The Lady of the Wood

Once there were two princely brothers who lived in a faraway kingdom. The elder brother concerned himself with the duties of rulership and warfare. The younger hawked and hunted, for he loved the great royal forest more than any other man in the kingdom.
One day, the younger brother came to court with a beautiful lady whom he introduced as his bride. She was tall and fair as the sunrise, with eyes as calm and golden as autumn hearth fires. When the elder brother saw her, he knew his reign would mean nothing if she were not his queen.
The next day when the young prince went hunting, the elder prince waited in ambush. As he prepared to strike, an oaken branch knocked him violently to the ground. Suddenly, standing over him was a terrible female creature of bark and vine, with blazing eyes as fierce as wildfires. It said to him, "I am the spirit of the wood, and this curse I cast on thee: Strike at thy brother, and you shall lose all you desire."
Terrified, the elder prince fled the wood. That very night he commanded that the entire forest be burned to the ground, his brother along with it.
The next morning as he walked among the cinders, the elder prince saw the beautiful lady standing alone amid the charred stumps, her eyes like smouldering embers. He reached out to touch her, and as he did so, her body turned to ash. The lady his brother had loved was the spirit of the trees. And when his subjects saw what beauty he had destroyed, they turned on the elder prince and buried his remains in an unmarked grave.
Category:Story