A Story Idea

A brave knight goes on a quest for his king in order to rescue a maiden from a foul demon. He is warned, “The maiden’s appearance may startle you.”

He makes his way to a distant tower, and finds there a bed, where two women sleep. One has monstrous features, and the other appears to be a fair maiden.

Remembering the warning he was given, he assumes that the monstrously-faced woman is the one he was sent to rescue, cursed by the demon to appear as such, and that the sleeping woman is in fact the demon. However, he refuses to slay a sleeping woman, or begin a fight where his charge may be hurt. Instead, he softly extricates the sleeping monster from the bed, awakening neither of them.

Events ensue, and at the end of them new revelations come to light. The demon is not the maiden, the warning was simply of the maiden’s beauty. However, their relationship was not that of captor and prisoner, but of lovers- And the king has kidnapped the maiden for himself, to enchant her and make her his queen against her will.

There is yet more, and at the end of it, the knight resolves to return to the capitol, and rescue the maiden from the king’s depredations- And perhaps, even to slay the king.