A/N: This is another drabblefic (I'm insane, I know; I swear, I'm getting addicted to these drabble things! O.o) based on my favorite fairy tale ever (along with my favorite fairy tale author): "The Wild Swans" by Hans Christian Andersen. After watching the most beautiful cartoon rendition I have ever seen on You Tube the other day, I fell in love with this fairy tale all over again and simply had to write about it.
For those who don't know the story, here is a brief synopsis: a King with eleven sons and one daughter unknowingly marries a witch, who despises the children so much she plots against them. Using her magic, she makes the daughter, Elisa, unrecognizable even to her own Father, who banishes her from the kingdom; and then the witch turns the eleven sons into ravens (but because they're so innocent and good, they turn into beautiful swans instead, hence the title of this fic).
The magic used on Elisa eventually wears off, and when she's searching for her brothers one evening as the sun's going down, she witnesses eleven wild swans transform into her brothers. They reunite joyously, and the brothers explain they are only human by night. They reveal that the next day they must fly across the sea to get to the next kingdom and will not be back for a year, and they make a net so that they will be able to bring Elise with them.
Once across the sea, they live in a comfortable cave. One night Elisa dreams of a fairy who tells her to gather nettles, crush them, spin them into flax, and then sew them into eleven shirts if she wishes to save her brothers-but there is a catch: from the time she begins this task until the last shirt is finished, she must not utter a word or her brothers will die. She begins the work immediately, and she already has a few shirts done when she is found by a hunting party, which the King of the land is leading.
He falls in love with her on sight and, feeling sorry for her 'condition,' brings her back with him to his castle. She soon falls in love with him as well, and they are to be wed shortly even when the minister and others suspect she is a witch because of her silence and strange ways. But the King refuses to believe it until he sees her venture into the graveyard in the middle of the night (for more nettles, but he thinks she's consorting with the corpse-eating ghouls).
She is to be burned at the stake for being a witch, but all the while she continues her task until she only has the last shirt to go. She is about to be taken from the executioner's cart when eleven white swans swoop down, and she throws the shirts over them, breaking the spell (though as she was never able to finish the last arm of the eleventh shirt, the youngest of the brothers forever has a swan's wing for an arm).
The King and subjects listen as her eldest brother explains their enchantment and Elisa's labor of love, and all is well. Elisa and the King are married as planned, and all ends happily.
That said: this will deal with both the original work by both Hans Christian Andersen and the 1977 anime-style version with which I'm familiar, which was originally released in both France and Japan before being dubbed into English. I will be using aspects from each or both of these for however many drabbles I do (and will tell which version I'm using at the beginning of each chapter so as to avoid confusion). Also, these will by no means go in chronological order.
This first drabble is set in the bookverse, after Elisa and her brothers fly across the sea. It is the night Elisa has the dream, during which she touches the nettle in the fairy's hand and is hurt. She wakes to find herself injured in the same way. I always wondered why her brothers never questioned her injured fingers, and this is my remedy.
Drabble 1: "Nettle"
When Elisa wakes from the dream, her hand burns with pain.
Curious, she brings it into the dim candlelight.
She gasps.
Just like in her dream…!
Having awoken at her gasp, her youngest brother catches sight of her bloodied hand and exclaims, "Sister!" And in his shock he says it louder than meant so that within seconds their ten siblings are awake as well.
She strives to wave them off, shows them the incredibly minor cuts and the blood-spotted nettle on the ground beside her, but still they hope to at least bandage the delicate fingers to eliminate chance of infection.
When she still refuses, saying it is all part of what she will happily endure if it might save them, the brothers trade grieving glances.
"Dear sister," the eldest beseeches, kneeling before her and reaching forward to take the stricken appendage as lightly as a rose petal falls, "before you take it upon yourself to set us free from this hateful curse, allow us this small favor in your honor." He cups her elbow and squeezes gently, tenderly. "For without you, we would all be lost."
The others agree wholeheartedly, and as she sleeps with their youngest brother at her side, they make the softest, toughest bandages they can out of what they have: flower petals, willow bark, and green grass.
They wrap them around her fingers half a night later.
The feather-light movements wake her despite their best efforts to keep her sleeping, and as the first rays of morning are birthed, she has just under an instant to smile gratefully at them all in turn before they vanish in a flurry of white feathers and purity in flight.
She glances down at her mended hand and smiles, caressing the love-sewn bandages devotedly.
"I will set you free, my brothers," she whispers. "I swear it."
A/N: As this is my first fic for this story, I'm expecting there will be some problems to smooth over. Hopefully, this can be done during the writing process and will not disrupt any enjoyment people may get out of this small fic.
I take requests as well, so if you know of this fairy tale and wish to see something expanded upon or newly addressed, be my guest and say so in a review or PM. And even though this was originally meant to be a collection of drabbles focusing on the loving relationship between Elisa and her brothers, which is my favorite part of the fairy tale, I am open to anything.
Thank you for reading, as always!