Once upon a time...
There was a queen, who gave birth to a prince, making the queen a
parent. Anyway, this prince was a blessed and
cursed child. His curse was that whenever he went past a doorway, the
door would slam on his face. The blessing though was that whenever he went to a river, a bridge would appear before him.
One day, while he was out in the kingdom forest (which has
trees) while disguised, he was
chased by some people who had figured out he was the prince and wanted to kidnap him for ransom. However, while running away, he came across a river and of course, a bridge appeared before him. And as this was a true blessing, the bridge also vanished after he had crossed the river, leaving his pursuers behind. However, he was now lost. He spent many hours wandering around trying to find his way back, and he grew hungry and thirsty. Eventually he came across a house. A cabin to be precise. He went inside (and of course, the door slammed on his face). While looking for food inside, he knocked over a vial which
broke and out popped a rabbit. This was a magical rabbit, for the rabbit began speaking (
an animal that talks) to him. The rabbit told him that for saving its life, it would grant him three wishes.
Seeing as how he was hungry and thirsty, he wished for a feast, and just like that, a feast was set before him and he ate and was happy. He still had two wishes however, so for the second wish, he wished to see the world, for he found his own kingdom a rather boring place, and perhaps find a way to get rid of his curse too. The rabbit, being such a magical creature, already knew he would wish this, and the food he'd given him was also magical and the prince soon fell into a deep sleep no sooner as he'd finished asking for the wish.
When he awoke, he found himself at a cottage, facing a beautiful woman who he immediately knew for some reason was a sorceress. This also means he
met the sorceress. He realized that this must be part of his wish, and this sorceress might be able to rid him of his curse. And so he asked the sorceress to help him. The sorceress agreed, provided he save her daughter from a rival sorcerer who had kidnapped her. This sorcerer lived in the
ruins of a castle somewhere. In order to defeat the sorcerer, he would need a magic
sword that the sorceress had traded to a dragon for access to more magical knowledge. He agreed to the task, but before he left, he was given a magic lantern to light his way, for the dragon lived on top of a mountain whose lair could only be seen at
night, but traveling on a mountain at night with no sure lighting would be treacherous indeed.
With the aid of the lantern he was able to safely reach the lair of the dragon. Striding in, he boldly asked for the magic sword, and of course, the dragon thought it a ridiculous request. It was impressed by his courage, so it issued him a challenge (
contest). If the prince could figure out the dragon's age, he would be given the sword, and if he failed, he would be eaten. While trying to count the dragon's hoard of treasure to figure out how long the dragon had been alive, he remembered a song his mother, the queen, had once sung to him. The song basically revealed that dragons were creatures who existed in every moment of time at the same instant. As such, they were ageless creatures.
He went back to the dragon, and used this as his answer. The dragon, defeated, gave him the magic sword (which, by all appearances, looked like any ordinary sword). And since he was able to see through the dragon's trap, the dragon also gave him an additional piece of information. The sorcerer's place was also magically protected, and in this case, it could not be entered on ground, and thus, he must enter through water, via a
river.
Using the information, the prince managed to get into the sorcerer's home, but was trapped by the other magical protections the sorcerer had in place. The sorcerer, being a typical villain, gave the typical evil villain speech, then cast a bolt of magic at the prince to kill him. It was at this point, the seemingly mundane sword revealed its true powers, reflecting the bolt back at the sorcerer. The resulting blast drained the sorcerer of all his powers, but picked up his own sword to do battle (
a fight) with the prince.
Being a good guy, and this being a fairy tale, the prince, of course, won. He
rescued the sorceress's daughter and went back to her. The sorceress then told him, his curse could only be cured by marrying her daughter. The prince did not want that, and tried to leave. However, being that the sorceress's daughter was the daughter of a sorceress, she too had magic powers, and she charmed the prince and made him forget about his home.
Many years passed before one day, he came across a book in the sorceress and her daughter's home about a kingdom far far away. This triggered his memory, and in a fit of rage, he slew the two of them using the magic sword.
After some more searching, he found a spell that whisked him back to his kingdom, and his parents, the king an queen, were overjoyed at the return of their
long-lost son.
Later, while wandering in the kingdom forest again, he came across a horse. Not just any horse though, this was a magic talking
horse, for it spoke and told him to get on it. The horse took him on a familiar
road back to a familiar looking cabin, and inside, he found the rabbit again. He remembered he still had a third wish, and seeing as how his previous love was one of betrayal, and he was an unmarried man, he wished to marry a beautiful woman. Then, to his surprise, the rabbit transformed into one. She thanked him and told him that he had said the magic words that freed her from the curse of being a rabbit. They started dancing, and
for all I know, they could still be dancing.
-----------
Nice story?
Anyway, that was the fairy tale that David and I came up with when we played Once Upon A Time a couple days ago. Or as much of it as I could remember, plus a few changes to make it flow better. The words we had to use from the cards have been highlighted (there's still some missing ones, as there should be at least 20 cards used, probably 26 or so). I decided to write it down because it was one of the rare cases where the story actually turned out well. Oh, and for fun, that rabbit should've been the real sorceress, who'd lost in a duel to that evil sorceress and her daughter from before.
