A Beautiful Potion

A Beautiful Potion



Once upon a time, there lived an ugly witch princess in the far away kingdom of Xyria. Her name was Princess Zelda and she was twenty-one years old. Nobody liked her because she was selfish and unkind, but most of all her looks. She had a mass of bright yellow hair and many incurable zits sticking on her face.

She was engaged to marry a wizard from another dimension, whose name was Prince Goby. His looks were the exact opposite of Princess Zelda's, and he had a reputation for his good fencing skills. The two kingdoms had made a deal that if Princess Zelda's looks could be cured, the marriage would go on. (If you're wondering, of course Prince Goby had a lot of choices but his father chose for him Princess Zelda because her kingdom had a lot of gold.)

One fine Thursday afternoon -- two days before the wedding -- Princess Zelda was escorted to the best wizard in her kingdom, Xyria, by one of her guards, Paul the Chivalrous. Paul was a gigantic burly man who used to work as a blacksmith in the kingdom, but had been promoted as a guard by Princess Zelda's request to her father, King Bo. The simple reason being she was in love with Paul. She dared not tell her father, King Bo, in fear Paul might be thrown in the dungeon (those were just the rules for forbidden love) and there was a chance she, Princess Zelda might be stripped off her title as princess.

The wizard's shop laid between two valleys, beside a gigantic waterfall. His shop was his home: a small wooden house consisting of two wooden stools, a bed, a table and a candle. Princess Zelda was shocked . Even her toilet was more gigantic than this man's house. But of course she was also smug and decided she would use the opportunity to show off.

"Greetings," the wizard said, and immediately proceeded to bow down before the princess. "I am Sir Gerard, and welcome to my shop." He was a short elf-like man with chunks of white beard growing from his chin.

"Thank you for having us," Paul the Chivalrous responded. "This is the royal highness, Princess Zelda, and I am her escorting guard, Paul--"

"Beautiful house you have," Princess Zelda interrupted sarcastically.

Whether he noticed the snide comment or not, Sir Gerard showed no signs of it. His only response was a hasty thank you, then he said, "Please, make yourselves comfortable." He gestured toward the two stools and disappeared into one of the rooms.

"Rude much?" Princess Zelda growled as she took a seat, fanning herself with a red fan custom-made for her by the finest seamstress in Xyria.

Paul ignored her. He struggled to sit on the stool (as it was too tiny for his bottom). His efforts resulted a loud crack and suddenly the whole stool crumbled. Paul gaped and his face reddened, while Princess Zelda couldn't help but giggle out loud.

There was a loud crash from the other room just then as Sir Gerard appeared, a tray of some weird concoction in two slender wooden cups. He was sweating as he set in down on the table, his breaths coming in short gasps. However his breath stopped altogether when he noticed the broken chair.

Paul's face reddened a shade brighter as he stuttered over his words. "Sir Gerard, I f-feel so ashamed for th-this...I'm so sorry for what I have done... Shall I get you another?"

"No, no," Sir Gerard hastily disagreed. "It does not matter. Do not worry."

"Sir, I--"

Princess Zelda groaned out loud and both the men turned to look at her. "Can we just stop arguing about this crap? This isn't what we came here for, for Goodness's Sake!"

Sir Gerard was the first to recover. "Yes, you are correct Princess. I apologize. We should get down to business." He cleared his throat and pointed to the two cups. Ugly purple foam was rising. "Let us discuss this over Dragon's Broth. It is very calming for the mind."

Paul, being polite as usual, took a sip of the drink. His reaction was a tight smile, and Princess Zelda could read from it that it tasted horrible.

"It tastes good," Paul struggled to say. Judging from Sir Gerard's face, Princess Zelda could see that the wizard believed him as a genuine-looking smile was forming on his face.

Princess Zelda gave Paul a nice smile. She really wanted to put the smile off Sir Gerard's face -- how dare he embarrass her Paul and get away with it? So she said-out-loud, "What he actually means is it tastes like shit."

She watched Sir Gerard's face for a single trace of shock or hurt, but his features did not alter. She snarled inwardly for her unsucessful atempt. Paul, on the other hand, had both expressions (a mixture of them) displayed on his face as he scrambled to defend the drink. "Sir Gerard... that is not true! I--"

"Oh, do not worry, young one," Sir Gerard said with a perky smile on his face. He certainly was a good actor. "Many people find it a distaste. Now, let's get back to where we were before. So, princess, how may I help you?"

"She needs a potion...a potion on beauty. To altar the looks of one into a beautiful fair maiden. Do you think you can help us?" Paul asked. Princess Zelda flinched; she was sensitive to her looks. Paul placed a hand gently against her shoulder.

Sir Gerard rubbed his chin for a moment thoughtfully, then said, "Yes, I believe I have a potion. Hold on one second."

He disappeared into the room. Paul chose the moment to speak to Princess Zelda in private.

"What the hell was that for?" he cried.

Princess Zelda shrugged. "He embarrassed you. I was merely trying to help."

"It wasn't a good way. Please don't do that again, princess."

She huffed. "Yea, but I was only trying to help..."

Sir Gerard emerged from the room, a tiny bottle in his hand. He was grinning absurdly, like he had just won a competition or something. "Here. This is... A Beautiful Potion."

"Wow," Paul gasped.

Princess Zelda rolled her eyes. "And here I thought it was going to be a gigantic glass of pure gold liquid. This is, like, gray and dirty. Did anyone bother cleaning it at all?"

They ignored her.

"So tell us, Sir Gerard, how do we use this?"

"You only need to use this once, and then your beauty remains forever. Just one drop, though. Use it tonight, when all is silent, and the moon and stars glowing above us.The result will show itself just before the wedding, I promise. I have to chant some spells before these work."

"Are you a poet?" questioned Paul, impressed.

The wizard grinned. "You guess correctly, young one."

***

The day of the wedding had approached. Princess Zelda was dressed in a beautiful gown made out of silk. Sir Gerard arrived and began to chant some spells in the dressing room. There was a loud cracking sound and suddenly Princess Zelda felt a tingling sensation etch on her face. She screamed, but then the process was already finished.

"Beautiful," Sir Gerard observed as he handed Princess Zelda a mirror. She gasped at what she saw: a beautiful young girl with sparkly eyes, no zits, long eyelashes, fair complexion, full lips, and exactly...perfect. Then she burst into tears.

"My, my," Sir Gerard cried, jumping to her and proceeding to pat her awkwardly. "Are you all right, princess?"

Princess Zelda hiccuped. "I... don't tell anyone this, ok?" He nodded. "You see, I don't actually want to look beautiful. And I certainly don't want to get married to that pug-face Goby. Gawd, he is so sick. I love Paul . What is that so wrong about!?"

Sir Gerard took a minute for the information to sink in. "Have you told your father? Paul?" he finally asked.

"NO!!" Princess Zelda screamed, her mascara being smudged by all those tears now. "No..." she whispered.

"Why?"

"Gawd, I DON'T KNOW!" she snapped. "But... I do think Paul likes me back," she confided.

Sir Gerard smiled. "He does, young one. I was doing a spell before you two arrived -- I wanted to know you better before you arrived so moments would not be as awkward. It told me... how you both felt... I didn't mean to pry, though; I just --"

Princess Zelda gasped. "What!?"

Sir Gerard just grinned. "I have a plan."



'Here Comes The Bride' was playing as Princess Zelda walked in the hall. The crowd gasped and gaped at her beauty. She concentrated on Prince Goby instead, and the plan. The whole ceremony went on as planned by their parents... till...

"Will you, Prince Goby, take this woman as your honoured wife?"

"Yes."

"And you, Princess Zelda, take this man as your honoured husband?"

Princess Zelda took a peak at Sir Gerard and he winked. She closed her eyes, and the cracking started. It was her face, of course, as the beautiful illusion was suddenly broken and she changed to her normal, ugly self again.

"What! What is going on?" Prince Goby's father started shouting, as did everyone else.

Princess Zelda could hear someone running up behind her. It was Paul. He looked surprised. "Princess, what is going on? It's that bastard Sir Gerard, isn't it? I swear I'll beat him up in a second--"

But before he could finish, Princess Zelda was already kissing him. The crowd joined in, with Awwwsss, and Ooohhs. She could even hear her father gasp and her mother crying in happiness. She forgot everything then, let everything behind, as she and Paul let lose their real feelings for each other and well, kissed.

The End

(1660 words)