the sun & stars

the beginning

Once upon a time, a drop of sun fell from the heavens.

From this single drop grew a beautiful flower of golden petals, hidden far, far away in the twisting forests of the country. Those who spoke of it told stories of the power it possessed, enough to heal the sick and injured.

But over the centuries, stories die out in hushed tones, and the flower faded away to only a myth within dusty old books. And so the flower stayed within its twisting forests.

Waiting to be found.

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Once upon a time, a beautiful queen and noble king ruled gracefully over their kingdom of Corona. When news came to the people of a soon-to-be addition to the royal family, the streets were filled with people rejoicing.

Until the beautiful queen fell ill.

At first there was a hope that she would pull through, just as she and her husband always had in Corona's hour of need. But the days passed by, and it became more clear with each doctor called to the castle walls that the beautiful queen was only becoming more sick by the minute.

With every day that passed, the noble king grew more and more desperate to save his wife from her grim fate. He began to turn to methods outside of medicine, willing to believe in anything if they could just save her.

He found his answer in a court sage.

The sage was doubtful of the myth himself, but the noble king was desperate from the sight of his wife's sickly state, sharing in her pain. And so the sage told the noble king of a story from long, long ago.

A story of a golden flower with the power to save those at death's door.

With no other options left, the noble king ordered his men to search day and night for the golden flower the sage spoke of.

His men did find that golden flower, hidden deep within the oldest forests of the country. Dutifully, they dug up the blossom and brought the flower to the noble king.

The legend of old did not say how to use the golden flower's healing power, but the sage did what he could and brewed it into a tea to save the beautiful queen. With her husband's help, the beautiful queen drank from the goblet and, by miracle or by fate, was cured.

Soon after, the beautiful queen and noble king would celebrate the birth of a baby girl who's long hair was just as golden as the flower that had saved her mother's life. The entire kingdom rejoiced at the news of the princess's birth and the queen's recovery, the tale of a miracle princess that would one day rule with a just as benevolent hand. The streets of Corona were full of song that day and the night sky was lit by a lantern for the miracle princess.

It wouldn't last.

Just as the beautiful queen and noble king thought they had at last reached their happily ever after with a daughter to love, it was taken from them.

Not a day had passed from the moment of the miracle princess's birth, when the beautiful queen and the noble king awoke to her daughter's crying. When they looked to the princess's cradle, instead looming was a twisted crone hidden behind a dark cloak, sneering back at them with the miracle princess clutched to her chest.

And before the beautiful queen and noble king could act, they were gone.

All joined in the search for their princess that night but no matter how hard they looked, the twisted crone and the lost princess were nowhere to be found. The kingdom mourned for the lost princess and for the loss of their queen and king, who fell silent after their daughter's disappearance.

The lost princess's birthday would soon become a day of remembrance, where all would light a lantern and send it out into the night sky in the hope that maybe, one day, the lost princess would find her way back to them.

As time passed, that hope became dimmer and dimmer.

A year later, months before the lost princess's first birthday, the beautiful queen and noble king gave a new announcement to their kingdom - the birth of their second daughter.

The kingdom celebrated the new princess, with a quiet melancholy that no one dared speak of in this moment of happiness.

The new princess was a quiet thing who took more after her father in looks. The new princess had the same dark hair and piercing blue eyes - the opposite of her lost sister, was the unspoken sentiment the people shared.

With the new princess's birth, the beautiful queen and noble king increased the security of their kingdom tenfold. Those in the castle say that neither parent could sleep soundly for a week after the new princess was born, constantly shooting awake in the night with a wild paranoia that could only be soothed by cradling the new princess's sleeping form.

Slowly the new princess grew up within the lavish walls of the castle, never seen by the people without a guard or several behind her. Though some may have thought the security was suffocating for the young princess, none would disagree with the sentiment of the beautiful queen and noble king - not after the disappearance of the lost princess.

19 years passed and the people watched as the princess grew older, training to one day be the new queen. In those 19 years, she and the queen & king were happy, though the kingdom never would forget the lost princess nor the lanterns that they'd faithfully light every year in fragile hope.

In those 19 years, the lost princess never returned.

Until she did.

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quick note that i did mess w canon ages for the sake of my sanity so:

second princess - 19
rapunzel - 20
eugene - 22
cass - 23