A long time ago, the King issued a countrywide proclamation. "Whoever wakes the Prince, will receive any reward of their choosing."
Four years had passed since then, and not one person received a reward. However... finally, there appeared a beautiful witch, with long, silk-like black hair, and dark, mysterious eyes, which attracted anyone that she happened to pass by, accompanied by her incredibly black, wild-like crow. She wore a long, black cloak, which hid every inch of her body, except for her delightful featured face and pretty dark hair, which also slightly hid from the hood of the cloak.
"We welcome you from afar, witch Salya-sama. You are the 99th to come.", the King said politely, but she could see the sadness in his eyes, "He is the next king, Prince Lulnavul." he slowly opens the huge, luxurious curtains to reveal the beautiful and eternally sleeping prince. "A rather high-level technique. A kiss from a princess wouldn't wake him, I suppose." he begins, "Princesses from every country have made a visit. In return, they requested the Prince's hand - not even one got her wish.", the King sighs hopelessly. "Hmph. Fools.", the crow croaked, glaring at the King. "Breaking a curse with a kiss is nothing but an old wives' tale.", the witch explains, with a slight smile on her face. "And? Who placed the curse?", the evil-looking crow croaked anxiously at the King. The King grew angry and restless, "If I knew that I would not be going through all this. Why is the crow the one to speak?!" he snaps, then breathes in and out to calm down, "Anyway, please hurry and wake the prince.", he folds his arms, forming a serious expression on his face. "The custom here is for a Prince to ascend the throne at age 15. He is already 19! It is a disgrace to our kingdom!", the King frowns, looking over at the prince.
"...Not knowing the criminal will make it rather difficult, Salya-sama.", the crow begins once again, "Hmm...", Salya ignores the crows comment, "Let's enter the prince's dream. Either way, we cannot remove the curse from the outside.", Salya turns to face the King, removing the hood from her head, pointing at the sapphire diamond on the King's forehead. "I will take the Sapphire of Illusion as a reward. The miracle jewel said to have descended from the heavens!", the King frowns, wanting to refuse, "WHAT!?", he tried to offer her something else instead, "The... The Prince's hand in marriage...", "The Sapphire, NOT the Prince." Salya refuses, whilst kneeling down to the prince's bed, next to him holding his hand. "Well then, I'm going in. Good night...", Salya leans her head beside the prince, falling into a quick, deep sleep. "...Salya-dono...? She fell asleep...?", the King looked concerned, wanting to wake her up, but didn't budge her, he really wanted his son to wake up, so he decided not to interfere. 'For the witch to help the Prince, she goes to meet him in his dreams...'
"Hmph... that low-class witch. Asking for the sapphire. I'll let her burn at the stake if she fails.", the King fades away like a shadow to Salya, entering deeper and deeper into the Prince's dreams, as if she where swimming, with her crow accompanying her. "...Salya-sama, you heard what that King was saying.", the crow looked at her worryingly, Salya then smiles, "Don't worry, Tajiru. I'm used to being looked down upon."
'I am a witch, hated even in fairy tales. I have no honour to my name. Besides, the Sapphire of Illusion is necessary for me to survive.'
"Here we go, the doorway to his dreams." Petals where scattering everywhere, as they entered his dreams. 'Whatever happens, I'll show him by breaking the curse...'
"...Mm...", Salya awakens from the soft, green grass, seeing the scattering of flower petals surrounding her in the air. Salya gasps and sits up, "This dream..." she widens her deep, brown eyes. 'This is the Prince's dream...?', she entered a dream filled with beautiful scenery, hills and mountains, leaving a huge, grand castle in the middle of all of it. "...Oi." 'A voice...?', Salya turns to her right in confusement. "Not over there...", she turns the other way, surprised to find a young boy looking up at her from the bottom of the hill she was standing on. The cute, handsome, blonde haired boy, shouted up to her, "Do you have any idea who I am?!", Salya's eyes widen even more, 'This boy is the prince!?' Salya looks confusingly at him, 'he's young again!?', "Prince?", guards seemed to be looking for him whilst she was still staring at him in deep thought. "Who are you? I haven't met other teens around here.", he looks more confused than Salya did.
Salya frowns, "Teens? Me?", "Yeah, Teenagers.", he said as he sat down next to her, telling the guards to wait. Salya quickly reaches for her long hair... but, it had disappeared, 'My hair is so short...' She begins to panic, slumping herself down to the grass. '...The sleeping Prince, he's still 15 in his dreams!', Salya decides to explain to him who she was, he smiles, grabbing a pretty flower from the grass, he seems really interested in her. "Ah, so you're Salya. I think witches are really interesting."
'I turned young again, too... this is king of embarrassing.' Salya blushes, she was 15 as well back then. "So... Why are you in my dream? Father put up a reward or something?", the Prince blows the remaining flower petals into her face. "I'm cursed, so I can't leave, you know.", Salya raised her hand to try and cover her face, "So you know your predicament." 'I wonder if time passes here...' Salya thought.
"They said, "Whoever wakes the Prince, will receive any reward"... I come from the outskirts of a small, faraway town.", Salya stands up, wiping and flicking all the petals from her forehead and her hair. "But outside of this country, witches are horribly despised, and I was recently chased away from my home," she paused, remembering the townspeople who hated her. "So I thought, if I could retrieve the Sapphire of Illusion and present it to my lord, I could appease the townspeople. That particular town is abundant with medical herbs, so it's hard to leave." Salya continues to explain, "I came running for the bribe that was offered--", she was interrupted by his sudden amusement. "Pfft--" "WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING? It's a matter of life or death!", Salya frowns confusingly, shouting at him. "Because... you admit yourself that it was bribery?", he continues to laugh, Salya notices how happy and cute he looks as he giggles. 'He likes to laugh...'
Laughing still, he says, "Such an honest person." 'It's nothing to laugh about.' Salya sighs, "Alright, so... let's try and solve this curse.", Salya leans in toward him, putting her hands on his shoulders, "Do you have any thoughts of who could have cursed you?", she grew serious and impatient. "Maybe I do, Maybe I don't." he says bluntly, staring into her, dark, brown eyes. "What?" she widens them, releasing him from her grasp, letting him explain himself.
"Anyway, I know how to lift the curse. Find and beat the "Curse-giver" in my dream!", he puts on an evil grin. "If you do that, then I'll be free from the curse and I'll wake up. - However...", he grins again, trying to act cool, "I'm actually starting to like this dream world." Salya was speechless, 'Huh!?', the Prince made her kneel down again. "You'll have to make do with a crown of flowers. Sorry I can't help ya." he puts the crown of flowers he made onto Salya's head. 'What do I do...? The Prince is a NUT!!' Salya slumps into the ground, taking the crown of flowers off and drops it onto the grass. 'He's happy that he was cursed? WHY!!? Is he a masochist?!' Salya drowns in her confusement. 'Or is he...protecting the person who cursed him...? To say that he likes this dream world... there's no doubt that dreams are comforting.'
Salya looks up into the sky, 'The rustling of the wind, the green scent of flowers. I've missed this feeling.' she looked dazed and comfortable herself, even though it wasn't her own dream. 'I understand why he would want to stay here.' Salya sighs, then quickly turns back to her main objective. 'But that's not the way things go, Prince-sama... I WILL TAKE YOU BACK...
"Salya-sama--", she hears a voice from behind her, the sound of restless pants coming towards her. She turns around finding a man with dark, black hair and beautiful eyes, wearing a guard-like suit, came rushing towards her. She knew exactly who it was and was certainly glad to see him. "Tajiru! Where were you!", Salya was relieved to see him. "What the? Why aren't you taking the form of a crow? I thought you hated the human form.", she looked up at him. 'So this is Tajiru when he was 19? Whoa, he's actually pretty handsome.' Tajiru looks down at her, couldn't help but find her cute. "Salya-sama, you're so small... Forget that... I fell into the royal court. It seems that this world is just as large as the real one."
Tajiru and Salya ended up in the courtyard of the castle, "It would be impossible to search for the criminal...", Tajiru looked helpless, "About that, I found the guy who knows who did it. But he's a total weirdo." Salya complains to Tajiru. Suddenly, out of no where, the prince reveals himself. "...WHO'S A TOTAL WEIRDO?", the Prince goes over to Salya, pulling her cheeks wide. "Prince... it hurts.", Salya squirms a little in pain. The prince notices Tajiru, who's mood had risen into anger. "...Hm? There's another one.", the Prince says, not looking amused at all. "This is my attendant, Tajiru. He's amazing at transforming." She explains as she struggles to continue to speak because of the pain from her cheeks. "I found him collapsed on the ground 10 years ago and picked him up." Tajiru glares at the Prince, looking as if he was about to explode in anger. "If this kid was being mean to you, Salya-sama, I'LL KILL HIM." he snaps. The Prince doesn't appear to fear him at all, "Ahh, that's a good attendant. Easy to understand.", the Prince continues, "Forget him Salya! I found a rainbow fish in that pond over there." he says excitedly. "Forget him?" Tajiru frowns, still suspicious of him. "Let's go see!", the Prince grew impatient. "Wha- I'm not going." The Prince frowns, confused by Salya's refusal. "Because I didn't come here to play around.", Salya was annoyed and would not forget about her objective. "Go tell the one who cursed you about the fish."
The Prince suddenly grabs her hand and pulls her along, smiling happily, "Oh come on, let's go!" Salya looked startled, "WAH!" ""Stop worrying and just be a kid", is what my Mother used to say." Salya glanced over at him, "...Mother?"
"My stepmother, she raised me when my real mother died soon after I was born. Yeah, you can live with me in my dream, Salya!" he smiles even more from the thought of the idea, "There's nothing sad about this place!" Salya looked up at the silent petals which flew by, pushing her hair out of her face from the soft, flowing wind.
'Dreams... are strange world's. Just laughing and playing. No one to please, no one after your head. Remembering the days when I was young and I lived how I wanted.'
"Salya!" the Prince was smiling cheekily as he held a small rock, "Let's play kick-ball!" he said in a singsong voice. Salya heard him as she and Tajiru where asking the guard directions, still searching for the one who cursed the Prince. "I'm NOT PLAYING." "OH. OKAY." the Prince threw the rock, which landed harshly onto the back of Salya's head, Tajiru was shocked and Salya instantly grew annoyed, telling Tajiru to transform into a bigger rock, then began chasing after the Prince with it.
'Ahh. This sleeping prince, in his dreams... laughs so innocently,' Salya loves the way the Prince smiles happily, but, she didn't like the way he was locking himself in here, away from the reality of the world. 'But as time passes, he will grow up.' Salya sighs, feeling sympathetic towards him. 'He can't be young like this forever.'
"--In dreams, the sky doesn't get dark, does it?" Salya says, as they both look out at the world, sitting on a hill faraway from the Prince's castle. "Isn't that a good thing? I can keep on playing!" he says cheerfully.
'If this "dream" isn't broken, we will never awake again...' Salya grows wearisome, she turns to face the Prince, "But... dreams are not safe. It's because of reality that people dream. If you keep on living in dreams, one day, you'll wake up and be old." Salya watches him as he blows his hand picked flowers petals away into the air and watches them fly high into the sky. "--That's fine too. Then maybe I'll be like the mermaid princess and turn into bubbles.", he looks silently, down at the pitiful, dead plant. "...Prince?"
"I....I don't want to wake up.", he lays down on his back, creating a pillow for his head with his arms. "Getting cursed the day before the crowning ceremony was perfect timing." Salya looks down at him, "Why?" "Everyone was against crowning me as king. My stepbrother, the king's advisor. My stepmother, too. Even though were not blood related, she always kept me safe. She was most opposed to my crowning." the Prince seemed to be remembering a flashback of his mother, "Lulu, you are too kind and your condition is too frail to be king. Leave the throne to my son's." the Prince began to look a little sad. "But the King is waiting for the prince to awaken." Salya tries her best to persuade him. "...Father wants me, his firstborn son, to be King, but father banished mother from the court...just for opposing my King-hood. He would abandon his own wife." the Prince sat up, looking out at the lake, "To my father, anything outside his own Kingdom was worthless. My mother and I were just tools. That made me very sad.", he sighs, "...If I keep sleeping, nothing bad will happen. I like it like this." 'He has such lonely eyes.'
'I feel like my chest is hurting.' Salya was in the forest near the castle, leaning against a tree in deep thought. "Salya-sama? Salya-sama!" Salya gasped, startled by Tajiru. "What happened? You zoned out... about the answers to your questions, they are evasive and ambiguous when the queen is mentioned. The queen is his step mom? Perhaps she wanted to make her own son King, and the Prince stood in the way of it?" 'The queen is the one?'
"...Tajiru, just in case, turn into a knife for me." Tajiru looked confused and a bit frightened, but he did as he was told. "A knife...? The Queen -- you're not going to...!?" "... I am not a killer." Salya says bluntly. "In a cursed dream, the curser acts as a projector and creates the dream world. If the projector is broken, the curse will lift and we can save the Prince."
Tajiru begins to smirk, "Hmm...Salya-sama... Now then, the Prince is of interest to you, is he not...?" Salya looked shocked, "WHAT?" Tajiru begins to tease her, grabbing Salya and stroking her head, "You're wro... I'm worried about the sapphire, stop teasing me!", she blushes with embarrassment, "Just stop it and turn into a knife, quickly!" Salya grabs the knife tightly, "...Is it that strange?" 'I don't care about the Prince. I just --...I'm going crazy.'
'The Prince, he's hiding something. The loneliness in his heart, with that sweet smile.'
"Hmm? What do you wanna be when you grow up, Salya?", the Prince asks, as he looks up from reading his book peacefully. "Grow up??...Well, I'm already a witch, so...", he drops his book, crawling over to me from lying down, "No way! You can't use magic, though. I've never seen it." Salya knew that her magic was weak at the age of 15 and could only use a little. "That's not it, THINK OF AN EVEN BIGGER DREAM! One that you never think would come true!", he sparkles with joy, opening his arms, as if he was a god. "Hmph, such a kid. You know, grown-ups only have dreams that they know can come true." Salya thought carefully about what her dream used to be. "I used to have a lot of dreams, I dreamed of being a princess one day." "Heh..." Salya hears the Prince giggle and blushes, realising what she had just said. "Why are you laughing... so rude." He was in tears of laughter now, "HA - A princess!! That's so... so cute, Salya." Salya snapped, "But that's something that can come true, isn't it?" Salya suddenly dazed at the thought, "Eh?", the Prince grabbed Salya by her neck, pulling her close, he kissed her pure, white forehead, very slowly and gently. Letting her go, he said, "Be my wife." he says whilst smiling. "If you marry me, you'll be a princess.", he touches her forehead and she blushes, "There's a flower petal on your hair..."
Salya looks at the Prince, speaking with her flustered face, "Prince... Please understand my position. I am a witch, hated by many." Salya was too embarrassed to look into his eyes. "Don't say things like that, your status has no effect on how cute you are!" he pats Salya's head gently. 'The Prince's blue eyes, free of hatred... glisten like jewels. Why did he have to be cursed like this?"
She stares deeply into his eyes, finally having the courage to speak. "...I'm going to lift your curse!" Salya was determined to free the Prince from the curse. The Prince looked surprised, "What? That was sudden. I told you, I don't need that." "No, but I am newly determined to...", Salya notices the Prince's book. 'What the...? The pattern on the Prince's book... this pattern must be...!?', she looks at the circular pattern, then looks around, 'The dream has cracks in it--!? So there is a limit to it. The Prince's dream is splitting at the seams.', Salya widens her eyes, "...Prince...where is the queen!?"
'If I don't break the curse soon, the Prince will sleep forever!'
"--Why, all of a sudden? Why would you want to see Mother's room?" he took Salya to the castle, guiding her through all the hallways and never-ending stairways, finding themselves in a stairway which lead to the top of a tower. Salya pulled out her knife just in case. "Mother is kept up here...wha-- Salya!? Why do you have a knife!?" the Prince said breathlessly.
'If it was the queen who put the curse on the Prince,', Salya nervously holds the knife, "I am sorry, Prince!", Salya runs up ahead of the Prince, leaving him behind. "Salya!?"
'I can't let it be. If she cursed the Prince, then the Prince may already be... forever locked away in here.' Salya forcefully opens the door at the top of the tower, standing nervously, gripping the knife tightly. The room was silent and completely empty, not a soul was in there.
'There's no one...here...?' Salya hears the Prince walking towards her. "...Mother is already gone." Salya turns to face him, "What...?" Salya didn't know what was happening. "After she was banished from court, she got sick. And 3 days before the crowning, she died. Everyone was sad." he looked sadly at Salya. 'The dreams started the day before the crowning, so the queen was already gone...?'
Salya was speechless, still holding Tajiru as a knife. "We're you planning to stab mother with that knife? ...She would never put a curse on someone." Salya looks at the Prince in confusement, a little frightened too. 'Everyone kept their pain about the queens death buried inside.'
The Prince suddenly put his finger against his chest, "...The one to stab...is right here.", the Prince looks really lonesome, looking at the book held in his hand. Salya realises that the Prince which she saw sleeping, had a symbol on his right cheek, caused by the curse. "--Thats right... the books magic symbol!" Salya looks a bit scared, looking into the Prince's lonely blue eyes. "The Prince couldn't have...done it himself...?" the Prince smirks a little, "...The curse was actually quite simple." The wall of the room began to crack. "Wouldn't it be nice to be a magic-user when I grow-up?" Salya was scared now, 'The dream, it's breaking.'
"PRINCE...!" Salya shouts at the top of her lungs. "--Shall we push back the crowning ceremony?" '--This is...'
Salya seemed to be in the Prince's past life, speaking with his father, the King.
"Why, father?", "Your mother has just passed away. It would be indecent.", the King said as he stands, looking outside at his kingdom through a huge glass window. "This country has been in constant war. Add to that news of the queens death... the people are starving for good news." The Prince looked angrily from behind his father, "...Are you not sad? Are you not sad that mother died!?" the Prince shouts at him, "-- I am a king. I am not one to be swayed by trivial emotions. When you become an adult, you'll understand."
The remains of the Prince's dream began to crumble even more, till it was pitch black, and the only thing which was left, was a piece of a hill, with Salya and the Prince on it. The Prince looked depressingly at the ground, sat down, looking at the remains of his dream world. Salya pitied him. "Prince...", she looked at him from behind, standing up. "...It's kind of pathetic, but I used the power of this curse to run away from reality." He looks out into the darkness, "...Do you hate me, Salya?", Salya instantly shakes her head. "...I hated it." he looks down once again, tears trickling down from his eyes. "Why do I have to grow up? -- I, I was so happy with mother, just laughing and playing in the fields... why couldn't it just stay that way..."
'The dream of the sleeping Prince, he is afraid of it changing, that kind, fearful boys' dream.' Salya looks down at him. "Prince, let's go home to reality." "No." he sniffs. Salya grabs him by his arm, "If it was your curse, then you can break it!" "NO! I won't!" he refuses, "WE'RE GOING HOME!", he removes his arm from her hands. "Leave me alone! Nothing good will happen if I wake up. I'm going to disappear with my dream!"
Salya blushes with anger, "BUT I DONT... WANT THAT!" Salya looks extremely sad, reflecting in the Prince's blue eyes, "I...I want to be with you...", 'He's scared, and he's strange, and has such sad eyes, but the prince has a kinder heart than anyone.' Salya kneels down, and hugs him tightly, 'I want to be with him.' "I'm here. Even if you wake up, I'll be there so you won't be sad.", the Prince was comforted by her words, shedding his last few tears, Salya put her head against his chest, "Let's go home together--", the dream had finally faded away, and so did we.
"Salya-sama?", Salya hears a familiar voice, awakening, knowing that it was Tajiru. "Salya-sama!", Tajiru was back to being a crow again. "You've awaken, Salya-dono.", the King looks over at her. '-Ah... the dream-', Salya sat up, she was back to normal in reality, feeling her forehead, she sighs, thinking that she had failed the task... and herself, leaning hopelessly by the Prince's side. "Salya,", she widens her eyes, finding the prince wide awake, looking down at her with those beautiful blue eyes of his, which didn't look lonely anymore. "Good morning." Salya begins to cry uncontrollably, tightly embracing him, relieved to see him awake. 'Let's always be together.'
The bells of the royal church chimed, "...In the end, the king kept the queen away to keep her from the fighting over the crown. The King loved his family as a King should. He tried so hard to wake you, Prince." Salya said, as they where behind the doors of the church. "...Being in a dream, I wouldn't have known... being both a king and father must have been hard." the Prince replied, Salya smiled, looking up at her handsome Prince, "And is it really so bad, being grownup?", the Prince returns the smile, looking down at her, "This way, it's easier to make dreams come true.", the church doors opened wide, revealing the townspeople and there loud cheers of joy, "By the way, did you receive the Sapphire, your reward?" "No. I got something much better!", with the townspeople as there audience, Salya and Prince Lulnavul made an unforgettable kiss, making the crowd go wild, echoing throughout the town, for the two beautiful people standing in front of them.
'And so, the sleeping Prince woke from his dream, and the magic-using King and the Witch Princess, lived happily ever after.'
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