Nancy and the Toad Prince

Chapter 7: Made Whole

Faithfully stationed outside the chamber door, at the sound of William's wail, Harold and the gnome burst into the room and saw the prince on his knees, the cabinet unlocked but not fully open beside him, the key and its chain hanging from the lock.

"What have you done!" Harold demanded.

"I, well," Nancy began. "He had a cursed ogre axe, and I threw anti-magic on it."

Harold and the gnome king continued to look puzzled, but the crown prince stood up, tears streaming down his face.

He made a fist and pounded his chest in grief. "An ogre's heart! I have had an ogre's heart! How shall I ever make it right!?"

He turned and flung open the cabinet and there among the swords, daggers, and battle axes was the horn, dingy and gray. The prince reached into the cabinet and took the horn, turned and staggered from the room as if walking under a great weight.

Silently, Harold, Nancy, and the gnome followed William, almost running to keep up, to the stables. William went directly to Galdur's stall, opened the gate, and fell on his knees before him.

Tears streaming down his face, he held the horn across his hands. "I am a wretched soul," he cried. "How can you forgive me?!"

Galdur lowered his head to William, nudging the horn with his nose and lowering his head to show the scar. William fumbled at first, unsure of what was wanted, but then he understood and he reached up and placed the cut ends against each other.

A bright light flowed from the two ends and rainbow colors swirled around and up the horn and down and across Galdur. The horn fused and Galdur lifted his head high and gave a great whiney! No longer gray and dingy, his coat glowed white and his mane, soft as a whisper and light as day, floated about his head.

William rose from his knees, amazed. Gently, carefully, Galdur touched the tip of his horn to William's heart and then another to his head. With that, he gently pushed him aside and galloped out of the stables and out of the castle. No one saw which way he went.

"He forgave you," said the gnome King. "It wasn't even your fault actually."

"I know he did," said William quietly. "I felt and did and said things under the axe's spell that make me ashamed and embarrassed, but I can't say I was completely not at fault. If I had not taken that ogre's axe, especially if I had not kept it, then none of this would have happened. And maybe the evil wasn't all in the axe. Maybe some of it was in me, and I just didn't know it until the axe let it out."

William's cure did not ignite a great celebration or festival or anything of the sort. It was decided that it was probably best that people not know about the curse. A crown prince who goes from selfish tyrant to benevolent kindly king is hardly a cause of concern to most people. It was decided to let people discover the change on their own, if they noticed at all. Courtiers are not known for being the most discerning of individuals, at least not in that sense.

Rather, they kept the facts about the curse and its cure to themselves, deciding in the end not to even tell the king. His mental condition was such that it was uncertain he would understand anyway.

William removed all the arms and the cabinet from his room. Where appropriate, he returned them to their proper owner. Where not, he destroyed them. And he burnt the cabinet.

In due time he was crowned king and he ruled with a kind and understanding heart, slow to anger and quick to forgive when true repentance as shown and steadfast with judgement to the wicked and unrepentant.

Meanwhile, two days after the coronation and all its related festivities, servants awoke Nancy early in the morning and gave her a simple breakfast. Midnight was saddled, and she was on her way as the sun rose. Duty required William to remain at the court, but Harold, and the requisite number of guards, rode with Nancy to the edge of their kingdom. There they said a warm goodbye with lots of promises to write and visit. Promises, by the way, that Nancy never expected Harold to keep, but he did.

From that point, Nancy and Midnight pushed on and arrived home just before midnight.

"I thought you would camp somewhere and get here in the morning," her Dad said, but obviously glad to see her nonetheless.

"I just wanted to get home," and Nancy hugged her Dad and then her Mom.

Her Dad took Midnight's reins. "You go inside and get some sleep. I'll take care of Midnight," and he led the horse to the stable.

"Come on," Mom said. "I'll save the questions until morning, but then you MUST tell me what happened!"

Nancy gave a brief chuckle and headed for bed. "I'll try, but I don't think you'll believe me."

"Try me!" and Mother kissed Nancy's head.

About a month later, Nancy was back at Granny's, once again sitting on her rock and watching the water flow past. Grandpa came strolling out of the woods, a trail of smoke flowing from the pipe in his mouth and basket of mushrooms in his left hand.

He smiled when he saw Nancy and took the pipe out of mouth.

"There you are again!" he chuckled. "No more horny toads!"

Nancy laughed and looked at the empty water.

"No, and no regular toads either. The fairy queen and gnome king appear to have made amends."

"So it would appear," and Grandpa sat down beside Nancy on the rock. "But then, that's none of my business."

"What about Galdur? Do you think he's okay?" and tears started to well in Nancy's eyes.

"Galdur? Now that he has his horn back, he'll be fine! He's whole, and he's home."

"Still, I'll miss him."

"So do I, Nannie. So do I." Grandpa put his pipe back in his mouth and gave Nancy a strong hug.

"Come on," he said, standing up. "Let's go check on Granny and process these mushrooms."

Nancy peeked into the mushroom basket.

"Wow! Look at those! They are beautiful!"

"A parting thank you from Galdur."

Nancy's tears disappeared and she laughed. "Let's go eat mushrooms!"

And they did.

THE END