Snow White: Act I Song of the Moon

The audience roared as the curtain rose. The paper moon shone high on the stage as little lights twinkled high above the seats like stars. Yet the more they focused, the less they saw the set. The stage melted away from their vision. Grass grew around them and moonbeams danced across the wandering stream. They were completely lost in the story, enveloped in the lives that played out there.

- - -

There once was a very poor man who lived alone in the woods. Though he was very handsome, none would marry the poorest in the land. More than a wife, he longed for a child to raise and care for; A little one that would sprout and grow like the flowers he grew to sell in the marketplace. With no wife, there would be no child. The man thought he was doomed to be alone for the rest of his days. Little did he know, the Moon herself longed to fulfill his desire.

She came to him in the night, leaving a little one that she had made from moon dust and a falling star. In his arms laid a baby with hair as blue as moon beams and eyes that sparkled like starlight. Yet what he loved most about his little one was her skin white as snow. Thus she was named, Snow White. The Moon told him of the child's gift of entertainment. As a star, she lived to please and entertain. She lived to be the focus of the people and to make them smile.

As suddenly as she had appeared to him, the Moon faded into the night to leave the father and baby together. The little one took an instant liking to the man as he held her and rocked her to sleep. The years passed and her love for him only grew, as did his love for her. Just as the Moon had said, Snow White loved gaining people's attention. Whenever she followed her father to the marketplace, she would dance and sing to help him sell his flowers. The more she danced, the more people would come.

Soon the local theater group asked the child to join them. The little one happily accepted, performing different plays and making her father proud. She brought him fortune and even fame, but he cared not for those things. He was simply happy to watch his angel dance as graceful as a butterfly on the stage. However her fame attracted other things as well...

A local woman craving money and acknowledgment made her way into their lives. Her father was a noble and very rich. The man was on his death bed and would not allow his daughter to take hold of the family fortune until she had married. The woman refused to marry any man but the most handsome in the land. She favored her own beauty and wanted a man to match. When her sights well upon Snow White's father, she was determined to be his bride.

She pretended to like his little daughter until they were married. It was then her true colors showed to the girl. She would yell at her and put her down behind the man's back. The goodhearted girl said nothing, not wanting to ruin her father's happiness.

A battle soon broke out between their country and the next, and Snow White's father was summoned to the battle front. Three long years passed, and the young girl had been demoted from a lady of the castle to a scullery maid at the 'Queen's' whim. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday news arrived of not only the war's end but of the girl's father's untimely demise. He was gone forever, lost in the war and thought of as one of the many heroes that had given their lives to defend their country. The Moon and her daughter mourned for the lost man. Yet the teen was not allowed to mourn for long. Her step-mother only commanded her to do more and more, hoping the girl would lose herself in her chores.

Reviews

[Charlie]

Your writing is so lovely! I'm already hooked. XD