The Blacksmith

The blacksmith’s shoulders dripped with sweat from the heat of the sun and the fire in front of him. It was a beautiful day. The princess went by. Several servants were carrying her on a litter. She peeked through the curtain and caught a view of the blacksmith hard at work. Her heart started beating immediately faster with interest and curiosity. She quickly closed the curtain. The litter moved on. The princess and the servants were heading back to the castle. The next day, the blacksmith received a letter with the seal of the royal princess. The blacksmith opened the letter and began to read. The letter said, “I request your presence in the royal court this evening at 6 p.m.” The princess had signed the bottom of the letter with fancy cursive handwriting. The blacksmith closed the letter and wiped the sweat from his brow. He felt a flutter in his stomach. What could this mean? What could the princess want with someone like him, a commoner? There were dozens of blacksmiths in the city.

That evening he got dressed in his nicest clothes, and started walking toward the castle. A servant at the entrance of the elaborate castle ushered him in, not even asking his name. The blacksmith entered the court. There was a large feast prepared, with a very long table with dozens of people. They all had on fancy attire and he felt miserablely underdressed. The princess rose when she saw the blacksmith enter and walked towards him. The blacksmith felt another flutter in his stomach. The princesses’ face was flushed with excitement. She paused, as she admired him. Then she introduced herself as the princess of the castle. Although, obviously, that was quite apparent. She told the blacksmith to come sit near where she was sitting. All the while, the people at the feast continued eating and conversing with one another. Servants kept bringing food to the table, with all varieties of delicious delicacies. The blacksmith started to eat. He hadn’t been able to eat all day so he was ravenously hungry. The princess smiled and dabbed her lips with a cloth napkin. The princess leaned over and whispered in the blacksmiths ear. “I believe I’ve read an old legend about you.”

His spine shivered, though he sat in silence, not knowing how exactly to respond. After, what seemed like a very long moment, he asked, “Me? I’m just a commoner… a blacksmith by trade nothing more, nothing less. How could there possibly be a legend about me?”

She smiled again but it felt eerie or amiss. “You are the one to set me free… and there is a lot more to you than meets the eye…”

He shivered again and then his body started to shake. The next instant butterflies burst through the blacksmith stomach and chest. These butterflies were not the beautiful harmless kind though, they were venomous! They flew with wild intensity. They had small needle like fangs that jetted through there mouths and they were really for the hunt and kill. Hundreds of butterflies whirled around, biting every person in sight at the feast. They found and killed every servant who were still bringing in more food and everyone in the castle within a few minutes lay in a heap. The butterflies did not go outside of the castle. Strangely enough, they had only attacked and killed everyone in the castle, aside from the blacksmith and the princess. In a flash, the venomous butterflies all flew back into the chest and stomach of the blacksmith. His flesh closed back up around them as if nothing had ever happened. The princess smiled with pleasure. The face of the blacksmith was horrified. The princess looked around at all the dead bodies and smiled again but this time with pure evil intent in her eyes. “See, you have been the one to set me free from all this ruckus.” She reached over and kissed him lightly, and then she disappeared in thin air like a phantom.

Still horrified, he shook with fear. The blacksmith woke up, covered in sweat. It was nightmare sweat which always smelled horrible to him. It was a reoccurring nightmare. The nightmares had started after the fire. A year ago he’d been working and stepped away from the fire and a spark had flown and caught a neighbor’s house on fire. The whole family had died from the fire and he was riddled with guilt and grief. As he got into a bath and started scrubbing his body with lye soap, he thought to himself, I can’t live here anymore.