Ava had always felt out of place in her small town, like a puzzle piece that didn't quite belong. The cobbled streets, the market stalls, the same faces she'd seen every day of her twenty years it all felt too small for the dreams she carried in her chest.
By day, she stitched dresses in the seamstress's shop, her fingers pricked with pins, her mind wandering to places she had only read about in stolen books. By night, she sat by her window, gazing at the sky. The stars were her only companions, the only things vast enough to hold her restless heart.
She often imagined that somewhere beyond the forests, beyond the mountains there was a world waiting for her. A life not ruled by gossip or routine, but by something brighter. Something extraordinary.
And deep down, she longed for love. Not the fleeting kind that ended in broken promises, but a love that felt like destiny itself.
Tonight, the sky seemed alive, glowing brighter than she'd ever seen. The town had gathered in the square to watch the rare shower of stars, an event whispered about in myths as a sign that the heavens were listening. But Ava watched alone from her window, her chin resting on her palm.
"Please," she whispered to the night, her voice barely audible. "Send me something more. Someone who feels like magic."
The words slipped into the air like a secret and the sky answered.
A brilliant streak of light tore across the heavens, so close it felt as if the world itself was shaking. Ava gasped, clutching the sill as the star blazed downward, trailing fire, until it vanished beyond the horizon. Somewhere past the forest, near the river that marked the edge of her town, the earth thundered with the sound of impact.
Her heart hammered in her chest.
She should have been afraid. But instead, her veins thrummed with a certainty she couldn't explain: her wish had been heard.
And then she saw him.
For the briefest heartbeat, standing on the crest of the hill outside the town, bathed in silver light, was a figure. Tall, regal, cloaked in something that shimmered like woven starlight. Even at the distance, Ava felt his gaze on her window steady, searching, unshakable.
She blinked, and he was gone.
The townsfolk would call it a trick of the eyes, a fancy born from fire and smoke. But Ava knew better. She felt it in the marrow of her bones:
Her life was no longer ordinary.
Somewhere in the shadows beyond the forest, a fallen star had taken the shape of a man.
And soon, Ava would discover he was no man at all but a prince from a kingdom written in the stars.