1. The Queen’s Butterflies | 2. The Three Arrows | 3. The Musician and the Fairies
The Three Arrows
BY ALANA JOLI ABBOTT
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a king who had three children. The eldest, Princess Evelyn, had hair like ebony and skin like rose petals, and her voice called the very birds from the sky to harmonize with her. The middle child, Prince Collin, had hair like the feathers of a golden eagle, and he preferred the king’s country estate and the woods that surrounded it to life at the palace. The youngest, Princess Lucy, whose auburn hair looked like flames in sunlight, loved the feel of her hands in the dirt, among the living, growing things.
Because the king was tremendously proud of all his children, and because the laws of inheritance were not set in stone in his kingdom, he was uncertain who should rule after him. He consulted with a wise man of his court, who knew the ways of magic, and was advised to give each of his children an enchanted arrow. This, the wise man assured the king, would lead them to their fates.
The king announced this plan at a grand banquet, where all the nobles of the court were present. Each sibling was presented with a bow of the finest yew and an enchanted arrow from the wise man. Together, they traveled to the top of the highest tower in the castle while the courtiers flooded the bailey to watch.
The youngest daughter was tremendously excited at the prospect of adventuring far from home, and her arrow flew south from the palace, farther than any of their eyes could see. She grinned, shouldered her bow, and began gathering supplies for her journey.
The son, who loved the woods, thought of the country estate where he spent so many long and happy hours, and he aimed north, toward the woods he knew so well. His arrow flew true, and he, too, packed his bags, hoping that he would find the arrow near the place he already knew had claimed his heart.
The eldest daughter hesitated before shooting. She had no desire to go out seeking her fate, because she loved the palace, and the kingdom, and a certain musician among the nobles. She had written him compositions and given him her heart. But though she was loathe to leave the castle, she did as she was told.
The court, watching from below, gasped as Princess Evelyn’s arrow shivered in the wind, then turned right back toward the palace. It fell at the feet of the princess’s beloved musician, who picked up the arrow and presented it to the king. The king declared that there would be a grand wedding between his eldest daughter and the musician—once her two younger siblings returned from their journey.
When Prince Collin traveled to the king’s country estate, he was saddened that the arrow had not fallen where he could see it. He settled into his rooms, planning to begin his quest the next morning. But when he wandered into the woods, he saw no sight of the arrow. Instead, he thought he saw the tail of a fox, disappearing into the underbrush. The next day, he went to a different part of the woods. There was still no sign of his arrow, but again, he thought he saw a fox from the corner of his eye. On the third day, he sat beside a creek, placed a picnic the servants had packed for him on the ground beside him, and waited. Before long, the fox padded up alongside him, raising her nose expectantly.
“I am looking for an arrow,” the prince told the fox, offering her a bite of cheese.
The fox snapped it up. “You’re not,” she told him. “You think it should be where you want it to be. That’s why you can’t find it.”
Prince Collin considered this. After a moment, he sighed, admitting it was true. “What should I do, wise creature?”
The fox waited for another bite of cheese, and then a slice of meat, before she continued. “There is a small village in the woods,” she said. “There, you will find a girl who can sing paths through the trees and dance across the water. She will be able to find your arrow.”
The fox left, taking extra helpings of the picnic with her, and Prince Collin did as she had advised. There, in the village, he met the girl sitting at the well, entertaining the other villagers as she played on her harp. Though the prince still looked gloomily back toward the king’s estate, he explained his predicament to the girl, as well as the advice of the fox. The girl loved the woods as much as the prince and gladly showed him new places he had never been: a waterfall with a cave behind it, so that they could let the water trickle over their fingers from behind; a glen that, at night, lit with thousands of fireflies, where, if one listened closely, one could hear the almost-silent swooping of bats; a stream that bounced over pebbles like a melody, and the girl sang along, and taught the prince the tune. As they explored together, the prince grew to cherish the girl’s delight at every new wonder the forest held, and the girl loved the way the prince made her laugh, and was always ready to learn something new.
When the prince and the girl finally returned to the king’s estate, so close to the woods they loved, they were unsurprised to find the arrow waiting for them on the front steps, surrounded by the pawprints of a fox, because they already knew the prince had found his fate.
The youngest sibling began her quest with great enthusiasm. But Princess Lucy had not spent much time in the woods before, and after the first week of travel, when her supplies had already started to run low, she found her cheerfulness dimming. After the second week, with no sign of where her arrow had gone, she became cross.
The third week, she crossed into the nation to the south, a land whose ruler was titled the Butterfly Queen, for some odd misfortune or another that had happened a few years before. Princess Lucy was out of food, her clothing was damp and dirty, and her hair refused to stay in her braid. Though she had stayed on the path, it narrowed once she left her own kingdom, and she was beginning to fear she was lost. To add to her indignity, the heavens opened, and she was thoroughly drenched in a downpour. Wretched and alone, Princess Lucy tried to make herself a shelter under a large pine tree, whose branches kept off the worst of the rain.
She woke sometime in the middle of the night to sounds she had never heard before, howls and creaks and chirrups and croaks that a woodsman would be able to name, one by one. Though Princess Lucy had traveled in the bright forests of her home kingdom, the deep woods of the Butterfly Queen’s nation were dark and frightening, especially in the middle of the night.
When a large, horned creature emerged from the trees near her, she shrieked. She had no weapons—she had never needed to carry them, and hadn’t thought to pack her yew bow—and only her eating knife to defend herself.
“Do not fear, Princess,” said the creature. As he stepped toward her, she realized that the rain had stopped, and a sliver of moonlight revealed what the forest’s shadow had hidden. This was no monster, but a slender gazelle.
Princess Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. “How did you know I was a princess?” she asked.
The gazelle tilted his head, as if the answer were obvious. “How did you come to these woods?”
And so Princess Lucy explained the story of the arrows, and of seeking her fate. She removed a pearl necklace from around her neck and offered it to the gazelle. “I am lost and alone and do not know how to travel these woods. I will never find my fate without help. Will you take this gift and guide me?”
The gazelle’s head shivered in the night, and Princess Lucy thought he might be laughing. “I have no need for pearls, Princess,” he said, “but I accept your gift and will help you find your way.”
Princess Lucy climbed onto the gazelle’s back and, as the gazelle set off into the woods, she promptly fell asleep.
When she woke, she was once again alone. Before her was a small cottage, its eaves strung with dried herbs. Her stomach growled at the smell of porridge and cinnamon coming from within, but she hesitated. She had given away her necklace, and she had no other trinkets to pay for a meal. She wondered where the gazelle had gone.
“Good morning!” called a bright voice. Behind her, on a path she hadn’t noticed, was a girl a little bit older than her. Unlike Princess Lucy, this girl wore breeches and a stout jacket, and her backpack looked filled with useful things. She had a small axe hanging at her hip. “You can knock. The witch doesn’t bite.”
Princess Lucy blinked, standing very still, and the girl laughed. “Suit yourself,” the girl said. “But she’ll have breakfast ready for you. She always knows when there will be guests.”
“Do you?” Princess Lucy asked.
The girl’s smile was as bright as Lucy’s had always been at home, when she was working in the gardens. “Not yet,” said the girl. “But I’m learning.”
Princess Lucy followed the girl to the cottage. “What’s your name?” Lucy asked.
“Helen,” said the girl, opening the door. “Some people call me Clever. And you?”
“Lucy,” said the princess, leaving off her title, and Helen nodded in approval.
There was indeed enough breakfast for them, and the witch quickly put the two girls to work. Lucy was too exhausted to argue and did as she was told, working alongside Helen in the witch’s herb garden. Before long, even as tired as she was, Lucy realized that she was enjoying herself for the first time since she’d left on her quest. The witch gave the girls beds for the night and put them to work again the next morning. As the days passed, Lucy learned which herbs could settle a stomach and which could ease a cold. She learned what to use to treat a fever, and how to harvest flowers that only bloomed at night. In a week, the witch sent them into the wood to hunt for mushrooms, and Helen, who was a woodcutter’s daughter, taught Lucy how to navigate the deer paths and how to be careful of poison ivy. In a month, Lucy could travel the woods on her own, and the sounds of the night no longer bothered her. From the lessons of Helen and the witch, she knew where to find mushrooms that glowed at night and how to harvest bat guano in caves to fertilize the soil in the herb garden. She knew that some plants could thrive in a garden, and some could only thrive in the woods, and she grew to love both.
At the end of the month, when she was clearing a small patch of yard for a new herb bed, she found her arrow, buried by fall leaves. How long it had been there, she couldn’t guess, but she brought it to Helen and the witch in dismay.
“I can’t go home now!” she protested. “I still have so much to learn!”
The witch patted her hand kindly. “Your father has a wise man,” the witch said. “He knows many enchantments and plenty of herb lore, but he can’t make things grow. You have a natural talent for that, Princess Lucy, and you should return home and share it. He will teach you what you cannot teach yourself.”
“I’ve never been to your kingdom,” Helen said. “I’ll come visit and help you get started.”
Still, Princess Lucy put off returning home until one day a gazelle, wearing a pearl necklace twirled around one horn, brought a hapless young musician to the witch’s door.
“He was lost in the woods,” said the gazelle.
Lucy patted the gazelle’s head. “I’ll guide him back home.”
And so Lucy and Helen helped the musician find his way through the woods, and Lucy returned home with her arrow, her friend, and her purpose.
While her two siblings traveled, Princess Evelyn realized that music and math were two parts of the same language, and that running a kingdom was quite frequently about accounting. She offered her growing skills to her father, and between her intelligence and her charm, she settled quickly into an apprenticeship, learning how to rule the kingdom.
When Prince Collin returned, he declared his intent to settle into the king’s country estate and manage those lands. There was so much music and wonder to be found in that part of their kingdom, he explained, and he would find a way to share it. The king gave his blessing to the prince and his future bride, but, like the oldest sibling, the prince had to wait to marry.
When Princess Lucy returned, there was a grand feast, to which the whole kingdom was invited. Princess Evelyn and Prince Collin both married their musicians, and Princess Lucy, Helen, and the lost musician danced at the wedding. Lucy became the apprentice to the wise man, and Helen helped her clear a garden for herbs. Some say that years later, the two became the wisest women in the two neighboring kingdoms, and helped both lands become healthy and prosperous. Others say that while the girls were still young, they continued to journey in the woods and have many, many adventures. And some say that all of them lived happily ever after.
1. The Queen’s Butterflies | 2. The Three Arrows | 3. The Musician and the Fairies