Harken, readers dearest! Today I have the pleasure of posting for the Teens Can Write, Too! August blog chain. This month's topic is:
Write a retelling of your favorite fairy tale, myth or legend.
I have chosen to rewrite The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Here's my story (and before you ask, "mesonoxian" means "of, or pertaining to midnight"):
The Twelve Dragon Riding Princesses
By Lily Jenness
You may have heard the story of the twelve dancing
princesses. A tale of twelve frivolous
young ladies who dance every night on a special island for no apparent
reason. That story is not true. That is what they told their father, the king.
The real story is as follows.
There was evidence in the form of worn out boots that the
twelve princesses of Spryll went on mysterious mesonoxian missions. This dismayed the king greatly, for every
night he had the door to the princesses’ room secured with more locks than he
could count.
Anxious to know what his daughters were up to, the king
offered his kingdom and one of the princesses to any man who could discover
their secret. However, if the man did not discover the secret before three days
had gone by, he would be put to death.
Many princes, knights, and even a private detective tried
and failed to discover the princesses’ secret.
It happened one day that a soldier recently returned from
war, heard about the king’s offer, and, having nowhere to go and having nothing
to do, decided to try his luck at uncovering the princesses’ secret. He spoke of his plans to an old woman he had
met on the road, and she gave him a cloak that when worn, would render the
wearer invisible. Along with this material gift, she gave an intellectual one
in the form of advice: “Do not eat or drink anything the princesses give you”.
The soldier presented himself before the king, and was
installed in a room next to that of the princesses. As the time for sleep approached, the eldest
princess came to the soldier and offered him a glass of wine. He thanked her, and while she was not
looking, tossed the wine out the window. He bid the princess goodnight, then he faked
sleep, snoring loudly. Three of the
princesses peeked in his room, and were satisfied that he was soundly asleep. As soon as they were gone, the soldier donned
his invisibility cloak, and snuck in their room as their door was closing. To
his surprise, the princesses were dresses for battle. As he watched, the eldest opened up a secret
passageway in the floor. He followed them down, and bumped into the youngest
princess’s sword. She gave a shriek that
something was amiss, but her sisters disregarded it as her imagination.
The passageway ended and opened up to a forest made of trees
with golden leaves. The soldier snapped
a twig off one of the trees as proof he had been there. The youngest princess again gave a shriek,
but again her sisters ignored her. The
golden trees gave way to silver trees, and then silver gave way to
diamond. The soldier snapped a branch
off of each, and each time the youngest princess shrieked her uneasiness.
The diamond leafed trees opened up to a cliff overlooking
the sea. On the edge of the cliff stood
twelve majestic dragons, each having been saddled for battle. By each dragon stood an armored man, holding
the reigns. These armored men helped
each of the princesses onto a dragon, and then climbed on behind them. As the soldier watched them fly away, he
began to plot how he would follow them to their mysterious destination. He went back to the palace, and faked sleep
again when he heard the princesses return.
The next night, he followed the princesses again to the cliff, and he
planned to sneak a ride on one of the dragons.
Unfortunately, a gust of wind blew his invisibility cloak off, and the
youngest princess saw him. The soldier
felt a blow to the back of his head, and the world went dark.
He awoke in his room with twelve pairs of worried eyes
staring at him.
“What should we do with him?” asked one of the princesses, “He
cannot live and carry our secret. But if he disappears or is found dead, Father
will be suspicious.”
Then the soldier offered to go to battle with them the next
night, and he promised that he would not tell their father what he had
seen. The princesses agreed to his
proposal, and the next night he flew with them to an island in the middle of
the sea. The island was lit with small
fires, and in their glow, the soldier could see a writhing mass circling the
island. A sea monster. The men with the princesses dismounted on the
island to fight on the ground, and the princesses took off on their dragons to
fight the monster from the air.
At one point, the soldier lost his sword. Then he saw a possibility,
and he took it. He acted as a decoy to
draw the head of the monster to the center of the island. As the monster got
ready to strike, the twelve princesses converged upon it, and killed it. The monster fell with a crash, and the body
slipped into the sea. The princesses rejoiced,
for now that their opponent was dead, they no longer needed to sneak out at
night.
The next morning, the soldier was brought before the
king. The king demanded to know if the
soldier knew the secret of the worn out boots.
Not wishing to die, the soldier said “yes.” And he lied. He told the king that the princesses snuck
out each night to dance in a meadow surrounded by gold, silver, and diamond
leafed trees, and he gave the king the branches he had collected on the first
night. He told the king that the
princesses wore their boots because they lasted longer against the sharp
leaves. The king sent for the
princesses, and asked them if the soldier’s story was true. They said yes. The king was overjoyed to know
his daughters’ secret at last, and promised to hold them as many balls as they
wanted, as long as there were no more midnight adventures. The princesses agreed. The soldier was then
told to pick a princess for his wife. He
chose the eldest, for she was the closest to his age, and he admired her battle
prowess.
The dancing version of the story was passed on around the
kingdom and down through the years, until two brothers named Grimm heard it,
and published it in a book of fairy tales.
The awesomeness doesn't stop here! Be sure to check out the rest of the blog chain:
Want to follow our blog chain? Here are the participating parties, day by day:
