It was raining in the city of Celes.
Prince Yui was sitting by the window, staring out at the falling drops and twirling his blonde hair around his finger unconsciously. He seemed unaware of the small girl sitting politely on the floor.
She was the same age as the Prince. Her hair was long, a common style for most women in the capital, but it was also a deep shade of brown... most uncommon. She could very well pass as a foreigner if you also considered her tan complexion; but she was born here in Celes, and (judging by the way things were going) would probably die here too.
Prince Yui turned his head to examine his little friend.
"It's pouring down rain... I'm sorry, but i'd worry about you if you went out alone. Are you okay staying here for the night?"
The girl nodded sweetly.
The rest of the night was spent making a fairy tale out of their own lives.
Once upon a time,
Yui Flourite, Knight to King Fai, was lost.
His pretty white pony had run away from him, and now he was lost in the town, all by himself. But he was brave in the bustling crowds and made his way past the noisy people to (what looked like) a small inn.
"Hello," he said to the bony innkeeper politely, taking off his cap. "But may I ask where I am?"
The bony woman stopped her sweeping and looked at him.
"The Pig's Inn, you lookin' for a room?"
Her voice was loud, and with a heavy accent. Not particularly kind, either, he thought.
"Well, i guess i will take a room."
So the bony woman took him to his dingy room where he slept on hay. But very early in the morning he was woken up by a mysterious figure he could not rightly see.
"You must go back to the castle where you came from!" said the voice, and Yui's eyes adjusted.
It was a lady.
A beautiful maiden with hair so fair it was white, and skin the color of heavenly clouds.
"...Who.. are you?"
"I am not important! You must run away, or else the witch will eat you!"
The knight stood up.
"Why? And what is this nonsense about a man-eating witch?"
The maiden sighed and drew her eyes down to the floor.
"Ah, tis no use, for you shall not listen to me."
"Oh no, i am listening. I just don't understand."
So she went on to explain that the so-called innkeeper was actually a witch, and every soul that came to stay more than one night would be eaten the next morning.
"And if you don't run, i'm afraid I shall have to eat you by the witches orders. Please do not think i want to, for i truly do not. I would never dream of doing such things to anybody. So please, run while you can!!"
Yui thought for one moment only, and then made a decision he hoped he would not regret.
"No. I will stay and kill the witch, and you will no longer be under her command."
The girl's eyes brightened a spark, then changed back to the pained look that he couldn't bear.
"I fear you are making the wrong choice, knight. But i respect your courage, and hope you come to no end."
She continued to tell him how to demolish the witch, and when they were done, he drew up the courage and snuck out the door....
The room at the end of the hall, she had said. The door had a crack of lamplight streaking out, and he could hear the ominous cackle and song of the evil witch. It was a strange tune, and went something like this:
Blood in a cup,
Guts in a bowl,
Brain for dessert and the whole good full!
There's legs in the oven
Ghosts in the hall,
Don't need a menu cause I know it all.
Blood in a cup,
Guts in a bowl,
Brain for dessert and the whole good full!
It sent shivers down his spine, and he tried to ignore the image of blood in a cup and guts in a bowl.
The maiden beside him knew her queue and during the millionth verse walked through the door. The song stopped abruptly.
"...Hmm? Whaddayooouuu want?"
Her voice was crackly and high-pitched, and she lengthened the 'you' to "yoooouuuuu". Yui had never been around a witch, but he hoped he'd never have to be again.
The maiden curtsied and said, "The knight is waiting for you in the hall, ma'am."
"Oooooh," replied the witch (he could sense her sickly smile), "I do hope his blood is blue, like that one fellow's. Do yoooouuuu know, perchance?"
"No ma'am, i'm i afraid i do not."
"I knew that, and that's why yoooouuuu are useless."
The maiden popped her head out the door.
"Come in sir, take a seat."
He stepped in, and as the witch said "aaa-HA! SUCKEEEER!!! You fell for it, and now I'VE GOT YOU STUCK IN THE OVEN!!!! WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!" The maiden faked locking the door.
"Wrong!" said the knight, clutching his outdrawn sword, but then he started coughing. Coughing hard, Harder, Until finally he fell to the floor, quite dead.
Silence in the room.
"...Is he dead?"
She stepped toward him cautiously and leaned over him to hear if his heart was beating. But the moment she was close enough to hear his heart beating he- he-
He cut the witches' head off!
Just like that, her body flailing around and trying to find her head- "Her heart, her heart!" screamed the maiden, "Pierce her heart!"
Not only did he pierce it, he pierced it three times.
The body fell to the floor, defeated, and the head stopped swearing bloody murder. All was done, and the maiden was free.
"Oh, thank you! I am free for the first time in my life! Oh thank you, thank you!!!"
She threw her arms around the knight (almost knocking him over), and wept with happiness. Yui wiped a tear from her face.
"Do not fear, Lady. I shall take you back to the castle with me, where we should be wed. You will have a place as a knight's wife, and be happy."
The maiden smiled through her tears. There was nothing that she could ever want more, which she told him.
And as they walked out the door, he asked her a very important question.
"Fair lady... What may your name be?"
She smiled her majestic smile.
"My name is Selece, after this kingdom."
And so Yui, Knight to the King, and Selece, lived happily ever after.
They had gotten tired near the middle of their fairy tale and set up a fort-for-sleeping on the floor, where they finished it in detail, and in their own words.
Finally Prince Yui fell asleep, on the light note of, "Happily ever after."
Selece didn't.
There was the creeping reality that she couldn't keep out of her head, the truth.
The maiden with the long white hair and white skin was a dirty little brown-haired girl.
The handsome, fearless knight was just a powerless little boy prince.
The orphanage owner wasn't a witch, and she certainly wasn't dead.
Selece shed one tear, and fell asleep.