I felt this bit of an introduction was necessary for the story. I decided to go ahead with Shattered Shoes. The stories I'm using are Ella Enchanted, Cinderella (Disney Animated & Live Action), Princess Furball, Ashtenputel (German) & Ever After. The story of Cinderella has been around for hundreds of years! There are even Chinese and Egyptian variations of it. I had a hard time choosing, so I went with some of my favorites. Thanks for reading!

It started with a wish.

A wish for a child as sweet as honeysuckle and as beautiful as a clear, summer's day. When a wish is made in a fairy circle, it is that much more likely to come true. So it was, when the wish was whispered in a ring of peonies planted by a merchant's wife, a fairy, a very young fairy, was listening very closely.

Thus, Eleanor was born. The girl was blessed with her mother's fine looks and generous qualities. Her golden hair was a topic of much conversation, and her pale skin and laughing violet eyes were daily compared to the fair folk. Yet it was her father's spirit that bucked and thrived within her. She found the nests of Robins and rescued their chicks who flew too early. Mice and rats were kept under her steady hand, and did a wonderful job of keeping the kitchen floor spotless. The old hound in the yard was kind to the chickens, which in turn laid beautiful, cream colored eggs. When Eleanor ventured away from the manor, it was the doe and the buck that accompanied her. All was as it should be.

Until sickness swept the kingdom. It claimed the cook, and her husband who tended their stable. Even little Eleanor was deathly ill, and thrashed about with a fever for days, until she grew so weak she could scarcely breathe. By then her mother was sick as well, and mother and daughter were laid side by side in bed. Eleanor's father wept over the two of them from his place beside the bed, frantically trying to force broth or water down their throats. On the twelfth day, when Eleanor's breath was a whispering rattle and her mother's tears had long since burned up with her fever, a soft light filled the room. A little girl stood at the foot of the bed with tears in her eyes, that fell to the floor as diamonds.

"I'm Lucinda," The child whispered, swathed in shimmering purple fabric. Her white hair tumbled to the floor, and eyes much like Eleanor's blinked away her sorrow. "I...I'm meant to be her fairy god-mother," She turned towards Eleanor's father and dipped into a wobbling curtsy. From her back sprouted twin wings of lavender. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but they're both...they're both going to die," She choked back a sob. "None of the other fairies will help me, because Ella is my job. Your...your wife doesn't have a fairy godmother anymore. That was...that was my mother, and she's gone now," Eleanor's father opened his arms and the little fae child ran to him.

"Lucinda, are you here to take my girls away? Are you bringing them to heaven now, and come to comfort me?" He stroked her hair as the little girl wept and shook her head. "Then you've only come to tell me they're dying?"

"No, no, I...I think I have enough magic to save one of them. It's taken me weeks to figure out, and if I was older I might be able to save both, but...I can only save one,"

"Eleanor," Came the rough cough from the bed. "It must be..."

Lucinda turned and stared at the young woman smiling at her. "My daughter. Not me,"

Lucinda stepped towards the bed, and took the hand of Eleanor's mother in her own. "Why? Don't you wish to try for another child?"

The woman closed her eyes. "You can never replace a child, little one. A mother, perhaps, but never a child. Save my girl. Only let me speak to her once more," Lucinda nodded and quickly moved to the other side of the bed, where she then removed a long, silver wand seemingly from midair.

Threads of time, once undone,
Heal for me, this little one!
Grant her beauty, grace and poise,
Music, language, her heart enjoys.
Keep her well and breathe in life,
even if doing so requires strife!

As she spoke, she made circles in the air with the wand. Lavender and silver sparks settled over her, and a breeze smelling of flowers swept around the room despite the windows being closed. In another moment Eleanor shuddered and gasped, then sighed and opened her eyes.

Lucinda was gone.

A week later, Eleanor and her father stood side by side as they buried her mother on one side of the fairy circle. While Eleanor was confused about why her mother had been taken, she would be all the more confused when she later found her father within the circle, weeping, and softly thanking a firefly he affectionately called Lucy.