Behind the Eyes

"This has gone on for far too long!" Glysinda thundered with amazing volume. The king and Queen trembled below her floating, bright form. Queen Marget clutched her only baby to her chest protectively.
"Your entire ancestry has brought this prosperous land to ruins," Glysinda, the fairy queen continued. "You have failed to heed my warnings and now you shall pay for your selfish, violent deeds!"
The king dropped to his knees, clasping his hands together and looking up with begging eyes. "What shall you do to us?" King Herman asked.
Glysinda didn't have to think about the well deserved punishment. "Because this child is the only thing you've truly loved-" Queen Margret interrupted with an ear splitting cry, but the fairy queen fought back her normally soft heart and continued her punishment, "I have no choice but to involve him. I've decided I will put upon the baby, a spell. Fragment (consider revising)
Queen Margret clutched her baby tighter, making him shift uncomfortably in her arms. "Please," she sobbed. "Please don't do this." Glysinda felt her heart twist and melt but she had to stand her ground.
"You've brought this upon yourselves," she said simply. And with a wave of her hand, her spell took place. Queen Margret felt her baby grow hot through his blanket. He suddenly became much heavier and she saw a strip of smoke come from him. In complete shock, she dropped him.
But a cry did not emit from the baby. Instead, a sort of clicking sound came from him. "What have you done to him?" King Herman asked, eying the scaly, smoking thing that was once his only son.
"I have turned him into the symbol of selfishness," Glysinda announced, "a dragon."
*****
I had gasped at this. It had seemed to be the most incredible thing to me when I was eight, though I'd heard this story a thousand times. "Did he really become a dragon?" I asked my nurse with wonder. Louisa laughed as she looked up from the book.
"Yes," she assured me, "a dragon he became." She looked back to the book and continued to tell the story in her playfully eerie voice to make the story seem more real.
"And a dragon the boy stayed. His parents' hard hearts abandoned the dragon in a nearby mountain, and he was never seen again. Years later, Glysinda's daughter, Gracella, committed a terrible crime. She fell in love with a human!"
"Why is that a crime?" I asked, clutching my pillow in curiosity. I knew the answer, but I thought it better to hear it said.
Louisa smiled and explained as she did every night. "Because fairies and humans could not be together. It was unnatural to them. They were too different in too many ways to accept each other." Louisa looked back to the book once again. "But Gracella insisted they were truly in love. But her father did not approve. He cast an enchantment over the human to make him lie to his daughter. So the human had to tell Gracella he did not want to be with her and did not love her. But Gracella was too in love with him to fall for this trick.
"Enraged with her father's betrayal, she created a remedy for any magical curse or spell. It was a silver ring and as long as he wore it, it kept him safe. The human had a kind heart and he knew others who had been hurt by magic. So he melted the ring into a powerful liquid. Since the ring was of heavy and thick silver, it melted to a little under a half a cup, but one drop could cure anything.
"Sadly, the human did not quite think ahead that he would need the liquid in immediate situations. Forced by shame, the father killed the human and nearly destroyed the liquid remedy. But it could not be completely gone. Gracella was overcome by grief. Her depression and hurt had taken most of her heart. When she expanded the liquid into a large lake in the secret place they had first met."
"Why?" I asked. "Because it was special," Louisa said. "No, I mean why did she expand it into a lake?" "So that all the humans could use it to cure magic." Louisa looked back to the last page of the book.
"Gracella destroyed herself by giving all of her heart and magic to have this cure for any humans who'd be lucky enough to find it. Her father was very heart broken of his daughter's death, that he actually befriended the humans. For years they prospered. Until one king found Remedy Lake. And things changed.
"The king destroyed over half of the fairies and magical creatures and the humans reined invincible to their magic. When it seemed that the magical races were dying out, the surviving leaders went back to Remedy Lake and, with their last bit of magic, shrunk the lake into its original form as a ring.
"The presently reining king hid the ring where no one else could find it. But since all magic races had fled from the kingdom, they needed it no more, and the ring stayed hidden to this very day."
Louisa closed the book and set it next to her. "Time for bed," she announced, leaning forward to move back the covers of my bed. Sighing heavily, I brought my pillow and plopped down under my covers.
"Is that story true?" I had asked for the millionth time. "Princess Ori," Louisa chided gently, "I tell you every night the same thing."
I played innocent. "Oh? I don't recall." Louisa laughed at my attempt.
"No, your highness," she answered for the millionth time. "I do not think it is a true story. But, anything can happen."
I thought about this as Louisa blew out my candle and headed for the door. "I believe it's real," I whispered as I did every night.
I heard Louisa's light, airy laugh as she opened the door. "Anything can happen," she repeated, closing the door behind her.