Our Fairytale: Part VI

Two years. Two years had passed since Bobby rode off into the horizon and abandoned his beautiful princess behind. Two years had seen that horizon bare and empty, with neither rider nor the love he carried with him ever cresting its surface. All hope of the love between the princess and her beloved knight ever awakening seemed lost forever...until the day he finally returned. 

Over the horizon he rode, a single figure silhouetted against the rising sun. Though the morning rays raced quickly across the open valley, the rider outpaced them all and arrived at the castle gates carrying a single trophy, the book of spells that he held high above his head.

The gates were opened and Bobby was ushered into the castle. He sprinted up the stairway to the princess's bedroom with hundreds of curious townsfolk in tow who all wished to see the miracle that would soon take place before their eyes. For this day held a promise not felt in the kingdom for many years, the promise that the princess might indeed awaken and usher in a new age of joy and happiness that had disappeared the moment her eyes closed.

When Bobby finally reached the princess he took a seat beside her bed, opened the spell book, and began to read. Spell after spell he chanted, some spoken in the common language while others in strange and curious tongues he did not understand. No one knew which spell might eventually awaken the princess from her slumber as Bobby turned the pages of the great book and read each one aloud.

After several hours passed without success, some of the villagers grew restless and began to trickle out as the hour of day became late. The sun had nearly finished its daily sojourn across the sky and candles were lit in the bedroom so that Bobby could continue reading. More villagers began to leave until finally, after an entire day had passed and the last of their patience was exhausted, only Bobby remained alone in the princess's bedroom, reading each spell to her by dim candlelight. Page after page he turned until finally only one remained, containing a single spell left to be recited. He grew anxious, knowing that this final spell must be the one that would awaken the princess and bring her back into his arms. Bobby recited the spell, looked upon the princess's resting face, and waited for her eyes to open.

Never before had Bobby longed for anything more than to see the princess's eyes open. Never before was his heart more broken than when they did not, for despite everything he had done, despite conquering his demons and reciting every word he knew to break the spell from which the princess was still bound, she did not wake up. She lay there, completely motionless and without a single response to Bobby's words as he broke down beside her and cried. The woman he is in love with remains asleep, and he knows not what else to do.

"Why will you not awaken my princess?" he whispered in her ear. "What more can I do?"

"You can speak your own words to her Bobby," a voice from behind him said.

Bobby turned around to see the village elder standing there, cloaked in a long white robe that matched the color of his hair.

"My own words?" Bobby inquired, somewhat confused. "What do you mean sir, for did you not just hear me speak to her every word from the spell book?"

"That I did, but those words come from the mind and are of no use to you where matters of love are concerned. For though the princess is asleep, it is not her mind you are trying to awaken, but her heart. Something greater is needed to do that, something that will show her you have become the man she needs you to be. You must speak to the princess from your heart, for the only words that can awaken a broken heart are the ones that proceed from it."

Bobby knelt beside the sleeping princess and removed the ribbon from around his neck that contained the two wedding rings. Inside one of the rings shone the princess's name in the dim candlelight, the most beautiful of all names...Ornela. On the other ring was written his name, but as Bobby looked at the ring that bore his old name, he watched in astonishment as the old letters faded away while new ones were written in its place. His ring no longer bore the name "Robear", but instead read "Bobby"...for he had become a new man, the man Ornela always needed him to be.

Bobby took Ornela's hand within his own and slipped the wedding ring onto her finger. He placed the other ring onto his and looked in wonderment at the two hands that held each other so lovingly, each now bearing a ring that bound their hearts together forever. He wiped a tear from his eye and whispered softly in her ear.

"Ornela," Bobby said, cradling her head and stroking her cheek gently. "After two years apart, we are finally together again. I have missed you more than anything...and I know you have missed me too. Although I hurt you so very deeply on our last night together in Boston, you are safe with me now. You don't have to keep fighting. You don't have to guard your heart any longer, for I will protect it forever. Let go of everything, all your fear and uncertainty, and surrender to your feelings, just as I have already surrendered my heart to you. You are the only woman I have ever loved, the only woman I will ever love, and should you awaken from your slumber and fall into my arms, I will never let you go. You are her...the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. I love you Ornela."

He leaned over his princess, caressing her face with both hands and pulling her close. "Wake up Ornela...please wake up." 

Bobby kissed Ornela's lips and the beautiful princess...

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And here is where my role in telling our story ends. I have written as much of our fairytale as I can, but I cannot add another word because I don't know how this story ends. I need your help Ornela. I need you to write our fairytale's ending. I told you in the second part of our story that at the conclusion of this tale I would give you the most precious thing in the world to me so that I can prove to you that I am in love with you. That is what I am doing right now. I am giving you my pen, and if you know anything about me you know that this is the most treasured thing I possess. I entitled this story "Our Fairytale" not just because it tells our story, but because we are both writing it together. You are just as much of a writer of our story as me and I am giving you my pen so that you can finish it. I have never asked anyone to do this before and if you know me at all you know that letting you write the ending to one of my stories is one of the most intimate gifts I can give anyone...and I am giving it to you. You will decide the fate of Bobby and Ornela's love. You will decide if the princess ever wakes up.

In the past four months I have said to you everything that is on my heart. I have written you letters, written you short stories, and even written you a novel. I thought that if I wrote you a novel telling our story that you would come back to me. I thought that if only I could find the right words, words so beautiful that they would awaken you from your sleep and rekindle the passion that must surely lie deep within your heart, that your love for me would return...but after you have rejected me so many times, I don't know if those words even exist. I am in love with you Ornela, but if my words are not enough, if my love is not enough, then I have nothing left to give.

You told me that you wish you had waited for me and I know that you wish that you had never given yourself to this other man. You wish that you had waited and given yourself to me, and because you have given yourself for the first time to another man you think that I won't love you the same way anymore. You told me this in one of your letters. Now you feel trapped in a situation that you see no way out of, just as the princess in our fairytale could not awaken from her sleep. Do you not know that despite whatever you have already done with someone else, in my eyes you are just as pure and beautiful as the day we met? Do you not know that my love for you is unconditional and is based not on what you have done, but on who you are? The words that my character spoke to yours as she remained asleep in her bed are the same that I will speak to you on that bridge in Boston Common Park if you will let me see you. They are words that I have wanted to say to you for a very long time. Read those words again Ornela, read them and imagine my face before you as I speak to you. You don't have to keep fighting the feelings you have for me. You can choose for us to be together. You can choose to wake up. And when you do, I will be right here, holding you so that you will never hurt again. 

Every day when I wake up I look beside me in bed and wish that I was gazing into your loving eyes, the eyes of my wife and best friend. I wish, more than anything, that I had never told you goodbye. I wish that I had never left DC. I wish that I had stayed for you and then moved with you to Boston to continue our lives together. If I had stayed with you in DC we would be married today, living in our own home in Boston...perhaps we would even have a child together. I often think about what our lives would have been like together. I think about a wedding that never was, about trips and adventures we should have experienced over the years, and about the children that would have been our greatest joy. And I think about something else too...I think about just holding you in my arms, everyday, while I look deeply into your beautiful eyes and tell you that you are the love of my life. It's not too late for all of these wonderful dreams to still come true. We can share a beautiful life together. This can be our life if you want it to be.

You are the woman I have spent my entire life trying to find, and when I finally found you I did not recognize that you were her...you were always her. You are the woman I have fallen in love with, the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. Ornela, you are the woman I want to marry. I have never been so sure of anything in my entire life.

After everything I have done over the past several months, all the letters and stories I have written you, I hope that you will finally believe that I truly am in love with you. Now I give my pen to you to write the rest of our story. Will the princess remain asleep forever or will she finally open her eyes and look deeply into her white knight's adoring gaze so that they may kiss and live happily ever after?

If you have any feelings for me at all, please call me Ornela. Please just talk to me.

Te dua. I love you.

Our Fairytale: Part V

Vultures circled overhead, eyeing the lone rider who slumped low within his saddle. A fortnight had passed since Bobby began his quest to retrieve the spell book and in that time his journey had taken him over the tallest mountains and driest deserts. Barely a drop of water remained in the canteen he squeezed to let the last few beads of moisture fall onto his parched tongue. He tossed the canteen aside, watching it bounce along the rocky terrain before coming to rest by the bones of an animal carcass that the vultures had already picked clean. Alone and without any provisions, he wondered how much longer he could muster the courage to continue this quest that seemed hopeless, as both his strength and determination were failing him. His bones ached, his body was exhausted, and a terrible despair had begun to torture his waking mind. Bobby felt so alone. But in that darkest moment he looked upon the ribbon that was tied around his wrist and the most curious thing happened. He smiled. Even in his lowest moment, the princess's memory could still make him happy. Her memory gave him the strength to keep going, despite all the pain and uncertainty of where his journey might lead. 

"I love you my princess," Bobby whispered as he readjusted himself and sat high in the saddle, suddenly full of energy and vigor. A simple memory of his beloved princess transformed him into a new man. 

When the sun was just beginning to set and surrender its last rays of light to the starry night above, Bobby came upon a foul swamp that stretched far into the horizon. Though he urged his horse onward, the animal refused to enter so Bobby was forced to continue his trek on foot. His progress was slow through the waist-deep water, though his sword made quick work of the vines and branches that hung low and threatened to choke the life from any man who ventured too close. Without the sunlight to offer direction, Bobby relied on blind intuition to guide his steps until finally a dim light was visible just ahead. Its golden rays were curiously alluring, though somewhat unsettling, as its presence in the swamp was most unexpected.

The light came from an open passageway that beckoned Bobby near and, upon entering this corridor, he discovered that a thousand golden rings lay on the ground around him. Each ring shone its brilliant rays upon the bewildered visitor's face as he reached down to pick one up. Inscribed within the ring's surface was a man's name, and as Bobby collected more of the rings he found that each bore the name of a specific person. The rings lined the floor of a tunnel Bobby walked through until finally he came upon a great underground cave filled with huge piles of rings, some reaching over a hundred feet tall. The tunnel emptied at the peak of one such pile and as Bobby stepped onto its surface he slipped and tumbled all the way down, a wave of clanging rings following him like an avalanche of gold. As he crashed to the ground, he gathered himself and looked up to see a tall marble pillar before him, upon which a demon sat reading a book of spells.

 

"Lost loves, all of them," Baphomet said, admiring the mountains of golden rings that he had collected. "Some were just beginning to blossom, while others had the benefit of long years together to momentarily stave off my intervention, but the names of every pair of lovers whom I have torn apart are written on each of these wedding rings, rings that shall never see the hands for which they were destined." 

He closed the book of spells with a loud clap that echoed off the cavernous walls. "Rarely do I entertain visitors here, rarer still ones whose love owes its ruin to me. I believe these belong to you."

Baphomet tossed down two rings from his lofty perch atop the pillar that landed at Bobby's feet. Bobby picked up the rings and read the names on each. Upon one ring was written the princess's name while the other bore the name "Robear".

Bobby examined the rings closely, feeling the cold metal in his hand before saying, "You are mistaken demon, for I am not Robear. He is my twin brother. I am Bobby the Contrite."

"Bobby the Contrite?" Baphomet asked in disbelief. His laughter filled the cave with such force that even the mountains of rings shook and sent rivers of gold tumbling to the floor. "Would you try to fool a jeweler with shards of glass, or deceive a farmer with worthless seeds? Why then do you weave your deception before he who trades in lies? Your ruse may have worked on unsuspecting townsfolk but it will not have the same effect on me. I know you very well Robear, perhaps even better than you know yourself. I watched you hold the princess's hand in Charleston before sharing a first kiss. I was there when you seduced her in Panama City as your naked bodies intertwined. And on a cold winter night in Boston I smiled when you abandoned her and rode off into the horizon, offering the heartbroken princess neither a reason or apology. That is when her heart broke and she fell asleep...that is when I claimed her for myself. You are the reason that the princess has fallen asleep for these two long years. You are the reason she has never again known true love." 

A single tear rolled down Bobby's cheek as he stared at the golden rings within his hand that bore the princess's name...and his own.

"Ah yes, a tear, the raindrops that water the gardens of remorse," Baphomet prodded. "You are a man full of regrets that have led you to ask the princess for forgiveness after all these years. But have you already forgotten that you abandoned her so callously? What makes you think that she would even welcome you back into her life?"

Bobby thought for a moment and boldly answered, "Because my heart no longer beats for itself, but instead for two bodies that share one soul. Two years apart have neither lessened nor extinguished my love for the princess. That time has instead changed me...it has matured me. When I finally became the man she needed me to be, I fell in love with her."

"In love with her?" Baphomet asked, shaking his head. "In love with her?" he again repeated. His laughter could scarcely be contained as he rolled around atop his pillar, nearly falling off.

"It is true," Bobby insisted. "As if by magic."

"Magic indeed," Baphomet snickered. "Magic has little to do with your newfound feelings, for it was by this potion that your fidelity for that woman was stirred at all."

He tossed the potion bottle that the princess had sipped from all those years ago to Bobby. "Though that empty bottle has caused her eternal sleep, it was her love for you that sealed her fate. So great was her love for you Robear and so much of herself was she willing to give, that she drank the potion, believing that doing so would cause you to fall in love with her. Yet your love for her was never real...it is nothing more than a lingering effect of this potion and the princess's misplaced hope."   

"You are full of lies," Bobby said, clutching the empty bottle in his hand. "My love for the princess proceeds from my heart, not the effects of some potion or anything else. My love for her is true and everlasting...I am in love."

Baphomet paced atop his pillar, contemplating Bobby's declaration before saying, "Even a broken clock tells the correct time twice a day, just as a liar may sometimes speak the truth. Hear then this truth Robear: You are a disgraceful man, full of fear and indecision. You are a most loathsome creature indeed, and if the princess should ever awaken from her sleep she would scoff at your attempts to win back her heart. She does not love you anymore Robear, for you are a vain and selfish man."

"I am not that man anymore!" Bobby yelled. He unsheathed his sword and pointed it skyward towards Baphomet. "The princess will not remain asleep forever because of your lies. Relinquish your book of spells willingly or I will cut you down and forcefully take it."

"Hollow threats from a hollow man," Baphomet scoffed. "You will receive neither my spell book nor my sympathy."

Bobby raised his sword and prepared to strike the marble pillar upon which Baphomet was perched. "My sword can fell the fiercest of foes and its blade finds power in the sturdy arms that wield it."

"Whatever strength you possess will surely leave you," Baphomet cautioned. "for unbeknownst to you there is a poison that courses through your veins. When you kissed the princess's lips you tasted more than simply a lover's touch, for at least a drop of the potion remained in her kiss, the very potion that condemns all whose hearts have been broken to eternal sleep." Baphomet's thin lips curled back to reveal blackened teeth as his forked tongue prepared to weave its tales. "The princess will never wake up Robear. You broke her heart and have condemned her to a life without ever again knowing true love."

With those words, a thousand tiny barbs pierced Bobby's heart and delivered unto it a pain such as he had never felt before. His heart suddenly felt very fragile, as if the slightest touch might break it, and the same drowsiness that had seized the princess on that bridge in Boston all those long nights ago suddenly began calling for Bobby as well.

Still Baphomet's words did not relent. "The princess will never open her eyes Robear. She will never look upon your face again. She will never awaken from her slumber."

Bobby's eyes grew heavy, his breathing slowed. The potion that relied only on unrequited love to release its poisonous snares suddenly flooded his body and pushed him ever closer to a deep sleep from which he would never awaken. Bobby's heart was breaking.

"You are a wanderer Robear," Baphomet continued. "And an aimless drifter is all you will ever be. Abandon your pursuit of the princess, just as you did all the those years ago, for it is too late to right the wrongs you have done to that poor woman. Abandon her, for you are lost Robear."

With heavy eyes Bobby looked upon his hand to see that it was bare. Of all the terrible sights his eyes had seen, none was more tragic than the ringless finger upon which a wedding band should have been. He picked up the golden rings that bore the names of two lovers, one destined for his hand while the other for the princess's. The golden rings felt so very cold upon his skin, as if they had never been warmed by a lover's touch or the warmth of her heart. He thought of her in that moment, how happy she would have been if only he had offered her this ring, the loving words she might have said. Yet, for all the words she had ever spoken to him, only these could he now remember:

"When you feel lost, think of me and I will always come to guide you back home. I love you Robear, despite all of your flaws, despite all of your misgivings, because I know that in your heart you are a good man and you will always come back to me, just as I will always come back to you."

"I will always come back to you my princess...and my love," Bobby managed to barely whisper.

And as he spoke those words a strange thing happened. His thoughts were no longer on the book of spells or the poison that polluted his body. He did not see mountains of golden rings or the demon that looked down upon its prey. He saw only her face. A beautiful face. The most beautiful of faces...smiling, laughing, and saying those magical words: I love you Bobby. All his apprehension, all his uncertainty, all his fear disappeared in that moment...for no evil thing can withstand the power he now had within him, the power that was given to him by a princess so beautiful: Love. And with this greatest of gifts, all of Bobby's strength triumphantly returned.

He rose to his feet and with both hands swung his sword as mightily as any blade had ever been cast, striking the pillar with the strength of a hundred men. Metal met rock with a terrifying crash, shattering the blade like glass and sending shards of jagged metal flying in every direction. The entire cave shook from the force of the clash and piles of golden rings were scattered like dust in the wind, yet for all the fury unleashed in that greatest of blows, the pillar itself was unscathed.

"Just as I said, your strength has no power here," Baphomet taunted as he laughed and danced atop the pillar's summit.

With no sword left to vanquish his foe, Bobby became greatly distressed, until he remembered the princess's hair ribbon that was still tied around his wrist. He took the ribbon and straightened it into a single cord, then looped it around so that he held each end in his right hand while the remainder dangled freely. Bobby picked up the empty potion bottle that Baphomet had so carelessly discarded and placed it in the rudimentary sling he had fashioned from the ribbon.

While Baphomet continued to dance, oblivious to the happenings far below, Bobby swung the sling over his head three times in a great circle before releasing one end and sending the bottle hurling towards Baphomet. Just as the demon heard the whistling missile approach, the bottle struck him in the forehand, slicing his face open in an explosion of blood and glass. Baphomet let out a great scream, stumbled backwards, and fell from his pillar onto a pile of golden rings that did nothing to cushion his fall. The demon lay motionless, dead, as his lifeless fingers released their grip on the book of spells.

Bobby retrieved the book and took his leave, pausing only to thread the hair ribbon between the two golden rings that bore the names of both the princess and himself. He hung the ribbon around his neck and tucked it beneath his shirt, so that both wedding rings rested close to his heart.

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On the night I arrived back home from seeing you in Boston, I remember laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling and wondering if I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. I picked up my phone and began to dial your number when I stopped myself. I was scared. I knew that I had just hurt you very badly and I thought that if I ever spoke to you again it would only hurt you even worse. I thought that because of all the terrible things I had said to you, it would be impossible for me to ever cause you anything other than pain. And so I went away. I bottled up my feelings for you deep inside where I thought that they would eventually die.

But that's not what happened. Your memory was too strong. I began thinking about you every day, more and more. I thought back to the late night conversations we had about all of our hopes and dreams; I thought back to the intimate moments we shared together, some for the very first time; and I thought about the kindness you showed me, the way you look when you smile and how you always made me feel happy. I was so happy when we were together, in a way I had never been before. And that's when I had the most startling realization of my life. I was in love with you...and always had been.

Maybe it doesn't make sense to you. Maybe it never will. But it is the truth. I have asked you for so much, likely more than anyone else in your life ever has, but I am asking you to do the most difficult thing of all right now. I am asking you to trust me. I am asking you to trust me when I tell you that I truly am in love with you and that I want to spend the rest of our lives together. I am asking you to trust me when I tell you that I will never hurt you again. I am asking you to do these things because trust is the foundation of every healthy relationship, and I am willing to do anything to earn yours back. I am willing to do anything to show you that I am committed to you and you alone. That is why I wrote you a novel. That is why I am writing you this fairytale. That is why I will move to Boston tomorrow if you ask me to. The relationship that I want to have with you is the most important thing in the world to me because you are the most important person in my life, and there is nothing that you could ask of me that I would withhold. I trust you more than anyone, and I will do everything I can to show you that I love you more than anyone too.

I fell in love with you Ornela...as if by magic.

Our Fairytale: Part IV

Two winters came and went while the princess slept. The seasons passed slowly as each was marked off the calendar by the sleeping beauty's peaceful breaths that rose and fell like the rhythm of a ticking clock. Townsfolk came to visit their sleeping princess, each crying tears of sorrow over the beautiful angel who could not wake, while the kingdom's best physicians were summoned to offer what healing powers they could. Yet their efforts were in vain, for neither the wailing of villagers nor the medicine of men could stir the princess from her eternal sleep.


On a quiet day in early Spring, just as the first wildflowers and cherry blossoms were beginning to bloom, a curious wind swept in from the south. It came most unexpectedly, climbing mountains and great hills, rolling over plains flat as untouched waters, and howling like a grief-stricken suitor mourning his lost love, before finally crashing against the castle gates and breaking the doors from their hinges. The splintering doors fell to the ground as a curtain of colorful flowers carried by the winds invaded the kingdom, swirling wildly as if caught in a cyclone's grasp, before settling to the ground to reveal a lone rider who the winds of fortune had carried all the way back to his sleeping princess.


"He has returned!" a stunned villager cried out, eliciting incredulous stares and muffled voices of both disdain and disbelief.


The horseman rode slowly through the kingdom, his stare never trained on anything other than the castle's bedroom window within which the princess resided. His silver armor had been bleached by the sun and was now a dazzling white that caused some villagers to retreat in terror, swearing that a ghost had ridden into their midst. But as those who ventured closer dared to look into the face of this unexpected visitor, their disbelief turned to anger at the knight who had abandoned their princess and cursed her to a fate so terrible.


As the knight approached the castle entrance, he was stopped by two guards who drew their swords to impede his progress.


"Halt Robear," one guard said.


The knight said nothing, instead only dismounting from his horse and ignoring the two guards. As he tried to walk past them, one of the guards drew his sword and held its tip to the intruder's neck.


"You would be wise to climb back atop your steed and return to whatever land you have come from," the guard said. "You are no longer welcome in our kingdom, still less in the princess's bedchambers, for what you have done to that poor woman is a most despicable thing. Why then have you returned? Abandon this folly, just as you abandoned her all those years ago."


"I have come to ask for forgiveness," the knight said, his head held high.


"Forgiveness?" the guard asked incredulously. "You think that the princess would ever offer you forgiveness?"


"I ask not for me," the knight replied. "but instead for my kinfolk. For I am not this Robear you speak of...he is my twin brother. My name is Bobby the Contrite."


Whispers from the crowd grew louder as none expected such a revelation. They stared and marveled at his features, his blond hair and blue eyes that looked so very much like the knight who had come to their land all those years ago.


Bobby the Contrite turned to the crowd and spoke thus, "My brother has done a terrible thing to your fair princess...he abandoned her and broke her heart. Robear is prone to fits of wanderlust not befitting a man of such a noble upbringing, or any gentleman for that matter. His tempest pursuit of vainglories has led only to your princess's heartbreak, and whatever it was he hoped to find apart from her love I can assure you he has not. While my brother and I are identical in appearance, it is there that our similarities end, for though he abandoned your princess so callously I have come to set things right. I have come to ask for her forgiveness, as my contrition for Robear's misdeeds knows no bounds."


While the guards seemed unmoved by his declaration, a village elder emerged from behind them and said, "It is more than pleas for forgiveness our princess needs."


"What do you mean?" Bobby asked. "If she needs more than my contrition, then anything else I will give upon her request. Please, just let me speak to the princess, that I might make things right."


The village elder shook his head. "If only it were that simple. Had she the ability, the princess would have already descended from her castle tower to meet you, but I'm afraid that she is instead at the mercy of a terrible spell. A demon put a spell on her that has bound her in perpetual slumber for two long years. She can neither speak nor hear, but instead rests peacefully as she awaits the day that her true love may return to awaken her from eternal sleep."


Bobby's eyes began to water and for several moments he said nothing. Finally he asked, "May I at least see her?"


"Follow me and I will take you to her chambers," the village elder obliged.


At his instructions the guards withdrew their swords and let Bobby pass. He followed the village elder through the castle, up a long and winding staircase until he reached the princess's bedroom.


As Bobby entered the room, his heart began to flutter at the vision before him. Lying there, immovable as a statue poised atop her bed, the princess slept. A thin veil separated her bed from the rest of the room and, pulling back the curtain, Bobby laid his eyes on the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her shapely body rivaled that of even the most alluring goddess while her slender face and olive complexion put every woman throughout the kingdom to shame. Long, black hair rested on her shoulders and cascaded over full breasts that rose and fell with each peaceful breath. Though her eyes were closed, at any moment it seemed as if they might open to reveal the warmth and kindness that were hidden deep within, the very feelings of love that the princess still felt for Robear. Yet for two long years her eyes had remained closed, her love hidden away while she forever slept.


Bobby leaned closer to marvel at the princess's beauty. "What has caused this to happen?"


The village elder sighed. "It is said that when Robear abandoned the princess in Boston her heart was broken, causing her to succumb to the demon's spell and fall asleep."


Bobby turned away, burying his head in his hands as he began to cry. For several moments he wept silently, only revealing his tear-filled eyes to ask, "What can I do to reawaken the princess."


"There is nothing any of us can do I'm afraid," the village elder replied and, turning to leave, began walking out of the bedroom.


"Wait," Bobby said, grabbing the village elder's arm. "Surely there must be something."


The old man thought for a moment and replied, "Yes, perhaps there is. But not for an old man like me, or even the sturdiest men of our kingdom. No, the only person able to reawaken the princess from her slumber would have to be a knight, strong and brave, whose inclination to do good was matched only by his foolishness at attempting the endeavor I imagine."


"What endeavor do you speak of old man? Speak plainly," Bobby demanded.


"Far from our lands, in a secret chamber guarded by the vilest of demons, there is rumored to be a book of spells that contains the words needed to awaken the princess from her sleep."


"A book of spells?" Bobby inquired.


"Yes, to utter the words written within its pages will surely break the spell that binds our princess so tightly. But its acquisition will not be easy, for the demon that possesses this book will not give up its prize willfully. You must slay the demon and pry the book's pages from its hands. Only then will we be able to recite the proper words to our princess and break the spell to which she has succumbed." Though the old man spoke directly to the knight before him, he noticed that Bobby had never taken his eyes off of the princess. He smiled and said, "If you ever want the princess to open her eyes so that you might gaze into them, you must say to her the right words, words that will finally awaken her from this sleep."


"Then that is what I will do," Bobby said, his voice forceful and suddenly filled with purpose. "I will slay this vile demon and awaken the princess from the spell she has fallen under."


He began to leave when the village elder stopped him. "Here my boy, take this." And hovering over the princess's body, the old man untied a ribbon from her hair that he gave to Bobby. "Keep this with you. It will give you something to remember her by on your long and dangerous quest."


Bobby took the ribbon and tied it around his wrist and, thanking the old man for his help, turned finally to the sleeping princess. He kissed her lightly on the cheek and whispered, "I will always come back to you."
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For two years the princess has been asleep, two years that she has been apart from the man she truly loves. And then, out of nowhere, a man so very much like the one she fell in love with all those years ago, yet somehow different, has come back into her life. He is her white knight, the good man whom she has always truly loved...and he has come to save his princess.


I wish that somehow I could go back in time and erase all the terrible things I did to you Ornela, but of course I can't do that. All I can do now is ask for forgiveness and hope that you will let me show you that I have become the man you always wanted me to be.

Do you remember the first time we saw each other Ornela? I think about that moment all the time. You walked into that restaurant in Fairfax for our first date and I instantly froze...I was captivated by the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Two days later when we walked through the National Mall I knew that there was something special about you, but I never could have predicted that we would continue seeing each other for the next three years...or that I would be proclaiming my love for you now, some five and a half years later. We have a complicated past, and the precise reason for why our relationship has taken such a circuitous path I do not know, but I do know one thing...I know that I am in love with you. I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you, that I want to marry you and have a family together. And even now, after everything that you have said to me, I still believe that you love me and want all of these things too.

I love you Ornela, and if you will let me, I will spend every day for the rest of my life cherishing our love and showing you that you are the most important person in the world to me.