8The Princess in The Tower
Once upon a time in a kingdom far away a princess was born. There was nothing particularly special about her birth. No fairies came to bless her with gifts of beauty, grace or melody and no evil witch showed up to curse her into a deep sleep. Nonetheless her parents thought that she was special and gave her everything that she could want.
And so the King and Queen's daughter grew up as any ordinary princess would, up until her fifth birthday. The girl was to have an enormous party that day with cake, balloons and presents. The castle naturally was in an uproar and seeing that nobody had anytime for her the little princess wandered outside to play.
Perched on a stone in the middle of the courtyard was a toad and it was a revolting toad at that. Its skin was puke green, and cover almost entirely with huge warts. On top of that the princess could actually see the slim rolling off of the toad's back. The Princess, who had never seen anything as ugly as this particular toad was intrigued, so she went over to him (or at least she assumed that the toad was a he) and began to tell him of her problems.
"Nobody cares about me. They all hate me. I wish that I could just run away!" She whined. "Why won't anybody listen to me? All I wanted was a chocolate chip cookie. The cook always has chocolate chip cookies for me. Who cares if she had to make some? It's my birthday and I want my special cookies. They should know by now I only like chocolate chip cookies. Not oatmeal cookies." The toad didn't answer back as the princess had half expected he would. But it did croak in a somewhat understanding way. The princess was comforted by this action and when a moment later the toad decided to hop away she (as any curious child would) decided to follow him.
She followed the toad through a hole in the castle wall, across a bridge and into the forest. The toad continued to hop through the dark, and somewhat scary woods until they reached a tall tower made of old stones. By this point of time the princess was having a bad feeling about the whole adventure but felt obligated to continue following the hideous creature. The pair entered the tower through a door at the base and began to climb and climb and climb.
When they reached the room at the top of the large tower, the toad, much to the princess' surprise suddenly transformed into a witch, and she certainly wasn't as ugly as her toad form would have suggested. "Finally I have captured a princess with golden hair! I can now complete my potion." The witch said in what sounded like a poor attempt at a cackle. If the princess hadn't been so scared she certainly would have laughed. With that she left the tower room, shutting the door with a loud and terrifying bang. Then there was a distinct sound of lock turning. The princess tried the door but it wouldn't budge.
The princess sank to the floor in tears. The witch was certainly going to eat her. Or kill her. Or turn her into a frog. She knew her fairy tales. The evil witches always tried to eat or kill the beautiful princesses. She would never be to see her parents again. Or eat the cook's special chocolate chip cookies.
Finally after hours of tears the princess stopped crying. It was useless; nobody was going to rescue her. She wiped the remainder of tears out of her eyes and looked around. The tower room was nicer than her room at home. It had a huge two times the size of her bed back at the castle, and it was bouncier too. There were books and toys and many other fun things to do, but the room was scary also. The tower was at least a hundred feet above the ground, and for a princess who didn't like heights this was horrifying. As the princess realised after she went to bed the tower didn't have a nightlight, and the princess who had never before had to go to sleep without one.
As the weeks passed the princess realised that the witch wasn't going to eat her. The witch in fact was quite nice and caring. She made sure that the princess had everything she wanted and that she was always happy. All the witch wanted was the princess' long golden hair. One afternoon the witch tried to explain why she needed golden hair.
"You see Princess I need a golden hair from a princess to put in my youthfulness potion. It keeps me looking young and beautiful. You see this is my book of potions, and here it says a golden hair from a princess' head, added to the pre-made potion whenever the brewer requires a burst of youthfulness. That is why I need you."
And so the princess grew up, under the constant supervision of the witch, who never seemed to any grow any older. She was taught to read and write as well as to dance and sing (even though she was not any good at either,) just as any normal princess would have been. She led a fairly happy life but she often dreamed of venturing out of the confining towers walls.
One day, years after the witch locked her in the tower the princess was working on improving her poor singing abilities while the witch was out gathering ingredients for her latest potion. She had just finished with the scales the witch had told her to practice when she heard an unfamiliar voice.
"Who is that singing, if you could go as far as to call it that?" The voice asked.
"What does it matter to you?" The princess shouted down as she stuck her head out of the tower's window. She was a little taken aback by the speaker's rudeness.
Looking down she saw that the speaker was a prince. His clothing was made of eloquent cloth, probably from a far of country. He was holding the reins to a beautiful white horse, and attached to his belt was a scabbard that undoubtedly held as beautiful sword with a jewel-encrusted hilt.
"Nothing," he snapped back. Nobody ever spoke to him with such disrespect. Hewas a prince, and heir to the throne. After a moments thought he (rather stupidly) asked "What are you doing up there?"
"A witch captured me when I was a child, and has locked me in this tower. I am not permitted to leave." The princess responded curtly. How dare this prince had the audacity to pry into her personal life?
"Why would she capture you?" The prince asked, not believing a word of the princess' story. There, in his opinion was no such thing as a witch.
"Because she was feeling particularly evil and felt like capturing a princess," was the sarcastic response of the princess.
"You, a princess?" The prince asked vaguely humoured at the idea of this girl being royalty. "You're lying to me right?"
"Of course I am." The princess responded. "The witch only captured me because she needed the golden hair of a princess."
"You are a princess?" The prince asked disbelievingly.
"Of course I am." The princess responded. She was a princess and would never lie. Didn't this prince know that?
"Then I will just have to rescue you." The prince responded.
The princess rolled her eyes. How did he expect to climb a hundred feet to her windowsill let alone get her down again? "Of course you will." She responded sarcastically.
"Then stay right there, I will be back to save you," The prince declared as he mounted his horse.
When the witch returned that evening laden with herbs for her potions the princess never mentioned the prince's visit. For some reason she believed that it would upset the witch. After a week it became apparent to the princess that the prince (luckily) wasn't going to come back and attempt to rescue her. The next day the witch left to visit a friend of hers who was celebrating her hundred and fiftieth. It was also that day that the prince returned.
"Princess I have come to rescue you," He stated proudly.
"Oh have you?" The princess asked, surprised at both the prince's return and the confidence in his voice.
"Yes I have. All I have to do is have my pet falcon take hold of this ladder and bring it up to your window." The prince said displaying a rope ladder, which to the princess' dismay looked to be at least hundred feet long. The prince would probably succeed in rescuing her.
The falcon took hold of the ladder and flew up to the princess' windowsill. There using its beak he tied the robe to the princess' bedpost and flew back down to his master. The prince tugged the ladder a couple of times to ensure that it was tied tight enough and then began the long journey straight up the tower's outer wall.
Finally the prince reached the window and he tried to climb through the window. He lost his balance and almost fell but the princess caught his sleeve and dragged him through the window.
"Now that you are up here how do you intend to get me down?" The princess asked scornfully.
"Umm," the prince answered. "I really didn't think that far ahead."
"Do you want me to climb down the ladder ahead of you?" the princess answered.
"No, it's okay, I have to carry you down for it to be a true rescue. " The prince said.
"I am not stupid," the princess said "You would probably kill the both of us on the way down."
"I wouldn't"
"Yes, you would. How about I climb down on my own and tell whoever asks that you carried me down this flimsy rope ladder." The princess suggested.
"I made it all by my self," the prince said smugly. "I mean, would you really do that for me?"
"Yes," the princess said trying not to laugh at the prince's stupidity. "But first I have something to do. Have you a knife by any chance?"
The prince did have a knife, and he gave it to the princess. She chopped off the majority of her long golden hair and laid it on her bed. "Ready," she said turning to the prince.
The prince was speechless. His princess had just cut off her gorgeous hair, without his expressed permission. "Your hair," he sputtered.
"The witch needs it more than I do. Any way it will grow back." The princess said as she lowered her self onto the ladder. Once the princess was safely on the ground the prince began to climb down also. There were a couple of frightening moments when the prince slipped and almost fell, but he too made it to the ground.
"Let's go," he ordered as he began to walk toward the tree where his horse was tied.
"Go?" The princess asked.
"Yes to my castle." The prince said.
"I'm going home. It's been a long time since my parents saw me and I need to let them know that I am alive." The princess said.
"No you're going to come home and marry me first then we will go and visit your parents." The prince said sternly.
"No," the princess said and she walked out of the clearing and into the forest.