tragedy:serious drama with unhappy events or a sad ending; event causing great sadness,
tragic:of or in tragedy; sorrowful causing great sadness,
trap:anything in which an unsuspecting person is captured or outwitted,
TRAPPED
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess. She was loved by people from miles around and not one ugly word had ever graced her lips. Princes came and asked for her hand in marriage, but to every single one she declined. She wasn't ready for marriage. But alas her father grew old and restless: each day, his tired bones growing heavier and his shrivelled muscles growing weaker. Soon, he knew that he would no longer be around to keep the country at peace.
That's why each day he also grew restless of his daughter; throwing away invitations from wealthy young princes from far off lands.
She was indeed the only heir to the throne. And had it not been for the death of her dearly beloved brother, she would not have been pressurised by her father day after day, constant nagging and lecturing over what she thought to be trivial matters of husbands.
Princess Naminé was a good daughter, but for the King, she wasn't good enough.
That is why locking her away seemed like a good idea. Locking her away, and replacing her. Naminé was replaced with Princess Kairi, a peasant girl whom no one knew – no one would miss her, no one would recognise her.
She looked so similar to Naminé that the simple folk of the country believed all too well that Naminé had merely changed her hair colour, a popular fashion for those times. But, Kairi's shoulder length auburn hair drooped limply, and her tiara wouldn't stay on her head properly.
Kairi felt privileged to become a princess. But she knew deep down that she wasn't one, and it seemed that only she was the one who knew this. The King had ordered her never to talk, in case one slip of the tongue resulted in people questioning whether Naminé had really dyed her hair.
But the sad truth was the King had become so old and so mad with the thought of Kairi's husband taking over that he, too, had become victim to believing that she was his own daughter.
And so poor Naminé was trapped. And she had no idea where she was. There was nothing where she was, but darkness.
So, blindly she'd feel around the room and pick up a few items – a rock perhaps, and a chunk of stone, and slowly but steadily she'd begin to etch lines on the chunk of stone. Soon, her 'canvas' would be filled with swirling lines and delicate shading.
These swirls and shades were actually the simple lines that made up her complete picture, a picture of death and destruction; towers and stables collapsing; mothers clutching tiny children, older children running. And right in the heart of it stood her father.
Her father was supposed to be a good man. Folk called these days the 'Golden Ages', a time where happiness lived long and people didn't die, and children could run through the town without a care in the world. But, not so for Naminé. Naminé was trapped. Naminé was hungry. Naminé was thirsty.
Naminé was angry.
In her picture, the King stood in the middle of all the chaos and watched everything going on. Naminé led herself to believe that he would soon call up a carriage, ignoring the poor, screaming townsfolk, and whisk himself away with the fake princess to another land.
He'd leave the town to crumble to ashes.
- - -
Naminé had not a single clue to where she had been trapped, apart from the fact that she knew it must have been a cave or somewhere underground, considering the great number of rocks she found there.
But someone did know where she was.
A young shepherd boy had heard her working on her masterpiece one day whilst he was working. Short, scratchy sounds echoed throughout the hills, sending shivers down the spines of all the other shepherds. The young shepherd boy had been told that they were the noises of ghosts of the dead shepherds, screaming to leave the hills, screaming to be free.
Riku didn't believe in things like that, he just watched over the sheep.
But one day the urge to follow the sounds became too great, and he knew he had to find out where they were coming from. So, leaving the sheep all alone, to fend for themselves, he set off, determined to find out what and where the noises were coming from.
After hours of travelling high and low across all sorts of terrain, Riku finally came to a stop. He had found a small hole, covered in grass and mud, but still a hole. So he scrabbled to get rid of all the grass and mud covering it and uncovered a small cave. Big enough to hold a captive, but small enough to send someone crazy.
The sound came at its loudest here and Riku knew that this was the place where the noise came from.
He called out, his voice ringing round the cave and being sent back to him in different, twisted voices. After a few minutes, another voice, softer, gentler, rang back to him. Riku sat, shocked, on the damp grass. The scratchy noise had ceased and all was quiet.
He faltered before he began again. He asked the girl who she was, what she was doing there and what the noise was.
The girl replied with the most extraordinary answers. She was a princess, she had been thrown here by her father, she was drawing with a rock.
Riku didn't know whether to believe her. He didn't want to believe her. He had heard tell of rumours that Princess Naminé had indeed been stolen away and replaced, but he had never begun to think that the rumours may have been true!
But, he knew that he must get back to his sheep before a wolf came. Otherwise, he would be tossed away by the other shepherds, much like how that girl had described, and left to die.
But, he vowed that he would return.
- - -
Naminé waited for him, and sure enough, later the next day, Riku came back with food and drink. He dropped them from a hole high up in the ceiling. She caught the water, and brought it to her lips, drinking like she'd never drunk before, and then she looked at the food he had dropped for her, with this she took a piece of bread and nibbled at the sides, so it would last longer.
She could hear him laughing. She called up to him, asking him why he laughed.
He replied with a short comment, criticising her eating habits. She laughed after this, and they began talking as thought they'd known each other for their whole lives.
And so, each day Riku would arrive and bring Naminé her food and water. And each day Naminé would wait patiently, adding more and more to her picture.
It was only a matter of months before the two fell in love, and Riku stopped questioning whether she was the princess and started believing. Of course she was the princess – it all made sense. She had not wished to get married, but her father didn't appreciate this so he trapped her, and the only thing that kept her going was the rock on the ground with which she could draw on.
He also realised that this being true, her father must have been a cruel and selfish man. Imagine, the King of this happy country, throwing out his daughter and simply replacing her! Riku also knew that if Naminé was left there for much longer she would surely die, despite the fact that he had been bringing her food and water and would keep doing so.
So, Riku set out to consult the King about this matter and he would not stop until Naminé was freed.
He rode on his father's horse for days until he came to the town where the King's castle lay. And, leaving the horse by the gates, he demanded entry into the great fortress. The guards all pushed him aside, laughing at him, such a young boy creating crazy lies to gain entry.
So Riku, not to be disheartened by this, ran all round the castle, seeking for another way in. He found none, but he decided to come back the next day. He had a plan that would not fail. Soon everyone would know that the Princess was not who they thought she was.
The next day, Riku knew that there was to be a great speech given by the King as there was every year given to the townsfolk. And Riku would choose this occasion to shout out from the crowds about the secret the King had been keeping. The dreadful secret that he was hiding from his nation.
So, when the next day dawned, Riku brought food to his love and set off to town, ready to do all he could to save the girl.
And so, whilst the King told all the townsfolk on how much he was pleased that his daughter was finally engaged to a man named Prince Sora, Riku's voice called out from the crowd. He shouted about Naminé being trapped in the cave, about how she was dying there and all she could do was draw with her rocks.
The King paused, a flicker of light burning in his eye before he pointed an accusing finger at Riku.
"I have no other daughter, you fool! Guards, take him to be executed."
For something in the back of the King's mind stirred, and he suddenly remembered the sound of a small child laughing, blonde hair, and huge blue eyes. He didn't like the feeling, he hated the feeling. He wanted to be rid of it so, looking over to his red-haired daughter, he sent the boy away to be executed so he may never have that feeling again.
And that very day Riku, the poor shepherd boy who tried to save Princess Naminé from her cave-like cage, was executed for lying before the King.
And Naminé, pining away in her cave, still waited for Riku. But he never came. He was dead, but she was not willing to accept this.
But, it seemed Riku's outburst did not go unheard; miles around people started searching for the girl trapped in her cave. When they found her, she was already dead.
However, the townsfolk were angry.
Their King had lied to them; he had told them that his daughter had simply dyed her hair. But this was not the truth. Soon, people started recognising the girl she had been replaced with, and this made them grow angrier, and angrier, until one man along with his friends one night proclaimed war against their King. And no one disagreed. They all fought alongside.
There was death and destruction; towers and stables collapsing; mothers clutching tiny children, older children running. And right in the heart of it stood Naminé's father.
Her father was supposed to be a good man. Folk called those days the 'Golden Ages', a time where happiness lived long and people didn't die, and children could run through the town without a care in the world. But not anymore.
The King stood in the middle of all the chaos and watched everything going on. He would soon call up a carriage, ignoring the poor, screaming townsfolk, and whisk himself away with the fake princess to another land.
He'd leave the town to crumble to ashes.
x x x
a/n: Yah. Competition entry for Silver Moon Droplet. Completely different to my usual writing style, but that's only because I wanted it to be all mysterious and fairy-tale-ish. Yes. I know – it sucked. But, I liked it. Heh.. heh heh. :)
So, just really tell me what you think. And mayyyybe I'll win the competition. /insert evil smiley face here/
(And I also know that it is prob'ly riddled – riddled, I tells ya! - with grammatical errors and misspellings. But, we can cope with that... right?)