[T: Unknown ] [ Location: Unknown]
And so the young woman made her demand to the old wizard, the Grand Wizard of the Royal Court. “Where is my prince?”, she demanded.
The old wizard told her, her prince was in his royal chambers, getting dressed for the feast that was going to occur in the dining hall, in celebration of his return. The wizard told her that he would guide her to a certain place, so as to make certain that when the prince traversed to the hall that their paths might cross. And thus would she meet her prince. Delighted by this, the young woman was filled with joy and expectations.
The wizard led her to a corridor, where she was told to pretend to sweep the floor until the prince made his way through the corridor and to the feast. Then the wizard took the merchant and the young man and they sat down on a bench, alongside a window in that same corridor, far enough that they could not hear, but close enough that they could see.
The young woman swept the floor, humming to herself, when the broom in her hands asked her, “My, you are in a delighted mood.”
The young woman replied,” Oh I am! The prince, my prince is coming!”
The broom asked her, “And why does that make you so happy?”
The young woman answered, “Because we have made love to one another and he has promised to marry me!”
The broom said, “That is delightful news”, then the broom asked her, “But did he say he was going to marry you?”
The young woman gushed out, “No, but he promised me, as we laid together, that he would make my dreams come true!” And before the broom could make further comments, “Hush now, here he comes”, and continued to sweep the floor.
The prince escorted by his guard strode down the corridor, striding along with as much confidence as a man could ever imbue. And as the prince strode closer and closer, the young woman peeked a glance, a glance of such coyishment that the prince could not help but look and notice her.
The young woman shyly held onto the handle of the broom and stopped sweeping, her face downcast, hiding her blushing cheeks. The prince approached her, grasped her chin in one of his hands and lifted her face up. “I have never seen a creature such as you. What beauty embodies this fair maid”, he declared, “It fills me with want”. The young woman gazed into the prince’s eyes searching for something. The prince stared back, his lust fueling his wanton aggression. Finally the prince released her from his grasp and she collected herself. Composing herself she curtsied before him. With a knowing and sure glance the prince left.
The wizard, the merchant and the young man came to her side and she frowned, “He does not know me”, she said, “He does not remember me”.
“Yes, I know the sort”, said the merchant, “so high up, the lowborn aren’t worth a single pay of mind”.
“He’s a prince you know. He hardly has the time to pay attention to everything”, said the wizard.
“We must know our place”, said the young man, “we are lowborn after all, we are nothing special”.
The young woman thought about this. She set the broom and let it lean against the wall. “I thank you for getting me this far”, she said with poise. “And although it was your lust and desire that was traded as currency, without it I would not have been able to bargain. And so my naughty gentlemen '', she said with false reproach and a slight smile, “ I am going home”. And so she set off towards the entrance of the castle, with the three men following at a distance behind her. The wizard gave a look at the broom before they exited the corridor, but the broom stayed motionless, silent.
As the three men were walking a short distance behind the young woman, the young man asked the wizard, “Old man, why did you allow the merchant and I to enter the palace, alongside you? You did not need to allow for us to follow and you did not have to allow for us to be an audience to your erotic show. You could have had her all to your private self”, the young man paused, “Why?”
The Wizard, the Old Man, gave a smile, a twinkle in his eyes. “Brothers before Maidens”, he replied, adding, “I have come to grow fond of our friendship, in this short amount of time. The adventure we went through as if we were all in our youths, the days of actually following through our romantic fantasies. The abandonment of everything else in pursuit of pleasure. It was as if I was young again.”
“And was this Brotherhood, over infatuation over the Maidens, worth it?”, asked the Young Man.
“Oh very much so”, said the Wizard, “Brotherhood’s can last a lifetime, and maybe can be passed over the generations to the very offspring of such brotherhoods. A woman can be as fleeting an experience as one can only have one woman at most times, while brothers you can have many at all times.”
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“And this Brotherhood”, asked the merchant, “is it more lasting than the love of a woman?”
“Oh most definitely”, said the wizard, “Histories are a reflection of such bonds. The great wars with great heroes, in all great epics are forged from the bonds men have created with one another, as they persevere through great trials and tribulations. The love a woman gives and takes rarely reflects the greatness of such exploits. It is only with brotherhood that great stories and relationships are forged.
“Brothers before Maidens”, repeated the Young Man, slowly as if he was mulling over what he heard.
“Brothers before Maidens”, the Merchant said to himself, taking some time to wonder what this new phrase meant.
“Brothers before Maidens”, affirmed the Wizard.
They accompanied the young woman all the way to the entrance of the city gates, all the while glancing at her finely shaped rump. The Merchant lent her a mule to ride home and the Wizard enchanted the donkey to come back to the Merchant once the mule had carried the young woman to her home.
And as the young woman disappeared into the distance, the young man looked back at the two other men, back again towards the direction in which the young woman had gone, then back to the two men again. “Bro’s before Ho’s”, he said to himself once more and they entered into the city together.
The young woman arrived back at her small little cottage, next to the forest, alongside the road. She climbed off the back of the mule and it grazed around a bit before the wizard's enchantment steered the mule back towards the city. It went along the road, the road after some time intersecting and converging onto a larger road. The mule then went past, and also in turn was passed by carts pulled by other mules, donkeys and horses. It went silently along this main road all the way to the city gates, where the guards seemed to pay no mind to an ownerless creature simply meandering into the city. The mule went past the gate and entered a street with stalls and vendors, along the road, selling their foods, their drinks and their wares. It trode on, its head bowed and its eyes on the paved path. It went along the road still, past the denizens of the city, some walking, some running, smiling, or yelling, crying or laughing. And it arrived at a stable next to the merchants store. Its head to the ground it went into a stall, nibbled at some hay, before it lied down and went to sleep.
At the palace, the prince feasted and danced with the lords and ladies of the court. Drinking and laughing, the merry festivity brought a smile to the prince’s face. The prince sat down and looked around the court and he felt fulfilled. He had come back from a glorious battle and left the enemy battered and defeated. He had built a kingdom that was prosperous and peaceful with little the citizens found wanting. Yet, deep in his mind the prince felt something was off. He felt that he had forgotten something, something that he felt was of importance to him. Not to the kingdom itself but to him personally. The feeling lasted for only a moment before he was interrupted from his solitude thoughts by a local lord who presented his daughter for a dance. The prince relented, and off the couple went, to the center of the hall, hand in hand, ready to dance and enjoy the rest of the evening.
The woodcutter arrived at the cottage late into the night, bringing with him the supplies and coins he had traded the products of his labor for. He had bought herbs and spices to give taste to the meals, animal fat and oil to fuel the lanterns, some new clothes to replace old ones and some sweets and trinkets for his daughter to delight in. All this he could do because he was a licensed woodcutter, in service to the local lord, with permission to cut down the timber of the land and plant new trees in place of the ones that had fallen.
The woodcutter arrived to find the lanterns dim and his daughter asleep. She woke up to find her father in the doorway and welcomed him in. She helped him bring in what he had bought from town and led the beast that pulled the cart into a pen. She laid out some feed for the beast and let it eat on its own and rest.
The young woman, the daughter, laid out a dish of stew, made from the pot above the fireplace, in front of her father for him to satisfy his hunger. She got water from a jug, and poured it into her fathers mug and placed that as well next to him. She watched as he wolfed down and finished the bowl of stew.
As the father finished his late meal, he told his daughter stories of his interaction with the city. The mundane interactions of selling wood, with certain individuals, and buying goods with other individuals. He talked of city officials, reporting to them how much he had cut down, how many more had grown, how far the forest had spread and anything else related to the forest. He then talked of other acquaintances he interacted with; relatives, friends and unknown travelers. All the while the daughter listened, her head resting and held up by her hands, which rested on elbows atop the table.
Noticing a slight change with his daughter, the father asked what she was thinking about. “Oh, nothing in particular”, the daughter said, “I was just thinking if I will ever have a life that is worth something”. The father replied that she would, as soon as she got married and became a mother, she would have a life of love, family and children to take care of and become the next generation. “But what if I want to do something else, like become a fisherman or a woodcutter like you?”, she asked. The father shook his head, and said that unfortunately women could not handle the labor of men, not because men did not want them to labor, but because a woman found it hard to handle the same labor as a man. It was unfortunate, the father said, that a woman was simply not as strong as a man, and it would be hard for a woman to find any occupation of any merit.
The father, now tired, stood up, and kissed her head before he headed to his bed to sleep. The young woman sat in her chair, seemingly lost in her thoughts as she mulled over her adventures with the prince, the three men, and overall what she had lost in that adventure over what she had gained. She thought over the meaning of life. What does it mean to be a woman, she thought, what does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be me? What does that mean? What do I do now? Without a resolution, yet feeling that she had progressed a little in what it meant to be her, she got up, blew out the lantern feeding light into the cottage and went to sleep.
Outside, a presence floated. It hid behind the trees of the forest, looking at the cottage from beyond. Hidden by the night, the dark and the shadows of the forest it whispered, “Soon. Soon, all will come to pass”.