Beyond Castle Walls (Janiel AU)

Chapter 1: No Miracles, No Magic

Daniel's P.O.V.

I wake up to the sound of the rooster and vision of sunlight streaming in through the kitchen window. I dust the cinders from my clothes as my, so called, bed is in fact right in front of the fireplace. As I gaze out of the window I can tell it is a magnificent day, but unfortunantly it will be another beautiful day that I will not be able to enjoy. I guess I should feel more disappointment over this cruel fact, but I have learned to accept that my life will be exeptionally ordinary. I am not born into a high station, in fact I'm born an eight which makes me the lowest rank of social standing, this means that I shall not have an incredible life. I shall instead spend my days cleaning fireplaces and waiting tables for this horrid family. And then why, when I know so well what life I will live, why would I ever dare to dream of something more?

It sounds absolutly depressing, I know. It is the words of someone who has given up. Someone who has given up on the miracles of life, given up on the belief in magic and wishes, given up on hope itself. It is the words of a person who as given up on all of these things, and though I am not glad that it is so, I find myself to be such a person. I do not believe in miracles, because if miracles happened then I am confident my mother would not have died of consumption. I have given up magic and wishes because I spent my entire childhood wishing to end up working in a house that I could call my home, instead I find myself with no place to call home at all. I have given up on hope because there is nothing to hope for, I am born as an eight, this can not be changed no matter how much I would want it to be.

"Daniel, don't just stand around dreaming, boy. Get to work!" the cook, Margery yells at me. She is actually quite a nice woman, rough around the edges yes, but in all my years of working here she has become the closest things I have to a mother.

"Right away ma'am." I say as I pick up the broom and start sweeping the kitchen floor. The dust flies up in the air and as the sunlight hits the dust grains they sparkle like tiny pieces of magic dust. I remember believing once that it actually was magic dust, I held onto that hope for awhile, until I found that the dust, as so much else, was utterly ordinary. The discovery broke my heart. It was yet another hope, another wish, torn to shreds. I was seven at the time, my father had left us earlier that year. He was a sailor, so he left me, my sister and my mother to be with his one true love, the great blue ocean. I used the dust to try to make him return, but nothing happened, because there was no magic dust.

The next magic I thought I found was a wishing well, deep within the woods. Mother had just started coughing blood. I needed hope, I needed something to hold on to, and I found the wishing well. I went there every single day while she awaited her certain death. I wished for her life, every single day. I wished for the bleeding to stop, every single day. I wished for her lungs to be well again, every single day. But in the end it did not prevent anything. The sickness had won, there was nothing anyone could do. There was nothing the wishing well could do. I was nine, when she passed. My younger sister was barely six years old.

The last time I found myself to hope that magic could be true was when I was twelve. I was being sent off to work but my sister would not start working until three years later. I was desperatly needing to believe that we would be reunited, that she would at some point come to work at the same house as me. So I wished upon every falling star I could see for the next three years. But my sister never arrived, the wishes didn't do anything. I never saw my sister again. I'm sure that at this point, I would not even be able to recognize her if she stood right in front of me.

So here I am today, twenty-four years old, with no family, no home, and no hope. And yet I have learned to live with this fact. We can't be more then what we are, we just have to find our place. Sometimes our faith may be hard to swallow, but we must accept that our social standing is what it is and so our life becomes what it becomes. It does not do to dwell on what might have been, or what could be. There is just today, and then there is tonight. Nothing more and nothing less. The faster you learn that, the better.

"Daniel, could you go out and find some more blueberries? The girls seem to have picked to little for the pai, and they are serving breakfeast at the moment so I can't just send them on their way again." Margery says while kneading the pai dough. I smile warmly at her.

"Of course Margery, it is no trouble." I say, picking up a basket to gather the berries in.

"Thank you, Danny." She says as I walk out the door.

As I step outside and feel the wind blowing and the sun in my face, I can't help but feel like this day will be special, and not just because I won't be stuck in the kitchen all day.

Maybe I can dare to hope that just for today things will not be completly ordinary? Maybe I can wish for just one final thing? Maybe this time a miracle will happen?

Maybe.

A/N

HI! So, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my new Janiel book. If you did please let me know my liking this chapter or commenting below. This story is something I've been wanting to write for a long time, but I really wanted to wait until I had the idea fully formed before posting the first chapter. And I really really hope that this is a story you guys will like aswell.

Love

Annie <3