#7 - Pantheon of the Immortal Princesses

The Prince of Thieves rode through the thick snow that has engulfed the world of Fairyland, through the lands he once knew. His stallion, Donkey, thundered through the inches thick layers of soft snow, and climbed mountains of slippery ice tirelessly. What was once desert was no snow, and there was no end in their journey back to the Forbidden Forest. They never tired, froze, or hungered. Perhaps loneliness was all that diseased them, but even so, they had each other, and that wasn’t so bad.

One would imagine that it was passion that drove the Prince of Thieves and his horse to the point of immortality. But it was more than just passion, for the Prince of Thieves is not a Prince of Thieves for any trivial reason. He stole what little warmth there was in the air for he and his horse, and stole the might of the sun and moon whenever they appeared in the sky. At other times, he would steal the joy of the distantly flickering stars to give them hope. Many nights he would steal the dreams of others that passed through the airs. Many say that he could even steal the coldness in of the ice age for he and his horse, that they would be immune to the freezing cold. But whether his skills of theft were that great, we never know. He stole whatever it took to keep them alive.

And so, the Prince of Thieves rode in search of Rapunzel, that hag of a princess who by now has been forgotten by all who live and once lived, except by the Prince of Thieves himself.

*

What was once an ocean before was a landscape of smooth rippled ice when the Prince of Thieves rode across it. He did not remember crossing an ocean the last time he travelled to the Forbidden Forest, but it did not matter.

As he rode across the frozen sheet of ice, the waters beneath him remained still, and carried no life at all. What was once a busy city of schools of fishes and water mammals, where magical creatures interacted and swam, was a dead silence. The ocean silence was that of the dead, but it was not darkness that was heard, for even death itself was frozen in the timeless winter.

Many thousands of leagues under the lifeless ocean, where the water was still warm near the hot core of the planet, some life still thrived. The greatest, most intelligent beings of the waters. The only living creatures of the ocean that managed to outlive the winter plague made a temporal home deep underwater. They hardly stirred the surface with their movements. They survived, and they waited.

Thousands of them.

*

The castle of eternal summer, where Queen Cinderella and Snow White died, or so were thought to have died, was the one place of hope left for all who lived in the land of Fairies. People were dying since the eternal snow covered the land, and while they knew that it was a result of the battle of Queen Cinderella and Snow White in that very castle that caused the winter, they also knew that the summer in the castle represented hope. No one could enter it, for its gates and walls were like magical shields, and all who tried to pass would only be returned to their homes, nothing more.

Until a pair of little hamsters dug accidentally punched it’s way out of the ground in the gardens of the castle.

That was when the returning of all things old and the coming of all things new were set in motion.

*

The Forbidden Forest, with dead trees, stood before the Prince of Thieves.

As he journeyed through the forest, he could hear footsteps following him. Quiet but heavy footsteps. More and more of those footsteps could be heared as he and Donkey went deeper into the forest. The Prince of Thieves was not afraid, for he knew that the manikins would still dwell the land. Why they took interest in him, they did not know.

After eleven days in the leafless woods, he sat beneath a giant oak tree, and while resting, he whispered into the air, “what interest do you have in me, manikins?”

Rumplestilksin whispered back through the air, “We are dead, Prince of Thieves. We are ghosts that remain in the forest, waiting for our promise to be fulfilled.”

“What promise?”

“That Snow White’s first child will be ours.”

“I never got to marry Snow White. She never came back. I’m… old now, and…”

“Steal her heart, Prince. Steal her heart.”

“I can only steal that which I know where and whom to steal from. She is dead. I know the winter is of her doing. I’m here to find Rapunzel, the Princess that should have been found.”

“Rapunzel has been cursed to never be found by her true love. You will never find her. Steal back Snow White. You can steal from the stars and the sun and even dreams of people, and you are telling me you don’t know where to steal Snow White from?”

“You only want the child don’t you. You are dead already, manikin. Why do you want the child?”

“Promises are promises, dead or alive.”

“Look, manikin, you stopped me from meeting Rapunzel last time. Let me meet her this time. I will talk Rapunzel into giving you our first child, as payment of Snow White’s debt. I need to find her.”

*

The castle of the Prince of Beasts slumbered through the winter. Black snow rained on the castle grounds.

Before the winter came, children used to play in the castle, believing it to be haunted. They would dare each other to creep in and out of the castle, pretending to be a beastly child eating monster. Of course, the Prince of Beasts watched them. The Prince of Beasts was always in some dark corner of a wall, under or behind a piece of furniture, or somewhere dark in general. He would only observe the children who mischievously sneaked through his castle.

The Prince of Beasts was a predator, but the children were not his prey. As a beast, he was an immortal, almost like a god. And all he wanted was to eat the Godfather of Fairies alive, and leave his head screaming without its body, and hang it before its gates to tell all who passed that vengeance is fulfilled.

The Prince of Beasts did not care about curses and blessings anymore, and could not care less if he was human or beastly. All he knew was what he wanted to do when the Godfather of Fairies would fall before him.

*

The little hamsters crawled all over the castle, exploring the summer phenomena of the land. They crawled through every room, every storehouse, every stable, ever dungeon. They saw skeletons of people hung to death, and swore it heard an endless cry as it passed the rooms of torture. One skeleton even had a crown on its head.

After lots of scurrying, the two little hamsters separated, exploring the castle. The first little hamster entered a room where there was nothing but a giant mirror. It was an ordinary room, mostly, until the little hamster looked into the mirror, and saw it reflect someone else entirely.

The hamster stood on both legs, and stared at himself endlessly. Voices spoke to the she-hamster, and she listened very attentively.

The second hamster, the he-hamster, walked through a seemingly empty hallway, and saw a glass slipper shining under the sunlight. It was a beautiful piece of work, thought the hamster, as it crawled into shoe, and unknowingly fell into a deep, deep sleep.

*

At the tower of Rapunzel, the Prince of Thieves thanked Rumplestiltskin.

“I owe you one, for helping me find my love, Rumpy.”

“A pleasure. But it was work. I need that child. Promises are promises.”

“Of course.”

Before Rumplestiltskin vanished, the Prince of Thieves asked him, “When you said earlier I could steal Snow White back… do you know where I could steal her from?”

“Of course I do. You do too. You can steal from the sun and stars, and even people’s dreams. And you don’t know where to steal Snow White from?”

“I don’t. She must be dead already by now.”

“Exactly,” whispered the manikin as he vanished into the air.

*

“I can feel the waters warming, my king,” said the first voice.

“So can I. But I do know if it means anything,” answered the silver king.

“But if the ice melts…”

“I know. Be patient. And we will see.”

*

Rapunzel the hag princess stared at the Prince of Thieves.

“I’m not mad, you know, as most people would like to think. Your Snow White came and cut my hair to cause this snow. You know that, don’t you?”

The Prince of Thieves nodded his head at the extremely old hag of a princess.

“Snow White caused this snow. You loved Snow White didn’t you?”

The Prince of Thieves nodded, then suddenly asked, “Why aren’t you dead?”

“Because of the snow? Ha. Ha. Ha. The snow cannot kill me. I am warm. I will never freeze.”

“Why?”

“Because my hate and my contempt for the life that I had burns so powerfully nothing can make me cold, except love.”

“I love you.”

“Are you trying to kill me?”

“Well, no. I’m in a dilemma then.”

“Really,” smiled the hag of a princess Rapunzel. “I’m the only thing that can melt the ice and restore life, because the fire of my anger is all there is that can burn in this eternal winter.”

“What are you suggesting?” The Prince of Thieves asked and wondered.

“I’m not stupid. You don’t love me. You just want a wife. I’m not going to marry you.”

“But.”

“Fool. Kill me, save the land… and steal for your fiancee back from the dead. You are… the Prince of Thieves, aren’t you? I expect you to have figured this out a long time ago,” explained Rapunzel with her ragged rough voice.

*

The ice melted. It took the world five months before every piece of ice turned to water, and the mermaids of the deep waters rose to embrace a new empire. An empire of sea, of waters. Their time has finally come, and for once, they burned incense at the surface of the sea to Cinderella and to Snow White, for their ancient feud has flooded the world. Then they worshipped Rapunzel, who burned the frozen waters.

The mermaids worshipped the pantheon of princesses that destroyed and re-created the world.

It was a new age. A new time.

*

Like a ruby hand reaching down to the sea of bones and souls, a soul and a spirit was stolen from the Guardian of the land of the dead, also known as Neverland, the land of never-returns.

*