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Long, long ago, in a world not too unlike our own, there once was a young prince with curling hair as dark as the deepest night and pale skin freckled with stars. He was adored by all persons who met him, and he was known around the nation for his beauty and power. He was kind as he was smart and smart as he was handsome.
His subjects, who loved him dearly, affectionately dubbed their treasured royal heir, the Midnight Prince—the young man made from the light of the moon and the shine of the stars, who held the entire universe within his endless heart.
Many young nobles traveled from far and wide to ask for the hand of the midnight prince, but he denied every one, knowing there was only greed in their hearts. They did not yearn for the sweet love of the young prince. They only wanted his power and wealth. To view him as a trophy and symbol of status.
So the midnight prince turned each down with grace and compassion, and yet his heart was filled with sorrow.
He longed for a worthy individual to come to his castle with nothing but sincerity and love. And yet none ever did, and the only solace the prince ever found was the time he spent in the castle gardens, tending to his flowers.
One day, a sorcerer bearing the powers of the sun brought his eldest heir to the kingdom to ask for the prince's hand, but just as every other potential suitor to come to the castle, the starry youth declined.
The prince could see that this man was indeed different than all the others, but not in the way he had hoped, for this child of the sun was by far the most awful suitor yet. The prince could only see lust for destruction in those burning eyes.
Hearing his answer, the sorcerer growled, warning the young prince of stars that he would give the boy one more chance to accept his horrible son’s hand in marriage, or else destruction would befall the beloved royal. But the prince refused to accept yet again, for the midnight prince’s compassion and love for his people were truly endless. He was willing to make any sacrifice to protect his kingdom from the terrors such a marriage would surely bring.
The sorcerer, enraged that the prince would not accept his son’s proposal, let out a wild yell, his body consumed in the burning powers of the sun, held true to his terrible promise, and placed a curse upon the prince and his kingdom.
His voice boomed throughout the land, echoing like the quaking of the earth as he made his decree.
“Your subjects call you the prince of the night, and thus it shall be so. Your curse is to forever roam the night, eternally alone. Trapped in this castle, your only companion: the child of the sun. Once you accept his proposal, the curse now disposed of, shall finally be undone.”
The prince immediately crumbled to the ground, having fallen into a deep, unwakeable slumber. Then, with a flourish of his shining cape, the sorcerer of the sun left with his heir.
From then on, whenever daylight touched the castle’s shining walls, the prince fell into a deep, death-like sleep, only to awaken when the last ray of sunlight left the window of his tower each evening. However, as soon as he awoke, the rest of the castle would fall asleep. Even the animals within the grounds fell into the world of dreams.
The kingdom quickly descended into sorrow and misery without their shining light to brighten their days. The King and Queen no longer had the motivation to properly attend to their duties, and the subjects did little other than mourn the loss of their treasured youth. They felt helpless and lost.
Unable to do anything other than watch his beloved kingdom fall into ruin, the midnight prince spent his waking hours wandering the grand halls alone every night.
In his lonesome state, the prince’s only source of happiness came from tending to the royal garden he adored. But to the starry prince’s woe, the flowers never bloomed at night. He would never be able to admire the beauty that came from his hard work and love.
The stars became his only companions. He longed to join them up in the sky. He longed to talk to them, to make a connection, to find an escape. An escape from the only human contact the midnight prince had—the sun’s heir.
Every night, beneath the light of the moon, the son of the sorcerer once again asked the midnight prince to take his hand in marriage. And every night, the prince refused.
As months passed with no sign of the curse being lifted, the parents of the prince stopped visiting the tower he now resided in. They appointed a single young page— a knight in training—to watch over the prince in his slumber, protecting the starry youth from any further harm.
As the sun shone in the sky and the prince slept, the appointed young page stayed by his side. The knight remained by his bedside all day, right up until the last light of the sun slipped behind the horizon, and he left to head towards his home in the village.
He sat there, not making a sound. He simply observed, basking in the young prince’s stunning beauty. He pondered the young royal’s existence and what it must be like to live a life like his. Forever surrounded by people, yet never being able to talk with them. Curious as to whether the prince was lonely, the knight broke the code a trainee such as him was sworn to follow.
The youth secretly began to leave the prince letters to find whenever he awoke, disobeying his orders to never directly address the royal family.
Yet the midnight prince was overjoyed to read these secret letters.
Delighted to finally not feel so alone, the prince left letters in return, and slowly, even though the prince knew not the face of his mysterious letter writer, the two fell in love.
After learning the prince had a love of flowers, the youth spent all his spare time learning to draw. He began to leave his hand-drawn illustrations of the blossoms in the royal garden along with the letters. The midnight prince treasured each one.
Eventually, as the two grew older and the young page rose in ranks, becoming a fully recognized knight, he was forced to leave his sleeping beauty as he had been ordered by the king to quest for an alternative way to lift the curse. However, before he left, the knight planted a single moonflower at the base of his midnight prince’s tower, along with a letter, telling him the flower would stand as his promise that he would eventually return to his love’s side.
As days continued to pass and the knight didn’t return, the prince fell into a deep sadness, now refusing to even reply to the proposal of the child of the sun at all. This enraged the sorcerer, and he placed a second spell of eternal night over the kingdom, forever cursing the subjects to remain in slumber for the rest of eternity. Now the prince was truly alone. The only companions the prince had were the blooming moon flowers that had steadily grown up the side of his tower. The remaining promise that his love would one day return.
When the faithful knight did finally return to the fallen kingdom, he found the castle cloaked in darkness. Unafraid, the youth entered the castle.
Much to the sun sorcerer’s surprise and fury, this mysterious young knight was entirely unaffected by the spell of eternal sleep.
There was only one possible way the young knight would be able to resist the curse.
If he too was a child of the sun. A lost, forgotten child, hidden away from the sun sorcerer’s evil by a scared and hopeless mother.
To stop the knight from reaching the midnight prince, the sorcerer sent creatures of darkness to block the path, but the knight defeated every one with a slash of his shining sword. His bravery knew no bounds, powered on by his mighty love. The sorcerer soon became desperate and sent his own son to face the hero, only for him, too, to be cut down as the hero fought to enter the prince’s flower-covered tower.
The midnight prince was at first frightened. He did not recognize the face of his faithful guardian, for the starry youth had never laid eyes upon it. He could only see the knight's resemblance to the sorcerer and his heir.
Sensing his hesitation and fear, the knight of the sun presented the midnight prince with a single moonflower, the promise of his everlasting love.
With his gorgeous, wide eyes of shining emerald green, the starry youth peered deep into the individual's soul and found overflowing sincerity and love. And it was then that the prince finally laid eyes upon his one true love for the first time. He took his hand, thus sealing the promise of love and dispelling the kingdom of the sorcerer’s curse, thereby stripping him of his magic and sealing him away forever more.
As the kingdom awoke, it was filled with the overflowing sound of celebration. The subjects cheered and wept tears of joy over the powerful love of the midnight prince and his brave knight in shining armor as the two shared a tender embrace under the light of the rising sun.
“Your subjects call you the prince of the night, and thus it shall be so. Your curse is to forever roam the night, eternally alone. Trapped in this castle, your only companion: the child of the sun. Once you accept his proposal, the curse now disposed of, shall finally be undone.”
Thus, the sun and the moon, surrounded by the stars, found forbidden love and, together, lived happily ever after.
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