"Featuring the Burgundian Chef (Hong Kong)! The Fuchsian Marquess (Taiwan)! The Mudpuddle Stable-boy (Korea)! The Princess (Japan) and his Knight in Red (China) in the spinning tale of...!"
The Princess who Seldom Smiled
Of a poniard, a curse, and the secrets a voluptuous vernal noon will not tell you.
It was on
Blessed afternoons such as
These,
When the fervour of life dwindled to serenity,
And
The swallowtail's lisp
Could be heard
As it wafted gently from peony to peony,
That idle chatter was nature's compulsory.
•
And thus it was on this afternoon
That
Four of a company
Were clattered in the Sky Well.
The palace loomed above them,
Oriental collages in the brink of the sky.
•
The Burgundian Chef.
The Mudpuddle Stable-boy.
And the Fuchsian Marquess
Present herself,
To endeavour in the gifts of the Sun.
A rarity indeed!
And perched on the lip of the carp pond
Like varnish
To the Emperor's portrait,
Was the Knight in Red.
•
Came and dawdled
And drawled and coiled;
The fickle nature of a voluptuous vernal noon
And its idle chatter,
As natural as nature itself;
Until
The Fuchsian Marquess,
With the prim audacity of an aristocrat-to-be,
Perched herself high in the stool she'd conquered for herself, and chirped:
•
"Brothers,
Hath the tale of the
Princess who seldom smiled
Not stroked your ears
As of yet?"
•
"It hath mine",
The Mudpuddle Stable-boy,
Whose existence within the rotting gutters of the stables
Proved nothing useful
But to quell the boredom
Of the uncle who tended the piebald tarpans,
Replied to her.
•
"Mine as well",
The Burgundian Chef
Concurred.
•
"And of you,
Oh Knight in Red,
Whom hath remained as silent
As the peonies croon
The whole time our idle chatter had prevailed?"
•
The Knight in Red
Arched his brows,
Deporting himself with a flair of enigma.
Surely he,
Of all the good fellows of the kingdom,
Would have heard of such a tale
Before it could slip the sultry bonds
Of the silken sheets in the chambers.
•
He himself had blossomed a
Dear liking for the Princess,
After all
The hours he had lavished upon him.
After all he had stood at
His side,
Brandishing poniard and effervescent desire,
If just to shield him from
Harm's lust
After the innocent
And the dame.
•
The Marquess, who
Bore no fancy to heralds preceding her,
Fell quiet with bitter disdain.
•
"He is your charge,
Is he not?"
The Burgundian Chef,
Whose thoughts were as thick as velvety sauce,
Flailed an inquiring sleeve.
•
An inquiry which was purloined by
The Fuchsian Marquess, who bombarded with:
"Yes he is!"
•
"The Princess is an oddball,
He is",
The Mudpuddle Stable-boy tsked.
•
Poniard to the brim of its sheath,
The Knight in Red
Posed himself for service,
When the
Fuchsian Marquess interrupted yet again.
•
"Mind you, Stable-boy!
The Princess may seldom smile,
But he
Is tender as fair,
And company far decent than you will ever be!"
•
"Not to the uncle
Who tends to the piebald tarpans,
The Princess is not!"
•
"Then you tell your
Balding uncle
The Marquess
Of the neighbouring kingdom
Condemns him to death by scimitar!"
•
"Be done with it,
The both of you!"
The Burgundian chef raised a hand
To the voluptuous vernal noon.
"but what I cannot comprehend is
Why
The Princess seldom smiles.
Surely the Princess would be happy
With a life
As lavished
As the one he possesses."
•
"Not entirely."
To the bewilderment of his company,
The Knight in Red
Spoke for once in the face of his intimacies.
"For the Princess, within his world
Of unimaginable wealth,
Dwells in his own solitary cavern of
Modesty and demure.
I know this myself, for I've seen it.
Anything seldom passes his lips
But the draft of his chambers,
And he clads
The simplest robes a life of imperial behemoth
Can provision."
•
"I know of that too,
Oh Knight in Red",
Quipped the Fuchsian Marquess.
•
"So why is it so,
The Princess who seldom smiles?"
The Mudpuddle Stable-boy repeated.
"Of that
might you know,
Fuchsian Marquess?"
•
"Of that I may, or
That I may not.
Nevertheless,
I can always try."
•
Attention was lobbed at the
Knight in Red.
"Do so if you wish",
He affirmed,
Fiddling
With the strokes of his ponytail;
Curling smug fingers.
•
"Very well!"
The Fuchsian Marquess' eyes
Glimmered
With vivacious mischief.
"Perhaps,
The Princess who seldom smiles
Is in LOVE!"
•
The oblong of the poniard
Carved
Into the fingertips of the
Knight in Red.
He flinched for
Not the blemish in his hand,
But
At the profanity riddling that word.
That word
Which the Fuchsian Marquess had inscribed upon the noon,
As easy as if she were tossing rice into the air.
•
The path could slither down
Two fates.
Either it could cradle him home,
Or
It could render him the
Blind man,
Stumbling, immune to help,
Into a den of starved lions.
•
"Preposterous!"
Shrieked the Mudpuddle Stable-boy,
Doubling with laughter.
•
"Not so",
The Burgundian Chef
Integrated calmly.
"For the Princess is still of a
Considerable youth.
Not
Of a youth like us three,
That would do good to remember,
But of youth nonetheless.
And
You yourself know
Of how intoxication is a curse to
Youthful blood."
•
"Exactly",
Noddled the Fuchsian Marquess.
"Which is why I make sense,
And the
Mudpuddle Stable-boy
Blithers nonsense."
•
"Lies!
May your hair fall out
By the following eve!"
•
"The quailing heart of the Princess hath been
Laid under siege,
By the curse we know by
Her name as Love",
The Marquess paid no heed to the Stable-boy.
"That is why
He has been somber as of late.
Caged in his thoughts,
And the tumults
Which plague a Maiden Blue
Continue to scratch
The flaccid skin of his almanacs.
So heavy in thought
He is,
That the Princess can seldom smile now,
In spite of the voluptuous vernal noon,
And the swallowtails
Which flit past the seams of his windows.
•
"Might that be true
Oh Knight in Red,
That of you who knows him better than we?"
•
"Possibly so".
It need not matter if it were true or false,
But
Of whom had
Smuggled his Princess' frail heart.
Had stolen
The soft smile of his lips for himself,
And fled into the dawn with the other end of his string.
Fluttering eyelids and murky thoughts
Behind
Murky eyes.
•
"The sire says possibly so!"
The Marquess declared her victory.
•
"It's probably true then.
Possible",
The Burgundian Chef smiled.
•
"But that's not to say that
It is the end,
Is not Marquess?"
Offered the Mudpuddle Stable-boy.
•
"Explain yourself,
Stable-boy."
•
"Surely something
Must have befallen his amour,
For the Princess to
Seldom smile",
Mused the Mudpuddle Stable-boy.
•
"For once you are using your brain,
Mudpuddle Stable-boy",
The Marquess lauded.
•
"I shall take that as a compliment."
•
"Very well, Mudpuddle."
•
"May it be plight
Or prevailed flaws,
Stable-boy?"
Pressed the Burgundian Chef.
•
"Plight, I presume."
The Knight in Red
Strained
His ears with inquiry.
"The Princess may be dull
In the lips.
But the uncle who tends to the piebald tarpans
Claims he is
One of the brightest minds in the land."
•
"True to that,
Mudpuddle Stable-boy",
The Knight in Red approved.
•
"Even I know",
Seconded the Marquess.
•
"So the Princess must be
Bright
Not to fall for a fellow who's
All peach with no stone."
The Knight in Red grinned.
If a deity had heard his youthful heart's clamour,
He
Would be getting a compliment with his larger prize.
"Plight must have
Befallen his suitor,
To banish the Princess into a realm so
Empty
And cold,
Nothing
Can ever coax him to smile."
•
"BUT THAT CAN'T BE!"
Protested
The Knight in Red.
The words betrayed him,
Eliciting
The undivided attention of his company.
•
"Explain,
Oh Knight in Red",
Prompted the Mudpuddle Stable-boy.
•
"The Princess has always been that way.
He told me so",
He said it more
As if
It were a prayer than fact.
"And this hypothetical suitor
Has just fleeted into his life.
If
This fellow had truly been the cause for the
Princess' woes,
Then surely we would have glimpsed
More of
The Princess who Did Not seldom smiled
In his past."
•
"Or perhaps the lucky fellow
Whom
Hath snared the princess' eye,
Hath been with him
His
Entire life",
Suggested the Burgundian Chef.
•
At that moment,
An entity
Sailed
To the roofed terrace which snaked nearby.
The froth of the clear pond
Lapped the margins of the terrace eagerly,
The Lotus heads
Bobbed in silent demure,
As the rustle of cobalt robes
Slurred into the ears of the Knight in Red.
Eliciting the smile of a youth intoxicated.
•
Without so much as a glance to his company,
The Knight in Red
Gathered himself
And went eagerly to his Princess.
They met at the
Lip
Of the courtyard,
Where the Knight
Sank courteously to one knee.
•
"My Princess",
He
Claimed the youth's slender fingers
To plant a
soft kiss
Upon the flaccid of the skin.
•
"Dear Knight",
A gentle maroon blossomed upon
The ivory
Of the princess' cheeks.
•
"What occupies your mind this
Voluptuous vernal noon,
Princess?"
•
"Nothing requiring the service of a poniard,
Dear Knight",
The Princess assured.
"I am just on my way to the
Sky Pavilion
To study the arts of your kingdom."
•
"Shall I escort you?"
•
"That is charmingly gallant of you
Dear Knight,
But
That shan't be necessary."
•
"But I insist!"
"And I insist
You
Enjoy the day,
And dismiss me to my studies",
The Princess coaxed his Knight
To stand up.
And before his astonished company
(all but the Knight),
Did the unprecedented:
•
The Princess who seldom smiled,
Broke into fits of ringing laughter!
•
Oh, that melody which accompanied it!
Stoked the beat of the
Young Knight's heart
And
Mesmerized his company into silence.
•
And the smile that followed!
The smile which
Enticed
The Princess' features
To glow like Sakura lanterns,
Captivated them all
Like a firework display!
•
"It is my command that you do",
The Princess smoothened his shawl and
Gave the Knight in Red a
Graceful bow,
To proceed to the Sky Pavilion.
•
He beamed at the Page-boy passing by,
Who had been trotting along with a chrysanthemum nosegay,
To send the
poor youth
blundering away,
A fever of flushed cheeks and meek guffaws.
•
The Princess,
Much like that of a
Convicted criminal,
Turned a worrisome shade of white.
•
He had fled before the Mudpuddle Stable-boy
Could clamour
To the Knight in Red:
"Oi, Knight!
Shall you proceed to linger there like a monastery,
Or shall you
Return to our company?"
•
The Knight's eyes simmered with blue flames
When he
Turned to his company.
•
"Pardon me, intimacies",
He ghosted past without a glance to them,
Unsheathing his poniard
Grimly
As he did so.
"But it appears I have
Unfinished business
To tend to as of now."
•
And with that said,
The Knight in Red vanished
Into the peony bushes,
Leaving the Marquess, The Stable-boy
And
The Burgundian Chef
To stare after him.
•
"How peculiar",
Sniffed the Fuchsian Marquess.
"Observe, brothers,
The way he stormed before us;
Eyes like a bloodhound's,
Uncharacteristic
To his charismatic ways."
•
"Sinister indeed", voiced
The Burgundian Chef.
"Almost as sinister as
The Princess who seldom smiled
Smiling
Is enthralling to the mortal sight."
•
"But let us not ponder this further,
Or before we know it,
We shall be spluttering tales of how the
Knight in Red,
Too,
Hath fallen victim to the clutches of love!"
The Mudpuddle Stable-boy jeered.
"Burgundian Chef.
You
Hath yet to display your opinion
On why
The Princess who seldom smiled
Is the way he is so."
•
"Very well."
The oblique of his eyes
Swept
To the Fuchsian Marquess.
The Mudpuddle Stable-boy.
And then he blinked most strangely,
And deporting himself with a flair of enigma,
Said:
"I believe
The Princess who seldom smiles
Is so,
Because he is cursed."
•
"Cursed?"
The Fuchsian Marquess spluttered.
•
"Cursed!"
The Mudpuddle Stable-boy cried.
•
"Yes",
The Burgundian Chef nodded.
"The Princess is cursed."
•
"That I know nothing of",
The Marquess admitted.
"Whatever hath driven you
To think that way,
Burgundian Chef?"
•
"Hath the two of you not noticed?"
•
His company shook their heads plaintively.
•
"The Water-bearer.
The Olive Farmer.
The Royal Priest.
The Emperor's New Advisor and
The Buffalo Boy, and
Even
The Royal Chef
Preceding my status.
They had all met their fates the preceding years.
•
"And one ribbon,
The ribbon which tied fall after fall therein,
Was that
The Princess had smiled to them all before
Death
Claimed them to his vile domains.
I know,
For they've flocked to me
One after another
Before their departures,
And had swooned 'till the morn singing:
"Oh, I have seen heaven!
Oh, bless thee, child,
For if you have never prayed eyes
On
The smile of the beautiful Princess,
You
Have not tasted true desire!
True lust!
Another flagon of ale, chef, for
The Princess hath blessed me!
The Princess hath blessed me!
Oh, heaven indeed!"
•
The Burgundian chef
Shook his head solemnly.
"If only those poor fellows hath known of the truth in their words",
He sighed.
"Oh, heaven detest them indeed."
•
The company lingered in
Grave silence,
Absorbing the truth of the Burgundian Chef.
The voluptuous vernal noon
Seemed to be hiding a secret now.
•
"So."
The Mudpuddle Stable-boy shivered.
"The smile of
The Princess who seldom smiled,
Is cursed?"
•
"A curse indeed.
•
"A poor youth is inflicted by it
As soon as
He prays eyes upon the Princess.
Then the curse haunts him,
Stalking him day or dusk
Like a tiger;
A poniard to its sheath.
Waiting
For the night to grow old and weary,
For the moonflowers tell no secrets.
Blood spilled;
Fate impales…
All because a Princess with a beautiful smile
Hath granted his blessings."
•
"But Burgundian Chef,
If
That were the case",
The Marquess' tone
Was riddled with horror,
"Then wouldn't
The Knight in Red
Have already been dead by now?"
•
"Ho, mark my words,
He's already dead."
The Burgundian Chef's stony gaze
Followed
A swallowtail, as the creature wafted gently
From peony to peony.
•
"For the curse be him,
And he be the curse,
Mark my words:
•
"He's already dead."
My lesson learned: never, EVER underestimate the power of the exclamation mark ever again.
I lack practical experience in such topics, but I'm pretty sure anyone with a sound mind wouldn't fancy dating a poniard. Something we refer to here as "kamu itu pacaran atau cari orang tua baru sih?"
Ah, but I wouldn't worry so much about it. After all, that's just another beautiful aspect to the world of ChuNi; sometimes China can act like a boisterous little kid that Japan has to tend to, but sometimes China's paternal side can kick in... And that'll still be something Japan has to bear through in certain contexts. Sweet, da?
I'll just start worrying when the bodies pile up at Japan's door: "a man who goes by the alias of 'X' has been found dead in the premises of a Mr. Honda Kiku's abode. Witnesses claim he was last seen alive walking to Mr. Honda's house with a bouquet of flowers, claiming that he was about to "become a singular entity" with Mr. Honda. Witnesses also claimed that Mr. X had been stalked by an ambiguous suspect in a panda suit. Autopsy has revealed that Mr. X died from garrote, and external wounds which could only have been inflicted by a wok."... This reporter died of food poisoning a week after the article had been published. WOOOO~ SPOOKY!
-Plumeria-hi