Princess Cressida Paints the Dawn: A Fairy Tale Read online

  Princess Cressida

  Paints the Dawn

  A Fairy Tale About Colors

  ____________

  Kae Bell

  Copyright Kae Bell 2015

  All Rights Reserved

  Other books by this author

  The Brittle Limit

  The Star Wrangler

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, locales or events is purely coincidental.

  Each morning, Princess Cressida woke before the dawn and set to work. She gathered her paints and crayons and traveled through her kingdom by horse painting the colors of the new day.

  She painted the sky stunning oranges and yellows of the rising sun.

  She painted the golden fields of grain.

  She painted the forests a deep green and the flowers in cheerful pinks and purples.

  Even the white of the puffy clouds and the red of the robins.

  But one early summer morning she discovered that all her colorful tools were gone.

  No paints. No crayons. No pencils. No markers.

  All her colors were gone!

  She checked everywhere. In the buckets, in the boxes, in the baskets and barrels.

  She looked around corners, under tables, on chairs, and along ledges.

  She looked at the clock on the table and saw that it was almost dawn.

  She was late! She should be painting the sky a golden yellow.

  But she had no yellow paint. Not one single yellow crayon to color the sky. She had no blue for the sky, no green for the trees, no purples or pinks or oranges.

  She looked out her window and saw the sun rising without her. Everything outside was gray. The sun, the sky, the trees, the leaves, the flowers and the fields.

  Only yesterday, she’d had one hundred shades of green for the leaves and grass. And infinite yellows for the rising and the setting of the sun.

  Gone!

  Soon people would wake up. But instead of a cheerful sunrise, they would see the gray sky and the gray sun on the gray horizon. This would not do, thought Princess Cressida.

  Princess Cressida put her hand under her chin and thought and thought.

  She ran to her closet and looked for any color there. She had a lovely blue dress, which she quickly unraveled, stuffing the silk thread in the pockets of her dressing gown.

  That would color the sky.

  In her vast white kitchen she saw piles of oranges and lemons from her orchard. She squeezed the fruits’ juices into a silver cup.

  That would color the sunrise.

  What about the trees of the forests? She needed green! She looked in the mirror at her green eyes. They were an end-of-summer green, dark and flecked with gold.

  Cressida knew where she would find green.

  From her jewelry box on the dresser, she took out a stunning necklace: A silver chain with three green emeralds, a birthday gift from her parents.

  She admired the green fire inside the stones. She knew that once color was borrowed, it would be forever used up and gone.

  With a touch of her wand on the green stones, the green color transferred to the magic metal. Cressida placed the necklace on the dresser, the stones gray and sad.

  She now had blue, green, orange and yellow.

  It would be enough to paint the day.

  She ran out the door and leapt onto her white horse Flyer.

  “To the horizon,” she cried.

  Flyer galloped to the colorless sun barely peeking over the gray horizon.

  Princess Cressida had to paint the day BEFORE the dew evaporated with the heat of the sun. The colors of the day would only stick to morning dew. Once the sun was up, and the dew had dried and disappeared, it was too late for color. If a tree or a cloud or even a blade of grass did not have its daytime colors, for even a single day, it would be forever gray.

  Princess Cressida did not want that to happen, not to a tree or a single blade of glass.

  They reached the horizon just as the dismal rays of sun painted the pale sky. Cressida sprinkled the orange juice on the horizon, turning the sky a beautiful rich orange. Then she poured the cup of lemon juice on to the sun as well.

  Phew, thought Princess Cressida. The sun rose above the horizon, a yellow and orange morning.

  As the sun rose, the night receded. Princess Cressida saw that the sky was gray rather than the blue of morning.

  Cressida pulled the blue silk threads from her pockets and studied them.

  The threads of her unraveled dress were a deep blue, too dark for an early morning sky.

  Cressida looked at her trusty horse and said, “Sorry, Flyer but I must lighten this blue.” She grabbed a handful of Flyer’s lovely thick white mane and with her wand, she borrowed a patch of white from his white mane, leaving a gray patch. Flyer whinnied.

  She mixed white with the deep blue thread, creating a light blue perfect for dawn. Standing atop of Flyer, Princess Cressida threw the light blue color up to the sky, where it clung to the morning strands of light, turning the sky a perfect shade of morning blue.

  Now for the mountains and the trees. She had only one color left.

  She hopped back on to Flyer.

  “To the mountains, Flyer. To the tall trees and the deep forests! We must hurry!”

  Flyer raced as fast as he could, not caring about the stones on the rocky road or the branches and brush he jumped over. His mane flew in the wind.

  The yellow summer sun was climbing in the sky, warming the land, and it would soon burn off the precious dew. Cressida had to get the green into the leaves of the trees. Or the trees of the land would be forever gray.

  They raced to the mountains.

  As they approached the trees, the Princess listened. All was silent.

  In one long slow arc, Princess Cressida lifted her wand as high as she could and from left to right, doused the trees with green from her emeralds. The deep green colored the leaves and the pine needles from the bottom of the trees all the way to the tippity-top.

  Princess Cressida walked into the forest to inspect her work. The grateful trees swayed in the morning wind.

  Something caught her attention. There, in the shadow of the tall fir trees was a small tree, with six gray leaves.

  It had not caught any of the green color from the emeralds.

  There, on its lowest leaf, was one last drop of dew.

  Princess Cressida raced to the little tree. She tried her wand but it was out of color. She had nothing left, no blue, green, orange or yellow.

  The little gray tree stood alone and sad in the deep green forest.

  Princess Cressida looked at the little tree. And she made a big decision.

  She pointed her silver wand right at herself, at her green eyes. And she borrowed the color from her eyes, the deep green. As the color flowed to the wand, her eyes turned gray.

  She quickly touched her wand to the lowest leaf on the little gray tree and watched as the green color flowed and the leaves turned a lovely shade of green. The color of her eyes.

  She sighed. She had loved the color of her green eyes, but this little tree needed the green color far more than she did. For now, the tree would grow big and strong. It would one day provide a home for birds, acorns for squirrels, and cool shade on a hot day. That was more important than her silly green eyes. Besides the color gray was ok too, for eyes, she thought. In fact, it was pretty.

  Borrowed color from a living creature, because it was a gift, was permanent color, the only permanent day color there was.

  Princess Cressida knew that this little tree would always be the color of her green eyes. It grow big and strong, with deep
green leaves.

  Satisfied, she turned back to Flyer who was whinnying noisily by a babbling brook, ready for some oats and a rest.

  But it was not time for oats, not yet.

  First, Princess Cressida had to find her brother Prince Shady. She guessed that he had taken all her colors.

  *******

  Prince Shady was jealous of Princess Cressida’s colors and paints. When their parents had decided which of their children would paint the day and which would paint the night, Prince Shady had thrown a big tantrum. He had wanted to paint the day. But he had to paint the night.

  He had only two colors, black and white. He did not think it was fair. Not fair at all. Not when his sister Princess Cressida had unlimited colors to paint the day.

  But that was night, his parents had explained to him. Dark with only the moon and starlight.

  They had told him it was VERY important that he do his job right, to paint the night sky as black as coal, so that all the people and the animals could sleep and dream in the deep darkness.

  Prince Shady had grumbled anyway. Ever since, he pestered Princess Cressida for her colors.

  And now he had helped himself.

  She needed to stop him before he did something foolish with her colors!

  *******

  Prince Shady lived in a deep valley. When Princess Cressida colored the day, the colors could not reach here. A grumpy river wound its way through the jagged valley.

  On the valley trail, Flyer stepped carefully over black stones and thick tree roots. At last they reached the bottom of the valley.

  There, on the edge of the murky river, was her brother’s house. It was a vast stone mansion, almost a castle, but it was tilted and lop-sided, like it had melted a little. And it was mixed-up: Windows were upside down, stairways led to no-where, doors opened onto thin air.

  In front, there was a big lawn and a high gate, which was open, as no one ever came here to visit Prince Shady. No visitors and no friends.

  As Flyer stepped passed through the gate, Princess Cressida gasped at what she saw.

  The stone house was a bright yellow, as bright as the sun itself. Prince Shady’s horse Jett stood outside the house by the front steps, waiting for his master. Jett was usually a plain dapple gray. But today he was a bright blue, like the sky on a clear winter day.

  As Jett watched the unexpected guests approach, he whinnied at them, embarrassed by his blueness.

  Princess Cressida looked around. All of the Prince’s many animals were grazing in the lush yard, the cows, sheep, goats and chickens.

  And the Prince had painted ALL of them ridiculous colors: The chickens were bright green, the cows were orange, and the sheep and goats were pink!

  The barn where the animals lived was behind the house. The barn was painted purple, the color Princess Cressida used to paint lilacs.

  Prince Shady had even painted the barn cats. Skittish purple cats peered out from behind a purple door. A purple kitten ran across the green lawn, mewling for its purple mommy.

  Princess Cressida studied the green grass. Well, at least he had gotten something right, she thought.

  But Princess Cressida’s fears had come true. Her brother had used ALL her colors for himself.

  She hopped off of Flyer and pushed open the yellow front door and strode into the great front room. Color was everywhere. Her paints, her pencils, her crayons, and brushes.

  “Brother, what have you done?” Princess Cressida demanded.

  Her brother Prince Shady glared at her from across the room. He was painting his walls a deep red, the color of beautiful autumn leaves.

  Prince Shady's cloak was splattered with paint of many colors. He ignored his sister and continued to splash paint onto his walls.

  “Give me back my paints!” she said to Prince Shady.

  “You are too late, sister. They are all gone!” Prince Shady stepped back to admire the wall he had painted.

  “You don’t know what you are doing!” Princess Cressida exclaimed.

  Suddenly, she heard an odd buzzing sound from the next room.

  She knew that sound.

  She pushed past her brother to the next room.

  There, in a vast wire bell-shaped silver cage, as tall as two people, and as wide as a swimming pool, were all her hummingbirds.

  Why, he had not only stolen her colors, he had stolen her very special hummingbirds.

  Her hummingbirds were special because her hummingbirds were her color gatherers.

  Princess Cressida sat down on the cold stone floor, her face scrunched with upset. Her color gatherers were trapped here rather than collecting colors. She sat thinking for hours, through the afternoon and into the night.

  Princess Cressida knew that Prince Shady intended to allow the world to become a gray place.

  Colors would exist only in people’s dreams.

  The days would be forever grey.

  She could not let this happen. But what could she do?

  She thought and thought.

  At last, Princess Cressida stood up.

  She realized that there was only one way to teach her brother Prince Shady the importance of the colors.

  It was now only a few hours to dawn and she had no more color.

  “Brother, you must come with me. I need to show you something.”

  Prince Shady grumbled but he had no more paints and now he was bored. So he figured why not get out of the house, maybe cause some mischief. He had nothing better to do.

  They walked outside to where Flyer and Jett waited.

  “Stand back,” she said to her brother as she approached the horses.

  Princess Cressida took a silver bracelet from each of her wrists and clasped one around the front right leg of Jett and the other around the front right leg of Flyer.

  “What is that?” Prince Shady asked, leaning forward to better see the sparkly bracelets.

  “You will see soon enough. Now hop onto your horse and just hang on. We have a long way to travel and not much time.”

  Princess Cressida hopped onto Flyer.

  "Let's go Flyer! Jett, you follow Flyer. Brother, hang on!" Princess Cressida said.

  With that, Flyer leapt forward and took off into the dark sky, Jett following on his heels. Flyer knew the way. When they flew, which was rare, they only flew one place. They were headed to the stars, to gather the colors themselves.

  *******

  Colors are the stuff of dreams.

  Each night, during sleep, all creatures great and small dream and if they are lucky, they dream in wonderful beautiful colors.

  Everyone can dream in colors. Grown-ups, children, boys and girls. Even puppies and kittens dream in color. These dream colors, lighter than air, drift like bubbles right out of the dreams, skyward, into the night. The colors, light puffy clouds of reds, blues, yellows and greens, float all the way to the stars, where they are caught in fine silk nets.

  Each night, Princess Cressida’s hummingbirds flit across the sky, from star to star, collecting the colors from the wispy star-strung nets. They work late into the night gathering enough color to color the next day.

  Each night, before dawn, they carry the colors on their wings back to Princess Cressida, just in time for her to paint the dawn...

  *******

  As the horses flew higher and higher, propelled by the enchanted silver bracelets made from moon dust, the night sky drew closer. The stars twinkled.

  Prince Shady watched as they approached the stars. His eyes grew wide with surprise when he saw the silvery nets strung from star to star. All around, he saw colors floating up into the sky, only to be caught in the whispery nets. Blues and yellows and reds and greens, floating up from dreams as people slept at night.

  The colors from the dreams, from people’s imaginations.

  And like white wispy breath on a cold day, they floated to the stars.

  At last her brother understood the importance of painting the night: People needed to sleep soundl
y and dream deeply.

  For the more deeply people dreamed, the more colors they imagined.

  He turned to his sister.

  “Why did you not tell me this before?”

  Princess Cressida shrugged. “It is a great secret, the origin of the colors. I was worried that you would use the knowledge only for yourself. But of course, the colors are meant for everyone. But I think you see now why things are the way they are.”

  “Yes. Yes, I do. I have been foolish. I see now that colors are dreams that have come true! They help people believe in tomorrow, the beauty of a new day.”

  "Yes, that is exactly right, my brother. And now we must set to work. Since you have all my color-gatherers trapped back at your castle, WE must gather the colors and quickly paint the day. For look, now it is early in the morning and in less than one hour the sun will rise.”

  Humbled, Prince Shady nodded and looked across the star-lit sky at the task ahead.

  The silvery nets stretched between the stars as far as the eye could see. They swayed and billowed in the gentle star wind, the nets filled with colors from last night’s dreams.

  “How do we do it?”

  “It’s so easy. Just fly right though the net. The colors will stick to you, like spider webs. Quickly now.”

  Prince Shady urged Jett forward into the wispy nets. A looming cloud of deep orange was caught in the net. Jett started and bucked, uncertain at this new adventure. But Prince Shady urged him forward.

  “Come now, Jett, we must do this. For the dawn.”

  Jett took a few steps forward then leapt bravely into the net.

  Sure enough, the color orange stuck to Jett and the Prince, to the Prince’s clothes and Jett’s mane. The color did not hurt. Instead, it kind of tickled like a cloud of cotton candy.

  Prince Shady laughed in delight and amazement.

  Why, this was fun, he thought. He couldn’t remember the last time he had fun.

  With an eye to the rising sun, Prince Shady and Princess Cressida gathered the colors. The Princess saw they had enough colors now and she urged Flyer to the horizon, where a gray sun leaned against the gray sky.