Post by Ron Weasley on May 20, 2008 18:42:06 GMT -5
Name:
Alyson Garnier
Age:
19
D.O.B:
March 1
Hair Color:
Auburn
Eye Color:
Dark Hazel
Height:
5'7''
Weight:
125
Over-all Appearance:
Alyson is nothing short of something you would read about in an old, dusty book. It could be said that she is something from an old, dusty book, and that she just stepped from its pages one day, out from a faery tale and into real life, and that her image sparkles as though the gold leaf still were upon the page... but alas! She is not from a faery tale, but born of her earthly parents, and is simply a radiant girl.
Her face is a pretty heart, pale in complexion but dimpled with rosy cheeks when she blushes or is shy. Her hair is long, down to the middle of her back, and a dark amber color that absorbs the sunlight like the black bears hide in the deep of winter. Her eyes are a watery hazel, almost a opalescent grey, much like the sea on a clear day, surrounded by a darker ring of grey, the encroaching clouds on the horizon threatening rain. Thick lashes surround each eye, and curl ever so slightly. Her lips aren't small, but they don't fill her face, but the bright pink of them make them stand out against her face anyway. Her cheek bones are high and her chin is narrow, giving her long, wide cheeks that expand in her face and give her an innocent look. Her nose is small and buttony, not pointy in any way, and she quite likes how straight it sits in comparison to the other lines in her face.
She isn't too terribly tall, but she's definitely not too much shorter than her brother. And she's never really cared about her size, she eats well and that is a good thing, and she's never really wanted for much other than to see her parents again. After it was just her and her brother in the castle (aside from the occasional servant that were there, the ones who blended too well into the tapestries), she took to running through the stone rooms and playing, ignoring everyone but Phillip. She still does, even though she's older now, and that might also be what keeps her thin shape.
Likes:
Alyson enjoys hearing stories from her brother at the end of the day, curled up in front of a fire. She loves running around the castle barefoot, feeling the rich carpets beneath her toes and hearing her laughter echo through the rooms. There is a pond near the castle that she always liked to play around, and she enjoys making up stories about the old fishman who used to live there and how the frogs ate him up... but she knows that he didn't get eaten up and that it's just silly, since he went away with the majority of everyone else. She enjoys reading the books that are left in the library and learning the different languages that she can from the books that describe such things. She also enjoys having her hair braided by Brigitte, and getting dressed up in the fancy clothes that Phillip sometimes sends to her. She's got no one to really dance with, but she'll swirl around the ballroom anyway, listening to the music inside of her mind.
Dislikes:
Alyson dislikes it when Phillip is too busy with his work or with his projects to stop and say hello, or when he scolds her for something that she has done. She dislikes being cold and hungry, which has been more often than not of late. There is a certain feeling of squish that she dislikes, mostly in her mouth. When the wolves howl in the night, it gives her the chills. Sometimes in the winter when it snows she dislikes how cold and drafty the castle gets, but she forgets about that when she curls up in her bed with the fire roaring.
Fears:
Alyson only has one true fear, and that is Phillip will leave her alone and forget about her. She doesn't want to lose him to anything and will do all manner of things to make sure he knows that she is still there. She is afraid of strange women who seek more at the castle than lodging, since it reminds her too much of the old witch who hurt her parents. Short of those things, bugs and fire and the darkness are nothing fearsome to her.
Habits:
Alyson has a nervous habit of pulling on her hair. She also has a bad habit of walking around the castle barefoot, and since no one ever scolded her, she thinks it's ok to walk around barefoot all the time.
Over-all Personality:
Alyson is a sweet girl. Now, many confuse her sweetness as naivety, and so assume that she is not as smart as they are. In this they are wrong. Alyson is neither naive or dumb, but rather well learned and surprisingly . She has fought very hard to stay as sweet as she is, has fought hard against the urge to simply crumble like the castle she lives in. One could always assume that every sweet person has never known hardship, has never known what it is to truly suffer and the like, but Alyson has known, and instead of being bitter for it struggled to stay positive.
Alyson is the kind of person who loves really deeply. It doesn't matter who the person is, what they have done in the past, once she has deemed that you are someone worth her love, then she is going to genuinely love you until you deeply betray her. Not that she trusts easily, no, in fact, she is extremely wary about the unfamiliar people around her, and takes a long time in getting to know people properly. It's just that once she finds something in you to love, it's rooted in her soul. She quite likes this part of herself, that she can appreciate people so well without being selfish about it, and doesn't find her pride in her ability to care about others as conceited at all.
There is a darker side to Alyson, as every day has a night. While she is sweet, she tends to be manipulative. While she loves deeply she expects a lot from people, mostly in an emotional way. Sometimes when you are around her she will demand your attention by her actions, her words, or even just a glance, and while she could really say nothing, you could be drawn to talk to her by it. The latter she does not realize she is doing, but she is quite aware when she manipulates people. She will consciously make someone do what she wants them to, and she feels no real remorse for it, simply because no one has told her how awful it is for her to do.
Some people would say that Alyson tends to be quiet, that when she does talk it doesn't usually make sense to what they are talking about. This is pretty normal for her, since she is often lost in her own train of thought when she speaks up in a conversation. When she does pay attention she is right on the button, and people enjoy what she has to say, and are quite pleased with the brilliance that is there. But when she is lost in her own mind, she doesn't quite pay attention. Not that she daydreams, she simply enjoys thinking about another problem while others talk about themselves. (That is something she cannot stand, by the way, when others, mostly Phillip really, go on and on about themselves and their problems/achievements/etc - she doesn't like to talk about herself to others unless they bring it up.)
Aside from being sweet, caring, manipulative and demanding, she is a rather intelligent girl, who would have gotten good marks from her governess had the governess not fled when her parents disappeared. She loves to read, and when she was a small girl would often read ahead in the lessons, get ahead in the work, and end up finished with the lesson half-way through the lecture. Her governess noticed her listlessness and assumed she was making trouble, and so gave her more busy work to do, more projects to accomplish. Now, Alyson lives alone with her brother in an abandoned castle, and is not afraid of hard work nor toil, but busywork is something she loathes. When she is given a task that accomplishes nothing, she detests it. It has no end to its means, and is pointless. So she does the chores her brother gives her, gets praise when she chirrups to him in Latin or Greek, and spends a lot of time thinking about things that are outside of the castle, what kind of a life everyone else has.
Alyson, in a nutshell, is a fun person to be around, though she will slowly creep into your life and manipulate you to do the things she wants you to do, such as play with her when you didn't really want to, or give her a bonbon when there was no cause before. She's still an incredibly sweet person, and doesn't force people to do things that are harmful or awful (though with time she could, but she's not inclined to). She loves people for who they are, and does her best to make sure that they are as happy as she is.
Parents:
Adolphe Garnier, former King, now a giant oak. Aged 54.
Liliane Garnier, former Queen, now an encircling rosebush. Aged 47.
Siblings:
Phillip Garnier, former Prince, now just a brother. Aged 24.
Pets:
None that respond by any name, though she keeps to the horses that were left in the stables. They are more free-range at this point in time and run wildly on the lands, though they come to the stables to sleep at night. That is when Alyson goes to them and brushes them and coos at them.
Character History:
When she was born, Alyson had no idea that she was a special child. She was a princess, a daughter of a king and a queen, gentle sovereigns and just rulers. They brought their daughter into a world secluded, restricting her and her dear older brother to the grounds. She never knew why they would never let them venture into the town that so many of the servants talked of, or even why it was forbidden to walk off the grounds. Perhaps if she left she would no longer be a princess but turn into a horrible creature... that was what she used to tell herself when her parents were, well, her parents.
As a child she had no reason for want - her parents gave her everything she could imagine and yet did not spoil her. They did not revere her above all else, but they did not treat her as a servant, and so she was in the happy middle, a place where she was as a normal child with nice things. Her parents hired the best of governesses to teach her to read, write, calculate and until she was nine years of age she learned hungrily, eagerly, unlike any other girl that her governess had taught. She learned quickly and so most times she was bored halfway through the lesson, it was true, but she always got high marks.
When she wasn't studying from books she was doing what her governess called 'princessey things', like learning to dance, learning to play the piano, walking and talking properly, which she still does, but doesn't practice in light of the fun she could be having. With no one but her brother to tell her what's what, she doesn't think it right to waste her time doing those things. Does she? Yes - in fact Phillip insists that she keep some sort of civility and makes her practice the piano on Fridays and Saturdays, makes her wear proper dresses (though he lets her get away without the shoes, which she appreciates) and be clean... He also dances with her as though she were a proper lady, and teaches her all the dances that he knows of from when he was taught by their mother. Alyson doesn't remember the big parties that were thrown, but she does remember the food and the lights, and the manner of people who came. They were all thrilled to see the little princess dressed so pretty, and she still clings to that, which is why she acquiesces to her brother's demands to keep her civil.
Her brother, Phillip... He was born five years before her, and so when she came into the world he already had a well established relationship with their parents, and he took to her right away. She loved her older brother, she thinks, from before, when she was still inside. She doesn't remember, who could, but, she knew that when she was an infant and when she was still too young to read that he loved her and played with her, and made sure that she was well and happy. Hearing him regale her with stories of her learning to walk, of her learning to speak and then to read makes her fond for when they were younger and the troubles of the world did not matter so much. He loved the outside world, well, what of it he could reach on the grounds, and he would always surprise her with a flower or teach her about a tree or a fox.
When they weren't talking, oddly enough in a rational, adult-like manner, as they were growing, they did play games together. Hide and seek was and is one of her favorite games to play with Phillip, and she'll run into a room he is working in and scream 'Not it!' and then run away again, off to hide. This was how they explored the castle, were allowed into all the nooks and crannies; how could you say no to that innocent face peering from behind the throne, begging you not to reveal her location? They played all manner of games and loved each other very fondly, and though the games are less of late, that bond is still there. It's hard to break something like that, nigh on impossible.
It could be said that the future of Alyson and Phillip was destroyed the summer of her ninth year. Her parents were approached by a strange-looking woman, who demanded that they give Alyson to her for some debt that she was owed. She doesn't remember exactly what happened, or why the woman wanted to take her, but she does remember her father standing bravely in front of his young daughter, holding her curious eyes back and protecting her as he demanded the woman out of his palace. Her mother stood beside him, and she looked down at Alyson, her eyes so lovely and golden in that moment, so happy and sad all at once. The woman would not go, though, Alyson remembers that much... and she would not have it that she would not have her debts repaid. Perhaps it was because she knew that the king and queen did not actually owe her anything that she spared their lives and simply vanished after that, but she did leave her mark upon them.
Her words, chill and frosty in the cheery summer, echo still in Alyson's ears, haunting her in her dreams. 'Protect her, then, if you might, it was said. 'But how will you save her if you cannot move? The beasts of burden will chew you, the sun will scorch you, and you will bear that proud remark forever!' with a cloud of smoke her father's feet rooted to the castle floor and cracked the stone, and his arms reached upward, and his cry of pain was soon silenced into a rustling of branches and wood; a giant oak stood in the place that her father had been, and instead of his warm back, she was holding until a rough patch of bark. Alyson screamed and ran toward the throne behind her, and stumbled, clutching onto the arm rest and looking out at what had once been her father. Her mother, so delicate in the sunlight, held unto the trunk, crying over her husband, when the old woman's words could be heard again. 'Cry and weep forever and bear a cheery face, prick those who scorn you and be delicate to those who would watch over you and tend you. Briar woman, shall you be a briar patch! Prick me once, and never more... with your demise our debts repaid.'
Her mother was gone the next moment that Alyson looked. Instead there was a beautiful rose bush curled up along the oak, both buried in the same earth. The hall was quiet except for the patter of the woman's footsteps receding out of the castle, and Alyson's soft cries. After that, the days were blurry. She remembers Phillip finding her and asking where the tree had come from and muttering something, something about the awful woman... After that a lot of the servants left, saying they wouldn't work in a haunted place. Only a few stayed, those who had loved Alyson and her brother, as well as her parents, and it was they who knocked out that part of the ceiling so rain and sun could filter down to her parents. Alyson, for a time, wouldn't leave the base of the oak, crying and even falling asleep at its feet. It would rustle and sigh, and she knew that her father was crying too.
After that, life became cold and Alyson did her best to keep her spirits up. She tried to put her parents out of her mind and just focus on living, which she did. She stopped sleeping in the throne room when she was 10. When she was 11 she forgot what her parents looked like and started running around the castle again. When she was 12, Phillip might have noticed that his old sister was back, which was true. He took to raising her of sorts, and they grew closer than ever. It seemed as though the other noble families forgot about the son and daughter of the Garnier family, and that their titles meant nothing. Phillip would play the piano in the morning and tell her stories at night, and she would do all manner of things to make him smile, from sewing him a new tunic or putting on little plays. They were lonely, but their life was happy, and the days ebbed and flowed as the river. Alyson never concerned herself with matters of the court, so what actually happens with that is still lost on her; why should she when all she is asked to do is read and not go off the grounds? Perhaps there were Princes out there, looking for the lost Princess of Averyln, or perhaps they simply wrote it off and went about their regular business. She does wonder often what life would have been like if she had not lost her parents to an awful enchantment.
Life went on like this for some time, until just after her nineteenth birthday. A strange woman stumbled onto the grounds of the castle and had the audacity to come up to the gates and ask to be shown inside so she could rest. Brigitte, Alyson's faithful hand maiden, informed the young princess that the girl was from the town just past the wood. Alyson had no grudge against that, but her poor, stupid brother seemed smitten with the girl. He had only had Alyson for all these years to be company with, since their family had supposedly fallen off the face of the planet. She has no issue with his feelings, she is in fact quite happy for him... but after ten years of being alone with him as the sole person in her life that gave her attention and companionship, she feels... left out. She feels that he should not so easily forget her, and if he were to leave her she feels that she would die. Perhaps this is why she must make Phillip see that he cannot fall in love and forget about his sister... and perhaps why it might seem like she's a bit bitter toward Penelope and why she doesn't like having her around.
Alyson Garnier
Age:
19
D.O.B:
March 1
Hair Color:
Auburn
Eye Color:
Dark Hazel
Height:
5'7''
Weight:
125
Over-all Appearance:
Alyson is nothing short of something you would read about in an old, dusty book. It could be said that she is something from an old, dusty book, and that she just stepped from its pages one day, out from a faery tale and into real life, and that her image sparkles as though the gold leaf still were upon the page... but alas! She is not from a faery tale, but born of her earthly parents, and is simply a radiant girl.
Her face is a pretty heart, pale in complexion but dimpled with rosy cheeks when she blushes or is shy. Her hair is long, down to the middle of her back, and a dark amber color that absorbs the sunlight like the black bears hide in the deep of winter. Her eyes are a watery hazel, almost a opalescent grey, much like the sea on a clear day, surrounded by a darker ring of grey, the encroaching clouds on the horizon threatening rain. Thick lashes surround each eye, and curl ever so slightly. Her lips aren't small, but they don't fill her face, but the bright pink of them make them stand out against her face anyway. Her cheek bones are high and her chin is narrow, giving her long, wide cheeks that expand in her face and give her an innocent look. Her nose is small and buttony, not pointy in any way, and she quite likes how straight it sits in comparison to the other lines in her face.
She isn't too terribly tall, but she's definitely not too much shorter than her brother. And she's never really cared about her size, she eats well and that is a good thing, and she's never really wanted for much other than to see her parents again. After it was just her and her brother in the castle (aside from the occasional servant that were there, the ones who blended too well into the tapestries), she took to running through the stone rooms and playing, ignoring everyone but Phillip. She still does, even though she's older now, and that might also be what keeps her thin shape.
Likes:
Alyson enjoys hearing stories from her brother at the end of the day, curled up in front of a fire. She loves running around the castle barefoot, feeling the rich carpets beneath her toes and hearing her laughter echo through the rooms. There is a pond near the castle that she always liked to play around, and she enjoys making up stories about the old fishman who used to live there and how the frogs ate him up... but she knows that he didn't get eaten up and that it's just silly, since he went away with the majority of everyone else. She enjoys reading the books that are left in the library and learning the different languages that she can from the books that describe such things. She also enjoys having her hair braided by Brigitte, and getting dressed up in the fancy clothes that Phillip sometimes sends to her. She's got no one to really dance with, but she'll swirl around the ballroom anyway, listening to the music inside of her mind.
Dislikes:
Alyson dislikes it when Phillip is too busy with his work or with his projects to stop and say hello, or when he scolds her for something that she has done. She dislikes being cold and hungry, which has been more often than not of late. There is a certain feeling of squish that she dislikes, mostly in her mouth. When the wolves howl in the night, it gives her the chills. Sometimes in the winter when it snows she dislikes how cold and drafty the castle gets, but she forgets about that when she curls up in her bed with the fire roaring.
Fears:
Alyson only has one true fear, and that is Phillip will leave her alone and forget about her. She doesn't want to lose him to anything and will do all manner of things to make sure he knows that she is still there. She is afraid of strange women who seek more at the castle than lodging, since it reminds her too much of the old witch who hurt her parents. Short of those things, bugs and fire and the darkness are nothing fearsome to her.
Habits:
Alyson has a nervous habit of pulling on her hair. She also has a bad habit of walking around the castle barefoot, and since no one ever scolded her, she thinks it's ok to walk around barefoot all the time.
Over-all Personality:
Alyson is a sweet girl. Now, many confuse her sweetness as naivety, and so assume that she is not as smart as they are. In this they are wrong. Alyson is neither naive or dumb, but rather well learned and surprisingly . She has fought very hard to stay as sweet as she is, has fought hard against the urge to simply crumble like the castle she lives in. One could always assume that every sweet person has never known hardship, has never known what it is to truly suffer and the like, but Alyson has known, and instead of being bitter for it struggled to stay positive.
Alyson is the kind of person who loves really deeply. It doesn't matter who the person is, what they have done in the past, once she has deemed that you are someone worth her love, then she is going to genuinely love you until you deeply betray her. Not that she trusts easily, no, in fact, she is extremely wary about the unfamiliar people around her, and takes a long time in getting to know people properly. It's just that once she finds something in you to love, it's rooted in her soul. She quite likes this part of herself, that she can appreciate people so well without being selfish about it, and doesn't find her pride in her ability to care about others as conceited at all.
There is a darker side to Alyson, as every day has a night. While she is sweet, she tends to be manipulative. While she loves deeply she expects a lot from people, mostly in an emotional way. Sometimes when you are around her she will demand your attention by her actions, her words, or even just a glance, and while she could really say nothing, you could be drawn to talk to her by it. The latter she does not realize she is doing, but she is quite aware when she manipulates people. She will consciously make someone do what she wants them to, and she feels no real remorse for it, simply because no one has told her how awful it is for her to do.
Some people would say that Alyson tends to be quiet, that when she does talk it doesn't usually make sense to what they are talking about. This is pretty normal for her, since she is often lost in her own train of thought when she speaks up in a conversation. When she does pay attention she is right on the button, and people enjoy what she has to say, and are quite pleased with the brilliance that is there. But when she is lost in her own mind, she doesn't quite pay attention. Not that she daydreams, she simply enjoys thinking about another problem while others talk about themselves. (That is something she cannot stand, by the way, when others, mostly Phillip really, go on and on about themselves and their problems/achievements/etc - she doesn't like to talk about herself to others unless they bring it up.)
Aside from being sweet, caring, manipulative and demanding, she is a rather intelligent girl, who would have gotten good marks from her governess had the governess not fled when her parents disappeared. She loves to read, and when she was a small girl would often read ahead in the lessons, get ahead in the work, and end up finished with the lesson half-way through the lecture. Her governess noticed her listlessness and assumed she was making trouble, and so gave her more busy work to do, more projects to accomplish. Now, Alyson lives alone with her brother in an abandoned castle, and is not afraid of hard work nor toil, but busywork is something she loathes. When she is given a task that accomplishes nothing, she detests it. It has no end to its means, and is pointless. So she does the chores her brother gives her, gets praise when she chirrups to him in Latin or Greek, and spends a lot of time thinking about things that are outside of the castle, what kind of a life everyone else has.
Alyson, in a nutshell, is a fun person to be around, though she will slowly creep into your life and manipulate you to do the things she wants you to do, such as play with her when you didn't really want to, or give her a bonbon when there was no cause before. She's still an incredibly sweet person, and doesn't force people to do things that are harmful or awful (though with time she could, but she's not inclined to). She loves people for who they are, and does her best to make sure that they are as happy as she is.
Parents:
Adolphe Garnier, former King, now a giant oak. Aged 54.
Liliane Garnier, former Queen, now an encircling rosebush. Aged 47.
Siblings:
Phillip Garnier, former Prince, now just a brother. Aged 24.
Pets:
None that respond by any name, though she keeps to the horses that were left in the stables. They are more free-range at this point in time and run wildly on the lands, though they come to the stables to sleep at night. That is when Alyson goes to them and brushes them and coos at them.
Character History:
When she was born, Alyson had no idea that she was a special child. She was a princess, a daughter of a king and a queen, gentle sovereigns and just rulers. They brought their daughter into a world secluded, restricting her and her dear older brother to the grounds. She never knew why they would never let them venture into the town that so many of the servants talked of, or even why it was forbidden to walk off the grounds. Perhaps if she left she would no longer be a princess but turn into a horrible creature... that was what she used to tell herself when her parents were, well, her parents.
As a child she had no reason for want - her parents gave her everything she could imagine and yet did not spoil her. They did not revere her above all else, but they did not treat her as a servant, and so she was in the happy middle, a place where she was as a normal child with nice things. Her parents hired the best of governesses to teach her to read, write, calculate and until she was nine years of age she learned hungrily, eagerly, unlike any other girl that her governess had taught. She learned quickly and so most times she was bored halfway through the lesson, it was true, but she always got high marks.
When she wasn't studying from books she was doing what her governess called 'princessey things', like learning to dance, learning to play the piano, walking and talking properly, which she still does, but doesn't practice in light of the fun she could be having. With no one but her brother to tell her what's what, she doesn't think it right to waste her time doing those things. Does she? Yes - in fact Phillip insists that she keep some sort of civility and makes her practice the piano on Fridays and Saturdays, makes her wear proper dresses (though he lets her get away without the shoes, which she appreciates) and be clean... He also dances with her as though she were a proper lady, and teaches her all the dances that he knows of from when he was taught by their mother. Alyson doesn't remember the big parties that were thrown, but she does remember the food and the lights, and the manner of people who came. They were all thrilled to see the little princess dressed so pretty, and she still clings to that, which is why she acquiesces to her brother's demands to keep her civil.
Her brother, Phillip... He was born five years before her, and so when she came into the world he already had a well established relationship with their parents, and he took to her right away. She loved her older brother, she thinks, from before, when she was still inside. She doesn't remember, who could, but, she knew that when she was an infant and when she was still too young to read that he loved her and played with her, and made sure that she was well and happy. Hearing him regale her with stories of her learning to walk, of her learning to speak and then to read makes her fond for when they were younger and the troubles of the world did not matter so much. He loved the outside world, well, what of it he could reach on the grounds, and he would always surprise her with a flower or teach her about a tree or a fox.
When they weren't talking, oddly enough in a rational, adult-like manner, as they were growing, they did play games together. Hide and seek was and is one of her favorite games to play with Phillip, and she'll run into a room he is working in and scream 'Not it!' and then run away again, off to hide. This was how they explored the castle, were allowed into all the nooks and crannies; how could you say no to that innocent face peering from behind the throne, begging you not to reveal her location? They played all manner of games and loved each other very fondly, and though the games are less of late, that bond is still there. It's hard to break something like that, nigh on impossible.
It could be said that the future of Alyson and Phillip was destroyed the summer of her ninth year. Her parents were approached by a strange-looking woman, who demanded that they give Alyson to her for some debt that she was owed. She doesn't remember exactly what happened, or why the woman wanted to take her, but she does remember her father standing bravely in front of his young daughter, holding her curious eyes back and protecting her as he demanded the woman out of his palace. Her mother stood beside him, and she looked down at Alyson, her eyes so lovely and golden in that moment, so happy and sad all at once. The woman would not go, though, Alyson remembers that much... and she would not have it that she would not have her debts repaid. Perhaps it was because she knew that the king and queen did not actually owe her anything that she spared their lives and simply vanished after that, but she did leave her mark upon them.
Her words, chill and frosty in the cheery summer, echo still in Alyson's ears, haunting her in her dreams. 'Protect her, then, if you might, it was said. 'But how will you save her if you cannot move? The beasts of burden will chew you, the sun will scorch you, and you will bear that proud remark forever!' with a cloud of smoke her father's feet rooted to the castle floor and cracked the stone, and his arms reached upward, and his cry of pain was soon silenced into a rustling of branches and wood; a giant oak stood in the place that her father had been, and instead of his warm back, she was holding until a rough patch of bark. Alyson screamed and ran toward the throne behind her, and stumbled, clutching onto the arm rest and looking out at what had once been her father. Her mother, so delicate in the sunlight, held unto the trunk, crying over her husband, when the old woman's words could be heard again. 'Cry and weep forever and bear a cheery face, prick those who scorn you and be delicate to those who would watch over you and tend you. Briar woman, shall you be a briar patch! Prick me once, and never more... with your demise our debts repaid.'
Her mother was gone the next moment that Alyson looked. Instead there was a beautiful rose bush curled up along the oak, both buried in the same earth. The hall was quiet except for the patter of the woman's footsteps receding out of the castle, and Alyson's soft cries. After that, the days were blurry. She remembers Phillip finding her and asking where the tree had come from and muttering something, something about the awful woman... After that a lot of the servants left, saying they wouldn't work in a haunted place. Only a few stayed, those who had loved Alyson and her brother, as well as her parents, and it was they who knocked out that part of the ceiling so rain and sun could filter down to her parents. Alyson, for a time, wouldn't leave the base of the oak, crying and even falling asleep at its feet. It would rustle and sigh, and she knew that her father was crying too.
After that, life became cold and Alyson did her best to keep her spirits up. She tried to put her parents out of her mind and just focus on living, which she did. She stopped sleeping in the throne room when she was 10. When she was 11 she forgot what her parents looked like and started running around the castle again. When she was 12, Phillip might have noticed that his old sister was back, which was true. He took to raising her of sorts, and they grew closer than ever. It seemed as though the other noble families forgot about the son and daughter of the Garnier family, and that their titles meant nothing. Phillip would play the piano in the morning and tell her stories at night, and she would do all manner of things to make him smile, from sewing him a new tunic or putting on little plays. They were lonely, but their life was happy, and the days ebbed and flowed as the river. Alyson never concerned herself with matters of the court, so what actually happens with that is still lost on her; why should she when all she is asked to do is read and not go off the grounds? Perhaps there were Princes out there, looking for the lost Princess of Averyln, or perhaps they simply wrote it off and went about their regular business. She does wonder often what life would have been like if she had not lost her parents to an awful enchantment.
Life went on like this for some time, until just after her nineteenth birthday. A strange woman stumbled onto the grounds of the castle and had the audacity to come up to the gates and ask to be shown inside so she could rest. Brigitte, Alyson's faithful hand maiden, informed the young princess that the girl was from the town just past the wood. Alyson had no grudge against that, but her poor, stupid brother seemed smitten with the girl. He had only had Alyson for all these years to be company with, since their family had supposedly fallen off the face of the planet. She has no issue with his feelings, she is in fact quite happy for him... but after ten years of being alone with him as the sole person in her life that gave her attention and companionship, she feels... left out. She feels that he should not so easily forget her, and if he were to leave her she feels that she would die. Perhaps this is why she must make Phillip see that he cannot fall in love and forget about his sister... and perhaps why it might seem like she's a bit bitter toward Penelope and why she doesn't like having her around.
