Cock-and-Bull

6. THE GECKO-PRINCE

"Love the hearts, not the faces."

Many times ago, a king was ruling over a large kingdom, containing forty three states. The people were prosperous and contented over the rule. The king was a God-fearing and a pious man. He had two sons. The elder prince was not a man of actions. Neither he was handsome nor an active and talented person. He didn't take interest in princeliness. He was not active in any kind of healthy and dauntlessness i.e. equitation, swordplay, hunting etc. He used to drink wine and play a flute all the day. He was fond of dance and merrymaking. The king was much annoyed due to the sluggishness of his elder son.

Perversely, the younger one was much concerned with the princeliness and kingdom. He was active, kind and handsome. He used to wander in the streets to know about the sufferings of the ordinary people. The younger prince was a source of pleasure and satisfaction for the king. The king wished to have an ideal predecessor who would make his people more prosperous and safe. The younger prince was the axis of king's hopes and wishes.

One day, as the handsome prince set out for the eastern state to settle down a kind of contention, an unpleasant incident was waiting for him. There was an old banyan tree in the way to the eastern side of the kingdom, spread across over an acre. It was said that there was a witch who had occupied the tree. No one had ever passed by that old tree or faced the witch. As the prince passed by the tree, he heeded some voices of weeping and then laughing. At first, he ignored it taking it as his incertitude but the voice kept coming on. The prince ordered his attendants to stop and check the matter. An old attendant warned the prince about the witch and begged to leave the place at once. The prince couldn't protest due the miserable condition of the old man and they left for their desired place.

The prince passed the whole week in the eastern province but he was intrigued by the voice and the myth of banyan tree. The prince decided to scratch out the mystery and ordered his crew to leave for the palace and he headed on the way towards the banyan tree. As he was few meters away from the tree, he saw a cute and innocent baby standing under the tree. The baby was smiling and was waving his hands as he was about to take a flight. The prince couldn't stop himself and ran towards the baby. As the prince leaned to pick the baby up, there was complete darkness and the prince was unable to see anything. Meanwhile, there raised a hilarious laughter accompanying the phrases like "FINALLY. I GOT MY PRINCE. MY HANDSOME PRINCE.HE's ONLY MINE." After sometime, everything was visible and the prince was taken aback to see a horrendous surly witch. She had yellowish teeth and curbed feet with long nails. Her look was causing a queasy environment. The prince tried to ask something but he couldn't.

"I'm the witch of banyan tree. I'm the lover of beauty and handsomeness. Come my boy and live with me. Let me to love you." the witch uttered these phrases and advanced towards the prince to hug him up. But the prince spat on her and got furious.

"How dare you to touch me! The deceiver ugly witch! You are not able to be loved anyway. Stay out of me otherwise you would lose your throat." responded the prince and grabbed his sword firmly. The witch greeted the prince's response with peals of laughter.

"Keep in mind, you're merely a human. You can't do anything. If you won't be agreed upon, I would change you into an ugly gecko and no one would love you ever." shouted the witch.

"Do what you want to do. I don't care. It would be much agreeable for me to be a gecko than your beloved." replied the prince firmly. The witch got angry on that and began to pronounce some kind of words and as she threw her hands towards the prince and the next moment prince was converted into a gecko-man, having the face of gecko and the body of a man. After that the witch vanished away in a flash. The prince began to weep bitterly and he decided to live away from the people.
After some years, the gecko-prince was sitting in his hut to save himself from the rain. He heard some noise. He, at once, rushed out of the hut and saw an old man was lying on the earth and a leopard was standing ready to leap over the old man. The gecko-prince, abruptly, set an arrow in his bow and shot it into the direction of the leopard. The arrow was struck into the leopard's throat and it fell dead. The old man was astonished to see the activeness of the gecko-man. The old man thanked the gecko-prince. He asked, "Why do you live here? What's the matter with your face?" The gecko-prince told him the whole story of his misery. "I live in here because I have a fear that no one would like me." asked the gecko-prince in dismay. The old man was, indeed, the king of a country which was situated across the river. He had come to the jungle for hunting and was left apart from his hunting crew. The old king requested the gecko-prince to go with him to his land. At first, the gecko-prince resisted but finally he was agreed upon due to the persistant insist of the old king. They headed towards the old king's state.

The old king had a beautiful daughter who was rude and pride. She used to humiliate the ugly peoples. She mocked the poor ones due to their tattered clothes and sullen bodies. But the princess was much connected to his father. She couldn't see him sad anyway. The old king was much annoyed because of her daughter's behaviour. The old king introduced the gecko-prince to his daughter. As the princess found the gecko-prince in the palace, she raised a scoffing voice. She began to spat on the floor and turned her face towards the opposite side. The old king was hurt but couldn't say anything. The gecko-prince was also silent.

The next morning when the princess was playing in the garden, her old attendant told her that it was the gecko-prince who saved the her father's life.

"You have done wrong with our saviour. Due to that person, our king is alive. Although, he has an ugly face but look into his heart and you would find the real beauty." asked the old attendant. Those words moved the princess and she began to weep. She realized, for the first time, that how cruel she was! She had a beautiful face but her heart was dead and dark. At once, she ran into the palace and began to search for the gecko-prince. He was pressing the old king's feet. As the princess entered the room and he stood up and wanted to leave the room. The princess, abruptly, embraced the gecko-prince. As the princess wrapped herself around the prince, the darkness cloaked the room and an aagonal voice raised up: "ALAS! I LOST MY PRINCE. THE PRINCESS HAS SNAFFLED HIM FROM ME. SHE HAS REMOTED MY CHARM FROM THE BOY THROUGH LOVING HIM. I'M THE DOOMED WITCH OF BANYAN TREE."

After the completion of those phrases, the room was illuminated again. But the old king and the princess was startled to find a handsome prince in frontof them. The gecko-prince was absent. Actually, the handsome prince had regained his real shape. He spoke out to solve the riddle because he had extrapolated the whole scenario.

"I'm, in fact, a prince of the kingdom situated across the river. I was bewitched by a surly witch. She had made me a gecko because I had cursed her. I think the true love was the only way to remove her spell. So, the princess had done so and now I'm here before you." explained the prince.

The old king and the princess were much pleased to listen the whole story. The old king ordered to gather the whole state and announced a grand feast for them. The old king gave his daughter's hand into the prince's. The prince took her wife with him and set back to his own kingdom.