Sleeping Beauty [WMMAP Fanfiction]

Chapter One: Alice

In the towns of the Obelian Empire, lived a commoner family of soon-to-be three.

The expecting wife was a gentle beauty many were jealous of. Dexterous, smart, and kind, she lived in the town her whole life.

The husband was not bad-looking himself, with silver hair like refined steel. He was rather successful for his status, but even with all he had ― a good job, handsome looks, a comfortable life, a wonderful wife, and a child on the way ― he was rather insecure.

Why would that woman choose him, of all the men in the kingdom?

Her hair like fine spun gold, her milky white skin, and her eyes the color of the sun; she was beautiful enough to be the mistress of even nobility.

A test, he must do, a test, he decided. To prove all those naysayers wrong, to dispel the doubt that constantly followed him, he must prove their love was as true as could be. He had already gotten her bound to him with marriage and a child on the way, but it did not help to alleviate his mind.

One day, with a little spell he intended to keep her safe, he casted such in her sleep.

What a beauty, he thought wistfully, then touching his own face; then the mole under his eye. I'm handsome too, right?

The child was born, and inherited her mother's soft face, but her father's color of hair and eyes. Her eyes were of a deep emerald, sure to grow into a beauty, with who her parents were.

Yet, the sight of his features on that child had near driven him mad.

Ugly, his mind hissed whenever he saw her. A four-year old she was, now.

She was too young to understand exactly what was happening in their home. Her mother was sleeping, and she peeked into the room that her father had entered. Waiting for her mother to awaken, for she promised to teach her more to read, she didn't want to wake her up and be rude.

Her father leaned over the beautiful woman, froze, and started to panic. Shaking her shoulders, his voice rose to shrill levels.

"True love!!" he cried. "Is our love not real!?"

He thought their love was true and pure, yet she did not awaken from the everlasting sleep casted on her, no matter what he did.

How the woman must have truly hated him deep down, laughing at him in scorn, his slipping mind thought.

No matter how he shouted, she made no move.

At the door, the little girl flinched at her father suddenly throwing a tantrum. Quickly, she ran away from the door, and went to hide in her room.

Two years later,

The little girl with silver hair was an orphan, moved three times already between orphanages.

No one had tried to hide the truth from her of why she was parentless. In fact, it was engraved into her mind, how her father used black magic and went crazy, killing both himself and her mother when she had seen them behind the door.

Even if her father had lived, he would've been killed anyway for his usage of such magic. No matter what may have happened, she would have ended up alone. It didn't quite matter because she was too young to understand.

"So, Mommy and Daddy... left Ally here."

Little Ally, in her little orphanage, had nothing. All her family's possessions were taken from her by greedy people, stepping up and shoving her aside, claiming this and that until her head spun. She had no godparents. Even picture frames were stripped away, pictures tossed for her to scramble for. Her father was a rich man, after all.