Long ago, there was a kingdom, a kingdom named Theolia Dynasty. Beside the kingdom was a forest named Thornia Woods. In the forest was a hut, and in the hut lived an evil witch. The malicious witch had a wish to become a ten-headed dragon. But, that cannot come true without ten royal hearts.
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Once upon a time, in a kingdom named Theolia Dynasty. The king, Edric, and the queen, Victoria hoped to have a baby soon. A whole year passed since they were married, and they feared that they might have to wait another.
One day, just after eating dinner, the queen was taking a walk in the forest, accompanied by her most trustworthy bodyguard and dearest friend, Liana. They observed the majestic forest scenes while the queen collected berries and mushrooms. At sunset, the two found themselves lost in the forest! Suddenly, a silhouette moved towards them! Liana shielded the queen and hollered:
“Who dares to approach my queen?”
Nevertheless, the hooded figure just laughed and kept creeping closer.
“Liana, it’s just an old woman,” noticed the queen.
The bodyguard blinked, “Oh, I’m sorry ma’am!”
“It’s okay, my queen.” replied the cloaked figure. “I’m here to make a deal with you.”
“What’s the deal?” asked the queen.
“I know you want a baby, so, I can help you get one. Plus, I can also help you find your way back. The only condition is that you tell me when your baby is born.” answered the “old woman”.
“That sounds like a good deal,” suggested Liana.
“But, how will I know where you live?” questioned Victoria.
“No need,” smiled the cloaked woman. “Just bring this candle back to your castle, and snuff it out when your child is born.” The queen accepted the candle, but before she could answer, the old woman disappeared.
Ten months later, the queen had a beautiful baby! So, she snuffed out the candle, and named her baby Primrose. Princess Primrose had gleaming eyes as clear as crystals. Her sleek black hair flowed like a peaceful stream. She moves gracefully as a flower dancing in the wind.
On a sunny day, Queen Victoria was walking on the Thornia trail. Then, she saw a beautiful woman. She was effortlessly pretty and naturally pleasant-looking. She seemed to cast a glow that radiated light and beauty. She was a nymph.
“Good morning!” sang the Queen, “My name is Queen Victoria. What is your name?”
“Hello, Queen Victoria. I am Linetta, a water nymph. I am here to help you,” replied Linetta, as she handed Victoria ten arrows. “These arrows are magical. One day, they can save your family.” Then, the nymph sparkled away.
King Edric was relieved that the kingdom finally had a princess. However, he was too busy attending to important kingdom affairs, barely having any time left to spend with Primrose. Primrose’s mom, on the other hand, loved her daughter so much and spoiled her in every way possible. Primrose enjoyed the life of a princess who didn’t have to worry about anything.
Sadly however, Queen Victoria got very sick when Primrose just turned six. The king had the best doctors in the kingdom treat the Queen but none of them could stop the disease from getting worse over time. Primrose didn’t want to have fun any more and prayed for her mother to get better every day. After a few months of painful struggling with the disease, Queen Victoria passed away. Primrose cried for days. After that, she became a lot more silent than before. Most of the time, she just spent time alone in her room with her toys. Sometimes, she just gazed out of the window for a very long time. King Edric became even busier with the kingdom affairs. That is just his way of dealing with the weight of the grief.
A year later, King Edric felt that Primrose needed a new mother who could take care of and spend time with her. After a lot of effort, he found a new queen whom he believed to be a good fit for the kingdom and Primrose. The new queen was originally a princess from another kingdom named Cenia Empire. She was beautiful but looked resolute. She had chocolate brown hair, slightly rosy cheeks, and emerald eyes. Her name was Eleanor.
Queen Eleanor loved Primrose like her own child, but she had high expectations with the princess. She wanted Primrose to be a capable and respectable queen when she grew up. Primrose was required to go through a lot of training including equestrian, manners, archery, politics, history, fencing, and literature, and many other things.
At the beginning, Primrose was very happy to have a new mother who can spend a lot of time. She had a lot of fun learning all kinds of new stuff. However, the initial excitement and freshness quickly wore away. Just when Primrose wanted to feel happy about achieving an important milestone in her training, the Queen raised the bar on her and imposed an even tougher challenge. Every day, Primrose worked and trained like a hamster running on a wheel. Every day, Primrose was exhausted. She wasn’t used to having such a tough mother. Days passed like this, and Primrose couldn’t bear it anymore.
On her ninth birthday, she wanted to go shopping for birthday decorations and a cake with her friends. Nevertheless, Queen Eleanor wouldn’t let her because she didn’t finish her homework. But, the princess kept pleading and whining, and the queen got very annoyed.
“Stop driving me crazy!” the queen pounded on the table. “It’s just like your normal schedule every day! You have to finish your training before you can play!”
Primrose answered, “It’s my birthday today! Plus, I never even have time to play!”
“If you don’t stop whining like a crybaby, we won’t celebrate your birthday anymore! And, if you stop acting like a snail, you can actually finish all your training and have free time to do whatever you want!!” scolded Eleanor.
“You are a mean woman! You are not even my mother! You don’t even care about my birthday! If you think I am a snail, get your own child that moves along faster and leave me alone!!” cried the princess with tears streaming down her face.
For a moment, Eleanor froze like a statue. It was the first time Primrose defied her like this. She fell into a chair beside her heavily like a sinking rock and pushed against two sides of her head with two hands with smothered breaths. Suddenly, she stood up again resolutely.
“If you think I am so mean, I will be a mean woman! You are grounded for a month!” yelled the Queen.
“Is this your birthday gift to me?! ” Primrose was shocked and astounded. Then she made a loudest scream ever and raced upstairs to her room, slamming the door behind her. She leaped onto her bed. She cried out loud and cried for Queen Victoria until she could barely talk any more. She snapped her favorite ruby embroidered bow and her finest arrows. She ripped apart her nicest toys and smashed her most beautiful vases. Eventually, her room fell into silence.
Eleanor didn’t sleep well at all through the night. After her anger subsided, she began to feel more and more guilty. She was clearly too tough on Primrose. After all, Primrose was less than 10 years old. She was a child who deserved a lot of fun at her age. She tossed and turned on the bed until very late.
The next morning, she walked to Primrose’s room, ready to make peace with the princess. When she pushed open the door, there was nobody in the room. The window was open with a long rope running from the leg of the bed frame to the very outside.
Meanwhile, Primrose was running deep into the forest next to the kingdom. She kept running and didn’t stop. Finally, she was tired and extremely hungry. She looked around for anything, ANYTHING, that she could eat. Then, she stumbled upon a blueberry bush on a pile of leaves. The blueberries on the bush looked TOO good to be real. However, the starving princess didn’t give it a second thought and sprang for it. But the moment her fingers touched the blueberries, the bush disappeared! Suddenly, she was falling into a hole! Then she fell into a cell in a hut. Then, the ceiling of the cell shut and was locked tightly.
Inside the hut, there were multiple skulls and decaying roses surrounding colorful candles with smoke that was being spun into black string without anyone doing it. There was also a huge cauldron that contained a bubbling purple liquid with a green fire at the bottom. A huge shelf held many potions, some even containing fingers or eyeballs. Chains that had snakes wrapping around them were dangling from the ceiling. Many spiders and rats scurried around on the floor. There was even a tree with gray leaves and bark and vines around it growing out from the wall. Primrose gasped at the eerie scene.
“Who are you?” demanded the princess as a woman with auburn hair, green eyes, pale white skin, and lips with black lipstick on them approached her.
“My name is Alecto, the most powerful witch in the kingdom. I’ve been waiting for you for a very long time, my little princess”, said the woman.
“I don’t even know you!” responded Primrose, a little scared.
“I’ve known you since the moment you were born.” cackled Alecto Witch. “I was planning to come get you when you turn ten years old. But you came to me on yourself. That’s earlier than needed for me.”
“What do you need me for?” Primrose was even more scared. It couldn’t be anything good.
“I am collecting hearts of royal persons in order to fulfill a dark magic so that I can turn into the most powerful dragon! I need ten and I already got nine. Your heart will be the last one I need before I become invincible!” said the witch, eyes glowing with excitement. “Yet, for the magic to work, I need to wait until you are ten years old. So, I can spare you for a few more months. “
“I am just a little child! How can you be cruel? You are already a powerful witch. Why do you want to turn into a dragon? ” questioned Primrose.
“I want to take down the whole kingdom! I want to destroy all the noble people sitting in the palace! I want to avenge all the wrongs that were done to my family! ” exclaimed the witch bitterly.
After a long pause, Alecto continued, “When I was your age, my family was very poor. So, a lot of people made fun of us. My parents couldn’t bear it. Thereby, we moved into the royal castle to do your great-grandmother’s dirty work. But one day, when my parents went to inform the queen that their work was done, the royal guards thought that they were intruders just because they didn’t know them. So, they killed them without even informing the queen about that. They beat me up too. At that time, I was pregnant and lost the baby because of the beatings. Days passed just with me working, your great-grandmother didn’t even check on her maids, of course, she was WAY too full of herself. One day, just because I forgot to wash a single spoon that the queen used for eating ice cream the other day, she banished me from the kingdom. That is how I ended up as a witch. But now, I will take revenge! Enjoy your last days in the cell, my poor princess.” and she stalked away.
Alone and scared in the cell, Primrose couldn’t help crying. She cried for a long time and tried all ways to ask for help. But no one else was around. She really wished she hadn’t run away. She’d rather go through the hardest training with the Queen than facing her last days in a dark cell. The king and queen must be extremely worried when they couldn’t find her. Primrose missed them so much. She couldn’t help thinking of the good moments spent with the Queen:
Being able to finish twenty laps around the track without a single break and beating her stepmother’s record.
The first time winning her stepmother in swordplay and making her stepmother happy.
Hitting the target in archery her first time.
Queen Eleanor complimenting her weaving.
Impressing her stepmother by expressing many details and emotions just in one sentence in writing.
All of those good memories flashed back to the princess as tears dripped off her face. Finally, she fell asleep in the cell.
Meanwhile, when the king and the queen realized that Primrose had run away, they started blaming each other for what had happened.
“Why did you have to make Primrose run away? You’ve always been too tough on her. She is just a child. Now look at what happened!” shouted the king.
“I didn’t know she would have run away! I am just trying hard to make sure she gets the best training. Being a stepmother is not an easy job! You never pay any attention to our daughter!” shot back the queen.
“I had a whole kingdom to govern here! You can’t even take good care of a child!” scoffed King Edric as he stomped away.
After the argument, the king and the queen stopped talking to each other. They looked all over the kingdom, but couldn’t even find a single footprint made by the princess after weeks of searching. One day, the king got very sick because he lost hope in finding his daughter. Queen Eleanor lived her days in sadness, anxiety and guilt. But she didn’t give up and decided to stay strong. She vowed to never return to the castle until she found the princess.
Back at the witch’s hut, Alecto kept Princess Primrose as prisoner. Every day, the witch would feed her and work on the potion. One day, the princess ripped a few pieces of cloth off her dress and smeared “this way” on each of them in Latin with dirt and dust so the witch couldn’t understand it. Then, she smeared some dust under her eyes to make them look like dark eye circles. She also messed up her hair so she looked depressed.
“Can I go outside for a short walk and breathe some fresh air? I am going to die of depression before I can turn ten if I stay in this dark little cell every day.” Primrose asked the witch.
“You tricky little kid. I know what you are thinking. You are just trying to run away.” said Alecto.
“If you don’t let me go outside, I will simply stop eating from now on! You will never get what you want. You are such a powerful witch. I can’t possibly run away in front of your eyes.” insisted Primrose.
“All right. Just a short walk. Feed yourself well after this!” Alecto agreed reluctantly. She needed a healthy heart for the potion and didn’t believe Primrose could actually run away. So Alecto put some chains on Primrose’s ankles and took her for a short walk in the forest. The princess dropped the pieces of cloth on the way back to the hut.
Meanwhile, Queen Eleanor carried on with her search. She had feelings that Primrose is somewhere in the deep forest. So she built a hut at the edge of the forest and lived there. She walked into the forest every day from the hut and came back to the hut in the evening. Another month passed, still no sign of primrose. Her shoes were all worn with holes. Her feet were full of blisters and calluses. But, she wouldn’t return to the castle. One day, when she went to Thornia Woods to search for the millionth time, she saw the clues that Princess Primrose left for her! Queen Eleanor observed the clothes. They were torn from the princess’s favorite dress, and the words on it were written in Latin with the princess’s hand writing. The queen carefully located and followed the little pieces left by Primrose. Finally, she found the underground hut. Queen Eleanor knocked on the door. After a long while, the witch opened the door.
“Have you seen my stepdaughter Primrose?” asked the queen.
“Your Majesty, I didn’t expect you would come! How did you find me?” questioned the witch.
“I followed the traces left by Princess Primrose. Is she here?” asked the queen anxiously.
“Tricky little girl. I shouldn’t have let her walk outside!” said the witch, obviously annoyed at the fact that she was played by Primrose.
“You locked up Primrose! You need release her right away! Otherwise, you will be in serious trouble, old lady.”
“That is not going to happen, my queen. Don’t know who I am? I am Alecto, the most powerful witch in the kingdom. I need the royal heart of your little princess to fulfill my magic. Primrose is not your daughter anyway. Why don’t you just be a regular stepmother and leave her to me? You and the king can have your own child.”
“Primrose is my daughter! I’ve always treated her like my own blood. You need to let her go right away. Otherwise, I am going to destroy you!” yelled Queen Eleanor.
“Have a taste of my powerful magic, my queen.” cackled the witch as she turned to close the door. The queen had no choice but to unsheath her sword and slash at the witch. Alecto immediately whipped around with a staff, which had a shiny purple orb with purple and black mist swirling around it. Alecto pointed the staff at the queen. Immediately, the queen got smashed back by a black blast into a tree. Eleanor struggled to stand up, holding her chest in pain. Blood came out of the corner of her mouth.
“Let go of my daughter!”. Eleanor pushed forward again with her sword. Alecto raised her staff another time and Eleanor was thrown back even further this time.
“You are not my match at all. You can’t even touch me. Go back to your castle, your majesty. I don’t want to hurt you more, at least, not now.”, sneered Alecto.
Eleanor realized that attacking Alecto Witch would be totally useless. But she had to save Primrose, at any price.
“If you want a royal heart, take mine! But, please spare Primrose. She is just a child!” shouted Eleanor.
“Are you sure? I didn’t know you care so much for a girl who was not your blood. Hmm….” Alecto paused for a while. “I can take you instead. After all, I don’t really enjoy killing a kid. I will let her go if you become my prisoner.”
“That is a deal, then. Please release Primrose now.” said the queen with determination.
Alecto snapped her finger and the cell in which Primrose stayed was unlocked. Princess Primrose walked out of the cell slowly. She heard everything from inside the cell. She walked up to the queen.
“Mom? Is that you? ” Primrose couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw Eleanor. She looked 30 years older than the last time Primrose saw her. The dark and smoothly flowing long hair that she remembered had turned completely white. Her face was full of wrinkles. Primrose couldn’t help but start to sob. “I am so, so sorry for running away. But I can’t let you take my place. We can fight the witch together!” Primrose turned around and stared at the witch.
“Primrose, don’t worry about me. Go back to the castle right away and talk to your father! ” demanded the Queen.
“You and mom together and times ten wouldn’t be my match. You’d better leave now before I change my mind.” sneered Alecto. The witch tilted her staff. Primrose was thrown out of the hut and the door slammed shut. Primrose knocked hard at the door again and again, crying out loud. After a while, she calmed down, turned around and started to race out of the forest and towards the castle. Primrose was trained well for running. She ran as fast as she could, with wind blowing on the tears streaming down her face.
She WAS going to make up for what she had done.
She WAS going to save her stepmother.
When she arrived back at the castle and told the king what had happened:
“A witch is going to use my stepmother’s heart to take revenge on our kingdom!” Primrose hastily cried. “We need a magic weapon to defeat the witch!”
“Your m-mother, Victoria, left ten magic arrows and said they could save the family in times of need. This must be the right time. The arrows are in h-her room.” the king strained to sit up in his bed.
“Thank you for your help, dad, I am sorry for running away!” the princess replied hurriedly as she rushed up the stairs, into her mother’s abandoned room which was coated with a thick layer of dust with cobwebs hanging from every nook and cranny of the spacious room. She pulled out drawers, emptied boxes, raided through shelves, crawled under the bed and desk, flipped through books (though she wasn’t sure why magical arrows would be hidden in a book), and even smashed a few vases (because the vases’ neck was too skinny and she couldn’t risk wasting time getting her arm stuck) and a lamp (that one she didn’t know why). Finally, after she ripped off her mom’s biggest and most grandest painting off the wall, she found a sack of turquoise and tanzanite embroidered arrows. Princess Primrose had to stop staring at the beautiful, majestic arrows, each having different colors of ever so slightly opaque crystals, varying from sky blue to greenish blue to pale green to greenish gray.
Then, she remembered about her stepmother and scolded herself for being distracted. After Primrose pulled off the arrows, she immediately raced downstairs and almost tripped. She skirted to her bow rack and took off her zircon embroidered bow. She was in such a hurry to go to the horse stables that she destroyed the rack. She nearly got a toe stub on the wooden fence, but she was able to use the skills her stepmother taught her to slip under the fence and into the horse stables. The princess whistled for her beautiful, golden-brown horse named Honey. The horse immediately ran to her side.
Since Primrose didn’t have the key to the stables, she and her horse leaped over the fence and landed in a pile of dust. Honey winced and Primrose could have sworn that if she had a voice her horse would have exclaimed: “OOF!”
Nevertheless, there was no time to laugh. She quickly guided her horse and Honey dashed off into Thornia woods. When suddenly, a tree fell down! The second she looked up, her world shattered.
“It’s too late,” she whispered to herself as she cried as she stared at the ten headed dragon in front of her. “But I still have a chance.”
A very slim chance. However, the princess still wiped her tears and nocked an arrow. Ten arrows to shoot ten heads. One chance each. She aimed. Then, she remembered her archery training with Queen Eleanor. Primrose anticipated where the dragon head she was aiming at was going to make its next move. The arrow flew. Right when the dragon head was about to let out a big roar, the arrow zipped its way into the mouth and went down the dragon’s throat. The dragon head collapsed.
But then, the other heads started blowing fire! Honey dogged again and again. Then, Primrose recollected the lessons on getting her horse to trust her. She stroked Honey’s mane and comforted her. Finally, the horse stopped bucking and she was able to get a good aim at two of the dragons’ necks. The rest of the dragons didn’t seem to have any weak points. Then, she remembered her training on finding weak points in swordplay. The eye. She let the arrow fly. Another head down.
Primrose then recalled how to wear her opponent out. She whistled for Honey to run faster and circle around the dragon. The dragon kept on spinning and spinning until it was very dizzy. The little princess was able to shoot two arrows. One arrow hit the back of a dragon head, the other one hit another head’s snout. Five more to go.
At that moment, Princess Primrose remembered another one of her swordplay tricks: to confuse her opponent. She slipped the rest of her arrows into a knot that she tied on Honey’s tail.
“Sorry, Honey,” she whispered to the poor horse. Then, she threw the empty sack as far as she could. The dragon looked in that direction and started searching for the sack (which the dragon thought was the princess running away).
Then, Primrose had a flashback of her horseback riding when she was younger.
“Today I will introduce you to our new topic: horseback riding.” said her stepmother, “Pick your horse.”
“This one looks cute!” exclaimed little Primrose as she pointed to a golden-brown horse.
“Good choice! Her name is Honey and she is a VERY special horse.”
“How is she special?”
“You would NEVER guess it, she acts like a dog! In fact, I think she even wants to be one! Maybe a golden retriever.”
“What does she like to do?”
“Well, she likes to have tummy rubs, she sniffs everywhere the way a dog does, she likes playing fetch, but the thing she likes to do the most is biting things that have horse treats on them!”
“REALLY? Can you prove it?” The stepmother raised an eyebrow in a “are you sure?” kind of way as she nodded. Queen Eleanor brought out a horse treat and stuck it in a crack in the fence. Little Honey immediately noticed the treat and charged at the fence and bit off a piece of it. The stepmother quickly pulled the log out of Honey’s mouth as Honey chewed on the treat.
“I guess we’ll have to find a replacement.” noted Primrose.
“Yeah.”
“I wonder if Honey likes dog treats too.” the mother and daughter laughed at that thought as they returned to horseback riding.
Primrose immediately slid off her horse and brought out a huge piece of the horse’s favorite treat. When the dragon heads each separately peaked in five big bushes to look for the princess, Primrose then quickly, but quietly lifted a scale on the dragon’s tail, and slipped the treat in the crack. Then, she quickly climbed on a nearby tree and covered her body in leaves so she could blend in. She then shot three more arrows at the dragon. The arrows hit its exact targets.
“Yes!” Primrose had a mental party.
“ROOOOAR!” the dragon furiously looked around for the source of the arrow. It stomped on every bush in its sight, but it didn’t think about searching in the trees where the princess was hiding.
Suddenly, Honey lifted her head from the grass she was munching and saw the delicious horse treat. Honey charged at the dragon’s tail and took a big bite! Honey was satisfied, but the dragon was NOT.
“ROOOOAR!!!” the dragon let out a huge roar.
“Arf!” barked Honey as she quickly ran away into the forest where a wild horse herd was running.
“HONEY! COME BACK!” shouted Primrose. Then, her hands immediately cupped her mouth as she realized her mistake. The dragon heard her voice and stomped towards her tree. Then, she lost balance and fell onto the dragon’s back. She quickly snapped back to reality and stabbed an arrow into a dragon head, which would have snapped in half if she hadn’t learned swordplay. Looks like the training had paid off after all.
However, before the princess could stab another head, she was shaken off by the dragon! Suddenly, the dragon was speaking in the witch’s voice!
“If you shoot down my last head, then your stepmother will die too!” yelled Alecto Witch.
“My stepmother is alive!?” exclaimed Primrose.
“Indeed she is, but if you choose to kill me, then she will die too!” shouted the witch-dragon. Suddenly, the dragon went rigid! Then, the voice of her stepmother took over.
“You have to defeat the dragon, no matter what. Or else, our whole kingdom will be destroyed!” said Queen Eleanor’s voice.
“What about you?” asked the princess frantically.
“Don’t worry about me. You are a princess and should think about the whole kingdom instead of just our own family. Fire the last arrow and don’t miss!” replied the queen. Then, Primrose remembered the love of her stepmother. How she worked hard to find her. How she wanted her to become a good queen. How she protected her. Primrose nocked the last arrow, and let it fly. Thanks to her archery training, the arrow hit the dragon’s forehead, and the last head collapsed. There was a colorful blast of sparkles and the dragon faded away. Eleven people stood in front of Primrose. Queen Eleanor was among them as well, luckily. She immediately ran to her stepmother and hugged her.
“You didn’t die!” exclaimed Primrose.
“I believe that was just a trick pulled by the witch.” answered Queen Eleanor. “But anyway, I am still alive and okay, and so are the other people that the witch took hearts from.”
“Speaking of Alecto Witch, is she dead?” asked Primrose.
Before the stepmother could answer, a familiar voice replied, “No.” The princess and the queen turned around and saw a beautiful, young woman.
“How do you know?” questioned Queen Eleanor and Princess Primrose at the exact same time.
“I am Alecto Witch, and Primrose saved me from the curse,” said the woman.
“WHAT!?” exclaimed the princess, “You don’t look like her at all!”
“I thought Primrose killed you!” shouted the queen. Alecto Witch retold the story of how she and her family was wronged by the earlier Queen, how she lost her baby and underwent some dark magic to become a witch in order to avenge. She didn’t actually want to kill Primrose but she was overwhelmed by hate and bitterness.
“Since Primrose shot ten magic arrows and killed the dragon, I am now free from the curse,” said the woman, “my real name is actually Nova.”
“That actually sounds better than Alecto the Witch!” commented Primrose.
“We are sorry that you were wronged by an earlier Queen before, Nova. You are no longer banished. You can live in the castle like a normal citizen now. ” decided the queen.
“Thank you,” said Nova, “and I am sorry for hurting you and your family.”
“It’s okay,” said the queen, “Primrose, you can ride Honey back to the castle, and I’ll walk there.”
“Actually, Honey the horse-dog decided to run off and join a wild horse herd, so we will all have to walk,” said Primrose. All the people walked back to the castle together. Upon seeing his wife and daughter again, the king immediately felt better. Then, Queen Eleanor and Princess Primrose told King Edric what had happened. Then, there was a grand celebration, and everyone was invited.
A few days later, Primrose got a new horse which was a creamy yellow color named Butter, and Butter wanted to be a bird.
⚜️The End ⚜️