Author's Note: Attempting something a little different this time- the 100 Theme Challenge. Whether they go in order or not will probably depend on inspiration. However, this is the first of the entire series. All of the stories will be about Princess Keria from Harvest Moon DS. She's always intrigued me and there are so many mysteries surrounding her, it makes writing about her all the more intriguing.

Merry Christmas, too :)

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[ 51 - Princess ]

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Was Sleeping Beauty not destined to one day awaken to find her Prince Charming?

So why was it that, now that her prince had come to awaken her, her spirit remained caged within the flesh? Beneath the porcelain skin lay a beating heart thrashing against its bony prison, attempting to provide life to a soulless woman. What craved life was forbidden to ever attain it.

He knew she was alive, or at least, he always told himself so. Even if she had never lived, it would be easier to pretend that he could hear her heart beating against her ribcage. Once more, he presses his ear to her chest, begging whatever Goddess watched overhead to allow him one single, solitary heartbeat. One would suffice, for it would give him hope. And hope was all he could cling to.

But he hears nothing and returns to his place at her bedside, gazing longingly at flesh that was not his to touch. "You're beautiful," he repeats for what feels like the millionth time that night. And he would continue speaking of her beauty until he felt the warmth of a blush break across the delicate skin of her cheek.

He meant every word he spoke to her. When he told her how beautiful she looked today, he gazed upon the hair that spilled like the midnight sky across ghostly flesh and brushed it back from her sorrowful eyes. How beautiful they would look when they reflected a starlit sky. When he told her how sorry he was that he could not help her, he imagined a single crystalline teardrop slipping from her sealed eyelids. How it would mar her perfect face. When he told her she was his, he took her hand in his and made believe she was holding his hand, too. How lovely they would be, lifeless beauty and lively beast. What a perfect paradox.

For now, he was fated only to glimpse what might have been and succumb to the loneliness that lay within both of their hearts. As he leaves for the night, he places one last kiss upon her lips, in the hopes of awakening her from her thousand year slumber. But, like the last thousand days he has tried, her body lays still and her lips cold. She does not kiss back.

He kisses her hand as a gentleman should as he departs from his maiden. He leaves her bedside for the first time that night, before taking one last glance at his imprisoned lover.

"Goodnight, my sleeping beauty."

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Author's Note: You want a real surprise? The man in this story isn't Jack- it's Carter ;)