Today Was a Fairytale {Cinderella AU}
Words: 12858
Summary: When Shelby, a servant in duke Joey's household, wishes to attend Lady Katherine's masquerade, she doesn't foresee the major impact her meeting with the Protector of the Overgrown may have in her life...
Trigger Warnings: Mention of weight loss.
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The retelling of an old story... Revised.
Once upon a time, somewhere in the prosperous kingdom of the Overgrown, in the small village of the Undergrove lived a small family of three. They had a little girl that they called Shelby. The father, a herbalist, would take little Shelby with him on his little expeditions in the nearby forest where he gathered his herbs for the little shop he owned. Shelby would eye him with curious golden eyes and shower him with a myriad of questions which he was all too happy to answer. Shelby learned everything about herbs and flowers next to him, but as peculiar as it was, her favorite specimen was the fungi. By the age of seven, she was able to identify between edible and toxic mushrooms that sprouted all around the forest, as well as herbs and all sorts of flowers, sometimes better than her own father.
When Shelby turned ten, her mother fell ill and not even her herbalist husband was able to find a remedy to her illness. On her deathbed, she offered Shelby a sacred gift, a customized mushroom bracelet, designed to fit Shelby's hand and Shelby's hand only, a gift she had commissioned ages ago for her daughter's tenth birthday. Shelby treasured the bracelet for the rest of her life, with the promise to always keep it on her. After burying his wife, Shelby's father sold his shop and moved to Rosebury with his daughter, the capital city of the Overgrown where they lived with one of his old friends, duke Joey, in his enormous mansion. They lived comfortably for a while, as Joey was generous and even paid for Shelby's education. However, deeply affected by his wife's loss, Shelby's father soon passed away too, leaving young Shelby all by herself.
Shelby continued to live with duke Joey, who after mourning the loss of his dear friend, got married to Prince Xornoth of Rivendell, second brother of King Scott. The exiled prince moved in with them and for a while, Shelby's life almost seemed normal. Almost.
Prince Xornoth wasn't as chivalrous and kind as his brother. He was cunning and deceiving and from the very first moment, he felt threatened by the little girl living in his husband's estate. Soon, he started rubbing off on Joey and filled his head with false whispers about Shelby and even framed her for stealing from the duke's personal treasury. That was the last straw of Joey who turned from Shelby's guardian into her master. Shelby lost all of her privileges and became a servant. She had no possessions, except the bracelet her mother had given her, which she had managed to keep safe from the greedy couple's hands. She lived alone in the small attic of the duke's manor and worked everyday from dawn to sunset endlessly. Xornoth and Joey continued to humiliate her and gave her the nickname "Shrub", making fun of her small demeanor.
Despite the hardships she faced, Shelby remained kindhearted and patient, and despite her isolation inside the manor's rigid walls, she managed to make friends with the wolves that lived within the grove that laid just outside of the estate. It seemed like they could understand her just as well as she could, and they were her loyal companions throughout Shelby's younger years. Every night, just before she laid down, she would pray silently to her parents which gave her hope to keep going.
It was the spring of Shelby's twentieth birthday. The little girl was woken up at six in the morning by the birds that were chirping outside of her window just before the sun rose from his bed behind the mountains. Shelby slipped out of bed quietly, washed her face by the bowl left on the ledge which she had prepared since the previous night, got dressed in her green shirt and overalls, the only pieces of clothing she was allowed to possess and conducted her morning routine; fed the chickens, cleaned up the kitchen, started a fire, moped the corridors and swiped around the front of the house before she headed back to start breakfast. By eight o'clock when her masters were fully awake, breakfast was served in their own room. Shelby quickly disappeared to attend to other matters.
