Once upon a time in a land far away there lived a king and queen. They were blessed with a lovely kingdom, adoring subjects, and three very beautiful daughters.
The eldest daughter was named Chloe. She had been loved and adored by her subjects since she was small, and she grew up spoiled because of it. She craved the attention that the adoring crowds gave her. When company came to call, she cared only for the gifts and compliments they would bring. And as time passed on, she grew more beautiful and more cruel.
The second daughter was named Lila. Much like Chloe, she was raised to be selfish and arrogant. She would often use her social standing to get the things she wanted, even if she had to stretch the truth. She regularly grew bored and would wander through the palace, convincing the servants that all sorts of falsehoods were true, and none were ever the wiser.
However, when the princess Chloe was eight years of age and Lila was six, their mother became pregnant. The entire kingdom rejoiced. They hoped that this third child would grow to be just as beautiful as their beloved princesses Chloe and Lila. For several days and nights after the pregnancy had been announced, the kingdom threw lavish festivals and danced endlessly.
However, there were two who refused to dance with the others. The princesses feared that a third child would mean that people would pay them less attention. And as the festivals went on, the girls only grew to detest their future sibling more and more.
One night, after the kingdom had danced itself to sleep, Chloe and Lila snuck away to the nearby temple of Gabriel, the god of perfection. They knelt before the statue and prayed that their younger sibling would be a vile, deformed creature that could never be loved by anyone. Chloe offered up her finest silks to the god, and Lila gave her favorite necklace. Both desperately prayed for their cruel wish to come true.
Despite the girls' desperate prayers, when the baby did come, they were greatly dismayed. Not only was the child another daughter, but she was actually more beautiful than they had ever been. From the day of her birth, the child seemed to radiate a warmth and kindness. She became the light of the kingdom, adored by all. The king and queen named her Marinette, and she quickly became the kingdom's preferred princess.
By the time Marinette was eighteen, she was quite the sight to behold. She had deep, ocean-blue eyes that swam with warmth and kindness. Her skin was pale as snow and without flaw. Her hair was a perfect blue-black shade that reflected all the rays of light that attempted to touch it. She was so beautiful in fact, that the people of her kingdom stopped worshiping at the temple of Gabriel, for their princess Marinette was surely perfection incarnate.
While all the townspeople loved and adored her from afar, none dared to approach their new goddess. Marinette grew up admired by all, but forever without a friend. Whenever she attempted to speak to anyone, they would shower her with compliments and beg to give her whatever they could offer. None ever offered true conversation. Marinette grew up alone, without even a single person to truly talk to.
The only real joys Marinette found in her life were her solitude and her sewing. As a princess, she had been raised and taught in many different subjects that were considered proper for her, but the only one she truly loved was sewing. She spent many days alone in her bedroom, sketching and sewing new garments that she had designed herself. These were the only times that Marinette could forget her endless streams of admirers and find true freedom. These were the only times the beautiful princess was allowed to be Marinette.
Chloe and Lila hated Marinette with every fiber of their being. Chloe hated that all the townsfolk treated her sister as a goddess, but most of all she hated all the attention Marinette's beauty stole. She was forced to stand by Marinette's side, hidden by the immense shadow her younger sister cast.
Lila hated that people seemed to never pay attention to the stories she told anymore. The servants were all to preoccupied trying to serve Marinette, and the townspeople only seemed to want to hear tales of Marinette's greatness. She was never able to say a word to anyone if it was not about her younger sister.
Despite their hatred, however, Chloe and Lila did her best to act kind to Marinette's face. Chloe offered her sister help and advice for hairstyles and clothes. Lila told her beautiful lies about the town and its people. Despite their kind facades, they only wanted to take advantage of the gifts and services offered by Marinette's fans. They did not care for Marinette's feelings. They always treated Marinette with kindness during the day, but at night they would drift off into sleep by muttering curses against their dear sister.
Eventually, the god Gabriel took notice of the absense of any offerings in the recent day he decided to disguise himself and investigate the matter. He donned his best silk cloak, covered his face, and entered his abandoned temple.
Once inside, he saw that there was only two girls providing any offerings. The god approached the girls and asked why the temple was so abandoned.
The girls explained about the popularity the mortal princess had gathered, and how the people of the kingdom all worshiped Marinette as their new goddess. When Gabriel asked the girls why they still worshiped, the girls stated that they had prayed for years for Marinette to wake one day as a vile beast, so that the townspeople would stop worshiping the princess. Gabriel smiled to himself, and told the girls at the altar that there would soon be no reason for concern. Soon, the princess Marinette would get what she deserved.
Soon after, adoring crowds stopped coming to the castle to catch a glimpse of their beloved princess. Marinette was actually happy for the peace and quiet, but her parents were much less joyful. They had already found trouble in marrying their first daughter off, as no one seemed to remember that there were elder princesses. The king and queen had been relying on Marinette's numerous admirers to one day offer a worthy suitor for their daughter, so that the royal bloodline may continue.
But as less and less people gathered around the palace, the king and queen grew more and more nervous. They feared that an heir would never be produced, and so one day the king decided to travel to visit the oracle.
The king traveled three long days and three long nights, but eventually he reached the land of Delphi, where the oracle of the sun god resided.
The king immediately requested an audience with the oracle, and when he finally looked upon her he was surprised to see a thin, weak women dressed in fine silks and crowned with laurels. He asked the oracle why Marinette had stopped receiving suitors, and the oracle closed her eyes.
After a moment's silence, the oracle violently threw open her eyelids, revealing the dark green shade her eyes had become. A thick green mist started to leak out of the woman's mouth, as a man's voice began to speak.
Your daughter has begun to lose suitors because she is already betrothed to another. She is to wed a beast of destruction, feared even by the gods themselves. Let her dress for her wedding as she would for a funeral, and lead her to the peak of the highest mountain near your kingdom. It is there she will meet her new husband.
The oracle suddenly snapped back to normal, and was surprised to see the strong and powerful king reduced to tears before her eyes.
When the king returned home and shared the news with his wife, they both began to grieve. How could a fate so terrible befall their daughter, who had never once in her life hurt anyone?
The two monarchs wanted to keep the news from their daughter and never fulfill the prophecy, but, unknown to them, Lila had overheard. She put on her best sad face and forced tears out of her eyelids, and went to Marinette's room.
When Marinette opened the door and saw her sister crying, she immediately began to comfort her. She asked what was wrong, and although at first Lila denied her the truth, she was easily coaxed into revealing the terrible prophecy, adding her own small piece to the story: Marinette was fated to marry a monster, otherwise that monster would wreak havoc on the city.
Marinette immediately fell to the bed, sobbing. Lila soon left the room, only to be replaced by Chloe moments later. Marinette told her oldest sister the news and begged for her help to escape the palace. Marinette knew that her parents would never allow her to go to the mountain, so she decided to go on her own. She could never allow for her city to be ravaged by a monster, and she did not care if she would have to die. To Marinette, death seemed a merciful fate when compared with the one she had been given.
Although Chloe shed false tears, she dressed Marinette in the finest black gown in the palace and picked a beautiful bouquet of flowers from the garden.
Marinette wrote her final goodbyes to her parents in a lengthy letter, which she placed on her bed. She then put on a veil in order to hide her identity, and Chloe helped her sneak out of the palace.