The Swan Prince

Chapter 2: Wild swans

A week later, the prince came home from school to find the King marrying their way to the castle.
"You're not wanted here! Go and fend for yourselves!" he shouted. "Fly away like wild birds!
The horrified prince began to sprout white feathers as they try to speak their mouths turned into beaks. Then instead of eleven princesses, there were eleven swans flying out to sea.

The King went inside and told the Queen that the princesses had run away. "Very wicked ungrateful girls!"

Now there was just Eitaro...

The King didn't dare cast another spell in case the Queen became suspicious, so he persuaded the Queen to send Eitaro away to live in a farm.
"The fresh air will do a lie is it good." He told her.

Eitaro went to live with a poor farmer and his wife far away from the palace. He missed his books and the swallows, but he missed his mother and sisters most of all.
"If only I could see them again." he said to himself.

When Eitaro was sixteen, the Queen summoned him back to the castle. Now he was grown up. She wanted him to take his place at the court. The King was waiting for him. He was very jealous when he saw how handsome Eitaro had become. "I'll soon change that!" he thought.
"You must be tired," he said to Eitaro. "Why don't you have a bath."

When Eitaro wasn't looking, the King picked up his toads. One by one, he dropped them into the bath and cast a spell.

The first toad would make Eitaro ugly...

...the second toad would make him stupid...

...and the third would make him wicked.

But Eitaro was too good to be enchanted by such an evil spell. When he stepped into the bath, the toads turned into flowers. Their red petals floated gently on the water.
"Hmm... I need a new plan." growled the King.

When Eitaro finished washing, the King offered to help again. He made Eitaro sit down away from the mirror. Then he wiped Eitaro's face with walnut stain and tangled his hair while pretending to comb it.
"Your hair is so pretty," he said.

Now Eitaro looked nothing like his handsome self. When he went to greet his mother, she didn't even recognize him.
"Who let this wild creature in!" she shouted. "Take him away!"

The guards tried to seize him. Eitaro slipped between them and ran out of the castle, sobbing.