Modeled after Giovanni Boccaccio's classic from the 14th Century, this collection similarly brought 100+ short stories to Wattpad readers. The original's premise was simple: ten individuals entertained themselves over a span of ten days by telling a...
As the greatest of tragedies do, it began with a curse. A king and queen were blessed with a beautiful baby girl to someday rule their great kingdom. Late one night, while they rocked their daughter to sleep, they sang her lullabies of old fairy songs. Not knowing the power in those words, they mistakenly summoned a fairy to the nursery.
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Having never seen a member of the Fair race before, the beautiful creature rendered them speechless. Her glimmering wings, pale green skin, and golden hair were more than enough to enchant the unsuspecting pair.
"Your Majesties," said she, dropping into a curtsy. "Such a beautiful child deserves a blessing, don't you think? Make a wish for the princess and I will make it so."
The king's eyes lit up at such an offer, but unlike the common folk, he had never been warned about the deceptive ways of Fairies.
"She has her mother's beauty, to be sure," he said. "All I wish is that she would be as beautiful on the inside as she is on the out. Give her a heart of gold that is ready to love."
"So be it," said the imp. With a wink and a twitch of her pointed ears, the deed was done. The fairy disappeared in a flash of brilliant light and the king and queen thought little of the blessing until the child grew older.
They first grew concerned when the princess didn't seem as playful as the other children at court. Then she cut her little finger on a broken teacup and the wound ran gold rather than red. The fairy had given Princess Verity a real heart of gold.
Livid at the fairy's wickedness, the king and Queen summoned her with her song and demanded she rescind her blessing on the child. The fairy, easily offended as such creatures are, resented the request and gave the princess porcelain bones to match her golden heart.
"That's when the king and queen came looking for me."
"Fie! For you?" my fellow sailor asks. He doesn't seem impressed with my tale. Years of sun and saltwater have turned his skin to a wrinkled leather, so I'm sure he's heard all manner of "tall tales" while shipping prisoners to the colonies.
"They needed a physician."
"And the court don't have a physician?" Another asks.
"Not one familiar with treating fairy curses," I reply.
By now, my story has drawn a crowd. We're all prisoners here, save the ship's captain and his most trusted crew. The faces gathered are young, boys in the prime of their youth. Their cheeks are rosy, their eyes are desperate, and I think they long for something to dwell on other than the endless sentences awaiting us at our journey's end.
"What was she like? The princess," one of them submits.
I don't know where to begin to describe her, so I start with the moment we met.
