Love's Grief

A long, long time ago, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived many people, who were all like something out of a dream. Many were beautiful--but some weren't. Many were rich--but many were poor as well. Therre were no mystical creatures to speak of, and no curses placed on the land. Nothing set these people apart from the other kingdoms--except for one small characteristic.
Everyone in this kingdom was so kind, so thoughtful, so unconditionally loving, that if a puppy was ever kicked or a kitten ever killed, I have yet to hear about it. Not even the flies were spared from this kindness--food dropped on the streets was left there, 'for the betterment of the microscopic folk.' It wasn't all happy, for life is life, and such evils as death and illness and injury still occurred. However, all misfortunes were an act of nature, or of random chance, or of nasty foreigners who liked to cause trouble. Anger, hatred, greed, such things did not exist in these people.
The king and queen of this nation were the cause of all this happiness. Because, although I did say earlier that there were no curses upon this land, I never said there were no blessings. Further back than the memories of the storytellers could provide, some kindness had resulted in the blessing of the females of the royal line. Now, whenever a princess met a prince, there was the chance that something magical would happen, and their feelings for the other would result in happiness throughout the land. Their queen had married over 50 years ago, when the nation had been in its lowest point. A blessed marriage had not occurred for centuries, and people had been doubting its existance. But, the queen met and married the king of a neighboring country, and almost immediately things began to change. Yes, it was all thanks to the queen for their happiness.
And so naturally, when the queen bore her nation four daughters and four sons, the people were sure of their future happiness. But the King himself was not satisfied. Although he loved each of his daughters, they all looked like either a mixture of their parents or their father alone. He wanted to have a daughter looking exactly like her mother, whose beauty was beyond compare, so that in future generations her face would not weather with her statues.
But after their fifth son was born, she looked tiredly at her husband and said, 'I'm sorry, my love. I just can't do it anymore.' She never left her bed again.
Thankfully, because of the magic, this last son could never feel shame for not being born the correct gender, and his father could never feel hatred for the child that had dashed his hopes. He grew up happily, and wisely at that.
Time passed, and the king and Queen grew older. Finally, they could put it off no longer, and they began to look around for suitors for their four daughters among the surrounding nations. But one by one, trajedy struck, and they were slowly robbed of hope.
The first suitor came from the land to their North. He was big and blonde, and had a feisty smile on his face. The eldest daughter, who was to be his bride, immediately fell in love. However, his nation bore a deep-seated hatred for their neighbors to the south. As they tried to draw up a treaty during negotiations, one of the generals could no longer stand to negotiate with his enemies, and snapped. He drew his sword, and began to randomly slash it around the small meeting hall, causing chaos. The prince was struck, and although he could have easily been saved, due to the furor around him he was looked over and died of blood loss. The princess' heart was broken, and everyone knew that, even if it healed, a scarred heart could never bring peace to their country.
The second suitor was from the east, and he was black-haired and lithe. The second princess liked him immediately, for they shared the same interests: hunting, archery, hawking, horse-riding, and all sorts of sportish activities. But it was not at her hands that he perished at during a hunting trip they had foolishly taken alone. It was an assasin, from a differnt kingdom that had been quarreling with the prince's for some time. However, there was no proof that she had not killed him. The prince's father, in his grief, went to war with the accused, and during the bloody battles, the second daughter was killed.
The third suitor was from the south, and he was dark-skinned and had a beautiful voice. The third princess, however, was wild and uncontrolable; ruled by her own passions. She strongly detested the idea of her parents using her to get was they wanted. She hated having the entire kingdom rely on her, and expect her to do the right thing; she was tired of responsibility, and finally gave up. So when her suitor invited her to brave the deserts to visit his hometown, she agreed. The sandstorms wer mighty that year, and nobody knows for sure if her entire caravan all perished, or if somewhere a pale-skinned girl with lots of glittering jewelry was finding a new life under the fiery sun.
The fourth suitor was from the west. He was kind, to the point where one might be able to say that he was from her kingdom to begin with. The royal couple, after the losses of their first three daughters, were highly cautious about this match. But, despite their fears, they met, they matched, and they married without a hitch. The people were sure that they had finally succeeded. No, it was not either of them that trajedy would strike, but their infant son, who had a talent for escaping his nurses. Although his mother was never fooled by his tricks, she one day fell asleep while he had been knowingly placed in her care. He snuck out, and was found three days later. He had crawled into a pond, and gotten stuck in the drain. His corpse was only discovered after it had begun to rot and reek.So bitter was his sadness that he got rid of his wife the only way he could--the chopping block.
And so, finally, the hearts of the monarchs broke.
Now, as I've said before, this blessing only did good things. There was no anger in their kingdom. There was no hatred in their kingdom. There was no laziness in their kingdom. But these are all emotions that we could have just resisted on our own. The truth of this blessing was that it was unnesecary; such emotions are meaningless when it comes to love.
However, grief is a form of love; love for something that you cannot have, nor will ever see again. Love, and Grief, cannot be avoided. Love, like grief, never truly fades or goes away. And love, like grief, can make you blind to the world around you.
The king and queen did not notice their kingdom slowly falling into a state of negligence. They did not notice the infiltration of their castle with spies from the combined forces of the north and the east. They did not notice the reports of their own spies, how they suggested a moving of troops in those countries. They did not notice, ans so they did not prepare.
And so, sixty years to the day of their marriage, the kingdom of the blessed couple fell.As battle raged around a castle lit only by the fires of the capital city being burnt to the ground, inside, an elderly man knelt by the bed of an elderly woman. Oblivious to the ragings of war around them, they both took a sip of wine, oddly illuminated by the occasional flare. Slowly, their breathing waned. Their bodies relaxed. And as their love dragged them into the depths, their kingdom followed on their heels. And after that, nobody has ever lived happily ever after. The end.