I. The Heroine

Every story has a beginning (—once upon a time—) though some are, of course, better than others. And this is a romance, so we shall begin with the heroine—

—who was brave (because she has to be) and beautiful (because she has to be) and foolish (because otherwise she would not have taken the shortcut through the forest or stayed when she should have run or fallen in love)—

She went walking one day, our brave-beautiful-foolish heroine, and she met her prince.

II. The Hero

Princes are dangerous, and faerie princes particularly so, for they are bound by nothing like our mortal law. Perhaps she shouldn't have gone wandering through that particular glade. But then, we never did say that she was very clever, did we? Quite the opposite.

Their eyes met across (grass and roses and pale faerie lights, or marble and candles and ballroom music, or—it does not matter) and he smiled and—

III. Love at First Sight

Shall we keep the hero mysterious?

Or shall we say that his heart quickened when he saw her, and he stepped—fell—tumbled into love, and he forgot all his long centuries of solitude (they are long-lived, these faerie princes) in his wanting? (Because he will tell her these things, later.)

(Though of course she could never be sure if she should believe him. She is not quite that foolish, after all; and he is a prince, silver-tongued and fey.)

IV. A Quest

He sends her away. What sport is there in a romance unless the lovers cannot be together? He has her fetch water from the well at the end of the world, or bring him a piece of the sun, or—

It does not matter.

Perhaps it is she who sends him away. It does not matter.

Dragons are slain. They are together again.

V. A Kiss

Because. There is always a kiss.

VI. The End

Princes are fickle, and faerie princes particularly so, and one day he loses interest (as princes are wont to do) and sends her away and she goes—

—and she does not come back, and she does not find him again, and of course she is quite, quite ruined for mortal men (princes or no) so all through the long graying years of her mortality she dreams and dreams—

Of impossible things, mostly. Faerie princes. Undying passion. A well, at the end of the world—

And she dies. And there is an end.

Oh.

Did you want a happy ending?

And they lived happily ever after.

There.