The birds sang their melodious song softly from the outside of Anastasia's room. The cold chill of the morning swept into her room and stayed, leaving her relishing in the warmth provided from her mother's hand knit quilt, the ends and patchwork having odd threads hanging off from the rushed job, winter had truly snuck up on the family of two.

With a quiet sigh, Anastasia pushed herself out of the bed that was a tad too short for her body, but she didn't mind. Her small feet danced across the scratched wooden floor, her body remembering its way around the small building. Soon enough, as she was sadly reminded, her feet brought her to largest part of the home, that itself wasn't that large, with its giant iron bowl that sat atop a glowing orange fire, a medium sized water basin, and table with chairs. It truly wasn't one of the most glamorous homes in the Enchanted Forest, in their village Kleines Dorf, but it was home. Anastasia found her mother sitting in one of the two wooden chairs, a bowl in her hand and an unfinished blanket being knitted in her lap. A smile wove its way onto her face as she looked at her mother, her feet tip toeing faster across the uneven floors.

Her feet halted as they stopped before her mother, whose warm smile could outshine the sun.

"Hello my flower," Her mother greeted her teasingly while setting the bowl down to poke the little girls' freckled nose causing a light giggle to emit from her mouth.

It was true; Anastasia did look a little flower, with her curly brown hair sticking up each way from sleep and her old daisy yellow cloth night dress being frayed at the bottom, but most importantly was those bright blue eyes that were full of so much innocence and curiosity. Instead of replying, Anastasia choose to playfully stick her tongue out at her mother, in such a way that seven year olds do. She opened her mouth to greet her mother but a loud yawn came out instead, with wide blue eyes Anastasia walked over to the giant bowl-careful of the fire- and ladled a bowlful of the morning's porridge.

Breakfast continued on as it normally did, with Anastasia's feet still too short to touch the floor in the chair. Her mother finished before her and placed her bowl into the water basin to clean. With a smile, after her mother was finished, she slyly walked over to her daughter, one hand behind her back and a sneaky smile beginning to form on her lips.

"Now my dear, guess what I have." Her mother said the smile growing as she leaned down and ruffled Anastasia's messy curls.

With a gasp, Anastasia leaped out of her chair, the porridge long forgotten, and tried to stretch her short arm to reach behind her mother's willowy frame, knowing what was behind her mother's back.

"Is it fixed Mama, is it fixed?" Anastasia question with anticipation, barely containing her hope and joy.

Her mother brought her hand forward to present a small, colorful, and varying flower head band that had been snapped in two months ago, her Mama finally having enough money to get it fixed. A squeal of happiness escaped Anastasia as she brought the headband into her arms and hugged it to her chest before placing it on her head, a warm and content feeling filling her body.

It didn't matter to Anastasia if her home was very small, if all she had was her mother for family, or if there was barely enough supplies-as long as she had the colors in her life, she was perfectly fine with her life.

Dimia smiled down at her daughter as she was cradled in her arms, the headband with its flowers barely sticking atop of her haphazard curls. With a quiet exhale of breathe, Dimia shifted her daughter in her arms and sat up from the chair, her daughter's stomach being full of food from their dinner and her sleepiness sinking in her body. With a few steps, carefully placed in the night's darkness, she was inside Anastasia's room and soon the little girl was lying in her bed, the doll still latched in her arms.

With sad brown eyes, Dimia looked at her daughters' room, with its dirty small bed, small mirror on the floor, and pile of clothes in the corner, the feeling of guilt and tears prickling at her. She wished more than anything to give her daughter a better life, one where she could be treated with everything the kindhearted girl deserved. Sadly, Dimia couldn't give her that life, not as a seamstress who could barely sew. Everything in their life had gone downhill when her husband Gene had died, in a tragic blacksmith accident at work. Now all they had to their name was a small hut for a home and the scraps people in their village had pityingly given them. Dimia was a proud woman, who didn't want to rely on others to get by in her life, but with Anastasia she had to push her own feeling aside-just to give the girl the best she deserved.

And she wasn't it. With another sigh and a fleeting glance, Dimia disappeared into the night.

'Mama where are you, mama?'

With a gasp, Anastasia shot up from her bed with a hand cradling where her heart was. Her breath came out in splutters and her body shook with unshed tears. Swallowing thickly and biting the inside of her cheek, she dragged herself out of the bed and shuffled out of the room, being mindful of the seven other girls that were sleeping. Her body soon led her outside of the orphanage that she had been living at for the last ten years. Its dreary gray from weather walls glared at her, which her dull blue eyes that were full of so much pain and anger happily returned. The dirt beneath her feet was almost frozen, which helped her to calm down from her dream, the dream that plagued her nights.

The dream of the morning she discovered her mother to be missing. It still haunted her, she could hear her youth self's screams echoing in her ears, feel the hands on her arms of her neighbors as they dragged her away from her home and into the orphanage. She could almost smell her home on the tip of her nose, with its musty smell and its flowery scent. Anastasia held back a shudder at the memories, biting the inside of her cheek as she felt the urge to cry.

She hated it, she hated being weak and wanting to cry like a little girl, she hated her mother for betraying her and leaving her with nothing, she hated the orphanage and its soul crushing sadness, and most of all she hated the stupid headband and its stupid flowers that she couldn't live without. It wasn't like she didn't need another reason for the other orphans to pick on her, what with her short height for a girl of seventeen years and her messy hair, adding a headband that she couldn't be away from just gave the boys there more to tease her about.

Before Anastasia could let her thoughts poison her mind more, the cold weather outside had become harsher with a sharp wind blowing its way through and a colder temperature that made Anastasia shiver in her white night dress. Her brown curls blew crazily around her face; her thin and pale hands could barely grasp it and keep the headband on top of her small head.

The air seemed to grow colder and colder, her arms grasped her frame in a pitiful effort to warm up, before she realized she could run back inside. She ran as fast as her stiff limbs could take her to the giant wooden door of Willow Tree Orphanage, her thin long fingers crazily grasped the handle and she pulled with all the strength in her body. She let out a strangled cry as she realized that her efforts were useless and the door was frozen shut. Gritting her teeth, Anastasia slumped down to the ground with her forehead resting on the cool wood of the door, her knees drawn to her chest. Choked sobs made their way out as she realized her fate, she would be frozen to death outside of a place, never knowing what it was like to have a family.

Her body shook with spasms and she selfishly wished she could trade places with another girl, she wished that she hadn't come outside, and most importantly she wished to have a home. At least a glance of one before she died.

It seemed like her fate had another plan, a white hot pain suddenly filled her senses and clouded the frostbite she was feeling. Anastasia soon realized her mouth was parted and hoarse screams were being released into the night. Her hands curled into the dirt as she fell slumped over towards the ground. The pain was relentless, her screams becoming shriller and hoarser as the pain continued. She didn't know what was happening, one moment she was waiting for the cold to freeze her beating heart, the next she is being blinded with pain and her head pounding as if the king's men were stomping into battle on it.

After what felt like days upon days of pain, who knows it could have been, when her screams were just croaked whimpers-the pain stopped. Her body still shook and tears slowly fell from her face and onto the brown dirt. Something wasn't right, she could feel it in her body, she felt different; she felt wrong.

With another garrote sob, she slowly sat up with shaking limbs and weak knees. Her head, with its pounding slightly lessened, she lifted her head up and the curtain of hair parted, her flower headband falling to her hands-which weakly grasped it. A stifled gasp emitted a strange sound as her widened eyes stared into narrow yellow ones.

A black silhouette that was almost transparent, stared back at her and deftly stretched its hand out, it was the same height as her and its eyes seemed to have all the anger and pent up pain that hers had held. But, not all of it- Anastasia could still feel the burn of betrayal and the want of revenge in her body.

Without another word Anastasia's own hand grasped the, the things, hand and to her surprise it didn't fall through the chilling transparent form. Without warning the figure shot into the cloudy sky, the rest of the Enchanted Forest laid bellow her bare feet. Her own wonderment filled those blue eyes, which had become a bit brighter when she realized what was happening. Well, two things could be happening, no three. She could be getting kidnapped by a dark creature, she could be dreaming or dead in the cold, or she was about to start a great adventure.

With a gasp Anastasia's blue eyes flew open, her body automatically shooting up. Her eyes widened as she took in where she sat, it was a forest. Her eyes scanned around the area she was in, a small clearing that was surrounded by flowered trees, of purple, red, white, and pink. Its fragrant smell filled the air and Anastasia happily filled her nose with the smell, the sun was shining happily in the clearing. In the center of the clearing stood a proud, tall, and wide tree. It almost seemed as if it were fake or a dream, the tree was perfect in her eyes and it was almost as wide as her old home, the house she had been abandoned in. Swallowing and closing her mouth, which had fallen open the moment she awoke, she timidly walked towards the tree, a pale and thin hand stretched towards it.

The moment her hand felt the smooth dark brown wood beneath her hand, the front of the tree disappeared, leaving an archway in its place. She gasped again and stepped back before almost laughing at her behavior, if she was dead than she was going to do whatever she wanted. Pursing her lips nervously, Anastasia placed a foot inside the tree, gasping once more as the bark shifted into steps. Her eyes narrowed in curiosity and she stepped onto the step, marveling in how another step appeared. She continued this pattern till the steps stopped and another archway was in front of her. Her eyes fluttered shut and she took a step forward, feeling the smooth floor shift beneath her feet. A smile danced its way onto her face, the first smile she had had without the girls back at the orphanage, and her eyes gladly shot open to see a room. The furniture was all wooden and grew out of the wooden floor, looking molded to the floor. The was a chest, a bed, covered in delicate looking leaves, a wooden mirror frame, and a beautiful window that stretched around the farthest part of the room with the wood caging it in as a net. The room was all round, no edges in the wall, and decorated in dark vines and deep red roses.

With a wider smile, Anastasia ran fully into the room, gasping again as she passed the mirror frame and saw a reflection appear as she passed it, but disappear when she wasn't in it.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" A deep and feminine voice asked aloud.

Anastasia stopped in her twirls around the room, her shoulders tensing. She swallowed loudly and slowly turned around, her breath becoming deeper. She widened her eyes as she saw the figure standing in front of her, making a strange sound-almost as if it were laughing at her.

"Who-w-what are you?" Anastasia bluntly asked, after collecting herself, standing up straighter with faked confidence.

"Well, technically I'm apart of you." It said in dark amusement, drifting closer but stopping when Anastasia's eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean?" Anastasia ordered, her fear filling her. She boldly stepped forward, her hands clenching the white night-gown.

"I'm your shadow," The figure, shadow, replied, "I freed myself to take you here, your own little place that you created, with my help of course."

The smug and superior tone in the shadows voice bothered Anastasia, she narrowed her eyes to a glare and her hands gripped the cloth so hard that her hands were turning red and white.

"Well thanks for that," Anastasia said somewhat sarcastic and grateful. The shadow seemed to be appeased by this and spoke again.

"You're welcome, your sadness and pain was overwhelming and this was my only option."

Anastasia rolled her eyes at the shadows flippant tone, and the shadow spoke once more.

"You know you can't call yourself that, Anastasia." Her shadow said her name mockingly, but was then serious.

"Rose," she replied hesitantly before sounding surer, "Rose Red."

A/N: I read somewhere that Rose Red was already a character in OUaT, but I'm not sure. If she is, then I have eliminated her and made my own Red Rose. To help you out a bit with the time line, this is before Regina is born, so no Storybooke yet. I was inspired by this idea a few days ago, weirdly before I fell asleep, to write this and the idea has been in my head since. I know the first chapter is a bit rough, I had the idea of the story-just not how to get her there or which character she would be. After reading something I was like wait, isn't Rose Red a character!? Then I read the Wiki page and was really excited, I already had the title 'Flower Crowns and Freedom' in my head and the personality she has in her story and her back story fit perfectly, ignoring Snow White (who might have a play in this given last week's Storybrooke OUaT episode.)

Please review, it would mean so much to me! :)

Until next time, Myrtle Turtle 1

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the OUaT universe. If I did I would be apart of it and canon and I would run around Neverland and do things with Peter, but thats another story. I own nothing besides my OC's and my headbands that have nothing to do with this story. I also own Rose Red's awesome island, the Free Girls, and that tree house(literally) that I desperaly wish was real.