Once upon a time . . . in a great castle, the king's daughter grew up happy and contented, in spite of her jealous stepmother. The king was known as king Xerxes, and was loved by his people. However, one day, he set off to the woods leaving his daughter behind, and was never found or heard of again.
The princess was a very beautiful girl, with blue eyes and long blonde hair. Her skin was delicate and fair, and so she was called Ozelle White. Everyone was sure she would become very beautiful. Though her stepmother was a wicked and evil woman, she too was very beautiful, and the magic mirror told her this every day. The Queen had long black hair, with beautiful, shiny gold eyes.
She was known as queen Giliona.
"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the loveliest lady in the land?" The reply was always; "You are, your Majesty," until the dreadful day when she heard it say, "Ozelle White is the loveliest in the land." Queen Giliona was furious and, filled with jealousy. She began plotting to get rid of Ozelle.
She called on Jack, one of her most trusted magician. She bribed him with a rich reward to take Ozelle White into the abyss, deep down inside. Then he was to leave her there alone, to die. The greedy magician was attracted to the reward, however, Jack loved Ozelle. So he agreed to do this deed, in order to save her. He led the innocent little girl into the abyss, and left her near a cottage he knew about. Jack knew that she would be safe from the queen here.
Ozelle White slept terribly, feeling a sense of darkness around her. She was scared.
At last, when Ozelle woke up, everything around her was dark. She was lying in the middle of nowhere. When she looked around a bit, she saw a small cottage in the distance. She ran to that direction. When she got closer, she realized that it was very small, and shaped strangely.
"l wonder who lives here?" she said to herself, peeping round the kitchen. "What tiny plates! And spoons! There must be seven of them, the table's laid for seven people." Upstairs was a bedroom with seven neat little beds. Going back to the kitchen, Ozelle White had an idea.
"I'll make them something to eat. When they come home, they'll be glad to find a meal ready." Towards dusk, seven tiny chains marched homewards singing. But when they opened the door, to their surprise they found a bowl of hot steaming soup on the table, and the whole house spick and span. Upstairs was Ozelle White, fast asleep on one of the beds. The chief chain prodded her gently.
"Who are you?" he asked. Ozelle White told them her sad story, and tears sprang to the chains' eyes. Then one of them said, as he noisily blew his nose:
"Stay here with us!"
"Hooray! Hooray!" they cheered, dancing joyfully around the little girl. The chains said to Ozelle White:
"You can live here and tend to the house while we're down the mine. Don't worry about the queen. We'll take care of you!" Ozelle White gratefully accepted their hospitality. The chains told Ozelle their names. They were called strange names. They were Raven, Dormouse, Dodo, Equus, March hare, Mad hatter, and Owl. The next morning the chains set off for work. But they warned Ozelle White not to open the door to strangers.
Meanwhile, Jack had returned to the castle, with the heart of a roe deer. He gave it to the cruel queen, telling her it belonged to Ozelle White, so that he could claim the reward. Highly pleased, the queen turned again to the magic mirror. But her hopes were shattered, for the mirror replied: "The loveliest in the land is still Ozelle White, who lives in the seven chains' cottage, down in the abyss." The stepmother was beside herself with rage.
"She must die! She must die!" she screamed. Disguising herself as an old, poor woman, she put a magic hand watch in her basket. Then, asked a different magician to open the gates to the abyss. She reached the cottage, just as Ozelle White stood waving goodbye to the seven chains on their way to nowhere.
Ozelle White was in the kitchen when she heard the sound at the door: KNOCK! KNOCK!
"Who's there?" she called suspiciously, remembering the chain's advice.
"I'm an old, poor woman, here to sell hand watches" came the reply.
"I don't need any watches, thank you," she replied.
"But they are beautiful, and shiny watches!" said the velvety voice from outside the door.
"I'm not supposed to open the door to anyone," said the little girl, who was reluctant to disobey her friends.
"And quite right too! Good girl! If you promised not to open up to strangers, then of course you can't buy. You are a good girl indeed!" Then the old woman went on.
"And as a reward for being good, I'm going to make you a gift of one of my silver hand watches!" Without a further thought, Ozelle White opened the door just a tiny crack, to take the watch.
"There! Now isn't that a nice watch?" Ozelle White looked intensely at the watch, and suddenly, her body moved on its own, and she swallowed the hand watched! She choked, and choked, until she stopped breathing, and fell down.
Chuckling evilly, the wicked queen hurried off. But as she ran back to the gate, she was caught by a chain, and died.
Meanwhile, the chains finished their work, and walked back home.
There they found Ozelle White, lying still and lifeless. They did their best to bring her around, but it was no use.
They wept and wept for a long time. Then they laid her on a bed of rose petals, carried her into the forest and put her in a crystal coffin.
Each day they laid a flower there.
Then one evening, they discovered a strange young chain. This chain had an appearance of a human man. He had dark purple hair, and light purple eyes.
"She's so lovely . . . I'd love to kiss her . . . "However, the prince did not kiss her, for he knew there was only one way to cough up the object. He hand chopped her hard on the stomach, and which made the magic watch fly out of her mouth, and allowed the princess to breathe again.
From that day on, Ozelle White lived happily in the abyss, together with her prince Aleck in the small cottage with the seven chains.
The end.
"Whoa" said Oz
"What's wrong" said Gil
"I had the strangest dream ever..." Oz replied.