Storytelling Week 2: Sorry

Once upon a time there lived a Prince named Benjamin in the year of 1458. His father, King George, and his mother, Queen Stephanie, ruled all of the Mystical Lands. Prince Benjamin was to become one of the most powerful men of all, but his people did not like him very much. He was stubborn and had a bad attitude about everything. He looked down upon anyone who was not royalty. He was greedy, mischievous, and hardly cared about those not directly involved in his life.

King George could not ever tame Benjamin no matter how hard he tried. Benjamin was so persistent about whatever he wanted to do that not even the King could stop him from causing trouble. So one day when Benjamin was bored, he thought up an evil plan to play pranks on the common people. First he had to figure out a way to escape from the palace guards. He devised a plan to dress up as one of the guards and slyly exit the royal palace. Just when he was passing out the door, he saw his mother and father entering. 

"Quick! Do not allow for my son to escape!" yelled the King as soon as he saw his son's face. 

The guards charged after him but Benjamin knew the best escape routes and was always one step ahead of the guards. He ran as fast as he could but he couldn’t quite shake off the guards. He kept running until he saw a young lady picking flowers. 

He quickly grabbed her hand and pleaded, "Please, please, please hide me! The royal guards are after me because I could not pay my taxes. It has been a difficult time for me as my crops have failed. Please help me. I am desperate!"

Of course this was a lie, but the kind girl named Cecilia helped the helpless man by hiding him behind a huge bushel of flowers. As the guards passed and clearly lost Benjamin, he came from behind the bushel of flowers and began to walk away to go about his business without even saying thank you.

Girl Picking Flowers Wikimedia

As he walked towards the road, he was intriguingly and quite surprisingly tempted to glance back over his shoulder to get another look at the lady who had helped him out. In his twenty-five years of life, he had never been so drawn to a woman before to even consider getting to know more about her. He couldn’t take his gaze off of her. She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. She had the kind of twinkle in her eyes that glistened in the moonlight. There was an unexplainable aura about her that was so enticing. At this moment, he fell in love with her and decided to go back and try his best to pursue her.

From that point on, Benjamin changed drastically. He became a loving person as he learned of the kindness that Cecilia modeled. He often followed her around during her daily activities and helped Cecilia whenever she needed a hand. He became a whole different person who smiled often, helped the poor, and treated every individual with respect. Cecilia also noticed this change and found joy while spending time with Benjamin. They continued to meet each other and every day they became closer and closer.

After some time, he knew that she was the one he wanted to spend his life with. He gathered up the courage to ask Cecilia’s parents for their blessings. 

Cecilia’s parents saw Benjamin and immediately realized that he was the infamous Prince. They weren’t convinced that he was a changed person and didn’t wish for their daughter to be married to this man. They were afraid that if they said no, Benjamin would be enraged and revert back to his old ways. He might be angered enough to force marriage upon Cecilia by initiating a new palace rule or put the parents in jail. So the parents thought of a tricky plan.

"We will let you marry our daughter only if you promise to remove yourself from the kinship of royalty and live as a common man forever," said Cecilia's father.

"But, I am the next heir to rule the great Mystical Lands. Why would you want to take this away from me?" asked Benjamin.

"You see, our daughter is very precious to us and has grown up living a simple life. We do not want her to be burdened by the Kingdom's responsibilities and we do not want her to leave this town," responded Cecilia's mother.

After taking Cecilia's parents' requests into consideration, Benjamin decided that a life without Cecilia would be far worse than giving up royalty. Benjamin was so deep in love that he signed a new contract stating that he would leave the Kingdom and never return. Though his parents pleaded with him, Benjamin decided to defy his parents once again in order to have the love of his life. From that day forward, Benjamin was no longer the next heir and would never be able to regain his position.

Benjamin was so happy that he raced to Cecilia’s house to marry her that instant. When he arrived at her house, he noticed the door was unlocked and he flung the door open to run inside. He was quickly filled with dismay as he noticed that the house had been completely cleaned out and Cecilia nowhere to be found. The only thing left was the dried flowers that Cecilia picked from the first time they met and a piece of paper with one single word: sorry.

Author's note: This story is based off of The Lion in Love by Joseph Jacobs, which tells a story of a lion falling in love with a maiden. The lion asks her parents for her hand in marriage but the parents do not want to give the lion their blessings and are afraid to say so because the lion may get very mad. So, they deceive the lion, asking him to trim down his claws and have his teeth taken out. The lion obeys the parents and does so but when the lion comes back to marry their daughter, the parents just laugh at the lion and turn away.

The point that was made at the end of the fable was "Love can tame the wildest."

I followed the same concept by having a really misbehaved prince fall in love with a girl. In my story, the girl "tames the beast" by changing his normally rash behavior and making him into a kind and caring person. He also gives up a lot for the one he loves and ends up losing her anyways.

When I was reading the fable for the first time, I felt so cheated when I found out the parents had played a trick on the lion. For my story, I added a little twist at the end where Cecilia suddenly disappears with just the note saying "sorry." I wanted to leave the story off as a cliffhanger to keep the story mysterious and to leave a bigger impact.

For the main point, I wanted to express how love could change someone. It can change them for the better or for the worst and sometimes, love isn't always fair. It hardly ever works out the way you think it will and it is never simple. 

Bibliography: "The Lion in Love" by Joseph Jacobs, from The Fables of Aesops (1894). Web Source