The Song of Remembrance

 Once upon a time there was a flower. It wasn’t the prettiest flower, but it was happy. This flower, however, did have beautiful yellow petals. One day a Little Princess came wandering down the forest path with her mother and father, the Queen and King of the land.

The Little Princess saw the flower and loved it at first sight. She begged her parents to let her take the flower home, but they told her that if she did the flower would die. So she left it there. But every day she would wander out into the forest so she could visit the flower. And she loved the flower even more with each moment she spent with it. She would talk to the flower, she would dance around the flower, and she would sing to the flower.

One day something different happened. The flower loved the Little Princess back. You may ask how did the flower feel love for her? Well, as the little girl’s song carried on, the flower changed. It’s seeds turned into eyes and a mouth and a nose. And its leaves turned into arms and hands and its roots into legs and feet. It climbed out of the ground, toddled over to the princess, and climbed up into her lap. The Little Princess was so amazed that she stopped singing and at that moment the flower’s legs and feet turned back into roots and grew back into the ground. The little girl jumped up and ran all the way home. She told her mother what had happened, but her mother thought that it was just a story that the little girl had imagined, and so she patted her daughter’s head and said “that’s nice.”

Well, this little girl was a brave soul so she went back out the very next day. She sat next to the flower and she started singing again. And as soon as she did, the flower came back to life. So the little girl stood up and started walking back to her castle, the flower following after her as she continued to sing, so she could show her mother the change that had happened to the flower.

She continued down the path and a most amazing thing happened. Because of her song the trees and bushes and grasses she passed all grew faces, legs and arms and started following her as well. She was surprised at first, but felt a little giddy at what was happening around her.

She arrived at the castle gate a short while later with the forest in tow. Her father and mother came rushing to the castle wall to see the amazing thing that was happening around their castle. The whole forest circled their castle as the Little Princess waled through the gate and it shut behind her.

She stopped singing when she walked up to her parents and gave them a look of “I told you so.”

Her parents did not know what to do or say to such a brilliant child. They just hugged her and sighed.

The Little Princess continued to go each day out into the forest to see her flower, but now she didn’t need to go very far.

The news of the ability of the Little Princess traveled across the land, even to the doorstep of the Evil Magician. He listened to what everyone said about her ability and decided that this would be the best way to get rid of the King and Queen for good. He wanted to be king and would do anything to make it happen.

One night the Evil Magician snuck into the Little Princess’s chamber and waited until her breakfast was brought up to her room. He slipped a vial of sleeping potion into her food and waited until she ate. Then when no one was in the room and she laid herself back down into her bed. He snatched her up and jumped out the castle window onto the wind. For he could travel wherever the wind blew.

The Little Princess woke up in a cold, room. The sun attempted to shine through a dingy gray window. She was tired and afraid and alone. The Evil Magician opened up the door to her room and demanded that she make the plants in the courtyard come to life. But she couldn’t, for her magic was based on love and happiness. She couldn’t feel either of those feelings.

So the Evil Magician thought up a spell—a tricky spell.  It made the Little Princess think that he was her father and that she was happy and that she felt nothing but love. So, she sang as she does when she is happy and the grass in the courtyard stood up and danced to her song.

A few days went by and the Evil Magician in the guise of the Little Princess’s father started to tell her about the terrible plight of a woman stuck in a castle. He described the castle and she thought she recognized it. And she felt sorry for the woman. Now really the Evil Magician was talking about the Little Princess’s mother, who in fact was not in a terrible plight, except that she had lost her beloved daughter. But, nonetheless, the Evil Magician convinced her that this woman should be set free and that her captor should be punished for his bad deeds. So the little girl thought of a different song. This song was heavy and strong and made the plants grow angry faces. The trees and plants and bushes wouldn’t dance to her music, but instead would walk with a dedicated thump, thump, thump right behind her.

And so the Evil Magician convinced the Little Princess that she should take the plants of the forest and free the woman in the castle. So off they walked towards the Little Princess’s home to destroy it. She walked and as she walked she sang her heavy song and the plants around her followed her in a march, moving and swaying to the slow beat of the song.

She came almost to the gate of the castle when she stopped and looked down. There in front of her was an ordinary, yellow flower. She stopped singing and stared at the flower. It reminded her of something. But, she couldn’t remember. So she sung a song of remembrance and the tune cut through the Evil Magicians imaginings and she saw that she was sad and unhappy and that he was not her father.

He looked at her and urged her to continue to sing, but he didn’t know that the song she was singing was showing her the truth. She again went back to her heavy song, but turned around and walked the way she had come. The Evil Magician was confused at first, but then realized that she wasn’t convinced of his imaginings anymore, and he attempted to grab the girl again, but a large oak tree wrapped one of its branches around the Evil Magician and wouldn’t let him speak.

The trees and flowers and other plants walked with the Little Princess back to the Evil Magician’s castle. There the plants slowly took apart the Evil Magician’s castle. Block by block and brick by brick they laid the castle in a field. Each piece a small distance from each other. Neatly not touching one another.

The Little Princess let the Evil Magician go his way, and she went back to her castle to see her parents that she loved so dearly.

There in her room in a small flowerpot sat a plain yellow flower that she also loved dearly.