I've been experimenting with internet dating a little lately, and I have to say it has been interesting... in the end, it's just another way to meet people, right?  Well this piece of writing arose from a conversation with someone who asked me to tell her a story... I have a feeling she was looking for a story about ME, so I may have missed the point, as I am wont to do, but a fairly nice piece of writing resulted from my folly, so I can't judge myself too harshly!

 

Without further ado, I present, The Princess and the Candle...

 

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Once upon a time, there was a castle.  In the window of the highest tower, there burned a single candle.  In the room behind the candle, there was a beautiful Queen, and her daughter, the princess.  As the Queen prepared her little girl for bed, as she liked to do instead of having a servant do it, the tiny Princess asked her mother, "Mama, why do you light the candle every night in the window?"

 

Her mother looked towards the window, and answered her, "I light the candle because my Mother used to light the candle before me.  I asked her the very same question, when I was around your age too, and this is what she told me..."

 

"She said, 'I light the candle because your father, the king, has ridden off to war, and he asked me to light the candle so he may find his way back to me if he should become lost in the darkness.  The moon has risen and set many times since he left, and although I am sure he will not return, the candle will light his way home, even in death'"

 

At this, the princess said, "But Mama, my father has ridden out as well!"

 

The Queen closed her eyes and said gently, "I know, my sweet, and now we light the candle for him, and also for your Grandfather, who was king before him... because one day, they will both return to us."

 

With that, she pulled the covers up and kissed the Princess gently on the forehead and sang a small, sweet lullaby to her... in the words her mother sang to her,

 

hushaby, and good-night, the worries of today, will melt in the moonlight, which guides you on your way...

 

When she finished, the Princess appeared to be asleep, so she quietly left the room, closing the door behind her.

 

After a little while, the princess awoke to hear the sounds of a horse's hooves far below her window.  She got up and went to the casement and peered out... she could just make out the faint outline of two men, riding side-by-side, glowing faintly in the moonlight, towards the candle... never seeming to get any closer... until they faded into the mist.

 

The young Princess took on the task of lighting the candle every night from her mother, and passed it on to her daughter after her... and ever has it been that a single candle burns in the lonely window, at the top of the highest tower... to light the way home through even the darkest of night.