Omdat het niet altijd nederlands hoeft te zijn.
Een engelstalig verhaaltje voor het slapengaan :)

Enjoy!

Once upon a time in a land far from here, where people have not yet evolved to material immoral beings and no one has yet heard of war and pain, there lived a young lad who was born a prince.

This lad loved playing outside and ventured a lot in the gardenial mazes of his parents, the king and queen.

One day the little boy fell through a small gap in the bushes of the maze and discovered his own little paradise.

For he saw a small lake with two swans in the middle, covered with what looked like blue glass stones at the bottom.

The water being so clear and pure like you only see it in bottles.

Then when he stared into the water suddenly he saw the face of a young girl, so beautiful it touched him.

Seeing the small crown on her head, he felt that this was a projection of his future wife.

That must be it.

Day after day he went back to that lake as his own secret place.

Never did he tell a soul where it was or about the blonde girl whose face he saw every time he stared into the water.

Because of how he felt like she was his destiny and seeing her beauty, he could barely wait till he was 16 when his first princess hunting party would be thrown.

Surely he would meet her there.

These parties had been a tradition in royal families with a son.

From their 16th to their 21st birthday they would hold a party every year where each princess of the world would be invited.

These parties were the only occasions where he was allowed to see any girls and not before the last one had he to make a decision about who to marry.

The marriage always taking place the day after the last party.

Year after year went by and every day he kept on visiting the lake where he saw the face of his girl.

Then the day arrived of his first party.

Dozens of princesses showed up.

Excited as he was he looked carefully as they entered the room one by one.

But as the last one came by he could no longer hide the look of disappointment on his face.

Are you sure that was all of them? He asked the guards.

Yes. They replied. - Though amazed by the question, since, never had they known a party with so many beautiful princesses.

This young lad was a very wanted prince for every king and queen to become an addition into the family because of the size and status of his parents' kingdom.

Still he did not look happy with the upcome – and he indeed did not feel happiness for as many beautiful girls he might see, she whose face he saw every day in the lake, was not amongst them.

Been brought up with charms and respect he took on his duty and talked to every single one of the girls.

He promised himself to only build up friendships with the ones he liked, not expecting any more of it, for surely she existed and probably just was prevented from coming this year and she'll be there on the next one.

So be it.

After talking to them all he discovered there was not much about most of them.

With only a few of them he could laugh, and just one of them shared so many interests, she could actually become a friend for life.

Later that night, he took her to the lake and told her his story.

Amazed as she was, noticing his loyalty and love for what he seemed to see in the water, she immediately fell in love with him.

She had never seen a guy so true to his beliefs.

She decided though not to tell him about her feelings for she knew it would break them up.

The years as well as the parties came and went by, but the poor lad always felt the same disappointment. His girl never showed up. Meanwhile him and the young princess kept on growing closer in their beautiful friendship.

When noticing at his 21st birthday party that the girl from the lake still wasn't there, he took a break from the party and entered the maze with a hammer, heading for the lake.

Having arrived he cried for hours before he gave a smash with the hammer into the water.

His face in tears seeing the face of the girl being torn apart and reassembled after every smash.

The princess he had trusted with his secret had noticed as only one his disappearance and headed for the maze to find him.

As soon as he saw her he ran towards her and told her about his wondering.

About the pain he felt inside for the girl of the lake not being at his party and him now having to pick a girl to marry tomorrow.

“You know”, he told her, “I cannot imagine to live my life with any of the other girls here at this party, and since the girl of the lake has seemed to be nothing but an illusion, you are the only girl here at the party I really feel I have a connection with.”

At that point he kneeled before her and asked her if she would like to become his queen.

In love as she was, she immediately said yes and they became king and queen the very next day.

Though he was a bitter king, not having completed his dream of finding the crowned girl of the lake.

He broke his queens heart by spending most of his nights in another bed all alone, the rest of the nights being up drinking.

One night he had drunk too much and his male nature took over.

He went to her bedroom, and brutally took her before heading back to his own bed.

Nine months later she died whilst giving birth to a healthy little baby girl.

He took care of babysitters and extra help around the castle to replace the missing of his queen without shedding a tear or ever showing a single sign of emotion.

Years went by and the lovely blonde baby became a young beautiful blonde girl.

He hadn't experienced a lot of her growing up, hadn't cared enough to even look at her, keeping himself in quiet solitude.

The little girl loved playing outside, especially at the maze.

The day came that she discovered the lake, where she also found a small crown, her mother must have forgotten it there years ago when the recent king – her dad – had brought her there when he proposed after she found him through the maze.

She put the crown on her head and returned home.

The king was just leaving the castle when he saw the young blonde crowned girl entering his land.

As he hadn't seen her a lot he asked his servants who she was.

As they replied: “Dear King, that is your daughter, our Princess” he started crying.

He finally recognised her as being the girl in the lake of so many years ago.

He cried over the hurt he had caused to his passed wife.

He cried for her loss.

He cried for the lack of time he had spent with his daughter, that it had come that far that he hadn't even recognised her as his girl.

From that day on he realised the lake hadn't lied to him about the future.

He had only interpretated it wrong and had caused a lot of hurt by doing so.

He restarted going to the lake often and spent a lot of time with his daughter there where he had spent so much time on his own just watching her face years ago and finally became the man he had dreamt to become before he became a king.

And the little princess grew up loved like she deserved and he taught her how to do good for people so she would become a good queen when it would be her time.

He even told her the story about the little girl he always saw in the lake without forgetting to give her a little warning about this magical lake.

“You can believe the future you see in here,but that does not mean it is what you think it is.

So live your life and follow your heart.

If the lake shows you something you yourself will recognise it when the right time has come.

Do not hunt for dreams that might not be there.

But be thankful when you find out what the message really is.”