(fairy tale)

In a faraway kingdom, in a faraway state, there lived a king and a queen; they had three children: Alexia, Igor, Yaroslav. The monarchs were already old enough to think about who would be given the right to rule the kingdom after their death. They called their two sons and daughter to arrange the most fascinating feast for them.

They came to a huge hall. It was decorated with golden curtains with blue bows, the tables were covered with embroidered tablecloths, there were golden dishes on the tables, the dishes were all luxurious, the guests were all well-groomed, and the king and queen carefully observed the behavior of their children.

The eldest son entered and greeted everyone, asked about the statues, states and their unmarried daughters, but all the nobility hid this information from him, because they knew that the prince wanted to take advantage of their daughters and quit, as he did with all the girls, even ordinary villagers. He took them to his harem, spoiled, and after that the girls were despised.

The middle son arrogantly appeared in the hall, greeted all the guests and began to eat. He ate and ate, and still did not eat enough. He was so fat that all his clothes were cracking at the seams and not a single horse could bear his weight, so he rode oxen. Narrow eyes, sly look, dark skin, mustachioed, bearded, short-haired, low, and also trod like a duck, swaying from side to side. The guests looked at him and felt disgusted, because no one wanted to eat after such a spectacle, only the unfortunate servants barely had time to pick up empty plates to wash.

Finally, the king and queen paid attention to the youngest daughter. She calmly entered the hall, greeted everyone she knew and did not know, complimented them, and gave out advice. Always kind, cheery, never looked at the statues of people and did not spare anything for her people. “Thanks to the princess, they built schools, libraries, made many wells and saved many from starvation,” that’s what they said about her. The princess was not beautiful, did not have a beautiful figure, was not eloquent – she was a real girl with a kind heart.

The king and queen made their choice and decided to announce it to the whole kingdom, “The new contender for the place of the monarch will be their daughter – Alexia!” The kingdom rejoiced because the best of the heirs would rule the state.

The brothers did not like this choice, and despite their enmity, they united against their hated sister. At all the celebrations, they put her in a terrible light, slandered her as best they could, staged all sorts of provocations so that she herself would renounce the throne. All the time they tried to find a good reason to overthrow someone who had not even come to power yet.

One sunny day, the king and queen went to another kingdom to solve political issues. The path was not small, not short, not calm. They went with many knights who were supposed to protect them from all sorts of troubles and hardships. The brothers could not wait for the day when the stupid parents would leave the gloomy walls of this castle to harm Alexia.

They found assassins to kill the one that stood in the way of their plans. The slayers sneaked to her chambers, and the brothers stood near the door and listened to every rustle, but did hear a single sound. The brothers tried several more times, but every morning their sister went out happily for breakfast without a single scratch. The strangest thing was that their hired killers went missing. They realized that something was not clear here and decided to complete the task on their own.

That same night, they went with the sharpest swords to her chambers, but before they had time to come to their senses, they ended up in huge soap bubbles. They looked at their sister, who was sleeping sweetly on lavish bed linen, and next to her they saw a fairy, which encased them in bubbles.

The fairy cast the spell, and the eldest son became a bed. “You will be the bed of the most promiscuous man in the world; you will see everything that happens and die of shame!” howled the fairy. One more spell and the middle son became a pig. “You will be served as the most delicious dish at a celebration in one of the kingdoms, after that you will never be able to taste delicious food again!” she shouted again angrily.

With these cries, she woke Princess Alexia. She immediately understood what was happening here and began to pray to the fairy to cast a spell on them back, because with this the fairy would harm her brothers – close people. The fairy sighed and disenchanted them. The brothers wondered why they were pitied, because they always envied her, did a lot of bad things and even tried to kill her.

“I never held a grudge against you because you are my family and no matter what you are, I still love and forgive you.”

The brothers felt ashamed and began to cry, asking for her forgiveness. They finally understood why their parents chose her as the heir and decided to improve themselves doing good deeds. From that day on, Igor was no longer a dissolute prince, and Yaroslav suppressed his greed. Alexia became the queen and ruled the kingdom wisely.

End.