A Fairy Tale

of

Songs and Pictures

A Story Written For

Copyright 2003, R. L. Crepeau

1.

The Spell

Let me tell you a story of songs sung and pictures drawn in a time long ago and a place far away.

“How long ago?” you ask.

Oh, very, very long ago. So long ago that I can’t even remember how long ago it was. But, this I know: it was a time of kingdoms, princes, magic and a flying horse.

“How far away?” Is that what you ask?

It was far away, but not really, really far away.  Just far away from here. At least I think it was.

This place far away and long ago was called Dirge, or to be more exact: the Kingdom of Dirge. As a place it was very, very dull and dreary. Maybe this was because it had so little color. Almost no color was to be seen there. As a matter of fact there was so little color that the flowers were few and tiny. They were so small that you had to look very, very hard to even hope find one. And when you did find a flower its color was faint. Faint and not at all pretty. Even the grass and trees were a mere tepid turquoise. It was as if everything was dirty and needed someone to scrub and shine it.

As if that weren’t bad enough, in Dirge it seemed as if the birds had forgotten how to sing and streams to gurgle joyfully. The only sounds the birds and streams made were like moans - as if they ached from old age.

The very oldest people of Dirge would tell you it hadn’t always been that way. They would say that Dirge was once a bright and colorful place with many, many flowers, song singing birds, joyful sounding streams and happy people.

“What happened?” did you ask? “What happened to change Dirge?”

Well, the old people of Dirge say it was the work of the evil Sorceress Minerva. They say that it had to do with one of the greatest joys of Dirge. That joy was Pegasus - a flying horse. It was a beautiful golden horse and a horse of great size. Even its wings were large and golden in color.

No one owned the flying horse Pegasus. Instead, Pegasus belonged to everyone. It lived in the village square and spent its days playing with the children of the village. The very young ones could be put on Pegasus’ back and he would carefully give them a ride around the square all the while holding the young rider safely on his back with his wings.

The older children of the village, those big enough to climb on Pegasus’ back alone, were given special rides. They could climb on the horse’s back and say “Fly, Pegasus! Fly!” And Pegasus would do just that. He would slowly, gracefully and strongly flap his wings. Slowly, he would rise in flight. Pegasus would take the rider high, high up in the sky. From there the young rider looked down through the clouds and saw the brightly colored Kingdom of Dirge with its large castle and village.

Pegasus was very special to all the people of Dirge. All the adults had as children flown on Pegasus back many times. All the children of Dirge loved Pegasus because he gave them wonderful rides.

One day a sorceress named Minerva came to Dirge and spoke to the people saying, “I heard that you have a beautiful horse that flies.  Such a wondrous animal should not live in this unimportant place. It should belong to someone important and powerful like me. I want to have the horse. What do you want me to give you in exchange for your flying horse?”

The King of Dirge answered for all the people when he said, “Yes, there is a flying horse in our kingdom, but we do not own it. No one owns it. It just lives here and we want it to always live here for we love the flying horse - Pegasus.”

The eyes of Sorceress Minerva lit up and she said, “Well if no one here owns the flying horse then I shall just take it as my own. But I will give you gifts to repay you for its leaving.”

The King eyed the sorceress with both dislike and fear. He said, “We do not want gifts. We only want Pegasus to remain here so that our children and all future children of Dirge can enjoy riding on his back and flying with him.”

Just then the wondrous winged horse walked up and stood tall next to the King. The King turned to the horse and said to him, “We would like to you to stay here in Dirge. Will you stay with us?”

The golden horse nodded its head up and down. It looked at the Sorceress Minerva and let out a long and loud whiney. It almost sounded like “I will stay here.” Then the horse turned and began to walk away from the Sorceress Minerva waving its tail in dismissal as it walked.

“So,” shouted Sorceress Minerva in an angry voice. “You simple people of Dirge think you can refuse an important person like me?  Outrageous! Vile! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You will pay dearly for your selfishness. And you can keep your winged horse because it will never fly again!”   With that she pointed a long, long wart covered finger at the horse and mumbled some words under her breath. Then she began to laugh with a cackling and unpleasant sound.

The King and the town’s people turned and looked at the winged horse. What they saw shocked them. They saw Pegasus stopped in mid-stride. It had turned to stone; all stone. 

The Sorceress Minerva’s unpleasant cackling stopped. Then she said, in a voice trembling with anger, “You have seen the last of happiness. You have seen the last of bright and colorful joy in your simple lives. Bleakness is your future.”

She raised both of her arms and pointed her wart covered fingers high in the air. She mumbled more words. Then suddenly she disappeared. All that was left where she had stood was a cloud of smoke which smelled very unpleasant, as unpleasant as her cackling laugh and her wart covered fingers.

The cloud of smoke began to grow larger and larger. Soon it covered all of the Kingdom of Dirge. In time the stinky smelling smoke disappeared and with it all the bright colors of Dirge. All that remained of her ever having visited Dirge was the spell she had cast upon the kingdom. It was a spell of bleakness, a flying horse of stone and little cause for joy in the people of Dirge.

2.

A Prince

After the Sorceress Minerva cast her spell on Dirge many years passed. Nothing changed for the better in Dirge. Mostly things became even gloomier. For without colors to see or the birds’ songs to hear, there was almost nothing to cheer the people of Dirge.

Despite the gloominess of the Kingdom, a small piece of joy came to Dirge with the arrival of each new baby. One baby in particular brought special happiness to the people of Dirge. It was the birth of a son to the King and Queen of Dirge. They named him Prince Pablo.

Prince Pablo was a beautiful and happy baby in a land where beauty and happiness were hard to find. As he grew older he became handsome. He also became intelligent and kind.

For the people of Dirge, Prince Pablo brightened the gloom where ever he went. His beauty added color to his surroundings. And often when out among the people of the Kingdom, Prince Pablo would sing. His deep voice would resonate with sounds as lovely to hear as his countenance was to see. His powerful yet gentle voice filled the peoples’ ears with sounds not heard since before the spell of the Sorceress Minerva. 

 The people of the Kingdom of Dirge only saw the happy Prince Pablo. They did not see the sad Prince Pablo. And he was sad because the Kingdom of Dirge was such a bleak place and he saw no way to change that. He could find no way to un-do the spell cast by the Sorceress Minerva. So he was sad when alone but showed only happiness to the people of Dirge so as to bring some light and joy into their lives.

Often when Prince Pablo was alone he would push aside his sadness and pick up a pencil and draw lovely pictures of flowers, people, places or animals. They were very nice pictures. Yet, Prince Pablo felt something was missing in his pictures. He wasn’t sure what.  In a world largely without color he had no way of knowing that what was missing in his pictures was just that – color. 

3.

A Girl Named Lexie

Deep in the forest near the edge of the Kingdom of Dirge was a poor farm. It was the farm of Vade and his wife Ceinole. Like everyone else in Dirge, they worked the land very hard. Even so, they barely had enough food to eat or enough fire wood to keep them warm during the cold winter nights.

As with everyone else in the Kingdom of Dirge, life for Vade and Ceinole had little joy and much bleakness. But about the same time as Prince Pablo was born, Vade and Ceinole gave birth to a beautiful daughter. They named her Lexie.

Now a strange thing happened the day Lexie was born. As she lay in her cradle that warm sunny morning, a bird flew into the room. It was a brightly colored red crested robin. In its beak it carried a large red rose bud. The robin landed on Lexie’s cradle and dropped the pretty red rose bud upon her. The bird then chirped a lovely lilting song. As the bird sang, the rose bud it had dropped bloomed into full color and fragrance. After its song was done, the robin flew away never again to be seen in those parts. The robin, all agreed, was a very, very good omen.

As Lexie grew older she soon showed talents never before seen in Dirge. At a very, very early age, before she could even speak words, she would sometimes be heard humming and making sweet songs with the unknown words of a baby. Her parents believed that the song of the robin had entered into Lexie and given her an enchanting voice for singing.

Lexie also grew in beauty and sweetness, just as the rose bud had bloomed into a beautiful and sweet scented flower. All agreed that the rose dropped by the robin had left a spell of beauty upon Lexie.

 But being a very, very poor family, Vade and Ceinole could not afford nice clothes for Lexie. Nor could they afford a brush or ribbons or beads for her hair. Even more unthinkable was the lovely jewelry that princesses and such usually wear. Despite the fact that Lexie had three brothers, she also had to work hard to help the family raise food and keep the house and farm repaired. So Lexie’s beauty remained hidden beneath her poverty and hard work.

 In time Lexie began to display another even stranger talent. It began to show up when Lexie was about five years old. She would accompany her mother on trips into the forest to help her gather berries, seeds, herbs and roots. On these trips Lexie would also pick up special seeds, berries and plants just for herself. Back at home, after her chores were done, she would mix different berries and seeds, add water to them and mash it all into gooey masses. Then she would use a goose feather to put some of these gooey masses onto a piece of old cloth. When finished her family would be astounded at what they saw. For what Lexie would make were pictures in very bright and glowing colors. Even more amazing was that the pictures would be full of birds, flowers, forests, streams, sunsets and people as no one had ever seen before. They were bright with the colors that the Sorceress Minerva had stolen from Dirge.

4.

A Song and Picture in the Forest

Lexie grew older and became an even lovelier girl whose loveliness was still hidden beneath her poverty and toil. Her hidden beauty showed only in her generous actions, soft sweet songs and the pictures she made in lush exciting colors.

As Lexie grew older, she began to spend more time alone in the forest. Sometimes she would visit a nearby pond of clear water. It was her “drawing pond.” There she could look in the mirror-like water and see her own reflection. The image she saw in the pool with her eyes was that of a poor peasant girl in ragged clothes and no adornments. But in her heart Lexie saw something else. She saw the girl she knew she was – a girl rich in natural beauty, purity of heart, intelligence and talents. She saw all of this with modestly. For Lexie felt no better than anyone else because she had these things. In fact, she often wished she could share her riches with others. But because they were all inside of her and a part of her, she couldn’t. But still she wished she could.

Sometimes when Lexie visited the pond, she would make a picture of the girl’s reflection as she saw it in her heart. In the pictures Lexie made, she would dress her reflection in the fancy clothes she remembered seeing during her visits to the village of Dirge. The pictures she made were of a princess-like Lexie surrounded by lines, swoops and swirls of the most beautiful colors she could make. And among the happy dancing colors she would include birds, flowers, the sun, the moon and all other sorts of exciting things. As she made these pictures Lexie would sing out songs of love and happiness. Her songs reflected her happiness just as the pond reflected her inner beauty.

One day Lexie was by her pond making a picture of herself. And as was often the case, she sang happily as she painted. It was a bright sunny and warm day. This made Lexie even happier and her song sounded loudly throughout the forest around her. Birds, squirrels, rabbits and even a deer or two, approached the pond to listen to Lexie’s lovely singing.

 Now it just so happened that Prince Pablo was riding through the forest near Lexie’s drawing pond that very morning. As he rode, Prince Pablo began to hear an unusual sound nearby. He stopped his horse and listened carefully. The sound was of a girl singing. Prince Pablo was amazed at the beautiful voice and words he was hearing. He said to himself, “I have never heard anyone else singing in the Kingdom of Dirge before. And what a beautiful sound it is. What a lovely story the words are telling. Who can this be singing?”

Prince Pablo continued to sit quietly listening to and enjoying the song. Soon the singer’s voice grew softer and hard to hear. Prince Pablo called out, “Hello! Who is that singing?” He began to move his horse slowly in the direction of the singing.

Lexie was startled when she heard Prince Pablo’s voice call out. She never saw anyone else in this part of the forest. Then she heard the noise of Prince Pablo’s horse approaching her pond. In fear Lexie dropped her nearly finished picture and ran away as fast and as quietly as she could. She ran for a long time, not slowing down until she saw her home in the clearing ahead.

When Prince Pablo reached the pond he looked around. He was sure this was where the singing had come from. As he looked around he saw Lexie’s picture on the ground near the pond’s edge. He climbed down from his horse and picked it up.

Prince Pablo gasped at what he saw. Speaking to no one except himself he said, “This is a picture. In all my life I have never seen anything as wondrous as this before! And the girl in the picture is exquisitely beautiful. She must be a princess to be so beautiful and to sing so softly and sweetly. I must find out who she is.” 

And so Prince Pablo became determined to locate the girl of the glorious picture and charming singing.

5.

The Search

Upon returning to his castle, Prince Pablo told everyone that he wanted to find the princess in the picture he had brought back. He offered a reward to anyone who could tell him how to find her.

A search began. Everyone in the village and nearby it began to look for the mysterious singing princess of the picture. They all looked for a beautiful princess with fancy clothes, fine jewelry and long lovely hair filled with colorful ribbons and beads. They all looked for a princess with the voice of an angel and the skill to make pictures of beauty never before seen.

Of course, no one found the mysterious princess because everyone looked in the wrong places. No one bothered to look on the poor farms such as the one where Lexie lived. No one looked there because they all just knew that beautiful mysterious princesses didn’t live on poor farms.  And especially they didn’t live on poor farms far away from the center of the Kingdom of Dirge where anybody who was anybody lived.

So the search went on for many weeks to no avail. The beautiful mysterious princess was no where to be found.  Soon people gave up looking for her. Even Prince Pablo despaired of ever finding her.

Often Prince Pablo would return to the pond where he had heard the mysterious princess sing and had found the picture. But he never heard the singing again, for Lexie was now too scared to return to the pond.

6.

A Trip to the Village Marketplace

Summer turned into early Fall. Lexie’s family set about harvestting the summer’s crops. It was a good year and they were blessed with an abundance of vegetables. Moreover, the chickens and pigs were plentiful.

One morning Lexie’s father, Vade, said to the family, “We have more food than we need to get through the winter. So, tomorrow I will take some of what we have harvested to the village market to sell. Lexie will go with me to help.”

Speaking to Lexie’s brothers, he said, “While we are gone, you boys will continue to bring in the rest of the crops.”

Very, very early the next morning Lexie set out with her father for the village. Lexie rode in the back of the horse drawn wagon which was loaded full with food, two young pigs and a dozen chickens.

The ride was long. The roads were mere tracks in the rough dirt of the forests and meadows. The wagon bounced and jarred Lexie as it rolled along. It was not a comfortable ride, but even so Lexie was excited to be going to the village and the market. There she knew she would see some fancy dressed women and she would get more ideas for her pictures.

The wagon entered the village’s East gate and headed down a long crowded street towards the village square and the market. Being inside the village stirred Lexie’s excitement. As so often happened when Lexie was happy and excited she began to sing softly to herself.

The wagon came out of the narrow street into the open village square where the seller’s were setting up their stalls to sell their goods. The square was filled with lots of different sounds. Together they made it hard for anyone to hear anything in particular.

Just as Lexie’s wagon entered the village square, Prince Pablo was also riding through the square on his way out to visit peasants in the Kingdom of Dirge. Sitting tall on his large black stallion, he passed near the wagon in which Lexie was riding. Lexie didn’t notice him. She was looking around with wonder at all the things in the square, singing to herself as she looked.  

Prince Pablo had just passed Lexie’s wagon. He barely noticed her or the wagon among the ruckus, crowd of other people and wagons in the busy village square. His horse had taken only two strides forward when Prince Pablo pulled the reins back bringing his horse to a quick stop.

Despite the din of noise in the market place Prince Pablo thought he had heard the sound of singing. It was a sound he had heard only once before. It was the singing he had heard in the forest; the singing of the person who had left a picture by a pond; the singing of the princess he was searching for.

Prince Pablo looked over his shoulder to where he thought the sound had come from. All he saw was a peasant driving his wagon slowing into the market place. In the back of the wagon sat a peasant girl. She was dressed in ragged clothes. Her hair was pulled up into a bun on top of her head. She also wore a light patchwork of dirt from the work of a farm. But Prince Pablo was used to looking beyond the appearance of a person to what was inside them. He saw beauty and goodness beneath the rags and dirt on the girl in the wagon.

Prince Pablo turned his horse to the wagon, approached it and called out to the driver. “Peasant Farmer, please stop your wagon.”

Her father halted the wagon.

7.

Lexie and Prince Pablo Sing

Lexie was startled by the strong voice asking her father to stop the wagon. A moment of fear touched her as she recognized the voice. It was the voice that had called out as she sat by the pond making a picture last summer. Lexie shrank down among the vegetables in the wagon.

Watching without looking directly at him, Lexie saw the man get down off the large black horse and approach her. Lexie’s fear grew larger. She looked down until she could barely see him. He spoke to her in a gentle voice saying, “What’s your name?”

Lexie’s throat was tight and her mouth as dry as a piece of old wood. She couldn’t speak. The man’s voice was both frightening and soothing. She was confused about what to think. So she just sat looking down.

In a slightly trembling voice Lexie’s father said, “Her name is Lexie, your Highness.”

Prince Pablo gave Lexie’s father a little smile and nodded.

Turning back to Lexie, Prince Pablo removed his riding gloves. Then he reached over to Lexie. He placed his fingers delicately under her chin gently lifted her face toward his. For Lexie, his touch was light and smooth like a goose down feather.

Now Lexie had no choice but to look at Prince Pablo. What she saw was the extraordinarily handsome face of a boy her own age. Looking closely she saw more than just a handsome face. She saw large blue eyes that were as clear and deep as the pond where she once made her pictures. She could see her reflection in his eyes, except the reflection was of her as a beautiful princess.

“Please sing for me,” she heard the handsome Prince say. His voice was no longer frightening. Rather, it was as delicately soothing and refreshing as the stream that gurgled lightly into her drawing pond. It was a voice that Lexie wanted to please in order to hear it speak again.

Prince Pablo said softly, “Please sing the song I heard you doing by the pond.”

His voice echoed pleasantly in Lexie’s head. She thought back to the day by the pond when she had been frightened away. She remembered the song and began to sing it quietly to herself.

As Lexie sang, she continued to look deep into Prince Pablo’s eyes. They seemed to swallow her up and carry her back to that lovely summer day by her pond. They seemed to open up a colorful world like the pictures she made by the pond. Soon her song grew loud and full of the same joyous enthusiasm as when she sat by her pond making pictures. She felt as if she were alone with Prince Pablo by the pond.

Lexie was so entranced with singing to Prince Pablo’s eyes that she didn’t notice the noise in village square around her fading away. Soon the square had turned completely silent except for her voice and the shuffling of people moving closer to watch and hear her sing.

As Lexie continued to sing on, she became aware of Prince Pablo’s luxurious voice starting to sing with her. It echoed and blended with her voice. Together they sang as in one voice to themselves and the silent crowd watching them.

Suddenly, their song was interrupted by the sound of a horse’s loud excited whiney. They stopped singing. And with the crowd they turned to look at where the sound was coming from. Everyone was astounded to see that the stone statue of the flying horse Pegasus was no longer stone, but once again a living horse. It was later agreed by all who had witnessed this event that the powerful singing of Lexie and Prince Pablo had broken the spell placed on Pegasus by the Sorceress Minerva.

8.

Forever Thereafter

The newly freed Pegasus stepped down from the stone pedestal it had stood on for so long. It walked over to where Prince Pablo stood and nuzzled him with its nose. Prince Pablo said to Lexie, “Would you like to go for a ride on Pegasus?”

Lexie look into Prince Pablo’s wonderfully warm eyes and nodded “Yes.”

Prince Pablo easily lifted Lexie by her waist and sat her on Pegasus’ back. Then he climbed on behind her.

Holding Lexie close Prince Pablo called out, “Fly, Pegasus! Fly!” And fly Pegasus did; high into the sky above Dirge.

As Pegasus flew over the Kingdom of Dirge, Prince Pablo said to Lexie, “Would you and your family come and live in my castle? We could make songs and pictures together and bring beauty and happiness to the Kingdom of Dirge.”

Feeling the strong arms of Prince Pablo around her and the warmth of his breath on her ear left no doubt in Lexie’s mind as to what answer she should give. “Yes. Yes, I would very much like to come and live in your castle.”

And so it came to pass that Lexie went to live in the castle of Prince Pablo. There she dressed in fine clothes. She had jewelry to wear and ribbons and beads for her hair. Lexie the poor farm girl became Princess Lexie of the picture she had once made by the pond.

For many, many years thereafter, Prince Pablo and Princess Lexie sang sweet happy songs and made beautifully colored pictures for the people of Dirge. These songs and pictures brightened the Kingdom of Dirge and soon undid the spell cast by Sorceress Minerva. Bright colors and lovely bird songs returned to Dirge.

In time Prince Pablo became King Pablo. Princess Lexie became his Queen. Upon being crowned, King Pablo changed the name of the Kingdom of Dirge. Its new name was Camelot, a word that means beauty, peacefulness and enlightenment. And these were the things that all the people of the Kingdom, including Pablo and Lexie, had forever thereafter.

The End