Short Fairy Tales 2 : The Princess And The Doll - Part 1

Once upon a time, a long time ago there was a young princess named Adelia who lived in a large palace and had two very loving parents but then, high on the uppermost reaches of heaven in the golden parliament of Angels, it was voted upon by raising wings, that the angels needed a new queen; one that was more lovely and gentle and noble and wise than all the angels and, looking down upon the earth, they could see only one person who fitted that description, Adelia’s mother and so, one night, Adelia’s mother went to sleep and while she slept, the angels took her up to heaven in a carriage drawn by winged white horses, to be their appointed queen.

“What about my daughter?”, she protested as the angels placed a crown of golden flowers upon her head, “She needs her mother!”.

“Don’t worry. You can still watch over her from heaven. All you have to do is close your eyes and look through your heart and you will see her”, said the Angels bowing down before her on a carpet of clouds.

And so Adelia’s mother closed her eyes tightly as the angels were fitting her with her special golden wings and she saw Adelia sitting upon her bed, clutching her favourite porcelain doll, and crying.

“Why did you go away mother?”, she heard her daughter sobbing, “I miss you so much”.

Suddenly the porcelain doll upon Adelia’s lap turned its sapphire blue eyes towards her and started to speak, “Don’t worry, Adelia”, said the Doll, “I’ll look after you. Your mother in heaven told me to”.

Adelia gasped in surprise, “You can talk?!”, she said.

“Oh, I can do a lot more than just talk”, replied the doll, getting to its feet and doing a cartwheel upon the bed.

Adelia smiled and, wiping away her tears, applauded the dolls acrobatics, “Very good”, she said.

“Whats even better is that you are smiling again”, said the doll, hugging Adelia, “It’s good to smile
even when you have good reasons for frowning”.

But, sadly, while Adelia’s mother was watching her daughter from Heaven, she wasn’t able to keep an eye upon her husband.

If she had she would have seen him fall under the spell of a pretty but cruel enchantress called Methyr.

Methyr was actually many hundreds of centuries old but kept herself looking young and beautiful by the daily drinking of a special magic potion, that contained gold, silver and precious jewels, from a magical hour glass. Making the potion every day was very expensive however and so she was desperate for money. That is why she used one of her hypnotic love spells to mesmerize Adelia’s father with the aim of stealing his throne, his crown jewels and all the money in his treasury.

Just as Adelia entered her fathers throne room smiling and was about to tell him the miraculous news about her doll coming to life, he stunned her into silence with his terrible news that he had secretly remarried.

The moment that the little doll in Adelia’s arms saw Methyr she guessed that she was some sort of evil sorceress and, whispering in Adelia’s ear, warned her, “Don’t tell her or your father about me. It must be our secret”.

“I promise”, said Adelia, whispering into the dolls porcelain ear.

Methyr was amused when she saw the princess talking to her doll although she never could have guessed that it was alive, “Isn’t that cute”, she said mockingly, “A little girl talking to her dolly”.

But then, just out of meanness, and with a large evil grin upon her face, Methyr snatched away the doll from Adelias hands and locked it inside a cupboard saying, “Your much too old to be playing with dolls, my dear”.

Crying, Adelia ran to her father to complain about what her evil stepmother had done.

But Adelia’s father was so deeply hypnotized that he just looked at her vacantly and, with a weak and wavering voice, said “Please learn to get along with Methyr, won’t you dear?”.

Defiantly, Adelia shook her head, “Never!”, she said, “I will never get along with that old witch!”.

Then she ran up to her bedroom sobbing but, happily, when she entered her room she saw her little doll sitting on the bed.

“How did you get out of that cupboard?”, she asked, hugging the doll.

“Oh, it was no trouble. I just shrank myself up very small and crawled out through the keyhole”, the doll replied, “As I told you. I can do lots of things but more important is what I did after I escaped from the cupboard. I followed your stepmother and I know for sure now that she is an evil sorceress with dark powers and vile intentions”.

Then the doll told Adelia how it had spied upon Methyr when the witch had thought no one could see her and watched her passing through her own shadow as if it were a doorway in her bedroom wall and, following her through the shadow, had seen a secret cave where she kept a pitch black cauldron and worked evil spells.

“Then I heard the horrid creature cackling to herself”, said the doll in disgust, “Plotting what she was going to do. She cannot become queen while you are alive and so she intends to have you killed but don’t worry, wherever you go, take me with you and I will protect you”.

The next day, a dwarf called Schnekel, a man called Gruber and a giant called Schwarz turned up at the palace to see Methyr. They were three of Methyr’s foulest henchmen and the evil witch intended for them to murder Adelia but she told Adelia,

“I want you to go and see your uncle, King Abrador who, I’m told, lives on the other side of the dark forest. Schneckel, Gruber and Schwartz will accompany you for protection. There are wild beasts in the forest, you see, and I wouldn't want you to be eaten by a bear or a wolf or a lion”.

Adelia didn’t like the look of Schneckel or Gruber or Schwartz because their faces were cruel and vicious and, at first, refused to go with them but then her doll reassured her,

“Don’t worry, Adelia. I will protect you from them and we should go to your Uncle for he is a powerful king and loved your mother very much. He will help us”.

And so, packing the doll into a small knapsack, Adelia went with the three men but, when they had gone a few miles into the forest, they turned to Adelia and said, “We are not going to take you to your uncle. The witch Methyr has paid us to kill you and bury you in these woods”.

As the men encircled Adelia with their daggers drawn she was frightened and thought that she was about to die but then, suddenly, the doll leapt out of her knapsack and started to grow and grow,
taller than a dwarf, taller than a man and even taller than a giant.

“You will not harm a hair upon Adelia’s head”, said the now gigantic doll, towering over them.

Terrified, Schneckel leapt into Gruber’s arms and Gruber leapt into Schwartz’s arms and Schwartz ran away carrying them both.