乐播传媒

Tale Summary

Once upon a time there was a fairy who had power over all the elements, and had four sons which ruled over each. The first was Lord of Fire,the second was Governor of the Earth, the Third was King of the Seas, and the youngest was Prince of the Air. The prince was the fairy鈥檚 favorite, but she worried about his erratic passions and temper, and foresaw that he would have much pain through love. She instilled in him a hatred of love and women from a young age, and supported his pastime, which was hunting. He became tired of her constant preachings, and one day when she was out, he left the castle grounds and went to a neighboring sovereign. This was the Island of Roses, home to a lovely princess named Rosalie, who he fell immediately in love with and had carried off by his attendant spirits of the air. Another prince had also fallen in love with the girl several months previously and was promised her hand in marriage if he was able to bring her home. The youth was the only son of the King of the Golden Isle and was foretold to have a life of adventure. This worried his parents, and a fairy who protected him gave him a little pebble that would make him invisible if he kept it in his mouth. While searching for the princess, he found a palace in the middle of a thick forest. He rushed through and tried every door but had no luck until he came to a small garden, in the middle of which was a tiny hall of orange trees, with four small rooms opening out of the corners. In the last of these rooms, he saw the Prince of the Air at Rosalie鈥檚 feet, asking for her to love him. She refused and went to her chamber, where he snuck in after night fell to put a poem on her bed. He decided to take advantage of the visit which the Prince of the Air made once a year to his mother and brothers in order to rescue her. One day, the princess saw a pen get up and write by itself on a sheet of paper, and read a note that she was loved by someone who would rescue her. She told of her woes, and how she had fallen in love with a prince before being kidnapped and could think of nothing else, and at this the prince took the pebble from his mouth. They were overjoyed to be with each other, and soon started making a plan. Rosalie told the prince to go back to his father鈥檚 court to ask the fairy who protected him, who was visiting, for another stone with the same power of invisibility, and to bring it back so that she could escape. He returned home to do this, but missed the fairy by several days and would have to wait three more months to see her. One day while invisible in the woods, he saw a huge oak open up to let out two princes in conversation. He heard one, who was the Prince of Gnomes, say that he was very in love with princess Argentine鈥搕he invisible prince鈥檚 sister鈥揳nd that he had a cabinet of years, which reflected the past, the present, and the future. He returned to his father鈥檚 castle and was given another magic pebble by the fairy, and traveled back to where he had found Rosalie, but she was no longer there. He went to the huge oak tree and managed to open it, and there found the mirrors which showed him that presently, his princess was weeping on the floor surrounded by genii who guarded her night and day. He resolved to search the world for her, but once he set sail, a horrible storm destroyed his ship and he floated to a strange island. He heard sounds of distress alongside sweet songs, and advanced until he came to two dragons guarding the gate of a forest. Invisible, the prince slipped in, and wandered around a labyrinth without seeing anyone but a circle of human hands stuck in the ground, each with a gold bracelet with a name written on it. He then found two corpses, each with a scarlet cord around his neck and a bracelet with their own names and the names of two princesses. He recognized the two men as Kings of two nearby islands and buried them, but as soon as they were in the ground their hands stuck out of the earth like the others. A little ways on he found two miserable men who embraced and then died in front of him, and so he buried them as well. He came to a beautiful park full of men and maidens, and listened in on a conversation held by two of them. The man explained that the Fairy Despair ruled over half the island, and carried off any man who was rejected by his mistress and wished to die and placed him in a labyrinth with a cord around his neck and a bracelet on his arm, condemned to walk forever until he found someone as miserable as he, and at this point the two would die and be buried by the first passerby. The prince went to the seashore and the waves rose suddenly and a screaming woman came up from the ocean, followed by a furious giant. The prince took the stone from his mouth and defended her, but the giant鈥搘ho was the King of the Seas鈥搕ouched him with a ring which immobilized him. He grabbed the woman and returned to the sea, and the prince was bound with chains and was carried in the water by tritons. The ring he was touched with allowed him to live underwater, but only because the King of the Seas wanted to watch him suffer. There were other prisoners which he made to fight each other, but as soon as the prince was untied he placed the stone in his mouth and swam to the shore. He saw a mountain which he recognized from the cabinet of years and made his way to the top, where he found a palace. Inside he found a crystal room which housed Rosalie, guarded by the genii, without door or window. She noticed that the crystal was fogging up wherever she moved around the room, and suspected that her invisible lover was back. She sweet-talked the Prince of the Air into letting her walk for one hour down the hall, and he agreed, but immediately the magical stone was slipped into her mouth and she escaped with her lover. The spirits of the air were commanded to look all over the earth to find Rosalie, and meanwhile she and the invisible prince reached a terrace in the gardens hand-in-hand, when a monster accidentally ran into the princess and she lost her grip. The two felt around in the hope that they would again find each other, but it was in vain. The princess rested by the edge of a fountain, and wrote a note on a tree which told her prince, if he ever saw it, that she would spend her days there. A genii read these words and told its master, who made himself invisible and went to the fountain. The princess took his hand when she felt it, but a cord was tied around her and she was thrown into a deep pit. At the same moment, the prince arrived and saw what had happened, and decided to go back to the cabinet of years. After some time of walking through the forest, he arrived at the gate of a temple guarded by two lions and entered invisibly. In the temple was an altar, behind which were curtains and on which was a book with the names of all the lovers in the world. In it he read that the only way to reach Rosalie was by the Fountain of Gold. Outside the temple he found six paths through the wood, and coming towards him on the one furthest to the right, he recognized the Prince of Gnomes and his friend. Curious to have some news about his sister, he followed them, and heard the Prince of Gnomes say that because he did not think Argentine cared for him, and that she might have another lover, he would put himself out of his pain at the Golden Fountain. There, he said, a single drop of water would trace the name of his rival into her heart. The prince accompanied them to the fountain, where Prince of Gnomes fainted because the name of his brother, Prince Flame, was written in the sand. Because the prince had the power to survive underwater thanks to the ring he was touched with, he lept in and found a door leading into the mountain, and at the foot of the mountain was a high rock on which was an iron ring with a cord, which was attached to the princess. He cut it with his sword and felt the invisible princess鈥檚 hand in his and they crossed the mountain together, but she could not go through the fountain like he had. The Prince of Air was so angry that he caused a massive storm, and lightning struck nearby, burning up the forest. The water in the fountain dried up and the two made it across safely and returned back to the Golden Isle.

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