Entry of the Old Fairy
Now, the Old fairy who was not invited was a wicked one and practiced witchcrafts too. She somehow came to know that the royal couple had been blessed with a beautiful child and though uninvited, she came to the ceremony. She was annoyed with the King for having insulted her.
By the time she reached the king’s palace, the whole palace was decorated richly and great celebrations were fully on. The palace resounded with the finest music and the drummers expressed their delight by drumming exquisite tunes.
The King and the queen personally invited the seven fairies into the palace and sot them seated on the table for the least that was to follow. They made magnificent arrangements for the fairies specially. The king had ordered exquisite golden plates, spoons, forks and glasses, studded with precious gems, for them.
As the fairies were about to seat them-selves at the table, in the doorway, appeared the old fairy, extremely angry and disappointed. She looked very old, with almost a deformed face with sagging skin and there were hardly any teeth left in her mouth.
Looking at the king fiercely, she asked “Oh King! Do you have any manners? I have been left out by not being invited to the ceremony. Is this how a king of your stature should behave?”
The king was extremely sorry and embarrassed when he realized that she had been missed out of the guests list. He immediately rose from his seat, offered his sincere apologies and arranged for a seat for the fairy.
But though he had the will to do his best for her, he could not provide new plates and other material to her. He had made arrangements for only seven fairies that had been invited.
In spite of several attempts by the king to calm her down, the old fairy was highly disappointed and annoyed with the treatment she received. She accepted the king’s apologies ungraciously and from her behaviour, it was clear that she had no intentions of pardoning him. Adding fuel to the lire was the king’s inability to lay new dishes before her as he did lor the other fairies.
As she sat on the chair offered to her, she muttered a few curses under her breath, which was overheard by a young, good fairy who sat beside her. Suspicious that she would mean some harm to the baby, the good fairy excused herself from there and quickly hid behind a curtain to save her wishes till the last.