Once upon a time in a far away land 330 kilometres from our reality, lived a beautiful girl. In fact, this girl was so stunning that almost everyone called her Rae, because she glowed like there was always sunlight dancing through her body. In fact, Rae physically and emotionally lightened any mood, even on one of her bad days, which were few and far between. In her constant bliss, Rae had become easily distracted. Especially by a certain charming young man she knew. His name was Vidvid. He was also a prince.
Vidvid was naturally attracted to Rae, like so many others in the kingdom. Though she was not rich, she was amazing in other ways, and widely considered an honorary princess, of great value to the whole country and kingdom. This makes sense to very few people, until they have met Rae in person and then it was obvious. After a person had met her, she was suddenly of great value to them too. Needless to say, Rae was treasured. She was also treasured by the prince.
But this prince had a secret. He was terribly weighted by this secret, even though it was really nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, some would have been proud. You see, part of this high class prince was not born a prince. Part of him was born a cowboy. He loved country music and loved to dance in lines with other cowboys. He even loved to wear a cowboy hat and pretend to know how to use a lasso. But he was still incredibly ashamed of this lifestyle and hid it from the public as a sort of guilty pleasure. No one from the kingdom knew. Not even Rae. Especially not Rae.
And yet, the prince could not get enough of the classic country guitar, so he commissioned a place where he could howdy his way to happiness. He built a ranch. Underground. He called it The RAE: The Ranch At Elderberry. It would have been a terrible acronym, if it did not also remind the fair prince about Rae. But it did, so the prince Vidvid spent all of his spare time at the ranch, which was whenever he was not running the country or hanging out with Rae... at a very respectable, polite distance.
One fate full day, Rae was leading a library and museum tour as part of her volunteer program within the kingdom. She lead the group of 23 children through the palace and the castle. As was her custom on days that she was running late, Rae took a shortcut to the down town museum, taking the opportunity to show off some of the castle’s ancient secret passageways along the way. But this day, Rae's mind was distracted by thought of an early morning breakfast rendezvous between Vidvid and herself. So, when she had always turned left at the end of the long underground hall, she turned right without realizing it at all. Suddenly a dead end snapped her back into reality. Rae was lost.
And so were 23 frightened, screaming children. Somehow, it did not occur to her to bring a flashlight to the tunnels and passageways because she knew her way so well that she could navigate not only in the dark, but with a blindfold on. This was the first time that she really felt lost of afraid. So, instead of turning back and trying to find her way, she did what anyone in her position would do. She joined the kids and started to scream.
The dead end whooshed aside and there, standing as a silhouette to an otherwise blinding lighted doorway, was the prince. The prince was standing in the otherwise blinding doorway, wearing a cowboy hat; and cowboy boots; and spurs. The twanging music came blasting through the door. Vidvid looked at Rae. Rae looked at Vidvid. The kids looked back and forth. Everyone just looked. Then the looking stopped and the laughing began.
The kids were laughing because they had never seen anyone ever wearing a cowboy hat that wasn't in a movie and they thought it looked quite hilarious. Rae was laughing because she had just been rescued in the depths of a dungeon by a handsome prince. The poetic irony was just about perfect for a story of some kind. Vidvid was laughing because he was so embarrassed about the whole thing that he was sure he would fall over or fall apart if he didn't do something, and bursting into tears didn't seem like something that a prince or a cowboy would do. So everybody laughed.
Finally, Vidvid let everyone into the Rae Ranch. Then he got the band to play a very special song. In fact, it was such a special song that it must remain unnamed to preserve the sacredness of it's meaning. The important thing is that the prince finally made his move, rodeo hat and all. After dancing and singing it out for over three hours, the prince was overcome with boldness. He marched his parade of children and his lovely princess up into the sunlight of the kingdom. The band followed, and suddenly country music was everywhere! Within a week the crown was replaced with the wide rimmed cap of the cowboy and everyone was line dancing up and down the streets of Elderberry and beyond! And as for Rae? Well, she's singing and dancing and lighting up the world to this day... Vidvid's world at least!
The very end.
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