The Polecat Princess

There was a nation at a particular time in a particular place, unknown to most, which had a famously wise king. He was known for his careful, strategic way which won him many wars with hostile others; the people of the country loved and served him for many years, all in love with his genuine charisma and strength.

After so long passed, he grew old, and the people who so much held him in high esteem were shaken when illness caught their elderly beloved king.

The three sons of the king, Charles, Andrei, and Denis, focused their efforts on finding a way to heal their father. They spoke to doctors and priests and self-proclaimed medicine-men hermits... Eventually they agreed they must find an old friend of their father's who soon he mentioned. Some years were between their last encounter, albeit the king, in his despersate state, told his sons his old friend may be able to assist. When asking their weak father where to find this man, he stammered about an approximate location, but mostly of the pearls this man apparently always wore.

Finally, they found the odd and old man.

"So, it is the great king who is in need of great care. What I can tell you, young boys, is there is someone who can help you, besdides me divulging to you this. Out of the city, past the borders of the villagers quite deep in the woods, there is a grand house in which a very pretty but harsh women lives. She is capable of helping you. If you find her and explain to her your troubles, I believe she will be able to help. However, it is said that the ones who approach her who do not dulcify her heart are cursed, and, not aided. Some even say the creatures of the woodlands are all the men who have tried to seduce her throughout the years."

"I'll take it upon myself to be the one who goes: I am the eldest," said Charles. He was the eldest, the tallest, the strongest of the three.

Charles went back to his castle to dress finely and organise some gold and some jewels to offer the woman when he found her. On his way through the forrest a skunk appeared from the shurbbery, giving him an inqusitive look.

"Get out of here, you stinking thing!" Charles threw a stone to scare the animal away; such resulted in a spray of its deterent covering his clothes.

"You stupid creature! How can I ever woo the woman in the woods like this? This ridiculously foul stench!

Charles retuned, vexed about the smell of his garments. Complaining, urgent to change his clothes, his two brothers stopped him.

"What happened? You smell awful."

"Yes! I know! A skunk in the woods sprayed its odour all over me. I have to wash. It looks like you will be the one who saves father, Andrei. Denis, I don't think you've got the courage. Why don't you continue with your gardening?... God, I must clean this these clothes; or dispose of them altogether!

If you see the skunk - or any! - make sure you hit it when you launch something at it! Hit it in the skull!"

Denis, the youngest, was overtly slender and rather keen to avoid conflict. He waited at the castle whilst his other older brother went off to find the mysterious lady. To sweeten her, Andrei had dressed finely, and had with him a vast assortment of luxurious confectionary to give the woman. He believed it was not jewellery but delicious chocolate and exotic candy that was the means to flatter even a callous women, for a woman can be wooed quite well with good flavour.

Just as before, but at a different point in the forrest, the skunk appeared. When Andrei noticed it, he immediately grew offensive, sparking conflict.

"Come hither, you dirty little thing!" He chased it for some moments until falling to the ground. A large out-of-place house was now in site, a heavy aura was in the air, when a numinous women came out of the front door, and with almost intimidating panache, drew closer to Andrei.

"I was thinking for a second you were here to make your attempts to seduce me, but I can now see you're a dirtied fool chasing a skunk: what makes you a man?"

Before Andrei had chance to babel about his riches at home and all the rest, the women of the woods had spoken a spell, turning him into a polecat. He scurried off, whereas the women walked back, with the same strange grace, back into the house from which she emerged.

Back at the castle, Denis wondered where Andrei was. He told his older brother that he still had not returned.

"Then you go and look for him! I cannot waste anymore time in the woods wandering aimlessly, I must stay here with father. Take this stone especially and give it to the woman, should you even find her. It is a rare blend of gold encrusted with a bright stone by the best jeweller of the city. She would be thrilled with it. Now, Go!"

Denis went out into the woods as instructed, carrying the amulet his brother had given him. He wandered a little despondent, half-aimlessly, admiring the trees and the few flowers too that were growing around. He picked one that caught his eye, and carried it with him as he continued to plod through the woods. All of a sudden, the same skunk appeared in front of him.

"Hello, there. I know you. I've heard a lot about you, my brothers aren't too happy with you."

"They were unhappy with me before they had seen me, and they are too shaken by my emergence. I can smell you are open."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes. The sensuous lady you are seeking, she has turned your brother into an animal of the forrest. If you wish to approach her, firstly, drop all of the jewel that you are holding. I will dig a hole for you to put it inside. Keep the flower you have."

"All right, so, what should I do? I had no time to dress up smartly or prepare any gift? My oldest brother rushed me out to find you."

"You are holding the gift; it is her favourite flower. Walk that way to her house, do not be hasty nor dilatory. Now, go and you needn't look back!"

Denis took a promenade in the instructed direction, still holding the flower with care. Then he saw the house. The front door began to open, and emerging once more was the sublime woman. Denis walked towards her with an curious heart, expecting nothing at all specifically, maybe something epic or ethereal, yet nervousness was in him.

"So you are the man who can sweeten my heart. Tell me, how was it you knew this to be my favourite flower?"

"I love flowers."

The lady screwed her face with a dose of curiosity; then came a rush of calmness, a breeze of ease.

"Come inside, please, and tell me what you want, anything. If I can help you, you can be sure I will." She took the flower from the hand of Denis.

"My father is sick and we have tried every doctor possible. I come asking for your aid. Can you make him well again?"

"I can give you this."

"What is it? A Pearl?"

"Yes. You must get your father to swallow this pearl and it shall aid you with your challenges."

"I can do that. And what of my brother?"

"He, along with a few others, will return to their original form when your father has swallowed the pearl."

After placing the flower from Denis is a small vase, the lady told him it was time he should leave. Her figure almost glew with a platinum aura. She gave him a small copper broach which had a tiny enamel bird in the centre. Pinning it to his cardigan, she set him on his way, kissing his cheek.

Denis went back to the castle with the pearl in his hand. As he was panting and jogging, nearing closer, a skunk scurried past, but was uninterested in him like the last one; it skulked, it did not stop, so Denis went on.

"Father! I've done it! I met the lady in the woods and found you a cure!"

Charles looked astonished that his younger brother could have succeeded such a task.

"Where is Andrei?" asked Charles.

"On his way back, don't worry."

With the help of his sons, the king did swallow the pearl. The two brothers then waited for a reaction.

All that then ensued: the king stopped breathing.

"That poisonous wretch!" screamed Charles. "She's killed our father! The dearest king of all! And you," he snapped, grabbing his younger brother with a frightful force, "you are the one to blame. You listened to the witch in disguise as a beautiful woman: that's what she is! I'll slay her!"

Charles left in rage to find the woman of the woods. When he left the confines of the castle he bumped into Andrei.

"Brother! Do you have any idea of the grievous news?!"

"Yes, indeed I do! I was turned into a forrest-cat by that horrendous woman."

"She has killed our father, brother!"

"What?!"

"Little Denis aquired a pearl from her, she told him it would help him if we got father to swallow it!"

"Something lifted my curse... Let's find Denis and find out how he wooed that witch, perhaps he's even a part of this whole thing."

"We need to think carefully if we are going to avenge our father rightly and kill her. She is powerful: we need a plan."

Whilst these two brother's we're making their plan, Denis, crying by his father's corpse, cursing himself, suddlely heard an intrusion. A girl dressed in black and white, though not a maid, had entered the chamber. In her hands was the buried amulet from the forrest.

"Young, sir, it is me, I am a magical princess you saw as a polecat just now by the castle. I was cursed by that lady. Your brother's are now plotting to destroy her but they should meet a terrible fate, I predict. Either way, you did what the lady asked and freed me."

"I killed my father because of that pearl!"

"No, sickness killed your father, she relieved his suffering, and you freed me! That woman is potent but does not lie, and I now will help you again. Your brothers want to know how you gained her trust. Do not tell them about the flower. It is your choice, but your kindness to me convinces me to reciprocate it. Take them to her home, and let fate decide."

At the moment the princess left, the brothers, fuelled by their schemes, soon interrogated Denis about how to earn her trust.

"I will take you there and show you." he replied.

Denis walked with an instinctual precision to the home of the sublime lady.

"Here she lives."

When Denis turned to look at his brothers, he saw two boars. Moments later, out came the woman of the woods.

"Go back to your princess. Go back to your home. You will forget this road, then remember it again."

Denis wandered back again through the forrest to his kingdom. Waiting at the gates was the princess formally a skunk.

As the glowing sun make his broach sparkle, they embraced each other, and kissed.

"We will rule over this kingdom together."