The Forest Princess

There once lived a princess in a tower. The tower was in a castle, but she never went anywhere else. She occasionally came out, but only if necessary, because she had everything needed in her tower. She did not like the world outside of it. Her tower was bright, it was colorful, it was pretty and it was cozy. The rest of the castle... well it was white and drab. The temperature wasn't right, the colors weren't right, and the people had such god awful mindsets, that the princess felt very drained being in their presence.

But being a princess meant having to socialize, and socialize she had to. She would go to royal balls, but late, to make herself beautiful. She crafted all of her gowns herself, did her own hair and handpicked every jewel to go on her body. To her, the art of looking pretty was more important than it was to be presentable to people so they could appreciate her. She loved looking pretty for herself, and when she would finally arrive at the ball, retreated herself to one corner and sang her own tunes rather than mingling with the crowd and dancing to Vivaldi.

She did not think she was up for talking to princes. She looked at the couples on the floor and sighed. She did not realize that no one asked her to dance because she seemed not interested. But it was all fine and dandy because what she really needed was for someone to dance to her tune. She would not have understood how these other melodies worked, how these other cultures worked. She was used to her tower, and in her tower, she made her own culture, and the only way for her to survive, she realized, was for others to adapt to it.

The princess knew one day she would have to rule though, and she had no idea how she was going to do that if she stayed this way. She went to the royal advisor. The advisor sat with her every day, and over the course of a few years, he taught her much. He did not teach her how to rule the kingdom. He taught her how to be a better ruler to herself. On the first day, he gave her a rock. It was a very pretty rock. He said it was for her tower.

"Keep it in a special place. Somewhere you can look at it. Somewhere it is warm and bright."

So the princess made a little shelf, inside of her fireplace. She liked to sit by the fire and read for hours. She liked the smell of burning wood. She discovered the fire made the rock glow a very pretty hue.

As time went on, it seemed the rock only glowed more beautifully. The colors were brighter and changed shades frequently. It was very addicting to look at. On the last day with the advisor, the princess was worried. He taught her much. But she still did not know how to rule the kingdom she was going to be handed. She asked the advisor what to do. He simply reminded her to look within herself, and take care of the rock he gave her. Confused, the princess went back to her tower, but to her surprise, she found the king and queen waiting.

She greeted them, and they confronted her about her meetings with the advisor. They quizzed her on her royal knowledge, but the princess had no answers for them. Furious, the king asked what this advisor did all this time. She pointed at the rock. The king shunned the princess. He said she has wasted all of this time foolishly looking at a rock, and not doing her duties, and that she will never be a good queen once the time comes. The princess felt a rage in her heart at her father's mindset and just then, the flames intensified.

The king went on a rant about his struggles as a ruler, how he did not have a tower like she did, and he had to earn his kingship. The princess wanted to scream at him, but she did not. She wanted to scream that she did not ask for a tower and that perhaps the only reason she was placed in one was so she could always be made to feel guilty about it. She wanted to scream that the kingdom hated the King and that he hated the kingdom back, and everybody was just miserable living the way that they live, and she did not want to live like that. The fire intensified, and that is when it came to her.