Once Upon a Time

Well here it is, my awesome uber cj! Thank you everyone, it is ace! (and remember where you saw it first eh?! ;o) )

Chapter One - mine!

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far far away, there lived a little boy who dreamed of one day becoming a dragon slayer. As he was so little, the King appointed him stable boy.

One day he was walking through the forest, with his favourite horse Star. He came across an old woman in a worn out cloak. She asked if he could spare some food as she had not eaten in a long time. The stable boy gave the old woman his last piece of bread.

The old woman thanked him and the boy and the horse moved on, when suddenly………….

Chapter Two - Steph

There was a huge flash and where the old woman had once stood there was now a fairy. The little boy and Star stopped in their tracks and stared at the fairy. "whoooo are you? stammered the frightened boy. " I am Aurora, queen of the fairies and because of your kindness I will grant you one wish". The little boy thought and looked at Star. And then he thought some more. Well I have always dreamed of being a dragon slayer but the King says I am too small" Aurora smiled and with a wave of her magic wand the little boy became a man! "You must now travel the roads to the farthest reaches of the kingdom on a very important quest" Aurora said seriously. "To complete this quest you will need to find the following things............"

Chapter Three - Carolyn

.....a ruby jewel.......a sword.......a magic potion.

The dragon-slayer and his horse, Star, set off immediately on their new quest. They had already journeyed for many miles and darkness soon began to fall. In the distance the dragon-slayer spotted a strange looking castle. Now that he was no longer a humble stable boy, the dragon slayer boldly approached the dark locked doors of the castle. Using his staff, he hammered on the doors and hollered to wake the castle guards.

He hollered and hollered, but n-one appeared - just as he was about to give up and continue his journey, the large heavy gates opened slowly with a terrifying squealing noise that made the hairs on the back of the new knight's neck stand in end. Star was also frightened and it took all of the knight's strenght to stop his horse from bolting away.

When the gates were fully open, the knight and Star started forward into the dark shadows of the castle courtyard. From one of the guard towers weak candlelight could be seen. The knight tethered his frightened steed and pushed open the door to the candlelit room.

The room was empty apart from one small table and a wooden chair - but to the knight's surprise there was a veritable feast of food and wine and by the door was laid food and water for the horse.

Both man and horse forgot their fears and started to eat and drink heartily as they were starving having not eaten before setting out on the fairy's quest.

After about 5 minutes of non-stop eating and drinking, the knight began to feel dreadfully drowsy and Star seemed to be suffering the same.

Suddenly the darkness of the shadows was lit by a bright flash and the knight felt himself falling, falling, falling forever into blackness and the last thing he saw before he passed out was a hooded old crone cackling with laughter.

When the erstwhile dragon-slayer finally awoke he felt strange, but his head ached so much he couldn't even open his eyes. But then he heard a strange voice half cackle half scream - it was the old crone speaking - of that he was certain.

"Not so brave now, my proud sir dragon-slayer - are you? ha ha ha. You see I am the wicked witch of the east and I have turned you into a humble frog and as for your stupid horse - to suit his name he is now a new star in the night sky. And the only way that I will turn you both back to your former selves, is for you sir knight to swear on your life that you will bring me the treasure that the fairy has set you to find"

The dragon-slayer turned frog could hardly contain his anger - he desperately wanted to fulfill the fairy's quest, because the kind fairy had made all his boyhood dreams of being a nobleman come true only hours ago. And now through trickery of this cursed witch and his own foolishness all was about to be lost.

He needed a plan and quickly............

Chapter Four - Hazel

The would-be dragon slayer turned frog looked around him to see whether there was a means of escape. He couldn't figure out where he was - all he remembered was falling, falling, falling forver into blackness. He leapt and hopped across the stone floor, trying to make sense of this damp dungeon. It was so dark that it was nearly impossible to even make out the direction in which he was travelling. He seemed to have been moving around for quite some time when suddenly he could make out a very dim shaft of light and he was aware that he was not alone. In the darkness he heard the squeaking of a rat and its scurrying past him towards the chink of light made him gasp with a mixture of fear and hope. This was obviously the rat's means of escape into another part of this dungeon into which the dragon-slayer had been flung by the evil witch of the west. Perhaps he too would be able to flee from this dark prison and continue his quest to find a ruby jewel, a sword and a magic potion.

He peeped through the hole, the means by which the rat obviously frequently made his way to forage for food; it took him a while to make out anything in the dimly-lit, almost bare basement, but when his eyes adjusted more to his new surroundings, he realised that there was a long narrow window high up that was just allowing enough light to filter through to enable him to espy a big casket - little did he realise that the light was coming from his own precious Star shining high above.

The frog listened intently, for he was very wary that the old crone might be lurking in the darkness ready to pounce on him if she realised he had left the dark dungeon into which she had plunged him. He could just make out the deep sighing sound of the witch sleeping, perhaps in an adjoining room. As his eyes adjusted still further, he was fairly confident that she wasn't in this room. By now he had begun to learn that as a frog he could leap and hop quite adeptly - and silently too - a distinct advantage for him to be able to further explore.

If he could successfully reach the casket he might be able to find something that would help him fulfill his dream to return to the fairy with the ruby, sword and potion and thus become a dragon slayer. It took all his energy to tilt the lid, revealing a load of well worn books and a much smaller casket in which there were jewels. As if by magic, the dim lightthat filtered through the window became stronger as his trusty Star shone even brighter and he was able to make out the colours of emeralds, sapphires and.........rubies! Little did he know that the shiny ruby jewel that he selected would be the means of eventually getting the sword and magic potion too.

But first he needed to ensure that the wicked withc didn't catch him there, so he hopped off as quickly and quietly as he could to return throught the rat hole to the dark dungeon to think of what he should do next.

Chapter Five - Nigel

As the frog hopped back into the dungeon he noticed something strange. The ruby he had picked was glowing with a faint light. As he looked around he spotted two yellow dots in the shadows. Slowly the dots came towards him and he could see they were eyes, rat’s eyes. The eyes blinked, and a squeaky voice said “You’re not a real frog, are you?”
“No” replied the frog, “are you a real rat?”
“No” the rat answered. “I’ve been enchanted the same as you. I know how to undo the spell but I can’t do it myself. You may be able to though. The witches power comes from her amulet, if we can take it from her the spell will be broken”
“How do we take it?” asked the frog, “and why can’t you do it?”
“We do it the same way that she enchanted us, we put her to sleep” replied the rat. “I can’t do it because it will put me to sleep too, but frogs are good at holding their breath so you’ll be ok. Now, we have to be quick before she wakes up, follow me.”
The two of them went back through the hole, across the basement and into the room where the witch was asleep. The room was full of books, boxes and jars. A candle flickered on a table near the bed where the witch was sleeping. On a chain around her neck was dark grey pendant. “That’s the amulet” whispered the rat. Quick as a flash the rat scurried up the side of a small cabinet and grabbed a mouth full of leaves. He came back and gave them to the frog, “Burn one of these over the candle, it will put her into a deep sleep, but let me get out first or it will put me to sleep too. Good luck!” and he was gone, scurrying out of the door.
The frog picked up the leaves in his mouth, and with a huge leap he jumped onto the table with the candle. Carefully he held one of the leaves over the flame and it began to smoulder and give off a thick smoke. He dropped it on the table and added the other leaves to it. As the smoke swirled around he heard the witch start to snore, now was his chance. His heart was pounding as he jumped onto the bed and hopped onto the witches shoulder. He waited, but she didn’t move. Slowly he crawled across to the amulet and tugged but it wouldn’t come loose and he couldn’t reach the clasp. By now he was starting to run short of breath - even frogs can’t hold their breath forever. Desperately he tugged and tugged at the amulet, and just as he thought he couldn’t do it the chain snapped. He grabbed the amulet in his mouth and leapt off the bed. As soon as he did he felt something happening and then everything went black.
He woke up to find a man dressed in black standing over him, holding the amulet and smiling, “Well done Frog”.
“What happened?” said the frog, and then he realised that he wasn’t a frog anymore, he was a man again, “Did it work? Are you the Rat? Where’s the witch?”
“Slow down” said the man. “Yes, it worked. As soon as you took the amulet away from her the spell was broken and we both returned to normal. The witch is gone, without her amulet she is powerless and has fled into the forest. As for who I am, my name is Lord Vendar and this is my castle. Now, who are you and how did you get here?”
Slowly the would-be Dragon Slayer told his story, of his meeting with the Fairy Queen and her quest. Lord Vendar listened quietly until he had finished. Once the story was told he stood up and walked out of the room. After a few minutes he returned with a large bundle in his hands. From it he took something small and red.
“This is the ruby you are looking for. It belongs to the Fairy Queen, you should return it to her”.
Next he took a small bottle, with a strange label. “I believe that this is the potion you require. I don’t know what it does, maybe she will tell you when you deliver it, or maybe not. Finally, there is this…”
From the bundle he took a sword. It was obviously old, and had seen better days, but there was something about it which seemed magical. “I don’t know the name of the sword, but it has been in my family for generations. I think now is the time for it to be returned to its rightful owners. When you have completed your quest return here and I will take you as one of my knights. Maybe in time you may even meet a dragon. Now it’s time to be on your way, there is somebody waiting for you outside.”
The would-be Dragon Slayer rushed outside to find Star waiting for him, looking quite happy munching on some hay. After hugging his friend and making sure that he was ok, the would-be Dragon Slayer mounted up and set off in search of the Fairy Queen.
When he reached the clearing in the forest, the Fairy Queen was waiting. He climbed down from has mount and crossed the clearing to kneel in front of her.
“Welcome, brave knight. I am glad to see you again, and see that you have retrieved the items I requested.”
The would-be Dragon Slayer rose and passed over the bundle with the sword, ruby and potion. The Queen opened the bundle and took out the sword. She looked at it sadly.
“It is a long time since I have seen a sword such as this, and it saddens me to see it so neglected. However all is not lost thanks to you my knight. Watch…”
She took the ruby from the bundle and placed it in a space at the top of the hilt. Then she opened the bottle and poured the potion over the blade, whispering strange Elvin words as she did so. Slowly the sword changed, the ruby began to glow and the blade began to shine again as the years of neglect were washed away. After a few minutes the queen stopped her chanting and looked at the sword with pride. Then she looked at the would-be dragon slayer.
“Thank you for the service you have done for us brave knight. In return I hand you this sword. To us it is called Lhûg-Gurth; you would call it Dragon-Death. Guard it well, for one day you will need it. Now, return to Lord Vendar and tell him that the new Dragon Slayer requires training. Farewell, Dragon Slayer.”
So the Dragon-Slayer returned to the castle where he was hailed as a hero. In time he fought dragons and married a princess, and everybody lived happily ever after.