Chapter Text
Somewhere out in the middle of the sea, there sailed a ship. Nothing too impressive, in fact it was smaller than most. The hull must have been a rich shade of purple long ago, but now it was dull and chipped from years spent out on the water. The salty breeze pulled it forward as two children ran across the deck.
“Look!” The boy exclaimed excitedly. His sister was there a moment later, gazing across the ocean with wide eyes.
“Their ship is so big, Orion!” She said in awe as she stared at the massive schooner passing by them.
Orion grinned as he waved to the other sailors. “I wish ours was that fancy.”
“I’d be so happy,” The girl agreed. “Because then-“
“Why is that, Andromeda?” Asked a woman whose dress matched the color of the boat- their mother, as she adjusted the ropes. “Because it looks better? This ship has seen us through many a storm. It may not look like much, but-“ She paused to smile up at the sails depicting constellations. “It has something theirs will never have.”
“What?” Orion asked sarcastically. “Wood rot and rats?” His sister giggled.
“Are the children learning something, Nuru?” A red headed woman named Amber, the children’s other mother, asked as she hung laundry on a clothesline. She smiled when Nuru replied: “It is unclear.”
“All right! Sit children,” Nuru clapped her hands together as she sat across from her son and daughter. “I think it’s time I told you the story of Hugo, the prince, and the lamp.”
Andromeda crossed her arms, already bored. “What’s so special about a lamp?”
Nuru leaned forward, as if letting them in on a secret. “Oh, this is a magic lamp.”
She cleared her throat as she took a purple journal from one of her dress pockets, prepared to speak the rhymes she knew by heart. The children leaned forward eagerly, and even Amber stopped what she was doing to watch her wife.
“Imagine a land- it’s a faraway place,” Nuru read, a smile playing at her lips. “Where the caravan camels roam. You wander among every culture and tongue, and it may be chaotic, but hey-“ She shrugged, “It’s home.”
Amber walked over and sat next to Nuru, now intrigued in the story she knew so well. The story she’d been apart of.
“When the winds from the east, and the suns from the west, and the sand in the glass is right… Come on down, stop on by-“ She paused to tap her daughter’s nose and giggle.
“On a carpet and fly,” Amber continued over her shoulder. “To another Coronan night...”
—————— ◈ ——————
Under the light of the moon, surrounded by sea, there is a large kingdom by the name of Corona.
Even at night, the streets are bustling with merchants trying to sell you their products. As you wind through the streets with the cardamom-cluttered stalls, you can smell every spice while you haggle the cost of the silks and satin shawls that had caught your eye.
You hear a squeak, and something slightly… mechanical scurrying away, but when you look down there is nothing to be seen. There’s flash of green in the bustling crowd, but it’s gone so quick that you begin to doubt your eyes.
You don’t even notice that your most prized piece of jewelry- a bracelet with oh so lovely rubies- is missing.
—————— ◈ ——————
On a balcony sits a king, deep in conversation with a palace guard. He doesn’t even blink as he tosses an apple to a rodent; a raccoon, who catches it effortlessly and slinks off to a fountain.
On the fountain’s edge sit the moon and the sun of Corona. Crown Prince Varian and his sister, Princess Rapunzel. The raven haired prince leans down to run a hand over the fur of the raccoon as the princess frowns at something he’d said just moments earlier.
From Rapunzel’s shoulder her reptile companion Pascal scowls at the parrot who swoops by them, but the siblings don’t even bat an eye as Rapunzel stands and walks away.
—————— ◈ ——————
The parrot soars high above the palace, above the kingdom of Corona, bright and lively even after nightfall. Past the streets he soars, past even the borders of Old Corona, until the castle isn’t even a speck of light in the distance. He reaches a large stretch of desert, a secluded spot only a very few amount of people even believe in.
A cave, entrance carved into the face of a lion speaks to the minuscule group who stand in front of it, eyes glowing from some sort of light within.
The ground trembles and shakes with his words. “ Only one may enter here. One whose worth lies far within. The diamond in the rough. ”
A man is shoved forward by one of the hooded figures. His clothes are dirty, his face much too lean to be healthy. He looks at the group nervously, then back at the cave. He stumbles forward, cautious as he enters through the lion’s mouth.
He’s nearly three steps in when the lion’s maw crashes closed, muffling the man’s last screams and bringing about his untimely end.
The lion speaks once more. “ Seek thee out: the diamond in the rough. ”
A woman stands calmly as the parrot lands on her shoulder, a staff in her hand. Her jaw clenches ever so slightly, clearly disappointed by yet another failure. She merely turns to leave as her parrot soars away, the Lion’s words looming heavily in the air.
The diamond in the rough.