The Princess and the Child

A prince - under a spell that returns him to his 10 year old body - meets the princess he was engaged to marry.

My princess is at the top of the hill, fixing the swing amongst the ruins of our once-great castle. She does not know that I watch her, or that we have been thrown together by the winds of fate. If she were to look at me now, she would not know me. She would see only a peasant child, staring at a pretty girl in a white dress. Now is not the time to approach her. I wonder if it will ever be the time to approach her, or if I will be doomed to watch from afar for my lifetime.

 

It was only yesterday that I was by her side, holding her hand and dreaming of the day that we would be married in truth, and today, I am trapped in the body of a child, yearning to be set free. I will never know what exactly happened to set this chain of events into motion, as my memory of the night has fled. I hope to reach out to her again. Without my body, however, I feel it is a futile gesture. She would not wait for me to grow again, as much as she loves me.

 

She looks so sad and so sweet standing on that hill, that my heart goes out to her, and I pick a bunch of wild flowers to give her, running up to her on the hill as only a child can get away with. She smiles at me and takes the flowers from my hand, but all at once I can hear her voice in my head, saying “What need have I of urchins with weeds in hand and crooked smiles?” This is immediately followed by another voice, saying “Bide your time dear one. You never know who might be the one to topple our plans. You must be a champion to the people or they will never accept you.”

 

I am fortunately too startled to respond, for I can see a look in her eyes that makes me feel those words are the truest thing I have heard her say. And then her eyes are big and sweet once more, and I begin to question what I have seen and heard. Surely that was a trick of the light, and I can’t possibly have heard her thoughts, regardless of how much it sounded like her. My princess is good and fair and beautiful. I have seen her enough to know this. I smile at her and turn to run away, as she turns back to the swing. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a vision of her as she turns, and she has no back " instead the inside of her body is caved out and looks as if it is made of bark. I have heard stories of woodwives who entice unwary men, but who soon find out that no man wants half a woman, so they curse him and run away.

 

I look back, but the vision is gone, and she is laying the flowers gently down on the swing. I am sure I see her smile down at them before wandering off in the direction of the new castle. I follow at a discreet distance, and decide that I need to get closer to her. I think I can do this as a coffee slave as long as I can get hired under the nice cook.

Author's Note

Unedited and unfinished. This was the start of a fairy tale fantasy story that I never quite got around to finishing.

Reviews

[Devine Miss C]

I liked this a lot. I have read a number of - not reincarnation stories per se, but you know what I mean, soul mates meeting each other time and again through the ages. I like the twist where the child see things that he isn't sure are really there. As if now as a child he is seeing her true self/form for the first time.

I was going to say that it was all going really well till the last paragraph which didn't read as well as the read of story but then I noticed your comments saying that it was unfinished.

I think you should continue with it. I would read more :)

[JB Henderson]

An interesting piece. I enjoyed the dream-like feeling that this fragment has, and I think you should expand on this.