Chapter 1
Rapunzel woke up to the beautiful sunrise spreading over the water every morning, and every morning she'd get up around the same time it would start. She'd open the doors that led to the balcony in her room, and grab a chair to watch it. She liked watching over her town as the people would start to wake up, and bustle through the villages. She'd smell the bakery's fresh bread, and the fish at the ports. She'd breath it all in and cherish it all. She'd done this for the past eighteen years. After fifteen minutes, she'd take the chair back inside and close the balcony doors. She'd call in Merida, her maid, who also serves as her best friend. Merida walked into Rapunzel's room, her big wild orange hair flowing all over the place. Merida was born and raised in Scottland, but when she came to Corona when she was eighteen and Rapunzel was fourteen. They'd met in the village the day she got to the Kingdom. "Hello, Punzie." Merida said as she opened the doors to her room. She stood up from her bed and took off her night gown and it fell the floor. She bent over to pick it up and placed it on the bed. Merida helped Rapunzel get into her day dress, a lavender dress with a pink ribbon around the waist, and around the square necklace was lace. "My mother will have a fit when she realizes I am not wearing a corset again." Rapunzel said. Rapunzel often didn't wear a corset, she said they were too tight and she couldn't breathe. Her mother hated the fact that she seldom wore one. She said that it helped with posture, but Rapunzel could care less about posture. She liked to be free, and feel free. When Merida took out shoes from her closet, Rapunzel moaned. "Shoes are like little jail cells for my feet." She declared. But Merida looked at her straight in the eye and said, "You aren't wearing a corset, the least you could do is wear shoes. If you think your Mother will flip out when she sees you're without a corset, imagine what she'd say if she saw you were without shoes?" Rapunzel knew her friend was right, so she slipped into the shoes. She walked down the stairs to see her parents out and about already. "Hello, my beautiful girl!" Her mother exclaimed as she strolled over to her daughter and planted a kiss on her cheek. Her father was engrossed in thought, and couldn't be bothered with. "Rapunzel, we need to talk." Her mother said taking her hand. "About what?" They walked out into the gardens, and fountains switched on. They sat on a bench. "Now, I know you're eighteen…. Your birthday has just past, and I think we should start thinking about possible suitors." Rapunzel held in her breath, for she had known this day would come soon. "I will marry whoever you deem suitable, mother." She stated. Rapunzel didn't like wearing corsets, and she didn't really like shoes either. She very seldom listened to her Mother's advice, or Merida's. She was an independent thinker who liked painting and watching the sunrise and set. But she knew that there was one thing she couldn't fight, and that one thing was Marriage. Rapunzel couldn't one day rule without a husband, that would be absurd. She thought she could do it just fine, but without any heirs to the throne? There would be wars, and uprisings and revolution when she passed without an heir to the throne. A woman hadn't ruled alone in hundreds of years, ever since one of her ancestors. But, she had been impregnated by a servant boy. It was rumored that the Queen and the servant boy had an outrageous love affair, and when the baby was born it was a beautiful bouncing baby boy, who was raised as a Prince, and one day ruled. It was an outrage throughout the kingdom, a Queen raising a child alone? But she did it, and now that boy is one of Rapunzel's ancestors, has a painting in the Room of Ancestry, and was also one of the best kings Corona ever had.
"Really?" Her mother said in surprise. She nodded, and said, "We'll have eligible men come for a party, alright?"
"Okay."