Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there lived a beautiful princess.  This was no ordinary princess, however, for she was of the royal blood of the fae, though she had been trapped by the vanity of a mortal king and forced to live within his realm, forbidden to return to her home by way of a magical enchantment.

When the king had asked for her hand in marriage, the princess had refused.  The single act insulted the king's pride, sending him into a terrible rage and he vowed that if he could not have her, no one would.  Immediately, he ordered his wizard to place a binding enchantment upon her, one that would keep her alone and trapped within his kingdom.  Fortunately for the princess, however, the king knew nothing of the rules of magic and was unaware that every enchantment can be broken in a specific fashion built into the spell.

As a result, the princess wound up imprisoned within the king's forest, living her life as another one of the trees.  Her skin became thick and rough as bark, her feet extended roots into the soil, and her hair became a lush blanket of leaves.  She stood, day after day, watching the world pass her by, unable to effect anything except for one night each month.  On the night of the full moon, she would return to her natural form to wander the forest, though she was unable to pass through its borders.  When the dawn returned to pinken the sky, the magic of the enchantment that had been placed upon her would return her to her tree form where she stood.

As the months wore on, the loneliness of the princess became overbearing, and she began to sicken and wilt with despair.  Not only was she without companionship, but she had been too long away from the realm that was her home, and she was beginning to lose hope of rescue.  Naturally, her external appearance quickly began to reflect her tumultuous emotional state.

It was on a day when she was feeling particularly desolate, with her leaves turning to yellow and dropping slowly to the ground and her bark flaking away in greyish patches, that one of the king's lumberjacks happened to wander into her clearing in search of a spot to take his noon meal.   No one knew much about this lumberjack, except that he was the youngest and most handsome woodcutter in the king's service.  It was rumored that he had come to this realm from a mysterious land across the sea, but no one knew for sure, and he wasn't telling anyone his secrets.

Unexplainably, the young man was drawn to the dejected and withered tree that had become her body, and as he walked closer, he wondered why this tree should fare so poorly even as the others around it thrived.  Concerned, he chose to take his meal beneath her branches, resting his back upon her trunk and speaking to her as he ate, hoping maybe that would cheer the tree up.  He had heard that sometimes plants would grow better if one spoke to them, and figured this was as good a test of the theory as any.  Though the words he spoke were not important in the scheme of things, the princess was grateful for the company, and it lifted her spirits, which did in fact improve her appearance.

Every day for the next three weeks, the lumberjack returned to her clearing for his midday meal.  He sat on the ground beneath her foliage, lean against her trunk, and talk to her.  Sometimes he would tell her of the news and gossip from around the realm, other times he would simply tell her stories, some he had thought of himself, as well as some he had heard from others.  The princess, trapped within her wooden shell, would listen to his voice and pretend that he knew she was there.  Each day when he departed, her spirits were greatly risen, and with them, her health.

When the night of the full moon came, the princess walked the forest, searching for the man she had come to think of as her lumberjack.  It was not unknown for them to sleep beneath the trees of the forest, especially on days when they worked late, as her new companion was wont to do.  For hours she wandered, hoping to catcha glimpse of him, but the forest was large.  She had almost given up hope when she spotted him, lying sprawled out in a bed of grass and wildflowers.  The last vestiges of the silvery light cast by the full moon ringed the crow of his head like an ethereal coronet, and as she looked at him, she realized she could not wake him, for all the thoughts of what to say had flown from her mind.

The princess contented herself with sitting a few feetaway from the young lumberjack and silently gazing at his sleeping form.  As she did this, time passed more quickly than she had ever known it to, and when she finally thought to look up, the first few faint tinges of dawn were beginning to lighten the sky.  Shocked and dismayed, she gasped and burst from her hiding place to run quickly back in the direction of her clearing, hoping it was not already too late.  Unfortunately, the time she had lost crept up on her and stole her form away long before she reached it.



The sound of a muffled gasp and rustling undergrowth roused the lumberjack from his slumber.  He opened his eyes just in time to see the bare feet of a woman, barely clothed in a tattered dress, disappear from sight, though he knew not who she was.  His curiosity was piqued, however, and he vowed to himself that he would find out who she was and what she wanted with him.

When it came time for his midday meal, the young man set out for the clearing where he had gone for the past three weeks, determined to tell the tree about his encounter with the strange female.  For some reason, he always felt like the tree listened to what he had to say, although it could not respond.  The tree had become like a friend to him, and all it had to do was stand there and shelter him from the sun.  It seemed a pretty fair arrangement: the tree could not hurt him, and he would never hurt the tree, or allow anyone else to do so.  He felt kind of crazy, thinking of a tree as a friend, but he could not help the way he felt, and so he accepted the fact with little thought.

Upon entering the clearing, however, he was both dismayed and angry to find that the tree was no longer there.  His first thought was that one of the king's other men had come in the night to chop it down, but as he took a closer look, his anger grew to confusion, for there was not even a ragged stump in evidence.  It seemed the tree had disappeared in the night, but that was impossible... or was it?

Thinking back over the last few months, the lumberjack realized that he had indeed heard tales of a wandering tree in the king's forest, though he had dismissed them as children's tales at the time, scoffing at the idea that a tree could pull up its roots and move.  Now the proof was right before his eyes, and he had no choice but to reconsider.  He pondered the matter while he ate, but came up with no rational explanations.  Resolutely, he decided that the only way to resolve the mystery would be to find the tree and go from there to discover what he could.  He now had two quests:  to find the girl and the tree, and no way of knowing the two were connected.

After finishing up his day's work, for he was not one to leave unfinished business, the lumberjack took the first step in his quest.  He went to request leave of his overseer in order to have the time necessary for his quests without distractions.  Although the foreman was curious, he did not make it a habit to inquire into the affairs of others, and, after much assurance that this was indeed important to his underling, he allowed the young man the reprieve from his duties that had been requested.  With this accomplished, the lumberjack went and gathered up his things, for he did not intend to return from the forest until the mysteries that plagued him had been solved.

For an entire year the lumberjack wandered the forest, finding neither tree nor girl, but he was unwilling to concede defeat.  The forest was large, and he was not sure how long it would take him to cover every inch.  He also could not know that, once each month, his objective moved, searching for him and sometimes moving to places he had just recently covered.  Determined not to fail, he continued on, never sleeping in the same place twice and never stopping during the day.  During the winter months, he built small fires out of dead wood and wrapped himself up in a blanket that was quickly becoming threadbare to keep warm.  Everything he ate, he hunted for and foraged in the woods.  Everything about him was disheveled and weary, but still he continued on.

Finally, one clear spring night, as he was sleeping under the full moon, a snapping twig brought him to consciousness.  Slowly, he turned toward the sound and opened his eyes to find a pale and wan but supernaturally beautiful female face staring at him.  She was very slight and gaunt, and obviously frightened, as she was poised for flight.  With a single, fluid, and greatly exaggerated movement, he held out his hand to her, afraid to speak lest he scare her off.  Instead of running, she simply sank wearily to the ground with a sigh, and leaned her head against the trunk of a nearby tree.

Carefully, the lumberjack rolled over and hauled himself up to his feet, then made his way cautiously over to the fragile woman.  He wanted to speak, but could not for fear that the sound of his voice, especially after such a long period of disuse, would break the spell that had been cast over the area and this apparition would disappear right before his eyes.  Instead, he simply settled close to her and silently offered her a shoulder to lean upon.  At the very least it would be more comfortable a cushion than the bark she was currently propped against.  To his surprise, the woman shifted her weight ever so slightly to lean against him, and promptly fell into a deep sleep.

He wrapped his arms around her, both for warmth and to steady her, fully intending to keep watch through the night to see that no harm came to either of him.  It was not long, however, before all the fatigue that had built up in the last year came rushing down upon him and his eyes began to feel heavy.  Before he realized it, he too had fallen into the gentle arms of slumber.

When he awoke, it was to the first hint of the coming dawn.  The woman that had slept so soundly in his arms stood in the center of the clearing, a few feet away from him.  Her tattered gown hung forlornly around her frail body in a vain attempt to cover her flesh as she stood there, gazing at him with a pained expression on her face.  As he stood up to go to her, she shook her head and smiled sadly as she raised her arms up toward the sky.  Slowly, a pale brown bark began to cover her flesh, her arms elongated, spreading into branches, and greenish yellow leaves sprouted from her fingertips.  Helplessly, he watched as the mystery woman became the mysterious tree.  Just as the transformation completed himself, the breeze tore a single word from her lips and carried it to his ears: "king".

Rapidly, things began to make sense in the young lumberjack's mind.  This beautiful woman and the tree he had shared his meals with were one and the same.  He wasn't sure how this had happened, but he knew that it had something to do with magic, and the king.  Marking the clearing in his mind to ensure he could find it again, he gathered up his belongings and, with a heartfelt assurance to the tree that he would return, set off immediately for the palace.

Upon arriving, the lumberjack proceeded directly to the king's hall without any of the proper formalities or requesting an audience.  He was determined to solve this mystery once and for all, and to set right any wrongs that had been done.  Unfortunately, the king was not disposed to assist him.  In fact, the monarch laughed cruelly in his face and told him not to worry about it, the bothersome tree was slated to be turned into firewood for his bed chamber within the week.  In the process, he also denied any knowledge of a woman, and told the lumber jack that if he continued seeing wood nymphs every time he turned around, he would be released from service.

Angrily, the lumberjack turned around and stormed from the king's hall without another word.  Inside himself, he knew he would never serve this king again, and though his options otherwise were none too promising, he was not concerned.  He had to do what he knew inside himself was right, and that was exactly what he intended to do.

Luck must have been on his side, for he made it out of the city unhindered, never knowing the king had set his guards to searching for the young man.  He made it through the woods and back to the clearing without encountering another living being, though he did not notice this at the time to speculate on the possible causes.  Once he arrived, he set up a camp at the base of the tree and waited for the king's men, his former comrades, to arrive, not knowing what he could do alone, but determined to try anyway.  He would save the womantree, or he would die with her.

Three days later, the king's men arrived with their axes, polished and gleaming wickedly in the afternoon sunlight.  Sensing their approach, the young lumberjack grabbed his own axe and stood at the ready in front of the tree.  When the men saw him, they cursed, not wanting a conflict with the young man they had once worked alongside.  They tried to talk him down, to convince him to see reason and not waste his life protecting the tree, but he would not back down.  Wearily and with much resignation, the king's men began to advance upon him, not liking the unfair odds but unwilling to displease their ruler.

As they began to near the lumberjack and the odd tree, the undergrowth around the clearing began to come alive.  Frightened and nervous, the men took a step back, unsure of what was happening around them.  Even as they did so, hundreds of fae burst from the brush, each wielding a sword or spear, to fend them off, protecting both the young man and the tree.  But the young lumberjack would not stand idly by.  He rushed blindly into the fray, determined to help these new strangers in their cause that seemed to be joined with his own.  He hated to cause harm to these men he had once called friends, but he sensed his life was turning in a new direction, and knew that, had the tables not been turned, they would have done the same to him.

When the battle rage had left him, the lumberjack finally felt a large gash that had been cut into his side.  He was wounded, and the outlook did not seem good.  If he had to die, however, he wanted to die near the tree he had given his life for.  Somehow, when he thought about it that way, death did not seem so bad.  With the last of his strength ebbing away, he crawled over to the tree and sprawled out across its roots.  His breathing turned shallow, and his heart slowed, but still he clung to life.

As the drops of blood falling from his wound fell upon the roots of the tree, something strange began to happen.  For the first time in nearly two years, the tree began to revert back to its natural female form with the sun shining full in the sky.  As she began to stretch her limbs, the princess took in the scene around her, and was appalled to find her lumberjack sprawled across her feet, his blood drying in the grass around him.  This man had given his life for hers, and she could not bear the loss.  Tears began to form in her eyes as she gathered him into her arms and settled his head within her lap.  And though she did not notice through the blinding wetness, where each of her tears fell, his wounds were healed.

It did not take long for the lumberjack to regain consciousness, and though he was still sore, he knew he would live.  He looked up into the face of the princess, still unsure of who she was, and could not stand to see her cry.  With his right hand, he reached up to wipe her tears away.  His touch caused her to open her eyes, and when she saw him looking back at her, she smiled a smile that lit up the clearing as if a thousand suns had set down upon them, and he could not help but smile in return.

The fae invited the lumberjack to return to their realm with them, as they were impressed by his valour and devotion.  With no other options and a beautiful princess smiling at him, it did not take long for the young man to accept.  In time, the princess and the lumberjack were wed, and they lived happily ever after, for they had finally found true love, and the lumberjack was more of a prince than any king had ever been.