Lady of the Forest

Have you heard about the Lady of the Forest? Her story- like with many fairytales begins long ago; when princesses found eternal love and happiness with their prince...

  The Lady of the Forest used to be a beloved princess, but she was also a skilled swordsman.  In the depths of Willow Castle, she'd behave as a "proper" princess during the day.  Her studies were limited to manners, arts, and diplomacy without politics.  However, at night, she'd disguise herself as an animal in order to practice her sword skills with her cousin and his dearest friend.

  One day, the princess met with a black wolf.  Despite the danger of the animal, she approached him.  When she noticed that his paw had been injured, she took a piece from the bottom of her dress and wrapped the wound.  Although he threatened to cause her harm, she showed him great kindness.  This confused the wolf, but in gratitude and pride, he ran from her.

  For a week after that, the princess took the wolf a gift of a rabbit.  He was hesitant to take the offerings at first.  However, he warmed up to her by the third day.  He'd take them deep into the forest and give them to his family.  When asked about her motives, she smiled and explained that she worried for his safety; With an injury to a paw, it'd be difficult to hunt, so she decided to help him.

  On the eighth day, the wolf didn't appear.  She walked deeper in to the woods and heard him wimper.  He had been injured badly: Bite wounds around his neck; several slashes along his body from a blade; Scratches along his spine.  The princess dropped the rabbit and cradled the wolf in her lap.  He looked to her in pain.  "Why are you helping me?" he asked.  Her answer remained the same from the first time he asked.  "You're a fool," he snapped.  The princess began to shake in fear.  "My pack is dead back there because of a traitor.  Now he's after me."  He seethed angrily as he tried to stand.  "He wouldn't hesitate to kill you."

  "He'll have to put a serious effort into it!" she whispered.  "Come with me.  Me and my colleagues will keep you safe."  He was stunned by her forward plea, but declined.  He explained that he no longer believed in the pack mentality.

  "Packs are originally started by families, thend destroyed from the inside," he claimed.

  Two men approached them, surrounded by several bats.  The first was a blond man in a black suit, seemingly tall to the kneeling girl.  The second, a dark- haired one- much shorter yet in the same ensemble.  "Oh, look," said the shorter.  "It's the one that got away!"  He pulled out a sword.  "And he brought a parting gift."  The princess stood with her sword drawn.  "And she's feisty."  He leaned into her.  "Good, because I like it rough!"

  The princess gritted her teeth, but before she could do anything, the wolf growled at the attacker.  "She's not involved in this!" he yelled.  Soon he fell and the princess went back onto her knees.  "Don't worry about me.  Just fight, idiot!"  She nodded and took her stance.  "You better win."  The short man stepped near her, but soon a silver blur appeared.  "What the-"

  A man in a silver suit walked to the pair.  He drew his sword, then struck the attacker in his genitals.  The shock and the blood loss caused the attacker to die.  When the other asked about who he was, a white wolf stood beside the silver- suited stranger.  The blond man met the same fate as his colleague and received an answer:  "I am here to rescue my pack."  The black wolf gritted his teeth and limped away without the rabbit.  The princess thanked the man, but followed her wolf.

  The wolf went to a lake nearby and became a human.  His long, black hair covered his wounds, while the moonlight shone brightly in his eyes.  He cleansed his wounds, but looked so lonely.  The princess couldn't help but stare in awe.  The waters not only cleansed his wounds, but also healed them.  Soon her awe would end with a dull pain to the back of her neck.

 

  When she became conscious, the princess found herself in her room.  Once she walked out, the castle halls filled with a rumor.  The word around the castle was that she had been rescued by the "Prince of Wolves."  She suspected that he might have delivered the blow to her neck.  When everyone gasped at the luck of the princess, she frowned to find that the "prince" was the stranger who mutilated the men who attacked her.  He shared a watered- down story of how he saved her and slayed a black wolf.

  The last part had been the hardest punch that he delivered, but paired with his story, the princess felt crushed.  He weaved a story about how the beast's claws nearly removed her gown.  It was a piece of fiction worth being acted out on a drama stage.  She stormed off and denounced his stories as boring fiction not worthy of being repeated.

  Not everyone felt the same.  Her weaponry instructors even told her that there'd be no more lessons after dusk and that if she were caught after that, they'd bring her back after that.  While her colleagues talked, she noticed a man with black hair and deep blue eyes stare at her.  The princess excused herself.  She felt relieved to see him alive, but wondered why he kept running from her.

  Upon leaving their company, she looked for the man with black hair, only to be stopped by the "Prince."  He approached her and asked for what she sought.  She saw his colleague, who shook his head sadly.  She replied, "A quiet place.  Your tale has brought me a lot of attention and I am exhausted."  She tried to sound somewhat civil, but he looked at her like she had sliced him with a sword.

  She left for her room, but was called back to her mother's room.  She ran in time to see her mother in a puddle of blood.  "I saw it!" one person shouted.  "It was a black wolf!  The color of midnight."  The princess went pale, but remembered that the one she helped was in her eyesight the whole afternoon.  The princess was rushed out of the room because no one wanted her last memory of her mother to be in that bloody mess.

 

  For a week after, the princess' teachers walked her, the "heroic prince", and his white wolf back to the castle.  The wolf seemed as melancholic as she had felt after the "great word artist" that he followed.  She wanted to speak to him alone, but the "prince" kept a close eye on him.  He almost seemed like a prisoner instead of a friend.

  She waited until everyone went to sleep before she left her room.  After she checked the halls, she transformed into an animal to scurry down the halls.  Her attempt ended quickly, when the wolf held her by the nape of her neck.  "Not that way," he whispered.  "My abductor's over there, talking to your father.  If he catches you, you're dead.

  As he explained, the princess grew angry.  "For now, you're safest by playing along," he concluded.  Those words upset her as she headed back to her room.  She stared to the forest.  After more than a week of visiting her new friend, she was stopped because of some overinflated egotist.

  Soon, rumors of a wedding flowed across the land.  The wolf heard about them and assembled an army of tribes that the false prince wronged.  Their objective: Rescue the king, princess, and the wolf.

  The court didn't see it the same way, when the army attacked- even after the princess witnessed the murder of her father by the "beloved prince of wolves."  She ran to the forest, where she saw her wolf.  He stared at her in his human form, but covered in blood.  After she held him, she explained the scenario.

  The false prince walked to the pair after the princess sent her main weapons to another land.  Soon, she held a fighting stance, but felt that the sun had set on her life.  The willows saw it differently though.

  Many willow leaves gathered and became a staff for her use.  The black wolf stared as she blocked the attacks of the prince.  After delivering a blow that knocked him out, the wolf asked a third time:  Why did you protect me?

  "You've never spoken empty words to me," the princess explained.  "You find no need to have an inflated ego and fish for compliments.  Ever since we met, I loved that about you.  When you tried to scare me by sharing common fears that most other people have, I never sensed that I was in any real danger."  After leaning closer to him, she concluded her explanation.  "When you spared my life, I fell in love with you.  It made me realize that despite your harsh words, you have a good heart.

 

  Their joy was short lived.  The false prince drove his sword through the back of the princess and the chest of her wolf.  To save what little life they had left, the willows sealed her and her beloved in a tree.  There were circumstances to the spell however.  Those who lost their lives in the Lunar Eclipse Battle would be reborn with them- even the false prince.  The weapons and the power of the princess would be reborn as well.  The princess' reborn soul would become a skunk in the evening after her first menstrual cycle, but appear human during the day.  The black and white wolves could freely alternate their forms, but the false prince could never be a wolf or join his estranged pack.  There was another curse to the prince, but no one knows the nature of it.

 

Writer's Note:  So, as you pass by the tree that has a woman naturally etched into the bark of the tree, knelt by a wolf, try to remember this story.  May your life be blessed by an endless love without tragedy ~Suiseiten

Author's Note

Ready, set, go! Any feedback will help me greatly. This is actually the basis for one of my Fairytale themed long projects, so anything that can help me is welcomed greatly.
~Fun Fact: The Lady of the Forest was inspired by a picture that I found of my sister and one of her friends when we went to Thermopolis ages ago. They posed by a tree that actually looked like a woman in the rings. It wasn't a willow, but I felt that for this, it'd make a bit more sense. The image of the weeping willow just seemed to fit with the tragic element.

Reviews

[smee]

i really like the story. i have to ask though why did the princess send her weapons to another land? i know she couldn't have her weapons with her because she need to have the willow weapon but you never said a reason for her to send them away, to me i just cant think of a reason it doesn't make sense lol :D. oh and the tribes that the false prince wronged, were they human or animal, both? lol i just couldn't see it happen because i didn't know what to imagine. i would have liked a little bit of a precursor to the rumors of the wedding and war. he just saved the girl and know suddenly there's talk of them getting married? it was a surprised how fast it came up and then there was a war happening because of it. something that important i had to reread that paragraph before i knew what was happening. once i understood though i got it, i would have liked something to set me up for it led me into the idea of them getting married.
did the false prince take that wolf that caught the princes sneaking out? i didn't understand why he said he had been abducted
" "Not that way," he whispered. "My abductor's over there, talking to your father. If he catches you, you're dead."
i know its to show some of the false princes character but why would he say this to her? she doesn't like the false prince anyway lol. i really like the story though specially the ending very nicely done.

[Bernkastel]

I greatly appreciate the feedback. ^^ Sorry it took me so long to get back, but I've kinda forgot about this account until I checked my old email account.

Anyhow, when it comes to the first question, I wanted to create this as an introduction instead of a short story. It was meant to take place in a more modern time and parallel this piece. Plus, I think the idea that the princess had was that if she sent her people and treasures to a different place, the false prince wouldn't be able to find them.

As for the tribes, I was aiming for both. For the purpose of the piece that was going to be an expansion, the princess herself was to be strictly human, but I planned to make her reborn self transform into a skunk as a means of a curse for crossing worlds and to reveal the reason that she put so much effort into fighting (as a means of guarding her insecurities as well as for defensive purposes).

To the marriage plans in this piece... That may be a bit more difficult to explain. I wanted it to more come off as a kingdom rumor than an actual wedding. It'd be kinda like how popular media works: give a scintillating tale and watch it grow. In this sense, maybe 2 days or weeks pass since the tales of a "brave prince rescuing a damsel in distress" turned into wedding bells- something for which the princess had no desire since his deception wasn't working on her. I may work on a better alert because I only wanted to allure to it being a rumor, but not make it happen.

As for the white wolf, the intent was to make him an accidental traitor. His actions were benign, but he brought in the wrong person. However, the black wolf, though he acts cold would never truly do anything wrong to him- something that the false prince knew, so he became a hostage. Basically, "stop me from acquiring what I want and I'll kill those you love" was the message the false prince tried to deliver by keeping the white wolf to his side.

Thanks again for reading!
~Suiseiten