The True Prince

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess. When she was young, her parents placed her in a tower to await the day when her prince would come and rescue her. In order to determine if the prince was a true prince, her parents put a terrifying beast in front of the tower. The beast guarded the tower day and night, scaring away all the princes and knights that came to rescue the princess. None were strong enough or brave enough to take on the beast. Many came and many failed. Some turned and ran as soon as they saw they would have to fight for the princess. The years went by and the princess became discouraged. When would her true prince come? Far away, the fiercest of knights heard of the princess in the tower. He was known for being the best jouster for miles around. He took his horse and his squire and set off for the princess’s tower. Throughout his journey, the knight faced many obstacles. Each time, his squire was there to help him through each trial. After many days and nights the knight and squire reached the forest near the princess’s tower. Seeing the beast, the knight became afraid. Fearing for his life, he sent his squire ahead to watch the beast and see if it had any weaknesses. The squire went, for he was just as intrigued by the princess as the knight. A whole day and night the squire watched the beast. He discovered the beast had a weak spot. Having found this out, the squire returned to the knight with this news. Hearing how difficult it would be to kill the beast, the knight made a plan to destroy the animal a different way. Thinking he had a great way to get around the danger of being killed, the knight set out the next morning. Upon meeting the beast, the knight tried his “brilliant” plan and was quickly knocked down. The squire ran to the rescue of his master. Grabbing the sword the beast had flung aside, the squire ran to finish the battle. Realizing he had a new opponent, the beast left the knight and came towards the squire. The battle began again. The beast tried tactic after tactic to inflict fear into the squire so he would give up, but the squire would not back down. He came at the beast time after time trying to get the weak spot on the beast’s inner thigh. The battle raged, and the princess began to fear that the squire would fail as all the others had. With strength and courage the squire kept coming at the beast waiting for the right moment when he could deliver the fatal blow. Finally that moment came. With a yell the squire ran right into the beast and drove his sword into it’s inner thigh. With a wail the beast went down. At last, the princess was free. The knight, who had run for cover, came out and took the sword from his squire waving it around victoriously. But the princess was not fooled. She had seen the battle and knew her true prince was the squire. She dismissed the knight and brought the squire to her parents. Humbly the squire came before the King and Queen, and asked for the hand of their daughter. The King and Queen were astonished that a lowly squire had defeated the beast, so they asked their daughter what she wanted to do. The princess replied, “He may not look like a prince, but his heart is 10 times greater than any prince or knight that has ever come so far. He is my true prince.” The two were married and lived happily ever after.