The middle aged man made his way through the woods. He had heard stories of the princess who had been locked up in a tower somewhere in this wilderness. He wasn't exactly sure where it was. He just trusted the stories and was sure to find it.
He crossed over several running streams, passed by multiple animals of various sizes and species, and tripped numerous times on thorned vines. Eventually he found a wall covered in hanging green leafy vines. He had to pull out his knife and cut away plenty of it before the wall was passable.
After what seemed like forever, the man was able to get past the plant and through a dark tunnel until he reached the other side. He found the exact tower that was described to him. Walking towards the structure, he realized that it was much bigger up close than from across the valley.
When he arrived at the base of the building, he paced around it until he was on the opposite side. From here, he removed even more vines and pulled apart a rotting wooden door. Covered by the now missing door were stone stairs leading to the top of the tower. Of course, the man was curious as to what was at the top, but the staircase leading up was dark. There were no windows to let in the sunlight, and if there were, they were covered in more vines.
The man built up his courage and decided to feel his way up the steps by crawling. Eventually, he reached another door. He found this one not with his hands, but with his head. He massaged his now aching skull and sat down on the steps in the dark for a moment or two before continuing on.
With all his might, the man pushed against the door until it finally came loose and let him through the floor of the tower. The man could not see anything at first because of the sudden brightness. When his eyes adjusted he found himself staring directly at a wooden post at the bottom of another staircase. He shook his head and crawled out of the hole.
Looking around, he saw many childish paintings along the walls. All of them were faded and the man assumed they once had vibrant colors. Flower pots hanging in the window held long dead plants. Moths had eaten holes through the curtains and dust covered every surface. Above the crumbling fireplace on the far side of the room was a painting so peculiar. In it, a woman with long, golden hair sat on the tops of trees gazing at yellow disks in the dark night sky. He walked towards the painting to observe it closer when something crunched underneath his feet. He looked down to see shards of a mirror lying around all over the floor.
The man was puzzled, but as he was staring at the floor, he also saw something brown lying by his other foot. He soon came to realize the brown object was hair. And not just a lock of hair, but what looked to be someone's whole head of hair. His eyes followed the brown substance all across the length of the room. He was dumbfounded at all the hair that covered everything in the room.
He wondered if the hair in the room was the same hair of the woman in the painting. Then he thought it could not be. The woman in the painting had blonde hair. This hair was brown. The man scratched his head and could not wrap his mind around it. Sure, he believed the legends surrounding the past of the old queen, but this seemed fake.
He turned to the staircase. The wood was old, but looked to be stable enough for him to walk up them. Carefully, he made his way up the steps. The first doorway the man came to was locked. With plenty of heaves and kicks upon the door, it would not budge. The man sighed and continued on to the next doorway.
The next one was only covered by another moth-eaten curtain. He pushed it aside and found a bed covered in dust and more moth-eaten cloth. On the walls, more paintings were covering the walls, however words in red covered over the bright, happy pictures.
The words were obscured, but still large enough to be legible. After reading the words upon the walls, the man quickly ran out of the room and fled down the stairs. He jumped down into the hole in the floor, shut the hole with the stone, and tripped on the stairs in the dark. When he reached the bottom of the tower and composed himself, the man sat on his knees staring up to the top of the tower. What had happened that drove the queen to write those words in her captivity? The words continued to flashed through his mind:
I AM THE LOST PRINCESS
I AM THE LOST PRINCESS
I AM THE LOST PRINCESS
"MOTHER" CAN NOT BE TRUSTED
DO NOT TRUST "MOTHER"
DO NOT TRUST "MOTHER"
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