Princess Carmelita (Chp3)

PRINCESS CARMELITA
(Adapted from the movie “El Laberinto Del Fauno” or “Pan’s Labyrinth”)

Another long day has passed and all Maya wanted to do right now is hole up in her room and enjoy a little alone time. She hurriedly changed into her night clothes and scrambled up on bed before grabbing one of her story books to read.

During her first hours in the manor, Alberto took her directly into the study to meet up with Count and Countess Garcia. The Count Miguel Garcia looked like a no nonsense man, with clean, cut hair and a neat moustache and piercing green eyes, and his voice was cold as ice. The Countess Amorosa Garcia, on the other hand, was a weak woman. Her black raven hair ran loosely on her shoulders and her skin was as white as snow. Her silver eyes looked tired, and she was sitting on a wheelchair beside her husband with a belly that seemed like she had just swallowed a watermelon in whole. She looked almost kind, but she’s mostly drained. She didn’t talk much, but her eyes told her that she was more than welcome to be in the Garcia Manor and glad that she was her future daughter-in-law. The Count seemed slightly satisfied with the choice of bride that Madame Adrianna made, but didn’t seem too eager to want her in the family. It was as if her presence here to him was to merely keep his son alive and nothing else, and he would not hesitate to kick her out of the house and denounce her title as the Garcia daughter-in-law as soon as she served her purpose. After introducing herself, Maya was given some general ground rules by the Count while she stayed in the manor and was immediately ushered to her room by Alberto. At least her room was a warm welcome for her; all her familiar things were there to keep her company. She understood now the reason why the strange men kept coming to take her things away.

Days in the manor was an adventure altogether. Maya tried many attempts to look for the fairy she saw, but to no avail. It was as if it just disappeared in the face of this earth. She tried everywhere but it was nowhere to be found. Sometimes she began to suspect that maybe it was all her imagination, that she really had been reading too many story books like her mother nagged about. She wanted to try her luck in going to the labyrinth to look for it but the fear of getting lost again like before held her back, and she didn’t dare ask Pedro to spare her some string to start her search, so she had to settle with getting along with everyone in the manor. She got to know all the servants, maid, errand boys (Pedro being one of her best friends) and the strange men, including Alberto, in the household, and she familiarized herself with her surroundings better. She would occasionally help them tend the cattle, horses, sheep and chickens and join in with the cooks to make meals. Though the servants prefer that their future Young Mistress do something else rather than lowering herself with the commoners, but they appreciate her help all the same. The only person she was uneasy with was the Count. He was an icy man who wouldn’t stand for any incompetence and insolence. Everything had to go his way or the highway, that’s how it’s done in the Garcia Manor. The Count didn’t seemed to mind Maya going about cleaning and cooking like a lower-class girl, most probably because he still viewed her more of a survival tool than an actual daughter-in-law, but sometimes Maya wished that he would forbade her from menial work once in a while. She was, after all, going to be the wife of his baby boy.

Despite the drawbacks, the most important thing was that she got to know the Countess and her future husband a lot closer. The Countess was in bed most of the day and could only move around on the wheelchair, so all Maya had to do to keep her entertained was to go to her bedroom and chat or play cards with her. Sometimes, when the baby is acting up inside the Countess, Maya would tap lightly on her belly, whispering “My husband, my little husband” and tell him the Princess story or make up some fairy tale to calm him down. Although now, she treated the Countess’ fetus as a baby brother, she knew that sooner or later she was going to treat him as her husband for years to come. She found it hard to believe that she was going to be engaged to a baby whose age is going to be 10 years younger than her. She had not even experience a first love yet, let alone being married. But there was nothing she could do but accept her fate. Times are harsh and they often called for desperate measures.

While Maya read her story book, she heard that familiar cricket sounds again. She knew what those sounds were. She looked around but saw nothing. She lowered down the light of her oil lamp and looked around again. Slowly but surely, she saw something peeking out from the foot of her bed. It was the fairy she had seen that fateful night when she first came to the mountain of Garcia Manor. It grinned with its naughty blue eyes shining under the pale light and its transparent wings shimmered under the moonlight that shone through her half-opened window. It flew out of its hiding place and settled onto the blanket where Maya’s knees were.

“You’re a fairy, aren’t you? A real fairy?” Maya asked.

The fairy chirped in reply, like a mixture of crickets and birds, smiling at her like a kid who had a secret.

“Have you been watching me all this while? I’ve been looking for you everywhere. I wanted to see you.”

The fairy suddenly flew up a few inches and made a gesture to follow it. Maya was surprised.

“Do you want me to go with you? Where? Outside?”

The fairy nodded and made its way out of the window. Maya wasted no time. She grabbed a coat and went out of her room, down the stairs and out of the manor quieter and faster than you can say “Rumpelstilskin”. She soon realized that the fairy was waiting for her at the labyrinth entrance. Maya took a gulp. She didn’t dare set foot into it, not like the last time. What if she got lost again? What if she couldn’t find her way back to the manor? The Count would definitely go off his rockers and the Countess would be upset, and everyone in the manor would be unhappy…

The fairy’s urging chirps threw every worry she had out of the window. She would figure out what has to be done later. Right now, she needed to know what the fairy wanted.

It soon led her all the way to the centre of the labyrinth where there was a gorge that led almost 10 feet down the earth by a long winding flight of stone steps. As she went down the stairs with the fairy, she saw that in the middle of the gorge, she saw a flat statue of the stone face creature she had seen in the entrance standing in the middle of a spiral crevice that was almost to the brim with rain water and dew. To be more exact, it was the full scale statue of the creature from head to toe, looking like something very out-worldly. It had the same facial features portrayed at the entrance and a body that stood almost twice her height and it was a half-man-half-goat. She had never seen statues or creatures like this, not even in her story books. On the walls of the gorge there were millions upon millions of vines and moss growing through every nook and cranny, like it had been growing there since the dawn of time.

The fairy took off and disappeared mysteriously into the darkness of the wall, leaving Maya to fend for herself in the dark, dripping gorge. Maya got a little nervous being left alone in there.

“Hello? Anybody here? Hello?”

“It’s you!”

Maya spun round at the raspy voice. She saw a tall creature—taller than Pedro and bigger than the Count—moving towards her. As he came into the light, Maya found herself staring at the same creature that was portrayed by the statue, only that he was in the flesh and was walking and talking. His red hair dangled lazily on his shoulders and face and he had the smell of earth around him. His body was covered with moss and vines and tiny branches with leaves were sticking out of him. His eyes were pale, like the blind man who lived across the street in her village, but the difference was he could still see. He had long, pointed nails and his legs, which were of a goat, made a sort of clogging sound as he walked. Maya was speechless staring at this oddity, and above all else, afraid.

“Oh, it’s you, you have returned, my dear!” the creature said in his happy, raspy voice. Noticing that Maya looked petrified and backing away from him, he quickly calmed her down, “Oh please, do not be frightened, I beg you. Here, look.”

So saying, he opened a cylinder-shaped box that was hanging around his waist for her to see. Out flew three more fairies together with the fairy Maya first met. They all hovered around her, chirping happily and played with her silky brown hair. She soon stopped being afraid and braved herself to come nearer towards the creature.

“My name is Maya. What’s yours?”

“Me?” the creature asked, then huffed and replied, “I’ve had many names, old names that only the wind and the trees can pronounce. I am the mountain, the forest and the earth. I am Faun, your most humble servant, Your Highness.”

Maya felt awkward looking at the creature who called himself Faun bowing down at her, “No, I’m…”

“You are Princess Carmelita, daughter of the king of the Underworld. I do not expect you to remember anyway; it has been so many centuries since we last saw you.”

“Daughter…? King of the Underworld…? But that’s just a fairytale legend! I’m not the Princess! My father is a carpenter…”

“Bah!” Faun waved away her words, as if they were all just excuses and lies. “You are not born of man. It was the moon that bore you. Look at your left shoulder and you will find a mark that proves it.”

Maya glanced at where he was pointing. A mark? Now that was something she never noticed before.

“Your real father had us open portals all over the world to allow your return. This is the last of them. But we have to make sure that your essence is intact, that you have not become a mortal.”

Before she knew, Maya saw a huge red book in his hand together with a small pouch that felt slightly heavier than the usual money pouch she carried when she helped her mother do her groceries. Faun handed it to her and said, “You must complete three tasks before the moon is full. This is the Book of Crossroads. Open it when you are alone and it will show you your future, show you what must be done.”

Maya opened the book tentatively, but to her surprise, the pages were empty. There was not a single word written on them and even the cover had no titles. When she looked inside the pouch, there were three stones that looked like rock sugar her mother used to make sweet potato broth whenever she was sick.

“But there’s nothing on it…”

When she looked up, she found herself standing in her room near the window, the breeze blew through it and caressing gently onto her hair and skin instead of the cold, dreary gorge in the labyrinth. For a second she thought she was dreaming, but one look at the book and pouch that were still on her hands and her muddy shoes confirmed that she had not dreamt all this. It was real, and she had an important mission in hand.

Things get more and more curious by the minute.