Cinder Nina
Hair swept into a cap of cotton rags and dress matted with the fresh, slowly drying dirt, Nina wished for a better life. Every ounce of her strength was spent scrubbing, washing, polishing, mending and cooking for her three sisters. She knew she'd never have a chance-her destiny, decided by the imperious and mysterious Sir Knight was final. Anyone who broke that half sacred word was banished: kicked out of Sibuna and into the deserted marshlands beyond. Well, that's what her sisters said. They'd scared her, when she was younger, with stories about him, set just before Nina had turned four. The King's name at the time had been King Eddie the Dramatic and he'd been a wise and fair leader, until one day, Sir Knight had come to town as a beggar, with fake scars and a deformed face. No one had known his real name at all-no one dared to guess it. King Eddie had scorned his appearance…and the next night, the King had become a beast and his six sons had been turned to swans and his only daughter vanished. The cruel ruler now, Queen Joy, had not failed to stop her breaking the curse-she'd sent a pack of wild dogs and griffins after the swans and they hadn't made it out alive.
Sir Knight had brought Queen Joy to Sibuna. That was obvious.
But Nina daydreamed her work away wondering just who the mysterious and frankly evil Sir Knight was, or if the Swans had been pretty and worn crowns atop their snow-white heads, and how the daughter of King Eddie had tried to break the curse, or if she was still alive, or had even been turned into a swan herself.
She longed for a fairytale ending of her own: denying all thoughts of obeying such a cruel man as Sir Knight in favour of a happy ending with her own Prince.