Once upon a fairy tale

A princess kissed a stranger

She didn't quite know who he was;

Only that he'd saved her. 

He climbed the tallest tower

While the dragon slept nearby

For he could only win his crown

With a princess by his side. 

He helped her down and told her

He'd searched throughout the land,

Over hills and dales he'd traveled,

Just to seek her hand. 

They crossed the three tiered moats,

And snuck behind the dragon,

Although the drake had been her friend,

Since it had fit inside a flagon. 

Away they went to his domain

Astride a stallion hung with gold,

And greeted there with gloried cries,

She swore to have and hold. 

A few months into 'ever after,'

Thing began to change,

Her prince of gilded glory

To her seemed cold and strange. 

She tried to win him over

With smiles and funny tales,

But found that her towers stories,

Couldn't cure her prince's ails. 

The neighbors of his kingdom

Were a rough, unstable crew,

But as his was much smaller,

There was nothing he could do. 

The princess tried her best,

But her knowledge lacked in depth,

And decided to do something

More than read, to gain that breadth. 

So she sat him down one evening,

Played it off as girlish whim, 

And told him she was leaving,

But she'd keep her vows to him. 

To his patient ear she said,

"I've seen nothing real or wild,

I cannot make this final choice. 

With the eyes of a young child." 

Having got the queen he needed,

He let her go her way,

Telling the girl he fell for,

He'd love her while he stayed. 

So with her spirits bolstered

By his proud support,

The Princess went out seeking

Her homeland and its court. 

She traveled over hills and dales,

Far from hearth and home,

Through rainy nights and perils,

And time spent all alone. 

When she came at last to berth

In a kingdom wracked by storms, 

She helped them find the witches

Which hid in many forms. 

They'd terrorized the countryside,

Cooked up the strongest gales,

To revenge themselves on people

Who'd long ignored their wails. 

Passing further into mountains,

The Princess found herself

In a kingdom full of magic

With books on every shelf. 

The people there were odd ones,

Who dug their mines in deep,

And when she first came upon them,

None of them could sleep.

The dragon that they'd bothered,

Was cousin to her own,

And when she asked him nicely,

He flew to a new home. 

With cheers and exaltations, 

She smiling, wandered on, 

Into a land of deserts,

White hot sand and blasted stone. 

Here she found a city

Of people proud and cold,

That brought from icy northlands,

Their customs new and old. 

The arid land confused them,

But with a few borrowed books,

The mountain people's library 

Got the desert off the hook. 

They thanked the pretty princess,

Then asked her where she's bound,

Unknowing, she just shrugged and said,

"That, I've still not found."

With new friends from the forest,

From the stormy sea of hills,

And from the freezing desert,

The Princess walked on still. 

She wandered over strange land,

Unto the salty seas,

Where she at last accepted help,

From a man with unbowed knees. 

He took her over oceans

Like she'd never seen before

And she watched the water with delight

Till at last she washed ashore. 

On new, soft soil far away,

She found what she had sought,

But the kingdom from which she'd come

Was way, way, WAY too hot. 

A mountain spewed white fire,

Across the smoky plains,

And dark ash pillars everywhere

Were all the towns' remains. 

The Princess gasped and shook her head,

This was beyond her skill,

For she'd helped other empires,

But watched this flame-mount kill. 

The fires came towards the Princess,

Where she stood behind stout walls,

But the people of the city,

Ran heedless of her calls. 

She turned to watch heat come for her,

Eyes wider than two plates,

But there's one thing she didn't know,

That mountain fire hates. 

The pure tears of a Princess

Can stifle any gout,

So as the Princess broke and wept,

The fires started to go out. 

She cried and cried right there,

In the center of the town,

For the chances that she'd never had,

And the hope that got her down. 

Her kingdom now in ashes,

She felt that she had failed,

And her thoughts drifted back,

To her marriage veils. 

The tower which she'd lived in

Was erected with one rule;

Only a man who loved her

Could cross it's outer pool. 

She'd thought that only true love

Could vanquish evil deeds,

But as it turned out, her true strength

Fit all the kingdoms' needs. 

As the Princess knelt amongst the ash,

And cried her healing tears,

She finally realized something,

That had lain in wait for years. 

SHE was the Queen they'd needed,

The one the people loved,

And she looked out past the water,

At the land from which she'd come. 

She remembered her old promise,

That she'd always keep her word,

But wouldn't he be so surprised

To meet a Queen of whom he'd heard. 

The kingdoms that she saved

All along her quest,

Honored her with loyalty, 

And swore to her new crest. 

So when she came back to his doorway,

The man she once had wed,

The Prince truly didn't know her,

As he had thought her dead. 

She smiled a woman's smile,

As she watched him bow to her,

Then shook her head and told him

That she'd made her last return. 

He looked on her with new eyes,

This Queen upon his stoop,

And with a shock he saw her,

And gave a joyful whoop.

He took her back into his arms,

With a new and strange respect,

A little fearful that she'd leave,

Or take his land subject. 

On equal footing they renewed

Their friendship and their trust,

Talked for hours without end,

Of distant lands and dust. 

She told him of her travels,

And he told her of life

In the sunny kingdom 

That she'd left to seek out strife. 

Days passed and they rethought

The youthful vows they'd made,

And promised with a new love,

They'd keep those all the way. 

So, still, the end is happy,

Though the road was long and odd,

You see Happily Ever After,

Is a path that can be trod.