Sun, Moon and Talia — Obscure Fairy Tales

As the sun rose over the kingdom of Pinewoods, royal princess Talia was born. Her parents could not be more overjoyed with her arrival, knowing a full life laid ahead of the tiny being they held in their arms. It was the queen and the king’s first child, and, against their own wishes, it would also be their last.

Princess Talia’s first few days were filled with introductions and gifts from the members of nobility who came to visit. Of course, she slept through most of it, as most newborn souls do, but sharing their joy with their closed ones and allies was a delight for her parents, the royal couple.

That happiness remained, that is, until the castle’s sorceress made a premonition that would change everything. The old lady touched the newborn’s forehead and gasped, removing her hand from the child’s skin quicker than the wind blows through an open window in winter.

“Your Majesty,” she started. “Your daughter will be endangered by a splinter of flax before she turns sixteen years old. She will then fall in a deep sleep. There is nothing you can do,” continued the elder.

The queen and the king, fearful, decided to rid the kingdom of all flax plants, sending guards to pull out the herbaceous plants out of fields, forests and plains before burning them all to ashes and dust, all in the hopes the prophecy would not come to see the light of day.

For extra measure, the princess was never allowed outside the castle and, when political instability with neighbouring kingdoms showed its nose at the royal residence, Princess Talia was sent to her parents’ summer residence and locked in the castle.

Princess Talia’s existence, from then on, was even more confined and restricted, preventing her from taking the slightest stroll in the outside world.

Despite the lack of freedom, the young lady was excited with the change of scenery, having resided in her parents’ castle as long for as she could remember. She loved crafting crowns with the flowers she liked to pick in the garden at the summer residence and hoped to be able to, one day, give them away to the children in the village below.

As for now, she liked to decorate the statues that kept her company when she sat by the fountain, imagining she was surrounded by real-life companions, and not mere cold and stoned representation of what could be.

Talia remained at the residence for many years. One night, before the celebration dinner of her sixteenth birthday, she noticed a small plant she had never seen before. Wondering if she could use it for her crowns, the princess used her knife to cut a piece off, then tried to twist it into a small rope.

As soon as she did, Talia felt a sharp prick and fell on the ground. A tiny splinter had made its way into the princess’ thumb and, as the unknown plant turned out to be flax, grown from a forgotten seed brought on by the wind despite the queen and the king’s best efforts to rid the kingdom of the specie, Talia entered a deep sleep. The sorceress’ premonition was right, no matter how much destiny was fought, it would always win. Despite the princess’ parents best efforts, their daughter was gone.

The royal couple, mourning the loss of their only daughter, locked her in the summer residence, which essentially became her tomb, as the corpse-like princess laid flat on her back, unmoving, for years to come.

One night, a prince from a neighbouring ally kingdom, as he was looking for a friendly place to rest, stumbled upon the summer residence. In his tired and confused haze, he mistook it for a populated castle, believing he could find refuge in its heart. Though, as he crossed the yard and saw a strange monument, he started to wonder if his stop had other purposes.

Weeds and bushes were so overgrown that they covered the previously paved sithe to the monument. The fountain had long dried out and a healthy layer of moss and dead leaves covered its bottom. The air was filled with the contrasting scents of decomposing organic matter and fresh flowers from the numerous bushes. Sounds of crunching leaves and and creeping bugs filled the night as the prince looked around.

The stone monument was no bigger that a large roofed coffin with an unrecognizable shape as its centerpiece. The prince walked up the steps of the structure, glancing at the mystery that laid in its heart, a seemingly asleep young lady lying so very still she looked as if she was also made of stone. Only the faint sound of the air leaving her wide nostrils convinced the onlooker she was still alive.

The prince approached her body and reached out to touch her skin and hair, dazzled by the one who lay in front of him. As he felt the warmth of her features with his wandering fingers, the man forgot all morality and decided he would take what he wanted from the unconscious princess.

After he raped her, the prince, satisfied with the power had had over the seemingly lifeless body, continued his path through the depths of the garden until he reached the door of the residence and found refuge inside.

On his future travels, the prince always made sure to stop at the summer residence for the night. He repeated his horrible feat time and time again, with the young princess remaining unconscious. Over time, Talia’s belly began to swell, as if the prince’s calamites had left her with parasites. Many months after the intial visit from the prince, at the exact time when the sun and the moon exchanged dominion over the horizon, two small children were born.

Upon discovering his offsprings that night, the prince named them Sun and Moon for he considered them and the princess his whole sky. He placed them both in their mother’s side, emotional at the sight before him.

Sun and Moon, hungry as they were, tried to find a nipple to suckle on. Moon, the female twin, eventually reached her mom’s thumb and started suckling on it with all her tiny might. Despite pulling no milk, she did obtain a tiny needle that was stuck under her mother’s nail — the flax splinter that had brought Talia to a deep sleep state all those years ago.

Once the newborn had sucked out the flax piece before spitting it out in a loud disgusted and hungry cry, Talia finally opened her eyes.

For the first time in nearly a decade, the moonlit summer residence was reflected in her irises. Talia blinked a few times, still lying on her back, and took knowledge of the two newborns beside her, one on each of her sides. A slight panic began to envelop her heart, whose beat fastened with every passing second.

“Welcome back, sleeping beauty,” said the prince in a sultry voice. “You’ve been sleeping for a very, very long time, my love.”

Talia, confused as to where the voice was coming from, sat up and finally gazed back at the man who had been taking advantage of her body for months.

“Who are you?” she asked. “Whose children are those?”

The prince, proud of himself, confessed his so-called love for her and introduced the children to their mother. Confused and groggy, Talia went along with the storyline she was presented with and introduced herself to the prince. The latter repeated her name under his breath, as if that was the most beautiful name he had ever heard. The prince then helped Talia get settled in the now-abandoned summer residence and promised to be back in the morning.

Talia spent the night breastfeeding her newborn children, finding them to be the most joyous small beings she had ever had the change to gaze upon. The princess was confident her love for them could overpass the circonstances of their conception, but she did not have the same confidence in the feelings she had for her aggessor. She was disgusted with the prince. Thinking of his actions, she felt a new kind of rage, sprinkled with a strong desire to make him pay.

When the prince came back in the morning, Talia had already devised a plan. She pretended she had fallen in love with the royal, acting as smitten as he did in front of her. However, rather than going to bed as usual, she spied on the prince as he left. She carefully watched the direction he went in and started the same journey on foot, making sure she left a note for the prince to find the next day on her bed, which stated her pretend intention to visit her parents in Pinewoods to introduce them to their grandchildren.

With her two newborns strapped to her back, she slowly but surely made her way to the prince’s residence. Talia had a hunch something was going on, and how right was she!

Stopping only to feed her newborns, she walked all night, determined to see this journey through. As the moon finally gave way to the morning sun again, Talia could see the outline of a castle in the horizon. She sighed deeply, as she was almost there.

Before she approached further, she noticed a small bush of fresh flowers by her feet, reminding her of the crowns she used to craft as a teenager. She grinned widely, reached down and, as if her hands had never stopped weaving, crafted two flower crowns for Moon and Sun. They looked divine with their little crowns!

Now, she and her offsprings were ready to face reality. On and on she went with her little ones on her back. When she reached the castle gates, she demanded an audience, using her family name as leverage. She thus presented herself to the royals as the mother of their son’s children, outraging all those present with her revelation, but especially the prince’s wife. She immediately realized where the prince had gone all those times, including that same morning, right before Talia arrived to the castle.

Talia and the wife then took a stroll in the royal gardens, plotting their revenge.

When the prince came back to his castle, his wife announced she had the cook prepare a special meal for his return. None the wiser, the prince took his usual seat at the table and waited patiently for his food.

As he was being served, his wife explained the stew was made extra special today, with a very young animal. Tasting the food before him, the prince agreed with his wife, stating he never had such tender meat before.

As he was almost done with his second serving, the prince’s wife asked him if he wanted to know what the special ingredient was.

“It’s Sun and Moon,” she said after his approval.

“The sun and the moon?” asked the prince, puzzled.

“No, Sun and Moon. I know where you’ve been all those nights away. And I love you so much that I just served you Sun and Moon because they are only a nuisance to our love.”

The prince’s heart dropped, pushing his meal back up. After emptying his stomach on the floor, the prince accused his wife of lying, that she could never be that cruel!

“They were simply bastard rats, I did you a favour,” the wife explained.

The prince entered a state of panic, demanding to see the cook right away, running to the kitchen and asking everyone he met if they knew what the stew was made of. No one seemed to know but the chef, who assured him he only cooked with the meat his wife brought him.

“How could you do this?” asked the prince. “And what have you done with my beloved?”

“Don’t worry, honey. I also planned something for her,” said the wife coyly, while gesturing to the courtyard, where a pyre was being set up.

The prince ran to the courtyard, just in time for Talia to be led to the pyre.

“Don’t try to save her,” said the wife. “Your wretched beloved will only get what she deserves.”

The prince joined the princess at the centre of the pyre, trying to undo her knots, until…she pulled a string and they all came loose. The prince, confused, felt his own hands being pulled back and tied to the pyre. With a puzzling look, he looked down at his own wife, standing in a prideful pose below, helping Talia come down from the pile of wood and standing beside her.

As the pyre was set on fire, the prince was starting to realize he had been played. That’s when the wet nurse arrived with Sun and Moon in her arms, sleeping peacefully.

“You played us, you played us both,” said his wife and Talia in one voice.

“You took advantage of my body when I couldn’t refuse you,” said Talia. “That’s not love.”

“You don’t know what love is,” added the wife.

While his feet were starting to get scorched, he started feeling dizzy from the pain and could barely make out his wife and Talia’s faces grinning revengefully. That was the last sight he registered before succombing to his burns.

Once he was nothing but crispy bones, his body was broken into pieces and placed in an unmarked grave by the river, where no one would ever look for him. Stories of his demise at the hand of foreign vandals spread like wildfire, and the real circumstances of his death were kept under wraps until now, as you are reading this tale.

Sun, Moon and Talia moved in with the prince’s wife, who helped raise the children to adulthood. Talia and the wife live together forevermore. As historians would note, they were just roommates, of course.

The serie Obscure Fairy Tales encompasses an array of tales, myths and legends from around the world. To read more, visit this page dedicated to fiction writing.