Once upon a time, a king, a queen and a beautiful princess lived in a castle. The king was a brilliant ruler and his people were happy and successful. Although she was kind and good in every other way, the princess had one fault - she was very arrogant about her beauty. When a prince from a neighbouring country came to visit her, she refused to even talk to him because she didn't think he was handsome enough. The princess liked to go to the forest to sing. She thought nature was the only thing as beautiful as she was. One day the animals were listening to her when a gunshot rang out and a bird fell to the ground. The princess was very sad and hurried back to the castle with the injured bird. But the bird died before she got there. The next day the weather was foggy and there was a very bad smell in the air. When the princess went to see her parents, she found not only were they sick but so was everyone else in the country. No one knew what had caused their illness until a few days later when a witch visited the castle. She told them the illness was their punishment for stealing the bird she had shot. Although she was going to punish them all, the witch told them they had a choice. Either they could suffer the stinking air that was making them ill, or she could give them masks to wear which would allow them to breathe freely. Everyone except the princess chose the second option. She decided she'd rather live with the horrible stink than wear a mask and cover up her beautiful face. Gradually, everyone except the princess became more and more stupid. While the masks allowed anyone who wore them to breathe freely, they also damaged their health and their intelligence. But the princess didn't feel relieved she wasn't affected: she felt very upset about what had happened to her family and her people. But she knew she was too weak to defeat the witch alone. One year later, the prince from the neighbouring country became lost in the forest. The princess had been living there all that time and was now very dirty and smelly. When she saw the prince she was ashamed, and tried to hide. However, as soon as the prince saw her he fell in love. The princess now realised how foolish she had been to send him away when he had visited her castle. The prince took her to his country so they could marry. However, the princess said this was impossible until her parents, and all the people of her country, were free of their masks. It seemed impossible to defeat the powerful witch but the prince still set off to track her down. Luckily for him, the witch had been living a life of luxury in the princess' country and had become soft and weak. When the prince fought and defeated her, all her victims recovered their health and intelligence. While everyone realised they were now older, no one could remember anything that had happened to them. The princess only wanted her parents and their people to be happy, so she didn't tell them how the witch had made them suffer.
