Knock Knock!
Jan. 31st, 2006 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
envious_musesWho's there?
More original fiction!
Hahahaa- no, it's not a joke. Just getting all my original stuff tucked safely away, shall soon get to posting fandom stuff. Never fear. But for now...
Title: The New Animal
Original fiction
Rating: G
Word count: 1,802
Summary: a take on the Just-So Stories
Long ago, when Mother Earth and Father Sky were still young, the animals gathered together to talk about a strange new sight they had seen. A new creature, unknown to any of them, had been seen by many of the animals, and so they called a council of the leaders of every species to decide what this new animal was.
“I have seen this new animal,” said the old Tortoise, the oldest animal there. “I have seen that this animal walks on two legs, so it must be a Bird.” This caused a great outbreak of squawking and cawing from the many Birds at the meeting. “No!” they cried, “It cannot be one of us! We know what all the other Birds look like.”
“Well,” said the crafty Raven, “I, too, have seen this creature, and though it walks like we Birds, it has fur. No Bird has fur.” “Yes, yes,” cried the other Birds, which greatly pleased the Raven. “I have also seen that this animal eats with its front legs,” continued the Raven. “It must be an Ape.” “No, no,” cried the Apes, “we have none missing from our numbers, so it cannot be one of us.”
The great silver-backed Gorilla stood up and called to the other animals, “It could not be an Ape, but I have seen its young. They squall and are helpless and blind, they are not like ours. They are like the Cats’ litters. The new animal must be a Cat.” “Yes, yes,” cried the Birds and Apes. “No,” hissed the Cats, large and small, offended by the Apes’ presumptions.
“Friends, please,” purred the littlest Cat, a small queen tabby no larger than the greatest lion’s paw. “I have seen this animal as well, my friends, and I can say it is neither Bird nor Ape nor Cat nor indeed any animal I know well. But as I was stalking it, I heard it let out a great sound. It sounded, my friends, like the Horse, and therefore that is what it must be.” “Yes, yes,” said the animals, while “No, no,” cried the horses. The Donkeys and Zebras were angered, as well, on their cousins’ behalves.
“Foolishness!” whinnied the great grey Stallion, the most graceful creature of the gathering. “This thing is no Horse, how could you even compare us. No, I, too, have seen this thing and while I was there it made no sound like a Horse. Instead, once it saw me, it pulled something in its hands then I heard a sound like I have only heard once and felt a pain like one I know well. The thing struck from a distance and hissed and stung like a Snake. Therefore, it must be a Snake.” “Oh, yes, a Snake!” cried the others. “Not a Sssnake!” cried the Snakes.
“Sssso,” hissed the King Cobra, coiling around himself and raising his head, “you believe thissss new animal to be a Ssssnake. I ssssay it isss an Elephant. It isss a sssmart animal, I have ssseen it being ssssmart. I have not sssseen it acting like a Sssnake, sssso it isss not a Sssnake.” “Yes, yes, an elephant,” chorused the animals together. There was only one Elephant at the gathering, however, an old and wise matriarch. She did not stop to protest the snake’s words, instead posing her own.
“Hmm,” muttered the wise Elephant, “I have seen this creature as well, and though it walks on two legs, makes many noises, and eats with its front paws, I have also seen that it lives in packs, like the Wolves.” Now, none of the animals quite trusted the Wolves, which always seemed to be smiling at them, even as they stalked their prey. The thought of another kind of Wolf in their home did not make them happy. The Wolves, however, just grinned their grins, lolled their tongues, and said, “Well, well, so you say, good Elephant, so you say. Because you are all so confused, perhaps one of you should go to the animal’s home and see what it is.”
This statement, of course, sent a roar through the gathered animals. They told each other how very brave they all were and how, if they only had the time, they themselves would be the one to go look for the new animal. But, of course, they were just too busy. So the Wolves grinned their grins, lolled their tongues, and said, “Well, well, so you all say, wise friends, so you say. Very well, we will seek out this new animal ourselves, to save you the trouble on your time.” So the Wolves grinned their grins, lolled their tongues, turned and loped out of the gathering place, leaving the other animals behind to await their findings.
The animals waited and waited. They waited all night and the next day for the Wolves to return. They waited a moon-time, then a season, and finally, when they could wait no longer and the sun had made many a full course through the sky, they decided they must send someone else to discover what had happened to the Wolves and to investigate this new creature. “Now,” said the Elephant, “we have waited long enough. It is obvious the Wolves will not return.” As it was known that the Wolves listened to no one but themselves and owed no loyalty to any outside their pack, the animals were not too worried about the Wolves. They had, the animals all thought, probably just run off, grinning all the time. “Who will go, then?” asked the Elephant.
“Hmm,” purred the littlest Cat, who had spoken before, “I suppose it would not impose on my time too much if I were to go and see this new creature. Very well, I shall be off.” With that, the littlest Cat licked her paws, flicked her tail, and slunk off into the brush. Yes, the animals thought, the Cat will find something out. Again, the animals waited and waited. They again waited all night and the next day. They waited a moon-time, then a season, and finally decided the littlest Cat wasn’t coming back, either. “Well,” said the great Elephant, “it is my belief that the Cat is not coming back.” “Yes, yes,” said the animals, “she is not coming back. We should not have trusted one so finicky.” The animals all knew, after all, that the Cat was as likely as not to sit down to wash her tail and forget about looking for the new animal. So they were not especially worried. “Who will go now?” asked the Elephant.
The great grey Stallion tossed his head, stomped his hoof, and said “Very well, as you are all afraid, I shall go. We shall see what this new animal is.” Almost before he had finished speaking, he tossed his head, stomped his hooves, gathered his herd together and galloped off into the forest to search for the creature. The animals waited and waited. They waited all night and the next day. Still the Stallion and his herd did not return. They waited a moon-time, then a season, and finally decided the Stallion, like the Wolves and Cat, was not coming back. This did not overly bother the animals for, as the grumpy, old Badger said, “The thing was so vain he might have starved to death staring into a pool of water.” They were all sure the Stallion had just wandered off in search of green grass, taking his herd with him. This went on for some time, with the animals sending out one seeker after another to learn about this new animal. They sent the great hunter Hawk and the curious Ferret, the brave little Donkey and the sturdy Ox, and many others, even the timid Rabbit and Sheep. They waited and waited for each to return, but none did.
Finally, the animals had had enough. They looked around at their dwindling numbers, muttering to themselves and each other. “Fine,” said the Giraffe, who had not yet spoken at the animal meeting. “Let me go. I will go in darkness and look over the treetops at the animal. It will not see me.” The remaining animals decided this was as good an idea as any they had had, so they let the Giraffe go. They waited and waited. They waited all night, but, half-way through the next day, the Giraffe came running back, telling the animals to come quickly and see what he had seen. The animals followed the Giraffe quickly. They followed him for the rest of the day until, just before moonrise, they came to the spot where the Giraffe said he had seen the animal. “Look,” said the Giraffe. “See how dangerous this animal is.” And the other animals looked and indeed they saw. There was the Cat lying by the fire and the Wolves lying by the entrance to the creature’s nest. There were the Horses with strange vines around their legs, and the Donkey and Ox a little way off with what looked like a vine going from their necks to the ground. The Sheep and the Ferret and even the timid Rabbit were there as well, trapped in something like pieces of logs. The Hawk was also attached to a piece of wood and looked like it had been blinded.
After seeing this, the animals ran quickly away. They were very afraid. After running through the night, they came to the place where they had held the animal meeting. “He has killed them, he has killed little Cat and the Wolves!” cried the silver-backed Gorilla. “And he has trapped our other friends to kill them later!” cried the Zebra. “Yes, yes, he will kill us, too!” cried all the animals together. But the wise old Elephant, who had kept her head throughout, said, “Now, friends, don’t be hasty. We now know that this new animal is very dangerous. We shall be able to avoid him now. We know he is wise like I am, quick as the Snake, and cunning like the Wolves. We know he has many strengths that we must be wary of. This new animal is also a very dangerous hunter, as we have seen. We must be cautious, friends.” “Yes, yes,” said the animals. They knew the Elephant was the wisest of them all. “Avoid this new animal, friends, unless you follow the littlest Cat into his fire.” The animals were quick to agree, they did not want to be in anyone’s fire. So the animals resolved to stay far away from this animal-that-was-not-like-any-other-animal, and to this day, the animals stay far away from it for fear it will catch them as well.
And that is the story of how Man became the greatest and most feared animal of all.
Title: The Greatest Power
Original fiction
Rating: G
Word count: 1,875
Summary: a fairy tale
Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
The beautiful princess and her love. This is the stuff of which stories are made. This is, in fact, where our story begins. The Princess Isabeau was a beautiful young woman, the envy and pride of all her kingdom. She had raven locks that fell to her waist, so dark that one wondered why the birds themselves did not believe her one of them. She had the fairest of skin, a voice to rival the sweetest singing lark, and eyes the bluest of blues. She had also found the one thing most women search lifetimes for: her true love. Oh, it was not a simple love. No, she was a princess, the heir to a kingdom; he was merely a knight, her protector and constant companion. She was expected to wed a wealthy prince from some kingdom or other, but instead she found herself deeply, irreversibly in love with her knight and he with her. So the Princess grew, surrounded by those who loved and cared for her, and followed perpetually by her knight. They each knew of their love for the other, yet neither could share that love for fear of the consequences. And so they secretly loved and hid from that love, being the best of friends and yet suffering all the while.
As time passed, the beautiful kingdom was attacked by another, jealous of their lush fields, healthy herds, and, of course, the fair Princess Isabeau. The land known as the Kingdom of Xil was an unhappy place of deserts and high mountain ranges. It was ruled by a harsh king who cared for nothing but his own happiness. He let his people starve and their crops die to fill his coffers with their earnings. When he heard of the beautiful Isabeau about to reach her 14th birthday, he wrote to her father the King, asking for her hand in marriage. The King, knowing the foulness of this king of Xil, refused. Instead, he planned to let his daughter live as she wished for yet a little while, sending her to be schooled under the most talented sorceress in the land, with her faithful knight always at her heals. More time passed, and the Princess returned to her beloved kingdom on her 18th birthday, a sorceress. She was greeted by her parents, overjoyed that their little girl, who was not so little anymore, had returned. They held a great feast in her honor. But that very night at that very feast, the King and Queen were struck down by a terrible poison. The Princess knew it had been the king of Xil.
The commoners of the kingdom, who had much loved their King and Queen, were outraged and vowed to fight alongside their Princess. She wept instead for peace, crying to her people that there must not be any more blood shed. Reluctantly they agreed. Then the king of Xil did what the Princess had expected, he invaded the fair kingdom with his army of evil creatures, sowing death wherever they went. The king of Xil was a great and powerful warlock. He cast his evil spells on the countryside, causing the lush fields and healthy herds to fall to dust. The Princess had known the evil king would try something like this, but she was a powerful sorceress now and had set a trap to catch him. She only had to wait for the king to approach the capital city to spring her trap.
The people feared for their lives, yet they loved and trusted their Princess and so they did not fight. They watched as their wonderful kingdom turned to ash in the wake of the dreadful army. Finally the day came when the evil king stood outside the gates of the great city which was all that now remained of the once great and beautiful kingdom. The king stepped up to the wide gates, shut for the first time in many years, and declared that, should he be given the Princess, the people of the city would be allowed to live in peace under his rule. The people trembled and feared – they could not give up their wonderful Princess, but how should any such as they defy a dread and powerful king like the warlock of Xil? They knew better than to trust any promise made by him. The Princess then went among them and told them not to fear for she would deal with the king in the morning and all would be well. The people wept for what they thought would be the last great sacrifice of their royalty for the people.
The morning came and with it, the Princess Isabeau’s one chance to stop the warlock king. As the sun rose over the beleaguered kingdom, the beautiful Princess stood at her chamber window and sang a lament to the day. The people thought she was expressing her sadness of the coming union, but it was not so. The sorceress that Isabeau had studied her magic under had taught her the arts of the old ways, how one could trap another with an object as simple as a piece of thread or something as intangible as a song. Her Knight, who had spent the long years of study always by her side, knew what she now attempted as did one other. Though the king of Xil was only able to use the corrupt and deadly powers of a warlock, he had studied the arts of others until he knew all they could do. As soon as he felt the bindings of the song, he knew at once what the Princess was trying to do. So he struck back at her with his magic, causing her to fall to the floor of her bower. She gasped in pain as it felt like a needle had pierced her heart. If she did nothing, she would die. She knew she could defend herself from the blackness of the warlock’s magic, but how could she save her kingdom if she had no strength left to attack in return?
The brave Knight had stood beside his Princess for many years now and loved her more than he loved life as he knew she returned the feeling. He knew she would give her life to save her people, and so he resolved to make it unnecessary. The Knight turned from the sight of his beloved, a sight he hoped to return to quickly. He walked through the deserted streets of the city until he reached the great gates. He exited through a side door few knew of and soon found himself standing before the great and evil army. Though he knew the warlock king to be much more powerful, he challenged him to single combat. The king of Xil laughed, for he had been told by an ancient seeress many years ago that he would not die a mortal’s death. He accepted the challenge of the worthy Knight feeling no worry as he switched his attention from the now helpless Princess to her defender. And so they all came to the end.
For once they had been dueling but a little while, the king struck a mortal blow to the faithful Knight. As he lay stricken on the ground, the Knight unknowingly did what few had done before or have done since; his heart, in its last moments, sent a cry through the space separating them to his one true love, the beautiful Princess. At his anguished call, she awoke from her faint. She could feel the Knight as though he stood beside her in her room. She looked out to the battlefield with the eyes of a hawk and cried with despair at what she saw. She could feel her spell flowing through the air around her; she had nearly finished it before she was attacked. She had only to direct it. She knew the arts of healing as well as those of war and enchantment. She could save her Knight, her love with but a thought. She could feel the warlock king gathering his power to strike at her again, she knew she had to act then or never. She sent a prayer to any god who may be listening, and with a thought, sent her spell hurtling toward the two combatants.
The Knight felt the love the Princess sent him just before he closed his eyes. He did not hear the scream of the king of Xil as the king felt his consciousness ripped from his body. He knew only that he was now free to go and that his love would be waiting for him. The people went immediately to tell their Princess of the death of her guard, but when they entered her bower, they found her laid on the floor as if in a deep sleep. She looked at rest, but the stillness of her heart told otherwise. She had died at the moment her spell killed the king and left her Knight to die. She had fallen from a broken heart, a single tear streaming down her cheek. Love of her people had felled the king, love for the Knight had felled the Princess.
The king of Xil would die no mortal death, indeed, just as the seeress had predicted. Instead, he would be forever trapped in a song that the people of the city say can be heard outside the front gates to this day. As the king’s control of his body was lost, so were his powers destroyed and the creatures he had created for his evil gains returned to the blood and ash they had been before he twisted them. The people found no body when they went to look for the faithful Knight. They found nothing on the battlefield at all but new grass sprouting from the ashes of the old and a single, pure white flower growing from a patch of drying blood. The power of love had proven far greater than the power of death wielded by the corrupt and bloody king.
The people still tell the story of the beloved and loving Princess Isabeau and her loyal Knight. They tell a story of how a pair of stars, now called The Lovers, winked brightly in the sky that night and shown day and night for a week after the battle. They tell a story of how those very stars are said to turn out their lights on that fateful anniversary every year, and, if one were to look closely enough, one would see a pair of white doves, one with a blood red breast, sitting atop the tower that once held the Princess Isabeau’s chambers. They tell a story of love that withstands time and separation and the greatest obstacle of all: hate. The day after the final battle the people of the kingdom began to rebuild, and as they went to bury the Princess, they found a short verse inscribed deeply into the rock of the tower, though no one had entered the tower. It has remained there till this day.
Though through fire or flood you rove
Know the greatest power is love.
More original fiction!
Hahahaa- no, it's not a joke. Just getting all my original stuff tucked safely away, shall soon get to posting fandom stuff. Never fear. But for now...
Title: The New Animal
Original fiction
Rating: G
Word count: 1,802
Summary: a take on the Just-So Stories
Long ago, when Mother Earth and Father Sky were still young, the animals gathered together to talk about a strange new sight they had seen. A new creature, unknown to any of them, had been seen by many of the animals, and so they called a council of the leaders of every species to decide what this new animal was.
“I have seen this new animal,” said the old Tortoise, the oldest animal there. “I have seen that this animal walks on two legs, so it must be a Bird.” This caused a great outbreak of squawking and cawing from the many Birds at the meeting. “No!” they cried, “It cannot be one of us! We know what all the other Birds look like.”
“Well,” said the crafty Raven, “I, too, have seen this creature, and though it walks like we Birds, it has fur. No Bird has fur.” “Yes, yes,” cried the other Birds, which greatly pleased the Raven. “I have also seen that this animal eats with its front legs,” continued the Raven. “It must be an Ape.” “No, no,” cried the Apes, “we have none missing from our numbers, so it cannot be one of us.”
The great silver-backed Gorilla stood up and called to the other animals, “It could not be an Ape, but I have seen its young. They squall and are helpless and blind, they are not like ours. They are like the Cats’ litters. The new animal must be a Cat.” “Yes, yes,” cried the Birds and Apes. “No,” hissed the Cats, large and small, offended by the Apes’ presumptions.
“Friends, please,” purred the littlest Cat, a small queen tabby no larger than the greatest lion’s paw. “I have seen this animal as well, my friends, and I can say it is neither Bird nor Ape nor Cat nor indeed any animal I know well. But as I was stalking it, I heard it let out a great sound. It sounded, my friends, like the Horse, and therefore that is what it must be.” “Yes, yes,” said the animals, while “No, no,” cried the horses. The Donkeys and Zebras were angered, as well, on their cousins’ behalves.
“Foolishness!” whinnied the great grey Stallion, the most graceful creature of the gathering. “This thing is no Horse, how could you even compare us. No, I, too, have seen this thing and while I was there it made no sound like a Horse. Instead, once it saw me, it pulled something in its hands then I heard a sound like I have only heard once and felt a pain like one I know well. The thing struck from a distance and hissed and stung like a Snake. Therefore, it must be a Snake.” “Oh, yes, a Snake!” cried the others. “Not a Sssnake!” cried the Snakes.
“Sssso,” hissed the King Cobra, coiling around himself and raising his head, “you believe thissss new animal to be a Ssssnake. I ssssay it isss an Elephant. It isss a sssmart animal, I have ssseen it being ssssmart. I have not sssseen it acting like a Sssnake, sssso it isss not a Sssnake.” “Yes, yes, an elephant,” chorused the animals together. There was only one Elephant at the gathering, however, an old and wise matriarch. She did not stop to protest the snake’s words, instead posing her own.
“Hmm,” muttered the wise Elephant, “I have seen this creature as well, and though it walks on two legs, makes many noises, and eats with its front paws, I have also seen that it lives in packs, like the Wolves.” Now, none of the animals quite trusted the Wolves, which always seemed to be smiling at them, even as they stalked their prey. The thought of another kind of Wolf in their home did not make them happy. The Wolves, however, just grinned their grins, lolled their tongues, and said, “Well, well, so you say, good Elephant, so you say. Because you are all so confused, perhaps one of you should go to the animal’s home and see what it is.”
This statement, of course, sent a roar through the gathered animals. They told each other how very brave they all were and how, if they only had the time, they themselves would be the one to go look for the new animal. But, of course, they were just too busy. So the Wolves grinned their grins, lolled their tongues, and said, “Well, well, so you all say, wise friends, so you say. Very well, we will seek out this new animal ourselves, to save you the trouble on your time.” So the Wolves grinned their grins, lolled their tongues, turned and loped out of the gathering place, leaving the other animals behind to await their findings.
The animals waited and waited. They waited all night and the next day for the Wolves to return. They waited a moon-time, then a season, and finally, when they could wait no longer and the sun had made many a full course through the sky, they decided they must send someone else to discover what had happened to the Wolves and to investigate this new creature. “Now,” said the Elephant, “we have waited long enough. It is obvious the Wolves will not return.” As it was known that the Wolves listened to no one but themselves and owed no loyalty to any outside their pack, the animals were not too worried about the Wolves. They had, the animals all thought, probably just run off, grinning all the time. “Who will go, then?” asked the Elephant.
“Hmm,” purred the littlest Cat, who had spoken before, “I suppose it would not impose on my time too much if I were to go and see this new creature. Very well, I shall be off.” With that, the littlest Cat licked her paws, flicked her tail, and slunk off into the brush. Yes, the animals thought, the Cat will find something out. Again, the animals waited and waited. They again waited all night and the next day. They waited a moon-time, then a season, and finally decided the littlest Cat wasn’t coming back, either. “Well,” said the great Elephant, “it is my belief that the Cat is not coming back.” “Yes, yes,” said the animals, “she is not coming back. We should not have trusted one so finicky.” The animals all knew, after all, that the Cat was as likely as not to sit down to wash her tail and forget about looking for the new animal. So they were not especially worried. “Who will go now?” asked the Elephant.
The great grey Stallion tossed his head, stomped his hoof, and said “Very well, as you are all afraid, I shall go. We shall see what this new animal is.” Almost before he had finished speaking, he tossed his head, stomped his hooves, gathered his herd together and galloped off into the forest to search for the creature. The animals waited and waited. They waited all night and the next day. Still the Stallion and his herd did not return. They waited a moon-time, then a season, and finally decided the Stallion, like the Wolves and Cat, was not coming back. This did not overly bother the animals for, as the grumpy, old Badger said, “The thing was so vain he might have starved to death staring into a pool of water.” They were all sure the Stallion had just wandered off in search of green grass, taking his herd with him. This went on for some time, with the animals sending out one seeker after another to learn about this new animal. They sent the great hunter Hawk and the curious Ferret, the brave little Donkey and the sturdy Ox, and many others, even the timid Rabbit and Sheep. They waited and waited for each to return, but none did.
Finally, the animals had had enough. They looked around at their dwindling numbers, muttering to themselves and each other. “Fine,” said the Giraffe, who had not yet spoken at the animal meeting. “Let me go. I will go in darkness and look over the treetops at the animal. It will not see me.” The remaining animals decided this was as good an idea as any they had had, so they let the Giraffe go. They waited and waited. They waited all night, but, half-way through the next day, the Giraffe came running back, telling the animals to come quickly and see what he had seen. The animals followed the Giraffe quickly. They followed him for the rest of the day until, just before moonrise, they came to the spot where the Giraffe said he had seen the animal. “Look,” said the Giraffe. “See how dangerous this animal is.” And the other animals looked and indeed they saw. There was the Cat lying by the fire and the Wolves lying by the entrance to the creature’s nest. There were the Horses with strange vines around their legs, and the Donkey and Ox a little way off with what looked like a vine going from their necks to the ground. The Sheep and the Ferret and even the timid Rabbit were there as well, trapped in something like pieces of logs. The Hawk was also attached to a piece of wood and looked like it had been blinded.
After seeing this, the animals ran quickly away. They were very afraid. After running through the night, they came to the place where they had held the animal meeting. “He has killed them, he has killed little Cat and the Wolves!” cried the silver-backed Gorilla. “And he has trapped our other friends to kill them later!” cried the Zebra. “Yes, yes, he will kill us, too!” cried all the animals together. But the wise old Elephant, who had kept her head throughout, said, “Now, friends, don’t be hasty. We now know that this new animal is very dangerous. We shall be able to avoid him now. We know he is wise like I am, quick as the Snake, and cunning like the Wolves. We know he has many strengths that we must be wary of. This new animal is also a very dangerous hunter, as we have seen. We must be cautious, friends.” “Yes, yes,” said the animals. They knew the Elephant was the wisest of them all. “Avoid this new animal, friends, unless you follow the littlest Cat into his fire.” The animals were quick to agree, they did not want to be in anyone’s fire. So the animals resolved to stay far away from this animal-that-was-not-like-any-other-animal, and to this day, the animals stay far away from it for fear it will catch them as well.
And that is the story of how Man became the greatest and most feared animal of all.
Title: The Greatest Power
Original fiction
Rating: G
Word count: 1,875
Summary: a fairy tale
The beautiful princess and her love. This is the stuff of which stories are made. This is, in fact, where our story begins. The Princess Isabeau was a beautiful young woman, the envy and pride of all her kingdom. She had raven locks that fell to her waist, so dark that one wondered why the birds themselves did not believe her one of them. She had the fairest of skin, a voice to rival the sweetest singing lark, and eyes the bluest of blues. She had also found the one thing most women search lifetimes for: her true love. Oh, it was not a simple love. No, she was a princess, the heir to a kingdom; he was merely a knight, her protector and constant companion. She was expected to wed a wealthy prince from some kingdom or other, but instead she found herself deeply, irreversibly in love with her knight and he with her. So the Princess grew, surrounded by those who loved and cared for her, and followed perpetually by her knight. They each knew of their love for the other, yet neither could share that love for fear of the consequences. And so they secretly loved and hid from that love, being the best of friends and yet suffering all the while.
As time passed, the beautiful kingdom was attacked by another, jealous of their lush fields, healthy herds, and, of course, the fair Princess Isabeau. The land known as the Kingdom of Xil was an unhappy place of deserts and high mountain ranges. It was ruled by a harsh king who cared for nothing but his own happiness. He let his people starve and their crops die to fill his coffers with their earnings. When he heard of the beautiful Isabeau about to reach her 14th birthday, he wrote to her father the King, asking for her hand in marriage. The King, knowing the foulness of this king of Xil, refused. Instead, he planned to let his daughter live as she wished for yet a little while, sending her to be schooled under the most talented sorceress in the land, with her faithful knight always at her heals. More time passed, and the Princess returned to her beloved kingdom on her 18th birthday, a sorceress. She was greeted by her parents, overjoyed that their little girl, who was not so little anymore, had returned. They held a great feast in her honor. But that very night at that very feast, the King and Queen were struck down by a terrible poison. The Princess knew it had been the king of Xil.
The commoners of the kingdom, who had much loved their King and Queen, were outraged and vowed to fight alongside their Princess. She wept instead for peace, crying to her people that there must not be any more blood shed. Reluctantly they agreed. Then the king of Xil did what the Princess had expected, he invaded the fair kingdom with his army of evil creatures, sowing death wherever they went. The king of Xil was a great and powerful warlock. He cast his evil spells on the countryside, causing the lush fields and healthy herds to fall to dust. The Princess had known the evil king would try something like this, but she was a powerful sorceress now and had set a trap to catch him. She only had to wait for the king to approach the capital city to spring her trap.
The people feared for their lives, yet they loved and trusted their Princess and so they did not fight. They watched as their wonderful kingdom turned to ash in the wake of the dreadful army. Finally the day came when the evil king stood outside the gates of the great city which was all that now remained of the once great and beautiful kingdom. The king stepped up to the wide gates, shut for the first time in many years, and declared that, should he be given the Princess, the people of the city would be allowed to live in peace under his rule. The people trembled and feared – they could not give up their wonderful Princess, but how should any such as they defy a dread and powerful king like the warlock of Xil? They knew better than to trust any promise made by him. The Princess then went among them and told them not to fear for she would deal with the king in the morning and all would be well. The people wept for what they thought would be the last great sacrifice of their royalty for the people.
The morning came and with it, the Princess Isabeau’s one chance to stop the warlock king. As the sun rose over the beleaguered kingdom, the beautiful Princess stood at her chamber window and sang a lament to the day. The people thought she was expressing her sadness of the coming union, but it was not so. The sorceress that Isabeau had studied her magic under had taught her the arts of the old ways, how one could trap another with an object as simple as a piece of thread or something as intangible as a song. Her Knight, who had spent the long years of study always by her side, knew what she now attempted as did one other. Though the king of Xil was only able to use the corrupt and deadly powers of a warlock, he had studied the arts of others until he knew all they could do. As soon as he felt the bindings of the song, he knew at once what the Princess was trying to do. So he struck back at her with his magic, causing her to fall to the floor of her bower. She gasped in pain as it felt like a needle had pierced her heart. If she did nothing, she would die. She knew she could defend herself from the blackness of the warlock’s magic, but how could she save her kingdom if she had no strength left to attack in return?
The brave Knight had stood beside his Princess for many years now and loved her more than he loved life as he knew she returned the feeling. He knew she would give her life to save her people, and so he resolved to make it unnecessary. The Knight turned from the sight of his beloved, a sight he hoped to return to quickly. He walked through the deserted streets of the city until he reached the great gates. He exited through a side door few knew of and soon found himself standing before the great and evil army. Though he knew the warlock king to be much more powerful, he challenged him to single combat. The king of Xil laughed, for he had been told by an ancient seeress many years ago that he would not die a mortal’s death. He accepted the challenge of the worthy Knight feeling no worry as he switched his attention from the now helpless Princess to her defender. And so they all came to the end.
For once they had been dueling but a little while, the king struck a mortal blow to the faithful Knight. As he lay stricken on the ground, the Knight unknowingly did what few had done before or have done since; his heart, in its last moments, sent a cry through the space separating them to his one true love, the beautiful Princess. At his anguished call, she awoke from her faint. She could feel the Knight as though he stood beside her in her room. She looked out to the battlefield with the eyes of a hawk and cried with despair at what she saw. She could feel her spell flowing through the air around her; she had nearly finished it before she was attacked. She had only to direct it. She knew the arts of healing as well as those of war and enchantment. She could save her Knight, her love with but a thought. She could feel the warlock king gathering his power to strike at her again, she knew she had to act then or never. She sent a prayer to any god who may be listening, and with a thought, sent her spell hurtling toward the two combatants.
The Knight felt the love the Princess sent him just before he closed his eyes. He did not hear the scream of the king of Xil as the king felt his consciousness ripped from his body. He knew only that he was now free to go and that his love would be waiting for him. The people went immediately to tell their Princess of the death of her guard, but when they entered her bower, they found her laid on the floor as if in a deep sleep. She looked at rest, but the stillness of her heart told otherwise. She had died at the moment her spell killed the king and left her Knight to die. She had fallen from a broken heart, a single tear streaming down her cheek. Love of her people had felled the king, love for the Knight had felled the Princess.
The king of Xil would die no mortal death, indeed, just as the seeress had predicted. Instead, he would be forever trapped in a song that the people of the city say can be heard outside the front gates to this day. As the king’s control of his body was lost, so were his powers destroyed and the creatures he had created for his evil gains returned to the blood and ash they had been before he twisted them. The people found no body when they went to look for the faithful Knight. They found nothing on the battlefield at all but new grass sprouting from the ashes of the old and a single, pure white flower growing from a patch of drying blood. The power of love had proven far greater than the power of death wielded by the corrupt and bloody king.
The people still tell the story of the beloved and loving Princess Isabeau and her loyal Knight. They tell a story of how a pair of stars, now called The Lovers, winked brightly in the sky that night and shown day and night for a week after the battle. They tell a story of how those very stars are said to turn out their lights on that fateful anniversary every year, and, if one were to look closely enough, one would see a pair of white doves, one with a blood red breast, sitting atop the tower that once held the Princess Isabeau’s chambers. They tell a story of love that withstands time and separation and the greatest obstacle of all: hate. The day after the final battle the people of the kingdom began to rebuild, and as they went to bury the Princess, they found a short verse inscribed deeply into the rock of the tower, though no one had entered the tower. It has remained there till this day.
Know the greatest power is love.