The Princess' Suitors

Once Upon a Time

A long time ago, there was a curse put upon the Kingdom of Evamere. When the young princess, Winifred, was born, it was said that when she came of age, she would be forced to make an impossible decision.

Men from all across the known world would come for her hand, they would travel far and wide just to get a glimpse of her beauty. They would come of their own volition, or by order of the other royal and noble families to win her favour.

They would not stop until she chose a mate, a true love, a person to wed and spend her life with.

They would go to great lengths, some in the name of love, some in the name of obsession. All of them would go to extremes to be the one who would get to her first, who would be the one to obtain her, to possess her.

But she was not a possession to be claimed, not an object to be taken, to be stolen away or an award to be won. She was a human being, with thoughts and feelings and her own dreams and wants and needs and free will.

So, a year before the Princess’ eighteenth birthday, her mother and father, the greatly beloved King and Queen of Evamere, built her a tower shrouded in the depths of the enchanted forest, beyond the palace. It was hidden away and treacherous to reach and that’s where they sent their daughter to hide.

However, they did not simply send her away to live out her days in solitary confinement, with not a soul to keep her company. No. They went to the tallest mountains of the North and beseeched the King of Dragons for his protection, so that their daughter could be safe and so that she could keep her safety with a guardian to keep her company, for they could not even trust their own knights not to be affected by the curse.

The King of Dragons sympathised with the monarchs of Evamere and agreed to send one of his fiercest and most capable dragon knights to protect and guard the tower and the lovely princess within.

Only one dragon could fit the bill: Damaris The Great.

She was the most skilled warrior they had, towering above the others in their clan in her talent and battle prowess. She was perfectly intimidating, standing at over 50ft long - not including horns and wingspan - with scales as black as night and eyes like liquid gold, shimmering around her slitted pupils. Her talons were pointed and sharp like swords and her teeth glinted like daggers in her ferocious maw.

And so, the tower was built by female workers, those who would not be charmed by the curse that was due to befall the Princess and all her potential suitors, strong women from common families who were sufficiently compensated for their work.

They were held in high regard by the people of the Kingdom and treated like heroes. Their hard work and time would help protect Princess Winifred from unwanted attention, and would hold off those who she did not want to disturb her.

The women took their jobs very seriously, each of them wishing to protect Winifred and keep her safe, the same way that they would protect each other as well. Women of the kingdom looked out for each other, went out of their way to make sure they were safe. Their sense of community knew no bounds.

The tower was taller than the tallest trees of the enchanted forest and the keep surrounding it had high and thick walls, fitted with battlements and having not a single gate in its side that could be breached by battering rams.

There was even a series of taller outposts situated around it on the Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western sides for the dragon to perch upon as its sole lookout. Though Damaris preferred to take position on the highest point of the main tower, close to the princess and at the highest vantage point, to spot anyone who may dare to approach.

Before the princess’ birthday, she was taken to the mountains to meet with Damaris, to make sure that they would get along and that the princess could form a bond of friendship with her protector before her time in the tower would begin.

To both of their luck, they got along like a house on fire. They became fast friends and Damaris quickly decided that Winifred was well worth protecting, and was well worth defending until she found her one true love and the curse could be broken.

So when the time came and Winifred had to take her leave from the castle where she grew up, from the place she called home and the people that were her family, it was Damaris who took her to the tower. They flew together to the tallest tower and Winifred dismounted into the highest window that led to her bed chambers.

She would be spending the majority of her time there now that the curse had been activated.

Her eighteenth birthday passed without much fanfare, but the dragon Damaris did help her make a delicious sponge cake in the tower’s kitchen, which they shared after a fine dinner which they had also prepared together.

The tower was not without the needed supplies and the princess was not without the skills to maintain herself during her stay. No, Princess Winifred was a more than capable young woman.

She tended a small garden of herbs, spices, and mixed vegetables kept in a greenhouse on a large balcony that extended from the tower on the floor below her bedchamber. On the ground floor, between the tower and the outer walls, chickens roamed and Damaris would take it upon herself to gather eggs and hunt outside of the tower for rabbits, deer, ducks and fish from the river.

The pair of them made an excellent team, taking care of themselves and each other.

The princess spent much of her time between the garden and the library in the tower. When she was not tending the plants, she was tending to her mind by expanding her knowledge and reading the occasional fairytale for amusement.

It was not long before the men started coming to the tower. At first it was just one or two, but then the frequency of their attempts increased as the days and the weeks went by.

They were soldiers, knights, princes, warriors and rogues from all walks of the world. They came from far-off kingdoms along with ones close by, came from distant realms both over and underhill. Some were were-creatures of different sorts: wolves, lions, wildcats, and more. Some of them were elves, fair folk, halflings, and some were simple humans of different sorts.

One by one, the great dragon, Damaris, turned them away, fought them and scared them when they were overconfident or foolish in their attempts to enter the tower and find the princess.

Winifred watched on from the window of her chambers, amused by the feeble attempts to best her obsidian-scaled companion. Damaris was not to be trifled with, not to be underestimated by any means. As the men kept coming and as they kept being made to leave, the fact of it became more and more glaringly blatant.

There were but a few of these warriors that returned again for another attempt at the tower and its guardian, but they were turned away just as quickly on their ninth attempt as they were on their first. Those that returned grew more frustrated and more unhinged at each instance of defeat, and yet none of them came any closer to achieving their goal.

In the worst scenarios, those who manage to gain a glimpse of the princess at her window, go almost mad with desire, the curse taking hold of the impurity that had laid dormant in their hearts. Those ones left a little more singed than the others, some of them did not leave and their bodies were buried far from the tower so as to not cause Winifred any more undue distress.

She could not bear the way that their eyes changed to something savage when they looked at her, could bear it even less to see them twisted and burned in the wake of the wrath of Damaris. So, Damaris removed them, gave them proper burials to ease Winifred's mind.

She hated that people had to die because of the curse, and sometimes felt the burden of guilt on her delicate shoulders. It was then, in the numerous nights when the pursuers had set up camp to try again in the morning, that Damaris turned to her human form to offer the princess proper comfort.

Damaris held Winifred in her arms, brushed her long golden hair for her and assured her that those horrible things were no fault of hers.

“This is the fault of the one who cursed you, dear princess. You did not ask for this. The mate of your soul will come, dear princess, and you shall be free.” Damaris would murmur softly.

She would stay until the princess fell into a peaceful slumber and would then return to her post; always watching and always listening, prepared for anyone who might try to breach the walls of the keep.

And so, night fell and morning rose and time went by. The men came and went with the passing of the days, the passing of the weeks and the passing of the months and yet, not one of them came close to being worthy of being the one to break the princess’ curse.

As many moons passed, eve by eve, the princess grew accustomed to life within the confines of the tower. Having Damaris there with her made it feel less lonely and she always felt secure and protected with her fearsome knight around to take care of any who came to threaten her peace. It had come to feel like a home almost in the way that the castle had before her fateful birthday that had signified her first steps into womanhood.

Sometimes she would look from her window or her balcony, up to the stars and the moon above and look for falling stars. She would wish for her love to come and find her so that she could finally be at peace, so that she could finally stop fearing for her future and hiding away from the world.

She longed for freedom and the chance to explore life’s wonders and longed for someone to see it with her. Though she loved Damaris dearly as her closest friend, she longed for a connection different from the one that they had cultivated together. None could come close to a platonic bond as strong and pure as the one they had, but she hoped and pined for a love that would fulfil her romantic desires.

“I understand that I do not need it to be whole, and that you would be happy to remain my protector for the rest of my days, dear Damaris, but it is undeniably something that I desire, for myself and for my future. I wish to return to my position in the royal court and I wish to do so hand in hand with the one true mate of my heart.” Princess Winifred had confided.

“Do not fear, dear princess, dearest friend of mine,” Said Damaris. “For he shall come to you when the time is right.”

Sweet Princess Winifred took comfort in Damaris’ words, held them close to her heart and believed in them. She let them seep into her bones and plant themselves in her soul and wash over the roots of her hope. The seeds of it were planted deeply within her and she used the encouragement of her greatest companion to nurture them, so that they could grow into what would eventually bloom into beautiful flowers.

She waited patiently in the tower, living her life as fulfilling as she could within those remarkable walls, the ones that had been built for her by the hands of the women of the kingdom of Evamere, who loved and cared for her as one of their own.

Every morning she looked toward the horizon, she thanked the sun for its warmth, the clouds for their rain, she thanked the forest for its magic and the mountains for their mightiest protector. She thanked the stars for their wisdom and the moon for its light, she thanked the earth for its life and the heavens for the great love that had been bestowed upon her life.

Winifred lived each day in the tower with unending gratitude and she never took the things she had been given for granted. She showed this not only with her words but with her care, pouring all the love that she had been given back into all that she did.

For if the princess had one thing in great abundance, it was love. And she knew, without doubt, that the love that still awaited her, she would also return.