The light morning breeze brushed off of her skin the moment she opens her window. She takes a breath in, absorbing the cold wind of the early month of the year. Somewhere she can hear the birds chirping, welcoming the sun as it rose above the horizon, engulfing the east part of the city with its warm colour above tiny red roofs and graying streets, a cat scurrying to a hidden alley to find its morning prey. It is still too early for people to wake up and that the city looks peaceful and serene. The west part of the city looked gloom and dark as it was built against where the morning light touches thus became the shadow of this city.

It was a city that formed from an extinct volcano. The last it erupted was back 10,000 years ago that people found it was okay to settle and made homes, do tradings and expand. It was the reason now that the city looks like a formation of yin and yang, one part dark and the other is light which birthed its own name for each part of the city. On the north and west side was called Kimberly and the latter was Chamberly. There was a saying that the region of the city divided starting from an early reign of Queen Joyce I, the second in the line of the ruling family tree that rule the kingdom after the end of the Velt royal family.

At this time of day that she really feels that she is alive, to be part of the world and her lips start to move along the rhythm that had been played in her mind and days before; every day to the same tune. She closed both her eyes and feel the warmth of the morning sun-basking her skin and all that she sees behind her eyelids are red and orange. The few seconds of morning lives bring more meaning than the rest hours that will past by.

Reluctantly she opened her eyes and the view of Lembah Kawah greeted her. Almost every part of the city will be basked in the morning light even Kimberly. She then looked at her flower pot where one of her treasure items rest on top of the window shelf. Her song ends there.

She touched the heliotrope petal. In some wayward view, she noticed that the flower itself mirroring her life. That it looked more alive now than it ever did compare to other hours and later when she will step out of her room, all that she will saw goes paler and drier like the pages in the book. 

Artificial. 

Since little, she saw life around her dying, desperately calling for help but she can only do more than stare because she was not special like her little sister, Lily, or anyone in this city. She was just a disabled 19 years old girl that people did not even care about. Not anymore.

And this valley that was once fertile and hold much richness to its soil slowly withered and dying, making it citizen loses their sources for trading and economy started to go downward. Ever since the start of the Patrishka royal family ending the long-ruling of the Bisque royal family. It was also the start of a bizarre weather phenomenon that people started to notice altogether with their failing farm.

She shuffled her way to her wardrobe. She removed her hair clip and let her long front hair dangled covering her eyes, nose, and part of her lips. She took her comb and brushed her dark black hair that stretched until her shoulder blades. Besides that, she made sure that her hair does not make her life anymore harder, and getting her eyes pricked by it ends or that she cannot actually saw her way around (not that it was disturbing or that she should cut it outright, she just wanted it this way). 

Better this way. 

After finishing her routine, she took her bag and let herself out from her attic room, making her way to the kitchen.

"Morning dear," said Mrs. Ghotham as soon she arrived on the kitchen threshold with her usual indescribable look, long front hair without any darling smile, and that she was wearing her navy blue pinafore with white collar shirt admiring her slender medium-high body frame.

She took her place at the dining table and she put her bag on the floor beside the table leg. The motion made her hair swayed as her body moved right and back and it sometimes made it hard for her to see clearly. She took a lump of her side hair and pushed it behind her ear showing her high cheekbones and pale coloured skin.

She knew that her mother had kept looking her way, watching her every move with a motherly smile while she puts her eldest daughter's breakfast plate in front of her. She then plopped on the nearest seat to continued her much intent staring. Her father had taken the liberty to go out early in the morning before the sunrise rose to mend his farm and then later his apothecary shop at the bazaar.

"Your hair got longer," she stated when Stella finally lifted up her face after adjusting her bag and met her mother's gaze.

Unconsciously she touched her hair ends and said "really?"

Her mother nodded and her long finger pushed back part of her hair so that her pair of eyes were visible for her to see. Yet, Stella withdraws when Lily shows up at the threshold, looking ever so beautiful and ladylike.

Not that she minded that her little sister was so different than her with shiny wavy golden corn hair highlighted with few darker shades on parts of her hair, arch eyebrows, round blue-green eyes, full lips, and fair skin that almost look like a baby's bottom. Not that she also noticed how her little sister's height was also medium-high but slightly higher than her and that she had a luscious body making every person that walked pass by her having difficulty taking their eyes off of her.

Lily is the kind of girl that demands every person's attention plus her personality is so bright and bubbly that it kinds of tick some people with a glare that could even shoot out lightning. 

Literally. 

But that person is not her though she very much wanted to know how to shoot lightning with her eyes.

Lily sat right next to their mother. "Good morning mom," she greeted.

"Good morning to you too dear," she replied with the same tone she used when she greeted Stella earlier. Her mother's love for both of her daughters was equal to no more and no less. Mrs. Gotham rosed to ready breakfast for her youngest.

"Good morning Stella," greeted Lily with her signature sweet smile and her half-moon eyes.

"Good morning Lily," she replied. She tried to eat her food without her hair preying inside her mouth but the lump that she pushed behind starting to curtain their way back to the front of her face.

"Why don't you try trimming your hair Stell? It looked rather uncomfortable for you to eat." This time its Lily turns to notice her difficulty. "I mean your front hair."

Once again Stella pushed her hair back to its position.

Stella knows what kind of face that Lily showed now. 

Worry. 

And when Stella did not take any action regarding the advice, her little sister threw her worry glance to their mother; requesting assistance. Mrs. Ghotham who just finished her cooking and puts the plate in front of Lily exchanged glances with her youngest.

Ever since little, Stella refused to let her hair anywhere near shorter than her nose and she does not plan on changing her style just because it gets into her food or mouth. It was a better solution than letting people see her eyes; shielding it as best as she can.

"At the very least, bind it. Here take this," her mother said while she goes on putting a coloured thread band beside her plate.

Stella only looked at the thread band that a few seconds ago was tightly binding her mother's golden hair. She looked at her mother's face. Her blue-green eyes, fair skin though it was a bit tanned due to her constant farming under inconsistent temperature and sun blaze while her lips are full that it shaped like a heart. There were a few worry lines and wrinkles that start to show. A few hair strands started to go grey as well. There were none of those characteristics that she sees were any kind of resemblance to her.

Once again she looked at the band then to Lily, enjoying her breakfast without any disturbance from her waist-long hair.

Should she say that her day today feels different compared to any other day? Her hair had never been a bother or that she ever remembered that she feels so... distracting. Maybe it was because she had her high fever last week that it brings out such differences. Still, her 'annual' high fever never changed her body so drastically that a slight movement somehow became a problem that needed immediate solving.

Ever so slowly, she took her mother's advice and loosely binds her black hair. No matter how distracted she felt, whether it was her hair or that Lily's presence itself at the dining table, she only knew that she did not want Mrs. Ghotham continued to look at her like that. After finishing doing so, she picks up her spoon and ate her breakfast without much further thought.