Flortens and the Porcupine – Book Number 2

Flortens lived in a small cabin, in an open field near the royal palace.  He awoke every morning at sunrise to watch the sun cast a giant shadow of the palace that reached all the way to his humble cabin.  “Someday”, he thought, I will meet the princess. I will charm her with my looks and wit and become her husband.

Alas, Flortens was a mere commoner. How would he ever meet a royal princess? So he worked the fields and dreamed, dreamed even more and worked. On Sundays he would go hunting in the nearby forest.

One sunny day he came across a porcupine hiding in the bush and decided that it would be his Sunday catch. As he drew near, the porcupine launched all of his quills. Sadly for the poor animal they missed their target. As Flortens closed in on his prey, the porcupine suddenly began to speak.

“Kind sir”, said the porcupine. “Please do not harm me. Like you, I was once a young man who was deeply in love with the princess. The royal family found out and had their sorcerer cast a spell on me. If you allow me to go free, I will help you make your dream come true”.

“How strange”, thought Flortens. A talking porcupine who knows my deepest secret. “After Flortens agreed, the porcupine continued. “Search my quills for one that is blue. Go and dip it in the brook. Cast it at the princess. If the quill should touch her, she will fall in love with you and follow you wherever you might go.”

Flortens was delighted. He found the blue quill and went to dip it in the brook. As soon as it touched the water, it turned the deepest violet that Flortens had ever seen. “This is indeed an enchanted quill”, he thought. “Now all I have to do is to get the princess to touch it.

The very next day Flortens set off across the fields towards the palace. He was in luck! He could see the princess through the window of the drawing room. He crept up slowly and took steady aim.

Floom! The quill flew straight through the window towards the princess. But at that very second, the queen passed in front of her. She caught it in her hand. “What a remarkable quill”, she said. “It makes me feel so strange and giddy. I think that I will step out for a breath of air.

The moment the queen stepped out of the palace she spotted Flortens trying to return to his cabin. “Come to me, my sweet” she cried, in pursuit of her new-found love. The King thought that he heard his wife calling out to him and approached his palace window only to see the queen chasing Flortens across the palace lawn and out into the fields.

Flortens was never seen or heard of again. There were strange stories. Some villagers claimed that they saw him turn into a giant turtle and disappear into the brook. Others say that he ran away and never came back.

The princess married a count from a nearby castle. And the queen? She keeps the quill on her mantle until this very day.