Posted under a cut by request
Jul. 9th, 2003 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mniThe first, and very, rough draft of my story (working title):
A queen goes out riding with her ladies in waiting.
Suddenly, a dense fog descends upon them, and she, without realizing it, gets separated from the others.
Suddenly, she sees a bright golden light shining through the fog, and calls for her ladies to come and see it with her. When they do not answer, she realizes she is lost. Since the light is the only thing she can see, she rides toward it, and discovers, upon drawing closer, that it is a golden tree, with golden fruit. Hungry, she eats the fruit, and saves the seed within the pouch in her chatelaine. Tired, she climbs into a hollow space between the tree's limbs, and goes to sleep.
The fog lifts with the coming of the dawn, and she sees she has been in the midst of a marvelous garden. She finds the road back to her palace. The king asks her where she had been, and how she got home, but she says nothing.
In due course, it becomes clear that she is pregnant, and the king, who has long wished for an heir, calls the court soothsayer to reveal the child's destiny. The soothsayer reveals that it is indeed a male heir, and that, miracle of miracles, has a heart of pure gold and star of pure gold on his brow. When the child is born, the king sees that the prophecy was true. Greed overcomes him, and he wants to kill the child and take the riches from him. But the queen stays his hand, saying that this is their only heir -- who knows if there will ever be another? The king relents, but says that the boy shall die if she does indeed give birth to a second child.
Seven years pass, and the queen realizes that she is indeed pregnant again. As the time of birth aproaches, she tearfully she disguises her self and the boy as poor peasants and leads him down to the docks, handing him over to a sailor, to work as a cabin boy far across the ocean, so that the king may not harm him. She takes a golden chain from around her neck, and breaks it in two, giving one half of it to her son, so that he may always remember her, and remmember who he is.
From that time on, she spends her time in grief, and as soon as she recovers from delivering her daughter, commences weaving a tapestry of the marvelous garden. Her daughter grows up watching her mother weave, and as grows, learns to help her in her work, spinning the threads her mother weaves with a golden spindle.
She asks about the tapestry every day, and little by little, teases the story out of her mother, until there is no detail left to be told except how the queen gave the child up at the docks. Then, the girl vows to go out into the world and find her brother, and bring him home -- surely, he is strong enough by now, she says, to defend himself against their father. At first, the queen refuses -- it is impossible, and too dangerous. But the princess will not give up, and finally, the queen relents, and gives her daughter a ball of golden thread, telling her to roll the ball in front of her, and follow where it goes, and she will never be lost. And then, she gives her daughter the other half of the golden chain, to remember her by, and the seed from the fruit she had eaten, to carry her blessings with her.
And so the princess sets out, rolling the ball of thread before her as her mother told her -- through cities and towns, and wild, brambly forests. Everywhere she goes, she asks if anyone had seen a boy or a man with a golden star on his forehead, but everywhere, everyone tells her "No". Finally, she follows the ball of thread to the end of the earth -- to a cliff so high above the sea that only the sun's own eagles roost there.
The largest eagle of all swoops down on her -- this is no place for mortals. But she begs mercy. If she must die, she must. But first she must ask a question: has he seen a boy or a man with a gold star on his forehead? The Eagle is taken aback by this, and asks how she heard of such a person. When she answers that she is the boy's sister, and shows the seed as proof, the eagle changes his demeanor immediately, and reveals that she is carries the Sun's blessing with her, for it was the Sun's garden that her mother had wandered into, and the Sun's tree she had eaten from.
The eagle tells her she is destined to bring the prince home, and that he himself will carry to where the prince is. But the way is still dangerous -- when the queen surrendered him to strangers, the boy was fated to be locked in a dark castle, changed into the form of a raven. She *can* free him, the eagle tells her, but it will require hard sacrifice. Is she still willing?
The princess answers that yes, she is still wiling -- she has come over the wide world, through cities and towns and brambly forests to get here, and she will not turn back now. And so the Eagle takes her on his back, and they begin to fly over the wide ocean. As they near the far shore, however, the sky is filled with storms, and as they struggle through the wind, the girl drops the ball of thread from her mother.
They make it safely to the other shore. But the girl frets that without the ball of thread, she will never find her way. So the eagle takes out one of its eyes and gives *it* to her to roll along, instead, saying that the sun will fashion a new eye for him... in time.
And so, the girl rolls the eagle's eye before her, following it though a wilderness even more treacherous and dark than all the dark brambly forests that came before. Finally, she comes to the black obsidian castle where her brother is held. But she has no key to open the gate. She sticks the little finger of her right hand in the keyhole, and the sharp glass cuts it off. She grasps the bone, and turns it, and the door opens.
She enters the palace and climbs to the top of the tower, reaching it just before sunset. There, she sees a plate of bread and meat, and a glass of wine. She tastes of all three, and drops the half of her mother's golden chain into the wine goblet. Then she hides beneath the bed.
At the moment the sun sets, a giant raven flies into the tower window, and sheds his skin of feathers, revealing himself to be a man with a gold star on his forehead. The princess nearly runs out to greet him then, but keeps still.
The prince is puzzled and troubled, seeing that someone has eaten before him. But when he drains the wine glass, he recognizes his mother's gold chain, and knows that his sibling must be there -- that the enchantment is broken.
The princess runs out to greet him, then, and they embrace. And he tells her that he shall carry her across the wide ocean and come home with her in the morning.
They start out across the sea at dawn, but the prince-in-raven-form is not as strong as the eagle, and at noon, he is starting to lose strength. He tell the princess to throw the golden fruit seed into the ocean. She does so, and a giant, golden fruit tree grows up below them. The raven reaches it and perches there just as the last of his strength gives out, and they both rest there until the next morning.
The next day, they fly the rest of the way, and when they reach the earthly shore, the prince takes off nearly all of his suit raven feathers, except for the cap, which he uses to hide the golden star. Wherever the prince places his foot, the dark brambly forests open into a wide and easy path, and before long, the prince and princess arrive at their own castle at last.
The king, seeing his son, thinks first to kill him, and take his heart, but the prince says that one gold heart is a pittance compared to the riches of the Sun's kingdom, across the far ocean. At once the king wants to go there, and gather some of the riches for himself, so he makes his son regent, and starts off on his journey to the far ocean shore. But when he reaches the high cliffs of the Sun, the eagles there swoop down and kill him. And the greedy king is no more.
---
Note: this is based on a vision the woman who hired me had during a shamanic healing, of a girl and an eagle "opening the path for the Divine Child" (her words). There are some gruesome bits, but harsh bodily sacrifice is often demanded on shamanic journeys.
A queen goes out riding with her ladies in waiting.
Suddenly, a dense fog descends upon them, and she, without realizing it, gets separated from the others.
Suddenly, she sees a bright golden light shining through the fog, and calls for her ladies to come and see it with her. When they do not answer, she realizes she is lost. Since the light is the only thing she can see, she rides toward it, and discovers, upon drawing closer, that it is a golden tree, with golden fruit. Hungry, she eats the fruit, and saves the seed within the pouch in her chatelaine. Tired, she climbs into a hollow space between the tree's limbs, and goes to sleep.
The fog lifts with the coming of the dawn, and she sees she has been in the midst of a marvelous garden. She finds the road back to her palace. The king asks her where she had been, and how she got home, but she says nothing.
In due course, it becomes clear that she is pregnant, and the king, who has long wished for an heir, calls the court soothsayer to reveal the child's destiny. The soothsayer reveals that it is indeed a male heir, and that, miracle of miracles, has a heart of pure gold and star of pure gold on his brow. When the child is born, the king sees that the prophecy was true. Greed overcomes him, and he wants to kill the child and take the riches from him. But the queen stays his hand, saying that this is their only heir -- who knows if there will ever be another? The king relents, but says that the boy shall die if she does indeed give birth to a second child.
Seven years pass, and the queen realizes that she is indeed pregnant again. As the time of birth aproaches, she tearfully she disguises her self and the boy as poor peasants and leads him down to the docks, handing him over to a sailor, to work as a cabin boy far across the ocean, so that the king may not harm him. She takes a golden chain from around her neck, and breaks it in two, giving one half of it to her son, so that he may always remember her, and remmember who he is.
From that time on, she spends her time in grief, and as soon as she recovers from delivering her daughter, commences weaving a tapestry of the marvelous garden. Her daughter grows up watching her mother weave, and as grows, learns to help her in her work, spinning the threads her mother weaves with a golden spindle.
She asks about the tapestry every day, and little by little, teases the story out of her mother, until there is no detail left to be told except how the queen gave the child up at the docks. Then, the girl vows to go out into the world and find her brother, and bring him home -- surely, he is strong enough by now, she says, to defend himself against their father. At first, the queen refuses -- it is impossible, and too dangerous. But the princess will not give up, and finally, the queen relents, and gives her daughter a ball of golden thread, telling her to roll the ball in front of her, and follow where it goes, and she will never be lost. And then, she gives her daughter the other half of the golden chain, to remember her by, and the seed from the fruit she had eaten, to carry her blessings with her.
And so the princess sets out, rolling the ball of thread before her as her mother told her -- through cities and towns, and wild, brambly forests. Everywhere she goes, she asks if anyone had seen a boy or a man with a golden star on his forehead, but everywhere, everyone tells her "No". Finally, she follows the ball of thread to the end of the earth -- to a cliff so high above the sea that only the sun's own eagles roost there.
The largest eagle of all swoops down on her -- this is no place for mortals. But she begs mercy. If she must die, she must. But first she must ask a question: has he seen a boy or a man with a gold star on his forehead? The Eagle is taken aback by this, and asks how she heard of such a person. When she answers that she is the boy's sister, and shows the seed as proof, the eagle changes his demeanor immediately, and reveals that she is carries the Sun's blessing with her, for it was the Sun's garden that her mother had wandered into, and the Sun's tree she had eaten from.
The eagle tells her she is destined to bring the prince home, and that he himself will carry to where the prince is. But the way is still dangerous -- when the queen surrendered him to strangers, the boy was fated to be locked in a dark castle, changed into the form of a raven. She *can* free him, the eagle tells her, but it will require hard sacrifice. Is she still willing?
The princess answers that yes, she is still wiling -- she has come over the wide world, through cities and towns and brambly forests to get here, and she will not turn back now. And so the Eagle takes her on his back, and they begin to fly over the wide ocean. As they near the far shore, however, the sky is filled with storms, and as they struggle through the wind, the girl drops the ball of thread from her mother.
They make it safely to the other shore. But the girl frets that without the ball of thread, she will never find her way. So the eagle takes out one of its eyes and gives *it* to her to roll along, instead, saying that the sun will fashion a new eye for him... in time.
And so, the girl rolls the eagle's eye before her, following it though a wilderness even more treacherous and dark than all the dark brambly forests that came before. Finally, she comes to the black obsidian castle where her brother is held. But she has no key to open the gate. She sticks the little finger of her right hand in the keyhole, and the sharp glass cuts it off. She grasps the bone, and turns it, and the door opens.
She enters the palace and climbs to the top of the tower, reaching it just before sunset. There, she sees a plate of bread and meat, and a glass of wine. She tastes of all three, and drops the half of her mother's golden chain into the wine goblet. Then she hides beneath the bed.
At the moment the sun sets, a giant raven flies into the tower window, and sheds his skin of feathers, revealing himself to be a man with a gold star on his forehead. The princess nearly runs out to greet him then, but keeps still.
The prince is puzzled and troubled, seeing that someone has eaten before him. But when he drains the wine glass, he recognizes his mother's gold chain, and knows that his sibling must be there -- that the enchantment is broken.
The princess runs out to greet him, then, and they embrace. And he tells her that he shall carry her across the wide ocean and come home with her in the morning.
They start out across the sea at dawn, but the prince-in-raven-form is not as strong as the eagle, and at noon, he is starting to lose strength. He tell the princess to throw the golden fruit seed into the ocean. She does so, and a giant, golden fruit tree grows up below them. The raven reaches it and perches there just as the last of his strength gives out, and they both rest there until the next morning.
The next day, they fly the rest of the way, and when they reach the earthly shore, the prince takes off nearly all of his suit raven feathers, except for the cap, which he uses to hide the golden star. Wherever the prince places his foot, the dark brambly forests open into a wide and easy path, and before long, the prince and princess arrive at their own castle at last.
The king, seeing his son, thinks first to kill him, and take his heart, but the prince says that one gold heart is a pittance compared to the riches of the Sun's kingdom, across the far ocean. At once the king wants to go there, and gather some of the riches for himself, so he makes his son regent, and starts off on his journey to the far ocean shore. But when he reaches the high cliffs of the Sun, the eagles there swoop down and kill him. And the greedy king is no more.
---
Note: this is based on a vision the woman who hired me had during a shamanic healing, of a girl and an eagle "opening the path for the Divine Child" (her words). There are some gruesome bits, but harsh bodily sacrifice is often demanded on shamanic journeys.
