There was once a Kingdom called Harmony which was a land of plenty. Everyone who lived there seemed to have enough to eat and drink, and didn't have to work so hard to get by. The fields shone brightly with golden wheat. The orchard trees were filled with juicy red apples. Farms spilled over with abundance and food was delicious there. At night the people in the villages would play music and dance happily, for all was right in their world.
It was said that the source of the kingdom's prosperity was the goodness that shone from the royal family. The King and Queen always seemed to be happy, and whenever a problem presented itself, seemed to solve it with perfect judgement. The Queen would often ride out with a few knights across the land to comfort the few ill or bereaved people that she could find.
There had not been a war in so long that no one could easily remember what war was like. The King had a circle of knights who were very brave and protected Harmony from any wandering dragons or other beasts, and a group of powerful Royal Wizards met every night to cast a circle of protection around the entire land that protected everyone.
The King's castle was set high up on a mountainside, overlooking some of the most beautiful fields and villages in the kingdom. The furnishings inside were truly magnificent. The floors were of the finest marble. The walls were hung with richly colored tapestries that told of the history of the kingdom and had many scenes of country life. The ceilings were elaborately carved mahogany and cherry wood, and each room had a different pattern in its ceiling. The beds were of the softest down, and due to the magic of the wizards, the castle was always just the right temperature for whatever season it was, with gentle fresh breezes blowing in the windows.
But amidst all of this splendor, the King's youngest daughter Desire was not happy. She would wander around the castle, listless, not knowing what to do with herself. The only two things that she really liked to do was riding the fine Royal horses, and tending to her birds.
Desire had her own aviary. She harbored many birds there, but all of them were allowed to come and go as they pleased. Some of them stayed a long time, and others stayed barely long enough for Desire to get to know them. She thought about how they flew, and her greatest wish in life was to fly like the birds.
She began to visit the court Wizards, asking them how she could learn to fly like the birds. They all gave her the same answer: that it was too dangerous a magic for such a young and pretty girl to be amusing herself with. The princess would frown and wander off, only to return and ask the same question again, the next day.
Finally the King was told about these visits and he went to see her. He asked her why she was unhappy. Had he not given her everything a young princess could want? She tried to explain, but it was impossible for him to understand. Desire was born with the spirit of a bird, she wanted to fly! How could her father feel, how could he know, her soul's longing for the skies?
Finally one day she decided that she would have to get one of the wizards to help her, and would do whatever she could to get his help. She made an oath to herself, and a crafty plan besides.
Desire stopped visiting the wizards, and pretended to be happy. The King was pleased, and thought that she had grown out of her obsession with flight. He turned his attentions to other matters and the wizards soon forgot about her constant questioning.
Brent was a young wizard from the Royal circle. He was short, and not very handsome, but he had a good heart and had done quite well in his apprenticeship. His father was the Baron of a nearby village and was very proud of his son having become a wizard. He was a likeable fellow, hard working, predictable in habit, and did little to excess.
Desire watched him carefully for several weeks. She noticed that every day, Brent had his lunch up on one of the high battlements. She saw that he also liked birds, and would feed them from the parapets, giving them some of the bread from his meal. They would flock around him picking up the crumbs, and he seemed to enjoy this daily ritual. She knew then that she had found what she was looking for.
One day, just as Brent was sitting down to eat, Desire walked by pretending not to notice Brent and tripped over him. She fell nearly on top of him and Brent was completely shaken up. He didn't know how to react and was a bit frightened. He helped Desire get up and apologized many times over, but she just smiled at him and told him it was alright. When Brent had calmed down he realized to himself that his passions were inflamed to a level he had never known. He was at a loss for words and felt like an idiot, but Desire didn't seem to mind. She sat down and talked with him while he ate his lunch and he certainly wasn't going to ask her to go away. When it was time for him to go back to Court, he apologized for having to go, but Desire smiled at him sweetly and said that she hoped to see him at lunch again the next day.
Brent walked down the stairs quickly, his heart pounding. His overseer noticed his flustered mood and questioned him sharply about it; Brent made two mistakes that afternoon. Brent told him nothing was wrong and tried harder to pay attention to his work.
The next day, when Brent came up to the battlement not knowing what to expect, Desire was there just as he had hoped. They had lunch again and talked of many things, but Desire was careful not to mention birds or flight.
The weeks went on and Brent grew more daring. They began to sit close together, and sometimes their bodies would even touch. Brent was on fire inside. His work was slipping and his overseer was growing impatient with him. All that was important to him was his lunch with the Princess. He realized that he was hopelessly in love with her, but this frightened him. He didn't know what to do.
Finally one day Desire began to talk about the birds. Brent grew very nervous for all the Wizards had been warned about her obsession with flight. But with the way he felt, he could not seem to stop himself. Before the lunch was over he was telling her things about the magic of flight and the changing of ones shape into the form of a bird, that he knew were possible, though he knew not how to bring these things about himself. At the end of that lunch, Desire took his hand and thanked him warmly, looking into his eyes. Suddenly, she leaned forward and kissed him. His mind exploded. If he were caught he would surely be killed. And yet, he did not care about the danger enough to stop. Desire told Brent to meet her again that night, near the stables. He was very frightened and yet could only agree to meet her.
That night they met and went for a walk in the mountainside forest together. Brent could not hold it back any longer and told Desire that he loved her more than life itself. She smiled at Brent and took his hand, and they sat down together. The rest of her answer was to intwine herself with Brent underneath the beautiful moonlight.
As they lay naked together in the forest, Desire asked Brent if he had ever wanted anything so badly that he would do anything to get it. He laughed and told Desire that she was the only thing he had ever felt that way about. She smiled and hugged him closely for a while. Then she tried to explain how she felt about birds, and flight.
The next day Brent did not meet Desire for lunch. Instead, he sneaked into the Royal magic library to research spells for flight and bird magic. He studied this way for weeks, meeting the Princess at night instead of having lunch with her. Finally, one day he had mastered the art of flight enough to give it a try.
That night, Desire flew. She flew and flew, whirling around the sky in ecstasy, with Brent watching from the ground. She laughed with complete abandon, the sound just coming out as if she were breathing. Finally she grew tired and had to come down. Brent was exhausted but very happy that he had been able to give his beloved Desire what she wanted.
They met this way for a week, Desire flying with fresh ecstasy every night. But Brent didn't realize that his research wasn't quite correct. He had mixed elements of several spells together in a way that had not ever been tried. One morning, Desire awoke with a little bit of pain. She looked down and noticed that she had grown a few white feathers and that they were pinched in the covers.
She put on a cloak to cover up and wandered through the Wizards' work area so that Brent would notice her. At lunchtime, he hurried up to their old meetingplace, and Desire was there. She showed him what had happened. Brent was horrified and said that they would have to stop the flying.
Desire climbed onto the parapet, tears in her eyes, and told Brent that she was going to jump off. He rushed forward in alarm and barely caught her before she fell. They struggled a little and Desire collapsed into his arms, sobbing, telling him that she didn't want to live if she couldn't fly anymore. Finally, he agreed to let her fly again.
Every day, Desire woke up with more feathers, and other things were changing as well. Her voice was beginning to get higher and a bit strange, and her lips were stiffening. She had so many feathers that she could only go out in a cloak. Brent was frightened but he loved her too much to take her joy away from her.
Then one night it happened. Brent cast the usual spells on Desire to allow her to fly, and she completely changed form. Her naked body shrunk and changed, turning into a dove. The dove stopped and turned to look at Brent for a moment, and then flew off into the night.
Brent's heart broke. As much as Desire loved to fly, as much as it was all she lived for, Brent loved Desire. He walked back to the palace and fell into his bed, not caring that when the King found out what he had done he would be put to death.
The next day the entire palace was up in arms searching for Desire. Brent lay in bed, not reporting for work, not caring about anything. He gazed out his window, thinking only of Desire. Suddenly, a dove landed on his windowsill. He knew it was the Princess. She hopped to the foot of his bed and chirped a happy song. Brent knew that Desire was happy, but he was miserable without her, and tried to explain this to her, not knowing whether she could understand or not.
Desire walked carefully up the bed to Brent. She couldn't talk to him, and had to find a way to explain, to tell him what to do. She grasped at his nightshirt with her beak, and pulled at it. He seemed to understand and followed her to the window. Then she flew away and he sat down again, miserable. She came back and did it again. This time, Brent realized what she was trying to tell him, and a smile came to his face.
Later that day the wizards had learned through magic that Brent was somehow involved in Desire's disappearance. The King burst into his room with his palace guards. But Brent wasn't there. All they saw were two white doves on the windowsill that turned briefly to look at them before flying away into the bright blue sky together.