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

“Oh thank goodness”, said Adelia, “I was really afraid that those men would kill me”.

“Don’t worry”, said the Giant doll, lifting Adelia up gently and cradling her in its enormous arms, “No one will ever hurt you. Not while I am here to protect you. But we must keep going for, once the evil witch discovers what’s happened she will send other dangers after us . We must reach your Uncles kingdom on the other side of the forest”.

And so, the doll carried Adelia through the woods but, far away, in her secret cave of dark magic,
the witch Methyr was watching them through the waters of her magic cauldron.

“I should have smashed that doll when I had it in my hands”, said Methyr angrily, “But never mind, I’ll get it and that troublesome brat Adelia yet”.

And, saying this, Methyr cracked open a crows egg upon the rim of her magic cauldron and, out of the egg, flew four giant, jet black crows.

“Go murder of murderous crows”, she commanded as they circled round her, “Fly to the dark forest and kill Adelia”.

Then, out of the mouth of the magical cave the four giant birds flew, soaring and swooping and, before long, they were over the dark forest and both Adelia and the giant doll could hear the loud flapping of their wings and their deafening caws.

“What are those?”, asked Adelia trembling with terror as she saw the giant crows circling above.

“More of Methyr’s evil magic, I think”, replied the doll also looking up at the crows, “If I only had something to swing at them then I could knock them out of the sky”.

But, looking around her, the doll could not think what to use until, that was, she saw the golden pendant which hung around Adelia’s neck.

“May I borrow your pendant, Princess?”, she asked.

Adelia was more than happy to give her pendant to the doll and, taking it from round her neck, hung it upon one of the dolls large porcelain fingers, though she hadn’t a clue what good it would do against a flock of giant black crows.

But then the doll made the pendant grow within its hand until the heart shaped jewel which hung from it was as large as a comet and its golden chain as large as a comet’s tail.

Then, as the giant crows swooped down like black bolts of evil lightning and tried to peck at Adelia or snatch her up in their sharp claws, the doll swung the giant pendant at them, striking each of their heads with its giant heart shaped jewel and knocking them out of the air.

Soon the crows lay dead in a black, feathery heap at the dolls giant porcelain feet.

“Thank goodness”, exclaimed Adelia, looking down at the dead crows, “I was afraid that this time Methyr would succeed”.

“The evil witch will never succeed”, replied the doll, lifting up Adelia again and carrying her further through the forest, “Not while I am here to protect you”.

And, before long, both the giant doll and Adelia could see the Kingdom of Adelia’s uncle up ahead but, between them and it, there was a raging river and so, hitching up her enormous skirt so as not to get it wet, the doll started to wade across the river carrying Adelia in her arms.

But, far away, in her dark magic cavern, the evil witch Methyr, who had seen the doll kill her flock of giant crows now sent a giant river eel to smash the doll and devour Adelia.

“Go, slippery giant serpent of the water”, she said as the eel slithered up from her cauldron and out of the mouth of her cave, “Bite Adelia with those terrible fangs of yours and kill her”.

When Adelia saw the giant eel swimming down the river towards them she was terrified because the creature looked so horrible with its enormous sharp curved teeth and its long, slithering silver body, “What will we do? Oh, what?!”, she asked.

“If only we had a net to catch the creature in”, said the doll, looking around her.

But then, remembering how the doll had made her pendant grow large, Adelia took off one of her silk stockings, “Can you turn this into a fishing net for a giant eel?”, she asked, handing the stocking to the doll.

“I can but try”, said the Doll using her power to make the stocking grow and grow until it was even longer than a giant eel.

And then, though the eel was very slippery and hard to grasp hold of, especially with the dolls smooth porcelain hands, the doll managed to seize it by the throat as it swam towards them and
stuffed its snapping head into the vast silk stocking.

And, when the eel was entirely caught within the stocking, the doll tied up the end of it so that the eel could not wriggle free, then picking up a river boulder as if it were nothing more than a pebble, the giant doll raised her hand and struck the eels head, knocking it unconscious so that its wildly wriggling body lay flat and limp.

“Thank goodness”, said Adelia, “I was afraid that the giant eel would eat us up”.

“No one will ever harm you, princess”, said the doll, continuing to carry Adelia across the river, “Not while I am here to protect you”.

Then, once they were standing upon the opposite bank of the river, the doll carried Adelia all the way to the great castle of her uncle, King Abrador and, bowing before the king, the doll said, “This is your niece, the princess Adelia who seeks refuge from the evil witch who has stolen your sisters throne”.

King Abrador was more than happy to help his sisters daughter because he had loved his sister very much and then he presented his son, the handsome prince Nathor to Adelia and Nathor knelt before the princess and kissed her hand for, the moment that he’d seen her he’d fallen very much in love with her.

And, looking down from heaven, Adelia’s mother saw the prince and thought, “He is a good man and he would make a good protector for my daughter”.

But, far away, in her dark cave of evil magic, however, the witch Methyr also saw Adelia and Prince Nathor.

“Yuk!”, she said, spitting upon the images in her cauldron, “There is nothing I hate more than love. I’ll eat up that hand-kissing prince too, once I’ve disposed of the wretched Adelia and her magic doll”.

Then, leaping into her own cauldron with a large splash and sinking below its bubbling surface she reemmerged, not as a beautiful enchantress anymore but as a towering dragon with scales of ebony, blood red fiery breath, sharp claws of solid bronze and a giant blacksmiths hammer upon the end of its long spiky tail.

Then, crawling from the mouth of the witches cave, it spread its vast bat like wings wide and hurled itself up into the grey stormy skies roaring the name “Adelia”.

The castle of King Abrador was a well fortified one with high stone walls and steel gates but even those were no great obstacle to a beast as formidable and ferocious as the dragon which Methyr had become.

With her fiery breath she bombarded the steel gates until they were white hot then continued
until they were melted away altogether and, with the hammer upon her scaly tail, she smashed large holes in the high stone walls and all those guards who were standing upon the battlements were knocked off of their feet by the tremors of those mighty hammer blows.

Emmerging into the castle courtyard, the king, prince Nathor, the Princess and the doll
all saw the dragon and Adelia, trembling, felt sure that, this time, they were defeated.

But Prince Nathor, noticing the distress in Adelia’s eyes, placed himself infront of her to protect her, “I would never allow anything to harm you”, he said.

The King was not so confident however, “How are we to fight such a devastating creature; one that seems to eat stone walls and steel gates for breakfast”.

But then the giant doll, shrinking back to her normal size, said to Prince Nathor, “Let me sit behind you on your horse and I will give you the power to vanquish that monster”.

The Prince was dubious at first about how powerful a child’s doll could be but the princess assured him that it was as powerful as any titan and so Prince Nathor mounted his dappled, grey and white stallion and Adelia, lifting up the doll, sat it behind him.

Then the doll clung tightly with its porcelain arms to his waist and the moment that it touched him his horse reared up upon its hind legs and leapt high into the air and, to Prince Nathor’s amazement, they were soon flying, with enormous speed, across the sky towards the dragon.

When Methyr, the dragon saw Prince Nathor approach on his flying stallion she regarded it as little more than an annoying insect and, opening her scaly jaws wide, breathed out a long searing stream of red flame towards him.

But then Prince Nathor raised up his shield and, as he did so, the doll hugged him tightly and, just by touching the prince, made the shield resistant to the evil dragon’s fire.

Seeing that its fiery breath had failed to incinerate Prince Nathor and that his flying horse was still charging forward over a battlefield of cloud, the dragon now swung its enormous hammer headed tail towards Prince Nathor but the doll yet again hugged the Prince tightly and steered his horse clear of the swinging tail.

Then it was brave Prince Nathor’s turn to strike a blow, though his spear looked as miniscule as a wooden splinter beside the towering dragon and the dragon, seeing the tiny spear hurled towards it, merely roared out flaming laughter but, once more, the doll hugged Prince Nathor tightly and this time it made the spear that Prince Nathor had thrown enormous so that, rather than just shattering into pieces against the dragons thick armour plated chest as a normal spear would have done, the gigantic spear ran straight through the dragons wicked heart.

Horrified and screaming in anguish; Methyr, the dragon tried to pull the giant spear from her chest but it was of no use; her life and all her power were ebbing away too swiftly and then, stumbling and swaying back and forward, the dragon crashed upon its scaly back, shaking the earth as its gigantic body struck the ground.

“The dragon is dead! Prince Nathor has slain it!”, cried Princess Adelia happily when she saw the terrible dragon fall and then the valiant Prince Nathor guided his flying horse back towards the ground and all within the castle courtyard cheered.

And, perhaps it was the magic of heaven also, guided by Adelia’s mother, but suddenly, when Adelia looked at the brave handsome prince who had fought and risked his life to protect her, her heart was filled with a sudden, deep and overwhelming love and, as the Prince dismounted his horse, Adelia ran to embrace him.

“I was so afraid for you, that that terrible dragon might devour you”, she said to him, gazing into his eyes and noticing that they were the same blue as a clear sky.

“It couldn’t ever have happened”, said the Prince, returning her longing gaze, “Because I am truly in love with you”.

“True love”, observed the doll as she watched the couple then kiss, “Has conquered all”.