Ever After by Anya Wylde Page A

and was lost forever.
    The queen
wilted and threatened to go live with her mother forever.
    The king had no
choice. He had to turn to his last resort. Hence, on a dark
moonless night he crept out of his castle and trekked up the
mountain.
    He paused under
an old gnarled tree and started digging the snow covered earth. He
dug and he dug and he dug until his cold, blistered hands touched
something hard. His fingers now worked more frantically. Finally,
huffing and puffing he dragged an old turtle out into the open.
    This particular
turtle was a royal secret. It was their powerful spiritual advisor,
who was rumoured to be as old as the earth. Looking at it now, the
king wondered if it was finally dead. Worried, he knocked on the
shell.
    A disgruntled
head appeared out of the shell and dry, cracked lips spat out a
mouthful of snow. "What do you want?" it growled.
    "A child," the
king replied promptly.
    The wise
turtled squinted its eyes and peered at the king. "It is simple,"
it said. "Stand on one leg and pray to the goddess of
fertility.”
    The king
returned back to the castle. By now he was too tired to stand on
two legs, forget praying on one. He, therefore, requested his
footman to do it in his stead. His wife joined the footmen, and the
two stood on one leg and began praying for a babe.
     Many suns
rose, many moons set, and the earth circled the sun four times
before the discordant voices of the footman and the queen reached
the Goddess. It was yet another rotation before the Goddess became
annoyed enough to grant them what they desired.
    The people of
the kingdom rejoiced.
    The queen took
up knitting.
    The king became
fat.
    The footman was
promoted to the post of sergeant major.
    And with a
shout from the queen, a hoot from the major, a joyous giggle from
the good king … the long awaited princess finally arrived.
    ***
    After all the
ups and downs and downs and ups, the king was understandably
protective about his daughter. He took one look at her flushed,
wrinkled face, declared her too precious for the world and locked
her away in the prettiest tower in the kingdom.
    The princess
grew up quickly as children often do. In a blink of an eye, the
baby princess started crawling. Another blink and she was walking,
and a third blink had her running from room to room.
    One day the
queen sat watching her young daughter playing with gold and ruby
trinkets. All of a sudden, the princess let out a shout as a pearl
slipped out of her tiny hands and hit the window with a soft crack.
The young princess jumped up and raced to the window.
    The queen's
mood turned maudlin as she watched her daughter hunt for the
elusive jewel. She wondered what the princess would do when she
became tired of the beauty of the tower and all the wonders it
beheld.
    A majestic
eagle whizzed by the window just then. Distracted, the princess
forgot about the pearl and instead began watching the eagle beating
its strong brown wings as it glided and dipped and flirted with the
clouds. She tapped the glass in joy.
    The queen's
face turned grey as an odd fearful thought nestled in her breast.
She wondered if her little princess would one day weary of her
gilded cage. What then? Would her beloved daughter turn to the
window and leap from it in an attempt to join the soaring
eagles?
    Days went by
and the princess continued to grow and so did the worrisome fear in
the queen's heart. At last the queen could bear it no longer. She
turned to her own wise council and unburdened her heart. The
queen's council consisted of twelve grasshoppers who lived in the
garden. They respectfully took off their flowery bonnets and heard
the queen out.
    "I worry and
worry and worry," the queen cried, "that one day my daughter will
jump from the tower and die."
    The
grasshoppers rubbed their green hands and feet together and
chittered amongst themselves. The grasshoppers were female; hence,
a solution was found quickly enough.
    "Wrap her in
cotton wool," they announced, "and pad her up