Author Note: Written in one sitting, after it managed to survive in my mind for a while. It's the product of many different approaches. I hope this way is the most enjoyable. Tell me what you thought while reading about it and you will gain the adoration of a complete stranger. Unless I know you…then you just get the adoration of me.

Songs of Sadness

Soft, silky skirts flowed from the slight girl. She seemed, at first glance, a lovely princess, perhaps even the fairest of them all. One look into her inky black eyes, however, would make one feel endless sorrow for her. Her eyes reflected the pain of her imprisonment, of her palace room, of her silky dresses, of the jewelry that graced her skin, and of her chains of gold.

The room was of soft colors. Blue pillows, the color of faint blue skies, were piled before a chair of beige and dark woods. The walls were the pink color of a faded sunset. The floors were of a dark mahogany, the color of moist rich soil. A single gold ball rested on this richly colored floor; it was perfectly smooth except for the place the chain was set. The other end of this chain linked to a gold cuff, which grasped the girl's milky white ankle like a bracelet might.

Though together the gold ball and chain weighed no more than a few pounds, they held this lovely, wisp of a girl. They kept her from going to the window, so she could only sit and stare longingly through it. She could not see the royal gardens, as they stretched out beneath her towered house, nor could she see trees where birds nested in their high homes. Peering through this north window, she only saw the dancing clouds, the ever-changing moon, and the twinkling stars in of sky.

Two or more times a day, the king would come to her. His heart desiring his greatest treasure. She would sit in her cage-like room, before his royal majesty, and sing of all she missed. Not a word would come out, just lovely sounds which could ease any soul. So the king, so wise yet blind, thought his songbird was happy in her cage.