Rapunzel

This is the story of how I was deemed an evil witch. The one that had stolen the king and queen's child, but it isn’t true. I promise you, well at least not all of it. So to make this story sound like it isn’t mine I will tell it in third person. Listen up.

            ***

She opened her eyes to a bright light shining over her, the sun! She must have slept in. She blinked once or twice to clear her eyes. She didn’t have a good reputation in this town, and no one dared to talk to her. That was okay though she had her plants, and they meant everything to her. She didn’t like people anyway. She had made this reputation for herself, and to keep it up she wore the gloomiest clothes she owned, and headed out to her garden. After all, how would they believe she was a bad witch if she didn’t wear gloomy clothes? Though technically she could do magic, she wasn’t very good at it, and she wasn’t a bad witch, she had never used her powers to hurt anyone. She continued outside humming a joyful toon. She stopped in shock as she looked over her garden. She crouched down besides her carrots. They had been stepped on, but they would survive. She moved on toward her lettuce; they had also been trampled, and they were not looking good. She was going to have to replant them in the spring. She was looking forward to making her own salads from fresh vegetables. She let out a long exasperated sigh. Why did this happen to her? She moved on to the next row of plants. Her thyme was all over the place, the roots showing and she almost started crying. What had done this to her precious babies? The animal obviously didn’t care they were trampling the rest of her crops, they just wanted something. A specific plant. It would be strange for a wild animal to search for a specific plant. She continued onward. Her beautiful smelling lavender was crushed in the middle but only a select few of them. Those might be able to regrow but she stared doubtfully at them. She moved on dragging her feet. The rest of her plants were all the same, all destroyed and hopeless. Tears fell from her eyes, her precious plants all gone. She let out a long mournful sob in desperation. Her tears water the ground. The last time she would water them. They wouldn’t live much longer and she sank to her knees. 

“What did I do! I never wanted this!” She let out a shriek, her sentence faltering as the sobbing overtook her.

She couldn’t cast a spell to fix her plants. She wasn’t that powerful. The most she could do was make the cabbage stable, and that would drain her. She would be exhausted all week if she did that.

“My plants,” she whimpered. “Who did this? WHO DID THIS!” She screamed. “I’ll find you and you’ll pay! YOU’LL PAY!” 

She collapsed down on the ground sobbs, raking her body.

“I’ll find you,” She murmured into the ground, a promise only heard by the earth. 

She looked at the last row of plants… her rapunzel. She gasped in surprise, her sobbing broken momentarily. It was mostly gone, but taken neatly and there were still several plants that remained. She stood up, her eyes red and puffy, but she was past crying now. She might have just found something important. She crept closer as if she was too loud the rapunzel might get up and run away. Her only clue. She kneeled down next to the rapunzel. Someone had come here just for the rapunzel. They had no idea what was going to happen to them now that they had destroyed her plants. She concluded that they would be back. If they had left some of her rapunzel alive it suggested they were going to come back. They were most likely to do so in the night. 

“I’ll wait for them then,” She decided, “I’ll stay up all night and wait.”

She went inside and scouted out a window that overlooked her plants. This would do she decided and she set up a spot for herself. She set up a bright red rocking chair with padding and grabbed a hand crocheted blanket. Not what most would consider witch steakout stuff, but she wasn’t really a witch, sure she knew magic but she didn’t act like your classical witch. She was just an old lady who liked comfort after all. She didn’t know what else to do with the rest of the day. Normally she spent all day in her garden, but she couldn’t bring herself to look upon the devastation that was in place instead. She paced around her kitchen not sure what to do. She sat down on her chair and started to knit. 

***

She opened her eyes. She had dozed off. She shot up what time was it? She quickly looked out the window. The sun was just beginning to set and she rushed to her spot she had made. She tucked herself under the covers and began to watch for any signs of an intruder. Nothing nothing nothing… still nothing. She signed. Yes, she knew she had only been looking for a minute but she was bored and tired the darkness nulled her brain. Her eyelids drooped and she realized she wasn’t going to make it the rest of the night without sleeping. She decided she had to cast a spell. So she waved her hands around and started to chant. The words were not complicated and she recited them with ease. A bright light grew behind her and she kept her eyes focused on the garden. She would see time sped up. It was kind of like seeing the future, but you couldn’t move and everything you saw was sped up. Her body was also unable to be seen by anyone who looked for it.  She would be doing what she was at that time. Which would most likely be sleeping. Some witches used this spell when it was dark out to keep watch over their child. Even though they couldn’t move they would be teleported back into their body before they commenced the time hop at the end of the spell and they could choose to intervene. Yeah… maybe that didn’t make sense but she didn’t care. The spell was starting. She hardly dared to blink. Then halfway through the night something caught her eye. Two people were moving towards her garden. They seemed to be sneaking but to her it looked like they were running while tiptoeing. She tried to focus in on their faces but it was too dark. They slowly creeped/ran towards the rapunzel right over all her plants trampling them all again. Therefore closer to her. She squinted then tried to step back in shock, but she couldn’t because that was the rules of the spell. Nonetheless she still gasped in shock, because it was King Frederic and Queen Arianna. She watched the rest of the night go by. She wasn’t really watching, she had already seen the thieves, and didn’t need more information. She was puzzled though. Why would the queen and king take from her garden? They could just order her to give them some plants. They could also just ask. Then it hit her. They were scared to ask. Maybe her reputation wasn’t as nice as she thought. It had ended up ruining her crops indirectly. The spell ended and it was right before the sun was about to set again. She stood up and headed to her bed. Tomorrow she was going to confront them.

***

It was morning and she was up before the sun even rose. She paced around the room planning how to confront them. Maybe she shouldn’t, but then she looked out the window and saw the devastation that remained of her crops. They couldn’t get away with that. Her resolution was renewed. When the sun rose to the middle of the sky she headed out. She walked right up to the palace door and stared defiantly at the guards.

“Halt! Go no further,” One guard shouted and she noted he was quivering slightly.

“I demand an audience with the queen and king,” She roared.

“Uhhh… well you can’t just do that. I’m afraid we can’t let you in,” One guard mumbled.

“Let me in or else,” She cast a light spell that flashed and blinded the guards momentarily.

When she casted the spell she realized she was exhausted from the spell she used last night, and the effect didn’t last as long as she hoped, but the effect still worked on the guards.

“Right, yes, of course,” The guards replied as they opened the gate for her. She dashed inside before they could kick her out. The inside was spacious and she realized she had no idea where to go.

“Where are the king and queen,” she demanded.

“Uh… we can’t tell you that,” the guards replied.

“Oh really?” She asked “ I would tell me if I were you,” she made her best mischievous face.

“Of course, what were we thinking? Follow the hall then at the fork take a left and the very first door on your left they should be in. It’s the living room.” They said.

“Perfect” 

She continued down the hall taking a left at the fork and as she did she swiveled on her foot to face the door she had been instructed to. She slowly entered and saw the queen and king as well as five guards head swivel to look at her. Instantly the guards drew their spears or swords.

“Now, now, I don’t mean any harm I just want to have a talk with the king and queen,”

“Alright then talk!” One brave guard shouted.

“Well… I kind of need you to leave,” She replied.

“LEAVE!” They shouted.

“Yeah… you heard me, leave,”

“Oh yeah, or what?” One guard challenged.

“Or… this,” She replied as she played around with an electric ball in her palm. This spell took minimal energy and would only be able to make them a little staticy but they didn’t know that. Her head started to spin and she quickly closed her fist around around the electric ball to extinguish it. 

“Uh you know what… you can deal with this yourself a few of the guards shouted as they ran past her and into the hall.

“The rest of you need to leave.” She ordered “Plus I’m sure your king and queen won’t want you hearing this,”

The queen and king's eyes widened and they instantly ordered their guards away. 

“So down to business” She said.

“What do you want,” The king asked.

“You know what I want. You destroyed my garden and stole my rapunzel,” She shouted tears coming to her eyes, but she held them at bay. That would make her look bad. She instead stared defiantly at them.

“What do you mean? We would never do such a thing,” but their guilty looks gave away just as much as the evidence that she had seen them.

“I saw you do it. You thought you could come onto my yard without me knowing. I have spells that tell me everything.” She didn’t have that strong of spells, she was just bluffing the energy used to cast spells like that was great and she wasn’t that good. They didn’t know that though.

“Alright, fine. We were there, what do you want,” The king asked.

What did she want? She didn’t know what she wanted, she had just come out of spite, but he was right she should get something. They had killed her babies. Wait babies that was it. The king and queen were about to have a kid. 

“I want your kid. As soon as they are born bring them to me,” This was great. She would get something back, and the kid could help in the garden.

“What… NO you can’t do that,” The queen shouted. She rushed towards her husband. “Tell them they can’t do that.”

“I get it. It is hard. Just like it is hard to lose all my plants. I spent forever making sure they lived but then you kill them all.” She yelled. A single tear slid down her cheek, but she quickly wiped it away. Hopefully nobody saw it, but the queen and king were just staring at each other in confusion.

“What do you mean all… we only took your rapunzel,” the king asked in confusion.

“Did you realize all the plants you stepped on? You killed them.”

“Oh… We are so sorry. We only meant to take the rapunzel.”

“Well you didn’t and now you shall pay the price. Bring me your child when they are born. If you don’t then. Well let's just say you won’t have a fun time,” 

“Uh… no we can’t, but… will it keep them safe from you,” they asked.

“Don’t worry I won’t hurt them. I swear on my word. Witches can’t break their word, but I will hurt them if you don’t give them to me” She replied.

“Oh… alright,”

                                                        ***

First of all a witch could break their word, in fact it was better if they did, also I couldn’t do any spell strong enough to actually hurt her. Maybe just a little prick is the best I could do. I kept good care of her. I kept her safe in my tower. I wasn’t trying to make her miserable. In fact I baked her pastries every day, and she was quite happy, but then that prince came along and tricked her into thinking I was evil. Blinded her by his beauty. Leaving me with a bad reputation and alone.