Once upon a time, in a beautiful place called Sparkle Bay, lived a lovely princess named Aria. She was known for her kindness and had the sweetest smile in the world. Every evening, as the sun would set and the stars would twinkle in the dark sky, Princess Aria would invite all the people of Sparkle Bay to gather by the sea. They would sit on the warm sand, strumming their harps and lutes, singing happy songs, and listening to the guitars play lovely tunes.
The princess would stand in her bright green dress, with the pearls and diamonds shining in her long hair, and dance with joy. All the little children loved to dance with their princess, and the mothers would say, “Oh, see how happy our little ones are. Let us keep on dancing forever and ever.” And so they would dance, while the bright moon shared its lovely light over Princess Aria and the happy people of Sparkle Bay.
Now, there was an evil wave, which, every evening, used to try to creep up the beach and try to break up this happy gathering. But the princess’s lovely smile and the music and dancing put it out of its gloomy mind, until one evening it grew so angry that it rushed towards Princess Aria with a great roar, roaring into a hundred angry waves, hissing and spitting like a hundred snakes, and threatening to wash all the people away, and carry off their houses and gardens, and drown them all in the sea.
But quick as lightning the princess’s brave knights took up their shields to protect the princess and the people of Sparkle Bay. While they kept the angry waves back, the princess turned and rushed towards the dark woods, crying, “Help! help! Save us!” Then a wonderful thing happened: out from the woods came running a dozen little moonlit men, whose clothes were of bright shining shells and frosted shells and white and silver seaweed; while a host of little fairies flew out from the woods, sparkling and shining with a thousand lights.
Down upon his knees dropped one of the little moonlit men to the princess, crying, “Dear princess, I am King Oberon’s jester, come here to amuse you. The fairies will entertain you every evening; and this evening they will show you how to dance with the children of the moonlit man, and so teach you to drive back the angry wave.”
Now, King Oberon’s fairies are happy and merry little creatures, and amused the princess and the children by dancing round them in a circle. These fairies are little folks no taller than a flower; some of them have bright shining jackets of pieces of rainbows, while some have wings of beautiful butterflies, making you think that the flower stood in a field of butterflies.
Next the moonlit men formed themselves into one long, long line, stretching all the way from the dark wood of the mountain to the shores of Sparkle Bay. And so the little beauty moved on, hand in hand with each dancing fairy, and broke the angry wave to pieces with the dance that the moonlit men of fairyland had taught them all to dance.
Then the people from the town came pouring down to see what had happened. “Oh, what was the matter?” they cried.
The children’s faces were all washed clean by the angry waves; and then they began laughing, tickling, and dancing again, till the whole of Sparkle Bay sang and danced till the break of day. This is the story of the princess and the dancing octopus.