Gamboge Tael (The Erelarian Cinderella) Part One

There once was a fair maiden, but her mother had died of illness and her father remarried to a woman so vain and selfish that she ordered Tael to work the second she set foot in the house. Tael was a young girl of such beauty that it pained her stepsisters to look even so much of a glance at her, for they were ugly and wretched, with no sign of beauty on their faces.

It came time for the annual ball, where the Prince of Erelaria would search for a bride. In previous years, Tael had been banned from going, but this year she begged and begged, still to no avail. Tael ran to the stream outside their manor, overwhelmed in grief, and sobbed countless tears. The tears merged with the water, and Tael, surrounded in grief, did not notice the silver dress wrapping around her.

The small girl looked up from the river bank and noticed the dress growing around her. A beautiful azure shawl draped upon her shoulders, and a white stallion stood behind her.



As a token of her gratitude, Tael gathered an orange tulip from the yard stretching around the river and watched it as it floated through the currents. She turned and mounted the stallion, where she rode off to the ball happily.