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That princess was perfectly beautiful, and totally evil. Her beauty was so fabulous that many people were so overwhelmed by her beauty when they first saw her they dropped dead with joy.

That is why the people described her as wickedly dropdead-beautiful.

Why she was so evil nobody could fathom because her father and mother the king and queen were good people.

The king and queen were unhappy that their daughter, the wickedly dropdead-beautiful princess, was so evil. They knew that when they died the princess had to inherit the kingdom. The king and queen passed a law that the princess could not become queen unless she married a man the people knew to be good.

By this law the king and queen hoped their daughter's evil would be controlled by her husband's goodness.

The wickedly dropdead-beautiful princess was angry at her father and mother for passing that law because the wickedly dropdead-beautiful princess had made up her mind that when she became queen after her father and mother died, she was not going to get married.

She knew if she got married she would have to share everything with her husband. She was determined to not share her wealth with anyone.

The wickedly dropdead-beautiful princess was, as well, exceptionally greedy and selfish.

After her parents died peacefully in bed at a very old age she set about finding a poor good man to marry in order to comply with the kingdom’s law.

A poor man would not dare try to change her from being wicked. She knew just where to look for such a man to be her husband: among poor farm-workers.

Everybody knows poor farm-workers, men, women and children, are always good people.

She would have to go outside her kingdom to look because everybody in her kingdom was wealthy, even good farm-workers.

Even all ordinary citizens in the kingdom were wealthy because the king and queen had ruled so wisely and compassionately.

The wickedly dropdead-beautiful greedy selfish princess disguised herself as a good poor farm-worker woman.

She secretly left the kingdom to find a good poor farm worker man in another kingdom to be her husband.

She found him. She brought him back to the kingdom. She showed him to everybody.

When everybody found out he was a poor farm-worker they knew he was a good person. They agreed to let the princess marry him to be their king. It happened.

The wickedly dropdead-beautiful greedy selfish princess who was now the wickedly dropdead-beautiful greedy selfish queen, locked her good poor farm-worker husband king in his room in the royal palace.

She let him out only when she had to show the people she was married to him. This had to be done a few times a year. For the rest of the time the sad good poor farm-worker husband king stayed locked up in his room in the royal castle.

One sunny day a tiny bird flew into the king’s room in the royal palace, by accident.

For the first time in his life the sad good poor farm-worker husband king was truly glad.

He quickly poured some water into a bowl and offered the water to the bird. The tiny bird drank some water and thanked the sad good poor farm-worker husband king. Miraculously, the king and the bird understood each other’s spoken language.

For the first time in his life the good poor farm-worker husband king was overjoyed. He and the tiny bird spoke for hours and hours every day in secret.

Over the next few days the tiny bird visited the overjoyed good poor farm-worker husband king regularly.
The queen's spies in the palace reported to their wickedly dropdead-beautiful greedy selfish queen that they could hear through the locked doors her good poor farm-worker husband king was laughing a lot in his room.

The wickedly dropdead-beautiful greedy selfish queen did not care. She figured her good poor farm- worker husband king must be going insane for being locked away from everybody for so long. This made her happy because she was certain it would be very soon she could have him locked away in an asylum far away from the castle.

Then she would have the royal castle all to herself. His room, too!

On one of its visits the tiny bird invited the overjoyed good poor farm-worker husband king to come visit it in its magical cave in the mountains far outside the kingdom.

Although the king did not believe that there was a magical cave, he graciously accepted the invitation, and was sad to tell the tiny bird that there was no hope his wickedly dropdead-beautiful greedy selfish wife queen would let him leave his room.

Nonetheless, the tiny bird asked him to be on the lookout for an opportunity to persuade his wickedly dropdead-beautiful greedy selfish wife queen to let him go into the mountains. He promised the bird, though he had no hope such an opportunity would happen. It did!

A few mornings later at breakfast with lots of the wickedly dropdead-beautiful greedy selfish wife queen's friends and relatives, the queen told everybody about a dream she kept having. Nobody could explain the meaning of the recurring dream.

Since the king was not allowed to have breakfast nor any other mealtime outside his room in the company with others, the king was unaware of the queen’s recurring dream.

Every night the queen dreamed she was in a mountain cave filled with gold. Everybody in the kingdom knew that all the gold in all their mountains had been dug up a long time ago.

The wickedly dropdead-beautiful greedy selfish wife queen encouraged everybody at the breakfast table to laugh with her at her silly dream.

One day when the king overheard servants talking about how silly the queen’s dream was, he saw the opportunity about which the tiny bird had spoken.

He waited for the next time the queen visited him. She visited him for a few minutes a few times a year. When she visited him, he mentioned he had overheard the servants talking about her dream.

He suggested that she allow him to disguise himself as a good poor farm-worker, and let him go into the mountains with a shovel to look for that cave of her dreams filled with gold. If he found gold she would be richer. If he did not find gold nobody would know she had sent him because he would have left in a disguise.

The evil greed in the queen became so powerful that she agreed with him. The wickedness in her also made her agree with his plan because she secretly wished wild animals in the mountains would eat him. If he never returned she could have the entire royal palace to herself. His room, too.

The queen arranged for the king to go on his gold-seeking mission in secret in disguise. Alone, he went into the mountains with a shovel.

It wasn't long before the tiny bird found him walking through the kingdom on his way to the mountains. The tiny bird led him to its magical cave.

For a few steps inside, the cave looked just like any other mountain cave. It was dark and cold and dusty and cluttered with cobwebs. On the floor there were piles of dried twigs and leaves. Deeper into the cave the tiny bird invited him to gently push on the back wall.

When the king pushed gently, the wall slid silently open as a door. There was more than a cave beyond the door. Much, much more.

There were many large rooms. Bright rooms. Each one far more spacious than any room in the royal palace. All rooms were filled with fine furniture. In each room there were tiny colourful birds that instantly turned into beautiful persons. The tiny bird, too.

Everybody in those palatial rooms loved him as the good poor farm worker he was.

All of them asked the poor good farm-worker to live there as their king. Everybody who lived in it never grew old. Everybody in it lived young forever.

The overjoyed good poor farm-worker accepted their invitation. He lives there forever happy.
After months went by and he did not return to the evil queen, she sent soldiers out to find him and to drag him back in chains to lock him up in his room.

The soldiers did not find him, but did not return to the evil queen because they feared she would execute them for having failed in their mission.

After more months passed, the evil queen sent more soldiers to find the first soldiers. When the second troop of soldiers did not return, she knew the soldiers were being disloyal to her. This realization made her so very, very angry, she became exceedingly ugly. Her ugliness was so severe, it was fatal to everyone who looked at her.

When she noticed persons dropping dead wherever she went in the castle, she thought there was a deadly infection in the castle.

She hastened to look at herself in a mirror to see if she was being infected by whatever was killing persons in the castle.

When she looked in the mirror and saw her ugliness, she dropped dead from deadly disgust.