The Princess, The Owl and The Prince

[Kaya-Nita]

This story line idea came from our own NightHawk who graciously gave me one paragraph to work from and the rest of the story took flight on it's own.

If you like a good fairy tale i hope you will enjoy this one. Even i cried at the end but who am i, i cry at the end of Bambi.......



The Princess, The Owl and The Prince

In the year of our Lords King William “The Great Bear” McNeil and Queen NightHawk the I of 1200 and 69 gave birth to the Princess Kaya Na’Hita. The ivory white horns did blow on that blessed morn and the trumpeter’s did ring in the courts of the blessed event. An heiress has been born to the throne.

The Queen a strong loving wife as well as witty and wise, proudly walked into the courtroom with the newborn babe wrapped in the finest of satins. To bring her husband his daughter to see and behold. As he held his child for the very first time he gazed into her tiny little eyes and was enchanted forever more.

“This child will grow up with the best that my Kingdom has to offer or can find. She will wear only the best of clothes, eat the finest of foods, and learn from the highest of learned scholars. She will dance only to the finest of music from the most talented of musicians.” Then the king kissed her tiny little forehead smiled a warm gentle smile and held her in his mighty arms while continuing with court proceedings.

King William spent many a day in court with his babe in his arms and as she grew she would play as quiet as could be in and around his throne. He saw to her studies and that she had the best that life could offer. She grew to be a happy child, and when she reached the age of choosing a suitor she would say “He is nothing like my father… and I will not have anything to with him.” Then turn them away without a moment’s hesitation. The Princess had made her mind up, that if she were to marry at all, her suitor would have some mighty shoes to fill if he wanted her love and hand. For she used her father to see if a man could measure up and no such man seemed to exist.

The King brought in Princes from lands far and wide and none could stand up to the Princess’s image of her father. Her father spent many long hours watching his daughter play her pipes in her rose garden he had built for her with a fountain that contained a statue of Cupid with his bow and arrow. How many times did he pray that the Gods and Goddess’s would come and bless her with a loving union? But time was growing short soon he would be forced to choose a suitor for her.

Every day he would stand at the window and with his advisors at his side and watch as she played her pipes. But yet he never noticed she was not truly alone. Every day a large white owl with small black spots would come to her. He would bath in the fountain and drink from its cool waters. He would dance to her music and when she played sad music he would use his wings and splash her with water from the fountain and she would change to a merrier tune for him to dance to.

Every day her father came to the window and every day he would pray “Please…oh Gods and Goddesses of Love…I pray bring my daughter a suitor she will be happy with…one who is kind and loving…wise and genteel. One who will measure to her expectations of life.” His advisor and magi Alferian and his apprentice Azrienoch would try their best to console the King’s weary heart.

Alferian would place his hand ever so gentle on the Kings shoulder and say every day. “My Lord one day her love will come to her…. You will see.”
“On the day of her wedding the ivory horns will blow and golden trumpets will call out that Princess has been joined in love and matrimony.” Azrienoch would add.

As the wheel of the year turned her father grew more and more impatient with his daughter for refusing all suitors whom came asking for her hand. And day by day she would play her pipes in the garden and the owl would come and dance, bath, drink the cool waters to be close to the Princess. In the wheel of that year their bond grew stronger and stronger. But the owl now comes to her after many months and appears to be ill. His feathers now fall to the ground as he would dance, and clog the fountain when he would bath and drink. But every day he came with no cares of his own health.

For he was in love with his Princess all else was paled in comparison. The Princess never knowing that her owl friend and lover was truly a man. A Prince of the Slayer realm the enemy of her father and his Kingdom. He saw her one-day on his travels he was wearing a disguise. Since he was in enemy territory, he did not wish to be caught and imprisoned as a spy or worse yet put to death. He had seen her at the shop of the master wand and flute makers’ having her pipes repaired. Once he had gazed into her eyes he was enchanted and could not return home with an empty heart. He had to win her hand no matter the price. So he had a mutual friend who knew and was friends with Alferian. And sought him out seeking a potion that would let him drink, and change each day for a year turning him into an owl.

But this potion carried a price for when the wheel of the year had turned one full complete turn. If he had not won her heart he would die as the owl and the Prince would never be seen again in his own homeland without his love at his side. He must win the hand of his true love the fair maiden the Princess Kaya Na’Hita. But as the wheel of the year was coming to its end he would come to her weak and with less and less feathers. His once beautiful plumage was now shaggy and ragged. Yet every day he dared not miss being with his love.

Every day she came and played for him, talking and laughing. She told him of her dreams, she told him of her expectations in a lover and husband. In that one year it seemed as if they shared a lifetime. Yet never did he reveal his true self to her. For fear she would reject him and never come and play for him any more. So he was content on just being near her and dancing to her music and listening to her dreams.

But each day of the final month he would come to her weaker than then the last. Till his final week had come. He had no more feathers left to loose he waddled slow and cumbersome. But yet he still came to his Princess. She would lift him to the fountain and into the water lovingly and with great care. She wept each day pleading with him “Allow me to fetch the magi…let me help heal your illness.” And each day he refused her offer. He would reply to her in a gentle weak voice “All I need is the love of my Princess, nothing else in life matters not even my health.”

On the final day of the wheel of his year he came to her one last time. He struggled to make it to the edge of the garden where the Princess could see him. She gasped and cried at the sight of his lameness. Not one feather to even keep him warm and the days grew cold and short. She cradled his weak failing body in her arms and took him once again to the fountain lay him on the ledge and with her handkerchief she soaked up some water to squeeze into his beak, bathed his head and to sooth his tired feet.

He spoke now so weak and faint “This will be our last day my Princess…tomorrow I will not come…in hours I will die. Just as well die here then to live and not know the love of my Princess.” His words touched her so deep awakening her heart, and the tears flowed like a river of sorrow. She lay her head ever so gently on his bare chest and wept for her love. She drew breath and said, “Please my Prince come to me…I know now who you are…you are the Prince Peter “The Wolfwalker” of the Slayer realm. The enemy of my father. The love of my life. I will plead with my father he will see you do measure up. Just live and be with me for I have seen how true your love is and no man could love me as you have.”

As she begged for him to live and stay she prayed to the Goddesses and Gods. Feathers began to grow back and his strength began to return. Her father and her mother had heard her wailing and had come running with the guards, fearing she had been harmed. They found her weeping on the chest of a man. Her Prince Peter the son of the Kings enemy. But her profound pain kept her father from reacting in any violent way. Her Mother in tears from seeing her daughter’s pain that was so great. She had not noticed her lover’s change, until she lifted her head and reached for her father’s strong arms. She saw her lover’s face and realized she remembered seeing him the wand maker’s shop.

She bent over her lover kissing his lips and then begged for the life of her love to both her parents. Pleading that they spare his life. “He is the only man Father who has ever measured up to who you are…. Please Father spare his life. I love him and wish to be at his side.”

“It is a brave man who has infiltrated and trespassed my court yard, for sacking his own safety for the love of my daughter. How can I put him to death or imprison him when your love for him is so strong. No child he may live and be free to return to his home.”
Her Father spoke in a fragile voice.

Prince Peter rose from the ground and bent down on one knee reached for the hand of his lover and said “There is no other love in all the lands…there is no other life for me but that, that exist in your eyes. Pray give me your hand in marriage, let our kingdoms unite as one in peace for the first time in two hundred years.” The Princess squeezed his hand and bent down and with a kiss answered his plea and spoke with a confirming “Yes.”

The next day the ivory horns blasted over the kingdom and the golden trumpets called out in the courtyards that Prince and Princess had been married and now the two Kingdoms are one. They ruled from the center of the combined Kingdoms and they ruled fair and justly. The Prince grew older becoming the King and wiser, the Princess became his Queen and bore him many children giving him several son’s who would rule when their time has come to pass on. They ruled their Kingdom with love and justice, and were wise and caring parents. Never did one-day pass that the Queen did not play her Pipes and her King did not dance to her tunes. And every day they celebrated their love and lived happily ever after.

copy righted 10-29-04