The Story of Dara
- Age: 6
- Home: Zinnia
- Best Friend: Baby sister Tessa
- Hobbies: Playing the flute and gathering flowers
- Dara wears the Purple Rose gown.
Can you imagine a place that's always sunny and warm, where everything is named after a flower? That's the kind of place where Princess Dara lives.
The name of Dara’s town is called Zinnia, and she lives in a glass house by the shore of Rose Lake. Each evening, Dara takes a short walk down to the rose garden near the lake. There, seven different colors of roses grow to be more than four feet tall. That’s even taller than Dara!
Living by the rose garden is wonderful, but there are many more flowers that grow beautifully in Zinnia. One day, Dara was busy skipping along the shoreline when she discovered some orange wildflowers. Naturally, she was curious about them and decided to pick a bunch for her baby sister.
“These will be perfect for Tessa's bouquet,” she said, while working hard to snap them at the stems.
Dara leaned forward to take a great big sniff of the flowers. She couldn’t believe how pretty they smelled, just like perfume. What she didn’t know was that the delicate petals of the orange flowers had stained her nose, just like ink from a marker. Her hands, too, were covered in orange, but she didn’t notice.
Humming and skipping, she quickly made her way back to her house to find Tessa. She couldn't wait to give her the beautiful flowers.
As soon as she came in the front door, Dara found Tessa playing on the floor with some toys.
“Tessa, I have a surprise for you,” she said with a smile. She was hiding the flower bouquet behind her back. She came a little closer to Tessa and then showed her the beautiful orange blossoms.
She didn’t know that Tessa would try to put them in her mouth. Before she knew what was happening, Tessa’s hands, face and tongue had turned a bright orange!
Just then, Dara and Tessa’s mother came into the room and saw that both her daughters looked very much like pumpkins from playing with the flowers.
“What on earth is going on?” she asked Dara. “Have you been picking wildflowers again, Dara?”
“Yes, mother,” said Dara, bowing her head low. “But I only wanted to give a nice present to Tessa.”
“Oh, dear,” said her mother. “I think we’d better get you two cleaned up.”
After washing with soap and water many times, the orange stains were still there. It took a long dip in Rose Lake, which was a salty kind of sea water, to finally get them both clean.
Dara learned a valuable lesson. Never give flowers to a baby. Also, when she collects flowers, she stays away from the orange ones!
