I need to know

Walking down the market streets was not something Helena did very often,

but her mother was out in one of her secret trips,

so when that happens, the little fairy princess wonders off, disguised and unnoticed.

A book store got her attention, it has not been there the last time she ventured out.

She went into the store thinking that a book can be a lonely princess best friend,

she had learn to love books, specially tales of other worlds and lost kingdoms.

The bell startled her as she pushed the door open.

an older lady appeared next to her, her looks were a little uneasy, do to the age markings on her face,

Helena was not used to see older fairies, her mother only kept the young and beautiful ones in the castle.

She never questioned because she knew of her mother's fascination with youth and beauty.

- " Hello young lady  what can I do for you?"

- asked the store keeper, bringing her back from her thoughts.

- "Oh, I... I just wanted to find something to read, I love fantasy..."

- "say no more"

 - said the old lady. " you know... sometimes, old stories are better than fairy tales"

- She paused and looked as if she was lost in time,

then looked deeply into the princess eyes and smiled a wrinkled smile,

in this moment Helena felt as if she knew this person.

- " now"  -the old book keeper said - "there is a book around here, somewhere,

if my memories don't fail me"

She pulled a key from her very old but clean pants pockets and dusted out a box from under her desk,

a wooden box with peculiar marks that she had not seen before.

Helena was very intrigued by this whole development, this was the most excitement she had in years!

- "what is it?"

She asked, as the old lady pull a book with a brown leather cover with the same markings as the box.

- "Princess this book belongs to you!" - she said, as she handed the book to Helena.

She was startled again,

- " How could she know who I am, even with this disguise." - thought Helena.

- "How do you know who I am, and what do you mean it belongs to me?"

- Little princess, sometimes things are not what they seem..."

There was sadness on her eyes as she said this words.

_"This book will open your eyes, and you will see things

that have been hidden from you and that only I know,

and now you need to know.

I have seen your sadness."

After she turned around to leave, she looked back and said-

- "You must learn to forgive, because hatred and resentment corrupt the soul, it happened to me  once upon a time.

When you are finished reading in the last page you will find a key that will open the door to your future

and will close the door to my past,

when we meet again our worlds will forever be changed"

-And just like that the Old lady and the book store disappeared.

The princess was standing alone in between people coming in and out of stores in the market place, the book was the only prove  of this encounter.

Once in her room she opened the book  and read a story about a lost kingdom and the story of its people

and the love of the king for his queen,

and their two daughters and son and about their happiness,

to be expecting another child.

But their love was cut short by a curse,

because someone wanted something that belong to them...

At the end of the book there was a drawing of the family.

Helena wish she could also have a father and siblings,

but her mother told her many times, that after her father died in war,

her love as only for her daughter and no one was to take her father's place.

At the turn of that last page,

there was a key with the words "Forgiveness" and "Freedom" written  in the handle.

She looked for the promised door and found it hidden under her bed.

Down the steps she went and the hair in her arm raised,

as the wall seemed to moved instead of her feet.

She entered a salon cover with beautiful pictures of...

Of that family from the book!

- "How can this be, who are this people?"

She needed to see her mother now!

Running in the  unknown halls she got lost, and just then a door opened,

she follow the light and stepped out into a green forest.

There was her mother, bathing beneath a mountain with carvings,

of those people she had just seen in the story, in the

castle's walls...

She looked at her mother, and her mother seemed older and tired.

- "Mother what is this place, who are this people? Mother they are alive..."

The woman's face in the mountain, all of the faces were looking at her,

in that moment she knew, she remembered them,

she recalled the queen's voice and the children laughter, and her father's kiss.

- "At last" -said her mother coming next to her  - " you remember"

Sadness showered her face as she looked at the daughter she never had...

Helena looked at her, heart broken - " why mother... Eleanor...?"  - she corrected herself. _ "I need to know"

Eleanor got close to Helena as all the faces in the mountain observed with intensity.

- "very well, my daughter" - Said Eleanor

- " Once upon a time there was a young princess Married to the a king's brother,"  - she looked at the king face in the mountain for a moment,

then back to Helena and continued:

" a war happened upon us, the queen and I were expecting child,

the king did not want to leave his wife in this delicate state,

 so he send his brother to war instead.

 I too was pregnant, but I was no

queen, so it did not matter.

As I told you before, Arturo was killed in war before your birth, I was devastated, the pain was so immense that cost me my child, I lost our baby that day as well..."

- She paused as if she was in battle with the worse of pain.

"I lost my sanity and started to formulate a plan in which I would not lose everything , no one new that I lost the baby

so I pretended I did not wanted to see any one, till I figure out what to do.

the next day I gave the queen some herbs to make her go on labor... I used my special powers to have people assist me in my plans,

and as you were born I exchanged you, for the lifeless body of my beautiful daughter,

and to everyone the queen's child was dead and mine was alive.

Everything was okay until one day the queen, on her everyday more often visits with you, noticed your birth mark,

which was the same as hers, That day she knew and told the king,

and I knew it was over..."

At this point her crying was the saddest cry anyone have ever heard, how ever she could, she continued:

- "I also knew I could never let you go,

so I released a curse on your family when they came to take you from me,

and ever since that day, they have been part of this mountain and I made everyone forget about them, ever since that day,

have just been you and I.

I can't ask you to forgive me, for my sake,"

she said, as she released the princess's family from their decades long imprisonment,

- " but I do ask you, to forgive me for your happiness, I want you to know that I loved you every moment since your birth."

Helena was experiencing the saddest day because after all,

Eleanor was the only mother she have ever known

 and she knew Eleanor's love for her, was true. 

- " I forgive you, but I don't want to ever see you again" - She said as she moved forward to meet her family.

Eleanor said one more thing to her, when Helena hugged her family,

that made her turn to see her, before she disappeared in the distance.

Eleanor said:

- "Didn't I tell you, that old stories are better than fairy tales?, My love..."