Maxi Donutprince And The Rainbow-Eagle

drawing by maa


1. THE CHALLENGE

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom called Donutland which was entirely made of donuts. Donutland had a raspberry-flavoured donutking and a chocolate-flavored donutqueen, and even a cinnamon-flavoured donutprince called Maxi. They happily lived together in their Donutcastle reigning over all the multi-flavored donuts in their kingdom.

Maxi lived a quiet and comfortable life, until one day his father, the donutking, told him about a possible danger threatening the kingdom of donuts. Indeed, Donutland was the only country composed of donuts, and surrounded by other kingdoms with human inhabitants. And since most humans love to eat donuts, Donutland was not a safe place to be. In hearing this serious news, Maxi decided to go out into the world in order to find a way to save the kingdom.

Waving good-bye, the king, who was very smart, told Maxi : “Make sure you use your head before taking action !” And the queen, who was very sweet, advised him : “And once you take action, do it with your heart !”


2. DIVINE GUIDANCE

Armed with precious advice, Maxi walked into the world. He soon arrived at a mountain which he decided to climb. As he arrived at the mountaintop, Maxi saw a rainbow-colored eagle soaring above his head. “Follow me !”, said the eagle, and Maxi followed him to a cavern inside the rock, the home of Nirvana, the Sage.

Maxi entered the cavern where Nirvana was meditating. He sat down and waited. Soon, the sage opened his eyes and Maxi wanted to tell him why he came. But Nirvana knew already - after all, he was a sage - and instructed Maxi to search for the nectar of immortality which would save the kingdom.


3. THE QUEST

Nirvana instructed his rainbow eagle to watch over Maxi and to guide him to his goal. Blessed by the sage, Maxi took all his courage and started his quest for the precious nectar. He climbed many mountains and crossed many oceans, following the flight of the eagle, until he arrived at a deep, dark forest.

At the entrance of the wood, two snakes, one black, the other white, were keeping the gate. Maxi was very scared. But as soon as the eagle approached, the snakes coiled and quickly disappeared into the bushes. The snakes belonged to the witch Samsara, who was living inside the enchanted forest. The eagle told Maxi to enter the forest while he would soar above it, showing him the path towards the place where the nectar was hidden.


4. ANIMATED HEART

Maxi took all his courage and entered the forest. He walked for a while until he came to a crossing of paths. The eagle had dropped a red feather onto the right path, so Maxi continued on this path. A bit later, he found a fork of three paths leading to different directions, and again, Maxi found a feather lying on one of the paths. He took the orange feather and the middle path and continued his journey.

And each time, Maxi needed to choose between paths, he found a feather from the rainbow eagle waiting for him. With confidence, Maxi walked right on the paths marked by yellow, green and blue feathers, which he carefully picked up.

There were two feathers left for him to collect, which meant that he was close to his destination. And indeed, not far from there, an indigo feather was waiting for Maxi, who walked straight until the end of that path. And when he looked around, his eyes fell on a cave and a violet feather lying just in front of it. He knew that this was the place where he would find the nectar.


5. LIBERATION

Taking a deep breath, Maxi entered the cave and came to a door with a red lock. And from far away, he heard the cry of the eagle, and he understood. Entering his red feather into the lock, the door sprung open. Maxi was delighted. But not for long, since he now arrived at another door, which was locked with an orange lock. Again, Maxi used the right feather to open the door. And in this way, one by one, he opened all the seven doors and entered a small chamber.

He didn’t believe his eyes when he saw a princess sitting in the corner. Maxi asked her what she was doing there, and Rose, the princess, told Maxi that the wicked witch had captured her a long time ago from a far away castle and was keeping her imprisoned behind seven doors with seven locks. “No longer !”, exclaimed Maxi as he grabbed the princess to lead her out of her prison-cell.

On the way out, Rose told Maxi that she was the keeper of the nectar of immortality, which had been the reason for the witch to kidnap her. But the nectar stayed frozen inside a little bottle around Rose’s neck, for it would only flow through love.

When Maxi and Rose finally arrived outside, the sun that the princess had not seen for many years, fell on her pale face. Maxi almost fainted to see so much beauty, and his heartbeat accelerated. Princess Rose, grateful for her liberation, kissed Maxi on his forehead which transformed him from a donutprince into a real prince with cinnamon-colored skin. Rose was delighted and could not contain her joy.

And suddenly, a miracle happened : the nectar in the bottle against Rose’s heart started to melt. Rose immediately took a drop and gave one to Maxi, which made both of them immortal.

Now, the witch could not harm them anymore. They silently approached the tree under which Samsara was taking a nap, and transformed her into a crystal carriage, and her sleeping snakes into crystal horses. They quickly jumped into the carriage and were taken to Donutland, where the queen and the king received them with much joy.


6. SHARING THE GIFT

Without losing a moment, Rose immediately approached the royal couple and offered each of them a drop of nectar, together with a kiss on the forehead. And right away, the donutqueen transformed into a real queen with chocolate-colored skin, and the donutking became a real king with raspberry-colored skin. And even better, both of them were now immortal.

The very next day, an audience was arranged in Donutcastle, and all inhabitants were invited to attend. One by one, each citizen received a kiss on the forehead and a drop of nectar from Princess Rose. And since the content of the bottle was inexhaustible, the bottle filled up as soon as it was empty.

Soon, the entire kingdom was freed from its spell. Even the donutcastle, the donutstreets with their donuthouses, the whole kingdom was sprinkled with nectar and changed into a real kingdom with all the comfort for its citizens. It was no more called Donutland, but was soon to be known as Lumeria, because of its luminous inhabitants.


7. ACCOMPLISHED MISSION

The Lumerians were so grateful for their liberation that they convinced the king to leave his throne to Maxi. The king agreed and organized a coronation ceremony to which the entire kingdom was invited. A huge feast was prepared and a sumptuous ball took place. Maxi was about to be crowned, when the king asked for a minute of attention. The whole kingdom fell into respectful silence and listened to the announcement.

And this is what he said : “Dear citizens of Lumeria, today I wish to reveal a secret that I have kept safe for many years. Some of you might have known my first wife and my baby-daughter who mysteriously disappeared one day, a long time ago. This was the day, our kingdom had received the spell of the witch Samsara which transformed our kingdom into Donutland and its citizens into living donuts.

The only thing you don’t know, is that the witch is my former wife – and that my daughter is nobody else than Princess Rose, standing here in front of you. Samsara kidnapped her because she wanted to keep the nectar of immortality to herself.”

When Rose learned that she was in reality the king’s daughter and Maxi’s sister, she was so speechless that she decided to faint. And so did the queen and all the other ladies present at the banquet.

And when everybody recovered from the shock, it was Maxi’s turn to speak : “Dear family, dear citizens of Lumeria, I feel honoured about your trust and desire to make me your king. Yet I have to refuse the crown, since my kingdom is not of this world. My mission is accomplished, and now I shall leave. Please take good care of each other, and keep the nectar flowing through the love you cultivate in your hearts.”

And with a smile, he kissed and embraced his royal parents, while Rose transformed the crystal carriage into a crystal spaceship and the crystal horses into crystal dolphins. The whole kingdom bowed down to their celestial saviours, before they disappeared into space. Nobody really knew where they were going, but once in a while, a child claims that it has seen a princess flying around in the night-sky, kissing stars and the stars starting to twinkle.

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