A Father's Hope

Before he was a lord, Augustus was a boy. He dreamed of traveling to lands far away and have adventures that would spread even farther and be told for generations. On the day of his eighteenth birthday his father, the former Lord Tremaine, gave him permission to have his first adventure and gave him the resources to voyage to the kingdom south of his home country. 

Augustus had just left the walls surrounding his family's manor, when he saw a beautiful women with long golden hair. The women's name was Elenor, and she was the daughter of a local farmer. Instead of going to the local port, Augustus' initial destination, he got off of his horse and attempted to speak to the beautiful young maiden.

Elenor was not impressed by Augustus' finery, however, and refused to succumb to his charm, and she continued to ignore his attempts at courtship for months. Until at last, Augustus' warm nature and kind heart won Elenor over, and eventually Augustus and Elenor got married and had a daughter, named Cinderella.

Together, Augustus, Elenor, and Cinderella had a wonderfully happy life. When Augustus' father died, he inherited his father's title and all of his lands. Unfortunately, soon after Cinderella's seventh birthday, Elenor became ill and died. 

Elenor's death thrust Augustus into a deep depression for moths after his wife's death. He lost the love of his life and any hope for future happiness. Until one day, Cinderella fell from a tree while playing and broke her arm. Augustus saw his daughter's accident from the stable, and spurred by fear, he ran to her and to see if she was alright. Once he knew she was alright, he realized that he would be destroyed because then he would truly be alone, and he did not want his daughter to suffer that fate if anything happened to him. 

Augustus then set out to find a wife. He met with all of the eligible women in his lands. He interviewed all of the women he met to determine their intelligence and kindness. Augustus accepted that he would never love another women the way he loved Elenor, so when he met Catherine, an intelligent young widow with two daughters around Cinderella's age, he thought she would be as good of a fit as he could get for a motherly figure for his daughter. Catherine was smart, and a mother, and her daughters would provide an even larger family for Cinderella if anything were to happen to him. 

A month later, Augustus married Catherine, hoping she would be able to ensure that Cinderella would always be loved, which is all he could or would ever hope for his daughter. Augustus never imagined that his actions, intended to protect his daughter, would inspire his daughter to have an adventure so great that it would be told for generations after his, and his daughter's, death.