The Twelve Dancing Princesses
By: the Brothers Grimm

This is a story of twelve princesses whose dancing shoes were worn out every morning, these sisters do not leave their bedrooms at night though, which their father, the King, was puzzled by. So the King set up a plan, that if any man could discover the secret and find out where the princesses danced all night, he would marry whichever sister he pleased and would later become King. Many tried, but they all failed, the sisters never gave up their secret, and would be put to death after living in the castle for three days. But when an old soldier passed through the kingdom’s woods, he met an old woman who told him the story of the sisters and how to trick them. Once the soldier did so, he uncovered a secret staircase under the princesses’ room, which led to their nightly dances. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, there was a lake with twelve princes, each with little boats, ready to lead them to the castle to dance. He followed the sisters for three nights and collected items from his journey to prove his story true when it came time to talk to the King. When the three days were up, he presented his story with his treasures in hand. The sisters were shocked that they had been tricked; they had done the exact thing with the other men. And later that day, the old soldier married the oldest daughter and soon enough, became King.

Author Driven Sequel
The next morning, after their marriage and the former Kings resignation, he woke up no longer an old soldier; he was now King of the land before him. But even though he had the approval of his people, his wife and her sisters were far less welcoming. But the king was lost, for he did not understand how the sisters acted and how they behaved, he knew nothing about them other than if the old woman in the woods hadn’t told him their secret, he would’ve been dead like all the rest of them. To clear his busied mind, the King took a stroll in the gardens, just behind his castle. But this wasn’t helping, so he mounted his horse and road into the forest just before sundown approached. He circled the perimeter for hours, trying to think of ways to win over the girls into liking him; he was married to one of them for Christ’s sake! Discouraged by his unproductive evening, he started back through the woods to his castle, soon his horse was startled by a high pitched noise that the King could barely hear. He looked around, no one was there, but his horse wouldn’t move. All of a sudden the wind picked up and the noise came back, making the horse shutter in fear. The old woman reappeared; the King dismounted, thanked her for the prior advice, and asked her what she was doing in these woods. She didn’t respond, all she did was point to the falling sun and point to him. Before the King could respond, the leaves and the wind picked up again, swirling in circles around him, and the old woman was gone.
The King continued back to his castle, for the sun had gone down soon after the woman left him and the cold air was biting at his skin. When he returned to his bedroom he found his wife standing there waiting for him. She quickly explained that she was more comfortable sleeping in her old room with her sisters than sharing the bed with him. He didn’t argue, he was too tired from his puzzling adventure. And soon he was alone again. Late in the night he awoke though, to the sound of rushing leaves and howling winds, he thought he could faintly hear footsteps and music from down the hall, but he drifted off into a deep sleep before he could put the pieces together...