The Key to Eve
a fantasy
3
The Princess
PERI WAS NORMALLY easy-going and unflappable. But it was Halloween and the warning of Ma Gabor was still in the back of his mind. Especially, since he had now met a witch he believed might have eaten him instead of cursing him. The storm broke before Peri had found shelter for the night and he took refuge beneath a large overhanging stone.
Little did he know the stone was the partly toppled monument to a long-forgotten princess! The stone provided scant shelter and no warmth as Peregrine huddled there shivering.
“Has my Prince Charming come at last?” whispered a voice near Peri’s ear. He jumped nearly out of his skin and spun to look at the vision of a beautiful young woman.
“I’m... I’m… I’m not a prince!” he gasped as he looked at her.
“A knight? His squire?”
“N-n-n-o. I’m just a wanderer seeking shelter from the storm.”
“You’ll do.”
“Do for what?” Peri asked in horror as the beauty moved toward him.
“To marry me! Love me! Be with me forever?”
“Are you my Eve?” he asked, fearing the worst.
“Eve? Hmm. I don’t think that was my name. People only ever called me Princess. Never a name like I should have had. Oh, damn! I suppose I’m dead, aren’t I? Still waiting by my window at the castle for my prince to come.” Then the ghost, for so Peri now identified her, sat next to where Peri had huddled and began to cry.
“Did you not know it?” Peri asked.
“Oh, I suppose I did. But there’s nothing to do here but live in my dreams of the days in the castle planning my wedding and waiting for a handsome prince to come calling.”
Peri sat beside the ghost and reached out to comfort her. His hand passed right through her.
“That wasn’t pleasant!” she snapped. “Keep your hands to yourself.”
“I’m so sorry! I only thought to comfort you.”
“Thanks for the thought. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve becoming a ghost tied to this old rock. I remember being in the castle waiting for a prince, but what we got was an army to destroy us. I fought, you know. In those days everyone who could swing a sword or a pitchfork fought. The last I remembered was a handsome man in gleaming armor. ‘My Prince!’ I cried, opening my arms. And then he killed me.”
“How sad. Is there anything I can do to help you?” he asked politely.
“I don’t suppose you’d consider dying and living with me forever, would you?”
“Uh… No, Miss Princess. I’m sure you’d be pleasant company, but I must continue the quest to find my Eve or I shall never find peace.”
“Ugh! That sounds worse than I have it. Why must you continue?”
“A witch cursed me because I stole an apple. I must wander until I find the key to the heart of my Eve or my heart will be as empty as my belly.” As if to punctuate his statement, Peri’s stomach growled.
“Could you at least get rid of the gophers, then?”
“What?”
“Gophers have been digging all around my grave. That’s why the stone is tilted. I’m afraid they’ll dig right through me one day,” said the ghost princess.
“I might be able to help,” Peri said. He searched around the stone as the ghost watched until he found a gopher hole. “Br’er Gopher, Br’er Gopher! Pop up and say hello.”
“What are you crazy?” a voice came from the hole. Of course, most humans would not have heard the voice because it spoke gopher. It is unknown whether the ghost could hear him because if she could have, she’d likely have asked them to move herself.
“I hate to disturb you on this wet night, but your digging here has upset the ghost who lives here. You’ve come near to toppling her monument.”
“A ghost, eh?” the gopher said, popping his head out of the hole and looking around. “I don’t see anyone.”
“Most creatures can’t,” Peri said. “No more than most people can talk to animals.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of you, Br’er Talker. Have you noticed how muddy the ground is? I believe the river has risen. ’Twill be time to move soon. Got to go to higher ground before the frost sets in.”
“Yes. That’s what I was asking. Can you move to higher ground without digging around this big stone?”
“I see. Well, no I don’t see all that well, but I can tell where you are and that other thing that just floats around. I thought it was a bat at first.”
“She’s not a bat. She’s a princess. She just happens to be dead.” Peri lowered his voice so only the gopher could hear—though, of course, the princess couldn’t hear the conversation anyway. “I think she’s been dead a long long time. I don’t recall hearing of any castle near here.”
“Well, I wouldn’t care really. But as we were going to move anyway, I’ll point the family to higher ground and we’ll be off. Rain keeps the big beasts away, so we should be safe enough moving at night.”
“Farewell, Br’er Gopher. I hope you find a nice dry place for your family,” Peri said. One after another, a half dozen gophers popped out of the hole and followed their leader away from the monument.
“I think you’ll be safe now,” Peri said to the ghost. “The gophers have moved away.”
“You’re really quite nice,” said the ghost. “Are you sure you won’t just die here and stay with me?”
“I really can’t.”
“Well, then lie down and go to sleep. I’ll sing to you like I used to sing to my cats. You feel quite warm, like a summer day. I’ll just stay here nearby while you sleep.”
“Okay,” Peri said weakly.
While his hand passing through her was unpleasant to her, apparently having bits of her slipping into or through him as they lay together was not as unpleasant, though it left Peri feeling quite cold.
When he woke in the morning, he thought about the strange dreams he’d had the night before. There was, of course, no sign of a ghost or a gopher. He looked at the weathered stone monument and saw that it did show an unreadable engraving. That goes without saying as Peri was quite illiterate, having never had a tutor that was human. But Peri also traced the shape of a magnificent beast, almost worn away. It seemed like a large cat—perhaps a lion—but it had the head of a bird and talons on its front paws.
He did his best to shore up the stone, but without a good horse or mule, there was no way he could get it fully upright. He hoped the props he put against it would keep it from falling.
He sighed, almost returning to Tumwater to try to scrounge food, but decided he’d better put as many leagues between him and the witch as he could.
