Vanity is a great sin, so is greed.
However, no one told that to the crown prince of a small Kingdom in the north of an island.
The prince was named Tooru and lived his life in great admiration of his own appearance and desired whatever someone else held dear. He loved the morning hours when his servants dressed him and he could stand in front of the mirror in the closet and gaze at his own perfect appearance. He loved the gowns and gloves, which underlined his slender figure, the shiny fabrics, which flattered his fair complexion and heeled shoes, which made his butt look even more firm than the two buns already were. However, what he loved to look at most was his face, which was framed by chocolate brown locks.
Prince Tooru walked through the world, which mainly consisted of his father's palaces and the hunting grounds around those areas, without caring about other people's feelings; this grieved his old father a lot, because he did not have any other children. Not that the King had not tried, but his first wife had died during Tooru's birth, after having had suffered through three miscarriages before. His second wife, who was like a mother to Tooru, had conceived two children by the King, one was a cute girl and the one had died in his first week on this earth. The couple did try to have more children, but in vain.
The King had looked all over the Kingdom to find some sorcerer or witch to help them have another child, not that he did not love the two he had, but more were always better. Especially as he had to see his only son and heir grow into a splendid looking young fool. Every try to educate him and reform his actions lead to nothing, as the only person the prince listened to was his step mother, who was young and equally vain. She loved him a lot but made sure to teach him a great disregard for anything that did not please him, as she lived by the same measure. And so years went by and the prince grew older and his father grieved more and more.
When Prince Tooru turned eighteen, the King decided that it was time for his son to marry, as his five years younger sister had been married off the spring before, and so the King announced that a ball would be held during which the spoiled prince would find his bride.
The announcement came as a shock to the young prince who had not thought of settling down with any of the girls, who fluttered around him day after day, but complaining to his father did no good and his stepmother could also not help. So he danced the night away and announced, that he would not be taking a bride, as none of the girls who had come to be evaluated pleased him.
"You cannot honestly believe that I would marry any of those stupid little things!" exclaimed Tooru enraged and huffed.
"Oh, you will marry one of them or I shall give you to the next best person who walks by the grave of your dear mother!" The King roared.
The handsome young man winced. "You would not… dare!"
"Try me!" The Kings voice was ice.
"Mother! Oh dear mother!" Prince Tooru had turned to his stepmother and looked at her pleadingly "Do something! He must be out of his mind!"
But his stepmother cannot help. The young Queen helplessly smiled down on him and tried to speak to her husband, but he would not be moved. "He marries one of the people around in this Ballroom today or the next person who walks by his mother's grave!" he shouted angrily. "I will no longer tolerate my son not being married and not producing heirs. I have, trough no fault of my own, but him as my heir, but who know how long I'll have him? With my luck, he'll die before his time and this country is doomed!"
"I shall not marry anyone who's not my equal!" proclaimed Tooru. "Please excuse me." He strut out of the room up to his chambers, where he locked himself in and began to think of a plan how to either convince his father that he would not marry any of the silly girls or any other person for that matter. But his brain, only filled with vain thoughts and greedy feelings, so selfish that they were utterly useless, proved to be of no help.
After about an hour there was a faint knock at his door and he opened the door for his stepmother who hugged him tightly as he cried on her bosom. He was all but a child again. When he regained some of his senses and composure, she looked into his eyes and said: "There is one thing, I can do for you."
"And what could that be? You said there was no way you could persuade my father!"
"That is true…" she said "But I can help you leave this castle. If you leave, there is no way he can force you to do something you don't want to."
"Leave the castle?" His eyes widened. The thought had never crossed his mind.
"Yes, leave."
"But how? Father will immediately know if I walk out of the door and have me back in a minute."
"Well, you'll have to be in disguise."
"Oh! Yes, of course."
And so the plan was taken up, shaped out and they made haste to see it executed, as the King had declared that the prince would be married within the next month. Right on the night of a new moon as to not be seen, the Queen helped the young prince walk down the castle in a series of hidden staircases and pathways behind walls. Everything seemed to go well, but alas, they were detected by a guard right when they reached the gate to the outside world and the alarms were rung, fully armed guards poured out of any door that could be found close by and it seemed as if the prince would be captured and brought to his father for judgement.
However, the Queen whipped out a wooden stick from under her dress and to the astonishment of everyone, she turned the prince into a frog, grabbed the greenish, bluish animal and threw him over the heads of the guards through the gate.
The frog landed on the road without being hurt thanks to a second spell said by his stepmother, however, she was overpower by the guard and could not lift the first spell and so Tooru had no choice but to hop out into the world and leave the castle, his home for all his life behind, while being in such a repugnant form.
Autor's note:
Thank you very much for reading. As mentioned in the summary, I am not sure how often this story will be updated, but I'll try to do it at least once a month - so in the same scheduled interval as my other story, but I don't promise anything.
