Sparkling - flashbacks - de:de - Cinderella

Today's #afewwordsaday #KAFWAD submission

Why not join me? Today's prompts are below. Prompts for the rest of the week are in a separate post just below.

5th September 2015

As a child I loved the rather gory version of the Cinderella story I have re-told here.

Prompts
FMS Photo a day	Sparkle
Text type	Flashbacks
Sentence type	De:de
Story	Cinderella

De: de adds description then detail. It is a compound sentence with 2 independent clauses separated by a colon.: I was delirious: I hadn’t slept for 3 days

Flashbacks: give insight into the underlying events of a story and breaks up a linear narrative. It is also a good opportunity to use different past tenses (perfect / continuous).

Two doves flew alongside Cinderella and the prince, rejoicing in their happiness, as the couple embarked on their new life together.

They passed the hazelnut tree which marked where her mother was buried. Every day for many years Cinderella had wept at her mother’s grave: she had felt so sad and alone. After her mother died, Cinderella lived with her father who loved her, but he had married again. Cinderella gained a stepmother who was beautiful but had a wicked heart. She also had two step-sisters who were like their mother in every way.

The prince noticed Cinderella gaze reflectively at the hazelnut tree. He often rode this way and remembered being surprised when, recently, the tree appeared overnight.

The prince knew so little about Cinderella, but was certain that she was beautiful both inside and out. In the following years as Cinderella told him more about her life, he was at shocked, and at other times amazed and proud of his wife.

Cinderella, as she gazed at the tree, remembered the day her father gave her a hazelnut branch. He had been on a long journey and this was her present. Whilst her step-sisters had asked for expensive clothes and jewellery she asked for the first branch to strike his hat on his return. She took the branch to her mother’s grave and wept bitterly. The branch took root and that night grew into a great tree, a beautiful bird came and sat in it.

Cinderella would always remember her mother dearly, but she knew she would never again weep such bitter tears under the hazelnut tree. Her life had changed: no longer would she have to work from before dawn until after dusk. She never needed to wear those horrible wooden shoes again, or the dirty rags her step-mother gave her. She would be able to wash; to have clean clothes; a bed to sleep in: she would no longer need to be called CINDER- Ella. ‘From now on, could you call me Ella?’ She asked the prince. He held gently squeezed her hand in agreement.

Cinderella’s life had become intolerable, even for someone such a sweet nature. When, just a few days ago, the King invited all the beautiful girls to the palace so that his son could choose a bride. Cinderella didn’t think she was beautiful, and had no silly dreams about being noticed by the prince:  she wanted to escape from her drudgery for just one night.

She had asked, then begged, then pleaded: her stepmother finally agreed. If Cinderella could pick out the cinders from the ashes she could come. Cinderella completed this task and another but her step-mother still refused to take her: ‘Look at yourself. You would be such an embarrassment!’

The doves now flying alongside Cinderella and the prince, had been amongst the many doves who had happily helped this kind girl to clean and sort the cinders. They had gone with her to her mother’s grave when the others had gone off to the ball at the palace.

Cinderella had cried and wished that the tree could throw gold and silver over her. 

Still sitting beside her prince on his horse, she was unable to contain another gasp of astonishment, just as she had when the beautiful bird threw down a beautiful dress covered in diamonds which sparkled like early morning frost lit up by the bright rays of sun greeting a clear, fresh new day. And the shoes - decorated with gold and fit for a princess! Her heart raced again, remembering the excitement she felt as she had quickly changed and rushed off the palace. That night had danced with the prince for the first time.

Cinderella could still not believe her stepmother and stepsisters had not recognised her: they had stared at her hard so hard she had felt it! The next two nights, under the hazelnut tree, the bird threw down dresses which were more beautiful than before. On the third night, the shoes were of pure gold!

The prince wondered what Cinderella was thinking as she wrapped her arms more tightly round him. Her day dreams had taken her back to that magical night when he danced only with her. Until that moment, she thought she would never be happy again, yet all of a sudden, she was happier than she had ever been! Cinderella could feel herself smiling all over again.

The prince was also transported back to that night. He had resented his father’s interfering ways. He knew the King was determined he should marry a rich and beautiful woman: it didn’t matter if he didn’t like her. The prince had not been impressed with the proud and haughty demeanour of the guests, this was his last chance to choose his own bride before the King found him a suitable girl. That was the last thing he wanted. The prince was recalling those increasingly desperate feelings when Cinderella’s arms had tightened around him. The warm feeling it gave him took straight back to the first ball, to the first time that night he’d smiled, to the first time his eyes caught sight of his future bride. He hoped this feeling would last for ever.

Two nights in a row this mysterious girl, who wouldn’t even tell him her name, had run off alone into the night. He thought about how determined he’d been not to let her get away on the third night, but somehow she had slipped away. It was the princes turn to gasp at a memory, this time with utter sadness. Cinderella asked what was wrong. He told her how devastated he was when she had left and he thought he might never see her again, and that his only hope was her shoe she had left behind in her haste to leave.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she replied, ‘My step-mother terrified me. I didn’t want to face her anger if she found out that I had deceived her. I will never leave you again. I know now I can trust you and I need never be scared again.’

Deception came more easily to her step-sisters: so desperate were they to marry the prince that one even cut off her toe so it would in the shoe, the other cut off her heel! In both cases, as they had passed the grave with the hazelnut tree, the beautiful bird had called out a warning: ‘There is blood in that shoe, the girl who should be your bride is still at home!’

This time as they passed, they both offered a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to the bird which sat in the hazelnut tree and sang out, ‘The prince leads his true bride home!’