Princess Rosella of Daventry

[Filtered from Alexis Hargreaves | Blue's Codes | Unhackable]

There's a story in one of my storybooks about a young princess with six older brothers that, through the scheming of their evil stepmother, are turned into swans. The princess manages to escape this fate herself, vowing to free her brothers from their curse if she possibly can, and learns that the only way to do it is to go for six years without speaking or laughing, and to spend that time sewing shirts out of thistles for them. And if, in all that time, a single word were to come out of her mouth, all her work would be for nothing, and the brothers would remain trapped forever.

The girl vows to do it, of course. And the story itself is only a few pages long, able to be read in a matter of minutes, so it seems as though her period of silence isn't so terribly long at all. But six years of silence, never speaking a word, never laughing? Six years...when even one year is a terribly long time.

It's hard to believe, everything I've done in one year. One year ago today I was damp and tired and lost, sitting in a fountain and not knowing a single person in the entire land, and trying to figure out why I'd been brought here and what I was meant to do and who had needed my assistance, that they'd called me here so soon after my last adventure. In one year, I've met so many people and lost them again, and some of them I've gotten back and some I haven't. I've learned to use a microwave and to skate around on Rollerblades and I've worn modern clothes I liked and modern clothes I didn't like. I've learned things I might've been able to at home, and things I'd never have had the chance to at home. I've gone to balls and parties and dancing competitions and ballets and all manner of events, great and small. I've laughed with friends and cried over them. I've seen summer in winter and winter in summer, and spring and fall between them. I've been cursed into a child, cursed into an animal, cursed to think I'm someone I'm not and cursed to be myself a bit more openly than I might've liked.

I've flown on borrowed wings. I've listened to stories and told them myself. I've had mishaps I've long since forgotten about, and mishaps that I'll never forget--not so long as Sam holds on to the pictures of it, anyway. I've made mistakes. I'd like to think I've learned from them, too. I've celebrated a birthday and celebrated the birthdays of my friends. I've celebrated holidays I've never heard of before, but that I approve of all the same.

I've fallen in love, too. Or something quite a bit like love, anyway; I've thought about it and mulled over it and questioned it enough for three people, I'm sure, and I've never quite been able to come up with a good answer for it either way. But I'm not about to dwell on it now, and since I'm remembering, I suppose I ought to at least be honest with myself. I've loved people, and I've lost them, and whether or not that means it's really love at all...it's happened, in this past year, and I shouldn't overlook that now.

Thinking back on everything I've done in a year...just one year, only one year...it rather puts into perspective just how long that young princess endured for her brothers. I don't know that I could've done it, myself. But there's no way to know, except to try, is there?

And so, for all the trouble it's been, for all the misery it's caused, for all the times I've cried and hurt and wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all...I can't help but forgive the City for snatching me away from my parents and my long-lost brother and bringing me here, keeping me here for a whole year away from them...because it's also given me the chance to meet all of you, and I wouldn't trade that for the world.


[OOC: I find it somewhat amusing that Rosella's one-year anniversary falls on Entry #108, since Wiki informs me that "in Japan, at the end of the year, a bell is chimed 108 times to finish the old year and welcome the new one."

At the risk of letting this turn into the Nostalgic OOC Note of Doom...it's been a fantastic year, I've grown to love playing this girl so, so much, and y'all are absolutely made of amazing, Poly! ♥♥♥ ]