A young lady once lived in a little village called Kingsburg, her name was Susan. Susan was a fantastic artist, her whole room (which wasn’t much) was covered wall to wall in her drawings. She didn’t just draw one thing in particular, she drew all sorts of things. There were castles, oceans, a stamped of wild horses, and even a few forests. Even though she had never seen these things herself, she gathered all she could from books and old stories, and after that she just let her imagination run wild. You’d think that she would be living a better life with all these fabulous paintings she could have sold, and she could have, except for one small problem.

You see, Kingsburg is all about looks, all the beautiful ones were living in big houses, with fancy clothes and more than enough to eat. On the other hand, the people who weren’t much to look at lived in tiny cottages, with not enough money to buy any more stuff than they needed to survive. Susan also lived in one of those cottages, except for her, it was worse. She was one of the least fortunate people in the whole village. Her hair, first of all, was red, when everyone thought blonde was prettier. Her eyes were just plain brown, but everyone thought blue and green looked the best. And she was also skinny, it looked as if a slight breeze could blow her away.

Because she was considered “ugly”, she couldn’t get a good job, she couldn’t even be a flower seller for no one would buy her flowers. After carefully considering what to do, she decided to paint pictures, but then ask her friend, James, to sell them for her. Since no one would see her face, it didn’t matter how she looked.

After she had drawn 5 or 6 paintings, she asked James over and asked him to sell them for her. So he went onto the street to sell them. First only a few people went to see what was going on, but then all of a sudden, there was a whole crowd around him, pushing and shoving to see the amazing artwork.

“This is amazing!”

“Who did this?”

“Was it you?”

James was trying to answer, but he didn’t know much about the paintings.

“I’ll go ask if you can see her, just wait here for a while.”

When James told Susan about what the people were saying, she was very happy. But at the same time, she was a little frightened, for if the people saw who she was, they wouldn’t look at her paintings!

“What should I do James? I can’t let the people see me.”

“But if you don’t show yourself, the people will find out, no matter what it takes.”

“Well, what should I do?”

“Well…I guess all you have left to do is go somewhere else.”

“But where?”

“I’m not sure, maybe you should go ask one of the travelers who step in at the inns sometimes.”

“Ok.”

On the way to the inn that night, Susan saw a black figure walking down the street towards her. It was the famous witch, Morgana.

“Oh, Morgana, I’m so glad you were walking down this path tonight, or else I may not have thought of how to solve my problem!”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“Well, as you can see, I’m probably not the most beautiful person you have every seen…”

“Actually, you’re one of the worst.”

“Oh…Well, since I’m like this, I was wondering if maybe you had some spell to help me get beautiful and not ugly so I can…”

“Slow down, slow down. Listen, I don’t care what you want to be beautiful for, but I guarantee you that even my magic isn’t that strong.”

“Well…umm…Oh! Maybe you could just make me beautiful for the day time, and let me turn back to normal at night!”

“Hmmm…let me think about that one.”

“…Well?”

“Well, I guess I am the great Morgana…Ok, why not.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you so much!”

“All right, all right. Calm down. Just stand over there…No, little to the right…Good. Now…fæger rícium díacones héo wæren.

“…Nothing happened.”

“Good observation. That is because it is night right now.”

“Oh…Well, thanks again Morgana!” Susan begins to walk away, but Morgana stops her.

“Aren’t you forgetting something? Something like…payment?”

“Oh, right. How about one of my paintings?”

“Well…I was thinking something a little more…”

“I can do a thunder storm?”

“Oh, all right.” Susan goes home and happily paints the painting for Morgana, all the time imagining what her beauty form will be.

The next morning when Susan wakes up, she feels different. Then all of a sudden she remembers. She runs into the bathroom and looks at herself in the mirror. She looks, rubs her eyes, and looks again.

“I can’t believe this, has it really happened?” Just a while later, while Susan was still rejoicing about her beautiful self, James happens to walk in.

“Who exactly are you? Where’s Susan? Did she leave all ready? I needed to talk to her.”

“James, James, this is still me, I am Susan. I saw the witch Morgana on my way to the inn and she put a spell on me! Now I can sell my own pictures.”

“That’s great Susan, but will you ever be able to turn back?”

“What would I want to turn back for? Isn’t being beautiful the most important thing? Anyway, I was think maybe I could open my own art gallery since I’m like this now, and…”

But by now James wasn’t listening anymore, for he didn’t believe in all that stuff about being beautiful is the most important thing, but of course no one would believe him, so he just kept his thoughts to himself.

“Hey, James, are you listening?”

“Huh?”

“I just told you that the villagers invited me over to a party tonight to celebrate me getting a new art gallery. Are you going to come?”

“Um, oh, yeah sure.”

“What’s wrong with you? You act as if I’m another person. But I’m still me, the spell didn’t change the inside of me, just the outside. Now, are you going to come or not?”

“Yeah, yeah I’ll come.”

“Good. It starts at 5.”

James walked away with a heavy heart. What was the matter with him? It’s not like he wasn’t happy for her. Well, I guess it’s that change that’s bugging me that much.

Later that day when Susan was preparing for the party, she looked at herself in the mirror again. Was it really her? Was she sure it wasn’t just a dream? Of course not silly, I’ve never had a dream so real in my life, it has to be true. Even though she didn’t want to admit it, she wasn’t all that happy about the spell herself. Every time she glanced at herself in the mirror she had to look twice to make sure there was no one behind her. The big clock outside struck 4:30, she didn’t have much time before the party.

When she got there, she was amazed at all the people that had shown up. The only sad thing was, that the only person she knew was James. When she started walking among the guests, she realized that no one really like her, they just liked how she looked on the outside. It’s ok, she thought, I can last it for only one night…Night! All of a sudden she remembered, she was only beautiful until the nighttime, then she would turn back into normal. Well, it wouldn’t be that bad if I was at home by myself, but in front of all these people I can’t just all of a sudden turn ugly again. I’ll just wait until I feel myself changing, then I’ll just run back home.

But since it was, after all, a party, she forgot all about the spell and danced and sang all afternoon. When it was time for everyone to have supper, Susan felt a strange thing happening to her. She was about to run, but then it stopped. Oh well, I guess it was a false alarm. After everyone had eaten their full, they asked Susan to give a speech. But as soon as she had gotten to the front of the room, she felt that same feeling again, except this time, it was a lot worse. She wanted to run, but couldn’t. Everyone started staring and wondered what was going on. Finally, Susan summed up all her courage and ran, she ran past the long banquet table, ran past all the people, and burst through the door. People haven’t even got what had happened, when James ran out the door, chasing after her.

Mean while, Susan was running as fast as she could to get home before the change happened. And she succeeded. As soon as she opened the door, she could feel it happening. She just ran to her bed and passed out.

James came running in a while later to see Susan lying on the bed crying.

“Susan, what’s the matter? It’s not that bad being the way you were for you’re whole life, is it?”

“No, no, it’s not that. It’s just that, well, when I was beautiful, it felt like no one really cared who I was, they just cared about how I looked, and it felt like me, myself, wasn’t anything.” James took a deep sigh of relief. He had thought that she really cared about being beautiful, but it turned out to be just the opposite.

“Here, let me…”

“No James, thanks for offering and everything, but I just want to be alone right now.”

“Ok, whatever.” As James walked out the door, he saw a person wearing a black cloak, once again, it was Morgana.

“What was the big idea? She doesn’t even care about being beautiful, take the spell off!”

“It’s not my fault that she doesn’t know what she wants, let her take her own spell off.” And with that, she walked away. James stood in silence, thinking about the witch’s words. He stood there for a while, and then walked away.

The next morning when Susan woke up, she found out that she had forgotten to buy food the day before because she had been preparing for the party. When she was walking through the village, a little girl saw her and recognized Susan right away.

“Hey, aren’t you that painter lady that had a party last night? What’s it like to be pretty? I’ve never been pretty in my life, but I hope I will be someday.” Susan felt sorry for her because she knew exactly how the little girl felt, for she had once been that little girl herself. So she knelt down beside the little girl, and whispered into her ear.

“Next time someone says you’re ugly or that you’re not good enough, don’t listen to them, because the most important thing in life isn’t what you look like or what you wear, the most important thing is who you are, and what you do with you’re life.” As she was saying this, Susan was slowly changing back into her normal self, her blonde hair gradually turning red, her sparkling blue eyes were turning back into the plain brown eyes she had had her whole life, and her figure was ever so slowly changing thin and frail. Everyone around her stared open mouthed, but Susan didn’t notice a thing. She bought all her groceries and walked home. When she walked past her mirror and saw herself, she didn’t scream and cry, in fact, she just smiled, for she had learned that it didn’t matter what you looked like on the outside, it was what was inside that counted.