story

Literature Online-English 121
Jade Blair
Story: Fairy Tale Draft

The Two Princes

Once upon a time there was a land far far away where everything was perfect. It was ruled by a king and queen who were very fair and kind to their subjects. No one ever went hungry and everyone had somewhere to live.

In this place the sun always shined, the weather was always beautiful, and the flowers and trees magically grew without any rain. The people who lived there were always happy and rarely argued.

The king and queen had a son, Prince Alexander, who they loved more than anything. He was handsome, smart, and always had a compliment for everyone. He was good at anything he did, from playing baseball to writing and painting.

The king had an evil sister, Devilla. She had once been the most beautiful lady in the kingdom, but there was so much hatred and greed in her that she had turned old and ugly before her time. The citizens had agreed to banish her to the North Pole as punishment for all the terrible things she had done. She was cursed to live in a cold, dark underground palace in the ice for five hundred years. It was located in the remotest, coldest part of the earth.

Every day was the same for the evil duchess. She would wake up, never rested because she shivered all night. Then she would put more wood on the fire, but the more she put on, it never seemed to get warmer. "It seems like all I ever do is throw wood on the fire and try to get warm. When will this ever end!" She was never happy, and took out her anger on everyone around her. Sometimes she would go around poking people with the hot poker for the fireplace, just to be cruel.

The only person Devilla did not hate was her son, Jack. He had grown up in the North Pole, and had never seen anywhere outside of it, since Devilla was not allowed to leave. "Someday we will get out of here, and live somewhere warm, and do whatever we want," she promised Jack. But Jack kept getting older, and nothing ever changed. Every day he grew more and more restless and curious about the outside world.

He heard he had a cousin who was the same age, and wondered what he was like. "When can I meet Alexander? Maybe we can be friends," Jack would ask his mother, till eventually she got tired of him asking. She didn't want Jack to be influenced by their family, but what was she going to do? So that night she packed some things for him and told him he would be traveling a long way to visit them.

The next morning was cold and dark, as usual. Jack flew on a raven's back for many many miles to get there. As they approached the kingdom, Jack couldn't believe his eyes. He had never seen anywhere so colorful, bright and warm. The king and queen were waiting for him. "How nice to meet you! Here, you must meet your cousin." A servant went to fetch Alexander.

Jack heard Alexander coming down the stairs and turned around. He couldn't believe how much Alexander looked like him; it was like looking at his own reflection. They were the same height and build, and had the same sandy blond hair and brown eyes. "You two could pass for twins!" exclaimed the queen. "Come on, it's time for dinner."

At dinner Jack told about how awful the North Pole was, and heard all about this perfect kingdom. The more he heard about it the more he wished he could stay there forever. His cousin told him about all the things he had, like his giant treehouse and his pet tiger, Raj. Jack started to become jealous, but he hid it well.

The days he was there were nothing but fun. Alex and Jack played pranks on the servants and his parents because they looked so much alike. There was always something to do. But eventually it was time for Jack to go back. He was terribly sad and dreaded going back to his frigid home.

When he got back home he told his mother how nice everything was there, and how much fun he had had. Since she had once lived there it brought back memories of what the place was like, and at the same time she felt resentment towards her brother and sadness that her son couldn't have all of the nicer things in life. Her natural anger started to boil up again. But when Jack mentioned that Alex looked exactly like him, his wicked mother showed a rare smile, as she was already scheming how to use things to her advantage.

Jack was rudely awoken the next morning by his still-smiling mother. "Wouldn't you love to have 10 horses just like your cousin? And a giant treehouse? And maybe even a vault filled with diamonds so big you could swim in them?" "Yes..." said Jack, annoyed that his mother was rubbing it in that his life was miserable. "Well, I have a plan. We will kidnap that spoiled prince while he is sleeping and put you in his bed. No one will ever know the difference. And after you are used to being Alexander you can find a way to get rid of my brother and his wretched wife. Hahahaha...it will be marvelous, my dear. We will have everything we ever wanted, rich beyond our wildest dreams. We'll show them!" At first Jack hesitated. He liked his relatives, and didn't want to do something like that. But then he looked around him and realized he might grow old in this horrible place, and his instinct for greed erased any kindness he had before.

And so Jack and his mother's henchmen traveled back to the palace. They climbed up to Alex's window after they were sure he was fast asleep, and crept in. Before he knew what was happening, Alex was blindfolded, thrown into a large potato sack and carried away. They took him to an abandoned castle and locked him in a dungeon with a little bit of bread.

Meanwhile, Jack was too excited to sleep. The next day, he was a little nervous at breakfast, afraid his new parents would figure it all out. But they noticed nothing.
Jack kept this up for years. One day the queen became sick, and the doctors had no hope for her. She died soon after. The king had loved her so much that he died of heartbreak. "This is it," Jack thought.

After he was crowned king, Jack changed how things were done. Everyone had to pay a 95% income tax, so they only had the bare minimum, and sometimes not even enough to eat. He built elaborate additions to the palace and forced the citizens to work on it without pay. He ordered that all the doorknobs be made of huge diamonds and gold, and that 20 servants should follow him at all times and throw rose petals around him. He had a giant bathtub which could only be filled with water made from melting icebergs. And he had brought his mother there to live, where she could have the same luxurious life. Their Friday night entertainment was executing people simply if they didn’t like them. Everything he did was ridiculous, and his subjects resented him. They wondered what had happened to the nice boy they once knew. People were dying of starvation, and no one was happy, except the new king.

What he didn't realize was that the night Alex had been kidnapped, Raj the tiger had seen what happened, and being a very intelligent animal, escaped and tried to find the prince. He traveled for a long time before he found him, and when he got there he attacked the guards and freed Alex. He rode on the tiger's back to his home.

When the people of the town saw him in rags, they realized what had happened and were very angry. They all joined together and stormed the palace. Jack and his mother had to run out of the castle to get away, but the angry mob just went after them and pushed them off a balcony into the river, where they floated all the way to Antarctica, never to be seen again.

Alexander became the true king, and he gave back everything to the people, and they lived happily ever after.