Perfectly Beautiful

Once upon a time, in a remote countryside of Rome Empire, there lived a little girl, whose name Scarleft Rose. Everything on her body was smooth, except her face that was covered with a big scar, stretching from just-below her left eyes toward the edge of her mouth. She dwelled with her mother in a cottage of a small village, where people were so obsessed with only physical wealth and beauty. Her father died when she was very young, so she had lived in a solidarity life with her mother.

She had now turned 18 year-old. With the scar on her face that the villagers regarded as it was gross and ugly, Scarleft had never felt satisfied with her appearance, though her mother always told her to love herself.

“Beauty is a delusion. It is a flame from a furnace that shines in a gloomy night with just a few hours. Then, it’ll extinguish when it runs out of wood to burn. It is red and hot at the first glance, but turns to darkness and emptiness in the end. Just love yourself as you’re set, darling,” her mother consoled her not to upset with the scar on her face.

She continued as she rubbed Scarleft’s hair gently “You should look at a flying kite. It can only get higher when the wind blows stronger. If it is afraid of the wind, it is not called a kite. Even if it loses its string, it is still proud of itself”

One morning, while Scarleft was looking for some fresh meat and vegetables at the market, she met a vendor who always teased her.

“Hi, Miss ugly. What are you going to have for lunch today,” the vendor talked to her in the market while Scarleft was bargaining with another vendor.

“Don’t call me like this. I am not Miss ugly. Why are you so mean to me?” she crossly replied.

“Look at your face! How can people like you are seen as an angel? No one wants to marry you. You are an ugly frog who wants to be a charming swan.” the vendor laughed as he was preparing his goods.

After hearing an unbearable voice from the vendor, she ran swiftly as if a seagull flying carelessly around the rocky coast. She ran and ran with her tear rolled down from a pair of her big brown eyes.

One hour had passed, she did not realized that she had arrived deep inside a deadly silent and creepy forest. As she looked around, she could see only unfamiliar creatures, dead leaves, weeds, and huge-tall trees that almost impeded sunlight from reaching the ground. Everywhere was dark and spooky.

As she went on the journey to discover the doubt of her curiosity, she suddenly saw an amber shining out from a window, lighting by a lamp from a small cottage. Her heart was pounding very fast, as she moved toward the cottage, having a huge chimney, blowing smoke out of its mouth that she barely noticed.

She usually heard the villagers told her that deep inside the forest, there was a place where witches lived. These witches could harm people and, at the same time, they could also transform people to become anything that they wanted.

As soon as she arrived the cottage, she knocked the door with her shaking hands and her pounding heart that longed to see what were inside. Suddenly, the old woman with a very long nose, big rabbit teeth, and white hair, covered by the black cloth as if she intended to conceal something, opened the door and gave Scarleft a queer smile.

“Come on in, little girl,” the old lady invited Scarleft to enter her cottage.

“May I?” Scarleft asked with hesitation.

“Sure, you may, my darling. I know why you have come here. I’ve got a lovely gift for. And I bet you will appreciate it from now on,” the old lady said as if she knew what was inside the girl’s head.

“How could you know that?” the girl asked.

“Because I am a witch! I know anything, and I can do anything that I want. I am not suppressed. I am freed, but whenever people have come to be freed, they will become reclusive. They are regarded as an unusual creature,” said the witch with her spooky laugh.

“I’m out of here right now!” the girl said with a frantic voice as she ran toward the door.

But the door closed immediately when the witch used her magical power to remote anything around her.

“I’ll let you go very soon. Don’t be afraid. But before you go, I have got a gift for you. Oh, and by the way, what is your name?” she asked.

“You can call me Scarleft,” the girl replied.

“Oh, Scarleft! What a lovely name! A scar that has been left by nature,” the witch grinned as her big rabbit teeth came out.

The witch finally took out a green shining gem stone out of a basket that was full red-ripe apples to Scarleft. Then she said “This is a gift for you. You can transform to be whatever you want to be, or go wherever you want to go with this gem stone.”

After receiving the gift from the witch, she immediately ran back home with a joy of happiness without even bothering to doubt why the witch did not harm her, and, instead, helped her to achieve her wish.

“I will become a queen from now on,” she imagined delightfully.

The later day she asked the gem stone to remove the scar from her face. Then her face became smooth as she wished. While she was walking vainly on the street, everyone was amazed and surprised by her over-night transformation. She had got compliment all day long. She became too proud and could not stop herself from listening to a flood of compliments from other people.

Days had passed, something that used be excited became usual. Scarleft had no longer heard the words from other people that could pamper her ears.

“Why do people have only a great joy at the beginning, but, at the end of the day, they have turned to forget something that used to be great? Is it the beginner’s luck true? If it is true, I don’t merely need the beginner’s luck, but I need luck in my whole life,” she complained.

Then, she came up with an idea that she could move the great Egypt Empire, where people could admire her beauty more than these people here, so she asked the gem stone to take her there. After arriving Egypt, she saw people with red skin, big eyes, wearing colorful jewelery, and with white clothes on. They were, at some points, totally different from people she used to know. She had transformed herself to be the most beautiful person that was suitable to the people in the Egypt Empire.

After the next transformation, everyone applauded her beauty and celebrated the ceremony for her as a foreign beauty on Egyptian land. She was overwhelmingly happy. But as the world keeps spinning around, nothing lasts forever. Months after the celebration of her beauty, people had turned their back and ignored her. They said “The sun shines every day; now we want snow.”

She was very disappointed with the second attempt, but she always embraced the gem stone in her heart. And she loved it as her life.

Many months after disappointedly living in Egypt, she heard that in China, a huge empire with a great wall, forbidden palace, and many other priceless treasures, was a joyful place to visit. She, then, was eager to see those things in China.

Again, with the gem stone, she moved to China, and she transformed herself to be the most beautiful Chinese lady. Over there, she met a king of China. As she had been now become the most beautiful lady in China, the king ordered his servants to take her to meet him and become one of his concubines without letting her knew in advance. First, she thought it would be nice to meet the king, but as soon as she realized that her beauty just to attract the king to fulfill his sexual desire , she denied, gave the king a big slap, then ran away.  

Scarleft was so desperate. As she ran out of the palace, she met a Chinese man, and started to ask him “Do you know where the most beautiful place on earth is?”

The man told her that at the southern part down under the earth, there was a place known as India. It was a great and colorful civilization.  It had a lot of magnificent temples, delicious foods, great philosophers, and a diversity of traditions, which she could really indulge herself with its beauty.

Finally, a rebirth of her hope had been arrived, she resolved to visit India. Through her imagination, India would be the best place that she could enjoy the rest of her life. She would become the queen of beauty forever.

She departed to India. Over there, she met strange people which were definitely different from her expectation. Beautiful ladies in India were seen to her as odd, with their costumes and jewelry.

When she asked the gem stone to change her appearance to be a good-looking Indian lady, she was dissatisfied with her look, though it was seen as attractive to people in the country.

While she looking at her reflection in the mirror she said “Who is she? Is it really pretty in my eyes? I hate this look and this outfit!”

After an hour of transformation, she took the gem stone with her to another place and told it to transform her to be another good-looking person beside the Indian lady that she had been transformed to. And she swore that she would never return to India again.

She had transformed many times from one place to another. She always transformed to please people. From blonde hair to black hair, straight hair to curly hair, white skin to dark skin, a big pair of brown eyes to a small pair of black eyes, skinny to fat, short to tall, she had to transform every time she wandered to new places. She fed her stomach by the words of compliments more than her three-time meals. She wandered all over the world as if she was an immortal angel with the magic of the gem stone.

One day had come, she felt so exhausted with the word beauty. She started to cry while holding a gem stone in her hand.

She felt restless and desperate as she could not please all different people who had different desires and needs. Then, she ran to the pond deep inside the woods.

As Scarleft saw the reflection of her face from the pond, she started to cry and ask herself “What am I doing? Why am I trying to make myself visible just only to show off my physical beauty?”

Then she started to ask the pond as her tear dropped down to on the gem stone which she had embraced for many years wherever she went “who is she? Is the girl of the reflection in the water beautiful? If she is really beautiful, why did she have to transform herself whenever she moves from one place to another? Is it worth doing?”

At that moment, an angel appeared in front of her and said “The word beautiful is not defined by other people. It dwelled within our heart. It does not matter what other say about you. You can’t please them all. Everyone doesn’t look at you in same way, but only you that can determine who you really are,”

The angel continued “Look at the stones and rocks around the pond they have never care of changing themselves unless human destroy or dig them out to other places. They all look different, and they have never cared of competition and victory, but only human beings who give them value because they, these stones and rocks, are wise enough of not letting the external judgment matter in their existence. Look at the trees in the woods, they have grown up joyfully. When summers come, people admire them as flowers blossom and fruit ripe, and when winters come, those who used to appreciate them cut them down to take them to warm their houses. They don’t try to change themselves as you, but it is the nature that changes them. They really enjoy their live despite the facts that there are so many people admire or disdain them. They are just who they really are. Look at the sky, why is it sometimes darken and sometimes whiten? Because the vapor of water from the ground and the blowing wind that make it darken, but at the end of the day, when the vapor and the wind has gone, it has again become clear and white as they usually be. They don’t need change unless others use their force to change them. Just so you know that the word beauty is not defined by others.”

“You see, little girl. Everything in this universe really acts in a role as they really are because everything is interdependent. You can’t make all things have the same appearances, the same needs, the same desires, and, to cover all, you can’t make all things remain in the same standard. Can you imagine that if people in the whole village want to be chiefs of the village, who will be servants? If all people want to be children, who will become parents? If all girls want to become boys, who will become girls?” the angel gave a little girl a lovely visage and then vanished.

As soon as the angel disappeared, the magical stone told her that she only had one more chance left to transform herself to be another person.

She was surprised with the sound of the gem stone because it had never spoken to her before. Then she remembered that the witch told her not to cry in front of the gem stone; otherwise, something strange would happen.

The girl wiped her tears by the pond then talked to the stone “Now I can have only one more wish. I wish you will transform me to become the one that I used to be. The old me that once I used to see through the reflection of the mirror,”

The gem stone had finally transformed Scarleft to become the old her, and it melted away. The girl then took a step toward the crystal clear water to see her face. She saw her little round face with a big scar. She then smiled back to the reflection and rubbed her big scar softly.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of a horse’s steps. When she turned around to look back, she saw a prince riding a white horse toward her. The prince stepped down from his horse and walked boldly toward her.

“Who are you?” she asked with a frightening voice.

“I am your prince. I have lived and traveled with you for many years, and I love you” the prince replied.

“But I don’t know you, so go away from me, or I will throw these stones to you!” the girl said with doubt with a cross feeling.

“I was the magical stone that you had taken with you from one place to another!” he said.

“How could it be that?” she raised her eyebrows as she said.

“Well, my darling. Ten years ago, I used to be a prince, but I had never felt enough with myself, so I wish I could be something else that people thought it was priceless. At that time, the shining gem stone was the most valuable and sacred possession to my people, so I asked an angel to make me become this thing. The angel said that once I had become the gem stone, I would not be able to transform myself to the prince back, unless I could find the right person who possesses it,” he recalled his past before he became the gem stone.

“The witch gave me to you because she was bored of her immortal life, so she didn’t need me anymore,” he added.

“You have revived me to become the person once I used to be, and you are my destiny,” he continued and proposed her to marry him.

“Oh, don’t say so! I don’t deserve your proposal,” she blushed as she replied with a light smile.

“I love you just the way you are. I love your immortal soul rather than your mortal appearance,” he knelt down in front of her to plea for her final decision.

“I don’t know why I should have been so stupid to change myself,” she sobbed as she bent down to reach the prince’s hands.

A few hours after they talked about the time that Scarleft traveled from one place to another, and the prince told her about how he had been delighted and sad to be with her. They both rode on the horse back to the palace where the prince had left for almost ten years.

After the death of the prince’s father, they became a king and queen and lived in the palace blissfully. Though the queen still remained a long-stretched scar on her face, the king loved her from the bottom of his heart. Twenty years later, they had ten children together and lived happily ever after in the monarchic family.