Of Thunder and Lightning, the Tale of Oberon and Titania
Part VI, Titania sleeps, and Oberon plans with Puck
Disclaimer: Shakespeare yes and also act two scene two.
(This is in Oberon's Point of View.)
I was furious at my wife…but not to a violent point. I just wanted to teach her a lesson for insulting me.
"Gentle Puck, come here." I said, breaking my Sprites gaze off my queen's lingering faeries and onto me where it should have been the whole time. After shooting him a disapproving glance, I began again. "Do you remember when I sat upon a jutting rock, and watched a mermaid on a dolphins back sing so sweetly, that the rough sea grew calm, and the very stars in the sky bent forward to hear her song?" I asked.
"I remember my king." He said, tumbling and sitting in front of me, a mischievous smile upon his impish face.
"The same time," I continued raising an eyebrow "That I saw cupid, though you could not, flying between the moon and the earth. Cupid took aim at a fair virgin from the west; to put impure thoughts to her mind…his love bolt accidentally pierced upon a little western flower, before pale white, now deep purple due to loves wounds. The maidens call it 'love in idleness' for it makes man woman, or..." I grinned "The faerie queen herself, fall in love with whatever it next sees. Fetch it for me, before a whale can swim four miles." I replied, and commanded.
"I shall encircle the earth in forty minutes!" He said, starting to flitter off in the wrong direction, then realizing his mistake, went in the other direction, a sheepish smile on his face.
Soon, I heard a light commotion, so I made myself invisible to overhear what was going on. Soon, I saw the figures of a man, and woman.
"I don't love you, so stop following me!" The man said trying to push the woman away. "Where are Lyssander, and the beautiful Hermia? I should kill Lyssander, Hermia is killing me! YOU, You told me they were in this wood!" He said, turning to the woman who was blushing, and just…smiling like a lovesick puppy. "SO here I am, in this wood out of MY MIND because I cannot see my hermia STOP FOLLOWING ME!"
The lady smiled, and giggled "You attract me you hard-hearted magnet, it's true, my heart is like steel…loose your magnetism, and I shall not follow you."
He let out an aggravated moan "TO I ENTICE YOU? Do I speak nicely to you! On the contrary, don't I tell you plainly that I never loved you and never will! He said shaking her slightly, falling over a log though, and I chuckled slightly.
She leaned over him, still grinning foolishly "I love you even more for saying that! Just allow me, Unworthy as I am, to follow you!" She said leaning over further…and further…
"Do not push me too far madam, you make me sick to look at you!" He said scrambling away, but she threw herself around his legs.
"And I'm sick when I'm not looking at you!" She replied.
He yelled out "I'll run away from you, and leave you to the mercy of the wild beasts!" As he threw her off.
She giggled "The wildest doesn't have a heart like yours, run if you must…we'll have Daphne chasing Apollo, the dove perusing the griffin, and the rabbit chasing the tiger! What fun it is when the coward chases and the brave one runs away!" She said.
The man faced her "I won't bandy words with you here, but if you follow me, don't doubt I won't do you some mischief in these woods." He said as he cursed her under his breath, and walked off.
She sighed, and sat upon the log. "Really Demetrius, you do me disgrace upon my sex! We cannot fight for love as men do, we were made to woo, not made TO woo!" She said collapsing her head into her hands, but then she stood up and smiled. "I'll follow you, or die by the hand I love so well!" She said running after him.
I smirked "Farewell maiden, for before you leave this forest, you'll be running away from his love."
At that moment, Puck appeared "Well now, have you got the flower there?" I asked, and he nodded.
"Yes, here it is." He said handing it to me.
I chuckled "And now while Titania sleeps, I shall anoint her eyes with this, and put thoughts of love into her mind." I quickly turned to Puck before he could sneak off "Here, take some of it. A sweet Athenian girl is in love with a youth that rejects her. Anoint the youth's eyes so that he will beg for her love."
Puck nodded, a bit discouraged that I had not given him a break "Never fear my lord, your servant shall obey." He said and with a bow, prepairing to leave when I motioned for him to stay "Wait a moments hence for I am in need of your assistance." I whispered commandingly.
"Sing me to sleep now, then go to your duties, and let me rest." My Titania uttered, as a few of her Nymphs danced, one tucked her in, and three crooned a tune in her ear. Soon, my wife was asleep, and her faeries blew their protective dust upon her, her head faerie staying to keep watch.
Her head Nymph began to frown, suspecting our presence, so she circled about, and I motioned for Puck to come over to where I was, pushing him back behind the tree when she left. That bumbling sprite nearly got us found out, but it did not defer me from my task. I beside Titania, and peered upon her face, smirking.
"What you see when you awake…fall in love with by mistake," I crooned into her ear. "Be it lynx, wild cat or bear…leopard, boar with bristly hair…whatever to your eyes appear, when you wake its sight endears…wake when something nasty nears." I said with a smirk, completing my enchantment, as I left her to sleep.
"Now you may go onto your task good Robin."