Nurturing Wonder

The Storyteller

Addan hummed happily while he helped Myrdri wash the dinner dishes, stealing glances at her and grinning every time he caught her glancing back. They had only been married a month, but already he couldn’t imagine living without her. She had filled his life with more joy than he had thought possible, and he did his best to return the favor with interest.

A pounding on the door interrupted before they could start their usual after-dinner snuggle. Addan grinned, glad that after the first couple of embarrassing interruptions the neighbors had learned to knock instead of walking right in when they had something to say.

He answered the door, still grinning. Dirk glanced back and forth between him and Myrdri with a bemused smile. “Still got your clothes on, that’s good. I came to tell you there’s a storyteller in town. Jillan’s hosting him at the guesting house, and he promised at least three stories after seeing the spread she put out for dinner.”

Myrdri bounced excitedly and grabbed her shawl from the peg by the door. Addan thanked Dirk for the news, then slipped his arm around her waist for the walk over. They stopped three times on the way, helping to spread the news along the Northern path as Dirk continued around to the South, and by the time they arrived at the guesting house, almost everyone in the village was gathered to hear the stories.

The first was a familiar one, about a princess who married a frog only to discover he had been a prince in disguise all along. The second, too, was familiar, though the storyteller gave the lost babes a happy ending rather than the more common death in the woods. After that, the families with small children took them home to bed, and the storyteller ordered the lamps doused so he could speak by the light and shadows of the hearth-fire alone.

The third story was new to them all, and darker than the first two. It followed the adventures of a prince who, on the morning of his wedding day, woke to find his bride bespelled by a powerful witch. The witch, gruesomely ugly, greeted him wearing his beloved’s wedding dress, and offered to free the girl from the spell if he would marry her instead.

Repulsed, he refused without a second thought. She cackled and flew away on a scythe, leaving the girl behind in an enchanted sleep that looked just like death. The prince ordered that she be cared for and not buried under any circumstances. Then he set off on a quest to defeat the witch and free his bride.

The storyteller spoke on, pausing only to sip from his cup, and each challenge the prince faced in his quest was a story in its own right. In one, he helped an old lady who gave him a boon to use against the evil witch. In another, he was tempted by lovely maidens who attacked him as serpentine monsters when he spurned them. Finally, he found the witch and used the boons and allies he had gained along the way to defeat her.

The villagers cheered when the final blow was struck and the evil witch lay dead on the ground. They chatted a little amongst themselves, revisiting the challenges the prince had faced while the storyteller brought him home again to his palace and his love. Then the room fell silent as he told them of a princess still ensorcelled, still lying in her bower as if dead.

“No,” Myrdri moaned softly, caught up in the story. Addan hugged her close, comforting himself as well as her.

The prince set off again, this time on a quest for knowledge rather than vengeance. He searched high and low, consulting with witches and fairies and magical creatures of every kind. None of them could help him, until he came to a simple fortune-teller in the city of Saala. She told him of the one creature who might have the power to break the witch’s curse, and more importantly, she told him how to find the djinn of which she spoke, though the way was fraught with peril.

Again, the prince faced challenge after challenge, each one a story in its own right. The villagers listened intently, hanging on the storyteller’s every word as if he had cast a spell of his own upon them. Though it was long past time for them to be in their beds, no one wanted to leave and miss finding out what happened next.

Finally, the prince reached the mountain home of the djinn. It greeted him, saying “By your journey here, you are granted three wishes.”

The prince wasted no time, saying “I wish that the witch’s curse upon my beloved be broken.”

The djinn clapped his hands. “Of the three, two remain,” he said. “The curse is broken.”

Next, the prince wished to be returned to his bride’s side. The djinn clapped his hands, and in an instant they stood in the prince’s palace, where the princess was just waking up and greeted him with a kiss.

“Of the three, one remains,” said the djinn, but the prince now had everything he had quested for.

“I want nothing more than to celebrate my wedding day as it should have been,” the prince said, thinking to dismiss the djinn without making his third wish.

But the djinn clapped his hands, and the prince found the castle suddenly bustling with activity as it had on that long-ago wedding day. He himself was younger, and clothed in his wedding clothes rather than his accustomed traveling garb, and his people greeted him as if he had been away no longer than a good night’s sleep.

“Three sought, three granted,” the djinn’s voice said softly in the prince’s mind, then nothing remained of his quests but the memories, more vivid than any dream.

The storyteller intoned the words, “and they all lived happily ever after,” and the spell of the story was broken. The villagers yawned and stretched, and wandered slowly out into the pre-dawn light after paying their regards to the storyteller.

“That was so sad,” Myrdri said as Addan walked her home.

“But they did live happily ever after,” he said, hugging her close while they walked.

“Yes, but she’ll never know what he went through for her. He might even forget, since he has nothing to show for all his quests and adventures.”

“He has her,” Addan said, nuzzling his wife’s neck. “I know that would be enough for me.”

She laughed, and kissed him, and they went home to bed.