Outstanding Story (Sub-junior) - Three Merlot Roses

“Three Merlot Roses” is one of the outstanding stories (sub-junior) of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2019 written by Ayşe Özkan, FMV Ayazağa Işık Schools, Turkey.

Three Merlot Roses

Once upon a time there was a lovely princess who lived with her family in a huge castle. Her father the King was a good-hearted man. He was very helpful to his people; he liked to do his best for his people. But his wife the Queen was a very annoying, bad and bitter woman. She detested other people and she never helped other people. She was so selfish that she nearly shared anything with anyone. The Princess was so sad about this but she couldn’t do anything about it. She knew that she cannot change her mother and had to love her.

One day, the King decided to conduct a competition for his daughter’s birthday. He loved his daughter so much that he wanted to organize the best party ever. The Princess did not have many friends so the King wanted her daughter to be friends with boys and girls from his country. The competition was about collecting merlot flowers from the forest. The Princess loved these flowers. She had a small garden. Everyday she took care of her flowers. She didn’t have friends but she had flowers to be friends with. The person who can collect 3 of these rare roses would be invited to the private birthday party. Also this person would have a chance to sleep one night at the castle as a guest.

The villagers were so excited. Everyone wanted to win so they marched inside the deep, pine green forest. They were noticing the deep, gloomy parts of the forest. One of the villagers started to yell, he said: “I found one!! Now, two!” This boy’s name was Sam. He was a strong and clever boy. He dreamt to meet the Princess and be friends with her. He did everything possible to find the other roses. When he found the third one he was exhausted. The moment he walked to pick the third rose he saw a giant man who was looking like a monster. Sam was scared but he wanted to pick the last rose. That moment the other man picked the rose and galloped with his horse. Sam understood that this man was from the castle. No one in the village had horses.

In fact this guy was the spy of the Queen. The bad-hearted Queen asked this soldier to go and pick all the precious roses before anyone else could take it. She didn’t want any villagers to come to her house. She thought villagers can’t be friends with her lonely daughter. The Queen was so relaxed because she knew that no one had 3 roses.

At the night of the birthday party the Princess and the King was really excited. They both wanted to help a villager but no one came. The birthday party started but no one came. The Princess was so sad but the Queen was very cheerful, she was sure that no one of the villagers would come to the party. The party started only between the family, and the Princess was so bored because she had no friends to play with. Sam who has already found 2 precious roses arrived at the castle. He had these roses in his hands and asked permission to enter the castle. But as he had only 2 roses the soldiers didn’t want to take him inside. Suddenly he saw the man who had picked the third rose in the forest. He started to yell: “Hey, you are thief! You took my rose! It was you! You are the thief!” Everyone started to look at each other and because of the loud noise the King and the Princess came out.

When they were out, they saw this boy holding two of the roses in his hand. They were so happy to see a villager who tried to find the rose. The boy started to explain what had happened. The King and his daughter were shocked. When he explained the truth they understood that the Queen organized the soldier from the castle to steal the third rose.

The King took the boy inside the castle. He was accepted as the guest and he became a very close friend to the princess. After the party the princess went to talk with her mum, she asked her mum to stop being bad and try to be a good mother and a good person. The Queen decided to be a wonderful and fair Queen and she never did bad things all her life. They all lived happily ever after.