Charliana

Once, in a long ago time and a faraway country; an evil hearted witch called Haglia, sprouting raven wings upon her back, abducted a little baby girl with long brown hair and dark brown eyes called Charliana, swooping down upon her pram like an eagle and, snatching it up in her claw like hands, carrying it off across the clouds to her old house in the deep, dark woods and so that she could not escape, she cast a spell upon the girl so that if she ever tried to leave the woods and go into the world beyond a wall of fire would rise up in front of her, a hundred feet high, and if she ever tried to walk through the fire she would be burnt to cinders and so the girl stayed the witch’s prisoner for many long lonely years; her only real friends, the creatures of the forest, all of whom had been people before the witch had turned them into animals.

But then, one day, when she was out in the woods she met a young man, named Redric who was an artist and he was making sketches.

At first she was too shy to speak to him and hid behind a tree but she was so curious about what he was doing that she crept up behind him to look over his shoulder and when she did she was mesmerized by the brightly coloured pastel drawing he had made of a butterfly.

“It’s beautiful”, she said.

The young man was startled but then when, turning round, he saw a lovely young woman, he smiled and offered to show her more sketches he had done.

She asked if he had any pictures of other places outside the woods and he showed her some he had made of his village and was amazed when she told him she had never seen a village before.

“I have never been outside these woods”, she told him, “Not since I was an infant, at least”.

“But why?”, asked Redric.

She told him about the witch and about the spell she had placed upon her that prevented her from leaving the woods.

“Oh, that’s terrible”, he said, shocked, “There must be something I can do to help you”

But the girl said that nothing could be done;  that the witch was too powerful,

“There’s only one thing that Haglia is afraid of in all the world”, she said, “The black dragon that she keeps tied up with a magic rope in the cave at the edge of the woods but he seems almost as terrifying as the witch”.

Yet the girl liked having Redric’s company and so she asked him to meet her again and to bring more pictures of the world outside.

And that is what he did. Every day, after that, he met her in the forest and he brought her pictures of faraway places and not only that, presents of all kinds, like a doll and a hair comb and mirror and a box to keep them in and because the girl was afraid to take the things to the house, in case the witch found them, she hid the box in the hollow of a tree.

One day however, when the sun was setting and Charliana had not come home yet, the witch asked her dark house,

“Look out with your windows and tell me where Charliana is and what she is doing”.

“She is with a young man, sitting beneath the shade of a chestnut tree”, the house replied.

“A young man?”, asked the Witch, angrily, “What are they doing?”.

“They are talking and laughing and smiling”, said the house.

Hearing this, the Witch shrieked with anger and, as she did, she grew a pair of large black raven wings upon her back and flew into the forest to where Charliana and Redric were sitting, surprising them.

“So this is how you repay me for raising you from a child to a young woman”, said the witch, reaching into her ear and pulling out a magic wand as tall as her pointed hat, “Well I will teach you”.

And saying this she pointed her wand at Redric and, in a blazing flash of dark crimson, turned him into a small grey mouse.

Charliana was distraught but the witch only laughed,

“Ha!Ha!”, she cackled, “Now your handsome young man is nothing but a tiny scampering mouse”.

Then she grabbed the young girl firmly by the arm and dragged her back to her house and locked her up in her room that, with a tap of her wand, became a dungeon with a barred door.

“I’ve given you far too much freedom”, she told Charliana, “Now let’s see how you like being locked up in a real prison cell”.

Sitting in the forest, wiping his tears upon a leaf, the young man, or rather the little mouse he had become, felt miserable.

“What am I to do now?”, he asked himself, looking at his reflection in a tear, “I thought I had found the person I was going to spend my whole life with but now I’ll have to spend my life as a mouse”.

But then he heard a voice from behind him,

“Don’t feel too bad”, it said, “We were all human once. All the creatures in the forest until the witch turned us into animals”.

Turning round he saw that the voice belonged to a grey, longed eared rabbit and then, from behind other trees in the forest, he saw more animals emerge; squirrels and frogs and more rabbits and mice like himself.

“But I’m not a mouse”, he replied, “I don’t want to be a mouse for the rest of my life and someone has to do something about that evil witch”.

“I agree”, said the rabbit, “But what can you do?”.

Just then, however, Redric remembered something important and, scurrying as quickly as he could with little mouse paws, ran towards the edge of the forest.

There he saw the cave of the black dragon and, within the cave, the dragon itself, breathing fire upon the magic rope that bound it, trying to burn through it.

“Nothing I do can free me from the witches rope”, Redric heard the dragon say sadly to itself, “I cannot bite it or tear it; I cannot break it with all my strength and even the hottest dragon fire will not burn through it”.

“Perhaps I can free you”, he said, cautiously entering the dragons cave.

“You?”, said the dragon, with a deep rumbling laugh, “What can a little mouse do that a dragon cannot?”.

“Well perhaps the witch’s spell only prevents your teeth  from biting through the rope”, said the mouse, “But not mine”.

“You would help me?”, asked the Dragon.

“Only on two conditions”, said the mouse, “One that you kill the evil witch Haglia”.

“Gladly”, said the Dragon.

“But you must also promise that, when you have killed her, you will fly far away from here and never return”, added Redric.

The dragon nodded in agreement and so Redric started to chew, with small but sharp mouse teeth, through the magic rope and as he had hoped, within only a short time, he had chewed through it completely and the dragon was free.

Spreading its wings wide and with a mighty, flaming roar, the dragon started to rise slowly into the air, Redric leaping upon the back of its long scaly neck as it did so and clinging on tightly.

Then, suddenly, like a long black bolt of lightning the dragon shot off in the direction of the witch’s house, billowing out smoke and fire in front of it.

Hearing the sound of the dragons beating wings getting louder and the roar of its fiery breath, the Witch knew it could mean only one thing, that the dragon was free and so, two large raven wings sprouting again from her back and spreading wide the witch ran from her house and leapt up into the air, flapping her wings and taking flight as she pulled her long wand out of her ear and, wielding it like a sword, prepared to do battle with the dragon.

“You’re a fool dragon”, said the witch as she and the scaly, flying beast met eye to eye, “For all your strength you are no match for my magic and this time I will not just tie you up, I shall bury you”.

And, pointing her wand towards the dragon, she prepared to turn him into a flying newt.

But, just as she was about to do this, Redric bravely leapt from off of the dragons neck onto the witch’s hand, biting into it and then, with a shriek of pain and surprise, the witch let go of her wand and it fell, landing on the forest floor far below.

Now, without her wand, the witch was as helpless as any mortal and so, opening its gigantic dragon jaws wide and pouncing upon her, the dragon ate the witch up whole.

Fortunately, Redric  managed to leap clear just in time; unfortunately  he was now falling very fast towards the ground.

“A

a

a

g

h

!”, cried Redric as he plummeted.

 

Just then, however, the dragon swooped down, catching him upon one of its huge, outspread wings before, gently, it came to land beside the witch’s house.

Now that the witch was dead, all the evil spells that she had cast within her life were broken, including the spell that had turned the young man into a mouse and the one that had imprisoned Charliana who, just as Redric was turning back into a man, came running out of the house.

“I thought I would never see you again”, said Charliana embracing the young man joyfully.

But then, taking hold of Redric’s hand, Charliana seemed desperate to lead him somewhere and she dragged him through the forest to the edge then, taking a deep breath; she stepped out of the deep, dark woods and into the world beyond.

She felt the bright sun shining upon her face and looking round about saw the whole, wide world; miles and miles of green, rolling hills and valleys; villages and towns, spread out before her.

“I’m free”, she said, smiling and laughing and dancing happily.

But then the young man started to see her smile fade and a look of worry replace it.

“But I’ve spent my whole life living in the witch’s wood, as her prisoner”, she said, “I don’t know how to do anything else”.

Redric took hold of her hand.

“Don’t worry”, he said, “I’ll help you”.

And so Charliana went, with Redric, out into the world and, together, they both lived happily ever after.