ARABELLA
Chapter Two: The Prince
Arabella grew to be a very beautiful young girl, with chestnut curls cascading down her back and green eyes as brilliant as emeralds. She was blessed with the gift of song, though naturally, and not as a present from a well-meaning fairy. Arabella was also a regular green thumb at planting things, and often tended her flowerbeds in the courtyard as well as any master gardener.
While she planted, she would sing. Arabella believed that singing to flowers would make them grow more beautiful and healthy than water and sunshine alone. And perhaps she was right, for her gardens were famous in the kingdom.
On one of the most pleasant days of the year, a handsome young man was riding through King Stefan's countryside, on his way home to his own land. This man was Prince Philip, a strapping lad of 18, son of King Hubert, Stefan's closest friend. Philip was also betrothed to the Princess Aurora, but he knew nothing of it.
Philip's horse, Samson, was trotting along merrily, when he was reined in suddenly by his master. Philip brought him to a stop just outside King Stefan's castle wall.
"Did you hear that, old boy?" Philip asked him.
The horse, an intelligent creature, shook his head in negation.
"Someone is singing." Philip cocked his head and listened. There it came, the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. "There it is again. It's beautiful."
Samson nodded this time. It was indeed a wondrous sound.
Philip stood in the stirrups and strained to see over Stefan's wall. There in the courtyard, amid the flowers, was a child of ten. Philip looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of a maiden a little older, but then the voice came again, singing even sweeter than ever.
Philip sat down in surprise, and Samson grunted under the sudden weight. "It is the child singing. But how can a voice so unearthly have come from one so young?" He looked over the wall again. The child had picked a lily bouquet, for her mother, and was heading back indoors. Although she was singing of springtime and growing things, it was the most bewitching song Philip had ever heard.
When the child had gone inside the castle, Philip gave the command for Samson to move on, which the horse did gladly, for his master was acting very strangely. The Prince thought aloud as he rode. "This is very curious. I have never heard a voice so beautiful, and yet it comes from a child. The child is very lovely, yes, but she cannot be more than ten years old. It's just the strangest thing I have seen in my life."
Samson frowned, as nearly as a horse can frown, and picked up the pace a little. Upon arriving at the castle, Philip turned his steed over to a groomsman at the Royal Stables and walked thoughtfully into Hubert's abode. Samson was shocked. His master had forgotten to give him his carrot. Philip had always carried a carrot to give to his horse as soon as he dismounted at home.
The handsome Prince took his poor horse every day to Stefan's castle after that, and lingered outside the wall, hoping to hear the lovely voice again. He didn't know it yet, but he had been bewitched by the young princess Arabella and his heart would never be his own again.