donderdag 24 februari 2011

The lonely princess


Once upon a time, in a kingdom near the sea, there was a royal family. They lived in a big old castle on a high rock next to the water. The king and queen only had one child, a young girl, named Muriel. Everybody near and far admired her for her astonishing beauty. Kings from all the neighboring kingdoms sent their young sons over to the seaside castle to ask her father for her hand in marriage. But he turned them all down, he didn’t think any of them were qualified for his only child. At first Muriel did not care about it. She was young, without a care in the world and she lived a happy life. But eventually, when she grew more into a woman, she started noticing the handsome princes that would occasionally stand out of the usual boring and ugly contenders. She told her father she would like to talk to them herself, and maybe even decide for herself whether she liked a young prince or not. Her father was overprotective of his daughter, so he got scared by her demands, because he felt that she was growing up and would become an independent woman sooner rather than later. So he decided to keep his daughter hidden from the world, and the world hidden from her, until he thought they were ready for each other.

So he ordered his people to build her a chamber in the rocks towards the ocean. His finest craftsmen carved out a spacious room below the castle square, with some big windows overlooking the ocean. It took a lot of effort and time, but finally the room was ready. A beautiful, large room, with a king (or in this case princess) sized bed, the finest carpets on the floor all the things a woman would need in her chambers. Even Muriel liked it, except for one thing: the door. The door itself wasn’t the problem, it was the problem the door faced to her. It limited her free moving space. At the outside of the door was a constant two man guard. She could only get out with the king’s permission or at his request. Essentially she was being captured in her own castle by her own parents. And that made her very sad. Because her room was close enough to the square so she could hear all the people going about their business: working, talking, laughing, crying, everything people together do. But she could never be part of it. Well, only if her father brought her up now and again to show her to a hopeful prince. Unfortunately, at those times it wasn’t real life she’d get a taste of, it was all a big show. And in the end, the ‘star’ of the show went backstage again, and the spectator, the naïve young prince, left unsatisfied and with empty hands. That’s the theatre of life for you…

Most of the times Muriel filled her days with drawing pictures. She drew her imagination, which often featured a handsome white prince on a beautiful horse, coming to her rescue, sweeping her of her feet and taking her away to his far away and mysterious land. While drawing, she often stared out of the window. Her idea of ‘outside’ soon became limited to the blue vastness of the endless waters. Once every couple of weeks in the distance a ship sailed by. She always hoped the ship would turn towards the shore and on the bow would be her prince. But alas, the ships all sailed on and were consumed by the sides of her window and disappeared into a monotonous past. The weeks passed. The weeks turned into months. And then the months started to pass. The months gave their rhythm to the years, which in turn started passing. Muriel grew older, but every day, month and year more beautiful. She was out in public less and less, but every time she was, it turned into a great gathering. Because the rumors of her incomparable beauty spread through the lands faster than the wind. And she was more beautiful every time a new young prince showed up in hope, but she was also paler every time, for being captured in her room all the time. As always, the princes would leave the castle disappointed for secretly thinking they could be the one, but on the other hand also in awe of the great beauty of princess Muriel.

Somewhere along all those pointless visits, Muriel lost hope to be rescued from her sad existence. So when one day a ship emerged on one side of the borders of her ‘outside’, she didn’t really pay attention to it. It would just reverse its appearance as soon as it reached the other side of the window, and then be gone forever. But after a while the ship was still there. She looked again. The ship was still there, and if her eyes did not mistake her, it was actually a bit bigger then before. Her eyes did not mistake her, the ship was coming straight at her, in the dead center of the window. So often had she dreamed this to happen, that now she couldn’t believe it. She rubbed her eyes, blinked heavily a few times, and then looked again. Still disbelief. A pinch in her arm, pain, looking again. Finally she believed it. An actual real world ship was coming to the shores of the kingdom! She took her chair and placed it in front of the window. She sat down, with her elbows on the window sill, her head in her hands. She stared and waited. Waited for the ship to come closer. If it weren’t for the wind rocking the ship side to side, someone looking at the scene from a distance would almost think he was looking at a portrait, so still Muriel sat. Muriel didn’t move, because she was totally focused on the approaching vessel. All the dreams of days, months, years past were currently combined in the beautiful sad face of the lonely princess. Her passionate belief that her dream prince was on the ship and was on his way to rescue her bordered on knowing it was true.

It turned dark outside. The ship was still too far away to reach land in time, so it would cast out its anchors on sea, and dock in the harbor the next morning. That night the young princess slept a restless sleep, filled with dreams and hopes. When the first rays of sun illuminated her pale face, she awoke. Immediately she looked out the window, to see if it wasn’t all just another dream. The ship was still there. She could see sailors busy making the ship ready for the last short part of its voyage. Muriel got dressed, and put on her most beautiful outfit, decorated her hair and wore some fine jewels. The ship arrived, and was fastened to the shore. A messenger disembarked and rushed to the castle. He was admitted before the king, and not after long guards came down to Muriels room to get her. The prince of a far away country wanted to meet the legendary pale princess and ask for her hand in marriage. In the distance the skies rumbled, a thunderstorm was on its way. Clouds gathered over the kingdom and rain seemed inevitable. Muriel followed the guards, as she had done countless times before. But this time was different. This time hope filled her heart, and made her bounce over the stairs as if she were weightless. To her the dark clouds were just a silver lining to the sun in her mind, the approaching thunder would just set her heart on fire. The prince had proposed to meet on the field by the harbor, so she joined the parade down to the docks, led by her father and mother.

Upon arrival, the prince emerged from the tent his party had set up to shelter him from the expected rain. With a friendly but firm voice the prince spoke: “Thank you my good king and queen, for the honor of welcoming me to your wonderful country yourself. I feel humble in your presence, and I will not disgrace your hospitality.” As he spoke, his eyes wandered through the parade, stopped and fixed when they found princess Muriel. He stuttered a bit as he presented his gifts to the royal couple, so quickly and with a small blush on his cheeks he averted his eyes from her and focused on his duties again. But that single moment, those few seconds of eye contact, had sparked a fire inside of the owners of those four eyes, a fire bigger than the one coming in the form of the enormous thunder. In the distance the rumble predicted not much good. “Please accept these humble gifts as a token of my appreciation.” He waved to his servants, who came forward with an array of gifts, big and small. They all looked very exotic – the gifts and the servants. With a courteous nod the king accepted the gifts, and they exchanged hands from servant to servant. “On behalf of my wife and all my people I welcome you to my home, and I hope your stay will be fitting for such an honorable man such as you.” The pleasantries continued, a ritual all of them must have performed countless times, and in the meantime the princes eyes wandered off again. They met Muriels eyes, and were instantly locked. What a spark, what a feeling! The prince had never felt so alive! And he was sure the princess felt the same.

What a spark, what a feeling! The princess had never felt so alive! And she was sure the prince felt the same. She thought to herself: “This is the love of my life, this is the one I’ve been waiting for, this is the one who has kept my hope alive.” Even though she didn’t know him, she knew in her heart that it was good. She hoped the obligated conversation would be over sooner rather than later, and that her dream prince would come to the really important part: her. Apparently the prince had the same thoughts, because he seemed to loose his patience, because when he saw the chance, he asked straight away: “Dear king and queen, I have traveled many weeks over the ocean, to come and see the subject of this legendary tale myself, the tale of the beautiful princess waiting for the one that is right, and growing more beautiful every day. And now I have seen her in reality, and the story tellers have been too modest. She is even more beautiful than any man can describe! Forgive me my rudeness, but this is something I have to do.” In saying this, he passed the couple and elegantly but firmly walked up to Muriel. He sat down on his knee, and looked Muriel decidedly in her eyes. “Princess Muriel, creature so divinely beautiful, will you do me the honor of making me the happiest man in the world, of standing by my side forever to rule my… our kingdom justly and wise, and will you be the one to give me a big and loving family. Sweet princess Muriel, will you be my wife?” Muriel looked past the prince to her parents. The dark clouds of the coming thunderstorm caused them to show as sinister silhouettes, but she could still see their faces clearly. From their eyes a tear rolled down over their faces, and they both nodded. Muriel looked at her prince, and after a second that seemed to last a lifetime, she exclaimed “Yes! I will be your wife, I want to be happy with you forever!” Not a fraction of a second after she had agreed to marry him, thunder broke loose with a mighty rumble, as if the world agreed to this historic union. The thunder was followed by a bolt of lightning that illuminated the entire kingdom in a fierce but extremely magnificent display of power. The timing couldn’t have been better.

So Muriel, the princess of many stories that everyone told about her had finally started her own story. Later that same day they sailed out, the prince and princess on the stern of the ship. They looked very happy together, holding hands and smiling the biggest smile. They were waved off by everyone that was in or around the castle that day. They headed for the open sea. Towards the adventures and stories of the unknown. Over the stormy waves they yelled “Farewell everybody, we will go where no one has ever gone, we will let the wind take us where it wants, but always together! And we will be happy!” They may have said some more, but the distance and the storm stole their words from the sky. Just before the ship crossed the horizon a last, a very bright bolt of lightning lit up the sky one more time, to send the happy couple of on their amazing journey through life.

The two pigeons


Once upon a time there was a young pigeon. He was happily pecking around in the forest with all his brothers and sisters. There was cooing all over the place. Roocoos of joy, of envy, of playfulness. The young pigeon led a good life. Food aplenty, always someone to play with, not a care in the world. The months went by, the seasons changed. But with the falling of the leaves came a lurking feeling of discomfort. He couldn’t quite lay his paws on it, but over time something had changed. And not in a good way. He looked around all the time and asked his relatives, but to no avail.

One day the little pigeon was pecking at the edge of a clearing full of food, the pigeon family had just discovered. He looked up, and then looked up again. Suddenly he saw what was wrong: there weren’t as many of them as there once were. Most of the older kids were gone, he was one of the oldest pigeons left apart from his parents. He hopped over to his parents and confronted them with his observation. Papa pigeon thoughtfully rocked his head back and forth, contemplating his answer. Pigeons have eyes at the side of their head, so they have to move their head like that to see depth. Finally papa pigeon answered. “It’s time for you to know as well, my son. All your older brothers and sisters have spread their wings and found a partner, to start a new family with. It’s what every young pigeon does around your age.” The young pigeon was surprised. He never realized he’d have a family of his own one day. “Why do I have to do that?” He roocooed rebelliously, “I want to stay here with you and my brothers and sisters! I don’t want another family, I’m happy here!” He flew away angrily.

In the next couple of days the pigeon wasn’t in a good mood. Fiercely pecking, flapping his wings if another bird came close. Then his mother landed by his side and brushed her beak against his head. “You know deep inside that it’s true for you my son. Don’t fight it. Just look around and find yourself a nice girl. Apparently in the next clearing, east of here, there are some nice pigeonettes.” And deep down inside the young bird knew his mother was right, so reluctantly he flew east towards the rising sun.

After about an hour the young pigeon neared the clearing. And amazingly there were a lot of pigeons there, so he decided to land. Immediately after touchdown a lot of fine looking young pigeonettes approached him, trying to look their best. The young pigeon felt overwhelmed by all their attention and feather display. So he took off again and landed at the other side of the clearing. At the edge, where the trees start, he saw a shy young pigeonette look at him with her deep dark eyes. His young bird heart burst into an explosion of colors and flowers. Wow! What a bird! Pretty and cute as he had never seen or dare to imagine before. And as she smiled at him, he felt his paws go soft. Without knowing the real thing by experience, he realized that he had found it: the love of his life!

After a first few clumsy approaches, the two young love birds became more and more inseparable as the days went by. He would woo her with some fresh berries or a piece of bread, and she would let the rays of sun bounce of her beautiful spread feather pack. He was happy. He wanted to start a new family with her. He wanted to kiss her. Kiss her. Yeah, that’s what he wanted to do more than anything! So he moved closer to her, ‘accidentally’ touching her neck and her head. Evidently both of them wanted it, but neither of them took the initiative. In the end the young pigeon decided just to go for it. “I want to kiss you”, he cooed. “I thought you’d never do it!” came the relieved reply. So the pigeon positioned himself in front of the cute pigeonette and took a deep breath. And then he kissed her. Or at least he tried… Because every time he moved his head forward, she moved hers back. And whenever she moved her head towards to give it a try, he retreated his. What misfortune! Due to an incredibly bad spell of fate, the young love birds rocked their heads for depth in the exact opposite order…

After the first shock was over, they tried and failed to find alternative ways of kissing each other, which resulted in an unfortunate series of eye-pecking and bumping beaks into the backs of heads. Finally they gave up in despair. They pondered over the horror of being forever together but never being able to kiss each other. As they sat down depressed, an older pigeon approached. He was the oldest pigeon they had ever seen. His one eye was gone, there was just a hole where it should have been. He hopped and stopped in front of them and spoke: “I have seen the difficult problem you have to deal with, and maybe I can help. I lost my eye before I was old enough to find a wife, so I stayed alone all my life. You can’t see depth with one eye, you know. So I wouldn’t have been a good provider.” “So how did you cope with it?” the curious young pigeon enquired, “seeing that you don’t seem to have a problem with it right now…” The old one looked at the young one with his one good eye, and explained. “I decided I would not let my handicap get in the way of my happiness, so I thought of ways to compensate for my loss. If you really want to achieve something, you can do it!” The old pigeon walked away, easily avoiding all obstacles on his way, thereby proving his point on the go.

The young couple looked until the old pigeon was out of sight. Then they looked at each other. Instantly, the sparks of their passion ignited a determined fire, and from that moment on all they did every day was practice. Trying to stop their heads from going back and forth at all, trying to control the movement. It took them a lot of effort, a lot of neck pain and a lot of mocking from the other birds, but finally, after three weeks, they had mastered the skill of controlling their head movements. The young pigeon stood in front of the love of his life, and if possible the fire inside him was burning even more brightly. He closed his eyes, altered his order and tilted his head forward. But to his surprise there was nothing but air! He opened his eyes as he moved his head back, and saw the pigeonette move forward at the same time. He moved his head forward again, but she was again on the retreat. With a shock he realized that they had both altered their ways, so now – after some painstaking weeks – they were right back where they had started! It was as if at that moment his entire world collapsed and crumbled.

He looked up at the cute little pigeonette in despair, only to find an oversized smile on her face, which instantly broke out into an explosion of laughter as she saw his sad face. And then it hit him: she was playing with him. She altered her order with an elegant twist of her neck and kissed him passionately. They made a deal: the one who kissed, would adapt to the other one, so they would always get it right. And they always got it right from now on. And they lived happily ever after.

dinsdag 22 februari 2011

The story of the tree


I was talking to Tree again. "Don't you ever want to change anything about yourself?" I asked Tree. Tree shook his branches, as if he were thinking. Some leaves fell to the ground. Finally he spoke: "You mean that I would have bigger or smaller branches? Or leaves in a different colour?" "That's right!" Tree shook his head. "I can't remember ever wanting to do a thing like that. But I know of a tree who did."

That tree lived in this forest, not far away. When it had grown from a little twig to a big tree, it noticed a small berk tree across the stream. To him it looked so beautiful. From this moment on all the tree could talk about was the berk tree, and how beautiful it was to him and how gentle it waved in the winds.

All the other trees tried to convince him that it was alright to be different. Not every tree was meant to look the same. But alas, the tree wouldn't listen. Things got worse when the tree grew big enough to see himself in the stream. From that moment on nothing would interest the tree but how he looked and why he didn't look as beautiful as the little berk tree across the stream. He forgot to take care of himself, his stem turned dry, his leaves lost their shine and colour.

Summer faded, and autumn made it's entrance in the forest. All the tree’s leaves fell off, and they covered the stream. Finally he saw himself as he really was, from the inside. No longer was it all about the exterior, because he would loose that every year, but as a strong tree, that would survive every weather condition. So he prepared for winter, and stood there mightily as the cold and snow of winter beat down on the forest. At the end of winter, when the first spring birds threw the last snow of it's thick branches, the tree looked across the stream. The small berk tree had not survived, because it only cared about it's leaves. It was simply not strong enough to make it through the harshness of the winter period.

The tree was proud of itself. "It doesn't matter how I look, it doesn't matter that I am different from a berk tree, or an oak. What matters is, that I am strong, that I want to live!" He merrily shook his bright green leaves in the new spring sun, and he just enjoyed the new year. Green is not merely a colour it's also a state of mind.

The boy who would be king - part 3/3


At first it had been covered by the fact that Aron could only see a very small portion of the clearing - due to the narrow path they had followed - but when Aron and the wolf finally entered the clearing, there was no more hiding it. Behind the old man Do'ruth to the left was one of the most amazing creatures Aron had ever seen. If the old man was Do'ruth, the legendary magician, then the creature must be Glaudir, the dragon. And it was. It was a magnificent dragon. Unbelievably large, it's body looking ferocious with the rigid scales, and it's impressive wings shed a purplish light as the dragon stretched them out. The dragon's face looked terrifying. Incredibly clear yellow eyes stared coldly at you over a mouth with razor sharp teeth that could have cut both the wolf and the bear in half without any effort. Through all this splendor, one tiny imperfection struck Aron: there was a small piece of black in it's left eye. At the moment this thought entered his mind, Aron also felt his necklace turn warmer. He realized what it was now: a piece of the dragon's eye. The mad knight had not been so mad at all. And somehow the little boy owned it. He owned a part of the dragon.

Do'ruth woke him from his thoughts, in reassuring him that there was nothing to be afraid of. "Glaudir is harmless to you, and you don't have to worry about your medallion. You didn't do it to him, and he knows that. Come sit with me, and I will tell you why you are here." Aron followed the old man to his hut on the right, which he hadn't noticed so far. Looking to the left, next to the dragon, he saw the wolf heading for a young girl - roughly Aron's age - that would take care of him. She must have come from behind the dragon, because a few moments before she had not been there. Although she wore only rags, and looked like she didn't even know what the words 'bath' or 'shower' meant, Aron still found her very beautiful. Do'ruth offered him a place to sit and a cup of hot water with some herbal leaves in it. He gratefully accepted, and the liquid revived his strength a bit. When the magician offered him some sweet bread, even more of his strength returned.

After watching the young boy eat and drink for a while, he started to tell his story. It turned out that most of the legend was true. They had to flee into the forest when the old king Aron had died. They took the king's possessions with them, and they had to fend of many brave knights at first, but gradually they were left alone and became more legend than reality. They would just wait. Waiting for the opposite to happen: for another legend to come true. It was said that one day a young boy, with the gift of dragon vision, would arrive and reunite the old kingdom again and restore peace. For years the old man and the dragon had waited, befriending most of the animals in the forest on the way. Wolf had been a faithful friend for some decades now. The young girl - which they named Muriel - was left by her mother at the edge of a forest, probably as a sacrifice of some sort. She was raised by the magician and all the animals around her. Wolf was her favorite, and Aron could see from the corners of his eyes that she was treating the poor animal with the greatest care.

Soon it was clear to Aron that the magician thought that he was the boy from the legend. He dismissed that idea as ridiculous. Him a king? Never! He hardly cared for it when he was still at the court in his hometown, with only a very small chance of ever having to be the next king, let alone him being the king of the entire land, when there were so many forceful kings around now. The weaker houses had all been conquered, and by now four almost equally strong kingdoms remained, that would never attack each other but would also most likely never be at peace with each other as well. Should the one attack another, they would both be left vulnerable to the attacks of the other two. With the 'elimination' of his fathers 'weaker' kingdom, this status quo had been established. The old man was confident that Aron - the younger - would be the one to defeat all those four evil men and reunite the lands. He simply did not doubt it, because it was foretold in legends. They talked a lot that evening. Muriel joined them when she had finished taking care of Wolf. Late that evening Aron and Muriel went to sleep, and they both slept a very deep and reviving sleep.

The next morning Aron actually felt less skeptical about the plan/legend. During the talks last night Aron had learned that there were actually large packs of wolves and bears in the forests, that were loyal to Do'ruth, Muriel and Glaudir. The bear they had encountered underway was a rogue one, one of the only few that didn't have a friendly relationship with those three. Inside Aron's head an idea started to form. Over lunch he discussed it with his companions, and they all liked it (Glaudir and Wolf couldn't talk, but they seemed to understand what he was saying).

In the next couple of weeks they executed the plan. Although his family had been completely murdered out, there were still friends left in the town and his father's former kingdom. And they also had friends in the other kingdoms. It didn't take long to establish a network of dissatisfied citizens all over the land. They would prepare the overtaking of the kingdoms on the specified night. What they were all made very clear to understand, was that there was to be no killing. No more lives would be lost, no more blood would be shed. That was a specific and unquestionable order from Aron. At first Do'ruth had not liked the idea, and suggested to use the unhappy peasants and all the animals of the forest to form a great army, led by him and Aron, and protected from the air by Glaudir, but eventually he had seen the reason in Aron's plan.

Finally the specified day came. It arrived in a promising early morning mist. Riding on the back of the dragon, Aron would fly over the entire land and set fire to the great haystacks that would secretly have been erected by the peasants. That would be a signal to everyone, man and animal, to commence their charges. At what felt like lightning speed Glaudir soared over the lands, and set fire to the haystacks with a single ball of fire breathing from his nostrils. Soon all over the land the haystacks were burning, and things started to happen  simultaneously and rapidly. From the forests large flocks of wolves and bears entered the king's towns, aided by the peasants who cleared the way. Because of the preparations of the peasants, the animals would all know where to go, and scared to death by such terrifying and unusual enemies, all the soldiers would surrender instantly. Their weapons were confiscated by the peasant militias and in only a couple of hours the 'battle' had been fought, without a single drop of blood or a life lost.

The captured kings were brought before Do'ruth and Aron in the town hall of Aron's home town. Fearing to be beheaded at the least, they begged and pleaded for their lives, especially when Glaudir joined the party and growled loudly to the miserable kings. But in words of premature wisdom Aron spoke to them: "Many years ago a wise man ruled these lands in peace and prosperity. His subjects were happy, and life was good. But you - all of you - defiled his legacy by claiming parts of the land as your own, and even more shameful also desiring the parts you could not obtain after that wise man's death. In battling over the land and fighting each other, you have ruined a once beautiful country, of which many great songs were once written and sung. You have enslaved your people, so that they hardly have anything to eat, while you feast every night on everything they break their backs from before sunrise to after sunset. You should be ashamed of yourselves! And if that wasn't enough, you also killed the people that got in your way, as if they were nothing but an inconvenience. But if you think I will do the same to you and sentence you to death, which you actually deserve, you're wrong! I am sentencing you to life. I want you to live, be free, and live a happy and peaceful life. You will be equals with the people you oppressed for so long, because there will be no more inequality while I am around. And you might wonder what will happen to the treasures of your forefather? Well, they will be used for the good of everybody. They will be used to build good roads between your towns, to make sure everybody has a proper house to live in, and the right tools to work on whatever it is they are best at. There will be peace in my time, and travelers will marvel at our prosperity, and write songs about us, that they will sings at their homes. And once again, this land will be the subject of legends. But with one difference, that it is real and still here."

After having spoken thus, Aron retreated into his room, and found Muriel sitting on his bed. She looked more beautiful than ever, in her new dress and with her hair decorated with a marvelous tiara. Throughout the last few weeks they had grown really close to one another, and Aron knew what he would do next. He had faced a dragon, lead an army and spoke from the heart to a crowd of thousands, but now his knees were trembling, his hand palms were sweaty and he felt his throat closing. But he did it anyway. He got down on one knee in front of Muriel, looked into her beautiful eyes and took a little bag from his pocket. Out of the bag he removed two rings. At first sight, they seemed to be made of pure gold, but if you looked closer, you would see they were made of the clearest glass you have ever seen. The rings were perfectly golden yellow, except for a single blotch. Black, but depending on how the light fell onto it, every single color in the world. Do'ruth had used his magic to change the necklace into these two magnificent rings. Aron took Muriel's hand, and offered one of the rings to her. "Muriel, will you make me the happiest man in the land? Will you be by my side for the rest of our long and prosperous lives?" With a nod Muriel accepted the proposal, because the tears and her emotions took her breath away.

Throughout the land celebrations were held, in honor of the unification of both the land and the happy couple. That night, after a long and festive celebration, Aron led Muriel to their bedroom. "So as of tomorrow we will be king and queen, what do you say about that?" Muriel asked. Aron suddenly realized he had not thought of that yet. He would indeed be king, even though he never showed interest in becoming one all those years in school. "We'll see about that tomorrow my love, tonight the world is just about you and me!" In his mind he pondered over it a little. Would he be king? Should he be king? He would rather just explore the lands outside his own, together with Muriel, Glaudir and Wolf. Be free. Go anywhere. See the great things the world had to offer him. He decided to put off the decision until tomorrow. Because tonight was only about one thing: him and his lovely black haired princess...

The boy who would be king - part 2/3


Aron opened his eyes. He couldn't see anything. "Where am I?" he thought, but then he felt a sudden burst of pain racing through his ankle. And with the pain all of his memories came back. The terrible things his uncle had done to his town, his people, his family! They were all slaughtered, Aron was all alone now. That last fact struck him so hard that he even forgot the pain in his ankle. He jumped up, and then immediately fell down again. He might have forgotten the pain, but the pain hadn't forgotten him... For minutes, hours, days - who could tell? - Aron just sat there, surrounded by complete darkness and - as he could only imagine - all kinds of terrible ghosts and haunted creatures, because he was in the middle of that horrid and haunted forest. 

Not knowing what else to do, Aron started crying. Soundlessly the tears ran down his face, like a river from it's source: the teardrops finding their way down like water does, on their way forming small streams that combined to become bigger streams. He closed his eyes, but the tears kept flowing. Then suddenly, the tears stopped. He was out of tears. Aron felt very empty. As empty as he had never felt before. He opened his eyes expecting the same unbearable darkness, but to his surprise he could see. Not much, but due to some soft yellowish light he could see some trees around him. Ghastly black trees, in the most horrible shapes imaginable. "Well, I guess I was better of NOT seeing anything after all", his irony prevailed over his fear and emptiness for just a short second. He looked around to see where the light came from, but he couldn't see his source. Then he looked down, only to see it beaming from his necklace. The strangely formed necklace he got from his mother at birth. He never knew it glowed in the dark. Actually, it had never glowed in the dark, since he wore it day and night, and had never seen it do this before.

"Ah well, no sense in discussing that now", Aron thought as he was happy that he could actually see something. He took the opportunity to examine his ankle. It was swollen, as he kind of expected. He silently cursed the root that lay  besides him motionless and unaware of any evil it had done. He tried to walk, and decided he couldn't. When he looked around, he saw a stick at the side of the road. It was long enough and looked strong enough to be used as a walking stick. So he got over there and picked it up. With the stick he could actually walk a bit, although the pain didn't completely disappear. But it was better than nothing. So Aron decided to start walking. But what he hadn't decided yet was: which direction? Back to where he came from? Most likely the soldiers would be waiting for him, or at least one or two guards would be left behind. Further in the forest then? He didn't like that one bit, but he figured he had no choice. So onwards he went, slowly and softly illuminated. By the scarce light he had, it looked like the path went straight ahead, but since he could see so little of it, it could as well have been a perfect circle and he wouldn't have noticed it.

After walking for a very long time - it felt like a very long time, because real time had somehow lost it's meaning in such a dark and deserted place as this forest was - Aron started to get hungry. When he thought about it, he had not heard a thing move or stir in the forest at all. No birds, squirrels, not a thing. He did not have any food on him either. So Aron decided to ignore his hunger as long as he could. He hobbled along some more. After a while the young boy got tired, but he bravely kept moving. And then suddenly, he stopped mid-step! Because out of nowhere facing him was one of the scariest creatures he had never hoped to encounter in his still short life: a fearsome wolf!

Aron instantly froze, paralyzed by fear. The wolf also stood perfectly still, his green eyes twinkling from the soft light emanating from the necklace. It was as if time stood still, and all of reality was focused on this encounter. Hardly a breath passed either creatures lips. They just stood there, watching each other. The one watched the other in stiffened fright, the other just stood perfectly still and watched. After a period of time that could have been a second or a century, the wolf came into motion. It slowly approached Aron, focusing on his face. Or no, not his face, focusing on something just below his face. Aron was still frozen in place, although his eyes were somehow able to move, to see his fate coming silently and graciously closer. The wolf however did not bite at him or attack him, but merely sniffed the necklace around Aron's neck. After sniffing it for several moments and staring deep into the boys terrified eyes, he suddenly let go of a highly impressive and spine chilling roar! A roar that both seemed to be muffled by the forest, and was carried as far as the wind would and could bring it. By that majestic sound even Aron's eyes froze into place. Somewhere in the distance, ahead of Aron, the roar was answered by another roar. It sounded far away and different from the wolf's roar, but Aron couldn't place it.

The wolf growled a bit, and then started to move around Aron. Aron still couldn't move. Arriving at his back, the wolf gently nudged him in the back, as though pushing him forward. With that single touch, the stiffness was broken, and Aron fell over. He instantly turned around so that he could face the wolf and be prepared for everything, reaching for the stick he had dropped when he himself had dropped as well. But the wolf showed no intention - again - of attacking him, and waited patiently, looking both ahead and at Aron, as if to tell him to move that way. When no response came, the wolf lay down on the path, and expectantly looked up at Aron, like a dog expecting a treat from his master. Not exactly knowing what to do, but in lack of a better idea, Aron got up and started walking in the direction the wolf had apparently pointed out. It wasn't for long that the wolf joined him, walking casually by his side. As they walked on, Aron - or better, his ankle - remembered that he was getting tired. He slowed down his pace and had to start breathing more heavily.

As if the wolf understood, he also slowed down. But soon it became too hard for Aron to walk on. He was still very hungry and couldn't suppress the feeling anymore, and his ankle was starting to hurt more and more. It was the wolf who came to the rescue. It knelt down before Aron, and thankfully Aron climbed on the wolf's back. Maybe the wolf had bad intentions after all, but at least Aron would meet his fate comfortably. As he sat on the wolf's back, holding on to it's manes, he slowly felt himself falling asleep. He started dreaming about all kinds of things: at first about what had happened today (if it was today), the brutal slaughtering of his family. But later on, his dreams turned to a more pleasant subject: his childhood, where he could roam the fields surrounding his town freely, with not a care in the world. Just as he was feeling more happy than he had felt in a very long time, he was brutally wakened from his dream world, when he was thrown of the wolf's back. There were a lot of growls and roars, and they were not only the wolf's... Blocking the path was a ferocious and gigantic bear. In the dim light - did he imagine it or was there more light than just from his necklace? - he saw that the bear was covered with many battle scars. It missed a piece of it's ear, and a big red ugly scar ran over it's belly.

Suddenly the bear attacked, and lashed at the wolf with it's mighty claw. The wolf could barely escape the attack, and then with an almost impossible speed charged a counter attack, biting the bear in it's unprotected right flank. A ferocious battle engaged. It could have gone either way, at one time you'd think the wolf wouldn't stand a chance to the bears sheer force, at another time you wouldn't give anything for the bear's life when you'd see the speed and aggression with which the wolf charged. The battle went on forever! Both animals didn't seem to tire at all. But then suddenly, when the bear took a step back to evade another wolf's attack, he stumbled over a root, that had - also - decided to cross the path above ground. The wolf did not hesitate for more than a fraction of a second, and immediately went for the kill. His giant jaws went straight for the bears throat, and with some powerful bites he ended the bears life. The wolf lay down besides the dead bear, tired as he was from the epic battle, now that the battle tension was gone. But then they heard a huge roar from nearby, straight ahead. The wolf answered it, and pushed Aron towards his back again. The frightened young boy mounted the wolf again, and they continued their journey.

Aron had not been mistaken, there was more light now. After a while he actually saw a light ahead of him. The wolf ran faster, towards the light. Soon they reached the light, which came from a large clearing in the forest. Arriving at the clearing, they were greeted by an old man, with the words: "Welcome my dear boy, I have been expecting you. My name is Do'ruth." Before Aron could answer the old man, his breath was taken away by something he saw behind the old man, and once again he froze. "What the..."

The boy who would be king - part 1/3


It takes place in a land far away, a very long time ago, even before the creation of Happily Ever After. In a time when there were still fairy tales being made, when magic was as common as cars are today and where kings would still fight for their honour and their maiden.

It was there that our little boys lived. He lived a good life. He had everything: a big room with an even bigger bed, plenty of other boys to play with and great food. You could say he lived the life of a prince. And you would be right in saying so, because he was a prince. He was one of the many children of the king, given to him by one of his many wives. He wasn't the king's first child, or his first male child. He had a lot of older brothers, so the chances of him ever being a king were next to zero. So the little boy never cared much for anything they taught him about being one - a king I mean - but he always enjoyed the lessons on nature and particularly about the animals in the great forest that lay at the border of his fathers kingdom. His favourite story was the one of the dragon Glaudir that was supposed to live at the other side of the haunted forest. Supposedly he guarded an ancient treasure. Before the land had become divided into the many small kingdoms it housed today, there was legend of a great king - also named Aron coincidentally, who ruled the land peacefully and justly, with the aid of his faithful magician Do'ruth. When the king finally died of old age, his children fought over his heritance, and divided the country over a lot of bloodshed and slaughter. Do'ruth fled the lands and took all of his king’s treasures with him, into the forest. At first, many brave knights would enter the forest to reclaim the treasures, but few returned. The few that did return, were bordering on insanity, and all they could get from them was the story of the dragon, that defended the treasure and burned everyone that came near it. One knight came back claiming that he actually wounded the dragon in the eye, but he also claimed that he was king of puppet country, so his story was dismissed as a mad man's tale.

Whenever he could, the little boy went out in to the country. Somehow he always ended up at the entrance of the old forest. The entrance must have once offered a glorious sight, but nowadays only ruins of the impressive portal remained. It was said that Malkir, the king's magician had seen the gate at it's full splendour and knew the story behind it's demise, but whenever somebody asked for the story, Malkir would simply deny everything and command you to never ever go into the forest! The little boy, his name was Aron, would never dream of entering the forest. At nights weird noises would come from the forest, and many a widow had endlessly told her story of how the forest had taken her man in the prime of his life.

Positively scared of this hunted forest as Aron was though, he was also inevitably drawn to it. Often he would just lie back on what was once a piece of the portal's arch - which had fallen down long ago and was now covered in a nice soft layer of moss - and stare into the darkness of the forest. Of the road in to the forest - no more than a poorly maintained cart track, you could only see the first few metres, after which it was consumed by darkness. The road at the portal was the only way to enter the forest, because all the edge of the forest was at the bottom very thickly grown with very prickly thorns.

One afternoon, when Aron was peacefully lying on the piece of arch, his eyes closed, he was playing with his necklace. It was all he had left of his mother, as she died while giving birth to him. It was a piece of glass, yellowish, shaped like a triangle. In one of the corners there was a blotch. It had rugged edges and the colour, well, no one could really tell. At first sight, you would say black, but at a closer distance, it could have been any colour, depending also of the angle at which you looked at it... Although Aron knew it to be nonsense, he often thought that the blotch moved in a way, but only if he wasn't really looking at it. You know, when you sort of see it from the corner of your eyes, but didn't really see it clearly. At one time Aron actually thought it might be an eye watching him, but that idea was so silly that he'd laughed at it for almost half an hour. Suddenly he smelt something. At first he couldn't place the smell. But he most definitely could when opened his eyes and looked around him. The town was on fire! He smelled smoke! As soon as he saw the fires, he also heard the sounds of battle: trumpets being blown, metal on metal, metal on flesh, the shrieks of scared women and children.

His town was under attack! And by the looks of it, it must be by his evil uncle Jonathan. He could see his uncles colours on the battle flags. Instinct told him to run away, but Aron ran towards the village. As he closed, the noises got louder, and he could already see some dead people lying around. Trying not to vomit, he continued to run towards the town square, where apparently the fighting was taking place now. As he arrived, he was in an instant that all was lost! What few people of his family still remained, were driven into a corner and were being slaughtered. He saw his second and third brother desperately defending themselves and their - his - relatives, but to no avail. His father and his first brother, the crown prince, had already fallen. Frozen in place and unable to move, Aron had to watch his entire family be murdered by... well... another part of his family. Finally the massacre was over. The victors raised their trumpets and blew for victory. Aron didn't know what to do as tears welled up in his eyes.

But then a foot soldier saw him, an recognized him. "There's another prince, grab him!" the soldier shouted and he pointed at Aron. Soldiers nearby came into action, and soon others followed. Suddenly, Aron could move again, and ran. He ran for his life. Luckily he knew the town by heart, so he easily created some distance between him and his pursuers. But he knew they would not give up, so he kept running. As if by faith, he ran towards the forest, towards the ruined gate into the haunted forest. Although Aron knew the terrain better, the soldiers were now gaining on him once they were in the open field, simply because they had been trained better. Soon they would catch up with him, and he realized they would not show mercy. He would die by their swords, somewhere in the fields he grew up in and so loved to watch when lying down on 'his' part of the portal's arch. There was only one way out: into the forest! He could hardly believe it, but it was true, the only way to survive those bloodthirsty soldiers was to enter the haunted forest, because no one would follow him there. They were all to scared. So was Aron, but he had no choice! So he gathered all of his courage, leaped over the arch and ran straight into the forest. Within seconds, everything went dark. As expected, the soldiers did not follow, but he still ran on. After only a few more seconds their sounds were gone, and he was all alone in the forest, and he could not see anything at all. If you are running around in the dark, you know something must go wrong, and so it did. Aron had been running in a straight line, and apparently the road was also straight. But as it is with forest, there are trees in them. Trees have roots, and roots tend to go wherever they like. And this particular root had decided to cross the path, above ground. So Aron's foot got stuck behind the root, and he fell flat on his face. Aron hit the ground so hard, that - if it wasn’t already black enough around him - everything went black before his eyes. Aron sank into a deep, dark and unconscious sleep...

maandag 21 februari 2011

Dog

Dog lived Happily Ever After. Just like every other animal that had a big or small part in all the fairytales in the world. He was living a happy, quiet live amongs all the other animals. His neighbours were Donkey and Frog. Every morning the greeted each other and said Ee-aah, Ribbit and Wrooff to each other. They just walked around, enjoyed their days and the warm beams of Sun. In the afternoon they met the others in the square, and danced to the enchanting music of some of the older fairy tales. Pied Piper blew his flute, Goat played his violin and Bird sang a heavenly song. 

Everybody was Happy. And Ever. And After. Except for Dog. Well, he was Happy (and Ever and After) most of the times, but some days he felt a weird feeling. At first he just went to see Doctor Bear. A big, brown-greyish bear with an unstoppable hunger for honey. As you could see with his gigantic belly! He always had some honey in his whiskers, just out of reach from his tongue. A funny sight to watch. Bear could not find anything wrong with Dog, and offered him some honey as a cure. He offered honey to everyone as a cure, because to him honey was the cure to everything.

After a while Dog just wouldn't bother seeing Bear anymore. The feeling got worse and Dog would feel it more and more often. Donkey and Frog were getting worried. "I am worried", Frog ribbited. "Mee-aah too!" replied Donkey. Dog started to stay away from the dances sometimes, just to go to the hilltop and bark at Sun. Sun would not answer, but only send more radiating beams of warm light down to earth, which seamed to make everybody more Happy, except for Dog. Dog would just sit there and bark, until Sun went to bed. Moon took over. Dog barked at Moon as well, but Moon was just a pale reflection of Sun nowadays. 

Dissapointed by this, Dog went down the hill again. It was a steep hill. Dog tripped on a loose rock, and because it was a steep hill, Dog had to run down to keep from falling. Down the hill he stopped to get his breath back. Suddenly he noticed something. The sad feeling was gone! He felt strangely happy. A more intense Happy than he had ever felt since retiring from fairy tales! He ran some more, it felt good! Finally he ran all the way home. Dog never slept better his entire life!

The next morning he made a decision. He would run, just run! Donkey and Rabbit were shocked! "Why would you run, it is tiring" (Ribbit). "I had to run all my active life, and I can tell you it's no good..." (Ee-aah) But they could not change Dog's mind. So they said goodbye and Dog started to run. It felt even better than last night. At first, he had to stop a lot, because he was not used to the running. But the more he ran, the more he enjoyed it and he got better and better at it. After all, he was a Dog!

One day, when Sun was preparing for bed after another day of Happy, Ever and After, a small wind arose. With the wind in his face, he ran even faster than usual. This felt so incredibly great! The next morning, there was even more wind. Wind was great. And Wind also enjoyed blowing on Dog. Wind did not have much to do nowadays, and it made him feel alive again. "Run Dog, run!" he shouted at storm force! Dog ran, stopped, changed course, one time went into the wind, the other time ran as fast as he could with Wind at his back. They really enjoyed each others company, and became good friends. 

Along the way, they met a lot of animals. Not a single one understood Dog and Wind. The were Happy, Ever and After right where they were. But Dog and Wind didn't care. Because they had found True Happyness. Happyness isn't a place, it is a state of mind, a feeling! You cannot achieve Happyness just by being somewhere you're supposed to be Happy. You can only achieve True Happyness by chasing it, whereever it goes, and therefore: whereever you have to go! And maybe it wasn't even that important to actually get there, maybe the chase was what defined Happyness. It did for Dog, because Dog just loved to chase! After all this time, Dog was finally really Happy!

Once upon a time there were Dog and Wind, and they were just happy!