"This was always going to happen. She's been dead since the beginning."
- Aeschylus
It is a child's dream to outwit fate, to somehow escape the great ending that awaits us all.
But Orianne Fernwood would burn the world if it meant a moment longer w...
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Once upon a time, long before the world knew peace and prosperity, there lived a beautiful maiden. Despite her great beauty, she was hidden from the world. She lived amongst the clouds with her beloved family, safe from the dangers of the world outside her door.
Her mother and father knew that there were great evils that lurked just beyond the safety of their keep, and those evils would find great joy in sapping the youth and loveliness from their daughter, and nothing could be done to stop it.
The maiden was horribly lonely despite her love for her family and safety. She wished for nothing more than to be loved, deeply and truly, and to share a love so great that it would be written in the stars long after her time passed. She witnessed such love in her mother and father each and every day and wanted that for herself. When the maiden would ask her parents if she could one day journey from the keep and search for her great love, they reminded her that the world was a dark and evil place, and no such love could exist.
The maiden had no choice but to believe them, but despite it all, deep in her heart she held onto hope.
Each night, as the sun set below the horizon, the maiden would climb to the highest tower and perch herself in a window like a bird in a cage, singing out to the world she so desperately longed to be a part of. When the stars came into sight, she would pray to the heavens above. She would pray for her family and their health, she would pray for good fortune, but most of all, the maiden would pray for true love to find its way to her.
For many years, she stayed tucked away in the safety of her family home, only growing more beautiful and more lonely, spending her evenings among the stars and praying that one day things might change.
But one night, her prayers were interrupted.
A dragon lurked just beyond the keep, a serpent of evil and madness who hungered for power and wealth more than anything. The dragon, like all his kind, lusted after treasure and all things beautiful, and none were more beautiful than the maiden in her tower.
Though her parents had tried to keep their daughter safe from the prying eyes of the beast, it was no use. As he flew over the realm, reaching high above the clouds, his keen eyes fell onto the sight of the maiden in her window. It only took one look for the dragon to decide that she was as precious as any treasure he had come across, and simply had to be his.
He released a horrible roar, his forked tongue flicking out of his mighty maw that shook the foundations of the castle. When the lord and lady of the keep came to see what monster had stumbled upon them, their hearts shattered to see the dragon before them, scales of blood red and eyes of pure black marring the night sky.
