Moonlight hung on every thread of her blanket, transforming it to silver, glimmering, glistening, silver. Adeline traced a finger over the swirling patterns decorating it, a teardrop slipping silently down her face. A shadow crossed the silver, a fleeting silhouette of a bird, before disappearing forever, falling down, down, down…

   The teardrop slithered down, leaving a glittering trail in its wake. A delicate little crystal bead, plinking softly down on the blanket, leaving behind just one small pinprick of darkness. Adeline’s fiery hair flowed down her shoulders like a liquid gold waterfall, its radiance, however, diminished by the pressing, inky darkness of the night. Her eyes, usually dancing with blue fire, were now dark, stormy. Adeline glanced outside, at the rolling clouds below her, and the precarious cliff side on which she was perched. She knew how everybody had wanted to be her. She had seen their eyes, the way they looked at her, jealousy burning deep inside them. What they didn’t know, was that she would give anything to be them. To be able to roam free down below, instead of being trapped in this prison. This glittering, royal prison in which she had resided in all her life. But she was the crown princess, and she couldn’t leave. It isn’t safe, her mother had always warned. Not safe.