poly_chromatic | Quest 324

Entry tags:

king's quest - princess rosella

Quest 324

Mm. It's August 2nd again, isn't it.

There's a story I tell every year on August 2nd, you know: the one about the princess with the six brothers that were turned into swans, and how she spent six years in silence sewing shirts for them out of thistles, because the only way to break the curse was to go the whole time without ever smiling or laughing as she worked to make the shirts that would change them back. This is the fifth time now that I've found myself thinking of that story. And every year when I do, I think of how long of a time six years really is--it's only a few lines in a story, but living it out is something very different entirely, isn't it? I certainly don't think I could've managed it myself.

A dear friend of mine once told me, during her stay here, that the first year seems the longest of all, and every year after that seems to come faster and faster. On days like today, I do wish she were here, almost, just so that I could tell her she was right. Well, and because I miss her, of course. Five years certainly means a great deal of goodbyes, too.

Every year on this day, I find myself wondering what it is I'll do if I manage to run out six years, just the same as that princess with her swan brothers did. To think it's just one more year, now. What story will I tell on my anniversary if I should finally outlast her with my own time in the City?

Though I suppose by that point, perhaps, I could always start retelling a few of my own, instead. With all the changes we've seen lately, goodness knows there'll certainly be plenty of them.

[OOC: And with August 2nd comes Rosella's Polyversary--today marks five years she's been in the City! Thank you all for all the wonderful years of gameplay, Polyites! I'm hoping for many more still to come. ♥]

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He was a good guy, right? And this was back then. So, he asked her to show him the way out? He'd get back to his kids. [ Right? It sounds right. ]

He did! Getting back to his children was most important of all, and so he agreed to the old woman's terms. So she went and showed him the way out of the forest, and because the king was of course an honorable man of his word, he went home to his children and married the old woman's daughter soon after.

Well, it turned out that the old woman was really a witch, and her daughter was one, too--and so it's frankly a bit likely that the forest might've been enchanted to keep the king from ever finding his way out without their help, but that's rather beside the point for him by now anyway--and she was a horrible creature with a terrible temper. So of course the king was very sad at the thought of being married to her, but he was more afraid that she'd be horrible to his beloved children as their stepmother.

So, in the few days he had before the wedding, he rounded up the children and hid them away in another castle, this one so far secluded that no one could find it without the help of an enchanted ball of yarn. One simply took it and threw it down to the ground, and it would unwind all by itself and lead the way from one place to another, and that was how he would find his way to the hidden castle to visit his children!

Well, that was all well and good for a while, but soon the wicked queen--because she'd married the king, and was a queen by now, of course--began to get jealous and suspicious of her husband during the times when he'd up and disappear without telling her where he was going. And so, deciding to find out for herself, she bribed the castle servants until they told her about the seven children and the faraway castle, and after awhile she learned of the magic ball of yarn, as well.

I was going to say -- [ If they were witches, this was there plan all along. Villains always think three steps ahead. It's frustrating. ]

Cool. [ Effective! But, not if someone misplaces the yarn. But, he still listens, preferring not to interrupt. ]

So, she stole it.

[Active participant audiences are the best for this sort of thing. She's perking up already, really getting into the narration. But of course, it's a fun story to tell, isn't it?]

She did! Oh, but that wasn't all, because she was a wicked stepmother and terribly jealous and oooh, she wanted the king all to herself and couldn't stand it that he loved his children more than her. So one night she crept off into her lair and bewitched a set of charms and sewed them into little white shirts, and then took them with her when she stole the yarn. Then, on a day when the king was preoccupied himself, she went out and threw down the yarn and followed it all the way to the hidden castle!

Well, the children had been living a happy life amongst themselves in the hidden castle, but the best times of all were when they saw the magic yarn come rolling up, because that meant their beloved father was coming for a visit and they missed him terribly whenever he was away. So out they came running to greet him, the six brothers--and when they did, the wicked stepmother threw a shirt over each of them, and as soon as it touched them, they all turned into swans!

Why? They're his children. [ If he was happy, wouldn't she be happy? Oh, right. He's interrupting again. Sorry, you didn't lose him, exactly. It's more - the cinematography. Or, a word Scott would use. It's just... not excited. She threw a shirt onto them. But, okay. He nods. ]

...Well, because wicked witches are awful like that, of course.

[SHE SAYS, WITH THE AUTHORITY OF SOMEONE WHO HAS DEALT WITH ONE. If by "dealt with" you mean "shot one dead in her sleep with an arrow to the heart", which in this case we do.]

But in any case, it turned out that only the brothers had come out to greet their father and the ball of yarn, and...well, perhaps the witch miscounted, or the servants had told her wrong, or...I'm not quite sure, really, but the fact of the matter was, the witch went away having changed the six brothers into swans, and was terribly pleased with herself. But the little princess, their youngest sibling and only sister, hadn't come running out with the rest of them at all, and so she'd seen the whole thing from the window of her bedroom in the castle, and she was terribly afraid.

But there really wasn't time to be afraid, of course, because the brothers now being swans, they started to fly away! And since she couldn't bear to stay in the castle all alone, and fearing that if she let them get away she might never see them again, she grabbed a cloak and raced out after them and followed them into the woods.

...Er, that is, a different set of woods than the one the witches first lived in, thankfully.

Right. Or, else none of them would've gotten out.

Yes, that's right! So, the little princess chased after her brothers for hours and hours, never slowing down or stopping, following after them into the woods for as long as she could still see them, and after they outflew her she simply kept running in the same direction as she'd last seen them go. She ran and ran, and after a whole day and night of running, she was dreadfully tired and thought she couldn't bear to run a single step farther.

But luckily, just about that time, she happened to come across a little hut that looked like a hunter's den, and there didn't seem to be anyone around inside. And she was so awfully tired of running that she thought it simply couldn't hurt to lie down inside and sleep a bit, and make her apologies to whoever owned it once she saw them, and be on her way as fast as she could. So she went inside and curled up on the floor beneath a table so as to be as small and unobtrusive as possible, and fell fast asleep.

But then, a bit later, the strangest sound roused her from sleep--the sound of feathers rustling! And she opened her eyes just in time to see six swans fly in the open window and land in the middle of the floor, and shake off their wings and feathers to transform into her brothers again!

And oh, she was so wonderfully happy to see all of them, but they weren't quite so happy to see her. "Oh, little sister," they said sadly, "This is no hunter's hut! This is a robber's den, and if you stay here you'll be in terrible danger, for they will come back and catch you."

And then they explained that the enchantment on them was such that every night, for just a quarter of an hour, they could shed off their feathered swan skins and become human princes again, but then once that time was up, they would be turned back into swans and left to soar about that way for the entire rest of the day.

Huh. [ That's inconvenient for them. But convenient for the story.

Mmhmm! And so of course the little princess was terribly upset by this, and wished there were something she could do to break their curse. But the brothers said no, there was nothing that could be done, because the only way to break the curse would be for someone attempting it to go six long years without ever smiling or laughing or speaking a word, and to sew six shirts out of asters and thistles in the meantime for the brothers to wear instead.

But the little princess loved her brothers very much, and told them that without her father or brothers, she'd have no reason to smile or laugh or speak a word anyway, and her resolve was so strong and her heart so pure that she vowed to set out at once to free them of their curse.

And so she went away from the robber's den and made herself a little home in the forest, and began to collect thistles and asters to sew her little shirts. And she neither smiled nor laughed nor spoke a word; day in and day out, she simply sat alone and sewed, and sewed, and sewed.

For six years.

Well, no! For five years, really. Or, well, five and a bit, because you see, sometime during that sixth year, a young and handsome king happened to be hunting in the forest, and he and his party came across the young princess, who was sitting high in a tree sewing her shirts. They waved at her and called to her to come down and tell them her business, if she'd please, because of course finding a young lady all alone in a forest is rather a strange sight indeed! But she simply shook her head and said nothing, and kept her eyes on her shirts in the hopes that they would go away.

But one of the king's soldiers climbed the tree, instead, and carefully collected her, and took her down to speak to the king, because of course the king was terribly curious as to who she was and what she was doing in the tree. So they brought her down, and the king spoke to her kindly in every language he knew, but the little princess never spoke a word, and held her face still as stone.

Well! It happened that this king was very taken with the little princess, even if she wouldn't speak, but more importantly he was concerned for her, because she was all alone and silent there in the woods. So he gathered her up with her shirts and put her on his horse and took her back to his kingdom with him, and was determined to look after her even if she couldn't speak a word to him.

Now, this young king happened to have a mother who was very cruel herself, and she didn't approve at all of her son being so smitten with a silent pretty girl he'd brought home from the wood, and decided that she would simply have to do something about the girl she'd deemed so unworthy of the king. So after the princess had stayed with them awhile, she bribed some village women to spread terrible rumors that their newborn children had been kidnapped, and in the dead of night put blood around the princess's mouth and on her hands so it would look as though she'd taken and devoured them.

Really, isn't that just horrible?

Uh, yeah. Really horrible. [ WHAT THE HELL. ]

[#FAIRY TALES.]

Well, so in any case, the wicked mother made sure that her son the king saw all this the next morning, and blamed the silent princess for the missing children, and demanded that she speak in her defense, or else they would take her silence as an admission of guilt. And of course the little princess couldn't speak because her six years weren't up, so she said nothing--but cast the young king a terribly sad look, and simply shook her head in response to the accusations.

And, er, it's a bit gruesome, the next part, but the way it goes is that the king believes her, so the wicked mother repeats the awful trick twice more. And by the third time, the king simply has to do something about it, you know, because he was the king and was bound to be fair no matter how much he liked the princess, and if she really were devouring the village women's babies, well, something simply had to be done.

And of course, since the little princess couldn't say a word about it, he was forced to find her accountable, and she was sentenced to be burned at the stake for her crimes.

That happened in Salem.

Er...I'm sorry, in where? Is that your kingdom, or...?

No. It's in Massachusetts. It's a city? Or, probably more a town. I've never been. It's on the other side of the country. Which, I guess could also be called a kingdom? You're not from the United States, are you?

Oh! Er, no, but I've had friends from there. Is it anywhere near Prince's Ton? That's where my best friend is, right now.

...Or, well, that's where he was the last time I saw him, but I suppose by now that might've changed, really.

I've never heard of Prince's Ton.

I don't know. Maybe. Sorry, geography's not my strongest subject.

But, sorry, I interrupted again. So, she was going to be burned at the stake. [ SHE BETTER NOT BE ]

It's a place where a school is, I think. And rather important, somehow, but I never quite heard why. Something about ivy.

Oh, but--yes, of course, we can't simply leave our poor princess like that, can we! Yes, well, they took her out to be burned at the stake, but it just so happened that they day they picked for it was also the very last day of her six years! And so they took her out and she took all her little shirts with her, which were all done save for one--it was missing the sleeve on one arm, since she hadn't had time to sew it on yet in all the commotion.

And so they took her out and tied her to the stake and just as they were about to put her to the torch, there in the sky came her six brothers as swans, swooping down toward them all! And she managed to get a hand free and as they came down, she threw a shirt over each of them, and lo and behold the magic worked and they all turned back into their human selves!

...Well, all except the youngest brother, who got the shirt that wasn't quite finished yet, and so he ended up still having a wing for one arm, instead.

[ Wide eyes.

A beat.

Laughter. Sorry, Rosella. It's a horrible ending. But, it's ... so funny. ]

Yes, well! Er...that is, yes, there's a bit more of it, too, but--

[Well, you know, it is sort of funny, but it's rather horrible, too. Either way, she'll just kind of let him finish laughing before forging on.]

Well, um, then of course, with the curse broken, the little princess was free to speak as much as she liked, and her brothers freed her from the stake and she embraced them all happily, and once she had she was able to explain everything to the young king--his mother's treachery and all--and the young king was so taken aback by it all that he ordered his wicked mother onto the very same stake instead.

And then of course the young king and the princess were married, and they lived happily ever after, and all the brothers did too. Even the one with a wing for an arm.

And that's the end!

[ Sorry, it subsides. The visual is just ridiculous.

Oh. Well. Okay. Wow.]

He burned his own mother at the stake?

[ Yeah, she was evil, but... ]

He did. And that's the way the story ends.

But, it's his mother.

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