Every Year during Christmas, I place in my blog a
fairy tale I wrote for my oldest granddaughter when she was a child. It is also in
one of my books of published short stories. I hope you enjoy this story.
THE
PRINCESS AND THE TOAD
Once
upon a time, many years ago and far away, there lived a princess who
lived in a castle that was surrounded by beautiful mountains. Below young the
small hill that the castle was situated on was a winding river and a short
distance away from the castle was a small village, one of many that were
governed by King Ludwick, the father of the young princess.
Now one would think that Princess Serena
was a happy child but alas she was unfortunately not a happy child. The main
reason for her unhappiness was that she had no one to play with. She had no
sisters or brothers and of course, she knew none of the children in the village
closest to the castle because her parents always kept her in the castle.She had to play all by herself and that can be extremely
boring after a year or so of playing by oneself. One of the ways she played by
herself was to wander all over the castle and visit all the many rooms and
there were many of them in the castle to visit.She also visited the ballroom, the hallways, and her father’s private office. Boring
When she was in her mid-teens,
she found a way out of the castle. There was a door at the rear of the castle
that was never used by anyone and she discovered where the key to the door had
been hidden. She decided that it would give her an opportunity to visit the
village that was just a short distance away. Perhaps she would find friends
there to play with.
She realized that she couldn’t tell them
that she lived in the village because the village wasn’t that large and
everyone in the village probably knew everyone else in the village. She decided
to simply say that she was the daughter of the cook
in the castle.
She arrived at the village in ten minutes
and then walked on the smooth road
leading through the village until she had found a group of girls playing in a
field. It didn’t take her long to make friends with them, especially when she
told them that she lives in the castle.
One of them asked her, “I hear that the king
and queen have a child, is that so?”
Serena replied, “Yes they do. Her name
is, ah…ah…Maria.” Serena didn’t want to give them her real name as she didn’t
want them to know that she was the daughter of the king and queen.
One of the girls asked, “What’s the
princess like?”
Serena
paused and then said, “I hardly ever see her as I am only the daughter of the
cook but she seems nice.
All that spring, summer and
fall, she played with the girls every afternoon after lunch and before supper.
She didn’t visit the village as much in the winter months as it was too
difficult for her to tramp through the heavy snow. All she could do was stare
at the village from the window of her bedroom at night. But when the snow went
away, she returned to the village and again she played with her new found
friends.By the time Serena was twenty-two years old, the king and queen
began discussing their daughter’s future.
The king said to his wife, “My dear.
We have to begin looking for a husband for our daughter, one that can help her
reign this kingdom after we are gone.”
The queen asked, “Do you have
someone in mind?” Alas, my dear, I do not. I
have made enquiries but it would appear that the young princes in the various
kingdoms are either married or they have been spoken for.”
The
queen thought for a moment and then asked, “What about Prince Wilhelm. I
remember when we were invited to his parent’s castle years ago, the boy seemed
quite sweet and intelligent also.”
I
agree my dear but I heard about a year ago that the prince is missing. No one
seems to know where he disappeared to.”
The queen asked, “Has anyone made any
enquiries?”
“Well,” replied the king, “There has
been a rumor going about that Lord Maggotwort has turned the poor prince into a
toad.”
“Oh dear. Why would that horrible man
do that?”
“You realize my dear that I am only
going by the rumors but from what I have been told, it seems that Lord
Maggotwort wanted the property next to the castle the parents of the boy live
at and since they refused to sell Lord Maggotwort the property, he cursed them
and told them that he would turn their son into a toad and imprison him in a
stone hut many miles away. The king and queen called his bluff and within a
day, the young prince disappeared. To this day, no one has found the prince or
knows where the stone hut is located.”
A couple of days later, the queen summoned their family doctor to the throne room. When the doctor arrived, she spoke to him. “Doctor Mulgar. I have been told that there is a sorceress some considerable distance from us who has supernatural powers, is that so?”
A couple of days later, the queen summoned their family doctor to the throne room. When the doctor arrived, she spoke to him. “Doctor Mulgar. I have been told that there is a sorceress some considerable distance from us who has supernatural powers, is that so?”
It
is, Your majesty.”
Our daughter appears to have
lost any interest in going out with young men and we are hoping that perhaps
the sorceress can give her a potion that will increase her desire to meet a young man, preferably a prince in one of the other kingdoms.”
The doctor responded with, “The sorceress has potions that
serve many purposes and from what I hear, they are not only powerful but they
are also effective. I am confident that she has a potion that will serve your
purpose.”
“That information pleases me,
doctor. Can you arrange to have that potion delivered to me?”
The doctor sad sadly, “That would be impossible, Your
Majesty. The sorceress never gives samples of her potions to anyone outside of
her hut. If you want your daughter to take the potion, you will have to send
her to the sorceress’ hut where she will then be given the potion to drink in
front of the sorceress.”
The queen thought for a moment and then said, “Can you take her
there and then return her to me after she has taken the potion?”
“I can take her there, Your majesty
but once she is in the hut of the sorceress, I cannot guarantee whether or not
your daughter will return to the castle.”
“Can’t you just bring her back
yourself?”
“No, Your Majesty. I can only take her to the edge of the
forest the sorceress’ hut is in. After that, your daughter will have to find
her own way to the hut and find her own way back.”
The queen frowned and then said sadly,
“I don’t want to lose our only daughter, doctor.”
“I am sure, Your Majesty that the
sorceress will do her no harm but I should add that her services will demand a
heavy price.”
“We can pay the price.”
“It is not you that will have to pay
the price, Your Majesty. It is your daughter that the sorceress will demand
payment from?”
“What kind of payment will the
sorceress want?”
“I have no idea, Your Majesty but I do
believe that her potion will be successful and when your daughter comes home to
you, she will return with a prince in hand, one that she truly loves.”
The queen shuffled uneasily on her
throne and then said, “I will discuss this with the king. Come tomorrow and I
will give you our answer.”
With that having been said, the two
parted.
The next morning, the king and queen
met the doctor in the throne room and with them was their daughter, Serena.”
The king spoke first. Our daughter has
been told of our plans and she is in agreement with our plan to have the
sorceress give her a potion that will increase her desire to meet a young man
she can truly love.”
“Is she aware that she will have to
pay a heavy price for the potion?”
“Yes,” said the king. “She is fully
aware of that fact and is still willing to go with you to meet with the
sorceress.”
Actually Serena didn’t need any real
persuasion. She was excited at the prospect of getting out of the castle and
venturing far into the countryside with the doctor.
Within an hour, they left the castle
with a horse that carried a week’s supplies.
For three days, Serena and the doctor
walked along country roads, passing through small villages, crossing over
streams and small bridges and all the time getting closer to their destination;
the forest in which the sorceress lived. On
the fourth day, they saw the forest which the sorceress lived.
The
doctor told Serena that they couldn’t enter the forest until after dark.
“Why do we have to wait until it get’s dark?”
The doctor replied, “Because my dear,
there are many paths and.trails in the forest but only one will lead you to the
sorceress’ hut and when it gets dark, I will explain why we must wait until
nightfall.”
When nightfall arrived, the doctor led Serena
into the forest until they had
reached
a path that had small faint lights along the sides of one of the paths.
The doctor explained the lights. “It is
called, bioluminescent light which
is common root rot and wood decay fungi found inside many of our forests. The
most actively growing and respiring fungal cells generate light. The conditions
in the forests that allow the fungi to grow fast, allow light to be produced.
The sorceress has collected much of the fungi and placed it along the side of
the path that leads to her hut. Anyone trying to find her hut during the day
would be lost in the maze of paths and trails but those of us to whom she
trusts, she has told us her secret.”
“Then let’s go to her hut.” said
Serena with excitement in her voice.
“My
child. I cannot go with you. You must go on your own as the only people who
require her potions are the only ones permitted to be near her hut. But do not
be alarmed as there are no wild animals in this forest that you should be
concerned with and if you follow the trail faithfully, you will arrive at her
hut within an hour.”
Serena
was concerned but she believed the doctor since he seemed sincere so after
shaking hands with him, she said, “Please wait for me so that when I return to
you, we can return to my home.”
After
an hour, she finally reached the small hut
that was on the left side of the trail. She was nervous because she wasn’t sure
that she wanted to go into the sorceress’ hut on her own. She was wishing that
Doctor Mulgar was with her at this moment.
Suddenly
she heard a voice call out from the hut, “Come into my home, my child. I have
been waiting for your visit.”
Serena asked herself, ‘How did she know that I
was here?’
Inside the hut, she saw a middle-aged woman
sitting at a table with a spoon in her right hand over a bowl of brown-colored
soup. She wore a brown dress with long sleeves and white cloth covering her
head that also covered her shoulders.
The
sorceress then spoke to Serena. “I have been expecting you, my dear.”
“How did you know that I was coming?”
The spirits keep me informed.”
Serena didn’t feel as nervous as she
was when she was outside the hut. The sorceress seemed pleasant and friendly.
“You have been sent to me for a potion
that will give you the desire to seek a man that you can love for the rest of
your life. Is this true?”
Serena was embarrassed. It was true
but she didn’t want to tell a stranger of her desires.
The sorceress then smiled and said,
“Your desire is normal for a young woman like you and I do have the potion for
you that will make your desire even stronger.”
Serena responded with, “I have always
hoped that I could find a young man I could love but the men I met didn’t
inspire me at all. They were either ugly, boring or simpletons.
The sorceress smiled and asked, “Do
you remember meeting Prince Wilhelm years ago?”
The memory of that meeting with the
young prince brought happy memories to the fore. They were both eleven years
old when her parents visited
Prince Wilhelm’s parents many summers ago. They played games around his
parent’s castle such as hide and seek. The prince was very friendly to her and
she to him. As the years passed by, she missed him but she gave up any hope of
ever seeing him again. Now, it would appear as a dream of seeing him again
might become a reality.
Does this mean that I can meet him
again?
The sorceress smiled and replied, “You will see him again
if you find him.” replied the sorceress. “You are going to be given the task of
finding him and bringing him back to his home again.”
“But I have no idea where he is. How will I find him if I
don’t know where he is?” The sorceress reached into a
cupboard and pulled out a small object
and handed it to Serena. Then she said, “This is a talisman.” What is a talisman?” asked Serena. The sorceress
strung a string through the top of it and said, “softly. “A Talisman possesses
supernatural and magical powers. This talisma must
be with you when you are searching for Prince Wilhelm.”
Serena had heard stories of talisman
but had never seen one before. She put the string with the talisman attached to
it around her neck and then she asked, How will this talisman help me find the
prince?”
The sorceress replied, “Your mind will
pick up the message that will give you the direction that you must follow to
find the stone hut that the prince is imprisoned in.”
How far is the hut from here?” asked
Serena.
The sorceress looked at her sadly and
then replied, “It will take you at least a week to find it.”
“Then I had better leave now.”
The sorceress put her hand up as to
stop Serena from getting up from the chair she was sitting on. She gave Serena
the potion which she drank. It was bitter. Then the sorceress said, “There is a
price you must pay.”
Serena smiled and said, “My parents
will be happy to pay whatever you want.”
The sorceress looked at Serena with a
firm voice and said, “It is you that must pay the price, not your parents.”
“What price must I pay?”
“You must find the prince and return
him to his castle. For every week that passes before you have achieved your
task, you will age ten years.”
“But suppose I don’t find him.”
“Then in one and half months from
today, you will be eighty-two years of age and you will die of old age.”
Serena
looked at the sorceress and asked, “Isn’t there any other way?”
“Do you love the prince?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Would you risk your life for him?”
“Yes, I would.”
“Then you had better leave now.”
Serena asked, “Will I still be an old
woman if after five weeks I finally find him and return him to his home?”
“No, my child. Once you and the prince
arrive at his parent’s castle, you will revert back to the twenty-two year-old
woman you are today. Now be off with you and remember; follow the directions
where the talisman leads you.”
For the next ten days she followed the
directions that the talisman that had subconsciously told her mind to follow. She walked
between the mountains and then she finally reached a small forest. Inside the
small forest was a stone hut. She wondered, ‘Is this the hut the prince is in?’
She approached the door and entered the
hut. and spoke loudly. “I am Serena. Is Prince Wilhelm inside the hut?”
She heard the croaking of a toad. She
looked inside. On a table was a small toad. She thought it would be silly
talking to a toad but she had nothing to lose by talking to it. “She said, “I
am looking for Prince Wilhelm.”
The toad didn’t open its mouth but she
heard a voice in her mind. It
said, “I am the prince you are seeking.”
She looked around and saw nothing but
the table with the toad on it. She hadn’t heard the story about Lord Maggotwort
turning the prince into a toad. Her parents thought the information would be
too distressing to her.
The toad looked at her with any angry
expression on its face and said, “You obviously haven’t heard about Lord
Maggotwort’s curse in which he turned me into a toad.”
Serena thought that she was going
insane talking to a toad. However, she realized that
strange things happen in the world she lived in. Then an idea came to her mind.
She asked the toad, “How old were we when we first met in your parent’s
castle?”
“Eleven.”
Serena got excited. She had found the
prince. Then she asked, Is there mirror in this hut?”
The toad turned its head to its right. Serena saw a mirror
on the wall and looked at it. She was aghast. She wasn’t twenty-two years
old any longer. She was a thirty-two-year-old woman now. Then she asked the
prince, “How long will takeus to return to your parent’s
castle. The prince replied, “Before we return
to my home, we have togo to Lord Maggotwort’s castle and retrieve the talisman
he used to turn me into a toad.”
“How far is it away from here?”
“It will take you at least three weeks for you to take me
to his castle.”
“Oh no,” cried out Serena. “I will be fifty-two years of
age by then.”
“Uhh?” exclaimed the prince.
Serena explained to him what the sorceress told him.
“Then we had better leave now so that we can get back to my
parent’s castle and you can become a sweet twenty-two year-old again.”
Serena smiled at the prince’s compliment about her being
sweet. she picked up the toad and placed it in her hand. She had to make sure
that she didn’t squeeze it too hard. A dead toad would result in her dying of
old age in six more weeks if it took six weeks to arrive safely at his parent’s
castle. She had to take great care that the toad was always safe in her hand.
The prince was right. It did take Serena three weeks
carrying the prince as a small toad with her to arrive at Lord Maggotwort’s
castle high on a mountain. They
arrived at night. There didn’t appear to be anyone at the entrance so they
opened the door and walked inside the castle. Soon they were looking down at a
courtyard. There was snow on the ground and the roofs of the buildings surrounding the
courtyard. At the furthest end of the courtyard there appeared tome some event
going on because they could hear music and laughing coming from the building at
that end of the courtyard.
Serena asked, “What should we do now?" The prince replied, “We will have to
lie low until he goes to bed. Then we will have to wander around this castle
until we find Lord Maggotwort’s bedroom. I am sure that he doesn’t sleep with
the talisman so he probably will place it on a desk in his bedroom. That’s where you can snatch it.”
For four hours, they hid in the
castle’s dungeon until everyone had gone to sleep. Then they wandered about the castle until
they found the room where Lord Maggotwort slept. The real problem that they
would face would be that the Lord sleeps with one eye open. The only way they could
slip by him without being noticed would be if Serena slid along the floor.
When they slipped into the Lord’s room, they discovered to their
horror that he wasn’t sleeping in his bed. They discussed as whether they
should return to the dungeon or take their chances and head towards the table
in the room. They decided on the latter. Just as they reached it, they heard
footsteps approaching the room.
Suddenly the door opened. A man carrying a candle walked
into the room, It was Lord Maggotwort. He screamed at what he believed was a
woman over fifty-years of age. “ He screamed, “Who are you
and what are you doing in my private quarters?” Wilhelm called out to Serena. “Grab
the talisman on the table and let us
flee from this monster.” Serena reached for the ruby–gold
encased talisman and turned towards the door and with the talisman in one hand
and the toad in her other hand, She ran towards the door, and sidestepped Lord
Maggotwort’s efforts to grab her. As
Serena ran down the hallway outside the Lord’s bedroom, she saw a mirror on the
wall ahead of her and decided to glance at it to see what she looked like. She
was horrified. She looked like what she really was-----a fifty-two-year-old woman.
Worse yet, she ran like a fifty-two-year-old woman. As
she rounded a corner, she was suddenly facing a horde of guards in the large
hall she ran into. Everyone of them wore heavy armour. The toad screamed, “Run,
Serena. They won’t catch up to you because the heavy armour will hold them
back. Serena
ran to the hallway on their left and even though the toad was right about the
armour holding them back, she wasn’t much faster since she wasn’t running as a
twenty-two-year-old young woman but instead was running as a fifty-two-year-old
middle-aged woman.Serena
ran down some winding stairs that took her and the toad in her hand into the
deep recesses of the castle and after a few minutes, she found the exit that
lead her to the outside of the castle. When she looked behind her, there was no
one following them. For two
weeks, she walked over many hills and the many forests and into many valleys. At
the end of the first week, she turned
sixty-two years of age. She was getting much more tired as she aged but fortunately,
the only burdens she carried with her was the toad and the two talisman around her
neck. She was able to obtain food from the villagers and she was amazed that
they were so willing to put her up at night. At the end of the second week,
she was now seventy-two years of age. Walking
at that age was difficult for her. She was suffering from arthritis, trouble
with her left hip and was simply exhausted. However, with one day before she
was to turn 82; the day before she would expire, they reached P\family’s
castle.
When they reached the entrance, the
toad turned to her and said, “Now, my dear. I want you to kiss me.”
“Oh, no!” she exclaimed. “Surely you don’t want me to kiss
a toad?”
The prince replied, “With the ruby talisman
hanging around your neck and a kiss from you, I will change into a human being
and wear the same clothes I was wearing when Lord Maggotwort cursed me and
changed me into a toad.” Serena raised the toad to her
lips and after closing her eyes, she kissed it Suddenly she fell backwards and
when she stood up again, there before her was Prince Wilhelm just as he
said he would be when he changed to what he was before he was cursed except
he was twenty-two years old. Serena felt much younger than she felt a moment
earlier.
The prince saw her as she was when she
was twenty-two years of age because that was what she was now.
The prince ran up the stairs leading to the grand hall of
the castle where his mother was waiting
for him at the top of the stairs. Serena hda decided to wait at the bottom
of the stairs so that the prince and his parents could share this great moment
in their lives alone. Ten minutes later, he returned to the bottom of the
stairs and said to her, “Serena, my dear. My parents want to meet you and
express their gratitude to you for rescuing Two months lace in a great cathedral
in a city fifty miles from the prince’s parent’s home. Hundreds were invited
and coaches were retained to bring all the people invited to the wedding so
that they could be taken to the cathedral for the happy event. The guests also
included the friends Serena made in the small village next to her parent’s
castle who acted as her bride’s-maids and a special invitation was delivered to
the sorceress who accepted the invitation. Of course, no invitation was
delivered to Lord Maggotwortt who by now was sulking in his castle knowing that
the power he no longer had with his gold and ruby talisman was because it was
no longer in his possession.
Princess Serena would be Queen Serena after the princes’
parents were deceased but for now, she was happy just to be the wife of
Wilhelm.
She looked grand in her wedding gown and everyone told the
prince how fortunate he was to have found such a beautiful woman to marry.
Naturally they
didn’t know that when he was as
young as eleven years old, he often dreamed of the moment when Serena would be
his bride. The prince and his wife, Serena built
their own home which was midway between their parent’s homes. This was so they
and their children could visit the children’s grandparents more. often. They had two daughters and
two sons.They made sure that they were close to each other in their ages so
that they would always have a close friend to play with. They would not end up
being lonely like their parents were when they were the only children in their
parent’s castles.
They were always proud of their parents because their
parents looked so grand. The boys were also excited then they saw their father
on his horse. Many years later when their mother was seventy-two years of age,
she looked many years younger.
Serena, Wilhelm,
their children and the parents of Serena and Wilhelm lived happily thereafter.
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