Once upon a time, there was a faraway but prosperous land. In that land there was an extremely fine looking prince; so fine looking that he was said to have charmed many a Goddess with his handsome young looks and tall, dashing figure. He was well versed in the literary and physical arts. His every movement was indicative of his royal status, as was his regal bearing and impeccable manners. In spite of his powerful position and good looks, he had a flawless character. He had not the airs of a prince and treated all in his country equally, no matter rich or poor, powerful or weak. In fact, he did all he could to suppress exploitation and oppression of the weak and poor. This prince was well loved by all in his country. On top of all that, he was the most likely successor to the throne. In short, he was perfect, and also the most eligible bachelor in that part of the world. This, of course, had attracted many offers of marriage from princesses of neighboring countries, as well as faraway lands where stories of his eligibility and gallantry had reached their ears.
Strangely though, this prince had not chosen any of them as his wife or lover. This had bothered the King and Queen, for they felt that it was due time for him to settle down.
And thus, one fine day, the Queen sat her son down, assuming a fairly serious expression on her beautiful face.
"My dear son! When are you going to settle down? Do you not know that you worry your father the King, and me so much? You are the successor to the throne after all, and what kind of successor doesn't have a wife by his side?"
"Oh Mother, I still haven't found the one whom I'm destined to be with for the rest of my life! I feel that as future ruler of this land, I should choose a good lady who is fit enough to be the future queen. She must have the dignity and ability to win the people's hearts and aid me with the ruling of this land! Just as you are, my good Mother!"
"But I am concerned that if you keep on with this picking and choosing, you would be an old man by the time you find your wife!" Even as she said this, the Queen was infinitely pleased at her son's comment about her.
"Mother, you know very well what kind of person I am! I have decided to choose only one lady to be my companion and I will love and protect this person all my life. I have sworn this upon the heavens, and upon my heart! Nothing is ever going to change this!"
"Sigh, alright, my dear son. If you think this is what's best for you, then go ahead. I would think that the people of the nation would rather trust a ruler who is dedicated to one wife, than a promiscuous one!"
"Thank you, Mother! I won't let you and Father down, I promise!"
And so the prince continued his long search for his one and only love.
However. This is not a fairy tale. At least, it's not those sickly-sweet fairy tales so commonly seen nowadays. The happiness that engulfed the land was soon taken away by one bad news after another.
It all started with the Queen's untimely death. She had just passed her fortieth birthday, not looking a day older than thirty, when she suddenly died of a strange, incurable illness. This illness was so rare that not even the most famous doctor in the world could diagnose it. A spell of doom and gloom fell over the whole country, for the Queen was a well-loved one. The most adversely affected person was, of course, the King and the young prince. Especially the King, who could not do anything except mope around. Thus, the most important matters in the land were handled by the prince who tried to control his emotions of despair and resentment towards the King. (He was human, after all, and entitled to some negative emotions, isn't he?) But only for a little while, for he realized that this only goes to show how much the King loved the Queen, and he could understand that. In fact, this was just what he was aspiring to do; to love his wife more than anything else. And the young prince grew in maturity as he handled the land's matters on behalf of the King.
He really wasn't expecting the next blow. It came out of the blue and knocked him out like a punch. His father had remarried! And to a bride who could be his daughter, for one thing. She was only a few years older than the young prince, and yet he was expected to call her Mother? Not on his life! Only a few months ago, hadn't the King been moping around and proclaiming that even if his Queen was dead, he would still be faithful to her? The prince realized for the first time how easily people's heart could change, even for men like the King. And he was bitter at the realization. He vowed to himself that he would never, ever follow his father's footsteps.
The new Queen, his stepmother, was the worst kind of woman to ever become a Queen. She was spiteful and vain, and spent money like water. Heaven knows what the King saw in her. Well, maybe the prince knew, but he was too polite and dignified to point it out. Every day, the King would not come out of his bedroom until the sun was high up in the middle of the sky. Every night, the prince could hear strange groaning noises emitting from the King's room, and it disgusted him. A lot.
With the new Queen in place, the poor and weak were oppressed, and this oppression grew more and more rampant each passing day. For she was a cruel woman, who seemed to bear hatred against them, Heaven knows why. She had even convinced the King to give the prince less authority over the land's matters, while she herself "suggested" how to handle them. The King seemed to be completely locked in her spell, and welcomed her every suggestion without any protest at all. All the prince could do was suffer in silence.
And that was all he did until the new Queen did the worst thing ever. She started making advances towards her stepson! It seemed that after controlling the present ruler, she also wanted to control the future one! How awful! How disgusting! How perverted! Every day since the last month, she began crawling into the prince's bed after he fell asleep, wearing almost nothing, or see-through nightgowns and rubbing herself against his body.
However, the prince was strong at heart and even stronger in will and would not fall into her Venus Fly-trap. Now he finally understood how she could have gained control of the King. The King was lonely and vulnerable after his late wife died, and this witch just waltzed right in and took his heart! Now the prince felt sorry for his father. And the more he felt sorry for his father, the more repulsed he was by this beast-woman who had claimed his mother's position! And there was nothing he could do about it!
This particular night, the beast-woman was more aggressive than before. She took off all her clothes and brought the prince's hand up to her left breast, pressing it there while her eyes were suggestively trying to seducing him. Ordinarily, the prince would have thrown her off his bed immediately, but instead he felt weakened and could not resist one bit.
"Whaa…??" The prince struggled and struggled only to squeak out this word.
"So...you think that you can resist me, don't you? Well, you thought wrong, 'cos now the only thing you can do is mutter ineffectual 'whaa's and nothing else. Why don't you stop struggling and enjoy it while you're at it? One way or another, you're mine now, you hear?" The Evil Queen threw her head back and emitted a series of chill-inducing squawks of laughter.
The prince stared at the Evil One with intense hatred in his beautiful blue eyes, which had turned into hard stones with the hate in them. It was true, what she said. He could not resist it at all. It seems as if some kind of incense was burning in the background, and it was making him all weak and lumpy... but he wasn't going down without a fight! And through sheer force of will, he did the incredible! He broke the spell that the Evil One was apparently casting on him, and threw her off his body onto the ground.
"NOW you will pay for it, you wonton!!!!" The prince roared and slashed the Evil One's head with his sword. He had always had this sword close to him ever since his stepmother started crawling into his bed at night.
"What? You cut my head off? You will pay for this! Even though my body dies, my soul does not drift away, for I am the most powerful witch in the World! Be prepared to bear the consequences!" The severed head's eyes suddenly opened, glittering with a strange green light. It's mouth also opened, chanting a series of weird garble which the prince could only make out to be "glkajreautnkljfadgkgjdfkajhj;a;aaa; jaaajaaajaa!!!" or something like that.
"HAHAHAHAH, WAHAHAHAA, MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!! NOW YOU WILL BE CURSED FOR INCURRING THE WRATH OF THE GREAT EVIL WITCH!!! YOU DO NOT KNOW THAT I WORK FOR SATAN, AND THUS YOU ACTED RASHLY ! EXPECT THE DIRE CONSEQUENCES!!! WAHAHAHHAHA!" The Evil Witch emitted another bout of eerie laughter.
Slowly but surely, the prince felt out of control of his body. He could not move any part of him at all, and he seemed to have shrunk in size. He felt just like... a doll?
The prince looked down his body in terror and saw that indeed, what had been human skin was now replaced by cloth, his flesh gradually turned into stuffing and his eyes had been replaced by green glass pebbles. The horror of it! The worse nightmare he could ever have! What was he going to do now?
"NOW DO YOU REALISE WHAT KIND OF SITUATION YOU ARE IN NOW? REGRET WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, OH YES REGRET!! YOU WILL NEVER REVERT TO A HUMAN AGAIN, EVER!
BUT ME BEING THE KIND BEING THAT I AM, WILL GRANT YOU A WAY OUT! IF YOU CAN FIND A GIRL WHO LOVES YOU ENOUGH, AND YOU LOVE HER BACK TOO, THEN MAYBE THE SPELL JUST MIGHT BE BROKEN! BUT I SAID MAYBE! THE CHANCES OF THAT HAPPENING? CLOSE TO ONE IN INFINITY!!! WAHAHAHHHAHAH!!!" And with that the evil spirit of the witch vanished, leaving behind a trail of her, what else, evil laughs.
And the poor prince disappeared from the face of the Earth, never to be seen.
"Sigh. That is a sad ending if I ever saw one!" Ling Yue closed her favorite storybook reluctantly, glancing once more at its enchanting book cover. "And yet, it touches me. I sure would have liked to meet that prince!"
"Wait! What is this I'm saying? This is just a fairy tale; the prince doesn't exist! I must be getting senile!" Ling Yue shook her head vigorously, as if this would fling the thought away, but to no avail.
She sighed wistfully again, wishing for the impossible.
Then she looked at her self-made doll. This doll was made based on her impression of what the prince might have looked like if he was real (but not a life sized one. Her mother would have a freak if she made it life sized). Granted, it was poorly made, but she still hugged it in her bed when she went to sleep every night. And talked to it as if it were a real person, telling it all her troubles, her happy thoughts, whatever that comes onto her mind. As if it were the real prince. Ha. She must really be in deep trouble to think and do that. Damn. She's crying again. Why is she so emotional? Oh no! Her tears have stained the doll's face! She hastily wiped it off, but there was still a tearstain on his face, as if he was crying too! Ling Yue smiled sadly at it, and dropped her head onto the pillow. She fell asleep immediately, spent by her crying bout.
She's crying again. Why does she cry every night? It baffles me what she has to cry about! It is not as if the whole world is being bad to her. She's a spoilt brat, if you ask me! Just a little scolding from her mother, and she comes to me complaining about how she wants to die and all. I wish she wouldn't squeeze me so hard, I almost couldn't breathe! But I couldn't anyway, being cursed as to be the oldest living doll in the history of mankind. As if there was even another one, come to think of it. I am tired. I truly am. I have been transferred from one doll's body to another, for Heaven knows how long and how many times. When will I ever find a girl who loves me? Maybe the witch is right, I may never revert to a human again......
Her? I can't! I seem to dislike her from the moment I saw her! Everything she does repulses me, disgusts me! Even for a tiny little thing like crying! She doesn't love me; she loves the prince in the story. I am the same as the Prince? Bah! Everyone knows how exaggerated these stories are! If only I were so strong, flawless, etc etc, I wouldn't have fallen that dog-faced witch's trick, trust me! I am so... so tired of waiting, but this is just like a never-ending ride that I have no hope of ever stopping. Why me, why me! Mother! Why did you have to die on me? If you didn't, I would not be in this state at all!!
His eyes, which had been perfectly hard and still before, seemed to soften for a little moment, escaped by his master's eyes.
Evil Witch (smirks evilly): Hah. Here is his chance at breaking my spell, and he throws it away by disliking the only girl who could ever love him. Why? Of course it's because I have cast another spell over him! He will fall into an illusion of extreme dislike for any girl who loves him, and whom he loves in return. The stronger the love between them, the stronger this illusion will be. WAHAHAHAH! Isn't that the most brilliant plan ever? I will make him pay, and suffer, for the rest of his never-ending life as a stupid doll! CURSED! HE IS CURSED, FOREVER! AND EVER! AND EVER! AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Author's notes: This is my first attempt at something like this. I have no idea if this will be a short or a long story. When I had started writing for Yisheigai, I had thought that it would have at most ten chapters, but it is already at chapter 20, and still more to go! So I can't really say what length this story will be, gormen ne! By the way, I thought of this story when I was making my doll and pricked myself with a needle, dripping a tiny drop of blood of the fella's chest. Hyuck Hyuck. Then I thought what it would be like if the doll were to become alive because of the blood, you know, like Child’s Play horror series. I couldn't look at a doll for a long time after watching that!!! And just imagine, too, that it is in the middle of the night while I am writing this, and suddenly the doll on top of my monitor just fell down for no apparent reason... gave me a heart attack, it did! But don't worry, this isn't a horror series but a romantic one (simply because I can't write horror series :p). Alright, enough of this nonsense. Stay tuned for Chapter 2. 0_0x
Tralalalal!!!
The Cursed Living Doll Intro
Yours Truly's Homepage
Tales of the Ancient World - The Yisheigai Gods Intro
Chapter 2
