The Prince And The Parrot

 
Once upon a time a Prince called Sharoon married a Princess called Ambra but in doing so, he spurned a witch called Harrida who wanted to marry him.
And so, to take revenge upon him, the witch turned the Princess into a parrot.
But the Parrot still had the Princess's mind and could speak and so it pleaded with the Prince,
"You swore on our wedding day to still love me no matter what. You cannot now stop loving me just because I look like a parrot".
And the Prince reasoned, "She is right. If I stop loving her just because she has turned into a parrot then my love for her must have been shallow and so I will keep loving her. Besides which her personality has not changed, she is still the same sweet, kind person that I fell in love with".
But then the witch, angry that the Prince continued to love the Princess just the same, cast a spell upon her mind which made it, every day, became more and more like the mind of a parrot.
At first, the prince didn't notice but, over time he realized that the princess was saying fewer and fewer words and then, eventually all the princess could say was,
"Do you still love me? Do you still love me? Do you still love me?".
But the Prince reasoned,
"My love is not skin deep but also if she has been turned into a parrot completely that is not her fault. Is it right that I stop loving her?".
Unfortunately then the witch transformed herself into a beautiful woman and came to palace, asking to be the royal parrot keeper.
And, being given the job by the Prince, because the Parrot was always by his side so the witch was always by his side and in time he began to like her company, infact he thought that he might be in love with the witch.
But when he looked at the parrot, he couldn't help feeling guilty.
"My poor wife", he said to her, "I know it is not your fault that you are a parrot and it would not be fair to stop loving you; it would be a cruel addition to the cruelty you already have to endure but I am so lonely and I long for a real wife".
And the poor princess, all she could ask was,
"Do you still love me? Do you still love me? Do you still love me?".
But the Prince found, when he looked in his heart, that all his love had been reduced to feelings of guilt and a desire to do his husbandly duty; that it was not real love now at all.
So he enacted a law saying that a husband could marry two wives; then he married the witch but stayed married to the parrot.
This did not please the witch however because she did not want to share her husband with a parrot and so she planned to get rid of the parrot.
One day while the parrots cage was near an open window, the the witch used a kind of telekinesis to unlock the door of the cage, hoping that the parrot would fly out of the window.
Unfortunately the parrot did not fly away.
You see, unbeknown to the witch or the prince, within the body and mind of the parrot the soul of the princess was still trapped and her heart still loved the prince, so much so that she could not bring herself to leave him and even shed small parrot tears whenever she saw him with the witch.
But the witch was determined to get rid of the parrot and so she conjured up a gust of wind that blew the parrot out of the cage and out of the window.
Then she said to the Prince, "Look, somehow the door to her cage came open and your parrot has flown away".
The Prince was heartbroken but though he sent servants out to look for the parrot, it could not be found and, so holding a state funeral he declared Princess Ambra officialy dead.
Now the witch was happy because she had the Prince all to herself but, over time, the Prince started to notice something odd about the witch.
He noticed that the witches personality started to change from a person who appeared kind and sympathetic to someone who was selfish and cruel.
She would beat her servants, for example, whenever they made a mistake and she would try to discourage him whenever he wanted to help the poor, saying,
"If you are too soft, people will think you are weak and a king who is percieved to be weak soon loses the respect of his people and the fear of his enemies".
"She is nothing like my sweet Ambra was", thought the Prince, "For she was gentle and kind, even as a bird".
Fortunately for the Parrot, though the wind had blown her so far away from the palace that she couldn't find her way home, she found her way to an island where a wizard, named El-Merin, lived.
And, as she perched upon his window, he heard her saying,
"Do you still love me? Do you still love me? Do you still love me?".
"What a strange thing for a parrot to ask", thought the wizard.
And looking in the parrots eyes he saw a peculiar sadness in them.
"Hmm", he thought, stroking the parrots plumed head, "I wonder?".
Then, taking down a magic history book from his shelf, he asked the book,
"Book, show me the history of this bird".
And opening the book, he read about Princess Ambras unfortunate tale and tears fell from his eyes.
But he did not waste the tears, he caught them in a vial and mixed them in a potion, then feeding the potion to the bird he restored Princess Ambra to her original form and mind.
"Oh thank you", she said, embracing the wizard, "Thank you. Now I must return to my husband".
But the wizard cautioned her,
"If the witch is in the palace with your husband, it is not safe to return by yourself. No we must have a plan".
Then, the next day, Princess Ambra turned up at the gates of the palace and said to the guard,
"I am the princess Ambra who was turned into a parrot but now, thanks to a kindly wizard, I am restored to my real form. Please, you must let me see my husband".
So the guard said he would go and speak to the king but, instead he went to the witch, because all the palace guards, having been placed under a spell, secretly served her and, when the witch heard that Princess Ambra had returned she took the form of a palace guard and went to meet Princess Ambra at the gate and, opening the gate for the Princess, led her through it, saying,
"I will take you to the Prince. He is very eager to see you".
But then, instead of leading the princess to the prince, she lead her to a room that, though it looked like the princes chamber was really a dungeon then, after Princess Ambra and the guard stepped into it, the guard closed the door behind them and then, with a wish, the guard turned back into the form of the witch.
"I do not know how you regained your human form", said the witch, drawing a dagger from under her dress, "But you will not find it so easy returning from the dead".
Just as she was about to strike the princess with the point of her blade, however, the princes grabbed hold of the hand holding the dagger and, as she did, to the witches surprise, she saw the Princess transform from a beautiful young woman into an old wizard.
"You are not the Princess", shrieked the Witch.
"No", said the Wizard, "She entered the palace gates after I did and now she is on her way to see the Prince".
Frantic, the witch turned to leave the dungeon.
"I must stop her", she said.
But then, as the witch ran out of the dungeon and down a corridoor, she noticed that something had happened to her feet.
They looked like birds feet.
Still she kept running, desperate to stop the princess.
But then, when she looked at her arms she realised that they too had changed .
They looked like birds wings.
But then finally she saw the chambers of the prince infront of her and flying into the room and seeing Princess Ambra and Prince Sharoon together, she yelled,
"Polly want a cracker! Polly want a cracker!".
She had meant to yell, "Stop! The Princess is an imposter or Stop! Don't trust that woman" unfortunately, the spell, the spell that the wizard had cast upon her when he'd touched her, had completely transformed her into a parrot and so she couldn't do anything and, while she flapped angrilly around the room the Prince and Princess kissed.
After that the witch, still in parrot form, was locked in a cage and the cage locked in a dungeon and then the Prince and Princess, so overjoyed to be reunited atlast, lived happily ever after.