Monday, March 3, 2008

Fairy Tale
Once upon a time there lived a young girl by the name of Kathy. Kathy's parents were farmers, and Kathy's mum died after giving birth to her baby brother. Her father, overwhelmed by the lost of his loved one, turned to alcohol for consolation and started to neglect the family. Luckily for Kathy and her brother, there were her relatives who could take care of her.

Kathy grew up to be a fine yet ordinary woman, helping out with the chores in the house. 19 years passed in the blink of an eye and Kathy had always wanted something special to happen to her. "I wouldn't want to spend my entire life tilting soil and reaping crops, I want to be like a princess and live my life with no worries at all." Day and night she hoped for a prince to sweep her off her feet and carry her to the land of happiness, yet every morning she woke up to find herself wearing the same rags she had worn for 20 years.

Prince Artoria's father, the king, passed away a year before he was 20. The queen was preparing him to take over the king's throne and learn to follow his father's footsteps. "A strong and just ruler is not born overnight" She told her son, holding his hands and touching his face. "It comes from here.." placing her palm over his chest "and here." kissed Artoria's forehead. Prince Artoria knew that his mother had faith in him and responsibilities would start to amount. Invitations from princes of other kingdom to their ballroom parties were of little interest to him. Princesses who had visited the queen and looked away shyly from him, hoping that he would take a look at them, but went home disappointed. "This is not what I have in mind.." Artoria thought.

Kathy stood at the side of the freshly tilted land, her hand on her hip, wearing her straw hat at an angle to fend off the sun and wiping the sweat with her sleeve. Another day of hard work, another day of the blistering sun. All she had to do now was to head for the next village and bring back the cloth that her aunt had send over to dye.

Prince Artoria wanted his mother to be happy. He had ordered his men to follow him to the village next to the castle to know how well the villagers were coping with the drought. The villagers had no fertile land to work with, and their main source of income came from producing dye and selling dyed materials. Artoria surveyed the crowd and saw that everyone was content despite the poverty that was consistently living off them. He was done with the questions, after distributing the rations to the villagers he would head back home.

How Artoria and Kathy managed to meet was an act of serendipity. A knight on a silver armoured horse wearing a blue vest, a maiden with a straw hat carrying a bag of orange dyed cloth. Their eyes met but words were not exchanged. Kathy was queuing up to get the free rations and upon seeing the prince, left hastily (partially out of fear that she was not from the village, partially embarassed by her own actions). (To be continued..)
- posted by kanery at 11:23:00 PM