Birthday Party
It was a noble man's little son's birthday party. The main part with dancing and playing games was over and now all the invited kids gathered and sat at a long dining table to eat a cake and watch a special evening show that they were promised. Everyone looked at the screen behind which sat the skillful puppet master, making the final preparations of his puppet theater. A charming and bright melody slowly started playing.
"Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl, so beautiful that everyone wanted to marry her," began the master of puppets and a very finely crafted doll appeared from behind the screen. The puppet-girl was wearing a traditional gypsy dress, large earrings and had a mass of dark curly hair.
"But she had only one man whom she truly loved," and instantly another nicely crafted figure appeared, of a young gypsy man in a loose shiny red shirt and short but also very curly hair. The dolls hugged and kissed.
"However, a man of great magical powers, the evil Wizard, craved for this beautiful girl's heart just as much," the puppeteer somehow managed to bring up another figure, possibly somehow attached to his head, depicting a big and scary dark necromancer, with a fine but very pale face, spreading his arms upon the gypsy couple.
"He kissed the girl's hand and asked her to share a glass of wine with him tonight," the puppeteer demonstrated how it was as he spoke.
"But I already have a boyfriend, the girl protested, pointing at the young man. Then the warlock called the gypsy boy bad words, took the girl's hand forcibly and disappeared along with her," a little explosion happened behind the screen, causing a dark smoke in which hid the puppet-girl and the puppet-wizard. The room filled with a funny smell and the watching kids began to chuckle on their spots.
"He was a very, very evil wizard indeed," the puppet master continued. "He took her to the dark castle in the deep forest, where he showed to her showers of gold and silver, and asked once again if she would marry him. No no no, the girl protested, bring me back to my beloved!" the puppeteer shaked the "raging" girl-puppet.
"If so, then you will have to crawl back to your beloved as a snake and then look if he still loves you!" the wizard put a curse on the girl and, after another pile of black smoke dissolved, there was no girl to be seen but only a wiggling and coiling snake, suffering from the terrible transformation.
"And little by little, the snake crawled and crawled back home to her beloved, through forests and over bridges, until she finally reached the house of her beloved. He was sitting there on a bench in great sorrow when the snake crawled to him and stared into his very eyes. In the very very depth of her eyes the young man could see who she really was and she took her on his hands and kissed, even more sorrowful now, seeing what the evil wizard did to her," said the puppet master in a very dramatic voice, so that a couple of kids already started sobbing.
"But suddenly there was a flash of light," and indeed a light so bright flashed in the room that everyone went blind for a second. When everyone's eyes focused again, the puppet-boy was holding in his hands not a snake but his beloved girl.
"However," the puppet master continued. "The curse of the wizard was much too strong and a little part of the spell remained in the girl's body for life, as she soon found out that her body was still as pliant as that of a snake. At first she was terrified, but her beloved told her that what she did was very beautiful, and so she continued to do it because she discovered what many beautiful things she could do with her body now," the puppeteer pulled some invisible strings, bending the puppet-girl into a grotesque but elegant position.
"Since then the girl travelled a lot with her boyfriend and other gypsies, showing her talents to the generous public," the master of puppets ended the show and went from behind the screen, bowing to the applauds. "And now, little kids, do you believe in this tale I just told you?" he smiled at the children and winked.
"Surely it's a lie, it has a wizard in it and wizards don't exist," the oldest kid replied and the younger children looked at him and then nodded, agreeing to the argument.
"But what if I told you that this story is not a lie? It is only truth, in fact, and this gypsy girl is in our town right now, and not just in our town but in this very house. Let me introduce to you Natalya, the girl who was once turned into a snake, but whose curse then turned into a blessing!" the man did a wide gesture with his hand and from behind a curtain a charming young lady appeared, dressed in the tighest crimson unitard covering her entire body save for the head, hands and feet. Her dark hair was carefully put into a long braid behind her back.
She bowed very elegantly to the young audience and softly walked to the table in the middle of the room, carved specially for her performance.