The Third Blessing

Once, a long time ago, a woman gave birth to three baby girls and, as they were lying in the cot, a fairy flew in through a window of their house to bless them with her wand but she only had 3 blessings to give and so decided to give one blessing to each of the girls.
 To the eldest girl called Sweena, she gave great intelligence; to the second eldest girl, called Gabria, she gave great wealth and to the youngest girl Rozabelle, because it was the only blessing she had left, she gave beauty.
And when the three girls became three young women; the sister who was blessed with wealth inherited a big fortune and she hired the eldest sister, because she was so clever, to manage her inheritence and her estate but both of them thought their youngest sister was quite useless.
"What good is she?", said the eldest girl, "She may be conventionally pretty but she can't do anything. If she stays with us she'll be living off us her entire life".
And so they threw Rozabelle out of their house to fend for herself and, not knowing where to go, she wandered into the deep, dark forest.
Fortunately, however, because she was blessed with beauty all the creatures of the forest came to see her and the little birds, picking berrys from trees and bushes brought them to her to eat and the bees brought her their honey so she did not starve and, when she was cold, all the furry woodland creatures gathered close to her keeping her warm with their soft fur so she didn't get cold.
While she was in the forest however, she got the feeling that something was watching her and, looking round, from behind a tree saw a large grey, wolf with bright, yellow eyes appear.
Frightened, she ran off through the forest and, when she did, the wolf chased after her.
But then, fortunately, Rozabelle came to the cottage of an old woman who welcomed her in and said she could stay with her.
"I'm so lonely living here by myself for I have no son or daughter", she said to Rozabelle, "It would be a pleasure having a nice, young girl like you for company".
During the night, however, as she was sleeping in the old womans spare room, she heard a wolf outside, howling at the moon.
"That wolf who chased me though the woods is still there", she thought, "Oh why won't it go away. It frightens me".
As she was thinking this, however, she heard the old woman go outside and shout at the wolf.
"Be off with you before I shoot you", she yelled.
She heard the wolf growl and bark and worried about what might happen to the old woman but then she heard a gunshot and, to her relief, the old woman came back into the house.
"You are very brave", she said to the old woman, "That wolf scares me".
"Well I scared him away", said the old woman, "So he won't bother you again".
But then the next day, while Rozabelle was outside, drawing water from the old woman's well, she saw the wolf again come out from where it had been hiding behind a tree.
It didn't do anything besides look at her, thankfully, but she was so afraid that she ran inside to tell the old woman.
When the old woman came out though, the wolf had gone away.
Then, when evening came, the old woman prepared a remarkable feast of the most sumptuous food and, eating Rozabelle couldn't remember when she had ate so well.
While she was eating, however, suddenly the girl started to feel very tired and, thanking the old woman for her hospitality and her wonderful food, said she had to go to bed early and, retiring to her bed, as soon as she lay down she fell fast aleep.
When Rozabelle woke up however, to her horror, she was not in bed anymore, but tied up in the womans kitchen and gagged and the old woman was stirring a pot and cackling evilly to herself.
The old woman, you see was really a very  evil witch who, seeing Rozabelles beauty had decided to put her own soul into Rozabelles body with a wicked spell.
"I am getting old and decrepit", said the witch, "But when I give you this potion, I will have your youth and your beauty aswell as my own power and cunning".
Terrified, Rozabelle didn't know what to do.
Fortunately, however, the witch had left the door of her house unlocked and, pressing open the door with its nose, the wolf who had so frightened Rozabelle before pushed his way inside and, while the witch was standing over her pot, the wolf leapt upon her back and pushed her, headfirst, into her boiling pot, killing her.
But then, turning away from the witch, the wolf came towards Rozabelle and she was certain that it was going to eat her.
But when it jumped up onto her, instead of eating her, the wolf merely licked her face and then it went round to the back of her chair to which she was bound and chewed through her ropes.
"Why you're not a bad wolf after all", she said, getting up from the chair and petting the wolf, looking into its deep yellow eyes and stroking its silver fur, "Infact, you are really a very beautiful creature. I'm sorry I was so afraid of you".
And bending down ,she kissed the wolf and when that happened, suddenly, to her amazement, she saw, instead of the wolf, a young man kneeling upon the floor.
The man said that he was called Elizander and that he was a prince regent; that it was the old woman who had turned him into a wolf but that he had watched her house and waited a long time for the chance to turn himself back into a human again.
"And then I saw you and knowing that a beautiful maidens kiss could break my curse. I was sure that you were the one; the one who fate had sent to save me", he said.

But then the Prince asked Rozabelle to come back and live with him in his palace and soon afterwards he fell in love with her and asked her to marry him.
"But why would you want to marry me", she said, "I am useless. Some people have the opinion that I am beautiful but what good is that".
"Well what good is a flower or a sunset", said the Prince, shocked, "And it may be only an opinion that they are beautiful at all but to some they add brightness to the world".
"But my sister, Sweena, who is very smart", said Rozabelle, "Told me that only shallow people care about outer beauty and that when I get old my beauty will fade and I shall have nothing".
"Well it may be shallow to think anything beautiful but if beauty is so unimportant why does it even exist? Why is a butterfly beautiful or a rose or the evening sky? And all these things too must fade; a rose blooms for only a season and then it withers but that is why it is considered all the more precious", said the Prince.
"You make beauty sound like something profound", said Rozabelle.
"Well, I think it is", said the Prince, "Except to those who are too shallow to give it any thought. Surely every gift that nature gives us is to be appreciated and one day, Rozabelle, we will both be corpses rotting in the grave; an ugly thing but it is true. Should I not cherish your beauty as much as any flower; should I not admire the flame of your red hair while it still burns; these things are life and when we cherish them it is only life that we are cherishing".
"But will you still love me when my beauty fades?", asked Rozabelle.
The prince laid his hand upon her cheek.
"This is the Summer of you and when it fades, I shall see your Autumn and when that fades I will have your winter and each Season will have its own beauty as every season does; I will see and discover a new part of you but I will not despise the Summer because it is beautiful; it is joyful and to enjoy the beauty of the Summer is to be alive", said the Prince.
This satisfied Rozabelle and so she agreed to marry the prince.
And just as he had promised her, his love for her never diminished nor hers for him; infact it was made even stronger by the young lives they had spent together and the beautiful memories they shared and so you could say they lived happily ever after.