There are a lot more to come...At least one for each of hte major 
characters.,  These were just the first two that came to mind.

     The mother tucked her three step-children into bed, then got out the 
book of their favorite stories.  "Which story would you like to hear first?"


<More of frame story to come :)>

*****************************************************************************

Princess Shan-pu and the faerie prince


     Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess from China.  She 
lived in the magical kingdom of Joketzhou.  Her name was Shan-pu.  One 
day, a faerie prince visited her village, disguised as a girl.  He had 
heard how beautiful and strong she was, and wished to observe her and see 
if she would be a worthy bride.  When he saw her, he fell in love with 
her at first sight.

      But his half-wit father insisted on tagging along, and during the 
great tournament, which the princess won, as she always did, the poor 
half-wit thought all the food had been laid out for him, so he ate it.  
Princess Shan-pu got very angry and challenged the half-wit to a duel, 
but the faerie prince intervened to protect his father and fought the 
princess.  To her surprise, she was beaten.  She did not realize the girl 
she fought was a faerie, so she gave the girl the kiss of death, thinking 
she was just an insolent peasant.  

      The faerie ran away, as faeries do, and she chased the faerie back 
to faerieland, across the eastern ocean.  She tried to hunt the faerie 
girl, but the land was strange, and the local faeries tried to trick 
her.  She met the faerie prince as his true male self, and fell in love 
with him, but then learned he was the girl who had beaten her.  In 
addition, he had been enslaved by three evil faeries.  A horrid 
kawaiikune he could not beat in battle, a wicked chef who ate people, and 
a deranged poison making faerie.  She tried to fight them, but they were 
too strong for her.  She fled in despair, not knowing what to do.

      On the road back to Jokhetzhou, she encountered an old troll, her 
faerie great-godmother.  "Oh, obasan, I don't know what to do.  I'm in 
love with a prince, but I can't beat the evil faeries who have enslaved 
him.  "

      "Don't worry, dear.  I'll help you."  She took Shan-pu to her home 
and gave her three magical items:  A box of ramen that could never be 
emptied, a magical charm that let her turn into a cat, and a ring that 
made you immune to poison.

     First, she disguised herself as a traveller, and stopped at the 
mansion of the poisoner.  "I would gamble with thee!"

     "What terms,"  asked the poisoner.  "I play only for the highest 
stakes."

     "I will eat anything you serve me.  If I can eat it all and live, 
you have to drink all of your own poisons.  If I die, you get my magic 
charms."
  
      The poison fairy agreed, as it believed noone could survive its 
evil magic.  It served her strychnine and deadly nightshade and cyanide, 
and type X poison and every kind of deadly plant known to man, woman, or 
beast.  But Shan-pu was wearing her magic ring, and she could not be 
hurt.  She drank every poison and ate all the poisonous fruit.

      The poison fairy despaired.  Only one thing was left.  Her 
paralysis roses.  She tried shoving one under Shan-pu's nose.  Shan-pu 
just breathed deeply, then blew.  The fairy dust blew back in the poison 
fairy's face, and she was paralyzed.  Then Shan-pu got out her sword and 
chopped her up, then fed her to her pet alligator.  

      The next stop was the evil chef's evil restaurant, where she served 
evil flat food.  It even smelled evil.  She said, "I challenge you.  
Whichever one of us can cook more food in an hour gets to make one 
request of the loser."

      The evil chef agreed.  No one could make more evil flat food with 
slime on it than her, so she thought she couldn't lose.  She made 
hundreds of wheel shaped breads, coated with slime, fungus, toenails, 
tampons, wombat fur, and snot.  She believed she could not lose.  She put 
all her evil food in a pile.

      Shan-pu came back with her magic box.  She saw the huge pile, and 
for a moment, she was very afraid.  What if Great-Godmother's magic box 
runs out of magic?  She swallowed her fear and started dumping ramen out 
of the box.  Soon, her pile was so big that it filled the entire evil 
restaurant.  The evil chef sighed, but had to admit defeat.  "What must I 
give you?"

      "Your life."  She threw the chef on her own griddle and cooked her, 
then chopped her up and mixed her with the ramen to give it flavor, then 
put it back in the box.

      Finally, she confronted the evil kawaiikune faerie.  It was torturing 
her sweet prince, as was its greatest pleasure.  She got out her charm 
and turned into a cat, so she could sneak up on it.  When she got close, 
her prince saw her coming to rescue him and was inspired.  The 
berserkergang came over him and he attacked the evil kawaiikune and 
ripped her apart.  The princess seasoned the evil kawaiikune and mixed 
her with the ramen too, then she and the prince had a victory dinner.  
They got married and went back to Joketzhou to live, happily ever after.  

     Until the old troll came to demand their eldest child, anyway...but 
that's another story for another day.


*************************************************************************

Clever Nabiki and the Ogres

     Once upon a time, there was a magical kingdom, whose king had three 
daughters.  His eldest daughter was beautiful beyond measure, but she was 
a horrible spendthrift.  She didn't seem to understand that anything had 
a cost, so she just bought and bought without thinking for the morrow.  
When she wasn't buying, she was giving things away, for she was generous 
and stupid.  

     The youngest daughter was thrifty, but spoiled and violent.  She was 
beautiful too, and had dozens of suitors, who she would taunt and beat up 
to make herself feel strong and powerful.  She would rage through the 
palace breaking things when she got annoyed.  

     The father dearly loved his oldest and youngest daughter, showering 
them with gifts and affection.  Unfortunately, he was getting old and 
senile, and they were driving his kingdom into debt, because he could no 
longer go to war and collect tribute and new followers.

      Only one thing stood between his kingdom and bankruptcy, his second 
daughter, Clever Nabiki.  Nabiki was not beautiful like her sisters, but 
clever like her mother, who had kept the kingdom out of debt in her day.  
Clever Nabiki knew how to trick the other kingdoms and keep creditors at 
bay.  She whispered to her father from behind the throne and kept 
everyone from realizing he was going mad.

      One day, a day like many others, life got worse.  Her father had 
travelled with an ogre in his younger days, and one day the ogre and his 
son came to live with them.  Not only did the two of them brawl and tear 
holes in the palace, the king wanted to engage one of his daughters to 
the ogre's son.  He had promised this to the ogre many years ago.

      Clever Nabiki quickly spoke up.  "Engage my younger sister to him.  
They're both violent.  They should get along great."  She knew it was time 
to make plans.  This meant the ogre's son would rule one day, and she 
refused to serve an ogre, married to her sister or not.  All the ogres 
wanted to do was eat and brawl.

      There was a prince in the neighboring kingdom.  Clever Nabiki loved 
him very much, but he loved her younger sister, not her.  Clever Nabiki 
always had to trick him to get money to keep her kingdom afloat, but it 
made her feel bad.  The prince also hated the younger ogre, because the 
younger ogre, Unruly Horse, was to marry Princess Tomboy, the younger 
daughter.  Clever Nabiki had hoped that the Prince would slay the younger 
ogre, but the ogre was too strong for him.  She always tended the 
Prince's wounds, but she soon realized, she would need stronger help.

      There was a sorceror who loved her older sister, Princess Half-wit, 
so Clever Nabiki went to him for help.  "A horrible pair of ogres have 
infested our realm!  They've put Princess Half-wit in danger!"

      "I will come at once!"  The sorceror rode back to the palace with 
her.  He strode inside to confront the ogres.  Unfortunately, Princess 
Half-wit was there, feeding a mob of passing peasants, and the curse on 
the sorceror took effect.  He went mad and ran off raving.  

      Clever Nabiki sighed.  Magic wouldn't do the trick, either.  The 
next day, she tried putting poison in the ogres' food, but everyone just 
ended up thinking Princess Tomboy had tried to cook it.

      Days passed.  The kingdom sank further into debt.  Clever Nabiki 
had another idea.  She started putting up signs everywhere, advertising 
for ogre slayers.  The winner would get to marry Princess Tomboy in his 
stead.  Hordes of ogre slayers descended upon the land.  Unfortunately, 
the two ogres were too strong, and all the ogre slayers got beat up.  Not 
to mention, Princess Tomboy got mad about the signs and started breaking 
things again.

      To make things worse, many of the ogre slayers moved in and started 
further eating them out of house and home.  Days passed.  Clever Nabiki 
realized if she had a yen for every time she'd had to fix up Prince Kendo 
after another bout with Unruly Horse, she could pay all the kingdom's 
debts.  She went to her father.  "Father, you must get rid of the ogres 
before they destroy our entire kingdom!"

      But her father was under the ogre's evil spell.  "I cannot.  I made 
a promise."

      She knew she couldn't go to the sorceror to break the spell.  
Princess Half-wit would surely bugger things up again.  She had only one 
choice.  She took everything she owned, and went to live with Prince 
Kendo.  He hated Unruly Horse, and she would be safe there.  She felt 
sorry for her father, but there was nothing she could do for him yet.

      She advised King Palm-Tree on how to invest his fortune, and soon 
the kingdom of Palm-Trees grew strong, despite the king being completely 
insane and doing things like digging moats shaped like Hawaii around the 
royal palace and filling it with pineapple juice.  

      Meanwhile, the Dojo Kingdom sank into debt.  Finally, all the 
merchants stopped extending loans and came and hauled off everyone in the 
kingdom and sold them into slavery to pay their debts.

      Clever Nabiki went to the auction block and saw them all on sale.  
Everyone looked at her with pleading eyes.  She sent her servants around 
the mob to whisper about how the King for sale was lazy and senile and 
never did anything useful.  No one wanted to buy him then, so she was 
able to bargain the auctioneer down to one yen as his price.  

     Her father said, "Can't you save your siblings as well?"  Clever 
Nabiki said, "I will see what I can see."  She sent her servants out and 
told them to tell the truth about everyone for sale.  Soon, no one wanted 
to buy them.  She bought them all, and kept Princess Tomboy and the ogres as 
her slaves.  She sent Princess Half-wit to marry the sorceror, and 
resolved to stay as far away from him as possible.  She made the 
ogre-slayers her personal guard.

     King Palm-Tree saw how clever he was, and married his son to her.  
But Prince Kendo had an evil sister, Princess Poison.  She was jealous of 
Clever Nabiki, and wanted her out of the way.  In addition, her new 
husband, Prince Kendo, was still in love with her sister, Princess 
Tomboy.  

      Every night, Princess Poison tried to sneak into Clever Nabiki's 
room and poison her in her sleep.  Every night, her guards had to beat up 
Princess Poison and throw her out the window into the moat.  Finally, one 
day, Clever Nabiki saw Princess Poison put cyanide in Clever Nabiki's 
breakfast.  She waited until everyone sat down.  Princess Tomboy was to 
her right as always.  She turned and stared out the window, then shouted, 
"Hey, there's an army out there!"  Everyone rushed to the window, and 
Clever Nabiki switched breakfasts with Princess Tomboy.  

      Everyone came back to the table and laughed.  They could hardly 
believe Clever Nabiki could have been so stupid as to mistake the passing 
merchant for an army.  Everyone ate breakfast and Princess Tomboy dropped 
dead.  King Palm-Trees tried to shave her head to cure her, but everyone 
else assumed it was Princess Poison's fault.  Prince Kendo chopped up 
Princess Poison into kindling, and made a funeral pyre of her for 
Princess Tomboy.  

      Years passed and Prince Kendo fell in love with his clever bride.  
One day, King Palm-Trees, died of Dutch Palm Tree Disease and the two of 
them became King and Queen.  They ruled the land peacefully for many 
years, until one day the Evil Kumquat Faerie came calling...but that's 
another story for another time.

***************************************************************************



John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu      bailesu@komodo.hacks.arizona.edu  
http://www.hacks.arizona.edu/~bailesu/falcon.html 
http://www.dhp.com/~wraven/john/index.html
"If Phillip II possessed a single virtue, it has eluded the 
conscientious research of the writer of these pages.  If there are 
vices--as possibly there are--from which he was exempt, it is because 
it is not permitted to human nature to attain perfection even in 
evil." --William Lothrop Motley