The Beginning ...

Once upon a time, in a small village far away, there lived a little peasant girl. Her father was a blacksmith and was considered highly skilled in molding the metals he worked with by the villagers. Her mother was an eccentric woman who didn’t seem to have a mind for caring for her little modest family. Instead her interests lie in concocting and collecting potions and spells. Many of the villagers were afraid of her for fear that she would cast a spell on them so they avoided her evil glares at all cost. The peasant girl also had two young brothers. The two boys were as different as night and day. The oldest had fair skin and had a thin build. He was a very artistic boy. He loved creating music, painting, writing stories and poetry, and creating odd sculptures out of whatever he could find around the village. The youngest boy had a heavier but strong build, and dark hair and skin. He resembled his mother the most in appearance, but he often worked with his father learning the blacksmith trade. Despite their differences, the brothers were close and behaved as boys do, often getting into mischief together and making the little girl crazy with frustration, as she was often left to tend to them.

As time went on, the little girl’s mother and father began to quarrel more often. Their little home was no longer a happy one and never was again. Her mother went away to learn more about her spells and potions while the little girl and her brothers were left to take care of themselves and their father. They did not hear from their mother often and they suspected that she fell under some other evil sorcerer’s spell.

Everyone in the village knew about the little girl’s broken family and so she didn’t have many friends. As she grew older, the little girl dreamed of traveling far away to the land of the nobles and royalty, where no one knew about her broken family or the strange things her mother did, where there were so many people that she could blend in and be like everyone around her. She dreamed she’d find a way to learn as much as she could about life and scholarly things. She knew that if she did all these things, she was sure to find a knight in shining armor that would steal her heart and whisk her away. He’d be strong, brave, and would vow to give her the life she had longed to have. She’d be a better wife than her own mother was to her father, she’d be a more loving mother than her own mother was to her and her brothers, and she’d make sure the family she made was always happy and taken care of. She vowed to chase redemption for all the mistakes her mother and father made.

And so, when the little girl became a woman, she ran away from her little village and set out to do all the things she dreamed of. She traveled a long distance from her village where she knew many nobles lived. No one in the town knew her, so she was able to keep her modest past a secret. She found work quickly and learned as much as she could so that it became easier to blend in with the more cultivated nobility in the town. Soon she felt as though she was one of them. She became friends with many of the nobility and got invited to all of the elegant affairs and it seemed as though there was a ball or affair every evening. Very quickly she was well-known and well liked by everyone she met. Her new friends introduced her to many suitors. She was courted by some, but she had trouble finding the knight in shining armor that she had always dreamed of.

She and her friends were beginning to think of her as a spinster as she grew older and all of her friends began to wed and have families of their own, and she remained unwed still unable to find him. One evening at a ball that seemed to be just like all the others she had been to, she was introduced to a new gentleman. He was very striking in appearance with dark hair, dark eyes, and a strong build. He smiled and talked with her and invited her to meet his friends. As was customary, she couldn’t leave with this strange new gentleman without a proper escort, so she declined his invitation and they parted ways without the notion that they’d meet again.

The next evening she attended another ball at a friend’s estate. Again, the evening seemed as though it would go by the same as all the others. When suddenly out of the crowd, the strange dark-haired gentleman she had met the evening before was walking towards her with the beautiful, perfect smile she remembered. This time, they talked all night. At the end of the evening, she turned from the crowd to say something to the gentleman, and he stole a kiss. The kiss was so special and so magical that she suddenly realized this was the knight in shining armor that she had always dreamed of. She let the gentleman escort her home that night. The gentleman courted her for many years and their love grew strong. It was not a typical courtship, but they grew close despite the trials their courtship faced. He learned everything about her, about her past and her broken home, and he continued to love her just the same.

Eventually, after six years of courtship, the gentleman proposed to her and they wed on a warm and rainy spring day a little over a year later. As she recited her vows to this man in front of her father, her brothers and their families, her new family, and all of their friends, she remembered all the things she’d dreamed of and hoped for as a child and knew that she would have her “happily ever after” after all. These are those “happily ever after”s.

To be continued (future stories will be set in modern times for your enjoyment) …