Hi :) since this is just a prologue, you can just skip it and start reading from chapter one. The only purpose of this chapter is to kind of set up the background since this is an AU fairytale story. Of course, if you're interested, you can read this chapter to see how I interpret Artemis's family in my AU. Thanks!

Prologue

Girlish squeals escape the bar as Paula walked past it, trying to hurry back to the cottage. Her parents couldn't bear it if she were late since apparently they'd sent for a young man to come and meet her. Paula couldn't care less about meeting the guy, she was sure he'd have too much facial hair and smell like rotten eggs, so she decided she could stop by the bar for a little while and see what exactly was happening. Their town was usually quiet and the bar was usually only occupied by one person, the bartender.

But today as she pushed open the wooden doors to check out what was happening, the bar was probably at maximum capacity. And there was a stranger with bright blonde hair sitting at a table crowded with girls. They were some of the prettiest girls in town too. Paula started to turn and look away, but he managed to get eye contact while she was about to leave. His dark eyes held her gaze, mysterious, amused, dreamy…

He sent the other girls away and beckoned her to join him. The attractive stranger in town wanted her to sit with him. And so she did.

Laurence Crock was his name. And when Paula introduced him to her parents they were delighted she'd finally met a boy. They spent the summer exploring the town and even the countryside, riding horses, going to the bakery, picking flowers, and running around chasing each other. They spent the winter snuggled up by the warm fire, reading books, sledding, and drink hot cocoa. And after another year went by like this, Laurence proposed. Paula was overjoyed, and her parents we so happy for her. And so the two were married.

They left the town to live in one of the larger cities in the kingdom. Laurence had quite a fortune left to him by his parents, so they had a large house and more than enough to live on. After two years they had their first daughter with hair as dark as her mother's. They named her Jade. Their second daughter had the prettiest blonde hair, exactly the shade of her father's, but she had her mother's eyes. And Laurence decided that she would be named Artemis.

As the two daughters grew up, Laurence became more distant, abruptly going off traveling, without an explanation. When Jade turned ten he started taking her with him, Artemis was six. One day Paula finally had enough. So she confronted her husband.

It took two days to finally convince him to tell her the truth.

He worked for the League of Shadows, an evil cult whose name was known all over the kingdom, but no one knew where to find them. Of course, it wasn't voluntarily. They'd taken him when he was a child, and he had only tried to break away from the cult when he started his family. But they threatened to take away his daughter if he did. He had started taking Jade with him when they told him they wanted to train his daughter or they'd lock up his family in a tower. He had no choice.

Paula proposed they run away and live on a farm in the countryside. It seemed plausible at the time, so they moved without a goodbye and grew their own food and raised their own livestock. Laurence never went back. But it was only a matter of time before the League of Shadows found them. And that day happened to be when Artemis turned fifteen.

Characters: Paula Crock (Artemis's mom), Laurence Crock (Artemis's dad), Jade (Artemis's sister), Artemis