The Angel and the Princess
Once upon a time, there was a young magical princess who lived by herself deep in the mountains of Kyoto in an enormous sprawl of houses. Surrounded maids and servants with no one her own age to play with, the princess began to grow lonely and sad but no one ever realized because she was so cheerful all the time. One cold winter's day while she was out in the court-yard making a snowman she heard a rustling in the branches above her head. Curious, the young princess gazed up at the tree thinking maybe it was a bird. There was a rustle, then the sound of something hitting something and a pained screech. Something white and small fell out and she caught it with cupped, gloved hands. It was a tiny white crow with blue eyes.
"Oh you poor thing, you're hurt!" The young princess cried as she saw its left wing bent at an awkward angle.
The bird just squawked miserably, hopping to its feet. It tried to fly but stumbled immediately, its uninjured wing flapping uselessly.
The young princess, feeling sorry for the bird, decided to nurse it back to health. Taking it back to her room, she set up a bed using a little wicker basket and cut out a piece of cloth from one of her old blankets to make a quilt of sorts for the bird to make sure it wouldn't catch a cold on freezing nights. She even picked out a cotton blue-striped scarf from one of her dolls to tie around the bird's neck. Then she used a wooden shaft that had broken from the wood in her bedroom closet for a splint for the bird's injured wing and got bandages from her father to wrap it up. At first the bird tried to escape, being frightened but the young princess was patient, taking it back to its bed every time it fell from trying to fly away.
"You're not ready yet bird-chan," She scolded gently.
As the bird started to recover, the pair grew more and more attached to each other. Sometimes it seemed almost human to her, especially when she talked to it about things she'd usually talk about to any other person and even played ball with it. The bird protected her as best as it could, fending off dangers like stray dogs or alerting the servants and maids if she was in trouble and the bird couldn't save her. Finally it came the day when it had recovered completely. It flew up onto her tiny shoulder, nuzzling against her hair affectionately with its head and cawing softly.
"I don't want you to go too bird-chan but it's not right for you to stay," The young princess said quietly even though she really didn't want the bird to go.
The bird gave one last caw before spreading its wings and launching itself into the air. Watching it fly away, the young princess's face became sad then something extraordinary happened. There was a brilliant flash of white light and the bird had transformed into a young child around her age with short spiky snow white hair, light blue eyes and white wings. She was wearing strange clothes, a gold bracelet and no footwear and carrying a sword. Hovering in the air above her, the girl smiled down at her with so much love and gratitude that the young princess couldn't help but start crying for she thought it was an angel that was leaving her.
"Thank you Kono-chan for breaking the curse on me. It was only through your kindness and love that I could escape this curse but I'm afraid I have to go now. Once you've seen the real me I can't stay," She said sadly. Seeing the young princess crying, the angel flew down to her and untied the scarf the princess had given her. "I will make you a promise Kono-chan. Every winter I will come back to you and every night you will hear my song for you so you know I'm nearby and I'll always, always protect you. And so you won't forget me I will leave this with you ..."
The angel tied the scarf around the young princess' neck, hugging her.
"Don't go please," The young princess pleaded.
"I'm sorry," The angel whispered.
And so it was that the angel left the princess but she was true to her word. Every night the young princess would hear the angel's song, singing to her so she knew she would be safe and every winter she would see her angel again and as the months passed, the young princess's heart began to grow happy once more and from that day on she was never lonely again.
A.N: Imagine this as a fairy-tale, KonoSetsu style. It's been in my comp for a while, collecting dust. Hope you guys enjoy this.