Pastella

Long, long ago, there was a King and a Queen who used to rule the town called Azeldon. They had a daughter named Pastella. Five years after Pastella was born, the Queen died. Pastella and the King became very sad after the Queen’s death. The King thought Pastella would need somebody to take care of her, so he married again.

The King’s new wife, whose name was Desdemona, always used to pretend to be very nice to Pastella, but she hated Pastella a lot in secret. The King used to love his daughter a lot, which made Desdemona very jealous. One day, Desdemona broke the king’s favorite vase on purpose and started blaming Pastella for it. When the King heard the news about his broken vase, the King became very angry. It was hard for him to believe that his daughter had done such a thing, but the wicked Queen had complained in such a way that he was bound to believe it.

“How dare you break your father’s favorite vase? How many times do I have to tell you to be careful?” Desdemona scolded Pastella.

“But I didn’t…” replied Pastella.

“Stop lying, young lady!” shouted Desdemona.

The King heard these and became furious.

“Desdemona, do not ever speak like that to my daughter! She is just a little child. She can make a mistake,” said the King.

“Darling, I only want Pastella to be careful. She has to learn, otherwise, she will have to suffer in the future. This is for her own good. She won’t learn anything if you keep supporting her. We won’t be there for her forever,” said Desdemona.

The King thought about it and said, “Oh, you are right, indeed. I will do anything for her betterment.”

“Pastella, be careful next time,” said the King to Pastella.

Desdemona started lying to the King very frequently about Pastella. She told him that Pastella was very naughty and ill-mannered. The King believed Desdemona, but his love for Pastella was always the same. Desdemona’s anger and jealousy kept increasing.

One day, Desdemona made a very evil plan. She planned to kill the King and his daughter, Pastella. At first, she made three cups of tea. There were two green cups, which was for the King and his daughter, and one blue cup, which was for Desdemona, the wicked Queen. Then she put poison in the two green cups, and served it to the King and Pastella. Desdemona drank her tea peacefully, in which there was no poison, Pastella mistakenly dropped her cup of tea, and the King took the first sip of his tea happily. As soon as the King drank the tea, he kept coughing and coughing until he died. Desdemona’s eyes sparkled in happiness, while Pastella broke down to tears and started calling all the maids and doctors for help. Sadly, the doctors were not able to do anything; the King died at that very moment.

From that day, Pastella was able to see the real face of Desdemona. Desdemona made Pastella do all the odd and household work, while Desdemona spent all her time taking care of her beauty and relaxing. Desdemona soon fell in love with a prince named Jack, who was from another town, and they planned to get married. After their marriage, they had a baby boy. The boy was named Eric. Desdemona was the Queen, Jack was the new King, and Eric was the new prince. Pastella, her father and mother were forgotten. Pastella was forgotten because she was the maid who used to do all the work. She didn’t have any clothes except for torn clothes or clothes that were thrown away, she always had to eat the leftover food, she was never allowed to clean herself, and she had to sleep on the kitchen’s floor. Eric, who was the prince, had all the rich clothes, table full of food whenever and wherever he wanted, nice and comfortable room and bed, and he was obviously very clean and respected.

One day, Pastella went out in the woods to fetch some fruits for the prince, but the actual reason why Desdemona sent her to the woods was so that the wild animals could come and kill her. On her way, Pastella saw a little bird trapped around a tree with its leaves, so she went near the tree and freed the bird.

As soon as Pastella freed the bird, the bird turned into a fairy and said, “Oh dear, sweet little girl, thank you so much! Thank you very, very much! I was almost dying trapped in those leaves. You saved my life!”

“You’re very welcome, my friend!” said Pastella.

“As you saved my life, I want to reward you. Ask me anything you want and I shall grant you your wish,” said the fairy happily.

“That is so nice of you! Okay, I wish I would become something really very pretty, clean and respectable…oh wait, as I am a girl, I am very weak, so I want to be a male so that I have more energy and everyone would respect me and love me. I also want those evil and selfish folk, Desdemona, Jack and Eric to become very ugly, dull and weak so that they would respect me, and I would have a better position than all of them,” replied Pastella.

The fairy immediately said, “Alright! Your wish will be granted in 3…2…1! Swoosh!”

Pastella looked down at herself and saw that she became a beautiful little bird called peacock, and Desdemona, Jack and Eric were in front of her as peahens, which were very ugly and dull looking. The peacock, who was Pastella, had more power than the peahens, so the peacock made all the peahens do the peacock’s work. Then the peacock lived happily ever after, and that is why peacocks are pretty, but peahens are ugly.