Once upon a time, there was a box, decorated in beautiful greens and blues. This box held magical powers, and it was said that anyone who opened the box would release evil dragons that would terrorize the land. The rulers of this kingdom had a daughter, and in order to protect her from the potential danger, the king placed the box in a hidden, bountiful garden covered with large green shrubs and sealed with a gate. One day when the King’s daughter, the princess, came across the gates of the garden on her sixteenth birthday while adventuring through the forest with her pet moose. She was so compelled by the garden’s old wooden gates that she just had to go inside.
She asked the moose to help her break the gates of the garden open. The moose ran into the gates and the doors swung open. Inside of the gates, the princess found the beautiful garden filled with flowers and plants with a little path that the girl just had to follow. When the moose and her reached the end of the path, there lay a small box. Unable to contain her curiosity, the princess had to open the box. When she took the cover off of the box, she felt a gust of wind so strong that she was pushed to the ground, the moose went running in a frenzy, and the princess was left defenseless as she watched a swirl of red and white emerge from the box and turn into two large dragons. The dragons flew into the nearby town! Fire spewed from their mouths which burned down buildings. The dragons were hungry for humans, down the hatch they went! The princess needed to find a way to save her people.
She ran into the town eager to help the civilians. She shouted to the dragons, “Please don’t hurt them and take me instead.”
The dragons ran to get the princess, and when they approached her they started to spew fire out of their mouths and attempt to immobilize her. Scared of the fire, the princess put her hands up as a line of defense for herself, but to her surprise she wasn’t killed, but instead her hands had absorbed the fire and now she held the power of the dragon. She was brought back with her newfound powers, and using the fire, she directed the dragons all the way back to the garden. She scrambled through the trail towards the box, she quickly opened the box and a swirling wind started to pull inwards towards the box. With her fire powers, she directed the dragons back into the wind force where they were dragged back into the box. She ran to find the cover of the box and slammed it on, sealing the dragons away for eternity.
When she became queen she made it her mission for no one to ever open the box again. It was now under constant watch due to her adventures that she went on, once upon a time.
Written by: Gianna Oliveri, Macy Gabbamonte, Meghan Thrash, and Gavin Trezza
I love this Pandora-in-reverse fairy tale.