The stories always started out the same.

Once upon a time…

They all ended in pretty much the same way too. The brave knight ends up falling in love and living happily ever after. When Castiel was young, he spent a lot of time reading and re-reading that one book. The Collection of Children's Fairy Tales. He knew its place on the shelves by heart and always made a beeline for it upon his arrival in the dusty brown chambers of the palace library. He reverently turned the parchment pages, gently brushing a hand over the complicated weaving patterns of illuminations that lined the margins and headed each story. Gabriel had told him that their great-great-great-aunt had painted all the illuminations in the books in the library. Castiel didn't know how that could be possible since the library was so big and had so many books; Gabriel also had a habit of lying, although he liked to call it "creative embellishment". But that didn't stop Castiel's fascination with the stories or the book itself. He loved the way the leather smelled, it's brown cover embossed with small gold letters, and its spine expertly sewn. He remembered every detail.

Every child has a favorite book that they read over and over until it falls apart, and if Castiel had been any other child, this particular book might have met a similar fate, but little old Castiel was so unbearably reserved and cautious with every miniscule detail, the only damage that came to it was a small dog ear on page eighty-seven. The pages weren't numbered, but Castiel had counted and memorized that page, and then he'd folded the corner with extreme care because that was his story. Out of all the passages in the book, that was his favorite. Oh, yes, the one about the princess and the frog-turned-prince was just fine, as was the one about the little girl in her riding cloak and the ever popular one with the evil step mother; but Castiel's favorite was the one about the two princes who defeated a mighty evil in the forest, saving their respective kingdoms, and then uniting them with a marriage. He never grew tired of it. He wanted it.

He didn't want to live in the castle. He loved his father and mother and brothers and sister with every fiber of his tiny being, but he didn't like how cold and damp the castle was, or how empty the halls stood over him. He wanted to go out adventuring to meet new people and see the different things the world had to offer him. He didn't want to have his entire life, from birth to death, dictated out to him like he was some mindless puppet. He didn't want to marry the princess of the neighboring kingdom, he didn't want to have power over his servant, he didn't want to get up every day and sunrise for lessons and sparring and waiting for the day to be over.

When he could escape all that, he'd head directly to the library. He'd pull the giant bronze handles with all his might and slip in once the doors were open wide enough. Then he'd find his book and read. He would curl up near the enormous diamond-pained glass window on the second story and lose himself in the pages. When he finished, he'd find another leather bound world to explore, then another and another, and usually, by that time, Anael would be finished with her dance lessons. She liked to visit Castiel in the library and sit reading together in companionable silence for a few hours before supper was called in the main hall. Every day for at least eight years, Castiel would break their space and sit in her lap.

"Same story today, Castiel?" she would ask. He'd only nod, afraid that his voice might ruin his chances. He knew it must be aggravating to read the same thing each day, but he couldn't help himself. But Anael never complained, in fact more often than not, she'd smile and flip to page eighty-seven with no hint of frustration.

"Alright, let's see…" she cleared her throat, "The Knights of the Forest…

…Once upon a time…"