Princess Cressida: Part Three and The End Shona Garber Bell Part 3: Princess Cressida Paints the Dawn Princess Cressidas brother Prince Shady lived in a deep valley on the western edge of the land. A dark grumpy river wound its way through the jagged valley, gurgling over sharp stones. As Flyer and Princess Cressida approached the valley, the Princess could see that the trees were so high and so close together, sunlight could barely get through. Princess Cressida thought the valley was a dismal place. When she colored the day, the colors could not reach here. It was darkly enchanted. On a slim trail through the dim grey forest, Flyer stepped carefully over black stones and thick tree roots. Prince Shady lived at the very bottom of a deep gorge in the river valley. As Flyer navigated the narrow path along the cliff, Princess Cressida clung to his white and grey mane, trusting his surefootedness. At last they reached the bottom of the trail. There, on the edge of the murky river, was her brother’s house. It was a vast stone mansion, almost a castle, but it was tilted and lop-sided, as if it had been built in the dark, with no light to guide the builder. Windows were upside down, stairways led to no-where, doors opened onto thin air. It was bordered by a large lawn and a high metal gate, which was open, as no one ever came here. No visitors, no friends. As Flyer stepped passed through the large metal gate and into Prince Shady’s yard, Princess Cressida gasped at what she saw. Evidence of her stolen colors was everywhere. Her brother Prince Shady had painted his huge stone house a bright yellow. The house now shone as bright as the sun itself. The walls were yellow, the windows were yellow, even the roof, the chimney and the doorknob on the front door were bright yellow. Prince Shady’s horse Jett stood outside the house by the front steps, waiting for his master. Jett was usually a plain dapple grey, not much to look at. But today he was painted a stunning brilliant blue, like the sky on a bright, cold winter day. As he watched the unexpected guests approach, he whinnied at them, embarrassed by his blueness. Princess Cressida looked around. All of the Prince’s many animals were grazing in the lush yard, cows, sheep, goats and chickens. And the Prince had painted ALL of them ridiculous colors: The chickens were bright green, the cows were orange and the sheep and goats were pink! The barn where the animals lived was behind the house. Princess Cressida walked behind the house to the barn. The barn was painted purple, the color Princess Cressida used to paint lilacs. Prince Shady had even painted the barn cats. Several skittish purple cats peered out from behind a purple door. A purple kitten ran across the green lawn, mewling for its mommy. Princess Cressida studied the green grass. Well, at least he had gotten something right, she thought. But she was filled with dismay. All of Princess Cressida’s fears had come true. Her brother had used up all her colors for himself. She hopped off of Flyer, who whinnied hello at Jett. Princess Cressida walked up the stone steps. She pushed open the front door and strode into the great front room. Color was everywhere. Her paints, her pencils, her crayons and brushes. “Brother, what have you done?” Princess Cressida demanded. Her brother Prince Shady glared at her from across the room. He was painting his walls a deep red with the color Princess Cressida used for the beautiful red autumn leaves. Prince Shadys cloak was splattered with paint of many colors. He ignored his sister and continued to splash paint onto his walls. “Give me back my paints!” She said to Prince Shady. “You are too late, sister. They are all gone!” Prince Shady shrugged and stepped back to admire the wall he had painted. “You don’t know what you are doing!” Princess Cressida exclaimed. As she looked around the room, at the colorful splatters of paint on the floor and even on the furniture, she heard an odd buzzing sound from the next room. “Uh, oh,” she thought. She knew that sound. It was the sound of home. She pushed past her brother to the next room. There, in a vast wire bell-shaped silver cage, as tall as two people, and as wide as a swimming pool, were all her hummingbirds. Why, he had not only stolen her colors, he had stolen her hummingbirds. Her hummingbirds were her color gatherers. Sat sat on the floor, her face scrunched up with upset. What could she do? She had no more colors, her brother had taken them from her and used them all up. And her color gatherers were trapped here rather than out collecting colors. Princess Cressida understood that Prince Shady intended not only to use the colors for himself but to allow the world to become a grey place. To let the colors be real only in dreams. The world would be forever only black and white and grey. And she realized, it was the summer solstice tomorrow. The day when the colors needed to last their longest on longest day of the year. She could not let this happen. She straightened How could she make her brother understand? Princess Cressida had no real magic powers, unlike the fancy-schmancy princesses she knew in neighboring lands. (Glass slippers and fairy godmothers, I mean, really?) As she thought and thought about what to do, she realized that there was only one way to show her brother the importance of the colors of the day. To make him release the hummingbirds so they could do their work. It was only a few hours to dawn and she had no more color. “Brother, you must come with me now. I must show you something, so you will understand.” Prince Shady grumbled a bit but he had no more paints and now he was bored. So he figured why not get out of the house, maybe cause some mischief. He had nothing better to do. Princess Cressida held the door for him and they walked outside to where Flyer and Jett waited. “Stand back,” she said to her brother as she approached the horses. He did as he was told, curious to see what would happen next. Princess Cressida took a silver bracelet from each of her wrists and clasped one around the front right leg of Jett and the other around the front right leg of Flyer. “What is that?” Prince Shady asked, leaning forward to better see the sparkly bracelets. Princess Cressida looked at him. “You will see soon enough. Now hop onto your horse and just hang on. We have a long way to go and not very much time.” Princess Cressida hopped expertly onto Flyer. Lets go Flyer! Jett, you follow Flyer. Brother, hang on! Princess Cressida said. With that, Flyer leapt forward and took off into the dark sky, Jett following on his heels. Flyer knew the way. When they flew, which was rare, they only flew one place. They were headed to the stars, to gather the colors. For colors are the stuff of dreams. Each night, during sleep, all creatures great and small dream and they dream in wonderful magical color. And these dream colors, lighter than air, drift out of the dreams, skyward, into the night. The colors float all the way up to the stars, where they are caught in fine silk nets strung between the stars. The nets were placed there by Princess Cressida to capture the colors, the precious blues and reds and yellows and greens that she used to color each day. From whose dreams, you ask? Everyone’s dreams. Grown-ups, children, boys and girls. Even puppies and kittens dream in color. Some say that even the trees and flowers dream in colors. All those colors float to the stars. The colors drift into the night sky. Then each night, Princess Cressida’s hummingbirds zip across the sky, from star to star, collecting the colors from the wispy star-strung nets. They work late into the night gathering enough color to color the next day. Each night, before dawn, they carry the colors on their wings back to Princess Cressida, just in time for her to paint the dawn... As the horses flew higher and higher, propelled by the enchanted silver bracelets made from moon dust, the night sky drew closer. The stars twinkled. Prince Shady watched as they approached the stars. HIs eyes grey wide with surprise when he saw the silvery nets strung from star to star. All around, he saw colors floating up into the sky only to get caught in the whispery nets. Blues and yellows and reds and greens, floating up from dreams as everyone slept deeply in the dark. The colors from the dreams were made from people’s imagination, every shade of every color imaginable. And like white wispy breath on a cold day, they floated to the stars. At last her brother understood the importance of the night. He understood the importance of his job, of painting the night, so that people could sleep soundly and dream deeply. For the deeper people dreamed, the more adventures they had as they slept, and the more colors they imagined. He sighed and his horse Jett whinnied. He turned to his sister. “Why did you not tell me this before?” Princess Cressida shrugged. “It is a great secret, the origin of the colors. I was worried you would not understand, that you would use the knowledge only for yourself. But of course, the colors are meant for everyone. After all, we all dream.” She tilted her head at her brother. “But I think you see now why things are the way they are.” “Yes. Yes, I do. At last. I have been a selfish and foolish. I see now that colors are in fact dreams come true. They help people believe in tomorrow, the beauty of a new day.” Yes, that is exactly right, my brother. And now we must set to work. Since You have all my color-gathers trapped back at your castle, WE must gather the colors and quickly paint the day. For look, now it is early in the morning and in less than an hour the sun will rise.” Humbled, Prince Shady nodded and looked at the task ahead. The silvery nets stretched between the stars as far as the eye could see. They swayed and billowed in the star wind, the nets filled with the colors of dreams. “How do we do it?” “It’s so easy. Just fly though the net. The colors will stick to you, like spider webs. Quickly now.” Prince Shady urged Jett forward into the wispy nets. A looming cloud of deep orange was caught in the net. Jett started and bucked, uncertain at this new adventure. But Prince Shady urged him forward. “Come now, Jett, we must do this. For the dawn.” Jett took a few hesitant steps forward. And then Jett leaped bravely forward into the net. Sure enough, the color orange stuck to Jett and the Prince, to the Prince’s clothes and Jett’s mane. The color did not hurt. Instead, it kind of tickled like a cloud of cotton candy. Prince Shady laughed in delight and amazement. Why, this was fun, he thought. He couldn’t remember the last time he had fun. With an eye eastward to the lightening sky, Prince Shady and Princess Cressida moved from net to net gathering the colors. The Princess could see they had enough colors now for the next few days and so she urged Flyer forward, toward the horizon, where the still-sleeping grey sun leaned against the grey sky. Prince Shady and Jett followed. Together, they quickly set about coloring the dawn. At last, they were done. Every blade of grass, every cloud, every leaf was colored as it should should be. Their work completed, they stopped and watched as the sun rose brilliant and yellow into the blue morning sky. Princess Cressida patted Flyer’s mane. It had been a long couple of days. Now they would rest. Flyer was looking forward to some yummy oats. Dusting a bit of green off his sleeve, Prince Shady was all matter-of-fact again. “I need to go home now to sleep. Before we know it, the night will come again and I must set to work. Days pass quickly.” He was proud and it was still a little hard to admit when he was wrong. Princess Cressida nodded. “Thank you brother for understanding and for helping me. Please will you release my color-gathers now?” “Yes, of course. Right away.” He gave Jett a little pat to tell him to get moving on to road home to the valley. Princess Cressida watched Jett gallop away and before they turned the corner of the lane, she called out to her brother. “Wait!” Jett stopped and Prince Shady looked back. What is it? he asked. “Brother, sometime, if you would like, you may borrow some color for the night. Her brother was surprised at the generous offer. He smiled and nodded. “I would like that. Thank you.” With that, he leaned forward and Jett trotted away toward the Prince’s dark kingdom. Princess Cressida smiled as she watched them disappear on the horizon, until all she could see was Jetts swishing grey tail. So some nights, when you look up to the sky, and you see the moon is orange, youll know that Princess Cressida has given her brother Prince Shady a little color to lighten the night sky. Just for fun.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 15:28:00 +0000
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