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“Story time! Story time!”
“Have you washed your face Eunha-ya?... And brushed your teeth? Whose turn is it to tell a story today?”
“It’s appa’s turn because you read me the one about the girl and the tapir yesterday.”
“My turn? Arasseo. Under the covers with you then."
“Are you going to go and do your homework Uju-ya?”
“I might just stay and listen for a little while…”
“Come and snuggle in with me oppa. You CAN’T miss an appa story.”
“Hey!”
“Sorry eomma. You know I love the books you read me but the stories appa makes up in his head are special. You like to hear them too!”
“Scoot up and make space on the bed for me then.”
“Is everybody settled now? Then I’ll begin… Let’s see…
Once upon a time, in a distant place, in a faraway time, a prince grew up beloved by all in his kingdom. He was as clever as the wisest of the kingdom’s scribes, as musical as the court’s finest gayageum player and as handsome as –...”
“As handsome as appa?”
“Impossible! Okay, maybe almost as handsome as appa. The prince’s heart was full of sunshine and his presence a tonic to all who met him...”
“Just like appa.”
“And just like your appa in the size of his ego too it seems.”
“Stop chuckling jagiya… However, there was one sadness in the kingdom where the prince lived. The prince had a sister; equally beloved and his match in beauty and cleverness but the princess was sickly. Her health growing up caused grave anxiety to the King and the Queen, and to the prince too, although he tried his hardest to hide his pain from her. Though many doctors came to attend the princess’s bedside, none could make her completely well and some of them wanted her to try treatments that were nothing better than quackery.”
“Quackery? Like ducks??”
“Appa means bad medicine Eunha-ya - the princess’s doctors weren’t good doctors and the medicine they gave her only made her more poorly.”
“Not like you and appa.”
“Now the time came, as it comes for all princes, that the prince became an adult and needed to leave his kingdom and take on a quest.
So, one cold autumn day, he packed his bags and saddled his horse and set off on a journey to the neighbouring kingdom. He knew there was a Great City there and he hoped that there he would find what he needed to solve his quest. Can you guess what his quest was?”
“To make his sister well of course!”
“I suppose I’d do the same for you…”
“Stop tickling me! You won’t need to oppa because I am NOT sickly and also I will do my own quests. Did the prince have to go all on his own appa?”
“He took his best friend with him – a young nobleman whom he’d grown up with and who loved his sister dearly too.”
“That’s good. He’d have been lonely otherwise.”
“The journey across the kingdoms was long and hard and full of peril. They forged rivers and crossed mountains, fought wild beasts and read the stars to find their way but finally, after many moons of travel, tired and hungry, they arrived at the Great City.”
“Can’t we hear more about fighting the wild beasts?”
“I don’t want to scare your sister.”
“I don’t get scared appa!”
“I know you don’t. Okay, I don’t want to scare myself. And I don’t think this story is really about the beasts….
What a bewildering place the Great City turned out to be! The kingdom that the prince and the nobleman were from was a small and friendly place but in the Great City everything was so noisy and confusing! It was a maze of roads and choices on every corner. And nobody they tried to speak to would stop and listen. The prince’s heart grew heavy – he worried he might never be able to fulfil his quest.”
“Hwaiting princenim! You can do it!”
“At a loss, the prince wandered through the Great City’s marketplace in search of something he and his noble friend could eat- his noble friend got bad tempered if he didn’t eat. And it was there that they came across an old peddler. Perhaps he was originally from the same kingdom as them or perhaps there was something a little magical about him, but this peddler was the first person they’d met since their arrival to meet their eyes with understanding.
‘New here?’ the peddler asked. ‘You’ll be needing some smaller coins. Why don’t you choose something from my stall and give me one of those golden sovereigns in your pocket? I can give you change.’ The prince looked at the peddler and wondered how he could know about the golden sovereigns he carried, for the prince and the nobleman had been careful to hide their wealth and were dressed in shabby and travel-stained clothes.
He could have distrusted the man and moved to the next stall, but there was something about the steadiness and brightness of the old peddler’s gaze that warmed the prince’s heart. The peddler spoke again. Once more he seemed to know more than he should. ‘Perhaps something from my table is important to you my prince?’”
“The peddler must sell magic potions that will cure the princess.”
“Appa’s stories are never that simple oppa.”
“Don’t roll your eyes Eunha. I might be right.”
“There were no potions on the peddler’s table…”
“Told you so!”
“Maybe I’ll go and do my homework after all.”
“You’re such a sulker.”
“Instead, there were a selection of hair ornaments. The prince picked them up and turned them over in his fingers and felt puzzled. There didn’t seem to be anything special about them, or anything that would be particularly useful for his quest.
Still, he supposed they were pretty enough to make his sister smile when the time came to return home, and the peddler was right that they needed smaller coins from this kingdom.
So the prince picked up a sparkly pin and held it out to buy. To his surprise, the peddler shook his head. ‘Not that one,’ he said. ‘Look more carefully and choose again.’ The prince frowned, but did as he was told and scanned the table once more.
He found his gaze drawn towards a simple circle of cloth. He didn’t know why. It was plainer than the kind of ornaments his royal sister usually favoured; designed just to loop hair out of the way of neck and face.”
“You mean like a scrunchie appa?”
“A scrunchie you say? I’m not sure. But maybe.... The prince saw there was a faint glow about it and something strangely familiar. Almost as if he’d seen it before. The prince picked it up.”
“Why are you laughing eomma?”
“There’s also something strangely familiar about this story Uju-ya.”
“Now the peddler smiled and nodded. ‘You’re right. In the lives before and the lives to come that is cut from the same cloth of destiny. That is the item it will always be your fate to find and to bestow,' he said.
‘Can I please find some food now!’ interrupted the nobleman before the prince could question the peddler further on what his strange words might mean.”
“I have some sympathy with that nobleman.”
“Of course you do jagiya. The prince paid the peddler and stowed the hair tie in his pocket. He and the nobleman found a stall selling meat skewers and hot cakes and filled their bellies. And as they ate they overheard an excited conversation at the next table that made the prince forget all about the peddler and his purchase.
They heard that a council of wise medical elders were gathering in the Great City that very day in search of new apprentices. All the cleverest young people were invited to come and show off their skills to see if they would be chosen to join them in unravelling the mysteries of curing the sick. The prince and the nobleman knew this must be exactly the reason they had made their long journey. They rushed to leave the market and join the hopeful throng.
In the Great City’s Great Hall a long line was already forming. The prince and the nobleman could see a stage at the other end of the hall where contenders were being grilled by intimidating looking men and women in elegant robes marked with the staff and snake symbol of their noble profession.
The prince suddenly felt conscious of their travel worn state. ‘They all seem very neat and tidy’ he said to the nobleman. ‘Maybe we should clean ourselves up a bit or they won’t take us seriously?’ They left the hall to give themselves a wash under the cold-water pump at the horse trough in the square, ignoring laughter and jeers from passers-by. Once clean and scrubbed and in fresh shirts, they went to claim places in the queue.
It was as soon as he sat down that the prince noticed the girl sitting next to him. A girl he couldn’t take his eyes off.”
“Ohh. Is she a secret princess like him? Maybe she’ll be the prince’s special princess?”
“Stop interrupting the story all the time!”
“I thought you were going to do your homework oppa?”
“I am. In just a little while…”
“The girl cast curious glances at the prince and the nobleman’s wet slicked back hair and damp shirts. She seemed just as nervous as them. She ran her fingers through her own long, thick hair.
Now, the prince forgot all about the quest that had brought him to that place. All the noise of people talking in the room faded away as he looked at that girl and her hair. For this girl was as beautiful as a field of summer flowers and the prince fell in love with her at first sight.”
“She IS his princess!”
“She could be an enchantress. It might be a trap Eunha!”
“Don’t be so silly oppa – of course she’s not. Is she appa? I don’t want her to be.”
“Welllll…. why are you laughing again jagiya? Okay, no. I don’t think so anyway. This girl was no enchantress…”
“TOLD YOU SO AGAIN.”
“In fact - although the prince only found these things out later -the girl’s spirit was as pure and wild as a mountain stream and her heart as warm as a fresh-baked loaf of bread and she was wiser than an old forest owl and most of all her appetite was bigger than a…”
“Ikjun-ah….”
“What? Bigger than average. That’s all I was going to say. The girl had a perfect sized appetite. And the prince loved her on sight.”
“I think she sounds just like ME.”
“Does she Eunha-ya? That’s interesting; she might have been rather like you in some ways I suppose… Straightaway the prince wanted to give the girl a gift to show his sincerity. He wished now that he was wearing his princely robes to impress her with his wealth – except that he sensed this girl was not one to be swayed by riches or status…”
“Oh I don’t know. Maybe the girl would have liked some princely swag…”
“Now you’re the one interrupting appa, eomma.”
“You’re right. Sorry.”
“The prince felt in his pocket for something – anything he might give her and it was then that his fingers closed around…”
“The scrunchie!”
“The scrunchie!”
“The hair ornament – that’s right. He pulled out the simple circle of cloth he’d bought from the peddler: It really was glowing now! With trembling hands he offered it out to the girl and hoped she understood that with it he passed over his whole heart too.
She reached out to take the gift, for just a second their fingers touched and their eyes met and for that second the whole universe stopped and held its breath. For the cloth of the hair ornament was woven from the gold of the sun and the feathers of a phoenix and the hair from a unicorn’s tail and it was nothing less than true love’s token itself...and...and..."
“And…?”
“And…?”
“And…?”
“…”
“C’mon appa!”
“..And so… the girl took the circle of cloth and said thank you, and she used it tie back her hair.
And I think that’s also more than enough story for today. Bedtime now Eunha-ya.”
“NOOOO! WHAT DO YOU MEAN BEDTIME?? I need to know what happened next? Did they fall in love? Did they get married? Did they get to be apprentices? What about the quest? What about the sickly princess? What about the nobleman?”
“And what about the wild beasts and the mysterious peddler and the medicine?”
“I’ll tell you some more about those tomorrow. Maybe I’ll even tell you how the prince betrayed the girl’s trust and the circlet of true love was dashed into the fiery pit by the girl - for the course of true love doesn’t always run smoothly I’m afraid. There may even be an enchantress... But I promise you one thing, whatever happens next, they’'ll definitely live happily ever after in the end.”
“Is she sleeping now?”
“Yes – finally, no thanks to you and your wild fairy stories. Mmmmm, something smells good…”
“It’s nearly ready.”
“Good, I’m hungry.”
“Of course you are jagiya”
“Thank you for cooking. Thank you for everything... my prince.”
“Yours in all the lives before and all the lives to come my one, true, love.’