In the far off land of Flor in the country of Ida lived Princess Anna. Now Princess Anna was thoughtful and kind and generous, but what her people loved most about her was her laugh. No one knows if her laughter was magical or simply wonderful, but the whole land knew that when Princess Anna laughed so did everyone around her. She loved to visit the towns and villages all across the country of Ida in the land of Flor spreading her laughter and the joy that came with it. She collected jokes and stories that made her chuckle and giggle and all the people she visited shared with her new jokes and stories so that she never ran out of laughter to share.
Until one day she arrived at a small farming village on the edges of the country of Ida near the borders of the land of Flor where no one was laughing. Princess Anna went to the first villager she met and told her new favorite joke.
“What, good sir, do you call an alligator in a vest?”
The farmer from the village looked at her with forlorn eyes and simply shook his head.
Princess Anna continued, “An investigator!”
Though the joke often made her chortle and guffaw the sad look on the face of the farmer stole her laughter. With a polite nod, Princess Anna allowed the farmer to go on his way. She continued through the village looking for someone with whom she could share even the tiniest chuckle.
To a moping milkmaid she said, “What, my dear, do you call a heaping, pile of cuddly kittens?” Princess Anna selected this joke because not only was it hilarious, it also included the power of cuteness.
The milkmaid shrugged her ignorance without interrupting her moping for a moment.
“It is called,” Princess Anna said, “a meowntain!”
For her efforts the princess was rewarded with a wan smile before the milkmaid left to attend to her duties.
Princess Anna grew more and more concerned as she wended her way through the village. Without laughter, she wondered, how could she bring joy to the people?
At last she found the chief of the village, standing on the wall and looking off into the distance. Princess Anna climbed the steps to the top of the wall and faced the village chief. She thought back through all of the jokes that she had heard and told in all of the towns and all of the villages in the country of Ida in the land of Flor and chose the one that she thought most likely to get a laugh.
“Ah, it is good to find you at last. I was wondering, my good chief, what might you call a gentleman who had only a nose but lacked a body?”
The chief, trying to be polite, turned to Princess Anna and said, “I do not know, Your Highness.”
She could not help but crack a smile as she delivered the punchline, “Nobody Nose!”
For all her joking and jesting the most that the chief could offer in response was a kind nod.
“What,” Princess Anna snapped, “is the matter in your village? Where has all of the laughter gone?”
The chief pointed out over the fields, that the princess now noticed were black and smoking. “A dragon has swooped down from the skies and burned up all our crops. I apologize for my people, Your Highness, but they are sad because all of the work that they have put in to raise these crops is for naught and come winter we will all starve.”
“You most certainly will not!” said Princess Anna. “You will come to my castle and eat my food until you can grow new crops. No one in my country will starve so long as I am the princess!”
“Thank you, Your Highness,” the chief said with tears standing in his eyes, “We owe everything to you. But even food for this winter will not cast out the dragon that has taken up residence in our fields. None of the farmers dare to go out to plant new crops so long as it is out there roaring and breathing fire to and fro.”
Princess Anna stuck out her chin, placed her hands on her hips, and glared out over the blackened fields. “Well, it appears that I shall have to have a chat with this dragon.”
With that she stomped down the stairs of the wall, clomped back to the stables in the village, and plomped herself onto her horse. She left so quickly and so suddenly that her guards barely had time to get up onto their own horses to follow her. By the time they caught up, she had already ridden out of the village gates and started across the charred field toward the smoking, roaring shape in the distance.
“Princess, Princess!” shouted the guards, “You must stop! We’ve heard there’s a dragon out there!”
Without slowing or turning Princess Anna replied, “I know full well there is a dragon out there and he had better get ready to leave because he has made my villagers sad.”
“But… but… PRINCESS!” the guards objected.
It mattered not, however, because the princess had set her mind to the task and would not be swayed. So the guards hurried their horses along to, at the very least, be in position to guard the princess when she confronted the dragon.
They crossed a burned up field of wheat and a toasted field of barley and a fried field of rye, all while the billow of smoke grew larger in front of them and the sound of the roaring grew louder in their ears. Princess Anna, in the very back of her mind, knew that her mother the Queen would scold her for getting her dress dirty and smelling of smoke, but she was too angry with the inconsiderate dragon to think about her dress.
Soon they came to a deep, black, smoking, hot rent in the earth as if some giant or wizard had drawn a massive line across the field pushing up the dirt and setting everything around aflame. Princess Anna followed the line as the roars grew louder. Her guards quaked in their saddles, but kept pace with their brave princess as they approached the heart of the roaring, smoking, gaping hole in the ground. She peered into the murky smoke looking for the dragon, but could only see puffs and clouds from the dragon’s fiery breath. Pulling a handkerchief from her pocket, she covered her nose, dismounted her horse, and strode into the wafting smoke.
Once her eyes adjusted to the stinging and her ears adjusted to the roaring she noticed that it was not a dragon that had burned the fields and torn a black line in the earth, but a long, shiny, metal cylinder. As she approached, she could feel the heat radiating off of its gleaming surface and see what looked like the fletchings of an arrow near its base. Without touching the oven-hot thing, she circled around and noticed that the sound of the roaring, at this distance, sounded much more like the drawbridge of her parents’ castle winding closed. She listened and looked for the source of the sound and, after circling the thing several more times, she determined that the sound was coming from the side that was embedded in the soil.
After convincing her guards that there was no dragon, she instructed them to loop ropes around the thing — being very careful not to burn themselves by touching its hot surface — and using all three horses to heave the cylinder over. The steeds strained and pulled, but the thing did not move. The guards added their strength, pulling on the ropes along with the horses, and the cylinder shifted and groaned. But it wasn’t until Princess Anna began pulling too that it moved enough to free the side that had been embedded in the ground.
In that very moment the roaring, creaking, drawbridge-sound got very loud and then suddenly stopped. The horses and guards and princess all stopped pulling and turned to see that the shiny, metal cylinder had opened up on the side that had been in the ground. It looked very much like a drawbridge set on its side. On the inside of the drawbridge stairs were cut so that, if the cylinder were standing upright, they would have been perfect for going inside the hollow metal tube.
“Hello down there!” The voice came from inside the cylinder. The princess, flanked by her two guards, stood by the sideways steps and looked into the darkened entrance to the cylinder.
Princess Anna called, “Greetings! How can we help you?”
Into the doorway, for that is what it was, stepped a dashing young man in a shining suit of what looked like metal and fabric at the same time. His head was covered by a globe of glass and his voice came from a strange box clipped to his belt.
“Very nice to meet you,” the young man exclaimed, “My name is Ethan and I’m a spaceman!”
