  Actually, that sounds a lot like you." Richard explained as he accepted her offering of food.  His face lit up when he noticed it was salmon.
"This is one of my favorites." he admitted to her.  He presented himself with rather refined manners as he ate.  When she complimented him on his eyes, he had to smile.
"Well, your eyes remind me of diamonds." he complimented her back.

Anne smiled and blushed as Richard was giving her compliments. "Thank you...but I bet the princess is far more pretty than me..." Anne giggled and stop as she had a feeling again about being watched. "Do you have a feeling we are being watched?" her eyes showed no more sparkling.

"I kind of do, yes.  When we were moving, I thought I saw wolves in the woods.  If I did, that means we could be in trouble.  Unlike most predators, wolves are built for the long chase.  They could run us down if they managed to surprise us." Richard whispered to her.  He moved himself closer to Anne, one of his hands resting on hers to offer comfort.

Anne felt a sixth feeling. "We need to leave now..." she said as she quickly made the blanket Richard was wearing into a suit to cover all his body and she had extra boots. "Here..." when he was done she grabbed one of his hands and began running. They had to cross frozen rivers and mountains to where her sixth feeling was telling her. But her back kept getting the goosebumps.

Richard was amazed that Anne seemed to know where she was going.  Even though she didn't seem to have many memories, she knew what she was doing very well.  It was enough to make him admire her.
"Do you know where we're going, Anne?" he asked after a while.

Anne stopped frozen in her tracks. "I...I don't know something seems familiar..." she looked and there was a frozen lake. "We need to cross it...I'll go first to make sure it's safe..." for some of it; it wasn't so bad and then wolves showed up and walking on the ice. Cracking it. Anne gasped as she began running to Richard but it was too late the ice cracked and she was in the freezing water and the ice had frozen over.

"Anne!  Where are you, Anne?" Richard called for her frantically.  He could see her under one section of the ice.  He knew what he had to do, he just hoped they both survived.
Breaking through the thinner ice, Richard reaching in and grabbed Anne's hand.  The icy water was enough to make him cry out, but he ignored it and pulled her out onto the opposite bank.  After seeing the ice break a few times, the wolves that remained were reluctant to follow them across the lake.  They would likely try to go around it now.
"So...cold..." Richard muttered with chattering teeth.  He was hugging himself in a vain attempt to warm up.  And it was proving futile.

Anne was so cold but she weakly looked at Richard. He was coldblooded. She weakly walked to him, rubbed her hands together making them warm and placed them on him. "There...rrrrRichard bbbeeee warm...." then her whole was starting to shut down. "no..." she thought "I'm going to protect Richard..."