This week we are asked to used the below quote to inspire our Fairy-tale
You’ll meet her, she’s very pretty, even though sometimes she’s sad for many days at a time. You’ll see, when she smiles, you’ll love her. ~Pan’s Labyrinth
The Jamieson Valley stretches out before me.
It’s been a few years but I’m glad to be back. I stand on the lookout gazing down into the sunken valley that stretches out before me, one of nature’s magnificent vistas.
I came here many years ago with my grandmother on a hiking trip. Gran loved to hike. She took me deep into the valley to show me as she put it the home of the Blue Princess. The entire area is known as the Blue Mountains and got its name she said from the misting tears of the Blue Princess.
We had been tramping through the bush for two days before Gran said she was happy to stop as the Princess was nearby.
‘You know that feeling of wonder you felt when you stood at the lookout gazing down on the valley? Well when you see the Blue Princess you’ll feel it a hundred fold.’
Gran had said these words to me as we set up camp that night on a small flat piece of ground beside the creek, which dribbled its way down through the gorge, we were in. Gran had been camping for years and was the one person I knew who prepared for everything, including finding our way out of the gorge. I was a little nervous as the week before there had been a report on the news of a hiker perishing in the valley, they still hadn’t found him or any trace of him.
That night she told me about the Blue Princess. A magical lady who lived in the gorges of the valley, whose tears gave the Mountains their blue hue, a woman who cared for and nurtured her environment and was known to evoke retribution on anyone who desecrated her land.
Gran had met her some years before, when on a trip into a valley she had not previously explored she had discovered the Princess sitting at her camp fire one morning after a long night in which the wind had blown and the rain poured down soaking everything Gran had carried in with her.
The Princess was particularly interested in this resilient woman who had made it through such a rough night and who had been so well prepared for everything nature had thrown at her.
Over the morning the Princess and Gran had become good friends and each had promised to look out for and protect the other.
Apart from me Gran had never revealed the whereabouts of the Blue Princess to any living soul. I remembered the visit we made, the glow of the light as the Princess stood before us, her immediate concern that Gran had brought in with her an outsider only to be placated by Gran when she told her I could be trusted and I would take over the secret of her location when Gran passed on.
Gran had died the year before and I was on a holiday determining to seek out the Princess and make her acquaintance and pledge my desire to uphold Grans promise all those years ago.
Of course finding the location was my first concern but I remembered Gran’s words that it was two days down into the valley and the hidden gorge could be found by following the tiny trickle of a stream.
As I had not been hiking for a number of years it was slower going than I remembered with Gran but I did eventually find the stream that disappeared behind the rocks beyond which was the gorge I now climbed into.
The flat spot Gran and I had camped on so many years before was still there, as if awaiting my return. I set up my camp and settled down for the night thinking that in the morning I would see if I could search out the Blue Princess.
As I lay there that night I thought back on those wonderful times I had spent with Gran. Her stories of the Blue Princess always filled me with wonder. As Gran had said to me on several occasions: “You’ll meet her, she’s very pretty, even though sometimes she’s sad for many days at a time. You’ll see, when she smiles, you’ll love her”
I had no thoughts otherwise about her as I recalled her as a woman of astounding beauty, the blue aura that surrounded her accentuating her allure.
Near to dawn I was awoken by what I thought was the early morning sun. But the blue light that surrounded my tent was not the dawn.
I poked my head out of the tent flap and there at my smouldering campfire sat the Blue Princess.
She had not aged; her beauty was to my maturing self more breathtaking than any memory I had of her as a child. Her eyes pierced mine, she looked at me, then she hovered above me, her aura spreading round me, engulfing me as she took in all I was.
‘ Man, what are you doing here?’ she asked, voice flowed into me as softly as the stream behind me trickled its way to the sea so many miles away.
‘ I’m Tommy, my Gran bought me here many years ago, she asked me to come back and tell you I had taken over your secret as Gran died last year.’
She looked at me her head tilted slightly as she seemed to be considering taking me at my word or casting me into some sort of oblivion. Then in a voice that evoked sadness, and through eyes that at once misted the bluest of tears she said: ‘I miss the hiking lady. She and I shared much magic. You are welcome to visit my land, but you must keep the Blue Princess’ secret, it would not be good for too many to know of me.’
‘I promised my Gran on her death bed that I would, you have my word.’
With that she held out her blue radiating hand and touched mine. At that moment I understood what Gran had meant by those words: You’ll meet her, she’s very pretty……You’ll see, when she smiles, you’ll love her.
Written for: http://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2014/09/26/fairytale-prompt-27/
Morpethroad 