Summary: Wherein there is a golden ball, an enchanted and enchanting frog who is truly a King, and a spoiled Princess with all the wrong ideas in her head.

In days of old, when a wish could still help one in trouble, there lived a King whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was so beautiful that the moon herself, who had seen so much in so many forms, was astonished whenever it fell upon her face.

Her name, perhaps unfittingly for a creature so fair, was Mabel. Mabel had three sisters, named Doreen, Nora, and Laura, and one brother named Thaddeus. Every day Mabel would go to her tutor with her other sisters, as befit a Princess of the Realm, but she was also something of a rebel at times. When it suited her, as it often did, she would excuse herself from lessons early, only to go back to her room and lounge around until dinnertime, when she would join her sisters and her understandably irritated Father-King Kentley. Kentley was quite the King, and his most steadfast, most held-close-to-heart moral, was that if someone in the castle, from the lowest scullery maid to one of his daughters, (not to exclude himself, of course,) gave their word on something to someone, that they should of course hold true to it.

Nearby King Kentley's castle, in a deep, dark forest most improperly named the Forest of Dreams, there sat a very old oak tree, in fact so old that its trunk was too big for five men to link hands and circle it, and also so old that it was finally dying. Underneath this ancient tree there stood an even older well. This well was so old that most of the stones forming the walls had crumbled away, leaving only a few well-rounded blocks to mark the hole, and of course the old oak tree, which had grown up drinking the sweet water from that well.

When the days were very warm, and the air in the castle stifling, the King's youngest and most beautiful daughter Mabel would escape from her tutor to run through the forest to the well, and sit down beside its cool, still water. After some time each day she would pull a small golden ball out of her pocket, and throw it high up into the air to catch it once it came back down. And--as a side note--Mabel was great at throwing things.

Now it just so happened that on one quite unusual occasion, Mabel's golden ball did not fall back into her little hand, but lightly--quite unusually so for a heavy, solid gold ball--onto the ground some feet away from her, and promptly rolled into the well.

Mabel rushed to the side of the well and followed it down with her blue eyes, but as gold in murky water is wont to do, it sank quickly and she swiftly lost sight of it. As the ball had been a present from her dear, deceased mother, Mabel began to cry, becoming louder and louder and could not soothe herself.

As she lamented the loss of her favorite toy, someone said to her, "What ails you, King's daughter? You weep that even an ogre would show pity."

She looked round from side to side, hoping to find her comforter, but alas! her friend was nothing but a large frog crouched on a stone on the other side of the well.

"Ah, old frog," she said. "It is just you. I am weeping for my golden ball, a gift from my poor dead mother, and it has fallen into the well."

"Be still and do not weep," the frog answered quickly. "I can help you, but what will I receive in return if I retrieve your toy?"

"Whatever you wish, dear frog," said the Princess unthinkingly. "My clothes, or my pearls and jewels, or even the golden crown I wear."

The frog said, "I care for none of those things. Fine clothes like yours I had once, and pearls and jewels, yes I had those too. A golden crown as intricate and feminine as yours I cannot say that I had, nor would I want it. However, if you would love me and allow me to be your companion and play-fellow, sit by you at your little table in your father's feast-hall, drink from your little cup and eat off of your little plate, and even sleep in your little bed, then yes. If you will promise me those then I will dive below past where the catfish dwells and bring up your little ball."

"Oh, yes," said Mabel. "I promise you all of that, if you can only bring back my ball."

But even as she said that, she thought, How silly the silly frog does talk. All she does is sit in the water with the other frogs and the fish, and croak their silly songs in the evening. The frog could be no fit companion for any human being, much less her, the Princess decided.

But when the frog had received Mabel's promise, it only widened its eyes for a moment before jumping into the water, diving fast and paddling hard with her webbed feet. In mere minutes Mabel saw her ball slowly coming back towards her. As it weaved back and forth, she saw that the frog had it in her mouth, and in a few seconds the frog emerged from the water and spit the ball into the grass at the Princess's feet.

Mabel was delighted to see her mother's gift again, and picked it up, rubbed it off on the hem of her dress, and ran back to the castle.

"Wait!" called the frog. "Take me with you! I cannot run as fast as you can!"

But what did it help the frog to scream her croak croak croak, after the Princess as loudly as she could? Mabel did not listen to it, but ran home and soon forgot the poor frog, who sat, forlorn and abandoned near the ancient well.

That night, when Mabel had seated herself in the King's Hall with the King and all of his courtiers, and was eating from her little golden plate, something came hopping with wet splats up the marble staircase to the Hall, and knocked on the door. Loudly.

It cried, "Princess, youngest Princess, open the door for me!"

Her father the King said, "Mabel, my dear, whoever is at the door calls for you. Why do you not answer it?" And because Mabel did not want to tell her father that she had lost his dear, departed wife's gift, Mabel slowly made her way to the door, counted to ten in hopes that the frog would go away, and opened it.

There sat the frog.

Mabel slammed the door in great haste, sat down to dinner again, and was quite frightened. How had the frog gotten all the way to the castle?

The King saw clearly that Mabel was quite upset, and said, "My child, what terrifies you so? Is there a giant who wishes to carry you away?"

"Ah no," said Mabel. "It is naught but a giant and disgusting frog."

"But what does a frog want with you?" asked the King.

Mabel saw that she had no choice but to tell her father of her folly. "Today as I was playing in the forest, dear father, the golden ball that Mother had given me slipped from my hands and rolled into the well. Because I cried so, the frog brought it out again for me, and because she so insisted, I promised her she should be my companion, but I never thought she would be able to come out of her water. And now she is outside there, and wants to come in to me."

Outside the doors, the frog knocked a second time, and called, "Princess, youngest princess, open the door for me, do you not know what you said to me today by the cool waters of the well? Princess, youngest princess, open the door for me."

The King said, "That which you have promised you must perform. Open the door for this frog, be polite to her, and give her that which you promised."

Mabel went and opened the heavy door again, and took slow steps back to her chair. The eyes of the whole court were on her, her sisters included, and she heard snickering as the frog followed her steps back to her chair. There the frog stopped, and cried, "Lift me up beside you!" Once the frog was beside Mabel's plate on the table, it cried "Now move your little plate nearer to me so that we may eat together."

Mabel hesitated a little, but then the frog added, "As you promised."

King Kentley looked stern, and Mabel knew she had no choice in the matter. She moved her plate over a few inches so that the rim was beneath the frog's bulging chin.

The frog enjoyed what she ate for the rest of the meal, but every mouthful that Mabel ate nearly choked her, especially after she when she spotted her sister Nora laughing silently on the other side of the table.

At length, the frog said, "I have eaten and am satisfied, and now I am tired. Carry me into your little room and make your little silken bed ready, and we will both lie down and go to sleep."

The Princess began to cry, for the frog was cold and she did not like to touch it much. Now it wanted to sleep in her pretty, clean little bed? How horrible!

Upon seeing her face, the King grew angry and admonished her. "She who helped you when you were in trouble should not be later despised by you! Show manners, little Princess, or I should think you were raised with pigs and not by tutors and sisters!"

So Mabel took hold of her new green friend with two fingers, pinching the frog gently around the middle. As she gripped her, the frog's back bent a little and the stomach pouched out a little messily, and Mabel felt as though she was carrying a dead, utterly crushed frog rather than an unfortunately live one. Perhaps it would be better if her friend were crushed.

She carried the frog upstairs to her little room, put her in a corner, and retired to her bed. But she had not been there for more than a minute before the frog came hopping up and said, "I am tired. I wish to sleep as well as you, so lift me up or I shall tell your father. After all, that was the last thing you promised me by the well. Let me sleep beside you on your little pillow."

Mabel had no choice but to pick up the frog again and deposit her on the clean, silken bed.

No sooner had she laid her head down as far from the frog as she could get when she felt a tiny, webbed hand on her shoulder. The frog had crept up and was now near her head!

"Perchance, Princess," the frog said. "Perhaps, though I know you have been most unhappy with me this evening, you would do me one last favor in return for the fact that you left me at the well, all alone this past afternoon. I know you did not intend to keep your promise."

Princess Mabel went very still. "Yes, frog?" she ground out through clenched teeth. What could the ugly froggess want?

"I wonder if you would possibly…" the frog trailed off, sounding uncertain, and her breath came soft and cool against Mabel's cheek. "May I perhaps have one act of minor passion from your heavenly lips?"

Upon hearing that, Mabel was seized by a sudden and terrible rage. "You odious frog!" she shouted, unheeding of who could hear her. She snatched the frog by one leg and held it high in the air. "Act of passion?"

She hurled the frog at the stone wall with all of her considerable might, and with a mighty crack the frog struck the wall, shattering every bone in its tiny body.

But what fell from the wall was not the ruined form of a frog, but a finely dressed young woman who landed upon the carpeted floor with a soft exclamation of surprise.

As Mabel knelt on the bed, the woman rose from her position on the floor. Mabel couldn't suppress a gasp as the woman pushed long blonde hair back from a face with high cheekbones, flashing brown eyes, and pale skin. The look of authority in her eyes was not a casual thing, and Mabel knew it very well, because she saw it every day in the mirror whenever she looked into the mirror or at her father or sisters. This woman was of royal blood, and she unsteadily made her way over to the mirror on Mabel's wall, gaining confidence and with every step. As she studied herself in the mirror, a look of dissatisfaction came into her eyes, and then her gaze fell on Mabel.

"Oh, this is never going to work," she said. She hastily took a knife from Mabel's writing desk.

This is it, Mabel thought. I will die here, at the hands of this frog-princess thing.

But instead of sticking the knife into Mabel, the former Frog took it to her own hair, happily hacking this way and that until the only hair left on her head was shorter than the length of Mabel's little finger.

Then, without a 'how-do-you-do' or even a 'please,' she began rummaging through Mabel's drawers, searching roughly for something that would suit her. Clearly neither the expensive dress she was wearing nor the jewel-encrusted gowns in Mabel's armoire would do.

"Ah!" she said finally, holding up a pair of trews and a plain shirt that had once belonged to Mabel's brother. "Perfect!"

Without a please or thank you to Mabel, the other princess quickly stripped off her gown, revealing a slender body that Mabel only caught a bare glimpse of before hiding her gaze.

The other clothing was quickly donned, and when Mabel looked again, the woman was divesting a rather simple leather belt of the tacked-on jewels.

Then she looked up at Mabel and grinned. "Much better now, huh?"

Mabel frowned. "Not really. What are you?"

"I," began the woman. "Am Isabeau of the kingdom of Chevalles, but since I've really no desire to be a princess like you, and also because I do not like my given name, you may call me Beau."

She strode forward in two steps to Mabel's side, kneeling next to the bed. Mabel was horrified. This woman who dressed like a man was acting like a very knight! What was next, a sonnet to the beauty of her eyes or the head of a dragon killed in her name?

"When I was but sixteen, I was about in the woods when I stumbled upon an evil witch. To make things brief, she enchanted me into this form and only an act of passion could release me into my true self, which is what you see before you." She smiled winningly. "What say you, my fair princess?"

Mabel wanted nothing more than to go to sleep, but there was nothing on heaven or earth that could make her slumber in the same room as this gender-confused former frog. Beau reached up and took her hand tenderly, giving it a gentle squeeze. Mabel couldn't take it any longer.

"Father!" she called. "Father, come and see what your goodwill has brought you!"

It was not long before King Kentley rushed into the room, and he was shocked to see the Princess with a strange woman.

"What mean you by this?" he demanded of Beau. "Who are you?"

And so Beau had to explain all over who she was and why she was here, but she did not elaborate as to why she had cut her hair and dressed in men's clothes. It was clearly something that just was.

"Well," said the King when Beau had finished. "That certainly is an odd story. I think perhaps it may be too odd for my daughter."

Beau turned from the King to look at Mabel, and Mabel stared right back.

The King understood the awkward silence and made a decision. "To bed, I think," he said loudly. "Beau, you may stay in one of the guest rooms."

With that he swept out. Beau followed him, but not before giving Mabel one last, searching look.

The next morning, Beau and Mabel eyed each other over breakfast. Doreen, Laura, Nora and Thaddeus were all awed by the presence of the odd Princess, and no one was saying anything.

A platter of sausages passed Beau, and she opened her mouth to say something, but the sound of hooves and wheels clattering over the cobblestones outside stopped her. "My Lord!" a woman's voice called. "Beau!"

The former frog pushed away from the grand table and made her way out to the courtyard. The courtiers followed, with Mabel and her father at the head of the throng.

A coach stood in the courtyard outside, shaped like Mabel's golden ball and shimmering with silver. Beside it stood a woman who looked much like Beau, but her short hair was black instead of blonde. She looked overjoyed to see Beau, and Beau looked much the same. Before the stunned woman could take a step, Beau stood beside her, and the two were embracing devotedly, and the woman was whispering something in Beau's ear.

There was a powerful crack even louder than the frog had made the night previous when it had hit the wall, and Beau looked alarmed. "What is that?" She cried. "Have all the years that you've stood waiting aged the carriage beyond repair?"

"No, my lord," said the brunette. "It is only one of the three iron bands that I bound around my heart to keep it from breaking after I learned your fate."

Again and again came the cracking noises, but now that Beau knew, she clearly wasn't alarmed.

After some time, Beau returned to converse with the King, and then without any last words to Mabel, Beau hopped lightly into the carriage, followed lightly by her friend, and the carriage drove off into the midmorning sunrise.