Tinderbox

[whitesuited]

On his way home from a foreign land, a young man with a retinue of three meets an old witch. The witch asks the young man to climb down into a hollow tree. Inside, she says, he'll find three rooms: one filled with copper, one with silver, and one with gold. Each room will be guarded by a dog. In the first room, the dog will have eyes the size of teacups. In the second, it will have eyes the size of mill wheels. The third dog will have eyes each the size of the Round Tower.

She gives him an apron and instructs him to pick up each dog and lay it on the apron and then help himself to as many coins as he wishes. In exchange, she merely wants a tinderbox, which her sister left last time she was down there.

The young man agrees, leaves his retinue to keep company with the witch and climbs down into the tree.

Inside he finds the three rooms with the three dogs with enormous eyes, exactly as the witch said, and he fills his pockets with coins. He leaves the tree and asks the witch what she wants with the tinderbox. She says it's none of his business. He says, "Tell me, or I'll have your head chopped off."

She says, "No." And he orders one of his retinue to chop her head off.

He takes the best room at the best inn in the nearest city -- a city which is home to a beautiful princess who lives in a copper palace and is never allowed to see anyone but the king because it has been foretold that she will marry a foreign man -- and he spends every coin he has on food and entertainment.

One night, he uses the witch's tinderbox to light a candle, and the dog with eyes as big as teacups appears and says, "What is my master's command?" He promptly asks for more money, and the dog fetches him a sack of coins. After some experimentation, he learns that if he strikes the tinderbox once, the dog with copper coins comes. If he strikes twice, the dog with silver comes. And if he strikes three times, the dog with gold coins comes.

One night, the young man decides he wants to see the princess who no one ever sees, so he summons the dog with eyes as big as teacups and commands him to bring him the princess. In seconds, he returns with the princess on his back, asleep.



ooc: This is the tale the above is from, feel free to be the princess or one of the trio traveling with the young man (Rufus).

Comments

[plotdeviceturk]

"Technically, yes." Tseng replied, hopping off the dog. "Sorry to disappoint."

He wasn't really, but he was rather grateful to the guy for getting him out of that tower for once. "I bet you're wondering why I'm not a lady."

[whitesuited]

"Yes, you could say that. Care to explain?"

After all, surely there has to be a reason for everyone believing the man was actually a woman. Perhaps there was either a witch or a scandal involved which warranted it. It certainly did explain just why the 'princess' had been locked away and no one could visit 'her'.

[plotdeviceturk]

Tseng shrugged, "There was this whole prophecy where my sister would marry a rich foreigner and prosperity would rain down upon the land and everyone would hail the king. Apparently, nobody told the dragon that and he ate her."

There'd been a funeral and a great big hunt for the beast.

"Mind you, they still needed a princess so... I had to attend my own funeral while pretending to be my sister." He sighed, "So they decided that putting up a tower and trotting me out twice a year for public appearances was the best idea to keep the whole thing secret."

[whitesuited]

"So because of some prophecy which you don't actually know if it'll come true or not, you're forced to stay locked up in some castle and cross dress twice a year just to keep up appearances that the needed princess for this so-called prophecy was still around?"

There was a slight raise of one blond eyebrow as he watched Tseng. "The people of this town aren't all that bright are they?"

[plotdeviceturk]

"It was made by a very reputable prophecy maker. She was the one who made the prophecy about those two families in Verona. Plauges on houses and all that, terrible situation. really but what do you expect when teenage idiots want to have sex." Tseng replied matter of factly.

"Well, it helps that I make a rather convincing woman when I get dressed up properly. The long hair doesn't hurt either."

[whitesuited]

That got Tseng a rather amused look, and the blond briefly entertained the mental image of the man before him in a dress. "I believe you've got a chance now to make that prophecy come true and get yourself out of that castle if you want to go along with the idea I've got in mind."