Author's Note: Right, so this is my first story posted up here, it's is going to be loosely based on the well known fairy tale od Sleeping Beauty, but underline the loosely bit. I know that this chapter isn't very long, but it is only the prologue, and this is only a rough draft. Comments are appreciated, and please don't flame, 'cause I can't do anything if you think the story is terrible, just tell me what to work on.
Prologue
By no means was she a happy child, being the last of many, and having another mother set her apart immediately, let alone her foreign looks in the land of the graceful. Being so close to the border of the forest where the fairer race lived, the lily kingdom's people were always very tall, and graceful; they had the body of dancers with long flowing hair in shades of blond. They always had piercing blue or stunning green coloured eyes, very close to their cousins in the forest for time hadn't diminished that. Serenity was alone in all sense of the word. When her people were fair, she was dark, when they had rosy skin, she had that of a pale colour, nor did it help that Serenity much preferred to sit in front of a roaring fire reading a book, or completing her studies than go out to play with her siblings. No, Serenity was just an odd child, preferring solitude to company, at least in her later years.
As a young child, Serenity was constantly teased by the children, sometimes even the older ones, calling her 'Pallid, and Vampire'; mocking her by calling her by her given name Briar Rose. 'Thorny!' they'd yell laughing amongst themselves. 'Come here and tell us a riddle, you like to read. Maybe you should go and live with the Loremaster!' Time hardens everyone, but at such a tender age one cannot expect a child to walk away without scars to mark them. Having only seen seven years, seven long and painful years without a mother to guide her, Serenity was drowning inside the shell she had placed around herself. She had no friends of which she could laugh with, or get into trouble with and she had no family who honestly cared about her, so it should not have been a surprise to any that she had been growing up odd, but the ignorant can force themselves to see that which they want.
"Thorny's lost in a maze of briars and she doesn't know how to get out! Every turn she takes with every breath she makes, she turns into her namesaaaaake!"
"Tommy stop! You know that I don't like it when you sing that, and my name's not Thorny! I told you already! So stop calling me that! I don't call you silly names ever, so why are you being mean to me?"
The little boy looked at the girl and laughed in a mocking way. "Everyone makes fun of you Thorny, 'cause it's so easy! You look stupid with your funny coloured hair, and you have a silly name. No one calls their kids Briar Rose, or Serenity, normal people like me get normal names, and you never ever, ever come out of your room 'cause that's all you do! Sit in there and study, like the Loremaster everyday. Mebe you'll become like him, with big fat wrinkles and a long grey beard. Then you'd look even stupider!"
"Take that back right now Tommy! I'm a princess and you're not allowed to talk to me like that!"
"Who's gonna stop me princess? Your Daddy? Your siblings? Or what about your Mummy?"
"Don't you ever talk about her you toad, never ever."
"Or what? You'll tattle on-" and with that the socked him and ran towards her room, listening to Tommy sing that idiotic rhyme over and over again knowing that no one would ever like her.
Entering her room, she threw herself onto the bed and sobbed. What Tommy said was true, no one cared about her, and no one ever would. Her mother was dead, and long gone leaving Serenity only an odd name, and looks she had yet to grow into.
On that very day, in the room where Serenity had shunned the world for most of her short life, she started to come up with a scheme, a scheme which would be years in the making, but it would send her down a path, potentially changing the course of the world. But of course, a seven year old could not know this. All that was on this little girl's mind was one thing, and at seven years old, Serenity decided that enough was enough, she wanted even.
A year passed, then two until finally Serenity has seen a long ten years pass. She had far exceeded her siblings in their studies, knowing no bounds when it came to learning. After her tutors had taught her all that they could in the maths, or the history of the kingdoms they moved to the history of the continent, and then the world. She read literature far beyond her level, shaming her brothers who had been studying for years more than she had. She learned how to rule a county, and how to stop wars. She learned to ride a horse, and to use weapons. She far surpassed any of her brothers, including the crowned heir. What Serenity didn't realise was that through out the years her beauty had grown. Had she eaten properly, or let the beauty flourish, she would have been stunning; now, she was only a shell of what she could be. Yet, it did not fail to attract the notice of her rapidly decaying father. He saw what she was, and what she could be, and knew that he could use it to his advantage. What he also noticed, was that the only flaw in Serenity's perfection was that she did not know how to be a lady. He spent many a days thinking on this front, until he finally came to a decision. He knew that Serenity was not happy here in the Lys kingdom. His family, her family, the de Lys had never treated her well, letting her sink into herself until she finally took action.
The only way to perfect this flawed beauty was to send her away