I See The Light

Once Upon A December

A/N: Hello everyone, my name is SundropDandelion, and welcome to my first character x character story! I absolutely love fairytales and the fantasy genre, so I wanted to give it a shot! I am always open to feedback, as I want to improve my writing, so please don't be shy about commenting on my strengths and what I can do to improve! The updates for this fic will be extremely slow, however, as I have two other fics that I am trying to finish, and I still need to do some planning for this one. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy the first chapter!

On a windowsill belonging to a quaint cottage hidden away in the mountains sat a candle that danced when the little girl it was owned by would clumsily practice her ballet and nodded sleepily upon the sight of its owner being tucked into bed by her beloved mother and father. The candle always made sure to shed just the right amount of lighting every time the little girl, beautifully named Erina Pendleton, dreamily gazed towards the castle that was perfectly framed within her window.

The towers spiraled towards the heavens, pricking new stars into the velvet, navy curtain. Fog, like noble guard dogs, protected the lower walls of the structure of stone at night; but every morning, it rested its misty body onto the gardens of roses and lavender, and lilies braided about its exterior, coaxing shy buds to face the glory of the sun that blessed the land belonging to George Joestar and his son, Jonathan Joestar, the future ruler of the land.

A book tucked underneath each of their arms, Erina's mother and father entered their daughter's room to read her a bedtime story of her choice. The first sigh of spring came bounding through her open window like does and stags, branching its warmth towards the family.

"Erina, whatever are you doing?" chuckled her mother upon seeing Erina's upper half sticking out of the window; the child's hair was silver from the full moon. "Oh, I know, you're looking at Prince Jonathan's castle, aren't you?"

"I am," replied the child, blushing deeply. She scratched at an imaginary itch and sneezed when a stray twine of the hay lining the walls tickled her nose. "Mama, why can't we live in a castle, like his?"

" Erina, be grateful that you have a roof over your head!" her mother scolded, praying that the droplet of water that playfully splashed onto her head wouldn't invalidate her point. "Do you realize how hard your father worked to build our home?"

"Now now, it's alright," corrected her father, caressing the backs of his wife and daughter and joining them on the windowsill to admire the castle. "It's completely normal for girls as young as Erina to dream of things grander than themselves. Who knows my dear, maybe you'll live in a castle just like Jonathan's one day!"

That night, the candle had once again put on a dazzling show for Erina as she was whisked away into her storybook: the flame roared like the young lion being freed of his chains by the beautiful, kind maiden, yet nearly extinguished itself when said maiden had cried over his wounded body. Then it sprang up, leaped with new life like a child seeing a mighty shooting star galloping across the night when the lion had transformed into a handsome prince!

And when the last page of the storybook turned over, and two goodnight kisses had been planted on Erina's forehead, and her door closed with a creak, the candle too fell asleep, dreaming of its next encore. Erina's father dreamt of the stone that turned gold after a rainstorm, and her mother dreamt of the songbirds that trumpeted the awakening of royalty each morning.

Erina's dreams, however, held her hand and took her inside the castle walls, where, akin to a school of vibrant fish, she was swept up by the hundreds of servants turning this way and that, balancing meals and cradling clothes in their arms; the clicking of marble echoed in her ears.

She never caught sight of King George Joestar, nor his son, Jonathan. Perhaps the rose windows blinded her, or they were swept away in the sea of servants, but they were nowhere to be seen.

But Erina's dreams turned into questions: what was Jonathan like? Could his smile thaw brutal winters? Was he brave enough to venture into the infamous Ogre Forest, or strong enough to face Tarkus and Bruford, feared giants whose footsteps caused landslides? Will he be a beloved ruler whose story would be a legend, passed down from mothers to their children, from soldier to soldier, shaping the land into a place of prosperity, opportunity, and abundance?

Most of all, would a prince as wonderful as he ever fall in love with a peasant dressed in rags like she?

Suddenly, Erina uncharacteristically awoke in the middle of the night, noticing that the candle was wide awake too, looking as though it had set the Joestar castle ablaze.