Chapter 12

Title: Rapunzel

Cast:

Rapunzel, prince of Macedon: Alexander
Prince of Thessaly: Hephaistion
Witch, Rapunzel's adopted mother: Queen Olympias
Rapunzel's father: King Philip II
Rapunzel's mother: Cleopatra
Hephaistion's father: Amyntor

A/N: This is an adaptation of German fairy tale "Rapunzel" by Brothers Grimm. The plot was loosely followed but was modified to fit the world of Alexander.

Once upon a time, there lived a king and a queen in the land called Macedon. They had been happily married for a long time, but they had not been given a child. After praying for long hours and giving numerous sacrifices to the gods, their wish was finally granted and now Queen Cleopatra was expecting. The queen was very happy, but King Philip was worried. The queen was not very strong to begin with, but since she was with child, she seemed to be feeling unwell. She could not sleep at night, and her appetite was very small.

When King Philip visited the queen's chamber, she was standing by the window looking over the meadow that spread beyond the stone wall. She looked so tired and fragile with her pale face. The king approached her from behind, and gently wrapped his arms around her.

"Is there anything that you want, my queen?" The queen sighed in his arms.

"No, my king. You have given me everything; the palace, jewelries, beautiful clothes, a child, and most importantly your love."

"What are you looking at so longingly, then?"

"Oh, pardon me. I was just looking at those blue flowers over the meadow. They are so soothing, aren't they?"

King Philip looked over the meadow and saw what his queen was looking at. A cluster of blue flowers mingled with tender spring green grasses. The view was peaceful and tranquil indeed. If the land belonged to him, the king would have built a gazebo in the middle of the meadow for his queen to enjoy, alas, the land belonged to a powerful wicked witch named Olympias. Nobody crossed over her land, since she was so protective, and so mean that she turned anybody who trespassed on her property into a snake.

Yet, the king's desire to please his queen won over the fear, and king Philip climbed over the stone fence in the evening. He gathered as many flowers as he could in his arms, and brought them back to the queen's chamber. She was sitting on the bed with drained face. Her eyes lit up as soon as she saw the king with her favorite flowers. He spread them over the bed covering the entire surface.

"How wonderful! It is like I am in the middle of the meadow."

On that evening, the queen slept throughout the night for the first time, and the king was pleased to see a slight rosy color returned onto her cheeks next morning.

King Philip went back to the witch's meadow night after night. On one evening when the moon was full, he was lost in the magical beauty of the meadow. The gentle breeze carried a sweet scented smell, and the silver beam of the moonlight pierced through the delicate petals of the blue flowers. He did not hear the witch approaching. He jumped when a hollow voice echoed in the moonlight.

"Who are you, and how dare you think that you could not only trespass on my land but also steal my flowers? "

"Forgive me. I am King Philip of Macedon. I am sorry that I stole your flowers, but they were the only thing that soothed my troubled queen who is with child."

"Did you do this knowing the consequence?"

"Yes, I did." The king looked straight at the witch's sparkling green eyes ready to face his fate.

"Fine, but since those flowers are for your queen and her child, I will turn them into snakes."

"No! They are innocent! Please have mercy. I would do anything."

"Very well, since you are so brave I will make an exception. Promise me to give your son to me when he is born, then you can have as many flowers as you like until he is born."

"My son?"

"Yes, your queen is pregnant with your son. Now, what is your answer?"

King Philip thought for a moment. If it were for him to be turned into a snake, he would have accepted to save his queen and son, but the witch wanted his most beloved. There was only one answer.

"There is nothing I can do, but agree." King Philip answered in pained voice.

The witch laughed, satisfied, and walked away, leaving Philip with mixed emotions. He was pleased to find out that his queen was carrying his son, but was sad at the same time thinking of him taken away by the witch.

Thanks to the blue flowers that covered her bed nightly, the last month of the queen's pregnancy was a peaceful one. One early summer morning, the queen gave birth to a beautiful boy. His hair was soft golden silk, his skin fair and flawless, his eyes sharp and clear and his voice filled with power and vibrant life.

In contrast, the queen became very weak as if she had given all her vigor to her son. She took her last breath as she held her son tenderly in her arms. The only comfort for the king was that she was smiling so happily. Sudden cold air invaded the queen's chamber, and king Philip felt his tears almost freeze to ice. He came to his senses from deep grief when he saw the witch Olympias take the baby away from the queen.

"Wait, let me hold him for a moment, and give him a name before you take him away."

"Make it quick." The witch replied coldly giving the baby back into the arms of the king.

"My son, I name you Alexander, the protector of the people. I wish you would protect the people of the kingdom when you grow up."

The king kissed the top of the baby's soft golden hair.

"That is enough. You can name him whatever you want, but I will call him Rapunzel, the name of the flower that gave him to me."

With this, the wicked witch Olympias left the chamber swiftly with prince Alexander possessively held against her chest. King Philip's eyes were hollow with the grief of losing his queen and his son on the same day.

The torment was overwhelming for the king, his health gradually deteriorated, and he was gone within a year after the loss of his beloved. The witch did not let the opportunity slip away between her fingers. She became the queen of Macedon, and the once happy and cheerful kingdom of Macedon was now dreadful and gloomy under the witch's cruel regime.

However, Olympias loved Alexander very much, and was good to him in her own possessive way. He grew more handsome every passing year. She was afraid that a beautiful maiden would steal him away from her one of these days. So she built a tower of smooth marble at the edge of the meadow. There were no doors or stairs but a single window. She locked him there so that nobody could get to him but her.

Every morning, she came to the tower with a basket of food and clean clothes, and called Alexander.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair."

With her mantra, his golden hair grew and grew and became long enough to reach the bottom of the tower. Then she climbed up the slippery wall tugging the golden rope. As soon as she reached Alexander's room, his hair retracted to the normal shoulder length. She spent the whole morning with him talking about everything happening in the world. Alexander enjoyed this only connection to the outer world.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb down the golden stair."

As the early evening approached Queen Olympias climbed down the tower and went back to the palace. Again, when she securely reached at the bottom, Alexander's hair was shortened. It had been the daily routine since Alexander was fourteen years old.

Now the prince was no longer just a sweet boy, but a young man with ambition. As much as he enjoyed the company of his mother, he longed for freedom, and the exploration of the new world. Experiencing the world through his mother's words was not enough to satisfy his curiosity any more. He needed to feel and see the world himself.

Meanwhile, the prince, named Hephaistion, of the neighboring land was on the hunt with his friends deep in the woods. All of a sudden, a gorgeous white deer leaped in front of them. The prince was determined to catch the animal. He kicked his horse hard to make it gallop at full speed.

He was the best rider in the kingdom. He rode effortlessly and strong like the first gale in the spring. The prince and his friends became further and further apart. He did not hear the calling voices of his name for stopping, and soon he found himself lost in the woods. He could no longer see the white deer nor his friends.

A beautiful sound of lyre came from nowhere. When Hephaistion looked over in the direction where the music was coming from, he saw a tall tower shooting up into the sky. As he walked to the tower, he heard a singing voice along with the lyre.

He may lie for a whole year,
and his flesh shall still be as sound as ever,
or even sounder.
Call, therefore, the Achaean heroes in assembly;
unsay your anger against Agamemnon;
arm at once, and fight with might and main." *1

Hephaistion gasped. It was his favorite passage from the Iliad, the clear voice continued with so much sadness in his singing.

As she spoke she put strength and courage into his heart,
and she then dropped ambrosia and red nectar into the wounds of Patroclus,
that his body might suffer no change. *2

It sounded so beautiful and melancholy that it brought a tear to Hephaistion's eyes; he could sense the loneliness and the longing of the singer. Hephaistion had a strong urge to meet with the producer of this moving music. Nobody had ever shown such understanding and love for this great story.

He walked around the stone tower looking for an entrance, but there was not a single door leading into the inside, but thorn bushes around it as if to prevent an intruder. As much as he wanted, Hephaistion had to give up since the sun was now set, and the darkness started to fall. He took shelter under an oak tree, and decided to explore more in the morning.

Neighing of a horse woke Hephaistion up. He was surprised that the sun was already up so high; he must have been very tired for sleeping in so late. He saw a woman dressed in fine clothes on horseback, and hid himself and his horse behind the tree. He suspected that she was the queen of Macedon, and if she were, then it was best not to be seen in her land. The story of her meanness and possessiveness was well known in his land as well, and it was said that she was once a wicked witch.

She stopped under the window of the tower.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair."

As she spoke, a golden rope trickled down from the window, and she climbed up it. She was there for the whole morning. When Hephaistion was getting almost too impatient, he heard the woman speak again.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb down the golden stair."

As soon as the queen climbed down and disappeared beyond the meadow, Hephaistion came out of his hiding place, and he repeated the exact words that she said. A golden rope came down, and he did not hesitate a bit to climb up it.

When his hair started to grow again, Alexander did not think about it too much. He thought it was his mother coming back to him after forgetting something. He was so surprised to see a young man instead standing in front of him. When the initial shock had passed, he was amazed to realize how beautiful this young man was. His shapely face was framed with long brunet hair shining auburn where the sun hit. His pleasing lips were slightly parted with surprise, and his eyes were soothing color of Rapunzel.

"Please forgive me intruding like this, I am Hephaistion the prince of Thessaly, your neighboring kingdom. I heard you singing my favorite story, the Iliad yesterday, and I could not help wanting to meet with you. You sang it with such a passion and love."

Even his voice was lovely to Alexander's ears.

"I am Alexander, the prince of Macedon. The Iliad is my favorite, too. I am pleased to meet with somebody whom I can share my passion."

"If you are the prince, why are you confined in this tower?"

Alexander told Hephaistion about what had happened to him.

"That is terrible. How can she demand such thing from you?"

"I know that she is doing this because of her love for me, but I am ready to get out to the world."

"We will think of something."

Alexander and Hephaistion talked all night about their favorite heroes and dreams. They had so much in common that they felt that they had been friends for years. At the crack of dawn, Hephaistion climbed down the tower with a promise of coming back in the evening.

Queen Olympias noticed the difference in Alexander right away. He looked tired, but somehow, he was glowing with joy.

"Did anything happen to you, my son? You look tired, but happy."

"I could not sleep well last night. And I must look happy because you are here."

Queen Olympias was not totally convinced, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it.

As he promised, Hephaistion came back in the late afternoon day after day, and Queen Olympias' suspicion grew deeper as the frequency increased of her son falling into sleep more often in the middle of the conversations during her visit. On the seventh day after she first noticed the change in Alexander, she decided to stay around, and see what would happen after she had left.

A moment after she hid herself behind the tree, a young man on a chestnut mare appeared from the wood, and said the magic words to have Alexander pull him up. She was furious. The filthy thief, she thought, she would take revenge, and make sure that he would not see her precious Alexander any more.

Unaware of his mother's fury, Alexander greeted Hephaistion with his chiton pulled off to the waist. Hephaistion's eyebrow was raised in question.

"Oh, I was getting ready for the bath."

"You have a bath, up here?"

"Yes, I have a reservoir on top of the tower that was heated by the sun. Would you like to join me?"

"That sounds good. I was feeling the need of that myself."

Alexander guided him to the adjoining room. The marble tub was already filled with warm water. They stripped their clothes and jumped into the tub making water splash all over the place. Washing each other, they giggled like girls until Alexander sealed Hephaistion's mouth with a passionate kiss.

Under the silver beams of the moon through the skylight, they lost themselves in desire. The cradle of the water around their bodies synchronized with their urge, and brought them onto the pinnacle of ecstasy. They floated there for a long time looking up at the twinkling stars, feeling content in each other's arms with blank minds.

Alexander pushed a strand of Hephaistion's wet hair away from his cheek, and kissed his moist lips tenderly. Hephaistion blinked as if he was brought back from the reverie.

"Oh"

"What is it, Hephaistion?" Alexander asked him after placing another kiss.

"Why didn't I think about this before?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The plan, the plan to get you out of here."

"Oh?"

"I have an idea. Let me go back to Thessaly. I will come back with a rope long enough to reach to the ground. Then we do not need your hair to grow. We can both climb down using it."

"That is an excellent idea, but how long do you think that you'll be gone?"

"Oh, I think no more than three days."

"Three days! It is too long to be without you."

"Oh, Alexander, I feel the same, but think of being able to be together without sneaking out of your mother's eyes."

"You are right, Hephaistion. Even though it is unbearable just thinking of the days without you, I will wait for you."

"The pain is the same with me, but think about the joy we gain afterward."

They parted reluctantly after a deep kiss and lingering hugs.

Soon after Hephaistion left the tower to go back to his kingdom, Queen Olympias came to visit Alexander as usual. She saw Alexander's distress right away.

"Alexander, you are almost nineteen, and I know you are eager to see the world. I think it is the time for you to come back to the palace, and learn to be the king of Macedon. "

Alexander could not believe his luck. Now he did not have to wait for Hephaistion to come back, but he could travel to his kingdom to meet with him.

"Thank you mother, you made me very happy. I love you!"

Alexander hugged the queen and kissed her check.

"Now, go ahead climbing down this rope, and go back to the palace. I will meet you there after locking this place up."

Alexander almost leaped down with joy. He had no intention of waiting for his mother at the palace, he was going straight to the stable, and ride to the land of Thessaly to see Hephaistion. On the other hand, queen Olympias did not plan to go back to the palace any sooner. She would wait for that young man who stole her son's heart, and make sure that he would not come close to Alexander again.

She waited patiently on top of the tower. On the third day she heard the young man's melodic voice underneath.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair."

She smiled wickedly, and threw the rope down. Hephaistion wondered why the golden rope was so dry, but his anticipation of getting Alexander free was much stronger than making him more cautious. He climbed up tugging the rope. When he came up almost reaching to the window, Queen Olympias appeared with a knife, and cut the strand off.

Hephaistion did not have time to even scream; he fell into the thorny bush scratching every surface of his exposed smooth skin. The last thing he remembered was sharp pain in his eyes before the darkness took over his world.

Dew fell on Hephaistion's forehead, and his eyes fluttered open. It was all black around him, and he could not make out any shapes. He crawled out the bushes with hands and knees scratching his skin even more. His whole body hurt like he was crushed under stampede, but he thanked gods for nothing seemed to be broken. He thought he would wait until the morning, so that he could see where to go.

Next time when Hephaistion woke up, he felt warmth of the sun on his face, and he panicked next moment when he found himself still in the world of darkness. He could not see a thing; he had lost his sight.

'Oh no, how can I find Alexander if I cannot see. Well, but I cannot just sit here feeling sorry for myself. If he were not in the tower, the queen must have moved him to the palace. I just have to get there. I saw the palace on the way back to Thessaly; it was west of here. So, all I have to do is walk to the other direction of the sun first, then follow the sun.'

Not being able to see the ground, Hephaistion fell numerous times, but he did not give up. Slowly but steadily, he was moving towards to the palace.

In the meantime, Alexander was at the palace in Thessaly. To his dismay, he did not meet with Hephaistion on the way as he hoped, and more disturbingly, he found that Hephaistion had never made it back to his palace.

"It has been ten days since he was lost on his hunting trip. I had sent a search party, but they have not found him. The queen and I are very worried."

The king Amyntor told Alexander with saddened voice. Alexander felt like he was pushed from a cliff into an endless canyon.

'Oh no, my mother must have found out about him, and did a terrible thing to him. Please gods, let him be safe.'

"Please do not worry King Amyntor, I will find him no matter what, even if I had to travel to the underworld, I promise to bring him back."

With this, Alexander left the palace. Alexander thought that the best thing to do to find Hephaistion was to go back to the tower. He pushed his horse hard to gain some distance. His heart was heavy with worry and fear. He prayed to the gods at every passing tree for Hephaistion's safety and their reunion.

On the fifth day, after their parting, Alexander saw a white deer, and something inside of him made to follow him. The deer stopped at a brook to have some water. Alexander dismounted to let his horse drink down the stream as well. He took a lyre out and started to sing, remembering the first encounter with Hephaistion.

He jumped when he heard an almost inaudible whisper of his name followed by a moan.

"Hephaistion! Is it you? Where are you?"

There was no answer.

"Please, Hephaistion let me know where you are."

"Alex…ander…"

He heard another murmur and ran to the direction of the voice. He gasped when he saw Hephaistion lying among the tall grass by the brook, his whole body was covered with cuts and bruises, and a half of his locks was floating in the stream. Alexander knelt down beside him, and gathered him in his arms.

"Oh, Hephaistion please open your eyes. Let me see your beautiful blues."

Hephaistion's eyes fluttered open, but they were blank. All Alexander could see was the reflection of himself in Hephaistion's orbs, and he was certain that the image was not reaching to Hephaistion's mind.

"No!"

He crushed Hephaistion against his chest, hot tears streamed down his cheeks onto Hephaistion's unfocused eyes. Hephaistion felt the pain in his eyes melt away and he blinked a few times. The blurry image appeared, and gradually it formed the most delightful sight.

"Alexander..."

"Oh, thank gods, Hephaistion. You can see me again! "

Alexander scooped up Hephaistion in his arms and put him on the back of his horse, before mounting himself behind Hephaistion to hold him. He made his horse gallop as fast as he could while not disturbing Hephaistion too much who was now shivering with fever.

Seven days of the rest and the pampering of Alexander made Hephaistion gain his health and strength back. As soon as he was well, Alexander and Hephaistion rode to Thessaly. King Amyntor and the queen were very happy to see their son safe and well, and thanked Alexander for saving the life of their son. After understanding the devotion and love that Alexander and Hephaistion held to each other, the king arranged the marriage of two.

Alexander and Hephaistion freed the Macedonians from the cruel witch's reign, and were greatly loved and respected by the people of Macedon. They also took Thessaly after king Amyntor, and now they were ready to go on the expedition to the East, to conquer Asia to build the kingdom of their dream. They would live the life of their heroes, and would build their own myth.

What happened to Queen Olympias? She realized that she trapped herself in the tower when she cut the rope to make Hephaistion fall. She was so furious that her blood boiled and froze. She turned into a statue of fury just like a Gorgon in the myth. The people of the Macedon left the tower as a reminder of their hardship, and the gratitude to the new kingdom.

Note *1, *2: Quotes from the Iliad, Book XIX, translated by Samuel Butler