Author Information
Out of the mist.
Folder:
Fairy tales As the princess sat fading under the willow tree, she dreamed...
She was walking along the ocean shore. The shore was empty of others as far as the eye could see - which wasn't far, for the air was thick with mist. The only other sound save the endless crashing of the shore was the occasional "pee pee pee pee pee" of a flock of tiny sandpipers as they dashed away from an over-reaching wave.
The princess walked barefoot through the water. She did not know where she was, or why. She knew only that the sound of the waves calmed her troubled heart. After walking for a long while, she stumbled on something half-burried in the sand. She knelt down to dig it out, the oncoming waves hindering as much as they helped while she dug, until at last she was able to pull a long metal object out of the sand.
It was her prince's sword. The one he had lost so long ago. Here it was, bereft of its owner, still.
The princess sat on the shore, half in the ocean. The waves washed over her legs and her tattered dress. She lay the sword in her lap. She looked out at the endless ocean, feeling only a distant kind of sadness. The sadness one feels when one knows the end of something is quite near and inevitable; the sadness one feels when one no longer has the will to grasp on to unattainable dreams.
Gliding on a gentle wind, there appeared an albatross in front of her.
The albatross spoke solemnly (for all albatrosses speak solemnly): "Princess, the time has come to cut your hair. The sword is yours to reclaim. For this it appears before you now."
The princess watched as he flew away into the distance, into the mist, into the sound of the waves.
***
Somewhere else, in a land far, far away, a hopping frog suddenly stood very still, as if he had suddenly lost something so very important, and could no longer remember what it was.
