This fairy tale was assigned as a final exam for a German culture course. The assignment was very general: to write a fairy tale in the style of our choosing. I chose to rework one of the fairy tales I had loved as a child, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. The original draft I wrote was twice as long, but since we have a 10 double-spaced page limit, I had to make it significantly shorter. Enjoy!

---

Once upon a time, there was a king with twelve daughters. His wife, the queen, was the mother of none of them; he had married her only to satisfy his ministers, who insisted that a queen was necessary for his public image, which is exactly what they had insisted each time another young queen had passed away. The people of the kingdom, of course, didn’t care whether their king was married. They just wanted a king who could attend to the affairs of the kingdom, instead of one who was constantly distracted by newborn daughters and pregnant wives.

But now, seven years after the king’s most recent marriage, things were looking up. To the delight of the king, his new wife seemed to be barren; he no longer had to worry about having a newborn daughter every year or so. His daughters were finally growing up, and so he was free to attend to his kingly duties. He was perfectly happy to ignore his queen’s torrid affair with the head gardener, and so she was happy. And the twelve daughters, as they grew older, were all able to pursue their own interests. The kingdom was happy to have a more active king leading them, and the ministers were happy that their king had a new wife, and—in their eyes—a good image.

One day, the queen’s brother, an adventuring sorcerer, was in town, and he decided to visit his sister and her new family. He was disgusted to see what he saw as a family who cared little for each other, and he resolved to bring the family closer together. The next morning, he had gone off on another adventure, and the king and queen were unnerved to see that a worn pair of dancing slippers sat on the foot of each of their daughters’ beds.

Every night, he would lock the door of the large gallery they slept in, and every morning, each daughter would have worn out her dance shoes. None of them would explain what had happened, and when he refused to give them new dance shoes, he would open the door to find bloody footprints all over the carpet, and he would have to send all twelve daughters to the medicine woman. Eventually, he began to grant men of all ages and social circumstances the chance to stay the night with the princesses. If any of them could figure out what was wrong with the listless, once energetic princesses, he would be wed to the princess of his choosing, so long as she was older than fifteen. Months went by, and there were as many would-be heroes as nights, but each night, there were twelve ruined pairs of dancing slippers and an embarrassed gentleman who had been unable to stay awake for the whole night.

Meanwhile, there lived a shoemaker, his wife, and his daughter Amelia. From the moment they rose in the dark morning until they fell into their beds in the middle of the night, they made dancing slippers to replace the ones that were destroyed on a regular basis. Every morning, a courier would arrive to pick up the twelve pairs of slippers, and every morning, the family would pray that he would bring news that they could stop making slippers and get back to their usual work.

The family, under such constant stress and pressure, began to grow listless and frustrated, until one night, their now common bickering became an intense and angry fight. As they calmed down and apologized to each other, it was clear that they had had enough of their situation. Amelia told her parents that she would go to the castle and fix the ridiculous shoe problem herself.

The next morning, when the courier came to pick up the new shoes, Amelia traveled back to the castle with him. She brought with her a knapsack with some changes of clothes, and she wore her most prized possession, a golden locket. Along the way, after awkward conversation about shoes and courier duties, Amelia admitted to him the reason why she was going to the castle. He was surprised, since only men were attempting to discover the princesses’ secret, but he offered her some advice. “One reason the men might be falling asleep is that they’ve been eating heavy meals and drinking wine before retiring. If I were you, I would avoid anything that could make you sleepy.”

At the castle, she thanked him as he went off to deliver the dancing shoes and she went into the main hall to meet with the king. As she entered, she was almost run over by a young man, who appeared to be a foreign prince, and his entourage. Apparently, the position of nightly guard for the princesses had just opened up.

The king was surprised at her request, but when he began to suggest that she was ineligible because she wasn’t a man, the queen stomped on his foot none too subtly. After a short fight that took place in whispers between the king and queen, his Majesty informed Amelia that she would be allowed to spend the night in the princesses’ gallery to try to discover the reason behind the shredded shoes.

She was much too nervous, now that she was finally getting a once-in-a-lifetime chance to end her family’s unhappy situation, and she worried that she would fail. At dinner that evening, she could hardly eat, although she also wanted to take the courier’s advice. After what seemed like only a few minutes, but also a few lifetimes, Amelia and the princesses entered the gallery, and she heard the king locking the door behind her.

The curtain, in place between the princesses’ beds and the small cot for Amelia, had not been removed, even though it was there to give the princesses privacy from the men that had been sleeping there for the past couple months. Her small knapsack had already been placed beside her bed, and she quickly pulled out her nightgown. Behind her, she could hear the princesses rustling around, donning their own nightclothes as well. As she smoothed out her nightgown, she turned around to find the oldest princess behind her, holding a goblet of wine. “Please, we want to thank you for your help,” she told Amelia as she presented the goblet to her. Amelia glanced at the cup warily; it was an unusual time to drink wine, and it was strange that they would present her with such a gift. She then recalled the courier’s comments.

“I thank you, your Highness, but I’d rather not have anything that might make me sleepy,” she said, as courteously as possible. “Your father is counting on me to stay awake.”

The princess looked surprised and a little worried, but she simply smiled and turned back to her sisters. As Amelia pulled back the blankets on her bed, she heard them all whispering frantically, and soon, the oldest princess was again standing next to the curtain.

“Okay, come on,” she said, gesturing for Amelia to come into the main part of the gallery. She was surprised to find the princesses were shedding their nightgowns and pulling on ball gowns. Soon, she found herself wearing a borrowed dress and an extra pair of dancing shoes, left over from one of the nights where the king had withheld the shoes in a desperate attempt to stop the strange nightly occurrences.

Once all of the princesses were sufficiently preened, the youngest tapped on the foot of her bed three times. To Amelia’s surprise, a large portion of the stone floor in front of the bed faded away to reveal a stone staircase. The princesses then began to descend into the floor in order of age, beginning with the eldest. Amelia nervously followed the youngest princess as she too went down into the chilly floor.

Soon, the staircase ended, and Amelia realized that they were in a forest. She was surprised; how could there be a forest below the castle? The stairway had to be a portal to this strange wood.

And strange it was. The trees were all made of gold, and at the end of the golden branches were silver leaves with diamond dew. As the princesses walked along a well-worn path, Amelia decided that she could bring a leaf back to the king as proof. She quickly reached up, since the princesses were looking only at the road in front of them, and plucked a leaf from a low hanging branch. The loud SNAP echoed through the forest, and the princesses turned around almost as quickly.

Amelia quickly slipped the leaf into the bodice of her dress, making it look as if she was clutching her chest in fright. “What was that?” she whispered.

The princesses were fooled. “Someone must have stepped on a leaf,” said one of the middle princesses. “It’s happened before; they can be very loud when you step on one.”

They continued to walk through the forest. Soon, they arrived at a glossy black lake. The shore was made up of smooth black stones instead of sand, and the sky was black with no moon. There was light, though; it was coming from an impressive black manor that sat on a black island across the lake.

There were twelve small black boats sitting on the shoreline, and in each was a tall, pale, blond man wearing ebony clothing. One by one each princess stepped into a boat, and the man began to pole the boat across the lake.

As the princesses stepped in one by one, Amelia pretended that there was a stone in her shoe. As she stepped down and appeared to be removing a rock from her slipper, she really took one from the shoreline. As she stood, she pretended to smooth out her dress, she slipped the stone down her bodice, with the leaf.

She was to ride with the youngest princess, since she would slow it down the least with the lightest princesses. As the man poled the two women across, he frowned at Amelia, but the princess seemed to give him warning glances to keep him quiet. Once they arrived at the manor, each princess entered the wide, open doors with her boatman, not giving Amelia a second glance. Once they had all entered into the building, Amelia quickly knelt down at the shore of the lake. She pulled her locket from her neck and opened it up. To her relief, after she filled it with lake water and shut it, no water leaked out. She clasped it back on and hurried into the manor.

To her surprise, the room was filled with dancing people. The princesses were all dancing with their boatmen, although the younger ones looked slightly ridiculous with their tall, older partners. There were many other people also present, some with partners, and some without, but very few were not dancing at any time. There was also a large table, covered in plates and bowls of all sorts of amazing looking delicacies. Music seemed to float out of nowhere, since there were no musicians present. There were no chairs.

As Amelia tried to figure out what was going on, a man came up to her, grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her into the dancing throng. For what seemed like hours, every time Amelia managed to finish a dance with one man, another one swept in. To her dismay, she could feel her borrowed shoes, which she had made a month ago, shredding and tearing. The threads seemed to be coming loose.

After what seemed like hours, the oldest princess pulled her away from her current partner. “Come have something to eat,” she said. “You must be hungry.” She led Amelia to the table of food and started to comment on what was delicious and what was not. But while Amelia was tired and hungry, she could tell that something was wrong. Not only did the food seem to emanate some strange quality, but the other princesses seemed as if they were unable to stop dancing, or focus on anything but dancing. If the oldest princess was trying to convince her to eat something, it must be very important to the sisters that Amelia have some of the food here.

The princess would not leave her be until she ate something, and so Amelia picked up a napkin and a small cracker with some cheese on it. Holding the cracker in the napkin, Amelia pretended to eat the small snack, hiding the untouched cracker in the folds of cloth as she chewed on nothing. This act seemed to satisfy the princess, who smiled and went back to her waiting partner.

After what seemed like days, and after several more dance partners, Amelia saw that the sun was rising over the mysterious lake and manor. As she saw the princesses and the boatmen exiting to the lake, she quickly followed. The princesses looked disturbed and surprised to see her waiting to get onto the youngest princess’ boat. “Don’t you want to stay and keep dancing?” one of the princesses asked suspiciously. “You can stay and dance day and night if you’d like.”

Amelia then knew that the food would have made her unable to leave this place; she had to make something up. “I can’t possible keep dancing,” she said. “I need to get home so I can keep making shoes for you.” The princesses seemed unsure, but it was clear to them that Amelia was coming back with them, bewitched or not. At least it seemed as if Amelia wouldn’t tell their secret, since she claimed to want to keep making shoes for them.

They silently rode the boats back across the lake, and they quietly walked back up the path to the staircase as the twilight lightened around them. Once back in the gallery, ball gowns were stowed back into wardrobes, hair was taken down, and makeup was wiped off. Amelia returned the borrowed dress, after she had pulled out the leaf and stone and hidden them in her knapsack. Soon, all of the princesses were in bed, asleep, and each had placed her destroyed footwear at the foot of her bed. Amelia instead put hers in her bag.

After only an hour or so of sleep, Amelia and the princesses awoke to the king unlocking the door. After the door was opened, a maid stuck her head into the room and called to Amelia that she was expected in the main hall in an hour to speak with the king.

Only a half hour later, Amelia was pacing in a hallway, her knapsack over her shoulder with its precious evidence. As she waited nervously, the courier arrived with the new shoes. When he asked her what had happened the night before, she told him that he would have to wait until she told the king, and he excited said that he would make sure he was present in the main hall when she did so.

And so a half hour after that, Amelia stood in the main hall in front of the king, queen, and princesses, who were looking nervously at her, waiting to see if she would rat them out. Amelia gave a shaky smile to the courier before turning to face the king. She then recounted her story, of declining the wine, of the gold and silver forest, the black lake and shore, and the manor full of dancing people. She pulled out the leaf and stone she had taken, as well as her own pair of ruined slippers. She placed all of the items in a small pile on the floor as she spoke. Finally, she remembered that she had taken some of the lake water, and the king himself came off his throne and dais to stand beside her and look at the strange black water that sat in her locket.

But when she tried to close the locket, her hands that had been so deft all night became clumsy with lack of sleep, and she accidentally turned the open locked upside-down. The small amount of black liquid fell and landed right on the stone and leaf, although missing the shoes. To the surprise of everyone in the room, the water that had sat so harmlessly in the locket hissed as it hit the supernatural artifacts, which then began to melt. To the greater shock of all present, the princesses began to cheer. The spell, they announced, was finally over, as evidenced by the fact that the royal sisters could now admit to their father what they had been doing every night.

Amelia returned home, refusing to accept any reward except the promise that her family would never be asked to make dancing slippers again. The next morning, there were no tattered shoes, and the princesses appeared happy and well-rested. Soon, the king was focused on his regal duties again, the queen had resumed her affair with the head gardener, and the princesses had once again returned to their hobbies and individual pursuits. Of course, there were never any royal balls, and when there were any formal events that involved dancing, the women of the kingdom danced barefoot.

Amelia’s family, as her reward entailed, never made dancing shoes ever again, although they had become famous as the makers of the legendary slippers. Their fame brought them more customers, and they became prosperous. Amelia eventually married the courier, who continued to stop by every morning out of habit. They owned their own shoe shop in another town, where Amelia made shoes, which were mostly work shoes and her husband delivered them to their customers. She grew so famous that a foreign noble once requested a pair of dance slippers for his wife. Instead, the courier delivered a box with unmeasured and uncut materials for the requested shoes, along with a set of directions. And so the noble’s wife went barefoot to cotillion, and as the story of the unmade shoes spread, no one was ever stupid enough to ask Amelia to make dancing slippers ever again.