The Forest Princess

The Ice King's Tears

When Tilia came back to the Ice Palace with her mother, the Ice King got very confused.

"I knew it," he mumbled, "I knew it."

The dead woman told him about Larimar's promise to give her daughter all the love of a true mother. The story touched something inside the king. His frozen heart started to melt a little, and he agreed to release Carnelian.

Then Tilia's mother told the king her own story. He heard how she had looked after her child all those years after she had died.

The love of the dead mother for her child cut deep into the king's heart, and he began to cry. The tears of the Ice King streamed out of his eyes, over his face and body, leaving melted streaks wherever they touched the ice.

Then the king called all the snow squirrels, and they gathered in the biggest hall of the Ice Palace. He touched each of their little furry heads with his crystal, and they turned back into their human form.

The Ice King sat on the floor with all the children he had stolen over the years and began to tell them his story.

"Once upon a time there was a beautiful kingdom. It was fertile and green. Many trees, flowers, animals and people lived in the country. It was called the Kingdom of Upala.

The kingdom was ruled by a king and queen. They also had a son, but they weren't happy. They got married to please their parents. They thought love would come once they lived together in the beautiful Palace of Upala. However, love never came.

The King of Upala was away from home as much as he could. He went out hunting a lot, or he went to fight against other kingdoms. When he wasn't hunting or fighting he was usually in his private rooms. Nobody knew what he was doing in there.

The Queen of Upala felt very lonely. To make her loneliness go away, she was having many parties. She invited other queens with their princes and princesses. They played games and ate a lot, they drank and laughed a lot, but it wasn't a happy laughter.

The Prince of Upala grew up all on his own. His parents had no time for him. He didn't know whether they loved him, they never told him.

The prince never played with other children. He didn't like his mother's parties and he was to young to go hunting or fighting. He never found out what he really liked to do.

I think his heart slowly froze. It must have started when he was very little. Nobody noticed. For him having a froze heart was normal.

The Queen of Upala died when the prince was seven years old. Twelve years later his father was killed by another king. When the Prince of Upala became king he was only nineteen years old. He had grown up without the love of a mother or father, his hear was frozen, and he didn't have a clue what he was supposed to do.

The young King of Upala never wanted to get married, but eventually he did. He married a  princess. She was young and beautiful but he couldn't love her because his heart was frozen. She gave him two beautiful children, a little prince and a little princess. He couldn't love them because his heart was frozen."

The Ice King started crying again. His tears poured out of his eyes in hot streams. All the children started to cry as well. The streams of so many tears made channels in the frozen floors. Water started dripping from the walls and ceilings. Streams of tears were flowing out of the palace and down the icy steps.