Once upon a time, there was a princess who was locked up in a very, very high tower for all her life. The princess was very beautiful and smart, and she could sing and dance wonderfully. She wished she could see the rest of the world, and that they could see her. But on every block in the tower walls was written the word IGNORE. People walking by the tower did just that.
Only once did someone stop by the tower and look up. He did this because the princess was singing, and he loved her voice. "Princess," he called, "come down so that I can see and the world can hear you. Come down and walk the earth, and leave the IGNORE-stones behind.
"I cannot," replied the princess. "I am afraid. Bring the world to the top of my tower, if you can, so they can see me and not the IGNORE-stones. But I cannot leave."
"You are surrounded by commands," said the prince, "and I cannot change that. But I can give you one word to help you, only one word: OVERCOME."
When the princess slept that night, she dreamt her face began to flutter and sway and turned into a cloud of soft-winged butterflies. There were pale ones from her cheeks and rosy ones from her lips and crystal-blue ones from her eyes and golden ones from her hair. As one soft, winged cloud, they floated to the edge of her tower and alighted on a single IGNORE-stone. Their hair-thin legs tickled at it, kicking dust motes into the night air. By morning, the brick was gone.
The prince visited the tower again that day. The princess saw him and called, "Was it you who took the IGNORE-stone away?"
The prince replied, "It was your doing."
Later that day the princess began to sing again. Her voice floated sweetly and gently, mingling with the birdsong in the trees. Then it was birdsong, and birds soared from her lips—one after another after another, and they alighted on another IGNORE-stone and pecked at it until it was gone.
"It must have been you," said the princess the next time the prince visited. "I could never do that."
The prince replied, "It was your own doing; you overcame."
The princess thought about his words for a very long time. One day she pulled out her easel and her paints. She painted her tower, every brick of it, every IGNORE-stone there was. Then she threw all her paints over the side of the wall, and they hit some people at the base of the tower, who looked up and wondered who was there.
With a trembling hand, the princess rinsed her paintbrush in a jar of water. She raised it to the canvas and rubbed out one IGNORE-stone at the top. Behind it was blue sky and green trees.
She did this again, and again, until very little remained of the tower. She looked at the gathered crowd with shining eyes and they looked at her painting with oohs and aahs and suddenly, the remaining IGNORE-stones were gone.
She saw her prince and smiled at him and said, "You brought the world to me."
He shook his head and kissed her and said, "You brought down the tower of IGNORE-stones until they could see you, and you could build it again just as easily. The choice is yours, whether to smile or to hide, whether to be ignored or to overcome."
AN: I wrote this a while ago and just got around to posting it. Critiques would be really, really great - especially about the word "overcome." That's my least favorite part of the story, and I would love it if somebody suggested a better word to use instead.
Thank you!