I was here once before, I think. We were all gathered together in this one place, in my dream. What is this place, amongst the trees of olive, the vines of grape, the colors of September and Spring all wrapped upon the words I weave here? Why is this sky torn by raped clouds and penetrative bolts of pure light while another sees it as an azure with white molten clouds the size and shape of their whim?? It must be I'm dreaming again. Foul or flitting may be a question to ask. Is this a dream like before, of Spring and death? Or is this a nightmare? Can it be both? I do not know......Not for me to say. I'm only a writer of words, a narrative of things seen and unseen.

I see a princess forlorn and wan...Once she had the prince of her finest dreams... and dreams can make of themselves very fine things. She was a fine princess, worthy of a queenship, but she had the trouble of vanity upon her, and it savaged her with ill whisperings from a mirror. "You're no princess the way you eat, child.", said the mirror, so she ate sparingly to maintain her appearances. "Your prince will not love you if you don't submit to his will.", so she hid her bruises and broken bones. "His highness thinks you fat and not worthy of his bed.", so in secret she expelled what was left in her bosom from the eve's meal to remain attractive to her dream prince.

And it happened thusly that she came under a great spell....She lay in stark, white linens... unable to speak, unable to utter her fears or wants or dreams. When she did sleep, she dreamt of her kingdom lost, her prince gone away from her to make another his queen. All joy left her, for she felt forsaken, but for her kindly mother and father, her peasant brother, and her loving sister. She felt comfort in their presence and felt their love touch her jumbled mind, though she could not say it unto them. She felt they could read it in her eyes. And in some way, she felt... not happy, but content.

The prince seemed a bitter man. He held his lordship over her like one wields a mace in battle, or perhaps an axe. The family asked the prince to release her to them, that they may care for her unto her death. He cleaved them with his words, saying "I cannot for she has come unto me and that is how she must go." And he left to be with his concubine-which-will-be-his-queen.

So the family of the princess sent it's meager emissaries Throughout the world, in effort to reclaim her as their own, that they could care for her in their ways.

The Adjudicate was consulted, the Magi, the Oracle, the Emperor.

They all sent word to the prince, but none was heard properly. Babel confused them all. The prince had long ago made up his mind. And thus it was that many days passed....

In time, one asked, will you feed her further, prince? And he said no.

Another asked, will you quench her thirst? And he said no.

And the world waited 12 days and nights.

"Angel Death Devil Animation" Digital Media by Margarita Yerastova

The princess was mindful of the world, and she wanted to return to it in whatever form she had left, and at night she dreamed of her prince, come to save her, and in the day she saw the colors of dawn, and her mother cradled her and told her the stories of the time. And though she was a small woman in stature, she fought on without supping, though she was hungry, and without drinking, though her thirst was dire. "There will be a prince that will save me," she always told herself, for she could not convey that to any other.

And on the thirteenth day, a light entered her room.

There he was. The Prince of Princes, and he smiled down upon her. In His presence, she felt as if she could arise and walk and so, thus, she did. He whispered into her ear, "YOU HAVE BEEN MINE FROM THE BEGINNING, PRINCESS." And she had to admit to her new suitor that it was true...She giggled a reply and took his hand as they walked upon a rainbow into a light that these mortal hands cannot begin to describe.

Did you dream it too?.. I will forever dream it, thus, this is my dream, and you are all witness.

But tomorrow I will forget.

Perhaps tomorrow I will dream again.