Once upon a time...

[sitboy007]

So i finally finished this, out of boredom. And now im rather frusterated b/c my computer is being a jerk.

Anyway, the other chapters will be more funny than this. It'll probably be a little while before those other chapters come out. i'm mega busy. but hopefully you guys will enjoy this.

EDIT:MEEPS! ok so this is about PG, it'll probably be pg-13 later for swearing. and i have this feeling that this title has been used before, so if there are any suggestions please feel free to give them.


Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a boy who lived in a castle. However this boy was not a prince or a king, or any sort of royalty whatsoever. He was the kitchen boy. And, although his life was low and dirty, he was a very happy young boy.

Now living in this same castle was a young princess. Although she was very young, she was very fair. This princess adored the kitchen boy. She would call him ?cinder boy? or ?cinder soot?, and he would never have any objection because he adored her as well.

The boy lived in the castle under the care of his stepfather, who, though not an evil man, was rather wicked to the cinder boy. However, Cinder soot lived peacefully nonetheless.

Of course all things must change, and once the boy had grown old enough, he had to leave the castle. He had to find his own destiny outside the palace walls. The princess tried to convince him to stay, but the boy was adamant. And so, the boy left the castle to find his fate.

A few years after his departure, an evil wizard came and ravaged the land. The once beautiful vibrant kingdom was now cold, desolate ruins. Legend says that the wizard stole away the princess and the fair queen of the land; as for the king, he was never seen again.

When the boy heard this, he decided to return to his old home, and to find the lost princess, and perhaps bring the kingdom back to its former glory.

Heero ran his hand over the smooth neck of his steed, trying to calm its overactive nerves. He understood the creature?s finicky mood; he felt uneasy in the place, too. The feeling came over him when he first approached the large city gate, unusually left ajar. Everything was so? silent. Not a calm peaceful silence, but the eerie, haunting quiet.

As he continued through the once busy street, he looked on the faces of the people that once roamed the city. They were stone, perfect in proportion, and retaining the lifelike expressions of the residents they resembled. It seemed that anything that had once lived was now encased in a smooth marble shell; Heero realized this after seeing the statues of a cat and mouse in the middle of a lethal chase.

Everything was perfectly still, except the wind that blew every so often, rattling some dislodged rubble. After such an occurrence, the horse started, stomping its hooves into the ground in its nervousness. The episode left its master unsure whether to leave it outside or drag it into the castle with him. Heero decide for the latter and brought the animal inside with him.

The castle was more haunting that the city that surrounded it. No wind blew in the castle; the only sounds were the horse?s hooves and Heero?s boot heels clicking against the stone floor. The former servant looked up at the high ceiling and along the banisters with silhouettes of hallways behind them. When he came to the large stairs he decided that he had dragged his poor steed far enough. Tying the horse?s reins to one the giant columns along the staircase, he spoke some reassuring words before lightly kissing the bridge of the beast?s nose and ascending the stairs.

It had been five years since he had lived there, and as he walked through the familiar halls, the sense of fearfulness subsided into a dull sadness. Heero remembered the walkways when they were full of life and vitality. Visions of those that once resided there appeared before him, especially the ghost of one certain beauty he would never forget.

Heero was not a particularly heroic or audacious person, but he had a certain unshakable courage that made him stand out among the other men of the land. He was calm and quiet, respectful and did what was ordered of him, but there was always a certain look in his eye that suggested that he was much more than a mere kitchen boy. Relena had noticed these qualities in him at a young age, without really knowing that she had realized anything significant.

Because of his unique personality she immediately attached herself to him. At first her flirtation, if it could be called that, was innocent. She would torture him while he did his chores, poking him or pulling his hood over his face and dashing away. But she would always come to his defense when his stepfather would chide him for fumbling in his duties. However as she grew older her attachment changed. She wanted more than friendship from him, though she knew that it was unrealistic. She openly threw her affections on him, who never rejected them, though never fully acted upon them either. Subconsciously, she had claimed him as her?s, and hoped that he returned even an inclination of her feelings.

He did. Heero loved her. He knew it. Over the years that he was gone he thought that perhaps his ?infatuation?, as he called it, would diminish, but it never did. He simply carried the feeling, safely tucked away in his heart, for he knew that for him, a kitchen boy, to love a princess and hope for something was impractical. But the feeling never disappeared. And now standing in front of her door, he could feel the old pangs of want resurface.

He had been in her room only once before, when he was nine, and she was eight. The princess had innocently, though forcefully, bid him into the room to judge one of her new dresses. He followed, not think anything of it. They had not been in the room long before Relena?s governess walked in and went into a fit. Not long after, the head of the grounds, Heero?s stepfather, along with the royal guard rushed into the room. As the groundskeeper quite literally dragged his stepson away by a tuff of hair, Relena frantically explained that he was just looking at a dress. This statement only threw the governess into another fit.

So, Heero was dragged away and received his punishment of a solemn beating without much complaint. The next time Relena saw him, she cried for getting him in troubling, for him having been beaten, for her own foolishness. From then on Relena was more careful of what she asked of Heero. She never again asked him to enter her room.

Heero slowly pushed open the heavy wooden doors. The room was a mess. As he walked in small clouds of dust formed at his feet. He ran his fingers over the gossamers curtains that hung haphazardly around her bed. Her once perfectly carved dresser and nightstand were smashed and splintered is opposing directions.

While studying the broken furniture, Heero found an item he hadn?t noticed before. It was a small mirror with a handle, and seemed to be unscarred unlike everything else in the room. He picked the looking glass carefully and held it gently. With his finger he traced along the handcrafted edge of the mirror, feeling the grooves and indentions of the intricate design.

His reflection stared back at him, a perfect imitation. Heero spoke, ?Mirror, mirror, in my hand, who is the fairest in the land?? He grinned a little, though his words were not really a jest, but a spontaneous impulse to make the inanimate object have life.

Carefully setting the mirror back down on the cracked wood, Heero decided to return to his four-legged companion. However as he neared the door, he heard the faintest whisper, ?The princess who once dwelled here.?

Heero spun around clasping the hilt of his sword, a plain object to say the least. ?Who?s there? Show yourself!?

The whisper spoke again, ?The glass you once held.?

His eyes looked over at the mirror he had just set down. At first Heero disbelieved his own ears. Perhaps this place had cast some sort of spell of insanity upon him. Mirrors do not speak, but there was no one else in the room. He approached the looking glass.

?Was it you who spoke?? Heero said staring down at his reflection.

?Yes.? A face emerged in the glass where a reflection should have been. The face was plain, no true features. It had all the things that faces usually contain: eyes, a nose, and a mouth. However the eyes were hollow and dull, the lips were without a plump form, and the nose had little definition. Its complexion was pale bordering white and had no shadows defining cheekbones or a jaw. The face blurred into a black abyss that surrounded it in the glass, as if floating in dark water.

?How can this be?? Heero said to himself. The mirror responded in a monotonous voice, ?The princess in her distress enchanted me as a last reminder of what occurred here.?

Heero was startled, not only by the mirror, but by himself as well. He was talking to an object that in reality should not be talking back. Though he felt the urge to continue asking it questions, since it seemed inclined to answer anything and everything. Ignoring his sense of awkwardness, he asked another question. ?What happened here??

?A powerful wizard destroyed the land, capturing both the princess and the queen. He trapped the king in a far land to the east, in a tower with no way in or out, save for one high window. The rest of the residents of this castle were turned into stone.?

?How did this happen??

?I will show you.? Images appeared in the reflection. Many blurred figments of people running and flashes of light. Then the mirror showed her face. Her tears stained face and her eyes full of terror. He was her lips moving but heard nothing, he only saw her sorrowful face gazing back at him just before she was pulled away, and the image went black.

His stomach tightened. ?If only I had been here??

?You would have been turned into stone.?

Heero frowned at the mirrors rather blunt response. His statement wasn?t even a question. He decided to tuck the mirror away before it decided to say anything else.

After securing the item in his sack, Heero thought of what he should do. Certainly he should ride off to the east to find the king and Relena in some valiant effort to restore the kingdom back to its original glory. However, he was just a kitchen boy, not a knight. He really wouldn?t even know where to begin looking.

The mirror had said to the far east though, and obviously it could be counted on for any direction. So, Heero made up his mind. He would find Relena, and the King, bring them back to the land, and lift the spell off of the kingdom. Exactly how he was going to accomplish all of this, he wasn?t sure, but he would try.

The horse whinnied happily when it saw Heero descending the staircase. Apparently it wasn?t too fond of being alone and a dark, spooky castle. The former kitchen boy mounted the animal and replaced the mirror into the saddlebag. He squeezed his horse?s ribs slightly, urging it to exit the castle.

Once past the looming gates, Heero looked at the slowly setting sun, turned his horse away, and commanded it into a trot. East. All he knew was the he had to go east.

So Heero rode away from the light, into the enveloping darkness.

[melodrama]

Gosh... I'm surprised that no one has left you a review yet!

A very interesting start sitboy007. You've definately piqued my curiosity, and I'm interested to read more. You won't take tooo long I hope. But I completely understand the being busy thing. If only we could all just sit around and write all day... evil real life... *sighs*

I must admit having a bit of a weakness for fairy tales, so you've definately got me hooked so far.

Thanks for sharing!!

Mel

[sitboy007]

thanx for replying. I had been really frusterated with my tons and tons of hw (thats what i get for being smart), so that made my day!

[Kainen]

Ah, fairytales.

Lovely. I adore fairytales! Your story shows lots of promise.

Just a tip: a closer eye on the editing would go a long way. I noticed some errors that could be fixed in a jiff.

I agree with melodrama - HOW can people NOT review? This fic is splendid!

I can't wait for the next chapter!!!!