Original fiction

 

Once upon a time… four young girls went outside their village to collect water at a nearby well. Alessia, the oldest of the four, was telling them their favourite story to make the journey more agreeable.

It was a little known legend, the tale of the only daughter of a great Queen, who had been turned into a purely white butterfly by an evil wizard. Not even her own mother could recognize her anymore, so the butterfly-maiden fled in tears, leaving behind her comfortable home and flying out into the wide world, to seek a way to reverse the curse.

On her travels, she gained many friends among the animals, for she cared not only for her own well-being, but far more so for that of others. And those friends in turn aided her in her quest for a cure.

Three friends in particular ought to be mentioned. They were three butterflies, who accompanied the Princess everywhere, not unlike the human equivalent of ladies-in-waiting. By being in the presence of the enchanted butterfly, their own dull white colour became as brilliantly white as the Princess’s, and the three butterflies – more than a little vane - enjoyed the many admiring looks they now received.

As time went by, because of their close association with the Princess, the three butterflies became increasingly human of mind and manners. They decided that once the Princess had found a way to become human again, they, too, would try it and become true ladies-in-waiting, surely to bask in the admiration of many suitors.

And so, at the end of their travels, after the Princess had found her cure, the three butterfly-maidens tried it too… and became beautiful young women.

But like the Princess had never truly been a butterfly, the three butterfly-maidens could never truly be human. Every night, they changed back into their original butterfly shape. The only way to prevent this transformation from happening, was to stay close to the Princess, which they did for many months, enjoying the many wonders of court life.

Then, the Princess fell in love with the Prince of the neighbouring country, and they married soon thereafter. By coincidence or imitation, soon each butterfly-maidens too fell in love with a mortal man. At this point, they became impatient, for they wanted to build up a life of their own, not continuously being ‘captives’ restricted to stay by the Princess’s side.

But none of their endeavors to escape the nightly transformation succeeded. No house or palace would open its gates for them after sunset. Potential suitors ran away in terror once the night had fallen. Finally, the three butterfly-maidens chose their future.

The first decided to make the best of her limitations. She enjoyed a full life from sundawn till sunset, and hid from the world during the night, trying to forget about her one true love by seeking comfort in the arms of many others.

The second decided to return to the Princess as her lady-in-waiting and went wherever her mistress went, thus being spared the nightly transformations. She found a good and caring husband in the Prince’s faithful squire, but there was little true love between them. 

Finally, the third decided to seek a way to return to her full butterfly shape again and found it after long and harsh years of traveling. Once a butterfly again, she forgot about her unrequited love for a mortal man and fell in love all over again with a red king’s page butterfly. Their love was true and their bond strong, and they lived happily ever after.

So did the Princess and her husband. And one day, when the royal couple had taken their child out to view a newly created palace garden, they saw one purely white and one burgundy butterfly descend from the skies to take up residence in the rose bushes…

When the story had reached its end, so had the four girls reached their destination.

As they started drawing water from the well, they talked about their hopes and dreams for the future. None of them, however, realized that the plain stone well had, in fact, temporarily become a wishing well…

 “When I grow up, I want to live in the King’s castle!” The first girl, Alessia, said as she pulled up her bucket of water.

Then, the second girl, Cariwen, stepped forward to drain water from the well, as she spoke up: “When I grow up, I want to marry a Prince!”.

The third girl, Pelumna, snorted at this, and as she, next, filled her own bucket to the brim, she said haughtily. “When I grown up, I don’t want to have riches or love! I want to have a powerful Dragon for a friend!”

Finally, the fourth girl, Iolaryn, stepped up and drew water from the well, but she did so in silence.

“Well, Io?” Alessia asked her, what would you like to have in your future? What do you hope for?”

“Oh..” Iolaryn bit her lip as she pondered for a little while. “ I don’t know. Of course it would be nice to live in a castle, marry a Prince and to have a Dragon friend, I suppose. But I can’t really do much to make any of that actually come true.”

She smiled at her friends. “Perhaps, instead, I would like to be a great healer, help all those in need and see what that life will bring me…”

Cariwen rolled her eyes disbelievingly. “ Of all the things…”

Pelumna snorted again, disdainfully, as she often did.

Alessia, too, looked unimpressed with the answer, but she kept her reaction to herself.

And deep inside the wishing well, tiny dragonfly wings started beating and 4 little fairies disappeared in a glow of sparks… Wishes on wings…

~

The years went by and the four girls lost contact as they each took their own path in life. Finally, after many, many years, fate had them all meet up again at a grand masked ball that was being held at the palace in honour of the Crown Prince’s marriage. By a happy chance, they had all dressed as the white butterfly-maidens of their favourite childhood story, and - curious about the identity of the others dressed in a similar outfit - had found each other again.

Alessia suggested they would all tell what had happened in their lives since they had lost sight of each other, since she had an amazing story to tell them. The others agreed and Alessia went on to tell how she had managed to work her way up from a simple seemstress in a small mountain village to being one of the 5 royal tailors responsible for the many uniforms and formal outfits of the king himself!

By some happy coincidence, she had been nearby when the King’s only son had been wounded in battle two years ago. The King himself had carried his unconscious son to the nearest village to receive treatment since they needed to remain hidden from the enemy’s army that had just destroyed the greater part of the King’s own army.

Alessia had been called, for the King’s tunic had been bloodied and torn and yet he desperately needed to look presentable when meeting his enemy in a diplomatic meeting the next morning. She had done such a good job against time and odds, that the King had been so pleased he had later hired her.

 Alessia gushed over the fact that she now lived in the castle just as she had wanted to when she had been a child, conveniently omitting to mention that it were only drafty and unassuming servant’s quarters. The other 3 young women were duly impressed and congratulated Alessia with her luck.

Then, Pelumna took the word and recounted of her many travels as a mage. She had sought and found many powerful artifacts for the mage’s guild, including an ancient map which had revealed the hiding place of a magical sword. This artifact, she had later been told, had somehow played a crucial role in determining the outcome of the war. The Prince had managed to retrieve it and his father had used its powers to their advantage.

As a reward for her services, Pelumna had been presented with the map and the important task to seek any more interesting artifacts from the treasure the Prince had found earlier. So, she had sought out the location indicated by the map, a cave hidden deeply within the Southern mountain range.

But suddenly, a dragon had leapt from the darkness to defend his treasure! Pelumna pretended she hadn’t been frightened at all, but the other three were fairly sure she had been terrified at that moment…  However, despite dragons being notoriously hostile and quite fond of eating humans, the dragon had not killed her on the spot. Mayhap he was rather impressed with her dare and magical prowess! Rather, the dragon had said that she would live if she told him a story and, if the story was good enough, he would even allow her to choose a part of his gold-and-gems treasure in return.

Pelumna had recounted the little known story of the Butterfly Princess, which had apparently greatly intrigued the dragon. He had asked as to how she had heard it, and Pelumna had told it had been the favourite story of her 3 childhood friends: Alessia, Cariwen and Iolaryne. The dragon had then laughed, a low rumbling deep in his giant belly, and said quite cryptically that any friend of the Butterfly Princess was a friend of his. Pelumna had become the friend of a dragon, just as she had wished for as a child!

The three others ooh’ed and aah’ed, very impressed with Pelumna’s story as well. At the prompting of her friends, she reluctantly mentioned that the dragon had been gone, as had most of the treasure, when she had returned a few times later. But they all agreed it was still an amazing experience.

Cariwen spoke up next, and she giggled and blushed as she told her friends that she, too, had lived her childhood wish in a way. Half a year ago, she had been working as a kitchen help in a small out-of-the-way inn, a lesser glamorous life one could hardly image. One dark and stormy night, a small band of travelers had entered the inn, desperate for shelter and a good meal.

The innkeeper and his wife had been out visiting family, and Cariwen had needed to improvise with whatever few scraps of food there had been left.  But her quick-fix stew had had a very favoured reception, and one of the travelers, a handsome young man, had been especially enamored by her cooking skills. It then turned out that the travelers were minstrels, and that they needed no alcohol to make any evening merry.

The next day, the young man had asked her to join their party and she had done so, for once in her life not thinking about the consequences. Three months later, he had asked for her hand in marriage. But first, he had told her his secret, and that of his travelling group. It turned out that being minstrels was mostly a cover for their secret work in service of the King.

The young man’s code name was ‘the Prince’, for he had descended from an ancient royal bloodline. Though he had no land, riches or formal title, nature was his kingdom and freedom his treasure chest. His only material possession of value was an ancient magical sword. Yet he claimed no king could be wealthier than the man who owned Cariwen’s love…

Her three friends rejoiced for her, although Pelumna looked slightly nauseated by the warm fuzzy nature of the story. Cariwen next mentioned one of the ‘missions’ she had been allowed to participate in since then. Though she was not allowed to go into the details, she could reveal that it had involved seeking female dragons, who had been thought to be lost forever. In the end, Cariwen said dreamily, love had won out once again and they had managed to found the female dragons and unite them with the very pleased male members of their species…

Pelumna rolled her eyes, but the other two were obviously enjoying the happy ending.

Finally, Alessia turned to Iolaryn.

“Well, it seems we all have, in some form or another, had our childhood wishes coming through… How about you? Did you not wish to be a great healer?”

Pelumna rolled her eyes. “What kind of wish is that?”

But Cariwen replied smartly. “One of a person that is not concerned as much with one’s own wealth, power or love as with that of others…”

Iolaryne smiled slightly at her friend and replied gently. “Yes, my wish was also granted, and has, incidentally, brought me wealth, power and love too.”

As Alessia was on the verge of prying loose more information, a masked lady in a red velvet dress stepped up to whisper something in Iolaryn’s ear. She nodded and excused herself, promising to return to her friends as soon as she had seen to her duties.

Pelumna grumbled a little after Iolaryn had left. “How long will we need to wait for that story? And what duties does she speak of?”

Suddenly, a voice spoke up. It was the lady in red that had brought Iolaryn the message.

“Her fiancé has called for her. But I can tell you her story, if you want, for I have heard it many times and never tire of telling it…”

“Please do…” Alessia said eagerly.

“Very well.” The lady nodded and started Iolaryne’s story.

“Iolaryn went on to become a healer, and a very good one indeed. Her compassion for others brought strength and relief when even herbs and potions could not. When the war with Greaviady broke out 3 years ago, she joined the army’s healers.

It soon became apparent that she was highly skilled and level-headed even under pressure. It earned her the admiration of many, and soon she was promoted to leading a troop of healers of her own. They were often sent into battle, to retrieve and stabilize the injured amidst all the fighting, but none ever hesitated for their leader, Iolaryn, always went first and never asked something of her colleagues that she, herself, would not do.

One day, part of our army was brutally ambushed by the enemy’s fiercest general; the highly cunning Lord Malfid. Malfid showed no mercy and only one out of every hundred men of our side survived that day…

The King’s son was among them, though he was badly injured. His father retrieved him from the battle field himself and Iolaryn and her team did their very best to keep the young man alive. She suggested that they would retreat to a small insignificant village in the nearby mountain range, where the enemy would not know to look.

Once there, she suggested that the King would allow his tunic and armour to be mended, so he would look fierce and unphased as he arrived at the negotiations called for by general Malfid the next morning. For it had been Malfid’s intent to break the King’s will, and demand his unconditional surrender in the face of what seemed to be an inevitable total defeat.

But Iolaryn’s words of encouragement and her skills in keeping the Prince alive, made the king strong and hopeful again and he devised a new plan for a counter attack. He was so pleased that he even invited the seamstress that had mend his tunic overnight to join his court, out of gratitude for her services…”

Cariwen and Pelumna glanced at Alessia, who was staring back with wide open eyes filled with wonderment.

“And so the King went to the negotiations, and refused to be cowed by general Malfid. Later, he executed his counter attack and avenged his fallen army, taking 100 for every man Malfid had killed.

Meanwhile, the Prince was recovering nicely… and had fallen deeply in love with his beautiful healer, but dared not speak of it for fear his love would not be returned. Iolaryn, herself, felt very strongly about the Prince too, but she did not dare act upon those feelings for fear that their relationship would not be appropriate. After all, she was not one of noble blood, and he was the heir to the Throne…

When the Prince was well again, he left on a secret quest for his father, the outcome of which could shift the balance of power and end the current war in their favour. He asked Iolaryn to come with him, since his small team of soldiers needed a skilled experienced healer.

With the help from the mage’s guild, they acquired several clues as to the whereabouts of an ancient magical sword and set out to reclaim it. It had been prophesized that whichever side gained the control over this sword, would best their enemy in the war. But it turned out that the sword was being guarded by a dragon.

They nearly all lost their lives, for dragons tend to be most vicious creatures, especially when protecting their precious treasure. By laws of magic, they were bound to gather treasure, and never give it away freely. But Iolaryn managed to stall the dragon by asking if they could give anything in return for the treasure they wished to take away.

Though the dragon had laughed at first and said there was nothing he would desire more than his glittering gold and gems, he became quiet and contemplative as Iolaryn asked him if he did not rather wish to have a mate. Finally, he agreed, reluctantly, that he would indeed like a mate but that all the female dragons had long since gone from these lands, and no one knew where they could be found.

Iolaryn then promised him she would do all that was in her power to find the lost female dragons, if the Prince was allowed to take the magical sword the dragon guarded. At first, the dragon refused, for there was no way he could keep her to her promise. But for some reason, he finally decided to put his trust into her and demanded she ‘pay’ him something in advance: a story. For some dragons guard knowledge and lore almost as eagerly as they gather treasure of gold and gems.

Iolaryn told him the story of the Butterfly Princess, which I am sure all of you know very well, seeing your costumes. The dragon was so pleased with this rare tale he had never heard of before that he even offered Iolaryn one piece of his treasure she could take, in addition to the sword the Prince had come looking for.

But Iolaryn asked not for gold or books. She merely asked the dragon to consider humans as more than food from now on. And the dragon promised her he would no longer eat man flesh, as long as his victim would tell him a satisfactory story to quell his thirst for knowlegde…”

Alessia and Cariwen eyed Pelumna, who kept looking ostentatiously at the ground.

“The magical sword the Prince had obtained from the dragon indeed brought the advantage they had needed to gain the upper hand in the war, as the prophesy had foretold, but not in any way the King had expected. He and his son both tried to use the sword, but found it too strange and ungainly to wield properly in battle. Likewise, no mage could even conjure the slightest spark of magic out of the sword…

The King was sorely disappointed, as you may imagine, after having such high hopes, and he felt quite ready to dump the sword in the treasury and simply forget about it…

But then, quite by accident, Iolaryn touched the sword for the first time, and it flared with a pale blue light under her hand. The King and Prince were shocked, and the wisest mage was send for to explain this mystery. History, it seemed, told that the sword had once belonged to an ancient line of Princes that had been banished from Greaviady long ago. Only descendants of that blood line would be able to stir the sword’s magic, and call it to life after having been dormant for ages.

Although the sword responded to Iolaryn’s touch, she herself could not wield it, nor did she want to. She was a healer, and as such had sworn an oath never to take another human life… But by touching the sword, she had unleashed its call, and few days later there stood a young man at the palace entrance, who claimed a dream of a sword had called him there. He was reluctant to admit his ancestry could indeed be traced back to the dishonored Princes of Geaviady, and pleased to meet Iolaryn, who was apparently a blood relative of his, however distant.

The King gifted the young man the sword, for it rightfully belonged to him and his family. In return, the young man presented the King with a vow of his allegiance. Though he did not wish to become known to the public, for his bloodline was cursed and banished, he did freely offer to work for the King in secret. ‘Very well.’ The King had said. ‘And though it will not be known to the public, your code name shall be ‘Prince’, as the title is rightfully yours…’ And, at the request of Iolaryn, he then send his secret agent of to seek traces of female dragons…”

Cariwen gasped, and Alessia and Pelumna blinked at each other disbelievingly.

The lady in the red dress pretended not to notice as she stoically continued her tale.

“Finally, the undercover ‘Prince’ managed to discover the location of the supposedly ‘lost’ female dragons. Strangely enough, these dragons, like their male counterparts, had lived all their long, long lives thinking the other gender had died. The reunion was joyous, and I’m sure many new dragons are currently itching to come out of the newly laid eggs. However, before the dragons retreated to a secret valley of their choice, they offered their allegiance to the King that had done them such a great favour. They all but wiped out the enemy army in the greatest battle of our time and so, after 3 long years of bloodshed and sorrow, the war was finally over…

As for Iolaryn, the Crown Prince finally mustered up the courage to ask her hand in marriage, and given the fact that she was, until recently unknowingly, of noble blood, there was no law or magic to prevent their union.

Which brings us to this very moment…”

The lady gestured widely to the front of the ball room, were three people were climbing the steps, slowly gaining the attention of every guest present.

The King, for he was one of the people on the stairs, cleared his voice as the general whispers slowly died. He took off his mask as a signal to all, who followed his lead instantly with a great rustle of cloth before an expectant silence fell.

“My dear friends, we have gathered here tonight for a very joyous occasion indeed. And it is not only the end of this foul war that I speak of, but first and foremost of the upcoming marriage of my son! Let us wish them all the happiness in the world!”

A great roar came from the pleased audience that whistled and yelled congratulations so exuberantly that the Prince and his fiancée, their masks now removed, blushed uncomfortably for everyone to see.

“Let us commence our feast with the traditional victory dance.” The King finally managed to shout over the general noise. The crowd instantly parted to leave the dance floor free for the King, whose wife was presently joining him to start off the dance.

Alessia, Cariwen and Pelumna turned as bright red as the dress the Queen was wearing, for they now recognized her as the masked lady they had been listening to for the past ten minutes.

Soon, the King and Queen were joined by the Crown Prince and his wife-to-be, Iolaryn, who looked like an enchanted dream in her white butterfly outfit.

Even though Alessia, Cariwen and Pelumna could not help but envy their old friend  a little, they did not begrudge her her well-deserved happiness. For out of all of them, regardless of all appearances and opinions, there had only ever been one true Princess…

And so they all enjoyed that ball, grateful for the granted wish they had received, and they lived happily ever after…

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