1,619 words - teen fantasy
Once upon a time, there was a cat.
His
name was Edward.
He was gray with two white feet and one white tip on his
tail.
And
of course he was magic.
Once upon a time, there was a girl.
Her
name was Clara.
She was skinny as a bone and had only one dress to her name.
And
of course she had Edward the cat.
Once upon a time, there was a princess.
Her
name was Sophia.
She lived in a palace and smelled like lavender and bathed
three times a day.
She
did not have a cat. But of course she wanted one.
Once upon a time, the cat, the
girl, and the princess all ended up in the same place at the same time. And so
a story began.
It
was a cold day, the kind that burrowed into your bones. The kind with snow that
creaked under your boots, if you were lucky enough to own boots. Neither the
cat nor the girl had boots, but the princess did. She also had a coat, rabbit
fur mittens, and two guards.
The
girl Clara had a sign that said, “Edward the magic cat” and a tin cup with
three coins inside.
The
princess Sophia had come to the market to look for something, but when she saw
Edward the cat with his two white paws and the one white tip on his tail, she
forgot all about the something she had been looking for.
“I
want that cat!” she said. She pointed with one rabbit fur mitten, and when she
pointed, her guards obeyed.
But
the cat did not.
Edward
the cat climbed the nearest thing he could find, which happened to be the girl,
Clara. He hissed, showing tiny white teeth and a bright pink tongue. The guards
had faced assassins, but they had never faced a cat.
“I
want that cat!” the princess said. But wanting something didn’t always mean you
could have that something. The princess didn’t know this yet, and so she threw
a fit. And then she made a plan.
Once upon a time, there was a sorcerer.
No
one knew his name.
He was older than he looked, but younger than anyone guessed.
And
of course he had magic. But he did not have a cat.
When
the princess Sophia came to the sorcerer, she said, “I want a cat. He is gray
with two white paws and one white tip on his tail. And he is magic.”
The
sorcerer nodded. He wanted a magic cat too. He had wanted one for longer than
the princess Sophia had been alive. He knew that wanting something didn’t
always mean he could have that something. But he made a plan anyway.
The
princess Sophia left the sorcerer’s street with two potions in two glass vials,
one in each mittened hand.
When
the princess Sophia woke up the next morning, her ladies in waiting screamed at
the sight of her. Her parents wept. Her guards dragged her to the dungeons.
She
might have been wearing princess Sophia’s silk nightgown and sleeping in
princess Sophia’s canopied bed, but she did not look like princess Sophia
anymore.
Her
father’s entire army was sent out to search the city for the princess they
thought was missing.
When
the girl Clara woke up, it was because two guards grabbed her. The cat Edward
jumped off her feet and hissed. The village people whispered behind their hands.
She
might have been wearing the only dress she owned with holes in the sleeves and
rips in the hem, but she now looked exactly like the missing princess.
The princess Sophia, or rather the
girl Sophia, sat shivering in her nightgown in a cell. The girl Clara, or
rather the princess Clara, stood trembling in the throne room with her hands
tucked behind her back. The sorcerer stood watching from his magic mirror, his
smile making the mole on his cheek stand out. And the cat Edward was yowling
outside the palace doors, pacing back and forth on his paws, two gray and two
white.
No one, not Sophia who’s plan had
gone astray, or the sorcerer who’s plan was just beginning, or even Clara who
knew nothing about anyone’s plans, had considered what Edward the cat wanted.
He wanted something very much. He
wanted a girl. The one who was skinny as a bone with long hair and big eyes and
only one dress to her name. Appearances didn’t fool him. He knew exactly who
she was no matter what she looked like. And he knew that wanting something
always meant he got that something as long as he had a plan.
And so Edward’s plan, the sorcerer’s
plan, and Sophia’s plan got all mixed up together with poor Clara tossed around
in the middle.
When the sorcerer showed up at the
palace with two dried fish, the cat Edward followed him all the way to his dusty
home. The sorcerer thought it was the fish that Edward wanted. As long as you
fed a cat, it would keep coming back. That was what everyone said.
When the sorcerer woke up the next
morning, he felt strange. His hammock was much too big for him. In fact, his
whole house was much too big. When he tried to get up, he found he had four
paws instead of two feet. Two gray paws and two white ones.
When Edward the cat woke up, he
stretched and smiled. And the smile made the mole on his cheek stand out.
The sorcerer, or rather the cat who
used to be a sorcerer, yowled and scratched and hissed, but the sorcerer Edward
shut him in a closet with the dried fish and left for the palace.
When he arrived, he banged open the
doors to the throne room with a crack and a cloud of smoke. The courtiers
screamed.
The sorcerer Edward didn’t like
speaking, having only meowed all his life, but he did it anyway.
“I have come to exact revenge!” he
said.
The king and queen cowered. The
princess Clara squeaked with fear.
The sorcerer Edward didn’t like to
see his girl afraid, but it was for the best.
“Many years ago, my throne was
taken from me by a greedy monarch. I have learned the art of magic, and now I
have come to overthrow all monarchs. For many long years I have planned and
plotted, and at last my moment has come! I have already exacted revenge on one
princess, the girl you have locked in your dungeons. I sent her here to show
you what fate awaits you, any of you who survive my wrath. See what a sorry
state she is in now that my vengeance is complete? Her family is gone. Her
kingdom is gone. Her riches and jewels and armies are gone. I have taken them
all from her! All she has left is one dress to her name! And when I am through
with you, it shall be the same!”
“Seize him!” The king pointed at
Edward the sorcerer, and when the King pointed, his guards obeyed.
The sorcerer Edward sent up a plume
of smoke and vanished. When the smoke cleared, the princess Clara was gone!
“My daughter!” the Queen wailed.
“Find her!” the King commanded.
And so a search was begun once
again to retrieve the missing princess.
If anyone had time to check the
dungeons, they would have noticed that the girl Sophia was also missing. But no
one did.
The satisfied sorcerer Edward, the
frightened princess Clara, and the bewildered girl Sophia made their way to the
sorcerer’s home, where the cat who used to be a sorcerer was still clawing at
the closet door and yowling.
The sorcerer Edward made quick work
of reversing the spells and soon the cat Edward was purring and rubbing against
the girl Clara’s legs, while the sorcerer let himself out of the closet cursing
magical cats as he did so, and the princess Sophia sat down and cried.
Just then the royal guards banged
on the door so brutally that the door’s hinges broke and it landed flat inside
the sorcerer’s house making everyone jump.
Everyone, even the cat Edward, was
escorted back to the palace where the sorcerer was put in the dungeon, the
princess Sophia was embraced by her parents, and the girl Clara was given a new
dress.
It was decided that since the girl
Clara’s kingdom had been taken from her, she should remain at the palace. And
since her cat with the two white paws was said to be magical, he should remain
as well.
The sorcerer disappeared from the
dungeons, and a search was sent out for him, but no one in the kingdom ever
heard from him again for he had had quite enough of magical cats.
Once upon a time, there was a princess.
Her
name was Sophia.
She had a sister whom she sometimes shared her dresses with.
And
sometimes she had a cat that would sit on her lap.
Once upon a time, there was a princess.
Her name was Clara.
She owned more dresses than she could count and wore a
different one every day.
And
of course she had a cat.
Once upon a time, there was a cat.
His
name was Edward.
He was gray with two white feet and one white tip on his
tail.
And
of course he was magic.
Once upon a time, the two
princesses and the magical cat all ended up in the same place at the same time,
and so a story began in which they all lived happily ever after.
The end.
