This is a dark little story I wrote about two years ago. I just had an idea and wrote this gem in an afternoon. It's not very deep, but it gets it's point across. I would have entered it in the Amazon contest, but it's only about 1500 words, and adding any more too it would detract, in my opinion, to get it up to 2K words. **shrugs** Anyhow, I thought I'd share it with you regardless. Enjoy. :)
~*~
Karlina found herself walking sadly through a field of wildflowers outside her small village. She was poor and plain, and saddened by the fact that not a single man had ever loved her. Picking one of the brightly colored flowers, she tucked it behind her ear, pushing her mousy brown hair out of the way. Perhaps it would make her feel beautiful.
It failed.
"Why can't a knight in shining armor fall in love with me and sweep me off my feet?" she said to herself. Scoffing at her own childish fantasies, she realized that would never happen. If the simple men of the village didn't give her a second glance, why would a knight?
It was getting late, and Karlina decided it was time to head toward home. If she were gone any longer, her mother would start to worry. Before she took five steps, however, something caught her eye. A twinge of blue light shone in the grass a few feet away. She walked over to investigate and gasped at what she saw.
A beautiful golden ring sat innocently on the ground, as if cast carelessly aside. Set in the middle was a bright blue stone, winking with the rays of the dying sunlight. Karlina bent over and picked it up, feeling the weight of it in her hand.
"Where did you come from?" she mumbled to the ring, as if expecting an answer. Upon further examination of the ring, Karlina found an inscription etched on the inside.
"Beware the power of the stone," she read out loud. Confused, she wondered what the inscription meant, if anything at all. "Certainly you are a handsome ring," she said, as if the ring could understand her. "Perhaps you can make me feel beautiful." With that, she slowly slipped the ring on the middle finger of her right hand.
Without warning, all went black.
*****
When Karlina awoke, she found herself in her own room, her mother looking at her worriedly.
"Did you hear what I said?" her mother asked.
"What happened?" Karlina whispered, suddenly disoriented.
"That is what I'm trying to find out, child! Where have you been for the past three days? And whose dress are you wearing?"
"Three days?" Karlina stared at her mother as if she were a stranger. "What do you mean? I was just in the fields a few moments ago…." It was then that Karlina looked down at her dress. She was wearing a gorgeous silk dress, the color of crème, with pearls worked into the bodice. "I…I don't understand…"
"I also found this on you," her mother said as she held the ring with the blue stone out in her hand. "Have you been stealing?" Suddenly there was a note of disapproval in her mother's voice.
"Mother, no, I… I don't know what happened to me!"
"You scared me half to death, do you know that? We searched high and low for you and you were nowhere to be found!"
Karlina gingerly picked up the ring from her mother's outstretched hand. "It must have been the ring. Maybe it put me to sleep somehow! I remember finding it in the field and putting it on. Then, all of a sudden, I'm here…with you. I must have woken up when you took it off my finger."
Her mother looked at her skeptically. "Well, whatever your story, take off that dress before someone sees you. It is too beautiful to belong to you."
As her mother turned to leave, Karlina began to undress. Donning her ratty peasant's clothes, she dropped the ring into her pocket. It scared her to put it back on, but she wasn't through with it yet. She had to find out what had happened!
*****
The next day, as Karlina made her daily trip to the well in the middle of town for fresh water, she noticed a rider on the road toward the castle. As he approached, her heart skipped a beat, as both horse and rider were adorned in gleaming armor. People on the street stopped what they were doing to gawk at the man who was obviously a knight of the king. He asked a few questions of them, and turned away as they shook their heads at him. Karlina thought she would faint as she realized he was coming her way.
"Excuse me, my lady," he greeted her with his deep voice. Her water pail forgotten, Karlina stared up at the man who was the most wondrously beautiful creature she had ever seen. His dark hair was neatly combed, and his equally dark eyes seemed to gaze right through her. "I am looking for a woman. A very attractive woman."
Karlina's heart sank as she realized this wasn't the knight of her dreams coming to take her away from this tiny village. "Sir?"
"Her name is Aria. She has simply disappeared from the king's court, however she only spent three short days in the castle. I'm afraid she has stolen my heart, and I must find her."
Karlina just gaped at the man as he mentioned this woman being at the castle for three days. Could it be? Perhaps it was only coincidence.
"Aria always wore a large gold ring, as if made for a man, set with a blue stone. She insisted that it belonged to her, but I had my doubts about it. Perhaps she has run home to her husband…." A far off look of pain etched his face at the mere thought of this Aria being married.
"Her clothing was the finest of silk, embroidered with pearls and the color of the clouds. Have you seen her?"
Her heart racing, Karlina knew the knight was talking about her. But why had she gone to the castle? And why did he think her name was Aria? If he had seen her at the castle, then why didn't he recognize her?
"I…I am the one you seek, Sir Knight," Karlina blurted out.
Staring at her in amazement, the knight shook his head. "Impossible! Aria was the most stunning woman I have ever laid my eyes upon, and you are just…." He stopped before he finished his sentence. Those words hit Karlina as if he had slapped her.
Wiping away a tear, she pulled out the ring from her pocket. "Did the ring look like this?"
At the knight's shocked gasp, she smiled, as if winning a small victory over him. "Where did you get that?" he yelped. "Did you steal it?"
"Of course not! It is mine! I am this Aria!"
"You cannot be!" he protested once more.
Frustrated with his words, Karlina set her jaw, determined to show this arrogant knight that she was who she said. Once again, she placed the ring on the middle finger of her right hand. And once again, all went black.
*****
Karlina awoke to a dark bedchamber, gazing at the knight. Only this time, he had his arm around her and they were both very naked. She noticed the look of shock that widened his eyes as he stared back at her. In his hand, he held the ring.
"My God!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Where's Aria? What have you done with her?"
Bolting out of bed, the knight scrambled to get some kind of clothing on as he turned to confront her.
"I have no idea what is going on!" she pleaded with him. "It is the ring! When I put it on, I have no memory of what has happened!"
The knight looked at her with disbelief. "Aria did not want me to take it off," he said quietly.
"I am Aria!" Karlina wailed.
"You lie! You cannot be!"
"It is true, if you would just listen…"
"How dare you trick me into this! How dare you pretend to be what you are not!"
"Please just listen, I didn't know the ring's power!"
"Get out of my sight!" the knight yelled, as he threw the ring on the bed.
Crying, Karlina quickly dressed, and snatched the ring. "Please…" she said once more.
"Get out!" he yelled.
Spinning toward the door, Karlina fled, tears flowing unchecked down her cheeks.
*****
Karlina ran until she found herself once again in the field of wildflowers. Collapsing by a pool of water, Karlina wept until she was exhausted. Pulling out the ring, she once again read the inscription: "Beware the power of the stone". It was then that she realized what had happened.
Her mother had always said, "Be careful what you wish for. It might just come true." The ring must have known somehow what she had always longed for, but it didn't turn out as she had planned.
Turning the ring in her hands, the blue stone once again caught the sunlight and sparkled innocently.
"I hate you!" she yelled at the ring. "How dare you give me what I cannot remember!" Sobbing, Karlina hurled the ring for all she was worth and watched it as it landed with a plunk into the shallow pool.
Without looking back, Karlina walked sadly back to the village, distraught that she had loved and lost, without even a memory.
*****
Two young boys wandered through a field of wildflowers outside their small village.
"I hate my father!" one said to the other.
"What has happened now?" the other said curiously.
"He beats me for no reason. Even if something is my own brother's fault, he always takes it out on me! I'm tired of it! I wish he were dead!"
The two boys walked in silence for a few minutes before they stopped at a shallow pool.
"Hey look!" one said as he ran out into the water. "I see something glittering!"
"What is it?"
Standing in the waist deep water, he held his hand up triumphantly as if finding buried treasure. "It's a ring!"
Catching the rays of the sun, the bright blue stone winked innocently at the two boys.
THE END
© Rebecca Goings
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