Caged Bird

There once stood a castle of a small quaint kingdom, which stood near the bank of a magical river. The river itself stood of no importance; the castle, however, held a story.

The castle wasn’t large, yet it wasn’t small either. It went up several floors, and down a couple. Now, this castle held a tower, a single tower, which housed one room...Well, it was a large room with all the amenities that a person needed to live.

Now, the room was home to someone, the Princess of the castle, whose father was the King, the very man who inherited the castle from his father, the man who had built the castle. Therefore, the Princess stood to be the third strain of the castle’s royalty.

The Princess also stood to be a very beautiful girl with spectacular powers; after all, she held the power of an angel…the re-incarnated Angel of Beauty. She had always been beautiful even as a child; and thus her father had her locked within the tower with but no connection to the outside world besides the one large window that overlooked the land from the towering tower.

For years, the girl was lonely; she had no one to play with, no one to speak with, and no prince to dance with. No, she was but a young princess locked within her father’s castle. It was then that the girl had taken up her finer hobby—singing. The Princess had learned to sing and had loved doing so; singing passed the days away, one by one. She sung for hours on end stopping only for when the servants brought her meals, helped her bathe, and the occasional visits from her father.

Upon reaching the age of eleven, the girl had grown, continuing to be beautiful and remaining to her lonely tower room. Yet, one day, a bird was lured to her room through the open window called by her songs.

The bird wasn’t special at all and merely whistled along with the Princess’s melodies. The Princess acknowledged the bird and befriended the creature, calling it to live with her within the lonely tower. The bird seemed to accept the request of the lonely girl and began to dine and sing with the Princess of the Tower.

Five more years had passed and the bird had been influenced by the Princess’s glorious songs, absorbing some of the magic of the lyrics, growing beautiful of its own rights…and most of all, gaining the gift of word. The bird had learned to speak thanks to the magic in the Princess’s lyrics.

And the Princess had learned of a gift she had; she had learned that she had the power to call for wings…glorious wings just like the bird she had befriended. With such wings, she could fly through the open window and far away from her lonely tower, and yet, she didn’t know how to fly.

Alas, the Princess had naught to do but sing and live even though she was a goddess of a young woman by that time, dreaming of the day when she could meet the one just for her and how they would travel throughout the land, learning tales and gaining wisdoms. However, she remained locked within the tower.

At least she held a friend...the enchanted bird she had befriended.

One day, however, as the Princess looked out upon the land, she sighed, “Oh, how I wish I knew of lands beyond my sight.” She had said.

The bird looked upon her, “The land would love your song; just as I.” said the bird.

The Princess gazed upon her feathered friend and smiled, “Oh, what a lovely idea I have.” She said. “You can carry my song upon your wings and carry a song from lands beyond back to me.”

“That I can,” said the bird, “and that I will if you all but desire.”

“It shall be dangerous,” the Princess said to her feathered friend, “there might be evil in hunt for your flesh.”

“I shall not fall,” the bird had said perching upon the windowsill, “I shall fly this instant to carry your song and return when daybreak calls.”

“Oh do be careful,” the Princess said, “for I cannot fly after you.”

“Your wings are grand, Princess,” the bird said, “and yet the time to spend them is not yet. I shall return, my friend; do guide me home with your song.”

“Then go, my friend, do sing; carry my song upon your violet wing.” the Princess said.

And so the bird flew away, through the open window, leaving the Princess to sing alone within the room, gazing out towards lands beyond.

The bird returned as promised, as daybreak came. He had sung her song throughout the night and returned to sing the song of lands beyond; thus he did, singing a song of the lands he’d passed and the people he had seen.

Hearing the tale and after a long night of waiting and singing, the pair decided to rest.

The day passed by before evening fell again and the bird again flew out towards lands beyond, again carrying the Princess’s song from the tower before returning at daybreak.

This carried on for several weeks, allowing the Princess to learn of the land. Even then, the bird continued to fly to lands beyond the castle and had come to find a favorite perch lying in a glade.

Perched upon a tree, beside a crystalline stream, within the glade at midnight, the bird sang the Princess’s song.

The bird did so for three nights, unhindered from its lyrics about a lonely Princess with angel wings high within a Sapphire Tower. On that third night, however, a young man rode through on horse-back and found himself called by the sad little tale the bird did sing about.

He called out to the bird, “What be the lady’s name, sweet bird?”

The bird did stop its song and turned to the young man of seventeen, “She be an Angel named Sapphire,” replied the bird.

“Does she sing as sweet as you?” the young man asked.

“Even sweeter,” the bird replied, “yet her voice reaches not beyond the castle’s walls and keep.”

“How sad,” the young man said, “that she cannot sing beyond those walls; she must be lonely still.”

“Oh, that she is,” said the bird. “Even as I, her friend, am there, she longs for even more; she desires her kind and yet was kind enough to give me the gift of word.”

“She sounds so sweet,” the young man said, “it is sad that she has no companion; at least she has you to carry her song.”

“I am her friend, that I am, and yet my power is waning,” the bird said, “I fear she shall end up alone again before she meets another companion. My only desire if for her to find that one she desires.”

“Say,” the young man said, “carry my words to her and I shall be her companion. You see, I, too, am lonely, kept within the reach of my father and brother. They desire me not to travel this world. They have held me back, have kept me weak, and yet I am stronger than they think,” he placed a hand upon his chest above his heart, “My strength lays here.”

“Kind man, I believe your words,” the bird said, “now, tell me your statement so that I can carry such upon my wings.”

“Very well...” the young man said.

And so the young man told the bird his words before the bird took back to the sky, returning to the Princess in the tower.

The bird had returned earlier than the Princess had expected.

“What be your haste?” The Princess asked.

“I bring words,” the bird replied.

“Words?” The Princess inquired; she seemed to almost shy to the statement.

“Yes, I met a man; he called out to me and asked me of you.” The bird said. “He asked of me to carry his words to you.”

“Someone sends words to me?” The Princess asked, almost ecstatic. She had never heard word from someone beyond the castle. “Oh, my friend, what be these words?” she asked.

And so the bird told her. The words were nothing special, just simple things as to who he was and of how he felt when hearing the bird sing the song. Most importantly though was a request to have the bird return the same time, the next day with a reply

The day passed by and it seemed, to the Princess, as though evening would never come. She had been overjoyed with the message from the land beyond. She was more than happy to give her reply to the young man, whose name was Rubin.

And so, after hearing the words of the Princess, the bird carried the words upon his wings and returned to the glade to meet the young man.

The man stood waiting, seemingly worried until the bird did arrive, to which he seemed overjoyed.

The bird relayed to words to the young man, who listened to the every word, before sending a message back to the Princess.

Such a 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...