The Princess In The Pearl – Part 3

Following Napowera's instructions, Prince Walther went with Thalio, his most trusted servant, to the edge of the ocean then, asking Thalio to wait for him upon the shore and have a sword ready, the prince dived into the deep, blue ocean and, wishing upon the charm that Napowera had placed around his neck, he transformed himself into a huge cachalot or sperm whale so that he might swim down very deep and use that creatures amazing seeing song to scan the sea with but he was inexperienced at being a whale and, no matter how he tried, the prince could not find the giant oyster shell or the pearl or the princess within.

“Hello”, said another whale, swimming alongside him, “What are you doing?”.

“Oyster, giant, golden, I seek”, said the Prince, new to the language of the whales.

“Oh, you must be foreign”, said the other whale, “Judging by the funny way you talk but, if you’re looking for a giant golden oyster shell then I know where to find it”.

And then the friendly whale led him to where the golden oyster shell was but, just as they were getting near to it, the whale suddenly stopped and said, “I can’t take you any further,I'm afraid”.

“Why not?”, asked the Prince.

“Because theres some terrible, giant creature up ahead. It’s infront of your golden shell and it looks hungry”, said the whale.

Then suddenly Prince Walther saw what the whale was describing, Ivelda’s giant, fire-breathing, tentacled sea-beast, the Grathmoth and it was indeed a really terrifying sight to behold with fire blazing in its enormous eyes like torch-lit caverns and razor sharp spikes upon its tentacles as great as sharks fins and massive rows of slimy teeth as large as sails on a fishing boat but, beyond its terrible long body, its tentacles and claws, Prince Walther could see the golden oyster shell in which his true love was being held captive and, knowing that he was so close, the prince felt new confidence in his heart.

“Go and be safe, whale friend”, said the prince then in his broken whale song, “Face it alone, I must and I will”.

So then the friendly whale swam away saying, “Well, you’re a braver whale than I, my friend”.

But though the prince had a mountain of courage in his heart he had not the slightest clue how he would defeat such an enormous sea-dragon, “Napowera’s magic charm allows me to transform myself, at a thought, into any creature of the deep but there is surely not a sea creature in existence to match the size of this ferocious leviathan”, thought the prince, “However, what the titanic cannot do, the tiny may accomplish”.

And so Prince Walther transformed himself into a tiny minnow and he was so small that the towering Grathmoth did not even pay any attention to him, not even when he swam between two gigantic stalagmite like teeth into the creatures cavernous mouth and then, once he was sitting upon the slimy tongue of the beast that was as long and thick as a carpet, using Napowera’s magic charm, he transformed himself into a box jellyfish with deadly, stinging tentacles.

Immediately, the Grathmoth gave out a terrible cry of agony and being within its mouth was like being in the heart of thundercloud with the deafening rumble all around him but, hearing the monsters thunderous cry of pain, Prince Walther was sure that he had struck the creature a fatal blow however, suddenly, Prince Walther began to feel rather hot and, gazing down the creatures deep, slimy gullet, he could see a flickering of light and shadow as if men with torches were proceeding up a long dark corridor.

“The monster is about to breathe fire”, thought the prince, panicking and quickly turning himself into a swift sailfish; beating his tail fin frantically and swimming out of the monsters open, roaring jaws just in time to avoid the searing heat of dragon flame that then burst out of the monsters enormous mouth like fire from the mouth of an erupting undersea volcano.

Then, if he had possessed lungs at that time instead of gills, he might have sighed a sigh of relief for he was certainly relieved to fly out of range of the monsters blazing breath. “Thank goodness!”, he thought, looking back at the water behind him that was starting to bubble and boil with the heat of the dragon fire, “I might well have been a cooked jellyfish”.

Unfortunately, though, when he looked back at the Grathmoth he saw that his jellyfish stings, which most certainly would have killed an ordinary sized beast like a human being, merely seemed to make the ferocious sea monster more angry and now the Grathmoth, spying him in his sailfish form,
came after him with its giant, waving tentacles, each as large as a sea-snake, and its enormous snapping jaws and it was all that he could do to avoid being torn apart but then he remembered
how he had heard of the clever cuttlefish and its ability to change its colour so as to blend in with its environment and hide itself and so he transformed himself into a cuttlefish and, clinging to some rocks upon the seabed with tiny tentacles, he made himself the same colour as the rocks so as to be come almost invisible to the eyes of the Grathmoth and it was then, while the Grathmoth was searching, bewildered by the Princes sudden disappearance that the prince saw an opportunity to strike a blow at the scaly, monstrosities evil heart and so, transforming himself once more, the prince became a Narwhal, that great unicorn of the seas, with a long sharp, twisted horn and, charging toward the beasts vast, scaly, chest rammed the horn deep into the creatures black heart,splitting it in two.

Prince Walther had expected red blood to pour out of the heart but it was more like black, squid ink that now jetted in a great cloud from the creatures breast but, black or red, blood was blood and the beast, vanquished, now sank onto the sea bed; a huge, scaly corpse.

“Atlast”, thought Prince Walther, seeing the giant, golden oyster shell before him, “Atlast I can set my true love free”.

Then, making one last transformation, he turned himself into an octopus and, with eight large, strong tentacles he prized open the giant shell and then, embracing the giant inner pearl with those tentacles he swam back up with it to the surface before transforming back into his true human form.

“Good show, Prince Walther!”, said Napowera, watching the Grathmoth’s defeat through her crystal ball, “Now true love, unhindered, may run its course”.

But, skulking and scowling in the shadows behind her, the disempowered Ivelda was not as happy to see her mighty sea monster slain, “Vile troublemaker!”, she muttered under her breath, fixing Napowera with an angry, hateful stare, “I’ll teach you yet to meddle in my affairs for while you may have robbed me of my witches power, I still have a trick or two up my sleeve”.

And, saying this, the cruel villainess reached up inside the long sleeve of her dress and pulled out a small poison tipped dagger with which she intended to stab an unsuspecting Napowera in the back.

Fortunately for the white witch, Napowera, while she was watching Prince Walthers triumph in her crystal ball she also saw Ivelda reflected in the crystal balls smooth, polished surface and, reaching up inside her own sleeve, that of her star covered, dark blue robes, she drew out her witch’s magical wand and, turning sharply, shot a bolt of magical energy straight into Ivelda’s dark, evil-ridden heart and the old villainess was immediately transformed from the likeness of Princess Chrisobel into the likeness of a scuttling, tiny hermit crab with snipping claws.

“A much more suitable shape for one such as you, Ivelda”, said Napowera, chuckling and turning back to her crystal ball.

The Princess had been frightened when she’d seen a great octopus swimming towards her but then she’d seen that octopus transform into her valiant prince and her heart had leapt then, after he had swam with the pearl to the edge of shore and carried the Pearl onto the beach where his good manservant Thalio had been waiting, he wearily instructed Thalio to hand him his sword and, drawing his long steel broadsword from the scabbard at his side, Thalio gave it to the prince
and the prince, though his limbs were weak and weary from fighting the Grathmoth, raised up the sword in both his hands and brought its sharpened edge down upon the giant pearl.

But, to the prince’s utter amazement and deep dismay, when the steel sword struck the surface of the pearl the blade of the sword merely shattered like no more than the dry, old rotten branch of a tree and so, in pure desperation, the Prince looked around and picked up a small boulder that was lying by the edge of the shore and brought it down hard upon the pearl, hoping that the pearls gleaming surface would crack under the force but the pearl didn’t crack, infact
neither steel sword nor boulder had even left as little as a scratch upon the surface of the magic pearl and, after several more heavy blows with the boulder it was the boulder and not the pearl that began to crumble into dust.

“Should I go and fetch a hammer from the blacksmith's shop, your majesty?”, asked Thalio, saddened by the look of desperation in the princes eyes and eager to help.

“If neither sword nor stone can crack it then what good will a hammer do?”, said the king, sinking to his knees upon the sandy beach, “It is sealed with some witch’s magic and I do not know how to open it”.

And then, tired and full of sadness, the king leant upon the giant pearl and wept and, seeing his tears, the princess within also started to cry and it was from the mingling of two lovers tears that the witch’s spell was broken and the giant, indestructible pearl began to melt away and, before either Walther or the Princess knew it, the pearl was gone and they had fallen into each others arms.

“Atlast”, said Napowera, looking into her crystal ball and watching the Prince and Princess gaze into each others eyes and lock their lips together in a passionate kiss, “True love has conquered all”.