Sleeping Beauty: The One Who Took the Really Long Nap Read online

  With a glance behind me to make sure I wasn’t being followed, I ran across the Great Lawn into the woods. Once I knew I was out of sight of the castle, I slowed down. The woods were nice and cool. I loved how the tops of the trees met across the paths, making a canopy for me to walk under. One good thing about not studying life in books was that it forced me to pay more attention to my surroundings. I loved being out in nature and watching the animals and the bugs and even the grass growing. Father caught me once, just lying on the lawn, alternately watching the grass and the formations of the clouds. He asked me what I was doing, so I told him. He raised his brows and muttered, “My boy is an odd duck.”

  I did not know what he meant by that, so I took it as a compliment and kept studying nature in all its forms. Even in the dense woods alone, I felt very confident. Before I knew it, I found myself in front of the mysterious overgrown building. The sun was still high in the sky, so I decided to walk fully around the building to get an idea of its shape. I first munched on an apple for sustenance, then left the sack behind so I would know where I started from.

  I was still unable to break through the vines to see any more than the occasional glimpse of the gray stone walls. Here and there I saw a glint of a windowpane. Every time I turned a corner I expected the building to end, but it did not. It was much more massive than I had ever imagined. When I finally returned to my starting point, an hour had passed. How was it possible that such a huge structure could be on the grounds of our castle without anyone knowing what it truly was or how to get inside? I backed up a few yards. From that distance, the building looked like no more than a clump of trees and leaves. I could see that if one wasn’t looking directly at it, one could miss it entirely. I felt a little tingle as I approached it again. I wondered if something magical had taken place on this spot. There was something slightly otherworldly about it. I still believed in magic and fairies, although I had no proof of their existence, only old fables.

  There was something sort of familiar about the place, too. I could not put my finger on it. Now that I had a sense of its shape, I felt like I had been there before, and not just the time I had run to escape Mother. It was getting darker now, and the air had cooled by at least ten degrees. I affixed my cloak over my shoulders and struggled with the clasp. Normally a chamberlain would have dressed me (when one bothered to show up to work), but I liked being able to do things on my own. I envied how Jonathan seemed to be able to tackle any task. I knew that in order to be a knight he had to work very hard to master many skills. It appeared all I had to do to be a prince was not get eaten. I doubted that anyone at the castle even knew I had gone.

  I gathered some fallen leaves into a pile and burrowed inside. I finished off the other apple and all the cheese and wondered what to do next. With dusk came the animals who had hidden during the sunlight hours. An owl hooted so loudly I was sure it was right next to me. Normally I found the sounds of the animals soothing. Now, however, they sounded unfamiliar and even predatory. My stomach rumbled. I was used to Cook’s five-course meals. If I strained really hard, I could almost smell the food cooking from where I was standing. I let my mind wander over all the possible items on tonight’s menu. By the time I started picturing peach cobbler with a mixture of Cook’s special spices on top, I had to forcibly hold myself down. I had not thought of how long I planned to run away for, but there was no way I was giving up after only one afternoon.

  An hour passed. Then another. It was now pitch black. The sliver of moon between the tops of the trees was barely enough to allow me to see my hand in front of my face. I began to hum the tune of one of Father’s favorite songs. He always requested it of the traveling minstrels. It was an old song, and no minstrel sang it exactly the same way. The one thing the versions had in common, though, was the part about a sad princess who had a long time to wait for her prince. I never gave the words much thought, but it had a sweet tune.

  I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew it was dawn. Most of the leaves had fallen off me, and there were fresh tracks right next to me. They could have been from a coyote or a mountain lion. I was very lucky the beast had left me alone. As my stomach growled again in protest, it occurred to me that I had not planned very well. Next time I wouldn’t make the same mistakes.

  Wearily, I headed back toward the castle. Before I was too far from the mystery building, I turned to give it one last glance. It hit me like a bolt of lightning why the place felt so familiar. It was an exact replica of our own castle! Or perhaps our own castle was an exact replica of it? Surely this one must be ancient to be so fully covered by the forest. Perhaps Father knew when our castle was built. I hurried back toward the path that would lead me home. Halfway there, Jonathan appeared, hands on his hips.

  “Were you sleeping on the forest floor all night?” he asked.

  I nodded. “I put some leaves on top of me.”

  “I see you managed not to get eaten by a wolf,” he said.

  “That is true, I was not eaten by a wolf. There were some tracks near me when I awoke, but I was fine.”

  He shook his head. “You must have a fairy godmother. The forest is full of animals who could eat you in one bite. Speaking of food, did you have enough?”

  At this point in the conversation, I did not feel like revealing any more of my failures, nor did I want to tell him about the old castle, so I just shrugged. I began to walk again, and he fell in alongside me.

  “So,” he said, “am I to expect you will be running away often?”

  “I would say that’s a good possibility,” I answered honestly.

  “Well, in that case I’m going to have to teach you better survival skills. You were lucky this time.”

  “Fine,” I replied, trying not to show how excited I was. I was finally going to learn something!

  Thus our lessons, and our friendship, began in earnest. After admonishing me for my actions, my parents paid extra attention to me. That lasted approximately a day and a half, and then things were back to normal: visits to the aviary in the morning, followed by lessons with Jonathan in the afternoons. Father claimed not to know exactly when our castle was built but said he believed it was sometime between the days of King Bertram and our family’s reign. When I inquired as to why they had to build a new castle when most castles could last a thousand years, Father shrugged and said he had to meet with the bailiff to discuss some important kingly business, so I had better be going.

  The next time I ran away, a few months later, I was much better prepared and lasted three full nights in the woods. I was still no closer to getting into the old castle, even with the tools I had brought. Those vines were seemingly impenetrable. It was a mystery, all right — a mystery I was getting more and more anxious to get to the bottom of.

  Project: Discover the Real Rose

  The first thing I did was to make a list of the things I knew I could do well.

  Sing (anything, like a songbird)

  Dance (ballet, tap, ballroom)

  Play music (there is no instrument I cannot master)

  Be graceful (I never, ever trip, including when I walk backward while blindfolded)

  Be smart (I only have to glance at a page of a book and I can recite it a year later. My head is full of information I shall never, ever need to use.)

  Be beautiful (long hair that never tangles, clear skin that never pimples, a pleasing aroma even when I don’t bathe)

  So now I knew my strengths. But my weaknesses? I had no idea. It took me some time to get up the nerve to find out what I could do on my own. I suppose I was afraid that without the magic gifts I was nothing at all.

  When I turned thirteen I finally got up the nerve to tell Mama that I didn’t want to do the annual performance anymore. I offered to still sing and dance for the family and invited guests on feast days.

  “But why?” she asked, a look of concern flitting across her eyes. “Are you ill?” She reached out to rest the back of her hand against my forehead. “You do