Once upon a time there was a Goose-Girl This Goose-Girl was truly a princess, but a spin of fate left her a poor laborer. The Goose-Girl was originally a princess on her way to meet her betrothed, but her Lady-in-Waiting staged a mutiny amongst her marriage parade, and the Princess was stripped of her crown, and the roles were switched between the two women.

The Goose-Girl had a gift however. The Goose-Girl had a connection with animals, one that lent her to be an excellent Goose-Girl, but also one that lent her to have a familiar; her horse, Falada. Falada was a royal horse and would not obey the Lady-in-Waiting. If the Lady-in-Waiting rode in on a kicking and screaming royal horse, it would be a dead give-away of her fraud. The horse was killed, and its head mounted on a plaque.

When the marriage party arrived at the castle, the true princess was sent to care for the geese, and the Lady-in-Waiting sent to the princess’ chamber. Falada’s head was mounted on a castle.

However whenever the Goose-Girl would drive her gaggle past the wall with Falada’s head, she would speak to it, “Alas, Falada, hanging there!”

And now free from its earthly bounds, the spirit of the horse would speak back in a human tongue, “Alas, young Queen how ill you fare! If this your tender mother knew, Her heart would surely break in two.”

It was not long before the King overheard this exchange, and knew the princess within his kingdom was a fraud. So he set out a plan.

He fetched the Goose-Girl, dressed her in the most expensive finery, and presented her at a dinner with the prince and the fake princess.

The fake did not recognize the Goose-Girl, and the group went on into the night, drinking and being merry, but the King remained sober. Half way through the evening the king finally asked the fake princess what sort of punishment a fake bride should suffer.

The Lady-in-Waiting replied, “She deserves no better fate than to be stripped entirely , and put in a barrel which is studded inside with pointed nails, and two white horses should be harnessed to it, which will drag her along through one street after another, till she is dead.”

“And so you too shall be punished, for I know the truth.” The King replied, and at once his guards seized her.

After the punishment had been carried out, the prince married his true bride and they lived happily ever after.

…For a time, at least.

What the former King did not know, was that the Lady-in-Waiting had been a princess, just not the right one. The Lady-in-Waiting had been a princess from the Empire of SM, or Satanic Malevolence. A land of deceit, betrayal and dark magic.

The Emperor Lee had sent his daughter to play the part of a faithful Lady-in-Waiting, then become Princess and steal the Kingdom of Tranquil Seas for Lee. However the plot had been foiled.

The Emperor Lee sent a witch to the Goose-Princess and Prince, who were now King and Queen and expecting their first-born child.

The witch stated that she had cursed the family. The only way to lift the curse was for the couple to lock their firstborn child in a high tower until their eighteenth birthday. At eighteen, a tournament for the child’s hand would be held. If the couple did not follow through, the curse would resume.

The King and Queen did not heed the warning, and a month later the Queen bore a beautiful baby boy. They named him Junhong, and anticipated the day he would become king.

However the Queen would never see the day her boy would become King. The Queen was rocking her babe to sleep one night, whispering to him in the language of beasts. She hoped he would inherit her gift for animals, and that he would grow up kind and quick witted.

The babe had just fallen asleep and the Queen had just put him in the crib when a viper struck at her leg. The venom was so deadly and quick, that the Queen did not even have time to cry out before she fell down dead. It was the babe’s cries that alerted the castle, and they rushed in only to see their lady collapsed on the floor, and a viper hissing at their feet.

As one of the guards was about to strike the snake dead, a great mist surrounded the reptile and when it dissipated, there stood the witch. The witch simply pointed at the guard and the man fell dead as well. The witch looked to the King and said:

“Heed my wish or the next to die will be the child.”

And with that, Junhong was sealed to his fate.