TGWTSBE Ch1

The Girl With the Star-Bit Eyes
I. Nerissa and Rosalia


Rosalina was always alone and never alone.

She learned that, without knowing it, as a very young girl. It was before her brother was even born, when she still had her mother all to herself.

It was a quiet night in the kingdom of Rosalia. The young Princess Rosalina, scrubbed and steaming from her nightly bath, was curled up in Queen Nerissa's lap in their favorite armchair of the castle library. It was a large library, in a large castle, but there were no servant or advisors there. In fact, the entire kingdom of Rosalia was composed of only three people: King Bitumin, Princess Rosalina, and the reigning monarch Queen Nerissa.

"Tell me a bedtime story, mama!" demanded Rosalina, just as she did every night.

Nerissa, a woman wise beyond her years with auburn hairs and deep blue eyes that she had passed on to her daughter, smiled. "Of course, my love. What story shall I read you tonight?"

"I don't want you to READ a story," declared the little girl. "I want you to tell me one! Tell me how you became the queen. And why the queen is the boss here, and not the kind like in my storybooks!"

Nerissa laughed, but it was a painful laugh, wound with the regrets of years gone by.

"Well, once upon a time I used to live on a distant planet. But we were attacked. I had to run away and find a new home."

"Who attacked you?"

"An alien race. The Shroobs."

Rosalina's eyes widened at this adventuresome twist.

"I took a spaceship and I landed here, on this planet. It was a beautiful place. There was food and clean water, but no people. For a long time I lived alone."

"And then Papa came?"

"Yes, your papa came and we built a castle together. Because I had discovered our kingdom, I was to be the one to rule and name it. I called it Rosalia."

"How come?"

"Rosalia was my mama's name."

Rosalina, a child raised in isolation who had never contemplated anyone's troubles but her own, was gobsmacked. "You have a mama?"

"I did. A long time ago."

"What happened to her?"

Nerissa cast her eyes towards the large window, a dome, that served as the library's ceiling. From a velvety blackness, stars and the occasional comet winked down at them.

"She became a star and now she watches over me. That way I am never alone."

"But what about when it's raining and you can't see the sky?" Rosalina asked softly.

"Then she's waiting to come out from behind a cloud and dry my tears."

Rosalina frowned. "I don't understand. Why did she become a star? How come she couldn't just stay your mama?"

Nerissa stroked her daughter's very blonde hair, smoothing the place where a crown would someday sit. "People begin as stars, my love. For a little while they can change. But then they must return to their true forms. Because, you see, stars are never-ending cycles of birth. Stars never die."

"Will YOU be a star one day, Mama?" asked Rosalina, mesmerized.

"Yes. And so will you. But before that you will take my place here – as the queen of Rosalia. And maybe you'll have a daughter of your own, and you can pass the rule to her."

"I wanna be a great queen like you!" Rosalina cried.

Nerissa chuckled. "Perhaps you will be. But that is not for a very long time. For now, you are Princess Rosalina and you are going to bed."

"Aww, Mama!"

"Well, you've had your bedtime story!"

Slowly, Nerissa rose from her chair, her long elegant blue gown forming a train behind her. She carried her protesting (but clearly sleepy) young daughter to bed, tucked her in, kissed her on the head, and said good night.

But Rosalina learned something that night – something that she'd never understand, but that would always be with her. After her mama left, but before she went to sleep, she got out of bed and padded over to the window of her tower room in a nightgown and bare feet.

And she saw stars.

There were so many of them. She tried to count them, but she could barely even see them all. Were all of those stars people? How could there even BE so many people in the universe? Until today, she'd thought that the only people were her and her mama and papa, that it had always been that way and always would be. How disconcerting it was to stand here and look out at the night sky and know she'd been wrong.

Rosalina tried to find her mama's mama's star, imagining that it would be the brightest, prettiest star in the sky. But the numbers were simply too vast. Eventually, her eyes grew tired, and the lights became blurry streaks in the black.

So she went to bed and dreamed about all those people she'd never see.