Crimson Velvet

Crimson Velvet
By Danielle C.


Far away, beyond the mists of the cerulean blue oceans and the wild scents of the deepest emerald jungles, there lay a country in which no modern creature has ever set foot. This was long, long ago, mind you. This was the time when a blue jay may have flown along side a creamy pegasus, and the blazing fires of a dragon may glow through the black depths of a cave. Countries like this one exist now only within the dreams of mere mortals, but our story takes us back to when this land, the country of Dertrayg, was a reality.

I say our story, but I really mean their story. The story of two very different people who overcame everything to remain united by one of the few things that has survived and strengthened through these many millenniums and generations: Love.
And so, with that said, we begin our tale. Once upon a time...
It was brilliant, glowing day in the Dertrayg, and the dazzling light of the sun bounced off the great gray stones of the castle, casting blue shadows across the magnificent garden.
The kingdom was alive with happiness, the servants chattering and humming while they fetched fresh water from the wells and plucked pastel hued wildflowers from the rolling green hills.
The royals, King Platome and Queen Virginia, went out on the streets and greeted the cheerful townspeople. In their kindness, they even treated the grimy poor to some coins for food to last all week.

But far from the bustling activity of the village, an unseen event was taking place at the palace stables.
"Mickel! Mickel, come, hurry!" a girl whispered as loud as she could, urgency and warmth in her tone.

A boy of no more or less than sixteen years responded to the call. He turned away from the horse he was grooming, his long, messy black hair flipping over his crystal blue eyes. He put down the curry comb he'd been using and pulled shut the horse's box gate.

Mickel trampled quickly over the stiff pieces of hay strewn about the stable ground, the pieces sticking to his feet which were only partially covered in worn leather shoes. He pushed a stray hair out of his pale face and brushed the hay off the rag he was expected to call a shirt.

"Mickel!" the girl called again.

He burst out of the stable door to find her standing there, startlingly beautiful in the golden sunlight.

Sirila seemed to get prettier every time he saw her. She was a girl fourteen years of age. Her long, softly curling light brown hair and sparkling green eyes shone especially bright today. Perhaps it was the way her silver princess tiara glimmered in the sun and contrasted against her cinnamon colored locks.

She smiled her perfect bright white smile and said "Why, Mickel. You dare break from your stable duties?"

He laughed softly and replied, "Forgive me, Princess Sirila, for I was summoned by an angel."

Princess Sirila played along with the act, but blushed, flattered at the compliment. "An angel! Well, now the stable boy has gone mad!"

Mickel shook his head and leaned forwards, inches away from Sirila. "You know we cannot speak here," he whispered.

Sirila nodded and grabbed his hand, leading him to the place they knew so well.

The couple raced through a lush green forest and burst out the other side of the trees onto a vast open plain. To anyone else, it was just a flat, dead grassland in which anything of color or beauty had long ceased to grow. But Mickel and Sirila knew better.
Sirila looked skyward, raised her hand high above her crowned head, and shouted, "Fly to me, my pretty winged one!"

A beautiful, cream colored pegasus with wings and a tail the color of a pale blue rushing river fluttered down to Sirila's side.

"Hello, Pearl. If it's not too much trouble, would you please let us through the Pink Ocean?" Sirila spoke softly to the pegasus.

Pearl the pegasus tossed her head and her light blue mane shook. She touched her silver horn to the ground and instantly the air around her began to gleam. A swirl of light appeared in the center of the dry grass plane, small at first and then rapidly growing to cover the whole area.

When the flash ended and cleared, the plain was no longer dried or brown. It was now covered in the most beautiful and picturesque roses anyone could ever hope to see. In colors of deep crimson, pale opal, and purest white, the roses bloomed as bright as a thousand jewels glittering in the sunlight. It was not difficult to see why Sirila had nicknamed this magical meadow "Pink Ocean."

Pearl flapped a periwinkle wing and there was another flash. Surrounded by Pearl's magic, to anyone who passed the field, it was as empty and lifeless as ever. Only Sirila, Mickel, and Pearl knew its true depths.

"Thank you, Pearl," Princess Sirila nodded towards the pegasus. She flapped her wings and flew off towards the lazily floating clouds, leaving Sirila and Mickel alone to talk in the amazing Pink Ocean.

This was not their first visit here. They’d discovered the dazzling meadow what seemed like ages ago when they’d continuously noticed Pearl flying overhead than seeming to disappear when she reached the dry, empty looking field.

Ever since their finding of it, Mickel and Sirila had taken to using the rose field as a place to meet in secret. A princess and a stable boy must never be caught associating at all, and certainly not as a girl and boy in love. That was scandalous! Although the head royals were kindly and good people, centuries of tradition and beliefs held the advantage.

But alas, one fateful day, Sirila had saved Mickel from riding over a wooden bridge and into the rapids below. A horse he’d been riding had thrown its shoe. Ever since then, they’d been quite the pair.

Being forced to meet far from watchful eyes was most of the exuberance of it. It was adventure and excitement, and it brought them together in a unity that even the story book characters of their childhoods could not have felt. And so, almost every day, they snuck off to the secret dwelling for a few precious stolen moments.

They lay there that day, embedded by shocks of pink and scarlet and cream, staring up at the cerulean horizon, fingers intertwined in the lush green grass between them.

“Do you suppose we’ll ever be able to make people aware of this, Mickel?” Sirila asked dreamily while deciding whether a particular cloud more so resembled a dragon’s wing or a phoenix in flight.

“Princess... I do think so.”

“How?”

He sat up and propped his elbow on the grass, chin in hand. “Well... why have we kept this all shrouded to begin with?”

“Mickel, you know perfectly well why. My father is the king of Dertrayg. I am princess. He hired you as a stable boy when you were six years old out of pity for your starvation. And since long before we came about this world, it has been considered preposterous for two people of as different situations as we to even converse,” Sirila answered flatly.

There was a brief silence, and the wings of the hundreds of jewel colored butterflies could be heard whipping lightly through the roses.

Then Mickel softly responded, “Maybe it’s time things changed.”

“One day, we’ll make them understand,” Sirila agreed, speaking more so to convince herself than Mickel.

The quiet came again, and the soft wind whispered their unsaid words and secrets to the curious trees.

Finally, Mickel sat up and a thin blade of grass tickled his temple. “I should be leaving. The horses must be fed before their sunset ride.”

Sirila tried her best to hide the disappointment in her eyes but found that she could shield nothing from him.

“The same hour tomorrow?” he asked.

She nodded and got to her knees as well. Tentatively, Mickel brushed a velvet petal softly off her blushing cheek and smiled lightly. “See you tomorrow then, Sirila.”

“See you tomorrow, Mickel.”

And they both stood, eyes locking one last time before he stepped carefully out of the sea of flowers and disappeared into the emerald forest beyond.

Obviously, the story cannot end there. But this tale, unlike most created in the fantasies of the young and vivid imagination, cannot truly come to a close. A proper conclusion would require six small words which seem so simple yet mean so much. And to say this phrase is true for our young couple would be dishonest, for they experienced so much more than they deserved, both before their secret was discovered and, as Mickel had predicted, afterwards.

But, to be fair, we all know how it will turn out eventually, even if time itself seems to be slowing down. We all know that love conquers all, and with it we will prosper. So this story ends with those six words, not sincerely as a closure to the present, but as a hope and faith for redemption in the future.

And they lived happily ever after.


A/N: yeah, the ending sucks. completely and totally. I knew that long before I posted. lol.

Bascially, the story goes as this: 97% of this story is two chapters of a novel squished into one with a rushed ending thrown on.

Like many of your comments suggested, this story is in fact more than one chapter and has a full plot. The problem was that my town had a local writing contest and I had absolutely no time to get an entry done, so i slapped an ending to this together. lol.

I'm going to continue writing the real version as a novel though, and hopefully it'll be posted soon. Thanx for all the great comments and I hope you'll read when there is more to read. lol.

~Dani