Emily of Roses

 

                                                by seelam paramesh reddy

 

 

Once upon a time in a very happy kingdom there lived a king, queen and a

Beautiful princess named Emily. The king and queen gave little Emily anything she wanted, from servants to her own zoo. However, they wouldn't give her roses and they kept her locked up in the palace.  The king and queen did this because a long time ago, the king married the queen instead of fulfilling his promise of marriage to a witch. The witch got very angry and cursed the first born from touching the flower of love.  The king passed a law banning all roses from the kingdom. The princess had never actually seen a rose.  She had only heard, from her friends and others, of the flower's beauty and scent. She would look for books with pictures of that flower.  She longed to see one for herself, but her father kept her under lock and key.

 

                                                                  

 

As time went by the princess grew to be more curious and more determined to see this beautiful flower. But as her curiosity grew, so did the security surrounding her.  Her curiosity was now unbearable so she presented her plea in front of her father about how she wanted to see that flower.  Her father thought that it would be okay if he allowed her to have her freedom back. Emily was relieved that she had her time to herself and free from the guards. However, Emily hadn't forgotten about roses, as the king had thought.  On the day of her release she told her friends and her servants to meet her at the front corner of the palace at midnight. And told them to not let any other ears hear this.

Her staff, as told met at the front corner of the palace. She showed them to the secret door which led them out the palace. Once out side she changed to normal clothes and went in the midst of her staff till the outskirts and then told them to go back to the palace. Once they were nowhere to be seen, Emily went to explore the outer world which she has never seen.

In the morning, on her way for the first time she had seen real people, people who went to work in the fields and ran shops. Women who sold things on their heads and children who ran about playing werid games she never heard about. She had on her way seen many flowers but not the rose. She kept going on her journey to explore the beauty of the world. But she came to a stop on her way, for she had smelled something so wonderful she had to know what it was. She turned around in all directions, but is confusing which way to go. She stood still closed her eyes and started to sniff with her nose as smoothly as possible. After as few sniffs she found the direction in which the smell was coming and went towards that smell in search of its source. She went though tough bushes and climbed hills to arrive at something beyond her imagination.

It was a land so big filled with roses the size of her hands. She couldn't believe her eyes; she thought that she was dreaming so she pinched her self "ouch" she shirked in pain. It was real she thought and went around running and smelling the flowers. Finally at the end of the day she decides to take some home with her, and she plucks a flower.

 

                                  

 

 Before she turned back to select more a witch appears from nowhere.

The witch looking very mad shouts at Emily " how dare you pluck my flowers you wicked little girl."

"But it was only one" pleads Emily, scared the witch will do something to her.

"Oh you say one huh. But do you now how long they have taken me to grow them, and you just pluck one as if they were yours." Shouted the witch with her creaky voice.

"I am sorry" pleaded Emily.

But nothing convinced the witch from turning Emily, into a rose and putting her in with the rest of the flowers. Then she said "I will give you a chance, every day at 6 o clock to 8 o clock you shall be come normal and then return to a rose again. But remember you shall not go beyond that tree or you shall turn to a rose on the spot and die. And only when your true love plucks you, you shall come back to normal" said the witch and disappeared.

 

                                   

 

Day after day the princess came to life and went back. She was lonely no one to talk to; even though she found people she could only talk for two hours. Days went by, weeks went by and then the king sent search groups to find the princess but she was no where to be found.   

                       

                                     

 

One day a prince that was passing by that way saw Emily in the patch of roses. He was spell bided by her beauty, that he stopped in his tracks just to stare at her for so long that he forgot where he was, and then suddenly she disappeared. What in the worlds he thought to himself. He got off his horse and snooped around to find anything that made sense to him, but he didn't understand what he had just saw so he decided to wait there no matter how long to solve this mystery of this beautiful girl.

 

                                    

 

 

The next day Emily came out of the patch as usual. Then the prince sprang out behind a tree and asked Emily who she was and how she had disappeared. Emily saw the prince was taken back by surprise that he had stayed all night to find her. She was in love with him at the first sight. She told him everything from the beginning, and then the prince tried of thinking of ways of getting her out. But it seemed impossible to find the exact flower from the thousands of roses. So until they found a way, they kept meeting everyday for the two hours. But one day as the prince and the girl were talking under a tree a light drizzle of rain came by over the land. They didn't pay much attention to the rain and just kept to themselves

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But when the time came near the princess went back and the prince was about to get on his horse. A thought just struck his head he turned back and remembered that it just drizzled and that Emily was not wet. So he thought that the only rose that was not wet had to be Emily. He ran back threw the patch to the place where he saw Emily disappear and looked around until he found a rose that was not wet.

 

                                  

 

 He plucked the rose gently from the stem. As soon as he did Emily papered in front of him.  They were so happy that she was free; she took him to her father and told the whole story. Hearing this king immediately hugged both of them and got them married. And they lived happily ever after.