The Curse

There once was a princess, called Tabatha who lived in a beautiful castle in the North of Fairy Kingdom. She had everything, she could ever wish for, except a sister. So, her mother decided to give birth to another child in order for Tabatha to always have a friend in life. Her mother had trouble falling pregnant, so she went to the old witch doctor in the south side of town and asked for a tonic to help her conceive a child. The old witch doctor, said I need something in return for creating life, for life comes with a high cost. You have to promise to give me your eldest daughter’s hand in marriage.

The Queen was astounded. She felt like the witch doctor was asking too much. So, she responded, “will you not do it for free after everything we do for this kingdom?”

“No. A debt of life is a debt of life.”

So, the queen went home unhappy. She told her husband what the witch doctor had said, and the King got very upset. He felt infuriated at the witch doctor’s audacity. So, he threatened the witch doctor and said, “You must give us the impregnating tonic or else we will put you to death.”

The witch doctor cringed in fear, looking at the king with hatred and said, “Whatever you want my king. Let me prepare the tonic for you.”

The witch doctor started mixing the herbs and as he was doing so, saw some troll blood on his shelf and so he decided to mix it in with the tonic when the king was looking out the window. After mixing the tainted tonic, the witch doctor gave it to the King and the King left.

The King went back to his wife and gave it to her. She drank it that night and within a month she was pregnant. Throughout the pregnancy, the Queen’s abdomen hurt greatly, and she felt relieved when nine months had passed because she knew the curse of pregnancy would be over.

As she pushed and pushed out came a child with green skin and red eyes, like the hated troll breed of the west. She had human features and wailed like any other child. Her hair was dark green. The Queen fainted when she saw the child and the wet nurse washed and fed the child while the Queen lay unconscious.

The King looked at the child and asked, “How could I be the father of this monster?” Then he walked out of the room. Eventually the Queen awoke and forced herself to hold the child. Tabatha came to meet her new sister and felt nothing but kindness and love, for the education of hatred for the trolls had not taken route in her, because of her young years. So, she held the baby and kissed its forehead, and said, “her name should be Gloria, for she is glorious like the forests and the grass.”

“She is not human.” Said the Queen.

“She is. She is my sister and if you love me, you will love her.” The baby then grabbed Tabatha’s finger and smiled.

As the child grew up, the Queen forced herself to accept the tragedy that was her daughter. Tabatha would play with Gloria, but whenever they would walk through town, the people would jeer at Gloria, and Gloria developed an incredible sense of shame.

As Gloria would look in the mirror she would wonder how come she looked different from her family. In school she learned about the troll race and realized she was green like them. She learned that the troll race had been subjugated and ostracized to the remote West, where they lived in swamps. Gloria felt angry as she heard this, for she felt a community with them, because of the way people treated her and her appearance. So, she decided to travel to the West to troll land, to find out about the mythical troll people.

When she got there the troll people bowed before her and hailed her as their queen. She never felt such profound love, and so she decided to stay there and represent them in the royal courts, to try and get them better lands. As Gloria discovered the injustice of how they were treated, of how their lands had been stolen, she developed a resentment of the royal family and the humans. She even resented her sister for belonging to the human race.

The Queen, Tabatha and Gloria’s mother, decided to disown Gloria because she had assimilated with the trolls. She argued the trolls were sub-human and had disgusting habits, and that if her daughter was part troll, she wanted nothing to do with her. She also forbade Tabatha from seeing Gloria again. Gloria felt devastated over being ostracized in such a manner. Tabatha felt heart broken over losing a sister. For she had always loved Gloria.

The years went by, and Gloria got tired of her life with the trolls. Her human side craved the castle of the human royals. So, she became angrier and angrier; so furious that she decided to change her color to pinkish white like her sister’s. She approached the witch doctor and asked for a tonic. The witch doctor gave her one, and Gloria became human looking. She returned to the Northern castle of Fairy Kingdom and told her sister that she transformed herself. Her sister welcomed her, but the King and Queen did not, claiming that she lowered herself too much by interacting with the trolls. Gloria fell into tears feeling more humiliated than ever, and she swore to take revenge. So, she decided to approach the witch doctor and asked him to teach her the art of witchcraft.

He taught her many potions and spells, and she learned about a spell to create a parallel universe. Tabatha and her parents would feel the lowliness that their immorality had created. So, Gloria went to her cauldron and put in eels, black venom from a rattle snake, and ivy, to create a parallel universe of pain for the royal family.

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The next day, Tabatha woke up in a parallel universe, feeling the hunger in her stomach surrounded by grey decaying walls and wearing rags instead of a silk nightgown. As her bare feet hit the mud floor, she could not remember what happened the previous day nor the previous years. She went to the next room and her parents were sleeping in a single cot mattress that was just as horrible. They were also in old rags. They woke up and ate a meal of corn cooked in water. They did not even have sugar or coffee, for those were luxuries. They no longer lived in the castle, instead they lived in a little shack on the outskirts of town.

Meanwhile Gloria was thinking of her sister and then she remembered all the good times they had as children and thought “poor Tabatha. Living in squalor. Maybe I should give her a chance to save herself. Maybe I should create a cursed Prince for her? But what prince would want a dirt-poor girl. Maybe an enchanted prince. Maybe I should create a place called Closet Land, where a magical prince resides. Maybe I will make one of the trolls that live here a prince.” So, Gloria put a spell on one of the trolls and turned him in to a handsome tall human prince, and then taught him the manners of the royals.

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One day as Tabatha was looking in her closet, she looked and saw gold dust on the bottom of her closet floor, which she had never noticed before. So, she got on her hands and knees to investigate the source. When she got down on her hands and knees, she noticed that the gold dust came from under the wall of the back of the closet. So, she pushed the wall with her left hand and then a portal swung open. She crawled in and saw a ball room of green and gold trees, with diamonds on the floor, and at the far end sat a prince on a throne. Tabatha felt ashamed as she thought about him and as she looked down on herself, she saw she was wearing a velvet green dress, with diamonds sewn in the hem instead of raggedy clothing. She walked towards the throne, and bowed, saying, “where am I? Am I in a dream kingdom?”

“You are in the Kingdom of the Trolls. A cursed kingdom.”

“I am sorry. I feel cursed every day, but seeing you is a blessing.”

Then a troll with a violin appeared and the prince asked Tabatha to dance. They danced all night, under the moonlight in the enchanted kingdom of the trolls. At the end they kissed, and the prince asked, “if you could have any wish what would it be?”

“It would be for my sister to have been happy, and to have been treated as my equal.”

At that point the curse disappeared, and Tabatha became the royal princess again, and the prince said, “I am an enchanted troll, but I will take this shape forever for you.”

After that, the kingdoms joined and trolls stopped being outcasts, and Gloria and Tabatha were best friends again and they stayed so for life.

Inspired by my favorite fairy tale, called “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.”