After three years, with his hands battered and torn, reddened and stung, he takes his brother back to the spring, and lays out his armful of clothes, and splashes the water in the pool to summon back the fairy. And when she returns, she looks from the brother to the clothes, and finally turns her gaze to his brother the cat.
"Your brother has suffered for you," she says softly, "And now you must, as well. He made you your clothes of stinging nettles; now you must don them."
Well. Now it was the elder's turn to recoil, from the thought of his beloved brother being forced to feel the sting of those nettles for even a second. But to his astonishment, this time it was the cat's turn to act without hesitation, and he all but leapt to wriggle his way into the clothes, as the fairy had bidden him.
[He falls silent a moment.]
Because he realized, then, that his brother's mission was a curse in itself. One that had left him tormented and in pain and alone — and here, at last, was the cat's chance to free his brother of that curse.
He didn't think once about the reward of no longer being cursed into the body of a cat. He only thought of ending his brother's burden.
And so the nettles scratched and stung, but he donned each and every scrap of clothing his brother had woven, and the moment he finished, a bright light filled the air, and when it cleared, the young princeling was human again.
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[He smiles softly.]
After three years, with his hands battered and torn, reddened and stung, he takes his brother back to the spring, and lays out his armful of clothes, and splashes the water in the pool to summon back the fairy. And when she returns, she looks from the brother to the clothes, and finally turns her gaze to his brother the cat.
"Your brother has suffered for you," she says softly, "And now you must, as well. He made you your clothes of stinging nettles; now you must don them."
Well. Now it was the elder's turn to recoil, from the thought of his beloved brother being forced to feel the sting of those nettles for even a second. But to his astonishment, this time it was the cat's turn to act without hesitation, and he all but leapt to wriggle his way into the clothes, as the fairy had bidden him.
[He falls silent a moment.]
Because he realized, then, that his brother's mission was a curse in itself. One that had left him tormented and in pain and alone — and here, at last, was the cat's chance to free his brother of that curse.
He didn't think once about the reward of no longer being cursed into the body of a cat. He only thought of ending his brother's burden.
And so the nettles scratched and stung, but he donned each and every scrap of clothing his brother had woven, and the moment he finished, a bright light filled the air, and when it cleared, the young princeling was human again.