Waiting for a Prince to Come

Once upon a time there was a tower, in the middle of a forest, filled with intimidating trees and dangerous animals. And as with most towers in the middle of a forested area, there was e a princess by the name of Rose. Like many princesses someone jealous of her had locked her away in the very tall tower made of white stone because imprisonment, as any good villain will tell you, is the only way to get rid of a princess. Also like most princesses, Rose was as beautiful as her name would suggest. Her hair was a golden color that hung in light waves that seemed to glitter and gleam whenever rays of vibrant sunshine leaked through the large window where she spend most of her time; she would sing to birds and practice her needles point on the well cushioned chair.  She had eyes that were as blue as the empty sky on a cloudless day and her skin was as pale and fragile as delicate tissue paper.

            The witch who had locked Rose away was just as ugly as the princess was beautiful. With eyes as dark as midnight and hair even blacker, she boasted skin of a tan color that bespoke of much time spent outdoors. Even her name was dark, Nerezza. Indeed she was not of the same noble class that Rose had come from; her upbringing was that of dirty hovels instead of lavish castles and hard work instead of idle revelry. Her personality was abrasive and her temper was wicked. And most important, her singing voice wasn’t that pleasant. It was no wonder that she had turned out for the worse!

            Rose though, did not hate Nerezza for what she had done. Despite having been locked away by the b***h, she still felt a tragic sort of sympathy for her that made Rose all the more beautiful. Some people were just born ugly and cruel and it could not be helped. Rose knew this. She knew it as well as he knew that her prince would one day come and save her from the tower she was locked away in. With a kiss on her lips she would be saved from the nightmare of the tower and whisked away to live in leisure. He would marry her of course but only after killing the witch that was responsible for locking her away. It was this knowledge that kept her from falling into a dark depression as she waited. And waited.

To the people who lived in the small, humble village at the edge of the wooded area, the tower was just a part of daily life. It was there when they awoke to the c**k crow in the morning and it was still very much there when they lay their heads for sleep at night. People in the village hardly even noticed the tower anymore. On occasion someone strange would wander through the village, usually a traveler peddling their wares up and down the kingdom. It was then that the tower was remembered and the story told to the outsider with much gusto and even more incomprehensible babble caused by everyone trying to tell the story at once. They so rarely saw anyone different in that little village that they all seized upon the chance to talk with someone knew, a lot of the time this well intentioned but frightening over eagerness led to the person in question leaving much earlier than originally planned.

            One day though, there came an odd young woman who introduced herself as Cara. Passing through on the way to go and visit relatives at the other end of the kingdom and unaccompanied by any sort of male figure, she expressed interest in the story at once. As she sat in the inn at one of the roughly hewn wood tables, eating and listening to the people gathered (all men, the women were busy being womanly) telling her the story, she actually asked questions!

            “Why has no one here ever tried to go and free the princess? I’m sure it mustn’t be that hard to do,” she said, shaking her head.

            The people fell silent, gaping at her with wonder.

            “Well,” started a little, squat man that in another story might have been an evil dwarf but in this one was a banker. “none of us are princes.”

            Cara was silent for a moment, just staring in her own shock at him. “But what does that have to do with anything?! Surely one of you must have considered going and freeing her.”

            “But miss, none of us are princes,” said the innkeeper himself, peering at her as though she were mad.

            “I know that,” she sighed in frustration. “What about one of the women here? Have any of them tried to save her?”

            She was hopeful. Perhaps the tower was cursed with some spell that made men that approached it simpletons but wouldn’t affect women. After all, the witch was a woman and someone had mentioned that she would visit on occasion to make sure the princess was still there.

            “They’re not princess either miss,” the dwarf banker spoke again, slow and concise as though she were the simple one there.

            A groan of frustration left her and she let her head fall down onto the table in front of her with a loud thud. The men looked to each other, concern in their eyes. They might not have gotten many visitors in their little village but they were able to spot someone who was not in the right mental state and the strange woman at the table was insane. After a moment in which she banged her lightly against the table and muttered something about idiots, she suddenly stood up and headed towards the door.

            “Where are you going?” the innkeeper asked with a furrowed brow. She might have been crazy but she was the only customer he’d had in a while.

            “To the tower to try and save the princess,” she sighed, glancing over her shoulder at the people staring.

            “Oh,” the innkeeper blinked. “But you’re not a prince.”

            Annoyance flashed in her eyes and she parted her lips to give them all a good lashing with her tongue. She thought better of it though, her teeth digging into the skin of her lower lip as she held herself back as she left without another word.

            The men came out of the inn to watch her, anticipating her failure and possible death. She wasn’t a prince despite what she seemed to think. That meant that she would be unable to get up to the top of the tower and save the princess. A charm would probably end her life before she even made it halfway up the stairs.

            There was determination in the straight line of Cara’s back as she stomped her way down the little overgrown path. Squirrels and birds scattered at the sound of her making her way deeper and deeper into the woods towards the tower. She would save the princess and prove the foolishness of the men. They would see. When she returned from the tower with the princess nice and safe next to her, they would see that they had been stupid. She was sure of it.

            The walk to the tower was shorter than she had originally thought and a scoff left her lips. “Those poor, simple people,” she clucked her tongue as she eyed the dark entrance at the base of the tower. There wasn’t a guard, a door, anything. It was just a dark archway of the same white stone that led to the beginning of the staircase. “It’s not even that much effort to get here!”

            Still muttering to herself, she went entered into the tower. She moved slow and with caution but even after entering, nothing happened to her. It was odd. She’d expected a spell of some sort to appear and make it impossible for her to enter but nothing happened. Even when she stepped onto the stone stairs nothing happened. In fact, the entire way up the staircase was uneventful and by the time she reached the door at the top of the tower, she was actually bored and more than a little bit tired. But she was still determined to prove herself.

She eyed the wooden door and one slender hand came out and tapped against it. It wasn’t too thick so she could probably kick it down. Carefully, she aimed her boot up with that of the door and gave it a little test kick all the while wishing that she had thought ahead instead of acting rashly. The door promptly opened the moment her foot connected with it.

“It wasn’t even locked!” she exclaimed in wonder as she headed into the little round room.

The princess was seated in her chair at the window, staring towards the entrance with longing in her eyes. Longing that soon turned to disappointment when she saw that the person entering was not a prince but rather just some dusty young woman. A heartbroken sigh and she turned her attention back out of the window.

“Uh, princess? I’m here to save you,” Cara said as she moved forward and over to the chair.

“No. You’re not,” Rose sighed.

Cara frowned in confusion. “Yes I am. I walked all the way here and up the stairs to try and save you,” she paused. “Did you know that the door wasn’t locked?”

“Why it’s never locked,” she giggled. “Why would it be locked? You’re a silly girl. Coming here and saying you’ll save me when you’re not a prince and then acting all befuddled because the door’s not locked.”

She  just stared at the princess with her mouth half-opened. It was some time before she could speak again. “Why does it have to be a prince?”

“Because, a prince is the only one that can save me,” she said as if it were the most obvious thing.

“But I’m here!” Cara protested. “I’m here to save you and I’m not a prince. And the door’s unlocked! You could just walk out. You don’t need a prince.”

“Oh no. I do need a prince. I can’t get out of here without one.”

“Will you die if you leave the tower without a prince?”

“No.”

“Are you physically unable to leave?”

“No. I can leave just fine. It’s how I get fresh flowers for the room,” the princess smiled and gestured to the bouquets that decorated every free surface.

“Then you can leave without a prince!” she pointed out.

“I can’t.”

A groan and she wished that there was a table in which she could knock her head once again. Everyone was daft, the people in the village, the princess, maybe even herself. There was no telling at this point.

“Okay princess,” Cara rubbed at her eyes and leaned back against the wall. “Okay. When is your prince going to come?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “Whenever he decides that he wants to get married and spend the rest of his life with more.”

“Pitiful fool who wants that,” she whispered under her breath before addressing Rose once more. “So, you don’t know who this prince is?”

“No. I have no idea who he will be. All I know is that he will come one of these days. And we’ll have the grandest wedding the kingdom has ever seen and I’ll take back my royal right. And of course he’ll be handsome,” Rose tilted her head, offering another, slightly creepier smile to her. “The neighboring kingdom does have a prince I’ve heard tales of. He’s supposedly charming and handsome. Well-dressed and elegant as can be. People who pass through the woods sometimes speak of him. They travel to his kingdom because they all know he’ll make a great king and they want to be ruled by him. I hope it’s him. I would love to be the queen of someone like that. Everyone would adore me!”

“I know that prince. Prince Artan. Much of my family lives in his kingdom. He is as kind and noble as people say.” Cara said quietly, looking down at the smooth stone ground at her feet.

Rose clasped her hands over his chest and rose to her feet. “Really? Oh could you ever be so kind as to inform him that I wait here?” she asked breathlessly. “He must not know that I’m here. Otherwise I’m certain he would have come already.”

“Uh, well,” Cara bit on her lower lip, tilting her head to the side as she glanced up at the imploring face of the princess. “See, the thing is, he already has someone to share the throne and be by his side.”

Blue eyes dropped to the ground and the princess’s lower lip quivered. “Oh? He does?” she sighed as if he had been stolen from her, gliding sadly back to her chair. “Who is it? Maybe he just married her for an alliance or something like that? True love could conquer that.”

Shaking her head, Cara scuffed her boot over the floor and let out her own sigh. “Prince Caradoc. And it wasn’t made for any alliance. In fact it nearly started a war before they were allowed to wed.”

Rose held her hand over her heart, her lashes fluttering as she slumped over in her chair. The news seemed to have caused her to faint. It was rather shocking; Cara herself had not believed it at first. But at one of the grand festivals when she had been visiting her family, she had seen them together and they did appear to cherish one another. Rose stood no chance against that.

Awkward and unsure of what to do, Cara just stood there, shifting on her feet until the princess straightened up, tears in her eyes.

She stepped towards the chair. “You know princess,” there was pity in her voice for the simple creature before her, “you could just come with me. I mean there are no charms or anything. We can walk right down the stairs and you can try and find yourself a nice prince elsewhere.”

Rose shook her head, blond hair dancing about her face with the force of her conviction. “No. You are not a prince. I shall wait her for a prince to come and save me.”

“But the do-”

“I shall wait!”

The words and the venom behind them took Cara back and she knew that there was no way she would be able to convince the princess to come with her. So she just nodded and bid the princess farewell as she made her way back down the stairs, leaving the door opened behind her.

Maybe it was best to leave her there in her tower with her false hopes. The world was not like she seemed to think and thrusting her into it might have shattered the princesses disposition.

Cara told herself this and more as she made her way back from the tower to the village, never once glancing behind her towards the window where the princess still waited for her prince.

Reviews

[Taylor H.]

I agree with the other reviews. But this was a great story, I enjoyed it.

[TL Boehm]

I agree with the prior reviewer on the issue of the witch - which could be dropped without disrupting the story - I was though pleasantly surprised at the turn the story took with Cara - I expected a fairy tale rip off and you took a completely different refreshing direction. Nicely done!

[Dutch Jr.]

Okay, you have a decent style of writing, the story was well told. Now, when you say the princess was locked up by an evil witch, but later in the story I find the princess can leave with her own free will, I stop and think. Maybe the witch was supposed to represent something else, and since it seems like the princess "locked" herself away in the tower in order to find her prince, I would say that the witch represents a part of the princess's own consciousness. In order to find a handsome prince, she put herself in the cliched situation; a situation we've seen plenty of times before.

I also relate this to today's women, like your message here is that women look for love in all the wrong places. Women wait for the dream man to just stroll into their lives. This piece is a wake up call. Good job.

"Despite having been locked away by the b***h," the last word of this excerpt is strong, but a bit too conversational and illegitimately placed in this type of story.

[Daydreamer54]

Wow, this was so sad and it reminded me of paramore's song, "Brick by boring brick." The princess and the people were lied to and had their heads filled with foolish fairytailes. I just hope that she realizes she doesn't need to wait around 4 a prince and just leave. So many years probably have been wasted already....