The first beams of the morning sun shone through the ubiquitous holes in the thatch roof above, landing softly on her cheek.
Celandine slowly stirred awake, stretching lasciviously in a mess of linen sheets. Her wild, golden hair fell unflatteringly on her shoulders, fluttering at her bare skin with each of her movement.
"Good morning beautiful!" Alice said, standing in the doorway, holding a basket of fresh laundry, looking at Celandine with love and, perhaps, a hint of desire. "You really chose the worst day to sleep in, huh?"
Celandine rubbed what sleep remained from her eyes as memories came back to her. "What.... What time is it?" she asked, sheepishly.
Alice blew away an unruly strand of black hair from her face and readjusted her grip on the heavy basket she carried. "Near noon. So... if her most royal and most blessed majesty would deign get out of her bed, perhaps she'd yet have time to good on what she promised us, hmm?" Alice quips sarcastically before walking away, leaving Celandine to get ready.
Still a bit groggy, Celandine walked over to the mirror, casually slipping out of her nightgown and grabbing a large hairbrush as she started running it through her mess of hair.
She was lucky to have found this remote village all those years ago when she fled her native village along with Alice. When she was still just a girl, she saw the dreaded hordes of the Sorceress Queen march over the town she was born to... Many tried to flee and were cut down by the monsters and mercenaries under the control of the Sorceress Queen, or worse, suffered the terrifying effect of her dreadful spells.
Through luck or divine grace, both her and Alice managed to escape to the woods without being pursued... They clung to each other for safety and did their best to survive the wilds before being found, days after, by an old logger.
By then, they were starving, cold and bruised, and the old logger took pity on the two girls, bringing them back to the mountain village of Wayover and gave them food, beds and a hearth to dry their clothes on.
It had now been decades since they escaped the destruction of their village and found a new home in the community of Wayover.
The two girls grew to young women, and, to the great despair of many boys in the village, grew closer to each other as well, their friendship blossoming into love.
Celandine placed the brush back, her long flowing hair now presentable, she dressed for the day ahead. After all, Alice was right, she did promise her she'd...