The Runaway Doll

Once a king asked a toy maker to make his daughter a living doll, paying him 3 hundred gold coins to do the job.
And, because such a task was beyond someone with even his skill, in desperation the toy maker went to an old witch who, in exchange for a 100 gold coins, gave him a magic bottle and told him to sprinkle the contents of the bottle over the doll.
And just as the witch had promised, when he did this, the doll came to life and when the doll opened his eyes and stretched its arms and yawned the toymaker said, "I think I shall call him Bambola".
Unfortunately the doll would not obey him and didn't want to be a doll at all.
Infact it was a very naughty doll for when he tried to put it into a gift box so that it could be presented to the kings daughter it kept leaping out of the box, then it started to run around his workshop and though he chased it trying to catch it, because he was an old man he just couldn't keep up with it.
"Come now, Bambolo", he pleaded with it, "Don't you want to be a doll for a princess and live in palace?".
"No!", said Bambolo, sticking out a wooden tongue.
But then, unfortunately, a customer came into his shop, opening the shop door and as soon as Bambolo saw the open door he ran straight out of it.
"Oh no!", cried the old toy maker in despair, "Now what am I going to do?".
Fortunately, however, the toy maker saw that there were a few drops of magic potion left in the witches bottle and so, sprinkling them upon a winged rocking horse he had made, he brought it to life and, flapping its wooden wings, the horse whinneyed and snorted, galloping about.
Then he climbed upon the back of the rocking horse and said,
"Giddy up, horsey. We have to catch that naughty doll, Bambola!".
And, galloping out of the Toymakers shop before spreading its wings, the magic horse took off, carrying the toymaker high over a city square full of busily rushing people then, looking down, he saw Bambola running through the crowd.
"There he is", he said to the horse, pointing.
And so the horse swooped down and, taking a yo-yo from his pocket, the toymaker swung it round his head and used it to lasso Bambola before pulling him up into his arms.
"Aha!, I've got you", said the old man to the doll, "Now were going back to my toy shop".
Unfortunately, as he was wrestling to keep hold of Bambola, the naughty doll reached into one of his other pockets and pulled out a long pin that he pricked the flying horses bottom with and the flying horse got such a fright that it shot off across the sky like an out of control rocket.
And when, pulling hard upon its reigns, the toymaker finally managed to get the flying horse back under control he realized, looking down, that they were completely lost.
"Where are we now?", he thought, looking at all the fields and forests, towns and villages below, "It looks like some foreign country".
But then he saw what looked like a royal palace and so, tugging upon the reigns again, he told the flying horse to land there so that he could ask directions.
No sooner had he landed near the gates of the palace, however, when soldiers rushed out of the palace and surrounding him started to arrest him.
"Stop!", he cried, as the soldiers dragged him from the horse, "Why are you arresting me? What crime have I committed?".
"Don't you know that toys are forbidden here?", asked one of the soldiers as he seized hold of Bambola and pulled the doll away from him.
"Toys forbidden?", asked the Toymaker, shocked, "But why?".
"Don't ask me", said the soldier, shrugging his shoulders, "Our queen just doesn't like them and anyone caught playing with toys is locked up".
"Well what are you going to do with my doll, Bambola and my flying horse?", he asked as another soldier put manacles upon him.
"Burn them ofcourse", said the soldier.
"Burn them!", said the toymaker, horrified, "But you can't!".
"Thats the law", replied the soldier, sternly, "All toys that we confiscate are to put onto a bonfire and burned".
But then the toymaker, though he struggled and protested, was led by the soldiers to the royal dungeons where he was locked up with the queens other prisoners.
"Poor Bambolo", he thought as he was locked in his dungeon cell , "He was a naughty doll but he didn't deserve to be burned".
The toymaker needn't have worried however for Bambolo was a clever little doll.
Holding still, he pretended to be lifeless just like an ordinary doll but as soon as the soldiers threw him on the bonfire of toys and walked away, he leapt back off the bonfire again then he whistled for the flying rocking horse that had also been thrown on a bonfire and it came bursting out of the bonfire like a phoenix and, circling round and spiralling downward it landed infront of him.
"We should rescue the toymaker", said the rocking horse.
Bambolo folded his arms and started to sulk.
"Huh! The toymaker? He tried to put me in a box", he said
"But he made you Bambolo", said the horse, "And he gave you life. Without him you would just be a lump of wood".
The doll sighed.
"Okay", he said but then, scratching his wooden head and looking around, he asked, "So what do we do?".
As he was looking about however he saw a toy brass trumpet that was lying on the ground and picking it up, he had an idea.
Then, holding the trumpet up to his eye, he wept out some of the witches magic potion upon it then he blew into it.
He blew upon it just like a military bugler sounding a charge and then, because the trumpet was now a magical one, all of the toys that were heaped up upon the bonfire, even the ones that were half burned, leapt down from it and they started to march behind Bambolo, as if he were their general, towards the palace entrance.
And because the toys in Bambolos army were all so short in stature and the guards who were guarding the palace entrance were all standing as still as statues and looking straight ahead of them, the guards did not see the toys creep past them and through the entrance into the palace.
Then they stormed into the throne room of the queen, surrounding her throne.
"What are you doing, you nasty toys", said the Queen seeing herself surrounded by little charred dolls and wooden soldiers and she called to her guards, "Guards! Guards! Arrest these toys".
But then Bambolo blew into his trumpet again and all the empty suits of armour that were standing in the throne room as ornaments came to life and barred the doors of the throne room, keeping the guards out.
"Why do you hate toys so much?", Bambolo asked the queen.
"Because I wasn't allowed to play with them when I was a child", said the queen, "And I vowed that one day, when I became queen, no child in my kingdom would be allowed to play with toys either".
"But toys are so much fun", said Bambolo, "You can't just take all that fun away from little children".
"Oh yes I can", said the queen adamantly and with a broad but very mean grin, "I'm queen so I can do whatever I like".
But then, just as Bambolo was wondering to himself how a queen could be so mean, the wooden rocking horse chanced to look behind the queens throne and saw a little blue goblin who was working the queen just like a puppet.
"Come here Bambolo and look at this", he said to the doll and when Bambolo looked behind the throne he also saw the goblin.
"Why do you think none of the people in the kingdom has ever seen it?", asked the rocking horse.
"Well they have human eyes", said Bambolo, "And we have magic ones".
But then Bambolo took the pin he had stolen earlier from the toymaker and stuck it into the Goblin making him leap up with a yelp.
Then the Goblin tried to run away but Bambolo chased him with the pin, pricking him again and again.
"Stop!", cried the Goblin.
"Not until you turn the queen back from a puppet into a human being", said Bambolo.
And so, reluctantly, the Goblin undid the magic spell it had put upon the queen and, in a scattering of starlight and a tinkling of fairy bells, the queen became human again.
"What happened to me?", said the queen looking bewildered.
"You were turned into a puppet by a wicked Goblin, your majesty", said Bambolo, "But I got it to undo its spell".
"And who are you?", asked the queen.
"I am Bambolo, a toy that a toymaker made and brought to life", said Bambolo, "But he was locked in your royal dungeons".
"Oh well I can fix that", said the queen.
Then the queen, summoning her guards, ordered them to release the toymaker from the dungeons and she also declared that from that day forward toys would no longer be forbidden in her kingdom.
"Infact I think that free toys should be given to every little poor girl and boy", she said.
Unfortunately, the toymaker still owed the king of his own country a living doll because the king had paid him 300 gold coins to make one but the Queen told him not to worry.
"I'll pay your king his 300 hundred gold coins", she said, "In return for what your toys have done for me and then you and your toys can live here at the palace".
And so that is what happened, the toymaker, Bambolo and the rocking horse all became servants of the royal palace, making free toys for the children of the queendom and so they all lived happily ever after.