Something To Pass The Time

After the Beautiful Lady had tidied and cleaned her castle, and taken care of the dirty clothes and dishes, and made herself a nice cup of tea, she realised that with nothing urgent to do and nothing to procrastinate about, she was bored. Should she take up some embroidery? Should she take up an educational text and improve her mind? Should she help the needy? Should she knit clothes for the many babies she would no doubt one day have with her Knight In Shining Armour?
The Beautiful Lady decided against all of these options, and chose instead to go on a quest. She put on her prettiest warm dress, dark-blue leather boots and her cloak-for-adventures (which was dark-blue, also, and had never been used before). She told her Prime Minister she was going on a quest and to mind the country while she was gone, please. He asked, with her permission (he would never have asked without it), 'What sort of quest will this be, Mylady?' The Beautiful Lady said she did not know as yet, but that it was perfect quest weather (dark and grey and cold and windy), and that she had done everything else to abate her boredom, and just listen to me I am your boss after all. The Prime Minister, who had intended to ask about embroidery and the needy and baby clothes, saw The Beautiful Lady meant business and told her to have a nice trip and did she have enough money with her? The Beautiful Lady said she thought she did and left.
Although generally, The Beautiful Lady did not like walking if she did not have a clear goal in mind, her quest spurred her on to previously unknown heights, and she happily started walking. When she came to a crossing she took the road that looked most quest-like, and for every crossing afterwards she did the same. For several weeks, nothing very thrilling happened. Once, The Beautiful Lady was almost robbed of all her money, but she found she could kick harder than she (and her attackers) had anticipated, and got away unhurt.
When The Beautiful Lady was getting a bit fed up with her quest and started thinking about going home, she got to a lake. The lake was in the middle of a forest, a forest which started just outside The Beautiful Lady's castle and seemed, to her never-ending. The Lake In The Middle Of The Never-Ending-Seeming Forest was surrounded by a Lovely Green Meadow and some Not Quite Lovely But Not Bad Either Rocks. Although the forest had been quite nice-looking, and The Beautiful Lady had enjoyed most of her quest so far (except for the almost being robbed part and the time she had to hide in a smelly tree to escape a wild boar's notice), this lake was, as she saw it, the Most Beautiful Thing she had ever seen.
The Beautiful Lady decided her quest was over, and that she would live by the lake from now on. No more silly castle where all she could do was wait for the Knight In Shining Armour for her, oh no! She would live by the lake and fill her days with walks in the forest and live off the things she could find in it.
The Beautiful Lady wrote a letter to her Prime Minister telling him she was going to live by the lake from now on and to only disturb her if there was really no one else who could do what they wanted, and to leave her alone for the rest of it if he wanted to keep his job. The Prime Minister wrote a letter back that with her permission, he would like to keep his job and was there anything she needed? But The Beautiful Lady ignored the letter because she was busy building a hut. When her hut was done, she felt hungry, and she went out to get some food. So she lived quite peacefully for several years, until one day, when she felt like having a good long walk. She packed some food and set out to see where the forest would take her.
After a few weeks, The Beautiful Lady had had enough of sleeping on the mossy ground and decided to go back to her Hut By The Lake. She had enjoyed her time in the forest, where there were only plants and animals, and no Prime Ministers or Knights In Shining Armour to worry about. Cheerfully, The Beautiful Lady started her trek back to her Hut By The Lake.
When she got to The Lake In The Middle Of The Forest, however, The Beautiful Lady saw something that made her very sad. The first time she had seen the lake, it had been a beautiful, undisturbed, and tranquil place. Now, with The Beautiful Lady's hut and her footsteps on the shore, as well as other obvious signs of The Beautiful Lady's presence, the Lake In The Middle Of The Never-Ending-Seeming Forest was Just Another Lake. The Beautiful Lady realised her quest had finally come to an end. She tried as best as she could to erase the marks she had left on the forest, and went back to her castle.
When The Beautiful Lady got back to her castle, it looked so comfortable and familiar that she almost burst out crying. As she got to the front door, her Prime Minister came to greet her. 'Welcome Home, Mylady, we have missed you very much.' The Beautiful Lady thanked him for his kindness and told him to get her a bath ready, and be quick about it because I need to wash several years of forest life out of my hair.
When The Beautiful Lady was all clean and dressed in one of the dresses her Prime Minister had gotten ready for her return, she asked him how everything had gone in her absence, and found that her Prime Minister had done a great job ruling her country. He was so good, in fact, that The Beautiful Lady saw no way but to marry him so that they could continue to reign together.
And they lived happily ever after, without knitting or embroidery, but they did help the needy and read many many books together.