The Sparrow Floats East Because It Can (Random Book #5)

I'm Ayla of Cartwell

My Christmas Gift for Gamergirl80 ! A Summoner Ayla! x Alfonse Cinderella tale, but with a twist or two!

This doesn't follow any particular Cinderella tale so you don't have to worry about Ayla suddenly dying midway through the story or the stepsisters hacking off parts of their body to get the slipper to fit their feet. Since it's basically a mash-up it qualifies as its own version of Cinderella (mostly because I didn't give it a Cyborg theme).

Also I wrote parts of this late at night, so you can kind of tell when I was exhausted XD.

Original Fairy Tale Name: Cinderella

Original Collector: N/A. This is a conglomeration of several Cinderella stories in that it tales the basic premise and then changes at the end.

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Some days for Ayla Cartwell were just..... neutral, to say the least. Nothing really good ever happened, yet nothing truly bad passed. She could drift through her day with no problems, and she would be left alone by her stepfamily, and not have to worry about sudden chores and jobs.

Other days, however, were hell, to put it simply.

And it seemed that as she grew older, her days seemed to fall into the latter category.

I mean, it's not to say that her life was always a monochrome landscape. She did have days of laughter and happiness, but they were rare and seemed to be distant dreams that Ayla had at night. In fact, she can't even remember the last truly happy day she had. If you were to ask her, it would have been.... What, a week ago? Or was it a month ago? She's had several rough days that it was hard to keep track of time. Sure, she knew how to use a calendar, but it's one thing to remember what day it is and another to remember whether or not your stepsister teased you about your height for the 310th time or the 431th time.

This was due to her stepfamily, compromised her stepmother Aida and three stepsisters Meng, Bleg, and Maybelle. They had a habit of driving despair into her heart and belittling her at every turn. Ayla had grown immune to their jeers, but that doesn't mean that she never cursed them out when they suddenly decided to have Ayla shine the mirrors in the Cartwell Mansion Lobby for the tenth time that day.

And to top it off, she didn't have any other living relatives (her father was dead), and no one seemed to be bothered by the fact that she hadn't shown up to balls and events, nor that she was a servant.

No one except for her neighbor, Fjorm.

Fjorm was a girl around Ayla's age who lived in the mansion closest to Ayla's family mansion (due to the Cartwell's owning lots of land and Fjorm's family owning land as well). Ayla does not remember meeting Fjorm prior to losing her family (she doubt that they did meet before) but she can remember, clear as day, when Fjorm saw her drawing water from the nearby well and offering to help her. Moments like those brightened Ayla's day, showing that despite all of the hardships she faces, there is someone out there that cares. In fact, Fjorm had tried to "hire" her once before(read: help her escape the hell she calls home), but Aida refused, citing that Ayla couldn't be separated from her ancestral home. Fjorm and Ayla, however, agreed that it was more Aida refusing to hire another servant to do all the dirty work around Cartwell Mansion.

One day when Ayla was sweeping the entrance of the Cartwell Mansion, a messenger showed up to hand her a letter. "This is for all of the ladies in the mansion," was the only thing the messenger said before he walked away. Ayla frowned before she opened the door to the Manor, only to see Aida there.