The Prince and the Unicorn

        Once, in a land where horses were important, there lived a prince named Adam. Prince Adam was a very good on horseback, and often thought that he really ought to be king because his father (who was already king) couldn't ride at all.
        Prince Adam pestered his father about this every day, until eventually The King got tired of it. "Very well," he told Prince Adam, "I'll let you be king, but only if you can prove you're as good as you say. Ride the unicorn in the magic wood, that ought to be hard enough."
        Prince Adam smiled. "You're trying to trick me," he said. "Unicorns can only be ridden by maidens. Well, I don't mind dressing up as a maiden for a day if I get to be king. And I can ride anything."
        Next day, Prince Adam set off wearing one of his sister's dresses. He soon arrived at the magic wood, and asked a deer where he might find the unicorn.
        "That way," said the deer, "but you can't ride him."
        "Thank you," answered Prince Adam in a squeaky voice. "I can ride him, though. I can ride anything."
        "You won't even be able to ride him if you shave off your beard," said the deer, and got back to eating some green stuff off the floor.
        Prince Adam had forgotten about his beard, but soon cut it off with his sword, using a spoon he had with him as a mirror.
        He rode for a while longer when he came across a cuckoo. "Do you know where the unicorn is?" he asked.
        "Over there, miss," said the cuckoo, "but you can't ride him."
        "I can ride anything," answered Prince Adam, rather smug at having tricked the cuckoo with his improved disguise.
        Sure enough, round the corner, there stood the unicorn. "Aha!" said Prince Adam in a girly sort of way. "I wish to ride you, please."
        "I'm sorry," said the unicorn. "You can't."
        "But I'm a maiden, am I not? And I can ride anything."
        "Ordinarily I'd let you, yes," answered the unicorn. "Only it's my bad back, you see - it's been playing me up for months. I wouldn't get two paces before having to lie down, it's agony, it really is."

So

The prince waited for his father to die, like princes usually do.

Illustration by Roy Bartle
Image size: approx. 37K.