Moonlight’s Revenge

Friendly Fairy Tales is delighted to offer fairy tales by and for kids!!

Here is the first, a terrific tale by K.H., Age 9

Moonlight’s Revenge

“Get out!” shouted King Dusk as he banned shape-shifters from his kingdom. Shapeshifters not only can shift into another form of any size or shape, but they can control the weather as well. King Dusk was frightened of the shapeshifters, and wanted them to be as far away from his new baby daughter as possible.

That day in the Land of the Lights, two children were born on the same second of the same minute of the same hour. The first was named Princess Sunlight, daughter of King Dusk. The other, Prince Moonlight, heir to the throne of the shapeshifters, was orphaned when his mother succumbed to a fever right after he was born.

The King feared for his daughter because she was his only child, and he shouted to the shapeshifters: “Get out, get out, get out!!!” Without a strong leader to oppose him, the shapeshifters gathered at their secret river, hidden behind thorny brambles, and made it their new old home. They all turned into seals and caught fish. The hidden area was deep inside miles of brambles, inaccessible except for one secret path.

After eighteen years of living in the river, Prince Moonlight went to seek his fortune. He could not be made king until he had a bride.

When he got to the passage that led out of the stream he made the clouds begin to rain. When he was at the edge of the brambles, he turned into a mouse, invisible in the grass.

Unnoticed by him, the Princess was sitting on a bench in a gazebo in the garden. The tiny mouse ran to the gazebo to look around.

When he turned back into a human, Princess Sunlight spotted him. She called out to him to come nearer. She did not recognize him.

He jumped up into the gazebo, over the edge of the window, and he walked lightly over to her.

Their eyes met and they fell in love, but both resisted at first.

“Where did you come from?” asked the princess. “I thought I was alone here.”

Then Moonlight told Sunlight that he was a shapeshifter, and that the king had banished his people at birth. “I lost my mother and my home on the same day.”

“You’re not a shapeshifter. They’re just a myth,” she laughed, thinking he was joking.

“If you don’t believe me, I’ll prove that I am,” said Moonlight. He turned into a lion.

Sunlight screamed and stood up on her bench. Then Moonlight turned into a mouse. Sunlight shrieked. Just to amuse her, he ran out into the garden and turned into an elephant.

But unwisely he allowed the sun to brighten while he was shapeshifting. George, the guard, spotted him and sent another guard to report a shapeshifter to King Dusk.

King Dusk came running out of the castle, and saw Moonlight shift back into a young man. Princess Sunlight ran to him clapping her hands with a gleam in her eye. King Dusk was very angry that a shapeshifter had returned and was luring his daughter. He commanded: “Get him! Get that man!”

Before the guards could catch him, Moonlight swiftly ran away, changing into an eagle and flying up into the trees. So instead of locking up the shapeshifter, King Dusk decided to lock Sunlight away in her tower to keep the two apart.

Moonlight did not give give up. With his eagle eye, he saw Sunlight crying through the windowglass.

The next day Moonlight snuck into the castle in mouse form. Little did he know that not even a mouse could get past Mary the Maid.

On the second floor, one door away from the princess’s tower, he was spotted by Mary the Maid. He looked around frantically, but no mouse hole was nearby.

Moonlight the mouse ran for the door leading to the princess’s tower. Mary the Maid thumped with her broom, and he had trouble dodging it. He ran under the locked tower door, and Mary could not get through. He was free! He was in! The stairs were too steep, but he changed into human form and rushed up. The princess heard his footsteps. She thought he was the king coming to scold her again, and she hid. When he entered, he started looking and calling for her. She recognized his voice and ran to give him a hug.

Moonlight whispered, “Stay here, I will be back.”

So he descended the stairs and turned into a grizzly bear. He sent the maid, the guards, the king, and the queen screaming out of the palace, never to be seen again!

The shapeshifters returned to their homes. Sunlight and Moonlight wed. They were crowned King and Queen of the Land of the Lights and of the Shapeshifters. When Sunlight married Moonlight, she received shifting and weather-changing powers. On the 24th of March in 999 B.C., they had twin boys named Jupiter and Saturn. The shapeshifters finally had suitable homes and their revenge.

The End

P.S. They lived happily ever after.