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17 Nov 2012

                         The Honey Princess

Long long ago, a young prince named Shaurya, went hunting in a dense forest. Chasing a deer he went deeper and deeper and reached a dead end. There were giant honeycombs which hung from huge trees. This was the kingdom of giant honey bees. Thinking him to be an intruder, the bee soldiers handcuffed him and took him to the Queen.
After knowing the truth, the queen apologized and said, "O Prince please forgive us and be our guest for a few days." The prince accepted the invitation. He was surprised to see the luxury and vastness of the comb. It was there palace. He rested in an air-cooled chamber and was fed honey.In the evening when he was walking in the garden, he met honey princess. Her name was Madhu. She was sucking nectar from flowers. She was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. She too was very glad to meet him. She had often heard of stories about humans from her granny.
                During his stay, they spent the time together and came closer. While taking leave, the prince asked the Queen bee for the princess in marriage. The Queen became furious. Shaurya was punished with a dangerous sting. It made him unconscious and erased the memories of his stay completely from his memory. The bee soldiers flew him upto his kingdom and left him near the palace gate in unconscious state. The prince forgot the princess and got engrossed in his life.
          But princess Madhu could not forget him. She went to an old witch who agreed to turn her wings into legs but asked her first child in return. She gave her some magic potion and with a severe pain in her wings, Madhu's wings turned into legs. In the beginning she stumbled but then slowly began to walk. She began her journey barefoot and alone towards prince Shaurya's kingdom.
           Prince Shaurya was on his way to the neighboring kingdom to see the bride for himself. He felt thirsty on the way and came to a pond. There he saw Madhu. Mesmerized by her beauty, he offered her to be his bride. Madhu was glad to see her dream being fulfilled so soon. The King and the Queen too accepted her and they were married in a grand ceremony.
           Everything was fine till one day, the queen saw her sucking nectar from the flowers. Thinking her to be a witch, without even letting the prince know, she sent her to the forest. Madhu had full faith in prince and knew he would come to take her, but he never came.
          Madhu began living a solitary life in the forest and gave birth to a baby. But no sooner had she given the birth, the old witch came and snatched the baby away. Poor Madhu went to Shaurya for help. On reaching the palace she came to know the truth that Shurya had left in search of her but was stung by poisonous bees. Since then he was lying unconscious and was slowly advancing towards death. Now Madhu knew that why he never reached her. She quickly sucked out the poison. Impossible became possible! not only did he woke up but he also regained all his memory of his stay with the bees and his love for the bee princess. He told the King and the Queen about Madhu's background. So, now they realized that poor Madhu was no witch but an innocent girl who had suffered a lot unnecessarily. Madhu told the prince about the witch and that she had taken away their son as per the promise. She led him to the place where the witch lived. The witch was very powerful and put a strong fight to the prince and his army. But at last when she was surrendered from all sides, she jumped in the fire along with the baby. But there came the bee soldiers for rescue and quickly took away the baby from her hands. It was the timely help of the Queen bee. The witch was charred to death and baby was safe in Queen bees arms. Madhu was overjoyed to get back her baby and her mother too. The prince, princess and their baby stayed for a few days in the bee Kingdom and then came back to their palace and lived happily ever after.

           

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