Thank you for the reviews and sorry this is late! I had to take a break from it because I was frustrated with what I had written for Crat. I'm more satisfied now. I didn't leave an author's note at the bottom of the last chapter, so I forgot to mention there is a clue about book 3 in there, but it won't be the Elves and the Shoemaker. The Elves and the Shoemaker is one of my favorite fairy tales, and I had to include it. I leave it up in the air as to whether Thumb's father was telling the truth or telling a folk tale. This story has a hint for book 2. If you can't get it by the end of the chapter...I don't know how else to do a hint. It's important to note that the books will all connect together, they're not stand-alones (can be but are more of a series). The 7 deadly sins idea was a good one, but it's not what I was aiming for. Let me know about errors. 1 more story to go for the backstories, then back to the main action.

Of Affairs, Piracy, and Sacrifice

Snow White lowered her needle and looked into Crat's noble face. He seemed worried about what she would think; it seemed odd that a simple kitchen maid's opinion would be so important to him. "I will try," she said, "I will try to listen with an open mind."

Crat breathed a sigh of relief and gave her a short, sad smile before turning his eyes to the mug in his hands and starting his story, "The ending would make a fitting beginning for my story. My nickname, Crat is short for aristocrat. I'm a lord, or, more exactly, I was a lord. I was stripped of my title.

"You can imagine prison life for an aristocratic man such as me. I was constantly teased and tormented. At mealtimes, men would say things like, 'My Lord, tonight we shall be dining on roast fowl and pudding,' and laughing when they watched the guard give me a bowl of gruel. They made fun of the way I walked, talked, everything. I was an easy target especially because I was in mourning."

"Mourning?" Snow White asked as she picked up the next garment to mend.

His blue eyes looked over at her and he sighed deeply. "I was mourning the loss of my beloved."

Snow White stopped and looked over at him. "I'm so sorry that she passed."

He blinked in surprise and shook his head, "Oh no, no, no, you've misunderstood. I meant the loss of being near her, holding her, talking to her, drinking in her beauty with my eyes."

"How long were you married?" Snow White asked.

"I was never married to her."

"She was your sweetheart then?"

"Yes…and no."

"Just tell her the truth, Crat," Father said, "Quit beating around the bush."

Crat's face grew red as he made his confession. "She was married to another man, a duke." He quickly drank from his mug and refused to look at the stunned young woman mending Lively's shirt.

"Maybe…maybe I should start at the beginning after all." He cleared his throat, "I was born into my title, coming from a long line of lords. My family lands weren't vast like some, but they were adequate. We were wealthy with a few servants and fine things. Like most of the wealthy children, I got a fine education, learning about philosophy, history, mathematics, reading the finest works of literature, and other such things. I had two horses that probably could have beaten Wage's mare."

"Doubt it," Wage mumbled.

"Yes, I had everything a boy could want. The problem with having money is that you have more free time. I learned from listening to my fellow prison brethren that most of the world has to work. Hearing the stories of how the other prisoners grew up made me realize how easy I had it.

"When I was a young boy, I was passionate about hunting. It absorbed my thoughts. Walking around the land, I would always have an ear tuned and eye ready for any passing wildlife, whether it was beast or fowl. I loved riding through the woods with a bow and quiver full of arrows, looking for prey. I relished bragging to the other boys about what I killed and showing off the pelts I gathered. It was my life, and I could not see how life could get better.

"I grew up as boys do. When I was fourteen, I saw a lovely girl and fell for her. My passion changed from looking for animals to looking for females. I would scrutinize every woman I saw, sizing her up in terms of beauty. I wooed every beautiful woman I saw. Young ladies were eager to marry a handsome young lord."

"Handsome!" Lively snickered.

"I'll have you know I was a very handsome man. In fact, I still am," Crat said looking offended. It was true that he wasn't ugly. He was in his mid-forties with a lean body of medium height and no outstanding facial features that would prove ugly. Crat had blue eyes and medium brown hair with gray at the temples to give away his age. Sometimes, one might mistake him for older because his face was careworn from years of living in the dark, damp prison. All of the men looked a bit older than they should except for Lively, whose irrepressible spirit hadn't seemed to break in the prison.

Lively simply smiled a cat-like smile. He seemed to enjoy baiting the others and could get away with it because of his almost boyish charm.

"As I was trying to say, ladies found me a suitable man for marriage. I was titled, had land, had money, and good looks." He looked purposely at Lively as he said that last bit. "I didn't want to settle down though. Like a bee drawn to a flower, I wanted to sample all of the nectar I could. I-"

"Crat, keep in mind that there is a lady present," Father said.

"My apologies for my choice of words, my lady," Crat said, nodding his head to Snow White. He continued, "I was not a marrying man; I'm still not. Many a heart did I break in my ways. I was never in love with any of them until Margaret.

"Margaret, wife of the Duke of Minton, ah what a beautiful woman," Crat sighed deeply. "She had golden hair that fell to her waist, bright blue eyes nearly as beautiful as your own, Snow White, and porcelain skin that she kept powdered. Her skin was like silk, soft and perfect." Snow White's hands were under the garment she was working on. She paused in her work and felt the palm of her hand, the calluses, the roughness of them. She grimaced slightly. Margaret was a true lady though, one that would not use her hands like a common kitchen maid who had a love of gardening.

"She was young and beautiful just as I was young and beautiful. The duke was old, fat, and ugly with a permanent scowl etched on his face, much like Wage."

"Oh get on with it, the fire's dying," Wage complained. Seagrass stood and stirred the fire, adding a log to enhance the blaze.

"To make a long story short," Crat said.

"Thank heaven," Wage muttered.

Crat shot him a look before continuing, "To make a long story short, the duke caught the duchess and me in an…amorous situation. He wanted me beheaded." Crat paused and rubbed his neck. "My father surrendered most of his lands and a large sum of money to the duke in order to save my neck . Sometimes, it pays to have money."

"You loved her?" Snow White asked.

"Love?" Crat pondered the word before saying, "No. I love women for their beauty, but I've never truly loved a woman."

"You called her your beloved," Snow White said.

"True, however I called all of my ladies that."

"The word 'love' is lost on him, my child," Father said. "Though, he's getting better. Most of that is due to having no female contact. Your presence will be a good test for Crat's willpower to overcome his amorous ways."

"If he tries to make any advances on you, we'll gladly put him in his place," Thumb said.

"As beautiful as the fair Snow White is, over twenty years of my life were spent rotting in the dungeon. I'm quite cured of my ways. When I do finally pay off my debt to society, I may try to settle down. If Snow White will have me, I'll gladly take her as my wife," Crat said.

Snow White blushed furiously and turned her attention to her work. The men just laughed at Crat and told him that the lady was too good for him.

"I'm not a lady," Snow White said. The men simply shrugged and Father encouraged Seagrass to tell his story.

Seagrass stirred the fire once more before sitting down and looking over at Snow White. "I'm sure you have guessed by now that I am not from this land. I was born on a large island that lies several thousand miles to the west."

Snow White knew that he was different from any other man she had ever seen. His skin was dark, as if he had stayed out in the sun for months and had tanned deeply. His hair was jet black, much like her own and was wavy to his shoulders, a fashion that she had not seen before. Seagrass had the darkest eyes she had ever seen too. They were so dark that they were almost black.

"My father was from this country if you can believe it. He was a sailor and fell in love with my mother, a woman of the islands on the other side of the ocean. My looks come from her. She became with child, and her parents were not pleased with this. They shunned her, so my father took her on the ship and sailed with her. I was born on that ship, but my mother was homesick. Father took her home to her parents and kept me since he knew they would not care for me."

"What did your mother do? Didn't she want to keep you? Wasn't she sad to let her son go?" Snow White asked.

Seagrass smiled sadly at her, "I asked my father the same questions. He said that my mother," Seagrass sighed deeply, "my mother didn't want me either. She was relieved when the ship sailed away taking her problems with it. Father missed her and never married. He had wanted to marry her, but she wouldn't."

"How awful," Snow White said.

Seagrass shrugged and said, "I never really knew her, so it didn't affect me much." Snow White could tell that he was lying and knew that he still felt scars from his mother's absence in his life.

"I was raised on a ship and took my first steps on a ship." Seagrass laughed, "I remember the first time on land when I was probably seven. I had a hard time walking and had to get my 'land legs' as Father called them." He paused to take a drink before continuing, "My fondest memories were of my childhood on the ship. I remember sneaking up on the deck some nights and sleeping under the stars. The smell of the salt water drifting through the air was as fragrant to me as flowers are to others.

"That all changed when I was ten. Pirates attacked our ship and looted it of the shipment of…I cannot quite remember to tell you the truth. My heart pounded when they boarded the ship, yelling and shouting with the sounds of swords being drawn. Father grabbed my hand and pulled me toward a barrel. He told me to hide behind it and stay quiet. 'No matter what happens to me, you stay here, do you understand?' he asked me. I nodded in response because I was struck dumb by my fear.

"Oh, they were horrible looking men. They were merciless and easily defeated the men on board. I watched in horror as my father begged for his life in front of a pirate. The pirate laughed and sliced his neck clean. Father grasped his neck as the crimson blood leaked from the wound and coated his collar and fingers. I wanted to scream, I wanted to run to him as I watched him fall helpless to the deck, the life stolen from him." Snow White noticed that his face was now a few shades paler as he recalled this painful memory.

"I did as I was told and stayed behind the barrel. I wasn't going to disobey my father…until I saw the torches in their hands, lighting the ship on fire, as they made ready to escape. That was when I jumped from behind the barrel like a scared animal.

"They stood there for a few moments, dumbfounded by my sudden appearance. I looked all around me at the dead bodies and the flaming ship. One of the men reached over and grabbed my hand. I struggled at first, pulling back to try to escape. He told me that I needed to leave quickly. They took me aboard their ship, and the captain decided that I could stay with them. And that is how my life of piracy began."

Snow White's fine, black brows jumped up in surprise. "You're surprised? How did you think I got my nickname? Seagrass was my pirate name, and it stuck in the prison as well. I can't even remember my real name. I think it began with a D though.

"Yes, I joined the men who killed my father. I found a brotherhood there, a new family. Many of them looked like me and would tell me about the islands. At first, I was just a boy who helped the chef and cleaned, much like what you did in the castle. They also taught me how to handle a sword and several ways to kill a man. I was sixteen the first time I went with the pirates to pillage a village."

"Pillage a village! Excellent rhyme there, Seagrass," Lively said, extending his mug toward Seagrass to hit it against Seagrass's mug. Snow White felt a memory of rhyming trying to break through to her consciousness. A mystical voice rhyming every sentence…

"I am too ashamed to talk about my past. Did I know it was wrong to steal, kill, torture, and other horrible things pirates do? Yes, of course I did. My past is my past though; I am paying for it now.

"I was caught off the coast of Thadwick nearly ten years ago. I had stayed behind on the ship that day because I had a bit of a cold. Guards came to the ship hours after the others had left to go on a raid. I was arrested and brought to King Henry's dungeon. My life was spared because I hadn't had a hand in the killings that had gone on that day. I later learned that all of the pirates were executed. If I had been with them, I would have died as well.

"Father took me under his wing, for I was different and shunned because of my exotic looks. It's amazing the ignorance one encounters when one looks a bit different. People assumed I was unintelligent and uncivilized because of how I looked. Father didn't though. He accepted me, and when Father accepts you, everyone accepts you. That's how life works in the castle dungeon.

"I ended up teaching some of the men to read and write during my stay. I also taught them some colorful words, which I am now trying to forget. I want to better myself. When I leave here, I want to be accepted into a small town. Maybe I'll open a small school and teach children to read and write. I became quite good at it. I even taught Stretch how to read and write."

"I'm sure you'll do well at it," Snow White smiled.

"Thank you, my lady. Since I have the floor and a captivated audience, I shall now entertain you with a story from the high seas." The men groaned in response.

Ignoring them, Seagrass started his tale, "This is a very true story, it is how I learned that magical creatures exist and folk tales can be true. Thumb may not believe his father's story about the elves, but it could be completely true. I have seen evidence of a popular legend. I have seen the grey island."

"The grey island?" Snow White asked.

"Don't encourage him," Wage said.

"The grey island is the home of the sleeping beauty. Have you heard the tale of the sleeping beauty?"

"Oh yes," Snow White said, "One of the maids used to tell her children of her. Is the story true?"

"Aye, it is. Princess Rosamond still lies asleep in the castle awaiting a king's son to wake her from her slumber. I have seen the island, and it is aptly named. All you can see are great hedges and thorns. A great storm cloud looms over the island, making everything look grey. Thunder booms and lightning crashes on the island. It is an eerie sight. It can be a beautiful clear day with not a cloud in the sky until one sees the island and the menacing storm that curses the place.

"Not only will the prince that is fabled to wake her have to best the hedges and thorns that have overgrown the place, not only will he have to endure the storm, but he will also have to reach the island. That is not an easy feat, believe you me. The waters around the island are choppy, tempestuous, and dotted with whirlpools. Many have tried and failed. Along the shore of the island, you can see the remains of ships. Whether the princes who were on those ships drowned in the sea or died on the island is unknown, but I could have sworn that I saw a skull impaled on a particularly large thorn along the coast. The fairy has not made it an easy task to reach her."

"Children's stories," Thumb scoffed.

"I swear on my life that the place exists; the story is completely true. I've never seen anything quite like it before; it gave me chills when I first gazed upon it. Perhaps one day, I'll have money to charter a ship and take you to the place, Thumb. It is perhaps a hundred miles south of Nordiem."

"It's a myth, and you know it," Thumb said. "The grey island does not exist at all; neither does Princess Rosamond nor the thirteen fairies."

"Thank you, Seagrass for sharing your story," Father interjected. "The hour is growing late though, so you shall have to tell Snow White more about the grey island some other night. Stretch, it's your turn," Father said.

Stretch uncrossed his long legs before crossing them again. There wasn't a doubt in Snow White's mind where Stretch's nickname came from. He looked like a man who had been stretched because he was so tall and thin. His lanky frame was over six and a half feet when he stood up straight, which was a difficult task indoors. Stretch was so used to his height that walking with a hunch inside was second nature to him.

"I was born in a village not far from here, deep in the mountains almost four decades ago. My father worked at felling trees for wood for various things. I had a mother until the age of five when she died. It had been a stormy night, and lightning struck our roof, catching it on fire. Father got out with my younger brother, Jed. Mother got out too, but when she saw I wasn't with my father, she rushed back in the house to get me. She saved me, but she wasn't the same after that. She had an awful cough from the smoke and eventually died a few days later.

"It was partially from living with the guilt that mother died after saving me and partially from pressure from my father that I became my brother's keeper. I took little odd jobs here and there to help with the household while my brother went to school and learned reading, writing, mathematics, and all of the other subjects children learn.

"Jed was always getting into trouble, always running off and creating mischief. Most days, I would find myself searching the village for him, worried about what he had gotten himself into. But, he could charm his way out of anything that he did, whether it was taking a chicken from the neighbor's yard or breaking our fence because he was walking on top of the rail, he got away with it.

"At fourteen, I started courting Sarah Miller. Sarah was a pretty little thing with pale hair and a dusting of freckles across her nose. I would have done anything to make her happy, even going to the moon and back if it would have made her smile. Since Father was still in the business of felling trees, we always had wood lying around the house. I had taken up whittling in my spare time by then and carved her a little bird much like this one." Stretch reached his long arm over Seagrass and plucked a wooden bird off the mantel. He held the small treasure in his hands, staring at it for a few seconds before standing and handing it to Snow White.

She stood and looked at the delicate bird with its beak open as if singing a song. It was perched on a tree branch that curved gracefully upward with little leaves growing off the branch. She walked over to the mantel and looked at the dozen or so carved animals that lived there. She had seen them while cleaning but hadn't had time to really study them before. Placing the bird back between the tortoise and the fox, she turned to Stretch, "You carved all of these?"

"Yes."

Snow White looked at them and picked up a doe with her long neck bent to drink out of a pond. The wooden surface of the pond even had little ripples carved into it. She stroked her finger along the side of the tiny treasure and said, "You have quite a talent. I think this deer is my favorite." Stretch thanked her as she went back to her chair and resumed her work.

Stretch sighed, "Unfortunately, Sarah had eyes for Jed and only Jed. Jed was only a year and a half younger than me and much more handsome. I was already growing tall and lanky with my large nose sticking out prominently. Jed was tall, but he wasn't as tall as I was, he was just right. His features were fair while mine were dark. His skin wasn't as tanned as mine was since he hadn't worked to keep our tiny farm that sustained us up. He was on his way to being broad-shouldered too. Yes, the girls all had a crush on Jed. It devastated me when I saw Jed walking hand-in-hand with Sarah one evening. He ended up marrying her when they were eighteen."

His face was pained as his fingers tightened on his mug, the knuckles going white from the force. "She…she loved him and not me. That's all. I didn't bother to marry," he chuckled, "Who would have me?" Stretch's grip lessened as he continued, "The new couple lived in our home, so I was reminded of the woman I lost everyday. I was grateful the day that Jed had a job and had built his own home with Father and my help. Well…actually come to think of it, Jed didn't do that much. He was always off somewhere else while we worked. Father didn't live much longer after Jed married Sarah. After his death, I had the house to myself. I had taken up my father's trade when I was eleven, but once he was gone, my workload doubled. I didn't mind since it kept my mind off Sarah and Jed.

"They had two little girls and a little boy in the years that followed. They were a happy family until Jed did something stupid. He wasn't a worked, my brother. If he could find a way to get out of something, he did it. Jed took up a life of thievery much like Lively. I wouldn't have known about it if he hadn't come to me one morning.

"'Samuel,' he said, 'Samuel, you have to help me.' I asked him what was wrong, and he took a kerchief full of coins from under his coat, telling me he had stolen it from Dan Telling. 'He's got his dogs coming after me,' Jed said. 'I need you to hide this, please?' I agreed to, and he smiled in relief as he passed the heavy bag to me. One of them fell onto the floor and he quickly snatched it up before running out of the house and going toward his own just across the field.

"I tried to hide the coins under my bed, and just as I finished placing them there, I heard someone rapping on my door. I opened it and saw Dan standing there with a scowl on his wrinkled face. He spat at my feet and asked where my brother was, saying he had seen him go in my house.

"I told him he wasn't there, and Dan sent two of his hounds in. The dogs snuffed around the small house and one of them bayed near my bed. I felt sweat beading on my forehead as Dan went over and found the coins. 'Where is he?' Dan asked, holding the coins up as evidence. 'I'll have him in the king's dungeon before the night's over,' he vowed. I thought not of Jed but of Sarah and the little ones. I knew what I had to do. I told Dan that I had taken the coins, not Jed. I sacrificed my freedom to save my brother's family.

"I was carted off to the castle that very day. I accepted my fate as I was led down to the dungeon, the ropes cutting into my wrists. I was eight and twenty and knew I would be there for a long time. I did get to learn to read and write, so maybe it was the best thing for me."

"Did you ever hear from your brother again?" Snow White asked.

Stretch closed his eyes and said, "My brother was put to death for another crime three years after I was thrown in. I never quite learned of the crime, but there was a rumor that he strangled a wealthy man along the side of a road. Maybe if I hadn't taken the blame for him, he would be here today in this cottage with you instead of buried beneath the earth. Maybe he would have learned to be a better man." Stretch was silent then, his grey eyes cloudy as if his mind was far away.

Snow White looked at the man seated beside Seagrass. She could see that he felt deep sorrow for the loss of his brother even though his brother had caused him great pain and suffering most of his life.

"Yep, Stretch here has the best morals. Other than lying for his brother, that is. He's the innocent lamb amongst us wolves," Lively said.

"I thought Father had the best morals," Snow White said, her face painted with confusion.

The men blinked and looked at each other as if they shared a secret before they looked over at Father. "My child, why would you think I was the most moral one?" he asked her.

"Because everyone speaks seems to respects you; they speak so highly of you."

"My dear, I hate to tell you, but I committed the worst crime in this bunch. I will tell you of my sin that happened thirty years ago."

A/N: Poor Stretch, you tragic figure you. Please tell me you figured out book two.