Once there were three little girls, and they were sisters. The
eldest was three, the middle child was one, and the youngest was a newborn.
Their names (in order of birth) were Lizmia, Samina, and Alyette. Their
mother died giving birth to Alyette and so their father (under the
insistence of his mother) remarried a woman named Tulina. Tulina had two
daughters of her own, twins they were, both five and absolutely dreadful.
They were the type of frightful little girls that bossed everyone around,
were terribly fresh and rude towards everyone (and were allowed to be so),
ate far too much for their own good, and consequently ended up fat, ugly,
husbandless, cruel and nasty, and having a piggish attitude about most
everything.
Tulina did the perfectly normal thing for an evil stepmother to do and schemed of how she would get rid of her three stepdaughters. She decided that she would marry Lizmia off to someone who lived several countries over. This someone would have to be a no one who would get no where in life and would make Lizmia absolutely miserable.
Samina would "disappear". Tulina made plans and arrangements to smuggle Samina into a country where her friend (who was just as evil as Tulina) was queen. Samina would work as a castle scullery maid and Tulina's friend Mesmella would be especially careful to be extra mean to Samina.
As for baby Alyette, Tulina had to think extra hard about her. Alyette had perfect blue eyes and was already showing signs of having long, beautiful blond hair. At last though an idea came to Tulina. She would lock Alyette in a cell deep in the dungeon beneath the castle without anyone else knowing.
Tulina felt very pleased with herself.
Here's what happened to each of the sisters.
Lizmia was raised almost like a slave instead of the daughter of a lord (which she never knew she was). She was one of Tulina's servants. She had brown hair that was shoulder length and dirty. She and her clothes were dirty since there was rarely a chance to wash either one. Her eyes were green and bright but filled with the sadness of someone who has never had the chance to do something just because they wanted to.
When she reached sixteen Lady Tulina came to her and happily told her that she, Mia (what she was called) would no longer have to work in this home. Instead she would be marrying a man from Kazeldune, a desert land eight kingdoms over. Tulina clapped her hands twice and the door opened. A man walked in. He was old and clothed in rags. His beard was white and reached his knees. He stood hunched over while leaning on a crutch and his smile was yellow and nearly toothless. He was filthier than Lizmia and he smelled worse than anything she had ever smelled before.
Almost immediately after he walked into the room Lizmia started crying. "This is Hargled," Tulina smiled cruelly, "Your future husband."
Hargled and Lizmia traveled in silence to Kazeldune. When they reached Marfle, Kazeldune's riverside capitol Hargled spoke for the first time to Lizmia. "My home is this way." Hargled led her into a run-down looking shack. A lowly priest that Tulina had hired was waiting inside to marry them.
Lizmia cried as they were wed. Hargled looked sorrowed to see her so upset, but he said nothing. At last they were wed, but before Hargled and Lizmia kissed, Lizmia ran out of the shack crying hysterically. While turning a corner she ran into a man. The man was huge and ugly and when she ran into him he grabbed her wrist and laughed.
"Well, well, well, look what I've caught meself."
Suddenly a crutch hit the man over the head. The man let go of Lizmia's wrist and she backed away. The man rubbed his head and glared at the owner of the crutch, who was none other than Hargled. The man punched Hargled, and Hargled was knocked to the ground.
"No!" Lizmia screamed. She rushed toward him and knelt at his side. She hadn't wanted to marry him, but she never wanted to see him hurt. She shook him, but he lay there lifeless. The man laughed and pointed. Lizmia paid him no heed, as she kissed Hargled's forehead and began to cry.
Suddenly there was a bright light and Lizmia was forced to cover her eyes. When the light dimmed Lizmia gasped. In Hargled's place lay a young man wearing fine clothes with the reddest hair imaginable. He opened his eyes and smiled.
"Lizmia…" he murmured.
The other man fled.
In the next two days Lizmia learned that Hargled was really a prince name Ridin. Ridin had been put under a spell by an evil sorceress with red hair. The sorceress had been jealous that Ridin's hair was redder than hers and so she cursed him to be an ugly old man with white hair until a girl with green eyes kissed him. They returned to Ridin's kingdom where Lizmia was properly cleaned and dressed and revealed to be a very beautiful young woman. The two were re-married (Ridin's parents, the king and queen claimed that the first marriage was unofficial and hardly counted) and they lived happily ever-after.
That was one, now how did the other two make out?
Samina had grown up in the kitchen, of the castle, of Queen Mesmella. Samina, who was called Sam was a scullery maid. At fifteen (Lizmia and Ridin had been married happily for one year) she never expected to be anything more than what she already was, a scullery maid.
Mesmella visited the kitchen often. As if one visit was odd enough for a queen, but no, Mesmella visited the kitchen at least twice everyday and she seemed to enjoy it. Samina was very suspicious that Mesmella would have never visited the kitchen if it wasn't for her. It seemed that though Mesmella inspected the entire kitchen she only ever complained about Samina. She only chided Samina and she only punished Samina. Well the way it seemed to Samina was the way it really was. Mesmella was true to her word (for once) and she was very cruel to Samina. Mesmella not only criticized her work, but Samina's looks as well. She would yank on Samina's brown hair raving that it was far too long and that it was extraordinarily filthy. She would push back Samina's bangs out of place and shout how dirty and ugly Samina's face and brown eyes were.
Samina was the most stubborn and brave of her sisters though and so she would stand perfectly straight through the rebukes and then laugh. This infuriated Mesmella so much that she would order Samina whipped.
And whipped Samina was.
One night after a particularly harsh chastisement and whipping, Samina sat by the hearth alone in the kitchen. She wrapped her arms around her legs and rocked herself back and forth. It was then that she heard a small cry. She turned around, but she saw nothing. With a shrug she turned back towards the- she heard it again! It wasn't a small cry from a human, it sounded more like a cat. Which it was. Samina saw the cat and whispered, "Come here," as gently as she could. The cat crept closer and for the first time in her life Samina felt lucky. The cat was starving and was dying.
"Hold on, and I'll fetch you some cream."
The cat sat and waited expectantly. Soon Samina was back with a dish of cream, which she placed on the floor in front of the cat.
"Won't your kitchen miss its cream?" Asked the cat when it was halfway finished.
Samina laughed. "I'm sure it's the first thing that I shall be punished for tomorrow morning." Samina blinked. "Did you just ask me a question?"
"I did," replied the cat.
"I'm sorry, it's just that you're the first cat that's ever spoken to me."
The cat gave her a funny look. "And you're the first human that's ever understood me when I've spoken. What do mean by 'punishment?"
"Think nothing of my punishment, you needed that cream more than silly Queen Mesmella."
The cat somehow managed to look thoughtful as it licked up the last of the cream. "But I must think of it. You have done me a great favor in which you risked your health for silly a cat's."
"You are hardly silly!"
"Do you really think so?" The cat attempted to look proud and in doing so, looked silly.
"Of course! The only silly one around here is Queen Mesmella. She is the one who will find wrong in sharing a small dish of cream with a starving cat."
"You really don't like her, do you?"
"No, I don't."
"Why don't you run away?"
"I have no money, and no where to stay!"
The cat soon took care of that. He told Samina to untie the pouch from around his neck, and she did. Inside were five gold coins. As for a place to stay, the cat led Samina far away from the castle and into a forest. Deep in the forest was a clearing and within the clearing was a small cottage beside a brook.
Before Samina it appeared that the cottage had been owned by a witch, and one who hated dust and cobwebs. Though it was obvious that the cottage hadn't been lived in for decades, and that it and everything in it was old, there was absolutely no dust or cobwebs in the entire cottage. The cat explained that the witch had probably enchanted it with an "anti-dust and cobwebs spell". Samina liked the thought of living in an enchanted cottage. The cat (who had accepted Samina's offer in living with her) urged Samina to try out some of the possession that the witch had left behind.
The first thing Samina tried out was the broom. Samina and the cat (who she named Dribble, because he was a messy eater and his food would dribble down his chin) came to love rides on that broom. Within a month of living in the cottage Samina was an expert at flying her broom.
One day Dribble asked her, "Why in the castle did the cream you gave me taste so different? It was the best I've ever had!"
"Because I made it Dribs!" Samina smiled as she replied.
That's when Dribble got his idea. Samina began making her own cream again. Using a spell Dribble had found among the witch's old possessions Samina was able to mass produce and duplicate cream that she had already made, without the cream losing its flavor. After making it, Samina would sell the cream.
Everyone loved it and began buying it. Samina called it "Dribble's (brand name) Cream". It sold like crazy. Soon a year past by and Dribble no longer looked he was starving. Both Samina and Dribble were happy, clean, and comfortable in their cottage. They were so rich by the end of the year that they decided to sell the company, which they did and they became twice as wealthy as they already were. Easily they were the wealthiest pair in the entire world.
They lived happily ever-after in their cottage, Samina the witch, and Dribble her cat.
The first two sisters didn't turn out half bad. Because of this Tulina was outraged. Her plans were all going wrong. Instead of marrying a nobody who would make her miserable, Lizmia was married to a handsome young prince with the reddest hair in the world, who loved Lizmia very much.
Instead of being an unhappy scullery maid, who was rebuked and whipped daily, Samina had met a talking cat (though only Samina understood him since a cat can only be fully understood by their witch), became a witch, and the richest person in the whole world.
Tulina had heard of her stepdaughters' fortune. The marriage of Lizmia and Ridin had been huge (since Ridin was the prince of a very large and highly populated country) and though it was three kingdoms over even Tulina and her two daughters had been invited. They hadn't attended of course, no one expected them to, but Ridin's mother had insisted they at least invite the woman who had introduced them.
As for Samina, well Dribble's Cream was a household item. Tulina fired her entire kitchen staff upon the discovery that they had bought, and were using Dribble's Cream. It made Tulina even angrier when she heard about Samina selling the company and doubling her money.
Tulina refused to let Alyette live happily ever-after. No one else knew about Alyette. They knew as much about Alyette as they did the death of her father. Tulina had killed him of course but it seemed as if the poor man had just disappeared, like the baby Alyette.
Alyette lived in a dark cell deep in the dungeon beneath the castle, just as Tulina had planned. She was filthy and had never bathed in her entire life. She had never had her hair cut either and at fifteen her hair was longer than she was. Once her hair was blond but now it was so dirt caked that you couldn't tell if it was brown or black. Besides the rats the only other living creature she had seen was Tulina. Alyette was not afraid of the rats, she didn't know to have the fear of them that we do. Tulina however, was different. Alyette was terrified of Tulina.
"Maybe she's forgotten about us Pat," Alyette said to the rat that lay on her shoulder.
"Maybe, but I hope not," Pat said moodily. Pat was the only rat that actually spoke to Alyette. He was her only real friend.
"Why?"
"I'm hungry, besides Rupert and I want to bite her again." Pat showed his teeth in a way of smiling.
Alyette also smiled.
Tulina hadn't forgotten about Alyette at all. In fact Alyette was a nagging thought. Tulina was busy preparing the castle and her ugly, fat, rotten tempered daughters. The king and prince were visiting that afternoon and things still needed finishing. Alyette could wait a day.
Maybe Alyette could, but her rat friends could not. Pat was getting very hungry (since Alyette always gave him some of her food, and Tulina hadn't brought any food down yet), and Rupert was growing very impatient (he wanted to bite Tulina very badly). At last Pat could wait no longer, he ordered the rats to report to the cell.
They did, though they seemed grumpy about it. Their leader, Pat stood on his hind legs on Alyette's open palm. "We've waited long enough here in this place where food is scarce. We were driven to the depths of these dungeons by the orders of Tulina." The rats hissed at the mention of her name. "We've stayed here plotting our revenge, living on the scraps of food we manage to find and on what food our ally Alyette can afford to give us. The time of planning has ended! The time for our revenge is now!"
The rats screeched in unison, and their cry was so great that as Tulina opened a door to let the king and prince into her sitting room, its echo reached them. The rats then began to carry out their plan, and Alyette too for she was part of it! Relgos the Sneaky obtained the key to Alyette's cell and at last Alyette was free from her prison. Followed by an army of rats, and with Pat on her right shoulder and Rupert on her left she raced up the stairs. When they broke open the door the rats trampled over everything. Servants yelped and jumped, and maids screamed and ran away.
"That way!" Pat pointed and Alyette followed his directions. After following all of them Alyette ended outside of Tulina's sitting room. "In there! That's where intelligence reports say we'll find her! To me!" Pat shouted.
"To me! To me!" Both Alyette and Rupert repeated. The army of rats gathered behind Alyette. "Steady…" she murmured. "Charge!" She shouted in unison with Pat as she opened the door.
The rats poured into the sitting room. Helgy and Elgy (Tulina's twin daughters) screamed and stood on their couches. Tulina also screamed. Alyette ran over to Tulina. Rupert leapt onto Tulina and bit her as hard as he could. Pat stood on his hind legs and shook his clawed fist in Tulina's face. Then he too jumped onto Tulina and bit her with all of his might.
"You!" Tulina screamed at Alyette. "No!" She wailed, and flailed her arms about until Pat and Rupert were flung off of them. She turned and fled the room screaming.
"Wait for us mommy!" Helgy and Elgy cried as they ran after their mother.
"Go get'm!" Alyette jumped and clapped in delight.
Pat stood on his hind legs as he often did, and saluted Alyette. Then he raced after Tulina, Helgy, and Elgy on all fours followed by his army of rats.
"I've never laughed so hard in my entire life!" Shouted the prince, who had been very bored before the attack.
Despite all of the noise the king was still sound asleep. Tulina's non-stop chatter had bored him into his deep slumber.
"Laughed? You enjoyed it too?" Alyette asked.
"Did I ever! I would have never guessed that girls the size of Helgy and Elgy could jump so high, or run so fast!"
"Big pigs, they deserved it! I hope Pat and Rupert-!"
"The rats have names?"
"Of course, if you talk to someone as often as I talk to them-,"
"You talk to them?"
"Well, mainly just to Pat, 'course he's the only one that ever talks back!"
"Talks back?"
By now most princes would have been disgusted by Alyette. Her hair looked like a nest, she was caked in dirt, and she consorted with rats. Prince Dussel however was the exact opposite. She intrigued him and he had never met anyone as interesting as her. They both sat down and talked. They talked for hours, and when Pat returned (without his army) Alyette translated for him so that he became part of the conversation.
"What? What did I miss?" The king shouted as he awoke.
"Father, I've decided to get married!" Dussel announced.
"What? To whom? Certainly not one of Tulina's daughters!"
"No father! I want to marry Aly!"
"Aly? Who's Aly?"
Dussel gestured to Alyette. "This is Alyette, Tulina's stepdaughter!"
The king had never been so surprised. He made several attempts to convince the prince not to marry Alyette, but Dussel's mind was made. He had fallen in love with Alyette.
So the king, the prince, Alyette, and Pat traveled to Dowish, the capitol city. In the palace Alyette met Dussel's mother. Queen Fillisa shared her son's opinion about Alyette, she found Alyette absolutely fascinating.
It took seven days to clean Alyette, but when she was cleaned and dressed in a new gown no one recognized her. Her hair was luminous. It was long, (though not as long as it had been), blond and flowing. Her skin was clean and fair. Her eyes were an amazing shade of blue and they sparkled. Her smile was so lovely and she walked with perfect grace. When Dussel saw her he felt like the luckiest man in the world (which he wasn't, Prince Ridin was, but Dussel was close).
Prince Dussel and Alyette were married almost immediately. They only waited to give time for the guests to arrive. They hadn't wanted to wait but the king insisted that although Prince Dussel was breaking every rule in the book by marrying Alyette, one thing would go right and proper. So they did wait, and the wedding did go "right and proper" in the king's mind.
As for Pat and his army of rats, well things ended happily for them too. Pat decided to live in the palace with Alyette as the most pampered rat in the entire world. Pat sent a message to his second-in-command Rupert saying that he was not going to return and that he was resigning from his duties. He also wrote that Rupert was to resume full control of the troops. However, the life of luxury did not suit the former ruler of the rats well. He ended up organizing all of the palace rats and becoming their commander. The rats that Rupert now commanded took over the entire castle. All of the humans, including Tulina, Helgy, and Elgy had fled. The rats lived quite happily in their military base.
Even though he commanded all of the palace rats (and all of the rats in the entire city) Pat was still restless. He moved out a great deal of his army, forcing all of the rats around the kingdom into submission. He ruled all of the rats in the kingdom, and still he was unhappy. So Pat ended up (with the help of Rupert, his second-in-command as always) ruling all of the rats in the entire world. This had a large effect on the world. Humans started noticing how the rats' behavior had changed drastically. The rats acted with precision, and organization. Pat became king of the rats.
I suppose you would also like to know what happened to Tulina and her rotten daughters. Well they disappeared and no one (not even the rats, who had the most efficient and advanced intelligence in the world) knew what happened to them. I won't say that they died, because they really didn't.
So despite attempts to have their lives ruined, the three sisters lived good, happy lives. They never learned that they were sisters, and they never knew who their mother was. Only Alyette knew of their father, their step-relations, and the home they were born into. Neither Lizmia, nor Samina ever learned about them.
And once upon a time the three sisters lived happily ever-after…
The End.
Tulina did the perfectly normal thing for an evil stepmother to do and schemed of how she would get rid of her three stepdaughters. She decided that she would marry Lizmia off to someone who lived several countries over. This someone would have to be a no one who would get no where in life and would make Lizmia absolutely miserable.
Samina would "disappear". Tulina made plans and arrangements to smuggle Samina into a country where her friend (who was just as evil as Tulina) was queen. Samina would work as a castle scullery maid and Tulina's friend Mesmella would be especially careful to be extra mean to Samina.
As for baby Alyette, Tulina had to think extra hard about her. Alyette had perfect blue eyes and was already showing signs of having long, beautiful blond hair. At last though an idea came to Tulina. She would lock Alyette in a cell deep in the dungeon beneath the castle without anyone else knowing.
Tulina felt very pleased with herself.
Here's what happened to each of the sisters.
Lizmia was raised almost like a slave instead of the daughter of a lord (which she never knew she was). She was one of Tulina's servants. She had brown hair that was shoulder length and dirty. She and her clothes were dirty since there was rarely a chance to wash either one. Her eyes were green and bright but filled with the sadness of someone who has never had the chance to do something just because they wanted to.
When she reached sixteen Lady Tulina came to her and happily told her that she, Mia (what she was called) would no longer have to work in this home. Instead she would be marrying a man from Kazeldune, a desert land eight kingdoms over. Tulina clapped her hands twice and the door opened. A man walked in. He was old and clothed in rags. His beard was white and reached his knees. He stood hunched over while leaning on a crutch and his smile was yellow and nearly toothless. He was filthier than Lizmia and he smelled worse than anything she had ever smelled before.
Almost immediately after he walked into the room Lizmia started crying. "This is Hargled," Tulina smiled cruelly, "Your future husband."
Hargled and Lizmia traveled in silence to Kazeldune. When they reached Marfle, Kazeldune's riverside capitol Hargled spoke for the first time to Lizmia. "My home is this way." Hargled led her into a run-down looking shack. A lowly priest that Tulina had hired was waiting inside to marry them.
Lizmia cried as they were wed. Hargled looked sorrowed to see her so upset, but he said nothing. At last they were wed, but before Hargled and Lizmia kissed, Lizmia ran out of the shack crying hysterically. While turning a corner she ran into a man. The man was huge and ugly and when she ran into him he grabbed her wrist and laughed.
"Well, well, well, look what I've caught meself."
Suddenly a crutch hit the man over the head. The man let go of Lizmia's wrist and she backed away. The man rubbed his head and glared at the owner of the crutch, who was none other than Hargled. The man punched Hargled, and Hargled was knocked to the ground.
"No!" Lizmia screamed. She rushed toward him and knelt at his side. She hadn't wanted to marry him, but she never wanted to see him hurt. She shook him, but he lay there lifeless. The man laughed and pointed. Lizmia paid him no heed, as she kissed Hargled's forehead and began to cry.
Suddenly there was a bright light and Lizmia was forced to cover her eyes. When the light dimmed Lizmia gasped. In Hargled's place lay a young man wearing fine clothes with the reddest hair imaginable. He opened his eyes and smiled.
"Lizmia…" he murmured.
The other man fled.
In the next two days Lizmia learned that Hargled was really a prince name Ridin. Ridin had been put under a spell by an evil sorceress with red hair. The sorceress had been jealous that Ridin's hair was redder than hers and so she cursed him to be an ugly old man with white hair until a girl with green eyes kissed him. They returned to Ridin's kingdom where Lizmia was properly cleaned and dressed and revealed to be a very beautiful young woman. The two were re-married (Ridin's parents, the king and queen claimed that the first marriage was unofficial and hardly counted) and they lived happily ever-after.
That was one, now how did the other two make out?
Samina had grown up in the kitchen, of the castle, of Queen Mesmella. Samina, who was called Sam was a scullery maid. At fifteen (Lizmia and Ridin had been married happily for one year) she never expected to be anything more than what she already was, a scullery maid.
Mesmella visited the kitchen often. As if one visit was odd enough for a queen, but no, Mesmella visited the kitchen at least twice everyday and she seemed to enjoy it. Samina was very suspicious that Mesmella would have never visited the kitchen if it wasn't for her. It seemed that though Mesmella inspected the entire kitchen she only ever complained about Samina. She only chided Samina and she only punished Samina. Well the way it seemed to Samina was the way it really was. Mesmella was true to her word (for once) and she was very cruel to Samina. Mesmella not only criticized her work, but Samina's looks as well. She would yank on Samina's brown hair raving that it was far too long and that it was extraordinarily filthy. She would push back Samina's bangs out of place and shout how dirty and ugly Samina's face and brown eyes were.
Samina was the most stubborn and brave of her sisters though and so she would stand perfectly straight through the rebukes and then laugh. This infuriated Mesmella so much that she would order Samina whipped.
And whipped Samina was.
One night after a particularly harsh chastisement and whipping, Samina sat by the hearth alone in the kitchen. She wrapped her arms around her legs and rocked herself back and forth. It was then that she heard a small cry. She turned around, but she saw nothing. With a shrug she turned back towards the- she heard it again! It wasn't a small cry from a human, it sounded more like a cat. Which it was. Samina saw the cat and whispered, "Come here," as gently as she could. The cat crept closer and for the first time in her life Samina felt lucky. The cat was starving and was dying.
"Hold on, and I'll fetch you some cream."
The cat sat and waited expectantly. Soon Samina was back with a dish of cream, which she placed on the floor in front of the cat.
"Won't your kitchen miss its cream?" Asked the cat when it was halfway finished.
Samina laughed. "I'm sure it's the first thing that I shall be punished for tomorrow morning." Samina blinked. "Did you just ask me a question?"
"I did," replied the cat.
"I'm sorry, it's just that you're the first cat that's ever spoken to me."
The cat gave her a funny look. "And you're the first human that's ever understood me when I've spoken. What do mean by 'punishment?"
"Think nothing of my punishment, you needed that cream more than silly Queen Mesmella."
The cat somehow managed to look thoughtful as it licked up the last of the cream. "But I must think of it. You have done me a great favor in which you risked your health for silly a cat's."
"You are hardly silly!"
"Do you really think so?" The cat attempted to look proud and in doing so, looked silly.
"Of course! The only silly one around here is Queen Mesmella. She is the one who will find wrong in sharing a small dish of cream with a starving cat."
"You really don't like her, do you?"
"No, I don't."
"Why don't you run away?"
"I have no money, and no where to stay!"
The cat soon took care of that. He told Samina to untie the pouch from around his neck, and she did. Inside were five gold coins. As for a place to stay, the cat led Samina far away from the castle and into a forest. Deep in the forest was a clearing and within the clearing was a small cottage beside a brook.
Before Samina it appeared that the cottage had been owned by a witch, and one who hated dust and cobwebs. Though it was obvious that the cottage hadn't been lived in for decades, and that it and everything in it was old, there was absolutely no dust or cobwebs in the entire cottage. The cat explained that the witch had probably enchanted it with an "anti-dust and cobwebs spell". Samina liked the thought of living in an enchanted cottage. The cat (who had accepted Samina's offer in living with her) urged Samina to try out some of the possession that the witch had left behind.
The first thing Samina tried out was the broom. Samina and the cat (who she named Dribble, because he was a messy eater and his food would dribble down his chin) came to love rides on that broom. Within a month of living in the cottage Samina was an expert at flying her broom.
One day Dribble asked her, "Why in the castle did the cream you gave me taste so different? It was the best I've ever had!"
"Because I made it Dribs!" Samina smiled as she replied.
That's when Dribble got his idea. Samina began making her own cream again. Using a spell Dribble had found among the witch's old possessions Samina was able to mass produce and duplicate cream that she had already made, without the cream losing its flavor. After making it, Samina would sell the cream.
Everyone loved it and began buying it. Samina called it "Dribble's (brand name) Cream". It sold like crazy. Soon a year past by and Dribble no longer looked he was starving. Both Samina and Dribble were happy, clean, and comfortable in their cottage. They were so rich by the end of the year that they decided to sell the company, which they did and they became twice as wealthy as they already were. Easily they were the wealthiest pair in the entire world.
They lived happily ever-after in their cottage, Samina the witch, and Dribble her cat.
The first two sisters didn't turn out half bad. Because of this Tulina was outraged. Her plans were all going wrong. Instead of marrying a nobody who would make her miserable, Lizmia was married to a handsome young prince with the reddest hair in the world, who loved Lizmia very much.
Instead of being an unhappy scullery maid, who was rebuked and whipped daily, Samina had met a talking cat (though only Samina understood him since a cat can only be fully understood by their witch), became a witch, and the richest person in the whole world.
Tulina had heard of her stepdaughters' fortune. The marriage of Lizmia and Ridin had been huge (since Ridin was the prince of a very large and highly populated country) and though it was three kingdoms over even Tulina and her two daughters had been invited. They hadn't attended of course, no one expected them to, but Ridin's mother had insisted they at least invite the woman who had introduced them.
As for Samina, well Dribble's Cream was a household item. Tulina fired her entire kitchen staff upon the discovery that they had bought, and were using Dribble's Cream. It made Tulina even angrier when she heard about Samina selling the company and doubling her money.
Tulina refused to let Alyette live happily ever-after. No one else knew about Alyette. They knew as much about Alyette as they did the death of her father. Tulina had killed him of course but it seemed as if the poor man had just disappeared, like the baby Alyette.
Alyette lived in a dark cell deep in the dungeon beneath the castle, just as Tulina had planned. She was filthy and had never bathed in her entire life. She had never had her hair cut either and at fifteen her hair was longer than she was. Once her hair was blond but now it was so dirt caked that you couldn't tell if it was brown or black. Besides the rats the only other living creature she had seen was Tulina. Alyette was not afraid of the rats, she didn't know to have the fear of them that we do. Tulina however, was different. Alyette was terrified of Tulina.
"Maybe she's forgotten about us Pat," Alyette said to the rat that lay on her shoulder.
"Maybe, but I hope not," Pat said moodily. Pat was the only rat that actually spoke to Alyette. He was her only real friend.
"Why?"
"I'm hungry, besides Rupert and I want to bite her again." Pat showed his teeth in a way of smiling.
Alyette also smiled.
Tulina hadn't forgotten about Alyette at all. In fact Alyette was a nagging thought. Tulina was busy preparing the castle and her ugly, fat, rotten tempered daughters. The king and prince were visiting that afternoon and things still needed finishing. Alyette could wait a day.
Maybe Alyette could, but her rat friends could not. Pat was getting very hungry (since Alyette always gave him some of her food, and Tulina hadn't brought any food down yet), and Rupert was growing very impatient (he wanted to bite Tulina very badly). At last Pat could wait no longer, he ordered the rats to report to the cell.
They did, though they seemed grumpy about it. Their leader, Pat stood on his hind legs on Alyette's open palm. "We've waited long enough here in this place where food is scarce. We were driven to the depths of these dungeons by the orders of Tulina." The rats hissed at the mention of her name. "We've stayed here plotting our revenge, living on the scraps of food we manage to find and on what food our ally Alyette can afford to give us. The time of planning has ended! The time for our revenge is now!"
The rats screeched in unison, and their cry was so great that as Tulina opened a door to let the king and prince into her sitting room, its echo reached them. The rats then began to carry out their plan, and Alyette too for she was part of it! Relgos the Sneaky obtained the key to Alyette's cell and at last Alyette was free from her prison. Followed by an army of rats, and with Pat on her right shoulder and Rupert on her left she raced up the stairs. When they broke open the door the rats trampled over everything. Servants yelped and jumped, and maids screamed and ran away.
"That way!" Pat pointed and Alyette followed his directions. After following all of them Alyette ended outside of Tulina's sitting room. "In there! That's where intelligence reports say we'll find her! To me!" Pat shouted.
"To me! To me!" Both Alyette and Rupert repeated. The army of rats gathered behind Alyette. "Steady…" she murmured. "Charge!" She shouted in unison with Pat as she opened the door.
The rats poured into the sitting room. Helgy and Elgy (Tulina's twin daughters) screamed and stood on their couches. Tulina also screamed. Alyette ran over to Tulina. Rupert leapt onto Tulina and bit her as hard as he could. Pat stood on his hind legs and shook his clawed fist in Tulina's face. Then he too jumped onto Tulina and bit her with all of his might.
"You!" Tulina screamed at Alyette. "No!" She wailed, and flailed her arms about until Pat and Rupert were flung off of them. She turned and fled the room screaming.
"Wait for us mommy!" Helgy and Elgy cried as they ran after their mother.
"Go get'm!" Alyette jumped and clapped in delight.
Pat stood on his hind legs as he often did, and saluted Alyette. Then he raced after Tulina, Helgy, and Elgy on all fours followed by his army of rats.
"I've never laughed so hard in my entire life!" Shouted the prince, who had been very bored before the attack.
Despite all of the noise the king was still sound asleep. Tulina's non-stop chatter had bored him into his deep slumber.
"Laughed? You enjoyed it too?" Alyette asked.
"Did I ever! I would have never guessed that girls the size of Helgy and Elgy could jump so high, or run so fast!"
"Big pigs, they deserved it! I hope Pat and Rupert-!"
"The rats have names?"
"Of course, if you talk to someone as often as I talk to them-,"
"You talk to them?"
"Well, mainly just to Pat, 'course he's the only one that ever talks back!"
"Talks back?"
By now most princes would have been disgusted by Alyette. Her hair looked like a nest, she was caked in dirt, and she consorted with rats. Prince Dussel however was the exact opposite. She intrigued him and he had never met anyone as interesting as her. They both sat down and talked. They talked for hours, and when Pat returned (without his army) Alyette translated for him so that he became part of the conversation.
"What? What did I miss?" The king shouted as he awoke.
"Father, I've decided to get married!" Dussel announced.
"What? To whom? Certainly not one of Tulina's daughters!"
"No father! I want to marry Aly!"
"Aly? Who's Aly?"
Dussel gestured to Alyette. "This is Alyette, Tulina's stepdaughter!"
The king had never been so surprised. He made several attempts to convince the prince not to marry Alyette, but Dussel's mind was made. He had fallen in love with Alyette.
So the king, the prince, Alyette, and Pat traveled to Dowish, the capitol city. In the palace Alyette met Dussel's mother. Queen Fillisa shared her son's opinion about Alyette, she found Alyette absolutely fascinating.
It took seven days to clean Alyette, but when she was cleaned and dressed in a new gown no one recognized her. Her hair was luminous. It was long, (though not as long as it had been), blond and flowing. Her skin was clean and fair. Her eyes were an amazing shade of blue and they sparkled. Her smile was so lovely and she walked with perfect grace. When Dussel saw her he felt like the luckiest man in the world (which he wasn't, Prince Ridin was, but Dussel was close).
Prince Dussel and Alyette were married almost immediately. They only waited to give time for the guests to arrive. They hadn't wanted to wait but the king insisted that although Prince Dussel was breaking every rule in the book by marrying Alyette, one thing would go right and proper. So they did wait, and the wedding did go "right and proper" in the king's mind.
As for Pat and his army of rats, well things ended happily for them too. Pat decided to live in the palace with Alyette as the most pampered rat in the entire world. Pat sent a message to his second-in-command Rupert saying that he was not going to return and that he was resigning from his duties. He also wrote that Rupert was to resume full control of the troops. However, the life of luxury did not suit the former ruler of the rats well. He ended up organizing all of the palace rats and becoming their commander. The rats that Rupert now commanded took over the entire castle. All of the humans, including Tulina, Helgy, and Elgy had fled. The rats lived quite happily in their military base.
Even though he commanded all of the palace rats (and all of the rats in the entire city) Pat was still restless. He moved out a great deal of his army, forcing all of the rats around the kingdom into submission. He ruled all of the rats in the kingdom, and still he was unhappy. So Pat ended up (with the help of Rupert, his second-in-command as always) ruling all of the rats in the entire world. This had a large effect on the world. Humans started noticing how the rats' behavior had changed drastically. The rats acted with precision, and organization. Pat became king of the rats.
I suppose you would also like to know what happened to Tulina and her rotten daughters. Well they disappeared and no one (not even the rats, who had the most efficient and advanced intelligence in the world) knew what happened to them. I won't say that they died, because they really didn't.
So despite attempts to have their lives ruined, the three sisters lived good, happy lives. They never learned that they were sisters, and they never knew who their mother was. Only Alyette knew of their father, their step-relations, and the home they were born into. Neither Lizmia, nor Samina ever learned about them.
And once upon a time the three sisters lived happily ever-after…
The End.