In the Land of the Fairy Tales

In the land of the fairy-tales
Princess Jennifer sat down to read a simple story from her fine wooden bookcase. In her tower guarded by a dragon, she grew very bored a lot. There were many books, but Jennifer had barely been taught to read them. She hadn’t been taught much of anything, except how to sit pretty and what to say when someone finally got past the dragon.
Jennifer was a pretty girl, but she wasn’t the most beautiful person ever. She was pretty average. Her hair was brown, not blonde, and tended to get messy easily. It wasn’t wavy or curly, it was straight and short. Also, her name- Jennifer. It was supposed to be something fancy like Cardilianna or Sarandeith. She wasn’t perfect princess material, but she was the best her family had. Still, there were tons of princesses in towers guarded by dragons, so Prince Charming was not coming for her right then.
Princess Jennifer peeked out of the window to see the dragon. To her shock, the dragon was lying down on the ground as if dead. “Finally!” Jennifer shouted aloud. “Finally!”
Jennifer’s parents had warned her that if she was not married by her fifteenth birthday, which was one week from today, then she would have to become one of the peasants that was just on the sidelines of fairy tales, maybe lending out clothes or food to a fleeing princess, but nothing special. Even worse, she might have to become a wicked witch! But now someone had slain the dragon and was coming for her.
Princess Jennifer listened for the footsteps in the hall. When she heard them, she lay down beautifully on her bed. The door to her room was opened, a little ungracefully, Jennifer thought sadly, but opened nonetheless.
Jennifer turned to face the prince and began to recite her lines- “Oh, great prince, vanquisher of the horrible evil, where would I be with your kind self and I am forever in your debt. I do hope that you… that you will…”
Jennifer had finally truly looked at her rescuer and she sat up quickly. “You’re no prince! You’re not even a knight!”
And it was true. The person who stood there was actually a girl dressed in blue pants and a green short-sleeved shirt with the words, “Teddy High, home of the Polar bears!” on it along with a picture of a snarling white bear. The girl had brown, wavy hair that was cut shoulder-length and she was carrying a thick, red book with a picture of Africa on in, although Jennifer did not know what Africa was.
“Nope, not a prince, not even close.”
Jennifer looked angrily at the girl. “You’re ruining my fairy tale!” Jennifer shouted and the broke down sobbing. “A prince will never come for me! Never! I’m a failure!”
The new girl looked shocked at the crying princess. “Oh, I’m sorry! I can go, I guess…”
Jennifer sniffed one last time and pushed herself up. “How on earth did you slay the dragon?” She asked. In truth, she didn’t really want the girl in boy’s clothing to go.
The new girl laughed. “I didn’t slay it, technically. I read out of my Social Studies textbook to it and it put it right to sleep.”
The girl held out the book for Jennifer, but she waved it off. “My name’s Annie, by the way.”
Jennifer smiled up at Annie. “I’m Jennifer.”
“Do you want to get out of this tower? It’s really cramped and to be honest, it’s making me a bit claustrophobic.”
Jennifer stood up and followed Annie out. “What does claustrophobic mean?”
“It’s the fear of small places. We did Phobias in English this year. Well, I guess it was all roots, but still…”
Jennifer watched Annie curiously. She knew so much! Jennifer would never be caught dead wearing what Annie wore, but her knowledge still amazing. Phobias, Social Studies… Jennifer shot some education-related questions Annie’s way and Annie answered them smoothly and perfectly.
A sudden roar caused both girls to stop quickly. “Oh, no, the dragon woke up!” Jennifer cried. “We should go back up to my tower and wait for my fifteenth birthday so we can both leave…”
Annie laughed. “Don’t be silly. You forgot my amazing dragon-slaying weapon…”
Flipping through the book, Annie skimmed a paragraph and, smiling, walked over to the dragon. The dragon roared angrily, but Annie had already begun to read.
“Farming is important in Africa. In Africa, many people farm. They farm a lot of different foods. Without farming, Africa would easily die. Africa doesn’t do a lot of things except farming.”
By the time Annie was done with the paragraph, the dragon was already on the ground and snoring. Jennifer looked it over happily. “Better yet, now we have a spare dragon for another fairy tale!”
The two girls continued on their way to Jennifer’s castle. They were quickly becoming best friends. The place that Jennifer had always lived in had an ever-changing name to fit the story so Annie had taken to calling it Fairy-tale land. Jennifer, though, had never walked very far and she was getting tired. “How do you walk so long without a rest!” she panted
“Oh, come on, we’ve only been going twenty minutes on flat ground! I’ve had to hike up a mountain for one hour without stopping in the Teddy High Outdoors Club!”
Jennifer groaned in her head but she didn’t want to look weak in Annie’s eyes so she kept going. The two hiked for almost an hour (stopping in the middle, mercilessly) until the sun started to set. “Okay, so, in fairy tales, bad things always happen in the night, so we’ll have to take watches. I’ll take the first watch and you can take the second watch. If you see anything, shout.”
Jennifer went to sleep almost the second she laid down. Annie let her watch go for more than her half of the night, seeing as she was pretty sure that Jennifer wouldn’t be able to stay up half a night and still hike the next day. She finally woke up Jennifer and went to sleep, feeling pretty safe.
Jennifer, though, was used to sleeping almost all day because there was nothing better to do, so she fell asleep in the middle of her watch. She woke up with the sun in her eyes and hoped it was early so Annie wouldn’t get mad at her.
Jennifer was leaning against a tree. Something was tight around her wrists, which were behind the tree. Jennifer tried to pull out of it but she couldn’t. Finally, she woke up completely and saw that she was tied up! “Annie! ANNIE!” She shouted.
“Shush! I’m trying to think!” Annie hissed from the tree next to her. “I don’t have my book, so I can’t read to them…
Jennifer was not about to let Annie do all the work. Head working harder then it had ever in her entire life, Jennifer strained to think of something that would save them. An ogre came out and untied both of them, holding them tightly by the wrists. “Boss wanna see you,” He grunted.
“Farming is important in Africa. In Africa, many people farm. They farm a lot of different foods. Without farming, Africa would easily die. Africa doesn’t do a lot of things except farming.”
Annie looked at Jennifer, who had just recited the paragraph flawlessly, in shock. The ogre collapsed on the ground, asleep, bringing the girls with him. The two wriggled free and ran fast in the opposite direction than the one he was taking them in. They soon found their way back on the road. They stopped to catch their breath and Annie asked, “How did you remember that?”
Jennifer smiled proudly. “I have a good memory.”
The rest of the trip was uneventful. They finally made it to Jennifer’s castle. Jennifer knocked on the stone door, loud. The footman opened the door and gasped. “Princess Jennifer! You do look horrible… where were you? And where’s your prince!”
The girls told the whole story to him. The footman brought them to the Queen and they told their story again. “You must be a witch, then!” The Queen said to Annie. “We could use a witch!”
Annie laughed. “I’m not a witch. I’m just a girl from New Hampshire!”
Annie stayed the night but she was getting a bit homesick. The next day, she said that she wanted to go home. Jennifer stood up. “I don’t know if it’s too much to ask, but could I come with you? It’s so dull and clichéd here.”
Annie agreed immediately and, after a short fight, the Queen finally let Jennifer go. Annie picked up a piece of paper that she had been writing on. “What’s that?” Jennifer asked curiously. Annie smiled. “It’s a story about where I live. If you really believe it, when we read it we’ll go there. And how can you not believe it, seeing as you met me?”
The two girls held hands and read from the paper together. “There was once a girl named Annie who lived in a small town in New Hampshire. Annie went to Teddy High school and rode a bus to get there each day…”
(I got the plot idea from a friend of mine, but events, names, and land-traveling girl are all from my own head.)
Rosqro Steinbok