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Once upon a time, there lived a King who had married a Princess descended from ogres. There wasn't very much ogre left in her, and most of the time, their only source of unhappiness was that they had no children. They travelled far and wide asking wise men and witches and fairies why they had no children, but no one could discover the cause, and they all said the same thing: "Wait, and hope, and someday, perhaps you will have a child."
The Queen sometimes became very angry at this, and the King had to spend a great deal of time calming her down, and convincing her not to have the latest witch put to death. And since she was mostly human, and she loved the King very much, the Queen always did calm down in the end.
Eventually, they gave up on their travels, and accepted that they were not destined to have children of their own. They spent their time looking after their kingdom, and if they were sometimes a little sad, no one was rude enough to ask them why.
So it came as a great surprise to everyone in the kingdom when the King finally announced that he and the Queen were going to have a child. There was great celebration throughout the land, and all the people speculated on whether the child would be a girl or a boy. As the time came closer, the King and Queen withdrew from their regal duties, leaving a wise and trusted councillor to oversee the kingdom, so that they might concentrate on having a healthy child. The best doctors and midwives were brought to the castle, and the finest food served to the Queen, and eventually it was proclaimed throughout the kingdom that the Queen had given birth to a fine baby boy.
A great celebration was planned in the castle, and all the local fairies were invited to the Prince's christening, so that he might receive all the blessings they could offer.
The Queen, so soon after childbirth, was not in the best of moods on the day of the christening, but so much work had been done that the King was reluctant to postpone the event, and promised her a new dress and all of her favourite foods and music, in an effort to cheer her up.
Guests came from far and wide to see the christening of the baby Prince. Local dignitaries, family friends and visitors from nearby kingdoms all crowded into the palace. The common people lined the streets of the capital city, having their own parties in honour of the occasion. A great banquet was served and the finest musicians in the kingdom played music for dancing. Everyone was splendidly dressed, and having a wonderful time. Everyone, that is, except for the Queen, who was impatient for all the guests to leave so that she would have her baby to herself again.
The time came for the fairies to bestow their gifts upon the young Prince. The gifts were the usual sort of things bestowed upon the sons of Kings: he would be handsome, wise, brave, gentle, clever and so on. The Queen, sure that he would be all of these things anyway, was becoming impatient, when the last-but-one fairy stood.
"He will find a beautiful and gentle princess, and live happily ever after!" she declared, and the Queen finally lost her temper.
"Will this princess be more beautiful than me? Will he spend so much time with her that he forgets how much his parents love him? Will he forget how long his father and I waited and wished for a child?"
The fairies and all the other guests cowered before the Queen's wrath, but there was one fairy who still had to speak, and she stood up, timidly. "Your Majesty, I have not yet said my gift to your son."
The King put his hand gently on his wife's arm, and bade her listen to the last fairy's gift.
She said, "No matter how beautiful or gentle any princess he meets, no woman will ever be more important to him than his beloved mother!"
The Queen was mollified, but the other guests were worried. They had all heard of marriages where the man's wife could not live up to his mother, and they knew what unhappiness could result. But although they were superstitious, they all liked to pretend that they didn't believe in fairy magic, and besides, the Queen was happy again, and the small Prince would not be thinking of princesses or marriage for a long time to come, so they held their peace and the rest of the great christening party passed off happily.
The Prince did indeed grow up to be handsome and wise and brave and gentle and clever, just as the other fairies had predicted. Everyone in the kingdom loved him, but they did sometimes worry that he was very close to his mother, and didn't seem to be as interested in girls as they thought he should be. But his parents were happy, the Queen rarely lost her temper these days, and the kingdom seemed to be prospering, so they thought little of it.
On his eighteenth birthday, the Prince went out hunting with the Squire who had been his closest friend since childhood. They were far away from the castle, when they came across a strange forest, where the trees grew too close together for anyone to pass. The Prince could see tall towers reaching up from the centre of the forest, and he was puzzled. He had never heard of a castle in these parts, least of all a castle surrounded by a dark and forbidding forest.
He and the Squire rode to the nearest village, and asked the villagers about the castle hidden in the forest, and they were told many strange stories. Some said a witch lived there, others that a terrible curse had been laid upon the castle after its owner betrayed the king, and others that a beautiful princess was sleeping there for a hundred years.
The Prince and the Squire didn't know which of these stories to believe, but they were intrigued, and decided to attempt to reach the castle, to find out what was within.
They spent the rest of the day fighting through the trees, but they were both brave and strong young men, so before nightfall they cut away the last branch blocking their way to the castle, and entered through the gate.
The castle was absolutely silent. Around the courtyard were all the people and animals you would expect to see in a castle courtyard, but they were all motionless. Two soldiers had been frozen in mid-conversation and a maid was caught in the position of throwing a kitchen scrap for a dog. The Prince and the Squire looked nervously at each other. They crossed the courtyard, looking around for some sign of movement, and entered the great hall. Here, too, all the people were still, suspended while going about their duties.
The newcomers explored the castle as the light faded, but nowhere did they find anything or anyone moving. At last they came to a room at the top of a tower where a beautiful young woman lay in a huge bed with silken hangings. In a chair beside the bed was a pretty girl in a plain dress, frozen in the act of threading a needle, and near her stood a handsome young man with a lute.
The Prince found himself gazing at the Musician, and walked slowly towards him, unable to look away. He didn't notice when the Squire moved over to the bed to look at the sleeping woman and, on a whim, bent down to kiss her lips. Not knowing what his friend had done, the Prince was surprised to realise that the Musician was returning his gaze. Without breaking eye contact, the Prince stepped forward, reaching out a hand in greeting. The Musician extended his hand in return, and pulled the Prince into an embrace.
"What has happened here?" the Prince asked when they broke apart.
"We have been under a spell. Our Princess," the Musician waved a hand towards the woman on the bed, "was cursed to die when she pricked her finger on a spindle, but a good fairy changed the curse so that she would sleep for a hundred years until awoken by a kiss. We chose to share her sleep so that she would find her awakening easier. I was to play for her."
"I too have been cursed, or so the people in my kingdom say. But now I am starting to wonder if it was not a good wish after all," the Prince replied, never looking away from the Musician's face. "It was said at my christening that no woman would ever be more important to me than my mother. And it has been true. But now..." he trailed off.
"Now perhaps a man may be more important to you?" the Musician finished, reaching once again for the Prince's hand.
"Perhaps," the Prince replied, as the Musician pulled him closer and kissed him.
***
When the Prince returned home, it was the Musician who accompanied him, for the Squire had remained behind to marry the Princess. In all the days that followed, the Prince and the Musician were always together, and when, in time, the Prince became King, the Musician ruled at his side as Prince Consort, and they lived happily ever after.
The End.