Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Enchanted Forest characters.

A New Beginning

Once upon a time one thousand years ago there lived a king, a queen, and four princess. Now the first three princess' were perfect in every way. They had long golden hair, blue eyes, fair complexion, and they were thin. Now, the king and queen wondered about their fourth daughter. She had a darker complexion, black hair, and was not at all interested in becoming a princess. This tale is about her. Her name is Catharine. For the thousandth time they wondered if having a fourth daughter was a good thing. On the day of the christening ceremony six fairies showed up to give the baby princess Catharine a gift of their own. The first one gave her beauty. The second fairy gave her a beautiful singing voice. The third fairy made her loving. The fourth fairy made her graceful. The fifth fairy made her strong. But the sixth fairy was different. She predicted that Catharine would like to be ordered what to do or what she can't do. Her parents were not the least bit frightened about that. So the fairy gave Catharine the gift of independent thoughts. The first three years were fine. She grew up like all other normal princess' should.

Until the day when the sixth fairy showed up on Catharine's fourth birthday, did things start going wrong. First, she said that she wouldn't go to bed until she said so. When she was ten, she started having lessons to become the proper princess. She immediately informed her parents that she did not like them. They said that she would like them as she got older. When she was eleven she starting to secretly take lessons in Latin, cooking, fencing, and magic. On her sixteenth birthday she found out that she was betrothed to Prince George of the neighboring country. She was horrified. When she went for a walk in George's gardens, she found a toad. Now this was no ordinary toad because he could talk. He told her that now she had learned enough to fulfill her destiny. He told her that she would have to run away. She was to head north until she came to a shack at then end of a grove of emerald trees. So, she packed what she would need for a trip north and set out in the dead of night. She traveled for two days before she came to the grove of emerald trees.

She knocked and went in. It was dark. There she found two dragons. The first looked older, was about 80 feet long, and had purplish-blue scales. The other one was about 40 feet long and it had green and yellow scales. The older one was called Whoot and the younger one was called Kally. Now, dragons like princess' and keep them to cook and clean for them. Whoot already had a princess but Kally didn't. So Kally decided that she would like to have Catharine as a servant. Catharine loved helping Kally with chores. They soon became good friends. One time when Kally was away, three princess' dropped by to greet Catharine. They said that they were all held captive by dragons. When the youngest of the three ever tried to talk, the other two would jump on her. After they left the youngest one came back. Catharine and April, the youngest princess, became friends.

For a long time Catharine was happy. One day everything changed, Kally offered to teach Catharine dragon magic. Catharine was beside herself with joy. After she had been learning about dragon magic for two weeks, she had another surprise. The first knight came to "rescue" her. It took her two hours to get rid of him. She was very cross when he left. Then she started having about three knights every day. Finally she told Kally about the problem. Kally told Catharine not to worry. A few nights later, Kally came home to tell Catharine that they were going to have six guests for dinner. Catharine was so scared. That night she got her first experience of dragons. The dragons were having a heated discussion when one of them suddenly lost control of their fire and just missed burning Catharine. She and April got started on trying to find a spell to repel fire. It took them three weeks to get the ingredients.