Fishbone Cinderella (gorgeous, spellbinding East-Asian inspired fantasy)

Part I - Broken Promises

Part I

Broken Promises

In the river was a carp with golden scales and bones, held to be a heavenly spirit.

Countless fishermen tried to catch him, so he took to hiding under the arrowhead leaves, where not even the frogs dared speak to him. Day after day, his loneliness grew.

One morning a girl walked into the water, weeping. Her eyes were like the river, muddy and brown, and speckling her cheeks were two nests of pockmarks.

“Why do you cry?” the fish asked.

“My mother plans to sell me because I am ugly.”

To the fish, she was not ugly at all; her face was a sky hatched with the stars he so missed.

“I will protect you,” he vowed to the girl, “if you will be my friend.”

To this, the girl agreed.