Music as She Waits

A princess sent to a tower when a plague captures her kingdom. How she saves herself from spoilery as well as her kingdom.

There once was a princess, who was beautiful and kind and good. She lived in a faraway kingdom locked in a tower, guarded by a dragon. Her father, the king of the good kingdom had locked her away in hopes to save her from the plague of sadness that was sweeping the neighboring kingdoms. His goal was to keep his princess pious and good, with a kind heart and a clear mind.

 The princess was understanding of her father for sending her away, but she was heartbroken. To stay in a tower, day after day with nothing to do but wait until the plague of sadness had passed. Sunrise came, and sunset fell yet no one came for her. She sat in her tower, miles from the kingdom and watched as the good in the world slowly fell away. Every day at dawn, the princess sang a song. A solid prayer of beauty for her kingdom and the surrounding kingdoms, and the rest of the world. Her voice was loud and clear, sweet as honey with a bell-like clarity. As she sang, the birds fell silent as if listening and the whistled back the melody. As the dawn fell away into daylight, and the daylight gave way to dusk the princess sang her song again. The birds chirped her melody back, and soon it had been spread throughout the kingdoms.

 The princess was unaware of the hope that her song brought the workers in the fields. She was unaware of the hope that her simple melody gave the children. A plague had fallen over the kingdom, but the hope was not gone. The workers learned the tune, and sang in the fields. The children learned the simple tune, and sang it as they shivered in the cold of the winter, they're parents working late, no money for wood to heat their homes. The murder rates had risen, as well as the death rates. The sick seemed to just become sicklier, the weak becoming weaker. The princess's melody was cast throughout the land, and it was as if the sick were given strong medication, and the weak given needed rest. 

The princess had hope, and she had faith for her kingdom. And slowly, with the aid of her song and the healing power of music the kingdom recovered, but no one remembered the princess in the tower. Even her parents had forgot about the princess during the time of the plague and the years that had passed. They had bore two new children, both females. Neither holding the ability of music as the oldest princess did. On the twelfth year that the princess had been locked in the tower, she grew wary of waiting and singing. The sky no longer shone red in the evening, and she could hear the sound of music from the kingdom, the noise carrying up to her tower. The princess was not angry, she simply decided that if she wanted to get down from the tower, she'd have to do it herself. 

So the princess tied all the cloth in her tower together fastening a rope, and she clambered down the wall of the tower. Wrapping herself tightly in a blanket, she made the long journey back to the kingdom. She wasn't fearful regardless of the beasts in the woods. She simply sang her song, pouring her emotion into it as she went. The woods had fell into a peaceful kind of silence.

On arriving into the kingdom, she was not immediately recognized. The children looked at her with wary eyes, and the farmers gazed at her with a look of confusion, they recognized her from somewhere, yet no one could place her face. The princess walked through the kingdom without fear, without anger at lack of recognition. She reached the center of the town where villagers were gathered, haggling over molding bread and rotting vegetables. She stood, head high, shoulders back and she sang. The melody wrapping around the townsfolk, like a security blanket. And suddenly, crops had the will to grow again, children were energetic enough to play again. After what seemed like a never ending winter, the sun shone, fresh mountain water filled the streams, the sky became a clear cloudless blue. And all became well again.

Rumors flew of the girl whose voice brought good will. There was no explanation anyone could think of for the girl, or her magnificent voice, save that she was heaven sent. The rumors of her saint-like origins quickly reached the castle. The king sent for her at once. The princess appeared in the court of the king the very next day, singing a melody high, soft and sweet. The king sat in awe, voice dropped in surprise. After much deliberation, the royal court decided she was indeed an angel and to be worshiped as one. Upon hearing this, the princess laughed her bell like laughed and smiled. She shook her head, and from the folds of her skirt pulled out a crown from her childhood. At the age of seventeen she stood in front of her parents, and placed it on her head. 

"For not the crown gives me my talents, nor does my beauty stand for my worth. The music inside my soul shows the good in the world, and our kingdom and I refuse to be treated as one greater than the rest." Saying this, the princess laughs and tosses her tiara to the ground at her father's feet, promptly leaving the castle. The townsfolk, after hearing that she is the long lost princess are at first wary to speak to her. Months pass, however and she acts the same upon speaking to them as she did when she first arrived and was thought to be a simple peasant. When questioned, she laughed her bell like laugh and simply said

"I am as tall as I project myself to be, my accomplishments are my own. It is in the darkness that I have truly seen the light and it is in the music that I have found my savior. I shall not become a girl of spoiled behavior while those of you starve to death, my only wish is to instill hope in you. Hope for goodness. Because where there is hope, there's never true darkness."

It is in the end, the princess's refusal to take more than she deserves that brings goodness and wealth back to the kingdom. The greatest power of all the gracing the souls of the peasant. Music.

Reviews

[KailaRenee]

This made me tear up...