Everyone agreed that the ninth daughter born to King Benjamin and Queen Isabelle; Christiana was the ugliest baby they had ever seen. She was supposed to be the long awaited prince anyway, but she was not she was just the ugliest princess. In fact if she hadn't been a princess, people would have not held their tongues and made rather nasty remarks. When Christiana's fairy godmother first saw her; she made the mistake of asking where her new godchild was. When she found out that the baby in the royal pram was her new godchild she had to excuse herself to the little fairy's room to vomit, and then quietly slipped away without even taking the trouble of bestowing a gift of the newborn babe, as is the custom with fairy godmothers. No one was really shocked at this not even the King and Queen.
"For could ever blame the dear fairy for not wanting to ever look upon the little creature again let alone bestow a gift a upon it?" Queen Isabelle murmured to her husband
King Benjamin merely nodded his head silently in reply for he was still a bit distraught over the loss of the baby not being his intended heir apparent.
Princess Christiana grew as babies are always certainly to do, but her looks did not improve with time, and the other eight little princesses wanted nothing to do with her and were more often than not very cruel in their behavior to her. This was the case with the King and his Queen as well as everyone else in the kingdom. Christiana therefore became a very bitter and sullen princess; and her manners did not improve as she reached of a marriageable age.
"We'll be stuck with that one forever!" King Benjamin moaned to his Queen
"I'm afraid so my dear, for it would take the promise of your whole kingdom as dowry for any prince to be willing to take the creature off our hands." Queen Isabelle agreed
Princess Christiana over heard her royal parents bemoaning her fate and decided that, "If there is no one in all our land who will love and want me, I will just have to go out into the world and make my own life."
That night Christiana slipped silently out of the castle and made her way toward the Black Forest just beyond the border of her parents' kingdom.
"The Black Forest will be a perfect place for me to make my new home, thought Christiana, for my royal mother and father say only the foulest of beast dwell there and as I most certainly look like one of that sort it will do very nicely for me."
Christiana wondered the Black Forest for many days before she came upon several levels of caverns affixed in a giant rock formation; she found that trolls and their families occupied many of them. After searching several hours for a vacant one, Christiana sat down on a rather ample size rock in front of one of the larger caves of the second level. A mother troll soon appeared out of the mouth of this particular cave, she looked at Christiana and asked "Is there anything I can do for you, young one?"
This was the first time in her life Christiana had heard a kind word from anyone and was very taken aback, but when she found her voice after several minutes she replied, "Please, could you tell me if you know of any available caverns near by?"
The mother troll smiled knowingly and said "Ah, I see planning to set up housekeeping for you and the mister are you."
"No, just for myself, I'm not married." Christiana replied
"WHAT, exclaimed the mother troll, a pretty trollet like you has not been snatched up yet!"
Christiana knew she was not a pretty trollet, only a very ugly princess, but was so surprised and pleased by the mother troll's mistake she did not bother to correct her.
"Well never mind my dear never mind, I dare say you will catch a husband soon enough with your good looks and as to the vacant cavern there is a nice little starter one just three caverns down that should do very nicely for you." the mother troll continued without taking any notice of Christiana's dumbstruck silence
"Thank you, Mrs………" Christiana started to reply but broke off because she did not think it would be polite to call her Mrs. Troll if that was not her name, though she had never worried about being polite before.
"Persimmon, Mrs. Agnes Persimmon the Troll; my husband DaMuck Persimmon the Troll is away in the Valley of Meadows visiting our son Herman, whom he is trying to convince to take a little break from guarding his bridge from Billy Goats to spend some time with the family." Mrs. Persimmon the Troll explained
Christiana smiled then said, "I am sorry to interrupt Mrs. Persimmon, but I really should find my cavern before it gets to late."
"Of course you should child, here I am prattling on when you need to get your new home set up and don't worry about dinner dear, I will be over in just a little bit and bring you something." Mrs. Persimmon the Troll told her
"Thank you very much, and I will see you in a little while. Good-bye." Christiana replied
With that, Christiana proceeded to follow the directions Mrs. Persimmon the Troll had given her earlier to her new home. Christiana found her new home with ease and decided that when Mrs. Persimmon came with her dinner she would ask where the nearest market was so she could buy some furniture. As promised Mrs. Persimmon the Troll came by with dinner and gave Christiana the information she requested on where to buy the necessary furnishings for her new home. Over the next few days, Christiana was able to set up her new place and make it look suitable. When Christiana had gotten her place arranged to her liking; she went over to Mrs. Persimmon's to issue her and her family an invitation to dine with her.
It was accepted by Mrs. Persimmon the Troll and was told "It will give me a chance to introduce my husband, eldest son, I mentioned him to you, and the rest of my children; thank you my dear we will see you tonight."
The Persimmons' arrived on time; Christiana was introduced to Agnes's son Herman and her husband DaMuck.
"It is nice to meet you, Christiana, when Agnes told me that you took this cave, that you were unmarried, and a very nice. She just didn't tell me you were such a beauty." DaMuck said by way of hello
"Don't listen to him, Christiana, I have done nothing but tell he and Herman how beautiful you are." Agnes said
"Uuh, it's nice to meet you Christiana." Herman said by way of greeting
"It's nice to meet you both." Christiana replied warmly
"These are the rest of my children, Christiana; Orbius, Mardey, Caleyn, and little Zumara." introduced Agnes
"It's nice to meet you little ones as well." Christiana said to the little trolls with a smile
The little trolls giggled; while their parents and older brother Herman smiled.
Christiana's dinner party went off with out a hitch, except for when the little trolls thought it would be funny to start a food fight, which just made Christiana laugh and didn't offend her in the least.
Over the next few weeks Christiana saw more of the Persimmons'; especially Herman.
"Your mother tells me that you will be going back to defending your bridge, from Billy Goats, soon." Christiana commented to Herman a few days before his leaving
"Yes, for some reason the annoying goats like trip-trapping over my bridge. When I ask them to stop they just bleat about the grassy meadow on the other side. Then the stupid things get the ridiculous idea in their heads that I'm going to eat them and try to bribe me with an older bigger brother, Billy Goat." Herman explained with complaint in his voice
"And do you know what the worst part of these goats is!" Herman fumingly added
"No, what?" Christiana asked for she had never ever seen a Billy Goat before much less knew that they could talk
"They are all named Gruff, I swear goats have no imagination when it comes to naming their kids." Herman went on to complain
Christiana softly giggled and then asked, "Herman, what exactly is a Billy Goat?"
Herman chuckled and then said "How can you not know what a Billy Goat is, where did you grow up, in a hole in the ground."
"No, in a palace." Christiana replied
"They let a trollet grow up in a palace?" Herman asked incredulously
"I do not believe that there has ever been a troll male or female that has ever crossed my father's front door, and I am not a troll; I am an ugly princess." Christiana explained to Herman
Herman was confounded by this explanation and then asked if Christiana would tell him what she meant.
Christiana looked at him, bit her lower lip, and began the narrative of her life, which you have already gotten the gist of at the beginning of our tale, to Herman.
Herman listened to Christiana without interrupting and more importantly with the kindness and sympathy that had been missing for so long in Christiana's life.
When Christian had finished the narrative of her life she looked at Herman and said, "Now you know, I am not an attractive female troll just a very ugly princess no one wants."
Herman stared at Christiana long and hard; then said, "Christiana, your family and people in your kingdom are ignorant, foolish, and cruel. What's ugly to them is beautiful to leagues and leagues of trolls. Humans have a very funny idea of what beauty is and you always find people like that no matter where you go or live."
My Epilogue: A Note from Christiana.
For those of you who were wondering I married Herman and finally got to see Billy Goat for myself. Herman is still to this day trying to chase them away from our bridge, I wish he would give it a rest, he is softy he will let two of them go just to have words with the eldest Billy Goat then gets head butted and sent flying for his troubles. I swear one of these days I am just going to have to go up there and threaten to put the eldest Billy Goat in a stew if they do not stop knocking my husband about.
Trip-Trap-Trip-Trap "Who's that trip-trapping over my bridge?"
Oh, wonderful here we go again. I swear that husband of mine never learns or listens. Oh, well.
The End