Once upon a time

There were seven kingdoms

Founded by seven sisters

And blessed by an immortal witch

The stories of these kingdoms

You may find familiar

But know that all is not as it was told

 

In the first kingdom

There was a princess in a tower

And a dragon who loved her very dearly

For when the sun set

She became a dragonish monster

But to her dragon

The dragonish princess was a great beauty

Now a prince came along

And mortally wounded the dragon

And took the princess away

And promised to marry her

But the princess mourned

For she loved the dragon

But a wizard healed the dragon

And made him into a dragonish prince

He rescued his true love

And the dragonish prince and princess lived happily ever after

 

In the second kingdom

There was a prince

He explored a great forest

And found a great tower

And saw a great beauty

Singing at the top of the tower

When he was about to call up

To the long haired beauty

He was stopped by an old witch

Who told him to leave

When the prince saw the witch again

She was young and beautiful

She told him about the long haired beauty

The prince listened

As he was told the story

Of the youth-stealing demon

Who had been feasting on the immortal witch

For the past two hundred years

The prince was now in love with the witch

He went off and found the wizard

The wizard gave him a thorn from a rose bush

That if the demon was pricked by the thorn

She would lose the many years that she stole from the witch

The prince went and charmed the demon

And when he became close to her

He pricked her and killed her

And in the moment

All the years she had ever stolen

Flowed into the prince

And he became immortal

And with the immortal witch

They lived happily ever after

 

In the third kingdom

There lived a beautiful queen

Who was mourning the loss of her beloved husband

Now with a kingdom and a daughter and a step-daughter

The queen ruled the kingdom wisely

And loved her step-daughter just as much as she loved her daughter

But the step-daughter was bitter

She ran away and found a cottage where seven miners lived

The step-daughter poisoned the seven miners

And would only give the antidote

If they promised to help her kill her step-mother

Now the queen was very worried about her step-daughter

And arranged for hunters and trackers to find her

And bring the young princess home safely

One of the trackers found the princess plotting

And swiftly returned to the queen to tell her of the princess' betrayal

The queen mourned and called off the search

And sent all the hunters and trackers home

All except one, the tracker who had found the princess

One dark and silent night

The princess led the miners into the castle

And poisoned the queen

While they escaped, the youngest of the miners was killed

The miners turned against the princess

And the traitorous princess was killed by the tracker

The tracker had fallen in love with queen

And was desperate to stop the poison from killing her

The tracker went to the wizard

And the wizard told the prince

That his love would have the power to heal the queen

So the tracker returned to the queen

And kissed her as she died

She was healed and married the tracker

And they lived happily ever after

 

In the fourth and fifth kingdoms

There lived two eternal kings

A pair of twins

Who were given eternal life

The first king was given eternal life

While he was still a child

And so the first king was an eternal boy

The second king was given eternal life

Many years after his brother

And so the second king was an eternal young man

The second king was far more mature and wise than his brother

Now if you'll recall the previous story

The seven miners lost one of their own

And so they adopted a young orphan

The orphan was a boyish looking girl

Who happily joined the miners and learned their ways

Soon after she joined them

The boy king passed by the cottage

While returning from a royal visit to the beautiful queen

He saw the young orphan girl

And asked her to join him

The miners let her go

As long as the king would send them another orphan soon

The boy king made a promise

And took the orphan with him

He and the girl were quite enchanted with each other

They played with each other

And loved each other as only children can

But soon the girl became a woman

And though she still played with the boy king

She began to fall in love with his brother

The eternal king returned her love

As he was a man and understood

That the love of a woman was different than the love of a child

The two brothers fought

But were stopped by the wizard

Who had given them their immortality

The second immortal king

Willingly gave up his immortality

So that he may grow old with the orphan girl he loved

But the boy king was unwilling to give up his immortality

And so the wizard stripped it away

And sent the boy king to go and take the girl's place as a miner

For the boy was an orphan

Because he had out lived his parents due to his immortality

The wizard then made the girl into a queen

To take the boy king's place

The orphan queen and the no longer immortal king

Were married

And they lived happily ever after

 

In the sixth kingdom

There was a prince

Who threw a ball to meet his true love

The ball was attended by all the maidens

Including two sisters and their step-sister

The sisters were quiet and educated girls

They were talented singers

The step-sister had been taught how to manage a house

And so she did the cooking and cleaning

But the sisters loved their step-sister very dearly

And were grateful for her hard work

So the three girls went to the ball

The elder of the two sisters

Fell madly in love with the prince

The prince and the sister danced the whole night

But the step-sister was jealous

For she was not as beautiful as the two sisters

So she faked sickness

And the three girls had to leave quickly

The sister ran from the prince

He tried to grab her hand

But only managed to pull the signet ring off her finger

The same signet ring was worn by the three sisters

And only the step-sister had noticed

That the elder sister had lost her ring

So during the night

She put her own ring onto the elder sister's hand

The next day

She went to the castle and told the prince that she lost her ring

The prince rejoiced

For her thought the step-sister was the one he danced with

Though the step-sister was not as beautiful as the two sisters

She still looked quite similar

The prince set at to be married to her at once

When the eldest sister heard of the prince's wedding

She was saddened

For she thought the prince loved her

Just before the wedding

She saw it was her step-sister who was marrying the prince

She confronted the prince

And proved that the ring the step-sister claimed

Was actually her own

The prince recognised her

And punished the step-sister for her deceit

Then the prince and the sister were married

And lived happily ever after

 

In the seventh kingdom

There were a queen and king who were childless

So they asked the wizard

Who told them of a woodcarver

Who could carve a statue of a boy

So beautifully and wonderfully

That with their love, the statue would come to life

The queen and king went the woodcarver

Who made them the statue they desired

They embraced the wood

And it turned to flesh at their touch

They took their son back to their castle

And began raising him lovingly

Teaching him how to be a prince

But the woodcarver was angry at the queen and king

For that statue was the most magnificent creation he had ever carved

And they took it away from him

He began to plot for a way to take the statue back

And one dark night

He snuck into the castle and stole the young prince

The prince didn't understand what happened to him

So he thought this was completely normal

The woodcarver was proud of his new son

But secretly wanted him to become a statue again

But the queen and king's love was so powerful

That the boy wouldn't turn back into statue

For many weeks

The woodcarver pretended that the boy was his son

And the boy didn't understand

He just assumed that whoever took care of him was his parent

Everytime he told someone that the woodcarver was his father

The love of his true parents waned

Until he was a statue again

The queen and king sent out many guards

Looking for a young boy or for a beautiful wooden statue of a boy

The woodcarver had asked the guards

Who told him that they were only looking for a boy

Thinking that they would not recognise the statue

He proudly displayed the statue in front of his shop

The guards saw the statue and told the queen and king

They put the woodcarver in jail

And once more embraced the wooden statue

The prince came back to life

And they lived happily ever after

 

You now see that the stories you know

And mere shadows of the stories they are

A princess in a dragon guarded castle

May not love the prince who rescues her

The witch who keeps a long haired beauty in a tower

May not be evil or cruel at all

The step-daughter who runs away from the queen

May not be fair and loving and king

An immortal boy and an immortal man

May not be enemies, but brothers

The hardworking step-sister

May not be abused and misunderstood

The woodcarver who carved a boy

May not be his good and kind father

All of you must know

That fairy tales have been told many times

There is truth in the stories you already know

There is truth in the stories I told you today

There is truth in the stories you may hear tomorrow

And above all...

There are lies in all of them

Once upon a time

There was a narrator who only wanted people to sit for another story............