Once upon a time, there was a very unhappy queen who was married to a troll. She didn't know he was a troll when she married him; in fact, she believed him to be a handsome and sweet prince. Sadly, though, she was mistaken -- he was a troll who had been temporarily granted princely characteristics after selling his soul to an evil demon from the underworld so that he could win the heart of the beautiful, young queen and use her sweet nature and riches for his own selfish purposes.
After the queen unknowingly married the wicked little troll, his princely shine slowly started to wear off. She began to notice how his once deep and lovely voice was becoming whiny and needy and ugly. Then his muscular physique and broad shoulders slowly shifted to a slouched posture and a big, fat, hairy belly. His once beautiful eyes became hard and squinty like a lizard's. The sweet things he used to say to her became cruel and downright rude, and then the troll would laugh while the queen cried. All his golden promises became lumps of hardened coal that couldn't even bear enough heat to melt the block of ice that was his heart.
The queen wanted to do what was best for her kingdom and her subjects. She could see them suffering along with her, but for a while she kept refusing to believe what was right in front of her eyes because every now and then the ugly troll would gain a bit of golden shimmer from the evil demon. Then the queen would briefly see the nice prince she thought she'd married, and she'd hope for the best.
Alas, the best would never happen, though.
Instead, the horrible little troll would return; each time he'd be uglier and a bit larger until the truth became completely clear to the sad queen. Finally, she took a good long look at her unhappy subjects and her crumbling kingdom, and she knew she must do something to rid them all of the nasty troll.
One day, she went for a drive in her chariot to clear her head, and she saw a magical sign, and a voice spoke to her saying, "It's time, my dear." So, the queen straightened her crown, held her chin up high and went to see the kingdom's arbiter.
The arbiter was a creepy little man himself, but he'd been given the power to decide the rules of the land, so the queen did as he said even though she thought he was a great big dodo bird. She gave him a lot of gold coins to settle things for her, so she could make the troll leave her and her kingdom and its subjects forever.
Naturally, the troll didn't want to go because he had a very easy life living off the queen and all her money, but he also didn't love the queen; so once he knew that he was going to get a lot of money from her to leave, he left.
Then the most amazing things began to happen.
Immediately, the sky turned bright blue and the sun shone brighter. Birds that had been silent for years all started to sing again. Flowers burst into bloom. The queen looked around and marveled at the beautiful transformation of her kingdom. Then she looked in the mirror at herself, and she saw that her skin was glowing, and she was smiling -- really smiling -- for the first time in years. The queen laughed in delight, and she danced from room to room in her castle.
Her subjects looked around in amazement, too. The bleak land they'd known for years was now full of light and joy. They laughed and sang songs to celebrate. Animals pranced alongside them and no longer ran away in fear.
The queen gazed out upon her loyal subjects and said, "I am so sorry that I allowed that evil troll to stay so long. I hope you can forgive me." The subjects rushed upon her and hugged and kissed her, and once again the sad and lonely queen felt loved.
And she lived happily ever after, and she continues to live happily ever after. Seven years and counting.
