The Ever

15-year-old Katezmira Ashen was not a normal girl.  

Of course, that’s quite obvious when I add the fact she was destined to be the heroine of a fairytale that will be told hundreds of years from now.

But she never had been a normal girl, even when she was very young and small.

She was very nice, for one thing. Impeccably and determinedly nice. If you told her that you had forgotten your lunch, she would start a protest against school lunch prices and demand you be given a free meal everyday for the rest of your life. If you told her your parents had been the slightest bit mean to you, she would renovate her house to accompany a new bedroom and invite you to move in. She never earned any money, as whenever anyone gave her some, she would immediately spend it on their thank you present.

For a second thing, she was weirdly and perfectly pretty. She had sparkling, sapphire blue eyes with the rare combination of radiant olive skin. Her hair was wavy and smooth, maybe a shade or two darker brown than her face. She was skinny, average height for her age.

She also talked to animals. They didn’t talk back necessarily, but she could definitely understand what they wanted. 

Today is Saturday. The sun has risen, the birds are singing, and Katezmira has just woken up. She opens the door of her family’s humble cottage and breaths in the sweet air.

Here, readers may insert a montage of singing and cleaning and breakfast-making with the help of two squirrels, three bluebirds, several mice, a deer, two rabbits, three raccoons and an owl. Her father has gone out to tend to the sheep, her mother is helping her clean, and her younger sister, Quincey, is playing with the rabbits.

That all seems well and good for the most part. I do wonder about the animals, though. Raccoons and such can carry disease- although Katezmira never got sick. You never know what might happen if someone gets sick. She might have gotten ugly or something. 

After the chores are done, Katezmira, in a spinning white dress with a dark top, goes for a walk down the street, picking flowers, humming, and altogether just having a good time. The walk eventually led her to a green path through the woods. Her parents, who let her go without a thought, didn’t know they wouldn't see her again until that summer. And she didn’t know that tonight she would fall asleep in a boarding room of the same school girls of the names Ella, Snow, Belle, Tiana, and Aurora had gone to before her.

When she was farthest from her house, just about to turn around and head back, Katezmira stopped. A faint light was shining through the trees, from far, far away. It was like the sun rising, only by now it was around 10:30 in the morning. 

She stumbled forward, a dreamlike feeling coming over her as the light continued to rise. Her vision was slowly filling up with the strange glow, and soon she could see nothing else. It was warm and welcoming, as if it had been waiting for her. She suddenly felt very, very warm, and very tired.

Then she woke up.