for as long as the valley folk have known, the castle has stood on the cliff. for as long as their stories can tell, it's been surrounded by a forest of thorns, with a sleeping princess inside, waiting for her true love to come riding in and save her with a kiss. so the stories say. it all seems fantastically unfair to alesa, the youngest daughter of a man full up with daughters. as it happens, it's also fantastically untrue. {originally written for nanowrimo 2018; unedited}