The Gilded Prince

The Gilded Prince


Once upon a time there lived a very beautiful princess who ruled over a vast domain. One day, while strolling through one of her favorite forests she came upon what she thought was a charming prince. In actuality, what she had found was merely a common tree slug, but in just the right light and in consideration of this certain slug’s potentials, all that the princess could see was a charming prince. Instantly she fell deeply in love with her charming prince and took him home to her palace to live. She was delighted to introduce him to her loyal court of devoted family and friends. However, although they were polite in their presentations, they tried to point out to the princess that this charming prince was nothing more than a tree slug, but the princess just could not see what they meant. Saddened by the unwillingness of her loyal court to accept her charming prince, she began to gild him with gold and encrusted gems to help reveal the beauty that she saw in him. Every day she added more and more splendor to his appearance, and everyday she fell more deeply in love with him, and she was happy.

One day, however, the princess’ happiness was destroyed, as was her gilded prince. For, the prince, who had grown increasingly confident from the princess’ love that had made him so splendorous, found favor with a chambermaid. So self-assured was he in his desirability, that he was not only sure that his princess would forgive him, but that she would condone his affections for the chambermaid, and, without hesitation, he told his princess everything. In that moment of truth, however, the princess watched on in devastation as all the gilding fell away from her charming prince, and from the encasing of gold and gems slithered a common tree slug. What the charming prince didn’t realize was that the gilding in which the princess had enveloped him was held together by the princess’ love, trust and faith.

The princess was so distraught that she exiled the slug and the chambermaid on that very day. Confused and hurt she went into deep seclusion, ashamed to face any of her loyal courtiers, because after all, she was in love with a common tree slug. How she could be so easily fooled by her own heart was a mystery to her and her only companion became her anger, which she internalized when she wasn’t directing it towards the slug. Her life became bitter and lonely and she often found herself wondering through the chambers and corridors of her palace searching for something that she had lost. Sometimes, out of her desperation and loneliness, the princess would consider bringing back the slug and even the chambermaid if it would make him happy, but once the illusion was broken, she knew things could never be the same.

The princess spent much time trying to sort out what had gone wrong with the whole situation, and why she was left so wounded by it. Nothing made sense to her. She despised the slug but she missed her prince and in seeing that they were one in the same person, she felt as though she were held fast in a vacuum of suspended healing. Her pain continued to remain as strong as it was on the day she was violated.

Then one day as she wandered through her palace, she happened upon the room that the slug had revealed himself to her. There on the floor was the golden encasement of her gilded prince, undignified and without honor. It was painful for her to look at it but when she did, it reminded her of an empty sarcophagus. The image was so powerful that the princess knew that she had finally found what she had been looking for; validation.

The princess knew for the first time in a long time what she had to do, and with laughter that pushed through bitter tears, she prepared a beautiful golden box. In this box she had the remains of her gilded prince placed, then walked to the edge of her favorite forest, and on a sunny hill which overlooked her whole domain, had it properly buried underneath a pleasant shade tree. There the princess held a memorial service for her beloved gilded prince. She finally realized that even though she was in love with an illusion, her love for and belief in her gilded prince were very real. Her disillusionment was no different then experiencing the death of her lover and up until now she had allowed the existence of the slug to distract her from morning the loss of her prince. She had been so angry with herself for falling in love with the slug that she never gave herself any credit for believing that she deserved to be loved by a prince.

Once the service was over, the princess spread her body over the grave of her gilded prince and wept deeply. Allowing herself to morn for the first time, she thought of all the things that gave her joy about her prince and once again they gave her joy, even though she knew she would miss those things and him deeply. On that day, her healing began. Her love for her gilded prince remained as deep and true as when she first met him, but more importantly, she began to accept his loss. Her anger for the slug slowly waned as she forgave herself for loving him. There was a vast difference between the slug and her gilded prince and when she realized that she left a situation that was unhealthy for her, and she was proud of herself. She also knew that her gilded prince, the prince that she believed in, would have been proud of her too.

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