Board Thread:Off-Topic Fun/@comment-8883075-20140401045205/@comment-8345449-20140411111855

This is my own take on the story (with heavy editing):

Once upon a time, there was a girl who became obsessed with learning magic. She scoured the world looking for someone who could teach her and then she saw a king using magic to turn a dead forest into a grand garden with marble tiled pathways and flowers as magical as the garden. But the young girl quickly learned that all magic came with a price, as she saw that the king, wanting to pick one of the magical flowers, was transformed into a hideous beast!

Frightened, the girl ran as fast as she could and came upon a library in the forest. Upon entering the library she found a book in which was written a way gain magic using a spell that needed: a wand of any kind, a golden apple, diamond slippers, the necklace of dark power, water from the fountain of youth and lastly, fairy dust. So she set out to gain these items, but first, she went home to her mother - Alicia the good witch of flower valley – for help. However, Alicia refused to help her, and when the girl thought her mother was asleep she left home to seek out the spell items on her own. First of all, she went to find the necklace of dark power, which was protected by thorny plants whose thorns would curse anyone pricked by them with a sleeping curse! "Well now," the young girl thought to herself, "perhaps I should have the dwarven smiths make me a suit of armour or at least a pair of very thick leather boots". But before she had the chance to make anything at all, a giant bird-like creature flew out from the trees and attacked her. The girl quickly picked one of the thorny plants and threw it at her attacker. The creature was mortally wounded and as it fell to the ground dying, the girl was filled with sorrow and she swore she would never again kill another living thing. Much to the girl's surprise the creature suddenly turned into a young, violet-eyed man.

"Thank you, my name is David," the man smiled at her.

"I was cursed by the dark witch that lives in this land,” said David. “I once tried robbing from her the Dark Necklace to help my village, but she found me and made me the guardian of the Necklace." David waved his hand and a silver necklace with a black pearl magically appeared.

"You can have this necklace if you want it, but I warn you, the Witch's curse will fall upon you". So saying, he gave her the necklace and disappeared in a puff of violet smoke. The girl did not know what to do now that she had the necklace. Taking a deep breath, she put on the silver necklace and bravely resolved that she didn't care even if the witch’s curse fell upon her. She then decided to travel to the Death Forest where the golden apples grew on a Golden Tree guarded by the Golden Dragon. When she reached the Death Forest, a white dove landed on her shoulder with a note attached to its leg. She opened the note to read it, but there was only one word in it - "RUN!"  Before the girl could make sense of the cryptic message, a sudden pain shot through her left arm. As she looked towards her arm, she saw a long golden serpent detach from it and then the serpent wrapped itself around a strange tree that glittered in the natural light of the sun. Suddenly, the serpent turned into a strange-looking man dressed in a golden reptilian coat.

 The strange man said in a rusty voice, "What do you seek from the Death Forest? Do you want one of the golden apples from the Golden Tree?"

 Bowing to the confused girl, he explained, “I am the Golden Dragon. I'm a shape-shifter and I can change into any reptile that I wish to.”  “Yes! I am after the golden apples and you have no right to stop me!” the girl exclaimed out loud. "Foolish girl!” snorted the Dragon, "anyone who plucks an apple from the Golden Tree will be cursed with the most dreadful of all curses." “I do not care! Once I have all the items I am seeking, I will have magic and can remove any curse” replied the girl. <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">"And that is something, my dear, I cannot let you do," the Dragon said and turned into his dragon form. <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">Frightened, the girl didn't know what to do at first. All of a sudden, the Dark Necklace around her neck started to glow. The warm summer’s day was transformed into a cold, dark winter’s night, and it began to snow heavily. <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">The Dragon spat fire into the snow around the girl’s feet and said in a deep, warning voice, "If you take an apple you shall become like the rest of them!" <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">He turned and pointed towards thirteen warriors that surrounded the Golden Tree, each of them with a hand grabbing an apple and each of them transformed into solid gold. But even as the girl turned to look, the gold started to melt away.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">Bewildered by the transformation of the golden statues, the Dragon snarled, "Impossible! It's too soon. It's not time!" <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">He turned towards the girl, a look of pure fear in his eyes. "What have you done?!   Who are you??" the Dragon screamed at her as the thirteen resurrected warriors surrounded and stabbed the beast unto his death, leaving him without an answer as to who this mysterious girl may be.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">Seeing that the Dragon was now dead and no longer in her way, the girl quickly plucked a golden apple from the Golden Tree and ran off as fast and as far as she could. She ran till she found what she thought was a safe place and stopped to take a moment to catch her breath. However, she suddenly realised there was a presence right next to her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"> "Be careful of the curses," a voice whispered ominously into her ear before disappearing.