Dornröschen

The Fairytale Prince

"Dornröschen" is the German name for Sleeping Beauty, which is the fairytale Tsumugi represents. We read a little bit of it in my German 3 class when we where learning the Narrative Tense (which I hated so much)

The title of Chapter One is a reference to King Ludwig the 3rd, who had Neuschwanstein Castle built. It served as the primary inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's Castle

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Once upon a time, in a land faraway, there was a kingdom ruled by a kindhearted King and Queen. They were beloved by all their subjects, but the love and warmth they received was nothing compared to the admiration of their son. A boy with hair shaded with the palest of pink and eyes that rivaled the color of rose petals. They called him The Rose Prince. He was blessed with magic and proved to be a powerful holder from a young age.

The Prince was beloved by everyone, and he always saw kindness in the hearts of others. He never raised a hand to anyone, and always put his future subjects needs before his own. There was no one he did not consider worthy of his attention. The Prince was sought after by many women, and as he grew older he had a hard time finding a queen. Many kingdoms sent their most beautiful Princesses to wed the Prince, but he turned down each and every one of them. The Prince had no desire to marry without love. They all wanted him because of his appearance and reputation, not for the man he truly was.

One woman, a sorceress from a faraway kingdom, fell deeply in love with the Prince. She would come to him every night, at exactly midnight and ask him for his hand in marriage.

"I do not wish to marry someone I do not know or love." The Rose Prince would tell her every night. "I can not accept your request."

This continued on for three weeks, and every night the sorceress would receive the same answer for the same question she asked. No matter what the King and Queen did to keep the woman out, she would always find some way into the room of the Rose Prince and ask for him to marry her, and make her his queen. The Prince knew right away that this was not a woman of a pure heart. If she where to become queen, she would bring his kingdom to ruin. He would not allow his subjects to suffer at her hands.

On the first night of the fourth week, the sorceress entered the Prince's room once more, right as the clock tower struck midnight.

"My Rose Prince, will you make me your Queen?" She asked like clockwork.

"I have told you once, I can not, nor will not accept your proposal." The Rose Prince said. "You will never have my heart. Please leave and never return."

This infuriated the sorceress. Her hands balled into fists, and her face turned sour.

"If I can't have you, then no one will." The sorceress extended out her hand, and a beam of pure white light shot at the beloved Prince. "From this day forth you will no longer be considered an angel worthy of the rose, but a demon unworthy of love."

The magic from the sorceress encased the Prince. He fell to the floor and cried in agony as he went through the transformation the sorceress willed. He cried in pain as his body morphed and changed. When the magic stopped, the Rose Prince looked up at the woman.

"The only way to break my spell is with True Love's First Kiss, but who could ever learn to love a demon?" With a snap of her fingers, the sorceress turned into a cloud of smoke, and disappeared from the Prince's sight.

The Rose Prince stood and looked at his reflection in the glass of the window. A pair of black, bat like wings sprouted from his back, and a forked tail swished behind him. Horrified by his own appearance, the Prince jumped out of the window. He was never seen again.

Stricken with grief at the loss of their beloved son, the King and Queen endlessly searched for the Rose Prince, but they never found their missing Prince. News of the Prince's disappearance spread around the kingdom, and the country mourned as if had passed. Rose bushes were burned in his memory, and every year, on the day of his disappearance, the country spent their time in mourning.