Sunday, April 01, 2007

[story] The Sweetheart Tree

I made up this story to go with the song The Sweetheart Tree. It's a simple love song, with a beautifully sad melody.

Long ago there were two warring countries -- Han and Chin. They had been at war with each other for so long, that no one really even remembered why they hate each other so much.

One day the Prince of Han went hunting in the forest. He shot an arrow at a bird that flew by, and missed. But as the arrow came down, he heard a loud cry:

"Ah! Oh my god!"

The Prince followed the voice deeper into the forest, and came upon the most beautiful lady, sitting under a tree; and his arrow, planted on the tree trunk, just above her head.

The lady was very frightened and very angry. But the Prince apologized profusely, and after a good number of "sorry's", the lady finally had a smile on her face again. The Prince introduced himself, and to his great surprise, she turned out to be the Princess of Chin.

They spent the rest of that day together and had a great time. They set a time to meet again, and soon they were meeting in the forest every week. They were madly in love, but they also knew that they could never be together -- Their families would never allow it.

But the war between the countries went on, so they finally decided that their only choice was to run away, even though they would be leaving their beloved families and countries behind. They set a date to meet by the tree.

When that fateful day came, the Princess left a note on her bed, and headed for the forest to wait by the tree. The palace guards found the note in no time, and reported the Princess missing to the King. The King did not believe the note: "There is no way that my princess would leave us -- Those Han bastards must have abducted her! Get her back!"

The Chin army quickly assembled and took off. As they were charging towards the Han territory, they saw the Prince flying towards them on horseback. "Look! It's the Prince! Get him!"

They shot a hundred arrows at him. The Prince was very, very hurt, but he wouldn't stop. Then someone noticed that the Prince really wasn't heading for the Chin army, but that he was heading for the forest. "Look! He's trying to get away!"

So they shot a hundred more arrows. And this time, they stopped the Prince.

As for the Princess? She never stopped waiting. She never left the tree.
They say there’s a tree in the forest
A tree that will give you a sign
Come along with me to the sweetheart tree
Come and carve your name next to mine.

They say if you kiss the right sweetheart
The one you’ve been waiting for
Big blossoms of white will burst into sight
And your love will be true evermore.