Caged Bird, Page 2

cycle carried out for several weeks which turned into months until over a year had passed since the young man had called to the bird. By then, the Princess Sapphire had learned everything about Rubin, who had turned out to be a Prince. It was unfortunate that the Princess would discover that Rubin stood to be the second son of the Kingdom her father had waged war with. It mattered not to either of them, however; the two had seen beyond their parent’s disagreements and their parent’s intent to keep them both locked away from the world beyond.

  Both had become wise in that year of both each other and the world beyond...they be nothing but a Princess in a tower and Prince in a glade no more; they held knowledge and with such, they had come to a plan.

  You see, though the Princess could not fly with her wings, she knew she could use such to glide as her friend the bird had explained how to do. The Prince knew that he could escape from his father a brother’s grasp for one a month he was allowed a horse to ride throughout the glade and recently he had come across an old path, which led towards the direction the bird flew nightly. He would go to her and wait to catch her as the Princess would use her wings to glide from the tower. Then, they would to have ridden off together, never to be seen by their parent’s again.

  The plan seemed perfect; however, the plan, while spoken to the Princess, had been overheard by her father. Furious, her father had taken up his chance and had barred up the tower windows, leaving no way for the Princess to use her wings.

  She had cried... Oh, how she had cried even as the bird had carried the news to the Prince within the glade.

  There, he had cried. It all became so hopeless and yet he held to hope, sending a message to the Princess that he’d discover a way.

  They began to carry messages upon the wings of the bird once again. Such a thing carried on for a year. By then, the two had fallen helplessly in love with one another; not being able to tell anyone. The sad part was that they had never me; both remained captives of their own family. Young adults kept away from happiness and each other all because of powers that they held within their bodies...powers they did not desire if it meant not having each other.

  Something even more sad came to be, the bird, the Princess’s friend for years informed them that he’d grown ill, that he’d not longer be able to carry messages upon his wings, so, the sent one final message to one another both promising to find a way.

  Then, after seven years of friendship with the Princess, the bird passed away.

  The Princess cried, singing a sad tale that echoed through the castle, striking discord within the guards and soldiers that kept the castle. The Princess’s power had indeed grown strong; it had enchanted her songs to affect the heart of man. The song upset the castle inhabitants; wishing to not hear the Princess’s songs any longer and yet, the only man who desired to hear the Princess’s songs was far away in a glade, lonely once more.

  This carried on for days as the Princess sang her song, despair filling the hearts of the soldiers that fought her father’s war with Rubin’s father.

  It wasn’t long, a month to the day since the Princess’s last word with Prince Rubin, that the Princess’s father was forced to surrender to his enemy; his long kept keep was falling. Thus he was forced to sign away his kingdom.

  With the signing away of his kingdom, the Princess’s father did one more daring feat; he signed her away. He had signed her away to the eldest son of his enemy, who stood to be Rubin’s elder brother.

  The Princess had come to knowledge of such from a servant that brought her meals, a maid that had once been forced to swear to never speak with her, and yet the maid new of the Princess’s plight and love for the young son of the enemy King, Prince Rubin.

  That night, gazing upon the sky and the land beyond, the Princess pleaded to whatever force could hear her words, “Oh, please, oh Gods, grant me my freedom from this tower,” She had cried.

  That night, as she turned away from her window, she heard the barred shutters come apart, drawing her attention back.

  Clamoring to the window, the Princess discovered that there was a free path to the outside once again. It was her chance—her only chance. It’d been a year since a path lay free for her. She could use the window to glide to the ground and rush towards the glade where Rubin would surely await her. No...the Princess knew he was there; she could feel him.

  Standing upon the ledge she glanced down before glancing towards the land beyond towards the forest she hoped to glide to. Bidding no farewell to her quant little room, the Princess jumped.

  As she did, she called forth her wings and yet...they did not sprout from her back as had before.

  It was then she heard a voice: “You have gained your freedom; the price was your wings.”

  The Princess fell to her death that day.

  The news had reached her father’s enemy’s ears quite quickly, so what of Prince Rubin’s reaction to her death.

  Alas, he’d not even heard of the surrender. He’d fell prey to an illness and had died just a week after his final message to his Princess.

  He was there, however, within that glade...the only place he had ever felt alive was where he lay dead.

  The Princess had been buried in a quite area of the garden of her father’s palace, never once having fully gained her freedom.

  With their deaths, though, came about a curse to their parents’ Kingdoms. Prosperity fell and with it those kingdoms as a haunting melody echoed through the castle where the Princess had been kept locked away for her entire life and a haunting wail within the castle where the Prince had died.

  They had wished to be together, longing to unite and live...to exist and merely see the world beyond their private prisons.

  And yet...the caged bird had fallen...