(A/N: Rapunzel has always been one of my favorite fairytales and after watching the Once Upon A Time episode that featured her, I was very disappointed. So I began to write this story, which I think is rather good. In this story, I take elements from every version of Rapunzel I know and somehow it came out being very dark. I encourage you to read and possibly review, I have two possible endings for this story in mind and any comment will probably help me when making my final decision. Hope you enjoy! :D)
Once upon a time, there lived a couple who more than anything wanted a child. As they grew older, they became desperate and sought the help of the Dark One. They journeyed to his castle and told him of their plight. With a devilish grin, the Dark one told them of his magic garden that grew a rare kind of radish. By eating of the radishes, the woman would finally be able to bare a child.
The man and woman rejoiced and offered the Dark One anything he could want of them, knowing that all magic comes with a price. He told the couple that eating the radishes was price enough, and misfortune was sure to come to anyone whose lips touched the cursed plants.
Blinded by joy, the couple did not listen to the Dark One's warnings and went to his garden. The man got on his knees and picked every radish from the ground. They hurried home with their treasure and put them all in a pot to boil. When they were cooked, the couple divided the radishes between them so that both would be able have children.
Sure enough, the woman became pregnant and they rejoiced. Slowly but certainly, they began to notice other things changing around them. The man's hands, roughened by years of hard work, became smooth and nimble. The woman's damaged eyesight became practically perfect. Their crops grew bigger and greener than ever and the cattle were fattened. For nine months everything was perfect, until the baby came.
On a warm summer night, great thunder clouds appeared and destroyed the couple's crops. The next morning, they found vultures feasting on the dead remains of their cattle. The man woke up screaming in the night with his hands spotted and fallen off his body, his wife woke up next to him, blind. The next night it thundered again, and the baby was born.
The mother died slowly, and the father fell dead instantly, and the baby cried. For three days, the child cried alone, only sustained with the power within her. As she cried, radishes grew in the fields, in the flower beds, on the floor boards. Radishes popped up in places they couldn't even grow. They grew big and black, mostly near the child as if answering a call, reaching out to it. The neighbors took what they had and fled, knowing some dark miracle had occurred.
The tale spread, and an evil queen of the land became intrigued. She searched for the house and found it tangled in radishes. She recognized the radishes to be rapunzels, living objects of dark magic. She followed the child's cries and freed it from its dead mother's arms. It was clear what had happened, the parents were foolish enough to eat the rapunzels and make a child. They had created the first human rapunzel.
The Evil Queen smiled down at the child. "Well hello there, Rapunzel."