Drake’s Dark Fairy Tale
There was once a king and queen who ruled over a misty kingdom filled with snowy mountains, dark valleys, rolling forests, and churning rivers. The king and queen had a son who they loved more than anything in all the world.
One day, when the son was still just a boy, he was playing in the palace gardens. At the foot of a tree he found a new and enchanting insect he had never seen before. It was a shimmering black color with blood red wings. As he reached down to pick up the creature it pricked him on the finger and flew away. Soon the prince grew gravely ill. The king and queen called the royal doctors, but they could do nothing to help the young boy. As the days passed into weeks, the boys’ parents were desperate for anything that might save his life. They sent messengers to the far corners of the kingdom promising great rewards to anyone who could heal their son.
Many people came to the palace with potions, salves, pills, poultices, ointments, elixirs, and incantations they claimed would heal the boy. They came on horses, mules, carriages, or on foot. One even arrived on the back of a small dragon. The steady stream of people and the resulting commotion overwhelmed the palace and left the boy no rest at all. None of the promised healings worked, and the prince continued to grow more ill.
As the days went by, the king and queen grew more desperate, and more angry that all of the doctors and healers of the land could not help their son. One day the distraught king thundered furiously from his throne that anyone who could heal the boy would be made a duke and given a vast estate in the mountains, but, if their treatment failed to heal the boy, they would be beheaded. The stream of people coming to the palace stopped immediately. No one was willing to risk their life to try to save the young prince.
During these difficult days, there was a young girl named Nebelina who lived in a small cottage far away from the gloomy palace. She lived with an old woman, who had cared for her since her parents died. One day as she was playing in the woods with her cat, Charcoal, she saw a fox growling at something on the ground. The fox jumped round and round, and then finally snapped, coming up with what looked like a bird in its mouth. The girl’s heart went out to the poor bird and she yelled at the fox. Charcoal sprinted toward it as it scurried off, dropping its prey.
To Nebelina’s surprise it was not a bird at all, but a delicate fairy stretching her black wings and shaking out her shining silver hair. The fairy bowed deeply to the girl. “Thank you for saving me from the fox, I am your servant and in your debt.”
Nebelina was delighted to finally see a real fairy. “How wonderful!” she laughed. “You’re so tiny and perfect.”
She got down on her stomach with her chin on the ground facing the fairy. “Are you hurt?”
The fairy didn’t answer, but instead said “Is there anything I can do to show my gratitude?”
The girl thought and finally said “Yes, there is. The prince is gravely ill and a great reward has been offered for the one who heals him. Give me something to make him well.”
The fairy smiled sadly and replied “Bold girl, I cannot give you something to make him well as I do not have this- only you do. But I will share with you the secret of this magic if you truly wish to heal him.”
“I do!” exclaimed Nebelina happily.
The fairy closed her eyes and said:
“The prince can only be restored,
By price of blood you’ll ill afford
Make him an offering of that life,
Ended by the cruelest knife,
The life of that you hold most dear,
Its life for his, if you can bear”
And with that, the fairy disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
Nebelina was deeply disturbed and made her way home, slowly mulling over what the fairy had said as Charcoal padded silently next to her. When she arrived home she told the old woman what had happened and repeated the instructions for the medicine that could heal the prince. The old woman seemed troubled and said nothing. Finally the girl said what they had both been thinking.
“There’s no one I love more than Charcoal.” The woman nodded slowly.
“Would you be willing to give his life for the prince’s?” she asked.
Nebelina nodded slowly, then began to cry. “I know I must but it’s so horrid. I wish I had never met that terrible fairy.”
That very night the old woman sharpened her only knife for the task ahead. Nebelinal hid her eyes and cried while the woman poured the still-warm blood of the poor animal into a glass vial and put a stopper in the top.
The next morning Nebelina said goodbye to the woman who had cared for her for so many years and set out on the long journey to the palace. It took many days through black forests, across wild rivers, and over rocky passes. When at least she arrived, she told the guards her reason for presenting herself at the palace. The guards could not believe such a young girl would risk death, but they bowed their heads and escorted her into a majestic room where the king and queen sat on magnificent thrones staring at the girl who dared approach.
“Young woman, you are brave indeed. Or foolish. You know the punishment if this elixir does not heal my son.”
“Yes, your majesty,” said Nebelina quietly.
“What makes you so sure it will work?”
Neblina recounted the tale of saving the fairy, asking for a way to heal the prince, and the terrible sacrifice she had made.
The king and queen were delighted with this answer and strode down from their thrones to hug the girl and order that the contents of the vial be administered to the Prince immediately. They put Nebelina in a beautiful guest room with the softest bed she had ever slept in. As she drifted off to sleep she wept for poor Charcoal, remembering all the wonderful times they had had together.
The next morning Nebelina awoke to the sound of running in the hallways and general clamour throughout the castle. Soldiers burst through the door and dragged her out of the room and down to the dungeon. The prince had not been healed by the cat’s blood and his condition had worsened overnight.
As Nebelina sat weeping in her cell, who should appear but the fairy from the woods! Nebelina was furious and demanded to know why the fairy had tricked her.
“My dear, I did not trick you, I gave you exactly what you asked for- a way to heal the Prince.”
“You said it had to be the blood of that which I hold most dear, and I killed him, I had no choice” the girl sobbed.
“Please” said the fairy scornfully, “you did not follow the instructions. That was not the life you hold most dear.”
The girl stared at her with tears in her life. “What other life could you mean? My mother and father are dead and I never even liked that old woman I lived with.”
“Poor girl, you hold most dear the same life that everyone does- your own. But I hope it comes as some consolation that you will yet save the life of the prince.” And with that, once again, she was gone.
That afternoon Nebelina was dragged to the castle courtyard where a platform had been erected. On top, next to a red-stained block of wood, was an executioner in a black hood holding a cruel glimmering ax. The royal family stood on the platform with the pale figure of the prince lying asleep in a little bed between them.
“Brave girl” said the King sternly. “You have betrayed me and further endangered the prince. I take no pleasure in your death, but so it must be.” And with that the executioner laid Nebelina’s head on the block and swung his axe.
The King looked on in silence. The queen averted her eyes. The executioner even turned away. But just as the ax stuck, a splash of the girl’s blood arced through the air onto the young prince’s face. As soon as the blood struck the dying prince, he sucked in a deep breath, sneezed, and opened his eyes. The color returned to his face as he looked around him. His mother wept loudly and threw herself on top of him. His father stood stunned with his eyes glued to the blood on the boy’s face. The prince himself looked straight ahead, where the body of a girl lay resting, peacefully, and where the fallen head of Nebelina stared with open eyes directly at him.