Protection

Once upon a
time there was a land which had been at war for many years. There were
few people in the kingdom who could remember living without war, and
fear. As a result of this fear the people had taken to wearing armour
all the time. This armour was very beautifully crafted and intricately
made.  It was a status symbol to have expensive pieces which were
worn all the time.

In the palace in the kingdom lived a princess, she was well
liked and was charming with many friends. She sang and danced well and
made pretty things, and she wore the most beautiful armour in the whole
kingdom. It had been made by the finest craftsmen and locksmiths in the
country. Some of the pieces had been her mothers before her and she had
worn them ever since she became tall enough to walk in them.

Many
people marvelled at her beauty and although you could see very little
of the princess inside the armour everyone thought that was normal and
it was what was on the surface that counted anyway.

class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">Amongst the people
allowed into the court where the princess lived there was a locksmith
who thought himself the best in his trade. Because everyone needed
their armour mending and securing his was a noble trade and he was well
respected. But he was lacking in challenges. What he wanted to do was
to work on the princesses' armour, to see how it was mode and if he
could help her by making better. "Besides," he thought "she has been
wearing it for so long surely she would like to take it off."

But
when he asked the princess she declined and made a joke about it and
smiled prettily and carried on her way. So the locksmith hatched a
plan.

When the princess was fast asleep in bed at night he slipped
into her room. She was sleeping very deeply because the smithy had made
sure that he had chosen a day when she had been hunting and would be
very tired.
He worked away and just before dawn he had removed
all her pretty armour and put it to one side. He was very pleased with
himself and was so concerned by the engineering around him that he
forgot to watch the time, or the princess. By the time he realised she
was waking up it was too late for him to get it all back on to
her.

The princess
awoke and stretched and just for a second she felt fantastic, really
comfortable and free. But then she opened her eyes and saw the smithy,
he was staring at her with an expression of pure disgust. She had been
wearing her armour for so long that her body was maggoty white and her
skin was peeling off in disgusting flakes. She was revolting and now
she had seen his face, she knew it.

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">The smithy leapt up and ran from the
room horrified at what he had uncovered. This left the princess at a
loss, she picked up what armour she could manage to carry and set off
down the corridor to find someone to help her put it back on. She felt
so strange with out it, the feeling of freedom was wearing off and now
she felt exposed and fearful.  Servants she met on the corridor
looked horrified, but finally she found a chambermaid who helped her
into all the pieces they could figure out and the princess was decent
again.

Of course news of this breach in security swept around the
palace in hours.  A meeting was called and the smithy was brought
in. Some advisors suggested cutting off his hands so he couldn't do it
again. Some said he should loose his eyes so that he would never see
anything if he did manage to do it again. And others thought he should
loose his tongue so he couldn't tell anyone what he had
seen.

But the final decision was left up to the princess
herself.  She didn't want the Smithy hurt, she thought he was
obviously very clever and it would be a loss to the kingdom if he
couldn't work. She also believed him when he said he hadn't intended to
hurt her, and the fact was he hadn't hurt her, so she thought of a new
punishment.

Every evening at bedtime the smithy had to come to the
princesses' room and repeat what he had done, but this time with the
princesses' consent. He would take off every piece of armour and wait
in the adjoined chamber until morning and replace it all. The princes
thought that knowing his horror at seeing her putrid body this would be
a punishment indeed.

Over time the princess stopped looking frightening as
she spent more time out side her armour and began to care for the body
inside it. I would love to say that the smithy began to enjoy his job
and even perhaps that they fell in love; and maybe that would have
become true over time. Unfortunately this is a story set in a time of
war so that is not to be. One night as the princess slept peacefully an
assassin crept into her room and seeing she was not protected he
stabbed her through the heart and she died that night. The people of
the town couldn't believe her stupidity sleeping with out protection
and they all put on extra armour and carried on as before.