the Snail Princess
Hundreds of years ago, in a faraway land, a curse was placed upon the royal family. The first-born daughter would turn into a snail at night, only to return back to her beautiful self at the break of dawn. Horrified, the king and queen locked their eldest daughter away in her room to spend her days and nights alone, while the king ordered the most powerful wizards, alchemists and scholars to look for a cure for this terrible curse. Many tried to cure the princess of her ailment, but all of them failed. Every night the princess would cry in her chambers, because she was jealous that her sisters could live as they wished. They went outside, they had friends and they could marry whomever they wished, while the eldest princess had to live her life in isolation, without anyone to call her friend. One night, upon hearing his daughter cry, the king felt so horrible that his daughter had to live this kind of life, that the next morning he announced that whoever could free his daughter of her curse would become his successor. Princes and peasants lined up for days at the royal palace, trying to have their chance to cure the princess, but still every night she would revert to a small, slimy slug, with a golden shell on her back.
Soon enough the news reached the other kingdoms about the princess’ horrible situation. A king, known as the Evil King James had a plan. In fact, it was his ancestor who had placed the curse on the royal family centuries ago, as his greedy ancestor wished to expand his kingdom. The Evil King James could finally finish the job of his ancestor and decided to use his son, Prince Charles, to gain the throne. King James explained to his son that all that he needed to do was make the princess fall in love with him, and kiss her at the stroke of midnight and the curse would be broken.
“However”, he warned “you must not fall in love with the princess, as you will both turn into snails, forever!”
King James showed Charles a portrait of the beautiful princess, and Charles immediately fell in love with her. He, however, decided to keep this from his father, as he did not wish to disappoint him. With this information, Charles set off to save the snail princess.
Prince Charles travelled for many days and nights, through deserts and forests, over mountains and crossing rivers and valleys. He was determined to save the princess, which was very unlike himself, as he was typically very selfish and lazy, and would never lift a finger to help anyone, let alone a princess from a far away land to expand the kingdom of his father. On the third night, the prince, hungry and tired, reached a small hut in the middle of the forest, and knocked on the door, seeking food and shelter for the night. When he knocked on the door, an old lady answered it.
“Grandma, please let me stay here the night, I am a prince on a mission to rescue a princess and I’ve been travelling for many days and nights and I’m hungry and tired.” Then the prince foolishly explained his situation to the old lady, not knowing she was actually a witch, who had been plotting for a way to ascend to the throne for many years. She let him in to stay the night, planning to give the prince a sleeping potion, so that she would try to kiss the princess and cure her of her curse, lock the princess and the royal family away and rule the kingdom as she pleased.
The next day, the prince awoke to find the house empty. Without looking for the old lady, he continued on his journey to the kingdom, arriving at the outskirts only a couple hours later. Meanwhile, the old witch was already in the castle, having turned herself into a handsome prince and was planning on executing her plan that very night.
The king was ecstatic to have such a handsome prince potentially marry his daughter, and cure her of her curse, and eagerly let the old witch into the princess’ chambers that very night. The princess knew something was wrong when she saw the handsome prince, and they reluctantly talked until the clock was about to strike midnight. Suddenly, the witch leaned in and kissed the princess, trying to break the curse and gain the throne, but to her surprise, she felt herself start to shrink! The old witch turned into a snail at the same time as the princess, making the curse permanent.
The king was devastated. The next morning, prince Charles arrived at the castle to find the king in hysterics. After convincing the king to let the prince just to try to see the princess, the king finally agreed, having given up all hope of his daughter ever being human ever again. When prince Charles saw the poor snail princess, he was overcome with sadness and kissed the tiny snail on its golden shell. Suddenly, the princess turned human, and saw that he was her saviour, and they both realized only true love’s kiss could break the curse. Prince Charles understood that his father had lied to him about kissing the princess if he was in love with her and he immediately asked her to marry him.
Later that year, prince Charles wed the princess, having cut off ties with his evil father and they lived happily ever after, ruling the kingdom for many years.