Week 14 Story: The Dancing Princess
It's been years since Princess Marie had written in her diary. She may be the youngest of her eleven sisters, but she was 17 now, practically an adult, much too old for journals. But after certain recent events, she just had to dig out her old friend to recount her experiences.
Dear Diary,
I know it's been a while since my last entry, but so much has happened that I have to tell you all about it.
Starting with, there is a magical ballroom under the palace! After discovering it a few months ago, me and my eleven big sisters have been going there every night to dance. Once the rest of the palace is asleep, open the secret doorway in our chamber room, descend the hidden staircase, and arrive at the magnificent golden ballroom. Upon our arrival, every lamp in the room is instantly lit and magical instruments floating from the ceiling begin to play themselves. And so me and my sisters dance until our shoes, and our feet, are all worn out.
But a few weeks ago, Father started to get suspicious. He had noticed how worn out our dancing shoes were, and so was determined find out where it was that we were "sneaking off to" in the middle of night. Worried he might take our hidden treasure from us, we swore to each other that we would keep it a secret. But, as you know, Father is resilient.
In an attempt to discover our secret, he had a contest of all things! To anyone who could figure out where we went at night, he promised to give them any material thing in the world that they desired. Each person who came was allowed to stay in the chamber room next to ours, but for only three days. And if they didn't figure it out, they were banished, never to return to the kingdom again.
So for weeks, people came and went. To keep them from hearing us, we brought them "special" tea before bed that made them fall sound asleep. So none of them figured out our secret. That is, until a young man named Franco came to stay with us.
Since he was about my age, I decided to bring him the tea. But when he opened his chamber door, and our eyes met, I just about dropped the cup. I didn't know what came over me. He caught the cup just as it was about to fall out of my hands, and when his hands touched mine, I felt a....I don't know what other word to describe it than....a spark. He then cup, kindly thanked me, and closed the door.
And so when enough time had passed that we thought he had surely fallen asleep, we once again put on our dancing shoes and went down to our ballroom.
Lost in our dancing, none of us noticed that Franco had actually snuck down to ballroom, until he came up and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around was stunned. Turns out that he had not drank the tea, suspicious that we might try to pull some trick on him. I started to panic in my head, thinking that he would run and tell Father and our time in our beloved ballroom was about to end. But he only starred at me for a moment with those twinkling eyes before saying:
"May I have this dance?"
By then, all of my sisters had realized his presence, so they were all watching and waiting for reply. Then, with the biggest smile on my face, I said:
"Yes."
We danced together for the rest of the night, as we did for the next two nights of his visit, with my sisters dancing around us. I felt more magic in those moments than I have in all my time in the ballroom.
So, that brings us to this morning. He promised that he wouldn't say a word to my father, but that means he will be banished today. I don't know what I'm going to do.... but I know what I want to do.
I'll talk to my sisters. Surely, they'll understand. They'll be happy for me. Won't they?
Maybe Father will let us keep the ballroom. I don't see why not. It's just a ballroom anyway.
This is why I needed to talk to you again Diary. My mind was always clearer after I wrote my entries.
Anyways, I'll write back later with what happens.
Wish me luck.
Marie
Author's Note: This story is inspired by the Brothers Grimm version of The Twelve Dancing Princess. If you're like me, and you owned almost all the Barbie movies when you were a kid, you can imagine my excitement when I saw this listed in the Brothers Grimm stories. The original tells the story in third person point of view, but I thought it would fun to tell it from one of the princesses' perspectives. In the original, the king says that to any man who discovers his daughters' secret, that he can choose one of them to be his wife, and so will be the next king. However, if they fail to figure it out after three nights, they will be executed.
In the original, it was a whole world that the princesses visited at night, but for simplicity reasons I just made it a magical ballroom. It was also an old soldier who figured out the princesses' secret. So he told the king and chose the eldest daughter to marry. In my story, I thought it would be cute to write it from the perspective of the youngest princess, and to have her actually fall in love with a boy who came to visit.
Bibliography: The Twelve Dancing Princess from Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm.
Dear Diary,
I know it's been a while since my last entry, but so much has happened that I have to tell you all about it.
Starting with, there is a magical ballroom under the palace! After discovering it a few months ago, me and my eleven big sisters have been going there every night to dance. Once the rest of the palace is asleep, open the secret doorway in our chamber room, descend the hidden staircase, and arrive at the magnificent golden ballroom. Upon our arrival, every lamp in the room is instantly lit and magical instruments floating from the ceiling begin to play themselves. And so me and my sisters dance until our shoes, and our feet, are all worn out.
But a few weeks ago, Father started to get suspicious. He had noticed how worn out our dancing shoes were, and so was determined find out where it was that we were "sneaking off to" in the middle of night. Worried he might take our hidden treasure from us, we swore to each other that we would keep it a secret. But, as you know, Father is resilient.
In an attempt to discover our secret, he had a contest of all things! To anyone who could figure out where we went at night, he promised to give them any material thing in the world that they desired. Each person who came was allowed to stay in the chamber room next to ours, but for only three days. And if they didn't figure it out, they were banished, never to return to the kingdom again.
So for weeks, people came and went. To keep them from hearing us, we brought them "special" tea before bed that made them fall sound asleep. So none of them figured out our secret. That is, until a young man named Franco came to stay with us.
Since he was about my age, I decided to bring him the tea. But when he opened his chamber door, and our eyes met, I just about dropped the cup. I didn't know what came over me. He caught the cup just as it was about to fall out of my hands, and when his hands touched mine, I felt a....I don't know what other word to describe it than....a spark. He then cup, kindly thanked me, and closed the door.
And so when enough time had passed that we thought he had surely fallen asleep, we once again put on our dancing shoes and went down to our ballroom.
Lost in our dancing, none of us noticed that Franco had actually snuck down to ballroom, until he came up and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around was stunned. Turns out that he had not drank the tea, suspicious that we might try to pull some trick on him. I started to panic in my head, thinking that he would run and tell Father and our time in our beloved ballroom was about to end. But he only starred at me for a moment with those twinkling eyes before saying:
"May I have this dance?"
By then, all of my sisters had realized his presence, so they were all watching and waiting for reply. Then, with the biggest smile on my face, I said:
"Yes."
We danced together for the rest of the night, as we did for the next two nights of his visit, with my sisters dancing around us. I felt more magic in those moments than I have in all my time in the ballroom.
So, that brings us to this morning. He promised that he wouldn't say a word to my father, but that means he will be banished today. I don't know what I'm going to do.... but I know what I want to do.
I'll talk to my sisters. Surely, they'll understand. They'll be happy for me. Won't they?
Maybe Father will let us keep the ballroom. I don't see why not. It's just a ballroom anyway.
This is why I needed to talk to you again Diary. My mind was always clearer after I wrote my entries.
Anyways, I'll write back later with what happens.
Wish me luck.
Marie
Author's Note: This story is inspired by the Brothers Grimm version of The Twelve Dancing Princess. If you're like me, and you owned almost all the Barbie movies when you were a kid, you can imagine my excitement when I saw this listed in the Brothers Grimm stories. The original tells the story in third person point of view, but I thought it would fun to tell it from one of the princesses' perspectives. In the original, the king says that to any man who discovers his daughters' secret, that he can choose one of them to be his wife, and so will be the next king. However, if they fail to figure it out after three nights, they will be executed.
In the original, it was a whole world that the princesses visited at night, but for simplicity reasons I just made it a magical ballroom. It was also an old soldier who figured out the princesses' secret. So he told the king and chose the eldest daughter to marry. In my story, I thought it would be cute to write it from the perspective of the youngest princess, and to have her actually fall in love with a boy who came to visit.
Bibliography: The Twelve Dancing Princess from Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm.
Image Info: Ballet dancer silhouette. Source: Dancer
Hey Brianna,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your story, I appreciate you giving the girl the chance to actually fall in love with Franco instead of her being treated as a material object. I used to think all of the stories were the epitome of romance, but now I look at them very differently and am a bit horrified often times. I really like the way you brought the story to life.
Hi Brianna!
ReplyDeleteI like reading stories that are in the Dear Diary format so I really enjoyed reading your story! I like that you changed it from the oldest sister marrying the old soldier to the youngest one falling in love and marrying the guy. Overall, this was a really cute story and I'm glad I got to read it.
Hey Brianna,
ReplyDeleteI’ve always loved stories told from the perspective of a diary. It provides such great insight into what characters are thinking and what they hope for the future. In this case, it was secret dancing that was being written about. I loved the details that you provided about the palace in where they lived. Overall, a fun read to have.
Andrew
Hey Brianna!
ReplyDeleteI think the way you told your story was great. First person stories are just so much better to me for some reason. I had never read the original, but after reading your author's note I thought you did a great job with your adaptation. Ending on sort of a cliff hanger was a great idea. I love how we don't know how it ends.