Post by Carina Jones on Oct 19, 2012 22:45:26 GMT -5
An: Alright warnings up front this is a really rough story but I don't have any plans on fixing it. I just wanted to get it out of my head and I wanted to share it.
“Seven little birds, little birds, little birds outside my window.” The young girl sang quietly to herself sitting on the window-seat gazing at the tree outside, the songbirds flitting merrily from branch to branch, twittering at each other their songs weaving together in a seamless melody. She could almost imagine what they were saying to each other.
“Hello” the songbird of the brightest yellow sang to his fellows. “Today the sun is bright and warm and the wind is calm. Quite a delightful time to take flight.”
“Yes” replied another feathers resplendent in indigo, “Indeed today is beautiful for flight, but mind you the wind is from the east, there will be storms tomorrow.”
And thus they would twitter on and on until the morning had passed remarking about the weather, the hunting, and complimenting each other’s bright clean plumage. For indeed these birds were of the most remarkable colors; the rich deep red feathered fellow with a slightly haughty air, the crisp orange lady with the warbling trill, solemn green with a soft call and a quick eye to spot when the cats were prowling near, battered blue who would race around the cats distracting them while the others took flight, flirty violet who always landed just a little too close for Red’s comfort, the flighty bright yellow boy who could scarcely still himself, and the wise elder indigo who kept an eye out for bad weather.
It was the same every day as it had been for months and months and months. The princess sighed, dark brown locks falling over her shoulder onto her pale green dress as she leaned out the window taking another look towards the grounds. Deep Brown eyes studied the distances, how far from the window to tree bedecked in its summer’s green and from the lowest branches to the rose garden rich with blooms below, concluding once again that there was no way to leave the room by the window. Which meant no way at all out of the castle without one of the servants taking notice.
She sighed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. It simply wasn’t fair. She used to be able to wander the grounds and gardens as she willed but now mother and father had become scared. There were tales of a beast king banished from his neighboring kingdom – surely he must have done something terrible although truly no one could say what – who was thought to be prowling their bright kingdom now. They said that he would seek to do terrible things to take over this kingdom because his own has been taken from him…
A sudden silence descended, the bright songbirds scattering fearfully as a stranger landed in their tree. This bird had stark white plumage, bright as a star or freshly fallen snow. His solemn black eyes stared back at her watching her warily as she took in his countenance. His perch was not so far from her window as the other birds usually were and this stranger bird looked lonely.
The princess stretched out a hand cautiously towards the night winged bird. Perhaps he could use a friend, and she had become lonely cooped up inside.
“Hello.” She said, her arm too short, hand stopped still a fair few inches from the bird.
He tipped his head quizzically and looked at her warily. She wondered if someone had hurt him before.
“It’s alright I won’t hurt you.”
The bird hopped a little closer. She held her hand out steadily.
“If you’re hungry I should get some bread at breakfast that you could have.” She smiled as he seemed to listen and think about her offer.
For the first time since he arrived, the snowy bird let out a chirp, hopping close and rubbing his head against her hand. The eight year old princess smiled, gently running her hand over smooth white feathers.
“I’ll be back with the bread in just a moment.” She told the bird, pulling her hand back and turning towards the inside of her room. However there was a rustling of feathers and suddenly she found the new bird perched upon the window seat. She looked at him in surprise.
“Well I suppose that works as well.” She held her hand out to him again. “If you don’t mind being inside then I can bring you with me to the table in the sitting room.”
Once again the new bird seemed to understand her offer, taking flight again and perching on her hand. The little girl smiled brightly.
“Well I suppose we’re off to breakfast then. “ She said with a nod, and then on a whim she decided to introduce herself. “My name’s Princess Carina.” She laughed quietly at herself, she sounded a bit silly. “I hope we can be friends.”
The white bird trilled quietly and walked up her arm to her shoulder, causing her to giggle a bit; he rubbed his head against her cheek repeating his trill. Somehow she felt like he understood and perhaps wanted to be friends as well.
“Well then I suppose we’re friends.”
~
Eight years later Carina, now sixteen years old, smiled as her friend flew back in through the window, a flower held in his beak for her.
“Oh Pan that’s beautiful!” She exclaimed, gently taking the thorn-less rose from him to place in a vase.
Pan often came back from his flights with something for her. Today’s offering was a beautiful rose from the garden, it was yellow but the very tips blushed red. She wasn’t sure how he got the roses without hurting himself, but she appreciated them and the other flowers and things he would bring. She was not allowed out on the grounds, the beast king having been on the loose since she was a child, so Pan would bring the garden to her instead.
(http://www.rkdn.org/roses/colors.asp)
He flew over to her shoulder rubbing his head against the side of her face, trilling a song about the outside for her. The joyful song of the warm sun and blooming flowers was a contrast to the almost sorrow that seemed to lurk in little black eyes if one knew how to look.
Carina simply smiled and brought a hand up to stroke over soft white feathers. “It sounds lovely Pan. I’m glad you had a good flight and enjoyed yourself.”
It was just at that moment that the maid walked in. She glared somewhat irritatedly at the white bird that perched on Carina’s shoulder. She wasn’t fond of the creature at all and hadn’t been since its first arrival here. The only reason she did not take care of it once and for all is that the princess would not allow it.
The maid had tried when she found the impertinent creature nibbling upon the loaf brought for the princess one morning, taking a small pan and trying to hit it. But the bird had escaped almost taunting her and as a joke the princess called him “Pan” a token of his victory.
The maid set down the tray. “Breakfast m’lady.”
“Thank you Martha. That will be all.”
Martha nodded and turned from the room, just barely catching as she left the princess starting to talk to the bird again.
“Well this certainly looks good this morning doesn’t it, Pan?”
Really that girl was quite strange sometimes.
~
After breakfast Carina went back to sit on the window seat. She spent much of her free time there staring out the window the closet she could get to being outside. A slight breeze came through the window, blowing her hair lightly a few long brown strands hitting Pan, sitting on the window ledge beside her, causing him to let out a startled chirp.
Carina laughed. “Sorry for startling you, Pan.”
He let out a slightly huffy chirp, he had not startled, not at all. They were in a window and there was a breeze, he certainly knew that that was going to happen.
Carina laughed again. Pan let out a slightly irritated chirp, hopping over closer to her and starting to pull one of the loose threads on her yellow dress, flitting closer to the window’s edge.
“Pan you know I can’t go outside…” Carina said with a quiet sigh, her expression sad. “It’s safer in here.”
He chirped at her, flitting to the very end of the branch outside the window… it wasn’t far… He trilled, calling her to follow.
“Pan…”
He chirped sadly. Eyes pleading with her to come outside. To see the world with her own eyes at least for today. It was her birthday and this year she might just be big enough to reach…
Carina reached out the window, the branch was within her grasp. “Alright Pan I’m coming but just this once you hear me. I don’t want to get in any trouble.”
She grabbed the branch climbing precariously from the window-seat in her room to the windows ledge and out onto the branch. It wasn’t very easy, her skirt was a bit cumbersome, but she didn’t have any attire more suitable to the task. She crept along the branch to the trunk of the tree, Pan flitting ahead of her and cajoling her to keep coming. She hoped fervently that she would be able to make it back into her room when she came back.
Pan chirruped calling for her to keep moving and so she started the climb down the tree. It seemed like quite a while but could only have been a matter of minutes before she reached the bottom. She smiled looking around as Pan glided from the branches to sit on her shoulder. “It’s been so long…” she whispered, starting to walk towards the rose gardens.
Pan trilled joyfully, taking off from her shoulder and flying off ahead of her into the garden before swinging back closer to her. He chirped, flying ahead and back again, heading in a slightly different direction from where she had been going. She held out her hand and he landed.
“You want me to follow you?”
He seemed to nod.
“Alright then, lead on good sir.” She replied with a laugh.
Pan took off again, flying ahead, but never out of sight. Trilling happily and flying in loops and spirals. Carina could not help but laugh at his antics. She had never seen him so happy before and she herself was happier than she could remember being since she was a child.
Carina followed her guide to a secluded little grove in the garden. A beautiful fountain and benches surrounded by hedges of rosebushes. Each one of thorn-less red roses.
“Oh Pan…” She looked around speechless, watching the fountain - its centerpiece an elfin girl caught mid-step in a dance laughing gaily, the water spilling down from the lily she held above her head. “This is beautiful…” She smiled softly. “This is what you’ve wanted to show me?”
He trilled softly, gliding down to rest upon her shoulder, trilling softly and rubbing his head against her shoulder.
“Thank you. I love it.” She reached up petting his feathers gently as he crooned a quiet song in her ear. She sat on the bench to listen to him.
She could have stayed there forever but she noticed the sun had reached high in the sky. “Oh no… I have to go back before Martha finds out.” She said, distressed standing quickly.
Pan chirped sadly.
“You know I have to… it’s too dangerous to be out here… the beast king might come…” *she smiled sadly, “And above all I should not be among the roses… It was foolish to come here.”
Pan chirped sadly again before taking off from her shoulder. He flew more slowly this time, guiding her back towards the tree. But on the way back they were stopped by a gardener, his hat pulled down low over his eyes.
“Princess,” He said, bowing slightly. “It is an honor to find you in my garden, but what may I ask are you doing here? Is it not forbidden?”
Carina looked at him nervously. “Yes it is, but I just had to come out and see. I am on my way back inside already. So there’s no need to tell anyone, right?” She asked hopefully.
Pan warbled a wary sounding song. Something wasn’t right…
The gardener smiled. “Certainly there is no need, but please, I would be honored if you took this back with you.” He said, holding out rose of pale peach, the thorns along its stem were still intact.
Carina shook her head. “No I can’t accept that, but thank you for your kind offer sir.” She said with a nod, turning back to the path to continue onwards.
“Oh but I insist.” He said, taking her hand and pressing it into her hand, he closed her fingers around it and the thorns pierced her skin. With a small gasp the princess crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
Pan let out a shrill cry of distress as the man disguised as the gardener smirked at him before looking back down.
“All things,” He said to the still form on the ground before him, “Must have their end princess. And though some may try to stall it, none can stop it.” And then he turned on his heel and disappeared.
~
It was Martha who found the princess several minutes later, crumpled on the garden path, the white bird circling above her calling out a mournful song. Gentle arms, stronger than one might have guessed from years of difficult labor, lifted the princess from the ground carrying her back to the palace. The wicked king from the neighboring kingdom had found her, and placed a curse upon the princess, a curse which he refused to lift unless the kingdom would surrender to his demands.
But the king and the queen refused, for they knew that they could not subject their people to his cruel rule. Instead they placed their hopes upon finding a different way to break the spell, and they left the princess in her room, lying as if asleep – guarded by the white bird that had been by her side all these years. But as the years passed and nothing was found gradually they abandoned hope. In sorrow and despair they left that castle, taking with them most of their servants save those most loyal to the princess.
Those who remained took a potion of enspelled sleep that would be broken only if the princess woke. However time still passed and the princess slept on as the castle became consumed by the roses.
~
The only living creature there that remained aware was the bird. But as the years passed and all those around him slept he took a new and different shape with which to guard the princess. He took the shape of a dragon with brilliant white scales and quicksilver eyes. For he was no ordinary bird; he was the beast king, the true ruler of the neighboring kingdom who had been ousted by the tyrant king.
The Tyrant had cursed him to be unable to retake a human shape and banished him from his lands. He installed himself as ruler proclaiming that he would be just and kind to the people who had supported him in overthrowing the young king, but it had all been lies. The tyrant king ruled his land with threats and blood, the people quaking in fear of him.
The young beast king could not say that he had been a just king. He had been young and selfish, serving mostly his own desires, but he had not harmed his people or forced them to war. He had been strict and unyielding, but he hoped he had not been so cruel as he had been painted to be. And in his exile he had learned what a true king could be, but there was nothing he could do it was too late. He did not know how to break his own curse anymore than he knew how to break the curse of the princess who had shown him such kindness.
And so he did all that he knew how to do, he guarded her resting place to ensure that anyone who should arrive there would not harm her.
~
And still time passed, until one day the tyrant king arrived once more. His magic ensuring that he lived on long past his time to continue his dark rule.
The beast king, in his dragon form, growled at the man as he approached the single path that remained to the castle.
“I have come to wake the princess.” The Tyrant said. “And claim that which should have been mine many years ago.”
“You shall not have her.” He hissed at the dark man.
“And you believe you could stop me? You could not even save yourself.” The tyrant said an arrogant smirk on his face as he waved a hand at the dragon. “Be away with you nuisance before I break your neck.”
Pan snarled stepping forward. “I am not so foolish as I was then. I will not allow you to win a second time and claim another kingdom as you did before.”
The tyrant pulled a short stave from the air and brandished it at Pan. “Very well. Show me what it is that will succeed this time where you once failed.”
He roared, charging at the tyrant, trying to snap him up, but the tyrant waved his staff and flung him off course. The tyrant laughed.
“And you said you are not so much a fool.”
The dragon grinned savagely. “Because I am not.” And with that his tail came sweeping forward suddenly, knocking the tyrant off balance before he charged forward and gobbled the evil man up – despite the fact that he tasted terrible. He rumbled low in his throat in satisfaction curling up on the ground, once again blocking the path. At least this horrible man would not be able to harm anyone again.
~
That night as he dozed of Pan dreamed of being human again. The balls he had once attended and things he wished he would have been able to do these last few years, had he only been able to take a human shape. Of all these things what he wished for most was that he had been brave enough to try to truly speak to the Princess… before it was too late. A single tear slipped down his cheek… And he was startled awake, because dragons do not cry.
It was with great astonishment that he looked at himself and found himself in his human form. If that curse was broken… perhaps? He raced to the castle, but he found all its citizens still sleeping. He raced to the Princess’s room, heart beating fast with fear and a tremor of hope, but when he threw open the door she still slept and he let out a howl of despair.
How was it fair that only his curse had been broken? He had not been able to save the Princess for whom he cared deeply. He sank to his knees beside her bed, what he had finally done… it had not been enough. But then he heard a small sound, and the princess shifted blinking her eyes open and lifting her head from the pillow.
Before he knew it pan was standing and had pulled her to him in a hug as he shook and cried. The princess had finally awaked.
“W-what? Who?” She looked bewildered at the white haired young man who had grabbed her, she still wore that same yellow dress. “What’s going on?”
“Carina… you woke up.” Was all he could manage to say, still clinging to her as if he thought if he let go this would all turn out to be still a part of his dream.
“Pan..?” She furrowed her brow looking down at the young man in confusion.
Pan looked up at her, silver eyes wide, “What? H-how?”
Carina smiled. “Your voice… it sounds like your song.” She finally hugged him back. “I always knew you were too smart to be just a bird.”
Pan just started crying again holding her close while she held him tight and smiled. There would be time to figure out what happened later, for now this was enough.
~
AN: *shrugs* blah ending is blah but eh…. Was fun to write.
“Seven little birds, little birds, little birds outside my window.” The young girl sang quietly to herself sitting on the window-seat gazing at the tree outside, the songbirds flitting merrily from branch to branch, twittering at each other their songs weaving together in a seamless melody. She could almost imagine what they were saying to each other.
“Hello” the songbird of the brightest yellow sang to his fellows. “Today the sun is bright and warm and the wind is calm. Quite a delightful time to take flight.”
“Yes” replied another feathers resplendent in indigo, “Indeed today is beautiful for flight, but mind you the wind is from the east, there will be storms tomorrow.”
And thus they would twitter on and on until the morning had passed remarking about the weather, the hunting, and complimenting each other’s bright clean plumage. For indeed these birds were of the most remarkable colors; the rich deep red feathered fellow with a slightly haughty air, the crisp orange lady with the warbling trill, solemn green with a soft call and a quick eye to spot when the cats were prowling near, battered blue who would race around the cats distracting them while the others took flight, flirty violet who always landed just a little too close for Red’s comfort, the flighty bright yellow boy who could scarcely still himself, and the wise elder indigo who kept an eye out for bad weather.
It was the same every day as it had been for months and months and months. The princess sighed, dark brown locks falling over her shoulder onto her pale green dress as she leaned out the window taking another look towards the grounds. Deep Brown eyes studied the distances, how far from the window to tree bedecked in its summer’s green and from the lowest branches to the rose garden rich with blooms below, concluding once again that there was no way to leave the room by the window. Which meant no way at all out of the castle without one of the servants taking notice.
She sighed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. It simply wasn’t fair. She used to be able to wander the grounds and gardens as she willed but now mother and father had become scared. There were tales of a beast king banished from his neighboring kingdom – surely he must have done something terrible although truly no one could say what – who was thought to be prowling their bright kingdom now. They said that he would seek to do terrible things to take over this kingdom because his own has been taken from him…
A sudden silence descended, the bright songbirds scattering fearfully as a stranger landed in their tree. This bird had stark white plumage, bright as a star or freshly fallen snow. His solemn black eyes stared back at her watching her warily as she took in his countenance. His perch was not so far from her window as the other birds usually were and this stranger bird looked lonely.
The princess stretched out a hand cautiously towards the night winged bird. Perhaps he could use a friend, and she had become lonely cooped up inside.
“Hello.” She said, her arm too short, hand stopped still a fair few inches from the bird.
He tipped his head quizzically and looked at her warily. She wondered if someone had hurt him before.
“It’s alright I won’t hurt you.”
The bird hopped a little closer. She held her hand out steadily.
“If you’re hungry I should get some bread at breakfast that you could have.” She smiled as he seemed to listen and think about her offer.
For the first time since he arrived, the snowy bird let out a chirp, hopping close and rubbing his head against her hand. The eight year old princess smiled, gently running her hand over smooth white feathers.
“I’ll be back with the bread in just a moment.” She told the bird, pulling her hand back and turning towards the inside of her room. However there was a rustling of feathers and suddenly she found the new bird perched upon the window seat. She looked at him in surprise.
“Well I suppose that works as well.” She held her hand out to him again. “If you don’t mind being inside then I can bring you with me to the table in the sitting room.”
Once again the new bird seemed to understand her offer, taking flight again and perching on her hand. The little girl smiled brightly.
“Well I suppose we’re off to breakfast then. “ She said with a nod, and then on a whim she decided to introduce herself. “My name’s Princess Carina.” She laughed quietly at herself, she sounded a bit silly. “I hope we can be friends.”
The white bird trilled quietly and walked up her arm to her shoulder, causing her to giggle a bit; he rubbed his head against her cheek repeating his trill. Somehow she felt like he understood and perhaps wanted to be friends as well.
“Well then I suppose we’re friends.”
~
Eight years later Carina, now sixteen years old, smiled as her friend flew back in through the window, a flower held in his beak for her.
“Oh Pan that’s beautiful!” She exclaimed, gently taking the thorn-less rose from him to place in a vase.
Pan often came back from his flights with something for her. Today’s offering was a beautiful rose from the garden, it was yellow but the very tips blushed red. She wasn’t sure how he got the roses without hurting himself, but she appreciated them and the other flowers and things he would bring. She was not allowed out on the grounds, the beast king having been on the loose since she was a child, so Pan would bring the garden to her instead.
(http://www.rkdn.org/roses/colors.asp)
He flew over to her shoulder rubbing his head against the side of her face, trilling a song about the outside for her. The joyful song of the warm sun and blooming flowers was a contrast to the almost sorrow that seemed to lurk in little black eyes if one knew how to look.
Carina simply smiled and brought a hand up to stroke over soft white feathers. “It sounds lovely Pan. I’m glad you had a good flight and enjoyed yourself.”
It was just at that moment that the maid walked in. She glared somewhat irritatedly at the white bird that perched on Carina’s shoulder. She wasn’t fond of the creature at all and hadn’t been since its first arrival here. The only reason she did not take care of it once and for all is that the princess would not allow it.
The maid had tried when she found the impertinent creature nibbling upon the loaf brought for the princess one morning, taking a small pan and trying to hit it. But the bird had escaped almost taunting her and as a joke the princess called him “Pan” a token of his victory.
The maid set down the tray. “Breakfast m’lady.”
“Thank you Martha. That will be all.”
Martha nodded and turned from the room, just barely catching as she left the princess starting to talk to the bird again.
“Well this certainly looks good this morning doesn’t it, Pan?”
Really that girl was quite strange sometimes.
~
After breakfast Carina went back to sit on the window seat. She spent much of her free time there staring out the window the closet she could get to being outside. A slight breeze came through the window, blowing her hair lightly a few long brown strands hitting Pan, sitting on the window ledge beside her, causing him to let out a startled chirp.
Carina laughed. “Sorry for startling you, Pan.”
He let out a slightly huffy chirp, he had not startled, not at all. They were in a window and there was a breeze, he certainly knew that that was going to happen.
Carina laughed again. Pan let out a slightly irritated chirp, hopping over closer to her and starting to pull one of the loose threads on her yellow dress, flitting closer to the window’s edge.
“Pan you know I can’t go outside…” Carina said with a quiet sigh, her expression sad. “It’s safer in here.”
He chirped at her, flitting to the very end of the branch outside the window… it wasn’t far… He trilled, calling her to follow.
“Pan…”
He chirped sadly. Eyes pleading with her to come outside. To see the world with her own eyes at least for today. It was her birthday and this year she might just be big enough to reach…
Carina reached out the window, the branch was within her grasp. “Alright Pan I’m coming but just this once you hear me. I don’t want to get in any trouble.”
She grabbed the branch climbing precariously from the window-seat in her room to the windows ledge and out onto the branch. It wasn’t very easy, her skirt was a bit cumbersome, but she didn’t have any attire more suitable to the task. She crept along the branch to the trunk of the tree, Pan flitting ahead of her and cajoling her to keep coming. She hoped fervently that she would be able to make it back into her room when she came back.
Pan chirruped calling for her to keep moving and so she started the climb down the tree. It seemed like quite a while but could only have been a matter of minutes before she reached the bottom. She smiled looking around as Pan glided from the branches to sit on her shoulder. “It’s been so long…” she whispered, starting to walk towards the rose gardens.
Pan trilled joyfully, taking off from her shoulder and flying off ahead of her into the garden before swinging back closer to her. He chirped, flying ahead and back again, heading in a slightly different direction from where she had been going. She held out her hand and he landed.
“You want me to follow you?”
He seemed to nod.
“Alright then, lead on good sir.” She replied with a laugh.
Pan took off again, flying ahead, but never out of sight. Trilling happily and flying in loops and spirals. Carina could not help but laugh at his antics. She had never seen him so happy before and she herself was happier than she could remember being since she was a child.
Carina followed her guide to a secluded little grove in the garden. A beautiful fountain and benches surrounded by hedges of rosebushes. Each one of thorn-less red roses.
“Oh Pan…” She looked around speechless, watching the fountain - its centerpiece an elfin girl caught mid-step in a dance laughing gaily, the water spilling down from the lily she held above her head. “This is beautiful…” She smiled softly. “This is what you’ve wanted to show me?”
He trilled softly, gliding down to rest upon her shoulder, trilling softly and rubbing his head against her shoulder.
“Thank you. I love it.” She reached up petting his feathers gently as he crooned a quiet song in her ear. She sat on the bench to listen to him.
She could have stayed there forever but she noticed the sun had reached high in the sky. “Oh no… I have to go back before Martha finds out.” She said, distressed standing quickly.
Pan chirped sadly.
“You know I have to… it’s too dangerous to be out here… the beast king might come…” *she smiled sadly, “And above all I should not be among the roses… It was foolish to come here.”
Pan chirped sadly again before taking off from her shoulder. He flew more slowly this time, guiding her back towards the tree. But on the way back they were stopped by a gardener, his hat pulled down low over his eyes.
“Princess,” He said, bowing slightly. “It is an honor to find you in my garden, but what may I ask are you doing here? Is it not forbidden?”
Carina looked at him nervously. “Yes it is, but I just had to come out and see. I am on my way back inside already. So there’s no need to tell anyone, right?” She asked hopefully.
Pan warbled a wary sounding song. Something wasn’t right…
The gardener smiled. “Certainly there is no need, but please, I would be honored if you took this back with you.” He said, holding out rose of pale peach, the thorns along its stem were still intact.
Carina shook her head. “No I can’t accept that, but thank you for your kind offer sir.” She said with a nod, turning back to the path to continue onwards.
“Oh but I insist.” He said, taking her hand and pressing it into her hand, he closed her fingers around it and the thorns pierced her skin. With a small gasp the princess crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
Pan let out a shrill cry of distress as the man disguised as the gardener smirked at him before looking back down.
“All things,” He said to the still form on the ground before him, “Must have their end princess. And though some may try to stall it, none can stop it.” And then he turned on his heel and disappeared.
~
It was Martha who found the princess several minutes later, crumpled on the garden path, the white bird circling above her calling out a mournful song. Gentle arms, stronger than one might have guessed from years of difficult labor, lifted the princess from the ground carrying her back to the palace. The wicked king from the neighboring kingdom had found her, and placed a curse upon the princess, a curse which he refused to lift unless the kingdom would surrender to his demands.
But the king and the queen refused, for they knew that they could not subject their people to his cruel rule. Instead they placed their hopes upon finding a different way to break the spell, and they left the princess in her room, lying as if asleep – guarded by the white bird that had been by her side all these years. But as the years passed and nothing was found gradually they abandoned hope. In sorrow and despair they left that castle, taking with them most of their servants save those most loyal to the princess.
Those who remained took a potion of enspelled sleep that would be broken only if the princess woke. However time still passed and the princess slept on as the castle became consumed by the roses.
~
The only living creature there that remained aware was the bird. But as the years passed and all those around him slept he took a new and different shape with which to guard the princess. He took the shape of a dragon with brilliant white scales and quicksilver eyes. For he was no ordinary bird; he was the beast king, the true ruler of the neighboring kingdom who had been ousted by the tyrant king.
The Tyrant had cursed him to be unable to retake a human shape and banished him from his lands. He installed himself as ruler proclaiming that he would be just and kind to the people who had supported him in overthrowing the young king, but it had all been lies. The tyrant king ruled his land with threats and blood, the people quaking in fear of him.
The young beast king could not say that he had been a just king. He had been young and selfish, serving mostly his own desires, but he had not harmed his people or forced them to war. He had been strict and unyielding, but he hoped he had not been so cruel as he had been painted to be. And in his exile he had learned what a true king could be, but there was nothing he could do it was too late. He did not know how to break his own curse anymore than he knew how to break the curse of the princess who had shown him such kindness.
And so he did all that he knew how to do, he guarded her resting place to ensure that anyone who should arrive there would not harm her.
~
And still time passed, until one day the tyrant king arrived once more. His magic ensuring that he lived on long past his time to continue his dark rule.
The beast king, in his dragon form, growled at the man as he approached the single path that remained to the castle.
“I have come to wake the princess.” The Tyrant said. “And claim that which should have been mine many years ago.”
“You shall not have her.” He hissed at the dark man.
“And you believe you could stop me? You could not even save yourself.” The tyrant said an arrogant smirk on his face as he waved a hand at the dragon. “Be away with you nuisance before I break your neck.”
Pan snarled stepping forward. “I am not so foolish as I was then. I will not allow you to win a second time and claim another kingdom as you did before.”
The tyrant pulled a short stave from the air and brandished it at Pan. “Very well. Show me what it is that will succeed this time where you once failed.”
He roared, charging at the tyrant, trying to snap him up, but the tyrant waved his staff and flung him off course. The tyrant laughed.
“And you said you are not so much a fool.”
The dragon grinned savagely. “Because I am not.” And with that his tail came sweeping forward suddenly, knocking the tyrant off balance before he charged forward and gobbled the evil man up – despite the fact that he tasted terrible. He rumbled low in his throat in satisfaction curling up on the ground, once again blocking the path. At least this horrible man would not be able to harm anyone again.
~
That night as he dozed of Pan dreamed of being human again. The balls he had once attended and things he wished he would have been able to do these last few years, had he only been able to take a human shape. Of all these things what he wished for most was that he had been brave enough to try to truly speak to the Princess… before it was too late. A single tear slipped down his cheek… And he was startled awake, because dragons do not cry.
It was with great astonishment that he looked at himself and found himself in his human form. If that curse was broken… perhaps? He raced to the castle, but he found all its citizens still sleeping. He raced to the Princess’s room, heart beating fast with fear and a tremor of hope, but when he threw open the door she still slept and he let out a howl of despair.
How was it fair that only his curse had been broken? He had not been able to save the Princess for whom he cared deeply. He sank to his knees beside her bed, what he had finally done… it had not been enough. But then he heard a small sound, and the princess shifted blinking her eyes open and lifting her head from the pillow.
Before he knew it pan was standing and had pulled her to him in a hug as he shook and cried. The princess had finally awaked.
“W-what? Who?” She looked bewildered at the white haired young man who had grabbed her, she still wore that same yellow dress. “What’s going on?”
“Carina… you woke up.” Was all he could manage to say, still clinging to her as if he thought if he let go this would all turn out to be still a part of his dream.
“Pan..?” She furrowed her brow looking down at the young man in confusion.
Pan looked up at her, silver eyes wide, “What? H-how?”
Carina smiled. “Your voice… it sounds like your song.” She finally hugged him back. “I always knew you were too smart to be just a bird.”
Pan just started crying again holding her close while she held him tight and smiled. There would be time to figure out what happened later, for now this was enough.
~
AN: *shrugs* blah ending is blah but eh…. Was fun to write.