writering: fairy tale, dad if you look at this DO NOT READ

It begins with four words. The four words that many a person knows, the four words that start a story. Once upon a time.
Once upon a time, at The End of The World, there was a cave. At the mouth of the cave an old man sat upon a stone, staring into a fire. He was very old, older than your great-great-grandfather, older than time. His face was a mass of wrinkles, with two sad blue eyes shining out from the sunken sockets. He had no clothes, save for a faded blue robe. His hands were bony and wrinkled, dotted with spots and blemishes. He was as thin as a rake, and tall, you would see that if he decided to stand. He had a wave of white hair cascading over his shoulders. And he was weary.
A little bird, a small brown starling flew up and landed on a rock in front of him. They stared at each other for a long, long time, man and bird. Finally the man said, in a voice so soft and cracked the little bird could hardly understand him, “Would you like a story?” The bird though for a moment, and then started nodding, for this was a land where animals and humans understood each other.
“All right then,” said the old man, “here is a story about giants.”
The Old Man’s Story
Once upon a time, for that is how all stories begin, there was a prince. He was rich and powerful, and he would be king soon. He was his father’s oldest son, and his father would be dying soon, he was very old (But not as old as me, little bird). He needed to marry a princess so he would have a queen. He looked and looked until he found the perfect one. Maryanne from the kingdom of Ganarah. She was young and beautiful and perfect, but to get her hand in marriage the young prince had to rid the kingdom of Ganarah of a terrible curse they had. Every third monday, a giant from Giantheim would come down and eat three people from the city. The young prince was to travel to Giantheim and kill the giant who had been doing this, a young buck who went by the name of Knucklecrusher.
As soon as the young man had heard this, he leaped up onto his valiant steed, Fastfeet, and left for Giantheim because he loved the young princess very much. The journey took him five long years in which he faced many perils, but at last he came to the Stair. The Stair was actually one million steps leading up into the clouds. There were three challenges upon the stairs. The young man stopped his horse and leaped off sprinting up towards Giantheim three steps at a time. After three hundred steps he faced the First Challenge. The challenge was titled Balance. The steps became thin and the wind became stronger. The young prince almost fell but he had known about this challenge and he had brought a long metal pole. He held it out and with it, like a tightrope walker used it to balance and make his way past the First Challenge.
The Second Challenge, which came after another three hundred steps, was called Strength. The Stair flattened out into an arena and a gigantic dragon flew to the other end. The young man was ready, because he had heard about this challenge too. As the dragon leaped into the air, the young prince pulled out a crossbow, and felled the dragon with ten bolts. After the dragon had fallen, he walked across the arena and back to the Stair, having passed the Second Challenge.
As you may have guessed, the young man knew about the Third Challenge, too, which was titled Stamina. After the nine hundredth step the steps gradually grew taller and longer, making it harder to walk upon them. It was the Third Challenge. Many an adventurer had passed the other challenges only to reach here and pass out from fatigue, leading to falling off the Stair. But the young prince had brought a valuable tool, Water. He drank some, and became hydrated, and his fatigue vanished and he sprinted up the last hundred stairs and reached his objective, Giantheim. At the gate there was a weary- looking Giant who stared at him, and said, “Who do you want to fight?” His voice was impossibly smooth and deep.
“I want to fight Knucklecrusher,” the young prince replied, and soon he was in a massive arena with the Giant himself.
The battle lasted two years, but finally the young prince triumphed. He decapitated the Giant and slung the head over his shoulder. He sprinted down the stairs to his horse, who had faithfully waited all this time for him and he got on the horse and rode back to Ganarah, taking another five years.
Alas, when he got back, the princess could not remember him because he had been gone for twelve long years. In the meantime, she had married his younger brother, and they were King and Queen of his kingdom. He was so angry, so sad, so insane with everything that had happened that he ran for ten years until he reached the End of The World, where he still lives today.
The End.
The little bird stared at the old man in amazement. “You were that prince,” he said in the language of birds, “Did you really do all those things?”
“Yes, I did little bird, but that was a long time ago,”
“Wow! Oh! The time! I have to go now, Goodbye,” and he flew away.
“Goodbye little bird, goodbye,” The old man walked to the Edge of The World, and without hesitation, leaped off. If you looked closely at him as he fell, then you would see him turn to light, and shatter into a million microscopic shards of light. And then they would be gone.