Escape from the Black Mountain
Princess Beatrice ran to the beast’s dungeon cell, crept through the bars, found the hidden trapdoor and pulled the trapdoor aside. She lowered herself down into the recess and pulled the stone slab back into place. She crawled inside the narrow tunnel and waited.
The beast never came.
The princess waited and waited and waited. The darkness above her was silent and still. Nobody returned to the dungeons.
The princess was afraid to risk venturing out of the trapdoor prematurely and, thinking that the beast had been delayed, she continued to wait in the darkness of the tunnel, boiling with impatience for being denied a chance to help the beast and wondering what harm might have befallen him.
Princess Beatrice was woken up by the soft growling of her stomac
