The Castle of Rose-Colored Clouds
The Castle of Rose-Colored Clouds Illustrated By: Emma Leeper
ONE LATE AFTERNOON, a young farmer's helper named Cedric, while taking a break in the fields, despaired that his life was stuck and would always be stuck. "I don't have what it takes to get ahead," he thought gloomily, "and everyone knows it."
In this sad state, Cedric dozed off. He dreamt a dream that seemed so real to him that when he awoke, it felt just as real as when he was dreaming it.
In the dream, he saw the tip of a castle, only its spire because the entire castle was covered by rosy clouds. A fairy walked out from the rosy clouds toward him. The fairy said, "I am the Fairy of the Castle of Rosy Clouds. Cedric, find this castle and you will be its ruler."
"Rule the Castle of the Rosy Clouds?" said Cedric in his dream, amazed. "How do I find it?"
"You must prove yourself worthy," said the Fairy.
"How do I do that--?" said Cedric, but the Fairy suddenly vanished. That is when Cedric woke up.
"You must prove yourself worthy," said the Fairy.
Awake, Cedric was convinced that he would do whatever it took to find the Castle of Rosy Clouds. He asked everyone he knew - the other hired hands at the farm, the shopkeepers at the village square, and anyone else he met - if they knew anything about a Castle of Rosy Clouds. Many laughed and assumed he was joking, others figured he had turned crazy. A few seemed to hint they knew something because they would slap him on the back and say, "Well you cut yourself a tall order!" without explaining what they meant.
"No one here will tell me anything," Cedric thought to himself. "I must travel until I find someone who can help." He gathered his belongings and started on a path through the woods.
After many days, Cedric he came to a hut so overgrown with weeds he almost didn't notice a very old woman tending her garden beside it. Even after the old woman stood up, she was not much taller than she was bending over. Cedric thought he had never met anyone that old and wrinkled and hunched over - surely the woman must be over a hundred years old! He said, "Old woman, do allow me to help with your garden."
He pulled out all the weeds, cut down some grasses, and set layers of thick grass between the plant rows so the grass would keep new weeds from coming up around the plants. He filled one of her baskets with vegetables from her garden - green beans, brussel sprouts, potatoes, beets and peas, and brought the basket inside to make her a large pot of soup. The old woman, sipping her soup, asked the visitor why he was traveling so deep in the woods.
"Ah," she said after he told her what he was seeking. "The Castle of Rosy Clouds!"
"You've heard of it?" said Cedric, amazed.
"Only from a nursery rhyme I once knew when I was a child. Now...what was it?..." After concentrating a minute and humming to herself she exclaimed "Ah yes!" and sung this:
"Only from a nursery rhyme I once knew when I was a child."
"How to find the Castle of Rosy Clouds?
First you need a sword known as the Gull
To split the iron serpent's skull.
You need a red cape, that of a squire
To protect you from hot embers and fire.
And you must have a certain stallion gray
Who midst the clouds can find his way."
"Not bad remembering for an old woman, yes?" She smiled a toothless smile, but then shook her head. "Young man," she said. "I must tell you. In all my years - and I have lived a long time! - I have never seen a sword known as Gull. I have surely seen no iron serpent. There is no mantle, red or otherwise, that can keep anyone safe from embers and fire. And for goodness sake, what stallion can ride clouds? So if you ask my advice," the old woman said, leaning forward, "forget it. Forget about finding the Castle of Rosy Clouds." And she settled back in her chair. Soon the old woman nodded herself to sleep.
"Forget about finding the Castle of Rosy Clouds."
Cedric stayed with the old woman a couple of more days. He repaired her cottage and drew plenty of fresh water for her. Then he went on his way. For many nights, he dreamt about the sword known as Gull, the red mantle and the stallion grey. But each time when he awoke, he did not have any better idea how to find them than he had had before. And with barely a coin in his pocket, even if he were lucky enough to come upon one of the magical items, he could hardly buy them anyway.
Some weeks later, Cedric was traveling through a wild and desolate mountain region where dangerous gorges and dark ravines opened on every side. Suddenly he heard a desperate cry. A young boy burst past him who was followed by an enormous slithering snake, 200 feet long and 20 feet wide, with black hair shaking from its neck. Thick horny scales shone from neck to tail, and its red eyes flamed.
"Ah, I wish my knife were bigger!" Cedric pulled his small pocket knife from its sheath and ran toward the snake. Instantly the creature turned its attention away from the young boy, who dashed to escape behind some boulders, to the young man waving the pocket knife. The snake seemed ready to destroy both boy and knife in one gulp. As Cedric charged the snake, his knife suddenly changed. It was a long, gleaming sword! With one mighty blow, the young man had chopped off the snake's head.
"Why, that must have been the iron serpent," mulled Cedric, "and this must be the sword of Gull. Since it's in my own hand now I suppose it must be mine." Cedric went on his way, with hope fired in his heart that he must be on the right track to find the Castle of the Rosy Clouds.
Five years passed. While Cedric found many chances to put his sword to good use, he found no one who could tell him anything about a magical red cape, the next magical item from the old lady's poem.
One day he came to a village where the people were running frantically around, astir and beside themselves. One of the largest homes in the center of town had caught on fire. "Alas! Old lame Father Lars is still up there!" they cried in fear and panic. Indeed, as Cedric rushed toward the burning house he could see in the third floor window the shadow of a frantic old man. But how to get him out? The tallest ladder had already burned up, and no other ladder could reach past the second floor.
But how to get him out?
"I have only myself in the world, so what have I to lose?" thought Cedric. He ran upstairs to the third floor while flames licked both legs. Outside, the villagers saw a shadow enter in front of the window and lift the old man as if he were a child, but in the next instant the entire building was aflame. "Both Lars and the stranger are lost!" they wailed.
Yet moments later, with an astonishment they would relay to their children and grandchildren again and again in years to come, they saw the young man emerge from the flaming building quite unharmed, carrying on his back the old man who was just as surprised as they.
Perhaps none was as surprised, however, as Cedric himself. As he set down the old man, he noticed a red cape fluttering around them both. "Of course!" he thought, "the red cape from the rhyme that protects from fire! Now I have two of the magical items - the sword of Gull and the red cape. The only one left between me and the Castle of Rosy Clouds is the flying gray stallion."
The young man politely stayed for a few days and let the villagers feast him and congratulate him over and over. Then he resumed his journey.
Ten more years passed. While Cedric brandished the sword of Gull, protected others from fire with the red cape, and performed many a great deed, he discovered no clue to bring him closer to his Castle of Rosy Clouds.
Ten more years passed.
By this time Cedric developed something he didn't have before - a companion. Another young man, impressed with Cedric's brave deeds, had become his friend and asked to accompany him on his adventures. Often the friend begged Cedric to share with him the secret of his success. Finally, Cedric confided in him the magic powers of the sword of Gull and the red cape. They talked long into the night. The next morning when Cedric awoke, the companion was gone and so were his sword and red cape.
Cedric called for his friend everywhere. He followed his friend's footprints till they disappeared in the hard ground. He climbed a hill to get a better view. Out in the distance he noticed his companion, clutching the red mantle in one hand and his own sword in the other.
Yet the next moment, something even more unbelievable took place. The red cape unfolded from under the young man's arms, rose into the air like a blanket, then grabbed his former friend like an eagle swooping for its prey, and held him aloft, kicking his legs and crying out in terror. The cape flew higher and higher, carrying the thief over a wide, deep canyon.
The cape flew higher and higher, carrying the thief over a wide, deep, canyon.
When it reached the other side of the canyon, the cape dropped him to the ground on the other side. There he tumbled across the top of the cliff and out of sight until Cedric could see him no more.
"Surely he'll die of wounds from the fall if he's not already dead!" Cedric thought, alarmed. He ran to the edge of the canyon. He knew he somehow must jump across to the other side. Cedric took a running start and leapt as wide as he could, but almost at the very moment his feet left the edge of the ravine he realized he didn't have enough momentum to bridge the gap and would surely fall to his death into the deep canyon.
As he started to fall, Cedric somehow landed on something soft and realized he was riding a horse, a gray stallion in fact, that was riding through the air and taking him to safety to the other side.
The moment they alighted, Cedric rushed to the young man, who moaned in mortal pain near the bushes. Hurriedly, Cedric ripped his clothes to make bandages to stop the flow of blood. When he had tightly bound the wounds and tucked soft grasses under the young man's head, Cedric stood up and looked around.
The gray stallion was still there, neighing softly, and the sword of Gull, and the red cape, which had neatly folded itself, lay on the ground. Cedric slipped the sword back into its sheath, tied the red cape around his neck, and lifted his former companion on the stallion. He rode the young man to the next town, where he found a doctor and left him in the doctor's care.
More long years passed. Cedric's cheeks became furrowed and his hair turned gray. His childhood friends had long since married and had children of their own, many of whom had grown up and married, too. Still, Cedric continued to ride the gray stallion in search of the castle from the dream in his youth.
More long years passed.
Then one day in the distance swirled a rose-colored mist. Through the clouds the lad caught a glimpse of a golden spire of a castle glinting in the sun. The gray stallion seemed to know it and caught the excitement, eagerly starting on the winding road that led to the castle.
As soon as Cedric entered the foggy haze of the clouds, a fierce giant let out a roar and pounded toward him. As the giant, now close enough to strike, flung back its arm, Cedric clutched the sword of Gull. At that very moment, the giant vanished without a trace. Then everything was quiet except the galloping of the gray stallion, bounding up the mountainside toward the castle.
At last, he had arrived! The drawbridge lowered. Stepping out to welcome him was the Fairy of the Castle of Rosy Clouds, only now she was real. She smiled with a warmth every bit as inviting and wonderful as he remembered.
"You proved yourself worthy, Cedric" she smiled. "You earned the three magical items."
"Yet isn't it the sword of Gull, the red cape and the grey stallion that did the real work?" said Cedric.
"The gifts revealed themselves to you," said the Fairy, "because of the kindness you showed others, and your courage."
"That may be," said Cedric, "but look at me - I am old and gray. I wasted my life! I spent all these years searching for magical items and now I'm at the end of my life. What a fool I've been!"
"I wasted my life!"
The Fairy smiled. She led him to the drawbridge over the moat. She pointed to his reflection in the water. Looking back at Cedric from the water was the image of his youth, a handsome young face with firm, strong cheeks. Amazed, Cedric felt his own face - could it be he was young again?
"Go now," said the Fairy. "Fall in love, have a family. Only this time live with your family as ruler of the Castle of Rosy Clouds."
