Once upon a time a knight in shining armor saw a princess drop her handkerchief. He went to help her. But an evil witch had whispered lies into his ears, about how young girls did not need men.
"You can get it yourself,” he told her. He took off his armor. "Princess, wear my armor."
She looked at her soft hands and suddenly felt ashamed for not having gotten her own handkerchief. She tried to pick up the armor. It was too heavy.
Bitterly the knight laughed. "You must not be a real princess," he said.
He left, and she knew his words must be true.
The same witch came to the girl and proclaimed more lies. “You are a strong girl. Why do you care about him? You do not need him. You can pick up your own handkerchiefs. And now you have armor.”
The Princess picked up her handkerchief and cleaned her eyes. She had never craved power before, but now she knew empowerment. She didn’t like how it felt… how it made her feel like a knight. She could do anything, mostly things she’d never wanted to do before; things she’d never had to do before.
The armor was still too big and heavy, but princesses are ingenious and imaginative. She made the armor fit, and once it was on, she said, “I can save myself!”
She strolled about proudly, ready to face danger. But all she found was a pond. She saw her reflection. The Princess no longer looked like a beautiful girl, but an ugly creature. She filled the pond with her tears.
“I do not want to save myself. Furthermore, I do not need to save or be saved. I am a princess.”
She rejected the armor and put her dress back on.
The empowerment disappeared and instead came wholeness.
She danced and laughed, and might have continued on until her feet fell off if she hadn’t bumped into the knight who no longer wore his armor.
“Oh,” she said.
He saw her and bent his head. “I am sorry I didn’t pick up your handkerchief.”
She forgave him, because she was a princess, and because he was sorry. She helped him into his armor, and then she used her handkerchief to polish his armor so that it shone once more.
When she was finished, she let her handkerchief fall to the ground.
The knight retrieved it at once, then handed it back to her. “Princess, your handkerchief.”
And they lived happily ever after, the Knight and Princess together.
(Short fairytale written some time ago. I like it.)
(I like it, too.)
ReplyDelete(Very nice)
DeleteI like it so much.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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