(Fractured Fairy Tale)

The king and queen had a long-awaited daughter, and they invited all the fairies of the kingdom, except one, because she had not left her tower for half a century, and they all thought she was dead. In the midst of the christening feast, the eighth fairy appeared uninvited, whom she thought was treated rudely by not being invited to the celebration.

All the fairies, except for one who prudently decided to keep the last word, gifted the princess with magical gifts (beauty, a kind heart, intelligence, a beautiful voice, the ability to play various musical instruments). Then the old fairy uttered her shocking prophecy: as soon as the sun rises on her 16th birthday, the princess will find an old Soviet scroll and lose her national consciousness. And since then she will not speak a single Ukrainian word and will be dangerous both for her family and for other kingdoms.

When it was the princess’s turn to be gifted, the fairies generously rewarded her. When it was the old fairy’s turn, she said what would wait for the princess.

The king issued a decree to burn the archives of the kingdom, but in vain: after 16 years, the princess found an old scroll that was a manual of the enemy army, read it and lost consciousness. When she woke up, she started screaming as she heard the Ukrainian language, and started burning books from the royal library. The king and queen were forced to lock her in a tower where she would not harm anyone in the kingdom. They locked her in the tower and forbade anyone to communicate with her, so that the curse would not spread.

Of course, the fairies tried to destroy the charms, but they succeeded only in softening it: the princess would be able to come back only when someone could Ukrainianize her. And this person must be a sincere Ukrainian, not interested in power or wealth. And until the time comes, the princess would be in the tower.

Time passed, the king and queen missed their daughter. Meanwhile, the princess had learned to cast spells and wanted to escape from prison to spread her curse. Many servants lost their consciousness: they switched to hostile language, incited others to go against the kingdom and destroy everything that the country was proud of. The king ordered those to be thrown into prison, and those who were affected more severely were ordered to be immediately executed.

But one day, the young prince went hunting nearby. Seeing a tower overgrown with thorns on the horizon, he decided to find out whose property it was. Arriving on horseback, he heard a strange conversation: as if someone was trying to convince himself of rather strange views.

“Ukraine does not really exist, Lenin invented it… America is to blame for everything…”

Another would have been afraid of this nonsense, but the prince was not.

“Oh, there in the tower! Who lives here and whose property is this?”

“And who else are you? Maybe, hahol? Do you come to preach nazism?”

“What is nazism, what are you talking about?”

“Go ahead, guy. Now I will curse you and you will speak the normal language.”

The prince was surprised. The voice was gently feminine, but what the stranger said was simply disgusting to listen to.

“Girl, tell me, aren’t you the cursed princess? That princess who is a threat to the kingdom…”

“My parents locked me here on my 16th birthday. The old witch made me like this. And now my task is to make everyone like that…”

“But you don’t want that, do you?”

“I wish I knew what.”

“Listen, I have a wonderful book here. Wantcha read it?”

“Is this a new history?”

“Well, almost, hold on.”

And the prince threw the book to the window. That was the history of Ukraine. After reading it, the princess seemed to come to her senses: she stopped mumbling nonsense and started speaking her native language.

So the prince broke the curse and saved the kingdom.