The two women stand over the balcony. The diamond white tiles of the balcony dazzle in the moonlight. They rest their arms on the golden railings as they observe the kingdom below. They looked on as the people continued with their daily lives as Orges policed the streets.
"I must say the Orges are doing a good job of keeping law and order. How do you get them to behave so well?" Asked Isabella as she smiles tilting her head to the side.
"As I said before, they realized obedience is the best choice they want than the other option is." Responded Esmeralda in a cold, dead tone.
"hmm. Anyhow, I have a gift for you for becoming queen." Remarked Isabella as she pulls out a black crown from her cloak.
"For me? You shouldn't have." Remarked Esmeralda as she places the crown upon her head as she continues to look at her kingdom from above.
"Well, you can't be a queen without a crown now, can't you?" Replied Isabella. She looks at Esmeralda.
"No, I can't, ", remarked Esmeralda in and pitiful tone and she continues to observe her kingdom.
"So how does it feel to successfully overthrow the ruling family, get revenge on your wicked family and become queen? Getting your happily ever after." Remarks Isabella as she continues looking at Esmeralda, who began staring off into space.
"It feels good." Replied Esmeralda as she looks up into the stars of the night sky.
"But something is missing, right?" Responded Isabella as she gently rests a hand on Esmeralda's shoulder.
"Hi listen, you work hard for this and you deserve this, no matter what you may feel." Isabella continued.
"I know." Responded Esmeralda as she continues to look up at the sky.
"Am going back inside. Take the time to think about what you want. You're the queen now. Anything you want, you can make possible." Remarked Isabella as she kisses Esmeralda on the cheeks and proceeded inside.
"You don't want the wings?" Asked Esmeralda.
"No. I will get them when you come inside. Take the time alone to think." Responded Isabella as she left Esmeralda alone to think.
Left alone, Esmeralda stares at the night sky as the images of the events that lead her to take this path in life came flooding into her mind. She remembers her life as a young girl. She remembers life with her mother and father. Esmeralda remembers going down to the lake with her mother to swim and watch the swans go by.
Her mother, with her long black hair and green eyes, wore her white summer dress as she always did when going to the lake. Her mother would read romance novels as the young Esmeralda swam in the lake. Later, when the swans passed, Esmeralda would sit on her mother's lap, wet from swimming in the lake, which soaked her mother's dress.
But her mother neverminds as she enjoyed watching the swans go by with her. Esmeralda and her mother would feed the swans bread and biscuits, which will keep the swans close by.
Later, when she and her mother arrived home. They will meet her father, a bulky man with reddish hair and a red beard, preparing dinner after a long day of work owning a diamond mine. She remembered them laughing and telling jokes and stories at the dinner table.
And when dinner was finished and the young Esmeralda took her bath. Her father would carry her to her bedroom and tuck her into bed. Then both her mother and father would read her a story before bed. They would both take turns playing characters in the story. It would usually be stories of princesses marrying princes and getting their happily ever after. They would read them to her as they were Esmeralda's favorite and she would usually fall asleep after hearing them.
Sometimes, when the stories weren't enough to put Esmeralda to sleep, her mother would carry her to her bedroom window and make her look at the stars. She will tell the young Esmeralda that anything she can't sleep or have something on her mind looks up to the stars and things will be easier to understand.
Then she would kiss the young Esmeralda on her forehead as she would be asleep by then and tuck her back into bed.
Young Esmeralda had the perfect life for a young child. Loving parents who adore the very ground she walked on. Food, shelter, and a bright future in front of her.
Things remained the same for young Esmeralda until she was eight years of age. One day Esmeralda entered the house after playing outside to find her mother laying on the kitchen floor unconscious.
A plague had struck over the kingdom of Uneonia and had affected her mother. The plague killed hundreds of Uneonia citizens and almost brought the kingdom to its knees. As her mother lay in bed sick, with boils on her the size of frogs leaking a black-grey liquid with smelled like rotting old fish.
The tips of her fingers and toes turned green and gave off a smell of flowers which made the room she was in smell worst and the sweet smell of flowers mixed poorly with the smell of rotting fish. Her skin had brown marks on it, which made her skin look like it was decaying.
Her rib cages and other bones were visible as she lost an extreme among of weight as her hair fell off and landed on the floor. The abundance of hair on the floor looks like kittens as it is piled together. Her once beautiful eyes were now sunk in and gross. As she lay in bed coughing up blood and moaning in pain, the multiply doctors that Esmeralda's father hired could do nothing to help her mother as she was dying to the horror and disbelief of her husband and young child.
On her last day of life, she called Esmeralda into her room. She apologized for not being able to see her young daughter grow up to become a beautiful young woman. As both she and Esmeralda began crying, she told Esmeralda no matter what happens never give up on her happy ending.
As she used the last of her strength to gently stroke Esmeralda's hair, she mustered up one last smile to tell her daughter that she loved her. And with that, Esmeralda's mother passed with the eight-year-old Esmeralda crying in her mother's lap.
Her mother was gone and before too long, her perfect life that she knew would be gone with her mother as well.