I had fallen asleep alone as usual, tired of watching the same sunset bath the same trees with golden light. I was sick of the once a week visits from the old hag that thought it was funny never to bring a ladder with her. Instead I had to deal with the fact that my hair was being pulled out of my scalp and that I was losing more hair than the old witch that always smelled like rampion that my father apparently stole to sell on the black market (the very prestige manner of selling items of high worth with high prices to poor people with very little pay).
I'm still wondering why she hasn't come up with a potion or spell to stop the premature balding that has hit her. You know she wears a wig now made of horse hair, pretty disgusting once you think about it. You know you don't even have to think about and it would still be stomach churning. Enough with the talk about hair, I'm sick of thinking about how long it takes me to comb my own each morning.
I dreamed the same dream and always woke to the same tittering of the same blue jay that always woke me up at the crack of dawn. After I had tried to strangle him twice this past week he had taken to perching on the roof instead of the window sill where he would be a safe distance from my outstretched hands.
Tonight was no different until morning when I heard a loud raping of a fist against some form of wood. I was in a stone tower, a long distance from the ground for the sake of the third realm. I hope that the hag hadn't gotten sick of me and was now boarding up my window.
Wait, how could she have gotten up in the first place? Oh, she must have finally brought a ladder. Thank . . . oh dear, what about food, oh what about water? I surely die within the hour with lack of air? Oh, what am I to do?
I bolted upright my long honey blond hair causing me to screech as I tried to pull away from the bed in a hurry. It had gotten caught underneath me again while I slept. I should find an easier way to sleep or if any other weird noises that woke me from my sleep might just leave me practically hairless after pulling it out of my skull.
I gasped for air as I took on the long and tiresome process of untangling my hair. In a brusque manner to go about things I had only succeeded in making twice as many knots as there were to begin with.
"Snow, Snow White? Dear princess you need to be up now, your step-mother requests your presence in the throne room?"
I paused, my fingers stopped in their movement as I listened to the strained voice coming from a door! A door? I had never seen a door as long as I lived, perhaps at birth but that didn't count, I didn't remember a thing from that time. Probably the witch had something to do with it, she kept mentioning a garden with all sorts of unmentionable plants when talking about my parents.
And who was this Snow White? They must have gotten confused, fallen ill, fatigue, perhaps they were one of those mentally deranged peasants the old watch keeper kept going on about. Apparently both my mother and father were one of them.
I cautiously went to the door, unsure of how it worked. I had read about them and knew as much that if you twisted something and pulled it would open, revealing the other side. I ran my hands along the wood felling for such a something, ignoring the very weird bulbous span that had sprouted on the right hand side of the wood and was rather a bronze color.
A large rapping of the hand came across the wood, jolting me from my search. Startled I stumbled backwards falling over a large trunk that had escaped my notice. I landed on my back in a very unlady like fashion, splitting my skirts across the hip bone. At that instant the door opened, revealing a governess and what must have been her son or a servant that looked very much like her.
"Snow—" She gasped covering her gaping cavern. The woman immediately slapped her other hand over the boy's face, who was about the age of what I suspected looked like 20 if the story I had read was correct in what a 20-year-old man would look like.
"Mother, I am old enough to cover my own eyes, thank you, and also to look at a woman in any which way I want to," He replied, shaking off his mother's hand. He gave a curt nod to me and some sort of a bow before exiting the room.
I turned beet red, before arranging myself in a better position on the floor. I looked up at the strange woman and my conclusion that she was a governess was met when she opened her mouth and said a few quick words which also revealed brilliant white teeth that looked to good to be true as said in the story of The Melting Pot. Fake, utterly fake I assumed.
"As I am Snow White's governess and you are obviously not she. May I be so bold to ask WHERE IS SHE AND WHAT IN THE TWO FACED ORGE ARE YOU DOING IN HER ROOM?" She yelled, ready to blow at any moment. Unless she just had, I wasn't used to the whole blowing up thing and having some adult figure criticize you in the worst possible way by making you feel 10 times worse and breaking your ear drums at the same time.
"I d-don't know. I don't even know who this Snow White is? Where am I? Why does her step-mother want to see her? What will happen to me? I've never met a boy before, who is he? He is your son, right? Are there more people here? Is this a castle? Perhaps a magical one. Oh like a fairy tale. Is Snow White engaged? Oh, how lovely that would be for her, so romantic."
"ENOUGH, enough." She repeated more calmly. "I have no idea who you are; you're obviously not from around here with your golden locks and your absurd number of questions. Your- her father is going to be dreadfully mad when he finds about this, step-mother too. Oh, how am I ever going to break the news to them? Oh, dear . . ."
"You don't have to tell him," I paused recalling the many extravagant plots and schemes that I have read. This could be like the adventure novel I read recently, or a romance novel with a bit of drama here and there. Maybe we could save the princess and find her a prince and just maybe I could have a happily ever after too. Oh, maybe just maybe my Prince Charming would come and I wouldn't have to live in the tower anymore.
"I could be Snow White, it's not like the King and Queen have too much time to spend with their daughter and know her all too well. I could be here while we try to find her—"
"And commit high treason! I think not, I don't even know why I believe that you have nothing to do with Snow White's disappearance and you aren't just here to cover it up. Obviously you're not from around here, so how can I trust you? It's just one way to steal the throne, pretending to be Snow White. Curse Hagar and his three dwarves." She muttered the end to herself, at the moment completely oblivious to my presence.
"At least you won't get hanged when they find out that I was pretending to be Snow White if I take the blame." I spoke softly wringing the end of the night gown that I was wearing. I couldn't think of anything else to do and most of the time disguises didn't work out in stories except in Maid Maleen's case. She got a husband and a marriage out of it. I've read to many stories, I thought dropping the fabric from my hands.
"You would take all the blame for it?" I nodded. "If I don't agree to this I'd have to tell the king and the step-mother, she would be so hap— never mind. I would get hanged if I told them the truth."
"I know you don't trust me, because of the circumstances but I know how this world works and I know how to handle situations like these." I lied hoping this would urge her into agreeing.
"I have to say that makes a lot of sense, but—" I put on a pleading face, imitating the expression that I had read about. "I think it could actually work, but I've got to speak to a few. Though I haven't decided on this yet, I'm almost positive I'm going to go along with this but things may turn up and I wouldn't be able to help you. However you must swear upon Lord Forth that you won't turn on me or anyone else I call upon for help."
"Who is— oh, I swear. I swear upon Lord Forth that I will take the blame if it is so revealed that I am not Snow White." I said firmly watching her go, hoping that she wouldn't turn me over and some horrible would happen to me.
---
The Throne Room
The governess entered the throne room as timid as if she was hiding a massive secret that concerned the daughter of the nation, Snow White as they called her. Her name the fair Fina, was what she was christened as against her mother's dying wishes.
"What is it?" Snapped the Queen irritated by the meek presence of a servant. "And where is Fina, I've asked to see her didn't I?" She added not looking at the governess, while instead examining the stained glass windows.
"Your majesty," She said with a gracious curtsy, bowing her head in a respectable manner. "I had called upon Snow White in her quarters, but she was not there. Instead a maiden with golden flax was in there instead, confused and puzzled and all out of sorts."
The queen turned her gaze upon the woman, her smoldering eyes hinted interest in this news. A curve of her lip, revealed a faint smile.
"And of what of this maiden, do you know where she comes from?" She asked, clasping her hands together at the base of her abdomen.
"I have no idea your grace, but she speaks as if she were of royal blood. She seems well learned and ideas come to her as if she were a master craftsman of sorts. She has asked of me to help her commit high treason to the crown, disguising her own self as your step-daughter Fina—"
"Yes, and what of it?" The queen hissed, discomforted with the intellect the girl seemed to have. "Do you not even know her name?" The look of pure horror enveloped the governess' face, causing the queen's to darken in comparison. She could spit fire, with how livid she was. How insolent could these people be? Intelligent enough to make it into court, but still dense enough to forget such a simple task.
"Do you not know of the importance of a name? This could identify the maiden, where she comes from, what title she has? Not only this, but there are many reasons for why I ask. The name is everything." She said, whipping around so as to not look at the governess. Her garment spun around her in like a cape, casting a shadow upon the hall.
"My lady what do you ask me for besides the name?" She said shrinking back.
"Once you have gotten her name, agree to the plan. Don't invite anyone else to help, don't tell her you told me, obviously," The queen added feeling the need to state this. "Go about your business, pretending nothing is amiss. Don't give any implications to any others of the court and your son. Tell me everything she says to you, I would like to know more about how she thinks.
This will aid in creating a method to punish her for Fina's disappearance after a certain number of days. You will reveal that she is not the said princess and I will not have to bother myself with Fina and this mystery maiden ever again. If you breath of this meeting, any others, the disappearance of Fina and the arrival of the blonde you will be severely punished.
You will be stripped of all your power before I will have your heart gutted out and have it fed to the hunting dogs, while your son will be ripped from limb to limb" The queen concluded in her tirade, her nostrils flaring, her eyes flashing, and her words singing the woman.
The queen shot the woman a livid look before with a wave of her hand and, "Off with you," dismissed the poor governess, while tying her into submission.
---
"Rapunzel, my name is Rapunzel." I stated clearly to the governess watching the look on her. Her face wrinkled into a disgusted grimace, she looked as if she had just smelled something rotten.
"Rapunzel? What an ugly name—" Her mouth formed into a little 'o' and the governess turned a hideous red as if she had stayed out too much in the sun. The color faded away to a dull, sickly white which was caused by the noticeable powder covering her face.
"I'm sorry, but you take the name of a plant, a disgusting plant for that matter. In all of the lands there is nothing more disgraceful than eating or even touching the rampion plant. It's a sin, anyone will go to hell for such atrocious manners." I flinched, catching my hair onto a hook in the dresser.
"Oh, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," I screeched out as I tried to move forward, but was pulled back hitting my head against the metal handle. The governess tut tutted me and unknotted my hair with a swift motion of her hand.
I placed my hands protectively over my scalp, not yet accustomed with the idea that my hair would not be pulled out by a mere stationary object. I sighed pulling my trembling fingers away, before letting them slip into my lap.
"I would have started with something else, but your hair, it is so dreadfully long and nothing like the shorter, dark locks of Fina—" She continued on her speech, as I was not particularly paying attention to what she was saying anymore. My mind was mulling over the name that she had just uttered, Fina. Fina. I had heard that before. Somewhere—
"What, what did you say?" My eyes swelled to an incredible size. "About my hair?" I added afraid she didn't understand by the blank look on her face, no it was more frustration and anger, I think.
"It needs to be chopped off to about here, just like that." The governess pronounced the statement with a mere breath, as if I would have understood. All I heard was a death sentence.
I could see blackness creeping over my eyes, my head felt dizzy and light. Breathing began to come more difficult. I clutched my hands together, turning the knuckles white. I wasn't necessarily taken with my hair as most people locked up in towers seem to be, but I had grown so accustomed to it's presence and, well, it was like a barrier against all evil things, especially the creepy witch that kept me cooped up in the tower.
I still hated it, and that would most likely never change but it was essential for when I was back in the tower. I'm not there now, but still, it's just going to be so, so different and oh, I feel like such a child. I can't explain it what I'm going through, but it's like the buildup of the whole situation and I—
The thoughts in my head were drowned out by the increasing incoherence of my mind. My eyes rolled back and my head and I fell back on to the floor with a loud thud, out like a light.
---
A/N: Well, I hoped you enjoyed my writing if you made it all the way through the author's note. This is probably a really rough start, but it's definitely going to get better. I do have some plans for how it's going to end, but I can and might take suggestions. Feel free to critique me for something you don't like, whether it's grammar, use of words, etc.
