There was a King, who had grown old, and had a son who was prince, but now became the new King. And his son had a son, and became the King’s grandson.
And one day, when the grandson was young, he asked his grandfather why there were so many heads of deer on wooden frames, hung in the room.
This was the hunting room, which held all his hunting trophies. The heads of the deer were all the deer that the King had hunted.
But the King explained to his grandson that he never hunted anymore.
“Why did you stop hunting?” asked his curious grandson.
“It started one rainy day,” explained his grandfather.
One misty day in Spring, when he was King, he had given birth to a child, a son, that was to become King one day.
But his son was born blind. And in rage, he left his Queen with their child and before coming back, went into the woods, and in his anger, hunted deer.
And when he took out his bow and arrow, and heard the delicate steps of a graceful deer, his lips did not quiver, as he aimed towards the deer veiled in mouthscarfs of mist and light rain, and the deer fell down and died.
He went near the fallen deer’s body, and saw that a beautiful blooming red rose bloomed on the antlers of the deer, as if his antlers were branches. The deer, this misfit of mist, was never seen by him before. This creature was only visible in mist and rain. It was the Rain Deer, whose footprints left a trail of bluebell flowers in the forest, blooming in each print made by his hooves.
But then it began to rain harder, and as the rain fell upon the red rose, the red rose turned blue and was painted so by the rain.
And when the sun would rise and shine upon it, the blue rose would turn red as the sun again.
He took the blue rose back with him. It was called, ‘Rain’s Rose.’ The rose did not wither.
And after many years, he gave this remarkable rose of rain to his son, as a hunting trophy, and his son, the blind prince, sniffed it, and suddenly two blue eyes bloomed in the sky of his white empty eyes. He could see, and he had two blue eyes, like blue blooming moons in the garden of his eyes. Only when the rain fell on the rose did it turn blue.
It was said that a beautiful princess lived at the top of a crystal cathedral made of glass. She slept in a silver hammock shaped as a crescent moon, at the top of a blue bell tower in the cathedral, where bluebell flowers bloomed in the garden.
She slept because her shadow was silvery white, and she could not awake, in eternal silver slumbering sleep. But when one sniffed the blue rose, or when the red rose turned blue from the rain, she awoke, as only then her silver shadow turned blue, and her blind white eyes turned blue, and she fluttered her eyes open, the ethereal eyes that fluttered to the rhyming rhythm of an angel’s fluttering white wintry wings.
And when she awoke, she knew someone must have sniffed the rose of rain, for the full silver moon had turned blue. For the blue bell of the bell tower began to ring, awaking her, as blue butterflies flew out of from inside the blue knell like a cocoon of a blue moon.
And the one that sniffs the blue rose can only keep his blue eyes if he kisses her before the blue moon falls and the sun rises, or otherwise, he will become blind as the sun again at dawn, when the sun rises.
They seeked to find the Princess of the Blue Moon, who had blue eyes and wore a blue sari and a blue bindi like a blue moon in the middle of her forehead
Only one with blue eyes could see her, only the one that sniffed the rose could.
And suddenly a blue bird swiftly swooped through the window, and clasped the blue rose from the prince’s royal hands with his cold blue turquoise talons, and led the prince to the blue bell tower, that had a blue bell that rung only when the blue moon rose.
And he climbed the glass staircase, stepping on each delicate glass spiraling step, until he saw the princess, wearing a beautiful blue dress sari, and a blue bindi. And she kissed him with her blue lips that turned silver when the moon would change to silver. And when the sun rose as they parted lips, he kept his sight, and her shadow turned silver, and she fell back to sleep and did not awake.
He wished to make her his princess. But she could not awake, only when it rained, when the rose turned blue, or if another blind man sniffed the rose.
But then a blue butterfly flew upon her silver shadow, turning it forever blue. The butterfly had flown out from under the blue bell ringing in the blue bell tower, and now flew back to the falling cocoon of the blue blooming moon, now withering in the garden of the sky.
And now she awoke with her blue shadow, and never again needed to sleep. She saw white light when she closed her eyes and flashes of it when she blinked, never needing to sleep.
He had freed her, and he brought her back to his kingdom.
“My dear, I shall return you to the reality that could never fit into your dreams” he said softly to her, in wishful whisper.
Some say this blue rose can be found in a flower shop, or in a garden, waiting to open the eyes, and bloom blue eyes in the sky of one’s eyes.
The grandfather never hunted again, for it opened his own eyes and gave his son the sight that he never had. Without the Rain Deer, his son would never have been able to see.
The blue rose is kept by the blue bird, and placed upon the antlers of another deer, whose footprints leave a trail of red roses, that turn blue when rain falls upon them.
And if the blue bird sings, her voice can even paint a red rose blue with her blue song of sorrow.
“This is why I will never hunt again,” said the grandfather to his son. “No deer shall ever have to close their eyes again, for another to see, that man is the same as all creatures that be.”
Some say that when the princess kissed the prince, he kept his sight of blue eyes, but he could only be visible in the rain, just like her. Only he could see her, and those with blue eyes could, but to everyone else, they were veiled from their sight, and only in the rain could they be seen, like the Rain Deer.
