“Long long time ago, when the world was innocent of evil and wickedness, the most divine one, The Superior, created two Realms. One was the Realm of Fantasy, the other one was the Realm of Reality…..” A gentle voice of a mother-soon-to-be.

“Dear, get some rest.” A gentle voice of a father-soon-to-be, echoing to his beloved’s voice.

They were the King and Queen of The Fantastical Realm, loved and honoured by their people. Ruling over the Land of magic with great compassion and true wisdom was not an easy task, yet, they had accomplished their duty, far more than their expectation. However, perhaps, their good works might not be good enough to touch the heavens for their prayers had never been answered. All their prayers, with tears and passion, withheld 17 years of time, as old as their marriage was, had never been altered. The prayers were the same, words never changed, simply as “We want to have a child, a son or a daughter, we will be happy to receive.”

Their prayers remained unanswered until the 18th year of their marriage. They had a child. A son or a daughter? They didn’t know. But they were overjoyed enough to send all the invitation cards to the entire kingdom, nobles and commoners, all of them would be invited to a party soon be held right after the child’s birth.

“You have been telling stories to the little fella in there,” the King laughed, sitting next to his wife at a cosy spot.

“Well, dear, you know that’s not just a story. It is history. History about how our lands were made. The answer of all the beauty and…….”

“Dear,” the King gently interrupted, “sometimes I wish it is real. For if He exists, my father would not have died at such an unsatisfying age and my mother would not have followed him later that year.” Great sorrow was not shown on his face. Time had made the bitterness lighter but the scar still lived.

“I am sorry my love. But you see, He has answered our prayer by giving us this child.” The Queen’s thankful smile shined brightly on her face as she persuading her husband to believe.

“The child is our bliss,” the King smiled.

Their back shadow, sitting by the great glass window, was charming and warm. As their shadow melted with the nightfall, a picture of love was painted perfectly. The Queen might not share an equal handsome nature as the King’s but she had the most beautiful kindness and passion that captured his heart.

“The Realm of Fantasy displaced all the possible creations of magical creatures and mythical beings, whereas, the Realm of Reality was without magical elements but withheld all the natural realistic beauties. Despite the differences between the two Realms, there was one common likeness, human beings were created to be the Rulers of the Realms.” The Queen spoke quietly, continuing the story for her tiny creature who was resting within her warm loving nest.

“Unlike other mythical creatures and natural beauties, humans were created in the image and likeness of The Superior.” The King joined in the storytelling.

He faintly touched the Queen’s already swollen belly, lightly caressing and whispered to the life within, “ Sitting aside a pond, The Superior started moulding two figures of Himself, a male and a female with the earth and dust; then, He kissed them on the lips and gave them the living breath and they became the living creatures who bore the image and the likeness of The Superior.

The Queen beamed, like knitting a scarf, she connected her husband’s thread, “After creating the two Realms and seeing how human beings were living well in both Realms, The Superior left the Realms for humans to take charge. He entrusted the humans and went on His travel and adventures. Nobody had seen Him ever and nobody could find Him.”

The King looked at her love, a satisfying moment, and turned to look at her swollen abdomen, another satisfying moment, and continued, “Like that, humans ruled over all creatures in both Realms. In the early days, people could travel freely between both Realms and there were peace and happiness.”

Quite unmatched with the scenes which should be, the countenance of the Queen showed no peace or happiness or even comfort. In fact, it gave a terrible fear for the King that something extremely horrible would happen.

“My Queen, what is it?” The King asked worriedly, holding her shoulders.

“Noooo….it can’t be…..it shouldn’t be……” The Queen bent down in pain, sweat accumulated at her forehead and tears started to fall. Mothers had perfect instinct with their child and, at that moment, the Queen prayed that her instinct was wrong.

“Doctor! Guards! Guards! Send for doctors! Now!!!”

“Nooooo….dear,” the Queen covered her distorted countenance into his embrace and wretched in pain, “dear…..no….please…..please…..NO….”

“QUICK!”

The King’s shout followed by the Queen’s faint.

***

“My King, there’s not much time to lose. Without that rose, the Queen will die,” the royal doctor replied with an assertive fervency.

“A royal doctor! And you call yourself a royal doctor! Telling me to send my troops on finding some mythical stuff while my wife is…..is…..dying!” The King roared without leaving any face for the old doctor, right in front of his young apprentice.

“But…..but….my King, teacher is always right. He knows……”

“Look, I apologise for my temper, Simon,” knowing he might behave less as a King just then, he spoke calmly, “But I just can’t. She is my love. I can’t lose her. She’s all I’ve got ever since that…..that happened to my family. She is the only family I’ve left.”

With one more blink, the tear in his eyes would be squished out. The uneasy feeling of the doctor to the King was softened after seeing that.

“As much as we want the child, if it will kill her, please try your best to save Elizabeth’s life. It’s already an impossible dream for us anyway.” The King suggested, uttering the words out of his mouth with the pain you could never imagine.

“But my King, the rose can save her! The rose of the Saint can save both the Queen and the heir to the throne!” The old doctor insisted and continued, “Samuel, you are the royal prophet. You know better than I do. Please tell the King.”

“My King, I know now your honour may have no patience for a long story so I’ll just recall the point. The Saint was the reflection of The Superior. He pulled off His reflection on the water surface of a pond and covered the Saint with earth and dust to make Him like a man. At that time, the Realms were filled with evil. The only way to rescue people from the darkness was through sanctification of the spirit. At that time, only the blood of the Saint was pure enough to wash away the evil in their heart. So the Saint…..”

“The point, Samuel, to the point!” The old doctor impatiently requested.

“So the Saint was sacrificed for the redemption of humans. His blood flowed over the entire Land of Fantasy but it stopped at the borderline of the Realm of Reality. Because the people there rejected the sacrifice. The Superior let the blood of the Saint permeated deep into the soil at the borderline and planted a rose there, hoping that people who wished to be saved would get His gift by just one touch of the rose with a sincere repentant heart……”

“Long story short, my lord,” the speech of the prophet was cut by the impatient doctor, “the golden roots of that rose, melt one-third of the portion and let the Queen drink it and she’ll be fine. Then, when the child is born, cut the diamond petals of the rose into small pieces with the remaining melted portion of the golden roots, and feed the mixture to the child. Then, the heir will live. Use this method or we are just waiting for death. Pardon me, my lord, but the Queen is dying and there’s no way to rescue a dying person except the rose. It can bring people back to life!”

“Tell me, what is the rose like. I will find it myself!” The King ordered.

“My lord, the petals of the rose are made of diamonds and when you pluck the rose out you can see its golden roots. It’s near the borderline,” answered the old doctor.

“If the child is the gift above, He will bless both of them and I shall find the rose.”