The prince ran and ran, and his silk clothes were brown with mud. Stray branches tore away at his arms as he ran, but still he kept on running. He ran and ran and ran until he couldn't take it anymore, and then he came across a small house, with quite a small door. He was too tired to go anywhere else, so he walked into the house.
The house was strangely empty. But our young prince Midorima could see seven chairs, but only two meals on the table. Feeling very strange, he started eating, until he was full. Then he went to the beds, and there were seven beds. Now feeling very strange indeed and wondering why there would be seven chairs and seven beds but only two meals, he fell down on the bed and went to sleep.
When it became quite dark the owners of the cottage came back; it was a single dwarf that dug and delve in mountains for ore, a black-haired, yellow-eyed dwarf that was, in fact, not a dwarf, but quite tall. And this dwarf was very surprised indeed when he saw the lights turned on in his tiny little cottage where there should be nobody else.
He hurried back quickly in fear of thieves, and in there he discovered that none of the things were in the order that he left them in. Worried more than ever now, he entered the dining room; there he saw that one of the plates were empty, one of the glasses were empty, and the spoons and forks were very messed- up indeed. He wondered,
"Who could have eaten one of those meals but left the other all alone?"
Then he went into the bedroom, where he checked each of the seven beds; and when he came to the last one, he looked again and could not believe his eyes.
For lying in there was the most beautiful, precious-looking human being he had ever seen in his whole life!
"Oh, god! Oh, god! What a beautiful child!" The owner of the house exclaimed. He was delighted and quite certain that such a fragile-looking being wouldn't do anything as bad as steal his few belongings from his house and run away.
(And he wouldn't admit this, but he also had to resist the urge to place his own lips on those beautiful pink lips of the boy!) So that night, he slept on another one of the seven beds left in his house.(He was dying to sleep beside the boy, to cuddle him inside his arms; but was smart enough to resist that urge. )
When it was morning Midorima woke up, and looked quite ashamed that he didn't ask the permission of the owner of the house when he saw a man in another bed, early in the morning. But thankfully, the man who seemed to be the owner of the house was friendly and asked the prince what his name was.
"Midorima Shintarou," the boy answered, "but call me grass-green if that is what is easier for you. What is your name?"
And the dwarf felt quite flattered, for nobody had asked for his name in a long time. He quickly answered,
"Takao Kazunari, but you can just call me hawk's-eye." was his quick reply. "and how have you come to my house?"
Then Midorima quickly explained how his stepmother had wished to kill him but a good huntsman had helped him escape into the woods, into Takao's house. The hawk's-eye listened to this tale with great interest, and when it finally ended, he asked,
"So, you are a prince of a great country?"
He asked, and he could see why this boy was so beautiful then; before he came into the forest to live, he had heard that the queen was a very pretty blonde with golden eyes; he had also heard that the king was a man with great kindness, and had light-blue hair and blue eyes that shone like the prince's.
"I was, but no more. Would you be so kind as to take me in? I promise I will keep everything neat, and I won't do any harm to your house; I'll do the cleaning and cooking for you if you wish,"
Takao thought about it, and since it didn't seem a bad offer, he said,
"That would be all right, dear prince. But first, you need some more rest, for you still seem tired. You shall also need new clothes, for yours is all ripped and tattered."
And that was how snow white got to live in the dwarf's cottage, and they were very happy for a while.
Meanwhile, in the castle, the queen was very happy in the thought that she was the most beautiful in the world. Every day she looked at herself in the mirror and thought to herself, "Oh, how pretty I am!" and every time she did that, her wrinkly little ugly heart got just a little more wrinklier and smaller and uglier.
One day, a week and a half after snow white had supposedly died, the queen stood on front of the mirror again and asked,
"Looking-glass, looking-glass, on the wall,
Who in this land is the fairest of all?"
The mirror replied,(and here the queen imagined that she heard a small sigh,)
"Oh, queen, thou art fairest of all I see,
But over the hills, where a lone dwarf dwell,
Grass green is still alive and well,
And none is so fair as he."
Then she was surprised dearly, as she knew the looking glass never spoke falsely; and she knew that the huntsman had betrayed her, and that Grass green was still alive.
And so she ordered first that the huntsman brought over and killed, but the servant came back with a shaking body and a shocking news; the huntsman was not in his room anymore! (Nor was he in any of the other rooms in the castle) His belongings were there, his hunting-dog was still there, but there was no human being to be seen at any corners of the room.
The queen, more furious even still, ordered the huntsman's and Grass green's head cut off at sight. Then, she chopped the head off the unfortunate servant who had brought that terrible news.
And so she thought and thought again how she might kill him, for so long as she was not the fairest in the whole land, envy let her have no rest. (Of course, the fact that the most beautiful was a man made it even worse).
And when she had at last thought of something to do, she painted her face, and dressed herself like an old pedlar-woman, and no one could have known her as the beautiful and mighty queen.
