Momowords

“In a time that was yesterday and eternally present, there lived a prince who had been silent for as long as anyone could remember. His mother the Queen was heartbroken at her son’s muteness and the King heartbroken at his wife’s grief. So it was that on the Prince’s eighteenth birthday, they issued a proclamation saying that any man or woman who could make the Prince speak would receive the richest reward in the kingdom. However, the penalty for those who failed would be instant death.

Many brave men and women tried to make the young Prince speak. And as many were beheaded. The King and Queen had all but given up their quest when, from the woods nearby, came one last adventurer…”-Nicky Singer, Feather Boy

I decided that I would carry on this fairy tale because I thought it was pretty good:

It was a small and graceful person in a cape. This stranger approached the castle bounds and searched for an entrance. It met a knight and asked him where to find King Joseph and his wife Queen Mary. The knight showed the stranger the way and continued. So the caped person walked to the castle gates and knocked. A guard asked their identity, and then let them in.

They went through a parting corridor which led to the King and Queen’s court. It was a big, marble room that stood on one-hundred columns.

The strange visitor looked around curiously, particularly intrigued with a bronze statue which seemed to be motioning towards some high chairs. So the stranger looked up and saw their Majesties sitting on their thrones.

The visitor walked up the red carpet, and curtsied. Then the guard quickly marched towards the monarchs and whispered in their ears. They nodded and signaled to the stranger to approach. Once the stranger had reached them, it said:

“Your Majesties, the King and Queen, I am honoured to be in your presence. I have come with a reason that you may already know or guess. But you do not know who I am.

-No, we don’t, agreed the King, so please tell, we wish to know.”

So the stranger lifted its hand, and pulled back the hood. It was a beautiful young girl, with traits that could come only from royal families, so it appeared to me. But I was to discover I was very wrong.

“I am Anabetha, a poor peasant girl from the village. And I have come to help your son, Prince Matthew, to try and make him a speaker of our language.

-You do realize, insisted the King, that you have only ten days to succeed, and that if you fail you will be killed like all your friends and cousins. You do realize that you will be mourned by your parents and make yet another family despair?!

-Yes, I do, and I am prepared to do it.”

The King and Queen looked each other in the eyes; they knew that this Anabetha would not succeed, and that she would perish like all the others. But they had to give it a try. So the King sighed:

“We grant you permission to try and help our son.”

And so Anabetha bowed, saluted them and left. The guard led her to a room which was to be her bedroom for the following ten days. The guard left her and closed the door behind him. Anabetha had always slept on straw, or grass, but never on a bed. So when she first lay down, she thought she had already fallen asleep and was dreaming.

When she awoke the next morning, she nearly forgot where she was. But everything suddenly came flooding back to her. She quickly got dressed, and ate the breakfast that had been set down for her. It was much better than her usual breakfast, it was bread, with butter, jam, cereals, milk, chocolate, fruit juice and plenty more appetizing things.

When she had finished, she walked towards Prince Matthew’s bedroom door. She knocked and waited. The door was then opened by a handsome young man: it was the Prince. She bowed and told him she was here to try and make him speak again. When he heard this, he grew red from the roots of his hair to the end of his nose. He quickly ushered Anabetha in and signaled to her to sit down.

“Hello, I’m Anabetha, and I take it you are Prince Matthew. Am I right?”

He nodded.

“Good. Now, if I try anything that anyone else has tried on you tell me, or rather, signal me, so that I don’t waste time doing something for nothing. Do you understand?”

He nodded again.

“Now, I want you to know that before nodding or shaking your head or doing anything of the sort, you must open and close your mouth as though you are speaking and saying whatever you wish to tell me. Only then can you indicate to me what you wish or desire. Do you understand this as well?”

This time, his face became serious, and he mimicked an answer; Yes I do. Then he nodded.

This went on for about seven days until he managed a small grunt. But oh, the very faintest of grunts you could possibly imagine. Anabetha alerted his parents of this. They seemed highly excited and anxious at the same time. They praised her and quickly ushered her back to their loving son.

By this time, Anabetha was excited as well, but mostly, she was worried: three days wouldn’t suffice to make the Prince say even a word.

When she awoke on the tenth morning, she was scared beyond, well, a lot of things. But she quickly ran through all of her relaxation exercises which didn’t help much except maybe her breathing.

When she arrived into Prince Matthew’s bedroom, she was really desperate. She quickly rushed in !no time to waste! and barely greeted him. He looked as worried as her, if not more.

She tried the usual daily morning conversation, and she noticed he seemed to be trying his very best, but all he managed was a lloonngg grunt of different sounds. He signaled to her that he was thirsty and went into the kitchen. As soon as he was gone, she exclaimed:

“I would prefer getting killed by the Warty Witch than to be beheaded tomorrow in front of the whole kingdom!”

Now, before reading the rest, you must know that the Warty Witch is an ugly, nasty witch who is, as you can imagine, covered in warts.

And so, the moment Anabetha said that, the Warty Witch appeared in front of her. She smiled a crooked smile and said nastily:

“Called for me did we? And what is it you want? To be killed by… let’s see now… by me?! Why, that’s wonderful, don’t you think?!”

Anabetha stood there looking at her horrible warts, too terrified to say anything. Just like the Prince, she only managed a grunt. Well no, actually, it was more like a squeak. The kind of squeak a shoe does when it is over-polished and is walking on a very clean and shiny floor.

The Warty Witch looked at her too. Then she said:

“Do you know why Prince Matthew cannot speak? Well I do. Because I placed a curse upon him that would render him silent for the rest of his life. Do you also wish to know why I did this? I did this because I knew by the time his parents worked out their son couldn’t speak, it would be too late. He could not have any more siblings. And there cannot be a silent king. So they would set up a competition, and I would bewitch the judges so they would choose me to become queen. So I could govern this kingdom, so I could rule it.

She cackled nastily and drew down her wand… but it suddenly fell down with a loud clatter. And so did the Warty Witch. She fell down in what seemed to be slow-motion and then sort of disintegrated.

Behind her, stood Prince Matthew. He looked as shocked as Anabetha, and blubbered:

“I-I didn’t m-m-ean t-to d-do th-that…”

And at the same moment, they both realized something: That the witch’s death had caused the Prince’s being able to speak.

So they both carefully took the wand from the floor and walked down several flights of steps and arrived in the King and Queen’s court.

The Prince, with Anabetha’s occasional help, counted their story. They also guessed that the Warty Witch had died because the Prince had touched her, and had therefore caused her death.

When they had finished, the King and Queen were too impressed and happy to be able to even speak a word.

So the next Saturday, the whole kingdom was celebrating the Warty Witch’s death along with Prince Matthew’ and newly-made Princess Anabetha’s wedding. They lived a long, happy life with lots of children and even more grand-children.

THE END