Week 2 Story: Beauty and the Basilisk

Beauty and the Basilisk

Basilisk by Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch (1747-1822).

    

    Once upon a time, a mother and her three daughters lived in a small hamlet on the outskirts of a once glorious kingdom. Of course, this kingdom no longer exists because it's the 21st century. It's probably a nest of freeways and a couple McDonald's now. I don't know. That's not important. What is important is the fact that while this kingdom existed, a mother and her three daughters lived there in a small hamlet on the outskirts.

        One day, a market rolled into a nearby village. You know the type. It's not quite big enough to be a full blown town but still big enough to justify a seasonal market. Anyways, before heading off to this market, the mother asked her three daughters if they would like her to bring them back anything. The first two daughters each rattled off a laundry list of items that they absolutely needed. These were the kind of girls that believed they needed any and every product endorsed in Ye Olde Tiger Beat. You know the type. The third daughter asked for only three roses. "Are you sure you're not adopted," her mother replied. They had a short laugh, and the mother was on her way.

    On her way back from the market, the mother decided she knew a shortcut and trudged into the thick woods with her hay cart of expensive and unnecessary medieval products in tow. It took less than three minutes for the mother to lose her way. It's never really a shortcut, is it? Anyway, she figured it'd be best to just keep going straight. She'd get out eventually, right? Right. After a long and arduous trek through the woods she burst into a beautiful garden, full of roses and sculptures. Behind the garden, a large, gorgeous castle loomed. It was at this moment, after admiring her surroundings for a half hour or so, the mother remembered her third daughters request. She had been so preoccupied with the other daughters' ridiculous requests; she forgot all about the roses. "Well, good thing I took my expertly planned shortcut through this castle garden before I headed home to my daughters," said the mother, clearly defending her mistake to nobody in particular. She began snipping a few roses.

    "Hey, what do you think you're doing? This is private property!" A basilisk, this freaky creature with a serpent tail, dragon body and rooster head, yelled at the mother as he burst from nearby bushes. Well, that's what he meant. It came out more like, "EeeeRaaawwkOOEe!" Strangely enough, the mother understood. "I'm taking these roses for my daughter. It's all she wanted," the mother replied. "AaakeeeOO!" This roughly translates to, "She can have them, but I must have her in exchange." The mother simply nodded. "I'll see what I can do. I can't make any promises," she said. "Ka." That is to say, "You may take her one rose as a gesture of trust. When she comes to be with me, she may then have all the roses from this garden that she desires. However, if she leaves me brokenhearted, I shall rip your heart clean from your chest and feed it to the wolves of the forest you traveled through to get here! Or, something to that effect." Basilisk is an extremely nuanced language. So, the mother was off.

    The mother came home and was greeted by her daughters. They had been worried about her well-being for she had been gone for much longer than the usual market run. We've all been there. Sometimes moms take a really long time at the grocery store. Usually, they've run into a friend and decide to do all of their catching up in the cereal aisle. The first two daughters feigned concern long enough to receive their gifts and then became lost in their rabid consumption of capitalistic goods. You know the type.

    The mother broke the news to the third daughter who took the rose and hugged her poor mother very tight. She then went to her room, packed a bag, and left without another word. While happy that her daughter seemed to take it so well, the mother was also concerned that she took it so well. In fact, she seemed almost excited to go stay with this basilisk creature. What kind of books had she been locked away in her room with exactly?

    When the daughter arrived at the basilisk's castle, he was standing out front waiting for her. "He couldn't have known when she would arrive, could he?" "How long had he been standing there?" "Wait, is it just a statue?" "No, no, that's him." These were all thoughts that raced through her mind as she approached him. 

    "KrakaooeEerakOo," said the basilisk. This was a traditional basilisk greeting when addressing a newly traded female captive. In modern English, it would translate to, "You are now mine. But, like, only if you want to be, you know? Like, I don't want to make you uncomfortable, girl. So, I was thinking we would just do a trial run for a few days and like, if you want to stay, you can just chop my head off, and I'll turn into a hot dude. Then, we can get married." The daughter simply shrugged and headed inside. 

    The two lived in perfect harmony for a few days. It was the most excellent of free trials. On the fourth day, the basilisk approached the daughter in the rose garden. He knelt down on one knee and presented a shining blade. "Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!" The daughter screamed as she jumped up and down. She grabbed the blade and beheaded the beast. The basilisk morphed into a smoking hot guy. They got married and lived happily ever after.

    Her sisters were absolutely filled with envy.

    

Author's Notes

    I chose to do a mostly one for one retelling of the original story, The Three Roses. The major change I made in my retelling is the language and tone of the text. I went for a comedic tone that read like a friend telling you the story or something along the lines of a Douglas Admas novel. I love that style of writing in sci-fi and fantasy stories. I changed a few plot points slightly. Essentially, I aimed to make the basilisk slightly less "Roar! Give me pretty girl to enslave and marry or else!"

Bibliography. "The Key of Gold" from The Key of Gold: Czech Folk Tales by Josef Baudis (1922). Web source.