PRINCESS BEAST Read Online Free PDF Page B

stay three weeks on probation.  Naturally, by the end of those three weeks, I had not laid a single egg."
    Rune giggles and the swan nods indulgently.  "Ah, your laughter is like tiny bells, a sound only a true beauty can produce."
    "What happened next?"  Rune asks.
    "I grew depressed. The hen told me it was because I had nothing to do, and why didn't I lay eggs or purr.  I told her she did not understand me."
    "She was stupid."
    "She had never been farther than the hen yard, youngster," the swan tsk-tsks.  "The hen said,
If I don't understand you, who will?  I hope you don't think you're smarter than the cat or the old woman, not to mention myself.  Don't give yourself airs!
 she squawked. 
Thank your Creator for all He has done for you.  Aren't you sitting in a warm room among intelligent people whom you could learn something from?  You do nothing and aren't the least bit amusing.  Believe me, that's the truth, and I'm only telling you for your own good.  That's how you recognize a true friend; it's someone who is willing to tell you the truth, no matter how unpleasant it is.
"
    "Wow, you have an outstanding memory," Rune says.
    "The hen's words made an permanent impression on my life.  I hope you learn a lesson from them too.  However, there is more to the story, and every word is true.  I left the hut and found a lake where I could float in the water.  There were other ducks, but they ignored me because I was so ugly.  Autumn came and one evening as the sun was setting, a flock of beautiful birds came out of the rushes.  Their feathers were so white that they glistened, and they had long graceful necks.  They made a loud cry, spread their huge wings and flew south.  I turned round and round in the water; I felt a strange longing and I screeched so loudly that I frightened myself."
    "They were swans," Rune says.
    "Yes, they were.  And I would never forget them for I felt that I loved them as I had never loved any other creatures.  I did not envy them.  It did not even occur to me to wish that I were so handsome."
    "I know how that feels," Rune sighs.  Beauty, watching in the mirror, feels her nose tingle with the onset of tears.  Rune is thinking about Princess Greta and how she felt drawn to her, drawn because she was one of her kind.
    "Winter came," the swan continues, "and it grew very cold.  I had to swim round and round to keep a space open in the ice.  Finally I found a hiding place beneath some bushes in the newly fallen snow and there I stayed with hardly any life left in me."
    "You have suffered much," Rune pats the swan's silky feathers.
    "Oh, it would be too horrible to tell you all the hardships and suffering I experienced that long winter.  Suffice it to say, I survived and when Spring arrived it found me close to death among the reeds in a swamp.   Then out of a forest of rushes swam three swans, and I felt again that strange sadness.  I decided to fly over to those royal birds, even though they may hack me to death because I, who was so ugly, dare to approach them."
    Rune rolls her bulging eyes with exasperation, but holds her tongue. 
    "
Kill me
, I said and bent my head humbly to await death.  What did I see in the water?  My own reflection, and no longer was I an awkward, grey bird, so ungainly and so ugly.  I had transformed--I was a swan!  Humans cast cake upon the water and all agreed I was the most beautiful of swans.  The other swans bowed to me; they all wanted to be my friends.  I was too happy, but not proud.  Such happiness I did not dream of when I was the ugly duckling."
    Rune allows a long moment of silence to make sure the swan is finished.  "You didn't transform, you just grew up.  Somehow your mother's egg found its way to a duck's nest.  I've seen baby swans and I think they are beautiful, all Mother Nature's children are beautiful.  It's sad you let yourself suffer because of the unkindness of others."
    The swan flaps his great wings and hisses,