Coppercurls

One cold and windy November day, a big brown bear was in its cave trying to sleep because bears always sleep through the winter.

 

But the bears cave was so cold and its floor was so hard that it thought to itself,

 

“I have to find a warmer, more comfortable place to spend the winter”.

 

And so the bear went walking through the forest strewn with frost covered Autumn leaves until it saw a little cottage and, looking through the window of the cottage it saw a bedroom with a nice warm bed.

 

“Oh that bed looks so warm and cosy”, said the bear, “Just right for me to sleep in until Spring”.

 

And so the big, brown bear opened the window of the cottage and climbed inside, then he got into the bed and pulled the blankets over him and it was so warm and cosy in the bed that the bear soon drifted off to sleep.

 

But then, later that day when, because it was Autumn, it had grown very dark; the owner of the house; a young woman named Coppercurls with bright red, curly hair, came home and because she was so tired went straight to her room and got into bed.

 

But then, while she was in bed, she heard a loud snoring sound close to her ear and then, feeling around with her hand she felt a warm furry body with long arms and sharp pointy claws lying next to her.

 

Terrified, Coppercurls leapt out of bed and then she lit a candle and by the candle light she saw the bear fast asleep in her bed.

 

But the light woke the bear up and seeing the bear open its eyes Coppercurls shouted in fear,

 

“Oh please, Mr Bear, don’t eat me”.

 

“I don’t want to eat you”, said the bear, yawning, “I just wanted a nice warm place to sleep until the springtime and there’s still plenty of room in the bed”.

 

“Oh but I couldn’t share my bed with a bear”, said Coppercurls, “Your claws are so long and sharp, they would prick me while I was sleeping”.

 

But then the Bear started to beg,

 

“Please don’t send me back to my cave. It’s so very cold and the floor is so hard”.

 

And the bear looked so sad that Coppercurls didn’t have the heart to send it back to its cold cave.

 

“Alright”, said the young woman, “You can stay in my bed as long as you promise to always sleep with your back to me and never turn around”.

 

The bear promised and then he turned round so that his claws were facing away from Coppercurls and, trusting that he would keep his promise, Coppercurls got back into bed and, before long both she and the bear had fallen fast asleep.

The next morning however, when she woke up, to her amazement Coppercurls saw that she had her arms around a handsome young man.

 

Shocked, Coppercurls got out of bed.

 

“What are you doing in my bed? What happened to the bear?”, she asked.

 

Waking up, the young man saw his reflection in the mirror next to the wall of the young woman’s room and then, rather embarrassed, he explained that he was a prince who had been turned into a bear by a witch.

 

“But you must have hugged me while you were sleeping”, he said, “And broke the witch’s spell”.

 

However, now the young man getting out of bed said that he could go home to his palace.

 

“But I would like to invite you to come with me”, he said, “Because you were kind to me and broke the witch’s spell; my home will always be your home”.

 

And so Coppercurls went back with the Prince to his palace and before very long the two had fallen deeply in love and then, after marrying him and becoming his princess, they both lived happily ever after.