Okay, after Monday's super-charged episode, we need some fluff and fantasy! This is the really short Prologue, but, guys, I'm super excited about this story! Enjoy!
"Once upon a time, in a far-off kingdom, there lay a small village at the edge of the—"
"Daddy, that's th-the woods song!"
Iseult Castle chuckled and laid back on her mountain of pillows for a minute in giggles before she sat back up again to listen to her father's story. It was a quarter past eight and, like many younger children, Izzy would not go to sleep without a bedtime story. Yet, unlike many children who were fine with being read to from storybooks, seven year old Izzy had a writer for a father and therefore used his creative talents to her advantage.
And so, each night, amid the lavender sheets, fluffy deep purple pillows, hunter green duvet, and a menagerie of stuffed animals, Richard Castle spun tales from his own imagination to lull his young daughter to sleep. The only problem? Poor Castle was worn out, his creative juices spent. Tonight, all he wished to do was curl up with his wife in bed and stay there happily ever after. However, this was Izzy's favorite part of the day (after the part when Mommy got home from work, Gram or Daddy picked her up from school, recess—okay, she had a lot of favorite parts of the day), and the last thing Castle wanted to do was take it away from his daughter.
"You caught me, IzzyJo!" he said to his daughter, sneaking a tickle that made her collapse into another small fit of giggles. While she was giggling, Castle wracked his brains for a story for his daughter. He was a writer, so why was it so hard to think of something to tell his daughter as a bedtime story?
"Daaa-ddy," Izzy mock-whined, prodding her father with one small index finger.
"Okay, okay, here it goes. Once upon a time…"