The Princess and the Archer King

by Jeff Provine

 

            Once upon a time there was a great forest ruled by a powerful and handsome Archer King.  He was the best archer in the Twelve Kingdoms and often held contests for those who wished to challenge him.  The contests were good fun with plenty of food and games, but no one ever beat him.

One day the Archer King decided he wanted a real challenge.  To call up the best archers in the world, he wrote a proclamation and sent it to every land far and wide:

 

 “Any who can defeat the Archer King in a show of archery skill,

will be given half his entire kingdom to do with as they will.”

 

            The proclamation went throughout the land, and archers showed up by the hundreds.  One after one, the Archer King defeated them in contests, sometimes even hitting three targets at the same time.  The Archer King wondered whether the contest should be canceled and he would take up a new hobby like chess.

            However, in a nearby kingdom, a princess by the name of Winifred thought that she could defeat the Archer.  She was the best archeress in her kingdom, but everyone knew that the Archer was much better.  Despite everyone’s warnings the she was wasting her time, Winifred began to ride to the Archer’s kingdom to challenge him.

            She rode on her trusty steed for many hours across the plains of her lands and into the Archer King’s wooded kingdom.  She was used to the rolling plains and grasslands of her home and had quite a time passing through the dense forest the Archer ruled.  Along the way, Princess Winifred had many adventures fighting bandits and robbers, but those are stories for another time.

            She rode on and on until she had come to a magnificent tree which was covered by a giant net.  Voices and singing came from inside.

“Help us!” they shouted.  “Free us!  Please!”

            Winifred stopped her horse and looked up at the voices, which were coming from magic birds who lived in the tree.

            “What has happened, little birds?” Winifred asked them.

“Gypsies came and threw the net over our tree,” they said.  “We are trapped with no hope of escape.  Soon the Gypsies will be back, and they will sell us as pets and pluck our feathers!”

            “Do not worry, little birds.  I will save you!” Winifred told them.  She was quick to help (since all good princesses should be quick to help those in need).  With her bow and arrows, she snapped the main ropes of the net.  It was not long before the whole net fell off the tree.

            When the birds were free once again, they sang with all their might.  “Thank you, thank you!  How can we ever repay you?”

            Winifred told them she was traveling to defeat the Archer King in archery and asked if they knew any way that she could become better.  They whispered among themselves for a moment and then came out with an answer.

            “We have a magic arrow with a golden tip.  When fired, it never misses the target,” they told her.

Two birds flew up to her with the arrow in their talons.  She took the arrow in her hands and marveled at its beauty.  She thanked the birds and then rode on.  Several of the birds followed after her, wanting to see the contest for themselves.

 

            A new day dawned, and the Archer King watched carefully for any challengers.  No one came that morning, and he was growing very bored.  Just as he was thinking of canceling the challenge for good, a lone figure rode up to his castle.

            “I wish to challenge the Archer King!” the figure shouted from below his window.

            The Archer’s heart jumped and he raced to the window.  He shouted down at the figure, “I accept your challenge!  I bid you to join me in my throne room, Challenger.”

            The figure (who was, of course, Princess Winifred) walked bravely into the Archer King’s castle.  She was surrounded by soldiers with long bows and sharp arrows, but she did not let them intimidate her.

When Winifred came to the throne room, she was very impressed by how handsome the Archer King was.  She knelt and introduced herself, “I am Princess Winifred of the neighboring kingdom.”

The Archer King was stunned by the princess’s beauty and even more by her courage.  “It is a pleasure to have you challenge me.  Come, let us go to the archery range!”

Winifred and the Archer King lined up on a huge green field outside the castle.  Targets were set up at the other end, and nearly every person in the castle came to see the contest.  Even the magic birds that had followed Winifred picked places on the wall to watch.  They drew their bows.  The Archer King used one of his favorite arrows, and the princess used her magic arrow with the golden tip, feeling no fear that she could lose the contest.

            Thwwt!  Thwwt!  The arrows flew.  Both of them hit the targets true.  The Archer King admired the accuracy of Princess Winifred’s arrow, and Winifred was amazed at the Archer King’s skill.

            “Do you yield?” the Archer King asked.

            “No, we obviously tied,” Winifred said.  “Let us shoot again.”

            The Archer King gave the command to move the targets back ten yards, and they shot again.  Once again, both arrows landed squarely in the middle of the targets.

            “Again?” the Archer King offered.

            “Again,” Winifred said.

            Over and over, they shot their arrows, hitting the red center of the targets each time.  The targets moved farther and farther back until they were shoved to the edge of the forest beyond the castle.  Still, neither one ever missed.

            The contest continued long into the night, and the targets had to be lit by torches.  Most of the people had gone to bed, but Winifred and the Archer King stayed up the whole night long.  They complimented each other’s shots, and the Archer King began to do tricks like shooting one arrow into the air and hitting it with another.  He said they were to keep his arms in shape, but he was secretly trying to impress Princess Winifred.  And she was impressed.

By the time that the sun began to rise, the two were talking deeply of life and love, all the while shooting their targets.  The targets were placed pointing east from the castle, and the rising sun shone right into the eyes of both the Archer King and Winifred.

            The Archer King squinted in the bright light and could barely make out the target under the shadows of the trees.  He took aim and fired, and his arrow came to rest on the yellow ring just outside of the red center.

            The magic birds, which were some of  the only spectators left, let out a gasp of shock.  The Archer King had barely missed.

            Winifred knew this was her chance.  The sun was so bright that she could not see, so she closed her eyes and lined up her shot as she had lined up dozens through the night.  She leveled her magic arrow and trusted it to fly true.

            Winifred’s magic arrow sailed easily into the center of the target with a perfect bull’s eye.

            The Archer King stared in amazement for some time before he realized that he had lost.  He turned to Winifred and said, “You have won, and half of my kingdom is yours.”  Then, with a smile, he said, “Of course, if you would be my queen, we could share the kingdom as a whole.”

            Winifred gladly agreed, and the two were married shortly afterwards.  They lived, of course, happily every after.

            The magic birds, meanwhile, flew back to their majestic tree.  Along the way, one asked another, “Do you think that the princess will ever find out that our arrow was not really magical?”

            “I don’t see any reason in telling her,” the other bird replied.  So no one ever did.

 

The End