By P.K. Silverson
© Copyright 2008
By The Author
All Rights Reserved
In a kingdom by the sea, in a castle on a cliff, there once lived a beautiful princess. She could have lived in a castle on a hill, or in a castle in a dale, or in a castle on a dusty plain. But she lived, as everybody knew, in a castle on a cliff in a kingdom by the sea.
And that was just the way things were.
The beautiful princess had been a beautiful princess from birth, which came as a surprise to absolutely no one at all, because her father, the king, was the handsomest man in the land. And, his father, the king before him, had wisely chosen for his son the fairest bride in the realm.
The beautiful princess lacked for nothing. Her childhood was one of great happiness and she came through her learning years reasonably well adjusted.
Because she had everything money could buy, including her own exercise equipment, personal trainer, fashion designer and make-up consultant, she flowered into the loveliest, most desirable young lady on earth.
It was the beautiful princess’s habit to read romantic fiction and fantasies between her daily lessons and her duties, which consisted mainly of ordering servants about. She was particularly fond of tales involving sorcery and happy endings, and spent increasing hours every day locked away in her room, engaged in this favored pursuit.
All was well until the day her father, the king, decided that the beautiful princess had come to a marriageable age. Befitting a beauty of her station, the king sent worthy scouts to the far corners of the earth in search of the handsomest prince for his daughter’s hand.
Excitement spread through the castle like wildfire when news came back that the king’s most trusted servant of all was returning with a highly willing and qualified suitor. The beautiful princess immersed herself in every aspect of her preparation for the approaching suitor. She snipped at her seamstresses and harped at her hair-dresser, determined to make sure that every lock, every ribbon, every detail would be absolutely perfect for her true love.
On the appointed day, at the appointed hour, the servant brought forth into the grand reception room of the castle on the hill of the kingdom by the sea a most handsome prince. The king smiled knowingly at his wife as the princess smiled at the prince and extended her arm.
Bowing politely, because he was well schooled in the ways of etiquette and courtesy, the prince took the delicate hand of the beautiful princess in his and kissed her fingertips gently.
Courtesans around the great hall sighed.
Then, as was the custom, the prince addressed the beautiful princess. This is what he said: “Your royal highness, this is indeed an honor.”
The princess fled from the room, humiliated.
The prince had spoken to her in a voice not yet completely changed by puberty. Under the mighty pressure of youthful nervousness, it cracked and shattered into a million cutting pieces. He was not at all the dashing, powerful man from the dreams the beautiful princess’s imagination had conjured in the many hours spent with her romantic fantasy books.
He was just a boy. That was just the way things were.
Over the days, weeks and months that followed, other faithful servants returned from the quest to find a suitable suitor for the beautiful princess. Most brought back candidates with impeccable credentials. But the crop of suitors was not quite ripe, and the beautiful princess tearfully rejected them all.
On good days, she handled her frustration with regal compassion and exhibited the kind of disappointment one expects of a martyr. On not so good days, she dispatched offending royal messengers to the not-so-tender care of her headsman’s ax; a fitting consequence, in her view, for obvious poor judgement.
One day, the beautiful princess noticed the sun shining over the sea. The world was so beautiful and the air so clear and delicious that she decided to take a well-deserved rest from the monumental task of choosing her husband.
Without so much as a by-your-leave, she slipped out the back door of the castle on the cliff in the kingdom by the sea to take a solitary promenade on the royal grounds.
Although her figure was lithe and toned to perfection, she was not used to the rigors of an extended walk. Much sooner than she expected, she tired of her endeavor and began to look for a place to sit and rest.
Her brief stroll had brought her to a little-used garden with a fountain that hadn’t been turned on in many years. A great stone seat stood in the middle of the ill-kept lawn, warm and inviting in the afternoon sunshine. The beautiful princess brushed the seat off as best she could with her dainty hand, her exquisite nose turned up and away as she completed this menial task. Then, she sat herself into the great seat, arranging her long, flowing dress about her to make sure that if anyone should happen upon her, that she would present the best possible appearance.
This was just the way things were, and how they had to be.
She gazed into the basin of the fountain, and saw that although the marble pool around the center sculpture had not been hand-filled in a great while, it was still brimming with water. She realized that the spring rains were probably responsible for this phenomenon, and she was, for the most part, correct in her assumption.
Further observation of the pool yielded another startling revelation. There was life going on in the water. Without royal decree, or, indeed, permission of any kind at all, a little green frog had taken up residence in the rain-water pond of the abandoned fountain in a little-used garden behind the castle on the cliff in a kingdom by the sea.
And that was just the way things were.
The little green frog, in the course of his amphibious existence, had developed a daily routine of his own. That routine, on warm, sunny days such as this, included hopping up out of the rain-water pool, skipping quickly and quietly across the little-used garden lawn of the castle on the cliff, and jumping onto the warm stone arm of the great chair to catch some rays.
As it happened, the beautiful princess had come along and taken her seat at just about the time as the little green frog’s internal clock reminded him that the hour had come to warm his cold-blooded body.
Needless to say, the little green frog was very surprised to find the beautiful princess exquisitely arranged across his regular perch. And the beautiful princess was just as startled by the little green frog’s temerity at taking up that perch right next to her lovely, delicate arm.
“What have we here?” the beautiful princess wondered aloud. The melodic resonance of her voice filled the little-used garden with its song.
The little green frog tilted his head toward the sound of her voice, and his big black eyes seemed filled with wonder. “Gribbit?” he croaked. The beautiful princess took this as a rational answer for a frog to make.
The actual truth was, however, that the little green frog was only trying to find out if the beautiful princess presented any kind of a threat to his safety and well-being.
Prudently, the little green frog kept his powerful legs tucked tightly under him, ready to spring away at the smallest sign of danger.
“Well, well,” the beautiful princess said in a voice so soothing the frog could not help but relax, “have you come to see me?”
“Gribbit?” the little green frog croaked again. The beautiful princess had to admit that this was surely a sensible answer coming, as it did, from the body of a frog. She indulged herself in the conceit that the creature was attempting to communicate with her, and her thoughts naturally followed the path that years of fantasy fiction had created in her mind.
“Is there some chance that you are, after all, a handsome prince, under some evil enchantment, waiting but for the kiss of your true love to release you from your bond, I wonder?” the beautiful princess mused. “I wonder what would happen if…”
She leaned forward quickly and kissed the little green frog on the smooth bridge of skin between his bulging black eyes. It happened far too fast for the frog to compose a proper reaction to danger; and it felt too pleasant, in truth, for him to give way to fear after it was over.
The beautiful princess herself was only vaguely aware that she self-consciously wiped her splendid lips with the back of her delicate hand after this highly impetuous act.
Sadly, however, there was no magic transformation. This disappointed the beautiful princess more than she could have possibly anticipated.
“Gribbit?” said the little green frog in the same monotonous croak. His chest was heaving rapidly, excited by the touch of such an exotic creature, but not sure what the consequences of such contact would be.
Still, the sun was warm on the stone arm of the chair, and the air was clear and delicious. There seemed to be no cause for alarm. And, in his own way, the little green frog’s curiosity had been stimulated far more than he could have ever expected.
And that was just the way things were.
“Oh, my poor prince,” the beautiful princess continued to indulge her fantasy, and the sound of her voice held the little green frog in his place, even though he could not, by any means, understand her words. “You must be under a spell so powerful that a single kiss could not possibly free you alone. I am so sorry for you. Let me bathe you with my tears. They will wash away the evil chains that hold you in that horrible, disgusting form.”
So convinced, by now, was the beautiful princess that the frog was her perfect suitor under a wicked enchantment that genuine tears of pity began to flow freely from her sky blue eyes. Ever so gently, but with a speed that astounded the stupefied amphibian, the beautiful princess scooped up the little green frog in her delicate hands. She brought him close to the proud curve of her magnificent breast to allow her tears to wash directly over him.
The drops of moisture soothed his baking skin, and he caught the perfume of her long blond hair as it blew by him on the summer’s breeze. Its alien scent was the most intoxicating thing he’d ever experienced.
Quite against his will, he felt his muscles relax. He gave himself completely over to the tender care of the beautiful princess.
The beautiful princess cried and cried. She cried until she had no tears left. Still, there was no magical transformation.
It began to dawn on the beautiful princess that the creature she held was nothing more than a slimy little green swamp frog, and that she had soiled her hands holding his disgusting body.
Anger coursed through her veins, flooding into every corner of her body. She stood suddenly and allowed total indignation to fill her voice.
“Yechhh,” she proclaimed, flinging the poor little green frog as hard as she could, seeking to make him disappear as quickly as possible.
The little green frog tried desperately to brace himself for landing so that he’d be ready to hop to safety straight-away. But fate was not kind to him.
Not being naturally suited to air travel, the frog was unable to control his trajectory through the air. And, unfortunately, he was still traveling at nearly full speed when he sailed into the grove of tall trees that stood by the little-used garden lawn behind the castle on the cliff in the kingdom by the sea. His unscheduled flight came to an abrupt end as he crashed head first into the trunk of a mighty oak. And he was ground even deeper into the bark as the rest of his body caught up in an explosive rush.
The moment the form of the little green frog passed out of sight, the beautiful princess dismissed his existence from her memory altogether. With an impatient stamp of her elegant foot, she turned and strode purposefully back across the royal lawn to the back door of the castle on the cliff. Her path was just long enough for her to revise her plans to include a prolonged session with her latest volume of fiction and a large box of the finest chocolates in the realm.
The little green frog finally regained consciousness as night began to fall. He did his very best to make his way back to the rain-water pool in the base of the fountain in the middle of the little-used garden behind the castle on the cliff in the kingdom by the sea. But his injuries were extremely grave, and he had to pause often as he tried to drag himself across the open stretch of ground between the trees and the safety of his home.
He was taking what would have been the last of his frequent rest stops when he was spotted by a passing owl. Circling once overhead, the bird of prey astutely sized up the situation. He swooped down quickly and snatched up the little green frog in his deadly claws.
For the second time in less than a day, the little green frog found himself airborne against his will. But, uncomfortable as the earlier flight had been, this nocturnal trip was far worse.
With all his might, the little green frog twitched and pulled against the deadly grasp of the owl’s razor sharp talons. But his resistance was futile and his agony was fatal.
The powerful bird’s feet remained unrelentingly closed and locked as he flew off into the night, because the wise owl knew better than to risk an easy opportunity to enjoy such a fine dinner.
Moral: Accept things for what they are, or somebody could get seriously hurt.
