The Frog King
by Jera
If you travel outside the towns and cities, beyond the forests and mountains, you may eventually come to the Magic Meadow. This is a meadow where there are tall grasses dancing in the wind, and flowers of every color of the rainbow. In the middle of this meadow there is a little round pond. When the breeze blows, little ripples and waves play on its surface, and the forget-me-nots along the sides sway back and forth.
Once upon a time, Fairy Forget-Me-Not lived among the flowers on the pond's edge, and this is her story. Fairy Forget-Me-Not was a beautiful creature, slender, and blue from head to toe. Every morning, Fairy Forget-Me-Not would wash her face with fresh dew. Then, she would dry it with the sun's warm rays. Finally, when she was fresh and clean, she would bend over the pond to smile at her reflection in the water. Little did she know that someone was watching!
In the bottom of the pond was a palace made of mud. That's where the king of the frogs lived. The Frog King was very old and had a big green belly, and a little golden crown on his head. And he did not live in the mud palace all alone! With him lived all the frog princes, frog princesses, frog jesters, frog servants, frog advisors, and frog knights. The only thing that was missing was a frog queen, and the frog king had a good idea who he wanted to make his queen.
Every morning, when Fairy Forget-Me-Not smiled into the pond to study her reflection, the frog king ordered all his frog courtiers to silence. From the moment he had first set eyes on her, he was enchanted by Fairy Forget-Me-Not's beauty. When he gazed upon her every morning, he imagined she was smiling at him, and that she was in love with him, as he was in love with her. After a time, the frog king had absolutely convinced himself that he and Fairy Forget -Me-Not were destined to be with one another.
"Ribbit, ribbit," the frog king thought, "She will happy to come down here and be my wife. Here, I will make her the queen of my kingdom. What is there up above the water for her? Her only suitors are that weeping willow fellow and a few grizzled stalks of grass. Yes, Fairy Forget-Me-Not will be grateful to me for rescuing her from up above, and in return for her love, I will pave her room with seashells, and weave clothes for her from the finest seaweeds."
The Frog King didn't waste time in acting on his desires. He called his three favorite advisers -- Ibbit, Gribbit, and Crib-Cribbit -- to him and explained to them their mission. "Bring Fairy Forget-Me-Not down to the frog kingdom! She will be my queen, and she will love me. I am certain she will say yes, so take this wedding dress for her to wear. It is made of the finest mosquito wings in the kingdom, and cost a fortune to make. Dress her in this and bring her back down with you before sunset today!"
Ibbit, Gribbit, and Crib-Cribbit bowed and left to fulfill the Frog King's mission. In the meantime, the Frog King ordered preparations made for his wedding. The royal cooks prepared delicacies, dishes made of the juiciest of worms and the rarest of insects. The royal jesters gathered glass bubbles to juggle at the night's celebrations. And the king himself stood in front of his mirror all day, adjusting and readjusting his little golden crown, to see how he looked best.
When Ibbit, Gribbit, and Crib-Cribbit reached the surface of the pond and greeted and told Fairy Forget-Me-Not of the Frog King's intention to make her his bride. But instead of gratefully agreeing, the little fairy laughed so loudly that all the spiderwebs in the area burst. Luckily, the spiders didn't mind, because they were using all their eight legs to hold their stomachs, they were laughing so hard, along with the rest of the countryside. Indeed, the only creatures not laughing were the three frog messengers.
Ibbit, Gribbit, and Crib-Cribbit were highly insulted. "This is an outrage! Fairy Forget-Me-Not has insulted our liege!" Ibbit cried "How could she lose out on such a marvelous opportunity, such a gracious offer!" exclaimed Gribbit. "Fairy Forget-Me-Not, you would be wise to repent and take our king up on his proposal and agree to be the queen of the frogs!" Crib-Cribbit croaked.
"What kind of monarch can your king be?" Fairy Forget-Me-Not laughed. "He hops around barefoot all day. There's nothing respectable about that! If he at least had a slipper, that would be a different story!"
Ibbit, Gribbit, and Crib-Cribbit didn't need to hear any more. They jumped head over heels into the pond to tell their king what the beautiful bride-to-be wished had requested. The Frog King gathered all his most trusted advisors together and together they hatched a plan. It was decided that from that day forward, not only the Frog King, but indeed every frog in the kingdom would wear slippers!
The next day, all the frogs paid a visit to the Mrs. Weaver, the legendary sparrow. Mrs. Weaver was famed throughout the land for being the best weaver and mender. It was she that people turned to whenever they were in need of new clothes. But business had been slow lately, and Mrs. Weaver had some free time on her hands when the frogs arrived. She quickly sized up the situation and agreed to make all the slippers the frogs could need, as long as they paid a suitable amount for her services -- after all, she had a nestful of eggs to support. They quickly agreed upon the price: a fistful of pearls. Mrs. Weaver promised that by the third sunset, he would have all the slippers ready, and ship them free of charge to the side of the pond.
For three days Mrs. Weaver worked without rest. The neighboring animals and birds laughed at her, but she paid them no mind. She put on her glasses so she could see the tiny scraps of fabric she was working with. Each little slipper was prettier and more delicate than the one before! By the evening of the third day, every slipper was finished. There were enough slippers to completely fill her little wheelbarrow! Mrs. Weaver happily rolled it out to the edge of the pond.
The Frog King was already waiting impatiently for her. He was sitting on a little throne made of snail shells, and his bodyguards were armed with reeds. All around him croaked his frog subjects. The din was incredible; Mrs. Weaver could barely hear herself think. She emptied out her wheelbarrow in a heap in the middle of the frog court, but she picked up the finest slipper and personally presented it to the Frog King. Secretly, she hoped that the frogs would be so pleased with her work that they would give her double her pay.
But instead of being pleased with the beautiful work, the Frog King became haughty. Not only did he not like the slippers Mrs. Weaver presented him with, but he sorted through the pile of the other slippers in disgust. "This one isn't warm enough!" he cried. "That one isn't soft enough! Ribbit, ribbit. This one is too delicate! That one is too rough! This one is too wide! That one is too narrow! Croak, ribbit, croak!" Following his example, the other silly frogs of the court started mocking the slippers as well.
Mrs. Weaver grew more and more angry at the unfair accusations. "You insolent little creatures!" she cried. "How dare you badmouth my craft? I have done you a favor by providing you with these fineries on such short notice, and now they're not good enough for you? Well, fine, then. If you don't like it, then you can just hop around barefoot for the rest of your amphibian lives!" With lightning speed, she gathered up all the slippers and disappeared, fuming and disappointed, into the reeds. "My slippers! My slippers! Bring back my slippers!" cried the furious Frog King, but to no avail. Mrs. Weaver was already halfway back to her nest, leaving the frogs to croak after her.
The frogs made such a racket that even Fairy Forget-Me-Not woke up. She saw Mrs. Weaver in her nest, looking dejected. Fairy Forget-Me-Not smiled at her. "Wait, Mrs. Weaver," she said. "I'll buy those slippers from you! They'll be perfect for my fairy brothers and sisters!" And so it happened. Fairy Forget-Me-Not paid such a good price to Mrs. Weaver that from then on, she and all her chicks could afford to eat soft raisin scones for breakfast every morning! The fairies each had lovely new shoes to dance around in. And from then on, the Frog King sat sadly in his mud palace, angry at himself for missing his opportunity to take Fairy Forget-Me-Not as his queen.
Jera, Copyright 2001. Reprinted with permission.
