The Tortoise and the Hare
　　Far away from the city's noise, there was a small kingdom surrounded by a large area of beautiful forest. The kingdom was well governed under peace by the hare king and queen. They had a charming daughter, hare princess Liliana. She has loved running since she was a little child. Citizens in the kingdom could always see her fast and dexterous figure passing in the jungle. As time passed on, she grew up to be a prettyyoung lady and also the fastest runner in the kingdom. The whole kingdom has always been holding the best celebrations in full of happiness for the princess to enjoy the most, through every step of the her life of growing up. All the citizens in the kingdom loved their princess so much, but they were also keeping a big secret from her. Liliana felt that she's the happiest girl in the world, but she didn't know all that was hidden behind the very happiness was a touch of sorrow.
　　There were many admirers traveling from far away to the kingdom to ask for marriage with Liliana and princes from other countries starting to ask for alliance. It was a good opportunity for the kingdom to get allies from Liliana's marriage, but the hare king and queen never responded to that. On Liliana's 16-year-old birthday, the king and queen seriously called her into their room. The king started the conversation with his tired and miserable voice, he sounded a lot older than he was: "My dearest daughter, I have to apologize that there is a secret which I kept from you for 16 years, but now I want to tell you. Before you hear the story, me and your mother want you to promise us two things." "Of course, dad. What do you want me to promise" Liliana answered with curiosity. "My darling, we want you to promise us that you won't be doing race with any males from now on. And you can't fall in love with anyone." The hare queen said with very soft voice. "But why I don't understand!" Liliana asked anxiously. "Oh, we're sorry, my child!" The queen started to cry. "It's all my fault," The king said heavily and put his hand on the queen's shoulder, "You were born with a curse, it was a witch who did that. I caused the whole mistake, she was just wanting to revenge. She and I had loved each other. But my father wanted me to be the king, so I had to give up her and that's also when I met your mom. The witch felt disappointed to the true love. So she gave the curse that you have to race with every male who wants to marryyou when you turned 16. You can only marry to the one who wins. But no one will win the race and all losers will die. Your true love will be one of them." The queen cried: "I'm sorry, Liliana! We don't want you hurt any one and we don't want to hurt your heart either!" The whole world suddenly changed for Liliana when she heard it. She felt miserable for herself and she didn't want to blame her parents either. She didn't think it was anybody's fault. She just wanted to stay alone, so she ran into the forest. She ran and ran and raced with the wind until she's exhausted. "Onlyyou can keep company with me any more." She said to the wind. "Do you need help, Miss" Suddenly, she heard. A tortoise knight was standing behind her. He looked so handsome in his suit of green armor, especially with the steadfast expression in his eyes, even it's more replaced by caring by then. Liliana answered: "I'm fine, thank you sir, only a little bit depressed." "Would you like to tell me what's wrong Maybe I can help you, or I can just talk with you if you think that will make you feel better. By the way, I'm Jared." The knight said. So Liliana thanked to his kind heart and started to talk with him.
　　Liliana found Jared's words humorous. He knows stories from all over the world and she has always been attracted to listen to those stories and felt just like herself traveling to interesting new places with his eyes. Her life never became more fascinating at any time before she met him. Jared also found innocence and purity in her eyes which contained the cleanness he never expected to see any more after being a tortoise that has seen enough aspects of the society. Day after day talking and staying together, they fell in deep love with each other and neither of them could pull themselves out of it.
　　One day, Jared looked into Liliana's eyes and stated seriously: "Lili, I love you. I want to protect you around and be your knight with all my life. Would you tell me how I can marryyou" Liliana looked at his eyes and knew that she had to tell him something: "Yes, I love you too! In order to marry me,you have to race with me and win the race. It's...it's our tradition. But..." She lied a little bit, thinking: "Can I tell him the truth I don't know what to say to him next. I don't really know if we should get married. If everything is a curse, do I just need to stay away form him any more" She didn't know how to tell him the cruel truth. She was afraid of telling him the rest part of it. Even though she knew that his love was real and he wouldn't give her up after hearing the truth, she was just afraid! She didn't know what she's afraid of! "Of course, don't worry! I'll definitely try my best to win the race. I'll do anything for you!" Jared yelled out excitedly. He acclaimed that he has decided to race with her on the next day.
　　After saying goodbye to Jared, Liliana was walking in the forest with her heart entangled. At that moment, she made eye contact with an old crow. The old crow seemed to see through Liliana's mind, she asked: "Little girl, what does make you so upset" Liliana answered: "Nothing, madam. It's too complicated." But the old crow smiled slyly: "Nothing is too complicated, girl. What else other than love can bother a teenager You guys are still young, don't need to worry about age to keep yourself attractive." Suddenly, she became a beautiful young woman. Liliana was so surprised by her magic and figured that she might be a witch. She told the crow about her own story, trying to ask for her help. The crow lady recognized that she's the child of the man who betrayed her true love. She was the witch who gave Liliana the curse 16 years ago. The witch hated the king because it was him who made her disappointed to love. She didn't think any love would stay strong in front of hard choices any more. She decided to let the hare king's child to experience her pain and never get true love the same as her. So of course, she wouldn't help Liliana let that happen. She had a bad idea in her mind and told Liliana that she needed to pay back one of the things she values as it's required to exchange Jared's life and break the curse. The crow witch gave her a little bottle of potion and said: "At the moment you decide to save his life,you drink up the potion. And you'll see what you need to pay back at that time. Your decision is controlled in your own hands." The witch never believed in true love since her heart was broken by the hare king's decision. So she lied to Liliana in order to let her give up the chance to save Jared's life.
　　On the next day which was the day Liliana and Jared were having the race. The king and the queen were so worried and had no idea. By the time when the race started, everyone in the kingdom stopped breathing, except for Jared. He confidently smiled to Liliana with the normal sunshine on his face, trying to comfort her. After the referee blew the whistle, Liliana ran on the path as fast as an arrow leaving the bow. Looking back for Jared, she couldn't see any part of his figure. Her heart was bumping fast and her hands were sweaty, but she couldn't make herself stop running. There was an invisible power that forced her to keep running. She's so scared and thought of the witch's potion. She quickly took that out of her pocket. She stared at the little bottle just like she's going to break it with her gaze, recalling the witch's words. She knew that she valued Jared's life more than herself and there was nothing else that will make her give up his life. So she opened the bottle and drank up the potion. She thought nothing else other than trying to save Jared's life before the huge darkness swallowed her senses. Without knowing how long she fell in asleep, Liliana woke up with a loud sound of cheering. She found out that Jared has almost reached the destiny, so she started running again. But at the end, Jared still won the race because he's way closer to the destiny than her. She felt her whole body was saturated in happiness, so did Jared, her parents and all the citizens. She appreciated the crow witch so much for her magic and her light requirement for the exchange. But she never knew the story that happened after that.
　　Somewhere far away from the site of race, the witch was watching quietly. To her surprise, she never betted the girl would be willing to give up whatever valuable that she didn't know ahead of time, for the boy she loves. The witch didn’t mean to do evil things to anyone, but to give the deserved result to those who acclaim that they cherish love and do opposite things. But she finally knew that there was true love in this world. She felt a little grieved but warm. She murmured lightly: "Your daughter knows what true love is better than you do. She used her action to prove that the true love is higher than any valuable materials." Under the sheen dropped by the stars of the night, crystal tears slid down the beautiful witch's cheeks.

　　The end.

該作者現(xiàn)在暫無推文