The Kingdom Lost

The Kingdom Lost(Anita) ONCE UPON A TIME… there was a Peasant’s daughter who lived in a hut in the shadows of a great black mountain. The hut was very small and very cold, because the Peasant was very poor and his wife spent every penny he earned on cakes and trifles and wine.

One winter's day, the Wicked King came to the hut and called upon the Peasant to come out.

'I have come for my rent,' King Alexander Beautiful informed the Peasant.

'Please, sir,' the Peasant begged the King. 'I have no money left to pay you. May I pay you next month?'

'Certainly not!' King Alexander Beautiful said angrily. 'If you cannot pay me now, I will take your daughter instead. She will make a fine wife for my son.'

'No!' sobbed the Peasant, for the Wicked King's son, the Ugly Prince, was a foul and evil man.

King Alexander Beautiful paid no mind. 'I will return in one week for my money or your daughter,' he informed the Peasant. 'If neither is forthcoming, I will send my soldiers to remove you from this place.'

After the Wicked King Alexander Beautiful had left, the Peasant's daughter could not stop crying. She did not want to marry the Ugly Prince, but if she refused, her family would have nowhere to live. For she knew that her father was too poor to pay the King.

'Oh!' she cried. 'What can I do?'

Just then, a single tear fell from her cheek and landed upon a Lowly Worm crawling on the ground, and all at once the Lowly Worm changed into a Shimmering Snake.

'You must go to the Starmaker's palace at the top of the mountain,' the Snake hissed to her . 'You must sing for him, and he will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams.'

'But I cannot sing,' she said.

The Snake rose up and stood on its tail and briefly kissed her upon her lips, and then, with a tiny flicker of its shimmering eyes, it was gone. And when opened her mouth and sang, it was the sweetest sound you've ever heard.

'The Snake was right!' she cried happily. 'I can sing!'

And so she set off up the great black mountain to find the Starmaker's palace. The mountain was steep and treacherous, and there were thick dark forests where wolves and goblins and all manner of frightening creatures dwelled. But she sang to herself as she travelled, and the beauty of her voice sent all the wild beasts to sleep.

After some time, she came upon a Mysterious Goblin who was munching on berries from the Lie Bush and spinning wool.

'You sing very well,' the Goblin said with a mysterious smile. 'I think I shall make you my wife, Alice, and you will cook Lie berry pie for me forever.'

And with a sudden spring, he spun his wool around her ankles so that she could not escape.

'My name's not Alice and I will not marry you, you vile thing' she said to him. 'I am going to sing for the Starmaker, and he will make me the richest girl in the world. And then I will not have to marry anyone.'

The Goblin laughed. 'You will never meet the Starmaker. I have trapped you here and will only let you go if you guess my name from my riddle. And it is unguessable.'

'Tell me your riddle,' she declared, 'I know I can solve it'.

The Goblin recited his riddle in a singsong voice:

"My first is in sugar and also in sweet,
My second's a legume, tasty to eat,
My third is myself, my fourth's an old chick,
My fifth's in an apple and also a brick,
My sixth just repeats what my fourth said above,
My seventh's a thousand, you will be my love,
My eighth's simply fifty, my ninth is a breeze,
If you follow my meaning you'll find it with ease.
My whole is a strange name, of that there's no doubt,
But though berries may lie, the truth it will out.
You may call me a thing but I swear I'm a man,
Now come and find me. That is, if you can."

She thought for a moment. 'What an odd name,' she thought to herself, 'though it does describe him rather well.' She spoke the Goblin's name aloud. He howled, and let her go.

She said, "I've never even liked the taste of Lie berry, thing!" and ran off up the mountain.

After running and running through the thick dark forests, she came at last to the Walls of the Starmaker's Kingdom. The walls were high and made of stone, and the only way through them was by means of a great wooden gate.

The gate was guarded by a Barefoot Giant.

'Do you wish to enter the Starmaker's Kingdom?' the Giant bellowed at her.

'Oh, yes,' she replied.

'Then you must fight me,' the Giant roared, raising his giant fists.

'But why?' she cried.

'For only the strongest may enter the Starmaker's Kingdom,' the Giant answered, gazing fearsomely into her eyes. 'That is why.'

As she looked back at the Giant, she thought of her mother and father, shivering in the cold of winter, and she thought how sad she would be if she were married to the Ugly Prince...

And without another word, she suddenly sprang at the Giant and stamped with both of her feet upon one of his giant-sized little toes. The Giant howled in pain, and as he bent over in agony to clasp his wounded foot, she leaped over him and rushed through the great wooden gate into the Starmaker's Kingdom.

When she came to the Starmaker's palace, a wonderful golden building at the top of the mountain, the Starmaker was waiting for her. He was a stern old man with long white hair and a shiny silver cape.

'Sing for me,' he demanded.

She sang, and her voice was as golden as the palace itself.

The Starmaker nodded his head in approval. 'Do you wish to become rich beyond your wildest dreams?'

'Oh, yes!' she replied.

'Then you must stay here for ever,' he said. 'You must stay with me in my palace and never set foot beyond the door. You must obey me at all times. And you must never again speak to anyone else. Do you understand?'

'But what about my poor mother and father?' she said.

'I will see to it that they keep their home,' the Starmaker assured her. 'But only if you agree to my terms. Your mother and father will be safe, but you can never see them again.'

She thought for a long time, trying to decide what to do, and eventually she said to the Starmaker, 'I will do as you say.'


Epilogue
At last, the wicked king had won the battle and on his way to take over the castle, King Alexander and his beautiful daughter Fiona were forced to give up their kingdom and leave the castle. They had run far into the great black mountain to live and to hide from the evil king because if they didn't hide from him, the evil king would use all the power of his army to find the king and his beautiful daughter and kill them both, no matter what was going to happen.


The end