The White Castle

Bella stepped out of the gilded golden carriage, which was drawn by a team of five majestic white Pegasus, onto a platform that could only have been made of clouds and magic. Grinning, she rushed through the towering gates, made of shimmering clouds, onto a gravel path that wound through the cloudy forest.

On either side of the path, small green leaves and flowers of every color grew, decorating the drab pathway with much more happiness. Eventually, the path came to an end, where Bella stared in amazement at the towering palace above her. This was made of stone, with towering turrets, wall-length windows, elegant balconies, vines creeping up the sides of the stone building. All of it was breathtaking; a real version of a fantasy castle, made just for her.

The doors stood closed but unlocked, and Bella pushed them open to reveal a grand entry hall, with a ceiling that seemed too high to be reasonable, but she didn't care. There were pillars spaced evenly around the room, each one carved with a different kind of vine, and tapestries of fantastical creatures hung from the walls. One tapestry depicted a unicorn, another showed a griffin, and a third still bore a manticore. The rest of the scenes showed creatures that Bella didn't recognize, but they still took her breath away. There was a thick red carpet, embroidered with gold along the edges, that ran through the first room into another, this one holding a large fireplace between two grand marble staircases, curving around the sides of the room to meet on the next floor, with hallways leading away.

Climbing the staircase on the left, Bella found herself staring down an elegant hallway, with grand double doors on one side, which opened into a magnificent ballroom, with stone walls inlaid with gold and silver, a ginormous glass chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling, and polished wooden floorboards underneath it all. There were a few doors in the far wall, which presumably led to the entry hall and the kitchen, and probably a few more rooms, intended for the servants of the palace. The gleaming marble staircase a few steps ahead of Bella led down onto the shimmering dance floor, but Bella knew herself too underdressed to hold a ball. So, she backed out of the ballroom and opened the doors across the hall.

The opposite set of doors opened into a vast but cozy library, with shelves reaching far up, many stories high, with small staircases leading to secluded areas, and a few private window seats, which forced Bella to look way up in order to see them. Bella climbed up the nearest staircase, which led to a long shelf full of fantasy books, and then a window, with a comfy purple seat cushion along the length of the sill, and a smaller shelf under the seat to hold more books. There was a small candle shelf mounted on the wall, to offer reading light even in the late hours of the night. The window was cold to the touch, but it offered a breathtaking view of the gardens below, with flowers of every shape and size and color, and trees that offered shade even in the cooler months of the winter. Everything was vibrant and full of life, which made Bella smile uncontrollably.

Bella rushed back down the staircase and out the library doors, though taking another quick look at the library, and eyeing up a deep blue couch, with gold embroidery at the edges, a small table near the armrests, and a quaint little lamp on each table. There was a small stack of books on both tables, which Bella would have loved to explore in that moment. Instead, she ducked out of the library and shut the doors, then turned back the way she had come to stand at the landing above the twin stairs. From there, she turned left, to another flight of stairs that led higher still.

The first room on the right side of the third floor revealed a small sitting room, fully furnished with polished wood furniture that was covered with cushions that looked to small to hold all their stuffing. There was a small table in front of that small couch and even smaller chair, which held a small vase full of daisies, and the surface of the table was polished to a gleam.

A door beyond that room opened up to a dressing room, with a window overlooking the path into the palace, and a full walk-in closet stuffed with dresses and shoes. Bella picked out a shimmering red silk gown, with a straight skirt and roses decorating the hem and bodice, and little rubies scattered along the skirt, so that it sparkled from every direction. Bella gently put the dress back, and opened another door in the wall opposite the wall that led to the closet.

This door opened into a grand bedroom, with a plump bed covered in soft pillows and fuzzy blankets, with glittering pale pink sheets hanging from a frame above the bed. The posts were polished to perfection, and long chest stood at the foot of the bed, which was inlaid with gold spirals and had a gold lock on the front. The chest wasn't locked, and inside Bella found many old books, a lacy hat, a pair of old gloves, which had turned a faint yellow due to old age, and photographs of a young girl, obviously a princess, that looked exactly like Bella.

Grinning, Bella kicked off her dusty shoes and flopped down on the bed, where she found a small stuffed cat, its fur frayed from being loved, and she curled up under the blankets, snuggled with the cat, and closed her eyes...

...then opened them again to find herself in a simple room, with no elegant furnishings, no curtain sheets, no silk pillows. Only a stuffed cat, photos of her as a girl creating a collage on her walls, and a small window in the corner, which revealed a wonderful garden. Next to the window was a small bookshelf, which was packed with books of all different sizes, and a small rocking chair with a worn cushion on the hard wooden seat, which was positioned for her to gaze out the window and dream.