Eurovision Fairytales (Requests Open)

Prince des neiges - Part I

'Prince des neiges' - 'Prince of Snow' in French

Summary: A new Prince is born, and a new Queen comes to the throne. Years later, her jealousy has only grown.

......

As the sun rose on a winter morning, a Queen sat on her favourite chair by the bedroom window. She was slowly embroidering a red rose, her eyes occasionally gazing at the snowflakes that floated down from the sky, vanishing into the snowy ground and covering the lovely pink roses that surrounded the castle. After some time, she set her cloth and sewing needle aside to place a hand on her stomach.

"If only I could have a child with skin as pale as the freshly fallen snow, with lips as sweetly pink as the roses, and hair darker than the chestnuts on the trees. If only I could have a child with a voice so beautiful, it would make the birds envious..."

A few days later, the Queen became pregnant, and months afterwards gave birth to a healthy baby boy that bore the so desired features. 

But while the King and Queen were overjoyed at the arrival of their young Prince, the celebrations were short lived. For a few days after the Prince's birth, his mother died from complications. While in grief from his wife's death, the King raised his beloved son, a loving reminder of her, by himself for a few years before remarrying. 

The woman had requested an audience with him as a newcomer to the Kingdom, and had instantly entranced him with her beauty. But while the new Queen had ravishing looks, her heart was another matter entirely. 

From the moment she first laid her eyes on the young boy, she had determined he was of no concern of hers. Even after the King's passing several years later, the Queen never showed any form of affection to her stepson, often keeping him locked in his room for prolonged periods of time and even forcing him to do chores for her on certain occasions. Unlike others, hearing the Prince even hum a single note irked her, and for years she had insulted his voice to discourage this. Despite the mistreatment from his stepmother however, the boy was beloved by the castle servants and staff, whom cared for him in her place.

In similar fashion, the citizens of the Kingdom became increasingly unnerved by their new ruler. They indeed found her beautiful, but also proud, calculating and cruel. Along with the neglect she bestowed upon the Prince, she was cold and unsympathetic to the plight of the common folk and more than fawned over the richer nobles. However, no one dared to bring it up openly, wanting to avoid the Queen's wrath.

A few more years passed, and Prince Gjon grew into a young man. 

As his birth mother had hoped, he possessed a beautiful singing voice. The Prince had loved music since his childhood, and indeed, his song entranced anyone who heard it. Unlike his stepmother, who was still as vain and wicked as she always was, Gjon was kind-hearted, friendly and gentle. The beauty bestowed on him as a child had not melted away at all over the years-in fact, many would agree the Prince had only grown more lovely with age. 

All the more reasons for the Queen to despise him.

......

A particular hush fell over the villagers as they recognised the Prince passing by town. His eyes were directed ahead as he walked, almost oblivious to the shy and reverent stares of some. 

As a matter of fact, quite a few people had requested for his hand once he had come of age-but for obvious reasons, his stepmother had turned them all down. Fortunately, Gjon was not at all bothered by this, having had no romantic interest in any of his admirers thus far.

If anything, Prince Gjon enjoyed being surrounded by nature the most. The animals adored his presence just as much as his people, and had the privilege of listening to his voice almost every day. His favourite place to be was an empty well surrounded by pine trees-just at the entrance to the forest. He had been warned by his father not to venture too deeply into the area before; he just liked the peace and quiet. The well had not been used for over a decade, and on occasion, the Prince did like speaking or singing into its depths, hearing his voice echoing back up towards him as a form of amusement.