Happy Princess 3 – The Third Elf

The doors opened, as the happy princess came out of her house. Before her, the boy lied. Dead – from the curse of the two elves. One glance she gave at the boy’s face. He lied still on the ground, quiet as a stone, and had a smile attached to his face. His last smile.  

"Still I like you." She remembered what he had said before his death. 

She sighed. If only there was something she could do to…

The elves came forward now. 

“Welcome,” They said. “You have become the third elf now.”

She looked at in surprise. What were they talking about?

The elves looked at each other and smiled. 

“Long ago,” The elves said, “There used to be two sisters in the woods who wanted to be elves. But they didn’t know how to. So on a fine morning, they went to the wood god and asked him how they will be able to transform into elves. The wood god forbade them and said there aren’t any ways of a human being to turn into elves. But these sisters weren’t going to accept it that way. So they took their lives, right then and there, before the eyes of the wood god.”

“By seeing such a deed the old deity of the woods had pity. He brought them into life, and gave them their wish, but only on one condition. Because the wood god had to cheat the death god for their lives, they must sacrifice another two souls in the woods. That’s how the death god would be even, and that is how they will be able to transform into elves, forever.”

“But it must be a willing sacrifice” The wood god reminded. 

“Within a very short time, the girls managed to lure two gentlemen, and break their hearts. In time, they came in the woods to see the faces of their loved one for the last time, and took their lives, for it was futile without them.”

“And then, here they stand, right before you.” The elves said. “You have managed to lure one for your own too, so you have become the third elf now.”

The third elf sighed now. Before the boy came, she was just another girl. Then she became a happy princess. And now, an elf. And all because of him. She looked at the boy again. Lying dead on the ground. He will never know what it is like to love, to smile or to be happy again. 

“But,” The elves continued, “There is one thing we should tell you that…”

They could hardly finish what they had in mind when they saw her running back, to the boy, lying on the ground behind.

“Stop. Don’t…” The elves shouted.

The girl ran back, knelt, held the boy and took him in her arms. She was crying – for no reason. Or perhaps for all the reasons in the world. She cried, cried and kept on crying. And as those tears dropped on the boy’s forehead, they turned into pearls, and scattered away.  

“Once an elf, you cannot cry.” One of the elves muttered to her from behind. 

The rain came, out of nowhere from the sky. It wet them first and then drenched them to heart. The girl kept crying, holding the boy in her arms. She didn’t want to let him go. 

“I loved him. Oh I loved him so much. God I loved him.” The girl kept muttering with her tears coming down.

It was the turn of the elves to sigh, now. They looked at each other, and nodded.

When the girl came into senses, the elves were gone, the rain hid somewhere in the blue clouds and there was sunshine all around. 

And in front of her, the boy sat, smiling at her. 

“I hate you.” The girl smiled. 

The boy said nothing, but smiled back. And then they laughed together.

Love has its own language. What would a mortal like you and me know? 

- Sept 9th '12