Fairy Tale
for the wonderful, amazing, talented, and most of all--kind @chromehoplite, I present you the fairy tale I had to write for class, that I tweaked just a little;)
Long ago, in a place far from here, lived the king of the fairies and the maiden who was to become his queen. In the world of fairies, nothing was considered more important than beauty. The fairies loved their pretty eyes, their glistening wings, and their tinkling voices. So when a young maiden, a true beauty herself, was told that she was going to marry the handsome king and become queen, she thought herself the luckiest fairy in the land. Only, she soon learned that a beautiful face does not equal a beautiful heart. Her new husband was a cruel man, and so, when the Queen fell pregnant, she told her wish-giver (who would bestow one gift upon the child for the mother as well as another wish-giver that would bestow one wish for the father) that she only wanted one thing for her child. She wanted her child to be kind.
Nevertheless, when the child was born, he was beautiful. Eyes as blue as the sky, wings a deep indigo that shimmered like the stars, and lips like a rose. The Queen lived long enough only to give the child his name; Ciel.
As the leaves abandoned the branches to suffer through the cold alone, it was time for the child to be presented to the kingdom, and thusly receive the two wishes from the wish-givers at the request of the parents. The queen’s wish-giver knew the king to be an awful sort of man. Knew that he only had a child because it was required of him and that he feared the day his child would marry, as it would be the same day he would be forced to abdicate his throne. And so she let the king’s wish-giver go first.
The king’s wish-giver stepped forward.  “At the wish of the King, this child shall be cursed to fall in love again and again, only for him and his lover to forget all knowledge of one another as soon as he knows it to be true in his heart.”
The queen’s wish-giver gasped along with the crowd. To use your one wish for your child on such an awful curse? What a horrid thing to do!
There wasn’t much the queen’s wish-giver could do against such strong magic, but she could give the boy a fighting chance. “The boy may be forced to fall in love again and again, only to forget what his heart knows, but he shall only fall six times. On the seventh realization of his love, he will be informed of his curse and if he decides to let his loved one go, rather than drag them along on this endless cycle of tragedy, then his curse will be broken!”
The wishes were given and so they would be. The queen’s wish-giver only hoped that the boy would grow up as his mother had wished; kind enough to let someone go.
And so the boy grew, unaware of the curse and untouched by the darkness that clung to his father, until the day he first met the boy who was to suffer the curse with him.
It was a party. A ball actually, for fairies loved to dance. Their feet half on the floor and half in the air as they tittered about, and no one loved to dance quite as much as Ciel. He danced the way a rose stood, proud and confident in the fact that none else is prettier. As he danced he locked eyes with a boy across the room. If Ciel was ice, all blue eyes and star filled wings, then this boy was fire. Warm eyes like the embers of a fire and wings like obsidian, they were born to revolve around each other. They danced the entire night and forgot everything upon the morning.
The second time, Ciel was in the garden. It was the perfect place to escape his father. He walked along, fingers dragging across the flowers, until he caught sight of someone else. No one else was supposed to be here, but this boy certainly looked as if he belonged. Now Ciel was walking with this boy, trading words like flowers and glances like chocolates. By the time Ciel sat down for dinner, he could not remember anything remarkable happening that day.
The third time, Ciel was in the village handing out little presents to his people for the Winter solstice. Focusing on his work, he handed out another, eyes catching on long fingers, which led to a tilted smile, and finally eyes like the sun waiting for night. Waiting for him. They were the loveliest things he had ever seen and they were forgotten before he even made it home.
The fourth time, it was night. Ciel was not supposed to be out at night. He heard the guards calling after him as he flew through the town, but he needed time away from his father. He flew and flew, before a hand caught his arm and he was pulled into a doorway glowing from the hearth inside. Warm from the fire and warm from the hand holding his own, the two talked until sleep overcame them both. In the morning, the boy was gone along with any memory of his existence.
The fifth time, Ciel was watching the fish in the castle pond, cursing the fact that he had wings and yet could not fly away from here. And then suddenly there was a boy. They fed the fish together. It wasn’t so bad being here after all. And then is was again.
A sixth time. Glances exchanged. Smiles given. Hearts beating a little too fast. And then nothing.
The seventh time, Ciel was in the town library, donating books he had already read, knowing his father never would. Suddenly there was a boy. He had read one of those books too. They had both loved it. They loved each other.
The boy left and right when Ciel would normally forget all about him, his wish-giver appeared before him.
“Ciel.” She stated. “You have loved this boy before, and yet you have forgotten. Your father, in an effort to keep you from the throne, has cursed you to always fall in love with him and always forget. Again and again. Soon, in three days’ time, you will forget about this meeting as well.”
Before any questions could be asked the wish-giver was gone and so, Ciel cried. He cried for the lot he was given in life, he cried at the fact that his father would do such a thing to him, but most of all he cried because of what he had to do.
The next day, he met up with the boy again. He was beautiful, and perfect, and undeserving of such a curse that was Ciel’s fault. And so, Ciel told the boy of how he had found him a job. A job far from there. A job in the grand library of the owls. Any fairy would leap at the chance to go, and while the boy did seem hurt at first that he was being sent away, he soon agreed too. He would go, leaving behind the curse of the king, and leaving behind Ciel.
The day came for the boy to leave, but he instead showed up at the castle doors, the wish-giver in tow. The two embraced like a key finally finding its lock, sliding into place and releasing all of their withheld memories.
“You did it, Ciel.” The wish-giver said as the two remembered times they had embraced like this in the past. “You broke the curse by putting his happiness ahead of your own. Now, take your rightful place on the throne and teach these silly fairies about the importance of kindness.”
And so, that is exactly what the two lover’s did. The king, as punishment for not having a kind heart, had it ripped out. The fairies, seeing the king’s shriveled, black heart, took it upon themselves to be kinder; so that when they die their hearts might not look like that. And Ciel? Well he and his love lived happily ever after.
