Clara's problems can be summed up in two words: responsibility and family. After the loss of her mother, life for Clara was never the same. Although she loves her three siblings and tries to be the best sister and lady she can, the weight on her shoulders grows the more she learns and the more she has to know. When her father remarries to a secretive widow, Clara's responsibilities triple overnight. Through no fault of her own, Clara is thrown into an adventure she never counted on-- one of magic, tragedy, and romance. Through palace ballrooms, enchanted forests, and encounters with a handsome stranger she really shouldn't care for, Clara soon realizes that the only way to help her family and fix the problem is to do it herself. The only trouble is that she doesn't know how. A Cinderella Retelling. ----- Cover design made by solidarity_! First draft! *featured by Once Upon A Time as of 9/24/2015*

Everything we do, even the slightest thing we do, can have a ripple effect and repercussions that emanate. If you throw a pebble into the water on one side of the ocean, it can create a tidal wave on the other side. ~Victor Webster Ellie Piper was a normal girl until the day she died. The day she came back, she was something else entirely. She was cast into the ocean to die, but instead, she rose from the waves and became a beautiful creature of the ocean. Now she must choose between a life on land or a life beneath the waves.

"What the hell?" I took a step closer to the mirror, staring at my reflection in disbelief. The person looking back was still me, but at the same time it wasn't. I had the same thick, dark, curly hair. The same hazel eyes. The same olive skin with a light dusting of freckles (ugh) scattered across the bridge of my nose. But my curls were now streaked with highlights. And not the subtle, golden-brown ones that sometimes appeared during the summer. No, these were an aggressive, dazzling blond that went from the roots of my hair all the way to the tips. It looked like I had spent a full day getting my hair done in some upscale salon. Never mind that I had never set foot in such a place since the day I was born. My eyes appeared somehow wider and more luminous. The colour brighter, my eyelashes darker up against them. And, when I looked closely, my pupils seemed to be slitted almost like a cat. I looked down at my body. My skinny arms-which had always refused to gain any definition no matter how hard I exercised-were lined with flat, wiry muscles. My bony shoulders were now curved and smooth. My scrawny legs were toned like a dancer. I reached down and lifted my shirt, revealing two subtle lines running vertically down my perfectly flat stomach, hinting at the rock-hard abs underneath. My whole body was rippling with strength. Like liquid steel.

When Dern encounters a dying knight, he forsakes his life as a thief to do the honorable thing and deliver the knight's weapons and orphaned dog to the king. Civilized life is nothing like he imagined it, though. At every turn, someone is trying to swindle him or cut his throat. Everyone but the surly dog that now looks to him as his master.... This story is a novelette. Fans of George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones will enjoy this gritty fantasy that blurs the line between good and evil.