The Tragedy of the Barn Owl Maiden and the Bride.

In the countryside of Italy, where our story takes place, a barn owl maiden and the bride who are star-crossed lovers ended their lives with love, sacrifice, and vengeance. Their unfortunate deaths are a reminder that human’s nature can be a blessing and a curse. Thus, this is how their tragedy tale unfolds.

There was once a supernatural maiden who took the form of barn owls in the forest. She lived with her three eldest sisters. She was considered the most beautiful maiden in the forest. They wear a white and black polka dots dress and their long beautiful hair resembles like a spice of cinnamon color. Their duty was to protect the forest from the humans.

One day, a human was lost in the forest. The human is described to wear a dark green cape, cotton medieval sleeve blouse, and green embroidery sash that resembles a serpent snake. The three sisters in their barn owl form, saw the human. They felt pity for the human, and they decided to help him. He thanked them by giving them a magical apple.

He said," Thank you, for guiding me. To show my gratitude, I give you a lovely red apple. Beware, It is not an ordinary apple. You have to take a bite of the apple and make a wish. Then, your wish will come true.”

They say farewell to the human who left the forest. The sisters didn’t know what to do with the magical red apple. They were rapturous and desired no wishes. They all agreed to hide the apple in a safekeeping place.

Out of curiosity, the youngest barn owl maiden never understood why humans are unsatisfactory. She was taught by her older sisters that barn owls were guardians of the forest, and the humans have destroyed most of the natural world. So, she turned herself into a human girl. She explores the town nearby the forest. Nevertheless, she found herself inside a beautiful garden. She admire the beauty of the garden as it remind her of home. It's starting to pour heavy rainfall. She became weak and ill. She unable to stand up herself.

Therefore, a hand reach out to her. There she saw the most beautiful enchanting eyes that made life filled with so sweet. A human lady who has gorgeous chestnut hair. She was wearing a velvet blue ribbon bonnet and blue Victorian dress. Furthermore, She was a bride who was in an arrange engagement with a English duke. She smile and offer the maiden a place to stay at her villa.

As the maiden recover from her illness, the bride tells her stories about the human world. In return, the maiden tells all of the humor stories about the forest and her duty as a guardian. She wants to brighten up the ravishing bride's little world. It made the bride's sorrowful heart filled with laughter and happiness. With each passing day, the two pairs grew intense feelings of a unforbidden love. The maiden became inseparable with the bride.

On a sunset evening, the maiden and the bride were walking in a hidden place of the villa's luxurious garden. They quietly look at each other. It was their last day together before the bride's wedding day. The maiden stops their tracks and she hug tightly onto the bride. The bride blushes as she could hear the maiden's heart beat fast. It was just for her only.

"Runaway with me. Let's go to a place that you dreamed about in your stories. A place where you can plant your own garden, and we forget all our sorrows and worries." begged the maiden.

The bride started to smile sadly, and the maiden tried lean forward for a kiss.

The bride pushed the maiden away. She was reluctance to return her affection feelings back. She turned her back from the maiden.

The bride said, “ I am sorry. I cannot be with you. I am to be married soon.”

The maiden was fazed by the actions of the bride. She ran away from the bride as she transform back into a barn owl. She flew in the sky leaving the bride alone. The bride felt remorseful of what she did. She kneel down on the water fountain and prayed to God.

She said,” Forgive me, God. I committed a sin. I am about to wed soon. Yet, I am in love with a maiden who filled me with laughter and happiness. Now, she has disappear from my lonely world. I am guilty for not returning her love back. Was it the right decision to make?”

As the maiden returned into the forest, she rejoiced with her sisters. They spend their ordinary days as usual. Although, the barn owl maiden was imprudent in her duties. She missed the bride excessive. One day, the eldest sister of their tribe noticed her troubles.

“Dear youngest sister, why are you unhappy?” asked the eldest sister.

The maiden replied, “ I am heartbroken, sister. I am in love with a human who was kindest to me. She is to be wed soon. Perhaps if I could turned myself into a man, then maybe she will fall in love with me again.”

The eldest sister said,” If you desire to become a man. Then, you should take the apple from our safekeeping place and make a wish. However, once you become fully human. You may not come to live with us in the forest anymore. As the forest is a sanctuary for animals and nature, not humans.”

The youngest sister agreed and gave a bittersweet farewell to her sisters. She flew to the safekeeping place where the apple radiate it's shiny red light to the maiden. She took the apple into her hand. She gazed upon it in the deepest of the forest.

She said,” I wish to become a handsome man. So I can be with the woman that I love.”

The maiden took a bite of the apple, and she felt the magic transform inside of her. The magic from the apple made her unconscious. The next morning, the maiden changed into the most handsome and eligible bachelor in all of the land. He went back to the town and went to visit the bride’s villa.

In the hidden place of the garden, the bride wears a white wedding dress and a long veil. She was sitting nearby a water fountain. She was rehearsing her vows for the duke on their wedding day. Nonetheless, her seduction lips read as unfaithful words. She knew in her heart that she did not love the duke. However, she knows that society sees it as security, and a future for her survival. It was a responsible choice; she cannot leave her fate. She was crying alone in her own little world.

Behind of the fountain, the bride saw a dark lurking shadows. A mysterious gentleman appeared. She didn’t know who he was or where he came from. She was captivated by his morose brown eyes. She was drawn to the mysterious bachelor. She knew the forbidden adulterous feelings had come back to haunt her again. Abruptly, the silent mysterious bachelor reaches out his hand to her.

A hint of reluctance, she accepted his hands. He kneel down to greet the angelic bride. The attractive bachelor kissed her hands with his alluring sweet and soft lips. Her heart melts so fast as if she feels she met this person before.

On a immoral act of the night, they ran away together. They kissed and embraced each other for the first time. Except, their reunion did not stay interminable.

The duke was distraught and upset by his runaway bride on their wedding day. Subsequently, he was greeted by a mysterious man in a dark green suit on the same day. He gave him a bewitching vermilion apple.

He said, “ If you take a bite of this apple, it will make your dreams come true.”

He didn’t believe the stranger’s words at first. But, he accepted the man’s gift and went home. He put the gift on the table. He felt the apple was drawing to his temptation. He began thinking about what the mysterious man said. He took a bite of the apple and he began to tell his wish. His shining blue eyes were filled with vengeance.

He whispered, ”I wish for my bride’s heart to stop.”

The apple changed into a heart. A beating heart in his own hands. He could hear and feel the bride's warmth heartbeat. Without a hesitation, His cold hands squeezed the heart merciless. The heart beats tumultuously. Finally, the heart stopped beating. He became satisfied and his hated eyes are filled with tears.

He killed his bride and his only love. He thought of happy collective memories of the bride and himself. They all disappeared from his soul from that very moment. He lost his mind to the unknown world that he created inside of his head. He never returned to his former self again.

Somewhere in the hidden forest, the bride has a old magnificent villa that she was gifted from her grandparents as a wedding gift. Both the bride and the bachelor live there for a while. The bride went outside to see her garden. Suddenly, the bride collapse and fall down to her death by wishes from the duke. Her body was lay down next to her grandfather’s large clock.

The bachelor returns to the garden, and he sees his bride laying down on the ground. He holds his bride into his arms, and repeatedly speaks her name. Instead, there was no reply back from her lovely sweet face. He starts to whimper. Then, he heard a whistle from the shadows of the garden. It was the mysterious dark green suit man. The bachelor recognizes the stranger because it was same human from who lost in the forest long ago.

He said, “Ah, someone must make a terrible gamble to wish death upon your pretty bride.”

The angry bachelor asked, “Did you do this?”

The mysterious man replied, “Oh no, why would I hurt such a beautiful lady? That's not my cup of tea. I felt pity for you. So, I decide to come find you and gave you another wish. Use it wisely, Mr. Bachelor.”

He waves his hands around and clapped his hands three times. He take off his top hat and he reach inside of it. He pulls out an apple. He set the delicious wicked apple on the ground.

The man walks away and vanishes from the garden. The bachelor looks at the apple that he left behind. The sweet taunting apple was looking at him. He thinks carefully of his possible choices. He knew that rules of magic in this world are not kindly. It would require a trade for another living soul, if he brought to her back to life. He couldn't bear to let his bride to live such a short life to a cruel fate. Additionally, the bachelor had a strange feeling that wish could be the duke's own revenge for taking the bride away from him. However, he feels accountable for stealing the bride from the duke.

He wonders himself, was it right to throw everything away for love?

Love was a perpetual unconditional emotion that he learn as a creature of the forest and a human. He smiled and began to cried. He wanted to be with her. He wanted to her smile. She was his happiness. He believe that fate of his bride didn't deserve death, and he truly love her more than anything. He made his final decision. To give up his own life for her.

Thence, he wanted to his bride to live and he wanted to give his bride one more chance to fall in love with someone again, even if he was gone from this world.

On the eleventh hour, he took a bite of an apple and made his last final wish. The shiny scarlet apple rapidly changed into a darken red rotten apple. The magic slowly killed inside of the bachelor. He became weak once again. The bride slowly awoke from her slumber sleep. She could only hear faint voices surrounded by her. Her garden was alive with birds singing, and her grandfather’s clock was ticking. On the other hand, someone with a pleasant soothing voice whispers to her. She gradually open her eyes and saw her precious handsome bachelor. Except, she wonders why is he in pain?

The grandfather’s clock ticks at ten; nine; eight; seven; six.

He whispered,” To my dearly bride, I wish for you to come back to life.”

The clock ticks again, five; four; three; two.

The bachelor transforms into the barn owl maiden once again. The bride realized the bachelor and the maiden were the same person. She touched her maiden’s flowing tears on the cheeks one last time. The maiden continued her wish to the bride.

The maiden said,” I committed a treason against God. I abandoned my duty as guardian of the forest. I want you to fall in love with someone will cherish you for all in your lifetime. To recompense for my sins, death will be my punishment. In the next life, may if we meet again.”

The clock ticks again for the final time; one.

Then, the grandfather's clock chimes at the stroke of twelve. The maiden was dead. She dropped the rotten apple from her hands. The apple rolled to the bride’s arms. She became desperate and she shook the maiden’s body. She yelled and screamed the maiden’s name multiple times. The maiden was gone from the mortal world. She couldn’t accept her lover’s death. She cannot bear to fall in love with someone's else again. She gently touched the apple. She smiled sadly. Suddenly, she just remembered something about a rumor in the town about a mysterious man who gave out a special apple that makes their wishes come true. Finally, she understood that her maiden made a deal with the devil to bring her back to life. She kissed the maiden’s cold lips for one last time. Then, she slowly touched her lips to the bitten apple.

She asked,” Can you grant me death?”

She bit the bitterness from the rotten apple, and it changed into a sinister poison potion. The potion was marked with a skull with an apple label. She opened the potion and drank it. She fell gracefully in her garden once again next to the beautiful maiden. She turn her head facing to her maiden's peaceful face. She held onto the maiden’s hands and her tears softly came down from her warmth cheeks.

She said, “Farewell, my dearly maiden. In the next fateful meeting, let’s meet again in the garden. I want to spend all my life with you through love and compassion once again.”

The grandfather’s clock stopped chiming as if her time just stopped flowing into her. The two star-crossed lovers laid to rest in their garden. The hidden villa perished into ruins in many years later, and the garden wither away slowly. Their lives became a forgotten story over time.

In the year 20xx, an American tourist who was unshaved beard and chubby man came to visit the ruins villa in the countryside of Italy. He was wearing a heavy black sunglasses, a dark green t-shirt with football logo, and a printed snake pattern shorts. He saw the beautiful garden that he once remember. The garden rebirth itself with wild flowers, herbs, and other wild plants in the forest. Then, he put his hand and dig around in his shoulder bag. He took out a 1980s barn owl toy and a vintage 1950s cake topper bride toy. He placed them together in the garden.

He thought to himself, silly creatures. In the end, you both choose love.

His phone was buzzing. The screen tag says; Johnny Appleseed. He look at his phone and the text reads;

Yo, Johnny! What is your next novel going to be? I know it's going to be a hit because your last novel sells almost one thousand copies. Let me know soon! - Editor of Brother Wolf.

Suddenly, his stomach growls. He grab an apple from his shoulder bag. He take a bite of apple. He feels refreshed after taking a bite of an red apple. He sat down in the garden. As cursed to be a wandering immortal sorcerer, he used to tricks everyone in the past. This was one of his early disasters for his redemption's road from his misdeeds over the years. He knew in his heart that he could never repaid back to the two-crossed lovers. He reaches again from his bag. He grab a pencil and travel notebook. He begins writing.

He said, "In the countryside of Italy, where our story takes place, a barn owl maiden and the bride who are star-crossed lovers ended their lives with love, sacrifice, and vengeance. Their unfortunate deaths are a reminder that human’s nature can be a blessing and a curse. Thus, this is how their tragedy tale unfolds."

He grabs something again from his magical bag. This time, it was a apple wine. He toasted in the air.

He said, "Adieu to the tragedy tale of the barn owl maiden and the bride."