The Princess and The Panda

Long ago, in China, a baby girl, a Princess, named Lou Lee was kidnapped by an evil wizard, named Fang Fu who took her to his paper pagoda and bound her feet so that they would not grow normally.

"That is so that you cannot walk", said the wizard, "If you cannot walk then you cannot run away".

Now that little girl grew into a beautiful woman but because her feet had been bound they grew deformed so that she could not walk.

And looking up at the moon the princess would weep because she longed to be free of the wizard.

One day, however, a Panda, named Peng, came sniffing about looking for food and smelling the Princess's rice cakes came into the pagoda.

"Excuse me", he said, seeing the princess, "But I could not help, as I was passing by, smelling the scent of your rice cakes and I wondered if I might have some".

"Oh please take them all if you wish", said the Princess, "I do not care about eating I would happily starve to death i am so miserable".

The Panda asked why the Princess was so sad and the Princess told him about her bound feet and the wizard who had taken her captive.

"Well", said the Panda, "There is a good wizard, called the Bamboo wizard who lives in the bamboo forest that is my home. Perhaps if you climb on my back, I can carry you to him and he can help you".

So the Princess climbed upon the Pandas back and they set off for the Bamboo forest where the good Wizard lived.

As they were heading towards the forest however, the evil wizard came home and seeing that the Princes had gone summoned an army of ants out of the long sleeve of his coat and, the ants growing and turning into soldiers in black armour, he ordered them, "Search the area, find the princess and bring her back".

And as the Panda and the Princess were approaching the edge of the forest they heard the regiment of ant soldiers singing,

"We are the wizards soldiers, evil ants dressed in black; were going to find the Princess catch her and take her back".

And hearing the singing of the Ant soldiers, the Princess started to panic, telling the Panda,

"Oh quick, quick, we must hide or the wizards soldiers will catch me".

Fortunately, they saw a cave nearby and took refuge inside it.

In the cave, however, they saw a man who was chained up to the wall of the cave and when they questioned the man they realised that he couldn't speak.

"He must be a villain or dangerous", said the Panda, "Otherwise, why would he be chained up".

"Oh, but I was a prisoner", said the Princess, "And I had done no wrong to deserve it. I think we should set him free".

And so the Panda tried to break the mans chain by hitting it with rocks but the rocks only shattered into pieces.

"Its no good", he said, "I cannot break the chain. Perhaps if i had a hammer".

But then the man kissed his chain and pointed to the princess.

"You want me to kiss your chain?", asked the princess.

The man nodded.

And so, even though it was an odd request, the Princess kissed the mans chain and the moment that she did it vanished, link by link and the man spoke.

"Oh thank you", he said, "I am the Eastern wind. The evil wizard captured me and put that magical chain upon me and took away my voice so that couldn't cry for help. Only the kiss of kindness from the lips of a beautiful maiden could break the chain and restore my voice".

Then the Eastern wind asked if there was anyway in which he could repay the princess and she told him about the ant soldiers who were outside the cave searching for her.

"Don't worry", said the Eastern wind, turning himself into a whirling tornado, "I will deal with them".

Then, howling out of the cave, the Eastern Wind scooped up all of the Ant soldiers and carried them off to the China Sea, dropping so that they sunk to the bottom.

Then, peering out and seeing that the soldiers had gone, the Princess and the Panda continued on their journey towards the house of the good wizard who lived in the bamboo forest.

And after sometime, they reached the wizards house that was made entirely of bamboo and as they approached it the wizard appeared dressed just like a peasant in a large round pointed hat.

Then the princess told the wizard about how she had been kidnapped and about how her feet had been bound.

The wizard said that he had some magic medicine that would heal the princess's feet unfortunately he couldn't open the medicine bottle.

"I cannot get the cork out of the bottle", he told the princess, taking the bottle from a pocket of his robes and tugging upon the cork, "However hard I try".

The Panda, because he was very strong, thought that he could open it and asked if he could try, unfortunately the Pandas paws could not grip the cork.

Just then however, the Princess saw some writing on the bottle that was covered by dust and, taking hold of it she started to rub away the dust, revealing the words, "Only a gentle hand can open this bottle".

When she did, suddenly, the cork shot out of the bottle and a fountain of medicine gushed from its neck splashing the pandas fur and, where it landed, the fur was turned white so that now the Panda, that was once a black bear, is black and white.

Fortunately some of the medicine also splashed the Princess upon her feet and when it did the feet began to straighten and heal and grow.

"It's working, its working", said the Princess, happily, looking at her feet.

Unfortunately, though the Princess's feet started to grow, they would not stop growing and grew bigger and bigger until they were almost as long as her legs and as broad as her head.

"Oh no!", said the Princess, sadly, "This is terrible. My feet are gigantic".

"Don't worry", said the Wizard rooting around in his pockets, "I'm sure I've got some medicine that will make them smaller".

Just as that moment however, they heard a loud roaring noise and then, coming through the bamboo forest towards them they saw a long dragon, its body snaking in and out of bamboo trees, fire shooting out of its left nostril and lightning out of its right.

"So this is where you've run to", roared the dragon with the evil wizards voice, seeing the Princess, "Well, you cant run anymore. I'll swallow you up and spit out your bones".

Now the good wizard took out his bamboo wand and pointing it at the dragon aimed a lightning bolt towards it but the dragon caught hold of the lightning bolt in one of its hundred clawed feet and, turning it around, hurled it back at the wizard, turning him to stone.

So then, bravely, the Panda, growling, leapt upon the dragon and sank its teeth into the dragons scaly neck but the dragon grabbed hold of the panda and just looking at it turned the bear to stone.

Then, tossing the stone bear to one side, the evil dragon closed in on a trembling, terrified princess.

Now the Princess didn't know what to do because she wasn't powerful like the good wizard or strong like the Panda but, in desperation, she kicked the dragon in its scaly stomach with one of her big feet and the foot was so big and the kick so hard that she kicked the dragon into outer space and, bouncing off the moon, venus and mercury, the dragon crashed deep into the sun, all the scales upon it turning to flames and its eyes to sunspots as it was burned to cinders.

And the moment that this happened, miraculously, the Princess's feet returned to normal size and not only that but the Panda and the Wizard were turned back from stone to living flesh.

Oh, the Princess was so happy to finally have normal feet to walk upon that she and the Panda danced and skipped and ran and played until the moon came up.

Then the Princess went back home to the palace of her father and mother, the Emperor and Empress and because of all that the Panda had done to help her she made a law that all Pandas and all the wildlife of China be preserved, then she and the Panda lived as best friends happily ever after.