THE BOX

Once upon a time there lived a beautiful queen in a village far from here. Though this queen lived in a giant castle with all the imaginable comforts a queen could ask for, the village she ruled over was very ragged looking and poor, for this queen was just as evil as she was beautiful. For years she stole from her peasent, calling it "taxation". She took 80% of the crops that the people slaved over all year, saving the poorest choices for the village and keeping the freshest for herself. She taxed them close to all their income, leaving them with just enough to buy themselves foood, and barely enough for badly needed clothing.
The evil queen had a daughter who was herself very beautiful, if not more than her mother. However, unlike her wicked mother, she was giving and kind. She had a certain something about her that, when in her presence, you felt as if you were safe from all harm and misfortune. She would often mingle with the peasanst and give them her gold, her food, and her wonderful silks to make into their own. The people of the village could not wait for the time when the evil queen would pass, and the beautiful princess would take up rule. But this goal seemed like it would never come, for the queen still seemed very young and didn't appear to be growing any older or weaker, and was somehow almost never sick.
One day in winter, a great witch traveled into the town, unnoticed by the evil queen, and began to show her magic to the villagers in exchange for food and money and cloths. She was not a good witch nor a bad witch in any sence of the words, but would do anything you asked if your payment was viewed as reasonable for such a task. SHe soon became one of the most sought out people in the entire village, yet she must be kept secret form the queen, for the people knew that if the queen found out, their fate would surely be doomed forever.
It was not long before the princess heard word of the strange woman, the witch who could grant any requests and make anything into being. At the first the princess was naturally skeptical, and asked to bear witness to such power for herself. The villagers quickly showed her where the witch resided and the princess watched as one small girl came to the shrouded woman with her dieing cat.
"Please", the girl begged between sobs. "Help my cat. He is dieing, and I can't do anything to save him."
"For such a service I would expect great payment", the witch said from under her great black coat.
"All I have is my mothers gold necklace, it has been in our family for ages." The girl cried harder as she handed over the golden necklace, sparkling in the sunlight. The rpincess watching the beautiful peice of jewelry go to the hands of the witch, could only see greed and treachery, not believing the woman could really save this cat from death.
The princess stood before the with and declared, "I will not allow you to take this precious heirloom from this desperate little girl. If you must take payment then I shall pay you the weight of the necklace in gold, but only after your perform your magic succesfully on the poor creature."
The witch accepted the princess' offer. She placed her hands above the cat ever so lightly, and chanted a few word in a foreign tongue, unbeknownst to anyone present. The air seemed to stiffen and the sky darkened just slightly. All of a sudden, the cat meowed, licked its lips, and pounced out of the girl's hand to chase a nearby bird up into a tree. The girl jumped after her cat with glee, as everyone clapped in amazement.
The witch turned to the astounded princess and spoke. "So, what about my gold."
The princess lived up to her word, but even after seeing such a miracle befor her eyes, did not let her nerves calm and her suspicion of the witch did not die away.

That night at dinner, the queens sensed the princess' uneasyness, yet every time she inquired as to what was upsetting her daughter, the girl denied anythign was wrong.
"But you've hardly touched your meat", the queen protested.
"Oh, I'm feeling a little sick is all", her daughter replied. "I think I will go lie down for the night. Perhaps in sleep my stomach will settle."
Though the queen wished her daughter a good night, she remained unsatisfied with the answer given. She called to her side one of her gaurds. She told him to dress in scraggly clothes and go into town with a close watch on the princess, in hopes of finding the asnwer to her inquiries.
The next day, the princess set out to the village in hopes of gettgin another glimpse of the witch. Unkown to her was the gaurd dressed as a simple peasant, following her around the town. When she came to the home of the witch, she stood in the gathering crowd as the witch proceeded to make a woman's garden grow taller and thicker, and then as an old deaf man was given back his long forgotten hearing. The gaurd, seeing the witch for himself, immediatly ran bakc to the castle to tell the queen of his findings.
The queen at once set out to find this witch and burn her at the stake, as was the custom in the day. The gaurd showed her where the witch could be found and the queen followed, always pestering him to get there faster, as she hated having to wait long.
The queen came while the witch was in the middle of healing a broken ankle. the walking man was proof that the woman really was as the guard had said, and so the queen wasted no time in calling out her fate. The crowd parted as the queen walked up to the witch. The witch pleaded that she would give the queen whatever she asked, as long as she was granted her life and would there after leave the village indefinetly.
The queen thought this over to herself for a while. Finally she asnwered, "Give me the most precious and valuable thing in all the world, and only then will I let you leave my village alive." Thinking she had stumped the woman, the evil queen smiled to herself.
The witch put her hand into her long cloak andtook it out again to reveal a gorgeous box covered in jewels and precious stones such as the queen had never before laid eyes on. The queen greedily snatched it away, but just as she was about to lift the latch to open it, the witch yelled at her to stop!
"This box contains everything you could ever wish for, but only if you open it once everything you have now has left you. If you open this box with anything still in your name, then it wil reveal nothing to you, and will remain only a box."
The queen took this information to heart and sent the witch away, never to be seen in the village again.
The queen immediatly went home to stare at her box wantingly, while outside a terrible blizzard was brewing. She soon found that she could wait no longer to open her box, but her daughter reminded her that the queen still woned very much indeed, and that such magic would be silly to waste.
The queen agreed with her daughter and, blinded with greed, amazed everyone byb declaring that she was handing ovdr the kingdom to her daughter. "When I have everything I could wish for I will surely rule the world, and then who will need this puetride village", she thought.
The princess, as long as all the town's people, were stunned by the anouncement. Even more stunning was the fact that almost as son as the words had freed themselves from the evil queens mouth, she took up her box and began to leave the village. She journeyed towards a nearby woods out in the snow, and once she was far out of sight from the highest tower, the peasant all rejoiced and hailed their new benevolent ruler.
The evil queen however, now just a greedy woman, wondered around the cold woods, freezing in the worsening weather. She thought of amking a fire, but then decided that the fire may be seen as belonging to her. She did not notice that her lips had turneda frozen water blue and that she may surely die of cold soon. In fact, all she could think was getting rid of all her possesions.
"My clothing!", she exclaimed aloud. "i must be rid of it, for surely I will have finer silkswhen my every wish is granted." So she stripped down in the middle of the woods and began to run away from them as fast and as far as she could, so that there was no mistake that the clothes were lost to her.
Now she was exausted and cold and naked and alone. She had no home, nobody and nothing in her name. All she had was the beautiful little box that would make her every dream a reality.
"It is finally time", she said, her eyes glowing with as much greed as possible from her stiff and weakening body. She reached out a paling hand to undo the latch, and with the last of her strength, to lift the lid...

Days after the blizzard had ended and winter began to pass, the new queen was out on a ride with some of her ladies in waiting out into the woods. They were flabbergasted when they laid eyes on the royal garb of the queen old mother.
" I do find myself often wondering whatever happened to her", She said to her ladies as they continued on. "I wonder if she ever got what she wanted."
Soon after speaking the words, the women spotted an arm coming forth from the melting snow, reaching out to an empty box with velvet lining.
"Well", one of the women said. "She may not have gotten what she wanted, but what she did get is as much as she deserved."
The ladies rode back towards the village, and when they had long left the place, out of the trees came a woman in a scraggly black cloak. She bent, picking up the box, and cocked her head back to fill the air with her laughter.

THE END