Light beamed upon him, ever bright like the first kiss of sunlight on a velvet dawn sky. Blinded, he squinted, returning his gaze to the road where mass greens greeted him. He knew not where he tread. He knew not if he was now on his way to the gates of heaven.
Yet, the soft sound of streaming water tingled his ears…
"Water?" He asked himself. The scent of wet foliage also beguiled him, drifting him to places best fitted to paradise. And then the sound of someone singing shifted him back to the road after his wishful thinking.
"A song?" He wondered, drawing closer and closer as he followed the voice.
Melodious—it was a song that calmed his anxiety. A tune that made everything serene. Hearing it more, he then realised… The voice was someone he knew.
As his heart pounded like thunderclaps, he raced towards the singing, running as fast as he could—brushing branches and snapping twigs like a young boy who yearned.
By the shore, surrounded by sweet woodland beasts, fair and calm was the pale princess herself, lulling her little darlings as they all rested.
Oh, how dainty she looked in all white. With her delicate paleness and white hair, Maria Blanca truly had become a fully bloomed edelweiss. While caressing the head of a deer that rested on her lap, she sang to them songs of her childhood, wandering her thoughts as she played by the lake, dipping her toes and making ripples on its surface. There was no malice surrounding her. The air was crisp, the grass gracefully swayed with every passing wind, and everything was just sublime.
Crouching under the shade of the bushes, the man stared at the princess with a longing gaze, weakened and resigned to her beauty. Calling out to her turned into a challenge. He had many duels he won in his youth. Jousting tournaments and mock battles, even he had surpassed, crushed with flying colours. But reaching out to her—his pale princess—was more like stretching your arms directly towards Prometheus's fire.
Looking back at Maria Blanca, the man yearned more, wanting to scream, yet his voice faltered as his throat tightened and his body ached from desperation. However, once Maria Blanca's lullaby concluded, she gradually rose to her feet and was about to depart. At that moment, the man gathered enough courage to call her, nervously exclaiming her name as he disclosed his presence and quickly made his way towards her.
"Maria Blanca!" He screamed, labouring for breath as he reached her.
The pale princess turned around and was greatly surprised to see him. A profound emotion echoed within her while she gazed at his face, as he took her hands and softly drew her closer. He was uttering various greetings, yet her focus remained solely on his eyes. Silver eyes that stirred an unknown emotion that both pricked and soothed her soul.
"Please say you remember me?" The man softly asked, raising her hands to his face.
Maria Blanca said no words. Only with her soul did she study his face, trying to understand some foreign sensation he was making her feel.
After moments of just silence, the pale princess finally muttered words. However, these were words that were odd for her to say, "Wake up!" She told him, cupping his face with her cold hands. "Please wake up!" Her voice suddenly resonated as the whole forest turned to crystal and cold once more. "Wake up!" Maria Blanca's voice reverberated like loud bells, ringing as if a thousand voices came upon her.
"Wake up!" With one last call…
He finally woke up.
Jolted from sleep, the man recoiled at the sight of three faces staring down at him. They were all blurred and mushed in his clouded eyes. Once his vision adjusted, the old man blinked and then smiled, lightly cheering, "Thank the Lord, you are finally awake!"
The two old women, with one slightly younger than the other, all nodded and even clasped their hands to their chest as the older one added, "Are you alright, child? You are covered in blood!"
"It looked like a battle had happened at the palace! Trails of blood, the queen's clothes were scattered all around, and we saw you, bleeding, especially there on your head." The younger woman informed, handing a cup of ale. "Why are there elk antlers here?"
"I—I have—I have to see—to see her!" He answered, though he was quietly astonished to hear his voice again. "I need to go to her!" He stated, with more vitality, after finishing the ale in one drink.
"Her?" The older woman asked. "Who are you looking for?"
"You must first rest, my son." The old man advised, placing the queen's ripped cloak, which he found lying on the throne room, on his shoulders. "We are still wondering what came about the place. Even we knew not what became of us before, except that it went blank, and my limbs turned numb and stiff. Where are my manners? I am called Hilderic. I work in the stables. And these ladies are the princess's nursemaids, Olga" Hilderic pointed at the older woman, "And that is Winifred." Pointing at the younger nursemaid.
The nursemaids bowed in courtesy.
"The princess? Maria Blanca's nursemaids?" As he said her name, the three palace servants' eyes lit up with little vigour.
Winifred began to tear up, remembering their dear princess whom they had never seen since before her birthday. "Oh, please let your lips speak not of a farce tale! Our little edelweiss! Our sweet princess!"
"Pardon, my son… Did you say, Maria Blanca? Do you know our princess?" Hilderic asked, drawing closer to him as he observed his countenance.
"Yes." The man said with confidence and a hint of softness. "Never in my life have I ever seen such a beautiful creature."
"Young man… You are a stranger here in the palace, covered in blood and wounds. Oddly, you said our little princess's name. Before the dawn of her natal day, our dear princess went missing. We all had this hunch that the queen was behind her disappearance, not until her servant went mad and told the truth that they left her in the ice forest. Our hearts were broken, for this eternal winter is unforgiving. And—and our princess… she is just a child!" Olga told him as she wiped the pearly tears that were stinging her eyes. "Is it really true that you have seen her?"
The man nodded. "I know her and she is…" It then dawned on him the reality of his pale princess sprawled on the ground, lifeless. He heaved and also remembered it was the reason why madness consumed his soul, darkened his sight, and, admittedly, the same reason why Queen Gertrude was now gone. "I—I have to go now…" He told them as he vacantly stared in front.
As he was about to rise, the three palace servants begged him not to rush since he still had wounds on his head. Hilderic even reminded him he was stark naked like a babe, bloodied, and in need of clothing. " Please, this is really important! If you are wondering about the queen. She is now dead! I am the one who did it. I was blinded by anger and now… I need to go to Maria Blanca. I will return and face justice if necessary." The man begged.
"What happened to our princess? Please tell us! Oh, for how many days we have searched, but it all failed." Olga finally cried, clasping the man's hand tightly into hers as she beseeched him with answers.
Seeing the worry and sorrows accumulating in their eyes, the man gave in and told them all that had happened, starting from the moment he and his father stumbled upon the battered body of King Arnulf.
The young man revealed to the servants that he was Prince Seigmund, the son of King Jarvis of the Kingdom of Ostaricum. Everyone was understandably surprised by the revelation that a prince rested before them and testified that their King Arnulf was alive and never died. Even more flabbergasted when they learned of the curse that befell the prince accursed by Queen Gertrude. Upon learning of King Arnulf's survival from her poison and being saved by the visiting king and prince, she hurriedly tracked the royal band's camp and hexed the prince, turning him into a great elf that indeed frightened his father and the rest of their troupe. King Jarvis even thought that the elk had killed his son when he saw the blood where the prince had lain the previous night, and on the beast's face and horns. The reason the prince became a wanderer in the ice forest was that his own father pursued him with a sword as he mounted his steed, fuming in anger, thinking he, now an elk, killed his son. Reflecting on this memory, Prince Seigmund could sense arrows penetrating his heart, aware that his father did not recognise him.
He also remembered the bitterness and forlornness when he saw his father crying, thinking he was truly dead, mulled by a beast that meant to be the prey. Left with no other choice, in an elk's body, the prince decided to dwell in the forest, leaving his father and the battered King Arnulf to return to their kingdom.
"That is my story before meeting Maria Blanca. I was cursed by Gertrude and wandered in the ice forest. I was so lonely that some creatures flinched the first time they met me. Well, they did warm up to me later on, but I came to the notion that I would rather be alone and never be a bother to everyone. I did meet the seven little dwarves of the forest, who were like me—isolated and forgotten by everyone. It was after these gentlemen saved the princess that I encountered her. These little men treated her like she was their daughter. They all cared for her and never, since I know them, have I seen genuine happiness etched on their faces, not until Maria Blanca came into their lives." Prince Seigmund reminisced, taking one more drink of Winifred's ale.
Resuming his tale, he then told the servants the dreaded news, "Maria Blanca is no longer among us. My princess faced death in the hands of Getrude. I know it was her, for her scent lingers like rot and burning sulfur. Amidst the bright and elegant emerald, she was a monster! I cannot forgive her for what she did to such an innocent and gentle princess. She is truly Lilith in the flesh! A demoness! I loathed such a beast, which is why I killed her. That is why there is no guilt inside of me when I ended her. I want nothing but to avenge Maria Blanca and how my father and mother's hearts were broken thinking I had died when I turned into an elk."
Upon knowing what they knew now, Hilderic stiffened, clutching his fist tight as he tried to control his emotions. Olga and Winifred became inconsolable—crying and calling out to their beloved Edelweiss princess, who withered along with the endless snow.
"No, no, no! That cannot be true! Please say it isn't so!" Winifred wailed, kneeling before the prince, lowering her head to the ground with unceasing tears. "Please do say it isn't so!"
Prince Seigmund said nothing. Only gazing at the nursemaid with pity while his head wandered at Maria Blanca, forever sleeping along with the blaze of winter.
With further consolation, Prince Seigmund was then permitted to go out, with only the condition of bringing Maria Blanca back into the palace. He agreed as he draped himself with warm clothing and set off into the blizzard, returning to his pale princess.