The Pumpkin Prince

Have you ever had butterflies in your stomach each time you tried to talk to someone you were in love with?
Well then, count yourself lucky that that is all you've ever had because once there was a prince who, whenever he got nervous, turned into a pumpkin and the thing that made him most nervous of all was meeting a woman that he thought was beautiful.
And, to make matters worse, his parents wanted him to choose and marry a princess.
"You really have to learn to control yourself", his father said to him, "You can't go turning into a pumpkin each time you meet a woman otherwise you'll  never get married and if you don't get married then there will be no heir to the throne".
But the Prince just couldn't control it. Even with his servants, if one of them was a girl who was particularly pretty he would turn into a pumpkin rather than talk to her.
And so feeling ashamed, the Prince decided to run away from the palace and never come back.
As he was travelling through the countryside, however, he got so thirsty that he decided to stop at a house to ask if he could borrow a cup of water.
Unfortunately, the house belonged to a very pretty peasant girl named Charmina and, after the prince had knocked upon her door, he caught sight of her through the window of her house and, knowing that she would answer the door started to get nervous and when he got nervous he turned into a pumpkin.
So then, when Charmina opened the door of her house she didn't see a prince at the door, she saw a pumpkin.
And whats worse, because she was very poor, Charmina didn't have a lot of food so when she saw the pumpkin at her door she thought,
"Oh my, some kind person has left a pumpkin on my doorstep. This will make a wonderful pumpkin soup".
And so, taking hold of the big pumpkin, she picked it up and carried it into her house.
Ofcourse, as you would expect, the prince started to get worried.
"Pumpkin soup?", he thought, "I don't want to be made into a pumpkin soup".
Fortunately, when Charmina picked up a big knife to cut up the pumpkin, the Prince got so frightened that he forgot all about how beautiful Charmina was and turned back into a prince.
Naturally, this startled the peasant girl alot.
Infact she screamed and dropped her knife on the floor and was going to run away when the prince said,
"Please don't be afraid. I'm not a monster. I'm a prince".
"A prince?", asked Charmina.
"Yes. I only turn into a pumpkin because beautiful women make me nervous", he said, "And you are very beautiful".
"Oh but you don't have to be nervous around me, your majesty", said Charmina kneeling infront of him.
"Then maybe you could marry me", he said.
But Charmina said that she couldn't just marry someone she had never met before,
"I need to atleast be certain that they are going to love me"
Fortunately, however, just as the prince was giving up hope of ever finding a bride, Charmina had an idea.
She told him that nearby there was an old house that was haunted by 7 ghosts and if he would stay in the haunted house through the night until the sun rose again then she would agree to marry him.
And so the prince made a bed upon the floor of one of the rooms in the haunted house and went to sleep.
And all was fine until at 1 O'clock he heard a ghostly bell chime once and suddenly he was woken by the ghost of a knight in bloody, rattling armour and the knight, raising a big axe in his hand said,
"Leave this house or I shall chop ye into pieces".
But the prince said,
"I dare not. Not till the sun comes up for then Charmina will marry me".
But the knight with the axe chased him round the room and so he went into another room.
But then, when 2 O'clock came he heard the ghostly bell chime twice and the room was filled with a thick white fog and a big, black wolf, almost like a shadow with glowing eyes and teeth, entered the room and said with a growl,
"Leave this house or I shall eat you".
But the prince replied again,
"I dare not. Not till the sun comes up for then Charmina will marry me".
So then the wolf chased him around the room and so he went into a third room.
But when three o'clock came he was woken yet again by the ghostly chiming bell that this time, chimed 3 times and, upon the 3rd chime, the room burst into red and yellow flames and a horned demon appearing amidst the flames roared,
"Get out! Get out! Get out of this house!".
But, bravely, the prince replied a third time,
"I dare not. Not till the sun comes up for then Charmina will marry me".
So then the devil chased him around the room.
And this happened 4 times more; in the 4th room the bell chimed 4 times and he was chased by the ghost of a shrieking witch on a flying broom and her 9 black cats; in the 5th room it was the ghost of a girl and all her toys and dolls and he was forced to escape the room riding on a ghostly rocking horse; in the 6th room, it was the ghost of a giant black spider and he had to hack his way through cobwebs and in the 7th room howling ghosts in white sheets seemed to come out of the walls, floor and even the ceiling.
But each time when they told him to leave or to get out, no matter how frightened he was, he replied to them,
"I dare not. Not till the sun comes up for then Charmina will marry me".
And fortunately, in the 7th room, just as he found himself surrounded by ghosts on all sides and couldn't run away, the sun came up and, when it came streaming in through a window of the room all the ghosts disappeared, flying into the walls, floor and ceiling as if they were scared of the sun.
So then the Prince, happily, left the house and when he did, Charmina was waiting outside for him with a kiss because she was sure that he would be a husband who would truly love her and, after that, riding in a pumpkin shaped golden coach to the royal cathedral, they were wed and lived happily ever after.