Chapter 2

They soon returned to the Palace and the heartbroken Princess went up to her chamber. Each day she became more morose, refusing food and becoming weaker and paler almost by the hour. Finally, the King could take no more and cried out aloud, cursing the Good Fairy, who had predicted many years ago that his daughter would have to pass through many troubles to gain the love of her chosen man. Once again, the Fairy appeared in the same manner as before.

“Go and fetch your daughter, Your Majesty. I have something to tell her. She can gain the prince’s love and I can take away the shadow before his eyes which conceals from him her beauty. She must decide for herself if she is able to do that which is necessary to secure her happiness and the future of your kingdom. Have her brought down here!”

The Princess was persuaded to come down to her father’s chamber and her eyes arrived brighter than for many days, now that she had been told that there might, after all, be hope. “I will do whatever I have to, to secure his love” was all she said to Martha, as they both made their way into the Good Fairy’s presence.

The Fairy seemed not to object to Martha being there. She addressed the Princess sternly.

“Your father offended me many years ago and you have only added to your troubles by your imperious demeanor these last few years. You have been humbled by unrequited love and will be humbled further before you attain your heart’s desire! Here is what you have to do. Listen carefully - I shall say this only once.”

Both the girls and the King listened attentively as the Good Fairy described the hard road which the Princess must tread in order to arrive at her heart’s desire.

“You must leave this Palace and your father’s Kingdom for a year and a day. You will only have the ground for a resting place and the sky for shelter in all that time. You will take neither food nor money and live only by your own efforts. Put on this ring.”

The Princess, full of fear now that her awful dream seemed about to come true, obeyed. The ring slipped so easily onto her right ring finger that she felt it must surely drop off again, but once on her finger, it was stuck firm and no effort could remove it. The Good Fairy continued.

“You will wear this ring and nothing else until you return to this time of year tomorrow. You must leave this instant if you are not to lose forever, the prince’s love. Take all your fine clothes off at once and remain naked save for that ring for a year and a day. Naked and homeless, without shelter from the winds and rain and from the burning sun. If you refuse, then the prince is lost to you forever!”

Within seconds of the fairy’s final command, Sara was naked in front of others for the first time since Nature had granted her the body of a mature and lovely woman. She hated what she was being asked to do, but recognized, in the Good Fairy, a person who would brook no argument. Her future happiness was in the hands of this implacable person. She knew at once what she must do and had not the slightest hesitation in doing it.

She must marry Prince Adalbert and that was that! Whatever the next year and a day might hold, whatever hardships and humiliations might be in store for her, all would be worthwhile and of no account, once Adalbert’s eyes glazed on her with the same desperate longing that she felt for him.

Martha removed her own clothes and the fairy glared at her.

“Get dressed at once! I know what you are thinking. You want to share the Princess’s hardships! Very estimable, I’m sure, and she is lucky to have such a loyal friend, as well as totally undeserving! She must face her ordeal alone. No one from this Kingdom must accompany her. Disobey me and you will be sorry.”

The Fairy disappeared and Sara immediately walked towards the Palace doors, followed by the King and the Countess Martha, both crying bitterly at the thought of this bright and lovely jewel being lost to them for so long, perhaps forever! Princess Sara, on the other hand, had no tears in her eyes and no fear in her heart, now that she knew what she must do. There was only a steely determination to triumph.

The amazed stares of the servants and courtiers were of no consequence to her. This shy and very private girl who had feared to show herself, even to her very dearest friend, was now naked before the entire world. She suppressed her embarrassment and controlled herself - so well that not the slightest hint of a blush could be seen on her ivory white, lovely, grimly determined face. Whatever was to befall her, she was a Princess and a very beautiful one at that. This was something she was never to forget until the day she returned to claim the love of her chosen man!

Like Martha before her, the touch of the rough ground under her bare feet sent signals up and down her body. The feel of the warm sun, allowed to caress her skin for the first time ever, was another revelation. A light breeze blew and brushed against her white and shapely slimness, as if the very air itself were taking the Princess into its care and safe keeping.

“Don’t fear for me, Father darling, or you, my sweet beloved companion! I ‘ll be back - you’ll see!”

The King and the Countess accompanied her to the entrance to the Palace gardens and embraced her tenderly. She returned their embraces and shed a tear for the first time since receiving her sentence from the Good Fairy. The sorrowing pair looked at her departing nudity as she strode confidently into the distance. They did not turn away to return to the Palace until the Princess, who meant so much to them both, was quite out of sight.

Martha considered the Good Fairy’s warning for a while and decided that no power in this world or any other would come between her and her duty to her lovely friend. Now that she had no Princess to whom to be a companion, she had no place at Court. Her time was now her own and she knew how she would use it. The Fairy knew what was in her mind and cogitated with herself what terrible vengeance she might take on the loyal girl.

(I wonder if she really is THAT good a fairy - author)

...

Once she knew that she could no longer be seen by those nearest to her, the former Princess, now a naked vagrant girl, slackened her pace, in deference to the soreness which her tender young feet were already experiencing. Even if she tried to avoid rough and stony places and trod only on grass, the effect of her bare footedness was increasingly painful and it was only a massive application of her haughty will power that prevented her from limping. She would walk the world naked, alone and desperately poor for a year, and she would walk proudly, no matter what the cost to her in pain.

By the end of the day, the Princess was still well within her father’s Kingdom and several passing people had recognized her. They doffed their hats in deference and seemed in no wise surprised to see her in such a naked and wretched state. She could swear that the birds in the trees as she passed were saying.

“There walks the lovely Princess. She will be worthy of the love of her chosen man. May she be protected from harm.”

As a matter of fact, that is precisely what they were saying!

The heat of the day wore off and dusk succeeded the midday brightness, and still the naked wanderer pressed on. Night fell and the aching tortured feet continued to stride in the direction of the border and the world beyond her own country. For three days she ceased not to walk until she knew that the Fairy’s instructions had been fully obeyed and that she was finally in a foreign land, away from all friends and from all who would help her. Once on foreign soil, she sank to the ground and slept. Now that her adventure had truly begun, she felt only peace in her heart. She dreamt a happy dream for a change, a dream in which Prince Adalbert figured very prominently and was doing all manner of really nice things to her!

The lonely and wandering naked girl was aroused by the rain. It fell on her unprotected body, driven stingingly against it by a fierce wind which had been blowing up all night. Only her extreme exhaustion had caused her not to have woken up long since. She recalled the Fairy’s harsh sentence. No shelter from the wind and rain and burning sun. The despair that she was beginning to feel left her. If this was to be her fate, then so be it. She would survive - somehow!

She scrambled to her sore feet and started walking again. Her every step was the purest agony, and she could no longer resist the imperative need to weep. Her tears mingled with the rain as it swept her tortured body. That beautiful body, delicate and frail, shook with her sobs, but she still kept on, never once flinching from her destiny.

This weather was dreadful enough, she reflected, but the Winter would be impossible for her to survive. It could remain many degrees below freezing for weeks, even months, on end in these parts. Many times she and Martha had been forced to remain indoors, looking out at the white wilderness, for weeks at a time. No mortal could live in the great outdoors through that white hell and certainly not a frail girl in her vulnerable and unclothed state!

She must head South, to lands where the sun shone strongly all year round. There was no other hope for her, and she must travel quickly, as she had many leagues to cover on her feet before she could feel she had escaped the danger of freezing in the harsh cold of her native climate.

Night soon fell and she found a spot beneath a tree, where she laid her weary and famished body to rest. It was chilly and she shivered. Already, the ordeal was taking a fearful toll on a body already weakened by weeks of grief. She touched the ring - that sole covering for her nakedness.

No sooner had she done this than two white shapes emerged out of the gloom. When they came near, she saw that there were two huge white dogs approaching. She was about to cry out with fear, when she remembered who she was and forced herself to face these fearsome hounds bravely. There was no cause for alarm, however! The wagging of their enormous tails and the friendly grins on their faces was proof enough of that!

One dog settled itself on one and the other on the other side of the Princess. Together they covered her tired and naked body from the cold and she fell thankfully asleep. When morning came her two canine protectors had vanished, but the poor naked wanderer had slept well. She was still very hungry, though. It was vital she eat soon or she would perish.

After walking for a couple of hours, she came upon two men, on their way to their work in the fields. She stopped them, forcing herself in her desperation, to confront them in her nakedness.

“Please, kind sirs, I am hungry. If you give me food, I will work for you all day until I drop from exhaustion. I ask for no charity! Please let me work for you, that I might eat!”

One of the two looked doubtful at her, but his companion smiled and addressed her in his rough and ready country manner. “There’s one kind of “work” a beauty like you could do that would involve no more than lying on your pretty backside for a few minutes! Here’s a gold piece, if you will only come into that wood with me for a while, my pretty! Not a lot of meat on you, but what there is of you is very nice!”

Although sex-education was still many years in the future as a part of most countries’ educational curricula, the former Princess was no fool. She knew full well what this creature wanted! She glared scornfully at the insolent man, telling him that she would sooner die than sell her body, which was, one day, to be the sole property of her chosen man.

His companion pulled the man’s sleeve and whispered urgently.

“This is no ordinary woman! I see it now! I talk every day to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. They speak of a Princess who has been sentenced to live like one of those same brute beasts for a certain period. This must be her! Look how proud and fair she is, despite her wretched plight! Give her some food, Joachim and I will do the same.”

Joachim complied grudgingly. He was tired of hearing his friend discourse about his communion with nature, but always tried to humor him - poor chap! They left the naked girl after giving her a share of their mid-day meal and she thanked them with a sweet smile that made them both go weak at the knees. To their dying day, they were to remember their encounter with Princess Sara, long after her name had become a legend, especially Joachim!

As she munched the plain and wholesome food, the Princess tried to decide whether she would have the lecherous Joachim flayed alive or thrown into a vat of boiling oil when she came to resume her rightful place in life. On the whole, she was inclined to favor the former solution and she was not to forget her resolve until the time came for her to be revenged upon him as upon so many others who were to earn her displeasure during the coming months. The Good Fairy, impotently witnessing her continuing arrogance and unbroken spirit, spat with rage. Would nothing defeat this girl? Maybe she was losing her grip, and she spells their potency, she feared.

The grateful Princess rested after her meal, the first in days, and continued her Southward journey, using the sun as a guide. That night she summoned the two dogs once again. The good Fairy had given her the ring and could do nothing to lessen its power, although she dearly wished that she could. She was not a happy Fairy! She loathed the wealthy and privileged, especially those whose rank and wealth were inherited. The Red Communist bitches! The Fairy Senior Management already had their eye on this Radical maverick and her days were already numbered. Sadly for Sara, though, there was no way they could revoke the sentence pronounced on her - only try to help out now and again.