Valentina

One Valentine’s day, a long time ago; a young orphan girls wicked Aunt and her three ugly cousins, because they were jealous of her beauty and charm decided to play a cruel trick upon her.

 

The young girls name was Valentina and when she was only 5 years old, her mother and father, sadly passed away and she had been forced to live with her horrible Aunt Hogatha who made her dress in rags and treated her like a slave, making her do all the cooking and cleaning.

 

Nonetheless she grew up into a beautiful young woman and this made her Aunt and Cousins jealous

so one Valentine’s day they wrote a fake Valentines letter and they left it, with a red rose, lying upon a window sill beside an open window where they knew she would find it.

 

“Beloved Valentina”, it said,

 

“Even in your ragged clothes, you look like a princess; even though your face is dirty with soot your beauty shines through it and though you live a poor and lowly life you are every inch a lady.

 

Please meet me in the cave at the edge of the wood by the old oak tree. I shall tie a red ribbon round the tree to mark it out and leave a trail of red paper hearts leading the way to it.

 

The sooner you meet me, the sooner we can run away together and be married.

 

Your secret Prince Charming”.

 

And when Valentina read the letter her heart leapt,

 

“Oh the world is not such a cruel and unfriendly place after all”, she said, smelling the red rose that had been left with the letter, breathing its perfume in deeply and smiling, “Someone loves me and I will love him with all my heart”.

 

But, unbeknown to poor Valentina, her Aunt Hogatha and her three Cousins had dressed up a fat farm pig as a prince, placing a wooden crown upon its head and left it tied up in the cave with a sign round its neck saying, “Your Prince Charming”.

 

“A pig prince”, Hogatha had said to her three daughters, who though they were each far uglier than pigs, sniggered evilly, “A fitting husband for that ugly little oaf Valentina”.

 

Then, together the Aunt and her three sisters hid behind a bush and waited for Valentina to come so they could jump out and laugh once she discovered their cruel prank.

 

And not long afterwards, following the trail of red paper hearts, Valentina  found the cave, saying,

 

“This must be the place that my Prince Charming mentioned for this is where the trail of Paper Hearts ends and there is the oak tree with the red ribbon tied round it and there the cave”.

 

But then, when she entered the cave, she saw the pig dressed up as a prince and the sign round its neck and realised that her Aunt had played a trick on her.

 

Yet Valentina, because she was so good humoured and always saw the best in everything, didn’t get upset. Instead, removing the sign from round its neck, she placed a small kiss upon the snout of the pig and, smiling, said,

 

“A kiss for you, Prince Pig and a very charming Prince you are”.

 

Just then, however, suddenly there was a flash of golden light and a puff of pink smoke and then, when the smoke had cleared, Valentina saw that the Pig had transformed into a real handsome Prince.

 

“You are a real Prince”, exclaimed Valentina, astonished.

 

“My name is Prince Perseus”, said the Prince, bowing and taking of his crown that Valentina saw was not wood any more but made of solid, shining gold, “A wicked witch turned me into a pig after I spurned her advances but your kiss broke the spell”.

 

Then, to their shock and amazement, instead of seeing Valentina come out of the cave sobbing and weeping as they had hoped , Hogatha and her three Ugly daughters saw her come out arm in arm with a handsome man dressed in a real princes fine clothes.

 

Then the Prince took Valentina away with him to his Palace where they were married soon after.

 

Now Wicked Aunt Hogatha told her daughters to kiss all the other pigs in her sty and even kissed a few herself, hoping to find another prince but they found not one, however the Pigs, horrified at having to kiss such ugly girls ran away squealing down the road.

 

But Valentina and Prince Perseus lived together in their Palace happily ever after.