A/N: This is a short drabble of the classic fairy tale of Rapunzel told from a different view. Rapunzel's story comes from the original one from the Brothers Grimm
A Witch's Eye View
Once upon a time in a land far, far away, I was hated by the entire world. I was known as an enchantress, you see, and many were fearful of my great power. The truth is, everyone just listened to the rumor my ex-boyfriend made up about me. We had a minor disagreement and he proceeded to tell everyone that I had a fondness for extremely rare meat, if you know what I mean. After that nasty break-up, I lived my years alone until one day the alarms for my gardens went off. Honestly, morons tried to break into my grounds all the time. You'd think they would figure that an evil witch would put up alarms. I clambered down to the yard and saw my neighbor reaching for a hunk of my finest rampion.
"How can you dare descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it," I warned him with my evilest glare. My neighbor told me all about his wife, who was pregnant. She had seen my rampion and figured that she would die if she could not have some. Against my will, I felt my anger melt away. The mere thought of a little child softened my hard heart. I thought deeply for a few minutes before setting my gaze back on my trembling neighbor. I told him that he could have as much rampion as he wanted, as long as the child would become mine. Knowing how much this child would mean to him, I presumed that he would refuse and I would come up with a less cruel plan. To my surprise, he agreed readily. My first thought was 'who gives their child away for food?' and my second consisted of mostly excitement. A child that would be my own son or daughter!
Due to the nature of our agreement, I knew the exact moment that my neighbor's wife gave birth. I appeared at once and named the child Rapunzel, for that was the kind a rampion that gave her to me, and left with her. We both lived in my house for many years, but I never let my adopted daughter outside for the fear that her parents would try to take her away. She became the prettiest child I had ever seen with blonde hair that grew extremely fast. Everyday I would braid her hair using magic and pin it up onto her head so she would not trip over it. Luckily, for many years my neighbors never tried to even catch a glimpse of Rapunzel until her fifteenth birthday. The same alarms went off that went off over ten years ago. I glanced at the window to see my neighbor hoisting his wife over my wall. My first instinct was to get away with Rapunzel and that was exactly what I did. I picked up the child and we vanished away the woods miles away from the old house. In my panic of keeping Rapunzel with me at all times, I built a gigantic stone tower. The tower had three rooms for me at the very bottom with a hidden door. Solid stone rested on top of those rooms for hundreds of feet. At the very top there was a small window and rooms for Rapunzel's use. Whenever I wished to visit my daughter, I would stand beneath the window and cry, 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!' and she would let her hair fall out the window for me to climb up. Our solitude went on for a year until the prince came.
One day when I was hunting for some herbs that I needed, I heard the sound of horse hooves against the ground. I ducked behind a tree and I saw the king's son passing the tower. When the boy reined his horse, my breath caught in my throat. Rapunzel was singing, as she always did, and the prince had heard her! What if he took her away from me? Once the prince continued on his way, I hurried back inside my rooms. Everyday I noticed that the prince just stood behind a tree and listened to Rapunzel sing. I began to think of how pleasant our life would become if Rapunzel married the prince. She would eventually become a queen and no one would fear me anymore because I would be the queen's beloved mother. I do admit though, I was extremely naïve thinking those thoughts. With the knowledge that the prince was nearby, I strode to the window and said to my daughter, 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!' and the fake rope fell to my feet. I could almost hear the wheels turning inside the prince's head. I made my visit a fairly short one and bid Rapunzel good night. To my surprise, the prince waited until nightfall of the next day to visit my beautiful daughter. I used my crystal ball (cliché, I know) to listen to their conversation. I heard Rapunzel tell the prince about her life and then the prince began to tell her that I must be an evil witch if I would lock up such a lovely girl like Rapunzel. I was seething with anger that this boy would bad-mouth me to my own daughter. I stopped using my crystal ball to spy right then because while I hoped that Rapunzel would defend me, I did not want to hear if she did not rebuke the prince. When I went to visit her the next day, the daughter who had trusted me for sixteen years said nothing about the prince. Ignoring the warning voice in my head, I took her silence as a sign that the prince had left her alone for good. So, our world was back to normal for a few months. During one of our visits, I presented her with a new dress using her exact measurements from one month ago. Rapunzel tried the gown on and turned to me with the innocent question of why her dress was so tight around her stomach. I gasped and placed my hand on top of her stomach. My vision blurred and I felt like I had to sit down.
I called her a wicked child and told her that she had deceived me. For the first time in sixteen years, I forcefully handled my daughter. I yanked her long braids from the pins on her head and grabbed a pair of scissors to snip off her lovely hair. I then built another home for us in the desert that very afternoon. I returned to our house to give the prince a piece of my mind. How dare he take advantage of my daughter! The prince would take away the only person I ever truly cared about. The boy must be put to a test if he really loved Rapunzel. I waited until nightfall, for Rapunzel told me through her tears that night was the time when he came. Before I had left to see the prince, Rapunzel agreed to let me test him. When he chanted the customary words, I let the braids that I had cut from Rapunzel's head fall to his royal feet. He climbed the rope in a matter of seconds, anxious to see the girl he had tricked. I knew I had to say something along the lines that he would never see her again, hoping that would encourage him to look for Rapunzel even more. Unfortunately, the dim-witted boy got so spooked that he fell out of the window and onto the thorn bush near Rapunzel's window. I winced when I heard the crash, shrugged, and went back to my expecting daughter. I told her all that happened and everyday after that, she would walk one time around the desert, singing the entire stroll.
A few months later, she gave birth to twins, one boy and one girl. She named my grandson Royal and my granddaughter Aurelia, both named for the prince's family. After their birth, I could not decide whether I loved my daughter or my grandchildren more. I suppose becoming a grandmother softened me in my old age and I, too, awaited anxiously for when the prince would find Rapunzel again.
Three years after the twins were born, Rapunzel ran back to the house, followed, of course, by the prince. The prince and I were reconciled and the five of us went back to his kingdom where we all lived happily ever after.