The Song of the Swan by Karah Sutton

Author:Karah Sutton [Sutton, Karah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2023-10-24T00:00:00+00:00

My, you are hungry for stories, little ones! Very well, I shall tell you of one who loved stories almost as much as you do. In a village near these mountains, a young woman lost herself in a book. She devoured stories of curious magic, of gallant knights on dangerous adventures, of princes and princesses in star-crossed love.

But that was not her life, of course. She lived in a village at the base of the mountains, where she and her seven sisters worked as seamstresses—very dreary indeed. With each passing season she began to despair of ever going on an adventure akin to the tales she loved—of battling monsters, or enduring curses, or falling in love with a handsome tsarevich. By day she worked with scratchy homespun fabrics (that weren’t even made of nettles or frog skin!), and by night she would read until her candle had burned down to nothing, imagining herself in a world very different from this one.

She began to wonder if the dullness of her life was due to how little she resembled the damsels from the stories she loved—the women who were beautiful, and graceful, and unfailingly kind. She wished to be more like them.

But her family had made arrangements for her to marry a man from the village, a man with a terrible temper. He did not like to read at all and told her that she would be expected to put away her childish books when they were wed.

This would not do!

She had heard of a valley not too far from her village where wishes were granted. It was said to lie deep in the mountains, where a lake was surrounded by dense forests swarming with spirits. Only the very bravest were able to reach the lake and their hearts’ desire. If she could find the courage, then she could make a wish to become like the heroines in her favorite stories.

And thus, one night she packed her very favorite books and stole away while her sisters were sleeping, to search for her perfect storybook life.

So I ask you, little ones: if she braved treacherous woods and wicked spirits to reach her goal, did she ever truly lack what she longed for?

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