The Princess in Disguise

In a kingdom in a far away land, there was a princess yearning for true love. She was the only child of the king and next in line to the throne. Many suitors came from lands far away longing for her hand, and the power that came with it. Man after man, she only saw deceit, greed, and entitlement. She knew she would have to find a husband elsewhere.

The princess went to her sorceress, and asked her to turn her into an old, unbecoming woman covered in wrinkles and warts. The sorceress said, "What a strange request. In what way could this help you?" The princess answered, "I just want to try something different, no reason!"

Of course the princess hid the real reason she was changing her appearance. She did not want the sorceress to tell her father because he would stop her. That night the princess left the castle to the outskirts. She would go door to door, knocking and asking for a place to stay. The princess decided she would take the hand of the kind man who opens his door to her.

She knocked on her first door. A tall raggedy man answered. Within seconds of observing the princess in disguise, he slammed his door shut. The princess continued to go door to door, receiving responses similar to her first experience. The princess began to lose hope. She saw one last house to try, a small hut next to a pond.

She knocked on the door and a tall, handsome man answered. She asked to stay for the night and he let her in. The princess thought, "this is him, this is my husband!" The man made her a meal and she sat down to eat it. The meal wasn't fancy, but she was grateful for the oats he made her.

The man had a dog, which was very underfed and sad. She looked around and saw there was no food bowl, water bowl, or dog bed for the dog. The dog seemed like he had no energy, and his head hung low to the floor. This made the princess nervous. However, she kept eating and realized the man had disappeared.

The princess wandered the house looking for the man and heard a noise behind her. Once she turned around she saw the man was holding a knife, about to stab her! She screamed, closed her eyes, and braced herself for the sharp pain, but nothing happened. She opened her eyes to see the dog attacking the man. She ran out of the hut and the dog followed after her.

She sprinted all the way back to the castle with the dog. Once she was there she bent over to thank the dog for saving her. "You will be my companion for life," she said to the skinny, brown dog. After that, she asked the sorceress to turn her back. The princess spent every day with the dog, and he became the most important thing in her life.

One day, the sorceress felt something strange about the dog. "I do not think he is a dog at all," she said to the princess. "I think he is under a spell." With the snap of her fingers, the sorceress changed the dog into what he truly was, a striking man! The man explained his story. He had been unjustly transformed into a dog. A few years later, the princess and the man married and she was happy with her companion for life.

Author's note: I used the element of disguise from the story of Mahabharata when the Pandavas went into disguise. I had the princess in disguise from that story. I also had the dog in a type of disguise of his own, only it was not his choice.

I mixed a couple of elements from different princess stories to make my own. There is a common theme in many princess stories where the princess runs away to find something she is looking for, which is how I thought to add that element (like the movie "Tangled"). I tried to use the story of the princess and the frog to relate to the dog being her true love. Only there was no "true loves kiss." Just a smart sorceress who could tell the dog was a great man!

Most of this story came from my imagination, but my imagination is influenced from all stories I have read before. I also included the story of how Ramayana won Sita's love through a competition, only this time the competition was to be a genuine man and not stringing a powerful bow.

I wanted to include a dog in the story, and I tried to foreshadow with "you will be my companion for life," since the dog ended up being the man the princess wants to marry!

Source: Tiny Tales from the Ramayana

By Laura Gibbs