Just Like Everybody Else

 Synopsis:  A Princess Arete fanfiction taking place not long after the events of the film.  Do not read unless you have watched the resplendent film in all its entirety.   

 

Chapter 1—Living in the Countryside

                In the tower, Arete had felt completely captive.   Yet, out here, in rural splendor, unencumbered by her royal duties, she had become truly free.  Her former enemy, Boax, could no longer enchant her or enact any runic pronouncements.    He was just as human as she was, and the old man cursed his ill fortune.

                ‘What good is a wizard without magic ?’, the old man lamented.   He had returned to his wizened self.   He could no longer place himself under a glamor to hide his age, and aches and pains had gotten the better of him.   Without his alchemy, age and gravity had won and his hubris gave way to humility.    He had to blame himself, for he had been in the wrong all the while.   His only friend, Grovel, had returned to his normal amphibian form.   Grovel hopped free beyond the streams, creeks, bogs, and rills.    He belonged to the valley and to his fellow sounding, wherever they tended to hop.    As for Arete, Boax had no hold over the princess anymore.    She too, was free.    Free from his dazzling mesmerization of her.    The only suitor that Arete wanted was Abel, an agrarian commoner who lived in the valley she had escaped to. 

                Boax came to the harsh realization that he could not force anyone to love him.   He had been despicable and foolish for believing that leaning upon his wizardry would be enough, and yet, here he was, the last wizard living in the land.  He had been a pathetic excuse for wielding magic.   He had let the power go to his head.   It had joined his massive ego and conceit.   This and his narcissism proved foolhardy.    Everything he was suffering now was simply an after effect of being too cocky, but Boax couldn’t turn back the clock.  He would simply die unloved, unmourned and preferably in an unmarked grave.    Perhaps in his next life, if there was such a thing, he wouldn’t make the same mistakes, but now, given how old he was, it was a bit too late to redeem himself.    Boax would live the best way he knew how, even though he didn’t have many more good years left, given the shaky condition of his health.    

 

Chapter 2—The Kingdom Finds a New Candidate

                Since the kingdom had no further clever princesses, whatever was left of the royal lineage ceased once Arete had left.  The kingdom was left scrambling for new candidates to fill Arete’s vacancy, but no woman could hold a candle to her brilliance.   That was until the King came across a peasant girl who was skilled in pottery, lyre playing, cooking, mathematics, philosophy, jewelry making and sewing clothes.   She would make a comely wife for whatever proper suitor took her hand.    Her name was Lydia, and she gladly took Arete’s place, pleased to state her farewells to poverty.     However, Lydia didn’t fully understand what entailed her role as a royal.    Oddly, she took to it much like a swan to water and was soon wed to a prince from a wealthy northern kingdom named Gandriel.     The two would live out their lives in wedded bliss and the kingdom would continue.   Arete, on the other hand, was glad to have washed her hands of the vicissitudes of the monarchy.      She was truly free, and she could go, unhindered and unencumbered by other’s expectations of her for as long as she drew breath.  

 

Chapter 3—Abel the Agrarian

                Arete came to know the labor of farm life intimately.   She had always been curious what her hands were capable of.   She seemed to have a real knack for understanding beasts of burden and domesticated pets.   All manners of animals took to her, due to her magnetic personality, golden heart, and angelic voice.    They also seemed to respond to her cooking and gentle touch.   

                Abel fell more and more in love with the princess every day.   Given that Boax wasn’t a threat any longer, and not in the running as a possible suitor, Abel girded his courage and managed to ask Arete if she wanted to be courted.    Arete was about 16 and getting closer to becoming an adult.    She was much older than her adolescence suggested, but in her curiosity and imagination, she was still very youthful.   

                ‘You may court me, young squire.’, Arete said, coquettishly.     Over time, she learned more about the young farmer, his large family and the lay of the land.    Above, she marveled at the golden phoenixes with their jeweled eyes flying above her.    One of the largest ones swooped in so close that she could touch its underbelly.   One of its golden feathers sloughed off into her hand.  

                ‘That’s quite an auspicious omen, Arete.’, Abel said, still a bit stunned the largest phoenix had come so close to being touched.   The electricity that she had felt was still tingling her body and making her a little giddy.    For a moment, even Boax smiled, forgetting his lifetime of past sins.    In his mind, he thought, maybe it isn’t so horrible to be mortal and perhaps these aged hands of mine can still do something, though I’m unsure of what.   

 

Chapter 4—Becoming More

                Through the years, Abel and Arete had a family of their own and continued to run the farm.   Boax had become a blacksmith.    He could still use his hands and he had decided he would fashion elements that were useful to whomever requested them.    He had an apprentice named Geld who was underneath him.   Strangely, Geld had become a son to Boax.   Over time, Boax softened.   His cantankerous exterior had melted, and he had turned into something benevolent.   So long ago, he had posited that he could never be a good man or enact any goodness upon society.   Yet, being human and living among humans for so long had transformed him.   He had learned being mortal wasn’t horrible.   Although magic in its practical or impractical uses was something confined to myth and Boax no longer felt regret, anger, or sorrow over that fact.    In many ways, he had bettered himself and many had forgotten the other version of him.    Frankly, he preferred the improved version of himself.   It was so much easier living in harmony with what he truly was than fighting and bucking at every turn.    With training, his apprentice, Geld, would gladly run his smithing shop and maybe then once he was gone, he would be remembered fondly and given a proper funeral.    It wasn’t a bad turning point and it proved even the most hard-hearted and obdurate could change.

 

Epilogue

                The kingdom continues to run fair and just as before, even moreso since Lydia was coronated as queen.   Her family is large and most likely it will continue until another renaissance occurs and this age ends.   Arete returned to the kingdom to see how things were, but she saw it from different eyes now.   Her children adored the sights and sounds of the city around them but were pleased to return to the countryside where they could run, play, laugh, learn and someday, love.    As for Arete, it was her gentility that had transformed so much in the small burgeoning, bucolic town around her.     She could fall asleep next to her friend, lover, and father of her precious children every night knowing that the phoenix had given her a sign confirming she had a golden heart and the golden touch of empathy.    She continued to be beloved wherever she went, and her charm and clever nature never failed her, as it would never fail her beautiful, brilliant children.  

 

The End