by Anna Mendell
“Come in,” came the familiar voice from his childhood.
Erik opened the cottage door, and there she was, sitting on her chair by the fireplace, the old woman who had rescued him from loneliness and given his starving heart the love it had cried out for in its need. He reached her in a few strides and kissed her cheek.
“Ye have grown, princeling, ye almost fill the cottage now.”
“And you haven’t changed at all,” Erik said. “You are the same Ninny Nanny that I remember.”
“Humph! Ye have learned a flattering tongue while ye were away.”
“But you are the same,” the prince protested. “I felt like a young boy the moment I walked into your cottage. Time stands still here in the forest.”
The old woman cackled. “That is your nostalgia speaking. But it is good of ye to remember your old friends and pay me and Mnemosyne a visit. Four years is a long time for one your age, and I feared ye may have forgotten us.”
“How could you say that, Ninny Nanny?” Erik asked in reproach. “You found a sad, little boy and made him smile again with all of your magical stories. I was very unhappy when I was sent away. I used to cry at nights missing you and I am not ashamed to admit it.”
“Ach, bless ye. But ye have done well. Ye have returned a strong and handsome man.”
Erik saw that the old woman’s eyes gleamed with pride and bent over to kiss her again. Then he sat down at the table, resting his chin between his hands. “It would be an even sweeter homecoming if the queen wasn’t already plotting to marry me off.” The prince peered at Ninny Nanny through furrowed eyebrows, but the old woman did not say anything and continued to knit by the fire. “They say that the west is grumbling again, and apparently I am a bone to throw at them to silence them for a while.”
The old woman smiled. “I wouldn’t dismiss the power of bones.”
Erik was confused for a moment and then smiled at the memory of the old woman and her sticks.
“That’s true.” He laughed, but his laughter had a troubled edge to it. “So you think I should do as they say and marry the woman they choose for me?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Erik bit back words of exasperation.
“Here it comes,” the old woman said.
“Here what comes?” he asked.
“The question your eyes have been asking me ever since ye stepped into my cottage.”
“Very well then… Those dreams I had of the princess as a young boy, all those stories that you told me, are they true?”
Ninny Nanny fell silent, and all that could be heard was the crackling of the fire. Then she spoke, “I already told ye that they were. Why do ye need to hear me say it again?”
“What you say to a little boy is different from what you say to a grown man,” Erik responded.
“Do ye? I don’t.”
“Do not what?”
“Speak differently to men than to little boys.”
Erik raised his eyebrows and then shook his head, his mouth twitching at the corners with a suppressed smile. “Ninny Nanny, you never did answer questions clearly.”
“If the answers were clear, ye most likely wouldn’t be asking the question.”
Erik tried a different tack. “I know, in a way, that all stories are true, especially your stories. We are supposed to find the moral in them. What I want to know is, are your stories real?”
Ninny Nanny snorted. “What, have ye turned philosopher? Only one of them would come up with such a ridiculous question.”
Erik ignored her comment. “Take the princess sleeping in the tower for one hundred years. It has been more than a hundred years since my father’s people came from the north in their ships. More than double that time, in fact. How could that part of the story be true?”
Ninny Nanny’s eyes flashed. “Are ye a man of science as well? All the young men of your time are so literal. The curse meant not a hundred years as ye count it. It meant until the time was ripe, the completion of Time’s turning wheel. Words are used in different ways in different times. They uncover the thinking of all those behind ‘em.”
“So you are telling me that the princess is still asleep in her tower?”
“Waiting to be wakened.”
“But such things don’t happen. They are only stories,” Erik protested.
“Look at me, I come out of a children’s story, but here I am.” “But you are different.”
“Am I?”
Erik scrutinized the old woman. All of a sudden, her familiar figure appeared strange to him and his old questions resurfaced. Who was Ninny Nanny exactly? This strange old woman with a mysterious past that sat by the fire in a cottage that never stayed in the same place twice. Erik blinked, and her figure was made familiar again. He buried his head in his hands.
“Ever since I saw her sleeping in the river, the princess’ face has been ever before me. I used to dream up adventures where I would rescue her, and she would be the princess from my dreams, a little spoiled, but beautiful and kind. And very, very brave. Her bravery made me want to be brave, and her kindness made me want to be kind. What choice did a small boy have but to fall in love with the princess who appeared to him in his dreams?”
“An’ would ye deny all that now that ye have grown? Would ye cast that all aside?” Ninny Nanny asked.
Erik lifted up a face, feeling worn and tired. “No! But how can I pin my hopes on her either? Dunstan teases me for not noticing other women, and he is right, for how can they compare to her? The king and queen want me to enter into a political marriage, and they are right, for it would be good for the kingdom. How can I put all of that aside for a woman who may only be a dream?”
“Ye did not have these doubts as a child. Ye were wiser then.”
“Children do not have responsibilities.”
“Ye promised ye would save her, that you would risk your life for her.”
Erik leapt to his feet. “Give me a dragon to fight, a monster to defeat, and I would do it gladly. But all of this waiting, not knowing…”
“Requires more strength,” Ninny Nanny finished for him.
Erik felt himself flush and then stiffly bowed. “Good day, Ninny Nanny. I should return to the castle before I am missed. I will find my own way back.”
Ninny Nanny stared at the door after he left and then said to Mnemosyne, “He’s developed a bit of a temper.”
LATE that night Erik was quietly staring at something in his hands by candlelight. It was a shell, a white scallop shell worn ragged round the edges. He traced its shape gently with his thumb and then carefully placed it in a small wooden box. Blowing out the candle, he threw himself down on the bed and gazed up into the formless darkness.
He wished he could find something to cling to, a light to reveal the princess, or, if she was but a dream, something that would make her vanish in the cold, hard, daylight. He felt an anxiety he had not known while he was away. Now that he had returned, Erik knew that he must act, but he felt lost in doubts that he did not know as a child, the doubts of the growing man who questions what he had once taken for granted.
THE weeks passed by, until, one day, the prince and Dunstan were out by the river fishing. They had been angling with hook and line all morning, and Erik was feeling irritated, since he hadn’t caught anything. Dunstan had long since given up and was napping comfortably on the bank.
Erik heard a rustling in the bushes, and a white stag burst through about a stone’s throw away from him. It was a beast of nobility and purity, its coat as unbesmirched as newly fallen snow, its limbs lithe and graceful. For an instant, the prince’s eyes met the startled golden eyes of the white stag. Then it was off, bounding swiftly into the trees behind it.
“Wake up, Dunstan!” Erik yelled as he sprang onto his horse and immediately gave chase. The prince could formulate no reason why he need ride after the stag, but, when he had looked into its eyes, he had felt that the stag had drawn his soul from his body. He had no choice but to ch
ase the wild creature if he wished to find it again and be made whole.
The stag led the two young men on a winding chase, Erik following the stag, Dunstan following Erik, until Dunstan fell behind and was lost in the forest.
Erik rode on to the thunder of Lodestar’s hooves. There was a moment when the prince thought the stag had evaded him. He scanned the forest frantically and spotted it. It had stopped running and was staring at him with its eyes of liquid gold. It took off again, and Erik once more gave chase. He gave no thought to what he would do if he caught the stag. Shooting the beautiful animal was the furthest thing from his mind. But if he did not give chase, he knew that he would forever be lost.
Then Lodestar stumbled, and Erik lost his seat and fell. He hit his head, and all the greens and browns of the forest swirled together and turned black.
ERIK found himself lying in a field of silver grass. He sat up in amazement and discerned the dim blue form of a mountain in the distance ahead of him. When he turned, his heart pounding in his ears, he saw the riverbank shaded by the purple trees he had known he would find there.
The gentle wind rose, and the purple leaves and the silver grass rustled in the breeze. Erik knew he was dreaming, but he could feel the wind on his cheek, and, as he closed his eyes, he could feel the tranquility of the field seeping into him. He opened his eyes and made his way to the river bank, with his heart trembling over what he might find there.
When he reached the riverbank, Erik knelt, staring into the river’s clear waters. There she was, still lying at the bottom of the riverbed, the beautiful maiden he had lost his heart to as a boy. She was more beautiful than his memories, and this time he knew that she was also the princess from Ninny Nanny’s stories.
He gazed down on her sleeping face. “If only you would open your eyes,” he whispered again, as he had when he was a child.
Then he knew he must be dreaming, for the princess slowly floated up from the bottom of the river bed, and, as she rose to the surface, the water gently deposited her onto the bank opposite him. He saw her eyes softly flutter from a distance and realized that she was waking up. With his heart in his throat, he waited as he watched her sit up and look about her in confusion.
Her eyes fell on him, and she smiled. Erik thought he saw the breaking of the dawn in her smile and wished that she would look that way at him always. Then, as the drowsiness slowly lifted away from her, the princess’ smile was replaced by an expression of alarm.
“Don’t be afraid, I will not harm you,” he called out reassuringly.
“Where am I, and who are you?” she called back across the river.
Erik noticed that the princess spoke with an accent. It was similar to the dialect used by the people in the west, who proudly claimed that their language had not changed with the times. It also had a lilt similar to Ninny Nanny’s, but that was where the comparisons between the princess and the old woman ended.
“My name is Erik, and you have been asleep in the river and have only just woken up.”
“Can you say that again? I didn’t understand you.”
Erik repeated himself, and the princess looked even more confused.
“How can I have been asleep in the river if my clothes are not even wet?” she called out again.
Erik saw that what she said was true. Her dress and her golden hair were completely dry.
“That is because we are dreaming,” he explained.
“What do you mean?”
“The last thing I remember is falling off my horse, and then here I was, and you were in the river.” Erik saw that she was thinking hard about what he was saying, so he continued. Since it was all a dream, he had the feeling that he could tell her anything anyways. “I used to dream of you when I was little. I saw you sleeping here once before and then, at other times, I saw bits of your life when you were growing up.”
“What did you say?”
He threw up his arms half in laughter and half in frustration. “I used to dream of you as a young boy.”
“Well, you may be a dream, but I am not,” she called back.
Erik felt a large grin spread across his face. “All this shouting is ridiculous,” he said, “I am going to cross the river.”
“Is it safe?” the princess called back in alarm, but Erik had already pulled off his tunic and was removing his boots. The river was shallow enough, and the current seemed gentle. He dived in, but, the instant he touched the surface of the water, tumultuous waves overwhelmed him, and he found himself struggling frantically to keep his head above the water. The churning river dragged him away from the princess, and, after he had swallowed more than enough mouthfuls, it spat him back on his side of its bank.
The princess had been running down her side of the riverbank and called out to him, “Are you all right?”
Erik spat up water, then nodded, and the princess sat down on the bank and cocked her head to one side. “My name is Rosamund.”
“I know,” Erik said.
“Because you have dreamed of me.”
“Yes.”
“What have you dreamed?”
Erik thought for a moment and then called over the river, trying to slowly and carefully enunciate each word. “I first dreamed of you sleeping in the river and then I saw you as a little girl who wanted the moon. Once while you were dancing by the seashore and then after your mother had died. Finally I saw you climbing the tower to confront the curse. I have heard stories of you besides. I know all about you, Rosa… I mean, Princess Rosamund.”
Rosa was silent for a while, seeming to take it all in.
“That doesn’t seem fair,” she called back finally. “I don’t know anything about you.”
“You are right,” he admitted. “What do you want to know?”
She shook her head in frustration. “I don’t know. Everything? But it is so hard with me over here and you over there.”
Erik agreed wholeheartedly. “I will tell you everything once I rescue you.”
Rosa turned pink. “Are you going to rescue me?”
“Of course.”
The princess turned her head away. “Well I would not assume… Wait! Don’t go!”
Erik found that the whole world was dissolving away.
“I can’t help it,” he cried. “But I promise I will find you and wake you.”
Then he was gone.
THE prince woke with Lodestar’s muzzle in his face. “Ow, stop that, I’m alive. You dragged me away from the princess, you stupid horse.”
He sat up, his head pounding from the fall. Erik felt the back of his head. “That is going to leave a bump,” he muttered. “Now let us have a look at you.” He turned to his horse and examined Lodestar’s back legs and forelegs. “Looks all right, thank the heavens.” Erik mounted Lodestar and rode only a little ways before he burst out laughing. “Of course that would happen.”
The stag had led the prince right up to Ninny Nanny’s cottage. He quickly dismounted and tied Lodestar’s reins around the post at the front gate. Then he bounded up the path and rapped on Ninny Nanny’s front door. “Ninny Nanny, let me in! I saw her! I saw her!”
The door opened with a crack. First Ninny Nanny’s nose appeared, followed by the rest of her head. “Stop that racket! I may be old, but I’m not deaf. Now what nonsense are ye spouting?” Ninny Nanny’s eyes were twinkling.
“I saw the princess and I spoke to her! You glorious Ninny Nanny, she is real!” The prince scooped up the old woman and spun her around.
“I could have told ye that. Now put me down!” she squawked.
Erik lowered her gently. “I have you to thank for everything. I am so sorry that I ever doubted you.”
“Come round to the back, princeling, I want to show ye something.”
Erik followed Ninny Nanny to the back of the cottage and stopped in wonder. Spread out before him was a rose garden of every bloom and shade, bushes and climbing roses spilling over trellises in a profusion of color. Erik looked at the old wo
man questioningly, and she nodded. “Yes, this is the thorn patch ye cleared away. I planted a rose garden when ye left. Now that ye have seen the blooms, the time is ripe for ye to seek the princess.”
“Then I must go to the Shadowood?”
“Aye, but more than that I cannot help ye with, for ye must discover your own path.”
Erik took Ninny Nanny’s hand and pressed it. “I cannot wait for Princess Rosamund to meet you. You are like a mother to me.”
Ninny Nanny gave him a sad smile through all her wrinkles.
“What is wrong?” he exclaimed.
Ninny Nanny shook her head. “’Tis nothing.” The old woman pointed to the rose garden. “When ye return with the princess, bring her here and deck her in these roses for her bridal flowers. They will be my wedding present.”
“Of course, Ninny Nanny, nothing would make me happier.”
“Now off with ye. Ye must make haste to depart. Start tomorrow by daybreak. Brook no delays.”
Erik embraced the old woman, and Mnemosyne came and rubbed up against his legs. He bent over and scratched her in her favorite spot behind the ears until she purred.
“Farewell to you, mysterious Mnemosyne. You have ever been my faithful guide.”
Erik straightened and said farewell for the final time, then the old woman and the cat watched him mount his horse and ride away.
“’Tis the last time the prince sees us and knows us, Mnemosyne,” Ninny Nanny said to the cat, and then the old woman sighed.
WHEN Erik returned to the castle, he immediately began preparations for the next day’s journey. He packed his saddlebags and was laying out an extra tunic, when Dunstan walked into his room without knocking.
“Aha! I knew you were up to something.”
“I am just laying out my clothes for tomorrow,” Erik said wryly, which strictly was true.
Dunstan grimaced and looked pointedly at the bundle next to his bed. “You can’t trick a trickster. Ever since you returned from chasing who knows what in the forest, you’ve barely spoken two words, and there is a traitorous glint in your eyes. You are planning something, but what I don’t understand is why you haven’t told me what!”
