A Grim Fairy Tale
Once upon a time there lived a king, a queen and a princess in a beautiful castle. The king adored the princess and made life wonderful for her. He took her into the nearby forest and taught her about Mother Nature and the birds and the animals. She could soon identify many birds by their call. She was kind to all creatures and loved and trusted everything and anyone she met. Whilst the king took great pleasure in
teaching her all he knew about their wonderful land, the queen became more and more displeased, often feeling left out of their special world. She was sometimes jealous of their close relationship, something she had never had with her own father.
All through her childhood, the princess had been protected from all the evils of the world, which she had believed lurked beyond the beautiful forest. The queen had been the only person who could see any wrong in her and this feeling grew stronger as the years passed. The princess tried to do and say the right things to please the queen, but often she did not succeed and was usually sent to her room without any tea. As the princess grew older, she noticed that this usually only happened when the king was away from the castle either hunting or visiting neighbouring castles.
Sometimes, kings and queens and lords and ladies from nearby lands visited the castle as well. Much fun and laughter could be heard beyond the castle walls during these visits.
One day, however, there was no cause for laughter. A neighbouring land owner called at the castle to see the king, but only the princess was at home. She knew him well and invited him anyway. It was not long before she felt uneasy in his company, but before she could do anything about it, he turned into an ogre before her very eyes and tried to devour her - then he was gone. She was left frightened and very afraid. Could people change into monsters? For several days, she thought about what had happened and decided to tell the queen, but she wasn't really listening. The princess was now very afraid of the man, but because he was such a good friend of the king and she loved the king more than anything in the world, she knew she could not tell anyone what she knew. It would hurt too many people, especially the king.
She managed to avoid seeing the man as much as she could and as the years passed she saw less and less of him. However, if she did see him, he would change from a laughing man into an ogre in front of her, but only she could see this. Nobody else ever saw the grotesque side of him. The princess tried to forget about him and put him right out of her mind. That way, they could all live happily ever after. How wrong she was. Many years passed and the princess was now grown up. She was extremely popular and had many young suitors who lived in the same kingdom. She lived life to the full and was the life and soul of the many parties she attended. Her sense of fun was well known and, so desperate was she to please everyone, that she became known as a very loveable person, but somewhere along the way, she forgot to love herself.
Eventually, a handsome prince rode into her kingdom and she happily agreed to marry him. He built her a magnificent castle and took her to foreign lands. Outwardly, she was the same bubbly, fun-loving princess that she'd always been, but inside, the bad memories of her childhood gnawed away at her until she could hide her unhappiness no more. She told the prince how she was feeling and although he believed what had happened all those years ago, he felt that now she was married to him and away from the castle, she should feel safe. The princess was feeling worse, so she tried talking to the prince again about her troubled mind, but he really didn't understand and just went about his building work, adding to their castle in the hope that something would make her happy. He just wanted to get back the happy princess he'd fallen in love with. She became more and more withdrawn, crying and just staring into space and thinking. She didn't know what was wrong or how to fix it. What was there to fix? She had everything she could ever want. She was married to a handsome prince, living in a castle that he had built for her with his own hands, having holidays in foreign lands. What more could she possibly want?
One day, when she was feeling particularly sad and could see no point in living any more, she went for a walk in the beautiful forest and came across a wise old sage who could see that all was not well with her. He reminded her that he could see into her soul through her eyes and knew what was troubling her. He advised her to seek out her fairy godmother who lived in the nearby land of CRASAC. The princess took the advice of the wise old sage and visited CRASAC for the first time. She was frightened and didn't know what to expect, but there she found her fairy godmother waiting for her. When the fairy godmother saw her, she looked upon her with caring, understanding eyes. Unfortunately, she had seen many princesses with the same haunted look and knew immediately what was wrong with her. The princess slowly began to unburden her troubled mind and spoke about things she'd told no one before. The sordid inner secrets that had tormented her for almost 30 years were finally being evicted from their hiding place.
With the encouragement of her fairy godmother, the princess found the courage to tell the king what had happened all those years ago. Even after all these years, the ogre had pretended to be a friend to the king. The princess had always felt he had laughed at the king behind his back and it was now time to put a stop to it. Because the king loved the princess so much, the king was hurt and dreadfully sorry that a so-called friend of his could have caused her so much pain and anguish. The king had believed that nothing evil could have penetrated the forest or castle they had both loved so much. The princess was glad she had shared this terrible secret with the king who banished the ogre from his kingdom, forever to live in misery and shame for what he'd done.
The princess continued to visit her fairy godmother at CRASAC for over 2 more years. Progress was slow to begin with. The princess had held onto the feelings of guilt and shame for so many years, she didn't know how to let them go. The fairy godmother patiently persisted and eventually got her to understand the reasons why she felt that way and why she had behaved so recklessly in her younger years. The princess slowly felt better and better until one day she told the fairy godmother that she was once again able to face the world with a new outlook that was free from the burdens of the past. The fairy godmother was delighted that her wisdom and understanding had saved the princess' life and had helped her realise that she had lived her life in the only way she knew how. She had learnt by example.
NONE OF IT HAD BEEN HER FAULT
The prince and princess now live happily together in their castle. She still takes each day at a time, but knows, no matter what or when, her fairy godmother will always be watching over her and will put her hands out to catch her if she ever falls.
THE END