The Story of the Stag

A story by Bookwormgirl32

Hey, thanks for reading! I'll explain this story's background for you. So, a couple years ago, my family went on vacation to England for a couple weeks, and one of our many tour destinations was the Victoria and Albert museum. In the museum was a painting (in fact, the one I used for the cover of this story!) of a man grasping a stag's hind legs, and near it was a pad of paper with pencils and a box you could drop the slips of paper into. The exhibit explained that you could write a saga based on this painting and then drop it into the box (Idk what became of the stories people wrote after that). I didn't write it at the museum (I probably would've kept my family there for a couple hours if I had!), but I did write it over the rest of our stay in England – however, I unintentionally ended up basing this story very heavily on the Storyteller episode "Hans My Hedgehog", so…yeah! Um…enjoy! :)

Once upon a time, a nobleman was hunting in the woods for stags. However, all he'd caught were a few scrawny rabbits, and his search for a stag had led him deeper and deeper into the woods until he was hopelessly lost. It was about 5 minutes after he realized he was lost, however, that he looked up and saw a magnificent stag grazing about 10 feet away. The stag's antlers were uniquely and beautifully curved, and it had an unusual spot of reddish hair on the right of its neck in the shape of a heart. And best of all, the stag hadn't seen the nobleman.

The nobleman had wasted all of his arrows on missed marks and scrawny rabbits – and so, he quietly crept up behind the animal and seized it by its hind legs. The stag reared, kicked, and snorted for almost an entire minute, but the nobleman hung on tightly. All of a sudden, however, the stag calmed down and spoke with the voice of a man, saying sweetly: "Let me go, kind sir, and in return, I shall help you find your way home – but only on one condition: you give to me the first thing that greets you when you arrive home. I shall collect my prize a year from that day."

In astonishment, the nobleman agreed, and the stag, once the grip on his hind legs was released, ran off into the woods and disappeared.

That night, the nobleman slept under a tree, but when he awoke, he realized he was now in front of his own home at the king's castle!

However, when the nobleman had made his promise to the stag, he was sure the first thing to greet him would be an animal, like his dog or a bird flying down from a tree – but he was wrong. When his beloved grown daughter – his only child! – saw him coming, she ran out to meet him. Instantly, the nobleman was afraid of what would happen to his daughter, but although he told his daughter about what he had promised, he ultimately tried to push it out of his mind.

And so, a year passed, and the day came when the stag arrived at the palace to collect his prize – the nobleman's daughter would become the stag's bride! Everyone felt terrible for the girl and tried to persuade her not to go through with marrying the animal, but she decided, "I will do it. My father made a promise, and marrying this beast is better than breaking a promise." So, the very next day, the nobleman's daughter were married – and oh, it was the most miserable, sad looking wedding party you ever saw!

But something amazing happened that night after the party was over. The young girl had just fallen asleep when the stag rose from the bed, gently stroked her long black hair with his hoof, and walked over to the fireplace. Unbeknownst to the stag, his soft touch had awakened the girl, who turned to look at him – and behold! the stag took off his skin, and the handsomest man the nobleman's daughter had ever seen emerged from underneath it! He left the skin lying by the fire and went outside the castle.

The nobleman's daughter got up and went to the window, watching the man hang around the castle – and then she turned, walked towards the stagskin lying on the floor, and lay down on it. It was soft and warm, and it made her very drowsy as she climbed back into bed and fell asleep.

The next morning, however, the strange man had become a stag again – so had she dreamed it? In case she had, the girl said nothing to anyone about it that day, but that night, she pretended to be asleep and then watched the stag become a man a second time. Once he left, she lay down on the stagskin again. It felt softer and warmer this time, and it lulled her to sleep before she could get back into bed.

When the girl awoke the next morning, she was still lying on the stagskin; looking up, she saw the mysterious man in the doorway – and he spoke to her: "If you say nothing about this to anyone for this last day and night, the spell will be broken, and I will stay in my proper human form forever."

That day, the girl could hardly keep quiet for excitement, but later in the afternoon, the nobleman's wife spoke to her daughter privately. "We spoke to the magician amongst the king's advisors, and he told us that your husband is a human under enchantment," the noblewoman told her daughter. "He says that to break the enchantment, you must throw the stagskin on the fire."

That night when the stag left in human form, the girl was tormented – whose advice should she follow?

After an hour of debating, she finally picked up the stagskin and threw it on the fire. Instantly, there came terrible screams of pain from outside; the girl looked out the window, and behold! her husband was in stag form again, looking up at her in anguish. With that, he turned, ran, and vanished in the direction of the woods.

For 3 days afterward, the nobleman's daughter stayed alone in her room, devastated and heartbroken over the fact that she'd let her husband down. Finally, she decided to go and look for him; that night, she quietly left the castle on her own and headed for the woods, telling no-one of her plans. On her way out of the kingdom, however, the girl stopped at the black-smith's shop and had 3 pairs of iron shoes made for her.

The girl walked and walked and walked until one pair of iron shoes was worn out. In fact, by the time the first pair of iron shoes had worn out, the girl realized that her hair had started to turn grey before she'd even grown old. With that, she put on the second pair and walked and walked and walked again. Then one day, when the second pair was half-worn out, the girl came into a wood, and behold! there was her husband, still in stag form, grazing only a few feet away! She recognized him instantly by the beautiful curve of his antlers and the reddish, heart-shaped spot of hair on his neck. Just then, the stag raised his head, and without even looking at the nobleman's daughter, spoke: "How did you find me?"

The girl answered him, "I've walked a long way to find you; in that time, I've worn out one-and-a-half pairs of iron shoes, and my long black hair has started to turn grey before I've even grown old. But now, I've come to take you home again, and to embrace you and call you my husband once more." And at the very moment that the words left her lips, behold! the stag's form fell from him, and the girl's husband stood before her in his right human form. The spell was broken forever!

On the way home, the girl's husband explained everything to her: "When I was a child, I was cursed by a wicked fairy to be a free stag in the woods, rejected and ignored by all other humans. That spell would break three days and three nights after I was married."

By the time the couple reached the castle, the girl's hair was completely black again, and she'd worn out the third pair of iron shoes not long before the castle had come into view. The two were welcomed with joy, and another, much happier, wedding party was hosted for them. Needless to say, they both lived happily ever after.

The End

And…yeah – that's it! (Sorry I couldn't think of a more creative title…) Okay, it's not exactly the same as "Hans My Hedgehog", and yes, I took some artistic liberties with the painting and all, but whatever. Also, I modified some of the text in this story from when I originally wrote it, since I was 14 when I wrote it – and imo, I think my writing skills have greatly improved in that 2-year time-span. But if you still think it's cringy, please don't judge me. :P