Once upon a time on a tiny secluded island there lived a fair maiden named Lei, along with her charming little village on a paradise where all their needs were met. Lei was a smart and inquisitive girl, with no rival in both elegance and beauty, and when she looked out at the sea she wanted nothing more than to be out on the water, searching for an escape from the small island.

    Lei was tired of her same old routine that bored her day in and day out: wake and bath in the nearby spring, gather herbs and firewood for the nightly feasts, helping the fishermen carry the load back to the village, then finally laying to rest for a quick minute under the coconut tree on top of the cliff overlooking the water. Her life seemed subpar and boring, there was no danger, no adventure, no sense of the miraculous. Her mother always told her to heed the island and the village as this was her home and family, to be wise and grateful. “ To take for granted will be your greatest foe,” her mother always said, though Lei never truly comprehended the meaning of the saying until she was forced to.

One day as Lei was sitting under the coconut tree on top of the cliff she spotted a large cloak of white dancing in the sky. She took this as a sign and ran to the shore as fast as she could, descending the high cliff. Right when she reached the beach she came to a large boat with dozens of men running about trying to anchor the enormous thing onto the land. From where she was standing something caught her eye or rather someone. A man, a handsome man, he was tall and masculine, everything Lei had learned to want in a man, she could only assume that he was in charge.

as the prince gazed upon the island he could only hope to find adventure and good material for the tales he would tell back home. He stepped off the boat to be met with sand and an enchanting face, he knew then that he must meet this mystery woman. Having only caught her name, Lei led the prince back to her village, showing him aspects of herself. The prince however looked down on everything that Lei had bestowed upon him, hiding of course his true emotions. He had no interest in the ways of the island people and seemed to only want Lei for entertainment, and it was then he decided that he would bring her back home with him and marry her.

It had only been a week before the prince had to return back to his kingdom, and he extended an invitation to Lei, who seemed equally as eager to leave the island. It seemed she had forgotten almost everything and everyone in the wake of this new adventure. With only bidding her mother farewell, Lei left her tiny little island behind for the prince and a new lavish life in the palace.

Shortly after returning to the prince’s kingdom he and Lei married and she was then stripped of her traditional clothing and suffocated in a big puffy dress, barely able to see her feet. Lei was meant to wander about the kingdom meeting new people and seeing new faces, the subjects of the kingdom seemed nice enough to Lei, besides the few glares and whispers she would hear whenever she would walk into a room, or the way she was never able to do anything or go anywhere alone. It took some adjusting but Lei was certain that this was what she wanted, after all she was happily married to a handsome prince.