Cutina

Once there was a princess who had to jump everywhere.

 

She would have to jump out of bed and jump across her room and even  jump, one step at a time, up and down stairs.

 

Now that might sound like a lot of fun because, of course, all little children like to jump about but, sadly for this little girl, the reason why she had to jump everywhere is because she was the prisoner of a very wicked witch called Mephistina who had, magically, chained her ankles together to stop her from running away.

 

The little girl’s name was Cutina and, when she was only a baby, the wicked witch; because she wanted to have a child but was too cold hearted and self-centred to fall in love or get married, cast a spell upon Cutina’s cradle so that wings grew upon it and it flew out of her nursery window to the home of the witch.

 

“You are my child now”, Mephistina had told her, “And I will make you into a powerful but wicked sorceress like myself”.

 

And time after time, Mephistina tried to brew up potions that would turn Cutina evil but she could never seem to find a way to extinguish the flame of love in Cutina’s heart.

 

And Cutina hated the idea of being made evil because all she longed to be was a normal little girl

so, one morning, when the Witch was asleep, Cutina had tried to run away from her house but then Mephistina’s cat who was outside in the yard, seeing the little girl trying to escape, started to bark loudly like a dog and her hens that were pecking about outside all started to crow loudly like roosters and, hearing the noise, the wicked Mephistina had woken up and come rushing out and, rubbing the hairs on her chin, cast a wicked spell so that Cutina’s feet turned backwards.

 

And, because her feet were turned backwards, as the little girl tried to run away, she ran back towards the witch instead.

 

Then the witch grabbed hold of her and, rubbing her hairy chin again and making the girls feet spin round to face the right direction, she placed a pair of manacles round Cutina’s ankles with a short chain between them, saying,

 

“There, now if you want to go anywhere, my girl, you will have to jump because you shalln’t be able to run”.

 

Thus, Cutina spent the following years of her life jumping everywhere.

 

But then, one day, the Witch’s magic rooster laid an egg and, cracking it open and reading the message inside, Mephistina saw that her wicked cousin, Frigia; the witch of the icy north, wanted to see her and so, informing Cutina that she would be away for a day and a night, she rubbed her hairy chin again and cast a spell that made all the windows and doors of the house, and even the chimney pot, disappear so that Cutina would not be able to get out and then, leaping head first into the hole  in her witches hat she vanished and the hat vanished too.

 

Poor Cutina.

 

If she hadn’t had the witch’s magic candles (ones that never burned down) to light the house she would have been in total darkness because the witch had made all the windows, that let light in, disappear.

 

But then, as she was sitting on her bed, feeling miserable and lonely and sobbing, along the road which ran past her house came an old man.

 

He was a wizard actually and, as he was walking along he was touching rosebuds on the ground with the tip of his magic walking stick and making them open and bloom and singing a song;

 

“Oh some flowers wait till the Summer

when the weather is warmer and bright

but the flowers that bloom in the Springtime

are the ones that give me most delight.

 

Wherever sun touches he raises,

pretty little blooms at my feet

like buttercups, bluebells and daisies

and they look so dainty and sweet”.

 

Now, when Cutina heard the old wizard singing, her heart leapt up and, hoping that he might help her, she called out to him,

 

“Oh please”, she shouted, “Please, whoever you are, please help me for I am being held prisoner by an evil witch who has chained both my ankles together and sealed up all the doors and windows of this house”.

 

“Oh that’s terrible”, said the wizard, moved by Cutina’s sad tale, “Don’t worry. I’ll find some way to help you”.

 

When he said this, however, the Witch’s cat that was a sort of guard dog, began to bark and growl at the wizard and said;

 

“Go away. She doesn’t want your help. My mistress will be back in a day and a night but she has to wait till then”.

 

“Well, she certainly sounds like she wants my help”, replied the wizard.

 

“Oh yes, yes I do”, implored the little girl listening to the cat and the wizard talk outside the house.

 

But this only made the cat more angry and, as it grew more angry, it grew larger in size so that now, rather than being the size of a little pussycat it was the size of a tiger.

 

“She doesn’t know what she wants”, barked the cat; its bark now as loud as a rifle shot, “My Mistress Mephistina is the one who decides what’s best for her”.

 

But the Wizard could hear the little girl inside the house continue to plead for help,

 

“Oh please; don’t listen to that cat”, she was saying, “You sound kind and gentle. Please. I’d rather live with you than that horrible old witch Mephistina”.

 

“Hmmph!”, said the Wizard, determinedly, “That settles it. The little girl obviously isn’t happy”.

 

And the wizard was about to raise up his magic walking stick and step towards the house when the barking cat grew even more angry and, as it grew angrier, it grew larger until it was almost as tall as the witch’s house and it’s bark, almost as loud as cannonfire.

 

“Hmm?”, thought the Wizard, stroking his long white beard , “I’ve never seen a cat that barks like a dog before. I wonder if you do other things that dogs do”.

 

And, picking up a dry dead branch that was lying nearby, he said,

 

“I bet you like to play fetch the stick, don’t you?”.

 

A look of excitement suddenly entered the enormous cats eyes and it started to wag its tail and jump about just like dog.

 

Then, raising the branch high over his head and, with all his magical might, the wizard threw the branch and it flew through the air until  it landed, not just a meter away or a few feet away but several miles away and, happily, the giant cat raced off to fetch it.

 

Then the wizard, turning his attention again towards the house in which Cutina was imprisoned, transformed his magic walking stick into a shovel  for digging and started to dig a deep hole in the garden and he dug deeper and deeper and kept digging until he had dug a tunnel from the yard to the house and then, exhausted and out of breath, he burst up through the floor of Cutina’s bedroom.

 

“Oh, thank you! Thank you!”, said the little girl, so happy to see him, jumping over to him, “I’m grateful to you for saving me”.

 

“It’s my pleasure little girl”, replied the wizard.

 

But then, seeing the chain that bound Cutina’s ankles together, the wizard transformed his shovel into a hammer and, striking the chain with three hard blows, broke it in two.

 

Now, free to move normally, Cutina ran and skipped and danced around happily.

 

“Oh, it feels so wonderful to be free”, she said, a broad smile spreading across her face.

 

Now the wizard transformed his hammer into a broomstick and, climbing onto it, said,

 

“How would you like to go flying up in the wide open sky and see the whole world from above?”.

 

“Oh, I’d love that more than anything”, said Cutina, excited at being able to see the world after being a prisoner for so long.

 

Then the wizard lifted up Cutina onto the front of his broom and, waving his hand above his head and weaving a magical spell, he made the roof of the house fly off as if it had been torn off by a hurricaine.

 

And, in the next moment, they were racing up towards the sky; rushing faster and faster and going higher and higher until, bursting through the clouds, Cutina saw the bright, blazing golden sun close up.

 

“Wow!”, gasped Cutina, her mouth open wide, “That’s amazing”.

 

“Oh there are so many amazing things in this universe Cutina”, said the Wizard, “And I can show you them all”.

 

But then, turning into a bright bolt of lightning, they shot off faster than the speed of light, across the world to the Wizards house.

 

And, Cutina lived very happily in the Wizards house, learning lots of amazing things from him.

 

Unfortunately, when the Witch got back home from the Icy North and discovered what had happened she was furious and determined that she would get Cutina back.

 

And, a few days later, an old peddlar woman turned up at the wizards door with a basket full of sweets and toys.

 

“Sweets and toys for little children”, she cried, “Lovely sweets and toys for little children”.

 

Hearing the old woman outside, Cutina opened the door.

 

“Why hello little girl”, said the old woman, “Do you want to buy some delicious sweets or perhaps some beautiful toys. Please, have a rummage in my basket and see if there’s anything you’d like”.

 

Cutina peered into the old woman’s basket and it was filled with bright beautiful toys and sweets wrapped in gold and silver foil.

 

And there was one particularly pretty doll at the bottom of the basket wearing a party dress with a painted smiling face and long blonde hair but, unfortunately, however far she stretched her arm she just couldn’t manage to reach it.

 

And so she bent over and leant further forward, trying to reach deep into the basket but, as she did, the basket just seemed to get deeper and deeper and the doll farther and farther out of reach.

 

“Just a little further”, she thought to herself, “And I’ll be able to reach the doll”.

 

But then, suddenly, before she knew what was happening, she had lost her balance and tumbled head first into the basket  and then, to her shock and surprise, the little girl saw that the inside of the basket had transformed into a deep hole and, from up above her, she could hear the sound of the witch cackling;

 

“Ha-ha-ha! It was me all along you little fool and now I’ll make sure you never escape”.

 

“Oh, help Wizard! Please!”, Cutina called out as she fell, “The Witch has got me! Help!”.

 

Fortunately, just at that moment, Cutina heard the Wizards voice.

 

“Hold on tight to this Cutina”, he said, “And don’t let go”.

And then, up out of the deep hole, rose what looked like a long rope.

 

“How strange?”, thought the little girl, seeing the rope, “It’s a rope but, instead of hanging down, its… sticking upwards”.

 

However, Cutina trusted the Wizard, remembering how kind he had been to her and so she grabbed on tightly to the rope and, suddenly, felt herself being pulled along by it at an incredible speed until, suddenly, she saw light at the end of the tunnel and was yanked up out of the hole by a smiling wizard.

 

“Wow that was amazing”, she said, “Not to mention very confusing”.

 

“You’re safe now Cutina”, said the Wizard, helping her climb out of the hole, “That’s what really matters”.

 

“But what happened to the witch”, asked Cutina looking around but seeing nothing but the witch’s basket which was now empty, lying at her feet.

 

“Oh I took care of her”, chuckled the Wizard and then he handed the little girl a doll; a doll that looked exactly like the witch.

 

“I turned her into a doll for you”, he said, “But not just any doll. It’s a talking doll. Pull the string in its side and see”.

 

Cutina took hold of the little string that was hanging from the side of the doll and pulled it and, suddenly, the dolls mouth began to move.

 

“Grr!”, it said, “I’ll get you one day Cutina. One day I’ll get my revenge on you and that Wizard too”.

 

Cutina laughed.

 

“She’s better as a doll”, she said, “But I’d rather have a pretty one in a dress like the one I saw in the witch’s basket”.

 

“Well then, that is what you shall have”, said the Wizard and, tapping the Witch doll with a wand, he transformed it into the prettiest doll with the most beautiful dress that Cutina had ever seen.

 

“Oh, it’s lovely”, said Cutina, hugging the doll tightly.

 

“Anything for you, Cutina”, said the Wizard before lifting both girl and doll up into his arms and carrying her into the house where they both lived happily ever after.