Prince Tarkten: A Fable For Those Who Are No Longer Children

Swept away from the castle by a wind fueled from anger and injustice, Prince Tarkten is found by a cruel army captain and renamed Rud. This heartfelt story follows the prince's struggle to find his true self, and along the way, true love.

It's a story for anyone, anywhere, who ever felt they were in the wrong place, with the wrong people, living the wrong life.

Note: This is not a drift-into-sleep story. It's a healing story.

Transcript

Hi,

I'm Jewel Kuchera.

This is a story I wrote for my partner because I wanted him to know what happened to him as a kid wasn't his fault.

I'd read it to him in bed sometimes,

Like a bedtime story.

He liked it.

I hope you like it too.

Prince Tarkton,

A Fable for Those Who Are No Longer Children.

Story by Jewel Kuchera.

Illustration by Christina Lukaszczuk.

Once upon a time,

There was a faraway land with many provinces.

Every province was a realm,

And every realm was ruled by a king and queen.

King Tandor and Queen Talara ruled the realm of Trillium,

Which was one of the finest in the land.

It had hills and streams and woods and many animals,

And in the valley,

Many farms.

King Tandor and Queen Talara's castle stood partway up one of the highest hills,

With woods at the back and wildflowers at the front that blew in the soft wind and ended in the valley,

At the banks of the wide river that ran the length of Trillium.

The castle was the finest building in the realm.

When the sun rose each morning,

It caused the spires to sparkle like sapphires and the walls like diamonds.

The royal flag with the royal crest flew from each spire.

It was blue and gold and held aloft by gentle breezes.

The castle had four gates,

One to the north,

One to the south,

One to the east,

And one to the west.

A pair of royal guards in their royal uniforms stood tall and proud on either side of each gate.

On this day,

At this time,

King Tandor and Queen Talara were playing with their son,

Prince Tarkton.

They had married ten summers earlier and had waited eight summers for a child.

When the prince was born,

The king,

The queen,

And all the kingdom rejoiced,

And on some mornings,

Such as this one,

The king and queen delayed their royal duties to play with their son,

And the sound of their laughter rolled down the hill and spread into the valley and prompted the birds to sing.

All who heard their laughter smiled,

Except for Salmar.

The king would not recognize Salmar,

But she would recognize him.

From the cold day five years earlier,

When he had ordered the death of her husband for beating his wife,

As an example to all the husbands in the kingdom,

Although Salmar had hated her husband,

She also missed him,

And on this day,

She hated the king for taking her husband from her.

Salmar stood in her hatred,

Her thoughts twisting in her mind.

She stood and stood until her soul grew small and cold and twisted her in circles.

She twisted and twisted until she became a spinning wind and she began to blow through the valley.

Salmar blew herself across the valley,

And the birds took shelter deep in the trees and wrapped their talons tightly around the branches.

She blew herself up the hill toward the castle,

She blew herself up the castle walls,

She blew herself through the open window of the prince's room.

There was no laughter as the spinning wind lifted Prince Tarkton.

He was blown out the window,

Blown down the hill,

And blown into the river.

Queen Talara screamed,

My son!

And King Tandor called for the royal guards.

They set out immediately.

The king and the head guards on horses rushed from the royal stables,

The rest on foot.

They galloped and ran down the hill to the river.

But Salmar spun her wind and blew sand and dust into the eyes of the men and the horses.

As they struggled to find their way,

The swiftly moving river carried the prince farther from them.

As Salmar spun and spun,

She saw everything.

She saw Prince Tarkton float away,

And she saw the king struggle to get to the river,

And she saw the queen cry.

And then Salmar began to cry because she saw what she had done.

She felt so horrible that she changed from wind to water,

And she became tears that fell into the river.

Prince Tarkton was carried away by the river and Salmar's tears.

The king and the guards searched the river desperately.

They broke into three groups,

One to search the north bank,

One to search the south bank,

And one to dredge the river.

They walked for miles and miles.

They walked through weeds taller than a man and bushes and brambles and thorns.

Mud pulled at the boots on their feet.

Thorns cut their hands.

They did not stop,

And they would not stop.

The guards looked for the king's son as if searching for their own.

For that was their level of devotion to their king,

And that was their love for their sons.

The king and his soldiers would have searched until they fell from exhaustion,

But the river stopped them.

They heard at first the sound of a rushing waterfall,

Falling farther than four times as high as the highest spire of the castle.

As they looked over the edge,

They saw it churn and foam.

No man,

Let alone a small child,

Could have survived the fall.

When the king saw it,

He wept and rent his robes in mourning.

Now,

No child could have survived that fall,

But this was no ordinary child.

This was Prince Tarkton,

And sometimes special things happen to princes.

What happened to this prince was very special.

Just as Prince Tarkton tumbled over the edge of the waterfall,

An eagle spotted him.

The eagle dove and then leveled himself,

Spread his wings,

And caught the falling prince.

But the prince was much heavier than the eagle.

The eagle held on as long as he could,

Until he saw a soft spot of grass at the riverbank,

Where he gently dropped the prince onto the fluffy mound.

But the weight of the prince dislodged the grass mound,

And once again he floated down the river.

He floated for three days,

Tended to by the eagle,

Who splashed river water on his face so he had something to drink,

And dropped berries into his mouth so he had something to eat,

And flew over him to shield him from the sun.

Trillium was not at war,

But it had an army,

And one troop was performing field practice.

After a hard morning made harder by Captain Bulger,

They took a break.

Some men were in the river gathering water in canteens and cooking pots.

Some were downstream from them,

Washing off the dust of the field.

Captain Bulger separated himself from the men and went up the riverbank,

Upstream.

As he relieved himself in the river,

He noticed something float toward him.

When the mound of grass got closer,

Captain Bulger played a game,

And he hit the grass with his yellow stream.

A cry came from the grass mound.

The river carried Prince Tarkton right to the edge of the riverbank where Captain Bulger stood.

He looked and contemplated the child.

Bulger considered pushing it back with the toe of his boot,

But then remembered his wife,

Philophy.

She had bothered him for some time about wanting a baby.

He knew that would not happen because he did not desire his wife.

This child could solve that problem.

Captain Bulger reached down and grabbed Prince Tarkton from the grass,

And for the second time,

Prince Tarkton cried.

The eagle was hovering overhead,

And hearing the prince's cry,

He rushed to his defense.

The eagle slapped his wings at the captain's head and scratched his face with his talons,

But the captain simply drew his sword and pierced the eagle's heart.

And so it was that the captain walked away from the riverbank,

With a crying child under one arm and a dead eagle hanging from the other.

When Captain Bulger gave the child to his wife,

Philophy took it and smiled,

But she was not happy.

Although this was a son,

It was not her son.

She did not love it and never would,

But she took care of the child,

Not because she wanted to,

But because of her fear of Bulger.

That is how Prince Tarkton came to live in a cold house with Philophy and Bulger,

And they named him Rudd.

Over time,

Rudd grew,

And he grew big and strong.

As Bulger watched Rudd grow,

He hated him.

He hated the way he laughed.

He hated how easily he could do things and build things.

He hated his intelligence,

But he found him useful.

Bulger used Rudd to feel better about himself.

There are many sad stories that could be told,

But we will tell only the last,

For to hear more than one is too difficult to bear.

When Rudd was almost thirteen,

Bulger decided he needed a bigger house.

Since he had been stealing goods from the army and selling them,

He could afford it.

Bulger planned to build a large room onto the house he had.

Philophy asked for the room to be built on the south side of the house,

Where it would be sunny and warm,

But Bulger only laughed.

Bulger wanted the room on the north side,

Where it was more visible and would impress the people of the town.

But there was one problem.

There were three huge rocks on the north side.

Bulger hired a man to remove the rocks.

The man hitched ten horses to the rocks,

But the rocks did not move,

And the man failed.

So Bulger hired a second man to remove the rocks.

The second man used timbers and levers,

But the rocks did not move,

And the second man failed.

So Bulger hired a third man to remove the rocks.

The third man used special explosive powder.

A small piece smaller than a loaf of bread broke off one rock,

But the rocks did not move,

And the third man failed.

Rudd had watched the first man and the second man and the third man,

And Rudd said to Bulger,

I will remove those rocks for three gold coins,

One for each rock.

Bulger snickered and agreed,

Because he knew Rudd could not remove the rocks,

And because Bulger took pleasure from watching Rudd fail.

Rudd planned to do his work at night because he knew that if Bulger saw him,

It would make him angry.

That evening,

Rudd went to bed but got up in the middle of the night and thrust a shovel into the ground.

He dug a great hole next to the largest rock.

When it was big enough,

He rolled the rock into the hole,

Covered it with dirt,

And laid the grass back on top of it.

Then Rudd went to bed.

The next morning,

As Bulger stood at the kitchen window eating a fried egg,

He blinked.

Two rocks.

There were only two rocks.

He stormed from the house.

The next night,

Rudd dug another hole,

And the next morning,

There was only one rock.

On the last night,

Rudd rolled the last rock into the last hole and covered it with the last piece of grass.

He lay down on the spot and smiled.

He had done it.

He had removed the rocks after three men had failed.

A small piece of his heart hoped that Bulger would be proud of him.

Then Rudd fell asleep on top of the grass,

On top of the dirt,

On top of the rocks.

But the next morning,

Bulger was not proud.

He was angry,

For he felt Rudd had made a fool of him.

And as he looked out the window and saw Rudd sleeping,

He was angrier.

Bulger walked outside and kicked Rudd awake.

Then he threw the three gold coins hard at Rudd's face.

Now something happened when the coins hit the prince's face,

And he told Bulger not to do that.

But Bulger could not be stopped.

He clenched his fist and hit the prince's face over and over and over.

Then the prince hit him back.

Perhaps if the prince were sixteen or seventeen,

He would have won.

But he was just barely thirteen,

And even though he was big and strong,

He wasn't big and strong enough.

The prince lay sprawled at Bulger's feet.

The second-to-last thing Bulger did was pick up the piece of rock smaller than a loaf of bread,

For it was not buried with the others,

And drop it on Rudd's forehead.

The last thing Bulger did was laugh.

He left the prince bleeding and bruised on top of the grass,

On top of the dirt,

On top of the rocks.

Philophy had seen all this from her bedroom window,

But she did not move to help Rudd.

She knew what a beating from Bulger felt like and didn't want one.

She didn't want anything she had.

She didn't want to be where she was,

So she pretended to be somewhere else.

Philophy closed her eyes and disappeared into her own mind.

But someone else had been watching.

Nasula lived with her parents across the way from Rudd and Bulger and Philophy.

She had seen everything,

And she had seen it for a long time.

She waited until Bulger walked away up over the hill,

And then she ran to Rudd,

For she loved him,

And she did not know it,

But Rudd loved her.

Nasula helped Rudd stand up,

Bore him to his house,

And laid him on his couch.

She washed his wounds with cool water and put a soft feather pillow under his head.

When she had done everything she could think of and she could think of nothing else,

Nasula lay down beside Rudd and wrapped her arms around him.

As they slept,

They both had sweet dreams.

When Bulger came home and found them sleeping together,

His blood grew hot and his eyes grew angry.

He grabbed Nasula and threw her off Rudd.

Her head hit the wall,

And she slid to the floor.

Rudd awoke to the feel of Bulger's coarse hands around his neck.

Bulger was trying to choke him.

Bulger was trying to kill him.

Rudd fought back,

But he wasn't big enough.

He wasn't strong enough.

Nasula opened her eyes and saw what was happening.

Bulger,

In his anger,

Never saw her.

He never saw her pick up the heavy frying pan.

When the pan struck the back of Bulger's head,

It was his turn to slide to the floor.

Nasula and Rudd ran.

They ran out of Bulger's house and ran to Nasula's house for safety.

Nasula's parents were at the door and they swept Nasula into their arms,

But when they saw Rudd covered with bruises and blood seeping from his forehead,

They forbade him to enter.

So Rudd did the only thing he could.

He ran.

He ran through fields and woods and brambles and thorns,

And he ached and bled and cried and fell exhausted at the river.

Once again,

The birds tended to the prince.

They splashed river water on him to cleanse his wounds,

To cool his fever,

And to drink.

They gently placed berries into his bruised mouth for him to eat,

And at night,

When the sun fell and the air cooled,

They covered him with their wings.

During the time that the prince was lost and believed dead,

The king and queen never forgot him.

The queen shed three tears for him every morning,

And the king and queen together said a prayer for his soul every night.

On the third night that the prince was sleeping and healing by the river,

The queen had a dream.

She dreamed of a glorious cobalt river,

The sound of which was like the sound of many violins.

A great bird arose from the river and spoke to her.

Your son is not dead.

He is sleeping.

He is sleeping the sleep of one who does not know who he is.

You will find him by the river,

Where the eagles fly.

And in her dream,

The queen responded,

But how will I know him?

It has been eleven years,

And he was very small.

I can hardly remember him.

A tear slipped from her closed eye and rolled down her cheek.

The great bird answered,

Only royalty is permitted a name that begins with a T.

His name has been lost.

He does not know it.

But a T marks his forehead.

Go to him.

The dream woke the queen,

And the queen woke the king,

And at first light the search party departed,

Heading for the river,

Lifting their eyes to look for eagles.

Seven eagles led them to Prince Tarkton.

They found him face down,

And all held their breath as they turned him over.

A T marked his forehead.

It was left by the piece of rock smaller than a loaf of bread.

King Tandor and Queen Talara wept when they saw their son.

The royal doctor examined him and ordered attendants to dress his wounds with rosemary oil and lay him on a bed of lavender.

The king and queen never left his side.

They touched him and held him and stroked his hair.

When he was well enough,

Prince Tarkton sat up.

When the king and queen told him who he was,

He did not believe them,

And he laughed.

But over time,

The prince came to believe,

And over time,

He answered their questions about what had happened to him.

It outraged the king to learn what Bulger had done to the prince.

The law of the kingdom declares that anyone who strikes royalty shall be put to death,

But when the king demanded that Bulger be found and killed,

Prince Tarkton said no.

Keep him in the army,

But strip him of his rank.

Set him in the scullery where he will learn to serve.

So that is what they did.

Later,

When Bulger's former soldiers saw him in the mess hall wrapped in a soiled apron and scrubbing pots,

They laughed.

One night at the castle,

After a tasty meal of fruits from the fields,

Prince Tarkton thought about how much his life had changed.

He wondered how good it could get,

How wide he could open his arms to receive good things.

It was then that Queen Talara said,

Dear Tarkton,

Is there anything else you desire,

Anything else that would make you even happier?

The prince smiled,

His eyes sparkled,

And he said,

I would like to find Nasula.

On the day they married,

Prince Tarkton wore a robe of royal blue velvet and a crown of gold with diamonds and sapphires.

Princess Nasula's robe was the color of the sky at dawn,

Her crown was gold,

And diamonds and sapphires were woven into her hair.

After they said their vows,

They kissed,

And the birds of Trillium sang their pleasure.

Then two white doves flew into the gathering,

Carrying a gold ribbon.

Prince Tarkton and Princess Nasula followed the ribbon through the valley,

Through the woods,

And into a clearing.

It led them to their new home,

Their nest built for them by all the birds of Trillium.

It had woods at the back and wild flowers at the front and gentle breezes that carried the sounds of their joy.

Prince Tarkton tenderly took Princess Nasula into his arms and carried her over the threshold.

They held each other and loved each other and told each other the truth.

And Prince Tarkton and Princess Nasula lived happily ever after.

The End.

Reviews

I especially liked knowing why the story was written. What a lovely path to healing!