Our Fairytale: Part III

Still waters, smooth as glass, reflected the single silhouette of two lovers who stood upon the overlooking bridge. He stood behind the princess, hands around her waist, as both looked out over the quiet lake that was as black as the night sky above. The princess leaned her head back and let her lips surrender to Robear's kiss. She smiled and wrapped his arms tighter around her waist like a familiar blanket keeping her warm and safe.

"So peaceful tonight," the princess said as she looked out over the lake.

"Always, my love," Robear replied.

Though the evening air was calm and settled, the princess's heart fluttered wildly within her chest. Months had passed since Robear's arrival and in that time the couple had spent nearly every moment together, yet still she was unsure where his intentions lay. She possessed a great hope, however, that the man she had given her heart to would cherish it always, and as the princess looked at her hand that held Robear's so tightly, she wondered if this night would see a ring placed upon it that rivaled in beauty even the stars above.

The princess turned around to face Robear and let her arms dangle loosely around his neck. "Do you remember the day we first met?" 

"Of course," Robear answered, smiling contentedly. "It was the happiest of my life." 

The princess smiled and looked deeply into his eyes, seeing her reflection in those dark orbs that mirrored so closely the peculiar bottle she had sipped from all those long months ago. That strange bottle with the elixir that promised eternal love. She could taste it even now as the memory of that day suddenly came roaring back.

She wiped the last droplets of the elixir from her mouth and turned to hand the bottle back to Baphomet, but he had disappeared. Her bedroom was quiet and empty save for the boisterous cheers of townsfolk outside her window. She looked outside to see the knight just arriving at the castle gates before running down the hall to hurriedly meet him. When at last she arrived at the castle entrance, the gate lifted to reveal a knight, tall and proud, who disembarked from his horse and walked confidently towards her.

"My lady," he said, taking the princess's hand and kissing it softly. "Through harsh and unforgiving wilderness I have ridden to arrive in your lands, though these hardships were but a trifle, that I might gaze upon a face so beautiful."  

The princess blushed and bit her lips softly to contain her excitement.

"Will you grant me the honor of being your kingdom's protector, for I come offering my service only from a desire to fight for that which is good and beautiful," the knight said, before adding as he looked into her eyes, "and here it seems I have found both."

Redder still the princess's cheeks turned as she replied, "Only if you will offer me your name gallant knight, that I may come to know you by a title more intimate."

"My name is Robear the Errant," he replied, a name that was forever seared into the princess's fluttering heart.

From that moment on, the princess and her knight were inseparable. Short strolls through the castle gardens soon became long walks throughout her entire kingdom where the two shared with each other all of their innermost thoughts and feelings. Hand in hand they were often seen within the kingdom, blissfully unaware of their surroundings as never far from each others' eyes did their gazes tend to stray. Their long walks led them to nearly every corner of the kingdom, to the old town of Charleston where they shared their first kiss. In the moment their lips touched, two hearts became one, and when Robear looked upon the princess's face he saw a smile wider and brighter than any he had seen before. It was a wondrous smile, a beautiful smile...the smile of a woman in love.

Further still their walks took them, to the kingdom's ocean boundaries at the beaches of Panama City where Robear first touched her naked body. The princess allowed his hands to caress her womanhood until at last her moans burst forth in unbridled pleasure as she collapsed into Robear's loving arms and held him close.

"I love you," she managed between heavy breaths.

"My sweet princess," he said, feeling her ample bosom heaving against his chest. "I am right here, always holding you."

Their exhaustion yielded to sleep, which yielded further still to dreams of love that endures forever. This was a love unlike anything either had ever felt before, full of depth and passion that transcended the earthly vessels within which their kindred spirits were trapped. Their bodies intertwined, as did their hearts, so that distinction between these two souls so in love became blissfully impossible.

When the snows of winter came, they retreated to the furthest reaches of her kingdom, to the town of Boston where the skies were cold and grey. The snows fell often, making the rolling fields appear like clouds upon which Robear and the princess playfully danced. He lifted her high, twirling her in his arms as the happy couple laughed and teased one another before collapsing to the ground where they affectionately gave themselves to each other. All was right with the world as they walked through those cold Boston streets, onto a bridge that overlooked a the lake's still waters.

Robear felt the princess's arms dangling loosely around his neck and said, "There is love in your eyes."

She smiled, though only for an instant until she noticed the first gleam of a tear beginning to moisten Robear's eye. "There is sorrow in yours. What is wrong my love?"

Robear sighed and said, "You asked me only a moment ago if I remember when we first met, which of course I do. But I wonder if you remember that day quite as vividly."

"Vividly?" the princess asked, unsure of Robear's unusual questioning. "The moment my eyes first saw you was the happiest of my life and will forever be my most treasured memory. Of that day I can recall everything, to the minutest of details."    

"Then do you recall my answer when you first asked me my name?" he asked.

"Robear...you told me your name was Robear," the princess hesitantly replied.

"No, my love," he said. "I told you that my name is Robear the Errant."

The princess reflected on his words for just a moment and seemed to recall that peculiar moniker being mentioned, though never once in their long months together had Robear ever asked her to call him by this name. "Your prompting has reawakened my memory, but what significance do such titles matter? After all, all knights carry monikers that those closest to them bypass out of informality."

"All knights carry their particular monikers for good reason though," Robear replied "and I fear that mine may yet lead only to your pain, for I am an errant knight, prone to wander throughout the land in search of greener fields to ride. Though others have settled in a good land with a respectable woman, my heart is ever set on the horizon, where my dreams are like mirages dancing across the desert sands."

The princess's brow furrowed as her face suddenly became stern and alarmed. "You frighten me with you words, for there is fear in your voice. What are you afraid of Robear?"

 

Robear looked past her face, to the horizon where distant trees swayed in the wind like exotic dancers beckoning his company. "I am afraid that I will leave you. I am afraid that I will hurt you. I am a wanderer my sweet princess...I am lost."

Robear began to remove the princess's arms from around his neck when she suddenly held him tighter and pulled him close. She pressed her face to his so that to look anywhere else was impossible. "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."

Robear smiled, as did the princess, and the winter snows enveloped them as they fell asleep in each others' arms until at last only silence remained.

But the silence was shattered by the sound of beating hoofs tearing off across the bridge. The princess woke suddenly to see Robear mounted high atop his steed as he rode across the snowy plains.

"Robear..." the princess whispered in disbelief at the sight of her true love abandoning her on that icy bridge in Boston. 

A note left in the snow beside her simply read: I came to offer you my sword and shield, but my love I cannot give. I dare not fall in love a woman so beautiful, for I have but one heart to lose.

She tried to run after him but slipped on the ice, collapsing to her knees in despair as Robear rode further and further away. She began to cry, her tears falling like innumerable snowflakes into the lake beneath the bridge. When her first tear touched the frigid waters, it turned the water to ice, sending crystalline despair in every direction until at last the entire lake was frozen solid. Everything was cold. Everything was dark. The princess's heart was breaking when finally she remembered Baphomet's cautionary warning and tried in desperation to call out Robear's name. But her efforts were in vain, for before her tongue could utter even a single word a great slumber seized her. On that saddest of days in Boston the princess's heart was broken and she fell asleep,  while the only man she ever truly loved disappeared over the horizon.

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Though our story seems bleak, there are more parts of our fairytale left to tell that I will be writing in the coming days. I hope that you will keep reading to find out if the princess will awaken from her sleep. You may already know the answer. 

Writing this part of our fairytale was magical because with every moment Robear and the princess shared together in some memorable location, I was able to be with you again in each of those places. As I wrote of their first intimacies together, I held your hand again in Charleston and felt your touch as we shared our first kiss. I was with you again in Panama City when we laid beside each other and succumbed to temptation as the ocean waves outside our condo crashed against the beach shore. And I twirled you in my arms one more time in the streets of Boston as the snowflakes fell around us and settled softly on two souls madly in love. In my mind's eye I can see you even now, smiling brightly as we hold each other close and surrender to a kiss. Remember how you felt when we shared these special moments together Ornela...please remember.

Writing this part of our fairytale was also very difficult because I knew that it would end with Robear abandoning the princess. Imagining the princess standing there alone, watching the man she loves ride away until at last she could see him no more completely broke my heart. But there was something that the princess didn't know, something that she couldn't see through all her tears. Robear looked back. He always looked back. He never forgot his princess or the love of a woman so beautiful...just as I have never forgotten you.

We both love each other as deeply as two people ever can. Don't give up on me Ornela...I will not give up on us.