I ducked into a small cavern to hide the little girl from prying eyes on the main road. I heard the clanking of the Guards' armour and pressed into the back of the cave.

To my surprise, it didn't end, and I eventually fell backwards into a patch of sunlit grass.

The little girl, Rapunzel, as you may have gathered, started crying. I hushed her as quickly as possible, blowing a small spell to put her back to sleep.

I turned around to see a huge tower covered in creeping vines and a little old man, barely up to my knee, waddling towards me.

"Want the tower?" he grinned with a mouth as full of teeth as he hobbled up.

I pulled the bag of money from my side. "How much?"

"50 pieces."

"Done."

In a minute, he was hobbling away to the entrance, jungling his new coins. As I said, cheapest on the market.

So I went to the little door and opened it. I was confronted with hundreds of spiraling stairs. I sighed and stepped on the first one. Then the next.

I went all the way up. I kept expecting a room in the middle, but there wasn't until I reached the top.

A little two story apartment.

I set her down and got to work cleaning.

That tiny man had made the tower into a pigsty.

I set up a room for the little girl and one for myself, using magic to create things that I could not find in the closet full of stuff.

When I put her down on the bed, Rapunzel stared up at the blank ceiling and laughed. I cracked a grin and began to sing, patting the top of her head.

I could feel the life pouring into me like water filling a glass. And like water, it gave me life. I could feel my joints becoming less arthritic and my wrinkles smoothed. I smiled.

This girl was my flower, and I couldn't bring her back.

Now, lest you think I am a kidnapper or abductor, I will tell you this. The punishment for kidnapping a child was death. Only if you got caught.

If I brought her back I would be arrested for kidnapping, even if I said that I had only found her in the woods alone.

See, I'm not the bad guy here.

But she grew up. I thought they would stop looking but they never did. So I couldn't let her out.

She couldn't cut her hair either. And as soon as it was long enough to use as a rope, I closed off the staircase. That way no one else could get in while I was away.

But someone did.