The
prince could see nothing but glistening gold sands all around him. He blinked
his eyes, adjusting to the brightness, and thought over what a peculiar state
of affairs this was. Just one moment ago, he had been out hunting in the
forest; he was still holding his hunting bow at his side. He had been intending
to hunt only foxes and rabbits, but just as he was aiming his bow for a shot at
a particularly large fox with particularly vivid red fur, he was interrupted by
the sight of a large peahen. The prince had only ever seen a peacock or a
peahen in picture books. He had hunted in those woods since he was a young boy,
and knew every furred and feathered creature that dwelled there and exactly
when to expect to see them. He had never in his life encountered a peacock or a
peahen.
The prince had lowered his bow and
studied the bird intently. It was a particularly beautiful example of a peahen;
she was certainly much larger than those he had seen in pictures, though he
could not be sure of the exact size of a normal peahen from pictures alone. Her
feathers were the exact color of the winter’s first snow, as opposed to the
stony grey feathers that are usual for a peahen. At her neck was a striking
arrangement of feathers the color of real turquoise and emeralds. It was the
sight of these feathers that prompted the prince to go after her.
He wasn’t going to kill her; he
would never kill a female and risk orphaning its child. He only wanted to get
close enough to her to pluck off one of the turquoise colored feathers. He
wished to take one home to his betrothed, the princess of the neighboring
kingdom, who loved the turquoise color to the point where she was never seen
without some form of it on her person. She could tie the feather to a cord and
wear it around her neck, or else weave it through her hair or pin it to her
dress. There were any number of things a princess could do with a feather as
beautiful as that, and so the prince knew that he must get one for her.
The prince retreated into the
shadows of the trees to sneak up on the peahen. He knew all about sneaking up
on animals, and though he had never dealt with a peahen before, he figured it
could be no different than any other creature he might have to take by
surprise. He would catch it by the neck, pluck off a turquoise feather, and let
it go off on its way. But this peahen wasn’t going to allow herself to be
captured, whether she was to be killed or not. She took off, running at a speed
that he never imagined such a bird could be capable of. The prince gave chase,
utilizing his fastest sprinting speed. He chased her off the hunting trail and
into the brush. He made large leaps over the undergrowth, refusing to be slowed
down by it. He chased the bird until his legs simply wouldn’t run anymore, and
he fell to the ground.
The bird had disappeared, and the prince found
himself in this desert. The first thing that came to mind was that the bird was
perhaps a fairy creature, and this was its land. This thought was disconcerting—fairies
were tricky and often outright malicious creatures that played cruel games with
humans. Stories were passed around of fairies that stole babies and little
children, usually girls. There were fairies who spirited away humans and sent
them back home confused, disoriented, and without a name or any memories. There
was even an old rumor that the nearby kingdom of Ellian had its throne usurped by a fairy
creature, which managed to make itself look human enough to bear children with
the queen, so that every member of the Ellian royal family was now tainted with
fairy blood.
If the prince had been spirited away by a fairy, he knew that his chances of returning home—or at least, returning home in a healthy state of mind—were now very slim. He remembered his betrothed back home and hoped that these particular fairies were willing to be generous with him. Then he began heading out into the desert.
If the prince had been spirited away by a fairy, he knew that his chances of returning home—or at least, returning home in a healthy state of mind—were now very slim. He remembered his betrothed back home and hoped that these particular fairies were willing to be generous with him. Then he began heading out into the desert.
No comments:
Post a Comment