Sleeping Princess
By: Virginia R.
Description: This is a flashback dream Lois had of the first time she and Clark met in a previous life and why she was endowed with her talents and gifts. This is an excerpt from my story Missing Lois.
Rating: PG
Set: A long, long time ago in a time long past with kings, queens, princesses and knights.
Disclaimer: I own neither the fairy tale on which this story is based (Sleeping Beauty) or Lois, Clark or Superman. This story is inspired by the characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster and portrayed on the Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman television series, developed by Deborah Joy-LeVine. I thank the writers on the show for inspiring me.
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Sleeping Princess
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago. There lived a king and a queen who wanted a child more than anything in the world. Finally, after many years, they were blessed with a daughter. To celebrate this event, they invited everyone in the kingdom to rejoice in the newest member of their family. They also invited the eight good fairies. Each of the good fairies was allowed to give the young princess one gift.
The first fairy granted the princess beauty. The second the gift of song. The third intelligence. The fourth independence. The fifth the gift of storytelling. The sixth loyalty. The seventh fairy gave her the gift of adoration.
Before the eighth fairy could give her gift, the party was interrupted by a ninth fairy, who’s invitation had been forgotten. She placed a curse on the young princess. Upon reaching her sixteenth birthday, the young princess would fall into a deep sleep from which she could never awaken. Then that ninth fairy disappeared, never to be seen in the kingdom again.
The eighth fairy stepped forward. She could not undue the horrible curse which had been placed on the child. Instead with all of her wisdom, she changed the curse. Instead of sleeping forever, she granted the gift to love, so deeply and so passionately that just one kiss from her true love would awaken the princess from her endless slumber.
True to the fairies’ words, this princess did indeed grow up with intelligence, beauty, song and story, a fierce independence streak, the best friend anyone could wish for, and was loved by every man who met her. But unfortunately for the young princess, she had never found that one true love that the eighth fairy had promised. Upon reaching her sixteenth birthday, the young princess was bitten by a strange bug and passed into her endless sleep. All of her admirers came and tried to kiss her, but none of the suitors were deemed worthy, for the princess still slept.
Years passed and the princess kept sleeping. Every morning, the queen had her daughter carried into the garden and laid on a bed in hopes that someone would kiss her and wake her up from this spell. Soon, the princess’s presence in the garden was taken for granted like a fine statue.
After nine years, a knight returning from battle caught sight of the beautiful princess asleep in the garden and he sat down next to her. Every afternoon from that day onward, the knight ate his lunch with the sleeping princess and told her a story from his travels or an amusing anticdote from the town. The queen kept watch over the garden and saw how the knight thought of her daughter, when others had not. When a sudden sprinkling of rain arrived, he removed his cloak to keep her dry. When the winds blew dry and harsh, he carried the sleeping princess to a sheltered corner where she would not be disturbed. When another man tried to take liberties with her, the knight drew his sword and protected her honor. He was such a noble knight, deserving of her daughter’s love, the queen hoped in vain that he would kiss her and wake her from the horrible curse.
One day, war broke out with a faraway kingdom and the whole castle was in such disarray that the sleeping princess lay forgotten in the garden. In the darkness of the evening, the knight stole through the garden on his way to his quarters. He was deeply saddened that he had not been able to visit the fair princess due to readying himself for battle the next morning. When he found her abandoned in the garden, he knelt beside her and declared his love to her. No longer able to resist the beautiful princess, the knight granted himself one gentle farewell kiss. Her arms encircled his neck and deepened the kiss. Overjoyed that she was awake, the knight carried her directly to the chapel, so that they could be married before he had to leave for battle the next morning. Unfortunately, the chapel was deserted and no cleric could be found to officiate their wedding. Kneeling at the altar, the knight and the princess pledged their love to one another.
The next morning the knight left his bride for battle. No one, but the princess, knew whose kiss awoke her. The kingdom was overjoyed at the princess’s awakening and once again the suitors returned to claim her hand. She refused all offers, hoping without hope as the days passed that her knight would return to her.
As her belly grew swollen with child, the offers faded away and the princess was hidden away from the eyes of the kingdom. The king and queen begged and pleaded with their daughter to tell them the name of the man who had awoken their daughter’s heart. All she would say on the matter was that they would know him when he returned to officially claim her hand as his face would be the face of their child. Then the daughter gave birth to her daughter as beautiful and gifted as her mother. This time neither a grand banquet nor the good fairies of the kingdom were called.
A year after the birth of the young princess, the knight returned battle weary and broken, unrecognizable to anyone in the kingdom, but the one woman who had known him just that one night. She saw in his eyes, the eyes of her daughter. In his voice, she heard the voice from a dream who spoke to her daily for a year. The caress of his hand on her face was that of only one man, her true love. On his lips, she could taste love’s first kiss. She knew her true love, her husband, even though no one else did.
The king, the queen, the other knights, the nobility, the squires and ladies-in-waiting all begged her to reconsider. This dirty, scarred man with a limp and a wrecked back and a defeated spirit could not possibly be the man who earned her love enough to have broken the curse with his kiss. They flung doubts and shame in her face, but nothing made her change her mind. She knew her love and she would not consider any other. Slowly, she nursed the knight back to health.
One day as he played in the garden with his two year old daughter, he laughed and the queen recognized the knight who had sat telling stories to the sleeping princess all those years ago. The princess truly had found a love so strong and passionate it broke any barrier to impede it. The queen overcome with joy and love, knelt down in front of the knight and begged his forgiveness. She thanked him for returning to them her beautiful, intelligent, head-strong, willful, loyal to a fault, songstress storyteller of a daughter, who was beloved by all who knew her. For when one finds true love, one can never be lost again.
