Wait, Which Princess is This?

         Once upon a time there were three princesses living with their father, the King, in their beautiful and prosperous kingdom. One day the King was very upset and wanted to be reminded of how much his daughters loved him. He called each of them into the throne room and posed them with this question. The evil, older stepsisters went first. One said she loved him more than the whole kingdom and the other said she loved him more than all of the jewels and pearls in the world. The King was very pleased with their answers. He then asked his youngest and fairest daughter how much she loved him. There was a pause, and she thought hard about her answer. She said she loved him more than salt. The irrational King was enraged and immediately exiled his most beloved daughter. It wasn’t until she was taken to the forest to be killed by one of his servants, that he realized how upset he was with himself. The youngest was his favorite and he would never be able to forgive himself; however, the servant that was sent to carry out the execution was far too loyal. He led the youngest princess deep into the woods to a tower where she would live and care for herself. 

As the years went on the princess grew to be even more beautiful and her golden hair grew and grew until she couldn’t even find where it ended. The princess grew wary of the tower and became more and more curious of what was outside the tower, but was too scared her father would find her.

On her 18^th birthday the princess had a special surprise- her Fairy Godmother appeared. At first she was startled and confused but the Fairy Godmother assured her that she was there to help. As a team they used the princess’ long hair to climb down the tower to safety. When they reached the bottom the Fairy Godmother cut all of her beautiful golden hair and gave her male, peasant clothes as a part of her disguise. The princess was very grateful for all of her help and was ready to explore her newfound freedom. She kissed her Fairy Godmother goodbye and promised that they would soon meet again.

The princess wandered the forest for days trying to find work. She became hungry and stumbled across a perfectly good-looking apple that an old wrinkly woman offered her. When the princess took a bite of the apple she suddenly became sleepy. The princess fell into a deep sleep for years. When she awoke she found herself in the neighboring kingdom’s infirmary. She learned that the king to the neighboring kingdom found her, a male peasant, asleep. He brought her back to the kingdom until she awoke and then offered her work as his personal male servant. As the year went on they grew fond for each other. She would spend time imagining him as her prince charming, even though she knew that in this disguise he would never be her prince charming. She was anxious to reveal her female royal identity to him, but she was too unsure and scared for his reaction.

As time went on, the king grew anxious for a queen. He asked his magical mirror who was the fairest of them all? To his surprise, the mirror told him that the fairest of them all was his personal servant! The king could hardly believe it and had to find out if his trusty mirror was telling the truth, so he made a plan. The princess had lost a glass slipper that the Fairy Godmother placed in her possession knowing that it would be the key to her happiness. The king knew that if she were what she appears to be that she would not have been able to afford the precious slipper. The king approached the princess with the shoe and when she saw it, she knew what she had to do.

When the King learned the truth and the princess unmasked her beauty he immediately fell in love and proposed. The two fell deeply in love with each other and invited all of the neighboring kingdoms to the wedding. The princess invited her evil stepsisters and her father to the wedding, without letting them know who she really was. When the entrée was served at the reception she had the salt withheld from her father’s meal. He blurted out in the middle of his meal that he’d rather die than eat such food! The princess then stood and revealed her identity to her father by reminding her father that when she told him she loved him more than salt, that he exiled her. Her father finally came to realization that his youngest princess loved him genuinely and unconditionally and his other daughters were FAKE. He begged his daughter for forgiveness and she lovingly granted it to him.

The fairest princess then lived happily ever after with her prince charming in their castle, her loving father in the neighboring kingdom and her Fairy Godmother always looking after her.