CinderL

In a land far far away from any of the countries known to you or I, in a time far before our own, there lived a rich and noble man with his good and beautiful wife. After a time the couple were blessed with a son and all who beheld the child praised his perfect skin and the softness of his midnight hair, They admired the warmth and depth of the boys black eyes and as he grew all were in awe of his kind and gentle nature. The noble man and his good wife named the boy L.

There came a time some years later in which the noble man's wife became sick and passed away, leaving her young son in the care of his father. The noble man loved the boy dearly, and although he grieved for the loss of his wife, he resolved to marry again, in order that his son may have a lady about the house to care for him when he was called away, for he was often called away on business for the king.

In time the noble man did take a new wife, the woman had two daughters from a previous marriage and she appeared to be a fair and kindly lady, however it was not long after the wedding took place, that the woman showed herself in her true colours, she was kind an gentle only to her own daughters, praising them often whilst unrelentingly scolding her stepson. The young boy did not complain at the ill treatment he received, for his father was often away and L did not like to be a cause of conflict when he returned. So the stepmother continued to mistreat the beautiful child whenever her husband was away, giving him the hardest of the tasks in the home, whilst her own daughters amused themselves in making fun out of the poor boy. The older sister was the most cruel, she would purposefully dirty any surface as soon as the boy was done cleaning it, and when her mother returned to find the house in no better state than she had left it she would punish L, and he would go without dinner. Although in truth he did not mind this terribly as his stepmother was a bad cook and he had always preferred to eat the strawberries that grew in the fields behind the home.

One time L's farther returned sickened by a foreign illness and despite L's best efforts to tend to his father, the noble man passed away and was buried beside his first wife. The orphaned boy was now treated even more cruelly by his stepmother, who sold all of his fine clothes, insisting that he wear old garments which no longer fitted her own daughters. L was at first rather pleased with the dresses; he found that he felt much more comfortable in them than he ever had in the fine suits he had worn. In truth some of the clothes were still rather pleasant, as the sisters where ungrateful and fussy; they would discard clothes as soon as they were no longer of the fashion in court, or whenever any of them where damaged to an extent which L could not be forced to repair with needle and thread. It angered the girls that their stepbrother looked so fine, no matter how they dressed him, indeed many of the dresses which no longer flattered them suited the boy quite well.

L was no longer allowed his own room in which to sleep and lived mostly in the kitchen, where he would sleep amongst the ashes by the fire, causing the stepsisters to call him Cinderboy or CinderL. He now did all of the chores, whilst his stepmother and sisters lived in luxury, L soon became dirty and the sister's cast off's that he wore became frayed and grubby.

By the time L was a young man, his treatment had worsened over the years, he had only the mice in the kitchen for company and although he cooked all of the family's meals, he was forbidden from eating any of the good food for himself, and only permitted to eat from the leftovers after the step mother and her daughters had had their fill.

One afternoon it was announced throughout the land that the king would be throwing a ball in a weeks time in search of a bride for his son and that all of noble birth were invited. The two stepsisters were terribly exited and spent the week deciding on which dresses they should wear to the ball. They made fun of L, asking him in jest if he would like to go to dance with the prince. L did not reply when they said these things, he had leant a long time ago to ignore them and he instead occupied his mind with dreams of dancing with the kings son, who was rumoured to be the most handsome boy in all of the world. On the night of the ball the sisters demanded that L help them into their corsets and fix their hair, which he did as best he could, so good was he that he didn't even consider doing it badly.

The sisters departed for the ball with their mother, leaving L alone in the kitchen with the mice. Once they had left L went over to the church to sit by his parent's graves, he could see the lights shining over at the palace and hear the music playing as he wept quietly "Oh how I wish I could go to the ball and dance with the prince just for this one night." and he was quite startled when an elderly man approached him and asked him why he did not go to the ball if he so wished. "I cannot go to the ball as I have nothing to wear and my sisters would surely kill me if they were to see me there." he wept. The elderly man smiled kindly at him for he was his fairy godfather, and told L to fetch a strawberry and some mice. L did not question the man and hurried into the fields to fetch the strawberry, bringing several of the white mice from his kitchen when he returned to the churchyard. The old man bade him place the strawberry on the road and no sooner than he had done so it became a beautiful carriage and as he placed the mice beside it each one was transformed into a magnificent horse. Next the old man commanded that he find a newt from the village pond, eager to see more of this magic L hastened to the pond and retrieved a small orange newt, which became a small man as he placed him by the strawberry coach. The man in the orange waistcoat hopped lightly onto the carriage to direct the mice, who were making quite a racket in their excitement over their new forms.

The old man told him kindly that now he was able to go to the ball, and L looked sadly down at his body, "Alas, I cannot turn up at the palace in these clothes; they would throw me out for sure." The elderly man placed his hand lightly on L's head and he was transformed in an instant. His ragged dress became a beautiful blue gown of the finest materials to be found throughout the land. His dirty hair and skin became clean and radiant and beautiful glass slippers appeared on his usually bare feet. Before he vanished the old man cautioned L that he must be home before midnight for the magic would last only until then. Promising he would be back before twelve, L climbed into the elegant red coach and the magical ensemble proceeded towards the palace.

When L arrived at the ball, he was far more beautiful than any of the women there, and as he walked into the palace they began to whisper jealously and soon the whole party was talking about the handsome and mysterious maiden who had arrived in a dress so fine it could only have been made by the angels. It wasn't long before the prince himself heard the news and hastened to look upon the strange beauty for himself.

L was surprised when the prince asked him to dance; he had not dared to expect that his wish would be granted. The prince was more striking than L had ever imagined, his light brown hair was swept across his face to one side and L found himself drowning in Prince Light's perfect eyes. The prince asked L for dance after dance, and refused to even look at any of the girls who had come in the hope of being chosen. They danced together for so long that L did not notice the hours slipping by and they were still dancing as the clock began to strike midnight. Suddenly remembering the old man's warning L fled from the ball, and as he ran one of his glass slippers was left behind on the palace steps. L did not bother to go back for it, for the prince and his men were in pursuit and L dreaded to think what might become of him if they were to find out who he was. He pulled off the other slipper and ran to where he had left the coach, but by the time he reached it he was once again in his ragged dress and there were only the white mice waiting for him beside the strawberry, the newt having run back to the pond.

When L's sisters returned to the house that night they where of a terrible temper, shouting angrily about the mysterious beauty who had taken all of the prince's time, L listened as they talked about what had happened after he had left; the prince had found a glass slipper outside and sworn to marry the person who could wear it. The sisters were exited that the prince would be touring the country in search of the shoe's owner, it had been described as being fairly large for a woman, and both sisters had large and generally unpleasant feet, so both fancied they might be able to wear the shoe.

When the prince came to the house a few days later both sisters rushed out to meet him and to try the shoe, leaving L locked in the kitchen. L listened intently, pressing his ear to the wall to hear the prince's heavenly voice and was relieved when the shoe refused to be filled by either sister's foot. He knew the shoe would ft him, but the prince would surely not want to marry someone like him so he didn't want to be seen, he was sure the prince would hate him if he knew.

The prince was grateful that the sisters were unable to wear the shoe, he was sure he would recognise the strange beauty anywhere and he knew that neither girl was the one he had danced with. He asked the sisters if there was any other in the house of noble birth who may try the shoe. The sisters laughed and told him that there was only the Cinderboy. Prince Light demanded to see him and the sisters readily agreed, thinking only of how funny it would be to humiliate L in this way, they dragged him roughly from the kitchen and the prince knew him instantly, just to be sure he had L try the slipper and both sisters were wild with rage when it slipped on to L's foot as if it had been made for him; which of course it had.

The prince vowed that he would marry L and demanded that his father make it legal. They were married the next day and the festivities lasted for a month, after which the two of them went on to live together in the palace for many years, they adopted all the orphaned children of the land and were loved by all their people.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think...I'll be doing Snow White at some point. :D