A Fairy Tale

One day, a prince went to his garden and found a beautiful rose growing in a corner.

“My, what a beautiful rose you are.” The prince said. “In this entire garden, you are the most beautiful, and I shall spend all my waking mornings staring at you. I will love you rose, my rose, and I will never get tired of visiting you.”

The rose was happy. She blushed.. Yet lifted her pretty little head and said: “Thank you handsome prince. Visit me everyday. I will devote all my days to making myself more beautiful for you, and will look forward to your daily visits."

And so it was. For many weeks, the prince woke up and went straight to the garden to stare at his rose. They would share stories about their different worlds, and would get lost in one where only a prince and a special rose could love each other. Sometimes, the prince would not want to go to bed in order to be with his rose. He loved her. And his rose loved him back and tried hard to make herself as pretty as she could for him. All was well and happiness flourished in the corner of the kingdom’s garden.

But one night, a storm came and huge raindrops fell all over the garden. The rose woke up the following morning and found herself drenched all over. “Brrrrr.. What a cold night that was. I am soaked all over. But I am happy because the prince will be here soon and we can share a warm and sunny day again.”

And soon enough, the prince came. But he could not recognize his rose. Not until he heard a little voice say: “I am here, my prince.. Just a little drenched by the rain, but I am still here. Come and talk to me. I am yearning to hear about all your stories and I shall tell you about all the raindrops I spoke to last night.”

The prince turned to the little voice’s direction and was surprised. His beautiful rose’s petals were drooping. He tried to hide his reaction and forced himself to talk; “Ah, it is you, my rose. I am sorry if I was not able to recognize you right away. I have a headache from the cold but yes, I will sit with you and tell you more stories.” And so he sat by her. But he could not seem to stare at the rose very long for her petals were drooping and her bright red color had turned into a dark dreary one. And so after a couple of stories, he stood up.

“Where are you going” The rose asked.

“I forgot to tell you..” the prince explained. “I have to visit my father because he is all alone in the castle. I must go to him at once.”

“But don’t you usually have dinner with him at the end of the day”? We will not be able to watch the sunset together.” The rose replied.

“Things have changed.” The prince said. “He wants to see me at an earlier time. Do not worry, I will be back tomorrow” And so the prince left.

And the rose was left to wonder about how it felt to watch the sunset alone again. Because she was so used to watching it with the prince, she didn’t think she knew how to appreciate it without hearing his stories of how the sun came to be and why it set at night.

“I shall not worry. He will be back tomorrow” The rose told herself.

And he did. But their tomorrows came less and less. There would be times when the prince wouldn’t come. Or times when he wouldn’t stay for long muttering that he had to work, or had to go to town to get a new sword or simply, that he was just too tired to sit down and talk like before.

The rose was sad. She began to feel ugly and soon enough, her fears turned to reality.. Her petals began to fall. “The prince did not want me when my petals were drenched. He came less and less. Now, he will not want me at all, for one day, all my petals will fall and I will no longer be his most beautiful flower.”

Days passed without the prince coming into the garden. He was being groomed to be king and being king was a heavy responsibility. Besides, he thought to himself “My rose needs time alone in order to make herself more beautiful again. And I need time in order to learn how to be a proper king. After all this, we shall be the way we were once more.. Except that I will be richer and more powerful and I will be able to get all the experts to take care of my rose.. and she will have nothing else to do but prettify herself and will be even more beautiful when I see her again!”

So time came and went. The prince was crowned king in a grand parade and as he passed by, the throngs of people cheered him on and threw stems of roses at him.

“Ah, but what of my rose! I wonder what she is doing now. I shall visit her at once” And so he went straight to the garden with the purpose of seeing his rose again. He would tell her that he missed her and that it was wonderful to be king. And they would share the moonlit night together, just like before.

But when he came to the corner where his rose used to be, she was no longer there. “Where is my rose” The prince turned king asked.

And out of the bushes, a daffodil answered:

“The rose that lived here is gone. Many days, I would see her in her corner waiting and waiting for something.. Or someone. And nights I would hear her cry.. I would tell her to stop because crying made her petals wet and more likely to fall off. But she continued crying and waiting. That’s all she ever did. I was with her last night when she withered. And the only thing I heard her say was: “The prince’s love for me lessened because a storm made my petals droop. It is not likely that a king would want to watch the sunset with me now.”

At that instant, the rose forced her remaining beautiful petals to fall. She did not want them to grow back again.. Because her prince did not understand that she would not love him any less if he didn’t become a king. Because her prince could not love her imperfections. Because her prince had all the time to think about what was best for their futures, but not of their present love. Despite her not knowing how to be without him, she would have rather wilted than live with the thought of living a fake fairytale about a prince turned king and a rose that was kept beautiful forever.

And the daffodil continued.. ”Ah, but how she loved her prince.”

Borrowed from jeannie's lj