|
“Why you pathetic peasant!” Princess Lexanii yelled as she
tossed the soup on the floor.
“I-I-I’m sorry your highness,” the Wocky said
quickly picking up the mess.
“I asked for mushroom soup, and you give me
chicken soup! Can’t you peasants do anything right!” Lexanii yelled, now more
louder than ever, “Now go get what I asked for!”
“Of course you highness,” the Wocky said bowing,
then quickly rushing out of the room.
Lexanii snorted with disgust, then turned toward
her mirror, and fondly started combing her Ixi hair. It was then that she he
noticed a piece of chicken broth had fallen on her comb.
“Eww!” she said throwing the piece off her comb,
“Silly peasants! They never get anything right! And they always complain every
time you raise the taxes on them! Can’t they ever just shut up and work!”
It was a fact, Lexanii hated peasants. After
all the only reason they existed was to serve the royal family, and they were
pretty lousy at it. They couldn’t read, write, or talk in any formal manner.
Lexanii believed that they should be stricter on peasants.
“Just whip them, every time they do something
wrong! That way they’ll listen!” she always told herself.
“Finally!” Lexanii grabbed the bowl from the
Wocky when she returned, then snarled at her, “Now get out of here! You’re lucky
I haven’t decided to fire you yet!”
***
That night, Lexanii was strolling around the village, as she usually did, was
when a peasant Lenny was walking past her.
“Hello your majesty! Nice, cool night we have,
don’t we?” the Lenny said with a smile.
“I don’t talk to peasants,” Lexanii replied
coolly. “Now if you don’t mind, why don’t you get back to sewing, cooking, or
whatever you peasants do, and leave me alone!”
“Well, that wasn’t nice,” the Lenny said shocked.
“Well I don’t have to be nice to peasants, it’s
not like they’re special or anything,” Lexanii snarled back.
“Oh really!” the Lenny said walking menacingly
closer to Lexanii, growing bigger with every step.” Lexanii gave a yelp. The
Lenny was being surrounded with purple smoke. Then the smoke started to clear,
and in front of her stood a Dark Faerie.
“You have to be one of the most horrible creatures
I have come across! I’ve been watching you for some time, how you’ve been treating
these poor peasants. And I’ve had enough. It’s time to teach to a lesson!” the
Dark Faerie said menacingly.
“W-What are you g-g-going to d-d-do?” Lexanii
said stammering as she cowered in front of a tree.
“Oh, you’ll see,” the Dark Faerie replied with
a smile, then picked up three pebbles off the ground, and tapped each one with
her finger, “Hand!”
“What?”
“Give me your hand!”
Lexanii slowly rose out her hand, and the Dark
Faerie dropped the pebbles in her hand.
“Now listen up,” the Dark Faerie snapped, “You
want to keep those pebbles. Because I’ve laid a curse on you. Every month for
three months, you will suffer a different punishment. Each month you will take
one of those pebbles and drop it in the castle fountain, and you will get some
help, not much help of course, but enough to keep you well. Now I must get going.”
“But wait! You can’t just lay a curse on me!”
Lexanii snapped.
“Oh can’t I?” The Dark Faerie raised her wand
threateningly, which sent Lexanii back cowering.
“June starts tomorrow. You will see how it really
is to be a peasant!” With that, the Dark Faerie gave a small cackle, and disappeared
into thin air.
Lexanii stared fixedly at the spot in where
the Faerie had been. Surely this couldn’t be happening. Maybe the Dark Faerie
was just kidding, or maybe she was dreaming? Slowly Lexanii stared back towards
the castle, three pebbles still clutched in her hand.
***
Next morning, Lexanii woke up, and went down to the dining hall, where she
saw her father, King Ormond, and her mother, Queen Retina, sitting with worried
expression on their faces.
“Hello Mother and Father, what’s wrong?” Lexanii
said taking a seat. “And where’s all the food?”
“Oh that’s the problem, dear. All the food is
gone, the crops are practically destroyed, the pantry is nearly empty, and we
don’t know how all this could have happened,” Retina said with a sigh.
“Oh, that’s terrible!”
“Yes it is,” said Ormond nodding. “Well, we’ll
just have to eat in small portions now. I’ve ordered food from other villages,
but I’m sure it will take too long to deliver. I think this my have happened
because of some petpets, maybe Mortogs.”
“But there’s hardly any petpets here,” Lexanii
said, thinking how this could have happened, then remembered the night before.
No surely no, she thought, the Dark
Faerie really had laid a curse! Now they were going to starve!
And so the rest of the week passed, all Lexanii
ate was small slices of bread, and cheese. No turkey dinners, no fried eggs,
no of anything she liked. The castle fell into despair, food seemed to be disappearing
little by little everyday. The order didn’t come, and Ormond would pace nervously
back to and fro everyday, and Retina would knit to pass time. Only the peasants
didn’t complain, they were used to starving.
One day Lexanii was nibbling on a small piece
of bread, did she remember the three pebbles the Dark Faerie had given her.
They were supposed to help somehow if you threw them in the fountain. So Lexanii
went to her drawer, where she had put them, and took out one. The she went to
the garden, where the fountain stood, and threw the pebble in. At first nothing
happened, then a bag flew out, and nearly missed Lexanii. Lexanii wandered over
to the bag, and opened it, Inside where a couple loaves of bread, some cheese,
and a few apples.
“This is it!” Lexanii said miserably, but nonetheless
she took it to the kitchen.
After days of starving, June came to an end.
And Lexanii dreaded what the next month would bring.
“Horrible Faerie!” she said to herself as she
went to bed the day before July 1st.
***
Lexanii walked cautiously into the dining room the next day, but was incredibly
delighted to see fried eggs, large loaves of bread, and large bowl of fruit
laid out on the table.
“Yes we have food again!” Ormond said with a
smile, “I don’t know how but it’s back!”
“Hey, where’s the water jug?” Lexanii inquired
as she started eating.
“Yes, where is the water jug?” Retina asked,
looking around the table, “Fiona!”
A peasant Scorchio came walking up, “Yes your
highness?”
“Where’s the water jug?” Ormond demanded.
“Well there is no water in the lake, so the
well has dried up.” “What!”
They all rushed to the window, where the saw
the lake was practically dried up. Their only source of water was gone!
“Oh this is bad! Now I’ll have to order water,
this is ridiculous!” Ormond roared.
Lexanii knew what to do now. She rushed to her
room, took a pebble, then rushed to the empty fountain, and tossed it in. This
time a barrel of water appeared. Lexanii sighed; hopefully this water would
help them through the month. July was a bad time to have no water. The sun was
scorching hot. Lexanii’s throat was dry every minute, but she could only have
little water, as most of it was needed to water the crops. Also it was hard
to take baths with just a bucket-full of water. And because of the drying crops,
there wasn’t many fruit to make juices from. And when the order did come, most
of the water had dried up already. Finally July ended, and Lexanii went to sleep,
wondering how horrible the next month would be.
***
Lexanii woke up the next day, and found half the stuff in her room missing.
“What’s going on!” she yelled as she went downstairs,
and found several Grarrls moving furniture, and other items out of the castle.
Retina came up to her crying, “Well, the good
news is that the water mysteriously reappeared, the bad news is that the money
in the castle bank was robbed. So we’re broke!
“No!”
“It’s true dear, we must sell some of our stuff
to get money.”
“Why not raise the taxes?”
“We did, that’s why there are peasants outside
protesting, but I’m afraid raising taxes won’t help much.”
And sure enough Lexanii heard angry yells outside.
And sure enough in a few moments, she was standing in front of the fountain,
which was back to flowing cheerfully. She tossed the pebble in, and a bag of
Neopoints appeared.
“5000 Neopoints! Oh well, I guess it’ll have
to do,” said Lexanii looking in.
August was on the worst months, Lexanii had
suffered yet. The peasants stopped complaining eventually, after all it was
just another thing they were accustomed to. But several of the castle servants
quit, because they weren’t getting paid enough. And also there was yet again
a shortage of food and water, this time because they couldn’t afford it. Ormond
kept borrowing money the other royal families, but even that wasn’t much of
help. And the castle would grow filthier every day due to the lack of maids.
Finally the last day of August came, the day Lexanii had been waiting for a
long time. The curse would be broken!
As she was climbing in bed that night, the Dark
Faerie appeared out of nowhere.
“Well, I see you’ve had fun,” she said with
an evil grin.
“What do you want this time? You’ve made us
go without food, water, and money. Please just me alone,” Lexanii said in a
scared voice.
“Oh, I’ll be leaving, I just wanted to know
if you’ve learned your lesson yet.”
“I have.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I honestly have, and I will never mistreat
peasants again.”
“You better stick to your word then,” the Dark
Faerie said as she disappeared.
The next day was a joyful day. Ormond was prancing
around, happy to have the money back, and the taxes were lowered, which nearly
made the peasants prance with around also. Lexanii saw the Wocky maid when she
saw her scrubbing the floor when she woke up, and went up to her and handed
her a bag of money..
“B-b-but you highness.”
“Keep it! And have a nice day,” said Lexanii
running outside with a big sack.
The peasants were surprised to see Lexanii running
up to them, and then start handing them money, food, toys, and clothes out of
her sack.
“Take it! I don’t need it!” Lexanii said gleefully.
And so the rest of the day passed with Lexanii
spending time with the peasants, they weren’t all that bad, actually they were
quite interesting. Lexanii even became friends with a few of them, which pleased
the Dark Faerie, who was watching from a cloud up above.
“I think I’ve done a pretty good job with that
princess,” she said to herself thoughtfully.
The End
| 
