Evie - Egyptian Cinderella

Evie

Around five thousand years ago there lived a young girl called Rhodopis, she had beautiful blonde hair and stunning green eyes.

One day during the night pirates came and kidnapped Rhodopis from her home land and took her far away to a land called Egypt. Rhodopis was scared, confused, and worried about what was going to happen to her.

She was sold off as a slave to an old man who would be her master along with many other girls, luckily the old man was quite considerate to rhodopis and her now adoptive sisters and treated them quite well.

Each day Rhodopis was in charge of doing the cleaning chores for the group such as cleaning and drying people's clothes down by the flowing river Nile.

Although the old man treated her quite well the same couldn’t be said for how the other girls, her adoptive sisters would treat her.

They would make fun of her blonde hair, slender figure and her fair skin that would burn easily in the scorching Egyptian sun. Which was quite different from their native dark hair and olive skin.

While doing her chores down by the river Nile Rhodopis would often dance and sing to the animals down at the river's edge, they would all gather around and enjoy the mesmerising show she would put on. On one such occasion her master the old man would happen to see her dancing and became overjoyed with how gracefully she moved, He called Rhodopis over and gifted her some beautiful and breathtakingly stunning red and golden guided slippers and said ‘someone who dances so graciously should not be dancing barefoot’ as he handed the slippers to her.

Feeling joyous, shocked and grateful Rhodopis accepted the slippers and wasted no time in putting them onto her feet.

All the other slave girls became very envious and jealous of Rhodopis’s new slippers and as a result teased her even more about her difference in appearance compared to theirs.

Feeling down and disheartened Rhodopis went down to the river’s edge to do her chores and dance for the animals, but feeling so alone and isolated by the other girls her dancing just wasn’t as joyful as usual, even the animals noticed that her heart didn’t seem to be in her performance today, while cleaning the clothes Rhodopis took off her gilded red and golden slippers and placed them on the dry, dusty river side so as to not get them dirty and wet while working in the river.

Then suddenly seemingly out of nowhere swooped down a huge and magnificent looking falcon and snatched up one of Rhodopis’s slippers and carried it off as it flew away.

Rhodopis was stunned and shocked at what just happened and began to feel even more disheartened.

The falcon flew far and wide across the truly awe-inspiring land of Egypt and dropped the magnificent gilded slipper into the lap of a very bored and lonely young Pharaoh.

Amazed by what had just happened the young Pharaoh was convinced that the falcon was the God Horus himself giving him a sign and decreed there and then to his royal court that he would travel the vast lands of Egypt to find the young maiden to whom this beautiful slipper belonged, even if it meant having every women in Egypt try on the slipper to find out who its owner was.

The Pharaoh traveled to the highest highs of the land even to where the falcons themselves lived and to the farthest reaches of his kingdom, when he had travel all he could by land he chartered an impressively long hand crafted wooden river boat and continued his search from the water visiting every town and settlement along the river Nile.

After searching for what seemed to be and endless amount of time the Young Pharaoh finally reached the small settlement where the mean village girls and Rhodopis lived, the other village girls where desperate to fit into the slipper and become the Pharaohs new queen even knowing that it didn’t belong to them and instead belonged to Rhodopis, still they said nothing about who it truly belonged to and tried to force their feet into the slipper to no avail.

The young Pharaoh defeated and disheartened had all but given up on his quest to find his queen and began to pull out of the bay on his large wooden boat from where Rhodopis and the other girls lived, but just as he was starting to leave he noticed the shy and captivating Rhodopis peering through the bushes and reeds at the waters edge and was instantly took back by her unusual and strange beauty. He quickly stopped the large boat and asked her to come forward. Feeling nervous and shy Rhodopis reluctantly complied with the Pharaohs request and came out from the bush she had been hiding in, the Pharaoh asked young Rhodopis to try on the slipper and to his surprise and amazement it slid perfectly with ease onto Rhodopis’s slender foot, without a second thought Rhodopis pulled the matching golden and red slipper from behind her back she had been hiding and placed it onto her other foot to once again make a matching pair.

The Pharaoh had finally found the true and rightful owner of the slipper and along with it his new queen. The other slave girls shouted out in jealousy ‘she can’t be your new queen she isn’t even Egyptian!’ To which the Pharaoh replied ‘oh, but she is more Egyptian than anyone here. Can’t you tell by her beautiful eyes as green as the great river Nile, or her hair that is as feathery as papyrus and her skin pink like the great lotus flower’. And with that having been said the Young and now happy Pharaoh along with Rhodopis traveled on the extravagant wooden boat back to the capital and palace of the Pharaoh to make her his bride and new queen.

And so it is that they both lived and ruled happily ever after.