Once upon a time the beautiful Princess Lifa of Niflheim was kidnapped by the Evil Zefiroth. Her father King Rockhart was very sad because the princess had been taken far away. He told all his knights they could marry the princess if they rescued her. All the knights tried to reach the Evil Zefiroth's Evil Fortress but they all failed. Now there was no one in their kingdom who could save Princess Lifa. Just as everything seemed lost, an orphan boy called Sky Tribal came to the Kingdom of Niflheim. He had heard the princess was beautiful and wanted to save her. He also wanted to marry Princess Lifa.
The king laughed at Sky. He could not possibly save the princess. Unlike most knights who tried, Sky was small and shy. But he begged the king to try and his advisor Loofus said he should. He told King Rockhart in private that there was no way the orphan could save the princess. The King agreed Sky could try but did not think he would succeed but also hoped he did to get the princess back. But Sky could not marry the princess because he was not a prince. Sky said he wanted to save her anyway.
Sky was new to the land and did not know where the Evil Fortress was. He went into the town and asked people about it. All the townsfolk laughed when he told them he was going to rescue the princess. A girl who was nine years old and called Larlene believed in Sky and she took him to meet her father Garret. He went with Sky to meet Lizzie and her friends called Landslide in the tavern. They all secretly wanted to rescue the princess as well because she was secretly helping them secretly fight the evil wizard Loofus who secretly ran the kingdom from the shadows. Sky wanted to fight him, but Landslide said he was too powerful when the princess was not there.
Garret took Sky to meet the blacksmith who was called Dack. He gave Sky a magic sword to help fight monsters and the Evil Zefiroth with. Then they took him to meet the head librarian who was a talking cat called Deneh. Deneh told him how he could cross the dessert. He kept telling people he knew how to get to the Evil Fortress but no one would listen. Sky thanked Deneh for his help and the secret to crossing the dessert. Wiggs and Bedge from Landslide helped Sky reach the edge of the kingdom and the dessert.
The dessert was difficult to cross as people kept getting stuck in the treacle on the top. Other people got hungry as they crossed it and starting eating the treacle and got tooth ache and died. Some people drowned as under the treacle was a layer of soft chocolate and then a layer of ice cream. Deneh told Sky there might be other layers even deeper but no one had been brave or hungry enough to find out and the dentists would be upset with them. There was no toothpaste in the dessert. He told Sky the secret to crossing the dessert was to jump on the marshmallows floating on the top. Then he wouldn't get stuck. Later he could use them to cross the cream rivers. If he swam through, the guard cats of the Evil Fortress would smell him and eat him.
Sky avoided the treacle and jumped between the marshmallows. Some monsters lived on the marshmallows, but the magic sword he got from Dack defeated them easily. In the middle of the dessert he met the dessert witch. Her name was Eris and she lived all alone in the dessert. She used to live in Dorel, but the evil Loofus banished her to the dessert. She also told Sky that Loofus created the Evil Zefiroth to distract the king until he could marry Lifa and take over the kingdom.
Eris could not go with Sky, but she was able to give him a magic spell that would transport him back to Niflheim. Sky thanked her and continued on his way. He kept on jumping across the marshmallows and over the cream river. The guard cats did not eat him when he reached the other side and purred really loudly when he scratched their chins. The guard cats did not like Zefiroth much and Sky promised to take them back with him.
At long last, Sky was standing at the entrance to the Evil Fortress. He fought through the castle as hundreds of enemies attacked. But thanks to the magic sword he could easily defeat them. At the very top of the castle was Zefiroth with Lifa in a cage. He laughed when he saw Sky and asked him how such a weakling could hope to defeat him. But Lifa could see he was actually her childhood friend from when she was younger. As Zefiroth laughed, she kicked open the door of her cage.
Zefiroth was shocked. Lifa used her martial arts on Zefiroth while Sky hit him with his magic sword. Zefiroth tried to ask how Lifa could be so strong, but she kept kicking him until he fell over dead. Sky asked Lifa the same question and she said that Loofus had given her a potion to stop her using her martial arts. Lifa was really pleased to see Sky after all this time and wanted to kiss him, but they had to get married first so she had to wait. Sky wanted to kiss Lifa too but knew the same thing but he was sad because they could not get married.
Outside Sky sent one guard cat to rescue Eris from the middle of the dessert and used the spell to send him and Lifa and the rest of the cats back to Niflheim. They appeared in the throne room of King Rockhart's castle. Loofus was there. Before he could do anything Sky and Lifa defeated him and the king came to his senses. Loofus was banished to the centre of the dessert to live in Eris's old house with the guard cats keeping an eye on him.
Princess Lifa was upset as she wanted to get married to Sky but he wasn't a prince. But Eris asked Deneh a question about Sky's parents and he realised that Sky was a prince whose family had been killed by Loofus. So Lifa could get married to him. King Rockhart was happy to let Lifa marry Sky and they all lived happily ever after.
Tifa smiled as she started reading Marlene's homework. The smile turned into a grin as she reached the mid-point. Hopefully Barret and Marlene okayed this being photocopied and mailed around to Avalanche. Shame a few people didn't make it into the story, but they'd still get a kick out if. She handed Cloud the sheet of paper once he was home and refused to explain any further. Cloud read with a dubious expression that soon became wide-eyed blinking. He paused about half-way through. "She's misspelled desert."
"Has she?"
Cloud glanced at her. "I think?"
Tifa nodded at the paper. "Keep reading."
Cloud chuckled some moments later.