Free Black Forest: Kingdoms Fall by Riley Lashea

room, books piled higher than the window's ledge, but she did not see the woman and wondered if she had been an illusion.
    "Hello," Cinderella called across the expanse, too loud in the darkening wood, for she could already hear the specters stirring.
    Slow to appear at the window's edge, the woman glanced toward the Earth, and Cinderella's heart gave a violent beat against her ribcage as she realized the
    beauty she had seen from the ground was no match for the beauty up close.
    "Over here," she called, and the woman's eyes moved up the trunk of the tree. Rapunzel, Cinderella remembered the old lady calling her, a lovely name that
    suited her well.
    "I cannot see you," Rapunzel said hesitantly.
    "Hold on," Cinderella returned at once, moving forward on the branch until it bent precariously with her weight and dropping into view, hands and ankles
    locking her in place as she dangled.
    Even at the distance, she heard Rapunzel's gasp, her hands jutting forward as if she thought she might catch Cinderella if she tumbled from the tree.
    "Please, be careful," she rushed to say.
    "I am being careful," Cinderella assured her, and, seeming satisfied, Rapunzel smiled, though from Cinderella's position, it looked like a frown.
    "How did you make it up there in that?" Rapunzel asked, and Cinderella glanced to the gown. Having earned her many a strange look within the town walls, it
    might also have protected her. No one seemed to know what to think of the young woman amongst them, dressed, as she was, like royalty.
    "It was not easy," Cinderella admitted. "How did you get in there?"
    "I am not sure," Rapunzel replied. "I have been here since I can remember."
    "You have never been out?" Cinderella asked.
    "No," Rapunzel answered quietly. "There are terrible things in the world."
    Watching her in the twilight, Cinderella thought she saw sadness, but could not tell with certainty from her upside-down position. Turning her gaze to the
    tree, she spotted the stub of a branch below and trusted it would hold her as she dropped her feet onto it, Rapunzel's cry giving her a jolt as she
    resituated her hands over the branch above.
    "Oh, you do frighten me." Rapunzel let out a heavy breath, and Cinderella smiled, the declaration ringing through her ears like a compliment.
    "You needn't be frightened," she declared, and, at that, Rapunzel smiled too, making her even more of a vision. "Why do you say there are terrible things
    in the world? Who told you such a thing?"
    "My mother," Rapunzel responded. "Why? Is it not true?"
    "It is not untrue," Cinderella acknowledged, hardly one to proclaim the fairness of the world or those in it. "But it is not wholly true. Is that why you
    are stuck in there?"
    Nodding, Rapunzel's head bowed, the falling darkness casting her face into shadow. "That is what she told me," she said so softly, Cinderella took a
    perilous step forward to hear. "But sometimes my mother's words sound hollow. I do not know what to believe."
    The sadness she thought she had seen returned to Rapunzel's face, and Cinderella felt a strange desperation to lift it. "What did she tell you?"
    "Many things," Rapunzel breathed.
    "I have all night," Cinderella returned, hearing the shrieks from deeper in the shadows, knowing she would have no choice but to find shelter nearby.
    "It will not be very comfortable," Rapunzel grinned.
    "I have endured worse," Cinderella replied, and Rapunzel's smile wavered.
    "I would hate for you to endure it on my account," she whispered.
    Reminded she had climbed to meet the woman at her own desire, and had not actually been welcomed to do so, it occurred to Cinderella Rapunzel may not want
    her staring in her window all night. "Yes, of course," she said, face warming. "I am sorry to have bothered you."
    Hefting herself back to the branch above, she slunk into the tree's shadow with the quickness she employed to outwit her stepsisters.
    "No, wait!" Rapunzel called out, stopping Cinderella's retreat, and, spinning at