Forest of Thorns

Most people have heard the story of the sleeping princess. The frozen beauty, the fallen angel.

She rests in the smallest room, in the tallest tower, in a castle secluded from everyone.

And most people will know of the forest of thorns that surrounds her. It keeps her hidden, and safe.

And stuck.

***

This prophecy was made on the day of Princess Talia's birth.

On the day of her sixteenth birthday, the Princess will die.

The kingdom will fall into despair, and it will be lost to war after the death of the Princess.

Lives will be lost, homes destroyed, and families separated.

The Princess is the only hope for the kingdom.

But she will die before she has her chance to rule.

***

So the Princess spent fifteen wonderful years, living a life most could only dare to dream about. Full of luxury and riches, she could never want for anything.

Except for the ability to grow up, to grow old.

That’s all she really desires. It’s the one thing she’s always been told she can never have.

Her parents, the King and Queen, spent years trying to find out how their daughter will die, so they can prevent it from happening. The only information they could find is that a witch made the prophecy, someone who had been wronged by the King decades ago. This was her revenge on him, that he stole her life away, so she will take his daughters.

The King and Queen were desperate for a way to save their child, and their kingdom along with her.

They met an old sorcerer, who produced a unique solution.

The prophecy stated that the princess would die on her sixteenth birthday, not before. So they had to prevent her from ever turning sixteen, at least until they could find a way to save her.

So, on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, the princess was given a spindle, from an old spinning wheel of the sorcerers. He had covered it with a potion that would send the princess into the deepest of sleeps, and she would be awoken one day, when they knew she would be safe.

The princess took one last longing look out of the window. The room she would be kept in was at the top of the tallest turret, in the tallest tower, in the deepest part of the castle. There is only one entry; a door at the end of a long winding staircase.

The princess could see the treetops from here. This was her favourite view of the whole kingdom, where she could see everything that was precious to her. The princess hoped that she would wake to see the view once more when she can be saved.

She lay on the bed, in her most beautiful ballgown, and gently pricked her finger on the spindle until it drew blood. In an instant, she was gone, locked away in a world of dreams and nightmares.

***

Over the years she was sleeping away in the tower, the castle became overgrown. For there was no-one left to take care of it anymore. The princess had been asleep for so long, there was no-one left in her home. They had all moved on, to different places and different worlds. Her mother and father had passed some years later, heartbroken they were unable to save their child from such an early death.

The forest the princess cared so deeply for had grown and grown, out of control of anyone. It was now a fierce border that blocked anyone from coming or going. It was unfortunate that some of the last patrons of the palace had stayed for so long, as they perished trying to escape through the thick brambles that encircled the castle grounds.

It was protective of the princess and wanted no harm to come to her. The trees had grown thorns and became thick and dense with the years. Many a man had been killed before their time, trying to cross the deadly barrier. The thorns held together fast, holding hands so tightly they became one.

Many people - knights, princes, soldiers - had tried and failed to break their way through the forest. Some were smart enough to turn back once they realised what they faced, but most were fiercely confident in their own abilities. Their rotting bodies and skeletal remails are scattered through the brambles, slowly being crushed as the forest continues to grow.

They seemed to have idealised the notion of rescuing her from the tower, as most had by that point forgotten that it was the only thing keeping her safe, and alive.

In her bed, in the small room in the tower, the princess slept soundly. She hadn't changed a day since she pricked her finger, so much so that the smile she wore as she looked at her dear forest for the last time was still etched into her face.

Though, perhaps it wasn't because she'd glanced at the trees.

Perhaps her smile has to do with the dreams she has, of controlling the trees and being a part of her favourite place in the world.

In her dreams, she isn't dancing in a ballroom, or singing with her mother, or eating at a banquet.

She's running wild between the trees, climbing up the branches until she is the tallest thing in the forest.

She sees the brambles and the thorns, in fact it was her idea that they be added! It has made her adventures so much more interesting, racing around, letting them grow and twist around her body.

In her dreams, her dress isn't delicate and precious, and preserved like her body. It's torn and dirty and loose, her corset flying like a kite in the wind behind her.

And she has fights, too. There's always someone lurking around her forest, trying to get inside to the castle behind it.

The princess has found many colourful ways to keep people away. The trees listen to her, and respond when she wants something.

If someone starts climbing through, she orders them to be thrown out.

If someone tried to cut the trees, they are pulled in with such force, the thorns tear them into pieces.

If someone tries to burn her forest, she sends the blaze back to them tenfold, leaving nothing but charred remains and a few teeth in a pile at the entrance.

The princess is having so much fun in her forest, getting to be carefree for the first time in her life, that she doesn't really want to wake up.

The world outside her dream land is boring and old, full of rules and expectations.

Here in her dream land, the world is her oyster.

And, besides, no-one is really getting hurt, are they?

***

Hundreds of years later, the forest of thorns still stands, strong as ever, around the castle where the sleeping princess lies. It is unknown if she is still alive in the tower, and no-one had tried in years to breach the brambles, for fear of a death so gruesome, the grim reaper will leave you where you die.