Daniela lay sprawled across her bed, red hair fanned out like spilled wine against the silk pillows. Her eyes were closed, a dreamy smile playing on her lips as she hummed some half-remembered tune. In her mind, she was dancing at a grand ball—one where all the handsome guests lined up just to waltz with her, where Mother clapped proudly from the sidelines, where her sisters weren't always stealing the spotlight.

Just me and my prince, she thought blissfully, spinning forever and ever...

But then she heard footsteps crunching through snow outside her window.

Her golden eyes snapped open, the fantasy dissolving like sugar in rain. She bolted upright, then listened closely, no mistake that this is somebody new. It's been so so long!

"Oh, how wonderful!" she whispered, breath fogging the window. "A visitor! And they came all this way in the snow just to see us." Just to see me, her mind corrected with typical delusion. They must have heard about my beauty from the village.

Without hesitation, her form dissolved into a writhing mass of flies and insects as she reformed at the edge of the window. Where are they..? Through the swirling snowfall, a figure moved across the courtyard below. A lost little lamb, stumbling right into their territory.