Birthday lights

Quick sketch of young Rapunzel on her birthday, done with the 'Sketches' app. Drew it while watching the live action 'Cinderella'.  I'm thinking of her as being about 12 here, six years away from her fantastic Tangled adventures! So happy to be uploading something again! 





Never written a story to my picture. I guess there's a first time for everything, because here's

Birthday Lights. 

Rapunzel wiggled her toes beneath her blankets to make sure that she stayed awake. She could hear mother snoring now- in fact she had been snoring for the last ten minutes, but Rapunzel had not been brave enough to venture out yet. She didn't want mother to catch her like she had last year on her birthday. Where did mother get the idea that she would ever think of leaving the tower? Maybe she would believe her this year if she caught her when the lights were still dotting the sky instead of at dawn when she woke up on the window sill. Mother had never stricken her before then, not that she remembered. She set one foot on the floor, careful of the creaking boards. Now the other foot. Now for her hair. Rapunzel picked up half of it and wrapped part it around her arm before loading the rest onto her other arm. The less sound from even dragging that around the better. Tiptoeing step by step she crept down the stairs and peeped through the banisters, but she couldn't tell whether mother was sleeping. Finally she bit her lips together and walked to where she could peep her head around the door frame. Oh yes, mother was certainly sleeping. Rapunzel wished that she dared to close the door, but feared waking mother. No, she would take her chances. She couldn't stop herself from smiling as she opened the shutters. She couldn't stop a small, quiet gasp from escaping her throat when she saw them again, the floating lights that came and winked at her and wished her the happiest of days. Rapunzel curled up on the door step and leaned her face on her hands, her eyes wide and longing toward the outside world. What was this place, this world that mother saw every day but that she had not seen once? Could it be so bad a place really if mother loved it so? If these people of the floating lights could make a thing so lovely, how could they be so evil? Mother had told her that they were stars, but she had seen one float quite close two years past when she had nearly been able to reach out and take it. It was such a pretty shape, with a bright sun shape painted on it, but the wind had taken it from her. She never told mother the story. It was her secret. Her one secret among mother's many. Her eyes drank in the feast of beauty as long as they could. It would have to last her an entire year, after all. Finally the last light drifted from sight, and Rapunzel closed and locked the shutters before creeping back up the stairs to her bed. She sighed contentedly as she lay down to sleep again. Mother would have her up in the morning so that she could climb her hair and she best not look too tired. She curled up into her pillow and closed her eyes with the lights floating through the sky in her mind, lulling her to sleep and for the first time filling her with such a deep longing that a heavy tear fell from her eye down her face. Seeing the lights from her window was not enough. She was meant for so much more.