The Frog Who Claimed To Be Prince

I wrote this a while back (Summer '03). My writing skills weren't quite as honed then. But here's the story about the frog who claimed to be a prince.

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In a land far far away lived a king whose name was Akoo. King Akoo was a benevolent ruler and ruled his kingdom well. There was only one thing wrong with his rule. He had no queen.

King Akoo searched far and wide for a queen but alas, he could not find one. One day while he was roaming in the forest, he came across this beautiful girl, Mahi but King Akoo heeded not. Mahi was picking berries but King Akoo was more interested in the berries than in the girl. So King Akoo told Mahi that the berries were poisonous.

Now Mahi was a blonde and therefore very dumb. King Akoo told her that if she ever ate them, she would fall into an eternal slumber from which she would awaken if only kissed by a beautiful prince. Now Mahi always wanted to be Snow White and so she ate the berries and fell into a deep slumber.

King Akoo felt very bad because what he thought was something that he had made up had turned out to be true. Sadness gripped King Akoo because even though he was not ugly, he was not by far a beautiful prince. So he took Mahi to his castle and laid her in a bed where she continued to sleep. He searched far and wide but he could not find a prince and one who was beautiful.

King Akoo became really sad and he went to his favorite spot by the lake. He was sitting there looking really sad when he heard someone ask him what was wrong. He looked around bewildered. He heard the voice ask him what was wrong again. King Akoo got up and took out his dagger but he saw no one. He then looked down and saw a frog. King Akoo told him that he was heartbroken and told the frog his story.

The frog in turn told him his story. The frog was once a beautiful prince who had been turned into a frog by the sorcerer Mumra. The frog was really Prince Yuch of Dutch. King Akoo got excited and asked the frog if he would kiss Mahi and wake her from her slumber. The frog said yes, so Akoo picked up the frog and took him to his castle.

Now in the meantime, his court jester Farhi had fallen in love with Mahi and Farhi hoped to have Mahi to himself. The captain of the knights Uzi knew about Farhi's devious plans to whisk the fair maiden away as soon as she woke up. Uzi was on the lookout and so he told no one about this because Farhi was really really close to the King. Farhi and Uzi did not get along too well.

Farhi had once tricked Uzi's bro, Ati and Ati had fallen off his horse. Now Ati was a big coward and after his fall, he had never been the same again. So when Farhi found out about this, he made a plan. He knew that the grand vizier, Kinoo was power hungry and wanted the throne from King Akoo. So Farhi approached him and told him that if he jailed Captain Uzi, Farhi would posion King Akoo's drink so that on his death, the grand vizer could call a state of emergency and declare himself King.

When King Akoo got back with the frog, little was he aware that the court jester and the grand vizier were planning and plotting. The grand vizier, Kinoo blamed the captain of the knights for embezzling some money from the treasury and had him thrown into prison. Uzi then realized what was going on and bribed the prison guard, Giboo to go tell his brother Ati about the plan. Ati gathered some courage and rounded up his loyal comrades; Yavi the kharaabi, Farazee the nose scratcher and Amr the bummer.

The day finally dawned when the frog would kiss the beautiful girl and the King had a grand ceremony. Yavi the kharaabi, Farazee the nose scratcher and Amr the bummer attended the ceremony disguised as beggars so that neither Farhi nor Kinoo would recognize them. King Akoo took Yuch the Dutch to the damsel and placed the frog aka Yuch the Dutch on her shoulder. Yuch the Dutch jumped onto Mahi's face and kissed her.

Everyone waited in anticipation; Farhi ready with the poisoned drink, Kinoo ready to see Akoo die and have his dreams fulfilled of being king, Uzi hoping to have the plans foiled and not to have to spend the rest of his life in a prison cell, Yavi the kharaabi, Farazee the nose scratcher and Amr the bummer ready to slit Farhi's throat before he could put his evil plan into effect and King Akoo waiting to see the Mahi wake up and claim her as his queen.

Yuch the Dutch kissed her and.....

and.....

and......

......nothing happened. Everyone was really disappointed. This would mean that Mahi would stay in her dormant state, Uzi would languish his life away in prison, Kinoo would not get the throne, Farhi would not get the girl, Ati, Yavi the kharaabi, Farazee the nose scratcher and Amr the bummer would have to see their brother/close comrade rot away in jail and King Akoo's dreams of marriage would come crashing down.

The moral of the story:

"Once a frog, always a frog"