Email me at: 

jtoverath@hotmail.com

A Fairy Tale

by Auguste Harold Doodé

ONCE UPON A TIME, in the Land of Magic there lived a Beautiful Princess. Not a flighty or vain princess, but an intelligent and wise one who was loved by all her people. Being a Beautiful Princess she had many suitors. She flirted with and broke the hearts of many of these vapid young men but could not find one who really sparked her interest.

A great tournament was held with the winner gaining the honor of being the Beautiful Princess's champion. Knights, Lords and Princes came from all over to fight for the right to champion the Beautiful Princess, but none seemed to be as strong or as valiant as one Handsome Knight. He unhorsed one opponent after another in the joust, out shot one and all in the archery contest, and even recited more eloquently in the poetry contest (admittedly not a contest usual to such an event but the Beautiful Princess had insisted).

To put it mildly the Beautiful Princess was quite impressed with the Handsome Knight, after all not only was he nice to look at but he was a delight to listen to as well. At the end of the tournament with the outcome not even in question she presented the Handsome Knight with the winners garland and notified him that he would dine with her that very evening. So in the Company of the Beautiful Princess's Lady in Waiting, and the Handsome Knight's Loyal Squire they dined.

It quickly became apparent to the Beautiful Princess that the Handsome Knight was witty and charming in addition to all of his other attributes and by the end of the evening she was quite smitten with the Handsome Knight. The Handsome Knight came to realize that the Beautiful Princess was not only lovely but intelligent and willful, not at all like the flighty and vain princesses he had become accustomed to, and by the end of the evening he was down on his knee professing his never-ending love for the Beautiful Princess.

Shortly after it came to the attention of the Beautiful Princess that an Evil Sorcerous had taken over a castle on the very edge of the Land of Magic. She notified the Handsome Knight, who as her champion was required to go vanquish this blight on the kingdom. So in the company of his Faithful Squire the Handsome Knight road off to chastise the Evil Sorcerous severely and to drive her from the Land of Magic one way or another.

The Beautiful Princess waited patiently for her Handsome Knight to return to her though she grew lonely and often sang sad songs to herself and her Lady in Waiting. Over a week passed and the Beautiful Princess began to worry when the Captain of the Guard announced that the Faithful Squire was waiting with a message for her. The Beautiful Princess rushed out to her sitting room, with her Lady in Waiting in tow, to hear what the Faithful Squire had to say.

The tale the Faithful Squire related was not a happy one. The Handsome Knight had ridden to the castle that the Evil Sorcerous had taken over and demanded she surrender at once, this being the chivalrous thing to do. But the Evil Sorcerous had cast a spell on the Handsome Knight making him fall deeply in love with her.

This made the Beautiful Princess very wroth. How dare that hussy steal away her Handsome Knight. She went immediately to the tower where she kept her own books of magic ( this was after all the Land of Magic), and looked up how to break a love spell. All the works she searched gave the same answer, "True Loves Kiss".

She immediately summed the Loyal Squire and her Lady in Waiting and made preparations ride off to rescue her Handsome Knight.

The Handsome Knight rode a patrol around the lands adjoining the Evil Sorceress's castle and the Beautiful Princess set herself up to ensnare him on one of these rounds. He may have been ensorcelled but he was still a Knight after all. He would not be able to resist coming to the aid of a Damsel in Distress, and then it would be completely un-chivalrous to not accept a kiss.

The plan worked just as the Beautiful Princess had planned, pretending a sprained ankle the Handsome Knight had no choice but to stop and aid what he thought was a Damsel in Distress. And when she placed "Loves True Kiss" on his lips it immediately broke the Evil Sorcerous's spell.

Then riding together to the castle of the Evil Sorcerous she enacted a spell that would keep the Evil Sorcerous entrapped for eternity, never to escape.

The Beautiful Princess and her Handsome Knight, with the Lady in Waiting and Faithful Squire, rode back to her castle where she announced there upcoming nuptials. And since this is Fairy Tale, of course the lived happily ever after.