Whimsical Thoughts to the Tune of a Sweeter Song

Fairy Tale: Part One

The Tale of How a Princess Lost Her Sleep and How a Prince Found It

The princess meandered dreamily over a wind-soaked, grassy hill. Lifting her arms as if she could fly, she spun around several times before collapsing into the tall grass. There must be an interjection here, lest a certain disillusionment continue any longer. In all of the legends, the princess is always gloriously beautiful, with hair like the sun, or a raven’s wing, or in the manner of some such romantic notion. It must be confessed now, that our princess was not one of these. Her hair was a commonplace brown, her skin was much too pale, her eyes much too dark, and the whole effect of her gaze was more soul-searching than awe-inspiring. To be honest, not many people could confidently look her straight in the eye. She seemed to see too much, and to the would-be suitors, the feeling was simply too uncomfortable. One by one, they drifted off in search of another princess, perhaps one that conformed more to the story-book ideal. Still, three seemed not to be cowed, but whether they simply did not notice, or if they could look solemnly, understandingly back, that we shall find out later.

But we have already been too long away from our princess. Lying in the grass with the sun soaking into her skin, her eyelids soon grew heavy with sleep. A periwinkle fairy wind began to blow softly, (for everyone knows that all fairy winds are colored) and soon, a little fairy fluttered up to the princess, his wings beating ever so lightly against the princess’s cheek. (Here is where we must clear up another misconception. Many people think there are only lady fairies, but no, there are men fairies, children fairies, working fairies, sleeping fairies, teaching fairies, kissing fairies, dancing fairies, mischievous fairies, even half-past eleven fairies. The last kind are very rare, however. The air is full of them, especially near any growing thing. They can see us, but we who can see them are very few and far between.) Anyway, this little fairy caught sight of the little wisps of sleep peeking out from underneath the princess’s eyelashes. Alighting on her face, he carefully gathered every wisp and tucked it into a gossamer bag on his back. Then his tiny wings were caught by a crimson wind, and he was gone.

The princess awoke with a start. She reached up to rub the leftover sleep out of her eyes, and realized to her horror that every last wisp was gone. She looked around wildly, supposing that it could have fallen off her face into the grass, but nary a trace of it did she find. After searching in vain for frantic minutes, she closed her eyes again, hoping it would magically reappear. It was not to be.

After several wretched days of strained wakefulness, the princess had begun to fade like a flower kept from water. Her skin grew paler; her eyes grew darker and nearly swallowed her face in their suffering.

This is where we hear of those three princes. Seeing the toll being taken upon their lady, and definitely not being the type of the hard-hearted, wicked princes, each vowed inwardly that she should suffer no longer and set out to recover her sleep.

posted by whimsicalfaery @ 2:47 PM