Dragon Stew (part 1)

Trying something new today – this is a longer fairytale so I wanted to share it in parts. This is one of those stories that would work better with illustrations, but here you go. I hope you enjoy Princess Jenny.

Once upon a time in the farthest kingdom from where you are now, lived a very beautiful princess. She was fair of color, her eyes were gray with a hint of green and she had long brown hair that fell in ringlets all about her face. The princess’ name was Genevieve, but everyone called her Jenny.

Princess Jenny had a very sad life, for not so long ago, a very hungry and very mean dragon named Windsor captured her. The dragon thought Jenny was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and he stole her away to decorate the highest tower in his castle, which was a very dark and gloomy place until Princess Jenny came to live there. Although the princess tried to explain to Windsor that she did not want to live with him, he was not a very nice dragon and did not seem to care for her wants at all, except to give her plenty to eat and drink in her small castle room.

Princess Jenny had lived in a town far below the dragon’s keep. It was a town that was not too small and not too big, as a matter of fact it seemed just right to all who lived there. The townspeople had loved the Princess with all their hearts for she brought sunshine and happiness wherever she went. In the beginning, after the mean old dragon had kidnapped Jenny, many brave knights tried to rescue her but each made a tasty meal for Windsor, who barbecued them with his dragon fire and ate them in one giant gulp. Jenny tried to escape from the dragon once. However, the dragon slept at the bottom of the tower stairs and she was not able to sneak past him without disturbing his slumber.

Windsor loved Jenny for her beauty but he also loved to listen to her read. Windsor kept many books about the castle, but he was not able to read himself. It was not that he did not want to read, but every time he tried to learn, he would sound out the words aloud and his dragon breath would burn the book to ashes before he got out the very first syllable. So, he would bring Jenny book after book and spend his days very happily listening to her sweet voice read him stories. The princess loved to adventure through the pages of a book so it was no surprise that she would read long after the dragon had gone to sleep at night. It was during one of her own adventures that she found a recipe book written by a very old witch named Hildegarde. Hildegarde concocted a recipe for a stew that was sure to keep a dragon full for many months and to put out the fire inside his belly. It was a rather niche recipe book, but just what Jenny needed. Jenny was very excited by this news, if she could feed Windsor the stew then a knight might be able to rescue her without being gobbled up. The ingredients were none that she would find in her tiny room, or even any that she would find in the dinners that the dragon provided. She just had to wait until someone happened by to go shopping for her, but it was not a very easy wait!