#apologies for plot holes and poor imitation of grimm

[fictionadventurer]

Fairytale retelling: Genderswapped Cinderella

The Golden Shoe

Once there was a princess who was her father’s only heir. When she came of age, a series of balls were held, and the man she would choose to wed would become her country’s next king. Every man in the kingdom, from peasant to prince, was invited, but the princess was pleased with none of them.

Late in the evening, a stranger arrived--a handsome youth, fair to behold, in garments that seemed woven of the light of the stars. For the rest of the evening, the princess would dance with none but him. His manners, his kindness, and his grace impressed her deeply, but before she could ask his name, the great castle clock began to chime the midnight hour. Her partner made his excuses and fled from the ballroom, and though the princess pursued, he had disappeared down the palace stairs by the time the twelfth bell tolled.

The stranger returned to the next evening’s ball, wearing clothes that seemed to glow with the light of the moon, and once again the princess danced with no other. Whispers raced through the ballroom. Who was he? Where was he from? Some claimed him he was a foreign royal, others said he was a notorious outlaw, and still others said he could only be a prince from among fairy-kind. Though the princess stayed by his side all night, she could not pry from him a single answer.

Once again, when the clock struck twelve, her partner began to flee. The princess held his hands and begged him to stay, but he told her that she must allow him to leave before the toll of the midnight bell. When she asked him why, he gave no answer, but fled down the stairs and disappeared so thoroughly that none among the palace guard could find him.

The next morning, the princess spoke to her godmother about the mysterious stranger. Tonight would be the final ball, and there was no other man that she so wished to marry. But her godmother advised her this would not be wise. He could be anyone--an enemy prince, a wicked enchanter, even a beast in human form. If the princess wished to find the truth, she could not let her partner flee at midnight. On her godmother’s advice, the princess ordered that the great palace staircase, down which her partner always fled, would be spread with pitch, in the hopes that it would hold him fast and break whatever spell hid his secrets.

At the final ball, the stranger appeared just as before, in clothes so grand that they seemed to shine as bright and golden as the sun itself. The princess had never been so charmed, or so in love, and she could not even think of another partner. The hours slipped away, until at last the palace clock began to chime twelve.

As before, her partner fled, but this time, his shoes caught in the pitch on the stairs. One foot came free, and the shoe stuck to the stairs, but the other foot remained stuck fast, and there, the princess saw, he still stood when the twelfth bell tolled.

His golden finery faded, leaving her partner clad in ragged clothes. “What have you done?” he cried. “Now I am lost without hope.”

He was prince of a far-off land, and his stepfather was a wicked enchanter, who wished to take the prince’s country for his own two wicked sons. He had kept the prince in ragged servitude, but his power could have been broken if the prince had come to this ball and won the princess’ heart, so long as no one knew his name or nation and so long as he did not stay past midnight. Now he would be taken back to his nation, hidden away among the people. No one would know his name or his face, and none would find him, until the stolen shoe was back upon his foot and the princess claimed him as her beloved.

With that, the prince disappeared, leaving the princess with nothing but a golden shoe stuck to the stair.

Thus the princess journeyed across kingdoms trying the shoe upon every man she met, but finding none whose foot it fit. At long last, weary and ragged, she came upon a cottage in the wood, where lived a young man. His manners were charming, and the princess thought that at last she had found her beloved. She asked him to try the shoe, and when he put his foot within, it fit perfectly. She shouted for joy, and begged him to return to her kingdom with her, where she could claim him as her husband and break the enchanter’s spell.

But as they traveled down the dusty road, a bird fluttered overhead, and bade the princess look again. There was blood in the young man’s shoe, and it fit only because he had cut off his toe. Then she knew him for the enchanter’s son, and fled from him down a dark and lonely road.

There she wandered for days, lost and afraid, until she came upon another cottage. Here she found another young man, kind and fair of face, and her heart rose with hope that she had found her beloved at last. His foot fit within the golden shoe, and she bade him come with her out of this dark forest. They had not gone far before another bird whispered warning, and the princess saw that blood filled this man’s shoe as well. He had cut off part of his heel to fit within the shoe, because he was not her beloved at all, but the enchanter’s other son. The princess fled from him, and was soon lost in the darkness of the forest.

She wandered until she was nearly dead, until at last she came to a tiny hovel in the middle of the woods. There she met an old man, who nursed her back to health and asked to know her story. She told him of her quest to find her lost prince, and he told her that she would surely not find him in these dark woods. No doubt the enchanter held him close to the palace, but the old man promised to show her a path that would take her there, far away from this dark and hopeless forest.

The princess thanked him for her help, but as she was about to take her leave, she saw footprints in the ashes of the hearth. “These are not yours,” she told the old man. “There is another who lives here.”

“It is only my servant,” the old man replied. “A ragged wretch who gathers food and cleans the hearth.”

“All the same,” the princess said, “I should like to try the shoe upon him.”

She followed the ashy footprints until she found a young man in a dirty corner of the kitchen. He was covered in cinders from head to foot and did not speak a word when she asked him his name. Yet she slid the shoe upon his foot and found it fit perfectly. Then her eyes were opened, and she recognized the young man who’d won her heart those months ago.

The old man roared with rage--for he was the enchanter himself--but though he tried to pursue them in the forest, the birds came down from the trees and plucked his eyes from his head, and he could follow them no further.

The princess brought her prince back to her kingdom. She declared before her court that she would marry him and no other. Then his rags and cinders became golden finery once more, and all knew him for the mysterious prince who’d come to the ball. Soon, they were wed and their countries were joined, and if they have not died, they may be living still.