The Sleeping Trickster

All my senses come back instantaneously. My hairs on my arms perk up and a shiver goes down my spine when I notice strange puckered up lips leave mine, “uh what was that ?! Did that guy just kiss me?!” As I think this, the stranger whose lips are covered in lipstick smiles at me and I see some spinach stuck in his teeth.

“Um, who are you?!” I asked the stranger.

“I am the noble prince who saved your life and plans to marry you if you agree.”

“Wait, You expect me to marry you when I've only met you a minute ago?” 

“I don’t understand, these dwarfs told me that you were expecting a prince and would be happy to marry me.”

“Well, let's just say you made a bad first impression. Kissing a girl without permission?  I yi yi ya, you're just gonna have to find someone else to marry.”

I got up, stamped into the house with the dwarfs waddling after me and slammed the door shut. I glanced out of the window and saw the prince mount his horse with a sad expression on his face while riding away.

The next morning I heard a knock at the door. I went downstairs and opened it but no one was there. “Hello?”  I looked down and there lay a large bouquet of roses and hidden among the roses there was a note that read: 

While reading this a tear rolled down my cheek.

“ Doesn’t he know I am allergic to roses?! Sniff ”

And I set them down where I first saw them.

“A-a-a-achoo!! Sneezy sweetheart, can I borrow one of your handkerchiefs?”

Sneezy appeared at my feet and handed me a handkerchief after using it himself.

“Thank you, darling.”

For a few days the prince would keep on sending me gifts and I would keep on rejecting them. Over time I began to think “ Maybe he isn’t that bad after all” But one day he went too far. 

I was picking strawberries with my animal friends in the forest as they told me about how the queen fell off the cliff when a fast-moving group of dwarfs came running straight at us, nearly frightening us to death. Doc the first one to arrive breathing heavily said still catching his breath:

“ghost.. is in ….house……go fast.”

I left the basket of strawberries and rushed over to the cottage. What Doc said seemed to be true as the lights were on and a black shadow-like figure kept on passing the window.

All the dwarfs had now returned all covered in sweat and huffing and puffing. Sleepy lay asleep on the grass not even knowing there was a ghost in the house. 

“Well, we shouldn’t all just stand here and let whatever that thing is stay in our house.”

I swung the door of the cottage open and suddenly froze in shock.

“YOU????!!!!!!” 

Prince Florian sat at a table filled with all kinds of food laid on a golden table cloth with a bouquet of ROSES in the center and an evil grin on his face.

“How do you like it? I decorated it myself with a little bit of help. If you come and live with me you will have a feast like this every day and not have to live with these stinky dwarfs.”

“How dare you call them stinky dwarfs and how dare you sneak into my house! You have no chance of marrying me now after what you've done! Here are your flowers, your food, and your golden cloth! Out you go!

The dwarfs ran in as the prince ran out and got the door slammed in his face a second time.

“I am going to make sure he doesn’t bother me anymore! Doc, Bashful, sleepy, sneezy, grumpy, happy, and dopey come here, I have an idea.”

The next day as I predicted he came to the cottage determined to make me his bride but instead of being that sweet little lady that always wore a smile I was preparing to be that trickster no one knew I had in me.

I ran to him and fell to my knees.

“My Prince, will you ever forgive me for what I’ve done! I was very mean towards you but I do hope we can be friends now.”

“Now you’re coming to your senses. I forgive you!”

“To show my gratitude towards you I will organize a party which you will never forget.”

“Splendid, splendid I like that very much! I will also invite my mother and father: the queen and the king and have them meet you! Now I must be off darling. Farewell! ”

“Bye!”

Not until he disappeared into the forest did I return back to the house.

“Sleepy, grumpy, and bashful, remember what I told you? Make sure to only use leaves. Here are his measurements and oh don’t forget to pick some onions when you are done. Doc and dopey run along now and go collect some sap from the trees in the forest. Happy and sneezy you stay with me and we will send out all the invitations and prepare the meals.”

Everyone rushed off to do their job but grumpy stayed behind and murmured to me:

“There’s no way we can do all of that in three days!”

“Oh, but sweet grumpy of course not. I will ask the birds and deer to help.”

I whistled a little tune and they came from all around to listen to what I had to say. I sang something that sounded a bit like this:

“Lovely animals come to me and help me. 

For I am planning a party For a prince and the royal family.

The party will be outside so make sure the space is neat 

And decorate the place with beautiful  wildflowers.”

“Thank you, my dear friends,” and they were off like a flash. With the help from the dwarfs and the animals, everything was done in no time.

It was the day before the party and we were adding the last touches. As I was collecting wood outside I noticed the prince standing at the door. I couldn’t stop from laughing. He was wearing the suit sleepy, grumpy, and bashful had made for him. Leaves were covering his whole body. He looked like a grasshopper! 

I slowly walked towards him holding in my laugh.

“Hello..haha...my prince, how excellent you look!”

“Of course I do. Everything looks good on me. Well never mind how I look, I was actually coming to tell you that everything must go well. If anything ruins my reputation you are in very big trouble.” 

He gave me a death stare and kept that stare fixed on me as he walked backwards towards his horse. Then he mounted it and rode away in silence. 

Ha….ha….ha  I can't wait for tomorrow.

It was the day of the party. Everyone wore exquisite clothes and the decorations looked amazing. Not everyone had arrived yet. The queen and king and a few other guests were here. A few minutes before more people started pouring in, the queen took me to a different part of the forest to have a little chat.

“You seem to be a very nice lady and I trust you well enough to give you this information. This evening we will announce that the prince will become the king in a few days but we don’t want him to know yet. So keep it a secret until then. At 2 o'clock the king will give a speech in that speech he will share the good news and you will bring out the cake to celebrate. Do you understand?

“Yes, your Majesty! I’ll give him everything he deserves.”

“Wonderful, now let's go join our guests.”

Everyone entered one by one all looking wonderful. I greeted each one of them as they entered. All of a sudden everyone stopped talking and the music stopped playing. The prince stood at the entrance wondering why everything became silent. We heard the footsteps of the queen as she strolled up to him.

“Florian, what are you wearing?! You look like an idiot!”  

“Snow White told me the theme was nature.”

“The theme is nature, but what you are wearing is totally inappropriate.”

And she turned away from him with her face red with embarrassment. The music started playing again and everybody went back to chatting and having a fabulous time…..except the prince. Whenever he tried to talk to someone they would quickly rush off. 

At twelve o'clock exactly, everyone sat down to lunch. The queen and king sat at one end and me and the prince sat at the other. The food was scrumptious, the guests also agreed. The king gave a toast and thanked everyone for coming. The prince also tried to do the same but couldn’t say a whole sentence without crying. Everyone thought he was weird and couldn’t understand why he cried when saying: "Thank you for this wonderful food” or “It’s great you all could come," but I knew why. A few minutes before everyone sat down to eat I added freshly cut onions to his salad to make his eyes water. As he couldn’t say anything and everyone thought he was crazy he sank back down into his seat and stayed there for the rest of the meal.

After the meal was over everyone stood up and started dancing but the prince stayed in his seat. The queen noticed him:

“Florian come dance with me!”

Prince Florian struggled to get up. Florian sat stuck to the chair with the resin I smeared on it.

“I can’t dance with you!”

“How dare you speak like that to me!!”

“No, I really can't dance. I am stuck to the chair.”

“Stand, now!”

What the prince thought would happen happened. Everyone gasped with shock. The prince stood up and his suit stuck to the chair leaving him only in his underwear. The whole room was filled with laughter at the sight of the prince.

“I can’t live like this anymore!” The prince yelled.

He hopped on his horse and rode away never to be seen in this land again not knowing he would have become king in a few days. As for me, I lived happily ever after with my friends in the forest.